Little Lightning

Chapter 25

Lyrical's vision doubled and split as she knelt on the floor, blood dripping from her shoulder, eyes on the ground.

Plip.

Plip.

Plip.

The drops hit the ground with a resounding plip, the sound of the droplets hitting the metal the only clear thing she could hear. Noise surrounded her, and she vaguely understood there was some yelling, though what they were yelling was beyond her.

These aren't my clothes. She remembered hazily. I ruined Zaylee's clothes.

With that, she crumpled to the floor, and her vision faded into black. 

Lyrical woke up in a room she vaguely remembered, the memory recent. After several moments, she realized it was Kalypso's. 

Said person sat next to the bed, fiddling with a small capsule that looked suspiciously like a grenade. 

Lyrical pushed herself up into a sitting position, then let out a gasp when spikes of pain ran up and down her arm, her shoulder screaming. Kalypso looked up, her gaze sad and flat. She barely reacted to Lyrical being awake. 

"You're awake." She spoke in a monotone voice, her gaze heavy. "I'll go get Zaylee." She stood up and turned to walk away before Lyrical could comprehend what she had heard. After a moment, Lyrical managed to speak. 

"Wait." She croaked. "Are you ok, Kalypso?" She recalled the events that had happened prior to her going unconscious. Again. Jeez, she had to get out of this bad habit. Kalypso didn't turn and stayed silent long enough that Lyrical wondered if she had heard her. 

"Why wouldn't I be?" Came the answer, in that same awful monotone voice. Kalypso left the room before Lyrical could reply. 

Zaylee hurried in a moment later, followed by Azalea. Lyrical stared at Azalea, realizing she hadn't seen her since before the fight. Something was different about her. After a long minute of studying her, Lyrical realized what it was. 

A hard fire shone in Azaleas eyes, one that hadn't been there before. Lyrical shivered slightly. Azalea's movements were quick and sure, completely at odds with the person that she had been a week before. Before she would have kept her head down, quietly doing things and making eye contact with people only if they spoke directly to her. Even then, she would avert her gaze as if embarrassed by her mere movements. But now...

"Lyrical? Can you hear me?" Lyrical started out of her thoughts, gaze snapping back to Zaylee. 

"Yeah, I can hear you." 

"Then why didn't you respond? How are you feeling?" Zaylee rapid fired several more questions. 

"I feel fine. Well, except for my shoulder." She winced as she tried to move it, the muscles and tendons screaming in protest. "Are we still on that planet? How long have I been out?"

"No. After sweeping the area for any other robots, we decided it would be best to leave. We have to get to the Tribune in time. And you've only been unconscious for a couple of hours, maybe a full day. Anyway, that's to be expected. The knife lodged itself in the edge of your shoulder blade. A quarter of a centimeter more, and it would have gone straight through your shoulders and hit your heart because of the amount of force and angle that it was thrown at." Lyrical shivered. That was one thing she did not want to happen. "Try not to move. The more you jostle it, the worse it's going to get. Now take off your shirt." 

"What?" Lyrical shrunk back, then winced as her shoulder once again protested. 

"Take off your shirt, so we can change the bandage."