DISCLAIMER:
I do not own Sym-Bionic Titan. If I did, it would not have been cancelled due to lack of merchandise.
So, I'm updating this faster than usual- about 12 hours after the last chapter. Why, you ask? Well, it is true that there are finals this week. Actually, I'm in one now. The thing is, when your heath teacher gives you a simple ten question final, it doesn't exactly fill the time of two hours and five minutes. Luckily for us, he's super nice and lets us do whatever we want after a test, so I chose to bring my laptop and type this next chapter while listening to Gangnam style. Read on, my friends. Read on. And, of course, review…
Chapter 4
The words 'little sister' rang in Ilana's head.
Whoa. Wait, what?!
Lance, an older brother. Wow, thought Ilana. I wonder what that would be like. And she thought he was protective with her. Imagine being his little sister…
She snapped back to reality when she saw he was crying.
This had never happened before. Even when Solomon had kidnapped them and held them at the G3 headquarters, where that disgusting man had thrashed Lance around in that dark room, he hadn't shed a tear. He was always strong. Strong for me, Ilana thought. She saw none of that now; he was hiding nothing. He couldn't. His sister might have been the one that was pierced with the poison spike, she thought, but that was nothing compared to the pain that was raging through him now.
She could feel it in him.
He was standing over where he had laid her down on the couch. His face was down, his long hair covering his face. Every once in a while, a sparkling tear would escape from his chin and would fall on the wounded little girl bleeding onto their sofa.
She had to do something- she couldn't bear to see him in so much pain. But what? Words wouldn't help- she knew that. Could anything help, really? She didn't know, but she had to try. She walked over to him silently, and placed her hand on his back. It was supposed to be comforting.
It only made him sob harder.
That's when Octus broke in. Ilana had forgotten he was there. "Her vital signs are dropping. We need to do something." Lance's head snapped up. He could control himself for his sister, now- he had to. His voice concealed most of the pain, and the pain that did bleed through was overridden by the demanding tone in his voice- the voice of a corporal who had a wounded soldier. "We need to get her to the hospital, now."
Octus shook his head. "You know we can't do that, Lance. General Steel is keeping too close of an eye on us to register in anything more public than high school. If he sees that we've checked into a hospital, he'll go berserk. We can't take that chance and jeopardize our cover."
Lance made a sound in the back of his throat. It might have been a growl, it might have been a wail. Ilana wasn't sure. But she did hear one thing for certain- the pain was in it. He turned to Octus. He didn't shout; his whisper was much worse. "Do you not understand? She's my sister, dammit! My little sister! I have to help her!"
Ilana hated herself for what she was about to say. "He's right, Lance- it's too risky." In that moment she despised herself entirely. Her she was, yet again, putting her own selfish needs above those of the people she had vowed to protect. What kind of princess was she?
He looked at her and she caught her breath. It wasn't hatred. No, it was much worse than that.
It was forgiveness.
He forgave her if anything happened to his sister- she knew it. He was trying to tell her without words not to blame herself, that it wasn't her fault. And that was the worst part. Because she knew he was shouldering all the guilt by himself. And that wasn't right.
For an instant, just and instant, Ilana hated the girl on their couch. What had she done? She'd come into the world they had just been getting used to and flipped it upside down. She had ruined their couch. She had come into their world. She hated her for that. But most of all, she hated her because she was causing Lance all his pain.
And then she followed Lance. She forgave his sister.
There was no reason to hold anything against her. The way he looks at her, he must really love her, she thought. It almost made her jealous, but there was no room for feelings like that here. Hating her would be hating Lance, and she knew in her heart that even if she tried, she would never be able to hate him.
His look didn't last long. Before long he was turned back to his sister, the tears once again streaming down his face. He took his hand and stroked her face with a mixture of extreme love and agony, taking in everything. His hand ended up cradling her head, pulling her hair out of her eyes. Her hair was rough, as if she hadn't showered in a while.
"I do have a vast expanse of medical knowledge, Lance. I could try to help her, otherwise we don't really have any other choice", Octus said quietly. Lance nodded without looking away from her face. Octus came to her other side by the sofa and started producing a variety of medicines, needles, and bandages from thin air.
Ilana knew what Lance needed now. Just two hours ago she would've denied it. He was always so strong, it only made sense that he would've been better with a slap in the face and a "pull yourself together". But this wasn't the army, and right now all of his strength had been drained out of him.
So instead of a slap, Ilana embraced him.
She thought he would push her away. She thought he would protest and say that he was fine. She thought he might even snap at her like a child. What she didn't anticipate, however…
…was Lance leaning back into her.
Under any other circumstances, this would have elevated her heart rate through the roof. However, these circumstances were anything but normal, and Ilana wrapped her arms around him as he did the same, sobbing into her shoulder. She could feel his body convulsing with tears, and his pain transferred through to her. She helped him through it, and they both cried into each other. At that moment they were two playing cards supporting a car- they needed each other to keep going on. "You really loved her, didn't you?" she murmured through tears. He looked down at her, his eyes tinged a quiet, blood red. "Please, Ilana. Don't talk about her as if she's already dead."
Ilana's heart broke, but she was careful not to let her face show it. All she could think was, poor Lance. She couldn't let him know she pitied him in that moment- he would break.
Octus alerted them. "There's something wrong."
Immediately, Lance broke away from Ilana. She felt lonely when he left, and if it were permanent. Even though she knew it wasn't true, she wanted to be back in his arms, and him in hers.
Lance kneeled at his sister's side on the couch. He looked at Octus, and his eyes betrayed him once more. He was petrified. "What's wrong?" He tried to keep his voice calm, but he wasn't fooling anyone.
Octus' arms flew over her body, trying to fix her. "There was a poison on the end of the spike that she was punctured with. The poison must be targeting her life-sustaining systems, because her metabolism is shutting down completely." Her face was twitching as if she was having a nightmare, and sweat popped up in beads on her face.
Lance's face turned sheet white. There was something inside his little sister's body, and it was killing her. "No…." his voice was a whisper. Ilana saw his face, and it was a mirror of his eyes once again- torture written all over, drowning in pain. "Save her, Octus!"
"I'm trying, Lance. I'm doing all I can, but I can only work from the outside. We can only hope the medicine does the rest of the work on the inside." Octus had bandaged up her abdomen, where she the spike had gone straight through. The area of entry was small, no more than an inch in diameter, but that could still do a great deal of damage to someone's body. Ilana thought back to health class, and didn't remember anything important being in that part of the abdomen, except fat and… Ilana's heart fell. Would Lance's sister ever be able to have children?
Lance mumbled something unintelligible to his sister. Ilana couldn't make it out, but she thought it might have been, "don't leave me again."
Again? What's happening? Ilana's mind was a flurry of thoughts.
He said something else, and Ilana could just hear him this time. "Please…"
Drama, drama, I know. I'm in band now, finishing this up. Everyone around her is trying to read it, I've had to move twice…but you don't care about my problems! So, cliffhanger, but there might be the next chapter up tonight. Math final is tomorrow, though, have to study for that… REVIEW. REVIEW. And, of course, REVIEW. Until next time!