TW: mentioning of blood

The constant electronic note of a device emitted at regular intervals reached his ears and boomed in his head like footsteps in a church. The sound slowly brought him out of oblivion as he vaguely felt someone moving his arm. Maybe someone was talking to him, he could hear a muffled voice joining the electronic beep that ticked off the seconds. He could not be sure, however, for he seemed to have his head under water as strange visions crowded his mind. Confusing dreams with no apparent meaning clouded his mind and made it difficult for him to regain consciousness.

"...! ...ank...! Frank!"

Was that his name? Yes, that was his name. Someone was calling him.

A strong smell of disinfectant helped him understand what was happening. The more seconds passed, the more clearly he felt a dull pain in his chest and face. He also found it quite difficult to swallow, as if he had a sore throat.

"Frank, are you there? Can you hear me?"

Now the voice was clearer. It was a soft voice, with slightly fruity tones. A calm voice with orange, sometimes yellow tones. Slowly, memories began to take their place in his mind. Rain was talking to him. They wanted an answer from him.

"Yes...yes...I hear you." He tried to speak, but ended up mumbling in a slurred voice. "What... what is going on?"

He still did not want to open his eyes. His head was spinning and felt extremely tired. He felt Rain's presence very close to him, probably they were sitting next to him on his bed.

"We're back at the base. You're in the infirmary. Can you open your eyes and move a bit? I know you don't feel like it, but please try, at least I'll know if you have brain damage or not. That is, if you have actually a brain to damage, considering how stupid you are." Rain replied jokingly.

Frank sighed and tried to comply. Of course, his eyes were not in direct contact with the natural light of this cold, sterile room. The electronic systems installed in the mask's visual apparatus projected the scene around him directly into his brain: a round face with large, kind eyes and colourful hair staring down at him. He felt her warm hand clasping his, as if to comfort him.

Frank moved slightly in the bed, with slow, clumsy movements. He finally remembered what had happened. He had been attacked from behind, kicked in the chest with a sharp boot, and nearly strangled to death. A nice happy scenario, in short. "Sorry, Rain. I'm... a little dizzy."

"That's normal, it's the effect of the medicine I gave you. Now take it easy and you'll see that it will get better."

"Did I get... any permanent damage?"

"Hmm... Let's see..." Rain picked up a clipboard with a paper attached to it and pretended to read it with great interest. He was silent for a good two minutes before Frank said something.

"So? Rain, come on. I don't have all day."

"Oh... How did you know that?"

Frank stared at them in silence, while Rain looked back at him with a very serious expression. But the play was short lived. After a few seconds, a smile appeared on the young medic's face and they burst out laughing.

"I'm just teasing you, dummy. It's all right. I also used the biological accelerator to make your wounds heal faster, so you won't have a hole in your throat for a long time. You'll have to take pills for a few days and rest for a while, but otherwise you'll be fine." Rain grimaced, as if pretending to be a stern professor. "I also took the opportunity to give you a general check-up, since you say you never have the time. Everything's fine except your blood sugar. Go easy on the sweets, okay? It's not because you have a fast metabolism that you can not give a damn."

"... Okay."

"Good." Rain gave him a gentle pat on the knee and smiled. "Are you okay? Emotionally I mean. You were nearly beaten to death. How that makes you feel?"

"I don't feel anything in particular."

"In the sense that you feel detached from your emotions? Or that the fear and shock are too strong now to process everything well?"

"No. I feel the same as usual. I don't feel anything. Do I feel indifferent? But I don't even know if that's the right adjective. Do I feel neutral?"

"Hmm." Rain arched their eyebrows. "Look, it's okay to say you were scared, macho man. Let's leave the toxic masculinity at the door, okay? Keeping it all inside is hurting you, you know?"

"It's not what you think. I don't think I'm less virile for feeling emotions. I really don't feel anything special." Frank sighed and let his eyes wander around the room, looking for a watch. He more or less wanted to find out if it was morning or evening, since the infirmary did not even have a window. "Of course, I was afraid while he was strangling me, but it was more an instinctive thing than a reasoned thing."

"Emotions are not rational, you cannot control them. They are like the waves of the sea, they come and go."

"I was just trying to don't die. But I don't know if what I felt could really be called fear." Frank sighed deeply. "Anyway, it didn't matter. The consequences of my actions came back to me. These things happen."

"You have to stop pissing people off everywhere you go. Or sooner or later the only thing I can do to help you is put a flower on your coffin. Was it really necessary to try to murder those kids? Why even bother?"

"They got in the way of my mission and I decided it was time to punish them. That guard happened to get in the way."

"So you were angry with them? You say you never feel anything, but remember that anger is an emotion."

"I don't know. I don't know if it was anger or hate or just wanting to get back at them. I just did what I felt like doing at that moment. But why all these questions?"

"Because you do crazy things and then you get filled with enemies who want to kill you. Now it was the guard, before it was Andy. Maybe it's time to calm down a bit, don't you think? You lead a pretty wild life for a nerd who's glued to his computer all day." Rain got out of bed and stretched. "Besides, I admit I'm fascinated by you. You can't be an emotionless handsome mysterious man with your mask on all the time and expect people not to ask you a few questions."

"I'm not doing it to look mysterious, I simply use the mask to protect my identity." Absentmindedly, he ran a hand over his body, pushing aside the white blanket that had protected him from the cold. Only then did he realize that he was no longer wearing his jacket or shirt. His bare chest was wrapped in white bandages while a big band-aid hid the bruises on his neck. His black pants and socks were still on, while his elegant shoes were piled haphazardly next to the bed. Rain had probably removed his bloody shirt in a hurry, not feeling the need to give Frank any pajamas.

"I know, I know. By the way, how's your face? Does it hurt?"

"Yes, a little."

"If you want me to medicate your face, you know what to do."

"No, thank you."

"All right. Then I'll give you the materials to treat yourself. But don't mess it up, okay?"

"I will do my best, thanks."

"You're welcome. I'll go tell Miss Maia that you're alive. You are welcome to to stay here and rest for a while if you want to. If you're feeling unwell, use the bell to call me. The others are in the living room if you want to join them. As soon as you feel better, we will have another meeting to decide what to do." Rain pointed to a thread ending in a red button lying on the bed and waved his hand in greeting. "See you later."

"Thank you very much." Frank replied, nodding slightly to Rain. He stayed on the bed for a while, trying to gather the strength he needed to get up.

~

"... And I could see the very blood running down his throat, mixing with the blood on his shirt! Right after he cut the flesh with the scalpel...zac! Rain stuck some kind of tube in there like it was nothing!"

"Eww, Jake! That's disgusting, please stop! I'm eating!" Tricky protested with her mouth full of ice cream. She had decided to eat the evening's dessert by sitting at the same table as his friends, but she was already regretting her decision.

"That's sick. What did they do next?" Fresh pressed him, obviously interested in all the gruesome details of the story. "Did you see the internal organs?"

"Not really. You could see them like when you cut a piece of meat. But with a lot more blood."

"JAKE!"

"Come on Jake, stop it. If Tricky says it disgusts her to hear such things, don't push it." Yutani tried to support her friend, but she did it with less energy than usual. The girl sighed and rested her head on her hand. Her gaze remained fixed on the table in front of her.

{I'm sorry you had to witness such a scene. It must have been frightening}. Lucy handed the note to Jake and looked at him with a worried expression.

Jake suddenly became serious and nodded slowly. "Yes. It was really bad to see him like that. He looked like a rabid animal, screaming nonsense." He shook his head. "He never acted like that, ever. Not even when we pissed him off for vandalizing trains."

"In my opinion, that psychopath got what he deserved. It's about time someone made him pay. Too bad you stopped Ted." Fresh commented bitterly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Come on Fresh, don't say that." King gave him a worried look. "You're no better than him if you think like that. You shouldn't beating nobody up. You'd rather have him arrested, but you don't take the law into your own hands."

"I guess you'd feel differently if it had happened to you, King." Fresh insisted. "I would really like to see if you would be so calm if you met the man who ruined your life."

"Well, is it true that Spike is - or was - If we are in the future, is Spike dead or in another dimension? Either way, Spike is out there every day without a father." Jake commented with an unhappy expression. "I agree with King, though. I don't think killing people is the answer."

He had not yet told anyone about what Ted had told him, about how Frank and the others might have lied to them and manipulated everyone. He didn't feel like arguing with Fresh about the fact that he personally didn't believe that version very much. This group of people had always been kind to them, unlike the creepy military men he had seen marching through the stinking streets of the suburbs.

He could see no reason why Frank would make up a lie to manipulate five children, but Fresh would surely tell him that he was a fool to think that way, that he had this opinion only because he had been fooled by Frank's persuasive voice and gentle, refined manners.

Jake also did not want to be responsible for any impulsive actions like escapes from the group or other attacks. He just wanted a few days of peace to reflect on what had happened.

Was it better to trust and see where this group of people would take them in spite of everything, or was it better to take a leap of faith and trust the people who had Ted in their custody? He wasn't even sure if he wanted to see him again, but he couldn't leave such an important matter unresolved.

~

"Be still, Ted. I'm almost done." Rosa's gentle but firm tone urged Ted to do his best to endure the pain. The doctor was wiping his face streaked with streaks of congealed blood with a cotton ball soaked in disinfectant.

"Sorry, Rose."

"Here. Now I'm going to pass the biological accelerator here to make your wound heal faster." Rose explained, passing a small round metal device over the inspector's gashed face. "Good thing that traitor didn't take your eyes," the doctor spoke with a slight accent. Perhaps she spoke Spanish, or Italian.

"Hmm." Muttered Ted in a distracted tone. His mind was full of conflicting thoughts and doubts. Had he been right to attack Frank like that? Were Jake and the other children okay? Where had his dog gone? Had he now become a criminal after what he had done? Were those people really dangerous terrorists as they had been described to him?

"I know what you're thinking." Andy, who was working on his computer a few feet away from them, talked to him out of nowhere. Ted looked at him quite puzzled.

"You're wondering what you could have done to slaughter him better. First of all, I think you should have shot him much earlier when he was on the floor." A chuckle jerked his shoulders.

"No, I wasn't thinking about that." Ted didn't like Andy at all. He couldn't tell if he said strange things on purpose to shock people and make himself look interesting, or if he really meant those things, but either way it made him uncomfortable. Andy reminded him of those strange individuals who occasionally wandered into the subway depot, talking to themselves with no apparent purpose.

"Well, I'm not a mind reader." Andy replied, pressing the computer's space bar several times. "Yeah, come on... NO!" He shouted and punched the table violently.

"Are you trying to track them down?" asked Ted.

"Nah." Andy replied in a mocking tone. "I was just playing a video game."

Ted looked questioningly at Rosa who shrugged. "You'll get used to it. You don't have to listen to him too much. He's great professionally, and that's all that matters." The doctor placed a few pills in Ted's palm. "Take these to prevent infection. I'll bring you the bottle later to use in the next few days," Rosa said before leaving the room.

Ted nodded and swallowed the pills before focusing on Andy again. "Do you know where they took my dog?"

"Yes, but I'm not going to tell you. Otherwise you'll betray us, too," Andy said, continuing to press the space bar on the computer. He sat with his legs so wide apart that Ted wondered how he was not uncomfortable.

"Why should I betray you?"

"Ah, I don't know. Like I said, I'm not a mind reader."

"Look -- the five children who came with me in this century are now in the custody of the group we are trying to capture. I'm worried about them. The man I almost killed tried to kill them all and blame it on me."

"Ha! That's just typical Frank." Andy looked genuinely amused. He smiled and shook his head. "A classic."

"Do you know him well? What kind of guy is he? Do you think he could still hurt them?"

"I thought I knew him well, he was my right hand man." Andy had a very high opinion of himself, so anyone who worked with him was automatically a "helper" and never an "equal".

"And?"

"Then he betrayed us, and my certainties about him wavered. I despise spies, liars and traitors. Especially when they trick me." He didn't answer Ted's question, probably because he didn't care much about those five brats.

"Okay, but do you think he could hurt those kids?" Ted insisted.

"Dude, are you stupid or what? I just told you I can't predict him. That's why I'm pissed at him." It wasn't so much his words that intimidated Ted, but rather the slight smile on Andy's face. That smile seemed to be imbued with madness and blind cruelty. "Nobody makes fun of Andy. Nobody."

"Okay. Okay. I got it." Ted gave up trying to have a meaningful discussion with that weirdo. "But doesn't it ever occur to you that what you're doing is wrong? How do you know you're on the side of justice without siding with the hangman?"

"Honey, anyone who is convinced that he is on the side of justice will sooner or later have to be on the side of the executioner. But I really don't care about these things. I get paid to do a job, and I do it without standing there pontificating about what is right or wrong."

"I see." Ted repeated, understanding that Andy was thinking like a hit man.

"You better do the same if you don't want to go crazy."

"You might be right." Ted replied unconvinced. "Do you think we'll ever catch them?"

"Sure. Since I caught them once, I can catch them twice. Everything I do is pretty boring except chasing these pieces of shit. I'd be bored out of my mind if I gave up trying to find them, so rest assured, this doesn't end here."

"Hmm." Ted nodded, his hands folded. He didn't know if this was good or bad. The last thing he wanted was for the boys to get involved in anything shady or violent. His real mission was to get them all home safely to their parents. The political problems of this strange century did not interest him much. But he realized that after he had attacked Frank in front of Jake, Jake was afraid of him. He could see it in his eyes.

The guard leaned forward and hid his face in his hands. What had he done? He had pointed his gun at Jake, the very person he had sworn to protect and bring home. Though he had never intended to actually shoot him, he had threatened him physically and verbally, right after almost killing a person in front of him. He had probably traumatized him. How could he do that to a child? What had happened to him? What kind of monster had he become? How could Jake ever trust him again?

Of course, Jake was on Frank's side when he acted like this. How had he lost control of himself like that? Was he really better than Frank now?

But when he had seen Frank working on the computer with his back turned, unaware of his presence, something had clicked inside him. A spark of pure hatred and terror that suddenly exploded into murderous rage. Blinded by his own sense of revenge, he had destroyed the trust between himself and Jake. By pointing the gun at him, he had also burned any possibility of redemption and forgiveness.

"Hah. See, I knew you were desperate because you didn't bring an extra weapon."

Ted ignored the provocation, considering Andy a lost cause now. It crossed his mind whether it would be wise to at least try to get in touch with the terrorist leader again at the bar. He needed more answers, he needed to try to do something. But he wasn't sure, because he could easily be caught and a single misstep could cost him and his dog their lives.

Was it better to stay in the comforting military discipline, anonymity, and lack of individual responsibility of that police squad and hope for the best, or risk everything to actually make a difference?