Beep-beep-beep.
The sound of a heart rate monitor is the first thing that greets me, even before I open my eyes to see the stark white walls of a hospital room. The sun is up outside but I don't see a clock anywhere, nor my phone. I'm the one in the bed, and next to me I see Asha, half asleep in one of the chairs, while Eden is practically in the bed with me, ass still in her own chair and her torso slumped over my ankles. Chibi Destiny is inanimate in her doll form at the foot of my bed. Asha and Eden wake as I start stirring, and practically jump out of their chairs to hug me tight. "Ow- ow- That's too much, thank you-" Both back off a little, though Eden clearly doesn't care that Asha is in the room as she kisses me on the lips. But it's not like Asha doesn't already know about us, so I guess it's fine.
"Sorry- We've just been so worried," she says, taking my hand as she sits back down. They both wear dour expressions, giving me cause to worry.
"Did- Did it work? Did we win?"
"Depends what you mean by that, Des," Asha says. She looks sympathetic, but I can't quite tell how she feels about the situation from her voice alone. "Whatever you did, Ayame and Jeanette both fell unconscious and returned to their civilian forms at the same time as you, and all the monsters just started... Disappearing. Motel's still gone, vanished as if it never existed. Jeanette's alive, but she won't wake up. Doctors can't figure out why, say it's not even technically a coma. We told them it was a car crash, and no one's questioned it yet." My stomach drops like a rock at that news, but at least she's alive.
"Ayame's in intensive care. She took a bad cut to the torso that even Faye couldn't fix," Eden adds. "It's healing now. Slower than we heal normally, but faster than other people. She's going to make it, but will probably be in here at least another week, probably two. The others are with her right now... We've sort of been taking turns."
"Doesn't exactly feel like a win," I mutter. "How long's it been?"
"No. But we all survived and the world's still around, so I guess it's something," Asha agrees with a grimace. "About 12 hours, by the way. I borrowed your phone to text your parents you were staying at mine."
"Good call."
"And, uh, there's one more thing. We think whatever you did may have partially broken your glamour. The nurse asked about your eyes when she checked your vitals yesterday." Eden is already pulling her phone out and putting the camera in selfie mode before handing it to me.
"My eyes?" I take the phone and look at myself in the camera. The first thing I notice is indeed my eyes. Usually a dull blue, they've now got a pink-hued gradient down toward the bottom, which has obviously never been there before. A similar pink has sprouted in streaks throughout my hair, especially near the tips. "Well at least it's kind of pretty."
"Yeah, but uh. If a nurse can notice, it, you might want to prepare for some unfortunate questions from your parents." Damn it. Asha's right, there's no way they don't notice this. "Unless you can find a way to transform it back."
We're all silent for a minute, taking in the aftermath of last night's fight in our own ways. "Any news on when I can be discharged?"
"Oh, uh- Let me go find a nurse. You weren't that hurt, so I doubt it'll be an issue." Asha quickly gets up and leaves the room. Eden takes my hand and squeezes it. She's obviously been worried about me too, but I can tell from her expression this isn't about that.
"Destiny, you know we're a team, right?" Eden asks, her face as serious as I've ever seen it.
"I mean, yeah. That's the idea."
"So then, why would you block Asha's attack? If you hadn't, Ayame wouldn't have had to do what she did. It almost killed her- Would have, if you hadn't practically pulled divine intervention out of your ass." Find the original chapter at g.com.
"I- well- Yes. I know. I'm sorry. But Jeanette's my friend, I love her. I let her down, I couldn't just let her die without trying to save her too."
"I know that. But as leader, I need to know I can trust you won't make rash decisions like that again in the future. It brings our whole mission into jeopardy and puts the rest of us at risk. As Knights, we took an oath to protect the world first and each other second, that's why Asha didn't hesitate to go for the kill. I know you didn't swear that same oath, but the rest of us had a talk, and you might need to if you want to keep working with us."
"Y-Yeah. Let's just get through today first. Then we can talk about it." Eden nods and squeezes my hand.
"Whatever you decide, it doesn't have to change anything else between us. I just have a duty to uphold as leader too. You get that, right?" I nod and reach out to pick up Chibi Destiny. She does a little wave at me to show she's still in there and around, but otherwise maintains her disguise. It only takes a couple of minutes before Asha returns with a nurse who already has all the discharge paperwork filled out and gets me ready to leave in a matter of minutes. My clothes and things are in a small locker in the room, so I get dressed and fix my hair as well as I can. First time in almost three years I'll be going out in public without makeup on, but I'm not going to wait. I want to go see Ayame and Jeanette ASAP.
We stop by Ayame's room first, where Faye and Ida also are. The short Asian woman is in the bed as expected, hooked up to various monitoring machines and an IV. Even through the bandages and the hospital gown I see the large patch of bruised skin around her abdomen and chest where the scythe must have sliced her, along with dozens upon dozens of minor cuts all over her face and arms. Those will probably heal up just fine, but I'm not so sure about the big one. "Oh, stars, Ayame," I breathe, rushing into the room and up to her. "I'm so- so sorry. I didn't think things would turn out this bad!"
"Stop." She holds up a hand for me to pause, coughing a little and making a grimace. "This wasn't your doing. I had basically no defense to put up when the duel started. If you hadn't done what you did, I wouldn't be here right now." Ida, pouting and with her arms crossed glowers at our second-in-command. "Oh fuck off Ida. You and I both know we only had that one ace up our sleeves without the Armory. It was me or one of you."
"But if I hadn't-"
"It's fine, Destiny. If nothing else, at least now I know how loyal you are to those you love. Which means so long as we can avoid a situation like yesterday, you'll be an asset." We fall silent for a little while. I feel awkward and start fiddling with my hair, mildly fascinated with the pink tips. Ayame is the one to say something first again. "But once I'm out of here, I'm forcing you to take fencing lessons with me. That way at least you can provide backup in close combat."
"Alright, yeah, that's fair. I'm looking forward to it."
"The good news is," Faye cuts in. "You're healing faster and faster. Whatever stopped your magical regeneration must be losing its grasp on you the further we get from the event. Maybe I can start knitting your wounds back together too."
"That's very good. Happy to see you getting better already, A," Asha says with a soft smile before putting a hand on my shoulder and slowly pulling at me. "You coming, Des? We've still got someone to see."
Together, Asha and I walk in silence to the room Jeanette is in. I'm shocked to find that she's in a quarantine containment room and only hospital staff in protective gear are allowed inside. "Since they don't know why she won't wake up and we can't tell them exactly what happened, they're taking precautions for both her sake and everyone else's," Asha explains when she sees the question on my face.
"I guess that makes sense. But she's going to be so lonely in there."
"Probably."
"And it's all my fault."
"Do we have any idea why she won't wake up?" Asha takes a deep breath through her nose and stares through the window at our friend for a moment before she speaks.
"We don't know for sure. The Squires theorize that whatever you did caused a sudden disconnect from the source of her powers. The same would likely happen to us if our connections were severed without warning. Maybe she'll wake up if we can find a suitable replacement." As I listen I catch myself chewing on a nail, an old nervous habit I'd thought I kicked years ago when nail polish became a regular part of my life. Just took a big enough event for it to come back, evidently.
"But if her source was Renata, would anything be good enough to replace her? And, I mean, up until my transformation, I'm pretty sure no one thought there could ever be more than the five Knights. So how do we even know there are any out there?"
"Probably not. Unless there's another force like her or Destiny out there. The Squires sure don't have enough power individually." I raise an eyebrow at her, silently questioning. "Whatever gives you your powers, I mean. You called it-slash-her Destiny once. Whatever it is, we both know there's more raw power there than us Knights get from the Squires."
"Right." Another sullen silence falls over us. Eventually a thought forms in my head and I mumble it mostly to myself. "Chibi did say there'd be a price to pay if I called on Chaos."
"The pink doesn't look that bad."
"That's not what I mean," I say and stare very intently at Jeanette's unconscious body. I'm going to have to live with the guilt of having put her in here until we can find a way to fix my mistake. We fall silent for a few more minutes, both lost in our own thoughts.
"One more thing, Des. I know you sort of already had this chat with Eden, but you know why I took the shot, right?"
"You took an oath. Protect the world above all else, Knights second. Anything else is tertiary." I sigh a little, not sure what to think about that concept. It sounds so cold and calculated, without room for emotion.
"Yes, but that's not it. Including training, I've had three years to mentally prepare for the consequences of that action, you haven't. I know you well enough that I had already figured out you would try something stupid if you felt you had to. And from what Chibi Destiny tells me, you got lucky the results weren't worse."
"And you weren't wrong."
"No I wasn't."
"Look, I get it. You were trying to protect me, the world and the Knights all at once. But I would've done the same for you, for Eden, for any of the Knights." Asha puts a hand on my shoulder, twists me around and hugs me. A little stiffly, out of awkward surprise more than anything else, I hug her back. After a few moments, she lets me go, but keeps holding onto my shoulders, looking into my eyes.
"I know. And that's what sets you apart. Promise me that won't ever change, even if you take the oath." I gulp. She puts me in a difficult situation, but if I'm being honest, I'm not sure I could stop myself from acting on instinct again in a similar situation, so I simply nod and she gets up on her toes, kissing my forehead. "Good. It's your greatest strength." She then turns her head to Jeanette, eyes soft. "I'm sure we'll find a cure too. Together."
"Together."