Beacons in The Dark

Chapter 16 - White and Scarlet

"Hide where you may, but past sins will always catch you." - Passage from the Imperial Holybook

Darkness again, the impenetrable, immutable, creeping darkness of utter entropy, slowly working its way upon everything, bit by bit, more patient than any other force in the universe. 

Ah, but there it was, the light, the blessed light that was all and nothing...and the light grew, trace leylines of white and scarlet crisscrossing it as it filled his vision.

And suddenly, Blue was awake, with his head mounted in the correct direction, looking up into the pink haired facescaper, Shampoo, the cold metal against his back feeling better than anything he could remember, and he offered her a thankful smile.

There was pain, though, his head felt like Loshan bulls were stamping around his brain, giving him a pounding headache and his neck felt like a collar of fire was fastened around it. He sat up, bringing his hands to feel the ragged wound around his neck, half scab and half scar.

"Damned lucky, so damned lucky." Shampoo said, tut-tutting, wearing a sterile white clinical overcoat, her immense form intimidating no matter how feminine she looked.

"Oh, thank you!" Blue croaked, his voice sounding more normal as he continued, "I can't believe that actually worked. My my, dearest, you have done me the largest of favors, bringing me back from the dead."

"You were actually never dead," she replied cheerfully, glad that the procedure had worked, "The implant kept your neuro and biological circuits running, but if I had shown up a few minutes later, you would have - the implant is of course in its alpha stage, and I find it completely ironic that the man who gave me the technology was the first one to have it used on him. Ah, how lucky you are, Loremaster."

"Yes, I know..." he said, itching at his neck for a few moments and then stopping. Something was...different? Wrong? He didn't know.

"I don't feel right." he informed Shampoo, the bright white light in the room causing his eyes to squint somewhat.

"Well," she said, shrugging her shoulders, "This is the first time this procedure has been done, so there may be side effects. But you should be happy that you are at least alive - you should have seen the pool of blood you were surrounded in. All of it, all of your blood was gone, and there was that pretty head of yours, just sitting there, dead-eyed, body becoming cold as ice."

"Yeah, yeah, you're right of course. I would feel different....Agh! Where is Nami?!" he exclaimed, jumping up despite the pain of a reconnected torso to a head.

"Your assistant, right?" Shampoo said, holding her hands into a nanocleaner, blasting bacteria from her hands with a quiet burst of humming, "He wasn't there amongst the dead."

"No no no..." Blue said, heading for the door, "He's...he's, somewhere else..." and he had no clue how he was aware of that, but he was certain that Nami was no longer on Alphanas.