Interstellar | BBB Dead Simulacrum Series : Lux Caeli | FRAGMENT PRIMUS

ɪ.𝟹 | sᴏᴘᴏʀᴏᴜs

And his eye twitched - "Just tell us directly what you mean!!" - morphing his expression into anger as he exclaimed in an outburst.

"Blaze calm down!" Gempa grabbed on his shoulders, a silent order for him to stand down. But goddamn, even he stills when the question left Blaze's lips.

"Will he ever wake up again or what!?!"

Halilintar almost lost his composure at the spit of that enquiry, barely able to stop himself from fully turning his body. Instead, he casts his brother a side glance.

But when Gempa caught it, he didn't know if it was meant as a glare to shut up their fire elemental, or if he was surprised, snapped back to reality at the sound of the question they, too, so badly wanted to ask all this time.

The health specialist gulped at the tension plummeting on his shoulders. He knew this was going to be hard news to convey, but it never crossed his mind that meeting the receiving end of these three's growing aggression was... Suffocating.

It drove him in a corner and -

He just lowered his head.

In shame,
In frustration,
In pity,
In utter apology to the heroes.

And they got their answer; their dreadful answer.

"T-There's no w-ay -"

Lustrous gold softened, Gempa's hold on Blaze's arm adjusting to rub on his shoulder gently at the tension building in his muscles.

Gempa heard about what happened after he and Halilintar had left the scene.

How Blaze fought to keep it all in.
How he tried to bare his fangs but his nails struck through his flesh in his wake.
How Duri denied that their hot-headed brother was curling into a pitiful ball of tears in the hallway.
How Ais had to hold the second youngest back when Blaze was called for at the arising emergency.

To how he held their youngest's body for hours - exhausting his powers and control but never once losing his focus nor letting go for even a second of a break because he was too scared that something could happen, that everything would spiral down into hopelessness if he dared move away for even a second.

The health specialist planted himself before them, not another word sounding from him. He felt... Useless, as a health specialist, for the sorrow he knew to be gnawing on their hearts, because his team couldn't do anything more to help because the patient was a human boy.

"W-we tried... Your brother tried." He added, carefully gesturing to Blaze, referring to his previous efforts. "However, we apologise. These are all of our readings but we will wait to see with hopes that he's strong enough to will himself to wake up."

"With hopes??" Gempa asked, his tongue caught between his teeth; a last resort to stop himself from spouting more questions out of the blue.

The health specialist nodded, eyes rolling up as if to recall something.

"From what we further understood on human biology, a human will truly be declared comatosed if they show utterly no signs of response to the outside world." He said, the pounding in Halilintar's chest picking up a pace.

"So, we believe, if your brother couldn't get himself to respond to anything we do at all, no stimuli, no nothing, then our conclusion will be finalised, and it'll be up to luck and fate."

"Wait - luck and fate??!" Blaze exclaimed, swatting Gempa's hand off his arm.

"Yes..." And the health specialist nodded once more, his frown tugging lower on his face. "... We wouldn't know when exactly he'll wake up from then on. What's.. harder... is if he subconsciously wants to wake up, but his body no longer has the strength to."