Lexi's eyes flickered slightly as she regained consciousness, the bright light hurt her eyes and she looked around the room. She spotted the back of a familiar face. Lexi tried to speak, but her words were slurred. Still, he heard her.
Lexi smiled lightly as Tech ran to her bedside. "Your awake!" He smiled cheerily.
Lexi laughed quietly, she held her chest as she felt the pain shoot through her. "I noticed."
Lexi saw that she was in the medical facility of HQ, she felt a slight aching in her chest, like there was a large book pressing down on her lungs. Lexi's breaths were light and she looked weak. She had black lines under her eyes and a bruise on her jaw on the right side. She looked drained.
Tech shook his head, "I thought we'd lost you for a minute there Lexi." He said, slightly saddened.
"Where's Ace?" Lexi asked solemnly, her eye-line scanning the room unknowingly.
Tech sighed, "Unfortunately, we did lose Ace, he's still with Matthew."
Lexi looked up quizzically, "No, Ace was here, in HQ, I saw him."
Tech had expected that Lexi would have suffered slight memory loss, but he for one didn't really want to tell her what needed to be said. Worry built up inside his gut, what would he tell her? Should he just tell her the truth and risk losing her trust in Ace, or should he make up a well-structured lie to make her feel better. Tech decided to tell her straight, she deserved to know.
"Ace was here, but he's isn't anymore. I hate to tell you this Lexi, but he's the reason you're in this state."
Lexi looked down at her chest, she saw the blood stained cloths that covered her wounds. She stared at herself. Slightly horrified.
"He wouldn't, he couldn't. He..."
Tech saw the amount of stress the female was encountering, he placed a delicate hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry Lexi, but this is how strong Matthew really is, Ace didn't know what he was doing, you understand?
Lexi nodded and wiped her eyes with her hand, trying to take all of this in. She wanted to tell Tech he was wrong, that he must have been mistaken somehow, but she knew Tech wasn't mistaken. Lexi heard muttering and then Rev was stood by her side.
"Lexi-your-awake-thats-great-we've-all-been-so-worried-about-you-and-I-gotta-say..." Rev saw the tears in Lexi's eyes and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, he knew why she was crying.
"Hey-it's-gonna-be-okay-Lexi." Rev said quietly in Lexi's ear. He felt her nod against him, she pulled away and wiped away her tears.
"Sorry." She said. She wasn't sure why she had said that, but it seemed the right thing to say.
"Don't be sorry Lexi; this was in no way your fault." Tech always knew the right thing to say, he was proud of that at this moment.
Duck 'quaked' in and Lexi jumped slightly. He saw his friend's state and knelt next to her. "Don't worry Lexi, Matthew's a jerk, we can handle him, we're a team remember."
Lexi smiled weakly up at the water fowl, "Thanks Duck, I didn't know you had a heart."
Duck straightened up, "Of course I have a heart." He said, obviously back to his old self.
Duck knew Ace didn't know what he was doing, but a part of Duck's mind hated his leader for what he had done. Duck was pretty sure Ace had a thing for Lexi, it was obvious by the way he acted around her. He was different. Not a bad different, just more understanding, gentler. Duck knew he had to get Ace back, but for some reason it was like all of the time the team had spent with Ace had vanished. Just because of one thing that their leader had done under someone else's control.
Slam shook his head from behind Duck and pushed the mallard over to one side, swiping Duck from his thoughts. Slam stood next to Lexi and placed his right hand on her shoulder, with his left hand he pulled a bouquet of flowers from behind him and gave them to Lexi.
"Aww, thanks Slam." She said, her emerald eyes glittering, a small smile creping across her face. Slam simply smiled, as did the rest of the Loonatics.
Well, all but one...
Ace looked down at the floor, the floor that was three feet below him. His hands and feet were chained to the cement wall behind him, the thick, lengthened chains causing to lean slightly downwards, all of his weight was supported by his aching wrists. Ace groaned, lowering his head.
Using all of his strength, he pulled himself upright, he turned his head towards his left wrist, closed his eyes and sent a beam of energy towards the rusted chain.
Ace immediately realised his mistake and gasped as the heat travelled down the chain, burning the skin on his wrist. Ace hissed against the pain. He sighed heavily, his eye line dropping to the ground. Upon doing this, Ace noticed a shadow along the floor; he followed the shadow back to its owner. Matthew.
Matthew showed a cheery smile as he pulled up a chair in front of Ace. Ace tried to remember what had gone on the night before. He remembered holding Lexi on the ground, his sword covered in her blood. But Ace didn't remember the rest.
He didn't want to remember the rest.
Ace shook his head, gathering together his thoughts. He looked down at Matthew, whose eye-line also seemed fixated to the floor.
"Fun isn't it, when people fail?" He said, his grey toned eyes shimmering. Ace looked up, hearing his enemy speak.
"Nei, you would know the feelin'." Ace struggled to say.
Matthew shot out of his seat, the chair clattering to the ground behind him, Matthew whirled to face Ace and leaned in close to the rabbit. A sneer covering his face. Matthew sighed when he saw that Ace hadn't flinched.
"You've got some nerve rabbit." Matthew smiled.
"Do you know somethin' I don't, cos' ya seem to be awful cheery for a failure." Ace was dreading Matthews reply, but he needed to know.
"Let's just say you left your friend for dead..." Matthew was enjoying this too much.
"Wha-, what happened!" Ace stuttered, he felt himself pale and his mouth was all of a sudden dry.
"Ha, the leader of the Loonatics, greatest superhero in the galaxy," Matthew chanted mockingly, "And you don't have a clue."
Ace felt his eyes starting to fill with tears, Matthew was enjoying this, and Ace had a clue why, "What did you do to her?" He muttered.
"Ah, so you do know, but this question is not what I did to her, it's what you did to her." Ace stiffened up and he felt the tears that had been threatening to overflow pour down his face.
Matthew walked up close to the rabbit's side and put his arm around Ace's shoulders. "You didn't need her, you could have girl you wanted."
Ace strained against his bonds.
Ace looked quizzically at Matthew, "Did you really just say that, do you think that's gonna make me forget, cos' if you think dat, you got another thing comin' buddy. You give me one chance to escape, and I will, and once I'm outta here," Ace stared into Matthew's eyes, making sure he had his attention.
"Once I'm outta here, you'd better get runnin'..."