Chapter 18: Hold On

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Thorne watched from afar, waiting for Kai to come back with (hopefully) good news. He grimaced as the doctor said something and Kai stumbled to sit down in the nearest chair. Kai dragged his hand through a wave of his hair and sighed, but the expression that lingered on his features was not one of relief. It was horror and agony, followed only by a small tear drop, that he quickly brushed away. Clearly, it was not good news. After a couple moments of staring blankly at the ground with his face buried in his hands, Kai stood up and left the lab room.

"Kai," Thorne blurted, standing up. "What's wrong? Is she okay? What's going on?" Kai only shook his head in reply, keeping his eyes locked on the ground.   "What?!" Thorne shouted, "Say something. Please Kai-"

"104," Kai replied solemnly, providing no further context.

"What?"

"She has a 104 fever and it's not going down Thorne... she's not eating or drinking anything," he managed to get out before Thorne rushed towards the glass. "They won't let the androids take in anything besides food and water," he sighed, "and even if we could, what good would it do? She's unconscious."

"No. No, that can't be right. They said she was getting better, you heard them-" He couldn't finish. This wasn't the truth, this couldn't be the truth. "This better be a joke Kai. This isn't funny."

"What happened?" Cinder questioned as she spotted Thorne and Kai staring into the quarantine.

Kai only shook his head and tried to swallow the fear rising in his throat. Cinder paused a brief moment to comprehend before wrapping both of them in a hug. Thorne made no motion to return the embrace. Instead he stood, tense with shock and utter disbelief.

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Surely the comms were wrong. They had to be wrong. Stars, how incompetent were they without him? Clearly they hadn't followed his instructions, or her fever would already be down. He quickened his pace, trying to scramble an explanation together. After about 30 seconds of muttering to himself however, he was out of breath.

Ugh this was going to be a long day.

He looked to the left. Then to the right. The tunnels around him were humid and earthly - basically everything he hated. With the heat of New Beijing seemingly melting his face the conditions were becoming next to unbearable. For a brief moment he paused, doubling over and regaining air in his lungs, before continuing on the last leg of his journey. He was so close the comforting AC of the palace was nearly tangible. Just a couple more steps and... there it was. As quick as he could, he made his way up to the marble palace floors and composed himself.

He paced outside the lab, trying to muster up the courage to face her. Surely, looking his little Crescent Moon in the eyes just one more time was enough to make things right.

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Thorne stepped out into the hallway, trying to clear his mind and get some fresh air. He turned back towards the door, tugging on the sides of his hair, and then away from the lab again, this time shoving his hands in his pockets and staring at the ground. It was only when he bothered to look up that he was pummeled by a familiar figure.

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A/N: sorry this is so short... I've been really busy but I should be updating more regularly starting in May

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