Ninth Resurrection

[link_to_revival]

1.



[A certain someone's in the infirmary, weak but in a stable condition.  Her lungs, along with some of the more fragile muscles are pretty badly off but... to say nothing of the massive gash on the left side of her face that's taken her eye and forced me to flip the image because goddammit nothing can ever be easy in the world of using PBs and then finding out there's this awesome hospitalization pic of a character that goes great with what you had planned for them.

[It's not until hours after she's returned to the Chalice that her one good eye finally begins to open up.  Lights.  Ceiling.  The kind of pain that lets her know she's somehow survived the Izanami Virus...]



I'm... alive.

[No telling how long she'll be conscious.  But she's at least going to try to get something out before going under again...]

[Public video]

Everyone... thank you.

I don't know what happened out there after Typhon's attack but... we must've won, right?  Typhon and Takeda and everyone else've been stopped and it's just one less threat to worry about.

Neptune, Ichitaka, Richard... everyo-

[Aaaand coughing fit again.  Her lungs are still a mess, and her heartfelt video's going to have to be cut short.  Though you can still say something back to her, be it in person or by video!]

2.

[Public video]



[And on top of that, a new face onboard the Chalice!  Well, new face, old friend, because...]

Everyone, this is R speaking.

[In human form!  With an actual voice!]

I never thought I'd have to adopt this form, the gynoid recreation of Greta Wagner, again.  I didn't even think it would be possible.  As it so happens though, it turned out that it had survived the incidents at the Tritech Labs.  A mixed blessing, I suppose.  As much as I hate this body and the identity it represents, it can at least let me keep a closer eye on Lynn while she recovers.  Afterwards I'm just going to throw it in a closet and never even think about using it again unless I need it, which I someday might.

As for what happened out there, what I did?

I don't have any regrets.  In the end, Alice was just a weapon.  One that could talk and had a twisted equivalent of human feelings... but something that needed to be stopped.  And so that's exactly what I did.

Comments

[emorangerpink]

[Okay, that's... unexpected. Laura looks away, then back, then down, then back. It's hard to tell if she's trying to find words or just deciding whether to give any of them to Lynn. Eventually, though...]

I was... absolutely certain it would work. If I hadn't been, I couldn't have made it work. That's... the kind of thing it was. It's hard to explain.

But at the same time, it was a huge gamble, and if we'd succeeded but not been able to come back... it felt like that would have been... closure.

[link_to_revival]

[That different then... but then again, the circumstances weren't the same at all. Laura had limited reality-warping powers, and for that matter she and Devon hadn't been infected with an artificial disease that killed nearly everyone infected by it. But all the same, Lynn smiles and closes her eye again.]

Don't worry, I... understand it well enough. Theoretical physicist, after all.

I can't say it was the same for me out there though. Maybe if a medical crew had been standing by, one familiar with the virus and knowledge of a cure that hadn't been used yet I would've had hope for surviving.

But there wasn't, so... I gave up on hope on that. I gave up on everything except killing Typhon with the only weapon left I could use. That... was the thing I banked my closure on.

[emorangerpink]

And you got it. Do you know what you're going to do with it?

[link_to_revival]

Recover. Live. If possible, be ready when Takeda makes his move so I can be there to help stop him. After that... who knows?

For seventeen years after the Bombing my life was just one big, depressive mess. No friends or family, just those false urges that I needed to die. And ever since I realized how much I've wanted to live... more things have happened than I would've ever imagined. Aliens, gods, time travellers... friends... it was unpredictable, but it was life.

[emorangerpink]

Well, I don't know about your legal standing, but I think as far as the crew's concerned you've carved out a space for yourself. A... dangerous place that gets shot at a lot, but that's true for all of us.

[link_to_revival]

Coming from you... that means a lot.

But depending on whether or not I'll be able to get a fair trial from the Empire, I may turn myself in to tried for the Bombing. Even if it wasn't murder, just... gross negligence on my part... I'm the one who's responsible for it. Take away the accusations that I killed everyone in the other wings of the Tritech Labs -those were Typhon and Takeda's doing no doubt- and I still have something to answer for.

[emorangerpink]

I think... that could be the closure a lot of families out there need, too.

[link_to_revival]

That's the idea. Yours, Cora's... so many others'...

And if I don't answer for it, then I'll just be running away again. And I've done enough of that in my life.