xxxx

We beeline for the doctor. "Jay! Hawk! You're back."

"Where's Arrow?"

"Who's the girl?"

"What was the Wasteland like?"

"Did you see Guthrie Harper? What about Joshua Spark?" We're swarmed by others in T-LOOT-D as soon as we've made it into the main room. Hawk starts shoving his way through them, making a path for Arrow and me. "Move it, and someone tell Adrien to meet us at Kayla's room," he demands.

"Adrien's out," someone says.

"Then find him!" Hawk snarls.

"He just said that he'd be back later."

"Someone please send him over to us when he returns." My brother sighs.

Kayla's room isn't far from the entrance, so we're there a minute later. Hawk nearly makes a hole in the wall from how violently he slams the door open. "Jay. Hawk. What's up?"

"The sky. We've got Arrow here, and she hasn't woken up yet. Fix her, please." Hawk speaks at a million miles an hour. I set Arrow down on a bed before stepping back and allowing Kayla to take a look at her. "So what happened? Jay, tell me what happened. Start at the beginning."

"Well, we went in search of Arrow at the end of the Wasteland battle since we'd gotten separated. When we found Arrow's Blended form, we saw Tremor tear off his entire side. Arrow collapsed, then, perhaps fifteen minutes later, Arrow's wolf shimmered out of existence and left Arrow's human form behind. She hasn't moved since she collapsed as her wolf. She's still alive though. Do you have any idea what's happened? I've always been under the impression that if you die in either your Blended or human form, you're dead, but Arrow lived."

"I am not sure what has happened. That's what I thought, but Arrow's still clearly alive. Adrien might know, but I can't think of anyone else off the top of my head. There isn't even a mark from where her side was torn off other than the scar. It's completely healed. This is... I've never seen anything like this before. I'm going to have someone take a look at both of you for any injuries. Especially your neck, Jay."

"Alright. Hawk patched it up, but he's no doctor."

An assistant doctor waves us into another room. Hawk sits beside me on the raised bed. "Are there any injuries of concern?" They ask.

"My neck," I reply.

"There's this ear wound, and the one on my collarbone, but I think they've started to heal." Hawk gestures to his ear. Crusted blood runs down from the torn skin.

"Alright. I think I'm going to have someone else take a look at you, Jay." A minute or two later, another assistant doctor walks in.

"Jay, please come with me. I'll look at you in a different room." I nod, following them into the next room.

"What other wounds did you acquire while at the Wasteland apart from the one on your neck?"

"There were some scratches, but those went away. I also got knocked out from a blow to my head. That was Tremor's doing."

"I see... I'll take a look at the gash on your neck, and we'll go from there."

The assistant doctor takes off Hawk's bandage before examining the gash, and cleaning it up. I flinch and hiss at the sting, jerking away, before forcing myself to relax. They work quickly, and are stitching up the wound after only a few minutes. Another minute and they're putting the bandage on. "So, I can go check in on how Arrow's doing?" I ask when they're done.

"No. There are diseases at the Wasteland, and we can't allow you to leave here until we make sure you don't have them."

"How are you going to do tha- no, tell me you're not."

"Yeah, it'll be quick. Nothing to worry about. I'll be right back. Please don't go anywhere, Jay."

I put my head in my hands and try to slow my racing heart. I have to get out of here. The assistant doctor said not to go anywhere- I can't. Less than a minute later, they return. I involuntarily shift away from them, covering the tops of my arms with my hands, and willing them to go back out the door with all my might. Every muscle in my body is tensed. My breaths are short and shallow as my heart races in my chest. "Calm down, Jay. It'll be over before you know it."

"Considering you have a needle in your hand, and it's not over, both of your statements are false," I curl up even farther into a ball as I speak.

"The sooner I'm done here, the sooner you can go check in on Arrow. Now, please take some deep breaths."

"Is Hawk done?" I murmur, not looking up from where my gaze is fixed on the floor.

"I'm right here, Jay. What's going on? I thought you'd be done by now." He plops down next to me.

"Has Jay always been afraid of needles?" The assistant doctor asks my brother.

"That's an understatement. He's mortified of them."

"That is true..." I murmur softly.

"Jay, I'll be right here." Hawk places a hand on my back.

"Come on. It's just a needle. I hate to be that person, but I've got things I have to do." The assistant doctor takes a step forward, and I shy away, moving back a foot or so.

Panic tightens its grasp on me as I look around the room. The door is shut, and the walls start to close in. The light above my head glares at me. My hands tighten to fists around the sleeves on my shirt as I fall to one side. Calm down. Calm down. Calm down. Calm down. But I can't, I can't move from where I'm frozen by Hawk's side. Panic and the fight-flight-or-freeze response overrides any calming thoughts I'm thinking. "Alright, Jay. Get up. I know you're afraid, but cut it out," my brother says, patting my back a few times. I frown. He thinks I'm faking it?

Memories wash over me, and they're painful. My mind's eye sees nearly every time I've been close to a needle. "Just go for it, I've got him." Hawk's arms snake around me. I strain against his grip, my sides shuddering with gasping breaths. An animalistic growl rumbles in my throat as the assistant doctor lifts up one of my sleeves. My eyes are squeezed tight. I flinch at the cool bite when they clean off my upper arm, then I wince and freeze at the sting of the needle.

"All done, I'll see you later, Jay and Hawk." The assistant doctor is out the door as soon as they've finished speaking.

"That wasn't too bad now was it, Jay?" You're off. It was horrible. I curl up in a ball a foot or so from my brother. His hand rubs my back as I try to slow my racing heart. He speaks again after a few minutes. "I'm going to go see how Arrow's doing. Wanna come with me?" I don't reply. My brother frowns.

"Why aren't you speaking? Was it something I said or did? If so, I don't know what it is, but I'm sorry."

"Don't tell me to cut it out," I whisper. It takes him a moment, but realization washes through his eyes.

"That's what's bothering you? Jeez. Ok, well, sorry. You've been doing this for as long as I can remember, don't you think it's time you outgrew it?"

"You think I want to be so terrified of needles? You think I want to have you restrain me every single time I'm in the presence of a needle? I don't. I wish I could just sit there and walk out the door ten seconds later. I try so hard, and try to think happy thoughts, but all of that gets thrown out when the fight-flight-or-freeze response is triggered. Let's go see how Arrow's doing." I stalk out the door with a look in my eyes that could kill an army. Hawk follows silently behind me.

I knock on Arrow's door, and I walk in after I hear Kayla say, "come in, Jay and Hawk."

"How's she doing?" I've barely stepped through the door before I speak.

"Calm down, Jay. I am not really sure what to say, though. She's perfectly fine, no injuries whatsoever. There's a huge scar on her side from where Tremor ripped it off in her Blended form, but the wound is completely healed. I truly have no idea what's going on."

"I'm not sure I'm following." Hawk's looking at Arrow's motionless form.

"She's perfectly fine, nothing's wrong with her other than the fact that she's not awake. All her vitals are normal, and there aren't any open wounds on her."

"I swear there was so much blood on her after she removed her Blend..." How is she uninjured? It just doesn't make sense.

"It either wasn't hers, or it was just left over."

"Something's not right. How can someone who had a completely fatal wound be just fine? She should be thoroughly dead right now." Hawk frowns as he speaks.

"I'm sorry I don't have any answers right now. I'm technically off duty right now, and Arrow is stable, so I think I'm going to grab something to eat then go to bed for a few hours. I'll have an assistant doctor stay with her for the night as there is no one else in any of the rooms. By the way, how are Karla and Karly doing? Did you happen to talk to either of them?" Kayla turns around, placing her hand on the doorframe. Oh... how am I supposed to tell her that I accidentally could've put Karly in life-threatening danger? This'll be awkward...

"Well... one of the Clicks almost killed Jay, so we sort of had Karla help him... then Karly let Arrow buy us some armour." Hawk's clearly trying to avoid the topic of Karly's backpack.

"Ooh, can I see? I know she's got some pretty cool stuff in that shop of hers."

"Sure, it's quite beat up though," I say as I hunch over, Blending myself to my dog form. The silver metal plates shine in the overhead light. Hawk Blends himself as well, and the dented metal is almost matte. "Wow, that's awesome! Hopefully you can get those things fixed up. So how did the escape go?" Oh, no. Here we go. I hope this goes well... I remove my Blend, standing up and taking a deep breath as Hawk rises to lean against the wall right behind me. His arms cross over his chest.

"Well, we made it through the Wasteland battle, and you know the story of how Arrow ended up like she is now. Karly gave us a backpack with some food and stuff. Oh, Sage used her flames after she had on one of those collars that shocks her if she uses fire, and now she's dead." Tears pool in my eyes.

"No. She can't be! She's one of our best-. She wouldn't have just died! Tell me this is just some sick joke! Tell me, Jay!"

"I can't lie to you... We tried talking her out of it, but she reminded us that the mission comes before ourselves. I wish she was still alive," I say as a tear rolls down my cheek.

None of us speak, we just stand there. The only sound is the faint buzzing of the lights overhead. The door slams open. I whirl around, wincing slightly as pain clouds in my head. "Adrien! Where have you been?" I smile as I speak.

"Sorry, I was out." He doesn't elaborate.

"That's alright. Arrow's here," I gesture to her before continuing,

"SageisdeadandwemighthavegivenGuthrieHarperawaytofindus..." I slur all the words together.

"Jay! Jeez, I'm not going to kill you. Please, slow down!"

"You might, actually." Hawk pipes up, his eyes averted.

"I promise I won't." Adrien holds his hands up in surrender.

"If you say so... Sage is dead- she gave her life to let us bring Arrow here. Karly gave us a backpack, and she wrote a note to us that had your first name as well as T-LOOT-D on it... The Wasteland guards took the backpack from me without either of us noticing. They could figure out some way to find out where we're located... We're super sorry." I duck my head, bracing myself for the worst.

"I see..." He strokes his chin, thinking.

"Please don't be mad at us, Jay got knocked out by Tremor during the Wasteland battle, so he wasn't at a hundred percent," Hawk says.

"Why didn't you have the backpack?"

"I was carrying Arrow. To make sure we were moving as fast as possible, I couldn't be carrying both Arrow and the backpack." I hope he doesn't get too mad; I'm rather fond of living. Adrien draws in a breath.

Aaaand, cut! Thank you for reading this chapter! Please comment and vote if you'd like! 

So, what's Adrien going to say? 

Will he be super mad, or more understanding? 

Why is Arrow still alive? 

How did she manage to survive Tremor's fatal attack? 

I hope you're enjoying Blend the Light!

-Werewolf14-