There’s a lot of reactions Alex expected to get at the sight of her state. Anger, sadness, guilt. What she should have probably given more consideration was terror. Which hurts. A lot.

“Hey Anya,” Alex says as soon as the screaming stops.

The girl looks like she’s about to cry.

“Sorry, ummm, I can come some other time?” Alex offers, which the girl doesn’t respond to.

Alex blinks and small tears run down her cheeks, ah fuck, she’s not acting like a bad bitch. Bad bitches don’t cry.

“Alex?” Anya says, as though the sight in front of her were an illusion.

“Anya” Alex echoes back.

“W-what?” Anya manages, “what happened to you?” She’s staring at her face, which makes Alex more than a little uncomfortable.

“Lost a few pieces.” She says simply.

“Get over here” Anya says, and Takeshi silently rolls her over, Anya doesn’t even look at the boy as she gently grabs one of her bandaged arms.

“Can I take It off?” She says, and Alex nods.

Slowly she unwraps her bandages and takes a sharp intake of breath when the first big wound presents itself. It’s on the back of her forearm, a deep groove that’s scabbed over, it looks like someone took a large jagged spoon and carved out a piece of her flesh, the two bones of her forearm are thinly covered by the scab, but still patently obvious. Anya stares at it.

“It’s like this for the rest of them?” She asks.

Alex considers lying, but that wouldn’t be fair, “yeah” she says.

Anya looks her in the eye, and the look she gives her is a sharp one.

“Alex,” she says with a slight hitch to her voice, “the insurance I have shouldn’t have covered the treatment I’m getting, why am I still at the hospital?”

Fuck, smart kid. Guess that’s why she’s the aspiring Maestro.

“How would I know?” Alex says with fake confusion.

“Don’t lie to me Alex. I know you don’t have the kind of money to keep me here, or you didn’t. What did you do?”

Alex shrinks at the gaze of the inquisitive twelve year old. “I took a few jobs,” Alex says quietly.

“You took a few jobs” Anya echoes, “to keep me alive?”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Alex nods, and there’s a complicated expression on Anya’s face, like she can’t decide how she should feel about that, Alex doesn’t miss the hint of gratefulness when it shows up.

Anya doesn’t say anything as she pulls Alex into a hug.

Then she starts crying.

The dam in Alex’s heart breaks and she starts bawling along with her.

Takeshi takes this as his cue to give some privacy.

-

“She’s gonna make you get into gunfights in your state?!?” Anya raves, “where is she? I’ll slap her stupid face until some sense enters her mind!”

Alex tries to quiet down the very stupid girl, “Anya!” She whisper-yells, “that’s a Finger you’re talking about, keep your fucking voice down.”

“I heard nothing!” Takeshi yells from the hall.

Anya points to the door in victory.

“There are other people here,” Alex says exasperated, “It’s a fucking hospital for christs sake.”

“Well they can get bent for all I care” Anya says “You’re going to take months to heal! And all the missing muscle-” Anya’s brain short circuits as she realizes something. “Alex,” She says slowly, “How are you moving your hand? Or arm? I haven’t gotten deep into the studies yet but I'm pretty sure you need muscles to move.”

Alex scratches her remaining cheek, does she want Anya to know? Maybe she could make up some bullshit biology. No, that could fuck over her chances at being a Maestro! Ah fuck. Welp she hasn’t exactly been keeping it a secret, she just doesn’t initiate the conversations.

“Would you believe me if I told you it was magic?” Alex says, slightly embarrassed.

Anya blinks, “like The Wizards of Saint Peters Court?”

“The fuck is that?”

Anya gasps, “it’s a movie! You haven’t watched it? How? Are you secretly a gremlin living underground?”

“I’m perfectly human thank you very much.”

Both of them share a small chuckle.

“So, being serious, how are you moving?” Anya asks.

“I was being serious”

Anya just stares at her, then she squints, “I may be a kid Alex but I’m not falling for that.”

Alex sighs.

-

Her recovery isn’t exponential, but her ability to move is. At a certain point of the damage healing, forcing herself to move became just as cheap as it used to be. Too bad it causes a lot of damage to move her body. Meaning she still needs to spend time healing, some would see this as a positive, but Alex honestly hates the infirmity of her existence right now. She redoubles her healing efforts, pushing through the headaches until it just gets dangerous. Which means she needs a lot more food. She’s not magicing up any of the shit her body needs to heal after all, and she’d rather not munch on what remains of her muscles, but hey, at least the bandages look cool. Sasha got her ones in black, to fit the gang's theme. Coincidentally they look badass.

She doesn’t really need to wear them considering the, y’know, scabs. But she doesn’t really want to advertise that she’s got chunks missing. She's debating whether she should finally use the mask she got oh so long ago, just for daily life. She needs to get new armor, her old pair are basically scrap, and in her rush to finish the jobs she completely forgot about proper protection.

Maybe she is the dumb one?

No, fuck that, Aki didn’t remember either, or Takeshi, she’s not to blame at all.

“Alex, why are you shaking your fist at the roof?” Aki asks.

“None of your business shortstack.”

“I will literally hack into your phone and delete all your shows”

-

She can walk!

Without exacerbating her wounds!

Which means she’s gonna go back to war!

Fuck!