A/N: Not smiling. Not smiling. Not smiling… Go watch Foamy the Squirrel if you want to smile.
Disclaimer: Again, go watch Foamy the Squirrel.
"Father Abel Nightroad. Status report: Unconscious. Minor lacerations on upper thigh, lower triceps, and right face."
"Thank…"
"Updated Status report: Minor lacerations seventy five percent healed. Consciousness gaining." Tres cut whoever else was in the room off.
Abel was suddenly aware that he was very warm and no longer wet. There was a lock of hair across his closed eyes, but he was so comfortable that he didn't want to move it.
"Abel?" Someone whispered. Their voice was tired but hopeful… Ion.
"Are you all right?" That was Demetry…. Demetry!
Abel sat up panting. "What! What's going on?" He looked around the room. Everyone was there except… "What happened to Stella?"
Demetry smiled. "Wow. You carry her until you pass out, and then as soon as you come to, you're worrying again. I knew I left her in good hands… omph!"
Abel's eyes followed the red clothed elbow that was poking Demetry in the stomach. Vanessa, who had by this time heard about Demetry threatening him oh so long ago, smiled at him. "Hey, Nightroad. How you doing?"
"Fine, but… what's going on?"
Crowded in the small but lavish room were nearly all of his friends. At his left, Tres stood, staring off into space. Next to his left hand, Michael Leon looked at him with worried eyes. He had no doubt that Leon Senior would have been there to were it not for his disdain of traveling on his bad leg. Seth was at the end of the bed, looking cheerful as always, but her true age showed through with her fatigued eyes. Astha and Ion were at the corner and right side of the bed. Astha had a ghost of a smile on her lips and Ion was all-out grinning. Vanessa stood at Asth'a side, sending Demetry little warning glances when it seemed he was going to speak. Demetry, finally, stood next to his right side, smiling and retaining that schoolboy look that had been gone from his face ever since his sister had left.
"Well, big brother. You've been unconscious for two days." Seth smiled optimistically.
"Two days! How…. what…" It was here that Abel started his little freak out.
"All right, everybody, out. Abel needs rest." Seth said firmly, sounding like a little mother.
Everyone but Demetry and Vanessa left. Abel guessed that since they were each power holders in another nation, Seth had no say over what they did. When there was enough room, Vanessa moved to the other side of the bed and sat in the chair Leon had vacated. Demetry had his own seat and Seth, ever the short one, had to sit on the edge of Abel's normal four-poster bed so that she would still be seen as a Queen as they talked.
"Abel, how are you feeling?" Seth asked softly.
"Fine, Seth, what happened?" Abel asked, the urgency in his voice not hidden.
Though he had truthfully said he felt fine a few minutes ago, now he was lying. His back hurt terribly and he had cold aches all throughout his body. The ache he could explain away from when he had fallen, but the back was not so easily taken care of. Oddly enough, the ache seemed familiar.
Seth frowned. "No you're not. Abel, do you know what happened?"
It was Abel's turn to frown. "Well… no."
Seth sighed. "Two days ago, we saw a dark speck on the horizon. Three minutes later, you landed in our rose courtyard, carrying Stella big brother, at eighty percent." She said, referring to the nanomachines.
Abel's blue eyes widened. "What? No. I couldn't have… I don't even remember changing…"
Seth fidgeted in her long green dress before fishing something out. She held up a black feather, slightly curled and extremely fragile. "I picked this up off the ground."
Abel gently took it from her. He looked at it for long minutes before looking into the others' faces. "Why won't you tell me what's happening to Stella?" He asked gravely.
Seth looked grim. "Abel, you know we're doing everything for her… but… there are some wounds that our medicine cannot heal."
Abel's hands clenched the blue fabric of the soft thin, blanket tightly. "What's wrong?"
"She… she won't wake up." Demetry said, trembling. "All of her readings say she's getting better but… she won't wake up."
Abel looked down at his now-white knuckles, not really seeing anything. She wouldn't wake up? Why? Had she killed herself or put herself in a coma on purpose? No, that was the coward's way out. She wouldn't do that.
Still, the way she talked… so hopelessly. Her eyes were lifeless. That's because she was almost lifeless, idiot! He berated himself silently. He was making excuses.
He looked up to see that everyone had left. How long had he been thinking? He sighed and got up. His priest's clothes had been removed, washed, and draped across the wardrobe directly across from his bed. He ignored just once his invasion of privacy (A/N: Remember he didn't like that in the second or third chapter of Heart of Ice, Heart of Fire.) He changed quickly and pulled his hair back. He looked for his glasses and briefly lamented the hairline scratches they had from falling in the forest.
He stepped out of the room and looked down the deserted corridor. That was strange. It was only a few hours past noon, at the very least a few servants should have been around. He shrugged it off as his feet took him down the hallways and steps. Everyone now and then he was vaguely aware of eyes watching him from cracked doors. He made a mental note to hug his sister when he next saw her.
He stopped and frowned. The soft carpet or the smooth wood underneath his feet was gone. He blinked and his eyes refocused. Stone was beneath him. He looked around. He was in a garden. It was near the heart of the castle, so it was totally incased in stone. Even the door had a stone look so it blended in with the walls.
The ground, in a half-circle, was the stone, slightly green and damp from the recent drizzle. Around him, though he didn't notice it at the time, little black feathers were blown into lonely corners by a small gust of could wind. What was left of the square garden from where the stone patio ended was green grass with dark green bushes. Rose bushes. The buds were gone, such as the natural order goes in winter. The vines of pink crawler roses crept to the top of the wall and beyond, probably to one of Seth's favorite gardens on the roof.
Abel smiled sadistically. Had this been a fairytale, Stella would somehow magically appear, bruises and cuts gone, completely and totally happy. The flowers would have bloomed and the sky bright. She would have smiled at him and sat down like nothing was wrong and probably once again shown him the superior senses of Titans to Terrans. Or if it had been an older book, she would have still come down, a patch on her cheek, and stood with him, talking of what happened. He would have comforted her and they would have returned home, mentally bruised but still happy.
But he looked up at the rain-washed sky and reminded himself that this defiantly was not a story. He was outside, alone, in an unbloomed garden in the wet outside, wishing that the woman somewhere in that big castle would wake up and be all right, when it was so obvious that she was hurt and damaged, and would be that way for a long time to come.
Did she give up life right in front of me? Or was it before I got there? Abel's eyes widened. Did she give up on life because of me? If she hadn't seen me, would she have been all right? She might not have thought of heaven and hell. If it weren't for me, she wouldn't even know about them. Would she have been happier if I had just left her there in that forest, her corpse so close to her sister's? Did she truly want to die, or was that her fevered delirium talking?
Did I do the right thing? Abel wondered suddenly. To bring her back was good for Demetry, good for me. But what about her? Perhaps she would have been better off in that forest, alone. She might have been saved by her own body, she is a Titan, after all. Then she could have made her own decision.
Stella, what did I do to you?
A/N: Yes I know that the fourth chapter from here isn't grammatically correct. It's called Writer's leeway. Yes, that is real. Sorry if this is sounding a little redundant, but repeating stuff is kind of necessary. Review!