016

My eyelids feel heavy as a distant, constant beep lurches me to consciousness. I blink rapidly, harsh light flooding my vision and the constriction of my pupils sends a shock wave to my head.

Everything hurts. A prominent, sharply present ache clouds my entire being, immediately demanding my complete attention. My arms feel almost detached from my body, and I struggle to move my fingers as I try to regain control of my limbs. For a few moments, I just lay with my eyes to the ceiling as I try and focus on not blacking out before something else draws my concentration.

I’m absolutely parched.

I search the room for something to drink when the realization hits me of what happened. As if with my the sudden awareness, the wounds in my shoulder burn with fresh pain.

The numbing smell of antiseptic fills my nose and my breath starts to come in short bursts as panic starts to set in.

I’m in the hospital, I confirm to myself.

The place that’s caused my friends to suffer through so much and my stomach rolls in guilt when I see Ken sleeping in the chair across from my bed, head in his hands, hair unkempt.

I fail to find my own voice as I desperately try to croak his name. I reach for the glass of water on the bedside table with shaky fingers and end up knocking it to the floor. At the sound of crashing glass, he jolts awake with a sharp breath and his eyes scan the room quickly.

“I’m sorry for waking you up,” is all I can manage to wheeze.

His eyes find me and he’s on his feet in an instant.

“You’re awake,” he gasps against my forehead. An urgent hand on my jaw and he tilts back my head with a kiss that has me struggling to draw oxygen out of the tubes looped around my nose. His lips linger on my skin with his close proximity as he pulls away, caressing my bottom lip with his thumb.

“How long was I out?” I ask, dreading the answer with my whole being. Ken’s eyes flash to meet mine and his lips form a tight line, pain etched into his features. I squeeze his hand to let him know it’s alright to tell me.

“Three...three days.”

A cold shiver dances over my spine and I nearly fall back against the pillows, the room seeming to spin around me and I keep my vision centered on Ken to ground me.

Three days. Three of my precious days left with him snatched up just like that.

“You weren’t moving at all. I thought...I-I thought..” he chokes out with a stutter.

“I’m sorry I broke my promise.”

Ken’s brows crease together at my words, his eyes searching my face.

“What do you mean?”

My mind flashes to Ravi lying unconscious, broken and battered, and the vow I had made to Ken after he had broken down in front of me.

“Promise me you’ll stay safe. I can’t stand to see another person I care about get hurt. I can’t lose you too.”

“I promise. I’m not going anywhere.”

Recognition suddenly floods his face. His features relax and I’m suddenly pushed into his chest as his arms envelop me.

“I’m sorry. It was my idea to go get you, I was being selfish.” I whimper into the fabric of his jacket. The constant pounding in my temples feels like my head will split open at any second.

“I don’t know what was going on in my head, that we could r-run away..o-or something. I wasn’t thinking of the others, of the consequences at all.” Ken’s arms tighten around me and I can feel him trembling.

“Losing Ravi, losing Leo or Rebecca..I wasn’t..I wasn’t ing thinking,”

“Sweetheart, that doesn’t matter right now,” he breathes, “what matters is that you’re safe.”

“But it does matter, Ken. I almost went through with it, and that means Leo and R-Ravi would have been d..deactivated, including thousands of other innocent Augments.”

I curl away from him, digging the heels of my palms into my eyes as hot tears slip between my fingers.

“I’m scaring myself.”

“Mari,”

He shifts on the hospital bed, gently pulling away my hands from my face and takes them into his lap, resting his forehead against my own.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. If I hadn’t volunteered for this without knowing what I was getting into in the first place, you wouldn’t be here.”

Ken wiggles our entwined fingers, emphasizing the IV tubes embedded into the skin on the backs of my hands. He shakes his head with a weak laugh.

“But in the end, this is my way of repaying Ravi for everything he’s done for me, if you think about it,”

He raises one of my pale hands to his lips and kisses my knuckles.

“After all, he’s the one that gave you to me,”

My fingers start to tremble, my breath short and shallow. He kisses me again on the forehead, threading a hand into my hair with soft whispers. His actions have me relaxed in a matter of seconds and I can’t help but droop into his chest as my exhaustion returns.

“You should rest.” he murmurs, his voice resonating throughout my body. I hum in response and he helps me onto my back and I let out a hiss of pain, soon coaxed away with gentle touches.  

“Where are you going?” I croak, hating how weak my voice sounds. Ken pauses in the doorway, his body turned towards me.

“More tests,”

The simplicity of his statement is so eerie, it makes me wonder how he’s been able to stay so collected. But with me being knocked out for seventy two hours, the Revive Effect is only a few days away.

I twist the bedsheets between my fingers, moisture stinging my eyes and I don’t move to brush them away.

I’m so enraged at my own actions, my utter stupidity for letting my unruly anger get the best of me. For pushing away Rebecca and Hyuk when they had tried to stop me. For barging into the sector with such selfish intentions that could have resulted in the destruction of countless Augments, including the two that were my best friends. For getting myself shot and causing even more pain to those around me, I can just imagine the state Rebecca is in.

For wasting valuable time lying unconscious in this stupid hospital.

“I’ll be back by the time you wake up,” he whispers into my hair.

“That better be in ten ing minutes,”

Ken laughs. It’s a genuine laugh, one that’s so refreshing to hear that I can’t help but smile myself.

“Rest.” he presses gently with a squeeze of my arm. I nod and his lips brush my cheek before he leaves the room.

I lay there for several minutes, the pain too excruciating for sleep and I eventually slam my fist down on the call button. A nurse enters with quick strides, the corners of turned up into a kind smile.

“Yes, miss?”

“Morphine,” I gasp.

She nods with a sense of understanding before moving silently to the bedside, injecting a syringe into the drip bag. She gently taps her fingers against the veins on my wrist and I can immediately feel the narcotic effects kick in.

Sleep comes easily, if that’s what you’d like call a drug induced blackout.

Hyuk, Ravi, Rebecca and N stand together in one of the far corners of the hospital commons, talking amongst themselves in hushed whispers. The nurse from before agreed to let me roam around for a bit to help get rid of some of the stiffness in my body in exchange for limiting me to a wheelchair. Weighing the decision in my head, getting out of this room is worth it, even if my arms would kill later.

Hyuk notices me and motions for the others to stop the conversation with a loud clearing of his throat. I find this rather odd but decide to ignore it, putting on my best smile.

“Hey,”

None of them meet my gaze, N even glances off to the side to avoid looking at me. I feel my brows tighten and my stomach churns at the hurtful action.

“What’s wrong?”

It’s more a demand than it is a question but at this point I really don’t care.

Ravi leans back against the glass railing like it’s the most comfortable thing in the world.

“We were just talking about Ken, how his Augmentation is only a few days away.”

I nod solemnly, a bit confused as to how that would explain why they’re being so secretive when that information had been broadcasted on the news.

“...and how we should sort things out with him since you’re killing him.”

My head snaps up so fast that I feel a jolt of electricity run down my spine but I ignore the pain, focusing every bit of my attention on Ravi.

“What did you say?”

“Stop playing the victim!” he roars, slamming his hand down against the railing. Hyuk and Rebecca both eye me before glancing back to Ravi, N still acting like I’m not even in the room.

“You know who the real victim is? Ken. Ken is the ing victim and he shouldn’t be the one going through all this bull,” his grip tightens around the rail with a shaking fist, “but you don’t see that, do you?”

Ravi takes a step towards me and I notice the odd shape of the railing. He’s twisted the metal.

“You only see the Ken that’s pretending, pretending to be okay with all of this. You know why? Because he doesn’t want to hurt you, or us.”

Tears well up in my eyes, my lungs struggling to expand as I choke on my own breath. My voice leaves my throat in a dry whisper.

“It wasn’t my choice, Ravi! Killing him, how can you say such a thing to me?”

He starts to pace, raking both his hands through his hair and starts mumbling, almost to himself.

“You two were a mistake, a ing mistake.”

He catches himself and turns toward me, his entire frame trembling.

“Why does my best friend have to die because of you, Mari?!”

With every word he takes a stride towards me until he’s right in my face, his irises burning like blue fire.

“Why does he have to sacrifice himself and play hero? Why couldn’t it have been you?! It should’ve been you!”

I wake up screaming and drenched in sweat, my bangs sticking to my forehead. Several pairs of hands grab me by the shoulders and I’m roughly shaken.

“Mari! It was just a nightmare, snap out of it!”

“Give her some room to breathe, Hyuk.”

A stern voice, no doubt N.

“Hyuk, go and get Ken! We need her to calm down.”

Ravi? What’s he doing here?

“You’re ok, Mari. Don’t worry.”

I look up to see Rebecca standing over me, her eyes mixed with sorrow and worry. She cups a hand to my jaw.

Just then, Hyuk races in with Ken at his heels, his chest rising and falling like he ran the whole way here.

“What’s going on?” he looks to N for an explanation.

“She had a nightmare, a really bad one it seems,” N says, turning to me and laying a hand on my shoulder. I try not to flinch. The dream had felt so real that I have to remind myself that I’m in the real world now and that my friends are here. My real friends, not those phantoms.

Still, Ravi’s words echo in my head, the image of his eyes flickering electric blue the same way they did with N. I can’t help but quake underneath the blankets.

“Give us a minute.” he says to the others, Rebecca shooting me a final glance before they leave the room.

“Did I interrupt anything? I didn’t mean to bother you, they went to get you before I-”

“Don’t worry about it, I was just finishing up.”

He pulls up a chair and takes my hand in both of his, rubbing soothing circles into my skin.

“You want to tell me what you dreamed about?”

I take in a shaky breath, hesitant to meet his gaze. No, it would hurt too much.

“I can’t.” I choke out. He nods, giving my hand a reassuring squeeze.

“I have something to tell you,” Ken says slowly, looking up from our hands to search my face.

“Yeah?”

He purses his lips and shifts his weight in the chair, scooting closer so that his knees brush the bedside.

“I’ve finished all my tests and they’ve chosen a candidate.”

My stomach drops through the floor.

“For you? For Subject Zero?”

He nods again, “His name is Eos. I’m seeing him tomorrow and I want you to come with me.”

It takes me a second to process everything. The thought of meeting the individual who will evidently taking over Ken’s body sends a chill through me.

“I’ve talked to your nurses already,” he continued, “they said they wouldn’t mind letting you hang out with me for a few hours.” he says the last part with a slight grin.

“I’ll come.”

Ken’s face lights up at my words.

“Thank you,” he breathes, “it means a lot to me that you’ll be there.”

He kisses my forehead, running his fingers through my hair.

“Can you stay until I fall asleep?” I ask softly.

His lips press into a gentle smile, his eyes crinkling slightly at the corners.

“Of course. I’ll stay with you all night.”

“The medical staff won’t like that,” I chuckle.

“Until they kick me out, at least.” he winks, “close your eyes. You’re safe here with me.”