In a snap, X's vision came back to him. The darkness he was subdued too had passed, he saw that he was still sunken into the ocean water.
However, he didn't feel the same. His kaiju for was gone, and he wasn't in his drake form either. He could feel his arms and legs. He knew he was in his own body, a naked body, yet he couldn't move. His vision wasn't as clear as before. But he found he could still breathe or was he not breathing?
"Is this...hell? Another dream?" He thought to himself, drifting along the water's current. The dark depths covered in shadow. No sea life was present, no coral swaying about, Just dark, rocky formations. The light from the surface far from above was barely noticeable.
Without realizing it at first but he was moving faster. The current picking up pace. He couldn't do anything against it. He couldn't move his arms or legs. He could only move his head, looking around at his surroundings.
As his body floated weightlessly across the ocean sky, he came upon a stone wall, a gargantuan obstacle. He thought he was going to hit, but the current stopped. But even though his lifeless limbs, he could feel the current brushing against him.
It was no current pulling him here.
"This has to be a dream...or am I just dead?" He thought. The thought actually scared him. He didn't think he'd ever face that idea, at his time or age. But this didn't feel like death, it felt too similar to his strange dreams, but this one was much different compared to the rest.
With the thought of death lingering in his mind, he started to hear something ringing in his ear. A white noise, but slowly turned to something familiar. A scream.
He thought they be the voices he heard before. But what he heard couldn't be mistaken as anything else. It was muffled by the water. He couldn't tell what direction it was coming from. The stone wall in front of him had nothing, or at least he couldn't see anything on it. It was too dark, a pure shadow with no hints of lights.
The scream became louder and closer. He couldn't tell which direction it was coming from, it seemed to be constantly echoing. He was trying to determine if it was male or female, but it was still too muffled.
Floating in the open, his head swiveled around, madly looking for the source of the noise. He could hear his heart pounding. Another reason for him to believe that he wasn't actually dead. The lights from above shimmered slightly like a passing beam shot across and illuminated his surrounding for a brief moment.
At that moment, he caught a glimpse of something on the wall. It looked to be writing of some sorts. It was worn down, and barely recognizable. He squinted his eyes, trying to get a closer look, all the while the scream was getting louder. He tried to ignore it, desperately looking for the writing again.
But then it grew silent. Nothing. He couldn't hear the scream, nor his beating heart. Not even a white noise. He could still feel though, the water against his skin, though he could tell the temperature. He could still feel his body was there. But the silence scared him, a nightmarish quiet that put him on edge. And without warning, a hand reached up from the depths and grabbed his ankle. He could only look down in fear as the handle started to pull him down.
The scream rang in his ear, but when he looked there was no one there. The scream multiplied into dozens or hundreds of cries. He couldn't discern them, but it felt like a mix of all. Young, old, male and female. The gripping hand kept pulling, but he was paralyzed to do anything. He tried to scream, but no voice came from his throat, no noise.
Another hand grabbed him, and another. Soon, dozens of hands clawed at his legs and ankles, pulling him down into the murky depths. With a mouth wide open, but no sound or bubbles came from it. The screams were overwhelming, filling his head to the point where he couldn't focus.
"Stop!" Is all he could think. His thoughts now were his only voice, his only grasp. The hands kept on pulling, and he watched as the light grew dimmer. Another flash of light swept over the sea. Like a lighthouse in the storm, it cleared over the dark crevice. And when it landed on the wall, he could see the writing. The faded, painted-on words. A series of numbers and letters, he didn't know what they meant.
N-387-AE-23
The numbers made little sense to him, he was too overwhelmed with clawing hands, he couldn't focus on it. But remembered it, he burned it into his brain just in case.
The grabbing hands turned painful, as he felt the hands...digging into his skin. He could feel them seeping under the surface. Vice-gripping onto him he could feel the blood seep is wounds, and dozens of clawing hands tore into his skin.
A fear so deep cuts into X's heart. A dreaded moment where he felt like he was truly going to die. The hands became numerous and pulled him down. The screams rang in his head to where his own thoughts were blocked out.
As the dark depths sunk over him, he felt the hands grab onto his shoulders.
"Help!" He screamed, but no answer, just the continuing screams as the last set of hands pulled over his face and pulled him down.
"No!" X could feel that it rang from his throat. He could move his limbs again and pushed himself up. As he pushed himself up, he found himself in a hospital bed. All his senses were coming back. He felt all over to make sure it was real. His lungs filling with air like he had been underwater. He wasn't hooked up to any tubes and wires, but he looked around and saw the familiar layout of the room. And EDF hospital room.
A wash of relief swept through him, but an undying terror still stuck with him. He trembled. Everything he had seen, it was still there.
Not too long after his startling wake-up, the door swung open, and from the dim lights that illuminated the room, showed that it was Sam who stood there.
The two for a moment didn't say anything, just looked at one another. Sam's eyes were filled with bewilderment, but he could see them watering.
X wanted to speak but couldn't find words. All he could say was 'Father'. Sam embraced him with a gripping hug. He returned it with what little strength he had. He could feel his father shake from his sobbing. Sam pulled back, tears streaming down his face. He cuffed his son's cheeks with his hands. He whispered in their own tongue, saying things like "You're okay" and "You've come back".
X still struggled with words. He had faced the experience of death, or at least what he thought was dead. The horrid dream was more of a hell, a vision. The writing on the wall, he felt now that these dreams had more of a meaning.
"I-" X tried. But he didn't where to start, he didn't know what happened outside of his dream.
The commotion drew in Ozaki and Miyuki. And for the first time, X found some comfort seeing them. It was more a reason for him to believe that he was alive. Ozaki's face was actually filled with disbelief as well.
"Oh my God," Ozaki said, the two looking at him in amazement. "You're...you're alive."
X's eyes were still filled with terror. He looked between them all, confused.
"What happened? After the fight...how-" X asked, his voice shaking.
"X...you were dead," Ozaki said. Edging closer, Ozaki's expression didn't change.
"You flatlined. We found you in the water, you had turned back to your human form. They were trying to keep you alive, but you gave out on the helicopter ride back. They tried defibrillating you, but it didn't work," Ozaki said. X could see the dismay slowly turn to awe. He was trying to fathom how it was possible. "You...you should be dead."
X turned to Sam, who had nothing else to say. He could see the pain in his eyes, how pale he had become. He knew, out of all people, how this would have affected him. He didn't want to imagine it, the suffering he must have felt when the news arrived to tell him that his son was dead.
"What happened?" Miyuki spoke up. She was timid, standing close to Ozaki. X looked back up at her. "What did you see?"
"I...I don't know. I can only see it as another dream. Like the others I have. But it was much worse. I thought I was dead. I must have been dead during it. I couldn't control my anything, I couldn't move. I was being dragged down, down into the dark water, I-" He stopped when he began to think back on the words written on the wall. Navosa. He stopped and took a breath. He explained to them the entire experience, the screams, and the hands.
"And then you woke up? Right as you were dragged down?" Miyuki asked.
"Yes. I thought it was me...passing over. I couldn't tell if it was real death or just a dream," X said.
"This can't be a coincidence now, that your dreams have all these similar characteristics. A haunting feeling. And those numbers and letters...I don't know what they mean," Miyuki said. X could only nod in agreement.
"We'll go an get the Commander if you're ready to talk...I don't think they'll be ready for this," She said, grabbing Ozaki by the arm as she guided him to the door. With a silent agreement, they departed. Sam sat next to the bed, his face heavy still with fatigue and sorrow.
X wanted to speak, but he instead just rested his hand on his arm. The physical touch was enough reassurance that was alive. He needed that feeling.
Minutes passed when Namikawa, Daigo, Mita, and Gordon showed up. Their expressions similar to the others.
"Son of a bitch. You are impossible to kill, you know that?" Gordon said. "A real-life Lazarus."
X could merely muster a small smile. The lightheartedness is what he needed is such a downtime.
"How…" Namikawa asked. X went through the entire story again, every painstaking detail. Namikawa paced, thinking over everything he said.
"I know it doesn't give you any answers...I don't know how either. It could be my Drake powers or Kaiser energy, but I don't know how," X said.
"Maybe you're death wasn't final. Whatever state your body goes in when you have these dreams. Perhaps a comatose of some sort. But that doesn't explain the sleepwalking," She pondered over it. But ended it with a sigh.
"It doesn't matter now. You're alive, and appears to be in...decent shape," She said, with a gentle smile appeared, hoping to lighten to the room.
"The Automatrite...did I kill it?" X asked. The room fell back into a deep sigh.
"No, it stumbled off after you fell into the water. Quite a beating but it's still there. If anything it's getting repairs," Gordon said.
"Well...Maybe I could be ready for round two soon," X said. Everyone looked at one another, and back at him with confused expressions.
"What?" X asked.
"Boy, you're dead," Gordon said.
"Well, I'm not anymore. I can be ready," X said.
"No, he's saying that you're dead...to everyone else," Daigo said. X's mind was moving slow, the mere word 'dead' still gave him shivers. He slowly understood what they meant. Namikawa leaned back to grab a paper that was left on the table behind her. She laid down in front of him. The giant headline in black text sprawled across the top.
"Automatrite Defeats Dark Kaiser Threat! Matthew Reeds Hailed As Hero!"
He held the paper in his hands, the familiar feeling a defeat washed over him.