To Hold a Dove

The Awakening

Chapter Seven:

The awakening

SHINARA POV

When she opened her eyes, she expected to be in heaven. However she smiled in relief when she saw instead the familiar ceiling of Dr. Agasa's laboratory. She attempted to sit up, only to fall back again when a wave of exhaustion overtook her.

"Don't move around too much Kudo", said Ai who had just walked back in and was surprised to see the teenager awake.

"Ai? What happened?"

"You took the cure I made and it had some rather nasty side effects."

Kudo blinked and stared at her.

"Nasty how?"

"Well...you are seventeen again, but your body is extremely underweight and very malnourished and dehydrated. The pain put your body into a coma where you remained with a fever for three days before the second part of the process took place. It just ended a few hours ago, so I am surprised to see you awake."

"But, I'm me now right?"

Ai smiled.

"You were always you Kudo-Chan, but yeah, you look like you now."

Kudo breathed a sigh of relief as she closed her eyes, smiling. Finally, she was back.

"It will be a while though before you can do much of anything alone. The drug really messed up your body and you have almost no real fat or muscle. Once you sleep for a while, we will begin working on that. I already have a couple IV's hooked up to you to help start replenishing your water levels as well as your need for different vitamins and proteins."

Kudo nodded as she listened.

"Also there is one more thing..."

Shinara looked at her curiously.

"The drug changed your looks a bit..."

"How so?" asked Kudo, praying desperately she didn't have a third eye or something weird like that.

"Well, your eyes are blue still, but they have a silver rim around the pupil, no doubt from the part of the drug made up of an element called Silver Infer. It also changed your hair...you have silver streaks running through it now."

Kudo blinked in surprise at the news and looked at the long hair flowing past her shoulders. Sure enough, mixed in with the black were silver streaks. It looked natural and honestly, not that bad.

"Well whatever, guess it goes with my title of Silver Bullet that vermouth gave me."

Ai smiled, "Suppose so."

"I was thinking about an image change anyways when I came back", Shinara grinned.

Ai just shook her head in amusement.

"Hey Ai..."

Ai turned back curiously.

"Thanks"

Air blinked and then softened her smile.

"No...thank you" she said as the teenager drifted to sleep.

DCDCDCDCDC

When Kudo awoke the next time, she was shocked to see Harley staring down at her.

"Uh...hey", Shinara said feeling a bit like a fish in a fish tank.

Harley smiled.

"What?" snapped Kudo, annoyed with her face already, even though she had just woken up.

"You look so different", Harley laughed, "I like it though. Wish I could get my hair like that."

Kudo chuckled.

"Well it wasn't on purpose", Shinara said grinning.

Harley smirked, "Glad to see you awake. You had me scared for a while there, Kudo."

"Sorry about that", Shinara said smiling, "guess I scared everybody."

Harley nodded, looking oddly serious for a moment.

"You look pretty bad actually...it's going to be a rough ride Kudo."

"I know", Shinara sighed as she laid back, "But I can do it."

"Of course you can", Harley laughed, "I will help you too."

"Thanks Harley", Shinara smiled, "I don't know what I would do without you."

"You would die", Harley said nodding, but then laughed, "I don't think I want to joke like that right now."

Her smile turned serious again and Kudo frowned, seeing how badly it had truly scared her friend.

"Harley Hattori...Thank you."

Harley just smiled as Kudo once again relaxed against her pillow and attempted to gain the sleep her body so desperately required.

DCDCDCDCDC

5 weeks later...

Kudo stood up gingerly from the couch, her entire frame leaning against the walker that Agasa had made for her. It was a walker that served as both a wheelchair she could power control or be pushed in and a regular walker to use when she needed to work on her strength. She felt like a newborn baby, as weak as she is and the boredom of spending so much of her time eating, sleeping, exercising, and reading was beginning to get to her.

A knock on her door took her out of her unspoken complaints as she noticed Harley standing there smiling wider than she had seen her smile for a while.

"What are you smiling at?" Shinara asked curiously.

"I just found out they were having a kid heist tonight, here in Tokyo"

"And?" asked Shinara, trying not to think about the last couple times she had seen the thief.

"Aaaannddd, I have convinced Ai to let you out for the night to attend!"

Kudo just stared at her.

"What makes you think I would want to go there and have everyone stare at me in this condition?"

"I didn't say Kudo Shinara would be attending, I just said we could attend as us."

"So we dress up as regular people and hide ourselves?"

"Yeah", Harley said with a wide grin.

"Hmm" Kudo muttered.

She did honestly want to see the thief again and the idea of getting out of the house for the night sounded amazing.

"Alright, but make sure no one can recognize either of us."

"Done and done", Harley said as she skipped out of the room to get ready.

"What have I gotten myself into", Kudo wondered out loud, but she was also very excited about the prospect of seeing her thief again after such a long period of time.