• Pain awoke Celica to a dark and windy night. She held in a moan and clutched at her left thigh, the back of which throbbed heavily with her heartbeat. She rolled over, now letting out a gasp, letting the needles in her thigh p***k her voice, making it high pitched and shaky. She was having trouble breathing, and the pain in her leg wasn't lessening.

    Another gasp of pain awoke Peter, who rolled over and blinked. "Celica? What's wrong?"

    "I don't know, my leg just hurts," She made out through clenched teeth.

    "What?" Peter asked, who hadn't heard her over the howling wind. "What did you say?"

    "My leg hurts!" She raised her voice a little, and it cracked.

    "Oh, crap," He said, sounding panicked. "It must be the syringe! They poisoned you!" His voice was barely audible over the gusts that scattered the remaining embers from the fire and the loud buzzing noise in Celica's ears. "We need to get you to town!"

    Leaving the bag and all of their supplies where they were, he scooped her up in his arms with effortless ease, to Celica's surprise. She made another sharp intake of breath, which sounded like a scream. Her hair whipped around her face and she began to feel very cold.

    "I can see lights up ahead!" Peter said into her ear, an effort which barely succeeded through the weather conditions. The buzzing in her ears was getting louder and louder, and she screwed up her eyes and covered her ears, her leg still throbbing terribly.

    "We're almost there," Peter said comfortingly, picking up speed. Sure enough, his footsteps no longer sounded crunchy, as though on dirt and gravel, but rather sharp and quick, like cement. "I know where the doctor is, but I need to get a ride, it's on the other side of the city!"

    He was talking mostly to himself now, as Celica was becoming more and more hysteric with each passing moment. Celica had her eyes squinted shut the whole time, and everything she heard and felt just seemed like a blur. There seemed to be a train ride at some point, people murmuring, doors opening, and more people talking.

    Her back was arching with the pain that was now spreading up her leg and was now reached her hip. Then Peter's arms gave way to something much softer, and then there was sudden, glorious relief.

    "It's incredible. You may have saved her life." A voice that Celica didn't recognize said from her left. "That was very strong poison. She's a lucky girl. A moment later and we would have had to operate. How did she get so much poison in her, anyway?"

    "I'm not sure. We knew there was a small amount, and we were on our way here in the first place, but it just got worse suddenly." Peter's voice sounded incredibly tired. Why doesn't he rest? Celica thought. He can just rest, like I am.

    It seemed like he did just that, because whoever was on her left walked away slowly, and Peter made no more noise. Why did every single thing that happened end with Celica's consciousness fading? She admitted that this was probably the most welcome of all the occurrences, but still inconvenient.

    Her thoughts became a bit clearer as she pondered. She wondered why she had become a Jumper and not someone else. What made her more deserving than someone else? More importantly, why was she the victim of so many attacks and misfortunes? With a sharp pang of homesickness, she wished she was in her own bed, in her own house, sleeping soundly. She would wake up, her father would make bacon and eggs, and they would go to the park and play soccer, like they both loved to do.

    But she knew that could not be a reality, at least not just yet. She promised herself that she would see her dad one more time, after all of this was over, after Amos was safe, and he and Peter were reunited. She would say her goodbyes, and go back to her normal life, forget about all this. She also realized sadly that this couldn't happen either. She could never forget what had happened since she had landed herself in Terra.

    Not only had this been an incredible weight on her shoulders, but she had been a terrible nuisance to Peter and Amos as well. If she hadn't showed up, Amos wouldn't have needed to go to Michael's house in the first place, and he wouldn't have been abducted by the POCC. Peter wouldn't have to go on this long journey, having to worry about her, as well as himself.

    She promised herself there and then that she would somehow make it up to them. She would, to the best of her power, help them until they thought she had repaid them. But not then. She was much too tired then. She would get to it eventually.

    Once again, thinking about all of the events that had led up to where she was right now, Celica fell asleep. Voluntarily or not, she didn't know.