Back in the kitchen a little while ago, Charlotte had asked for a hug from eX-0281. As kindly as he always treated her, he obliged and tried his best to console her. She took comfort against his rough, cold armor—exactly what she had been accustomed to over the last few hours.

As soon as Charlotte's father had come back, eX-0281 retreated in favor of letting her father hug her. Though she missed her savior for a moment, nothing could be more comforting than her dad's embrace. Nevertheless, she continued to cry uncontrollably with her face snuggled into his shoulder.

Rational as she was, she wished that she could stop. Yet everything had simply become too much.

"Let's look up how to properly staunch the wound," Victoria said. "We should thaw out her leg if possible. The more tissue dies, the harder it will be for Josie to heal it."

Whimpers escaped from Charlotte's trembling lips. Though she agreed with Victoria's assessment on an intellectual level, she knew how much it would hurt to unthaw her leg. All the pain from the two bullets embedded in her flesh would return, unless the nerves in her leg had been thoroughly killed.

She clutched her hands around her father's neck tightly as he made their way up the stairs.

"Huh, okay," Victoria said.Since she had her mask in hand, she popped it back over her head to do the queries for medical information that they needed. "This says here that tourniquets are actually the first method that should be used to stop blood flow."

"Yeah." Various studies drifted to Charlotte's mind, and she shifted through the various statistics that she could recall for which ones would be best to share. With a big sigh, she determined it did not matter so long as they understood that the stigma around tourniquets was unfounded.

"The issue comes with how you apply them. The material needs to be pliable, with a thick enough strap to apply the pressure evenly. Otherwise, it risks nerve complications." Though Charlotte knew all of these things in theory from her weirdly in-depth browsing habits when she was bored, she had no practical experience whatsoever.

To everything she said, Victoria shrugged. "That makes sense. I saw lots applied down in the ring." When she popped the mask back over her head, her complexion remained cold and indifferent.

At once, Charlotte wondered how many people Victoria had dismembered. Uneasy, she let her head loll to the side in the crook of her father's arm.

"I didn't cut off anybody's limbs, mind you. I use a rapier not a battle axe," she said snidely.

The lips of Mr. Bouchard curled up in distaste at this new information regarding Charlotte's former friend. "Did you fight in one of those colosseum circuits?"

"The illegal, underground one, yeah."

The one without rules and point systems to protect the combatants. The one where battles could be fought to the death…. Stop. Don't think about that.

Charlotte did not want to consider anything that had happened to her friend between back then and now. If she did that, then she might just be able to understand Vickie and forgive her. But Charlotte had been wounded too deeply for that; she wanted to stay angry.

Her father's fingers tightened around her arms and legs with much the same fury. After all, he had been the one hesitant when Charlotte and her mom wanted to receive Victoria with open arms. It was her father who had caved and allowed it, only because Charlotte had vouched for her, rehearsing all the wonderful things about her that no longer applied.

People change, and Victoria had changed for the worse.

They transferred Charlotte to the bathroom upstairs and set her on the counter. "Start running some lukewarm water, would you?" her father asked. "I'll look for the other supplies." Before he left, his hand held hers, giving her a quick squeeze. "I'll be right back, Lottie."

"Alright." Alone in the bathroom with Victoria, her father left her. Charlotte had her arms hanging in the air as he left, as if to beg him to stay and keep holding her.

The visible shaking of her hands worsened, though Charlotte could barely see it through her tears. In an attempt to maintain any dignity that remained, she folded her arms beneath her armpits and glared at Victoria with her red, puffy eyes.

"Don't look at me like that," Victoria said. Just as her father had said, she started to run some bath water. Beneath the roar of the water, she murmured. "I didn't have any other choice. You didn't jump when I told you to, and I was out of mana."

Lies. Even if she had never confronted Vickie about it, Charlotte had taken note of the needles that she saw in the guest bedroom: mana replenishers. Obviously, she would not have carried them on her if she did not deem them worth using. Charlotte's life had simply not been worth the damage to her ley system—not like Marcel's or Victoria's own.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

She did not have the energy for accusations right now, so she kept her arms crossed and chin turned away.

"Whatever." Victoria shook her head and drew out her knife. Its tip was used to cut away Charlotte's pants, high up on her leg. Once most of the fabric fell away, it still remained attached to the frozen wound. Several more slices had all but a few shreds of denim stuck to her skin.

When her father came back with various supplies, Victoria determined which fabric was the closest that she had seen to the tourniquets in the colosseum. "I need a stick or something."

"Yeah," Charlotte confirmed, "for a windlass."

Her father ran back out of the bathroom and returned hastily. As soon as Victoria accepted the new supplies, he left again. "I'll get you painkillers."

Meanwhile, Victoria fastened her makeshift windlass to the end of the cloth and began tightening the strap. "I'll wait around till your leg thaws to make sure you're not bleeding in part. This should keep you situated for the next few hours while we get your mom. Me and the lizard boys are gonna head out."

A jolt was sent through her spine as Charlotte sat to full attention. If she was going to say things like that, Victoria might as well zap her. "You can't leave them behind, no matter what!"

Unamused, Victoria simply raised one eyebrow. "Your mom matters more than them. I'll do whatever it takes to get her out."

"Just like how you would leave me behind to save Marcel?" There. Charlotte said it, and she maintained her fiery glare no matter how much hate Victoria would send her way.

Instead, her eyes had softened and cast to the side in an almost guilty manner. Though some vestige of Victoria's emotions remained, she spit out her words as if this were not the case. "I already explained myself. You left me with no other choice."

Charlotte's nails bit into her palm, hard enough to leave reddened imprints there.

Everyone always had a choice. And Victoria had chosen not to use her mana replenishers.

"Well, my mom won't heal Marcel if you do anything to hurt those guys. I-I'll tell her what you did to me and how they saved me!"

As if in disbelief, Victoria threw out her arms and rolled her eyes. "I don't know why you like them so much. You realize they're clones, right? They've probably only existed for a year or two. Ask them about their childhood, and it might only then dawn on them that they never had one! Their half-formed brains fritzed out, and that's the only reason why they helped you."

Her rage was building with every additional insult that was said about them. If anything, their age and simple minds only increased the sub-dragons' need for protection. So, she thrust hands against the counter and landed on her one good foot. Standing up as tall as she could, Charlotte hardly came up to Victoria's shoulders.

"They made a choice and helped me." Each word, she enunciated with great care as if to drill the point into her head. "They're more of a person than you."

Victoria tilted her head and shot a livid gaze down to Charlotte. It was the look she always gave when infuriated.

Right then, her father returned with a glass of water and a small saucer with some pills. "What's going on up here?"

"Nothing. Victoria was just going to help me to the tub." All of a sudden, Charlotte realized that she could breathe again. Her tears had stopped when her anger had spiked to defend eX-0281 and eX-0704. A smirk drew up to her lips, satisfied by the insult that she had come up with.

Quick-witted but awkward as she was, Charlotte would normally say something lame in the moment. Only after the fact would she dwell on the exchange and think up the perfect comeback. At least her tongue had sharpened when it really mattered this time.

In addition to the painkillers, her father had brought some crackers. "You shouldn't take medicine on an empty stomach."

Charlotte took the pills first and smiled more genuinely at her father. "Thanks Dad."

Rather than picking her back up, he lent his arm to be used as a crutch so that Charlotte could hop over to the tub. Hopefully, the medicine could take an edge off the pain before her leg thawed out completely. Seated at the side of the tub, Charlotte lowered her leg into the lukewarm water. It was deep enough to accommodate her wounded shin, and at first, she sighed because the warm water felt nice.

"I can handle everything from here," Charlotte's father barked at Victoria.

The sooner she left, the sooner she would be back with her mother. More than that, her presence was simply not desired any more than necessary.

"I'll stay to make sure it's tight enough." Victoria leaned herself up against the wall, staying near to the door. Her eyes did not so much as dart over to Charlotte. At least the other woman knew when she was not wanted here.

"Mr. Bouchard? Would it be too much for me to ask you to check-in on my brother? His name's Marcel. My Liz made him an ice pack, so maybe once that melts, you can make sure the bedding is dry."

As expected, he sighed and agreed. "Of course."

The ice melted away from Charlotte's leg. When she brushed a hand over the slushy, top most portion, a large portion floated away in the tub. The ugly holes in her leg became entirely visible. Some of the frozen blood started to melt and tinge the nearby waters red. The skin around her wound was a ghastly pale, and not much could be felt yet.

For a while, Charlotte closed her eyes and let the thawing take place out of view.

"It's not continuing to bleed," her father said back to Victoria. "You can go now." Just the two of them, his hands held both of Charlotte's and offered her a tight squeeze.

"I'll be back as soon as I can." With those last words, she turned to go.

Charlotte tried to listen to Victoria's footsteps fade away—anything that she could focus on instead of her own mounting pain.

Deep within her leg, probably where the bullets had gone, the searing flesh felt very much alive. It was her first time feeling the agony of the gunshots since eX-0281 had frozen her leg. Charlotte bit her teeth together initially, but soon dropped her jaw to holler out a scream.

Once again, she was crying as her father held her and tried to whisper soothing words into her hair.

"Mom will be back soon, okay Lottie? Just hang in there."

Between the ruthless Victoria and the compassionate sub-dragons, Charlotte had faith that they would bring her mother home. She only hoped that both eX-0281 and eX-0704 could come back safely as well.