Yes!! FINALLY the document manager is working again!! Well, this is a big chapter. But it's a good one, I assure you. Stuff happens. It'll be cool. There's swearing. You'll like it:P
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"What?"
"It's back, ma'am. The pulse is back."
"Oh...thank you, Heather, and thank heavens..."
Yunsung breathed a sigh of relief. The past few seconds had been hectic. Tornado's pulse had failed completely and the table began to shake with her convulsions. But at last, they had stabilized her. Her eyes were closed, her body was calm, as was her heartbeat. She looked as if she had been sleeping.
Yunsung snatched Madam Sarene out of mid-air as she swooned once more, "Watch!"
"ohhh...ohhh..."she moaned, as he heaved her back to her feet. She still wobbled precariously, "I can't take much more of this...I never thought I'd have to perform CPR in my whole lifetime...I'm just a doctor...in a little village...what have I got us into, girls?"
"Umm..." said one of the young nurses, who was called Heather, "The best training lesson ever?"
Madam Sarene smiled weakly, "I'd hate it for you girls to go into that kind of stuff!"
"We shouldn't have had to." said Yunsung. Everyone else fell silent. Yunsung's voice was forcedly low, his tone was firm. He was angry and everyone knew why, and everyone knew where he was going when he went off to the left.
"She is stable, or so I hear."
"You shut the fuck up!" Yunsung bellowed in Taki's face, pointing at her accusedly, "It was your fault she went into cardiac arrest! She could have died, Taki, and if she dies the deal's off!"
She sighed, "The situation was under control. Tornado is fine."
"The situation..." Yunsung gave a furious roar and swung his fist at Taki, but for a second all he could see was her moving it upwards. The next second, his arm was pulled painfully behind his back, and Soul Calibur was inches from his jugular vein.
"Am I making myself clear?"Taki threatened, pulling Yunsung's arm upwards so he squirmed with pain. "The situation was under control. Now, whether or not Tornado dies..." she jerked his arm upwards again, and he yelped, "in the next procedure..." she gave another painful yank, "depends on whether I'm in a good mood or not!" She added a bone-crushing twist to the torture.
"Let go of my fricking arm!" Yunsung cried out in agony, feeling as if his bones were being pulled through the spokes of a moving bicycle.
"So I would keep my mouth and my fists to myself, if you please..." Taki continued threatening him coolly from behind his head.
"What is going on here?"
It was Madam Sarene's voice. Taki lessened her grip on Yunsung's arm, and he jerked it free instantly, moving two feet away from Taki before massaging his throbbing limb with his hand. She, Taki, was looking sullen and bored, as if nothing remotely interesting had happened in the past few hours. Madam Sarene stood in front of the two other nurses, who peeked in through the door of the room they were in- the kitchen (the practice doubled as a house).
"One more confrontation like that," said Madam Sarene threateningly, looking suddenly angry and invigorated, looking at Taki strictly, "And you will be out of this practice!"
Taki raised her eyebrows, completely unperturbed, and then she looked at Yunsung smarmily. He sighed reluctantly, massaging his numbing arm, "We can't get rid of her." he said, "Otherwise we can't help Talim."
Madam Sarene looked at the both of them disapprovingly, "If there's one thing I can't take, it's violence in my practice! You two ought to be ashamed of yourselves!" she bustled clatteringly around, fixing things which didn't need fixing, "Why can't people just sit down and talk about things like normal people do??"
"I think we've both seen that Taki ain't normal." Yunsung whispered to Heather as he followed her out of the kitchen. She giggled silently.
OooOoOo
At nine o-clock the next morning Yunsung was up and ready for the next step of the procedure. As he arrived at the practice he saw Madam Sarene and the two nurses setting up equipment beside Tornado's bed. Taki was nowhere to be seen, but Yunsung couldn't spare thoughts for her. He went over to Tornado, who was lying face-up as she was placed for the night. He pulled up a chair beside her, and watched her for a few moments. She breathed gently. Her scarred face had healed slightly since he first found her, it becoming more wholesome and youthful again.
"Has she been okay?"he asked Madam Sarene.
"Yes, she's been alright." she replied, bringing across a table of instruments, as she went on, "I had Heather and Saidra check up on her routinely every few hours. Honestly, she's right as rain- and she's recovered so fast!"
"She's a survivor." said Yunsung, grinning.
"Yunsung?"
He gave a start. "She said my name!"he cried to the others excitedly. Tornado lay there, stirring slightly, as they all congregated around the operating table. Yunsung lowered his head to Tornado, and whispered, "Talim...how are you?"
Tornado's lips seemed to strain to form words. "I lied..." she muttered, her voice still a growl, but deep within it, Yunsung found meaning.
"About what?" he said gently, taking hold of one of her hands.
"I was stupid..."she mumbled.
"So was I..." said Yunsung, "I shouldn't have wanted Soul Edge in the first place..."
"N-no..." she said, her closed eyes scrunching up in distress, "I lied..."
"What about Talim, what about?" he urged her calmly. He wasn't too concerned about whatever it was he just wanted to know if she was alright in her head as well.
She took a great shuddering breath through her lips, and her tone changed, "S-shut up...fucking..." and it changed again, "Code...twenty...two..."
Yunsung had never heard anything like this before, "What are you talking about, Talim?"
"Wind..."she said desperately, "Wind...carries...guilt..." then, she breathed out, and began to snore softly. Yunsung looked at the nurses to the right of him questioningly; they shrugged their shoulders.
"It sounds as if she's in two minds..." said a cold voice. Yunsung jumped and whirled himself around- Taki stood there, looking at Tornado in a bored way.
"Taki! Don't...sneak up on me like that!" shouted Yunsung, clutching the edge of the operating table. "How do you do that?"
"Ninja desu." she said dully.
"...R-right..."he said, recovering slightly, "But- but what did you mean?"
"When part of such a possessive metal is removed...it would have an effect...the host would become more powerful...the soul within would overcome the Soul Edge...at the moment, it appears to be an internal battle..."
Yunsung sighed. "But you don't actually know this for sure, right?"
"Nothing in life is for sure." she said impatiently, "But I have relatively high perception skills. Now, we must continue the procedure. Can we have Tornado turned over?"
And so Tornado was prepared once more, the anesthetic was administered, and Taki was once again in the horse of the commander, cutting through the Soul Edge as the tension cut through the air and stilled it.
"Taki..."Yunsung warned, "Be more careful this time."
"Do not distract me." she said irritably. She cut through the Soul Edge at reasonable pace. Yunsung had to keep checking to make sure that Tornado's mouth wasn't blocked, even though he hadn't needed to gag her in the first place. The nurses and Madam Sarene were almost not needed apart from the odd blood flow which seeped from under Taki's hands. They waited loyally, not saying a word, just watching as Taki gradually cut away at the metal.
Taki finished the remaining quarter and one whole strip of Soul Edge, leaving only one more strip to go. Excitement started to build up in Yunsung again- it was nearly over. But he remained vigilant, knowing how he had got himself worked up before, only for everything to come crashing down. Her heart still went lub-dub. Her head remained cold and sweaty. He watched from above Tornado's head as Taki's hands moved slowly towards him, in the final strip.
"Yunsung..."
"Huh?" he looked down. Tornado's lips were moving. "Yunsung?"
"She's...she's awake..."he said, astounded.
Taki looked up mildly. The nurses and Madam Sarene each peered around towards Tornado's head.
"W-what's happening?"
Yunsung looked at Taki questioningly. Taki looked back at him sullenly, almost reluctantly, and said, "Is she in pain?"
He didn't know how to tell, so he knelt down so he was level with Tornado's head. Her eyes were still closed, but she continued to croak incoherently. "Talim...are you in any pain?"
"N-no...not m-more than u-usual..."
"She says not more than usual." he repeated for Taki. But yet again Madam Sarene chose that point to cut across her. "The anesthetic mustn't have worn off entirely yet...still, it wasn't meant to have worn off at all for at least another hour..."
"We must work quickly, then." said Taki.
"Only as quick as necessary, Taki." said Yunsung stiffly.
Over the next few grueling minutes, Taki reached the half-way point in the last knife-length strip of the Soul Edge. Yunsung stroked his fingers against Tornado's skin. She's not so much Tornado anymore... he thought, I can't believe it...it's finally happening...
Tornado's breathing grew heavier, and her eyes snapped open in front of him. The left was rapidly dilating, big, then small, then big, then small again. She stared right at him. Her breathing grew more rattly, and then she began to take deeper, wheezing breaths, as if she was hyperventilating.
"Something's wrong!" he said immediately, taking Tornado's pulse. However, it was only slightly faster.
"I noticed." Taki replied. "I am very nearly finished. She will hold on."
"I dunno, Taki..."he said warily. Tornado's eyes were turning fearful, and even though they were so malformed, she looked more frightened than insane. She began to raise the front of her body upwards, gasping for air. Yunsung took hold of her shoulders so she was still for Taki, who was literally inches away from the very edge of the final strip.
"Help!"Tornado roared, "Help! Aaaggh!" her voice rose higher and higher, and for a few seconds the growl disappeared.
"Hurry up, Taki, hurry up!" Yunsung yelled.
"There is no pleasing some people...there!"she said, "I have the final strip!"
"You-y-you..."he stuttered in reply. Tornado collapsed back onto the bed, panting- and the sound of her breathing filled the silent room. And it froze them- it froze them all- because they could tell by her breathing that her gutturalness had gone.
Yunsung quickly spoke to her, "Wake up! Wake up!"
She did. Her eyes opened. Her two big brown eyes.
"C-can you give me a smile?"he asked of her, tremulously.
And tiredly, relievedly, Talim grinned back at him.