Echoed Lullabies (Lunar Chronicles x Reader)

Chapter 113

DIAGNOSTICS CHECK COMPLETE. ALL SYSTEMS STABILIZED. REBOOTING IN 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

Cinder's eyes sprang open, met with a white ceiling and blinding lights. She jerked upward and hissed at the shock of pain in her chest.

The woman who had been hunkered over Cinder's hand cried out and fell off her rolling stool, landing hard on the ground. Metal fuse pullers clattered beside her.

Kai jumped up from a chair in the room's corner and rushed to Cinder's side, pushing his messy hair out of his eyes. "It's all right," he said, supporting Cinder as she pressed both hands against her chest. She could feel a lump of bandaging there, on top of the ache.

She pried her startled attention off the woman—a stranger—and turned to Kai.

Blinked. Noticed first how handsome he looked, and second how exhausted.

A spurt of data began to scroll against her vision in sterile green text.

EMPEROR KAITO OF THE EASTERN COMMONWEALTH

ID #0082719057

BORN 7 APR 108 T.E.

FF 107,448 MEDIA HITS, REVERSE CHRON

POSTED 13 NOV T.E.: IN A STATEMENT RELEASED THIS MORNING, EMPEROR KAITO INFORMED THE PRESS THAT HE HAS DELAYED HIS RETURN TO EARTH FOR AN INDETERMINATE AMOUNT OF TIME, STATING THAT HIS PRESENCE IS NECESSARY AT THIS TIME TO OVERSEE THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE LUNAR CAPITAL—

Cinder squeezed her eyes shut and willed the text to descend out of her vision. She waited for her heart rate to calm before opening her eyes again.

Her lap was draped with a white linen blanket so thin she could see a groove in the fabric where the flesh of her left thigh met the top of her prosthetic leg. Her left hand was splayed out, palm up, on top of the blanket. The palm chamber was open, revealing a multitude of disconnected wires inside.

"What are you doing to my hand?" she croaked.

The woman climbed to her feet and straightened her white lab coat. "Fixing it."

"Here, drink this." Kai held out a glass of water. Cinder stared at it for longer than she should have, her brain working through mud, before she took it from him. "This is Dr. Nandez," Kai said, watching her drink. "She's one of Earth's best cybernetic surgeons. I had her flown up yesterday to ... to look at you." His lips tightened, as if he wasn't sure if he'd overstepped some boundary between them.

Handing the glass back to Kai, Cinder studied the doctor, who stood with her arms crossed, tapping the fuse pullers against her forearm. Cinder reached for the back of her head, where her panel was shut tight.

"I'm not dead?"

"You almost were," said Kai. "Levana stabbed you right before you took the shot. The knife penetrated one of your prosthetic heart chambers, which drove your body into survival mode. That chamber shut down while the rest of your heart was able to keep functioning ... more or less." Kai glanced at the doctor. "Did I get that right?"

"Close enough," said Dr. Nandez with a weak smile.

Cinder's heart throbbed with every breath. "My retina display is functioning again."

The doctor nodded. "You were in need of a new processing unit—the one you were installed with wasn't designed for full underwater submersion. You were lucky it went into preservation mode, otherwise you wouldn't have had any function over your hand or leg either."

"I didn't, for a while." Cinder tried to move her cybernetic fingers, but they sat unmoving on the bedspread. "I'm sorry I scared you."

"Your reaction was warranted." Dr. Nandez gestured at Cinder's hand. "May I?"