Kiza had forgotten what it was like to breathe.
Or at least, she had forgotten what it was like to breathe without her chest spasming, her heart twinging. It was… Strange to say the least. Getting the Bug had meant everything because it had been long past the time that her Da had gotten court-martialed. There was no standard cure to remove the Bug, not available to a foot-soldier splice in the reserve of the lowest ranking branch of the Aegis. She had been lucky to have been as young as she had been when her father had gotten court-martialed. His breeder had a specific clause not to remove any young offspring from their parent because of their bee DNA. By the time she was old enough for her to be sold away, her father had already managed to secure her contract to be attached to his as a secretarial assistant, and since he had been pushed into the more administrative side of the Aegis, Kiza had never been afraid to lose her father like she had lost Caine. My brother, the one who braided my hair and took me flying, back when I had the hope of learning how to fly myself, back before they took my wings...
The Bug had changed that, forty years ago. She knew it, the second her father had confirmed it with a stolen medical scanner. Her contract would be resold- at a loss if she was lucky- and she would be separated from her Da if anyone ever found out. Then that missive for the posting on Earth had come, and the fact that her father had been personally requested by House Abrasax had made Kiza's skin crawl. She wasn't stupid. She may have been barely to her Da's knee when they had lost their position in the Skyjacker Avery, but she remembered enough to know that House Abrasax was the root of their problems.
But it didn't change the fact that she had the Bug, and both she and her father had to scrimp and save somewhere secluded enough for no one to notice her condition. The removal of the Bug was dangerous even with the Verse standard of medicine. It was a complex, painful procedure, and much more than what they could afford. They had saved for forty cycles, and Kiza knew they weren't even a quarter of the way close enough to have her surgery. It didn't help that the after-math of the surgery required Regen-X.
Or at least, that's what she thought.
Because Kiza felt… Good. Completely good.
The Entitled medical facility, it was…Old. Two hundred cycles out of date, but it was still… Much more than she had ever expected. She remembers the standard medical unit in the Aegis barracks, she even remembered the elite medical units in the Skyjacker Avery. It had been much bigger maybe, but the tech hadn't been this decorated, this fancy, and definitely nowhere near this advance or good. She had barely felt the surgery happening, and outside of watching her Da make funny faces through the lens of the breathing mask, Kiza wouldn't have known the surgery had been happening at all. The only thing that was missing from this hanger, Kiza thought, was the Regen-X pool.
"We need to recode her too," her Da's voice was soothing, as Kiza quietly slipped out of the medical bath.
She was dripping with medical goop, but otherwise, Kiza felt as if she had taken a long, restful nap, despite being conscious for the entirety of her surgery. Little Jupiter Jones, perched on what looked like some sort of ornate clothes trunk, made a face. A simple face of wrinkling her nose, and smashing her fine, dark brows together.
"No. We don't. The Bug is a parasite- we simply had to remove it. The surgery is done, and everything else is healed as much as-"
"Regen-X is necessary. All the medical sheeves-"
"We do not use Regen-X."
Kiza shuddered, slightly, at the use of formal Orousian language. She barely had heard it, all her life, being a military splice in the back rooms. She had never personally met an Entitled, but through her translating implant, she could understand the little girl, and hearing it was terrifying. All splices had learned to fear that language.
"Can I see it?" Kiza asked, both out of true curiosity, and because she did not want the Keeper, Grey, to start swinging at her father.
Though the Keeper had more delicate structure due to its cartilage made bones, Kiza already knew the being was brave and stupid enough to swing at anything distressing Jupiter. Everyone in the room turned to look at her, and she made herself smile. Bright and easy, without pain. It wasn't really that hard- breathing as smoothly as she did was enough to make her smile.
"Kiza, you shouldn't-" that was her Da, always worried, always trying to do what was best for her no matter what.
"I want to see the thing that has been inside of me these last forty years."
Jupiter made another cute little face, and Kiza's smile grew wider. Jupiter hoped from her perch and went to the side of the machine that Kiza had just occupied. She pressed a few buttons, comfortable with the machine, and produced a jar, gingerly holding it out to Kiza with two hands. Kiza took the jar.
It was ugly, was Kiza's first thought.
An ugly thing. Feelers made for invading airways, hooks, and barbs to dig into the tender tissue of her lungs. It was enormous, and if she were to guess, weighed about two pounds. It had felt heavier and had felt disgusting. Sometimes Kiza could feel it moving in her chest. And it was gone. Out of her. She took a single, deep breath. It would have hurt so much before. Would have made her cough and squeeze her hands into tight fists. If it had been feeling particularly vicious that day, it would have made her fall to her knees and spasm into an uncontrollable, choking fit.
"Do I need to get recoded?" she asked, hands tight and trembling around the jar.
Clear eyes, brown and green, looked at her. The eyes of the person who had, without real need, helped her get this thing out. She should have asked for something, for this. She should have bought their silence. She should have bargained for her anonymity on Earth, and then cut ties with them. Or killed them. But instead, Kiza remembered, the little girl had begged to help them. Help them. Not, please leave me alone, or please don't tell anyone. But 'please, let me help you'.
"No. Regen-X would help with any scar tissue left behind, but with rest and supplements, you can get better more naturally and more helpfully… The medical bath has already repaired the tissue in a way that wouldn't be available on splice grade machines. You don't need… people goop."
Kiza beamed.
"Then it looks like I won't get it."
So, I have been trying to keep a consistent schedule when it comes to She Is But the Wind, but I'm feeling maybe four chapters a week isn't quite right, especially because it's kind of caused me to neglect my other stories... I'm going to cut it down to two chapters a week, Saturday and Sunday respectively, and hopefully that will allow me to work more constantly on my other projects as well. I will also say unashamedly I've been working on some original fiction, and that has considerably eaten up a lot of my time when it comes to writing fanfiction. Sorry, really, for all you amazing readers, for being such an inconsistent goof.
And before you ask, most of my original work is still in the drafting and planning stages, and I really don't plan on sharing that at this point.
See you guy's Saturday!
~Be Safe, Be Well,
Moon Witch '96
