Supernova

Chapter One Hundred and Six - Supernova (The Reprise)

I woke up in the infirmary.

Woke up is a strange way of putting it, I suppose. I emerged from complete darkness and found myself in some dreamlike state, or so I assumed, seeing as I didn't really dream, and didn't have much basis for such, where light was construing itself into images. From what I could see through a squint, anyways. I tried to open my eyes wider and failed. They were heavy, and the effort was excruciating. The pain though, was something far away. Something I both felt and didn't. Something I understood more than sensed. I could see the ceiling, and then the curtain, and then my own body. Though I didn't quite register it as such. Because most of it was covered in rigid white hospital blankets, and what I could see, my arm, had a needle sticking out of it at the elbow.

I stared at it for what felt like an eternity, convinced wholly that I must have been indeed dreaming. I didn't concern myself whatsoever with what might be in the tube attached to it, but with that small bit of thin, shiny metal, which was prodded into my skin.

That settled it. Of course this wasn't my body. Because that wasn't possible.

But the angle was right, the skin colour was right, the arm looked like mine. This was exactly how I would see my own body, had seen it, lying in a hospital bed. I tried to look around for any other clues, maybe at my hand a little further down, but before I got there, I saw that my wrist was bound to the bed by a thick strap.

Reality was upon me then. What happened? Had I not won? Had I imagined all that? Where was I?

I gasped. A heavy, desperate, difficult breath. The curtain was yanked open. I tried to scream but found myself unable. The air was hazy, so foggy and thick. I saw it was Recovery Girl who had come in, followed by two other blurry people I didn't recognize. Even though I knew her, and it suggested I was still at UA, it failed to calm me.

"What are you doing to me?" I tried to ask, but it came out slurred and garbled, like the inside of my mouth was full of thick honey. Wha don tme?

She split in two. One hand was out of sight, the other lifted to stroke my hair. Horrifically, I felt the scrape of her fingers on my scalp, how they yanked the hairs at their roots. One second, her eyes were on the machine, the next, they looked right at me. Back and forth they flicked, like a pendulum.

"We're trying to save you, honey," she said.

We're trying to save you.

I wanted so desperately to tell her that that was ridiculous, I didn't need saving, I was Cassie motherfucking Stronghold, saviour of everyone else, saved by none. But I didn't really know how true that was anymore, and whether or not this was a dream, and regardless, if this was my body, I was hardly in any position to be saving anyone, least of all myself.

Plus, it's not like I was capable of talking, anyhow.

As the realizations continued to wash over me, I became terrified. Tears filled my eyes, but so did this horrible stinging. I tasted the blood at the back of my throat, felt it pooling into the space my breath wanted to be, but I didn't quite feel it reach my tongue before I passed back out again.

The next thing I remember was waking up again. Some form of that, anyways. I remember Recovery Girl was there again, standing over me, expecting me this time. I wanted to look back at my arm, to see if the needle was still there, the strap holding me down, if this was the same dream as before. But I didn't get a chance. I was too distracted by the fact that Aizawa was there too, standing behind her, wearing an expression I couldn't read.

For whatever reason, his presence made me horribly uneasy. I remembered the necklace he'd handed me. I knew for sure that had been real. And then, there in the present, I didn't know why he was there, or if he was angry with me, or what side he was on.