Chapter 9: Recovery Time – Part 1
"Will he be alright?" asked Neptune, who had de-transformed.
"He's in critical condition, so I cannot say whether he'll live just yet, but I'll do whatever I can to help," replied a doctor.
IF nodded. "Alright then, is he allowed to have visitors?"
The doctor nodded. "He can, as long as you don't disturb him, I fear he'll be unconscious for a few days though."
"How long will he be kept here?" IF asked.
"I would recommend that he stay here for a few weeks before he can get back into action, after all, he only managed to survive by a fraction of a chance, he even nearly died during the operation."
"Wait a second..." mumbled Neptune. She then let out a loud gasp. "That means he won't be eating any pudding with me for weeks!"
"Really?! That's what you're worried about Nep?!" shouted IF.
"Well of course it's a problem, pudding tastes utterly splendid if you eat it with loads of people," explained Neptune. "Damn you author! Why did you have to do this?!"
"Um, sister … I think IF is trying to say that you should be more worried about Blue's condition, he did almost die," said Nepgear.
"Well yeah I know that, but I'm also concerned for his diet, he can't spend weeks living off hospital food you know."
The doctor face-palmed and shook his head. "Well if you're that insistent then I suppose I can allow you to give him some of this pudding when you speak to him, but only when he has sufficiently recovered."
"Okey-dokey! I'll get prepared for a feast," Neptune exclaimed.
"Baring any more antics from Neptune, is it possible for us to visit Blue at the moment?" asked IF.
"I suppose it wouldn't hurt, just remember to keep quiet around him."
The group nodded and entered Brian's room, it looked peaceful enough as they gazed the white and lavender walls, in the right corner of the room was a bed covered in white sheets and laying in it was Brian. He had a life supporter attached to him and several bandages could be seen on his left arm, head and chest. From what they could tell he was breathing slowly.
"Do you think he'll live?" asked Nepgear.
Compa nodded. "He will Ge-Ge, I was there at the operation and made sure that he would survive."
"Not to mention that Wraith said he would live," IF mentioned. "But how would he know that just from looking at a bloodied body?"
"Ah who cares, so as long he can wake up and eat some pudding with us!" said Neptune with a smile.
"Have you ever considered that he might not like pudding Neptune?" IF asked.
"Of course he won't hate pudding, it's the most delicious and greatest dish that has ever been created, even the author likes it," replied Neptune.
Compa walked up to the small desk next to the bed and put Brian's History of Rome book on it. "He'll need to do something after he wakes up," she stated.
"Well he seems to be alright so I think it's best that we leave now," said Nepgear. "We don't want to disturb him."
IF and Neptune walked up to the bed and while looked at Brian Neptune rubbed his hair. "You're an idiot Blue, but a brave idiot" said IF before leaving the room with Compa. Nepgear was about to leave the room before looking at her older sister.
"Hey Neptune, are you alright? If not then we can go and get some pudding together," she asked.
Neptune nodded slowly. "I'm fine, but we barely know Blue and he almost died during that fight, I don't want anyone to die. I want to find out who those guys were and why they wanted to kill all of you." She sounded quite upset.
Nepgear walked up to Neptune and patted her head. "If it makes you feel any better, we can visit him any day you like."
Neptune looked up at her younger sister and nodded. "Yeah, that'll be good. Now, you promised me some pudding so you better get me some."
"Alright then, come on." The two of them walked out of Brian's room and left the hospital, leaving him alone to rest.
-Somewhere outside Planeptune-
"Grr, how the hell did The Wraith know that we would be there?!" yelled the hammer wielder.
The three of the four Dark Captains had taken refuge in an abandoned farmhouse and were nursing their wounds while agitating themselves about the whole affair.
"Don't you two have an answer this time? I'm impressed," snarled the hammer wielder after waiting for a minute for a reply to his question.
"Don't be a smart ass, it just doesn't suit you," responded the stoic woman, Severia.
The hammer wielder glared at Severia before the hooded man, aka 'Agandur's Right Hand', sighed and stood between them. His hood was thrown back onto his back and all could see his bald head with various burn marks on it that ran down his head.
"Will the two of you just shut up already?" It is a damn pity for us that The Wraith had to show up but we have to persevere through this."
The hammer wielder sighed and punched the nearby wall and created a large crack in the wall. "So what do we do now?" he asked.
"We'll just have to wait until 'he' shows up," replied Agandur's Right Hand.
The hammer wielder shuddered, whether out of fear or disgust. "Why do we have to wait for him? Severia managed to get here within a few days but we still have to sit on our butts and bloody wait!"
"Will you just shut up, Lothar the Bloodthirsty?" asked Agandur's Right Hand in a not so calm voice. "You're becoming a real pain you know that?"
The hammer wielder, aptly named Lothar, glared at Agandur's Right Hand. "Fine, whatever. So what do we do next? We don't exactly have a plan you know."
"We must wait for the last one to arrive, then we will start the next phase of our plan," replied Agandur's Right Hand.
"And what, pray tell, is this plan of yours?"
"It would be better to explain it in full detail once we have regrouped."
Severia grabbed her trident and walked to the broken wooden door, glancing back at her two companions. "I'm going on patrol, I'll be back within an hour."
Agandur's Right Hand nodded and she left the ruined building, leaving the two men alone and rather bored. Lothar grunted as he paced around the place, swinging his war-hammer around until it collided with a wall, smashing a large hole in it.
"Seriously? This place is already falling apart, don't make it collapse on top of us," remarked Agandur's Right Hand.
"I can help it if I'm bored!"
"This is going to be a long wait," sighed Agandur's Right Hand as Lothar kept swinging his weapon around the room.
-Somewhere in a dream-
Brian stood on a bloodied ground that was piled up with corpses, all of them were mutilated and mangled up. He could only stare at them as smoke rose from the ruined buildings around him, the sky was red as if it was on fire but there was no sounds of people, no sounds of music, no sound at all, everything was mute.
Brian couldn't move even if he tried his best to do so, it felt as if he was glued to the ground and left for dead. He looked around and saw a large tower nearby, but what freaked him out was the fact that he recognised it; it was the Planeptune Basilicom.
So I'm in Planeptune then? This doesn't make sense though, this can't be real … yet it feels real. Too real.
As he looked away he saw something, or rather someone, he glanced at the location and he felt his heart skip a beat. He was looking at the bloodied corpse of Neptune. Nearby was the body of Nepgear swiftly followed by IF, Compa and Histoire. There were also several other bodies near them that Brian didn't recognise, but they all seemed to pull strings on his heart, as if he should either know them or they were important somehow.
What the hell is happening?! This can't be happening! What sort of nightmare is this?!
He then felt a chill go down his spine as he looked at the bodies before him, his hands began to twitch violently. He looked up at the balcony of the Basilicom and saw someone, someone he recognised; it was Agandur's Right Hand. He appeared to be engulfed in a bright blue light and was also was covered in a black mist, he seemed to disappear into the mist until a flash occurred and Brian was left staring at a black, red and dark blue mist and in the centre was a dark grey helmet that was covered in thick steel, only the eye pieces and various slits where the mouth should be were left uncovered, a crude steel spiked crown was atop the helmet.
Brian was then lifted off from the ground and was hurdled towards the mist until his face almost touched the helmet, then he looked into the eyes and noticed something staring back at him with pure flaring red eyes.
"W-wh-who are y-you?" asked Brian with terror in his voice.
The 'thing' in front of him didn't utter a word, instead the mist engulfed Brian and spread across his body, when he opened his mouth to breathe some of the mist flew into his mouth and into his body, causing him to have a spasm. He began to black out until everything disappeared around him and he was surrounded by nothing but a dark void. Then a voice was heard.
"That will come to pass if you should fail in your task," it said. "You must prevent that to happen at any cost to yourself."
"Wh-what in Jupiter's name are you? And where are you?"
"I am a person, so to speak. And as to where I am … that is unimportant, but I'm sure you will find me eventually in Gamindustri somewhere. Now, it is time for you to wake up. Good luck, Brian."
The voice left the void and the mist began to engulf Brian once more, he yelled and flailed around but nothing would stop it. His vision then began to darken and everything was gone.
*Hey folks how's it going? I'm attempting to spice things up a bit, and yes the nightmare that our protag had is very important to the story. Leave a review if you want to see something happen in the story or just have general advice about something then go ahead and do so. See ya next time*