I do not own Lorien Legacies or any of the characters.
Saved
I groan. As my awareness returns, it brings with it a tidal wave of pain. I'm broken in several places. My ribs, definitely my left arm and legs, maybe my back. A concussion feels like the least of my worries given the sticky fluid my head is resting in. I can hear my breathing wheezing in and out of my mouth, a whistling barely audible to my ears from my chest. Punctured lung. Terrific. I slowly open my eyes. The helicopter burns in the distance. But just before it, I can see Hawkeye and Rookie. Both of them are battered and their limbs lie at odd angles, but they might be alive. However, there's nothing I can do about it. I look down, seeing a metal rod from God only knows where, sticking out of my chest, breaking through the seatbelt's harness, trapping me in place. The end in front of me is coated in blood, despite being in the air, so I obviously had the good luck to land on it.
I Try to pull the rod but pain flares through my body and it goes numb, falling limp. Feeling begins to return just as a gasp reaches my ears. it sounds far away, my head failing to return from feeling light and clouded. I turn my head, seeing a maybe two or three years younger than me standing down the path beside us a ways. Not far away either. She runs over, seeming to move faster than should be possible. Apparently I'm more out of it than I thought. I groan, head falling back before struggling to look up at her again.
"Hello there," I manage to say, tasting blood now. "I'm guessing that you didn't just happen to stumble on our little...accident. Curious about the exploding helicopter?"
She blushes a little but nods. I chuckle, wincing as it sends pain through my body.
"Don't you know?" I ask, my voice little more than a hoarse whisper. She looks confused. "Curiosity killed the cat."
Her eyes widen and she smiles a little before looking under me at the base of the rod.
"I can help you," she says.
"Listen, as much as I appreciate the offer, shooting me in the head won't do much," I grin, amazed I can talk as well as I do. "I don't have-"
"No," she interrupts. "I mean, I can save you."
My eyes widen and I have to force myself not to laugh.
"That's a good one," I grin. "Thanks for the joke but let's be...honest. I'm going to die here."
"No," she says, looking completely serious and determined. "This will hurt, a lot."
I open my mouth to ask what she's talking about when suddenly, the rod rockets upward out of my body, taking the harness out of the chair with it. My vision flares completely white, pain unlike anything I've ever felt exploding through my body. Then, suddenly, it doubles. I clamp my mouth shut, screaming through my teeth for a moment. My breathing increases rapidly along with the pain. I squeeze my mouth shut, trying to slow y breathing, to work through the pain. I can't. I stop myself from breathing altogether, silencing my scream. I can feel tendons and veins sticking out on my neck and my temples. My face feels heated somehow, despite the nearly unbearable cold feeling suddenly filling my chest. Then, suddenly, it stops. The pain's gone, and the coldness is slowly fading. I open my eyes, my vision black for a moment before lightening, blurry at first before sharpening, allowing me to see her face, looking a little tired and with a couple beads of sweat on the sides of her head. I blink, looking down at my chest. There's no wound. I've been healed. I stare at it, awestruck. Then, I stare up at her.
"Who...who are you?" I breathe as she moves her hand to my broken arm.
Pain flares through it, but in comparison to what I had just felt it's nothing. The feeling of my bones moving under my skin, going back into place, is extremely uncomfortable though.
"My name is Marina," she says, looking down at my legs, eyes widening before she looks away.
I look down and see why. My seat is sitting up. Originally I though it was because of the pole but now I see it's sitting on something. My legs. My femurs both are snapped just above the knee and jutting out of my legs, coated in blood, and when I lean to the side to look under my chair, it's hard to tell my lower legs from the ground.
"That's going to hurt a bit," I breath sitting up, trying not to vomit, Marina seeming to be in the same condition. "You...can fix them...right?"
"I...I'll try," Marina says. "But first, I'll have to get them out from under you. It'll probably hurt more than the pole. I'm sorry."
Then, my world explodes into pain once more. This time, however, I'm only subjected to it for a moment before I black out.
When my eyes drift open, I'm in a small cave filled with painting of various things, including a boy's face, and an amazing landscape. There's a lantern lighting the cave, Marina is facing away from me, painting a second face, a girl's. Hawkeye and Rookie are off to one side, still out cold, but both looking perfectly healthy. I look down at my legs. Healed. I slowly push myself up, sighing in relief when there's no pain. Marina turns toward me, smiling slightly and I can't help but return the smile.
"Are you feeling okay?" she asks. "Your legs fully healed?"
I flex them, bending and straightening them. Then, I nod, staring at her in wonder.
"What exactly...are you?" I ask. I feel stupid for thinking it, but before I can stop myself, I ask the only answer my brain can think of. "An angel?"
She blushes slightly but shakes her head.
"I'm not an angel, I promise," she says. "I'm..." She looks out of the cave, worry on her face.
"You don't have to tell me, "I say, seeing she's not comfortable talking about it. "I'm content just being alive. I don't need to know how."
She smiles at me then takes a deep breath before speaking.
"I'm from another galaxy," she says, and I'm pretty sure my jaw bounces off the ground. "I'm what's called a Loric. on my world, our planet gave us abilities, like me healing you, and my telekinesis, which I used to pull out the pole and lift you off your legs. We call them legacies."
"Not that I'm adverse to knowing how you saved me, but why tell me this?" I ask. "Aren't you afraid I'll freak out?"
"You're military right?" she asks. "American? I'm telling you...because...I guess...I trust you. Besides, I already healed you. Might as well explain. But...there aren't many Loric left. We were wiped out by a race of aliens known as Mogadorians. They wiped out our entire planet in no time. Only a total of eighteen of us got off the planet, to my knowledge. Nine of us were like me, with legacies. We called them Garde. The others were known as Cêpans, they're our caretakers, and our mentors. Our guardians. But, the Mogadorians followed us here, to Earth. They're hunting us. Before we left, there was a charm, placed on us. We could only be killed in a specific order. In the order, I'm number seven. Right now, three are dead."
"So, four five and six have to go before you can be?" I ask and she nods. "What happens if they attack you?"
"I don't know," Marina admits. "I tried to ask Adelina, my Cêpan but she refuses to talk to me about where we come from. She denies that it's real. She won't even train me to use my legacies."
"Are there any Mogadorians here?" I ask and catch her grin. "What?"
"I didn't expect you to remember how to say their name properly after I only said it once."
I grin this time. "I'm pretty good at copying things I hear, as far as pronunciation and accents, when talking in another language."
She smiles then sighs.
"I don't know if there are or not," Marina says. "There might be. But, I'd like to think that there aren't because they haven't tried to get me."
"I think we could get you out of here," I offer. "If you want."
She shakes her head.
"I'll be leaving soon enough," she says. "But for now, I can't. Thank you, but I'll stay."
"Alright then," I sigh. "I guess I'll just have to rent a hotel."
"What?" she blinks, thoroughly confused.
"Well I can't just leave you to be attacked my bloodthirsty aliens alone after you saved my life," I grin. "Just think of me as a stand-in guardian."
She smiles at me for a moment before Hawkeye and Rookie begin to stir, both groaning. They slowly push themselves up before looking around panicked for a moment before they see me. Instantly, Hawkeye's eyes shift to Marina.
"Well well," Hawkeye begins, voice smooth and inviting as ever. "Now I know I'm dead. Because I wake to see an angel."
"Cool it Hawkeye," I snort, noticing Marina blush. "The last thing we need is you trying to get the girl that saved us into bed and then getting yourself in a whole lot more trouble. Remember what happened last time?"
Hawkeye winces and Marina looks over at me interestedly.
"That was an accident," Hawkeye stated. "Besides, I would have stepped up."
"He got some chick in France pregnant, but didn't find out until her husband tried to beat his skull in for getting her pregnant then making her get an abortion," Rookie explained. "He only did the first part. The second was all the chick."
Marina's eyes widened, face darkening, and she stared at the ground.
"Probably shouldn't have explained," I sighed. "So, Marina, where do you live?"
"Santa Teresa," Marina stated. "It's in Avila."
"Avila?" Hawkeye grins. "You don't say. James my friend, I'm thinking it's about time we cut ties with our dear friends in the Marine Corps."
"You're revolting," I snort. "But yeah, I'm not going back either. I promised to...well, it's a bit of a long story."
"Oh don't tell me you're engaged already," Hawkeye scoffs, both me and Marina's faces darkening.
"Fuck no!" I snap, noticing Marina flinch at my language. "Uh, sorry."
She shakes her head, forcing a smile.
"It's alright," Marina says. "I should be getting back."
"Alright," I nod before thinking for a moment. "Actually, can you break something for the three of us?"
"Break?" Rookie asks before wrapping his left hand around his right index finger defensively. "You're joking!"
"That or your legs," I shrug."
He swings his legs around, stretching them out in front of himself. I roll my eyes then sigh, looking to Hawkeye who shrugs and holds out his hands.
"Why your fingers?" Marina asks.
"Without trigger fingers that function, we'll be discharged," I state. "Then we'll be free to come and you can always patch us up after."
Marina looks between the three of us for a moment before shaking her head.
"I can't do that."
"Thank God," Rookie sighs.
"I see," I nod. "Alright. Plan B. We'll have to fall down a mountain and land in front of a group of Marines after we break everything."
Marina stares at me wide-eyed but Hawkeye laughs.
"He means that we're going to play brain damage to get out," Hawkeye translates. "After a helicopter crash, there's no better play besides being broken. And no one's better than the three of us."
"Except Chad," Rookie speaks up and we all fall silent.
"Anyway, you should get home," I say. "Can you point us in the direction of the chopper's crash site?"
She nods and we all crawl out of the cave, a tight fit for Hawkeye, who nearly gets stuck, then leads us down a path. Apparently, the site is on the way back to Avila. Finally we pass it and stop. We thank her and she leaves, heading home. Just as we arrive, we hear the telltale chop-chop-chop of the rescue chopper the Corps. sent for us.
"Everybody ready to lose our minds?" I grin.
"Completely," Hawkeye grins. "I've been waiting for a chance to do this."
"We'll have to be completely out of it to get released soon," Rookie says. "It'll probably take a couple months at least."
"Welcome to the hardest mission of your life," I grin. "Let the games begin."
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