Conversion, pt 4: Recuperation

Pyria was there with a hand on Sy’s shoulder and a towel to stanch the flow of blood coming from her arm. “Shhhh … it’s okay.” Pyria said keeping her voice steady as she tried to comfort Sy. “Everything will be alright.” But Sy was too overwhelmed with grief and pain to respond, crying in huge, wailing sobs that made her choke and cough.

Romeo though was focused wholly on one person. “Piper …” he said failing to keep the worry out of his voice. Glitching Neo, sure, guns blazing. Piper so much as comes down with a sniffle and Romeo was at Defcon one! “... Come on you okay right? Open your eyes.” He murmured cradling her. He was a second or two from racing her down to the infirmary!

“Open your eyes.” The sound was soft and comforting, wrapping around her like a blanket right out of the drier on a cold winter morning. Her right thumb went to tap her fingertips, instead they squeezed around a familiar hand. A small smile crossed her lips, her Romeo. Her eyelids blinked a few times before she was able to look up into the face of her Alpha, his look of worry instantly melting the disorientation. “Romeo!” She said quickly holding onto his arm as he held her close. “Sy! The Neos!”

That broke the crying spell over Sy. She forced herself to stop, coughed and said: “Are… *hiccup* Are they okay, Pipe? Did I hurt all of them, too?”

“They’re good” She said dismissively. “Fine, just a little shaken - you, what about you, are you okay?”

Sy carefully lifted the towel. Her hand was an absolute mess. Most of the flesh between her thumb and palm had been cut open in ragged gashes that filled with blood again immediately. The lacerations went most of the way through, almost separating her thumb from her hand. Her other hand was beginning to hurt as well, the flesh looking red and puffed up from contact with the hot tea. With the initial surge of adrenaline wearing off, the pain seemed to intensify, and Sy moaned: “Not doin’ too hot…” She sucked in air, trying to breathe through the pain. “An’ I got blood on my new pants, too…”

“Come let’s get you to the infirmary, don't worry about the pants they are easily replaced. You, less so.” Pyria said calmly. “Piper dear if you are up for it could you calm the children while I attend to Sy?” she asked, brushing a stray hair behind her ear.

“I’m on it,” Piper replied, resting her head to her Alpha’s chest, her eyes starting to dart back and forth. Romeo’s slow, steady heartbeat soothed any ache in her head.

“Pipe…” Sy said as Pyria helped her to her feet. “Tell them… Everyone, I am so sorry... “ Tears began to flow again, but she managed to hold down the wailing sobs for now. “I brought this into your home… Please forgive me, I - I didn’t know, it got broken… But don’t worry…” She looked at her hand, packed tight in the towels. As she spoke, her voice broke. “It’ll never happen again.”

“Hush girl. You did a brave thing.” Pyria soothed. Having been riding shotgun, so to speak, Pyria had seen what Piper had seen. “Let's get you taken care of. I’ll keep you company and we can talk hmm?” She said ushering gently forward. "Piper will take care of it, don’t you worry.”

Piper blinked out of the discourse to look into Sy’s eyes, empathetically. “It wasn’t your fault, Sy, it was -- “ It was something, but she didn’t know what. “I’ll make sure we all know.” She mouthed the words “I’m sorry” before slipping back into the Neo chatter.

Sy and Pyria slowly walked to the infirmary. Sy’s grief was beginning to turn into numbness. She barely noticed the stares following them through the hall from passing Neos and Alphas. They passed Roach, who seemed about to say something, but bit his tongue seeing Sy’s tear-stricken face and the bloody towel wrapped around her hand. Pyria was talking, trying to soothe and comfort her, but though Sy was grateful, she didn’t have words to return.

“Let start getting you patched up.” Pyria said laying out medical tools on a tray. “I know it seems hollow to say what you did was brave, it probably doesn’t help with how you feel right now. I hope, though, that you see how an important first step this is to winning over the Neos of the Spire,” she said, walking back over to Sy. She went to numb the wound before she began cleaning it.

“Might I take your drastic action as an indication of your plans to stay with us?” She asked numbing Sy’s arm before injecting nanites to start sealing the wound.

“If you’ll have me,” Sy confirmed. She spoke in a quiet voice now, almost a whisper, raspy from the screaming and crying. “I had to… It was killing you.” She shook her head, her dreads flopping around her face. “I just… I wanted to be part of all this. But now I don’t know if I can be…” She looked at her hand, the wounds not yet closing, but the bleeding rapidly slowing down. “I could repair the power but I doubt I can fix everything else… And I don’t want to risk this happening again… So it’s dead. And without this, I’m just some slum rat. I don’t see why you’d keep me here among all of you techno wizards and super soldiers.”

“Child. You sell yourself short.” Pyria noted wiping the tears from her face. “A slum rat who pulled off the impossible. Now, look where you are? Did think you could have ever set foot in a place like this before? An alien community on an alien planet?” The dark-skinned Den Mother pointed out.

“Imagine what can be done with the backing of the Spire? If that is truly what you want … we can make that happen.” Pyria promised.

“Hard to see it as an alien planet when I grew up here,” Sy said with a sad smirk, “but I take your point.” She still had a hard time internalizing Pyria’s kind words, however. To Sy, it felt like her getting there was a mixture of stupidity and coincidence. She was only brought in because she got shot, and they’d probably soon haul her off to jail. Pyria, Piper and Romeo might protest, but they didn’t have the authority to stop it from happening. Better enjoy the time you have left, Sy, she thought to herself. Not wanting to burden Pyria with these thoughts, she instead asked: “Are the other Neo okay? I think Piper was trying to spare my feelings when I asked her…” Quickly following up with: “Sorry Piper… I want to know for sure.”

“Piper is not that great at sugar coating. She knows, she was trying to help and knew the risks.” Pyria reminded. “The other Neo’s are fine but you certainly have made an entrance to the general population. You are becoming a curiosity.” Pyria said with a smirk.

“So … I’ll make an appointment with a contact from She'Ying Holdings. I doubt it’ll be a problem, he would jump at the chance,” Pyria explained and tilted her head. “Tomorrow apparently.”

Sy was immediately confused. “She’Ying? What do they have to do with this?”

“Takaishi She’Ying is a good friend of mine. He runs the R&D department, he will be best suited to help resolve this matter. Discreetly,” Pyria explained. “I also I am pretty sure She’Ying has a strong rivalry with Sevo no? So if you wanted to try to get chummy with him … well … I’m sure you’ve seen how gang rivalry plays out? Corporations ... are not much different.” She smiled.

“You’re one of us now. We take care of our own.” Pyria reminded with a gentle hand on Sy’s shoulder.

Sy stared up at her gratefully. She wanted to speak, but there was a lump in her throat. Instead she laid her less damaged hand on Pyria's and just smiled a wan smile. The silence held for a moment, but not awkwardly or uncomfortably. She leaned her head on the two hands on her shoulder, scraped her throat and said: "I've never really had a mother, you know… I think I could do with one."