Disclaimer: All Bust-A-Groove elements belong to Enix. I own nothing.

Note: If you have not read La Rima Tibia (Chapters 1-6), my other story, do not read this fic. You have to read La Rima Tibia to understand what this fic is about.

Presenting the continuation to La Rima Tibia...

El Ritmo Frio

(Cold Beat)

Chapter 1: Nightmare

by ArchFaith (formerly known as the ArchPrincess of Saturn)

Water sloshing into the cabin, drowning my throat and lungs....I gasped for air, gulping the liquid around me. My hand, tightening against my beloved's...

Tightening...and then letting go...

-

I ache so badly I cannot move. I cannot breath. I cannot think.

Am I dead? No, I do not think so. Heaven doesn't smell like cleaning chemicals and sterile sheets.

I find myself in a bed-the hospital, presumably- dressed in a thin hospital gown, the cold air inching up my freezing spine. My forehead, my hands, my legs from the knees down...all wrapped in bandages. I was hooked up to a respirator, and I was making good use of it.

I was disoriented. A second ago...in the plane, crashing into the ocean, unable to locate any oxygen, sinking, down, down, down...

Now where was I? In this small room, with myself on a bed. And a TV on the wall. And a bedpan sitting on the table next to my bed.

I sit up, with a groan. Almost immediately, a nurse comes into the room, wearing a head cap and gloves. She gives me a gentle smile. "So you're finally awake. You're lucky you survived.

"Wha..." I try to ask, but too confused to find the words. I frown and look at her.

"I guess you're pretty confused right now. Well, I'm Irami Nakajima, a nurse here at Tokyo Hospital. Your plane crashed into the ocean two days ago, and emergency workers were able to locate the passengers and bring them here to the hospital. Your name is—"

"Did anyone die?" I ask breathlessly, wondering if my love was alright.

"Luckily, no. Most of the passengers were bruised or waterlogged, but not seriously injured. In fact, I think you had the most serious injuries." Here she paused. "Well, except for..."

Despite the dull aching in my chest, the ringing in my ears, the fatigue in my legs, I manage to stand. I pulled the respirator out of my mouth and gulped the stale hospital air. Irami looked shocked. "Please, don't get out of bed! You're weak enough as it is!" She tried to push me back down, but I prevailed and stood.

"Who has more serious injuries?!" I demand.

"Well..."

"Take me to the person right now!" I scream.

Irami sighed. "It's against hospital rules."

"But I have to..."

She could sense my anxiety through my eyes. She went around to the corner of the room, where, next to the window, there stood a folded-up wheelchair. She unfolded it, and pushed it to where I stood. "Get in."

-

The hospital corridors were white. Blindingly white. I had to squint as Irami wheeled me, draped in a bathrobe, into the elevator and out to the floor above mine. Everywhere, patients sat in rooms, some children, some adults. Mostly heaps of blankets, with relatives clustered about. An occasional sob would be heard, to mark the passing of a loved one. I would never sob. My loved one would not pass yet...

It seemed as though the corridors would never end, that all I would ever see would be doors and doors and more doors, until she pushed me through glass doors that read, in bold white letters:

LONG TERM

My heart froze. I did not know what long term meant, but I had a sneaking suspicion that it was not what I wanted.

She pushed me into a room. A room very much like mine. Walls, TV, bedpan...but what caught me was the figure that lay on the bed, hooked to a respirator, breathing shallowly, eyes closed. My heart stood still and refused to beat.

The figure was dressed in a gown, a blanket covering everything up to the neck. So pale...almost dead.

"Oh God," I whispered, unbelieving.

Irami's voice penetrated the shield of shock that had covered me. "It's been this way for two days, ever since the plane was recovered. In a coma..."

Water trickles down my cheek, crawling vertically until it falls off my face and splashes on the fall. Tears, like the water which put my love in a coma...

Emotions flood my mind, my brain trying to sort out what I should be thinking.

It is all my fault.

I should have never done this.

I am so sorry.

I love you.

I failed you.

Shorty, don't leave me...

TBC

Note: Nurse Irami Nakajima is Kitty-N's elder cousin.