I can feel it destabilizing with each push. Every time those white flashes blur what I can only assume to be my vision, I push and it lasts for a beat longer than the first time. I have no idea if this will really work or not, but the fact that these pulses even exist tell me that I have a body.
I can't help but wonder how they've managed to preserve my body for this long and if it is even still majorly intact, but nothing surprises me if they have the ability to create a virus like this one. For what felt like hours I just kept on pushing and pushing because I couldn't be sure that the system would wake me naturally if I waited for it to finish its alterations, which I'm sure it would be doing any day now.
The more I pushed, the more I could feel. Eventually, other sensations gathered around me, and I could tell that wherever I was, it was extremely cold and possibly wet. Did they freeze my body?
I know that ice has been known to slow decomposition of animals and it would make sense why I felt so cold if they had my body frozen. But then that would beg the question on how my eyes were able to open if I was frozen. That would be entirely impossible if my lids were frozen shut, but it wouldn't be if I was in water, which would also explain the blur, or I could just be defrosting. Either way, I need to wake up and fast.
While I do want to wake up, there is no way for me to resuscitate myself if I was technically still dead. Unless the system could do it. It was far-fetched but for now I was out of any other option. If the system could manipulate memories, then I know it has access to the brain, I have no idea if the system could get across messages to the other organs in the body, but I have to try.
As for right now, the only thing I know is that when the flashes happen, I can push against, which means that for a fraction of a second, my body and all other vital organs should be working. If I can take advantage of that push for long enough, it may be able to kick start my heart.
I'm pretty sure anxiety would be pacing through me right now if I had the mind to be anxious. The only thing I can do is lie in wait for another flash of light. Just as I resign myself to waiting, the system comes online for another memory altering session, and I know that where the system is, the flashes are probable to follow. So, I wait.
Then just like a bang, I push and it feels like the darkness is dragging me back into the unknown, but I know my heart hasn't gotten the message as yet, so I hold on even though my last remaining bit of cognitive thought feels like it is being ripped to shreds. Not yet I tell myself, I just need one thump, one measly ba-dum and I won't have to push anymore. C'mon stupid heart for everything we've been through, now is not the time to fail me.
Ba-dum.
Ba-dum.
Ba-dum.
I almost don't believe myself that the rhythmic thump of my heartbeat can be heard by consciousness and I almost laugh before I remember that there is no physical form to express what I'm feeling.
Feeling.
If I can feel it means my body is waking up, it means that I'm alive again. For how long…. I have no idea, but I intend to make use of every second that I get.
Mystery Doctor's POV:
The annoying assholes are breathing down my back again. I kept trying to tell that it wasn't easy to literally bring someone back from the fucking dead.
Whether it was vitrification, or cryosleep, the amount of energy it takes to reanimate someone from that deep a sleep where even their fucking brain is off is a pain in the ass. Not to mention I have no idea what the repercussions will be considering how fragile their bodies will become once they are in that state.
These aren't just statistics that I can pull out of my ass because I have no reference to work from. If this is successful, I would be the first person to ever successfully pull this off, and while the prospect of that sounds good in my head while I wash my hands I can barely fathom how the actual hell to get that done.
"I'd like to see one of you raise someone up from basically the netherworlds." I can't help but grumble to myself as I leave the bathroom dragging my tired body back to my desk. I've spent so much time around the dead that I'm starting to feel like them, clothes disheveled, eyes gaunt and ears begging for a sound amidst the quiet.
They do say be careful what you wish for because no sooner had I finished my thought than when I saw her. Eyes wide as saucers, breath still, a small floating mass in the cryo-chamber, the impossible right before my very eyes, Ravana Azurine was alive and so much better than that she was awake.
My body stilled, even if I wanted to move I couldn't. I was struck in awe by the sheer inconceivability of her being awake, much less alive. I saw her body when they rolled her in, I strung up those machines myself and filled that tank with the chemical compound needed to put her in cryosleep and slow her decomposition, so while this was my research and everything I had been praying for, it wasn't hard to see why I was in disbelief.
"Nine..." I all but whispered.
It took all of 5 seconds before I was able to realize that even if she wanted to, she couldn't answer me because of the water in her chamber, and I had never seen the need to attach an oxygen tube because she was supposed to be dead.
Forcing my hands to steady as I emptied her chamber proved to be the hardest action in my entire career, because I couldn't stop the sheer excitement flowing simultaneously to the panic. It's been three weeks since I noticed that someone has been watching Nine, and I've grown protective of what we could possibly accomplish from the notes that she had taken and just her body in general. So much so that I relocated myself near to her, just to conduct my research more efficiently, though admittedly my attention has been split on other subjects as well.
By the time she was completely out of the water, I could see her body struggling to complete functions that were once deemed normal. I can only imagine she would feel like a deep-sea free diver, after being dead for so long and in water, one wrong breath could actually kill her.
I rushed to open the chamber while providing her instructions on how to hold a steady breath to prevent her from offing herself after she just came back to the land of the land. Upon entry, her razor-sharp vision honed on me, observing my every step and breath. Extending a care package, we had next to every pod and chamber, I tried not to sound like a complete idiot as I spoke to her.
"Welcome back to the land of the living Nine."
Ravana's POV:
I had no idea that would work, but I'm alive, wet, but alive.
I could feel the burning sensation of my lungs trying to get water out and oxygen in. My nasal passage burned like fire with every rasp of air that passed through, but my body persisted and managed to slow the choking as the water was dispelled from my body completely.
As soon as I fully opened my eyes, I was studying the face of the person who had saved me from drowning myself right after I came back. Surely there should have been more preventative measures in place, but considering I was supposed to be dead, I can't imagine they would take all those measures for me.
I had so many questions, but I knew that they would have even more for me. So instead, I braced myself for the barrage of questions I knew were about to spill by the look on her face. As if taking my silence for an indication to start speaking, she began speaking at lightning speed, but for some reason even though I should be tired and muffled in the head, I could perfectly understand everything she was asking and saying, even with the speed that she was talking.
She finally stopped rapid firing questions at me and stared at me curiously waiting for a response. I pulled my hand up to my throat waving side to side and mimicking the lack of vocal usage. As if a light bulb switched on in her brain, she said, "Of course!! You must be completely parched not having to use your vocal cords for so long, not to mention how hungry you must be."
With that sentence she took off into the surrounding room outside of the chamber and ran to a vending machine in the corner. Finally, I had a moment to observe the area around me without the blur. Machines were everywhere and they hummed in unison, in the light grey room.
Everything seemed so unfamiliar but so nostalgic at the same time. Trying to move my legs to stand, I realized there was no strength and I had to just stay put with a neat little package in my lap which I had just now paid attention to.
Barely able to move my arms, I get it to open and pull out the towel. Just as I was struggling to get my arms high enough to wrap it around myself, her voice came from the door of the chamber again, "Let me help you with that." She was a lot gentler this time around and she cracked the water holding it to my lips as soon as she was done.
I held my head back and graciously accepted the cool water to my lips. I saw her face scan every detail of the small interaction, probably checking to see if I had any complications ingesting anything.
A beat of silence ran through our midst, none of us willing to interrupt the groundbreaking realizations still looping through our brains. After a minute of just breathing and existence, I finally lifted my eyes to meet ones that were already looking at me and said "Thank you for that, you probably already know my name considering I'm in your lab, but I do believe there is much to be discussed."
.