Life Or Death

Octavio caught Ajay as she collapsed to the floor. Her fingers smeared the blood spatter across his face as her hand fell limp onto her chest. Renee kneeled down as Octavio cradled Ajay in his arms, "What happened?" Octavio's wet hands held her tight trying to coax Ajay to wake up as he rocked her in his arms, "Prowler. We need to get her to the hospital." Renee shook her head, "No!" Renee was shouting before she realized that she was shouting and eased her voice back to normal before speaking again, "No. We can't."

Renee helped Octavio pull off what was left of Ajay's backpack from her back. Renee then helped him remove what was left of Ajay's shirt, which wasn't much. Ajay's back side was profusely bleeding from the wounds that prowler's claw left behind just before they entered Renee's portal. Octavio caught a glimpse of muscle and bone as Renee helped to get Ajay situated. He knew that it should have been him and not her.

He silently cursed at himself and head back tears. He couldn't risk breaking down now, especially since Ajay needed him. He tried to think about what to do next since Renee had made it pretty clear that they couldn't go to the hospital. "What about Natalie and that device? She could use it to close up Ajay's wounds." He knew that too much time had already been wasted trying to come up with a way to save Ajay.

Renee looked down at the device on her wrist, "Not an option. Natalie just got out of a coma from a prowler attack. She is too weak to use her abilities and this device is only programmed to work for me. I made sure that Natalie programmed it to only work for me so that way Loba couldn't use it. Always have an escape plan." Renee sighed and thought for a moment, "We need to go back to that place and use her heal drone. Can you get her heal drone working?"

Octavio already had his shirt off and was using it to apply pressure against the wounds on Ajay's back, "Are you crazy? What if we get attacked again? I can't help her and fend off prowlers." Renee pressed a few buttons on the device attached to her wrist and opened a portal despite Octavio's opinion on the situation. The air ripped and crackled in front of them as the dark blue light over took their immediate area.

"I will take care of the prowlers, if there are any. This is our only option right now." Renee dropped her hands to her sides as she finished speaking. Octavio stood up with Ajay's cold body in his arms, "Only Che can make D.O.C. work." Octavio cradled Ajay's heavy body in one arm and gripped the cracked D.O.C. drone by her handle in his other hand. "I don't know even know if D.O.C. is working."

Octavio glanced down at the battered drone and shook his head. He wasn't sure if D.O.C. was even functional. If D.O.C. was functional he didn't know if he could wake Ajay up to activate the drone. Ajay had lost a lot of blood and she was pretty much out of it. He knew in his heart that she was a fighter but for some reason he just couldn't get her to stay with him. He hoped that she wasn't too far gone.

Renee looked down at the healing machine and sighed, "It has to work. It's our only option." Octavio stared at the cracks on top of the healing drone again. The prowler's claw nearly tore Ajay in two if it wasn't for the poor little drone taking the brunt of the attack. Renee took Octavio by the arm, "Figure it out and wake her up."

Octavio could feel Renee's hand tight on his arm as she pulled them into the portal. By the time that they made it through the other side of the portal Octavio's shirt was dripping with Ajay's blood; the shirt was now pretty much useless. He didn't know what else to do so he kept his blood soaked shirt pressed against his wife's back.

He pulled a stim syringe from his pocket as he kneeled on the ground. He placed Ajay in his lap and gently set D.O.C. beside them. He held onto Ajay tightly, hoping that he could keep her from losing any more blood. Renee stood in front of him with a Wingman in her hand as the portal snapped shut. "I'll keep an eye out for prowlers." Octavio nodded and squeezed the glass stim filled syringe in his hand; almost like he was going to break it.

"Renee if I do this and it doesn't work she will die." Renee kept her back to him, "If you don't do this then she will die anyway. Make a choice." He knew that Renee was right but he knew how stim worked. He would inject her and it would get her heart racing, which would get her blood pumping. In a normal situation it would most likely give her a rush of energy but this was not a normal situation; she had life threatening wounds.

In her case he would inject her with the stim and it would get her heart racing, which would get her blood pumping. It would give her a rush of energy and he would only have a little window of time to wake her up so that she could get D.O.C. working. If he couldn't get her to wake up and get D.O.C. working then the stim would make her bleed out more quickly than she already was. He hated that he had to be the one to make this decision about her life.

"What are you waiting for? She is running of time." Renee didn't even have to look behind her to know that Octavio was wasting precious time. Octavio forced back tears and gripped Ajay's arm tightly with one hand. He stuck the stim syringe into his best friend's arm and watched as the green liquid escaped from the glass and into her skin. After the green liquid had completely entered her, Octavio yanked the syringe out and tossed it to the side. He readied D.O.C. as Ajay's once lifeless body began to thrash in his arms.

The familiar metallic taste was unwelcoming as it saturated her mouth. Ajay coughed in an attempt to rid her mouth of the blood that was in her mouth. She could hear Octavio's familiar voice above her but she couldn't make out what he was saying. She forced her eyes open but everything around her was blurry, grey, and came in waves as her head pounded to the beat of her heart.

Her heart raced so fast that it felt like it was going to burst a hole through her chest; it was a painful feeling. She was ripped from her warm, safe place to this painful, cold place. Her body trembled and ached against Octavio's arms. "Che. I need you to activate D.O.C." Octavio kept repeating himself as he grabbed her hand by her wrist and placed it on top of her drone.

When the pounding in Ajay's head slowed down she was finally able to understand what Octavio was saying to her through her hazy thoughts. She really just wanted to go back to sleep where it was safe, warm, and less painful. She briefly closed her eyes and started to slip back into her dreams of the past until she heard Octavio's voice again, "Mi amor, mi esposa, I can't live without you. Please wake up and help me."

There was an undeniable sadness in Octavio's voice he injected his native language. She could sense his urgency and she knew that she needed to do what he was telling her before she went back to her safe place. Ajay could feel the cold metal of the drone beneath her hand. She could faintly think about how to activate D.O.C. through her foggy thoughts. "How? What do I do again?" It was too hard to think.

A streak of blood painted the drone as her hand fell from the top of D.O.C. and moved towards the bottom. The racing in her heart had subsided and a much more soothing feeling began to wash over her. In that split moment she was able to think clearly as she pressed her fingertips underneath her healing drone. She let the soothing feeling engulf her body as her heart slowed drastically.

Octavio's eyes began to water and swell as he watched Ajay's hand fall from the drone. He reached up with a bloody hand and pushed his goggles up to his forehead. Tears left trails in the dirt and blood that covered his face. He was watching her die in his arms and there was not a single thing that he could do about it. He couldn't live without her; he wouldn't live without her. More tears fell from his eyes as he looked over her pale body that lay lifeless and cold in his arms. "Mi amor..." He whispered.

Suddenly D.O.C. clicked on and began to hum and beep. The bot attached itself to Ajay and let off a soft teal glow as it began to heal her. Ajay moaned in pain as the skin on her back began to close up as her drone repaired it. Octavio sobbed silently and dug his fingers into her as he pulled Ajay's cold body into him. He feared that he waited too long to stim her and that D.O.C. might not be able completely heal her. He was afraid that he was still going to lose her.

As the last wound on her back closed up, D.O.C. abruptly turned off and hit the dirt with a thud noise. Octavio let a staggered sigh and knew that the drone had not finished healing her but there was nothing he could do about it. The prowler had decommissioned the drone from its attack on Ajay. Even if he could fix D.O.C. it wouldn't do any good now. He eased his cold, bloody shirt from her back and tossed it into the dirt.

"Por favor quédate conmigo mi amor." Octavio whispered into Ajay's ear and kissed her temple before pulling his face away from hers. He looked over to Renee who still had her back him, "Why did you even bring her here?" Renee kept her back to him and kept an eye out for any potential prowlers, "She asked me to. I care about her and she cares about you." Renee wanted to see if Ajay was still alive but she knew that she couldn't let her guard down.

Octavio closed his eyes tightly and tried to hold back his unjustified anger towards Renee, "Can we just get out of here already?" Renee shook her head, "Just a few minutes. When I forced the portal to get here faster it put a strain on the device so now we have to wait a little bit longer." Her voice was cold and emotionless as she spoke.

Octavio sighed, "Why couldn't we have just taken her to the hospital." Renee finally turned around to face him but her face was not welcoming as she looked at Octavio, "You can't be serious?" Octavio looked at her with is own distraught and confused face. Renee waited for explanation from him and then realized that he was serious.

"I am surprised she tolerated you staying at the hospital for as long as you did under the close watch of The Syndicate." Octavio's body grew a bit tense, "Come again?" Renee rolled her eyes at him "You really need to start listening to your wife. Dr. Bateman is part of The Syndicate. She is in deep with them. I told Ajay that after she spoke with Blisk You know that she was ready to kill Blisk because of what happened to you?" Renee placed a hand on her hip as she looked down at him.

"Either way, Bateman is part of The Syndicate, I guess she didn't know that until I told her that. When I found out that Ajay was actually the one who shut down the arena that one night I was so angry. I wanted to hurt her. So I confronted her about it when I saw her HQ. She had just walked out of Blisk's office." Renee paused and looked at Ajay in Octavio's arms before looking back at Octavio's blood stained face.

"Ajay told me why she did what she did. So I shared information about Bateman with her. It was my way of thanking her for making sure my past wasn't broadcasted to the masses. I figured that she would have mentioned it to you. The Syndicate has their fingers deep in Apex. Deeper than we had originally thought." Renee wanted to ask if Ajay was still alive but she was afraid to get the wrong answer.

Octavio was shocked from everything that Renee had just told him. He had never even gave Ajay a chance to explain everything to him from that day. "We got into an argument because I thought that she was screwing around with you." He looked down at Ajay, "She was also taking care of this Syndicate shit without me and I was afraid she was going to get hurt or killed. So when she brought all of this up at the bar I was pissed. I didn't give her a chance to explain."

Renee shook her head, "I would kill to have someone like Ajay in my life. I did try to make a move on her. I kissed her because I have feelings for her. That will probably never change. I admit I was out of line but she put a stop to it. She said that she didn't want to do anything to hurt you because she loved you. I wished that someone loved me as much as she loves you."

Renee sighed and changed the subject, "You know what? Ajay does a lot to protect everyone, so you should probably be patient with her and cut her some slack. She is just trying to make sure everyone is safe. She is stronger than everyone gives her credit for. She is also intelligent. We have had plenty of arena wins because of her quick thinking and game planning."

Octavio knew that Renee was right about everything that she said. He clutched Ajay tightly against him, "I get it Renee but who is going to protect her?" Renee shook her head, "Honestly, she was doing fine at protecting herself until you got here." Octavio' heart sunk when Renee's words pierced through him. He wanted to tell her about how Ajay was almost dead the one night he went over to her place but he knew that now was not the time.

Renee holstered her Wingman and turned around, "It's time." Octavio cradled Ajay in his arms and grabbed D.O.C. as he stood up. Renee clicked a few buttons on the device on her wrist and tore the air open in front of them to create a dark blue portal. Octavio entered the portal with Ajay in his arms followed by Renee. He would either be bringing Ajay home to heal or to bury; either way he was bringing her home.