Chapter Text
As Siyeon stirred from unconsciousness, she couldn't muster the strength to open her eyes.
All she was aware of was the distant sound of someone saying something - reciting something, no, reading aloud. She recognized it as the voice belonging to the man who was supposed to be her father, and she also felt something warm, a hand holding her own. Siyeon wanted to yank her hand away, but her muscles would not obey.
Unconsciousness claimed her once more.
---
As Siyeon came to again, she heard the distinctive sounds of low male voices conversing and a beeping sound that she felt was vaguely familiar.
The first thoughts from her fogged-up brain were to reprimand Kallisto for undoubtedly trying to pick another fight with one of the other Eckharts and then to close the system window so it would stop bothering her incessantly. But that was before she remembered Kallisto he... he was dead, and Siyeon... she'd returned to her world, to Korea.
Her eyes shot open at the realization, the artificial light blindingly bright. Against her will, a sob broke free from her chest - alerting the men that she was now awake.
Siyeon didn't want to cry though, not here, not in front of whoever these men were, but at the reminder of Kallisto, with the ache of losing him all too fresh, she couldn't stop the tears from streaming down her face and under the plastic oxygen mask and with that realization also came the realization that there were tubes in her mouth going down her throat, panicking she tried to take it off when suddenly they were hands on her arms gently holding them down, a person was hovering over her saying something in a reassuring tone, but her panicked and grief filled mind couldn't understand what, and she blacked out.
---
The third time she woke, there were no voices. The only sound was the steading beeping she that now recognized as coming from a heart rate monitor. Siyeon blearily opened her eyes, the harsh artificial light combined with the sunlight streaming through the windows nearly blinding her. Her thoughts were far more lucid than the previous times she'd woken. Her body, however, would still not obey her.
Siyeon lay there for a long time; she did not know how long. Eventually, she heard footsteps growing close. The hospital room door opened with a click, and in strode a doctor.
"Good, you're awake." she said, "I'm Doctor Ahn, one of the doctors in charge of your treatment."
"Kghk," Siyeon tried to respond but, not only was her mouth dry, she still had a tube down her throat. While laying there, Siyeon had realized she'd most likely been on life support for however long had passed here while she'd been in that other world - and the state of her body that she came back to ended up being just one more thing that served to fuel her fury at her so-called 'family' even more.
"I know it's uncomfortable," the doctor said empathetically, "But so far, you're making a miraculous recovery at an astounding rate. If this continues, we should be able to take you off life support machines sometime within the next week or two."
"Now, I need to check your vitals and responses. Are you ready?"
Siyeon gives a hesitant, jerky nod.
"It'll be okay." The doctor tells her comfortingly.
-----
Siyeon stares blankly out the hospital window as the sun rises, bathing the sky in golden and orange light, refracting on the dew, clinging to the glass panes leftover from last night's rainfall.
It's been nearly a week since she woke up in this world - her world - her brain reminds her, and she hasn't been able to muster up the energy for anything. The hollow, aching void of grief within her is too vast, sapping her of the will to do much of anything.
She chose to return to Korea to get away from the reminders of Kallisto.
However, the billboard for "Daughter of the Duke's Love Game" across the street feels like it's mocking her in the low early morning light. Siyeon glared at it, wishing she could incinerate it with her eyes, like that superhero from those foreign movies, Spectacular Man, or something like that. Either way, she doesn't really care.
She continues glaring at it, Laila - in Yvonne's body - smug, self-satisfied expression hiding beneath a veneer of simpering innocence and naivete that only those who know what they're looking for can see, Derrick's resting bitch face that somehow looks both constipated and like he swallowed a lemon. As far as she's concerned, they could both go fuck themselves or each other - and yes, she knows Laila is dead, but her point still stands - Siyeon thinks disgusted. Remembering how he stared at her and Laila, though technically it was Penelope and Yvonne's bodies, which is infinitely worse because those were his sisters .
She averts her eyes, glancing at the figures of Ecklies and Vinter. Guilt and regret swell within her at how she had treated them and used them, particularly Ecklies, making her no better than the men she shared blood with but didn't claim as family. At the time, she thought her actions had consequences for none but herself. But, oh, how poorly she was mistaken.
If only I could go back and change things, if only I did things differently. If only. If only. These thoughts circled through Siyeon's mind whenever she was conscious, not just for her sake or Kallistos's but also for Vinter's and Ecklies'.
And lastly, Reynald, the man she'd tentatively come to think of as a friend, as a brother. With the exclusion of Kallisto and Emily, he was probably the only other person she was close to.
Her gaze skims the image of Penelope on the billboard and the body that she strangely had come to consider her own.
Her eyes wander almost against her will to the figure of Kallisto . It hurts to look at his likeness, yet she cannot bear to turn away. She dozes off to warm ruby red eyes, shining golden blond hair, and wishes of what could have been.
-
Siyeon jolts awake at the sharp knock at the door by the nurse making their morning rounds. And after a quick examination, the nurse leaves her to herself.
She grabs the TV remote and presses the power button. Over the week, Siyeon improved progressively at an astounding rate, which dumbfounded the doctors. And like Doctor Ahn said, she was eventually disconnected from the life support machines. She's still confined to bedrest, but at least now she can move somewhat and even walk a little.
She's never been one to watch much television, much preferring to read books, but turns it on if only for something to do or some background noise - in the quiet, her thoughts have gotten deafening.
The show that starts playing is a rerun of some drama she remembers hearing about a few years back. It is about a middle-class girl who gets paid by her wealthy best friend to go on her blind date and sabotage it for her, only for the blind date to be the girl's new boss. The way the CEO pursues the middle-class girl is oddly familiar, reminding Siyeon much of her and Kallisto after they first met.
With a bad taste in her mouth, she changes the channel.
Next, it lands on a bizarre, strangely dubbed foreign show. Five men are standing in a cemetery, and three are brothers? Two of them either have DID or are... possessed? If the way they're seemingly talking about themselves in the third person is anything to go by. Confused, utterly lost, and with a headache encroaching, she changes it when the man in the trench coat throws a Molotov cocktail at one of the brothers, setting him on fire.
As it lands on the next channel, her heart sinks, Fuck - She should've left it on the weird American thing. This is so much worse , she thinks.
Siyeon feels tears involuntarily well in her eyes as one of those animated princesses everyone is obsessed with clutches the dead body of the prince while crying and singing softly to his corpse.
Noping out of that as fast as possible, she changes it again. This time, landing on a movie she remembers fondly from her childhood. About museum exhibits that come to life magically every night, her mother had rented it for them after Siyeon had decided to become an archeologist, and she'd loved it.
It only further fueled her passion for becoming an archeologist. Hell, for the longest time, she'd wanted to specialize in either Roman or Egyptian archeology purely because of her favorite characters from the movie, the little Roman soldier and the Pharoah - which, in her opinion, had far too little screen time.
Siyeon and her mother were supposed to see the third one when it came out, but her mother passed away before they could - she never had the heart to watch it on her own.
She lets herself get lost in the familiar plot of her beloved childhood movie. Just as the Jackal statues start attacking the night guard and his son in the pharaoh's tomb exhibit, a sharp knock sounds from the hospital room door.
Before Siyeon can say or do anything, one of the nurses opens the door, allowing three instantly recognizable men into the room.
Her heart sinks, and any positive feelings she'd managed to gather together dispersed at the sight of them.