All he could see was white. It took a moment for his eyes to focus and then he noticed that he was staring at a white ceiling illuminated by bright lamps in the corners. He immediately knew where he was because he had woken up in one of these rooms many times before. His body felt tired and drained and his back was sore. The last thing he remembered was that they had gotten into a fight on their way back, everything else was blurry and his head started to ache just thinking about it. He decided to leave it for later and try to get someone to know he was awake now. He looked for this button to press in case you needed help but right in this moment he heard the door opening.

“Your finally awake, sleepyhead,” he heard Tats say. He looked up and saw him coming in, hair styled dressed in an expensive suit instead of a military uniform and Keke felt relieved to see him unharmed.

“I was getting afraid you wouldn’t wake up at all and make me do all the work on my own,” Tats told him with a grin on his face but Keke could hear worry in his voice.

“How long?” he signed. His arms felt heavy while doing so and he could barely finish before he dropped them down on the bed again.

“You were out for almost a month now,” Tats answered and said down on a chair next to his bed. This was not what Keke had expected. He realized that the probably missed a lot that had happened. He didn’t even know if the others were alright and if they had succeeded.

“What happened?” he asked and hoped that it was enough so that Tats would explain everything to him.

“Don’t worry the others are alright. You were hurt quite badly so Shishi had to carry you all the way back. I would have done it myself but I wasn’t in good shape either. We had quite a hard time getting back and then we had to enter the city without anyone realizing. It was even harder than braking into the factory. Joko and the robot somehow planted a virus that showed the footage on every TV screen. The city was a mess for a few days. Riots and accusations, protests and arrestments were happening everywhere. You slept through the worst. Everyone else was in prison for some time, well except for the robot. They just turned it off not knowing what to actually do with it. Funny if you ask me. It was the government that wanted to build them in the first place,” Tats reported.

“What now?” he asked him.          

“Now there is a lot of work do to. Building a new age is always much harder than destroying an old one,” he just said and stood up as if everything was resolved with this sentence.

“Wait,” he signed but Tats had already his back turned and walked out of the door leaving him alone with his questions.

He tried to move his body a bit and noticed that though it was painful and his muscles felt tired he had no problems moving his arms and legs so it didn’t seem to be that bad. He saw that he had bruises all over his body but they would fade eventually so he wasn’t concerned about that. He tried to remember what had happened before he had lost consciousness. They had been fighting on their way back. He remembered being under heavy fire. He had seen how the rock where Joko had tried to find shelter had burst because they were shooting mercilessly towards him because he was the only one unarmed. He had run towards him. He remembered being hit but not stopping anyway. He had grabbed him and pushed him behind cover his yellow eyes glowing with fear. And now Keke remembered where he known those yellow eyes from. It had happened the moment he had taken Joko’s hand to drag him behind a rock to get him to safety that he had recalled the same thing happening before. It had been like a déjà vu for him but it was just a memory he had wanted to forget. They had been friends before. It was him; he was the small kid with chubby cheeks he had told his big dreams of working for the military. Keke asked himself if he was the only one to remember or if Joko knew but hadn’t said anything. He decided that he needed to know. It was even more important than the political situation. He had erased the part of his memory for so long because Joko had just abandoned him. He had left him alone in the hospital and never visited him even though he gave up his dream to save him. He needed to know why. He swung his legs to the side and tried to stand up. He had to hold on to the bed because otherwise he would have lost his balance. He body felt stiff and he knew he probably should stay in bed but he was way to curious right now.

“You should stay in bed!” a nurse told him as she was rushing in and grabbed his arm to help him stand. He just shook his head and tried to put one leg in front of another.

“Please go back. You shouldn’t walk yet,” she tried to explain to him but he didn’t listen and walked forward. He was moving in awkwardly slow speed while the nurse kept telling him that his body should rest and that she would be calling a doctor soon. When Keke finally got to the door he realized he was still in a pajama and could not go out like this. It was silly of him not to think first. He looked at the nurse and pointed at the bed and she helped him to move back. It took almost double the time because all the strength was leaving his body. As he was finally back in bed again he tried he made a movement as if he was writing on air because he needed a pen and a piece of paper to talk to her. She immediately handed him a notebook that was already prepared on his nightstand. He asked her if she could call Joko for him and ask him if he could come. She nodded and went outside. If he couldn’t go to him, then maybe he would be so kind to visit him. He had at least saved his life twice already.

It wasn’t half an hour that past as it knocked on his door and the dark haired male with those bright eyes appeared in front of him.

“Hey,” he just said and moved towards the bed. Keke nodded.

“I’m glad you’re finally up. Thanks for what you did back then,” Joko told him. He looked happy and relieved, a smile was plastered on his face. There was not much left from the boy he once knew but his smile was still the same.

He grabbed the notebook and to ask Joko but he just did not know what he should write.

“Would you mind if we let the TV run while we are talking,” he asked. Keke shook his head and Joko turned the TV on were politics were discussed. He didn’t listen because he was too distracted by those yellow eyes and the past he remembered.

We met before. He wrote those words and decided to show them to Joko. Keke could watch his smile fading.

“Yes, we do,” Joko said his voice now serious.

Keke had so much to ask him but he did not know where to start. He had hoped that Joko had not known. That he had forgotten but it seemed he knew all along who he was and had kept quiet about it. His head was so confused right now and he did not even know what he should fell about Joko. Should he feel angry or disappointed?

“I missed you. I really missed you,” Joko told him and he could hear in his voice that he was sad. Even if he was confused and angry he did not want Joko to be said. They hadn’t seen each other for years until Tats had brought them together but he still considered him as his friend.  They had never ended their friendship. Joko had just disappeared.

You disappeared. Why?               Keke wrote the next words on his notebook. He was a bit ashamed because his writing was all messy. His fingers still felt stiff.

“I destroyed your dream. How should I have faced you,” Joko told him remorsefully. Keke was taken aback by those words. He had never thought Joko did not visit him because he couldn’t take the regret but then it was something the Joko he knew in the past would do. He just shook his head as he realized he had reacted just as stupid not bothering to look for Joko because he thought he had just abandoned him. He could have reacted better than this.

“I’m really sorry for what I did. I never wanted you to get hurt,” Joko told him.

Keke was just about to write something down on his notepad when he felt Joko’s hand on his interrupting his movement.

“Be quiet for a second,” Joko said and Keke just shook his head because he wasn’t actually making any noise but he got that Joko just did not want to be distracted as he heard the news report where finally going to announce the winner of the latest election.

“We now have the final results of the election. After the latest referendum the members of the parliament voted 97 for No and 1104 for Yes…” and with that he found himself in a hug as Joko was leaning towards him closing his arms around him laughing. The TV screen showed a handsome male with shining pink eyes and it was then that Keke was reminded that the past could wait. What was important right now was the future.

Authors note: With this the story ends. I’ve written a short epilog to follow, that I’m going to upload soon but this is the last chapter. Thank you all for reading, commenting and subscribing. I hope you enjoyed my work.

Happy 3 years with BAP!

Thank you. Bye. J.J.