A/N: What a chapter that was. Here things start to get really interesting. LET'S SHIP TEXX A WHOLE LOT MORE! YAY! Chapter with sewn-in fluff, haven't had one of those in a while. I really love the song for this chapter. BMTH is glorious. We finally reach the present here.
And then I found out how hard it is to really change.
Even hell can get comfy once you've settled in.
I just wanted the numb inside me to leave...
The funny thing is all I ever wanted, I already had.
There's glimpses of heaven in every day;
In the friends I have, the music I make, the love that I feel.
I just had to start again.
The days are a death wish,
A witch hunt for an exit.
I am powerless...
The fragile, the broken
Sit in circles and stay unspoken.
We are powerless...
Because we all walk alone on an empty staircase,
Silent halls and nameless faces.
I am powerless...
Bring Me The Horizon – Hospital For Souls
Empire of Kahler Military Base: Recovery Zone
Kahler-Tek's POV
The first thing I felt was an overwhelming conflagration of pain burning through my veins, boiling my blood and incinerating my nerves. I tried screaming for some kind of help, but my voice box was not there anymore. Then I sensed the lack of weight in my body. And I panicked. I actually, properly panicked. No hormone-blockers, then. Stress levels in full swing – nice. My bionic eye scanner was gone, which I discovered when I tried to wrench them open. Harsh white fluorescent light filled my real eye, completely flooding my brain to the point of having to squeeze it shut in agony. I saw a hospital roof upon opening my slowly adjusting eye. Looking around, there were familiar monitors beeping reassuringly; scans pinned to boards and graphed results strewn somewhat messily across the tabletop at the foot of my bed. There sat Kahler-Mas and Kahler-Jex.
Jex was the first to smile at me like he was actually satisfied with my arrival. I tried to rip out my IV's in vain, but just ended up accidentally ripping out arm hairs and moving the needles in my veins. Trying but failing to keep the wince off my face, I screamed silently without the biological parts to scream with. It'd been a while since I'd felt anything so cut me some slack. Mas grinned widely. The sadistic bastard was enjoying this. I curled my lower lip in distaste as he began to speak.
"I'm sure you're wondering why we've brought you back, rather than leaving you to bleed out onto the cell floor and go through cell repair anyway."
I remained silent, as that was all I could do.
"Yes, we got you out. Thank Kahler-Diz, Kahler-Kerr and Kahler-Yed later for saving your clunky half-machine arse. All the humans and aliens within the building were incinerated. But you're probably still wondering why?"
I glared daggers at him, lunging threateningly out of my reclined position. Kahler-Jex shifted in his chair uncomfortably. "What Kahler-Mas was going to say..." he began, nudging his business partner hard in the ribs, "is that you are one of our most invaluable assets to the Empire military. We need you. So we saved you from yourself, and will restore your missing parts with upgraded technology upon your full recovery."
He choked slightly as his eyes flicked for the barest fraction of a second towards my legs. I threw back the covers and unwound the bandages slowly, holding back screams of pain as I revealed my monstrous infliction. Both thighs had been mutilated, false skin barely covering the vast chunks of flesh missing beneath. Well, that won't be happening again. Good grief. I wasn't given much time to maintain calm breathing until Mas spoke again.
"Drug him, he'll need it for when we let him have a voice."
That line echoed around my mind, fading faster and into a lighter sound as sleep washed me away from the shoreline of harsh hospital lighting.
When we let him have a voice.
Kahler Institute of Science: Weaponry & Experimental Military Research Centre
Kahler-Tek's POV - Present
I choke myself into consciousness. Voice box is back. Legs – I can wiggle them – arms... that hurt! Oh glorious pain! Eyes! The white ceiling is not as severe as I anticipated or recalled, and I immediately check the time and date. I've been out for nearly three whole days. Unsurprising, I've had a few rather major surgeries since I've arrived. I know I shouldn't sit up, but even as pain rips through my torso and legs, it's worth trying – at least in order to gauge my range of non-hurting motion. Swatting the red call button next to me, I look to my right and spot someone approaching – it is none other than my eternally beautiful wife. Axx is holding a baby, she's crying, and I shake my head in confusion. Why is she crying? A part of my brain calls out viciously, like an agitated animal slamming its own body into the bars of its cage. My wife. Our baby. It seems that I have missed the birth of Rek. My heart swells with joy and shatters with pain at the same time, and I close my eyes to let a tear slip from them. Feelings are so overwhelming, and I find myself pushing down that watery feeling rising in my chest. It feels like my lungs are swimming in emotions. It has been a while. I reach my arms out silently, and a second later I am holding our rather amused looking son. His hair is the same shade of chocolate mousse brown mine was as a child, but his stark blue eyes and sharp little chin are his mother's. Rek is the most beautiful child I have ever laid my eyes upon. Looking up, Axx is smiling, and my heart heals at the sight of her shining golden blond hair, that tiny heart-shaped face, her slim wrists from years of administration work.
The memories flood back in the seconds it takes for her to wrap her thin arms around Rek and me.
"You must be the new intern. I'm Axx, the receptionist for the west wing labs."
"Pleasure to meet you, Axx. I'm Kahler-Tek. I'll be working as a researcher, if perhaps you could show me where the equipment is stored..."
"Of course. First left, straight ahead, down the stairs and it should be to your third right."
"Thanks."
"Kahler-Tek?"
"Yup."
"Good luck. You might need it."
I grinned stupidly. Oh, I was a sly fox back then. All the interns were handed a map before being officially registered as workers, I had just wanted to chat her up a bit. Axx presses a long-lost kiss to my cheek and watches with a tiny smile of her own as I reflect on us some more. It looks like she hasn't smiled in a long time.
She immediately tucks the stray hairs from her face when she sees me approaching. "Back so soon? You're definitely keen on getting a job here, aren't you?" she begins pleasantly, and I note a slight tremor in her voice. Nerves; how quaint. I make her nervous. Not to mention how she does the same to me.
"Flirting already? I've only been here a week. Surely you've got some jealous boyfriend waiting until his shift at the training centre ends?"
"Me – no. I'm still waiting for someone to sweep me off my feet."
She eyes me pointedly just as the phone rings, and she winks before picking it up.
I watch Rek breathe softly into my arms, and it's the second most beautiful thing I have seen today. Pressing a kiss to his delicate forehead, I catch a little breeze from my son's open mouth. It smells so pure, only of water and something a bit sweeter. Axx's jasmine perfume, no doubt. She still remembers that it's my favourite. "So," I begin awkwardly, "you're not angry then."
Axx laughs at that, a heavenly sound. Like silver bells at Christmas, or water trickling down a tree after the rain. "Don't get your hopes up, I'm livid on the inside," she retorts. "I just love you more than I could ever dislike you."
I motion for her to take little Rek back before I gently remove my IV's and the various adhesive patches protecting the nodes of the ECG. Where I'm going, I won't need those.
