Remnant Ninja

Beginning Of The End Part 2

John

I watch, slightly horrified, slightly awed, as the events play out in front of me. I don't need to help, not just yet. Zeph is a fighter, not my principal, I don't need to protect him. But when the rebound happens, and he is thrown across the playground, I can't just stand there. Steele advances towards Zeph, and I make my move. I step behind Steele and, with one swift motion, slit his throat.

It won't kill him, but it will slow him down.

I kneel by Zeph's side.

"Zeph, can you hear me? Are you with us?" his eye rolls back and he begins to buck.

Okay, he's not with us.

Zephaniah

A haze of memories pass before my eyes. My head pounds and aches badly. I can sort of feel my body, but I'm freezing. I can't wake, I can't pull out of this tunnel...

Zeph... you can do this. Pull yourself back. John says. I can see a light... It's not enough.

Yes it is. Grab it.

My arm won't work.

Not physically. Mentally.

Damn it. It hurts.

I never said it wouldn't.

I think... I think I'm doing it.

You are! Keep trying, you're nearly there.

The light is so close.

I can almost touch it...

So close...

So... close...

So...

There's a faint whistling sound in my ears, and I open my eyes. My right eye has a cloudy white sheen over it, but I can kind of see with it.

Thank goodness.

I'm lying in the medical room. It's lit softly with blue lighting. John discovered a while ago that this is more calming to wake up to than bright white light. I'm wrapped tightly in several blankets, in a cocoon of warmth. Elyssa is sat by my side, holding my hand.

"Thank you for saving me," she says. She brings a cup of water with a straw close to my mouth so I can drink.

"How long was I out?" I ask when I can finally speak.

"A day. You haven't missed much," she informs me.

"Where's John?"

"I'm over here." comes the reply from the corner. "I'm sorry about your eye, I couldn't save it." he tells me.

"Then why can I see?" Okay, see-ish.

"I have constructed you a bionic eye. You can now do all sorts of crazy things, like use x-ray vision of scan and interface with objects and read..." I tune out of what he's saying. I'm so warm, sleep is inevitable. I drift off into that peaceful world.

For a few days, I don't do much. I stay in my bedroom, testing out the abilities of my eye. I discover I can help Hab with his homework without even being in the same room. I finish the Harry Potter series in the one week. I work on my project. I screw around.

I do anything but use remnant. After a rebound that big, I need at least week of recovery time from it.

"Zeph, can I come in?" asks Megan.

"Sure."

Megan comes in and sits on my bed.

"I've been meaning to ask for a while now," she begins. Oh god, here we go. "Can I see your project?" Okay, not what I expected.

"Okay." I say. I go over to my desk and lift the pillowcase covering the project. It's a mini human animatronic that I'm building. When it's finished, it'll have twenty different sets of programmed movements and over 20,000 words in it's vocabulary. I let it learn by carrying round a little microphone with me so whatever I hear, it hears too. It even has has censoring setting so it bleeps out rude words. I turn it on.

"Talk to her" I tell Megan.

"Hello, I'm Megan."

"Hello Megan. I am Nueva. Nice to meet you." she says back.

"She talks!" Megan exclaims, "Zeph, that's so clever!"

"I might teach you how to build one."

"That would be really cool!" Megan seems genuinely happy about this. But what she doesn't know is that I can talk to Nueva even deeper since I got my bionic eye.