Acéin
Chapter Two: Fear
Rating: R for the same from last chapter
Disclaimer: The characters themselves are not mine, most of them anyway.
It was a horrible battle. It was the worst battle yet in a depressingly long history of battle. It was finally over. Thank the gods.
Huddling close together in order to see each other in the thick, grayish-white mist, the barely victorious heroes were thanking every deity, fate, and elder they could think of that He-Man had shown up when he had. If not, they could even now be defeated and lying dead in a heap as their enemies ran rampant upon the world. It was a terrible thought to have; one they collectively pushed from their mind, instead waiting for the rest of their comrades to find them.
In all, their injuries were not as severe as it could have been but far more severe than normal thanks to the thick fog and deep shadows of the Evergreen Forest that had proven the perfect environment for their foes to lay an ambush.
"Is everyone alright? Is everyone here?" Man-At-Arms strode into the slight clearing with Adam trailing along right behind him. The gruff warrior squinted through the fog, "Who're we missing?" There were not enough people to make up their numbers. He began going by headcount and body shape to find out who was who when they began to answer.
Teela and Mekanek were not yet with them. It sent alarm bells sounding in his head as his parental instincts took over for his daughter. Though he knew either of them could be wandering in the fog, he also knew they could be injured.
"Where're Teela… and Mekanek?"
"I'm here." Teela limped into view as a dark gray silhouette before slowly solidifying. She was favoring her right leg, a long, jagged line snaking angrily down it made walking painful but far from impossible.
That only left Mekanek missing. If he was in the vicinity, he could easily call out to them and if he were out of shouting range, he would have contacted them with his communicator. Neither had happened and after several moments of receiving nothing but ominous dead air from his comm. unit, Man-At-Arms ordered the rest of the Defenders into teams to search the surrounding forest in a radiating pattern. Despite her protests that she could walk on her own and trying to join the search he carried his headstrong daughter to their waiting vehicles and set her down in one with strict orders not to move.
It was Adam and Ram-Man who found him after over ten minutes of searching through thick fog and huge trees with upstanding roots, nearly tripping over his still form in the mist. Unsure of whether it was safe to move him and not wanting to kill him if it wasn't, they called to the other teams to let everyone know he was found.
When everyone was gathered, they knew not what to do and could only look down at him in varying degrees of shock, despair, and even nausea at the sight of so much blood. The silvery bit of shattered blade jutting out amid the dark blue of his tunic drew their gazes again and again in a morbid fascination. His unprotected face was bruised, bloodied, torn, and swelling in places from blows by someone hugely powerful.
None of them knew what to do for him. They were helpless.
Stratos was one of the first to snap to his senses enough to move and wordlessly kneel next to the younger man he had known for decades and considered nearly a son, slicing through the thick leather of the torn blue tunic with a dagger to peel it carefully away and view the wound. He didn't know why he was doing this; it just seemed like something that should be done. Wasn't it what should be done when someone was wounded, to view the wound and assess the damage?
He sucked in a sharp breath at the grizzly sight, most of the chest he was looking at was already turning an ugly dark purple― black in some places― where something powerful had hit and broke most of his ribs, many of which were visible in their breakage. And that sword… the blade was shoved in at a sharp angle. It was horrible. Was the lad even still alive after this?
Man-E-Faces' scanned Mekanek's body and announced that he was indeed still alive, barely, and that he was bleeding to death as well as slowly drowning as his lungs struggled with ever increasing difficulty to pull in air.
Drawing a shuddering breath, Stratos closed the tunic as best he dared― not wanting to look at such destruction anymore and knowing no one else did either― and looked up at Man-At-Arms. "Duncan, we must risk moving him…"
"But… couldn't he die if we try it?" Adam asked slowly.
He sighed and nodded. "But he will for certain if we don't."
Duncan nodded and looked to Ram-Man, who started uneasily at the task of lifting his injured friend. After some hesitation, the large man scooped Mekanek as gently as he could into his arms and carried the badly bleeding man to their vehicles.
Upon seeing them approach, Teela stood stiffly to look worriedly over their solemn ranks, her eyes widening hugely when she caught sight of whom Ram-Man was carrying and even more when she saw what shape he was in.
Her father jumped into the flyer with her, "Can you keep yourself and him steady?" She could only nod silently and he turned back to Ram-Man on the ground. "Pass him up."
Done slowly so as not to jar already broken ribs and shift him too much, it took some minutes before they got him in and lying down as flat as possible. They left then, speeding towards the palace as quickly as the flyers could travel. Right after take-off, Teela slowly moved until his head could rest in her lap, taking a cloth out of a first aid kit she found in a side compartment and wetting it from a canteen to clean the worst of the blood off his battered face, leaving his chest alone for fear of causing him further pain or worse injury.
He looks so much smaller without his chest-plate. Hmm, smaller may be the wrong word.
Once the blood was gone, she sat back to study his face. Many thin, bleeding lines snaked their way up his face from what were undoubtedly Beast Man's razor sharp claws, stopping near where his goggles used to sit and a black eye that was quickly swelling. He would have been deemed a handsome man without these injuries, his face still holding its boyishness and his raven's black hair not showing a hint of graying, though at the moment it was damp with sweat and blood and roughly tousled, revealing the gentle, elfin points of his ears.
His helmet was gone now, she knew not where, and she almost did not recognize him. Even without the bruises, she would have been hard pressed to know him from a stranger. She had only seen him without his helm one other time in her memory when she was five years old.
Mekanek was injured then too. Teela could not remember exactly how he had been injured, only that it had been initially hidden from everyone until it had made him very ill.
It had been unseasonably warm that spring with great downpours of rain frequently occurring, forcing she and Adam to stay indoors more than their young selves could tolerate and making them more hyperactive than usual at that age. They had already driven Queen Marlena to distraction and she sent them off in search of a new playmate.
They had always sought out either Mekanek or Ram-Man as playmates because, of all the adults, the two of them were usually quite happy to spend time with them and they were fun. That day, Ram-Man had not been at the palace but their other friend was. It seemed to take forever to find him and when they did, it was to find him deep into a 'discussion' with King Randor and Stratos so they spied on them through a crack in a side door.
After so many years, she could not really remember what the argument was about or even what exactly was said but there had been yelling on all sides, swearing, and out of the blue, Mekanek had hauled off and punched Stratos in the jaw before storming out of the room, ignoring Randor's orders to come back and explain himself.
Pulling Adam along, Teela had raced through several side corridors to catch up with their friend. She was worried and bursting with curiosity about his behavior and had planned to ask him about it.
He had been leaning heavily against the wall when they finally ran up on him, breathing hard in great, rasping heaves, and had wrapped his arms around his chest. Adam had rocketed off to get his father while she had run up to Mekanek and grabbed his belt, the highest she could reach, and tried to get his attention.
Instead of looking at her, he collapsed heavily into a sitting position with his back braced against the wall. He finally looked at her after jerkily removing his helm, revealing a set of startling violet eyes set in a feverishly pale face. Whatever she had intended to ask him was forgotten as he dropped into unconsciousness and slumped farther down the wall. But a five year old knew little of unconsciousness, she had been panic struck that he had died and began to shake his shoulder while calling his name.
He'd been so still then, as still as now.
With a shake of her head, she came back to the present, annoyed what she could drift down memory lane when a friend was clinging to life by the proverbial thread. She looked down at him again and lifted the damp cloth away from his swollen eye where she had hoped to reduce anymore swelling. It hadn't worked; he wouldn't be able to open his left eye for days.
The palace was in sight on the horizon when she glanced up and a wave of relief washed over her at the sight. Never had she been so gladdened to see its whitewashed stone walls.
"How's he doing?" Her father asked, glancing back to her.
"…I'm not sure."
He grunted softly to himself. "What about you? How are you holding up?"
Teela started slightly, she'd not thought of her leg at all this trip but now that she did, she realized that it hurt but not terribly, not as badly as it looked. The gash was not even that deep. "I'll be fine, Father. Was anyone else injured?"
"Just cuts and bruises for the most part, though none so bad as― we're here." He said suddenly and she felt the slight bump of landing. Duncan stood and began motioning to someone beyond her peripheral vision and suddenly Mekanek and she were swamped on all sides by healers and their helpers.
What transpired then were several hours of hurried activity concerning the Defenders by several healers and even more assistants as wounds were assessed and dressed, stitches were sewn, and the wait for any news from the surgery room in the back was impatiently began. Randor came down to speak with them all and wait with them as long as duty allowed and, much to Adam's embarrassment, Marlena visited them as well, clucking over him and asking after everyone's injuries before both of the royal couple had to leave for other duties.
The sight of so many burly warriors pacing or brooding in the too-small waiting area made most of the passing medical staff nervous to the point where they began to avoid the whole area if at all possible.
It was the waiting and the ensuing tension that set off sparks of contention after five hours of no news, sending all the wrong signals to already frayed nerves that clamoured for action against the denizens of Snake Mountain that caused not tempers but despair to escalate. Though anger was another prevalent emotion in the cramped area. They were all worried to the point that there was even some talk of invading the operating room to find out what was going on and there was the depressing thought that the surgeons were losing the battle. Each of them was following similar lines of thought and feelings.
When an exhausted surgeon walked out of the room still in his blood stained uniform, he was overwhelmed by seven warriors who suddenly leapt up and began questioning him.
"How is he?"
The doctor took a hesitant step back to breathe and adjusted his glasses. "We can't tell for sure so soon after surgery but he did survive five hours of it and the bone resetting, that in itself is a good sign but all is still uncertain. The best we can do now is monitor him for the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours for signs of infection and to keep him completely immobile."
Adam squeezed his way to the forefront. "Can we see him now?"
"Not just yet, your highness. He's being moved to a room upstairs now but in… an hour you may visit."
The warriors left grumbling at this information, leaving Man-At-Arms and Stratos with the much smaller man.
"How bad?" The human of the two asked.
The doctor sighed and took his glasses off before looking up at them. "Very. The blade punctured his lung, carving through his fourth and fifth ribs in the process but thankfully did not run completely through him and did not hit his heart. But it only missed his heart by centimeters though and his entire thoracic area has received massive blunt force trauma resulting in nearly every rib in his body to become fractured in some way and in internal hemorrhaging that has been halted but we are still unsure as to how much damage it could have caused." The man paused for a moment. "He has various other lesions over his body, none as severe or as life-threatening as his chest but are highly visible and rather severe looking but will heal entirely as will his facial trauma which I'm sure you all saw. He has suffered a broken jaw and nose but again they should heal nicely without visible damage… He's a very lucky man to have lived at all. I believe he will pull through when all is said and done."
Stratos crossed his arms, "And knowing that boy, he'll attempt to go back on duty as soon as he wakes up…"
This elicited a small chuckle of agreement from Man-At-Arms and a look of alarm from the surgeon.
"Is this true?" The two men nodded. "He can't. He must remain as still as possible while his injuries heal. If he moves too soon or re-injures himself while doing so, it could kill him―"
"No need to fear, Doctor, we'll all make certain he stays put," Duncan reassured the man as the two warriors turned and left to follow the others.
End
Another chapter bites the dust. This one was even twice as long as the first, wow. Did anyone enjoy it? Will anyone review? I hope so to both.
Later.