"Risá. Risá. Wake up," Risále groaned but immediately began to freak out when someone covered her mouth. She thrashed wildly for a moment, putting up a fight until the person spoke again.
"Ow! Risá, calm down! It's just me, it's Leon, I'm trying to save your life, woman, calm down!" Risále squinted her eyes. Lo and behold, Leon was at the side of her bed, covering her mouth gently with one hand and holding the other to his mouth in a "be quiet" sign. She grabbed him and managed to tackle him onto the bed, pinning one of his hands down.
"Sorry, but what the hell do you think you're doing—" As she began to yell, Leon covered her mouth again.
"Risá, please for the love of my sanity which I've just realized that I don't have, shut up. We're under attack. They've already infiltrated. We can't get out, but Xander and Kaedan left early this morning. They'll be able to get us out here, but they can't come back for a while. We need to sneak into the basement to wait this out. Besides, Owen…Just trust me. We need to go," Leon whispered.
Suddenly they heard a creak as someone approached the door. Leon quickly grabbed Risále and rolled under the bed, holding her hand tightly, willing her to stay quiet with his eyes. He looked genuinely shaken and worried, and Risále couldn't help but want to comfort him. She nodded and rubbed her thumb against his hand, signaling that she understood.
The person who walked into the room looked around for a bit before leaving, and the two released a breath of relief. Leon quickly helped her onto her feet, and turned away from her, opening the French doors to the balcony. Risále was about to ask what he was planning when it dawned on her.
"Are you ready for some extreme parkour?" Leon turned back to her, leaning on the railing of the balcony. Risále walked next to him and looked down, gulping.
"And you're telling me to get down there?" She pointed to a ledge sticking out of the side of the building, a little way under her balcony. Leon nodded, and without hesitation and to Risále's surprise, he leaped over the balcony, landing on the ledge.
"Don't worry, it's not as high as it seems. If you slip or fall, I'll catch you, alright?" He said, at her worry. She looked down one more time before taking a huge breath. She heard the door creak behind her and decided she'd rather take the chance with Leon than be caught. She pushed herself over the other side of the balcony, swinging her legs over, and landed on the edge of the ledge, slightly losing balance.
The boy quickly leaped into action, grabbing both her hands and pulling her close to him. She took a few breaths, "You know, doesn't this seem a bit familiar?" Leon asked. She nodded, realizing what he was talking about.
"Although, if we're really talking deja vu," She said slyly, putting his hands on her shoulders while she tightened her grip on his waist.
"You—Okay. that's—That's nice. Yeah. Um. Great. Oh my God, stop laughing at me, you really are a menace, oh my God. Alright, let's get going. If you can keep up, that is," He managed to regain his composure and let out a little grin at the challenge.
Lumina opened the door after the retinal eye scanner confirmed it was Leon. He and Risále stumbled in, out of breath, "Woah, what happened to you two?" Mina asked as she approached, slightly worried.
"Extreme parkour, we're fine," Risále replied. Suddenly, a cough was heard, and Mina returned to where she was sitting. Risále followed her to see Owen lying on the ground, wearing a shirt and pajama pants, draped in a thin bed sheet with a wet towel on his forehead. Fenix sat next to him worriedly, "Oh, fuck, is he okay? What happened? What's going on, who were those people?" Risále asked.
Mina was the one who responded, "Sector 2 guards. I don't know how they found us so quickly but they did. They got into Fenix and Owen's room first and managed to use something on Owen. Fenix managed to get him down here but…"
"Do you need anything, Owen?" The ginger-haired boy asked Owen, leaning down.
Owen shook his head and answered raspily, "No. You did all the work of carrying me down here. You have to rest too."
Fenix smiled, "It's alright, Owen. Though, next time, you better be carrying me. Put those muscles of yours to good use," Owen chuckled softly as he closed his eyes, the quiet snores now emanating from him. Fenix watched as his chest rose and fell lightly, and unconsciously tried to match his breathing. He turned to the others, "We need medicine. I...It's a sort of tranquilizer that...That immobilizes you for a while. If the antidote isn't administered, it could be fatal," His voice was trembling.
"How did he...He's not supposed to know that. At least, not about the antidote if anything," Leon muttered under his breath, but not quiet enough that Risále didn't hear it.
"But it's upstairs," Mina said, concerned about where this might head. The last thing they needed was for Fenix to needlessly put himself in danger as well. On top of that, she wasn't quite sure why they even had an antidote to a tranquilizer that they didn't even know about, and how Fenix had known about it. And to her worrying expectation, the next words that came out of his mouth proved that she had something to worry about.
"I know. That's why I'm going to get it," He responded.
Mina shook her head, "I can't have you going without knowing you won't do something stupid while you're out there. Hold on, just, come here for a second," She pulled him away from the group.
"Now, I need to ask you this. Why are you going out there, when you could so easily lose your life?" Mina asked him carefully.
"I have to. I don't have a choice, I—I can't live without him—" Fenix cut himself off, and realizing what he had just said, he felt his face turn bright red.
I can't live without him? Since when did I fall so deep into taking care of him? When did I get so attached? We're just friends, right? But then, another voice in Fenix's head said something else, What if you don't want to be just friends? All those moments around him, playing video games, baking, going into the Strongholds, the times when there was barely any space between you both and your heart felt like it was going to pound right out of your chest. All those times when you thought he was adorable or cute, and that his future boyfriend would be lucky to have him. That's not what you felt at all.
It finally dawned on Fenix, You never thought that his future boyfriend would just be lucky. You were just jealous. You didn't want anyone to take Owen away from you. Because you can't live without him.
Mina smiled. She knew what had just clicked in Fenix's mind. She was happy that he had finally realized it.
"Don't make me regret letting you do this, kid. And good luck with him. I'm glad you've realized your side of the story, now you need his," Mina said and got up, approaching Risále and Owen.
As Lumina and Leon gestured for him to join them, he smiled weakly and walked over to them, "You good to go, kiddo?" Lumina asked.
"Let's do this."
Fenix had to force himself to ignore the images flashing through his mind, his older sister on the ground of a strangely unfamiliar place, the entire room bathed in sterilized white, writhing and screaming in pain.
He wouldn't let that happen to Owen.
Of course, it was just his luck that Fenix happened to run into a guard the moment after they left the basement, splitting up with Leon and Lumina. The guard didn't even hesitate to stab at Fenix. He quickly jumped and yelped, not expecting the attack.
He didn't move fast enough.
Clutching the deep wound in his abdomen, Fenix glared at the guard, "Well, thanks for that, asshole," He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He ducked under the arm of the guard. The guard grabbed him and Fenix, in a frenzy, kicked the man in the gut. Well, this man was out to kill him. Fenix didn't really have much of a choice.
He turned around and ducked under the guard's arm, still getting nicked by the guard's sword in the process. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to not flinch. He wasn't going to show any weaknesses.
The guard aimed a punch at Fenix's head but the smaller boy quickly sidestepped him, giving him time to pull out his dagger.
The guard ran at him and Fenix ducked underneath him, stabbing him in the chest.
The guard froze up for a minute, staggering back before dropping to the ground. Fenix wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"Wow. You know, when Kaedan said you might be the first to kill someone, you didn't have to be the first to kill someone—Oh, fuck! What the fuck, you got—" A voice called from the doorway. Leon was standing, breathing hard, weapon raised.
"Yeah, uh, some help?" Fenix asked, and Leon didn't hesitate to quickly throw Fenix on his back, the younger grunting, "You could have been a bit gentler, ow. You know what, forget it, where's Lumina—"
Speak of the devil, the woman ran in, carrying two bags.
"What in the fuck—No time, they're tailing me, Fenix, are you—" Lumina gritted out but Leon cut her off.
"He got stabbed. Do we have stuff for that?"
Lumina's face paled but she nodded, "I grabbed a bunch of extra things and a medical kit but Fenix, your anemia—"
Fenix hissed in pain, "Not now. We'll deal with it later, we need to go," He said. Lumina seemed hesitant, but she nodded. As they left the room, Leon turned back to see a guard pointing his gun at them and quickly handed Fenix to Lumina, "Keep running! I'll be there in a second!"
He turned back and as the guard ran towards him, he squinted, "Hold on, you again?! I swear to God, I literally just shook you off for the second time, why are you so obsessed with me?"
The guard spluttered, "You…You…"
"Listen, I get that I'm cute but I don't think it's healthy for you to be going after people that are willing to kill you," Leon said, easily sidestepping the guard lunging at him again.
"Shut up, you bitch—"
Leon simply dropped to the ground and did a spinning kick, easily knocking the man off of his feet, "Sorry, buddy, there's probably only one man I wouldn't mind degrading me and he was way prettier than you the last time I saw him. Lights out for you," He slammed the guard's head down against the ground, knocking him out.
Without waiting any longer, Leon got up and started running, knowing that he had no time to waste and that the other guards would be there soon. He got to the door, and Lumina was holding it open, Fenix already inside.
"Come on, get inside before we all die!" Lumina yelled as they got back into the basement. Mina came over to make sure they were alright, but before Fenix could say anything, there were several yells of his name.
Oh. He had crashed to the ground.
Damn, maybe he really should have been more consistent with those iron tablets.
Stupid anemia.
"We need to work quick," Mina said to Leon as the blonde man easily lifted Fenix into his arms, "You clean the wound and start stitching it up, I'm going to administer the antidote to Owen, and then I'll come help you," Leon nodded at the instructions and gently placed Fenix on his lap.
Risále was already with Owen, and when Mina knelt down next to her, she was surprised to see a sort of hazy confusion in the other girl's eyes, "Risále, are you alright?" She asked carefully.
"I...Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. It's just that this all feels so familiar. Like a twisted sense of deja vu. Not the whole situation but somehow…Taking care of Owen like this, when he's in this state. I don't know, I don't like it," She shivered.
Mina really didn't know what to say and winced in sympathy, "We'll talk about it when we have more time, right now, let's think about getting out of here, alright?"
Neither woman was relieved by those words, but at least the two youngest members of the group were safe.