New Dawn

Evangeline

Elane squeezes my hand as we walk into the operating room. Were it not for her the walls might be melting. I feel wound so tight. I don't know if I can do it at all. I have practiced, with a prototype while Cal and Elane worked, and then with the machine once they finished.

Normally I love to watch Elane work, to watch her draw plans, her long hair tied up in a bun. Watch her beautiful mind work. But even that couldn't pierce the veil of anxiety that hangs over me. I feel my hands shake in hers.

Davidson ushers Cal out of the operating room. He protests, but Davidson insists. Sara remains, she will be necessary to heal him if we succeed in pulling out the shrapnel in his chest.  Mare also remains, hands resting gently on the machine. She will keep it running.

She's here in case you fail.

Even though it's harsh, I know it's the truth. If I slip up or mess up, Davidson will have to operate it indirectly from the control pad. He will need her electricity.

I can't fail.

We didn't have enough time to finish what we would've needed to make the controls as fine tuned as they would have to be for a surgery like this. I know if I fail Davidson will be going in with the fine motor skills of a child.

If I am a surgeon, he is a butcher.

I am reminded of Samson. That horrible man from Maven's court. His mothers brother. The man who destroyed Mare's mind with a sledgehammer, then tried to fix it with band aids.

I look at my shaking hands as Elane departs from the room. I asked her to stay but she said I needed space. She was right. The only time I've ever been able to do things I thought I couldn't was when I had absolutely no one to lean on.

Davidson puts a hand on my arm, "are you ready?" He asks.

I nod, even though I am not. I breathe out, and feel out with my mind, sensing the metal of the machine. I pick up the silver needle's that look like long, slender fingers. I make the first cut in Julian's chest, watching his silver blood spill out. Sara is quick, to heal the wound with skin, making it so his heart is exposed from his chest, lying in a sunken hole of skin. It is disgusting. But I cannot focus on it.

I slice his heart, into the quadrant Sara tells me the stone is lodged in. With my needle fingers I reach out, using my mind to control them. I find a piece of stone, I place the needles on it, they shake slightly, sweat pooling on my brow. It takes all my concentration to get the needles to stay.

"Pull, Davidson" I say through gritted teeth.

He does not hesitate. He clamps the needles together and pull them up with a twist of the lever on the machines base. Mare keeps it running as he pulls out the small shard. It is so unbelievably small. That fact that so little can reduce me to the power I had as a little girl is unbelievable.

The piece is out.

There are eight left inside.

We continue like this, me finding the pieces, Julian pulling, Mare keeping sparks alive in the machine. Sara holding Julian's hand. I can see color returning to his cheeks with every piece that is removed. Her powers are working.

Even through my success I do not become more confident. Though my hands shake just a little bit less.

Seven.

Six.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

One piece left. And it is in his lung. Sara is quick to lift his heart, healing the tears and placing it back in his chest. She closes the gaping wound in his chest, before I make another incision over his right lung.

When I open the lung I feel as if I have been punched. This piece is too big. How he is even alive I don't know. I feel my knees shake as the needles grow closer. I loose control of one of my needles, then another one, then another. There are only two left under my control.

Sweat pools on my brow, in my palms, under my arms. I feel tears running down my cheeks as I clamp the needles down around the lady piece. I can't see it, but I can feel it. Like a frozen knife twisting inside of me.

I lick my lips and taste salt. My eyes spin. I feel as though I'm dying, frozen.

"Davidson." I whisper.

I see him twist the handle, it is the last thing I see.

I feel a sharp pain shoot through my skull as I got the floor. Unable to feel anything. Not my powers, not my head, not even my thoughts.

I collapse into nothing. A pool of darkness.