A Broken Tiger

Chapter 31: Sacrifice

4262 words without A/Ns is my record as of 8/17/21 Also the last chapter finished in 2020 yay!

*Tony's POV*

Lights seemed to fill the space as I swung the door open, followed closely by Ryan who had helped by kicking it the rest of the way and threw what little surprise we had out the window.

My eyes tried to focus on the surroundings and after a couple of seconds they did. A towering machine stood at the far end of the room almost taking up the entire wall. Pipes flowed out of it and along the walls plugging into either the walls themselves or the floor below.

About 30 feet from where we stood was a circular indent on the floor, the body of a girl laying in the center. The girl had red hair and was wearing a tiger onesie, it had to be Tina but something was wrong. She looked like she was in a moribund state as it looked like she was struggling to breathe.

My eyes quickly focused on a floating ball of light hovering just above her face, it made her look ghostly in the dim light. All I do is stay rooted to the spot as time slows down for me.

"Tina!" I could hear to my right before I saw Ryan dashing up to her body on the floor. I try to keep looking but my eyes wouldn't let me as I drag my head away from the scene in front of me.

After a minute my body rests against the wall as I try to take everything in all at once. A terrified girl standing over a control panel. Quickly I stood up from my position and walked over to her, her body tensed more as I came up to her.

"Stay right there and don't dare touch anything." I say looking her dead in the eyes causing her to step away from the control panel.

"Al-Alright I w-won't." she stammers before tripping over her own feet and having to use the control panel to support herself to stand again.

Ryan was attempting to get Tina back to consciousness when I looked back toward the two of them. However upon looking around one person was missing in the room that was supposed to be: Kelly.

The girl was nowhere to be seen, likely having gotten away before we had broken into the room. Yelling coming over in Ryan's direction however made it harder to wonder what was going on about the other situation. Darting my eyes in his direction I see him holding up the top half of Tina with a concerned look on his face.

"Tony we have a problem!"

*Ryan's POV*

Almost as soon as Tony opened the door with a little help from me I ran in. Instantly I went straight up to Tina's body laying on the ground a couple of feet away. When getting there I got onto my knees and started checking her.

Scanning over her she seemed to have no visible injuries, save for a few scratches and small marks where Kelly's wrench hit her in the side of the head which was to be expected.

Tina's breathing was slow and slightly labored as I watched her still trying to cling onto what looked like her life. My hand quickly went to her chest to listen to her heartbeat, my ears following to make it easier.

Thankfully it was still beating but it felt like it was quiet to the point where it was hard for me to tell if it was or not. Cautiously I pressed down her chest just in case but nothing happened with that idea.

Deciding to go for another option which was to do mouth to mouth I carefully lowered myself next to her and opened her mouth. Then slowly I started to try to get her to breathe easier.

It looked like it helped as Tina's breathing sounded like it was returning to normal but it soon faded again.

Then I noticed something: a glowing white ball of light hovering over us almost tauntingly. There was something about them that I can't quite remember though. Something Unicorn told us I think.