Yusei, open your eyes!
Her heart rate is dropping!
Yusei, you need to wake up!
She's fading!
Give her some epinephrine!
Fudo Yusei! Wake up!
Waking up was one of the most horrible experiences ever. My body was screaming in agony with every single breath, sending so many pain signals that I didn't know what to focus on. It was my pain after the facility, but rather 'I just fell down a cliff, hit multiple things on the way down, and then belly flopped into the ocean'. There wasn't a part of my body that didn't hurt, and I couldn't even work up the energy to open my eyes to see where I was.
From what I could tell from my other senses, I was in a room full of noisy machines, including one that forced air into my lungs.
A hand grabbed mine, bringing even more pain into my system, "I've changed my mind. You, young lady, are banned from saving the world, with or without help."
MARTHA! She's okay!
I tried to do anything, even just move my hand a bit, just to let her know that I was awake. But my mind had another plan in store as everything slowly went quieter and quieter.
"Looks like Fudo-san is waking back up."
More than one set of footsteps were happening around me as the stupid machines kept going. But even though I was barely conscious, I could feel the tension in the air around me. It felt like Martha's house when someone was brought in with something that we knew couldn't be fixed.
A familiar group of emotions approached me, and my hand was grabbed again, "Yusei, I need you to try and stay awake for a few minutes."
Martha again. That must mean that when I defeated Roman that she came back. I wonder how everyone else is doing?
A needle pierced my arm, and my whole body tensed as a whimper came out.
Martha gripped my hand tighter, "Calm down, Yusei. It's just a blood check."
From my right came a voice, "Can you move anything, Fudo-san?"
The beeping machine started to beep less, but the room burst into action as the world around me quieted down, "She's crashing again!"
"Get the paddles!"
"Yusei, stay awake!"
Staying awake is hard. But at least it means that this stupid thing is going to be gone.
Martha held my hand, talking to me, "You're doing great, Yusei. Just focus on my voice, and it will be over in a moment."
Hands held me down as the tube down my throat was pulled out, nearly activating my gag reflex. The second it was out, coughs exploded from me.
"She looks stable. But we're still going to put a facial airmask on her just to keep her O2 stats up."
The hands that put something on my face were gentle, and Martha moved back to her seat, "Knowing you, you are probably ecstatic that you don't have that down your throat anymore."
I weakly squeezed her hand, and she kissed my forehead, "I have some good news. They have almost everyone off Satellite, and have started fixing the buildings near the docks. Even if Director Goodwin is not around anymore, they are honoring his promise."
A few muscles in my face twitched, I wonder what it'll look like? Will the kids get to go to school?
When someone else sat down next to my bed, I was shocked, "Hey, Yusei. Martha said that your eyes don't open when you are awake, so it's hard to tell when you are awake. Luna, Leo, and I were just released from the hospital. Jack and Crow have only been staying conscious for the past few days, so Martha says you should be able to stay awake in another week or two. She thinks that since you went through more shadow duels than the rest of us that you need more rest."
Nope. Not letting them win. I can't be the last one to recover.
My eyes fluttered open, screaming every millimeter that they had to move, "They'll never let me live it down if I'm last. I'm going to get out before them."
Aki covered her mouth, trying to hide her laughter, "Clearly I forgot how competitive you are. Okay, but they already have a head start."
"So? I'll still beat them."
Luna curled up on the window seat, reading something from a datapad as I did one of the tasks that the physical therapist had told me to do, "How long have I been awake this time?"
She looked up, "Almost two hours. Are you tired again?"
"I feel like I raced the cops on foot from one end of Satellite to the other without stopping. How long ago did we beat Goodwin?"
"Around two months? I haven't been paying attention. But I know that you got the intubation tube out a week and a half ago."
Stiffly, I dropped the squishy bag onto my bedside table, "I'm assuming that was the thing down my throat."
Martha's chuckle drew my attention to the door, "It was. Rally and the guys dropped off some flowers for you since they couldn't visit. How are you feeling?"
Before I could respond, a yawn slipped out while she placed the flowers down, "I guess that answers my question. If you are tired, you should go to sleep. Pushing yourself too far will only slow down your recovery."
"Fine. If you insist."
Aki was pacing from one side of the room to the other, muttering under her breath. I watched her for a bit before speaking up, "Aki. Just meet them in here if you are so worried about how they'll treat you. My room is under constant surveillance, so they won't make a big scene."
"But I don't know if that's allowed."
"Then ask. I certainly can't, since there's a freaking alarm on this bed that goes off if I get up."
She bounced for a minute before slipping out, giving me a glimpse of the guards outside my door. Within a couple minutes, she came back in, "Okay, so it's going to happen in here, so I can have backup."
I raised an eyebrow, "And so you can tell if they are sincere?"
Aki wrapped her arms around me, "Thanks, Yusei. I'm just so nervous."
"Couldn't tell. Now, please help me sit up."
With her help, I sat up and got my hair somewhat under control, just so I would look something along the line of a human being before I met a lawmaker.
After a while, the door slowly opened to admit two people. Aki's mom looked so much like her, but her dad looked like a generic old city man. The further in the room they moved, the more Aki moved towards me.
To his credit, her dad didn't try to get closer to her. He looked at me, "Hello, Fudo Yusei. My name is Izayoi Hideo, and this is my wife Izayoi Setsuko. Thank you for allowing us to disturb your peace."
Shrugging, I adjusted my blanket, "I know what it's like to not be wanted around because of powers. She asked for me to be a moderator for this conversation. And Aki? They're not going to bite. At least go give them handshakes."
Timidly, Aki walked to her parents and shook her dad's hand. Her mom wasn't going to have that though, and gave her a hug, "We're so sorry little rose! We shouldn't have pushed you away from us!"
For a moment, Aki stiffened, before breaking. She wrapped her arms around her mother, and let out tears I knew she had been holding back. Both her dad and I remained quiet as the two women sobbed, him looking as uncomfortable as I felt.
When the two of them let go of each other, Aki turned to her dad while wiping off tears, "I am going to say a word or phrase, and you have to say the first word you think of."
He nodded, and she started, "My powers."
"Terrifying."
"Aki."
"Angel."
"Hideo."
"Selfish."
She seemed shocked by that, "You think you are selfish?"
He looked her directly in the eyes, "Yes, because I only thought about myself when your powers emerged, not how scared you must be. It wasn't until years later that I realized that you must have been just as terrified, if not more, than we were."
Aki glanced back at me, and I gave her a brief nod before she turned back to them, "I'm sorry for losing my cool all of the time."
Carefully, her dad moved closer to her, "We panicked, we had no idea what to do, or how to discipline you when you used your powers."
She moved back to the side of my bed, "Yusei helped me understand more about my powers. Mostly by talking about her own."
Both of her parents looked over at me, and I cracked a smile, "Yes, I am a girl. Satellite isn't the best place to be one, so I dressed as a boy for my whole life."
The silence stretched for a few more minutes, before her dad attempted to restart the conversation, "I shouldn't be terribly surprised by that. So, what is your...talent?"
Aki spoke up for me, "She can feel and manipulate other people's emotions, which is why I wanted to have her in the room. She also can't lie easily because it makes her uncomfortable."
Her mom looked at me, "Thank you for helping us, even when you look so tired."
My friend glanced between the two groups, "Yusei needs connections because of her power, so she considers her close friends to be her family."
"In other words, I consider Aki to be my sister. So I don't mind helping her out."
Setsuko approached the bed, sitting on my other side, "How did your parents react to your powers?"
"I wouldn't know. My mom died sometime before Satellite was created, and my dad went missing during the earthquake and tsunami. My first two foster parents kicked me out when my powers showed up. The last one didn't bat an eye at it really. She raised two of us with powers, and whenever something would happen she would just hold us until we calmed down."
Hideo moved to the window seat, "She sounds like an amazing woman."
"She is. I wouldn't be the same person without her. It was with her help that I used what few things I had to learn about my birth parents."
I now had his full attention, "You mentioned that your father was one of the people who went missing. What did he do for a living before that?"
Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I shrugged again, "He was the head scientist at the Ener-D Reactor. Since it went off, no one has seen him."
He leaned forward, "Did you hear that people were found inside the old reactor?"
Aki nodded, "No one will tell us anything, but I'm pretty sure that Yusei's mother figure knows something."
My body screamed as I shot into a sitting position, "How many people were found?"
Hope surged within me as he answered, "They say that dozens were found, all of them in lab coats."
Could it be?
"Does anyone know who exactly came back?"
An irritating beep filled the room, causing everyone to look at the machine next to me. Aki grabbed my hand, "Yusei, calm down before the doctors come in!"
Slouching down into my pillows, "I just want to know if my dad is back."
Hideo stood up, moving to the door, "I'll see if any of my connections know anything."
The door closed behind him, leaving us three women in a silent, tension filled room.
A/N: Thanks to Lets-Go-To-Vermont and Dark Lord of the Fallen Angels for reviewing on the original version of this chapter.
