Princess Callie

Chapter 15: Back to the Palace

During the helicopter ride back to the palace, my attention was fixated on Sebastian's unconscious body laying on a stretcher. I kept my new roller right next to me the whole time. I could also hear shuffling from the paramedics but I didn't pay them any mind. All I could do was stare at Sebastian and listen to his heart monitor.

One of the paramedics approached me. "Princess. We're going to be landing soon."

"Is he going to be alright?" I asked refusing to look away from Sebastian.

"It's too early to say but don't worry. The palace has the best doctors around. We'll save him." the paramedic tried to reassure me.

Unfortunately her words did little to ease my dread. What if Sebastian didn't make it? I could lose him as well. I've never felt so powerless before. Then the helicopter touched down. I looked out the window to see we had landed on a helipad on the roof of the palace. There were other helipads with helicopters on them. The paramedics grabbed the stretcher Sebastian was laying on and lifted him up. I grabbed my roller as I stood up. I started to follow them but an octotrooper came up to me.

"Princess! Thank goodness you're safe." the messenger said sounding relieved. "Turquoise October is ready for you."

"Thank you. I'll head there after we see the doctors. I don't want to leave him right now." I replied.

The messenger pressed the issue. "Your presence has been requested... immediately." he told me.

I didn't want to leave Sebastian alone but I knew I had other commitments. It was painful choice to make but at least I could visit Sebastian afterwards. "Alright, I'll go see them immediately."

The nodded then followed the paramedics into the palace. I briskly walked to the palace's theatre room. It was a huge room. There were hundreds of empty seats for the audience. On stage was what looked to be at least a thousand steel chairs. There octotroopers with various band instruments all facing a music stand. Behind the music stand was a twintacle octotrooper acting as the conductor. I wasn't sure what I should be more amazed by. The size of Turquoise October as a band or the fact that they managed to fit everyone onto the stage.

"Welcome Princess! We've been expecting you." The conductor grabbed a few sheets of paper. "These are the songs for your concert."

I looked over the musical sheets. There were five songs. "Octo Eight-Step", "The Girl from Inkopolis", "Buoyant Boogie", "Shooting Starfish" and "Octoarmaments"

"When you're ready we'll begin." the conductor said. He grabbed his conductor baton and was ready to start.

Some of the band members were setting up a music stand and a microphone for me. I looked over the songs one more time before placing the songs on the music stand. "I'm ready." I told the conductor as I took my place.

The conductor began waving the baton and we practiced each of the songs in order. The rehearsal went really well. For a bunch of octotroopers with no arms, they played their instruments remarkably well. I ended up being the first to leave. The conductor waved goodbye and made sure to see me out personally before he helped the band clean up. I ran through the halls, trying to find the palace's infirmary. I wanted to see Sebastian as soon as possible. Hopefully he was doing better now that the doctors had some time to treat him.

Once I arrived, I walked to the front counter. "I'm looking for my personal bodyguard Sebastian. He came in today. Where can I find him?" I asked the octoling stationed there.

She pointed to a hallway that had a bunch of doors. "It's the room at the end of the hallway to your left."

I followed her directions and entered Sebastian's room. It was a small room. There was a counter off to the side with various medical supplies and sheets of paper. There was a television built into the wall and on the other side of the room was a large bed where Sebastian was laying. He was still connected to various machines and medical equipment. There was one doctor still in the room writing something on a clipboard he was holding. Sometimes he would glance at Sebastian before writing something down.

"Hello?" I said trying to get the doctor's attention.

The doctor turned to face me. "Hello Princess! I presume you're here to visit the patient right?"

I nodded my head. "How is he?" I asked.

"Your friend took quite the blast. Our surgeon took a look at him earlier. We're going to move him to the morgue real soon." the doctor explained.

I felt my heart sink. "You mean... he's dead? I... I never even got to say goodbye."

"What? No! He's not dead yet. The surgeon just said he's not going to operate on him. If you want to see him, now would be a good time." the doctor went back to whatever he was doing.

"He won't operate? Why?" I looked at Sebastian. As far as I could tell, he didn't look too bad.

"No hope for him." the doctor answered.

I was stunned. They just took one look at him and decided not to even bother. "Can't we at least try to save him?"

"You'll have to speak to the surgeon about that. Unfortunately, he just left for the night." that did little to ease my dread. The doctor seemed to notice my unease. "Don't worry Princess, you'll find he's pretty easy to persuade." the doctor said somewhat sympathetically. He wrote what looked to be one final check mark before putting the clipboard down. "I'll leave you two alone for now." he then walked out the door.

I slowly walked to Sebastian. Sebastian was laying on a blue bed, his eyes still closed. He had a few wires connected to a beeping heart monitor. Aside from that, there weren't any traces of enemy ink on him. For someone in critical condition, he looked pretty healthy. I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe he would get better and everything would go back to normal.

"Sebastian... I don't know if you can hear me. If you can. I just wanted to say. Meeting you was one of the best things to ever happen to me and I..." I trailed off. There was so much I wanted to say. So many unanswered questions. Why did it feel like I already knew him? What does he really think of me? Self doubt started creeping into my head. Was I just some helpless girl who always needed to be rescued? Was I a worthy successor to Octavio? Even if none of these questions got answered. There was one thing I hope Sebastian understood. "I love you." I finished.

I continued to sit next to Sebastian, barely paying attention to the rest of the world. If anything happened, I wanted to be right there with him. Then I heard the door swing open and turned around to see Kevin, his eyes glued to what looked to be his octopus shaped phone.

"So this is where you've gone." he said looking up from his phone.

I quickly ran up to Kevin and hugged him. He seemed surprised at first then decided to embrace me. I cried on his shoulder and started venting to him. "Oh Kevin! It's horrible! The doctors told me Sebastian is dying and the surgeon won't operate on him! They said there's no hope for him and they're not even going to try to help him! He's dying all because I wanted to go to Octopolis without a disguise! It's not fair!" I ranted.

"Sebastian was a soldier. A samurai. He knew the risks involved in protecting you." Kevin explained.

"There has to be some way I could help him. What about the palace's spawn point? If I splat Sebastian he'll just respawn like nothing happened right?" I suggested.

"It might work but the spawn point is out of order right now. I guess nobody told you about that yet." Kevin replied. Then he perked up as if he just remembered something. "You know... I think I saw the surgeon in the palace courtyard on my way over here. If you hurry, you might be able to catch him."

"Thank you." I said to Kevin. I sprinted out the door and towards the courtyard. Once I arrived at, I found myself completely alone. I must've missed him. I looked around hoping to find anyone nearby who may have seen the surgeon. Unfortunately, there wasn't even a single soul here.

Then I heard the sounds of a super jump. I looked around and suddenly found myself surrounded by four navy blue octolings two of them were boys and two of them were girls. Each of them carrying an octobrush. They each wore a black armored crop top and short black pants. On each of their eyes were oversized goggles. The goggles they were wearing were recently phased out in favor of some dark red shades which meant these people weren't from the military. Where could they have gotten this kind of equipment?

"Hello Princess." one of the girls said ominously. She was baring her fangs. "Any last words?