Lego owns Bionicle and the name Ketongu. Hasbro owns Transformers and the name Xanthium. Galem owns the characters: Tali, Ava, Amber, Iris, Diego, Alyan, Adhira, Valera, and Kasar.
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Chapter 16: Stitching and Bonding
As the daylight of the sun shone over the forests of Turpinville, Tali sat against a tree trying her best to stay still as Ops stitched the wound in her side. Said wound had been given to the Toa Rahayu of water by the Makutacon KillShot after their failed mission to bring in Xanthium. This mission had also led to the discovery of the thousands of weapons and combat vehicles in the Makutacon's possession. Paradox had also been severely weakened by Xanthium, leading the Toabots leaderless at the moment. Or at least without a leader who knew what was about to happen, or of the inventory that the Makutacons had. If they didn't get back to the TATF base in time, the state of Turpinville would surely be in peril. At least if they got to the others in time, they could ambush the base and destroy all of the Makutacon weapons. But no way was Ops going anywhere unless Tali was able to move, so Slash was currently keeping a lookout in the trees in the meantime. With KillShot after them, they would have to tread carefully from here on out.
"Ouch." Tali hissed as she tensed a bit at the feeling of the needle going through her skin. Even though she was no stranger to needles and being stitched in the field, she still found it difficult to resist the squirming sensation in her stomach. Try as she might, she could not deny that she was not very fond of needles. Thus, why she either closed her eyes or looked away and focused her attention on something else.
Ops heard his fiance's hiss in pain and stopped for a moment, planting a gentle kiss on her forehead. "I'm sorry".
Tali smiled warmly at him. "It's okay. I've had worse."
Ops blinked at Tali in surprise. "Really"? A part of him wasn't surprised as she was a Toa, but she had just taken a bullet to the side. 'How much "worse" could she have received in her time as a Toa'?
Unaware of his thoughts, she continued. "Remember that shoulder wound I had?" She knew she was opening an emotional wound even though the physical wound was gone, but she had come too far to turn back now.
Ops nodded. "Yeah, it still hurts to see you in any form of pain though".
In Ops's optics, Tali was perfect in every way that he wanted. She was beautiful, funny, sweet, and caring, thus why he had fallen in love with her six months ago. Despite the fact that they were both soldiers fighting in a war against extremely powerful foes, Ops had still felt intense instincts to protect her from any possible harm and until now he thought he had been doing a good job. That being said, whenever Tali got hurt he couldn't help but blame himself for it, feeling like he could've done something to keep her from harm regardless of how impossible it would've been in the moment. 'If only I had stayed behind with War Machine to take down KillShot, maybe Tali wouldn't even be in pain right now'. Ops thought with a sad sigh. Ops promised himself then that if they were caught in another firefight, Ops would try much harder to protect the female Toa Rahayu leader of water.
At his sad sigh, Tali looked up at him. "I'm sorry." She had a feeling about what he was thinking. That she had gotten shot in the shoulder and if he had been there ,which was impossible, he would have tried to protect her, which she did not doubt. Biting her lip, she glanced to the side, as she pondered whether or not to talk further about it. She could say nothing and let it drop right now, or push on and continue to talk about it. Tali didn't want to talk about it but at the same time, she wanted him to know about it. She didn't want to keep any kind of secrets from him.
"The shoulder wound wasn't a bullet wound." She clarified.
Ops simply shrugged as he responded: "Well, I kinda figured that based on it's overall structure". By that, he meant that whatever had impacted her shoulder that day had been much skinnier that any manufactured bullet that he knew of. Plus when he had scanned her, there had been no signs or indications that any shrapnel had been removed in that point in time, so surely it had to be something else. Ops gave his fiance a curious look then. "But what was it, if you don't mind me asking"?
Closing her eyes, Tali mentally braced herself as one who was about to rip off a bandage before opening her eyes again. "It was an arrow wound."
Ops simply looked at Tali, blinking a few times before responding: "Oh". 'Well that makes sense'. ops thought. After all, the wound had definitely been thin enough for an arrow to have fit through. "So even the BLUE arrow has a Dark Archer, huh"? Ops teased with a smirk.
"Ha, ha, very funny, Ops." Tali chuckled, knowing what he was referring to. "But yeah, something like that".
Ops blinked in surprise. "No way, YOU of all Toa has an enemy archer? I loved you the second I saw you so... I'm not exactly sure how THAT'S possible. I'm sorry, I just think you're a little too lovable to have someone hate you. at all".
Or at least that was what Ops had thought. Ever since the Autobot had met the Ga-Toa, not only had he fallen in love, he had also thought that she was one of the nicest Bionicles he had ever met. 'Who could possibly have the stomach to hate such a beautiful and lovely Toa'? Ops wondered. 'Other than Teridax of course'. That last thought wasn't meant to be offensive, as Teridax had had an intense hatred for all Toa since the day he had decided to betray Mata Nui.
Tali smiled a bit then frowned. "Had. I had an enemy archer. Our schools always held tournaments and we were the best of our class. We came close in the competitions. Teasing and goading each other on, pushing each other to be our very best. While we were rivals on the field, off of it we were the best of friends."
"Ah". Ops replied with a bit of a sad look, before going back to stitching the wound, already knowing that somewhere, this story was going to take a sad turn. Tali had said that this archer who had harmed her was her best friend, so Ops didn't doubt it had hurt Tali. A betrayal like that would've hurt anyone.
Tali continued talking, her eyes reflecting the sorrow of the memory. "Before we took our final exams, it was traditional for the graduating class to partake in a training simulation, placing the students in the worst possible locations and weather to see just how much they had learned. Our simulation was that of a thick forest with the worst rainstorm you could imagine. I quickly found my friend and we worked to help each other out. I lost them halfway through. I paused to look for them...and that's when I felt the sharp pain in my shoulder."
Ops shut his optics for a moment, fighting not to cry in front in his fiance before going back to the nearly finished stitching of her wound. As painful as it was for Ops to hear about Tali being hurt and betrayed, he had to stay strong for her. 'That, and focused if I don't want to make her wound worse'. Ops thought.
Tali looked down. "I turned around to face the direction I knew the arrow had flown...and there she was. My friend, glaring at me with such anger, hurt, hatred and guilt in her eyes. It was the shock of her betrayal combined with the shock of being shot that caused me to black out. When I came to, I was in the hospital."
Ops had finally finished stitching the Ga-Toa's wound as she had finished that last sentence, before then wrapping his arms around Tali, in a gentle hug. "I'm sorry Tali".
'As if being betrayed by your best friend isn't bad enough all by itself'. Ops thought. To be looked upon by said friend like that and shot at, something like that had to be emotionally scarring. Plus, for as long as Ops had known his fiance, there was no way that she deserved to be betrayed like that. Tali was too beautiful, kind, and compassionate to ever deserve something like that. 'Plus Teridax is giving the Toa enough problems'. Ops thought. With him constantly scheming against them, they had enough problems.
"Say, was this archer a boy or a girl"? Ops suddenly asked. 'If it's a boy, he's going to regret hurting her'. Ops decided.
"A girl. A female Autobot to be precise. Why?" Tali responded.
Ops let out a sigh as he responded: "Nothing". And Ops was sort of telling the truth there. After all, it had been years ago so doing something now would not have been worth it for either of them. Plus, even if Ops didn't think that revenge wasn't the right way, he knew that Tali wouldn't want him to give the person payback. "Though I'll tell you what, if that archer was a guy, he would've gotten quite the good morning the next day". Ops added. Then smiling at his fiance: "That is, if I had gone to your school".
Tali giggled. She had no doubt that if Ops had been at her school at the time, he probably would have done something about it. But then again she doubted it as her attacker was not one who took well to pranks, unless it was from close friends. Taking a deep breath, Tali rested a hand on Ops' shoulder as she braced herself for a reaction to what she was going to say next. She had to tell him, she wanted to tell him...and she prayed that she would be forgiven later.
"Ops, the archer...the archer was Iris."
Ops widened his optics as he heard the name escape from Tali's lips. "WHAT"? Ops responded. Then with a saddened expression: "But... why"?
From what Tali had told Ops, she and Iris had been great friends for a very long time. The two had even gone to the same school for most of their lives and even now treated each other like sisters. 'Why would someone with that kind of respect towards a friend, betray them so easily? Especially with the knowledge that it surely break said friends heartlight and trust? Ops definitely wouldn't yell at Iris for this, as again it had happened years ago, but he still found this betrayal rather confusing. Regardless of the reason, Ops was happy that the two were still friends. A friendship like theirs was precious after all. The two trusted and depended on one another in hardships and on the battlefield, even regardless of this betrayal. A friendship like that was definitely worth hanging on to. Especially in Iris regretted shooting her friend as much as Tali said she did.
"Apparently, her classmates were starting to make fun of her due to our friendship." A tear slipped out of Tali's eye as she remembered the pain her friend had gone through without her knowing. "She used to be one of the popular kids but many bullies took our friendship as an opportunity to destroy her reputation, which they did. I found out later that she had been threatened that day before the simulation. They told her that if she didn't shoot me in the shoulder, they would shoot her brother, who was on her team, in the heart."
Ops balled his servo slowly into a fist as he heard Tali explain his to him. Bullying was one thing, what these bullies made Iris do to her best friend, and by threatening to murder her brother, it was sickening to the Autobot. Ops had already hated bullying when he had started school, and had even beaten a few to a bloody pulp, though his dad had never wanted him to beat on them that much. If he had run into people like the ones who had bullied Iris into shooting Tali with an arrow, he didn't know what he'd do. But he definitely would've made sure that it hurt.
"Who are these other people"? Ops tried to ask in a calm voice.
Tali easily read his body language and tone. Oh Pit, Ops was angry. Red flag! Red Flag! RED FLAG! "I don't know. I never found out." She held Ops's arm in concern, hoping that she could calm him down. "But it doesn't matter now. Iris is part of my team and we're still friends, sorta." They had their fights every once in a while, but they were still friends.
"These people threatened to kill someone". Ops reminded her. "They deserve Jail".
"I agree with you." Tali winced as her newly stitched wound complained about her moving too soon and leaned back. "But I don't know who they were. I would say Iris might know but I never mentioned it after the team was formed."
"Well I need to make sure we get into contact with her". Ops said. "The sooner we turn these people in, the better. And if we find them together, we can't kill them".
If there was any chance that Iris still knew the names of these people, they would have to ask her, in order to ensure that they would never hurt anyone ever again. 'We definitely can't kill them unless it's in an act of self defense'. Ops thought to himself. Otherwise, it would've been too personal, and his dad had taught him that it wasn't right to kill someone for any personal reason. "If everyone had decided to kill for personal reasons, the world would have plunged into chaos by now". Ops had remembered him saying. Plus when Jesus had sacrificed his life on the cross for the world, no one deserved that. But it was mercy like that that had saved many lives, and was still saving lives today. Because of a sacrifice like that, Ops and his friends had to follow Jesus's examples in love and mercy, or otherwise risk falling into oblivion.
Tali nodded. "Right." She smiled happily at him.
Ops smiled back at his fiance, then cupped her right cheek as he told her: "And remember, if you ever have anything else you want to talk with me about, it doesn't matter what it is, feel free to".
As Tali's soon to be husband, and even after that, Ops would always be there when she needed him. He would be there when she was happy, to help make her day as good as he possibly could. When she was angry, he would be there to help soothe her. When she was sad, he would be her shoulder to cry on whilst assuring her that eventually everything would be okay. Tali had done the same for Ops, it was only fair that he gave her the best of everything.
"I will. I promise." Tali smiled then grimaced as an ab muscle pulled on her stitches a bit. She really needed to relax.
Ops noticed the grimace immediately, and looked at her in concern. "You alright"? Of course he knew she was in pain due to her wound, but it still made him worry that that bullet had still done worse.
"Yeah. Just sore." She smiled tightly at him.
Ops quickly noticed the tightness of her smile and became more worried. But before Ops could ask more of it, he and Tali both heard their earpieces beep for a moment before they heard Slash's voice speak through them: "Ops, Tali"?
Ops frowned in worry as he pushed a digit into his earpiece. "Ops here".
Tali pushed a finger to her own earpiece. "Tali here. What's up, Slash?"
"Climb the nearest tree, NOW". Slash ordered before quickly hanging up.
Realizing this was an emergency, Ops immediately and gently picked up Tali in an effort to not aggravate her wound further, then slinging her gently on his back before teasing: "Hang on Blue Arrow".
Tali raised an eyebrow with a smirk. "Is that my new nickname now?" She teased back.
Ops shrugged. "Nah. I've got plenty of others I want to use. But those are for occasions of which to embarrass you". Ops finished with a grin, before beginning his climb up the tree in front of them.
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Biomarvel740: The Dark Archer is the arch enemy of the Green Arrow (both of whom are owned by DC comics) who made an appearance in the show Arrow (owned by CW). Mata Nui and Teridax are owned by Lego.
Galem: I figured it was from that show, as I never saw Green Arrow have a nemesis in JLU.
Biomarvel740: Yeah, that's probably because his arch enemies weren't as important to the writers as everyone else's were. -_-
Galem: Hey! JLU was an awesome series!
Biomarvel740: (raises hands in surrender) Hey, I've never seen it. I'm just saying, they probably didn't give Green Arrow enough of a spotlight in that show. Or at least not from what I've seen via clips.
Galem: He had his episodes. Enough to to show the bond between him and Black Canary. Besides, it was a large team. Everyone had their moments to get to know them.
Biomarvel740: (shrugs) Okay. (to the readers) What did you all think of the chapter?
Galem: Please leave a review or pm either of us if you have any questions.
Biomarvel740: We thank you all for reading-
Galem: and please...
Biomarvel740 and Galem: Have a God-blessed day! XD :D
