The Aftermath

Mia sat in Dylan's hospital room staring blankly at his lifeless form in the hospital bed; a deep depression swallowing her entire being. She felt like her entire world was crumbling down. Very slowly and painfully. Everything she had was now wounded and, in poor Dylan's case, lying comatose in some sterile, starched white room. "It's my fault... I should have held her back..... I should have repressed it....." she muttered to herself over and over and over again quietly:

"He should be right in there," a nurse outside the room said.

"Thank you," Axineld said as he walked into the room. He stopped when he saw Mia sitting next to Dylan's bed, "Hello there Mia." he said, even though he knew very well that Mia didn't know him.

"Hi......" Mia responded flatly and silently. She didn't react to the total stranger at first because of how oblivious she really was to the outside world, but it finally occurred to her that a person she had never met before was already calling her by her first name. "Uhm, excuse me, but who are you?" she questioned, staring directly at him with somewhat cold and calculating eyes.

"Ah thats right," Axineld said, "We've never met in person yet have we..." after a second of thought he continued to speak again, "My name is Axineld, I am Dylan's boss." he said.

OoC: Now for sad/angry mia to beat on Axineld with her weak and tired arms XD

(Ooc: I TOTALLY SHOULD. But she's doesnt really have anything to be mad at him for yet.... To my knowlage.....)

Ic: Mia looked up. She and Dylan had Only discussed Axineld maybe like once, but that was about it. As a result, she didnt really know all that much about him. This was the first time she was even seeing his face. She sat in silence, trying to figure him out.

"If he doing okay?" Axineld asked as he took a seat.

"The doctors say he's stable for now." Mia responded lifelessly, her gaze returning to Dylan. Guilt piled up inside her as she sat silently in the chair.

"Well thats good," he said. He took another look at Dylan, "I knew Henry was going to be too busy to watch him." he said.

"I don't like talking about Henry. I just don't like him period." Mia responded rather flatly and dully. She wasn't too excited about discussing one of her adversaries at that moment.

"Hehe," Axineld chuckled, "So the two love birds do disagree on at least one thing." he said.

Mia slightly blushed promptly after Axineld finished talking, but she turned away so that he couldn't see her face. "I haven't liked Henry since I met him, and he's never come up in convorsation between us." she responded in a matter-of-factly manner. "And it's not like we can talk about it now if we wanted to......" Mia added barely above a whisper, burying her face in her hands once more to catch any tears than might fall in front of Axineld. ".........my fault......so sorry........"

"Eh well," Axineld said, "He'll be fine." He then stood up out of his seat, "Want to go get some lunch?" he asked calmly.

Mia stopped blaming herself for everything for a moment to bad shocked. This was the Axineld Dylan looked up to? This man, who was willing to just leave his best pupil behind to get some food? Unbelieveable! He didn't even seem to care whether Dylan lived or died! Mia hadn't even seen him come in once before this in the sleepless time she had spent sitting and watching Dylan. This was rediculous!

"How...... How can you even think that way?" Mia demanded in a shocked tone of voice, lifting her hardened face from her hands. "He respects you and looks up to you so much, and.... You don't even care about him? You don't value him enough to worry about him as he lays comatose in a lonely hospital room?! You can't even act afraid of whether he lives or dies?!?"

Yup, it was official. Mia was starting to dislike Axineld as much as she did Henry.

Axineld looked at Mia as she screamed at him, and when she was done he got stern, "I don't know what Dylan has told you. But I assume that he said that both Henry and I trained him." he said, "And I have seen him like this before, he was in a coma, just like this. And back then we were both worried about his life. But while we watched him we noticed that his enhancer magic was keeping him alive. Its the same as now, I can see his magic working on his body, it is very rare for someone to be able to use magic unconsciously, and Dylan is one of the few who can do it, so I know he is going to be fine. And all we can do is wait for him to wake up." he said. "Now... like I said... would you like to get some lunch?"

Mia's face stayed hard and stoic, as it usually was when she was around most people, but her eyes betrayed that she was obviously still angry. She still couldn't quite understand why her emotions burned so much stronger when Dylan was involved, but they did and she couldn't help it. Mia also wasn't too keen on the idea of leaving him behind in this stark old room. She hadn't eaten in at least a day and a half, but she had been so absorbed in her sadness that she hadn't noticed. And she still didn't, she was much too distracted again. Unfortunatly for her, her stomach betrayed her hunger with a quiet growl, which made her turn her face away once again to hide another small blush. "....I'm fine." she muttered.

Axineld stood at the doorway of the room, "You know Dylan would want you to eat." he said, he needed to explain some things to her anyway.

Mia sighed aggrivatedly. She knew that Axineld was right, but she wasn't really too convinced that he wasn't just bringing that up to get her to go with him. Finally, after much internal debate, she begrudgingly got up and followed behind Axineld, dragging her feet along as if they were made of five-ton lead blocks.

"You should brighten your mood Mia," Axineld said, "Research has shown that a negative moods cause a body to recover more slowly." he said as they walked.

"I have good pain tolerance. I always have. This is nothing to me." Mia shot back flatly, not removing her eyes from her feet as they walked. "Besides, I ought to suffer for a while for what I've caused." she sighed sadly and quietly, flinching as all the horrible memories once again rushed back into her head.

"Dylan wouldn't want you to suffer," he said, "And you shouldn't, what happened at Everst was nothing you could control." he said.

"Maybe if I had been just a little stronger, I could have prevented all this... If I had just stayed there in the snow and perished..... She wouldn't have had a vessel....." Mia muttered to herself. She seemed totally lost in her mind now, not hearing much of what was spoken to her.

"You need to not worry," Axineld said, "Once we take a seat I will explain why you should have no reason to worry about Dylan's well being." he said.

Mia just looked at Axineld with a still somewhat doubtful and distrustful look, but still followed him to the hospital's cafeteria anyway. You could tell when you were almost there because you could smell the scents of the food.

Axineld led them to a table and didn't even get any food. "Now then..." he said, "Tell me... what do you know about Magic?" he asked.

Mia thought for a second. "If I'm being honest, not all that much. When I was a kid and lived on the street I researched it some, but that wasn't 'me' that was doing the research so I don't remember it all." she sighed. "I mostly fight by my instincts, and the twins react to that accordingly." Of course, when Mia referred to the "twins", she ment her dragons.