The Altered.

Chapter XXXVIII.

Percy let out a bloodcurdling cry and Lia turned her head away with a soft whimper. As tears sprung to Percy's eyes, Miles scrambled to his feet, stumbling back a few steps as he stared at Percy.

Had he done it right?

A stampede of footsteps sounded behind Miles, and he didn't need to turn around to know that essentially everybody else had now gathered to see what had happened. Miles felt sick to the stomach as he stared at Percy, silently begging that he'd done nothing wrong.

The tears didn't fall from Percy's eyes and slowly, his pained whines became ragged breathing instead. Percy clutched his arm, which was now completely limp. There was a tear in the skin, but it didn't bleed. As fantastic as the prosthetic might be, it still couldn't do that.

"It doesn't hurt anymore," Percy said breathlessly.

Miles felt his knees wobble as he tore a hand through his hair, closing his eyes and letting out a long exhale.

The stunned silence that had been hanging in the room finally dissipated, and Lia flung her arms around Percy while Miles turned around to face the worried faces of everybody else as they started to chatter.

There was a light punch on his arm. "Dude," said Eira, her face alight. "That was intense."

"How do you even know how to do that?" asked Claire suspiciously, and Miles decided to ignore her. He knew well enough that the girl wasn't fond of him and he'd no intention of giving her reason to hate him more.

"I'm just glad it worked," Miles puffed, turning to Eira. Before he processed it, a wide grin was stretching across his face.

He swivelled back around to Percy, who was trying his luck at a shaky smile. Miles doubted the sickness would properly clear for a little while, but now that the main problem was gone, it would have to sooner or later.

"So it's gone?" Percy said hopefully, staring up at Miles from his place on the wooden floor.

"It's gone," Miles confirmed. "The sickness. But your arm..."

A cloud briefly crossed Percy's face. "Is unusable," he finished. "Got that bit already."

Miles felt a little guilty for being unable to compose a better resolution, but what he'd done was as good as he'd been able.

"Thank you," said Percy, back at it with the fragile smile.

Miles grinned wide enough for both of them, a little overwhelmed by what he'd just done. "Somebody had to do it."

For a transient moment, he was on top of the world. If he could fix Percy that easily, what was stopping him from fixing the rest of the world?

His high ended quickly, though, when there was a tap on his shoulder and he turned to find himself face-to-face with Luca. Well, almost. Luca was the tiniest bit smaller than Miles, and Miles might have been proud of that had Luca not been three years his junior.

"Miles," Luca said nervously, gaze constantly on the mood. His hands were wrung, and he looked on edge. "Can I talk to you?"

Miles was at once sceptical. "Yeah. Go ahead."

"No, like, somewhere without so many people."

Miles drifted towards the ladder, but stopped. "Can I ask why?"

Luca shook his head.

Miles blinked. "Luca -"

"Please?" Luca begged. "It's not bad or anything. I just haven't decided yet, so I don't want everybody to hear me."

Miles didn't move for a few beats, just staring at Luca, trying to decipher the look behind the kid's big blue orbs. Finally, he sighed, and crouched so he could start down the ladder. "Okay. Fine. We'll go down here."

Before starting to climb, Miles checked once more that Percy seemed fine. When all seemed well from where he was, Miles began climbing down, glancing down to see Buddy circling and wagging his tail joyfully.

"Why are you still here, mutt?" Miles asked the dog once he was on the ground. He wasn't expecting an answer. As he waited for Luca to meet him on the ground, Miles reluctantly gave the dog a pat so that it would stop circling him.

Buddy barked.

"That's not an answer," Miles informed the shaggy creature, turning to Luca when he heard the boy land on the ground.

"Sorry," Luca said. "I didn't mean to sound like I had a weird question or anything. It's just, I thought you'd probably be the best one to tell, and if we stayed up in the treehouse, you'd probably get distracted. Or someone would overhear.

"Luca, it's fine," Miles said. "Just ask what you wanted to."

"Well, I'm not really asking anything..." he trailed off, but with an intense glare from Miles, he rushed on. "I wanted to tell you that I don't want to come with your group back to the city."

Miles froze, eyes narrowing very slowly. "Why?"

Luca's words were quiet now. "I'm too scared. I like it better out here. And Buddy wouldn't be able to come back to the city with us, so..."

"Are you sure about this? I didn't - I didn't think you were really close with anybody here." He tried not to sound rude, but it was hard when he was asking such a direct question.

"Well, no. But that's okay." Luca scuffed his shoes in the dirt. "I just don't want to come with you guys. But not because I don't like you! Just because I don't want to leave here." He said the last part in a hurry to reassure Miles.

Miles was wishing that Luca wasn't telling him, but somebody else instead. He wasn't sure what to say. "If that's... what you want?" He hated how uncertain his words sounded, but it was hard to put his thoughts into words when his thoughts mainly consisted of telling Luca it was best if he didn't stay. He doubted he could change the young boy's mind, but he said just in case, "You know in the city, we'll have better access to resources and information, right?"

Luca averted his gaze regretfully. "I know. But I don't want to go."

As he'd expected, Luca's decision wasn't changing. "Okay. Well, have you asked Bri? Or any of the other guys in her group?"

"...No. But I will. I just wanted to tell you."

"You're going to have to tell the others somewhere along the line, seeing as we'll be off in a few days."

Luca lowered his head. "I know. I will."

Miles had nothing else to say, and it seemed Luca didn't either. It took a moment for Miles to realise that the conversation was over, and with that he side-stepped around Luca and reached for the rungs on the ladder once more.

"Hey, Miles," Luca said, spinning around before Miles started to climb.

"Yeah?"

"Good job," Luca praised with a half-hearted smile. "With Percy. I think... I think you can find out a way to stop all of this."

Miles felt something bright stir inside him; something like hope.

Maybe Luca was right.

"Thanks, Luca." He flashed another grin - he'd smiled so much today that he could almost feel the muscles in his face groaning in resentment.

Luca smiled at Miles, too, and for one moment they were grinning at each other.

Then Miles turned away and started up the ladder again, feeling as if he was seeing the world in colour for the first time in months.

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+1244 Words.