Kidnapped|Book 4|A novel in the Blue Moon series| An Avengers fan fiction series|

23- Good is a Consequence of Evil

Hello lovelies ! :)

Sorry I didn't update yesterday...

Hope you like it !

~Music~

the lonely (Christina Perri)

I edited a bit of Videl's cursing, FYI :)

The chapter title comes from an Edgar Allan Poe work, The Short Tales; however, the actual quote is: "But as in ethics, evil is a consequence of good, so in fact, out of joy is sorrow born."

Peter's name in the adaptation series is Andrew Sidney Riddle :)

Chapter 23

~Thea's POV-~

It's a miracle that Videl Jaunts us into another abandoned apartment; I wouldn't have been able to drag him out from the middle of a street. As it is, I can barely get him up onto the bed, partly because he is heavy on my sore muscles, and partly because he keeps snapping at me in delirious exclamations.

Once he is on the bed, I open his backpack, digging through it, looking for supplies that could help him. I find food-human food- and bandages and various supplies, but not much to go by in the way of the medical department. I recall the antiseptic and other random stuff on the nightstand in San Francisco with a pain of longing; Videl must have left them there.

Videl is breathing through his teeth, trying to get through his pain silently. I know that since he is making any noise at all, he's in agony. The cuts from the bear's claws are deep across his chest, and blood drips on the sheets around him, all over him. I'm bleeding too, and my own chest hurts from the same claws, but I grit my teeth and ignore the discomfort.

"Do you happen to know where we are?" I ask timidly, pulling on the jacket from Videl's backpack. It hides my injuries.

"No!" He snaps, clenching his fists and arching his neck.

"Okay," I say, then run into the bathroom. The entire hotel room is plain, and the bathroom is made up of only a sink, a tiny corner shower, and a toilet. I find a towel underneath the sink and run it under warm water.

"NO." growls Videl, as I walk back to the bed, "Go away, idiot."

I casually pretend he hasn't spoken and put the towel on Videl's torn chest. He groans and tries to swat me, but in his pain, he is clumsy, and misses me easily.

"I'll be right back," I say, trying to ignore my own pain by digging my hand into the cloth of my backpack.

"Where are you -no, you are not leaving this room!"

"Sorry," I say quietly, walking away from the bed.

Videl lets fly a particularly foul expletive and I glance back to see him trying to clamber off the bed. But he moans as he can barely move, and is forced back onto the mattress. His words run together in a slur of curse words and threats, "I will effing kill you if you step foot out of-damn it, damn all of this- I will drag you back and break your spine I did not do all this work for you to get caught on the- don't you effing DARE turn your back on-"

"See you in a couple minutes," I say, and close the hotel door behind me. It's dark, although not horribly, so I guess that we're still on the west side of the country. After making sure I leave the door open a smidge and memorize the hotel room number, I follow the signs down the red-carpeted hallway to the elevator, my nerves on edge the entire time, and my hand clutching my stomach. On the elevator, after I punch the starred button, I take deep breaths. My pain can't show.