Welp, it's been nearly two months. Sad thing is: I've had this made for a good long time again, and just wanted to keep going since it's only 2,543 words. Bah, I got to make more jabs at myself as a result. I'm sorry regardless.

Enjoy! ...I hope I'm not forgetting any notes.

Chapter 7

Charlie awoke to the sound of multiple squabbling voices. Or, at least, it sounded that way. It might just have been one person talking to themselves; she really couldn't tell the difference. Either way, the noise was annoying her, and while she was curious as to why someone was in her room at no doubt 5 in the goddamned morning, she was also tired.

Very tired, as a matter of fact. She felt like she'd be run over by a car, nay, a truck right before a plane crash-landed on her, and so all she wanted to do was return to sleep before her mind could register any of the pain that her body was inevitably in.

With a light, annoyed groan that surprisingly caused the noise to hush itself, she attempted to roll over into a comfortable position, only to be greeted with a biting pain in her leg and back for the attempt. Forcing back a small whimper that threatened to escape her, she ultimately decided to stay where she was. Unfortunately, the aforementioned areas were now starting to throb painfully.

After a couple moments of putting up with her aching body, she finally allowed a low whine to flow from her, letting the other people/person in the room become aware of her discomfort. She doubted they could do anything, but hoped that they could anyway, as she was unable.

There was a soft whispering, likely male, judging by the pitch, saying something for a moment, and then suddenly there was a presence at her side, resting a hand on one of hers. This really didn't help anything, so she wondered why he bothered, but she at least gave him points for effort. He muttered something that seemed to be directed to her, though she couldn't make out any words. It was likely that he was saying something that he hoped to be comforting, such as 'Everything will be okay, don't worry,' even though everything would not be okay, she was worried, and she just wished she could return to the realm of the unconscious to avoid the feeling that she got clobbered with a couple hundred bricks for several hours straight for just a little while longer.

Suddenly, without any warning, that she could hear anyway, the covers were thrown off her. With a yelp of shock, she tried to curl in on herself to retain some of the heat that tried to run away. Her mostly unresponsive body refused the action, though.

(Away from her PoV for a moment…)

Raphael looked to Marie. "Was it necessary for you to throw off her covers in such a dramatic fashion?"

"Yep!" Marie replied with no shame whatsoever.

"You are trying way too hard to fit in, you know that?"

Marie looked crushed at this. "No, I'm not!"

"Quiet down," Raphael warned. He looked to Charlie, who was squirming uncomfortably. "I'm sure she has enough of a headache as it is without you yelling in her ear."

"Oops, sorry," Marie apologized.

"I don't think she cares about your apology right now. What I think she cares about is the fact that you threw off her blankets and then just left her like that."

Marie's face was a physical representation of 'Crap, I messed up!' Hastily, she tightened her grip on the pendent she held in her hand, summoning her recently-learned powers. Holding out her free hand, she created a small healing aura and pressed it to the other girl's wounded leg.

The discomfort Charlie felt lessened visibly. Marie smiled happily as she pulled away and Raphael covered her back up.

The only male present in the room sighed. "This would be the perfect time for a time skip…"

"Another one?" Marie asked.

"Yes, another one." He clapped his hands. "Make it happen, author!"

Marie had a confused look on her face. "OK, seriously, who is 'author'?"

Raphael sighed. "This is going to take awhile… Time skip! Now!"

(Time skip at Raphael's request… AWAY!)

Charlie awoke with a small, unheard sigh. She had been lazing about for no doubt several days, if not weeks, (though she figured she would have starved in that time) and though she was still sore, she figured now was as good a time as any to finally open her eyes again and see the sun.

Slowly, she did so, and immediately snapped them shut again as she remembered that light was blinding when it got in your eyes. Turning her head to the side, and therefore out of the light, she tried again without the sun's interference this time.

There was no one present at the time, and it almost made her wish that she had waited for a more dramatic moment to finally get her lazy ass out of bed. Almost immediately after that thought crossed her mind, she actually physically slapped herself. "I must not turn into Raphael," she told herself.

She jolted as the doorknob rattled. The door swung open, quietly, but dramatically, in the typical 'Raphael' style that she had grown more or less accustomed to. She focused her attention there.

Unsurprisingly, it was indeed Raphael who strolled in. He seemingly wasn't focusing too much on anything, and as such got about halfway across the room before realizing that he was being stared at by the girl that had been unconscious for far too long in his mind, a small smile on her face. When he did realize this, he rushed forward.

"You're alive!" He yelled.

"Don't you mean 'awake'?" Charlie questioned, frowning at how broken her voice sounded, her throat in desperate need of water.

Raphael chuckled. "No, I really do mean 'alive.' I seriously thought you had died a small number of times while you were unconscious." He grabbed a water bottle that had been sitting on the random bedside table and handed it to her.

After sucking down a generous amount of liquid, Charlie responded, "Wow, you have no faith."

"Which is ironic, since you're usually the one with no faith. I guess someone had to take over the role."

"So Marie's now the hopelessly optimist and dramatic one?"

Raphael blinked. "How did you know she's even alive? Weren't you pretty much completely unconscious at that point?"

"She'd better fucking be! I did not nearly get killed just so she wouldn't be revived!"

Raphael nodded. "Fair enough. Anyway, you're alive!" He grabbed her hand and pulled her off the bed, spinning her around happily for a moment before getting bonked on the head in thanks. He smiled goofily as Charlie returned to the bed, grumbling.

"So, did I miss anything important?"

"Nah, Elisabeth halted all operations until you recovered. The most she did was get Marie up to speed."

"Oh, great. So, let me guess, it's been an absurd amount of time that's going to cost us dearly if we don't get started murdering things again?"

Raphael chuckled. "Nah, it's only been a couple days. Give me a moment; I'll go get Marie and her mother."

Raphael ran out of the room, shouting at the top of his lungs, his happiness leaking into his voice and causing it to rise in pitch so he kind of sounded like a fast talking squeaky mouse.

Several moments passed, and eventually Marie and the duchess entered the room, seemingly confused to begin with, probably as a result of having missed most of what spewed from Raphael's mouth. They brightened considerably when they discovered what awaited them.

"Mornin'!" Charlie greeted as Raphael took a seat on the edge of her bed. Without even sparing him a glance, she kicked him off, to which he pouted pathetically.

"Charlotte! You're finally up!" Marie said.

"Haven't I already told you to not call me that?"

"Nope," she replied without hesitation.

"OK then… Don't call me that!"

Marie laughed and told her, "You can't make me!"

Charlie growled. "You wanna bet?"

Marie's eyes widened in fear. "Haha… Ah, no, actually."

"Then don't call me that."

Elisabeth stepped forward. "Enough shenanigans!" She commanded, silencing the teenagers. She looked to Charlie with a saddened gaze. "Charlotte." Charlie growled threateningly, but the duchess did not correct herself. "I'm sorry to report that you are no longer capable of flight."

Charlie's expression changed instantly, from mildly annoyed to indicating that her world was just shattered. She hadn't remembered losing her wing during the mission, as it had happened only about halfway through the excitement.

Raphael stepped forward and took a seat on the edge of the bed once again, pulling her into a hug, to which she pushed him away quickly.

"According to Raphael, the dog demon has possession of it. I don't know if it's possible for you to retrieve it and utilize it again, but we will make it a priority to locate and take it down."

"Can't I just… make a new one? Aren't they made of energy?" Charlie asked.

Elisabeth shook her head. "I'm sorry, but that's not possible for you. Do you remember several weeks ago, in Chapter 2, when I mentioned your wings were different from Raphael's?"

"Is it possible for us to go one chapter without breaking the forth wall?"

"Not anymore. Answer the question."

"Vaguely," Charlie replied.

"Yeah, that's where that's coming into play. You see, Raphael could very well just generate new wings if he lost them, provided he could lose them to begin with. His are pure energy, so I'm not even sure if they could be gripped. Yours, on the other hand, very well could be. You've unconsciously willed them into physical being, and thus could be grabbed."

"Wait," Charlie interjected. "If they were physical, then why could they just phase through my shirt?"

"I assume that was also an unconscious reaction."

"But how?"

"I don't know! Don't question it, the author doesn't want to think too hard on the issue."

Charlie huffed. "Fine, whatever. What's next?"

"We wait."

"Why?"

"Because you still need to recover."

"I'm fine. I've been lazing about for several days and am bored as all hell."

Elisabeth shook her head. "Nope, you're not leaving this room."

"And you're going to stop me? How?"

"Like this."

The duchess snapped her fingers, and immediately all entries (that being the door and a couple windows) were barred by a magical barrier.

Charlie stared, slack-jawed. "Hang on, how long have you been able to do that?"

Elisabeth shrugged. "Forever."

"Wait, then why didn't you use it when the Napoleon imposter shot you?"

There was another shrug. "I had a mere two seconds to think."

"Fair enough, but there are plenty of times where that would have been amazingly useful!"

Raphael placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "That was the main game, dear. This is a fanfiction with a decent premise, not bad writing, and subpar execution."

Everyone paused as they swore they heard a far away, desperate voice yell, 'IT'S NOT THAT BAD!'

"Yes, it is," Charlie calmly informed the voice, acting as though it happened every day, even though on the inside she was slightly frightened by the fact that someone was clearly watching them.

The voice yelled back, 'TELL THAT TO THE REVIEWS!'

"Anyway…" Elisabeth said in an attempt to get them back on track and away from the utterly shattered fourth wall. "You will be confined here until we determine that you can go out with few difficulties."

"Wait, hang on, what about my father… er, Thanatos? Both of them?"

"What about them?"

"Won't they be wondering where I am?"

"No, I informed Thanatos about the situation, and he said that he would take care of your father."

"What excuse could possibly keep him from checking on me for several days?"

"I don't know; I left that to Thanatos."

"You mean the author was just too lazy to think up a proper excuse, but wanted to address the issue anyway," Charlie lazily corrected.

"Step away from the fourth wall!" Elisabeth shouted.

Marie, who had been silent this whole time, suddenly burst into giggles, drawing attention to her.

"What're you laughing at?" Charlie asked.

Marie managed to stifle her laughter long enough to say, "You guys seriously think we're in a poorly executed fanfiction?" There was another annoyed, distant shout. "…Uh, seriously, who is that?" Everyone merely shrugged, just as unsure. "But really, why do you guys believe that?"

"I thought you told her everything?" Raphael questioned.

"I did. I just thought that she already knew."

"Well, do keep in mind that she wasn't present for our decent into utter chaos. Before her soul was lost, this world looked almost normal."

"No, that's not possible, the author's too messed up for this world to ever look normal," Charlie said.

There was a distant whine of, 'Shut up! I'm not that bad!'

There was silence for a moment.

"I think it's time to rebuild the fourth wall," Raphael said, slightly worried.

"I'm afraid that may not be possible," Elisabeth said.

"But we need that wall!" Charlie yelled. "It keeps all the Sues out!"

"The whos?"

"The Sues."

"Oh no, I forgot about the Sues!" Raphael said, frightened, dramatically placing his hands on his cheeks.

"Relax, the author doesn't write Sues," Elisabeth told them. "Hell, she doesn't even write OCs."

"Doesn't mean one can't come to life!"

"What about Rie in that one story of hers?" Charlie asked with a frown.

"She gets less screen time… page time? Less page time than the teacher that dies midway through the story. Hell, she'll probably be taken out in the rewrite."

"We can only hope. But wait; what about Peter, Thomas, and John?"

"Who?"

"You know, those burly white dudes in the latest chapter of… you know what, fuck it. John hasn't even been named as of yet. Though it doesn't exactly matter, it's not significant and it's likely no one migrates anyway."

"Please tell me it's not too late to fix the wall," Raphael requested with a confused whimper. He hadn't been paying attention to the author's movements either, so he was just as lost as Elisabeth to who those three were.

"Yes, I think it's still possible, though we'll do it though a time-skip because the author doesn't understand how that would work."

"Fine by me," Charlie said instantly.

(Epic fixing of the fourth wall… AWAY!)

"So, anyway, where were we?" Elisabeth asked.

Charlie opened her mouth to answer before pausing. "I have no clue."

"Good enough then. Let's go."

The duchess swiftly turned around and walked through the barrier she placed at the wall, with Marie following closely behind.

Raphael turned to Charlie. "Does she have the authority to lock you in your room?"

Charlie snorted in response. "Doubtful, but she's the duchess; no one really cares if she locks up a child so long as she doesn't intend to torture them and then eat the flesh off their bones."

Raphael shrugged. "Fair enough. You want me to get you something to do?"

"Yes."

"Can I get a 'please'?" Raphael requested.

"Please?" Charlie muttered with a low, annoyed voice.

"There you go," Raphael said, patting her on the head, and almost getting bitten again for the action.

"What are you going to bring me?"

"That's a surprise that you'll have to wait for."

Charlie frowned. "Ugh, fine. Be quick, though."

Yay!

I debated on making yet another joke about Chapter Three's wait time, since my motivator for finishing the chapter was so nothing could break that record, but I'm sure you're quite sick of it by now.

Next time, I'm skipping to the point whereas Charlie is finally released from her room... I think.