Chapter Text
Simon doesn’t know what he was expecting to see when he wakes up, but it certainly wasn’t this.
The last thing he remembers is drowning. Thick, hot blood flowing down his throat, forcibly filling his stomach. Blood filling his ears, nose, eyes–every possible orifice of his body being invaded without his consent. He remembers how heavy his tongue felt. How hard he tried to close his throat, just so the blood wouldn’t make it in his body… to no avail. All he could smell, taste, and feel was iron. He thought he’d drowned a bloody, guttural death on that planet.
So when he wakes up in a white room, with a polished ceiling above him and the steady sound of what seems to be a heart rate monitor… he can’t help but think that he’s dead. He’s gotta be dead, there’s no way he isn’t. There was no way to survive what he last remembered. Either the creature was still fucking with him, or…
Or this was real.
Did they save him? Was he finally free?
“Eye movement detected.”
Simon flinches at the voice. It wasn’t particularly loud, but at this point, any human voice sounds hostile to him after listening to false voices on that speaker for what felt like years. For a split second he was back in the submarine.
He looks down at himself.
He’s… clean. There wasn’t a drop of blood on him. There wasn’t even a single mud stain. Even his nails were free of dirt and grime. Whoever got him here scrubbed him down completely, and he doesn’t know how to feel about it.
He was even wearing new clothes.
…
What the hell was this–why was he wearing a cat sweater? There’s a big, ugly cat knitted on the chest of the sweater he was wearing. He definitely didn’t own this. The realization of what he was wearing was so ridiculous that the assumption of him being dead suddenly seemed very real. This was the kind of thing that only happened in his dreams. One second he was on the SM-13, and now…
He was in a hospital room. Was this the C.O.I base?
No. He was in someone’s bedroom?
The room was too small to be a hospital room, and there were too many personal-looking trinkets and objects lying around to suggest he was at a hospital. There was a table nearby with a few things he couldn’t recognize. Some weird looking figurine. A blue and green ball made of yarn. Looked like Earth… was he on Earth?
…How? When? Were the stars back?
“AHH–!”
His train of thought is instantly interrupted when he’s met with a gigantic robot with weird, robot arms trying to get in his face.
“What is two plus two?”
What the fuck?
Simon tries to make a sound. Any sound. Protest? Violence? Another half scream, half cry, maybe? Seeing the robot felt promising–they didn’t have technology like this back at Eden. It looked like some sort of robot-nurse-doctor thing. If they had one of these, then maybe the disaster wouldn’t have claimed so many li–
“Subject is not responding. Repeating query. What is two plus two?”
Simon stares at it a bit longer, backing up on the bed.
“F… Four.”
His throat felt raw. Like something had roughly scrubbed the roof of his mouth. Did he have a breathing tube put in or something? It felt like it.
He parts his mouth to speak, wanting to ask the robot where he was or what the hell happened. To the black box, to the SM-13. if he was here… then it can’t have been for nothing.
But before he could speak…
“Rocky, chill out! I get that you’re excited, but we can’t overwhelm the guy. He just woke up, he probably hasn’t seen another person in… who knows how long.”
A person. There was a person out there.
Fight or flight kicks in. Simon scrambles and immediately reaches for something that he could use as a weapon–and the only thing nearby was a ceramic mug. He grips it by the handle, smashes it against the wall, and grabs a piece of glass, pointing it towards the door.
When the stranger hears the glass breaking, the door opens.
Inside walks… the first human he’s seen in forever.
The last face he remembered was Commander Ava’s face. She was scarred, and looked like she didn’t know how to smile. Everyone back at Eden always had that look on their face, like someone died. Probably because someone did.
This person was the complete opposite of that. He had bright, messy blond hair, and… the bluest eyes he thinks he’s ever seen in his life. Tan skin. He’s rather tall, too. He’s wearing a shirt with some stupid math joke on it. It’s a safe guess that the cat sweater was probably his, too. He was wearing glasses, and they were… crooked on his face. He has a weird urge to fix them.
He didn’t expect his savior to be exactly his type.
What a welcome sight. Even if this stupidly handsome man ends up being evil, or working for C.O.I, at least he’d die looking at something good for once.
“Hey, hey!” Blond bombshell says, holding his hands up. “It’s okay. I won’t hurt you. I swear,” He speaks. Even his voice sounds good. Seriously, was this guy some sort of model they hired to pose as a doctor? Did they get an extra attractive one so he would get caught off guard and he would not attack him?
“Where am I,” He grunts, gripping the broken ceramic in his hand. He doesn’t care that it cuts through his flesh. After all the shit he went through, it felt like a paper cut.
“You’re on Erid,” The man says, slowly lowering his hands. He isn’t approaching him. “It’s a planet that’s about 16.3 light years away from Earth.”
Oh. He’s not on Earth.
Wait–why should he even believe this guy?
“What the hell are you talking about? The plan was to take me home. I should be back home!”
He swings the broken glass, and he backs away instantly.
“Woah, woah, easy–! I know this must be extremely confusing, but trust me, we’re just as confused about your situation as you are! So could you please put the glass down, you’re gonna hurt yourself!”
We?
He suddenly hears footsteps. Rapid footsteps. Sounded like it came from something with a dozen legs. For a moment he whips his head around, searching for the source. Muscle memory from his hallucinations on the SM-13. Visions like that were par for the course.
But the footsteps weren’t coming from behind him. They were coming from…
Coming in.
In comes something he could have never predicted in his entire life.
It was… a rock. A spider rock with legs. He would have screamed if he hadn’t already witnessed enough horrors on the submarine to know what truly hostile creatures looked like. No, his first instinct was that this creature was harmless. It didn’t have any sharp edges, but… its body language seemed agitated. It was lunging at him and making more of those noises.
Shit. He really is on an alien planet.
It was making sounds. Rapid sounds that sounded like music notes being played too fast that he could hardly distinguish them.
“No, no, Rock. He didn’t hurt me. We’re good, he’s just… scared. Yes–being scared is normal. I told you he might react this way.”
He’s using that same gentle tone with the thing. What the hell?
He’s… communicating with it.
“Listen, I’m really sorry about this. I’m sure you’re already freaked out enough, and seeing Rocky without any mental preparation must be making it worse. But… I guess we have to do formal introductions now.”
He gestures to himself.
“My name is Ryland. Or–well, Grace. Everyone calls me Grace. This… is Rocky. He’s an Eridian, one of the natives of this planet. And… he also happens to be my friend.”
The creature makes a trilling noise.
“--Right, right. Best friend. He’s rather particular about that.
You’re here because… as Rocky and I were in a ship bound for Erid, we… found your submarine. Floating around in deep space. I thought it was just some rusty old debris, but Rocky heard your heartbeat from inside, so… we brought you with us.”
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How did he end up floating around in deep space? Shouldn’t he be sunken at the bottom of the blood ocean by now? Hell, shouldn’t he be digested goop for that creature?
“We won’t hurt you.” Ryland says, walking forwards. Seeming braver, after noticing he lowered the glass. He summons courage pretty easily. “We just want to know where you came from… and how you survived.”
How the hell does he answer that?