The Goddessy II: The Trials of Zeus

Chapter Nineteen

The warm grip of Heracles grew slippery as Rainbow's blood streamed onto his hands, dying them crimson.

"We're almost there," he said, then dropped her in shock as they both noticed that Olympus was on fire.

"We've got this," he said. "Apollo! Paean! We need you!"

But no one came through.

"OUR SISTER IS DYING!" Heracles screamed, and for a moment, she swore she saw fear on his face.

For a second, nothing.

Then...

"Where is she?" Apollo gasped as he tore through the shattered crystal, Paean right behind him.

"She's alive, but not for much longer," Heracles explained. "I think she's losing too much blood right now."

"You think?" Rainbow wheezed as a sharp stab of pain entered the back of her neck.

"I'm sorry, but we had to numb you" were Apollo's last words before she blacked out.

After what felt like days later, Rainbow stirred to find herself sitting in a hospital bed, raised to a sitting position. Both her arms had tubes extending out of them, fluids flowing through. She looked down and saw her clammy hands rubbing across the bedclothes, the garments she'd been wearing draped across the couch to her left. She was alone.

Then she noticed that her chest wound was significantly smaller.

Stunned, she looked at her hands, where cuts from the broken stones were less prominent, touched her knee, which was leveling out with the rest of her skin, moved her broken wrist, which could handle more movement before the pain set in, as was her ankle. Even her left shoulder, which had been healing for a while, was pretty much fully healed at this point.

"That took days to get that far," Athena said from the corner. "I'm kinda amazed that they've pulled it off so far."

"Wait, I've been out for days?" Rainbow wanted to yell, but her voice was too weak.

"Don't worry, because have we got a surprise for you," Athena stood up and went to the door. "Even though this was supposed to be your trial, we went ahead and sent a search party and..."

Five familiar faces peeked through the doorway.

"She's alive!" Sunset exclaimed, running over. "I repeat, she's alive!"

Rainbow did the best group hug she could muster before she flopped back down, still really weak.

"When... did you... get here?" she rasped.

"Surprisingly, Hades let us go," Applejack explained. "Athena and Kratos found us near the mountain. Only..."

All five girls cringed as Rainbow realized who was missing.

"Where's Rarity?" she asked.

"That's the thing," said Fluttershy, covering her face with her hands. "Because in order to free us...

Her voice lowered to a whisper.

"Rarity agreed to side with Hades."

Silence hung around the group for a while.

"Then Hades said she had no choice but to fulfill her end of their agreement, and the last I saw of her, she was already evil," Applejack said. "I don't know if she's acting or being real about it."

Rainbow wanted to say something else, but a fluid flowing into her bloodstream turned cold and she collapsed back into darkness.