Chapter LIII: Flight of Icarus
Hello again, fans of Darkness Falls! We're glad to see you again and are glad you're all staying with us! Anyway, we know you're probably eager for another chapter! Thanks again for your reviews and continued reading!
Last time, Jaden told superhero stories and Violet told of the day her cards met for the first time. What will happen next? Stay tuned!
Disclaimer: Trust us… if it belongs to an animation studio or major corporation, chances are very good that we don't own it. We do own our OCs, our plotlines and any non-established characters.
Authors' note: We would like to thank Wikipedia and WebMD for their continued medical information. This chapter does contain medical drama, but logical medical drama.
A few days passed, and one evening, Alex Nakamura looked at Bastion's chart as the young man slept. "Tonight's going to be a little rough... All of you kids will want to stay put through this..." The entire gang was in the infirmary, including the Duel Academy teachers and parents.
"What do you mean?" Violet asked worriedly.
"Violet, it's all right. I'm hearing the sound in the lungs that indicate what's in there is about to break up. The sacs around his lungs should be less inflamed and so the stuff in the lungs will be able to come up. But tonight, his body temperature will drop and he'll have symptoms of hypothermia. So we have to keep him warm and by morning, we may be able to get him off that ventilator," the pulmonologist reassured the girl, meeting her green eyes with his brown ones.
"We... we will?" the purple-haired girl asked, the hope in her voice practically dripping from her tone. She squeezed Bastion's hand, which she was holding.
Bastion looked up at Dr. Nakamura, hope in his eyes as well. "Am I going to be okay?" he wrote.
"Well," Alex said, "you're going to be all right. It won't be overnight, but it's been almost three weeks, so you're going to have turned a corner, Bastion... It'll take a few more weeks before you're strong enough to walk down the aisle, but I predict a really good recovery. I warn you, though... tonight will not be fun..."
Violet squeezed her fiancé's hand again, looking him in the eyes. "I'll be here for you, Bastion. You were always there for me."
"So what can we do?" Annie asked, looking at the doctors and the nurse.
"We may need help from all of you when Bastion's temperature takes a drop," Scout stated. "We'll need a hot compress brigade..."
Axel and Tyson looked at each other. "We can organize that," Axel stated calmly.
"Is there anything else we can do?" Alexis asked.
Scout shook her head. "There isn't much else to be done, sweetie... We have to help Bastion warm up and then he should be okay. We just have to keep him from going into stage 3 hypothermia..."
Katai, sitting in one of the infirmary chairs, looked up. "Stage 3 hypothermia? How bad is that?"
"It's bad, Katai, which is why we don't want Bastion getting to that point... Stage 1, he'll get really sluggish and sleepy and he might have trouble seeing. He'll start shivering and in stage 2 that shivering gets worse. He'll turn pale and parts of him will turn blue. Stage 3 is very dangerous and I've seen it a few times in the ER... At that stage, it can be fatal...He'll stop shivering, but his skin will get blue and puffy and his organs will start to fail. And with his body the way it is, it will probably kill him..."
Several pairs of eyes widened in horror. Violet squeezed her loves hand again, though it was involuntary and simply out of fear. "We can't let that happen," she managed to say, practically breathless.
Bastion tiredly squeezed back. "We're going to hit this hard, Violet... Hiro, this is going to get rough, though," Alex said to his colleague.
Hiro frowned, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "I know... But we'll make it through, no matter what. We're ready for it."
"Okay..."
"All right, guys," Jaden stated, taking command of the gang, "we know what we have to do... Get pajamas, snacks and whatever we need for the night."
"All right, and I'll get some board games," Aster offered.
"Annie," Violet called to her friend as the gang started to leave so they could get "provisions."
Annie turned back and went to her best friend. "Sy, could you get what we need?" she asked, prepared to take a while with her friend if so needed.
"Annie, I just wanted to ask you to get some pajamas and manga for me. You can grab them when you're getting your stuff," Violet stated quickly, grinning. She named a few of the manga she was recently reading.
Annie took note. "Okay. Any particular pajamas you want?"
"Just don't get me a nightgown. Pants and a shirt would be better," Violet answered.
"Okay. I'll grab you something," the dark-haired girl promised.
GX GX GX GX GX GX GX GX GX
And together, Annie and Sy headed to the suite at Obelisk. "Okay...her Watapon pajamas... Bleach... Inuyasha... Adventures of KameNeko... Loveless," Annie muttered to herself as she packed Violet's bag. "Sy? Honey, could you get my lavender tank set?" she called.
"Sure!" Syrus called from their room. Annie was in Violet and Bastion's room across the suite.
"Thanks, honey!" She gathered up a couple of toiletries as well, knowing her best friend would need to freshen up in the morning. And then Annie picked up something from Bastion's drawer. 'He'll need these later,' she realized, grabbing a pair of his favorite silk pajamas. She sat down on Bastion and Violet's bed and fingered the rosary beads in the pocket of her denim shorts. 'Please let this night go better than I'm thinking it'll go,' she prayed in her head. 'Please help us, Lord...' The days in the infirmary had taken their toll on the girl, and there was part of her that truly feared this night.
Syrus then came in, a bag in each hand. He'd just finished packing and saw Annie in her current position. Frowning a little, he set the bags down and sat beside her, putting an arm around her. "Annie? Are you okay?"
She looked up at him, worry and pain evident in her eyes. "I'm just really worried about tonight, Sy... What if... what if something happens to Bastion? I don't think Violet can take it..."
He sighed, gaze turning to the carpet. "I... I don't know, Annie... We won't know until all of this happens, and... all we can do is try to stop that from happening."
"I... Sy... I don't know if I can take it, either," she admitted. "When I was younger... Bobby got hurt in a snowboarding accident and they had to airlift him from Snoqualmie to Harborview Medical. He was okay, but it scared me," Annie shivered. "I was about ten and... I wasn't the same after my brother got hurt. I got more driven to be a doctor... If he'd died, I don't know what it would've done to me..."
Syrus pulled her a little closer. "He'll be okay, Annie... He has to be... All of us will make sure of that. And you and Violet will be okay too."
She hugged him tightly, needing the comfort of his arms. "When this is over... and Bastion's out of danger... we just need to relax..."
He kept her close, nodding. "We will..."
As the now-former students prepared for the one of the toughest non-duel-related fights of their lives, the two youngest students at the academy also made preparations. Blair was in her temporary quarters at Obelisk Blue packing up some pajamas. "Marcel, do you want anything? I can pack some snacks!" she called from inside her bedroom.
Marcel had already packed his bag, and was standing in the sitting room waiting for Blair. "Huh? Oh, uh, I am fine. But you can pack some snacks if you want!" he called back.
"Do you want one of my stuffed animals?" she offered.
"No, that's all right!"
Blair made her final selections and came out with a well-stuffed bag. "I packed a couple of things, just in case. It's going to be a really long night... Annie lent me a couple of medical textbooks she got off of Amazon... I read up on pneumonia..."
Marcel blinked at the obviously over-stuffed bag, but turned his attention back to its owner. "You did?"
"Yeah, I did. Annie let me use her books after I was done studying for finals. I asked her about what she knew and she told me and let me use the books." Blair might not have been the greatest of duelists, but she definitely had a brilliant mind. "Anyway, back in the old days before they had antibiotics and before we knew there were two types of pneumonia, there was this thing called 'the crisis,' and people who went through that period would either live or die..."
"Really?" Marcel asked curiously.
"Yeah. Most often, people lived, but there were times people died because their body temperature went too low," she explained. "Bastion going through it may be a good thing... But I'm kind of surprised that he is."
"Why's that? I thought you said it was normal," he replied, now confused.
"It was a normal thing back in the old days, but now it isn't so normal."
"Oh... well then, why do you think Bastion is going through it?"
"The theory that Dr. Nakamura and Ms. Fontaine have is that because it hit him so fast, that's why his system is going through it."
Marcel nodded. "All right, I think I understand... Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah... let's go," she answered.
By the time the sun was finally going down on that late May evening, the entire gang had gathered in the infirmary. Bastion smiled weakly at the touch of his favorite pajamas on his skin. "I'm glad these were brought... They're warm," he wrote.
Violet smiled. "That's good... You need all the warmth you can get tonight..." She couldn't hide the worry in her tone, eyes, or expression.
He lifted his hand and gripped hers. It was a silent gesture, meant to sooth her. It was his way of saying, "I'll make it, somehow."
She bit her bottom lip, but nodded slowly and squeezed back. "I know you will..."
He released his grip and wrote, "I'll be all right, love... Stay with me..."
"I will... I won't leave your side, Bastion... You never left mine," she answered softly. For some reason she felt like crying.
"Violet... sweetie," Katai murmured, moving to hug the girl. She could tell her soon-to-be daughter-in-law was holding back her emotions. Violet gladly accepted the hug, but didn't let go of her love's hand during it. She was really glad that Katai was there, both for Bastion's and her own sake. It was like having her mom there with her to help comfort her. "I'll be right here, too, Violet, honey," the older woman murmured. "My sweet girl..."
"...Thanks… Katai..."
Katai smiled softly. "You're already part of our family..."
Violet managed a small smile. "Okay then... Thanks… Mom..."
Katai was touched by that, that Violet felt that bond. She hadn't expected that the girl would call her Mom, but was touched that her daughter-in-law addressed her as such. "Oh, sweetie..." She hugged a little tighter. "I'm... glad you feel that way..."
Violet hugged back. "I'm glad I feel that way too..." The two women held the hug for a long moment, but when they broke away, Bastion tapped his writing pad for attention. Violet sweat-dropped. "What is it, Bastion?"
He wrote quickly. "Mum... could you sing Warabigami? Violet's never heard you sing it..."
Katai nodded. "I can, if it's okay... I just hope I still remember all the words... Hiro, I hope you do..."
Hiro smiled from his spot beside Bastion's bed. "Of course I do. Well, perhaps some verses are a bit fuzzy, but... I'm certain they'll come back to me once you begin singing, darling."
"Okay... Just in case I botch it..."
"You won't, Mum," Bastion wrote, adding XDDDDDDDD to the pad.
Katai smiled. "I used to sing this when Bastion was really little... And that horrible night when we thought Hiro might not come home..."
Violet's eyes widened. "When was that??"
Katai sighed. "That was the night Joey Wheeler's father died... Hiro was trapped at the hospital, and even though he wasn't really in danger, we were still afraid that something would happen to him. Bastion and I were watching TV when the news broke in. Even though Hiro called and told us he was all right, Bastion was terrified. He was just 5..."
Violet squeezed her fiancé's hand. "Wow... I never even thought that Hiro might have been at the hospital when that happened..."
"He had an emergency surgery," Katai explained. "A little girl had fallen through a window and glass had gotten in her eye... He saved her eyesight, right, Hiro?"
Hiro smiled and frowned at the memories. "That I did. I'm just glad that no one was harmed during that entire ordeal... there were so many children in that hospital..."
"I remember that night... I was in the hospital room with Yugi and his friends and grandfather," Scout mentioned. "I'd done the work on Yugi's hands and I'd just been doing my rounds when I got an emergency alert," she explained. Scout remembered that night and how she'd had to reassure five-year-old Alexis and seven-year-old Atticus over the phone as they'd held onto their father. "Joey ran out, trying to talk his father down… The kids had never seen anything like that night..."
"It was bad enough with one scared little boy," Katai said thoughtfully.
"Yeah... Alexis held onto me like I was a life preserver when I got home," the other mom stated.
"It was a scary night, but... Bastion relaxed with this song," Katai recalled. "Guess I'd better get to it..." And so the small woman began to sing in Japanese. Bastion closed his eyes, listening to it.
Outside the room, Jaden perked up. "I understand this song," he murmured, smiling.
Alexis looked over at her fiancé. "What do you mean, Jay?"
"I can translate it, Lex," he explained. "Mom and Dad made sure I was bilingual, so I understand the words..."
"Wow. So then you know what the song's about?" Syrus asked.
"Yeah... The first verse," he murmured as Katai sang through it, "says that the baby boy that was born is a blessing from heaven and that the mom will take care of him and hopes he'll grow up with good luck and health..." Katai sang the second verse and Jaden quickly translated, "Then she sings about how even though bad things will happen, she'll protect her little boy from them so he'll grow up okay." There was something sweet and yet a little sad about the song, and Annie couldn't help but wipe away a tear. Most of the group had expressions of wistfulness as they listened.
Katai sang through the whole song and drew a breath. "Katai... that was amazing," Scout murmured.
"Th-thank you," Katai answered, blushing slightly. "I haven't sung that in a long time..."
"It sounds just as beautiful as the last time I heard you sing it, darling," Hiro stated sincerely, smiling.
Violet was grinning. "Oh, wow, Katai... You're such a great singer... I had no idea."
The mother reached to brush her now-sleeping son's head. "It's just something passed down through generations... My mother's family was from Okinawa, and women sang that song to their babies and little children, so my mother taught the song to me and I sang it to Bastion."
Violet looked back at the person she loved most in the world. "Yeah... a lot of moms sing to their kids... even if they're not really good at it... Mom never sang to me, but Grandma did when I was little. Just some funny little made-up songs to get me to sleep. I'm not surprised that Bastion fell asleep after you sang that..."
Alex Nakamura took a look at Bastion's vital signs and checked his temperature. "He needs the sleep... the battle is about to begin..." He took a deep breath. "His fever will drop and if this were a normal case, he'd drop back to normal and cough up the gunk in his lungs. But he's undergoing the crisis... That means his temperature will likely drop into hypothermic levels."
"We'll get him through it... we have to," Violet murmured, squeezing Bastion's hand as if to confirm her words.
"We'll make it... We'll track his temperature, keep him warm and bring him back to normal. He'll still be weak for a while, Violet, but he will pull out of it," Alex soothed, laying a hand on her shoulder.
Violet sighed, feeling a little relieved. That's what she was hoping to hear. "Good... as long as he'll be okay..."
Scout stepped out of the room and got Annie. The dark-haired girl came into the room and "Violet, I'm here," the would-be doctor said, putting her arms around her best friend. Annie knew this was going to be a rough night, no matter the outcome.
Violet gladly leaned into the hug. "Thanks, Annie..."
GX GX GX GX GX GX GX GX GX GX
The sun set and the temperature went down on Academy Island. In the outer room of the infirmary, no one slept. Blair sighed, stretched out on her air mattress. "I wish we could do something..."
"We will... when it happens," Marcel replied softly, staring up at the ceiling.
Axel, meanwhile, was cleaning and polishing his duel disk. "Are you sure that thing isn't loaded?" Adrian half-joked.
"Are you going to keep saying that?" Axel countered softly with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, ya gotta admit, mate, that it is a rather unique duel disk. I've never seen one shaped like that before," Jim stated, propping himself up on an elbow. Shirley was sleeping soundly beside him.
Axel smiled softly. "Yeah... I had it custom-made. Needless to say, people don't mess with me when I have it."
"Do you ever have problems getting through security with it?" Jim joked, grinning slightly.
"Nope," the young man answered. "I have the information on it with me at all times. And I occasionally get to demonstrate its use."
"Cool," Adrian grinned, admiring the gun-like duel disk.
About an hour later, Bastion's body temperature began to drop. "Here we go," Alex muttered. "Annie, take a look at the readouts, would you?" he requested, treating her like the medical student she wanted to be.
The teen nodded, examining the readouts. "Patient's temperature is dropping. If we're lucky, he won't go into the crisis... This would be the resolution phase..."
"Good girl," he praised.
Violet rubbed the hand she'd held all night a little, knowing that soon it would start getting colder. She was smarter than average, after all. She just didn't feel like trying to remember what she knew sometimes. But one thing Violet did know was that the appendages would lose heat first, as it drew into her love's core to keep his vital organs running. "It's okay, Bastion… I'm here," she murmured.
If Bastion heard, he gave no sign. "Okay... we'll need heating pads if he goes into hypothermia," Scout stated. "I've read about cases like this... And I've seen a few drowning cases..."
"Drowning cases?" Violet asked.
"Well, occasionally in the winter, kids would try to skate on the pond in Domino Park... And there'd be a child that fell through the ice," the Rhodes mother explained. "The kid would be under long enough to have nearly drowned and because the water was so cold, developed hypothermia."
"Oh, I see... That's like when people go surfing on Lake Erie in the winter... They have to be careful or they can catch hypothermia," Violet agreed with an understanding nod.
"People fall in the water in Puget Sound in winter and they get hypothermia," Annie remembered. "Sometimes, they don't make it..." She shivered, remembering a classmate that had fallen off a boat in February when she was nine years old.
Violet nodded again. "Yeah. A lot of people have died on the lake... not usually of hypothermia, though. Which is weird, I know, seeing how cold it gets and all." There had always been at least one report a week on the news about a Lake Erie death.
"Sometimes, hypothermia can save a drowning victim," Annie remembered. "I think it's because the body's functions are so slow..."
"That's right.... but in this case, we have to keep Bastion from going into that stage of hypothermia," Alex asserted, watching the young man's vitals. "Hiro, Katai... this is going to get worse before it gets better..."
Hiro sighed. "Yes, we know, Alex... But with everyone here to help, I'm certain it will get better."
GX GX GX GX GX GX GX GX GX GX
And so they waited. At 10:30 PM, Bastion's body temperature had dropped to 100 degrees and his eyes opened. They had lost much of the fever brightness they'd had for well over a week. He gripped Violet's hand, looking up at her. Violet felt it, and squeezed back, sending him a soothing smile. "It's okay, Bastion. I'm here... we all are... Do you know what's happening?"
He managed a nod and reached for his writing pad. "I feel cooler," he wrote. "Is the fever finally breaking?"
Her smile faltered a bit. "Yes... but..."
"But?" he wrote, eyes showing his own worry.
"Your temperature might keep dropping, and... you might... hit the crisis..."
"The what?" For once, Bastion didn't know about it.
Violet blinked in surprise. "You could... get hypothermia... We need to keep you warm."
"I don't understand," he wrote.
Annie looked at Violet, having noted the conversation. Violet met her gaze, silently asking for some help with this. "Bastion... this hasn't happened much since the advent of modern medicines like antibiotics," the dark-haired girl explained. "In the crisis, a patient's body temperature tends to return to normal or drop. Back in the old days, that bad drop could be fatal and was a lot of the time. So you're going through this, but you have modern medical techniques that should prevent you from going through the real danger point."
He nodded, gray eyes wide. "So... this might be fatal?"
"Yes... but you may rally a lot easier because of modern techniques and because you were healthy before all this started."
"It won't be fatal for you, Bastion. We'll make sure of that," Violet added, the determination in her tone obvious.
"I know, love... you and Annie together... and Mum and Dad..." He was feeling weak and lost grip on the pad and pencil.
"Bastion... just relax... it'll be over soon," Annie murmured, taking the writing stuff.
Violet nodded. "The more you relax, the easier it'll be for you..."
Annie looked up at the readouts. "Body temperature at 99.5 and falling..." Bastion's body temperature went down another tenth of a degree as she spoke. But he managed to take Violet's hand. The handgrip conveyed trust and fear at the same time. He knew his friends were all with him, and yet he knew death could come for him.
"Violet... be ready... this could go really quick," Alex murmured.
Violet sighed softly. "I'm ready... I'll do anything I can to help him..."
"We all are, sweetie," Katai murmured. And another hour went by. Bastion's body temperature kept dropping and by 11:45, he was starting to shake.
Violet held his hand a bit tighter, worried. "Bastion..."
His grip seemed falter and his eyes looked fearful. "Bastion, blink for me if you can understand me," Annie stated. He blinked. "Okay... can you feel Violet's hand? One blink for yes, two for no and three for kind of." Bastion blinked three times.
"He's in Stage One," Alex murmured.
Violet looked at the doctor worriedly. "Stage One?"
"Stage One of hypothermia. The patient's temperature is below normal for him and he starts to shiver. And his hand is numb," Annie explained, also worried. "Bastion, are you feeling queasy?" Two blinks. "Are you feeling tired?" One blink. "Okay... Try to touch Violet's shoulder..." Bastion reached up and tried, but fumbled.
Violet bit her lip nervously. "How many stages are there again?"
"Three... and Bastion's heading to stage 2..."
"How do we know when he's in it?"
Annie took a deep breath. "Do you remember that duel monster Shinato?"
"No..."
The dark-haired girl sighed. "Okay... well, Bastion's lips, ears, fingers and toes are going to start turning blue..."
"Blue?!"
"It's because the blood vessels in his extremities will constrict and try to keep the rest of him warm," Annie soothed. "So the blood in those parts of his body will lose oxygen and turn blue."
Violet sighed. "Still, though... blue..."
"He'll turn back to normal when his body warms up..." Bastion continued to shake and looked heartrendingly at his parents for them to help him somehow.
Hiro frowned deeply, wishing there was something more he could do. It hurt a parent when they couldn't help their child in a time of need. He placed his hand on Bastion's shoulder and squeezed lightly. "It won't last for long, son..."
"It'll be okay, angel... we're all here," Katai soothed, brushing his bangs again. Bastion blinked and then started to shake harder. He tried to hold Violet's hand tighter, but his fingers were getting clumsy.
Violet made sure that her grip was tight enough to hold Bastion's hand, willing him to still feel that she was there. "Bastion..."
"He's in stage 2... Body temp at 93.3 degrees," Annie stated, trying desperately to go into clinical mode.
Outside the room, the other young adults listened fearfully. "Come on, Bastion," Jaden urged, "keep fighting, man!" Chazz sat tensely on his bed, eyes closed, presumably praying.
Belowski cuddled tightly against the man that he was beginning to call father. "Dad... he's gotta be okay..."
Don kept his arm around the thin boy, rubbing his arm with his hand comfortingly. "He will be, son... he will be..."
"He's in trouble... and he's... he can't see well..." Belowski's strange abilities had allowed him a glimpse into Bastion's state; consequently he could see how stage 2 hypothermia was affecting the older young man.
Don stared down at him in surprise, almost shock, at this. "Belowski... you can see what he's going through?"
The boy nodded, clearly upset. "I can see what's happening... it's so not cool..." He shivered from fear.
Don frowned. "Can you control it? Maybe... block the feelings out?" It was a possibility that Belowski could turn this strange sense of his on and off.
Belowski took a deep breath, trying to shut Bastion out of his mind. "I'm... I'm trying, Dad... He's so cold..."
"I know, Belowski... Just… try to concentrate on something else," Don soothed, keeping his hold on the small boy. Belowski closed his eyes, trying to focus on the woman he now called Mom. He was still able to sense the cold from Bastion, but he was now able to feel Fonda's warmth and her determination, along with the other doctors, to save Bastion's life. And yet he still gripped his soon-to-be-father's hand.
Meanwhile, back in Bastion's room, the teen genius's skin was draining of color. Hiro held Katai to him, knowing the sight was scaring her half to death and barely able to keep vigil himself. 'Oh, son... please be all right,' he thought, pained.
Violet seemed to drain of color almost as quickly as Bastion, though her skin paled out of fear and worry. "Bastion..."
Katai was also pale. "Hang on, sweetheart," she murmured.
Fonda looked up at the readout. "We're going to have to get the heat packs ready. His temp's dropped to 92.8. Annie?"
"On it!" the teen girl answered already running out to the supply closet. The gang looked up at her. "He's heading toward stage 3 hypothermia..."
"Stage three...?" Syrus asked, eyes filled with worry.
"Y-yeah... He'll stop shaking, and his body will really slow down, but his heart rate could go up too fast. He could be clinically dead in a short while, but we might be able to bring him out of it..." The strain was beginning to show on her, as it was nearing 1 AM now.
Syrus would have gone to her, but knew he would only slow her down and upset her. Plus, the "dead" comment had shocked everyone. "D-Dead?!" Jesse yelped.
Annie nodded, but seemed calm. "Clinical death is different than brain death. Clinical death is when your blood stops circulating and you stop breathing... You can come out of that..." She shivered a little. "But you have to work fast..."
Jaden's face went white. "I've seen it before..."
Alexis turned to her fiancé in surprise. "Jaden? You have?"
"Y-yeah... when I was in the hospital... years ago..." The memory went through his mind like a lightning flash.
"Was it someone you were sharing a room with?"
Jaden shivered. "N-No... See... I wandered around some nights... I was there a lot, especially when I was in treatment... and then when Mom got sick..." He took a deep breath. "One night I wandered down to the ER..."
Alexis frowned. "And you saw it happen..."
He nodded, eyes cast down. "They... they lost the... she was five.... And she'd been in an accident... They were trying to save her. She stopped breathing... And then about 5 minutes later... her brain stopped. It had been damaged with the accident, but... her stopping breathing... she didn't have a chance..."
"Sarge," Tyson murmured sympathetically.
Alexis squeezed Jaden's hand comfortingly, only able to imagine how horrible that must have been, especially at such a young age. "Jaden..." The brown-eyed young man pulled his bride to be into a tight hug at the horrible memory. It was the first time Jaden had actually seen death happen. On the night in question, his mother had been in Domino General for cancer treatment and his father had fallen asleep with his mother. That had allowed the small boy to wander. And then he had seen that poor little girl die. But now...
"It's not going to happen to Bastion. Annie, is it time for the heat compress brigade?" he asked, looking up from his hug.
"Yeah," she answered seriously. "We have to move fast!"
Tyson and Axel looked at each other. "You heard the lady... MOVE MOVE MOVE!" Axel commanded, sounding every bit like a drill sergeant.
Tyson too was moving. "Fall in line, soldiers! This is an emergency! Private Misawa's dependin' on us!!!" The group gladly obliged, not really needing the order. But the loud energy produced by it had been needed to wake them up and bring them out of their nervous stupor. Within seconds, the line had formed, stretching from Bastion's bedside to the microwave where the moist heat compresses would be heated up for use. The infirmary's entire supply was stacked up on the counter beside it.
Axel was at the start of the line next to the counter and Tyson was at the end next to Annie who was in the crowd of doctors. Dr. Alex Nakamura gave the signal. "All right, I need 'em now!" he shouted and thus began the tosses.
"Here's one," Annie called as the first compress was tossed into her hands.
"Violet, put this on Bastion," Miss Fontaine commanded as she handed the purple-haired girl the compress.
"O-Okay." Violet didn't hesitate, knowing these next few minutes would decide the fate of the man she loved.
"Put it here first, around his core. You need to keep the vitals warm," stated a familiar voice. Mary had appeared, pointing at the British teen's torso. Violet did as she was told, knowing that Mary knew a lot more about anatomy than she did for... various reasons.
And for the next few minutes, the students and alumni of Duel Academy Central kept tossing the heat packs. Jaden's face had taken on a blank expression as he only thought of tossing those packs. His movements were almost robotic as he concentrated on his task. He didn't allow himself to think of anything else. Jaden wasn't the only one like this; throughout the line, some of the gang was in a similar state of mechanical movement. Alexis noticed this and frowned, turning to her fiancé whom she stood next to. "Jay?"
Jaden blinked. "Huh? Alexis? Did you say something?"
The concern was obvious in her hazel eyes. "Jaden, no offense, but you looked like a zombie... and you're not the only one."
Jaden looked at the line, seeing the blank expressions on Syrus, Chazz, Adrian, Jasmine, Blair and Marcel. They were intent on what they were doing and had seemingly lost all feeling. "Wow... we just know what we have to do, I think..."
"Okay... I was just worried, that's all," Alexis replied, sighing. It was weird seeing them like this, even if it was for a good reason.
"We just can't let it happen," he murmured tightly as he took another compress, handing it over to her.
She handed it to Atticus, nodding slightly. "I know... and we won't..."
Back in the room, the situation was still very serious. Bastion's body temperature hadn't started to climb yet. "Come on, Bastion... come on," Scout murmured, brushing the young man's chilled features.
"Fight, son... I know you, and you're too strong to let this beat you. You must come back," Hiro said softly, brushing his fingers against his only child's chilled hand. Katai herself was beyond speech, choosing instead to pray in her mind. The small woman couldn't envision losing her baby, not like this. And so she prayed hard.
Cliffhanger! Will Bastion survive this night and be better? Will the gang have to say goodbye to a friend? Will we ever get tired of medical drama?! Next time, join us for "Golden Scissors Miss Their Mark!" Until then, please read, review and stay tuned! Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow!