The Resurgence AU

A Dream and a Nightmare

All Everest could remember was trying to attack that stingray.

In fact, that scene replayed over, and over, and over again in her mind as she laid in bed. The rush of energy she felt fighting for Tartar, the panic as she noticed the stingray shooting her tail up out of the corner of her eye, and the pain as it stabbed into her jaw. She felt so, so sick...

Honestly, Everest never thought that a stingray was how she would die. She was expecting drowning or maybe a bear or mountain lion to kill her on the way down the mountain. Never, ever expected a stingray...

...But she...

Everest started to open her eyes, feeling was starting to enter her body slowly.

...She wasn't dead...

She...wasn't...dead...?

Everest saw a light but it wasn't a heavenly light, nor a terrible light...it was- a room light. She was...alive. Alive and pretty well. Her body shook a little from the near death experience though.

The room around her was cold.

Everest was warm though. Hm...the blankets were...comfy. Fluffy...

Everest's inner clock told her it was early in the morning. 1am-ish most likely. It was early. What was she doing up this early? What was she even doing alive? She was supposed to be dead. '...What am I doing alive?' Everest asked herself and looked at her body.

Pinned inside her right arm was a needle poked into her elbow pit connected to a tube, connected to a bag. The bag was halfway empty with some, strange, neon green liquid sealed inside of it. The liquid drained slowly into Everest's arm, making her veins green. It glowed softly, even in the bright light of the room.

"The anti-venom did nothing," Grumbled a nearby voice (luckily, a familiar one). The voice was abrupt and enough to pull Everest out of her trance on the bag. "Why didn't it do anything? I-It was applied immediately!" It questioned, still frustrated, "...Oh well, I'm just glad I had that blood on hand. Her vitals are looking better now," It looked up at a strange machine beside Everest (It must have not noticed that Everest was awake) that beeped at a steady pace. An annoying machine really, "Have about a blender's full, glad I thought ahead with that creature's regenerative abilities. Wish he didn't get away, maybe if I could find the source...or, maybe I should give some of this blood to some of the octarians if it makes them regenerate everything." That was Tartar, it seemed to be thinking aloud. Wonder who it was talking about. This wasn't the first time Everest heard Tartar mention the "strange human mimic with green blood". She'd have to ask.

Everest slowly opened her eyes and glanced to the side. Tartar was sitting near the bed, mumbling under his breath now about the green blood being dripped into her system. She couldn't quite hear him anymore. His knee bounced, he looked rather anxious. Tartar only stared at his hands and picked at loose threads and cracks in his metal shell. Everest had never seen Tartar so worried. 'Probably because of me. ...I'm so sorry, Tartar, ...I let you down..I broke my vow,' Everest would never forgive herself.

"C...Commander..." Everest weakly whispered towards them, moving her head to look at them. Tartar didn't respond; they didn't even look up. It was almost like they hadn't heard Everest's soft cry.

Tartar gave a quick glance. It suddenly had a double take, shaking its head and staring at Everest's whole self. Everest watched the light reenter Tartar's eyes. "Everest! You're awake! You're really alive!" Tartar practically leapt towards Everest's bed. Everest could see it all over its face that it wanted to tightly hug Everest and never let go. Everest felt a small light start to form inside of her. Tartar's dopey, relieved smile was infectious. Everest couldn't help but smile back.