My eyes shot open and I wasn't sure if I went unconscious or just closed my eyes through all the explosions and being thrown around by the blasts. All I know is one minute we were standing trying to figure out what was happening and now I'm flat on my back in damn near pitch-black darkness. I can't hear much because my ears are still ringing from the blasts. My body is screaming in pain and I'm too afraid to move a muscle. My only concern at the moment was if the others are okay.
Wait a minute. Where's Marco? He was standing right next to me when the explosions went off. He has to be nearby. He has to be okay. I shot up and instantly yelped in pain. Not even the adrenaline I was feeling could mask the pain shooting through my chest and back.
"Lay back down," I heard a voice tell me and at first I wasn't sure if I had imagined it through the ringing in my ears or if it was really there. That's when I felt a hand lightly push my shoulder. "You need to lay back down," she said again.
I couldn't place the voice. It didn't sound all that familiar to me which is probably why I thought I imagined it for a moment. I just did what she said. Maybe she can help. I have to ask her if she's seen Marco. Wait, if I don't know her she probably doesn't know who Marco is which means asking her would be useless.
As I was laying in the pitch-black area I knew I should probably get a look at the surroundings. I mean we have to figure out where we ended up. That's the excuse I'll use, but mostly I just want to know what this mystery woman looks like.
I took a deep breath and breathed out a little bit of fire to light the room enough to see the person leaning over me. Her hair blended in with the darkness of the rest of the area, as did her eyes. The only other things I could see was she had a lot of scars on her arms and a few little ones on her face, but those I really had to look closely to see.
"You have fire powers?" she asked.
"Yeah, I wanted to get a look at where we were at, but I didn't see much," I said which wasn't a complete lie. I mean with the little bit of fire I used I really couldn't see much.
"I can't really see where we ended up, but if you keep doing that maybe I could find some way out. I also keep long candlesticks on me in case of emergencies so we can light one of those to help."
"If you back up I can make a bigger flame it would help us see more."
"Perfect," she said before scooting away from me.
I made my flame really big and watched as she stood up and started looking around the area. She also pulled out one of her candles and used my flame to light it to help her look.
"Why the candles?"
"My team and I have been stuck in a base that had very little light so we all got in the habit of keeping at least five of these candles on us at all times as well as a few matches. Normally I would also have my matches, but they were all burnt out from the explosion."
That was pretty smart. I mean our team has never really had to worry about light since I was here and was able to make light before we had the lanterns in each room.
"I'm Jean by the way. I don't think we've had a chance to meet yet." I said making awkward small talk. I mean if we were stuck here together might as well at least know each other's names.
"Seraphina and I don't think we have. Are you a part of Pixis's group?"
"Yeah. Have you seen anyone else or are we alone?"
"I haven't had the chance to check around the area. I couldn't really see much, I was stumbling around blindly and I found you by chance."
"How did you find me?"
"I tripped over you," she said awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck. "Sorry about that by the way."
"No worries, I don't think I was conscious when it happened."
"No you were out cold, I thought you were dead at first until I could feel blood still pumping through your heart." Feel the blood pumping through my heart. What the hell does that mean? "Anyway, you shouldn't move around too much, you have three broken ribs, none of them have hit anything important yet, but you still shouldn't chance it."
"Are you okay?" I asked, trying to crane my head to look at her. I mean she seemed fine.
"I was bleeding pretty badly, but I stopped it."
"Oh like with a tourniquet?"
"Not exactly," she mumbled.
"Are you a healer?" I asked not knowing how else she would have stopped it.
"Far from it." She shook her head before turning around looking straight past me.
"Well, then how-."
"Sshh," she cut me off quickly. She got really quiet for a second before looking back at me. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" I asked, trying to turn my head in the direction she was looking.
After a moment of dead silence, I was about to turn back to her and brush off whatever she must have been hearing before I caught the faintest whisper. "Lp."
My head shot back towards the direction she was still staring at. She quietly walked closer to me to get a better listen. If I could barely hear it from here how the hell did she hear it from way across the room the first time.
"Help." The faint whisper came again much clearer this time. I shot to my feet not caring about the wave of pain that shot through me.
"Hey wait you shouldn't be up and moving," she yelled after me but I ignored her.
"Marco!" I yelled running over to where I heard the voice. She wasn't far behind me. "Marco, where are you?" I asked hoping he would say something else so I would be able to find him.
"Jean," his voice was weak and still quiet, but a lot closer than it was before.
"I'm coming baby," I said following his voice. I looked around where I heard his voice and saw a tight squeeze through the rubble. He must be on the other side.
"Hey wait, it's dangerous!" she yelled after me seeing me try and squeeze through this small area.
"I don't care, the love of my life is on the other side," I said before continuing what I was doing. I watched as she reached her hand out to stop me but stopped before taking a deep breath. When I got on the other side I kept looking for him.
"He's over here," she said and that's when I realized she had followed me through.
I turned to look at where she was pointing and saw Marco pinned under some rubble at his waist and a giant piece of concrete on his back. He was having a lot of trouble breathing and I ran over to him without a second thought. "Don't worry baby, I'm going to get you out of here okay?"
"It's heavy," he forced out.
"I know baby, I'm gonna get it off of you," I said before trying to lift the giant slab of concrete off his back. It wasn't budging as much as I tried to move it.
"You shouldn't be lifting that," Seraphina tried to warn me but I tuned her out.
"I don't care. I have to get him out of here."
"It's too much for one person to lift, even if both of us tried we won't be able to get that off of him."
"Well, we won't know until we try right?" I asked through painful coughs.
"Jean stop." Marco tried to tell me.
"No baby, I'm going to get you out of here," I choked out. I couldn't stop coughing. It was getting harder to breathe and it wasn't until I looked down and saw some blood splatter to realize I was coughing up blood.
"Baby please just stop," Marco begged. It broke my heart to hear him sound like that, but I can't stop. I can't just leave him here like this.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and then my whole body crumbled backward into someone's arms. I couldn't move anything. I couldn't even speak.
"Sorry, but I had to," Seraphina's voice came from directly behind me. She gently laid me down and sat down next to me pulling her knees up to her chest. "You were making your injuries worse, and even your boyfriend didn't want you to."
"What did you do to him?" Marco wheezed out. His breathing was getting worse.
"Temporary paralysis. It's just so he can't hurt himself more."
"Thank you," he choked out with a weak smile before looking back at me. "Don't you dare be mad at her you had this coming." He started coughing. That rock was slowly killing him and I'm stuck here quite literally frozen in place with nothing to do but watch him die.
"I'll try and find another way to get that rock of you," she said before looking around the dark room. She picked her candle back up and was looking for something to help but it looked like she wasn't finding anything.
I was slowly watching the light drain from Marco's eyes. The more he coughed the less air he seemed to be getting into his lungs. I can't even comfort him and tell him to hold on just a little longer.
The ground started to shake as we heard a loud crash in the distance. I couldn't even look around to see what had fallen. "I think there was a cave near here. We have to be extra careful, it looks like the ceiling here is stable, but if it starts to crack we might have to worry," Seraphina said, filling us in on what happened.
"Oh a hole opened up over here," she said and her footsteps got farther away.
Don't leave us here. Don't leave him like this. He'll die. I wanted to scream. Yell at her to come back, to help him. She had to save him since she stopped me from doing it.
"Hello?" I heard a distant voice. I couldn't call out to the familiar voice. I have to find a way to break her paralysis. How long does this last anyways? It's been an eternity. Just free me so I can help him.
"Oh my god," I heard her voice get closer.
"Don't worry Marco I got you," Annie said running in front of me. I watched as she crystallized her hands and positioned them on either side of the rock before extending the crystals out in a lopsided ramp. The concrete chunk slid down the ramp and onto the floor off of Marco. I heard him take a deep breath as he coughed a little more.
"I'm okay baby, see," Marco said, finally catching his breath. His legs were still pinned under the rubble but right now he seemed to be okay which is all that matters. Gotta look at the positives here. Small victories.
"Oh thank god we found you," Seraphina's voice was right behind me. She didn't leave us?
"Thank god for whatever cave-in just happened. It cleared the way. I was stuck in that small ass area since the explosions went off," Annie mumbled, "seems like it was right on time," she said, giving Marco a smile. That's when she noticed me laying on the floor.
"What's wrong with Jean. I would have thought he would be freaking out trying to save Marco."
"He was, which is why I had to use my power on him. He was making his own injuries worse."
"Oh, that makes more sense, what is your power?"
"Temporary paralysis. It usually lasts for about 10 to 15 minutes."
"Can he talk at all?"
"No, he can only move his eyes and breathe."
"So silence from Jean's loud mouth for 10 minutes, it's a miracle," Annie joked before sitting down next to me and whispering. "I'm glad you both are okay," in my ear.
"Now we just have to figure out how to get this off his legs," Seraphina pointed out."
"We might just have to wait for help with that one," Annie sighed, "My power can't move that much, but I know someone who can. The only problem is she's probably got a lot of people she needs to help at the moment, and she has no clue where we are."
"Good thing Mikasa won't stop until she finds you," Marco added.
"True, you're probably one of the safest people if you're with me," Annie smiled.
I stared at Annie hoping to catch her attention. I wanted her to move me closer to Marco. I need to comfort him even if I can't say or do anything. I need to be by him.
When she finally caught my eyes on her she looked at me and watched as I looked over to Marco and back to her. "Jean, I'm not a mind reader," she said, raising an eyebrow. I tried again. I shot my eyes over towards Marco and then back towards her.
I watched as she looked towards Marco and then back to me. "What about him?"
"I think he wants to be moved closer to me," Marco said, understanding me with just a few glances.
"Oh why didn't you say so," she said, giving me a shit-eating grin before gently moving me over towards him. She moved my hand so that he could grab it. Even if I can feel his hand in mine it still makes me feel better knowing he can feel my hand he knows I'm here for him.
"I love you too baby," Marco said with a small laugh after seeing the scene I just caused to be moved closer by him.