Beep . . . . Beep . . . . Beep . . . .

I squeezed my eyes tighter, my head aching. I groaned. I was aching everywhere.

"She's awake." I heard someone say. "I'll go get Doctor Bones." And I heard that person walk away and shout. "Doctor Bones! Doctor Bones!"

I opened my eyes a crack, the light made my headache even more.

"Celeste?"

"Yeah?" I said, but my voice was so used to not being used that it sounded like a grunt.

"It's me, Regila. How are you feeling?" She asked, lightly touching my arm.

I tried to say something back, but it came out as a moan. I closed my eyes, my head still hurting.

"Okay, guys." I heard the familiar talkative voice of Doctor Bones. "Back away from the bed, back away..." I heard him walk next to me on my right and started doing things. I don't know what, but it was stuff.

"How are you feeling, my dear?" He asked cheerfully.

I went to answer back, and my voice had found itself. But I started out croaky.

"Super duper, man . . ." I answered, slightly loopy from the meds they were giving me.

"That is great to hear." He said back. "I would dial the meds down a little bit, but you would be in so much pain if I did."

I kept my eyes closed and hummed a "What?" at him.

"That was a really bad fall you had, you are fortunate to survive that. That was a twenty-five foot fall!" He said.

I opened my eyes, "What?"

"Yeah, fortunately you fell on your side, and Logan slowed your descent with what, water?" He asked someone to my left.

I turned my head and saw Pippen, his eyes were red and puffy from crying. "I think so... We were just slightly ahead of you, and when we heard the yelling and such we turned around. I tried to help Logan slow your fall, I gave him my water bottle. So did our whole team." He sniffed and wiped his nose with his sleeve.

"What does falling on my side mean?" I asked.

"It means that that is the best way to survive a fall from that height." Doctor Bones informed me.

"It is?" I croaked.

I wasn't really listening to Doctor Bones as he continued to talk, but did a head count, and I realized that Xavier was not in the room. Everyone else is, but not Xavier.

I interrupted Doctor Bones, "Where is Xavier?" I asked, looking around. I saw Pippen stiffen and the mood in the room shifted.

Nobody tried to talk for a minute.

"Guys? Where is Xavier?"

What has happened to him? I thought in my head, slightly pointing it at Alysia who had moved to the farthest corner of the room. I looked over at her, she glanced at me and then itched the side of her nose and crossed her arms. Nothing came from her.

"Um..." Regila said, glancing at Pippen. Pippen dropped his head on my bed, his breathing getting ragged.

"Well?" I tried to coax it out of her, or anyone for that matter.

"Well, um... You remember what I told you, William, and Alysia the day you three tried to escape?" Regila began slowly, glancing at Pippen often.

"Yea?" I answered cautiously.

"About my sister and her always trying to take some of my pupils from me?"

I stared at her, my eyes telling her to continue on.

"Well, that is exactly what she did with... Xavier." Regila said, taking the long and excruciating way of breaking the news to me.

"So she..." I trailed off, not able to say the last word.

"Kidnapped him." Pippen croaked, grabbing his hair and pulling at it in anguish. "Why just him though?" I asked, "Alysia was there with him, if she is so intent on kidnapping your pupils, wouldn't you think she would take as many as she could get her hands on? Like me? Or Logan?"

"We have been asking ourselves the same exact question." Captain Bos said, his face in a frown. "It may be because he was still slightly weak, they somehow knew he couldn't use his element to defend himself. However, Alysia could. That is why they didn't take her too."

"Then why did they not grab me?" I asked, "I was also very vulnerable, I still barely even know how to use my powers." I pointed out, trying to raise my right arm but finding that it hurt slightly to move it. I winced.

"We don't know the reasoning behind that either..." Regila said, her head hung.

"Then why are we all standing here?" I said, "We need to throw a team together and save him!"

"I would if I could." I heard Regila say. I stopped and stared at her.

"And why is that?" I asked, feeling Pippen's head lift up.

"Because- because... There is no good way of getting into their base. You have to go through a number of security protocols to even get to begin traveling there." Regila explained, her face seeming older than it has been in the past couple of months. "And we do not really have a good means of transportation. " She added.

"There is always a way to get into somewhere, no matter how hard it may look." I said, trying my best at a 'motivational speech.' I opened my mouth to say something else but I was cut off by Doctor Bones.

"Okay!" He exclaimed loudly. "I think it is time to give Celeste some space to breath and some time alone so she can rest."

I smiled weakly at Pippen, and he gave me a dejected two finger salute in return.

"Get better, Celeste!" I heard Rosalva say, her voice in the ever familiar happy high pitched tone.

Once they had all left, Doctor Bones sat down on a stool next to the right side of my trot, cot? I don't know what they call these beds.

"How long am I going to have to stay in this stupid room?"

Doctor Bones laughed half heartedly, the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes barely showing. "Well, I do have some of my most advanced healing technology on board and some of it is already hooked up to you. Plus you Elementals have a quicker healing rate than most normal humans do."

"We do?" I asked, surprised.

"Yes, you do." He laughed at my reaction. "Now, your injuries..." He added, his tone getting serious. "You have four fractured ribs, which is not uncommon for someone who has just fallen twenty-five feet. Now normally, your ribs would be healed within at least six months, but fortunately with the "upgrades" you get with your Element you heal almost three times as fast as a normal human would. So you will only be a couple of months." Doctor Bones said optimistically.

"Is that it?" I asked, that definitely not seeming right.

"Well, you also suffered from a concussion, it was not too bad. So you should not worry about it. And the other thing is that you also dislocated your shoulder. Since you fell on your side, all of your weight fell onto one shoulder and your shoulder did not like what happened to it. The first response team did relocate it quickly though." He finished.

"Well, I guess that is good... Please tell me that is it." I pleaded.

"Oh yes, for injuries it is. But you will be in this room for a couple of weeks... Maybe shorter if you actually rest." He said, waggling his finger at me as if scolding me for something.

"Yes, Doctor." I said.

"Now, get some rest. You still have a little bit of your concussion, so get plenty of rest. Your head should stop aching and reeling if you get plenty of sleep." He said standing up. "I will see you later." He winked at me. "A nurse will be by soon to routinely check your vitals and meds." He added just before he left the room. "Sweet dreams, Celeste." He winked again and did a finger wave.

I wiggled my fingers lazily in good bye and very quickly fell asleep. 

I will say this, over the next couple of weeks, it did feel nice to get out of those horrid workouts and training exercises. Pippen spent a lot of the time waiting for me, fretting over Xavier, and coming up with a "brilliant and flawless" plan. But it mostly turned out to have way too many loop holes so that plan was thrown out of the window. 

I sometimes laid in bed and thought about the horrible things that Regina would be doing to Xavier, and I really wanted to get out of bed and gather a team to go and rescue him. But I couldn't do that with my stupid injuries.

Since I was one of the eye witnesses, Regila had started to put together a team shortly after our meeting around my bed. Since I was a part of it, they all had their meets with me in my hospital room. That way I could rest, and not be completely bored. 

I did learn that there was this super cool ship thing that could teleport, but not time travel. Which I found super disappointing. I also learned that that ship was the one that had appeared in the sky the day Regina's men had come to take Xavier away. And this super awesome ship is called a Portalship.

After four weeks had passed, I was finally able to leave that stupidly cramped and white and cold room. At this point, my body was just trying to heal was those four stupid ribs. They were almost there, and I got the all clear by Doctor Bones to begin my element training so I could be ready for the mission to save Xavier.

It felt more real as each and every single day passed by, my element grew and I could easily lift a boulder the size of that one from the volcano with Logan.

I had just walked out of the appointment with Doctor Bones and he had given me the all clear for the mission and I was stoked. We had a couple more days till we actually left. Our team had already been on the portalship and it was totally cool.

I had just walked out of my appointment with Doctor Bones when I bumped into Rosalva.

"Oof . . ." I grunted.

"Oh, sorry Celeste! I didn't see you there." She sounded frantic.

"What's wrong?" I asked her, my brow furrowing.

"I was just setting up some final things. Something came up and we have to leave A.S.A.P. according to Regila."

"What something came up?"

" I don't know, Regila wouldn't tell us anything. I just know we have to pack our bags and make it to the air docks to start and board the portalship."

My eyes widened and I set off to my room to pack, now I forgot what Doctor Bones had literally just told me two minutes ago. Do not run.

I thought about this as a sped up my pace to a jog to my room, I wheezed and had to take a minute to breath before I could continue on and walk to my room. Running was definitely a no.

I made it into my room. I had just put my hand on the white box and the door shinked open and Alysia popped up next to me.

I yelped. "Goodness, I hate you." I growled, my eyes flashing a silvery/white color. It always felt super cool for my eyes to do that, so I would sometimes stand in front of the mirror in my bathroom and make my eyes flash their silvery/white color. And then I would continue to laugh like a crazed person.

"Pack up, we gotta get to the air docks."

"I know, Rosalva told me. I am packing my bad right now. Do you know how many days we will be gone for?" I tried to keep my tone level. I had learned over the many months I have been stuck here to learn how to not get frustrated with Alysia.

I threw a lot of things in my bag and also changed my shoes to the combat boots, I've learned that they are really good for fighting. That is probably why they are called "Combat Boots" 

No duh, Sherlock. I heard Alysia say.

I scowled, Leave me alone. Gah, we really need to figure out how to shut each other out.

Oh, I know how to block you out. I learned it a while back, it's up to you now.

I groaned. Can't you just give me one hint!?

Nope.

YES! 

No.

Fine, be that way.

Silence.

I gurgled a scream of frustration and took it out on one of my throw pillows.

"Fine!" I shouted and threw it across the room, it took me a couple of minutes to calm down, but once I was, I was good to go.

I exited my room and made my way to the air docks. I will say this, it is getting really easy- or this place is getting familiar- I only got lost once. Once! This is an ultime record for me for going somewhere I have only been a couple times! I made it to the docks and I saw out team all making their way up the bridge. When I climbed up the bridge I saw everyone circled by the main mast.

I re-positioned my backpack on my shoulder and made my way over to them. Our team was Pippen, and Rosalva, and Alysia, and William, and me. I don't know why they brought William and me along, probably because I was a witness and it would help if they had a wide rage of Elementals? I don't really know. "Good, Celeste, you are here." Regila said, smiling. "Now we can begin prep."

"Here are your roles on the ship. Pippen, you are the commander, you are leading this mission. Rosalva, you are in charge of the food and weapons. Alysia, you are the master behind steering this ship since you already know how to fly this beauty. Celeste, you are in charge of the rigging."

"What?" I said, "Isn't that all electronic?" I asked, seeing that this was a crazy teleporting ship.

"Your main job. Is to be the lookout. You don't know how many attacks could be made on this ship. Portalships are very hard to get your hands on and people are always trying to steal them." She warned. "That is why you will be up in the crows nest, so if you do fall you can catch yourself with the wind."

My gut twisted, I don't know why, but it did. "Okay." I said, putting on a brave face.

"Good." Regila said, continuing on. "William, you are helping Rosalva with weapons and you are also in charge of the injuries. I know there will be a lot, and there is a room downstairs with all the equipment for anything that may arrive. I know you have been training in that field so I believe you are perfect for the job." Regila pointed out.

"Okay, now Alysia and Pippen both know how to get to Regina's base. You are all prepped on the lay out of her base and a couple of places where she might be holding Xavier.

"Now keep in mind, that the ship makes a very loud thunder clap when it teleports. So make sure you are far enough away so that they don't suspect a thing.

Captain Bos butted in. "And your tablets won't work once you are outside of the borders of the island, there is communications on the ship, but it is only communication with us."

"Cool." William said, crossing his arms.

"Now, your mission should only be a day long, maybe two. If it looks like it is going to take longer than a couple of days then radio us and inform us, so we know not to send a rescue team after you guys." Regila continued on, "Alysia knows where the communications are so she will hook you guys up with those and I think that is it . . . I will radio you with the communications if I remember anything else." Regila rubbed her jaw line with her hand and took a deep breath in and out. "Okay then, I think you guys are good to go!"

Our crew looked at each other weirdly, nervous yet excited. We had no idea how this whole mission was going to pan out. Regila and Captain Bos left the ship and stood on the air docks and waved goodbye at us as we eventually started rising in the air.

As we got higher and higher I heard Pippen say over the speakers, "Okay everybody. Find something to strap yourself in with, this is going to be a tricky portal jump!"

And there we go! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, it's not the most interesting one. But it gets better. Trust me! If you guys have any thoughts please comment! And don't forget to vote, comment, and share! Until next time. 

-Olivia Koepp