Operation Phoenix

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Nine Months and the Current State, Pt 3

Rapunzel had not been paying attention to what Toothania had been saying. Her eyes were glazed, twinkling as if they were tearing up (though they weren't) as she lifted the scalpel in her dainty gloved hands and drew a deep line through the Sickly's struggling body. She carefully removed the piece of flesh before swabbing it with concentration and swiping the substance over a slide. Gingerly, Zel let a single drop of her concoction fall from her pipet before she placed another slide atop her experiment.

"Rapunzel?" Tooth asked kindly, waving a thin hand in her direction. The woman's colorful hair reminded Zel of a rainbow.

Rapunzel made a noise suggesting an inquiry, and though she appeared focused on the experiment she was performing, placing the slides under the microscope, her mind was not there at all. It remained stuck on the matter outside of this particular subject—whatever it happened to be. The dead guard whose body her team had left in the mud early that morning. The guilt still ate at her insides, though however much she tried to hide it, she was particularly distracted and unfocused today—Toothania could confirm that with anyone. She silently wondered about the life that guard had left behind, whether or not there had even been any sort of guilt inside of him that festered the way hers did. She wondered if that guard ever regretted his actions, whether he had been held hostage in relatively the same way she was.

After all, good and evil weren't black and white—and that's what scared her. It would be easy to hate someone if all they ever did was bad things, it would be easy to loathe a person who never gave anyone any kindness or mercy, it would be easy to get rid of a person like that. But good people could do bad things, and bad people could do good things, which begged the question: what good things had that guard done, when she hadn't been around to see him?

"Have you eaten at all today?" Tooth repeated firmly, flitting around the room and putting things in order, as if she were some kind of bird.

Rapunzel thought back to her lunch break, when she'd given her sandwich and fruit to Hiro, which he'd split generously with his friends. Not eating had become so normal for her, it was like the times her stomach would growl she wouldn't even notice it anymore. Though she still remained relatively okay, the tendons in her wrists were becoming ever prominent, her cheeks had sunken slightly and her hips became sharper. She hadn't seen Hiccup in a few weeks, and she could only imagine the way his eyes and eyebrows would tip in heavy concern. She ignored the headaches and dizziness, but found that her brain wandered everlastingly away from her work—which wasn't abnormal for her, but she continued to make stupid mistakes that she wouldn't if she sustained a healthy diet.

Tooth took her silence as a 'no' and she placed her hands on her hips. "You'll get weak." She protested, walking up behind the girl and placing the cling-wrapped sandwich she'd smuggled from the cafeteria that morning onto the table next to Zel, away from the contaminated substances. "And then where would we be if a fight broke out?" Toothania whispered, patting the blonde on the back gently and taking her leave.

Rapunzel ate the food provided thankfully, only now noticing the weight of the hunger her fasting had brought upon her. She knew her stomach had gotten smaller, because she couldn't eat as much anymore. It seemed like she'd take a few bites and her stomach would be full again, but for the moment she forced herself to eat the other half of the meal—because she knew she needed to feel full for more than a while.

Rapunzel felt deeply sorry for the workers in tents who could only eat pickle soup.

Just after it was gone, Meg entered the lab. Her hips swaying just as they always did. Upon making her appearance, she opened her arms for Zel, who gasped and dashed over to her dear friend. A quick hug and Rapunzel pulled away, asking what on earth the girl was doing there. Meg didn't cover lab grounds, she was assigned to the tent workers. The lab workers were an additional job Tooth took on.