Begin The Procedure, OC/Canon fic, Chapter 16
Author's note: Chapter 16... |D I had fun writing this one as well. I hope it doesn't come across as Nicole being all Mary Sue-ish and that she's still okay OTL But fffff. I tried. We'll see. I'm already starting on Chapter 17! Yeah! I'm gonna do my best! Might not get it done tomorrow because I have a prizegiving thing to go to. =7=;; But hey. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter <33
Chapter 16: Fade to Black
“I can’t believe you managed to do that, Sam.” groaned Dr. Angus, rubbing his aching head. “I know it was dark, but... And we can’t even go back now, considering the amount of fuss our little scheme must have generated...”
“I know, sir, I’m sorry.” Sam replied, bowing. Behind him, his partner William tried to control the urge to laugh.
“Never mind. We’ll make do with what we have. How is X4 coming along?”
“We’re ready to move into the testing phase.”
“Perfect.” Dr. Angus said. “Then you know what to do.”
“Of course.” Sam replied, and he and William left the dull room behind. “And before you start, yes, I already got in trouble for this, William.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything.” William shrugged. “Please tell me you actually know what to do in this case though.” Even though Sam had said not to say anything, he couldn’t resist a little joke at his colleague’s expense.
“Of course I do!” the other man almost yelled. “That was ONE mistake!”
“I was teasing... You’ve got no sense of humour.”
“Whatever, let’s go.”
They headed down the usual corridor towards their prisoners’ room, not bothering to chat with each other like they usually did. William entered the code, barely looking at the pad, and then shoved the door open.
“Morning, doctors. Hope you’re all well.”
“Yeah, we’re doing just dandy.” Markus said, yawning.
“You won’t be laughing later.” William told him. “After all, we’re coming on just fine with X4.”
“I’m so happy for you.”
“But it’s not complete yet. Still needs a little work, which is why we need to borrow your friend. Once we’re done, we’re expecting you to operate, so you’d better be ready. You, the girl with the black hair, come here.”
“Me?” Nicole asked, looking at William.
“Yes, you. Do I have to say it twice? Come with me.”
She stood up and walked over to him, giving a quick glance back to the others. “See you later.”
“Let’s go.” William replied, and the two of them left the room. Outside Sam joined them, and the three of them headed down the corridor to one of the labs.
The room, in contrast to the rest of the rooms in the building, was mostly metal with various large metal benches and a work area. There were also tanks labelled with an X and a number, filled with strange greenish blue liquid. A few other people wandered the lab, checking samples and writing notes.
“Sample number X4 is the one we’re currently working on.” William told her. “We want you to try the medicines we’ve already developed to see if they have an effect on Acedia. If they do, then we can progress into the testing phase.”
“What if I don’t want to help you?” she answered stubbornly.
“Hm. Well, it’s your choice, but if you don’t help us, you’re the one who’s going to regret it in the end. Whenever one of you doesn’t do what we ask, all of you suffer. So it’s not only yourself you’re getting into trouble. You gonna help or not?”
“...Fine.”
“Glad to hear it.” He turned to his partner. “Sam, you keep an eye on her, okay?”
“Yeah, because I love playing babysitter.”
“I’ve got other things to do. Once we’re done here with Acedia, we’ve got to try it out.”
“I know. I’ll stay here then.”
“Good. See you two later.” William gave them both a mocking smile before leaving the lab. His footsteps echoed down the dull hallway and finally faded into nothingness.
“The Acedia sample is on the desk. That and the medicine you need to treat it.”
Nicole wandered over to the work area and gazed into the container. Inside it was a strange-looking virus - it had a jewel-like core, surrounded by an odd yellowish material. Its centre was bright blue, and one of its wing-like fins was red. The other fin was yellow, and it swam around in an odd, wobbling pattern. Then the colour began to disappear from its fins and core, and the virus was soon completely white.
“What on earth...?” Nicole muttered, staring at the swimming virus.
“Acedia can’t be injected until it loses all its colour.” Sam told her. “You remember what colour its core was?”
“Blue.” she replied, after a pause.
“And the bottom fin?”
“Um... Yellow.”
“The core shows you what type of medicine to inject when Acedia loses colour. The bottom fin shows you what type you need to inject next. And the left fin will show up blue, because that’s the colour you should have injected it with.” Sam explained. “If you injected it with the right colour, the fin remains colourless.”
“Right... I think I understand...” Nicole said, still feeling somewhat confused.
“Just try it. Wait till Acedia gets the colour back.”
The core of the virus flooded with a yellow colour, and like Sam had said, the left fin was blue and the bottom fin was red. Then, moments later, the colour drained from the virus and it was white all over.
“Inject the yellow medication into the core.” Sam instructed. Nicole did so, and the virus wobbled. “See? That counts as damage to Acedia. Now, do you think you can handle this by yourself, or do you still not get it?”
“I get it.”
“Good. Keep going, then.” he said, before walking away to check on another project.
When Acedia gained back its colour, the core was red and the left fin was yellow. The bottom fin was yellow. The colour drained out of it, and Nicole injected the red medicine. This did further damage to Acedia, which wriggled. The third time, its core was yellow again, and another injection of yellow medicine destroyed it.
A while later, Sam wandered over to see how she was doing. “So the medicine is effective against Acedia, huh...”
“Yeah, seems to be...” she replied, shrugging.
“Good, then we can test it on a patient. Thanks for your help.”
“I didn’t enjoy helping you.” Nicole said, refusing to look at him. Even though she didn’t want to help, she had in the end, for everyone’s sake, and that was what was bothering her.
“Who cares? We got what we needed, and now you’re going back to the other room.” Sam picked up something from the table and headed towards the door. “And if you try anything clever, you’ll regret it.”
“Right, I’ll be sure to remember that.”
He left, and she heard him walk away down the corridor. Great. Now someone was going to be infected for the sake of this group’s stupid ideals... The only thing that made her feel a little better was the fact that Markus and Valerie could likely save the patient, even if Acedia WAS new to them.
It was some time before Sam returned with a young girl of about 16 with short red hair. “This is our patient. Her name is Sarah. We’re expecting her symptoms to start showing very soon, and her vitals are pretty good, so that shouldn’t be a problem. I’m going to stay here with her to make sure she doesn’t run off anywhere, and William’s going to come to take you back to the room.”
“Fine.”
“Tell your doctor friends to get ready to operate - we’re going to begin as soon as she starts showing symptoms.”
Soon enough, William arrived at the lab. “So, good news?”
“Yep. Thanks to this one, we managed to make sure the medicine we already developed for Acedia works perfectly. The others tried it as well, and we got positive results.” Sam replied.
“Good, the boss will be pleased to hear that.” William smirked. “You’re coming back with me.” he said to Nicole, who just nodded, and the two of them headed out of the lab and back towards the other room.
As soon as they arrived, William hurriedly punched in the code and pushed the door open. “We’ve got the patient ready, so you’re going to be put to work pretty soon, doctors. In the meantime, you can have your friend back. We’re done here for now.”
“Put to work? Tch, if only I had the option of quitting this job.” Markus said, looking completely unimpressed.
“Funny. Just stay here and wait, and then we’ll discuss what happens next.” William shot back, closing the door behind him.
“Like we have anything to do besides wait.” Markus sighed. “What did they have you do anyway?”
“They had me test this medicine on their newest virus. There were three kinds because the... Acedia, I think they called it... keeps changing colours.” Nicole replied, walking over to her friends.
“That’s weird...” Valerie said. “And they wanted you to test it to make sure the medicine worked?”
“Yeah... I feel bad for helping them, but I don’t want to get us all into something we can’t get out of.”
“You know how to use the medicine, so that means we can cure the patient at least.” Markus pointed out. “The main thing is helping the patient so that they don’t have to be part of something like this.”
“That’s true, I guess...” Nicole replied, glancing up at the grey ceiling. “I didn’t think of it that way. And the least I can do is tell you more about Acedia so you can help the patient. That way you don’t have to go in completely blind.”
“Is there anything else you think we should know?”
“The core shows what colour of medicine you have to inject, but you can’t inject Acedia until the colour disappears from its whole form.” she explained. “And the fins show what type of medicine needs to be injected next, or should be injected. But apart from that, I don’t know much about it.”
“Anything helps.” Markus said, smiling slightly. “Even if it’s just a small thing, it can be the key to defeating this virus. But what with we do know, we’re ready to take it on. Right, Val?”
“Like you even have to ask. This’ll be no problem!” Valerie replied.
“Yeah! We can save this patient.” Elena smiled too, inspired by the other two’s confidence. “We’ll do our best!”
“Of course we will. Even something like this won’t make us give up.”
“I know you guys can cure the patient. I trust you.” Nicole said finally.
“Thank you.” Markus replied. “Let’s get ready for when he does come back with our patient.
“Good idea.” Valerie agreed.
Together the four of them did their best to get the room into some kind of respectable order for the operation. By the time William returned with the patient, they were ready to begin. The first thing William did was hand over the chart to Elena.
“You’re doing the briefing, right? That’s yours.”
“Thank you.” Elena said, more out of politeness than anything else.
Then William placed down three containers filled with yellow, red, and blue medicine, somewhat like the medicine used to treat Socordia, except the colours of the Socordia medication were lighter.
“And you need these to treat Acedia. Good luck, I’m hoping you get a result that makes our boss happy.”
“Like we said, we’re not doing this for - ” Markus began, but William cut him off.
“Yeah, you’re like a broken record. Not interested. Just get on with the briefing and save the damn patient before I lose my temper and do something I might regret.”
“Might regret? You wouldn’t regret it.”
“No, at this rate, I don’t think I would. Later.” The door closed heavily behind him.
“Okay, umm... Our patient today is 16 year old Sarah Mason. She’s infected with a strain of the SIN virus known as Acedia. However, apart from the treatment method we don’t really know anything about it, so we should probably be careful.” Elena explained. “Luckily, she’s stable, so it shouldn’t be too tough.”
“Right. Let’s begin treating Acedia.” Valerie said. Her expression was determined, and everything about her said she wasn’t prepared to lose to these people’s newest creation.
The incision was made, and it turned out that Acedia was in the patient’s pancreas. It swam lazily around the organ, not seeming to cause any damage at all.
“So this is Acedia, huh?” Valerie’s tone was unimpressed. “Big deal. So the core is... red. That means we need to inject the red medicine into it. Kind of like Socordia.” She watched the colour drain from Acedia, and then injected the medication, which made Acedia wriggle.
“Take that, you stupid virus!” Then Acedia’s fins wobbled and it vanished. “Wait, what just happened?”
Elena gasped in shock. “There’s a chiral reaction in her stomach now!”
“It moved?” Valerie said incredulously. “We’d better finish up here and then move on.”
“I’ll check with the ultrasound to make sure she’s okay.” Elena said, moving the machine over the organ. A shadow showed up within moments. “So when Acedia moves to different parts of the body, it leaves behind a tumour...”
“I’ll deal with it.” Markus replied, quickly cutting across the shadow and doing his best to carefully remove the tumour. He applied a synthetic membrane to the area and used antibiotic gel to get it to adhere to the skin. “There.”
Valerie sutured and bandaged the incision, and she made a new one across the patient’s stomach. “Here we go. It’s time for round two!”
“Maybe if we’re quick enough, we can damage it before it moves elsewhere.” Elena suggested.
“That’s a good point, Elena.”
When Acedia was revealed, its core was yellow, matching the strange material around it, and the bottom fin was blue. The colour drained out of it, and as soon as that happened, Valerie injected the medicine and glanced briefly at Elena.
“The chiral reaction is very weak now! One more injection should do it!”
“Good to hear!”
The Acedia’s colours reappeared, and it swam around the organ. This time, like the fin indicated, the core had gone blue.
“That’s strange... It didn’t dive this time.” Valerie said.
“Maybe it only disappears if you don’t inject it quickly, Dr. Blaylock.”
“That could be it.”
Once the colours vanished, Valerie injected the Acedia for the final time. The virus wobbled and disappeared, and a couple of tense moments passed while they waited to make sure the patient was definitely okay.
“Chiral reaction is... negative!” Elena announced happily, letting out a sigh of relief. She brushed some of her blonde hair out of her eyes. “You did really well, Dr. Blaylock! And you two, Dr. Vaughn!”
“Yeah, you guys were really good!” Nicole added.
“Thank you.” Markus said, suturing the incision carefully. “I just can’t believe of all the people they’d choose to infect, it would be someone this young... We’re just lucky we knew how to treat it.”
“I’m sure you would’ve done fine, even if you hadn’t known how to treat it. You guys are smart - you would have figured it out.”
“You’ve got a lot of trust in us, huh?”
“I’ve seen you guys at work! Just now was a great example!” Nicole said admiringly. “You really handled that without worrying at all... It was really impressive.”
“I don’t know about impressive. I just try and focus only on the patient, instead of worrying about what could go wrong.” Markus replied. He was looking more like his usual calm self, with the intense focus he used for operations fading slightly.
“I think it’s impressive anyway.” Nicole said, smiling. “And at least the patient’s safe now.”
“Yeah... What a relief.”
The heavy door swung open again, and a man with wavy black hair and dark green eyes entered. “I was sent here to collect the patient. You’re done, right?”
“Right.” Valerie replied, eyeing him with suspicion. The man didn’t seem to notice at all, and instead headed straight over.
“Good job, doctors. The boss is really gonna be pleased with this one.” He chuckled and headed out with the patient. “Don’t worry, you’re gonna get to eat tonight. You’ve done exactly what we wanted.”
Valerie was glaring at him, obviously trying to hold back some kind of insult. Her hands were bunched into fists, and she was shaking a little with anger. When the door finally closed behind the stranger, she made a small noise of frustration and sat down on the floor, rubbing her short brown hair.
“These people!” she eventually managed.
“At least you held your temper, Val. He probably wouldn’t have been so pleased if you socked him one.” Markus joked, sitting beside her.
“He would have deserved it, but you’re right Markus.” Valerie sighed.
“Well, I’m not saying he didn’t deserve it, I’m just saying it might not have gone down well.”
“I don’t think most people appreciate being hit.” Nicole replied, grinning. “But no-one would’ve gotten mad at you.”
“Except from his friends.” Markus said.
“Well, whatever. At least we know what we’re dealing with, right?” Nicole went over with Elena, and joined Markus and Valerie on the floor. “And I really did mean it when I said you guys did well.”
“Don’t say that, you’ll only inflate his ego more.” Valerie laughed, feeling a lot better than she had. The thing about Valerie was that she had a short temper, and even if she got angry quickly her anger dissipated just as fast.
“Oh, my ego?” Markus laughed too.
“Who else’s? Elena isn’t like that!”
Nicole smiled. It was nice seeing them joking around like this despite the things that were happening. Somehow it just felt... safe. It made her feel like they would be okay.
“Dr. Vaughn isn’t that bad, Dr. Blaylock!” Elena protested.
“Trust you to take his side, Elena!” Valerie teased, which made the nurse blush.
“I was just saying... You two are my friends, so I support you both equally!”
“I know!” Then there was a short pause. “But I really think you might support him more.”
“Dr. Blaylock!” Elena shrieked, going even redder. “That’s not true!”
“Now who’s the one who shouldn’t be teasing Elena?” Nicole laughed, earning her a mock glare from Valerie. That only made her laugh more.
“Yeah, somebody’s breaking her own rules now.” Markus chipped in.
“It doesn’t count now, genius!”
“Hmm, if you say so.”
A while later, the same wavy-haired man came into the room to leave them something to eat. It was some kind of soup - they guessed. They didn’t feel like asking, and he probably wouldn’t have explained anyway. As soon as he gave them their rations, he left again.
“Well, it’s not the best, but it’ll have to do.” Markus commented, eating some and pulling a face. “Okay, maybe “not the best” is an understatement.”
Valerie tried some herself. “Yeah, that’s... unpleasant. But it’s probably all we’re gonna get.”
The four of them ate in silence, and when they were finished, they went to go sit in their usual corner.
“They’re probably going to want us to operate again, aren’t they? Tomorrow, I mean.” Valerie said. “On Acedia... Or at the very least, Luxuria.”
“Yeah, seems likely.” Markus answered, staring at the ground. “We’ll do fine, Val. It might take a while, but we will get out of here, I promise all of you.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.” Nicole grinned.
“Ah, now I actually have to try!”
“What’s that meant to mean?!”
“You figure it out!” he joked. “But seriously... Thanks.”
“I didn’t really help with much.” She shrugged, stretching out a little. “But thank you.”
“It’s not just that. Thank you for believing in us as well.”
“And that’s no big deal either. You’re my friends, of course I believe in you.” Nicole said, looking away. She didn’t want to look at him in case she started blushing. That was kind of a cheesy thing to say... but it was true.
“Well, it means a lot to me.” Markus said sincerely.
Now she was sure she was going red. “You’re welcome... I mean it.” she said eventually.
Meanwhile, Dr. Angus was talking to the others. “So you’re saying Acedia is coming along nicely?”
“Yes, sir.” the black-haired man nodded. “We analysed the information from the patient, and all the signs look positive. We’re going to try Luxuria again tomorrow, just to be 100% sure, and then we’ll move back to Acedia.”
“Sounds like a good plan. Good luck. Sam, you and William didn’t have any trouble, did you?”
“No. She was kind of difficult at first, but she helped us out in the end.”
“As I said, I would’ve preferred someone who knew what they were doing...” Dr. Angus said airily. “But we won’t be stopped. Those sinners will learn their lesson.”
There was a murmur of agreement in the room, and then they turned to face their boss.
“Until next time!”
“Yes sir!”
And another day passed, with the group moving forward while their prisoners waited for rescue.
Next chapter
Previous chapter
Chapter 16: Fade to Black
“I can’t believe you managed to do that, Sam.” groaned Dr. Angus, rubbing his aching head. “I know it was dark, but... And we can’t even go back now, considering the amount of fuss our little scheme must have generated...”
“I know, sir, I’m sorry.” Sam replied, bowing. Behind him, his partner William tried to control the urge to laugh.
“Never mind. We’ll make do with what we have. How is X4 coming along?”
“We’re ready to move into the testing phase.”
“Perfect.” Dr. Angus said. “Then you know what to do.”
“Of course.” Sam replied, and he and William left the dull room behind. “And before you start, yes, I already got in trouble for this, William.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything.” William shrugged. “Please tell me you actually know what to do in this case though.” Even though Sam had said not to say anything, he couldn’t resist a little joke at his colleague’s expense.
“Of course I do!” the other man almost yelled. “That was ONE mistake!”
“I was teasing... You’ve got no sense of humour.”
“Whatever, let’s go.”
They headed down the usual corridor towards their prisoners’ room, not bothering to chat with each other like they usually did. William entered the code, barely looking at the pad, and then shoved the door open.
“Morning, doctors. Hope you’re all well.”
“Yeah, we’re doing just dandy.” Markus said, yawning.
“You won’t be laughing later.” William told him. “After all, we’re coming on just fine with X4.”
“I’m so happy for you.”
“But it’s not complete yet. Still needs a little work, which is why we need to borrow your friend. Once we’re done, we’re expecting you to operate, so you’d better be ready. You, the girl with the black hair, come here.”
“Me?” Nicole asked, looking at William.
“Yes, you. Do I have to say it twice? Come with me.”
She stood up and walked over to him, giving a quick glance back to the others. “See you later.”
“Let’s go.” William replied, and the two of them left the room. Outside Sam joined them, and the three of them headed down the corridor to one of the labs.
The room, in contrast to the rest of the rooms in the building, was mostly metal with various large metal benches and a work area. There were also tanks labelled with an X and a number, filled with strange greenish blue liquid. A few other people wandered the lab, checking samples and writing notes.
“Sample number X4 is the one we’re currently working on.” William told her. “We want you to try the medicines we’ve already developed to see if they have an effect on Acedia. If they do, then we can progress into the testing phase.”
“What if I don’t want to help you?” she answered stubbornly.
“Hm. Well, it’s your choice, but if you don’t help us, you’re the one who’s going to regret it in the end. Whenever one of you doesn’t do what we ask, all of you suffer. So it’s not only yourself you’re getting into trouble. You gonna help or not?”
“...Fine.”
“Glad to hear it.” He turned to his partner. “Sam, you keep an eye on her, okay?”
“Yeah, because I love playing babysitter.”
“I’ve got other things to do. Once we’re done here with Acedia, we’ve got to try it out.”
“I know. I’ll stay here then.”
“Good. See you two later.” William gave them both a mocking smile before leaving the lab. His footsteps echoed down the dull hallway and finally faded into nothingness.
“The Acedia sample is on the desk. That and the medicine you need to treat it.”
Nicole wandered over to the work area and gazed into the container. Inside it was a strange-looking virus - it had a jewel-like core, surrounded by an odd yellowish material. Its centre was bright blue, and one of its wing-like fins was red. The other fin was yellow, and it swam around in an odd, wobbling pattern. Then the colour began to disappear from its fins and core, and the virus was soon completely white.
“What on earth...?” Nicole muttered, staring at the swimming virus.
“Acedia can’t be injected until it loses all its colour.” Sam told her. “You remember what colour its core was?”
“Blue.” she replied, after a pause.
“And the bottom fin?”
“Um... Yellow.”
“The core shows you what type of medicine to inject when Acedia loses colour. The bottom fin shows you what type you need to inject next. And the left fin will show up blue, because that’s the colour you should have injected it with.” Sam explained. “If you injected it with the right colour, the fin remains colourless.”
“Right... I think I understand...” Nicole said, still feeling somewhat confused.
“Just try it. Wait till Acedia gets the colour back.”
The core of the virus flooded with a yellow colour, and like Sam had said, the left fin was blue and the bottom fin was red. Then, moments later, the colour drained from the virus and it was white all over.
“Inject the yellow medication into the core.” Sam instructed. Nicole did so, and the virus wobbled. “See? That counts as damage to Acedia. Now, do you think you can handle this by yourself, or do you still not get it?”
“I get it.”
“Good. Keep going, then.” he said, before walking away to check on another project.
When Acedia gained back its colour, the core was red and the left fin was yellow. The bottom fin was yellow. The colour drained out of it, and Nicole injected the red medicine. This did further damage to Acedia, which wriggled. The third time, its core was yellow again, and another injection of yellow medicine destroyed it.
A while later, Sam wandered over to see how she was doing. “So the medicine is effective against Acedia, huh...”
“Yeah, seems to be...” she replied, shrugging.
“Good, then we can test it on a patient. Thanks for your help.”
“I didn’t enjoy helping you.” Nicole said, refusing to look at him. Even though she didn’t want to help, she had in the end, for everyone’s sake, and that was what was bothering her.
“Who cares? We got what we needed, and now you’re going back to the other room.” Sam picked up something from the table and headed towards the door. “And if you try anything clever, you’ll regret it.”
“Right, I’ll be sure to remember that.”
He left, and she heard him walk away down the corridor. Great. Now someone was going to be infected for the sake of this group’s stupid ideals... The only thing that made her feel a little better was the fact that Markus and Valerie could likely save the patient, even if Acedia WAS new to them.
It was some time before Sam returned with a young girl of about 16 with short red hair. “This is our patient. Her name is Sarah. We’re expecting her symptoms to start showing very soon, and her vitals are pretty good, so that shouldn’t be a problem. I’m going to stay here with her to make sure she doesn’t run off anywhere, and William’s going to come to take you back to the room.”
“Fine.”
“Tell your doctor friends to get ready to operate - we’re going to begin as soon as she starts showing symptoms.”
Soon enough, William arrived at the lab. “So, good news?”
“Yep. Thanks to this one, we managed to make sure the medicine we already developed for Acedia works perfectly. The others tried it as well, and we got positive results.” Sam replied.
“Good, the boss will be pleased to hear that.” William smirked. “You’re coming back with me.” he said to Nicole, who just nodded, and the two of them headed out of the lab and back towards the other room.
As soon as they arrived, William hurriedly punched in the code and pushed the door open. “We’ve got the patient ready, so you’re going to be put to work pretty soon, doctors. In the meantime, you can have your friend back. We’re done here for now.”
“Put to work? Tch, if only I had the option of quitting this job.” Markus said, looking completely unimpressed.
“Funny. Just stay here and wait, and then we’ll discuss what happens next.” William shot back, closing the door behind him.
“Like we have anything to do besides wait.” Markus sighed. “What did they have you do anyway?”
“They had me test this medicine on their newest virus. There were three kinds because the... Acedia, I think they called it... keeps changing colours.” Nicole replied, walking over to her friends.
“That’s weird...” Valerie said. “And they wanted you to test it to make sure the medicine worked?”
“Yeah... I feel bad for helping them, but I don’t want to get us all into something we can’t get out of.”
“You know how to use the medicine, so that means we can cure the patient at least.” Markus pointed out. “The main thing is helping the patient so that they don’t have to be part of something like this.”
“That’s true, I guess...” Nicole replied, glancing up at the grey ceiling. “I didn’t think of it that way. And the least I can do is tell you more about Acedia so you can help the patient. That way you don’t have to go in completely blind.”
“Is there anything else you think we should know?”
“The core shows what colour of medicine you have to inject, but you can’t inject Acedia until the colour disappears from its whole form.” she explained. “And the fins show what type of medicine needs to be injected next, or should be injected. But apart from that, I don’t know much about it.”
“Anything helps.” Markus said, smiling slightly. “Even if it’s just a small thing, it can be the key to defeating this virus. But what with we do know, we’re ready to take it on. Right, Val?”
“Like you even have to ask. This’ll be no problem!” Valerie replied.
“Yeah! We can save this patient.” Elena smiled too, inspired by the other two’s confidence. “We’ll do our best!”
“Of course we will. Even something like this won’t make us give up.”
“I know you guys can cure the patient. I trust you.” Nicole said finally.
“Thank you.” Markus replied. “Let’s get ready for when he does come back with our patient.
“Good idea.” Valerie agreed.
Together the four of them did their best to get the room into some kind of respectable order for the operation. By the time William returned with the patient, they were ready to begin. The first thing William did was hand over the chart to Elena.
“You’re doing the briefing, right? That’s yours.”
“Thank you.” Elena said, more out of politeness than anything else.
Then William placed down three containers filled with yellow, red, and blue medicine, somewhat like the medicine used to treat Socordia, except the colours of the Socordia medication were lighter.
“And you need these to treat Acedia. Good luck, I’m hoping you get a result that makes our boss happy.”
“Like we said, we’re not doing this for - ” Markus began, but William cut him off.
“Yeah, you’re like a broken record. Not interested. Just get on with the briefing and save the damn patient before I lose my temper and do something I might regret.”
“Might regret? You wouldn’t regret it.”
“No, at this rate, I don’t think I would. Later.” The door closed heavily behind him.
“Okay, umm... Our patient today is 16 year old Sarah Mason. She’s infected with a strain of the SIN virus known as Acedia. However, apart from the treatment method we don’t really know anything about it, so we should probably be careful.” Elena explained. “Luckily, she’s stable, so it shouldn’t be too tough.”
“Right. Let’s begin treating Acedia.” Valerie said. Her expression was determined, and everything about her said she wasn’t prepared to lose to these people’s newest creation.
The incision was made, and it turned out that Acedia was in the patient’s pancreas. It swam lazily around the organ, not seeming to cause any damage at all.
“So this is Acedia, huh?” Valerie’s tone was unimpressed. “Big deal. So the core is... red. That means we need to inject the red medicine into it. Kind of like Socordia.” She watched the colour drain from Acedia, and then injected the medication, which made Acedia wriggle.
“Take that, you stupid virus!” Then Acedia’s fins wobbled and it vanished. “Wait, what just happened?”
Elena gasped in shock. “There’s a chiral reaction in her stomach now!”
“It moved?” Valerie said incredulously. “We’d better finish up here and then move on.”
“I’ll check with the ultrasound to make sure she’s okay.” Elena said, moving the machine over the organ. A shadow showed up within moments. “So when Acedia moves to different parts of the body, it leaves behind a tumour...”
“I’ll deal with it.” Markus replied, quickly cutting across the shadow and doing his best to carefully remove the tumour. He applied a synthetic membrane to the area and used antibiotic gel to get it to adhere to the skin. “There.”
Valerie sutured and bandaged the incision, and she made a new one across the patient’s stomach. “Here we go. It’s time for round two!”
“Maybe if we’re quick enough, we can damage it before it moves elsewhere.” Elena suggested.
“That’s a good point, Elena.”
When Acedia was revealed, its core was yellow, matching the strange material around it, and the bottom fin was blue. The colour drained out of it, and as soon as that happened, Valerie injected the medicine and glanced briefly at Elena.
“The chiral reaction is very weak now! One more injection should do it!”
“Good to hear!”
The Acedia’s colours reappeared, and it swam around the organ. This time, like the fin indicated, the core had gone blue.
“That’s strange... It didn’t dive this time.” Valerie said.
“Maybe it only disappears if you don’t inject it quickly, Dr. Blaylock.”
“That could be it.”
Once the colours vanished, Valerie injected the Acedia for the final time. The virus wobbled and disappeared, and a couple of tense moments passed while they waited to make sure the patient was definitely okay.
“Chiral reaction is... negative!” Elena announced happily, letting out a sigh of relief. She brushed some of her blonde hair out of her eyes. “You did really well, Dr. Blaylock! And you two, Dr. Vaughn!”
“Yeah, you guys were really good!” Nicole added.
“Thank you.” Markus said, suturing the incision carefully. “I just can’t believe of all the people they’d choose to infect, it would be someone this young... We’re just lucky we knew how to treat it.”
“I’m sure you would’ve done fine, even if you hadn’t known how to treat it. You guys are smart - you would have figured it out.”
“You’ve got a lot of trust in us, huh?”
“I’ve seen you guys at work! Just now was a great example!” Nicole said admiringly. “You really handled that without worrying at all... It was really impressive.”
“I don’t know about impressive. I just try and focus only on the patient, instead of worrying about what could go wrong.” Markus replied. He was looking more like his usual calm self, with the intense focus he used for operations fading slightly.
“I think it’s impressive anyway.” Nicole said, smiling. “And at least the patient’s safe now.”
“Yeah... What a relief.”
The heavy door swung open again, and a man with wavy black hair and dark green eyes entered. “I was sent here to collect the patient. You’re done, right?”
“Right.” Valerie replied, eyeing him with suspicion. The man didn’t seem to notice at all, and instead headed straight over.
“Good job, doctors. The boss is really gonna be pleased with this one.” He chuckled and headed out with the patient. “Don’t worry, you’re gonna get to eat tonight. You’ve done exactly what we wanted.”
Valerie was glaring at him, obviously trying to hold back some kind of insult. Her hands were bunched into fists, and she was shaking a little with anger. When the door finally closed behind the stranger, she made a small noise of frustration and sat down on the floor, rubbing her short brown hair.
“These people!” she eventually managed.
“At least you held your temper, Val. He probably wouldn’t have been so pleased if you socked him one.” Markus joked, sitting beside her.
“He would have deserved it, but you’re right Markus.” Valerie sighed.
“Well, I’m not saying he didn’t deserve it, I’m just saying it might not have gone down well.”
“I don’t think most people appreciate being hit.” Nicole replied, grinning. “But no-one would’ve gotten mad at you.”
“Except from his friends.” Markus said.
“Well, whatever. At least we know what we’re dealing with, right?” Nicole went over with Elena, and joined Markus and Valerie on the floor. “And I really did mean it when I said you guys did well.”
“Don’t say that, you’ll only inflate his ego more.” Valerie laughed, feeling a lot better than she had. The thing about Valerie was that she had a short temper, and even if she got angry quickly her anger dissipated just as fast.
“Oh, my ego?” Markus laughed too.
“Who else’s? Elena isn’t like that!”
Nicole smiled. It was nice seeing them joking around like this despite the things that were happening. Somehow it just felt... safe. It made her feel like they would be okay.
“Dr. Vaughn isn’t that bad, Dr. Blaylock!” Elena protested.
“Trust you to take his side, Elena!” Valerie teased, which made the nurse blush.
“I was just saying... You two are my friends, so I support you both equally!”
“I know!” Then there was a short pause. “But I really think you might support him more.”
“Dr. Blaylock!” Elena shrieked, going even redder. “That’s not true!”
“Now who’s the one who shouldn’t be teasing Elena?” Nicole laughed, earning her a mock glare from Valerie. That only made her laugh more.
“Yeah, somebody’s breaking her own rules now.” Markus chipped in.
“It doesn’t count now, genius!”
“Hmm, if you say so.”
A while later, the same wavy-haired man came into the room to leave them something to eat. It was some kind of soup - they guessed. They didn’t feel like asking, and he probably wouldn’t have explained anyway. As soon as he gave them their rations, he left again.
“Well, it’s not the best, but it’ll have to do.” Markus commented, eating some and pulling a face. “Okay, maybe “not the best” is an understatement.”
Valerie tried some herself. “Yeah, that’s... unpleasant. But it’s probably all we’re gonna get.”
The four of them ate in silence, and when they were finished, they went to go sit in their usual corner.
“They’re probably going to want us to operate again, aren’t they? Tomorrow, I mean.” Valerie said. “On Acedia... Or at the very least, Luxuria.”
“Yeah, seems likely.” Markus answered, staring at the ground. “We’ll do fine, Val. It might take a while, but we will get out of here, I promise all of you.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.” Nicole grinned.
“Ah, now I actually have to try!”
“What’s that meant to mean?!”
“You figure it out!” he joked. “But seriously... Thanks.”
“I didn’t really help with much.” She shrugged, stretching out a little. “But thank you.”
“It’s not just that. Thank you for believing in us as well.”
“And that’s no big deal either. You’re my friends, of course I believe in you.” Nicole said, looking away. She didn’t want to look at him in case she started blushing. That was kind of a cheesy thing to say... but it was true.
“Well, it means a lot to me.” Markus said sincerely.
Now she was sure she was going red. “You’re welcome... I mean it.” she said eventually.
Meanwhile, Dr. Angus was talking to the others. “So you’re saying Acedia is coming along nicely?”
“Yes, sir.” the black-haired man nodded. “We analysed the information from the patient, and all the signs look positive. We’re going to try Luxuria again tomorrow, just to be 100% sure, and then we’ll move back to Acedia.”
“Sounds like a good plan. Good luck. Sam, you and William didn’t have any trouble, did you?”
“No. She was kind of difficult at first, but she helped us out in the end.”
“As I said, I would’ve preferred someone who knew what they were doing...” Dr. Angus said airily. “But we won’t be stopped. Those sinners will learn their lesson.”
There was a murmur of agreement in the room, and then they turned to face their boss.
“Until next time!”
“Yes sir!”
And another day passed, with the group moving forward while their prisoners waited for rescue.
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