Chapter Text
Floating through the sea of red, Simon was sure that he was dead. This all must be some sort of strange, distorted afterlife of sorts. No returning to the soil for him... just the wretched blood that surrounded him when he had died. His body forever contorted by whatever was being caused by the blood. He was almost right, too. He felt his lungs giving way and his mind fading, before his vision went to black.
Yet, he found himself waking up. No, he's not dead. As strange as it is, he feels like he's on something somewhat soft. Not by much, but at least like he's laying on a blanket, which in it of itself is something he rarely gets. He coughs, opening his eyes slowly. Above him is a sea of dead stars, their lights still glowing long after they disappeared. Somewhere nearby, he hears some shuffling. He turns his head to the side, his blood soaked hair sticking to his face.
Simon's brown eyes widen slightly as he sees somebody nearby. A person... an actual person. Unless this might be another hallucination. Yet, he's been through so much. He should let himself have a little hope, right? This person seems to be fumbling around in a makeshift shack made of old iron and moon rocks, their back turned to him. A stark white coat covered in dried blood, yet, they have seemed to have found a way to clean up their hair. Then, as they turn around, Simon begins to realize who exactly it is.
You.
Simon could never forget you. You were the only person he was explicitly told had gone down into the blood ocean before him, and told had disappeared. If he had to guess, he was told about you because you weren't a convict, like he is... You were a researcher who had simply flown too close to the sun. Or more accurately, descended too deep into the ocean. Yet, he had met you once or twice before you had disappeared. Simon barely remembers what you were like to talk to, but your face has haunted him... The idea that somebody could disappear so suddenly... and for years...
You look to him, your expression going from a tired one to one of pure shock as you notice he's woken up. You give a smile, walking out of your little shack to approach him. "Oh, thank goodness... You actually woke up. That means that I'm no longer going to be alone here." Simon furrows his brows, trying to push himself up into a sitting position. However, he falls back down, looking over to his left arm.
It's gone. Simon forgot all about the fact that he'd lost it in that godforsaken submarine. Yet, panic still starts to well up inside of him. Both because of the fact that the shock of everything is starting to wear off, but also because he's noticing the fact that a lot of the strange things that had happened to his body has just... vanished. Those strange veins are gone. The bumps and sores have disappeared... His arm might still be gone, but the wound left behind has closed up. He starts to pat at his face, feeling that it is almost exactly as it was before he went into the ocean. Just a small bump that seems to be dying down. As much as he should be happy that he's going back to normal, it's also another unknown he doesn't understand.
"What...? What the fuck? What the fuck?!" Simon calls out, his breathing starting to go uneven. You quickly take a step back, trying to give him some space. Yet, you try your best to explain what's happening "Everything will be fine! I think? When I had gotten out of the blood ocean, the... things... slowly started to crumble off of me. You've just been out for a long time. A long enough time that they fell off before you woke up." He snaps his head over to you, placing his hand onto his chest. "And the... The boils... The... The mutations?" "Those left too, about the same time."
Simon sighs, still shaking a bit. His heart is racing far too much for comfort... He can hear his blood rushing through his ears. He doesn't want to think about it. About blood... He needs to find a way to calm down. Perhaps he should ask the big questions? To get answers from you? He speaks quickly, once again trying to sit himself up "How long...? How long have you been here?"
You give him a small smile, before sighing in exhaustion "A long time... Long enough to see eight submarines be dropped into the ocean." That tracks with when you disappeared. Simon continues, now fully sitting up. "How the hell have you survived? Where are we?" You look around, before pointing over in the distance. Not far away is the shore, with a trail of blood smearing all the way to where Simon is sitting. "I washed up a long while ago. As for how I survived... I think I swallowed some of the blood, and whatever it's done to me has made it so I haven't needed to eat or drink."
You rub your arm uncomfortably, your face scrunching up at the thought. Then, you continue "We might look like we're normal, again, but... Something might be going on internally. I wouldn't be surprised if you swallowed some of it, too, when you passed out." Simon can feel his heart plummet. He doesn't know how to respond. The thought that he might be fine on the outside, but changing internally? How should anybody respond to such a thing? "And... and how are we breathing? Do you think it's changing that, too?"
You look back to him, tilting your head to the blood ocean. "Well, I've noticed that the father I go from the ocean, the less I can breathe. I think that the blood ocean might be releasing oxygen into the air around it, allowing us to breathe when we are close. Yet, if we're too far, the oxygen doesn't reach us... I don't know for sure, though." Simon takes a deep breath, nodding slowly. He'll just trust your guess, so he doesn't think too much about it. That, and because the more important thing to note is to not go too far...
Before he can ask another question to distract himself, you look to him and speak first "Is the Consolidation of Iron going to come back for you...? I've been trying to signal them since I first got stranded here..." Simon hesitates, before nodding his head. Depending on how long it's been, they haven't shown up, yet. "Yeah... Before I... crashed, I had a little under thirty minutes before they'd show up. How long do you think it's been?" You look up to the sky, before frowning in concentration. "Long enough that I haven't seen them fly overhead." You then gesture for him to hold on a moment, before running back into the shack you made.
Simon waits outside, getting a better view of his surroundings. You must've dragged him from the shore, onto a bloodstained towel you've laid on the ground. From the fact he doesn't feel that much blood on his face, besides what has dropped onto it from his hair, you must have tried drying him off before deciding to let him dry in the air. The land around the two of you consists of the off-white, barren landscape of the moon, contrasted by the crimson ocean. Where the ocean meets the rocks has stained the land a slight pink, which fades into the deep red of congealed blood the closer it gets into the ocean...
Staring blankly at the ocean, Simon swears he can hear something faintly in the back of his mind. Yet, the sounds of your footsteps returning to him pull him back from it. As he looks up to you, the first thing Simon sees is a heavily polished moon rock. The surface has been painstakingly worked to a reflective, smooth shine. You keep your eyes to the sky, squinting as you search it. "It's like how the humans of long ago would use mirrors to catch their sun's light to signal pilots... We might not have a sun or star, but the Consolidation of Iron's ship has the outer lights that we could try reflecting..."
Simon sighs, subconsciously bringing his hand up to rub his arm... only to once again remember that it's gone. So, he rubs his side to compensate, bringing his own eyes up to check the sky. Ava had said he'd have his freedom if he met up with her, yet... would this even count? He had, hopefully, protected what she wanted with the lifejacket. That, and you are here. She couldn't possibly leave you behind if she saw the signal.
He just wants to live... Is that so much to ask?