I hope you enjoy this chapter! And yes, the reason that I did not put the questions at the bottom like normal is because I didn't want to ruin the ending. In fact, I'm going to have the Q & A here for every chapter, or at least most of them, from here on out.

Also, congratulations to Adam Klein for winning Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X! He didn't even need the final immunity, and while I strongly suspect it was largely due to his mother having terminal cancer, he was still a better winner than Ken or Hannah would have been. As you know, I am a Survivor fanboy. Just look at my DeviantArt.

Answer: Lorax has passed four thousand views. I have over 11,000 total.

Question: I have never fainted before. For those of you who have, did I describe the feeling accurately?

With that out of the way, it is time for the chapter!

I woke up feeling like I was still spinning around, although better than I had before I had passed out. I felt something cold beneath me, and wondered what it might be. Could I be lying on clouds?

Then, my hearing came back, and I heard a little bit of beeping from all over the room I was in. It was so annoying...what was that?

Eventually, I managed to open my eyes. And when I did, I noticed the sight that greeted me.

I was lying on the floor, Falco holding my legs in the air. That must have been why I was so cold, and yet I still felt so woozy. There must have been medics around me or something. I saw boxes of things in their arms.

"What...happened?" I asked.

When Falco noticed that I was conscious, he gently let my legs down to the floor. Then, he tried to answer as carefully as possible, although this wasn't necessary; I knew the implications of what had just happened.

"You passed out, Lucas. As soon as I suspected something was wrong, we stopped the simulator- somehow it was able to be stopped now, but not before you fainted- and found you unconscious inside. The medical team was summoned in here, we undid your harness, and here we are now. You were only out for about two minutes".

I nodded, trying to process that information. It was tough, because I was still pretty dizzy.

"I'm fine" I said. "The simulator just spun around a little too much for me and I passed out. It's that simple".

"It's not, though" Falco replied. "This doesn't just happen all the time, you know. Only a few people in the last year have lost consciousness in the flight simulator, although yours was spinning more than usual. Maybe it was some kind of glitch, but it'll need to be investigated further".

That was when I noticed that there wasn't a single person in the room who wasn't staring squarely at me. Some looked slack-jawed, some were whispering things that I still couldn't hear.

"You don't need to take me to the infirmary or anything" I said stubbornly. "I'm okay, and you know it".

To prove my point, I tried to move from a sitting position to a standing one. But as soon as I made it five steps, I ended up falling down again, like a marionette whose strings had been cut. I didn't black out again, and it didn't particularly hurt, but it definitely sapped a little more of my pride. Already, I felt like such a wuss for fainting during my very first flight simulation.

"Whoa there, Mr. Enfield. You've gotta take it easy" Falco said.

One member of the medical team who had been summoned, who wore a name tag identifying him as Dr. Smith, said, "His blood pressure and oxygen levels are both normal, and his heart rate seemed to be perfectly fine as well. I think he's going to be okay, but make sure he takes it easy for the rest of the day. He's not going to his next class".

I felt a small spark of rage at that. "What do you mean? I have to go to Engineering! I don't want to be left in the dust like everyone else!"

"I know, Lucas, but there is a lot of dangerous stuff in the Engineering lab, and you might hurt yourself on it. So soon after passing out, I don't think you'd be able to handle it safely. I'm sorry, it's not my decision".

Well, that's great. Just great.

"What am I supposed to do for the next two hours before dinner, then?" I asked.

"You're going to come to the infirmary just to make sure" Dr. Smith said. "Just a precaution".

I looked at Falco, hoping that he would give me a pass. Unfortunately, he nodded curtly, telling me that I would have to go along with Dr. Smith.

"Sorry, Lucas. Again, not my decision".

It sure seemed as though Falco was saying that a lot. However much I outwardly proclaimed that I was fine, inwardly I still felt slightly woozy. If my fall from earlier had not illustrated that clearly enough, I didn't know what would.

They were going to bring down a wheelchair, but I insisted on walking. Even so, Dr. Smith insisted on holding me between him and Katt, who had been summoned as a result of my blackout. I didn't know what would happen if I was not supported by them, but I didn't want to risk it.

Luckily, the afternoon classes were still going on, so there weren't too many people in the halls at the moment. Whenever we passed by people, though, it was very embarrassing, a 6'2" sixteen-year-old being supported by two of the staff members. That was not something that you saw every day, and I was glad that nobody tried to take a picture.

As for what was going on at the moment, they took me into the infirmary, which did not look quite like I expected. You might expect it to like like a stereotypical hospital room, with white tiled floors, machines tucked into one corner (or hooked up to patients when necessary), and maybe a couple doors leading off to it, with a lot of beeping.

For the most part, that was what I saw, except for the beeping. No other patients were in the infirmary right now. Also, the walls were not the sterile white color that was traditional for hospitals. Instead, they were the color of the ocean in Maine, a deep blue, and the floor was tiled gray, except for the occasional orange, blue, or chartreuse tiles that were occasionally added in.

All in all, it looked pretty clean, probably better than the average American hospital.

Katt showed me to where I would be staying. "It's just a bed, Lucas, no blankets or anything. You just sit there until dinnertime, when you may eat with the others".

I nodded as I sat on the bed. It looked like your standard bed in the nurse's office at school, with the blue cushions that seemed built into it.

Before she left, Katt said, "I will leave the doctor to take a look at you before dinnertime. Until then, just try to relax. Are you still feeling dizzy?"

I shook my head, which was the truth. I was feeling a lot better than I had, ever since I had made the stupid decision to try to stand up and walk so soon after fainting.

Soon, a doctor came in. It wasn't Dr. Smith, this one was a woman. She seemed to be some kind of Bengal tiger, which I questioned why that was supposed to be comforting for patients.

"Hello, Lucas. I am Dr. Howler, and I am one member of the Grey Clouds Medical Team. Since I'm on duty right now, I'm the one who will be keeping an eye on you this afternoon. Tell me if there is anything you need".

It was a very long two hours for me in the infirmary. I didn't have anyone to talk to, because Dr. Howler seemed to be busy with some papers at her desk. I also didn't have anything from my dormitory to entertain myself with, and I was still wondering what Willow must have been thinking. Hell, I wondered what Cole, Mike, and Will were thinking right now.

Do they think I'm some kind of wimp?

I sure hoped not. I had known them for less than two days, but during that time I had gotten to a point where, at least for Will and Cole, I could call them friends. If they no longer had faith in me to take care of myself, that was a problem. And they might also think that someone was out to get me, since they knew that something had gone wrong with the simulator. This, too, might lead them to think that I was a magnet for trouble.

That would also make me lose them as friends.

I was still pondering this when Dr. Howler came back in order to check my vital signs. Once again, my temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure were normal.

"You are good to go, Lucas Enfield. Keep in mind that you will not be able to eat breakfast tomorrow morning, so be sure to eat well tonight. The reason for this is because you have a tilt-table test in the morning".

"Okay" I said. I was never one to go against a doctor's orders. If you knew what was good for you, you did not piss off the white mage.

And with that, I walked out of the hospital wing.

It wasn't hard to find the dining hall again. The infirmary was only a few turns away from it, and there were clear arrows, attached to the red Swiss cross used to symbolize anything related to medical care, that led the way to and from the dining hall and the hospital wing. Really, you would have to be an idiot not to follow them.

I found my friends still at the purple/turquoise table. Dinner had not yet been served, and I noticed that they were having what sounded like a very involved conversation between the three of them. Will, Cole, and even Mike were still talking when I saw them, but as soon as they noticed me, they dropped their conversation and began looking at me.

"Hey, Lucas" Mike said. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah, how are you doing?" Will asked.

I held up my right hand like someone testifying in a court of law. "I'm fine. Just forced to spend two hours in the infirmary. How was Engineering, guys?"

Although I myself had not been to that class, the other three all had either today or yesterday. They'd shown me their Sunday schedules at lunch.

"There's a lot of number-crunching to do, and lots of dodging dangerous objects" Cole said.

"I fucking love math" I said, causing Mike to gasp. "I'm not so good at fine motor things, though".

"It's not like they're being thrown at you" Will said. "You're going to be fine".

Yeah, I sure hope so.

"Except I'm not doing it tomorrow, either" I said.

This caused a shocked expression to appear on the faces of Will and Cole. Mike still had a shocked expression on his face from when I had dropped the F-bomb earlier.

"Chill out, Mike" I said. "It's one word, four letters. Used to express frustration or exclamation. Or to talk about sex. We're sixteen years old. It's no big deal".

Mike nodded, although he still looked nervous. Was there some reason that he was nervous, other than social stuff? I didn't know.

"So why aren't you going to Engineering tomorrow, Lucas?" Cole asked me.

I saw no reason to lie to these people. "I have to do a tilt-table test tomorrow. They're gonna strap me to a table and turn it to see if I pass out again. This is to see if there's any problem with my heart".

Cole and Will both looked shocked. They hadn't known me for too long, but I could tell that they definitely were shocked by the idea that I might have a heart problem. If I did, they might feel let down at having a person who they thought was a lasting friend turn out to be a ticking time bomb.

"I'm probably fine, though. You did see how much that thing was spinning around".

"I wonder if it was a glitch or something?" Cole said. "You know, I played a lot of video games back in Michigan. I know what I'm talking about".

I considered telling Cole that they suspected that the flight simulator had been tampered with, but I decided against it. This was because there were a lot of other people near us whom I must certainly did not want hearing it.

The food rose up, and for someone like me who can be an herbivore, it certainly was pretty awesome-looking. They had decided to not serve meat tonight. Instead, there was salad and the most beautiful rolls you have ever seen in your whole life.

You would have thought, based on how positively I have described this dish, that I must have absolutely pigged out. That couldn't be too much further from the truth.

The whole time we were eating, through all the side conversations going on at all places in the hall, I could tell that there was a large amount of people staring at me. Clearly, the news had travelled fast about my collapse. Not surprising, considering that the airways tended to carry information fast.

Because of this, I couldn't eat too much. I knew that if I didn't eat now, I was going to be extremely hungry in the morning, and yet unable to eat anything due to the test coming up later. However, I tried to eat and I just felt nauseous. I was attracting far too much attention in order to enjoy a roll.

Not a second too soon, the evening meal ended, and we proceeded into the auditorium.

WILLOW'S POV

I had been dreading the evening meeting for the last several hours.

It wasn't like we were "official" yet, but there were people here who could definitely tell that there was something between Lucas and I, that we were more than just friends. I didn't know if Lucas fainting would change this dynamic any more than it already had been changing.

If Lucas gained a lot of attention from this, then the hammer would fall on me for being so closely linked to him. I didn't know what the social consequences would be, but based on my juniority here I could assume that I would probably be shunned along with him. It wouldn't be pretty.

Bill Grey stood up. He was dressed in his usual attire, a gray coat with a red tie. He looked more serious today than he had at any point either today or yesterday, and I had a feeling as to what this was.

"Good evening, students and faculty at the Grey Clouds Flight Academy. I am proud to announce that December 14, 201X is now officially in the books. Another day is behind us".

Most of the people in the audience were cheering, but not me. And Lucas, five people away from me, was also keeping silent. He stood out too much, more than he had already.

Would Bill bring it up?

"I first have a very serious announcement to make, and I request that you do not take this news lightly, as it is not good news by any means".

Those of us, meaning the people in the auditorium, who didn't know yet what had happened, all seemed to grow silent. They waited with bated breath, wondering what on Corneria had occurred today in order to make Bill worry about something. Normally, our headmaster seemed pretty happy.

"There was an incident with one of the flight simulators today. It began spinning around like crazy, and the student inside lost consciousness as a result. He is okay, but we are not going to reveal who it is. Some of you may already know, and I wish for this to remain confidential".

Confidential my ass!

If Bill had really cared about keeping the fact that Lucas had collapsed confidential, he wouldn't have announced it for everyone to hear, saying everything except the identity of the student in question. Now, I could see that there was a lot of whispering taking place. It was complete disarray.

I was going to have to find Bill sometime and give him a serious talk about the definition of the word "confidential".

Later, in my own dormitory on the sixth floor, I tossed and turned, thinking about the other implications of what had happened today. It had to be at least eleven in the evening by now, and I could hear Michelle and the others in my dorm room making the deep, slow breaths that signified they were asleep.

Right now, though, I lay awake. I was too focused on what had caused my semi-boyfriend to end up unconscious on the floor of the flight simulator room.

Did he have something wrong with him medically? Was there some kind of heart condition that he had never told me about? If so, he was going to be in big trouble with me the next time that we talked to each other, which I had no idea when it would be. That was the thing about boarding schools- you never knew when you would get the chance to speak to another person alone.

If Lucas needed some other special medical care, I might not ever see him again. Okay, maybe that was being a little overdramatic of me, but give me a break. Anyone would have been feeling the exact same way if they had just been snatched out of their life back in small-town Maine and shipped off here to attend a futuristic military academy.

On the other hand, if he was perfectly fine (and all signs pointed to that, especially the fact that the simulator had been spinning around and around like a sideways merry-go-round), then why had that happened? Was there some kind of glitch in the programming of the simulator? And if so, would they know about it if they tested him?

I continued dwelling on this as I sank into slumber.

LUCAS'S POV

I woke up the next morning with my stomach aching with hunger. That wasn't the bad part. The bad part was that I knew that I would not be able to satisfy my craving for food until after I underwent a test that would determine whether or not I needed to have a double amputation.

Really puts you in your place, doesn't it?

I had to lie there, watching the sun slowly rise over the Cornerian mountains, until we were allowed to leave the dormitory. Once we had left, I simply followed the route to the dining hall, which was becoming rather familiar to me, and then I simply had to follow the route out of the dining hall to the hospital wing.

I followed the same Swiss crosses into the infirmary. And, when I got there, I was not surprised to see who was there.

Dr. Howler was standing at the entrance, clutching her clipboard in her sharp black claws. "Lucas Enfield...tilt-table test. Yes, you are that person. You were just in here yesterday, so you can come right in".

"Thanks" I said, and I meant it. The sooner I got this over with, the sooner I would know that I didn't really have a problem. Or if I did have a problem, I might be sent home. Back to Earth...

But then I realized that I didn't want to face my parents, not after they had sold me to this training academy on a foreign planet, in an alternate...fucking...dimension.

Plus, I'd rather that I didn't have a potentially life-threatening heart abnormality...I thought, feeling slightly crestfallen.

"All right. Do you want me to give you a quick overview of what this test involves before we begin?"

"Yes" I said. I didn't want to do this completely in the dark, although I had a good idea of what would happen.

Dr. Smith, the doctor who had assisted me right after I'd passed out in the flight simulator, rolled a hospital bed into the room. It wasn't too dissimilar to the ones that I'd seen in pictures.

"First, you're going to change into a hospital gown right here".

Dr. Howler gestured to a light blue hospital gown that was lying on the table. Then, she gestured to a nearby bathroom, where I was to change into it.

Once I had done that, glad that Willow and my other friends here weren't present to see me in that thing, Dr. Howler continued on explaining what was going to be done to me.

"You're going to lie on that bed, and you'll be strapped in pretty good. We are going to put an IV in your arm, and tilt the bed between thirty and sixty degrees up and down, in order to see if you have any problems. If you do faint, though, you're not going to fall".

I was relieved to hear the test described to me. It always did help for me, as a person with Asperger's, to know what to expect, since I'm a very routine-oriented person.

"Okay" I said. "I'm going to do this".

I'm not particularly afraid of needles so much as I used to be afraid of the pain caused by an injection. Over the years, though, it had gotten less bad for me, so I was fine with getting a needle. Once I had been hooked up to the IV, I lay back down on the bed, waiting for the test to start.

They also put some electrodes on my chest in order to easily detect any changes in my heart rate that might occur as a result of being tilted. Luckily, the bed had a footrest, or else I would have been very uncomfortable.

"Are you ready, Lucas?" Dr. Howler asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be".

Dr. Smith adjusted the lever, and the bed tilted to the point where I was standing up with my knees locked. My heart rate and blood pressure had already been measured lying down. I knew that if I passed out during this test, my career of being a pilot would be in jeopardy to be sure.

I stood there for what felt like at least an hour, but was probably only about fifteen minutes or so. I spent a little bit of time talking to Dr. Howler about my classes, but she seemed to be mainly focused with checking my vital signs, which was completely understandable. I just wanted to know, beyond any question, that I would be fine.

After a certain length of time, Dr. Howler said, "You have been standing like this for a while and not yet passed out. I am going to see if there is any problem now, and tell me if you start to feel any worse".

And with that, she injected something into my IV. I don't remember exactly what it was called, but whatever it was caused my heart to begin racing as though I had just run the Swanville 5K, and then climbed Denali, all in one day. It wasn't like I had done those things, either, although that should have been obvious. I was just standing up, not doing anything of note.

I didn't feel too dizzy or anything, either. It felt just like standing up normally was for me. And so I got the feeling that I was going to be ruled as okay.

After what felt like an eternity, it was finally over. I had remained conscious for the whole time, and they had not had to bring out the smelling salts or saline, or anything else starting with S that they might use to revive a person.

Dr. Howler took my IV out and sat me down in a chair nearby the bed that I had just done the test on. She looked straight at me with a kind expression on her face.

"Well, Lucas, there is good news. You do not seem to have any heart problems of note, so there should be no problems with you becoming the skilled pilot that the Cornerian Army so definitely needs in these trying times. I expect nothing but the best of you, Lucas Enfield, and I hope, once again, that I will not be seeing you soon".

I was so relieved that I laughed out loud. With everything else that had been going on for the last three days, at least one good thing had come out of it. My heart was healthy. That meant the world to me.

Unfortunately, Dr. Howler's expression morphed into a much darker one. Not malevolent, but she most definitely did not look like one of Santa's elves as she delivered the next statement.

"It's a well-known fact that your flight simulator yesterday was going rogue, and we have no idea why. However, Falco Lombardi has been studying the problem since you collapsed, and he has made a troubling discovery".

"What's that?" I asked, not sure that I didn't already know, or even wanted to know.

"All the evidence points toward the conclusion that the simulators were tampered with".

Man, I did so much medical research for this chapter, which I finished more than a week ago. Honestly, I didn't mind, considering that I often do medical research just for fun. I could never be a doctor due to my severe OCD, but I still find it interesting.

Also, thank you to Talkingbirdguy, my inspiration for writing, for giving me the white mage phrase.

I'm going to do something different with the questions. This time, YOU guys leave a question through PM that you want me to answer in the next chapter. I'm going to do just that, answering your question. Nothing too personal, like I won't tell you my address or anything. But anything that is within reason is within the limits of the questions.

Happy asking!