Honor Among Thieves

by BluePhoenyx

CH. 13 Thief and Friendship

Nurses flowed in and out of Sebastian’s room, giving him painkillers or feeding him, making sure he was comfortable. Seb met with a slew of doctors and surgeons that talked to him about his condition and no one was slow to tell him it was nothing short of a miracle he was alive. He was then moved to a more relaxing room that wasn’t washed in white. It was a calming blue color that reminded Seb of the sky in Equestria. The room had a window that let him look out above the treetops and watched birds and squirrels go about their days in peace. By the second week of Seb’s slow recovery, Seb began eating on his own but was still too weak to stay up for long. Every afternoon a nurse came in to check his temperature, which they did an awful lot of, and gave him some more meds before he was tucked in. Other than the nurses and Cornelius dropping by sometimes, Seb was left alone to think. Cornelius wouldn’t tell him anything about what happened to him, other than what the nurses and doctors had told him. He kept trying to tell himself that Equestria was merely a dream but every time he looked at his missing arm, well... tried to, he was painfully reminded that in fact it wasn’t a dream. He really did spend time with brightly colored ponies in a land of magic. He was sort of glad he had to keep it a secret, mainly because he was sure they’d lock him up in a mental ward if he told anyone. For weeks he tried to cope with the loss of his arm but nothing seemed to help. It was a devastating experience for a master thief; His hands were his main tools and with one gone he feared his survival in the world was impossible.

It was a late afternoon when Cornelius came in with a wheelchair to take Seb outside. Seb opposed it at first, but a few orderlies began picking him up. Not willing to be embarrassed as such, Seb forced them off and stumbled into the wheelchair by himself. His legs were weak and wobbly, but the chair was close enough he could fall into it while making it look like he was walking to it. Once in the chair, he turned to Cornelius, who had a large grin on his wrinkly face as he pushed the chair out of the room and down the hall.

“Mind telling me where we’re going old man?” Seb asked weakly. He was already out of breath from his mild exertion.

“We’re going to go see someone.” Cornelius replied. Seb knew he wouldn’t get an answer so he ignored him.

They made it outside and Seb was sure they were going to get trampled as a swarm of cameras and microphones rushed them. The flashing lights of the cameras made Seb’s eyes water as he tried to shield himself from them. The noise of people trying to ask him questions nearly drowned out Cornelius’s voice as the old man tried to get Seb to turn away. Of all the fights, blood, and war he’d been exposed to, nothing terrified him more than the scene before him. He wasn’t sure what to do or say about the people wanting so badly for him to simply say a word. Cornelius moved Seb to a limo and helped him inside before the reporters could chase him down. Seb threw himself against the opposite seat and panted as Cornelius leapt in, fairly nimbly for a man his age, and shut the door before anyone could get in with them. The limo sped off and Cornelius caught his breath, his exertion being much higher than Seb’s was.

“What is this blasted world coming to? You know in my day they would have had more respect, especially for the injured. Now these photo hungry ingrates chase you to your own car, and they have the gall to say you’re the bad person for not talking to them.” Cornelius complained with a gruff.

Seb lifted himself up in the seat and winced in pain. Cornelius tried handing him a soda but Seb declined. He hated this feeling of being weak and dependent. The whole thing made him sick to the very core of his being. He remembered the days he could out run every cop in the city and leap over fences that dogs could only dream of doing. Now he could barely get into a luxury car without having to stop and catch his breath.

“You can lay down if you’d like.” Cornelius said, seeing that Seb was in a great deal of pain and struggling.

“No... I’m fine.” He said, coughing as his lungs burned. He could feel an attack coming on. They always came at the worst possible times.

Seb looked out the window as the limo drove along. He was glad the tinted windows prevented anyone from seeing inside but as they went down a street, Seb wished he couldn’t see out. The houses that lined the quiet neighborhood began looking all too familiar to him. It was then that they slowly passed by Trisha’s old house. The limo didn’t stop and then turned the corner.

“Why did you take me down here?” Seb asked bitterly.

“Sorry, I didn’t know he’d take this route.” Cornelius replied without hesitance.

“Where are we going anyway?” Seb asked again, trying to quickly change the subject

“You’ll see, don’t worry about it.” Cornelius’ answer didn’t soothe Seb’s curiosity in the least.

One of the convenient things about about living in a big city is that things are almost always close by, so Seb didn’t have to wait long. He recognized the lab immediately. The limo stopped in front of the laboratory and the driver came around to help Seb and Cornelius out. Cornelius managed to get out on his own but of course Seb couldn’t move very well, he had to be eased out and on to a different wheelchair the driver had gotten from the back of the car. They wheeled him into the relatively deserted lab grounds and into the building. They passed the room where Seb had been captured by Nathan and he shuddered. They then passed the room with the machines that had taken Seb to Equestria. Inside, men were working on the machines and Seb looked back at Cornelius.

“When you came back the machines were broken. We can’t figure out how to repair them.” Cornelius explained.

They went to a room at the very back of the lab. Cornelius opened the door to reveal a room with a long couch and empty cages. The smell of multiple animals hit Seb like a brick to the face but he got use to it quickly enough. It was then he saw the soft pink and yellow form of a pegasus trotting around after a bird that was happily flapping around. Seb’s body felt like his very soul was melting as a smooth warmth built up in his core and spread. Fluttershy hadn’t noticed him yet so he stood up slowly. He tried to get use to standing, considering he’d only done it a few times in the path month and a half, then slowly began walking towards her. Fluttershy froze and turned slowly to see Seb using a nearby wall to walk himself toward her. He stopped and smiled weakly to her. Fluttershy started galloping at near full speed towards him and about half way through, spread her wings and flew up to dive into his embrace. Seb’s options were slim; let go of the wall and catch Fluttershy and fall on his ass or keep a hold of the wall and let Fluttershy miss him. He chose the former. Fluttershy hadn’t expected both of them falling to the ground and squeaked as she felt Seb’s body thud against the tiled floor.

“Oh, Seb, I’m sorry.” She whimpered as she quickly got off of him. Seb tried to hide the pain on his face and simply grabbed her and brought her back down on top of him, hugging her with his arm tightly.

“I missed you. I missed you more than you could ever believe.” He whispered quietly, just loud enough for her to hear. He finally let his tears come out in full force.

“I missed you too.” Fluttershy replied and buried her face into the point where his left arm and chest met.

The feelings Seb was feeling were so strange to him. He was so happy, happiest he’d felt in years and it scared him but at the same time he loved it dearly. He relaxed and let his guard down. It felt like tons had been lifted off of his body leaving him emotionally naked to everything around. The last time he felt that way was when his hands held Trisha’s slender and naked body on top of his, her soft lips pressed against his. If he concentrated, he could still feel his fingers running through her golden hair and her sporadic breaths on his neck. When he returned to his sense, Fluttershy was sitting up and smiling. Her smile wavered when she looked down at where Seb’s arm should have been. Seb sat up slowly and smiled awkwardly.

“It was infected I guess. probably from being broken so many times.” Seb tried to explain. Fluttershy seemed close to tears. He lifted his hand and ran his palm across her forward, flicking her lock of hair out of the way. “Hey, I’m alive alright? Don’t worry about me.”

Fluttershy squeaked softly and nodded to him. Cornelius took that moment to walk over and try to helping Seb stand up, but he could barely bend over himself. Fluttershy did what she could and Seb managed to somehow will himself to his feet, flopping into the wheelchair. He caught his breath and sighed. Fluttershy put her hoof on his leg as the door behind them opened. She squeaked and backed away as a man walked in. Seb turned his head and saw David, dressed in a three-piece black suit instead of the grungy blood soaked armor.

“Good to see you again, Sebastian.” David said, giving a nod to Fluttershy. Cornelius turned Seb around to face him.

“You again.” Seb said, almost a little shocked. David pulled out a badge and showed it to Seb.

“David Carraway, CIA. “ He put the badge back into his pocket. “You seem to be healing pretty well.”

“CIA?” Seb asked in disbelief. He rested his hand on his stomach where the stitches from the spear wound were starting to rip. The moving around and Fluttershy tackling him not only exhausted him but his wound was starting to re-open.

“Yes, you see I was ordered to go undercover and watch Nathan’s movements. Unfortunately, the CIA wasn’t expecting an.... undertaking, such as this. You did, however, assist us very well and the CIA would like to thank you for that.” David replied.

“Assist?” Seb asked, trying to stand up. “I ‘assisted’ you?! How the fuck did I assist you? I got tortured, stabbed, my arm was amputated and I killed a man, is that what you mean by assisting you?!”

David steeled his courage and stood his ground through the broken man’s words.

“To be completely honest, we didn’t really know you’d be there, and we are deeply sorry for your losses.” David replied, trying to find whatever words he could use to calm Seb down.

Seb began coughing harshly and blood began staining the light blue hospital scubs he’d been wearing, his wound opened up at the same time. He sat back down and coughed into his hand, but without another to contain his blood it simply spilled out onto his shirt. Fluttershy rushed over to him and tried to rub his chest, like she had done before to ease his pain, but once her hoof touched his blood she shuddered and pulled away. When Seb finally calmed down he gasped and swallowed, shivering as he swallowed his own blood. He looked down to see Fluttershy’s hoof covered in his blood. He took her hoof into his hand and wiped the blood away with whatever patch of his clothes were unstained, then let it go.

“Don’t ever let these hooves be stained in blood again. It doesn’t suit a gentle soul like you.” Seb said, wincing again.

“Come on Sebastian let’s get you back to the hospital.” Cornelius said.

“I want to stay here with Fluttershy...” Seb said weakly.

“I know, we’ll come back another time, she won’t be going anywhere for awhile.” Cornelius said. Fluttershy smiled and Seb noticed her stitchings for the first time. It would leave a permanent scar on her soft yellow coat. He frowned.

“Go ahead, Seb, you need you get some rest. I can’t go home until I’m fully healed anyway, and the machines are broken so even if I was better I can’t go home.” Fluttershy said softly. She had been told everything by Cornelius and had agreed to stay out of sight of other humans until they could get her home.

Seb agreed, though he had little choice. David and Cornelius took him back to the hospital, all the while David explained his story.

“My brothers and I were high ranking military officers a few years ago. We use to be in interrogations-”

“I can see that.” Seb interrupted. David cleared his throat.

“Anyway, my brother Hank snapped from seeing all the blood and destruction around him all the time and he started torturing our prisoners with the help from my other brother Chris. I never played a true role in it but I knew my brothers would kill me if I didn’t. We were finally found out and arrested. While my brothers escaped I felt content in serving my sentence as a repent for what i’d done. That was when the CIA made a deal with me; help me put my brothers behind bars, and they would lift my sentence. I did and they wound up making me an agent. I don’t know why or how, I wouldn’t have done it, but they never gave me a reason why. I don’t know how Nathan got a hold of them but when the CIA found out they were up to something, they sent me in. Thankfully, my brothers never put it together I was the one who brought them down again. I was ordered to take Nathan in alive, but thanks to you that didn’t happen.” David concluded his story as they reached the hospital’s driveway.

Seb didn’t say a word as he was taken to a doctor, given some medicine, and put to bed without a word of protest from him. Nightmares plagued him of the times he was tortured, sometimes he was replaced with Fluttershy or even Trisha and all the while David simply hung back and watch. He begged for help but he would never come and every night he woke up in the same manner; sweating and gasping for breath, calling Trisha’s name into the darkness that surrounded him in the empty room.

It was another week before Seb started walking short distances on his own. It was then that Cornelius decided to take him to see Fluttershy again, feeling he was well enough to go out. They managed to avoid the remaining crowd of reporters and jumped into the limo once more. It was around that time that Seb finally bought up his questions.

“Why do they want to talk to me?” He asked, resting against the seat.

“All in good time my old son, all in good time.” Cornelius replied simply.

“Why won’t you tell me?” Seb asked. Normally he would have crossed his arms to show his impatience but his actions made him look like a mental patient hugging himself.

“Don’t fret about it now, I want to take you somewhere else today too so don’t over exert yourself.” Cornelius replied with a coy smile that only reassured Seb’s suspicions he was insane. The old man then rummaged through the pockets of his overcoat before pulling out a bottle of small pills. “Here, it isn’t a cure, but it’ll help.”

Seb could see the pain in the old man’s eyes and tried to figure out why Cornelius seemed to be begging him to take the medicine. DId he know about his disease? Didn’t Nathan say something about him and his connection to it? He couldn’t remember. He simply nodded and took the medicine.

Seb reunited with Fluttershy, who had gotten her stitches removed and now running and playing about the laboratory. Seb was surprised to learn that they had given her a television to watch. She mostly watched animal shows or things that told her about humans but she was still fascinated by it. Seb was quite interested too since the last time he saw a t.v. he was watching a presidential election and he didn’t care much for that either. They were watching some type of drama that Fluttershy didn’t know the name of when Seb rested his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes. Fluttershy stiffened, which didn’t seem to bother Seb, and squeaked a bit.

“Thank you, Fluttershy.” Seb whispered.

“What for?” She asked, looked down at him.

“For reminding me what it’s like to have a friend.” Seb replied as he slowly sunk into a light sleep.

“I’ll always be your friend,Seb.” Fluttershy whispered back with a gentle smile.

Comments

[Wenck Steiner]

Just.......Perfect

[Metalhead623]

Dat chapter ending...
Fantastic chapter my good friend!

[djElectrOctavia]

Cornelius is Seb's dad or grandfather. NAILED IT.