Take Back the Light

Chapter 43

idk I'm not sure about this one, I had a Vision™ and it just,,,didn't go excellent. kind of a filler before the fun stuff

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Alana woke up not to a distress signal or the light of day shining in through her window, but to a hand gently shaking her shoulder.

"Alana, come on, wake up," Trixie repeated for the third time.

Finally, through the haze of her sleep, Alana made sense of the words and slowly opened her eyes. Her room was light, but apparently she'd been tired enough for it not to wake her up. Trixie straightened up, hands on her hips.

"About time," she said. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay...?" Alana mumbled, blinking a few times and focusing her vision. She sat up, her blanket sliding down, and glanced down in confusion. She was still in her slinging outfit. Her gloves; boots, and upper arm armor were sitting in a pile next to her bed. "Why am I still in my gear?"

"You didn't get the chance to change last night. Remember what happened?" Trixie asked. Alana thought for a moment, rubbing at her head before groaning as the memories came back to her.

"We freed Wind Farm," Alana recalled. "But it was in really bad shape, so I... I remember holding up a slug carrier to cure its ghouls, then nothing. Did I go overboard with healing?"

Trixie shook her head. "Actually, no. Nobody was worried yet. Even Eli was just letting you be. But you just passed out after a few carriers, so we had to call it quits. We were gonna take you to Bonnie Springs, but your slugs weren't having it, so we took you home instead. It's 10:30 in the morning, you've been out for nearly fifteen hours."

"Oh boy," Alana sighed, getting to her feet and stretching. "We've just been going at it so much, I didn't realize how exhausted I was. I feel a lot better now, though. Where are we headed today?"

Trixie laughed and raised an eyebrow. "There's no 'we' today. I was just waking you up before we left. The rest of us are patrolling the northern region today. No distress calls have come in yet."

"What? Why can't I come? You said it yourself, I just got a bunch of sleep," Alana argued, walking out of her room. Trixie followed behind her.

"Yeah, after passing out. You've been doing so much with your energy, Alana," Trixie said. "But we still don't know exactly what Blakk's endgame is. You can't keep burning yourself out."

Alana sighed and stopped, resting her elbows on the rail of the second floor walkway. She ran her hands through her bangs and glanced at Trixie.

"If there's another cavern with a major ghoul problem, promise you'll call me in," she said. Trixie nodded.

"We will," the redhead promised. "Take it easy today. Get more sleep, if you can."

Alana nodded as Trixie walked down the stairs. Just before Trixie reached the garage door, Alana called out to her.

"I'll stay out of trouble, but I don't think I'll be able to just sit around the hideout all day," she called.

"We figured," Trixie responded, opening the door and smirking up at Alana. "Adult supervision will be here in about twenty minutes."

Alana's eyes widened. "I lived here alone for five years, I don't need a babysitter!" she exclaimed.

"I know, but if you go out, you shouldn't go alone. The last thing we need is Blakk ambushing you," Trixie explained. "So, when you inevitably want to leave, ride her Mecha and grab a hoodie so your hair doesn't catch any attention."