Alive enough to play
Chapter 12
"Don't tell him anything that you don't have to." Chase says but he isn't expecting for Jack to actually follow his instructions, he knew Jack will fail at this very simple task.
"Yeah. Yes. Of course." Jack says, he breaths in deeply and turns to order a Jack-bot. "Go get ready for Omi, I bet he is going to be wreck."
Jack tries to get ready to see Omi, he changes his clothes and cleans himself and very slowly he walks to the stairs where a robot carries him down. Chase informs Jack that he will leave to let him and Omi talk freely. Jack pouts but he knows that Omi is wary around Chase so he agrees without whining too much. Jack reaches the kitchen and looks for snacks. He chooses jasmine tea, grapefruit-lemonade with berries, lavender and lime cookies, cucumber sandwiches, banana pudding on tiny oatmeal bowls, tomato-avocado-fake-cheese and crackers, grilled tofu, a extra light french onion soup, and caramelized persimmons.
The tea got cold, and the soup hard.
Once Omi actually came inside the Spicer mansion two hours after the time expected, panting and sweating, dressed with local clothing instead of his red robes and smelling like he had been living on a tiny fishing boat for the last four years.
"Omi! What took you so long?!" Jack was sitting by the door but Omi didn't even seem to register his question, he takes the lemonade pitcher and drinks the precious liquid until the jar is completely vertical. "Bring this idiot some water." Jack orders to any robot, and three Jack-bots hurry to obey.
Omi proceeds to eat the food in front of him like a man who had only eaten seaweed for the last two weeks.
"Okay. Hi, Omi. Is good to see you, by the way I'm not dead. I'm not sure if you notice." Jack says as he looks at Omi chock on onion soup. "That is gross Omi." Jack says with disgust.
Luckily for Omi a robot offers him a new pitcher of water potentially saving his life.
"Are you done?" Jack asks after Omi finishes his second pitcher, but the younger man's face frowns with pain and repulsion. "Omi?" Jack worries and tries to stand up from his chair but the pain that spreads from his arms to chest, stomach and hips doesn't let him, and Omi proceeds to returns everything he just eat on a mildly violent manner.
Omi looks at the mess he left on the carpet, his legs shake too hard and he falls to the floor.
Jack calls for a medic and curses, even though he tries to not curse in front of Omi; "Fuck! Fuck. Omi. Can you hear me?!"
Jack pushes through the pain and moves next to Omi, he falls almost on top of the monk.
"Omi? Omi? Cheese stick?!" Jack tries Omi's new nickname, once Omi grew taller than Chase Jack couldn't bother him for being short.
"Sorry." Omi whispers looking at the mess he made. He tries to stand up but Jack puts his good hand on Omi's shoulder keeping him down. -Also to balance himself.
"Yeah don't worry about that Omi. Omi, look at me. Can you look at me?" Jack asks and Omi turns to look at Jack. Then everything became blurry.
Omi's heart beats as fast as when he is in battle, but his lungs stop working for a second, he tries to clean his face -two types of leftover puke on the back of his throat and new tears over old ones.
"Jack-" You are alive. Omi couldn't talk.
"You look like shit Omi." Jack hissed like he was in pain, which he was, and Omi laughs.
"I feel that way too." The younger monk didn't care for cursing when it came from Jack.
A robot comes to take Omi and Jack to the med-bay.
"What happen to you?" Jack asks and Omi looks at his hands.
When jack died they were covered with warm red blood -he was preventing jack's dead.
When the rat die his hands were cold and oddly white -his hands killed the rat.
Omi remembers he spend a considerable amount of time on a cave under the sea.
Omi remembers he made a deal with the witch.
Omi remembers he knowingly walked into a trap; he can only blame himself - and on later years Jack as well.
"Omi?"
Omi abandoned his friends, but he was going to explain everything. He left the little cave and raced the sun to the temple, but Hannibal minions were waiting. Omi couldn't be seem by the infernal bird, so Omi left to the only other place he could go.
Omi felt a needle on his arm and he attacks the cause of his pain. A robot breaks against Omi's fist.
"Shit -Omi you need that serum, let the medic do its job!" Jack says.
"Oh, sorry." Omi repeats what he said almost an hour ago.
Jack stayed quiet and saw Omi shivered under the thick blanket for another hour.
That's how shock works, Jack guesses.
Some people can continue under any circumstances until they stop. Once they stop the reality of their situation washes over them like ice cold seawater.
Omi reacts when a drink is put on his hands by a robot.
A little paper cup with little pink butterflies and blue flowers. Omi drinks the room temperature substance and he is surprised by a no-tea beverage.
"What is this?"
"Pedialyte." Jack says and drinks from his own cup. "You are very dehydrate it." Jack decided not to add any questions, Omi seems...delicate at the moment.
But Jack has no right to feel bad, only guilty, he agreed to this.
To not warn Omi, to not allow him a head start, to not protect him.
"Oh. Yeah." Omi drinks the gross liquid, he dislikes it but at least he wasn't drinking alone.
Jack stares at his friend on silence, the readings on Omi's medical check seem to indicate that Omi went through cardiogenic shock, but you don't stand up again if you went through cardiogenic shock.
Jack looked over Omi waiting with patience he didn't know he had.
Omi seem unresponsive of what was happening around him, he drank from his cup and started at the empty bottom when he finished it.
"You gotta wait." Jack instructed and Omi noded. But that was a reflex, like sitting up straight when you hear your parents call your full name.
Omi was new to that feeling.
"Omi?"
Omi knew of his teacher's tone; soft but stern. He wondered if parents sound the same, similar maybe?
"Jack?" Omi mumbles.
"How are you alive?" Jack whispers and calls a bigger medical crew.
There was a cut on Omi's chest -the left side four ribs under his armpit, that had become infected it.
After the robots cleaned it and administrated the needed medicine, Jack was left waiting for Omi to come back completely.
He shows a higher level of alertness as time passes.
Jack very silently worries for Omi's life, though at the moment very few things could kill the monk. Everything can still hurt him just as badly, just not kill him.
Jack felt his throat close and his eyes water with tears he was actually fighting. Omi would call this moment irony on the years to come.
"Spicer." Omi calls and he ignores the warm fabric delicately cleaning his chest.
"Are you awake?" Jack asks.
"Yeah?" Omi tilts his head.
It was almost night.
"Good. What that he- Heck Omi! What the actual heck?!" Jack hisses from his chair.
"I messed up." Omi blurts out and that stops Jack from continue his nagging. "I joined the Heylin." Omi confesses and Jack smile without trying. Jack barks a loud laugh and forces himself to stand from his chair, he just got a new dose so he feels a considerably less amount of pain than before.
"I'll show you the ropes! I'll be your partner. No; I'll be your mentor-" Jack smiles and pushes on the back of his mind those ugly thoughts like: Omi could never be Heylin, it goes against everything he values.
"No. I- I. I made a deal with a Heylin. For my benefit." Omi says and looks at his down at his hands. Jack stares at the very vulnerable boy in front of him.
"What? You lied to me." Jack exclaims. "Got up for nothing! No congratulations to you!" Jack's legs are too weak for him to turn and he feels dizzy, so he slowly descends to the floor. "Why everything hurts?!" Jack whines.
Omi tries to said something, to add to the conversation, to disagree or agree, but he just stays there staring at his hands.
"Omi. You are not Heylin because you made a stupid deal." Jack says from the floor.
The young man looks at his hands and wonders are this hands human?
"You don't know what I had done." Omi says without moving.
Jack lays on the floor because sitting up hurts his back.
"True. But I know you." Jack says. "I know you wouldn't go too far." The man lying on the floor wasn't an idiot. He knows that whatever Omi did, it should had cost him his life. If he is alive is because he is paying a much higher price. "Heylin and Xiaolin make deals all the time. And of course whatever you agreed to benefits you, why would you make a deal that doesn't benefit you. Omi. Is going to be fine." Jack tries and Omi looks at him.
The young man sat on the chair and cleans the little tears that keep escaping from the corners of his eyes.
"I'm glad you are alive Jack." Omi says and Jack smiles.
"Me too." Jack jokes. He tries to stand up but everything hurts. "Can someone give me a stronger dose like right now!"
Omi smiles, first time on a while, and offers his hand to Jack.
Jack accepts the help but when he tries to pull himself up he accidentally pulls Omi down. Omi falls over Jack's stomach and Jack screams, his wound stretches and pain runs through his body like electricity. But also Omi smells like someone made perfume of seaweed left on the sun and then spray a dirty dog with it.
"Get off!" Jack whines.
On the other hand Omi's body was sore as if he had been on constant movement for an unnatural amount of time and he just come to a stop.
"No." Omi tries to roll off but he doesn't have any energy left. At the end the robots save both young men.
Omi lays on the ground next to Jack's legs and tries to rest.
"Is going to be fine Omi." Jack says from where he is. Jack says it with confidence that can only be fake by an expert liar, a prove that Wuya was Jack's mentor.
Omi believes him.
"I'm sorry I eat all are snacks." Omi answer feeling hungry.
"I'm sorry you puke all over the carpet. Mom is going to freak if she sees it." Jack says and he tries to not visualising her waiting with her phone on hand. So worry and scare for Jack, like an actual mother would.
"I have been puking all week." Omi groans. "I can taste it."
"Eww. Move away from me." Jack doesn't ask why. It is not the time yet. "Omi go clean yourself. Only laying next to you is making feel dirty."
"I don't want to move." Omi whines loudly and purposely, something he only does when no one is looking.
"You are disgusting." Jack says and they stay on the floor for a while, Jack isn't sure who fall asleep first or when did his robots move them to a homemade bed (a pile of blankets). But when Jack wakes up Omi isn't next to him anymore.
Jack groans at the pain, he was awaken by the sunlight but the pain on his shoulder force a new level of alertness onto him. The report said that the bullet didn't actually hit bone but Jack felt like it had gone through him. He turns to tell Omi of his last misadventure but no one was there.
"Where did the cheese stick went? And why am I on pain? Whatever you are giving me, you gotta double it." Jack orders but he is inform that Jack's level of pain is 'acceptable' versus the possibility of prescribed dependency.
"Who decided it that!" Jack complains but he doesn't fight it.
"Omi is currently cleaning himself on the northeast lavender bathroom."
"Finally! I feel like I also stink just because I laid next to him." After that statement Jack considers taking a shower himself but it seem like too much effort. Instead he looks at the ceiling on silence, so much was happening while he was laying down. Jack wonders what is the strategy that Chase has formed and how would affect them; how Omi fits on this unknown plan?
Jack closed his eyes for a second and then something fell on him. It was still bright out and Omi was laying on the little imprumut bed, he had a cheeky smile and Jack struggle to lift the wet towel from his face.
"You think you are so cute." Jack says and finds that he has a headache from sleeping.
"I truly am." Omi turns to look at Jack.
Jack's phone rings. A robot informs Jack that the caller if his mother.
Jack stops whatever he was going to say and stays quiet. Those tricky bastards did that on purpose. They knew Omi would asked Jack to answer the phone.
"Mrs. Spicer?" Omi smiles, he likes talking to her. She is always sweet to him.
"Should I answer it? Sir."
Jack looks at Omi and feels his eyes become heavy with guilt.
"Should I let her know you are okay? Sir."
Omi seems uncomfortable under the new atmosphere. "Spicer, Mrs. Spicer is a busy lady." Omi hurries his friend. Omi could use a beatiful woman telling him he was lovely and destined to greatness.
"Should I answer it? Sir"
"No." Jack says and Omi's face fells. "Omi. I- I have to tell you something." Jack explains and he doesn't skip details. He doesn't skip the sick feeling he felt, or the thrill of pressing the trigger, the nausea he has, the odd sense of power, and the fear of what his mother would said.
At the end of all Jack can only said one thing. 'I'm sorry.'
That would be the first and last time Jack would apologized for taking someone's life.
"Jack- I. You wanted to protect your mother." Omi says firmly.
"No. I'm sorry. I- I'm apologizing to you." Jack looks at Omi, and the younger man becomes more confused than disturbed for a moment.
Jack and Omi weren't good friends to each other. They don't call each other to say happy birthday. They don't warn each other before a big attack. They don't know how to behave like normal friends, both lack practice.
But they are each other outlet. Omi comes to face those fears that maybe he isn't truly good; just maybe, he being good was chosen for him by the temple. And Jack fears and feeds from the idea, sometimes the hope, that he is truly good; just maybe, Jack didn't have to guidance to be good, and that's why he ended up ...bad.
Now both had chosen sides on the next big conflict. Their decisions would go down on history.
"What do you mean?" Omi could barely breath, there were so many thing happening at the same time.
"I'm sorry Omi. You told me I was good, you believed it so- I started believing it to, but now I know the answer. I'm not a good person. I do bad things, and I don't feel regret about it. I would do it again. I'm sorry." I'm sorry I disappoint you.
Omi stays on silence. He didn't know how to answer or if he should answer at all. Omi didn't know if he was good after agreeing with the witch, he couldn't pass judgement over Jack.
"Is okay." Omi didn't know what would be okay. Omi wasn't an expert liar, he didn't know how to make words sound nice, so he just repeated his words until Jack understood. "Is okay." you won't lose me, I'm your friend.
The doc-bots came to give them their respective medication, and they fall and stay asleep for the next ten minutes until they were forced their opposite ways.
AN: Okay, I'll get back to the plot soon, promise...
Please let me know how the story is going! Thanks