Listen Up, Everyone! I have an important announcement to make! I don't know if you've heard or not, but I've partnered up with Tari J. Deiter. I'm sure you all know how amazing her "Evil Within Saga" is. Her final installment to the saga, "Cyberchase: A Shield-maiden's Strife" is now a collaboration with "Picking Up the Broken Glass". So, you should go read it. You can find it under Cyberchase Crossovers, in the Huntik: Secrets & Seekers section. If you've not read the first three in the saga yet I recommend you do so before diving into the gripping conclusion.
Ok, now to the regularly scheduled author's note.
A/N: So, here's chapter eight! THIS IS NOT FOR THE SUPER SQUEEMISH. This is an operating scene. Wade in at your own risk. I personally don't think it's too bad but I'm the one who wrote it. I changed McGaherty's name from Harris to Perth, which means "thorn bush". I needed the name Harris for a future book in the series. I think one of you might get why. There is a lot going on in here so PLEASE FOLLOW THE LEDGEND BELOW! It will help you. I hope this doesn't get too confusing. But if I figured it out I think you will too.
LEDGEND:
Plain Text: Story in plain text is what's happening in reality.
Italicized Text: What Echo is seeing in her subconscious.
Bold Text: Echo's thoughts.
Disclaimer: I don't own Cyberchase. I DO own Echo and her family. I don't own Trauma Center (Dr. Kasal, Dr. Clarks, Nurse Mary Fulton, GUILT, Caduceus USA, Europe, Japan, and its technologies), Atlus does.
P.S: There is a nod to history in here! Can you find it? Hint: Two separate people, one character. The answer will be revealed in the next chapter. Okay, On with the show!
Picking Up the Broken Glass
Kawaii Stella
Chapter Eight
GUILT
Act I
Kyriaki and Paraskevi
All through the night Echo convulsed as she heaved into the ceramic bowl. The water which was once clear was now crimson. Echo's nose and throat burned from the acidic vile she was retching up. She did not know for how long she vomited for, but eventually she collapsed to the floor, immobilized by pain. Unable to move, Echo stared at the ceiling, drifting to and from conscious.
Eventually the sun began to rise. A kitchen aid came to deliver Echo's breakfast as she did every morning. The aid was confused as to why Echo was not coming to the window to retrieve her meal. The girl had always pulled her meal through the window as soon as it came. Tentatively the aid rapped her knuckles against the Plexiglas. Then again, louder. When no response came, the aid left to retrieve Ms. Truehart.
Truehart unlocked Echo's cell, irritated that her least favorite orphan was causing her to lose precious time she had slated for other things. A scowl formed on Truehart face when Echo was not in her bed. The bathroom light was on, so that was where the caretaker trudged.
"Hell fire! Damn it all!" Abigail Truehart growled.
On the floor lay Echo, surrounded by splatters of her bloody bile. Echo lay limp; her chest heaving with each difficult breath which exited her mouth which was wide open. Each breath came and went with a pathetic wheeze. Echo's green eyes were unfocused and glazed over, only seeing blurs of color. Truehart paled at the blood filled toilet then directed her attention to the girl on the floor. Truehart frowned and nudged Echo with her foot. Echo let out a gurgled moan and her head lolled to the side.
"Well shit."
Am I dead? No, death is supposed to be painless. What I feel, - it is excruciating beyond measure. What is this blur of color above me and why does it not help me? I tried to blink – to make the fuzzies in my eyes go away- but now I can't reopen them. What is this now? What is this grey fog swirling towards me? It… it is consuming me…!
The paramedics came quickly to the Sensible Flats Orphanage. Abigail tried to flirt with the two male paramedics, desperately trying to earn their attention; rather unsuccessfully. The paramedics checked Echo's vitals, finding her highly unresponsive. A thick foam brace was wrapped around Echo's neck before she was strapped to a rolling gurney. While Echo was being loaded into the ambulance, one EMT radioed ahead to New Hope Hospital, the only hospital in Cyberspace that dealt with humans, to alert the doctors to Echo's condition and their estimated time of arrival.
~New Hope Hospital, Cyberspace~
It had been an extremely tough road bringing New Hope Hospital into existence. At its conception, New Hope hadn't been New Hope. It had been Caduceus Cyberspace. Caduceus Cyberspace was the brainchild of several doctors who wished to help the small percentage of humans who resided in Cyberspace.
The medical advancements in Cyberspace were remarkable. Almost anything could be treated and fixed without much worry. Well, if you were a cyborg, anyway. For the humans, the medical help was practically nonexistent. To be diagnosed with the flu or have a broken bone mended required the people to portal out of Cyberspace to their own hospitals. This meant the odds of surviving a stroke or other serious ailments were severely depleted. This was where the dreams of that group of doctors came in.
They wanted to build a hospital- one more advanced than most. The Cyberspacian humans needed something more than a general hospital. What was needed was a top of the line facility that could not only handle the common ailments but successfully combat the more complex ones as well. The doctors knew that there also needed to be a research facility. Cyberspace was a new, unknown frontier to humans. No one knew if there were unknown viruses to affect the humans lurking in the depths of Cyberspace. If one should appear, it would need to be researched in order to find a treatment and hopefully a cure.
With the doctors knowing exactly what they wanted in their new hospital, they appealed to Motherboard. Motherboard heartily agreed that there needed to be a hospital for the humans. She gave the doctors her approval and blessing for the project. Now they needed to partners to receive the final push to get this hospital built.
In order to make this hospital a top notch sanctuary of medical treatment and research, the doctors needed to join a network of similar hospitals. The top choice was the Caduceus system of hospitals. On Earth Caduceus was the premier line of hospitals on the frontline of modern medicine. There were three international branches and these wishful doctors hoped to make Cyberspace the home of the fourth branch and the only interdimensional branch.
The lead boards from each branch gathered to hear this plea of the four doctors. The doctors presented their plan and objectives as well as their visual aids; drawings and blueprints of the new building. The three boards conferred in private, deciding the fate of this dream.
The American branch was very supporting of this plan. They agreed thoroughly with the idea of increasing the medical care for Cyberspace. The doctors on the American board believed there should never be an incurable disease and that having another branch in a totally new area could help that goal. Caduceus USA put their full support behind the plan for a new branch. Caduceus Europe was a completely different story. Their opinion was that there were not enough humans in Cyberspace to merit a hospital at the Caduceus level. It would be a waste of funding. Lastly came the opinion of the board representing Caduceus Japan. They were split of the matter.
What did this boil down to? There would be no Caduceus Cyberspace. This disappointed our team of doctors but did not drive them to give up. They just had to scale back. And finally, thanks to the support and partnerships of three other hospitals, including Caduceus USA, New Hope Hospital was completed.
New Hope Hospital was slightly more advanced than a general hospital, but it served its purpose well. Above the main desk were plaques with the faces and names of the four founders: Dr. Stephen Clarks, Dr. Alexi Rasputin, Dr. Ari Wolfe, and Dr. Sartorius Shovat. These four doctors were responsible for the smooth operation of the hospital. For general purposes, Dr. Rasputin was placed as Director though he collaborated with his three friends and colleagues for larger matters. The other three paid frequent visits to New Hope to check its progress. Dr. Clarks stayed at Caduceus USA as a senior surgeon and supervisor of their partnership with New Hope, making sure the funding and support was given as necessary. Dr. Wolfe coordinated New Hope's researchers and collaborated with other researchers while Dr. Shovat had a country to look after.
New Hope was so well working now, even at just seven months old, it participated in the Doctors' Advancement Program. The Doctors' Advancement Program, or DAP, was where doctors from different hospitals traded places to gain more experience and knowledge. That program was what brought Dr. Greg Kasal to New Hope hospital.
"Dr. Kasal! We just received a radio report that a critical patient is in transport here as we speak. Patient files are being faxed in now." Nurse Mary Fulton, senior nurse of New Hope, relayed this information urgently.
Dr. Kasal nodded sagely, his features serious. "Gather the rest of the surgical staff, Mary. Sounds like we've got a challenge on our hands."
Mary nodded and quickly scurried off to gather the surgical staff per Dr. Kasal's orders. Minutes later the team, including Director Rasputin, were gathered in the pre-op conference room.
"The patient is a seventeen year old female, her case history is unknown. Reports from the EMTs stated the patient had vomited a large amount of blood prior to their arrival. She is in critical condition and very unresponsive. From the check-up she received in the ambulance she mostly responds to pain, which they discovered radiates from her intestines and chest. Scans and tests came back inconclusive. We have to be prepared for anything, including the worst." Dr. Kasal said. "She's being prepped now."
"Greg. Before you start this operation, perhaps we should call in Sartorius. He might know something about this. I mean, he has been to more places than the both of us combined." interjected Director Rasputin.
"It's possible, but he's on vacation in the tropics. We don't have the time to wait for him to get here. If we don't operate now we'll lose the patient! Call Dr. Shovat to put him on standby if you wish, but I'll be damned if I don't do everything I can for this patient. If you'll excuse me, Alexi, I have to get this operation underway."
With that Greg Kasal ordered for Echo to be moved to the operating room and be put under anesthesia.
I don't like this fog. I can't out run it. I have to open my eyes!
Echo did open her eyes. Just in time to see a hazy object come at her face and send her straight back to her subconscious.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
The fog was still there, waiting for her. When Echo saw the fog swirling tyrannically in wait her eyes widened. She didn't want to go back to the pain waiting for her back in reality, but Echo had a feeling that the pain would be more favorable that what the fog had in store. The fog leapt at Echo. It wrapped her in a firm grasp like a cobra. It held her legs together and her arms at her sides. The fog held her in the air as a wisp of the grey fog clamped itself over Echo's mouth, muting any verbal protests. Everything around Echo went black before a change of scenery occurred in front of her eyes.
The scene in from of her was a tiny living room. A little baby girl sat in a play pen, intently trying to figure out why there were little fishies in her squishy ring. Three little boys, meaner than snot, approached the playpen.
These are my memories… from when I was little…
Two of the boys looked at each other and nodded. The oldest, age seven, got down on his hands and knees while the next youngest, age six, stepped atop of his older brother and crawled into the pen. The baby girl, not even a year old, looked up at the boy.
"What'cha got there?" the boy asked.
Instinctively the wee babe held the ring tightly to her chest. She was still no match for his strength. The six year old tossed the ring over the side of the playpen unto the hands of the youngest brother, who was just five years old, as the baby's lip started to quiver. The six year old quickly climbed out of the pen.
"Angus, Seamus, and Liam! Get in here!" a voice called from the kitchen. It was a great aunt of the children.
The older two boys ran straight for the kitchen. Before the youngest joined them, he gave the teething ring back to his baby sister.
The scene went black again, the swirling fog digging for another memory.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
"Alright doctor, let's begin." Nurse Mary said, giving the ready to Dr. Kasal.
"Let's start in the intestines. The reaction came from the lower small intestine. We'll examine that area first. Sterilize the line of incision."
When Mary had done that he went into the next step without hesitation.
"Scalpel," And with that, the incision was made to give a view of Echo's small intestine. On it were a few small lacerations.
Dr. Kasal sutured the lacerations with the biodegradable surgical thread.
"This isn't right. A few small lacerations shouldn't cause that much pain. Besides, how in the world did the lacerations get there with no external wounds?"
"Doctor! What is that?" Mary squealed. It took quite a lot to get Mary shook up.
"No!" Upon first sight at the fibrous worm like parasite, Dr. Kasal went into high alert. "Give me a Chiral {1} reading now!"
"Chiral reaction confirmed!" An aid yelped.
"Damn. I've not encountered one like this before. We're going to go at this carefully. One of you, contact the Caduceus databank and find out the extraction protocol for this strain!"
"What is that thing?" Mary asked.
"It's a strain of GUILT {2}. I remember my brother talking about this strain. All cases of it were handled by Caduceus USA." Dr. Kasal explained.
"But… but it was eradicated, right?"
"On Earth. I suppose Cyberspace is a new playing field. We have to slow this thing down until they come back with the proper procedure."
"Try the laser, doctor!"
Dr. Kasal hit a spot on the fibrous GUILT and it froze it in its tracks. Just as it did the researcher came over the headset to relay instructions.
"Dr. Kasal, this specific type of GUILT is called Paraskevi. There's only one way to remove it. You have to cut it down to a small enough size to extract."
The headset crackled lightly before going silent, meaning the instructions were over. With a steady hand Dr. Kasal cut the Paraskevi in half. The GUILT unfroze, both halves going about wildly, each making new bloody lacerations.
"Cutting them makes more?!"
Echo's vitals plummeted.
"Stabilize her vitals!" Greg barked.
"Vitals stabilized, doctor." Mary said after injecting a stabilization serum into Echo's bloodstream.
"We're going to have to take this one step at a time, but we can't waste time. Keep a close eye on her vitals."
Dr. Kasal focused on one half on the original Paraskevi. It divided again into two smaller pieces, then those two pieces were each cut again, leaving four, small enough to remove GUILT. Cutting the Paraskevi caused a laceration from each piece that was created from each cut. These lacerations that had to be sutured as soon as possible to keep Echo's vitals relatively stable. In the middle of the suturing, the doctor realized the other half was gone.
"Where is it?" Dr. Kasal demanded.
"Chiral reactions are coming from the stomach!"
Dr. Kasal quickly sutured the lacerations, closed the incision, and made a new one at the stomach. He had to catch the remaining Paraskevi before it got too far.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
The memories following had been fairly decent ones. Echo, still held captive by the fog, was forced to watch herself grow up. Her first trip to America with her mother to see her grandparents plus meeting a few close friends and learning new things were among the things she saw.
The next big memory was of when Echo was eight. She had been allowed to sit in on the boys' training for the Highland Games. Her half brothers had been teasing her, just as they always did.
"This isn't a place for little girls, Echo." Seamus had said.
"Go on home and bake with your mum." Angus added. The emphasis on "your mum" had aggravated Echo to no end.
"She's your mum too! Besides, I can be here if I wanna." the little Echo had snapped back.
"Tell ya what. If you can toss one of these cabers," Angus motioned to the pile of tapered wood. "The same ones we have to use, father that we can, you can stay."
"Fine."
Angus, Seamus, and Liam each took their best shot at the caber toss. Angus and Liam made their toss, meaning the caber struck the ground straight up on the wide end, but Seamus did not. That left Echo to best two of her three half brothers. She stepped up to the line, hefted the caber at the narrow end and threw it. It seemed like an eternity for the blasted thing to land. When it did it landed stout ended straight up, beating both her brothers by a long shot.
The three boys were flabbergasted.
"Well, seems like the wee lassie's earned her kilt. Unlike you three."
"Uncle Harold! But… but she…" The boys stuttered.
"No 'buts', lads. You're just going to try harder now, aren't ye?"
"Aye…"
"Come on lass, let's get'cha home and tell this amazing tale to the others." Harold said, putting his hand on his niece's shoulder and steering her towards home.
A time later, Echo was challenged at the caber again. It was an attempt trying to prove her previous victory a fluke. Again Echo was not to be bested. For several months afterward she was trained in the other events, much to her brothers' dismay.
That's when they totally left mum…
The memories went in fast forward then. Speedily the ongoing battle of her female family, trying to desperately to push her into femininity by pushing her with art, music and dance, against her male family who wanted her to focus more on strength with archery, weight throw, and the like. Months and months of memory passed in a blur, stopping shortly at Echo's ninth birthday. It was the day she got to choose her weapon from the clan armory.
"All right lassie, you've earned your keep. It's time for you to pick your personal weapon of choice. Take your time."
Echo did take her time. Finally she found a foot long metal rod.
"What's this?" Echo asked her uncle.
"That is an Artemis staff. It's one of a kind. No one's used it in nearly a century or more."
"How come?"
"Well, it takes a special person to use it. Only somebody who had the true power to use it can wield it, let alone open it."
Echo hefted the rod, weighing it in her hand. She swiftly, almost instinctively, gave the rod a jerk, and it extended to full five and a half feet.
"Well I'll be… You actually did it."
"I want this one, Uncle Harold."
"Fine, Fine. Here, this is its strap. It goes around yer thigh. And you'll want this," Harold said as he handed Echo a very old, much worn, leather journal.
The journal belonged to the last wielder of the Artemis.
"There's no one around to teach you the art of the Artemis. You're on your own with it. Hopefully this journal can help you learn its ways."
The memory jumped forward again, to later that same night. It was when it was revealed that Echo's biological father had challenged for custody. It was ruled that summers for Echo would be spent with her father from then on.
The only good part of those summers was the late night training sessions with Artemis.
Again time blurred by stopping again when Echo was eleven, spending another summer with her father. Like just about every other night, David MacIntosh would stumble in drunk, heading straight for his bed. Long ago Echo had taken over paying bills, cooking, cleaning, and shopping. If it had been left to her father they'd be starving in the dark.
At first Echo didn't see herself in this memory. Then she spied the unruly cloud of red hair behind an electrical code manual. The little four room house was far below code and if not fixed by the time of inspection, the house would be slated for demolition. As usual, Echo was left to fix it herself. The fog brought back the blackness again. When the color came back, Echo was answering a knock at the door. When she opened it, there were three Black Coats.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
"Removal of Paraskevi is complete. Good work Dr. Kasal." Mary said.
"That wasn't easy. And it's not over yet. Where's the next chiral reaction?"
"The next reaction is in the left lung, doctor."
"Very well. Let's close this incision and more on. Keep a very close eye on her vitals. We're pushing the limits here, but we have to get all of the GUILT out."
Dr. Kasal sutured the incision and bandaged it. The aids prepped the next incision area which fell just two inches below the left breast. Dr. Kasal sliced the skin apart into flaps and had the flaps securely pinned down. Then they went about temporarily breaking and removing sections of rib bone which were in the way. Behind those ribs were three shallow lacerations and three very deep, very ragged lacerations.
"At least I know whish type of GUILT did this." Dr. Kasal said. "Welcome to the Kyriaki strain, Mary."
"These parasites are all terrible! Let's begin with draining the excess blood from the larger lacerations."
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
WHY?! WHY DO I HAVE TO RELIVE THE BLACK COATS MAKING ME INTO A MONSTER?
Those wails from Echo were silenced by the fog though they were louder than fireworks in her head. Time flashed forward. Echo was helpless against the assault the memories flooding around her. Then everything grew dim.
Echo could see one thing and one thing only: a beautiful young mother holding the hand of her young son. The young boy was precious, only three or four years old, with wide, innocent eyes. While the boy was adorable, Echo's attention kept returning to the mother. Echo's blood ran cold as she realized who the woman was. She was the victim of THAT murder. The surroundings of the memory grew bright again and Echo saw her younger self, clad in a horribly familiar black uniform. The young Echo's face held absolutely no emotion. It hadn't for a long time. The young Echo went into an old brick building, her braided hair swishing against her back.
The scene changed and Echo saw herself standing in a small line of her colleagues behind the High Council, the governing force of her homeland. In front of the council sat a man in a wooden chair with both his wrists and ankles bound, eliminating any possibility of escape.
The man was Perth McGaherty and his crime was murder. He had made one fatal error when he did the deed. He had committed the heinous act in an alleyway behind a butcher's shop whose back door was guarded by a security camera. The film was shown for the council to see.
It had been late that fateful night and the woman, largely pregnant, and her young toddler were backed into the alley by McGaherty. The lip reading experts had reported that McGaherty had been screaming at the woman to tell him the gender of the unborn child. The woman, widowed by a sailor only months dead, did not know. This infuriated her murderer.
McGaherty thrust the woman back against the ice cold alley wall. He brought out a switchblade knife and sliced open the woman's womb, pulling out the unborn children – a boy and a girl. He tossed the tiny, blood covered infants into the snow. The toddler tried to run for help instinctively. McGaherty had to stop this. There could be no witnesses. He slit the boy's throat and with the child still gurgling his last breaths, McGaherty walked away, leaving the woman to finish bleeding to death…
The council asked Perth McGaherty what he had to say about his crime. McGaherty just laughed.
The Council's decision was absolute. McGaherty had to die for wrongly taking the lives of the woman and her children. McGaherty had been given two options: death by public hanging or death by private beheading. He chose the latter and both Echos gulped as they knew what was coming.
Once more the scene jumped ahead to another dark room, lit by a fire in a large stone hearth. McGaherty was knelt before his executioner, her blade, a slim katana, raised in preparation to strike.
"Who knew there'd come a day when they'd let a woman become an executioner!" Perth snorted.
"I pray you've made peace with your maker, Perth McGaherty." The executioner said in an emotionless tone.
In one swift move it was done. The head hit the floor with a muted thud and rolled. Blood spattered on the floor and dripped from the blade. The headless body slumped forward. Other agents would clean up the mess, dispose of the body. The executor raised the blade to see her reflection in its shiny metal. In it she saw herself. A monster.
"NOOOOOOOO!" Echo woke from her memory with a shrill scream. That was a problem. She was still on the operating table.
Echo bolted upright, away from the anesthesiologist. Her emerald eyes were wide open, taking in every detail of the brightly sanitized operating room, seeing a handful of people around her, all dressed in surgical scrubs with hats to match. Their jaws were dropped behind their white masks. One of the doctor's scrubs were bloody, and in his hand he held a bloodied scalpel. Echo glanced down and was met with horror. She had been cut open! Her skin was spread apart with silver pins holding them open. Echo's breathing picked up, and she could see her bloodied lung moving quickly about. She realized then that there should be ribs there. But there weren't. Where were her ribs? Echo's head snapped up. She locked eyes with Greg, her green eyes analyzing his brown ones.
A second later Greg snapped back into action.
"What the hell?! How is she awake?" Greg snapped. "Increase the sedative and get her back under! Somebody strap her to the table!"
"Dr. Kasal? How did that happen?" Mary asked, shaken.
"I-I honestly haven't a clue. We've defeated the Kyriaki so let's finish…"
"Doctor! What's that on her heart?" screamed Mary.
Dr. Kasal looked where Mary pointed and gasped.
"What is that damn bug? Let's get the ribs repaired. We're going to have to perform heart surgery. Make sure she stays under the anesthesia this time!"
While Echo was unceremoniously shoved back on to the table, strapped down, and put back to sleep, the doctors repaired her ribs, putting the ones they had removed back in their right place. An assistant wheeled in a large stainless steel table topped with all of the proper tools for heart surgery. With loud whir the oscillating saw came to life. It hissed as the blade touched the breastbone and cut through it. With a crack the breastbone was opened then pulled apart. Now with an unobstructed view of Echo's heart, Dr. Kasal did not like what he was seeing.
"This is bad."
{1} Chiral: A type of wavelength put off by GUILT. Testing for it is the only way to confirm a GUILT infection.
{2} GUILT: Gangliated Utrophin Immuno Latency Toxin; a group of deadly man-made parasites that are each named after a Greek day of the week. There are 7 strains, each very different from the next.