The Most Adorable Creature

Reintegration

Viper was known throughout protocol for her deadly poisonous and venomous attitude. But poison was not always her forte. Before the protocol, before Kingdom, she was something like a healer. A world-renowned chemist focused on healing.

As she sat waiting for a machine to finish the analysis it was doing, she contemplated her life's choices. A soft beep let her know that the analysis had finished. Scribbling down the highlights of the data in her notes, the chemist frowned. Trace amounts of certain toxins that should never be found in blood was exactly what the machine was reading.

This is why I make poison, to kill those who did this. Viper reminded herself.

Finally having enough of the work she'd done, she got up to leave the med bay. She had been there for over 12 hours, during that time Sage had gone in and out before the healer finally fell asleep awkwardly on a chair. Killjoy was still fast asleep in the hospital bed, covered in blankets with a collection of cards and notes next to her. Only Sage and Viper were allowed in the med bay uninvited and that left writing as the only way the other agents could show their support for Killjoy.

As quietly as she could, Viper made her way over to Sage, and gently shook her awake. "You're going to have a nasty backache if you sleep all night like that," she hissed, lacing her words with annoyance to hide her concern.

Sage immediately awoke, looking over to make sure KJ was still sleeping before nodding at Viper. "I'll watch her first, get some rest," the healer whispered.

Viper gave her a slight nod before leaving the med bay and walking to her room. On the way she ran into Reyna who smirked upon recognizing her.

"Viper," Reyna's sultry voice called out, "they say you're getting soft– is that true, serpentina?"

"I never thought of you as one to listen to gossip, Reyna," Viper shot back, annoyed by the Mexican's accusation.

"Mhmm," Reyna hummed, "we're not going to have our training today are we?"

"Reyna, I am too tired to be certain I wouldn't purposely shoot you," Viper hissed, turning on her heel, leaving the duelist in the hall.

Once alone in her room, Viper took a deep breath and slowly let it out, allowing herself to feel the fatigue of her body. Taking off her coat, she hung it on a hanger before taking off her shoes. Too tired to do anything more, she collapsed on her bed and let herself drift off to sleep.

._.

Five hours later, Viper methodically awoke. She never slept for more than 5 hours at a time. She tidied herself in the bathroom before pulling back on her white coat and heading back to the med bay. About halfway there, Viper changed her mind about her destination and decided to stop at the cafeteria to grab a coffee.

The cafeteria at noon was nosy and filled with agents. Viper ignored them all and walked to the corner of the cafeteria dedicated to drinks. One of the best things they had ever bought was an extremely fancy and fully automatic coffee maker. Killjoy had found it online and spent a month petitioning for Brimstone to buy it. Admittedly, Viper had been apprehensive of the machine, it was too expensive. However, when Brimstone finally caved and bought the overpriced machine, Viper ate her words.

All her mornings became that much better with a nice high-quality cup of coffee. Pushing buttons on the touch screen of the machine was all the work needed to run the blessed thing. Viper set two mugs in the dispensary area and waited patiently for the machine to dispense the precious liquid.

"Who are you making coffee for?" Jett asked, dashing up to Viper. A good-natured grin was on the duelist's face which was met with a scowl from the controller.