X36: Rest not

He shot upwards. His stress inhibitors failed. He drew his pistol. Pistol? No pistol present, in fact he didn't have any of his holsters. Not his blade holster, pistol nor his railgun. His eyes immediately calculated all assets in the room he's in… A second passed, the panic subsided, he felt a cold sweat drop pass by his cheek. He was in a hospital room. Looking to his left, he could see the distant high-rises, out the window. His face felt weird; raising a hand to the side of his face, he felt cracks from the side of his mouth towards his burnt cheek. Acid marks. Those won't recover, Kazuki thought. But… it'll help with his Contract-Breaker persona if he had a few more scars. And he thought nothing more.

Nothing… changed. Nothing really has changed… He was wearing hospital clothes and was hooked up to half a dozen machines behind the bed, pumping liquids into him. He felt his exospine weigh down on him, it wasn't powered. His head turned to the person sitting beside the bed.

Elizabeth Celeste-Delmara. She was sleeping, leaning over the duvets. She didn't seem exhausted. There were no dark rings around her eyes.

"Oh…" Kazuki trailed off, "So that's how you look without them." His bland and limited vocabulary couldn't bring his eyes and mind justice… She looked at peace, tranquil - and beautiful? He had no idea how to describe it, but it was the simplest way he could fathom the words out.

He… didn't know if he should wake her up. The past few days must have been stressful… Days? no… weeks? Now that he thinks about it, how long has he been out of the fight? Wait… what happened back there? Svenn, got away? He failed? 

He didn't know. But his frantic movements earlier had started to wake her up, she made a groaning noise.

"I dun wannaa go to schoool mom," Eliza trailed off, half asleep, "Why can't Victoriaa go without mee?"

She moved around in her sleep as she slowly opened her eyes. Those crimson, life-filed eyes rose up to look at Kazuki's dull bulbs. She blinked for a few seconds, before shooting upwards.

'Archius!' shouted Eliza, into the uplink, 'He's awake!'

And with that, Kazuki could hear frantic footsteps as the door into his room slid open manually. Archius pushed himself into the room, looking directly at Kazuki. Archius rushed over. Kazuki needed a status report, pronto.

"Archius. Status report, how long have I been—"

Cutting his thoughts short, Archius immediately hugged him, pretending to be a clingy boyfriend. "Kaz! You're awake! Fuck's sake, some of us thought you actually got into a coma!"

"Get… off… me." Kazuki pried Archius off him with much difficulty, his limbs still achingly numb. 

He grabbed hold of a water bottle and slapped it against Archius, sending him backwards whilst he rubbed his forehead. The colours were muddied, he couldn't see clearly what Archius thought. Not like he was able to to begin with. He slinked off him as he placed his head directly onto the duvet and mattress. Eliza gave Archius a short glare before glancing towards Kazuki, there was something he didn't understand under those optimistically determined eyes.

Archius asked, "By the fucking Eclipse, you remember who we are, right?"

"No, you two are complete strangers and I ask you to leave my room at once." snapped Kazuki in a serious tone. Archius shot an annoyed look at him before falling onto the floor of the room.

"Pft, your sarcasm's survived the fall."

"The operation. What happened? Lilly, Quinn, what about the rest?" asked Kazuki.

"Those two were lucky. They got out alive." said Archius, "Sixty percent casualties. Deltastring took a heavy hit. Heimfall got out intact."

Sixty percent… over two hundred dead. Lilly must be pissed. Doing the calculations, Deltastring only has a hundred or so operatives left, a strong number but it must be reinforced. He'll probably merge some other injured units in. Kazuki sighed, feeling the pressure ramp up on his mind.

Eliza looked at Kazuki as she shimmied the chair closer to him. He sat up against the backrest. Her face was muddled with guilt, she glanced away. A mixture of envy and jealousy in her eyes… Kazuki didn't understand. She glanced at Archius. 

Archius was still on the cold floor of the hospital room as Eliza whispered to him, "I… can do that, right?"

"Do what?" asked Kazuki, wondering if she wanted to join Archius on the floor. He had no qualms about it, even if it was slightly weirder than usual.

Her face went tomato red as Archius slowly recovered. Before he could get up, she quickly hugged Kazuki. It was so quick that Kazuki wasn't even sure that it happened… But his memory does not lie. His face remained motionless whilst she reared backwards, was she… jealous of Archius? And then, Archius shimmied up on his knees, placing his hands on the side of the mattress. 

"Welcome back…" Eliza said, in a solemn face and voice. What happened probably hasn't been resolved. She probably wanted him to help her… Or perhaps she missed him. Either way, he had nothing to say. Former was out of his forte, latter he genuinely had no idea how to respond to.

"Ugh… and things are a lot more complicated as well!" complained Archius, maintaining his friendly happy-go-mischief persona in a more public setting. He shook his head as the door slid open, two more entering the room.

The first was Sylvia Garreau. Silver hair, silver eyes. Tall. She was a friend of his mother and a medical expert. In fact, he distinctly remembered her being the ones that placed his cybernetics on him…

The second was Sato. She was eating chocolate sticks as she entered, wearing more casual clothes in contrast to Sylvia's full doctor attire. Sato waved at the trio, though only Eliza returned the wave. Kazuki tried, but his hands ached.

"Finally awake, huh?" Sylvia walked past Archius, humming to herself as she pressed a button on one of the many apparatuses attached to the wall. A gap emerged within the wall as a drone shot out. It slowly hovered and lowered its eye towards Kazuki.

"Alright, Mr. Gem-Ryzaku, we'll just run a few check ups on you to see if you'll be good for discharge." said Sylvia, taking out a device-reader as the drone expels out a box of rays, scanning Kazuki.

Sato leaned against the window as she looked down to Eliza. "Hey."

Eliza looked towards her as she pried her eyes off of the drone. "Good morning, so… things are still…"

"Awful," said Sato. Her tone filled to the brim with exhaustion.

Archius waited patiently as Sato's face made the first smile that he and Kazuki had seen in forever. She smiled down at Eliza. The two glared at the sight, it was unusual. But Kazuki guessed that Eliza got along well with Sato, after all the two were both incredibly dedicated and understanding people - even if Sato rarely showed her qualities.

"Don't worry, Eliza." said Sato, "Just… talk it out with them. Okay? I'll be rooting for you."

Eliza froze as she shot a glance towards Kazuki. He shrugged, so did Archius. Sato was not amused at them. She made a frown at the duo as they stared directly at her, wondering if she was the same person.

"Hey, I'm off the clock, so ya better not be asking me to do anything. I already have my hands handling the fallout." said Sato, "After all, someone has to keep Eliza safe till things chill."

The jab at Archius was profound, making him seem incompetent to Kazuki. But Kazuki saw through that. Looking towards Archius, Kazuki definitely saw envy in his eyes. Seems like a three way tug of war between Rivera, Sato and Archius was already in full swing… But Rivera's always level-headed, so it's probably more of a two-way war with her and Chizuru eating Sarisian seasoned popcorn from the sideline. If things get out of hand, he'll have to slap the two of them; Sato and Archius always fought with each other, even back during their Clandestine days.

Sylvia finished running the diagnostics. A bright light of holographic energy shot from the device as she said, "Alright, everything's fine… it seems. You can leave whenever you want. Most injuries have healed but I… would recommend you quit fighting."

"Why?" Kazuki asked.

"Your exospine. It's damaged, and unlike the other times, we don't have replacement parts… Safe to say, you need to be careful, you got that kid, or do you need me to spell it out for that memory of yours?"

Eliza's eyes lit up at that comment as she looked towards Kazuki. Kazuki touched his cheek, feeling the cracks in his skin, alongside the old burns. Kazuki sighed and nodded. He guessed that he had recovered from most of his wounds. His advanced healing and meds saw to that… but scars always remain. 

"Wait… surely we can replace some of the parts, right? I'm sure… I could create some replacements," Eliza spoke up.

"My exospine isn't like others. Others are removable, supposed to be worn over armour with exoskeletons or braces," Kazuki said.

"If you want to go ahead, be my guest, but don't come crawling to me when your experiment kills Kazuki…" Sylvia said, leaving everyone silent. She continued, "Hyperbole, ever heard of that? No, DO come to me if that happens."

"Hartius' exospine is interlinked with his armour, his whole suit and vest-plate act as one… Frejya has hundreds of drug injectors modified into her body…" Kazuki trailed off, naming members of the Seven Mercs. "And all mine does is make me a little faster…"

They were the only physical reminder of his suffering, but even if he could remove them: what was the point? He remembers it either way, might as well save time.