The Virus

Disclaimer: See Chapter Seven.

Chapter Thirteen: Reclamation

{How dare you,} John growled. {How dare you even taunt us with his visage, using that Zoroark to manipulate our feelings like this!}

"You think I do this? Why I do somethink like this? I no have reason," Faith retorted in her broken English.

[You may not, but this military might!] Seth barked back, baring his teeth. [And I sure as hell don't appreciate it any more than the rest of us!]

{I knew that this was all a setup! This was...}

Their voices, thoughts and Aura speech slowly faded away as a more prominent, and far more familiar, warm, comforting voice, thought, feeling, wormed its way into me.

{Search your mind, and sift through mine, Lily, and know this to be true. I am alive, and I am Daemon.}

{It...it can't be true,} I thought back. {I felt you die back in that base!}

{I did die, Lily. But it was not meant to be. Open up your mind, and let me show you...}

Flashes of light, blurry images, slurred voices, loud sounds. It was difficult to decipher what he was sending me, but slowly, bits and pieces started coming together.

"...raped my daughter, but you still...my life - and for that, you must..."

{...I-I'm pregnant with an egg...}

-BANG- "Ass-hole..."

{I love you.}

"And I you, my beautiful white flower. Now go. I don't want you here for my final act."

I watched, from Daemon's point of view, as our group left him, his vision going blurry, muffled footsteps coming from either side of him. I watched, as he looked to his hand, all bloody and already looking pale as he raised his heavy pistol up towards his head. I began to shiver and shake, already dreading what came next. But instead of a bright flash from the end of the barrel, there was a purple blade slicing through his right wrist and shoulder. While being that close to death only numbed the pain, Daemon still muttered a curse all the same as the gun went off away from his head.

"I'm sorry, Daemon, but we can't let you die, not here, not now."

"Yes, is time we bring you back from the death, yes? Is very long time since we see each other, changed much, you have. And already with mate! Very jealous, I am."

"Enough. Faith, bandage his wounds, corpsman, get ready to bring him into a medical coma. Daemon, you stay with us, you hear me? Daemon? Daemon!"

And with that, darkness and silence enveloped his mind and the flashback.

{That is when I died, Lily. Brought back to this base in cryogenic stasis, in aircraft faster than your ground vehicles, we made it back within hours, compared to your days.}

{B-but...how long were we out? You couldn't have come back to life and all set for...for all this in what I felt was at least a couple of days!}

{At least two months – they wouldn't specify exactly how long. But they were doing tests on all of you – including our egg, Lily.}

I bristled. {They did WHAT?!} I screamed in his head.

He winced. {Nothing over-invasive. Just x-ray scans, cotton swabs, medical Pokemon staff, with some human doctors. None of them have encountered a Human-Pokemon hybrid egg before, despite there being many instances of such a thing occurring many times in our world. I guess it was because it had my modified DNA along with a human-compatable PDNA set – your genes, Lily.}

{What does that have to do with anything?} I asked.

{They think that our child could hold the true vaccine to this virus, Lily.}

{W-what...?}

{Our child, in that egg of ours, may hold the answer to the end of all this fighting, all this bloodshed.}

{But...}

{There's no "but," Lily. That's just it. I know nothing more on it.}

{Alright, I guess... Tell me more about what happened to you.}

Slowly, light began to seep into the darkness. Painful, yet comforting, as Daemon was experiencing it.

"Doctor? I think he's coming to! Send for the General, immediately!"

"Let's pray to Arceus above that he doesn't kill us with his bare hands at what we had to do to bring him back from the dead..."

Footsteps, loud and heavy, were rushing closer, as sounds of things and people moving out of the way were heard out of his line of vision.

"Doctor? Is he awake? Is he responsive?"

"Awake, yes. Responsive? We're about to test that, since we were instructed to call you at the first signs of consciousness."

"I need to know if he's fit for duty, otherwise the tests on his teammates will -"

Sudden, blurry movement, crashes and bangs, and the next thing I was seeing in this flashback was the General I met when I first woke up, but the coloration was all wrong. Tinges of red, mixed with flecks of blackness as Daemon tried to fight unconsciousness to stay up and mobile.

"Tests?" he rasped. "What fucking tests have you been doing to my team, my friends?"

"Stand down, Daemon, that's an order!"

"Fuck you!" he retorted, his right hand tightening its grip on the collar of the General's uniform. "What have you been doing? TELL ME!"

"That's on a need-to-know ba-"

A flash of blackness, a tinge of pain, and the General had a bloody nose. Daemon must have headbutted him, I thought.

"Fuck your need-to-know basis, and fuck you! Tell me what you've done, or I swear to Arceus, I'll kill you myself!"

As the General sputtered, trying to find words and breath, someone else spoke idly, as though taking notes and making observations on the events unfolding.

"It appears as though the cybernetic arm is functioning well. His graft to replace his heart also appears to be functioning with little issues. May take a month or so to get used to the enhancements we've installed into his body to prep him for our new, prototype power armour, specifically designed for him."

At that, Daemon stopped, and had a good, proper look about him. His right arm wasn't his own, he suddenly realized, as the image of a flesh-and-bone arm was replaced by a metallic, skeletal network of fine mechanics and servos, and the flat, muscular chest that he (and I) had known was gone, a translucent red gem protruding from the area where my father had cut through him. He gasped, and fell to his knees.

"What...what have you done...to me?!"

Another person, also gasping, was at Daemon's side. The General.

"We had to do a lot of untested things to bring you back from the dead, Daemon. Just like the virus we tested on you, this was our first foray into full cybernetic replacements, as well as grafting certain Pokemon body parts onto a human."

"What did you DO to me?"

"First, we had to stop you from killing yourself, so, ahem...we had to cut off your arm, entirely. That was replaced by a full cybernetic arm, as you can clearly see. Superior in every way to the human arm, yet just as light, so you have full mobility and control of it.

"Second, we had to find a suitable heart to replace the one you lost, and since we couldn't afford to waste much time, or a donor, we had to...improvise. The Gallade you killed...we took him with us, removed his gem...and implanted it into you."

"You did WHAT?!"

"Easy, Daemon. We had to, if we wanted you to survive. It seems like it was a better choice than bringing in a replacement heart, as the gem took to your body faster than we had expected – or expected at all. You two must have had an intrinsic link, or some sort of other, subconscious link to each other, despite the hostilities shown."

"Damn him, and damn you...sir."

"That's better. Glad to have you back with us, Daemon, even if you're not. Hell, you've surpassed our expectations again, with everything we've done, and with how quickly you've adapted to them. It's also very fortunate that you have an O-Negative blood type, otherwise we'd have run out of blood to replace all of yours – probably what's kept you and your human teammates from contracting the virus at all."

"Tell me, before I pass out. What tests have you done?"

"Your child, in that egg...just may hold the key to ending this damn apocalypse."

"Enough," Daemon said. I blinked, thinking that time surely must have passed quite a bit, after ingesting all that information he gave me. But in reality, it was mere seconds, and Daemon was cutting off Archaeon's assumption that we were falling for a trap.

"I know you're feeling pissy about this, but I assure you, it is me. I am Daemon, despite all of you thinking that I killed myself. There will be time for storytelling later, but as of right now, we have to get out of here. It's not safe."

SLAP

"Y-you bastard!"

[Elaine!]

"No! He needs to hear this! You think that it's all okay, now that you're here? We all thought you were dead! We had moved on! We...we thought..."

Daemon embraced her, and I bristled with jealousy, before realizing that it was an embrace of comfort. I looked around, and noticed the rest of them were in similar states of distress – even Arch, despite the clashes he and Daemon have had – and especially John, as Daemon was the closest thing to a brother to him.

{You jerk,} John muttered, choking back a sob and rubbing his arm against his eyes. {Why didn't you tell us sooner?}

"I couldn't, not back then," Daemon replied softly, gently rubbing Elaine's back as she sobbed against his chest. "Only the top brass – and some medical staff – knew who I was. Everyone else had to be kept in the dark – including all of you. I'm sorry."

"W-what did they do to you, Daemon?" Alex choked.

"Later. I'll tell you all later, when we're out and away from here. Now c'mon, everyone into the vehicle."

We started filing into Daemon's APC, until Arch came up to him.

{Y'know, I'd slug you in the gut right now, for putting us all into this state, but it would hurt me more than it would hurt you, in that exoskeleton...and it really is good to see you again, Daemon. The poor kid, Alex...he tried to take up your mantle. Hell, all of us tried to take up your mantle, but it seems like it was all for naught, huh?}

"No, old friend, it wasn't. You all still have a major role to play in the coming future, but you just don't know it yet."

[You really do care for him, huh Arch?] Seth called from within the vehicle.

{Shut up!} he retorted. {It was a pain in the ass to try and live up to his name, and you all know it!}

{Arch,} Daemon whispered telepathically, as he clasped both hands onto his shoulders and touched heads with him. A transfer of information, I realized.

{You sly, lucky, defiant motherfucker,} Arch chuckled. {Shoulda known. Lily, you take good care of him, y'hear? Don't want him falling into parts like last time.} And with that, Arch lightly tapped his fist against Daemon's armoured stomach. {Next time, I'll punch you for real.}

"A sparring match? I'm game," Daemon chuckled back as Arch headed into the APC.

{Daemon,} I breathed.

"My beautiful flower," he replied, embracing me.

I leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, now noticing the burning hot tears rolling down my cheeks. {I missed you, so much,} I told him.

{And now our child will have a father,} he said back. {And maybe some siblings, later on,} he winked. "Come," he spoke aloud. "Let's get out of this hell-hole."

"Yes, we spend much time talking, with tears and love and happy, time for moving, yes?"

A/N: The story continues, with heavy plot and flashbacks! Sorry for the long waits between chapters, I only get bursts of imagination here and there now. Here's hoping I can get more motivation and inspiration for more chapters!

- Chief