Odin's Beard it's been another year since an update. I'm an ass. As an apology, this chapter is longer than the others and I hope to keep it at a four page minimum. I've gotten interest in Guilty Gear again (mostly 'cuz Sol is a sexy bitch) and I want to try and get out as much for this fic as I can before my next year long break.

Honestly, I did not think it was a year since I last updated. I know how frustrating it can be to wait for a fanfic to update. That's why I try to find finished ones to read. Oh hohohoho~!

Well, hopefully you guys'll like this chapter, thanks for reading!

Don't Mess with Magic

Chapter Six

Johnny lead me down a few hallways, always looking behind him. I was starting to feel a little dizzy, but Johnny had his arm around me and kept me going. We stopped at a door and he tried opening it. It wouldn't budge so he start banging on it.

"Hey! You guys! It's Johnny! Let me in, I've got Jessica and she's hurt!"

While he was banging on the door and yelling my head really started to swim. I couldn't concentrate on Johnny's voice and I felt like the air was knocked out of me. I sat against the wall with my head back focusing on breathing for the moment. Then I got really tired. I can't fall asleep, I thought. I might not wake up.

"Hey, Jessica?" I thought I heard my name. I think whoever it was said my name again but I couldn't move my head. I wanted to yawn but I was just too tired.

When I woke up my head was throbbing and my mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton balls. I also sat up too quickly and all the blood rushed to my head. The lights were too bright and the mattress I was on was too lumpy.

"Where am I?" I groaned.

"The sick bay," a cheerful, girlish voice answered. I stopped rubbing my eyes for a moment and found the owner of the voice. She had blue hair, wings, and red eyes. They reminded me of Sol's eye and I'm not sure why, like they're the same shade of red or something. "How're you feeling?"

"Better, I guess," I replied. "Is... Is I-No gone?"

A look came across the girl's face but passed quickly. "Yes," she finally replied. "Let me take another look at your neck. She got you good."

I was in no condition to argue and let the girl do her work. Her fingertips brushed against my neck lightly, they barely felt like they were there. She made a disapproving click and bustled off to a cabinet. I found myself staring at her wings. One was snow white and the other was coal black. This must be the girl May was talking about, I thought. Is she the Dizzy Johnny mentioned? She turned back around with a roll of bandages in one hand and a brown bottle in the other. She set the things on the little table next to me and pulled out a bag of cotton balls from a drawer near by.

"So you're the girl Mr. Sol asked us to take care of?" she sounded like she was trying to make conversation.

"You could say that," I replied, my eyes never leaving the brown bottle. It looked suspiciously like hydrogen peroxide... "He more so forced me on you guys."

The girl smiled while soaking the cotton ball in the liquid from the brown bottle. "Now, this may hurt a bit..."

I was right! It was hydrogen peroxide! It burned like hell and she had to put that stuff all around my neck. Yip-ee. She quickly and lightly wrapped my neck back up and I had to keep myself from touching it as the stinging died down.

"I'm Dizzy by the way," she mentioned while she was cleaning up. "Your name is... Jessica, right?"

I nodded. "Thanks for uhm.." I just waved at my neck. "I don't mean to be a bother."

"Oh, don't worry about it," she smiled. "I just don't know how we're going to explain this to Mr. Sol. He asked us to keep you safe and look what happened! I hope he doesn't get too mad and take me too."

'Take me too'? Was she left here, abandoned, like I was? I try to hug my knees to my chest but I can't move my shoulder very well. That's right, my shoulder. I sighed and rubbed my shoulder gently. This is a fine mess that I had gotten myself into. What would Sol do when he comes to get me? If he comes to get me?

"I want you to rest up before the rest of the crew hears that you're doing better and parades in here," Dizzy giggled.

"Ugh, with my shoulder hurting I don't plan on moving," I grumbled and propped myself up on some pillows.

"Well, I'll leave you to rest for a bit," she sighed and closed the door behind her.

I was alone in this large, white, antibacterial room. It gave me the heeby jeebies. I've never liked hospitals and this place reminded me of one. Smelled like one too. I began thinking, I need to defend myself, I can't always rely on someone to save me. Especially with I-No determined to kill me.

I held out my hand and concentrated on my palm, willing the fire to ignite. I was getting a headache from staring so intently at my hand but finally it sparked. I had a small ball of flame in the palm of my hand and a smile crept across my face. I closed my fist and extinguished it. I opened my hand again and willed the fire to spark again.

It took less time the second time around and even less the third time, although it was still taking me several minutes to get a small ass flame. I would have kept it up, but I heard the door open and I was startled out of my concentration.

It was just like how Dizzy said it would be. Each and every one of the crew came in, wishing me luck, apologizing, hoping I get better. It was really nice, I really appreciated all the hugs and kind words. May and Johnny were the last ones through and May looked like she'd been crying. Her eyes were all puffy and bloodshot.

"May?" I leaned forward, trying to get a look at her face. "You ok?"

"I'm fine," she sniffled. "B-But, Sol really did take better care of you! I'm a horrible hostess!"

Johnny pinched the bridge of his nose as May threw her arms around me and cried. I had to keep myself from laughing a bit at her. She was worked up over that?

"You look better," Johnny commented. "You scared the shit out of me when you passed out like that. If you'd have croaked Sol would have eaten me."

"He can't be that protective of me," I rolled my eyes as I patted May's back. "I've barely known him for a few days. If you even want to call it that."

Johnny shrugged. "He's just like that when it comes to cute girls. He brought us Dizzy and comes and checks on her every so often. Nearly took my head off when she fell off the ship."

"He did not!" Dizzy was standing in the doorway, her hands on her hips. "You're exaggerating!"

Johnny shrugged, smiling the entire time. Dizzy soon shooed the two out of the room and then left herself, saying she wanted me to keep up on my rest. I've been here an hour, awake at least, I think I'm resting. As soon as I was sure she was gone, I went back to practicing my fire.

This time I tried playing with the size of the flame. At first it was tiny, a little ball in the palm of my hand. At first I didn't notice a change in size, but before I knew it, the ball of fire was the size of my palm. I wanted to see if I could start the flame at that size.

That was a no go. A half hour had passed and I wasn't able to get the flame back to that size, in fact it was getting smaller! "Maybe I should stop?" I sighed. My eyes were getting tired and I just realized how fatigued I really was. Maybe doing this right after I had woken up wasn't such a good idea?

I was in the sick bay for a couple more days before Dizzy would let me be moved to one of the bedrooms. She seemed really fussy about it, like she was overly worried about germs or something. By that time I didn't really need a wrap around my neck, it was all scabbed and healing nicely. Or so Dizzy kept telling me.

I finally was able to get a look at my shoulder, too. It had a nasty bruise and it grossed me out to even look at it! I would check it everyday. At first it was so purple it was almost black and now it's turning a little red. I wonder what other colors it'll turn?

"You're looking at it again?" Dizzy sounded a little disgusted.

"Yeah. I just wish I had a camera to keep track of the progression," I pouted. "What color do you think it'll turn next?"

"Probably green," she stuck out her tongue. "I wanted to tell you something."

"What's that?" I rolled my sleeve back down, I was done playing with my bruise.

"We've been looking for Mr. Sol," my heart skipped a beat. "We've found him and we're going to pick him up."

"O-oh. Uhm," I stammered. I was suddenly afraid and I'm not even sure why. Just the thought of having those eyes glare at me made me cold all over.

"Jessica, are you ok?" Dizzy placed a hand on my shoulder. "You're shaking."

"I'm fine," I managed to get out. "Sol just... Scares me, I guess. I'm nervous about seeing him."

Dizzy gave me a warm smile. "Understandable. At least you didn't have to fight him."

I just stared at her as she excused herself. My mind was having a tough time processing what she had just said.