Against the Clock

Chapter 12 | Awake

[Sabre's POV]

...I slowly open my eyes, awoken by loud yelling.

I feel like I was just hit by a truck. Everything hurts, and it's almost hard to breathe. Turning my head carefully, I see I'm in the analysis room... again. Why am I in here? Last thing I remember is that I was in my room, trying to sleep...

Wait- those creatures. They broke in.

And I heard the Professor on the other side of the door... saying something about a prototype?

I then notice my reflection in the metal surface of a machine next to me. There's a large, deep purple bruise on my neck shaped like a hand, and my eyes are visibly sunken in even with the blindfold over them. My skin is extremely paled.

I'm brought out of my thoughts when I notice the yelling again. Using my arm to prop myself up and look forward, I see the Professor being yelled at by Light, Time, and M. A few Colorless Guards watch the one-sided 'conversation', while the Assistant is standing near the Professor, same blank expression as always.

"...What is happening...?" I ask, confused and still hurting.

Everyone immediately turns to me, and Time, M, Light, and Professor Red rush over to me.

"Sabre! Thank goodness, you're finally awake..." Time says, sounding relieved.

"How are you holding up?" M asks.

"This... hurts. A lot." I reply, laying back down. "What happened?"

"These strange creatures broke into the lab and attacked you." Light says. "Somehow, you seemed to get worse whenever they were near you. All of us had to fight them off that night, but one knocked you out amid the chaos."

"And then... well..." M continues. "Turns out the Professor was keeping a third in his basement. It somehow grew while he was keeping it down there, and that effect was in just enough range so that you weren't waking up after the incident. Time found it down there while it was trying to escape, and it was attacking the Assistant. Light came in just as we killed it."

"Turns out, they're weak to fire." The Professor adds.

"And you're still in trouble, Professor." M says, looking over at him.

"Oh come on, it turned out fine." Professor Red says.

"And it also could've turned out worse." Light says. "What if it actually managed to get past Time and the Assistant and ran rampant in the lab? What then?"

Those three are back to yelling at each other, this time the Professor trying to argue. Time just walks over next to me.

"They've been like that all afternoon." Time says, laughing slightly. "I just joined in earlier because he tried to say fighting it wasn't that hard, when I was mostly the one fighting that thing."

"It's weird to see Light so worked up about something." I say. "Usually he's just stern and doesn't raise his voice."

"I know right? It's probably because you're one of the people closer to him, actually." Time says. "You should've seen him the last time he caught someone talking crap about you; Never thought he could look so unbelievably furious."

Suddenly, the yelling match comes to an abrupt end.

"Alright, no more squabbling." M says.

M then looks over at the Assistant.

"Assistant, protocol 8." M commands, and the Assistant reacts.

"Command received." The Assistant says. "Initiating protocol 8."

"Wh- Hey! The Assistant is only supposed to respond to my commands, and I never programmed him with a 'protocol 8'!" Professor Red says, visibly confused and a bit angry.

"You didn't, but I did." Time says. "That protocol gives him a list of things to prevent you from doing, and he learns from past experiences to add to that list. Basically, now he's supervising you."

Professor Red then looks at Time.

"You messed with my robot?!" He exclaims.

"M asked me to." Time shrugs.

The Professor then quickly turns to M, a betrayed look on his face.

"It's just for safety, Professor. I can't have this happening again, especially with the current situation." M says. "Once this is all over, I'll tell him to stop. Until then, the Assistant will keep you from putting yourself or others in potential danger."

M turns to leave, and I notice Light has already left the room with the Guards, probably back to the Colorless Guard headquarters. As M enters the hall, he stops.

"Also Professor, you're grounded." M says.

"Wh- You can't ground me, I'm older than you!" Professor Red says.

"I'm also the Leader, so too bad." M says, and he disappears from view.

I can't help but laugh, despite the pain. It's just hilarious seeing someone as old as the Professor getting grounded like a little kid. Time is quietly laughing beside me. The Professor grumbles and goes over to the monitor.

"Yeah yeah, hilarious. Now shut." Professor Red says to the two of us.

Time and I both quiet down. The Professor taps a few buttons on the keyboard in front of him.

"Okay Sabre, I just need to make sure you're stable enough to be off these machines and then we can get you to your new room." He says.

"New room?" I ask.

"Yes, the window in the last one is broken, not to mention the new knowledge that it's a security risk." The Professor continues. "You're being moved to one closer to the middle of the lab. I already had the Assistant move the things you had in the old room there."

Great... so now, no glimpse to the outside either. I think Time notices I'm a little saddened by that.

"Hey, I'm still gonna visit. Don't worry." Time says. "It'll be alright, this is just temporary, remember?"

"Yeah, I know." I say.

Waiting for the Professor to finish checking my status on the machine, I'm already dreading what the next few weeks will bring. I know that this is serious, but... is it really that bad to want to be able to be out of here? If I die, I don't want my last days to be stuck behind gray walls and filled with the constant sounds of beeping and other noises from the computers, only occasionally being broken up by visitors or the Professor. I just...

...What I wouldn't give for everything to just go back to how it was.