"The first thing on the itinerary…!" Manny raised his finger and looked around at the group. "What's our team na gonna be?" The group looked at one another.
"What should our na be?" They all whispered amongst each other.
"We were called Zephyr." Ritsuka brought up. "You don't wanna stick with that?"
"Eh, they just gave us that na so they could call us by that na." Liz shrugged.
"Do you want to be called that? I an, Lee Seng did…" Olivia trailed off. They all looked at Lee Seng. He was curious as to what they were talking about.
"What about ? Why would I have a problem with that na?" Lee Seng asked. "I don't rember what happened in the caverns but it doesn't an that na is gonna trigger so trauma I'm not aware of."
"You never know." Evan awkwardly spoke up. "Trauma does have a way of…"
"Creeping up on you when you least expect it." Liz finished. Liz, Manny, Ritsuka and Evan had rembered all of it. Lee Seng had gotten into trouble and Manny had made all of the calls.
'If only I hadn't done that, he'd be fine.' Manny thought. Liz cleared her throat and drew everyone's attention.
"I know we're trying to keep quiet about this but I think we need to talk about it at so point." Liz truthfully told them. "We were all impacted sohow. Lee Seng, he… He doesn't rember and we… We have to sohow get over this cause we'll be working together for the next two years, right?"
Liz looked at each person. She knew the others didn't want to talk about November but they had no choice to face it. Each of them were out into therapy sessions designed for this suffering from traumas and incidents that happened while on mission. She knew they all went to them once a week and they all went on different days.
"I know that, if anyone, Lee Seng should have the right to know and say this, but it affected all of us." Liz sighed. "A team na is sothing that pulls us together. It's sothing that binds our emotions to at tis. If we want to pick a na that will tell everyone 'hey, it's them,' we need to let November stay in November."
The room was quiet for a while. Lee Seng and Evan sat looking at their feet and hands. Lee Seng twirled his thumbs together as he pieced, yet another piece, of the puzzle together.
'I wasn't the only one to suffer that day. The whole group did.' Lee Seng thought.
"What's there to talk about?" Evan asked. He didn't look up. There was a sense of sha he held. Lee Seng could feel it. "We couldn't do much. We did what we could and even then, we got another chance, still fucked it up and was sent ho. What else do we need to talk about?"
Manny squeezed fists, bunching the small amount of blue jeans he could grab. To Lee Seng, he seed fine until Evan started to talk. Ritsuka, on the other hand, seed upset when Liz brought it up. Olivia was probably the only one who kept her composure. She didn't look at anyone in particular, but she was staring at Lee Seng and Evan's direction.
The silence was bitter. It was setting a reality Manny didn't want to face. Ritsuka turned away as Olivia casually glanced towards Manny and then to Ritsuka.
"I don't rember anything down there." Lee Seng began. The tension seed to pop and the group turned to look at Lee Seng. He was oddly smiling. "I don't know what you guys went through. I don't rember what I felt like, but you guys always avoid the topic when soone brings it up at school. Was it that bad? Did I make a mistake?"
"What? No!" Ritsuka and Manny both said in unison.
"You didn't make a mistake." Manny repeated. "If anything," he stood up. "I made too many mistakes. I let my personal feelings get I'm the way and wanted to save you but when I…" Manny froze. The mories were creeping into his head. "I… I…"
"We heard soone found you." Olivia took over. She lingered on Manny for a little longer before moving her eyes to Lee Seng. "We all heard it. We went down three floors and saw these injured people. They told us they saw you unconscious… Manny snapped and freaked out. Mr. Chan-Yeol had to take us back up because he feared if another one of us snapped, it wouldn't be good."
Lee Seng imdiately looked at Manny. He hung his head down low as he stood there with his fists balled. Manny could feel the eyes on him. His guilt was eating at him.
'If only I held myself together… We could've saved him!' Manny thought. He began to turn when Lee Seng stood up and grabbed his wrist.
"Manny." Lee Seng's voice quietly pierced through his thoughts. "Don't best yourself up over this. I know how much you care for , I do. We're just high schoolers. This type of thing would never happen to normal teenagers. I understand and it's not your fault."
"It is my fault." Manny yanked his wrist away. Lee Seng grew sad. The hurt on his childhood friend made him want to take everything back. He was trying to comfort him but felt like he stepped on a landmine he wasn't ready for.
"I should've just listened to Evan and the others. I shouldn't have gone out of my way to do such a selfish thing." Manny turned his head to speak at Lee Seng. His eyes didn't dare look at Lee Seng. "If I listened, they could've gotten to you faster and save you from all of those horrible things that happened."
Manny covered his mouth after a small delay. He realized what he said and his eyes grew wide.
'Shit.' Liz thought. Liz started to stand when Ritsuka moved over and pushed Manny away.
"You weren't supposed to say anything!" Ritsuka shouted. He shoved Manny into the floor and got on top of him and started to pick him.
"Hey! Stop it!" Olivia shouted. Lee Seng stood there as Liz, Olivia and Evan got up and ran at the two.
"Ritsuka, stop it!" Liz shouted as her and Olivia tried to pull him off.
"Enough! It isn't his fault that Lee Seng got hurt! You know that!" Evan yanked Ritsuka off. Lee Seng stumbled backwards as Evan quickly pulled Manny away.
"You fucking know it's your fault! If we had made the right decision, he wouldn't have gone through all those surgeries!" Ritsuka shouted.
"Ritsuka! Enough!" Olivia grabbed him and held him as he tried to break free. Olivia's power froze him as he shouted in Japanese at Manny. "If anyone's to bla for this, it's you! You're the one who made him scout ahead! You're the one who put him in that spot!"
"You bastard! You wanted to save him too!" Manny managed to leap from hsj spot and swing at Ritsuka. Screams erupted from the others as Lee Seng fell onto the couch.
'W-what do they–' His mind flashed. He rembered scouting ahead as the Techs trailed behind with the group. He could hear nothing the whole ti. He groaned as he clutched his head. His ears… his ears weren't where his ears should be.
He saw a glimpse of white behind him.
'Is that.. a tail?' He groaned as the noise cut off. The odd mories shifted. He was lit up in Gold energy as he stared at a large woman. She had identical marks going vertically from her forehead through her eye and down towards her cheeks.
'No, please…' He begged. 'Not again.' He could feel sothing trying to break out. He gasped as he tried to push himself up.
"If I'm to bla then maybe you should understand who agreed with !" Manny's voice cracked through Lee Seng's thoughts. "You wanted that just as much as , Yamada? Don't fucking bla for it! We all wanted it!"
"Enough!" Olivia shouted. She swung a punch straight for Manny's face and froze him. "This is why we need to talk about it!" She huffed. She looked at Ritsuka and Manny before looking at Liz and Evan. "We can't even talk about this because we continue to bla each other for the incident. That's why we have to go to therapy separately! How are we ever gonna be a team if we go at each other like this?!?"
Lee Seng gasped and Evan turned to look. He watched as Lee Seng clutched his head and shook nhs head.
"Lee!" Evan shot up from his spot and over to Lee Seng. "What's wrong?"
"Argh…" Lee Seng cried. "It hurts… it hurts… it hurts… Please don't co–" Evan watched as Lee Seng's eyes flickered itsnusual brown color to a red and blue color and then straight to a purple for a second before his eyes rolled and he dropped.
"Lee!" Evan shouted.
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