Ten nibbled at his lower lip nervously, arms crossed over his chest as he watched Rina seat herself lightly on the edge of the table, looking to ready to bolt at the first wrong movement, until Doyoung told her to relax.
His eyes followed the sharp, quick movements of the doctor as he mumbled comforting words with each needle that pierced her arm, one dangerously close to her clavicle.
When they had walked into the office, Yuta had greeted them all with a wide smile, loud hellos, and a warm embrace for Taeyong, who he claimed had grown more gray hair in the three months he hadn't seen the other.
"Where are Sicheng and Jaehyun?" Ten had asked, eyes darting around the wide room as if the two could be hidden behind the two couches or maybe under the coffee table at the centre.
"They're not here, they're back at Limitless. The two of them had to be present for the inspection, after all." Doyoung had answered, giving Ten's arm a reassuring squeeze.
From the startled look on Rina's face, she had made the connection, turning to him quizzically. Ten's mouth fell open in a little "oh", as he remembered both the mentioned peoples positions.
The girl nudged him, looking at him for an explanation.
"Jaehyun is on the board of directors for a company that specialises in tracking technology." He said quietly to Rina as Doyoung offered Taeyong a bottle of water from his desk, slipping into their own conversation.
Yuta led them towards the door tucked away in the corner, Ten guiding Rina around the edge of the desk with a light touch, which she had failed to notice.
"He's got a knack for finding things. He'd fit right in with pirates with the way he just finds things, or people. Especially people." He'd grumbled, almost wincing as he recalled the wild chase that had occurred a little less than two weeks back.
Ten's record of successfully managing to hide from the other Bosses for three years had been shattered in less than three days.
Jaehyun, according to Taeyong, had taken seventy two hours to find him, chasing him across the expanse of the third section of Neo City, straight into the Outside. Every turn he took, the man would be standing there with a sardonic dimpled smile, arms crossed over his huge chest.
It really hadn't been the most pleasant experience, especially when the realisation that he'd probably been free for this long was only because Taeyong must've specifically forbidden Jaehyun from helping the others search for him.
And while he was immensely grateful and indebted to the older for many things, he did wish that Taeyong had at least tried to stop Jaehyun from giving him a broken nose on first sight.
Rina had shook him out of his reverie, pointing to where Yuta stood, staring at him expectantly. "You're going to stand there forever or what?" He asked, and Ten shook his head. "Got lost in thought." He mumbled, walking past the red haired.
The plain wooden door opened up to a smaller room, with the private equipment reserved specifically for treating Doyoung's team when required - the man had refused to allow them to get treated by the doctors he employed, in case word ever got out by the slip of tongue.
It was the larger version of a storage room, with an extensive number of shelves, filled with an assortment of devices and boxes.
In the centre, between two shelves that had been pushed further apart to make space, was a steel bed with a smaller table, its surface covered with a computer heart monitor and a couple of medicine boxes. An IV stand stood behind it, glinting in the tube light.
Which brought him back to the current situation - Rina sat on the edge of the steel bed, legs dangling down.
"We've only ever encountered NCTs a few times, and our experience with actually helping one has been very limited," He had said calmly, Yuta nodding in agreement.
"I'm here to help out the biological aspect of this operation, Yuta will be part of the programming. Is there any extra information you might know that could be of use to us?" He asked, eyes widening slightly in curiosity.
Ten had watched as Rina pursed her lips in thought, before sheepishly shaking her head.
From whatever he remembered, she had always been too dazed by drugs to calm down and her system and make her body compliant during the surgeries and working.
The sleeve of her shirt had been pushed up, wires connecting her to both the computer and the IV protruding from her body, the smallest beads of crimson rolling down the pale expanse of her skin.
Ten was used to seeing blood - he'd drawn enough from others with his own weapons, he had smiled in the face of death as he spat out his own, but seeing hers made him feel sick.
Was this how she felt when those monsters, one being her own father, tried to ruin her, make her the pioneer of the new age of perfection? His hands curled into loose fists, fingernails digging into the calloused skin of his palm, hard enough to string but not enough to draw blood.
He stood a little further away, watching as the computer screen flickered to life. He allowed his gaze to roam over Rina, drinking in the sight of her, alive, and not dead like he'd forced himself to believe after years of fruitless searching. Her lithe frame had become smaller, thinner in the time she spent in the prison.
He knew the unblemished skin was a result of constant abuse, ironic in a way. The scars had faded with each new adjustment made to her composition, her body, and he watched the girl he cherished change, fragment by fragment, from human to a robot.
Perhaps it was for the best they made a mistake - it could have cost her life, like it had with others, so many others, but here she was, a person he'd given up everything to see again.
Ten remembered the devastation she'd felt when he heard the news - another experiment failed. His heartbeat had spiked up, praying to every god that it hadn't been her experiment, knowing that countless others were being transformed alongside her, because having his best friend alive as someone part wires, part flesh, was better than nothing at all.
No one told him anything. He remembered how the ministers had been in an awful mood when they'd come to Hall for their meal. They snapped at every servant, spitting out curses and lengthy insults, but all the servants kept silent, Ten included.
The Palace was cruel, any small mistake would result in the banishment, or worse, an execution.
The King himself had stepped into the hall that day for his meal, and ordered the execution for an older boy, Sehun, for stumbling and nearly dropping a dish. He wasn't perfect, he didn't have straight posture and his expression was filled with loathing when guards attempted to seize him.
Ten had wanted nothing more than to kill them all, have them on the receiving end of labor filled days and nights spent in starvation.
Perfection was all just an image, in the end. Rina would never be perfect, her impulsiveness, her brutal honesty, all her flaws would forever make her imperfect. It was all the outer surface, all the senses and all the technicalities the King wanted to be perfect.
He'd bitten his tongue in anger, accidentally raising his eyes too far and making eye contact with the King himself, a glimmer of recognition in cold eyes, and within seconds, rough hands grasped his own arms, hurling him forward.
He was forced onto his knees before the man, hot breath ghosting over the shell of his ear as dreaded words wormed themselves into his mind, searing themselves forever in his memory.
"Your princess is a disappointment to her own family." The man had whispered, and Ten could feel his hands tremble, throat closing up. "Take her punishment for her, why don't you?"
A sick grin curling his lips up, Ten felt pure terror in his veins as he stared at the King while being dragged out the hall by guards beside Sehun.
She looked so much like her father. They shared the same smile, same nose, the same sharp cheekbones, but never did her eyes glitter with malice, never did her lips curve into cruel smirks.
Did he even love his daughter?
Was that why he was dying in her stead? If so, it was sick.
But both sides of him, Ten and Chittaphon, were selfish.
He didn't want to die. So he'd run, he'd broken free and escaped so they'd never find him.
"Ten?" He focused on Doyoung, who was staring at him with furrowed brows. "You look pale." He gulped, shaking his head. "Zoned out again." He mumbled indifferently, staring at the back of Yuta's head, the older typing away at the computer.
"Alright." Doyoung said reluctantly, turning back to Yuta. "Any progress?"
"Plenty." Yuta breathed out, turning back to the two of them, eyes sparkling with unadulterated excitement.
"Whoever did this is a genius." Ten drew closer, frowning when he was unable to make sense of the codes popping up on the screen. "We would appreciate the genius if we understood," Ten mumbled under his breath. Yuta caught onto it, giving the younger an irritated look.
"Fine, let me explain." He pointed at the screen. "NCTs are created when these microchips are injected into the bloodstream and controlled to connect to nerve endings."
"They get accustomed to the nature of the person's body, adapt to the way their brain works. They're microscopic in size, and are vast in number."
"Like blood corpuscles?" Doyoung interjected, frowning. Rina peered over his shoulder, face paling slightly at the grainy images on the screen.
"Something like that, I don't really know, I didn't study to become a doctor." Yuta shrugged. "You didn't study." Ten reminded him, and the red haired scowled at him.
"Go on." Doyoung nudged Yuta before the other could retaliate, the man throwing Ten one last nasty look before his eyes lit up again as he continued his explanation.
"They become a literal part of the body, an essential component as they make changes. We've seen what happens when we try to remove them from someone." Yuta said darkly, and Ten swallowed, nodding. Rina's eyes widened, but before she could question them, they pushed on.
"They expand throughout the body, sticking to certain parts, and that's when they're programmed. You would've been connected to several wires all over, correct?" Yuta was now talking directly to Rina, who nodded in quiet affirmation.
"We've only connected these wires because we need to access the ones in your throat." He said.
"The sensory cells have been programmed to amplify all senses. You can see it here." The screen pulled up a swirling, magnified black and white image.
"The chips in this area-" "Her vestibular system," Doyoung cut in. "Are fused," Yuta continued. "Meaning whatever this area does will be much more than an average person."
"Her sense of balance is much, much higher than the average person." Doyoung said, exasperated, making Taeyong snort slightly. Yuta rolled his eyes at him, before going on.
"The rod and cone cells-" Another picture, this time of the three of them, came up on the screen. It effectively startled Ten, making him whip around to face Rina, who was staring at him in shock, fingers coming lightly up to touch the area under her eyes. "We're seeing what she's seeing." Yuta said quickly, and her jaw dropped.
Taeyong stepped forward, face scrunched up in interest, making the other four flinch having nearly forgotten his quiet presence in the room.
"How?" He asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Uh," Yuta looked bewildered. "Technology?" He shrugged. "I could explain how I modified this, but I don't think that's what you want to hear."
"Some other time, maybe." Taeyong agreed, and Yuta shot him a smile. Ten glanced at the white haired beside him, moving subtly away, before refocusing his attention.
The image was sharp and vivid, far better than any normal photo, and he could hear Doyoung gasp. "They've been modified to perceive color better." He said in awe. "Her night vision would definitely be better than average." Yuta agreed, giving Ten a sly look. "Almost catlike."
"Har har, more cheshire jokes." Ten replied snarkily, fingers gripping Yuta's shoulder roughly.
The other let out a breathy laugh, attention swiftly refocusing on the task at hand when Doyoung rapped the desk.
"The tricky part is her vocal cords." Yuta murmured. "These chips are sentient- they surge to protect her from harm, including whenever there's an intrusion." He pointed with his chin to the wires protruding out of her limp arm.
"Sentient?" Doyoung echoed, eyebrows raised. Yuta hummed out a response, thin fingers tapping away at the keyboard. "They're sentient to a certain degree."
Ten swallowed the bitter taste on his tongue, watching as Rina shifted uncomfortably. "Could you start the procedure?" He asked, Doyoung turning to him in surprise.
"She's uncomfortable, you're talking about her like she's a toy," He bit his inner cheek.
Yuta glanced at Rina, apologetic almost instantly. "I'm sorry," He said, and the blend of sincerity and concern could be detected.
She immediately brought her hands up, shaking her head adamantly with a smile, making Ten frown. Doyoung swiftly stepped in, tilting his head.
"This might hurt a bit, would you rather take an anaesthetic now?" Doyoung asked Rina softly, giving her an encouraging nod when she hesitated to answer.
Ten admired Doyoung when he was in his element. The man was all bark and no bite, harsh words and scowls on the outside while being sensitive and empathetic, knowing when to draw lines and never overstepping boundaries.
On countless occasions he'd patched Ten up himself. Ten would like to believe they were friends, but seeds of doubt would forever be present despite the knowledge that Doyoung never did truly blame him for the incident three years ago.
Rina nodded her head, and Doyoung gave her an approving smile.
"Do you want to go out or stay in here?" Doyoung turned to him, eyeing him and the white haired man beside him. Taeyong turned, locking eyes with Ten, asking him silently.
"I'll leave in a bit." Ten said, voice coming out hoarse. He glanced at Rina, who looked uncertain, before turning her gaze away, but not objecting.
He hadn't been there for her before, he'd like to be there for her now.
Taeyong nodded, giving Doyoung a pointed look. "I'll be outside." He said lowly, turning around. The slight brushing of his arm against Ten's was enough to make him flinch, staring after him with wide eyes as Taeyong continued, unfazed, until the door shut behind him.
"You're still as tense as ever with him." Doyoung said observing, returning to fiddling with the wires in Rina's arm.
"Three years is a long time." Ten mumbled, fingers rubbing the part where Taeyong had touched him, almost electrifying to touch.
"It's not like you didn't see each other." Doyoung muttered, straightening up, only to see Ten giving him an incredulous look.
"What?" He asked indignantly. "Taeyong isn't the most subtle person when it comes to sneaking away. Probably his biggest flaw. We know he's the only one who kept in touch with you after you vanished."
Yuta chuckled, before turning to Rina, who looked utterly befuddled, staring at Ten with her head tilted. "Ready?" He asked, Doyoung holding the needle up.
Rina looked at the object apprehensively, and Ten could see her lanky limbs tense. He hesitated, before stepping forward, fingers intertwining with hers, giving her hand a light squeeze.
She glanced at the unexpected intrusion warily, her gaze travelling up from their connected hands to his face, the shimmering emotion masked by the colored lenses, which had first taken his breath away with the sheer beauty, but now seemed like a hindrance to their communication.
When someone was going mute, slowly but surely, there were only so many ways they could communicate. Eyes are the window to the soul, she'd once told him. They never lie. and he'd kept that in mind for a long time.
He gave her a lopsided smile, hoping the attempt at a charming grin would mask the slight tremble of his fingers. It seemed to work, and he watched as she exhaled, keeping her gaze on him as she smiled softly, nodding.
Her grip on his hand tightening briefly when the needle sunk into her skin, but he rubbed a small circle onto the back of her hand with his thumb.
Her eyes were slowly fluttering shut, as Doyoung gestured for her to lay back. She complied rather sluggishly, Ten looming over her with an encouraging smile, hand letting go of hers to brush the blonde hair that fell in her eyes, before stepping away as she slipped under.
Doyoung let out a small sigh, putting the needle away, before nodding to Yuta.
Ten leaned against the door, pressing his lips in a thin line as he crossed his arms over his chest, the heavy silence being punctuated by the sound of Yuta's fingers pressing against the keyboard.
He was startled when Yuta let out a noise of surprise, almost instantly rushing forward.
"What happened?" He questioned, fingers digging into the back of Yuta's chair
"She has the ability to regenerate cells." The red haired said in surprise, tilting his head.
"What?" Doyoung, who'd been hovering over Rina, checking her pulse and breathing patterns repeatedly, asked.
"Yeah." Yuta breathed out. "Her healing rate is twice as fast as normal humans." "Okay," Ten said slowly, nodding. "But that's a good thing. Why are you worried?"
"Ten." Yuta's face was stony as he turned around to face him. "If whoever was in charge of her NCT transformation got as far as to increase the rate at which her body produces new cells, shouldn't she have been able to heal from any injury an operation would have caused?"
Ten felt like a bucket of ice cold water had been dumped on him as Yuta's words sunk in. He nearly missed the older's next words, instructing Doyoung to take a scan of her throat.
The doctor shuffled around, pulling the machine from the depths of god knows where, both Ten and Yuta leaning over the screen wide eyed as the image popped up.
"No sign of anything." Doyoung's voice was hoarse presumably from shock. "It's unscathed."
"Put her through the other scanner thing." Yuta ordered, making Ten flinch with the sudden hardness in his voice.
"The NCT scanner?" Doyoung raised an eyebrow. "Call it whatever you want." Yuta said, and Doyoung shrugged.
The same image popped up, Doyoung leaning over to check the results. "Same, everything is normal." He breathed.
Yuta snapped his fingers. "No," He said, something unreadable glinting in his eyes. "That isn't normal. Why aren't the microchips moving?"
"What?" Ten furrowed his eyebrows as the red haired zoomed in, much more it should have been able to, the silvery bumps unmoving on the stagnant muscle. "They're supposed to be moving."
"They're part of her circulatory system, they should be moving right alongside the red blood cells and whatever else is in blood." Yuta waved his hand, making Doyoung scoff.
"Whatever else is in blood." He muttered under his breath, making Ten crack a faint smile before it dropped off as soon as Yuta's next words left his throat. "It's a forced shut down."
"How are those shut down?" Doyoung frowned. "They're only sentient to a certain degree, Doyoung." Yuta said, flexing his fingers. "In the end, they will always be wires and electricity, not flesh and blood. I'm here because she needs to be reprogrammed, am I not?"
Silence fell upon the three of them, before Yuta cleared his throat.
"Anyways," He glanced at the unconscious girl, before looking back to his screen. "It's obvious they've already taken hold of her throat. Whoever shut them down did it in a way that it completely stopped her vocal cords from working. This doesn't seem accidental, not in the slightest."
Doyoung leaned forward, re-examining the image. "No damage." He nodded.
"Someone wanted her to stop talking." Yuta concluded, sympathy softening the sharp contours of his face when he glanced at Rina.
"The muscles aren't loose." Doyoung observed. "For someone who hasn't spoken for eight years, they're in very good condition. Very minor atrophy."
"Those things are part of her system, they're designed to protect her, aren't they?" Ten breathed out, and Yuta turned to him startled. "Yeah," He said slowly. "They are. How did you know?"
"She told me." He replied. "Most of the time the doctors wouldn't tell her much and she was usually under anaesthesia, but whatever she heard, she told me."
Yuta's interest was clearly piqued as he turned around fully, eyebrows furrowed. "Did she tell you about whoever did this, then?" He asked, gesturing in the direction of the computer.
Ten shook his head helplessly, shoulders slumping.
"She-I-She told me it was hurting and a doctor told her directly she might be losing her voice. It was the only time she'd ever interacted with them." He let out a haggard breath, and Doyoung glanced over in concern.
"Anything else?" He pressed a hand to Ten's shoulder in comfort, but Ten shook him off.
"They said they messed up, something wasn't working and she would lose her ability to speak but they would try to fix it, and it was painful for her. I was there when she stopped speaking-" He let out a strangled sound, Doyoung's fingers immediately curling around his wrist soothingly.
"Calm down." The black haired instructed, forcing Ten to take in deep breaths. "Continue."
"It happened over two weeks, maybe three." Ten choked out, lips curving downwards. "It hurt for her to speak, she said it was like her vocal cords wouldn't move as much, or they were too tight, and then one day, she just couldn't."
He remembered that day.
She'd walked out, a sad smile adorning her face, she'd sat with him under the tree, she'd rested her head on his shoulder.
When he asked her something, she would merely nod, shake her head or shrug.
And when he turned to her, she'd let tears fall as she opened her mouth, only for no sound to come out.
He had cried too. It was almost like she was comforting him instead, holding him close as he cried for her, mourned for her, felt for her. He had never hated the world so much except in that moment when he felt fate and fortune were playing cruel games, smiling twistedly as they ripped her away from him.
Yuta and Doyoung were both staring at him observantly, before Doyoung nodded and cleared his throat.
"This sort of complicates things." The black haired sighed, before nodding to Yuta. "Jumpstarting those chips to take control of her body again while awake is going to be a little more difficult than just attempting to heal her."
He glanced sadly at Ten, a hand on his shoulder. "She's going to be in a lot of pain. I think it's better if you stay outside." He said firmly, leaving no room for argument.
Ten bit the inside of his lip, before nodding slowly, glancing once again at the blond girl. His chest tightened. "Okay." He said almost breathlessly, but made no attempt to move, Doyoung ushered him away.
And as much as he wanted to reach out to her, he turned his back and walked away.
Again.
Shakily shutting the door behind him, he blinked when he saw Taeyong reclining on one of the couches with a graceful laziness, piercing eyes rooting him to the spot when he glanced up from his phone.
"What's going on in there?" He nodded to the spot beside him, and Ten obliged, boot clad feet padding against the carpet, perching himself on the edge of the beige couch.
"Apparently there isn't any wound." He said quietly. He could tell he caught Taeyong's attention by the way the man tensed, leaning forward slightly to hear him better. "Someone programmed that part of her to stop working."
"Really, now?" Taeyong asked, a hint of surprise masked by the drawl. "Do you know who?"
Ten shook his head, frustrated, allowing his body to fall back onto the plush cushion, eyes raised to the ceiling. "Whoever did it is sick." He grit his teeth.
"Maybe they did it to help her." Ten knew the words sounded childish, even to Taeyong himself, such blatant lies.
"Eight years in a cell isn't helping." Ten retorted, twisting his head to stare at the man beside him. "Why didn't I think of the prison?" He whispered, the guilt he'd felt ever since he saw her with Lucas and Mark in that cell rising in a surging tidal wave.
"You couldn't have gotten her even if you did know." Taeyong said in a very matter of fact tone. "You'd just escaped from the Palace yourself."
Ten glanced at him darkly. "I could've tried to save her." He muttered. "You thought she was dead." Taeyong said shortly. "You told me to think she was dead." Ten corrected, the unintended bitterness jumping out in his words.
"You were obsessed with the idea that she wasn't dead, based on when the King, a literal maniac, told you to take her punishment for her." Taeyong turned to him, gentle but firm. "I had to get you to stop."
"Yes, but she isn't dead, is she?" Ten smiled ruefully.
"You were going to die for her." Taeyong said lowly, voice harder than diamond. "She didn't ask for that." Ten shook his head. "And besides," The note of accusation in his voice had Taeyong stare at him with his eyebrows raised. "If you hate her, why did you ask for her help with your whole overthrowing the hierarchy agenda?"
Taeyong's entire demeanour shifted, from the firm set of his mouth to the cold look he gave Ten. "I do not hate her. I've known her for a total of three days, Ten."
"No," Ten let out a short laugh. "No, you haven't."
Taeyong softened, sighing resignedly. "No." He admitted. "I didn't know her well back then."
"Yet you deem her unworthy of 'obsessing' over." Ten muttered scornfully. "Even her older brother believed she was dead."
"You gave up everything in an instant when you heard her name." Taeyong reminded him quietly.
Silence, before Ten turned to the white haired. "You're bitter." He said, swallowing the lump in his throat. "And I get that. But I've done everything I could do apologise and make it better. I never intended to leave Mark or Sicheng with those people. I got them out that night."
"But what if that boy hadn't been lying about where she was?" Taeyong tilted his head. "What if he'd been right? Would you have left them?"
He let out a sigh. "It's the betrayal that stings, Ten. Yes, you gave up searching later, yes, you went away because you knew Sicheng and Lucas both couldn't stand you anymore. And yes, some of them have forgiven you. But trust," A glimmer of pain shone in his brown eyes, Ten's chest aching at the sight." Trust takes time to build up again."
"Then why'd you bother calling me back?" He stood up, clenching his jaw. "We all let our demons get the best of us sometimes." Taeyong said cooly.
"She isn't my demon." He said, fury coursing through his veins. "She's definitely not your salvation." Taeyong looked up at him, cold. "You remember what you were when I found you after you escaped from the Palace? The things you had done?"
"She didn't drive me to do any of that," Ten snapped.
"No," Taeyong seemingly relented, sinking back into the couch. "I guess not. You did what you had to survive."
Ten looked at him, a rush of despondency followed by a feeling of hollowness taking over his senses.
Taeyong stated back at him, his expression unreadable, and that made Ten only sink further down into the depths of guilt.
He wasn't able to read Taeyong like the back of his hand anymore.
One mistake, a careless decision had ruined everything he had tried so hard to create, the family he had deluded himself into, having while trying to erase the previous imprints of his legacy that were blood splattered, wanting to start something new.
"Ten." Taeyong's voice sounded far away, like something he'd hear faintly while he was drowning, sound travelling through layers of water.
The older had gotten up, coming closer, fingers curling around Ten's wrists hesitantly. "Ten?" He called the other's name again, but he didn't respond, merely yanking his wrists out of Taeyong's grasp. A hurt look flashed over his face, but, in that moment, Ten could care less.
To him, it seemed like only a fraction of what he had been feeling for years.
"Coming back was a mistake." He whispered, whirling around and walking out, attempting to keep his head held high, even though tears blurred the corners of his eyes, because for all the charming smiles and witty remarks he had to offer, in the end, Ten was broken and hurt.
He was tired of running from the things he did to survive when he escaped from the Palace, he was tired of being reminded of his mistakes by those he held close to his heart.
He was tired of denying that he was, indeed, like the nickname everyone so adamantly called him.
He was like the Cheshire cat, who disappeared at will and was hard to find, who smiled even in the face of death or as blood pooled around his feet.
He shut the door to the office, briskly walking away from the room down the empty corridor, sinking to his knees in the corner of the corridor, attempting to catch his breath.
He was stuck in a nightmare, and he felt the realisation sinking in that the two people he'd trusted to ground him to reality weren't there for him anymore.
He just wanted so desperately to wake up.
|
She was waking up.
She could feel the strong currents of sleep and the drug in her system attempting to pull her back down, but she struggled against the sweeping waves, head reaching the surface for a quick breath of air before she was yanked under again.
And then came the pain.
The searing hot pain around her throat, the metallic taste of blood dancing on her taste buds, filling her mouth, clogging her airway.
She wasn't able to breathe.
Her first instinct was to surge up, let out a scream to clear her windpipe, toss her head and spit out the blood, but she couldn't move.
"She's coming to her senses." She could hear the barely concealed surprise, doing nothing to soothe the burning fear she felt under her skin as she thrashed around. Something was in her arm, it felt awkward, weird, she didn't want it there, she wanted it out this very instant.
She tried to yank her arm away, eyes fluttering open as she tried to focus on the blinding light above her, wincing and squeezing them shut at the bad idea.
Fingers pressed to the side of her head, gently allowing her to turn, coaxing her to spit out the blood, which she complied to doing.
"Calm down." The words were said forcefully but not harshly, a firm order that left no room for argument but gentle enough to make her want to listen.
"It's almost over, I promise, you did well." She couldn't recognise the voice through the haze of pain, eyes blearily opening to stare at the dark mop of black hair, the only thing she could make out.
Where was she?
"It's not healing fast enough, see if you can get her to regenerate her cells faster."
What?
That sounded a lot like what they used to say to her. Oh, was she back in the lab? Would Jaemin be coming to visit her soon?
Or maybe she could sneak out and meet the other patients, that little boy with the snaggle tooth was rude but very cute. What was his name? She frowned internally. She had good memory, so why was this so fuzzy?
Who else would come to see her?
Maybe that minister's son who used to come, but he stopped coming after Youngho died, didn't he? He was more of her brother's friend anyway, it didn't matter to her.
She wanted to leave the room, curl up in her own bed, hug her little brother to sleep, but if she tried then she'd be dragged back, forced to undergo tests and surgeries she didn't even understand, and she didn't want to be a failure, even if it meant losing her voice, did she?
She wouldn't miss speaking, it was fine-
Her eyes shot open as she felt arcs of electricity shoot up her spine, tears gathering at the corner of her eyes as her fingers felt her arm, curling around the tubes that protruded from there, until a firm hand on her wrist stopped her.
The man was saying something, frowning, but she couldn't even hear him, the ringing in her ears overwhelming her. All she could feel was pain, tears rolling down her cheeks hot and fast.
Her throat hurt so much, it felt tight, like flames were licking and burning her flesh and nerves, and she tried to pull her hands out of his grip, mouthing for the man to stop, pleading soundlessly until she caught a snippet of his words in the midst of her crying and the incessant ringing. "Use your voice."
Voice?
She had a voice, why wasn't she using it?
She didn't have a voice, how could she use it?
What was going on?
Her thoughts became incoherent when it felt like she was being burnt alive, arcing away from the table, attempting to twist away and pull her arm free of whatever was poking through her skin, sobbing so, so loudly.
"Stop!" She pleaded, attempting to look at the man, crying. Her throat felt raw, she was dizzy, everything was a blur and she was consumed by the ache of her vocal chords, the aching of her chest, the sting in her arm.
"Make it stop!" She cried out, jolting forward, bringing her knees up to her chest and placing her head between them, hands trying to massage her temples as the migraine became worse with each attempt to soothe it.
She felt uneasy and unnatural, like her body was trying to fight her, push her to its peak, everything she did to feel better just increasing her pain.
"Yuta, stop it!"
And suddenly, silence.
It was still there, but it was fading away. She could feel her limbs loosen up, could feel the ringing fade away, the tears lessening. She blinked, disoriented, raising her head up to look around, trying to get her bearings.
"Hey, hey," A new voice, foreign, making her wince with its volume, asked, and she focused on the shock of bright red hair as she wiped away her tears, the man's chiseled features coming into focus, little by little.
"Feel better?" He asked her softly, and she shrunk away from him, scrambling back before nearly falling off the edge of the table.
And then it hit her like a tidal wave, the rush of memories from leaving the prison to the feeling of Taeyong's hand clasped firmly around hers when they struck the deal, Ten talking to her about Neo City to bringing her here, Jeno, Jaemin, Doyoung, "Yuta." She rasped.
The man's eyes lit up, and he nodded vigorously. "Yes, yes it's me," He said excitedly, clapping his hands. "How's your throat? Does it hurt?"
"My," She paused, coughing, watching as a few drops of crimson spilled past her lips, trying again. "My throat?"
Then it hit her.
She wasn't supposed to be able to speak.
Oh.
Her eyes widened as her jaw fell slack, hand coming up to massage her neck.
"Is it still hurting?" Doyoung asked lowly, and she simply stared back, shaking her head slowly.
"Rina, say something." The red haired urged, and she parted her lips. Her tongue was dry and her throat felt parched, but when she spoke, she felt so inexplicably free, even if it hurt.
"W-water." She croaked out, wincing at the baritone of her voice, sounding so much like her but at the same time nothing similar at all.
Doyoung nodded, and for the next few minutes, it was all a silent flurry of movement, from having a glass of water pressed into her hand, the black haired guiding the glass to her lips and helping her drink, the swabbing of soft cotton against her arm as the wires were removed, the blending of Yuta's voice with the background as he pressed questions.
All she could do was stare at the blank computer screen, feeling war had been waged internally, mind and body feeling too fatigued to even move.
"She's tired, let her be. See if you can sleep, Rina." Doyoung's words rushed over her like warm water, hard to register but the gentle tone was soothing to hear.
Sleep.
Sleep sounded good.
And just like that, she heard a shout of surprise as her eyes rolled back into her hand, falling backwards into the arms of welcoming arms of endless dreams, eyes fluttering shut.
The world blacked out.