This was supposed to be hilarious but- ANGST
CYCLE
He's back to being bed-bound, with all those bizarre wires poking out from the machinery around him stuck in his head. He gets none of the graphical information on the screen, but the heart monitor is showing a regular pattern with slight fluctuations, which means he's not dead, yet. He can't feel his right arm, either, but he's not too worried about it for the moment being.
At least he managed to wipe out those armed minions in the process. After all, the ship was going down anyway; it's right wing was engulfed in flames. It would've been a crime if he'd let those rockets go to waste while the formless infiltrated the city borders yet again. And it wasn't like he'd set the explosives off and plummeted to his death, his jet pack just wasn't fast enough to evade the fallout completely. It wasn't rash, it was efficient. Besides, they wouldn't have to worry about the minions invading the city too soon.
All in all, he didn't regret it one bit. The sight of his arm lying limply beside him was also reassuring.
Then someone slams the door so vehemently that Brainiac's extensive collection of glassware starts rattling dangerously. He almost sighs in relief when nothing shatters until he's forced to make eye contact with enraged bubblegum pink eyes. She looms over his limp form furiously, arms crossed, and he's grateful for the way his state has rendered her incapable of turning her fists onto him.
"What," she clenches her teeth, "in the name of Shuggazoom did you think you were doing?" And it's obvious any reply will only aggravate her further.
Now he's wishing she'd actually pummel him, because he deserves it all; the agony, the pain, even the limp arm. He can't even rectify his mistake without fucking everything up, without hurting her(He still wakes up with her tortured form burned into his eyelids, can't create a magnetic field without thinking about tearing her circuitry apart).
She sighs and sits on his side; flimsy mattress dipping from her weight, wires and tubes trembling slightly, and it's the culmination of his dreams and nightmares at the same time. Why won't you just give up on me and leave? I'm not worth it, I swear.
He wants her to hate him as much as he'd ever wanted her to love him; but she loves her perception of him too much(because he's unlovable, he's too fucked up, he's too suicidal, he's thriving on guilt and despair) Maybe her hatred would let him perish in the fray without a second thought. But they're stuck in the same old vicious cycle, and she's not letting him go, not letting them go.
She takes his right hand in hers, wary of his lack of response until he tells her dismissively that he can't feel it. So she switches sides and takes the other hand and there's warmth seeping through his veins and he hates her then, because he knows he's shackled to her side and he deserves none of it. (He's grateful his arm is numb because he can't visualise attacking her with a single magnet) He doesn't deserve to be happy; he loves too much and hates too much. And yet he holds her hand as tightly as she's holding his.
"This war," she's too close, her breath blowing softly on his face, "didn't start when Skeleton King was resurrected. It didn't start when the alchemist was possessed either. We've always been at war against evil, and you're letting them win every time you wallow in your guilt. You're not correcting a mistake you didn't make, you're actually making one this time." She turns to leave, but he doesn't relinquish his grip on her hand and it dawns on him that he's the one who's not letting her go; he's the one who loves her too much to lose her.
So he tugs her closer until they're entangled in wires and each other, until her lips are molded onto his again, until his heart monitor goes haywire and his sins pile up higher, until they perform the steps of their macabre dance again.
Actual plot I had in mind:
-Sprx does something reckless
-Nova gives him an earful and sexual tension©
-She kisses him suddenly, heart monitor goes crazy
-Brainiac comes in as she's leaving, thinks it's her rage© that's gotten his heart racing
-He's actually on painkillers and remembers nothing?
I dunno how the f*ck did I come up with the above piece :/
(P.S. I'll be updating Shackles shortly, *apologizing profusely*)