“It’s hard to enjoy the view, isn’t it?” Svanda sighed as she gazed out over the clear blue water that stretched towards the horizon. From her vantage point on the balcony of the house that they were occupying she could see hundreds of islands that dotted the ocean’s surface, many of them surrounded by white rings of sand while others were a stark contrast of imposing grey rock. She didn’t know which it would be yet, but one of the islands out there would be their eventual destination. For now, however, they had a bigger issue at hand.

“A little,” Trim agreed as she looked back through the window to the interior of living room. It was a small square space with varnished wooden walls and a thick thatched roof which felt appropriate for the warm and breezy coastal climate. The open kitchen and sitting area were segregated by a pair of timber columns that supported the structure, while two large ceiling-mounted fans rotated lazily overhead. The wooden floor, although well-worn, was also covered with a variety of mismatched rugs, but none of these features were the subject of Trim’s interest. What she was concerned about was the small group of people that were huddled around the old sofa which sat in the centre of the sitting area, and in particular, Nina who lay upon it.

“What do you think?”

“All we can do is wait to see what they say,” Trim replied as she looked away from the scene behind the glass and instead focused on her own reflection. The bags under her eyes seemed to be getting bigger by the day, while her usually neat ponytail had also turned into a disheveled mess. She knew that she looked terrible, but then again so did the majority of the team right now. At least the smell of the ocean was somewhat stimulating, although she had already dozed off twice before in the small hammock which hung in the corner.

She watched as Reina spoke quietly to one of the two doctors that were currently in the room, trying to glean any information she could from their expressions. The general atmosphere among the group was somber, but at least she hadn’t seen him shake his head with an apologetic frown yet.

“Say, do you think it’s cowardly to wait out here?” she asked Svanda before turning back to face the ocean which lay at the bottom of the mountain far below. She could hear gulls squawking in the distance which mingled with the general noises of day to day life from the houses around her, but despite the peaceful atmosphere around them she still felt isolated as though they were living in a bubble.

“I think it’s smart,” Svanda replied as she sunk further into the outdoor sofa that she sat back on while propping her feet up on the small table. “There’s nothing we can do for her right now, so just give the doctors some space. If there’s something that we can help with, Reina will let us know.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any less guilty,” Trim sighed. “She’s new and it was her first time on the plate. We were supposed to guide her, protect her. We failed.”

“It’s not your fa-”

“It is our fault. Just by looking at her you can see that she’s been through something that we probably can’t even begin to imagine. Don’t you think that there’s a chance that she might hate us for that? That we weren’t there when she needed us?”

“It was just unlucky,” Svanda finally said after a brief pause, although she didn’t answer the question. “Rucille fooled all of us, Reina included. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

“Unlucky?” Trim asked with a wavering voice. “This isn’t a once off. Reina also sent her to KF-14 and look at how that turned out. This trip was about protecting her from the fact that her mugshot was posted up around a few thousand different towers in Luem, for her to de-stress so that she could forget about what happened. Instead the three of us got too tied up in the business side of things and now this is the result.”

Trim took a breath and was about to continue until a light knock on the window stopped her. Turning her head, she saw that Aline stood on the other side of the glass with a serious expression on her face, and the two words that she mouthed to both her and Svanda were easy to lip read.

Shut up.

Reina, who was in the background, had also looked up. Her usual smile was obviously absent, but her face right now was still a mask which Trim couldn’t see through. Maybe her words to Svanda had struck a chord with everyone inside, or maybe they just didn’t want what had happened to be the catalyst for an even greater fallout. Nina’s condition was putting pressure on them all right now, and as a group they weren’t familiar with how to manage it. It was true that many of them had experienced loss before, and most of them had been through dark times at one stage or another too, but juggling the group’s feelings as a whole instead of managing them as isolated cases was difficult.

Usually there was at least one person who could be positive, someone who hadn’t been involved in whatever had happened and as a result they could put out a much needed hand for support. This time, however, there were all in the same boat together and unless Nina’s condition improved significantly, Trim didn’t think that there would be anything that could pull them out of their current mood besides time.

Reina’s attention turned back to the doctor as he spoke a few more hushed words before beginning to pack up his suitcase. The second doctor who had been leaning over Nina also began to pack up while speaking a few words to Jade about what Trim assumed was her heavily bandaged shoulder. Typical of doctors, they packed up quickly and efficiently, and after only a minute Reina was already leading them to the door which would take them out to the street behind the house. When Reina finally opened the front door for them, Trim also opened the door between the balcony and the living area and stepped inside with Svanda close behind her.

“So?” she asked Jade and Aline who both sat on the couch. As it was a large L-shaped setting, Nina had room to lie on one side while they could sit on the other. Trim had asked the question with the intent to read Aline’s expression like how she had tried to read Reina’s, but unfortunately, she had just as much luck as she did before.

“Wait,” was all Aline had to say before closing her eyes. Jade’s head was on her shoulder, and together the two of them looked as though they were at least doing slightly better than Trim was. Aline was still relatively neat in the dress that she had initially worn down to Zaffre’s Moat, while Jade had changed into a small pair of blue shorts and an oversized white singlet. Brown bandages were wrapped all the way from her shoulder up to her neck, and currently she was breathing lightly with a peaceful expression on her face.

Saela, as usual, was doing her own thing, although her own thing right now was probably sleeping in one of the bedrooms downstairs. While her frosty attitude had returned once Nina had been rescued, it was clear to the rest of the group that the series of events had taken a toll on her despite her best efforts to hide it. As a result, Reina had left her to do her own thing within the house over the last two days since they had arrived and they hadn't seen much of her since. To avoid Ormain finding them they had even left their usual safehouse vacant and had instead rented this house which was on a different mountain. Between sorting that out and this morning they had been frantically searching for a doctor that would visit them, and it was by chance that they had eventually succeeded.

“It’s viral,” Reina said without waiting for Trim to ask the question as she reappeared. "Highly likely that it’s synthetic. Unfortunately there isn’t a whole lot we can do besides keep her comfortable and hope she can fight it off.”

“You’re saying that we just have to sit here and hope she doesn’t die?” Trim asked incredulously. “They’re not even going to try something?”

“The doctors said that trying something might jeopardize the situation,” Reina replied bluntly, although it was obvious that she wasn’t happy with the verdict that the doctors had given her either. “All we can do is make sure that she is comfortable, fed, and hydrated to the best of our abilities so that she can focus on fighting whatever is going on in there right now.”

The group was silent as they all looked down at Nina who was drawing shallow breaths on the sofa. She didn’t look to be in pain like before which was a good thing, and the doctor had also drawn a small series of dots around the sickly-yellow splotch on her chest. Apparently if the mark started to shrink it would be a good sign that she was winning the battle.

“I know it sounds a little dark,” Reina continued. “But the doctors said that because she hasn’t died already… her chances of surviving are promising.”

Trim breathed a sigh of relief, although she didn’t know if she should really be doing so just yet. Any good news, however, was something that she would gladly take right now. She had noted that there was a big difference between simply surviving and making a full recovery, but that wasn’t something that she was willing to dwell on right now.

“Duties then,” Reina said with a light clap of her hands as she looked around the room to everyone present. “Aline and Trim, you’re on the shopping. Don’t stray any further away from the house than you need to and come back as soon as you’re done. Dress appropriately while you’re out of the house and try not to attract any attention.”

Aline looked down at the dress that she wore with a wry smile before nodding in Reina’s direction.

“Svanda, you’re on meals.”

“Really?” Svanda frowned before chuckling. “I’ll try to make something edible.”

“All three of you are on Nina duty too,” Reina added. “Take her down to the empty bedroom and make sure she gets plenty to eat and drink. You can feed her with the equipment that the doctors left behind. I don’t care how you split up the workload, but I want at least one person with her around the clock, so make it happen.”

“What about me?” Jade asked.

“Your duty, like Saela’s, is to rest,” Reina replied as she folded her arms. “You’ve earned it, so follow the instructions from the doctor and wait for your shoulder to heal.”

“That will heal?” Trim asked with a raised eyebrow. “Didn’t you have like… a trench dug out from your shoulder?”

Jade scowled at Trim as her eyes narrowed. “It was shallow, alright? I just need to keep applying whatever ointment this is from the doctor apparently and it will heal over, although it will probably leave a scar. Stuff stings like hell though.”

“Consider yourself lucky,” Reina said as she glanced at the bandages over Jade’s shoulder once more before turning to face Trim and Svanda. “Alright, get Nina downstairs and comfortable, it’s time to wait this out and hope that she regains consciousness before Ormain and his friends come knocking on the door.”