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Emerald woke up to the sound of gunfire, panic immediately setting in as her eyes shot open and her breathing accelerated nearly to hyperventilation. Unlike the rest of her team instead of a pair of human ears she had a pair of cat ears, which served to make the gunfire all the louder. 

As the gunfire ceased and Emerald slowly began to remember where she was and what had happened she calmed down before passing out once again, far too weak to stay conscious...

-----

 When Emerald cracked her eyes open again, she didn't feel the sensation of motion from the skyranger, the roaring of it's engines, the chatter of its personnel, or gunfire. It was wonderfully quiet, and as her vision cleared up she could see that she was looking at was a room that was clearly part of a hospital...or more specifically the medical wing of Beacon. She was home. 

She sighed, more relief flowing through her body than she thought possible. As she thought back to the mission, memories flashed in her mind. She flinched visibly as she remembered when that monster had stabbed through her. She bit her lip, trying not to think about it. 

To distract herself she looked herself over, she was in bed as suspected, IVs hooked up to her right arm. Her arms and torso were bandaged up, especially her left side where she'd been basically run through. A memory flashed again...almost as if she was back there again for a moment...she wished that would stop. 

She let out a whimper as she tried to move a bit, it hurt really bad so she decided not to do that again. Her eyes welled up as she thought back on the mission. She knew the life of a huntress wasn't gonna be easy, but that had totally and completely fucking [i]sucked[/i]. She'd never dreamed that her first mission would have nearly costed her life...or worse becoming one of...those things...

Emerald felt tears falling down her face...those things had once been people...hunters and huntresses like her...and they had been tortured and turned into monsters against their will...and it could have happened to her...it almost [i]did[/i] happen to her. Their poison had been in her veins. She'd seen how terrified Esther had looked, and if someone like Esther was that [i]terrified[/i] of them, then how could she not be?