Unity

Five: Targeted

A/N: My god did this chapter give me trouble. This is the crudest possible version and it will definitely be edited as I go on (so go easy on me) but I wanted to put something out to meet my deadline. It spans an entire month so it was very difficult pacing-wise. I hope you enjoy it despite it's flaws!

The next day at breakfast, naturally we ran into Aphrodite's group. They moved from the food tables to their spot and sat in eerie silence. She only looked somewhat shocked we were alive. I glared at her, not daring do anything in public. Chance put a hand on my shoulder.

    "Mathis." He cautioned. I dragged my eyes over to him. "You're growling."

    I put a hand over my mouth, feeling heat rise behind my cheeks.

    "I feel the same way." He took his food to our table. "But we cannot retaliate. One, they're stronger than us. Two, we'll get caught. Supervisors are much more likely to believe them than us. Three... they aren't worth it."

    I growled again, purposefully this time. Chance hung his head and clenched his fists. Rex squeezed his eyes shut. We were all angry. I felt so useless.

    "Can't we do something?" I pushed. "At least tell someone?"

    "If we tell, we'll get punished for even accepting the invitation." Chance murmured. "This is all my fault."

    I tried to say something but he got up and walked out. Rex looked at me expectantly and I shied away. I had no idea what to do, why was he looking at me?

We all spent a majority of our time in the infirmary after that, waiting for Lynette to wake up. Our faces grew more and more pained with each passing hour. On Monday, Lautrec came to check on us. He burst into the room, furious. His silver-lined coat was buttoned incorrectly. He went straight for Chance, grabbing him by the collar.

    "How dare you put your team in danger like that!" He shouted, spitting on Chance's face. "You're the leader. You are supposed to keep them safe! What if you'd died?!"

Chance closed his eyes, very blatantly surrendering to the abuse. Lautrec began shouting again but Mallory, who had started walking, limped up behind him and grabbed his arm.

"Sir." She murmured. "It's my fault, I pushed the idea. I even made Chance the leader. I'm the issue here, yell at me."

Lautrec looked even angrier now. He turned to Mallory slowly.

"Your leader... is responsible for you. He was reckless. He endangered you. And he will be punished." He turned back to Chance. "You are pulled from this month's mock field assignment. Spend the day in private training."

Chance nodded, face scrunched up like he'd been hit. Not only was his team hurt, he was restricted from a key opportunity.

"Mathis has been doing a better job than you." Lautrec said without looking at me. "Any more events like this and I'm making him your leader."

I looked up in shock. Sure, I had wanted the leadership role but... Chance was our leader. I saw Rex looking at me again. Mallory had a face of stunned blankness. Lautrec turned from Chance and sat beside Lynette, looking over her tattered body. He shook his head and rubbed his face. He left the room so quickly I couldn't see his expression.

The next day we were practicing hand-to-hand combat. I was paired with Mallory. She was showing me no mercy. She punched and kicked relentlessly while I blocked, unable to even try to hit her. She ducked down and kicked my legs, attempting to sweep them out from under me. She hit the area I was cut and I grunted in pain, jumping out of the way.