Chapter Text
Darkness. All you see is darkness. You have your eyes closed, definitely. Can you open them? No, and you have no idea why. You try, but it feels as if your eyelids were sealed for a strange reason. Though, after what seems like an eternity, you manage to open them just slightly.
"Eye movement detected", says a female voice all of a sudden.
You have no idea what the hell was that, or where you are for that matter. You try to speak, but you seem unable to. You have something down your throat, something that doesn't allow you to speak.
"What is two plus two?", the female voice speaks again, one that's definitely robotic.
"Nngh..." You try to say something, anything, but the damned thing inside your throat just won't have mercy on you.
"Incorrect", the voice replies.
Your sight focuses slowly, and the white, LED lights on the ceiling blind you again for a brief moment. You realize that there is some sort of robotic arms hanging from the ceiling, approaching dangerously fast. One of them grabs what's obstructing your throat (a plastic, medical tube), removing it slowly so you don't get hurt. You cough and turn your head to the side so you don't choke with your own spit, swallowing forcefully after a moment.
"What is two plus two?", the voice asks again.
"T..." You swallow again. "Tw..."
"Incorrect."
You move your head slowly to look down at the body you are still unable to move. There's a lot of electrodes and tubes shoved in private places, and you begin cuestioning yourself if you're in a hospital or something. You try to move your hands, and your fingers curl slowly into fists, stretching them again at the same speed. You're getting somewhere.
"Eye movement detected", the voice announces.
Didn't it say that when you woke up? Why is it repeating the command? Turning your head again to the other side... you realize you're not alone. There's a man. A naked one. On the bed besides yours. You look away in horror, remembering you're also naked.
With a renewed energy, you begin moving. You use your hands to rip the electrodes from yourself, proceeding with the tubes. You have one inside your feminine part, and another in... your anus. Without thinking it too much, you yank them out, and a pained yelp that fills your eyes with tears escapes you while you roll off the bed and fall to the floor.
"It is not safe to move. Please, return to the medical platform", the voice says.
The robotic arms approach you quickly again, startling you, and you wriggle on the floor to hide under the bed. That seems to do the trick, and they end up focusing on the man. You breathe heavily, waiting for the pain in your holes to fade away. And once it does, you take a look around.
The place looks like a medical wing like any other, with white, LED lights on the ceiling and screens that beep faintly along the vitals. A few meters, there's two other beds, with white bedsheets over their patients' bodies.
The man coughs, and you take the chance of the robotic arms being distracted with him to crawl towards the other two people. Having pulled yourself up with both hands, you move the bedsheets enough to see their faces. And your eyes widen with horror when you find corpses instead.
You let yourself drop to the floor again, pulling your knees up to your chest, while your hands grab your head. Where are you? What are you doing here? Are you a patient? Are you sick? Too many questions with answers that simply don't appear.
You hear a thud, and turn your head to see that the man has fallen to the floor, like you did a moment ago. You crawl towards your bed again, and stretch to remove the bedsheet so you can cover up your naked body, doing your best to tie it around you as if it were a toga. Then, you struggle to stand up, leaning heavily against the nearby wall while watching with horror how the man hides under his bed so the robotic arms don't reach him. Clearly, he's scared too. And clearly, he doesn't know what's going on either.
"Who...?", you manage to say, frowning slightly while gripping the bedsheet to keep it around your body when you feel it loosen a little.
The man looks up slowly, with tearful eyes. He watches you silently for a moment, mirroring the confused look on your face.
"Do... I know you...?", he says hoarsely, shaking his head faintly. He clears his throat. "I feel... I know you..."
"I don't know... who you are...", you mutter more to yourself than to him.
You realize that there's a ladder, one that seems to lead up to some sort of hatch on the ceiling. Deciding to ignore the man, you tighten the bedsheet around your body again before stumbling towards the ladder. You go up slowly, and when you reach the hatch, one of your hands try to spin the wheel to open it. It doesn't budge.
"Please, state your full name to grant access", says the female voice, making you both jump startled.
"Uh..."
"Incorrect."
You don't remember, of course.
"Please, state your full name to grant access."
"... (Insert any female name you can randomly think of)?"
"Incorrect."
You sigh and climb back down the ladder. When you reach the floor and turn around, the man is standing close. You flinch and frown instantly to your personal space being breached. Though, now that he's closer, you can look at him better.
He has tied his bedsheet around his body as a toga too. He looks... muscly. His dark-blonde hair and beard are kinda long, and his sad, blue, puppy eyes examine you curiously. He looks up at the hatch on the ceiling, and thinks for a moment before opening his mouth to speak with that hoarse voice of his.
"... Ryland Grace. Dr. Ryland Grace."
"Access granted."
Your head jerks violently up towards the hatch, which opens slowly after a hiss. Your eyes go wide with surprise, and you look at him as if he was some sort of fallen angel.
"Is... that your name?", you ask, turning around and grabbing onto the metallic handles of the ladder.
"I remembered it all of a sudden... Somehow", he says, and when you begin climbing up, he adds: "Your... name is (Y/N). (Y/N) (Y/LN)."
You stop abruptly. How does he know your full name when you don't? You turn your head around to look at him over your shoulder, shocked.
"Don't ask me how, I simply just remembered our names", Ryland says, rubbing the back of his head. "It's weird..."
You don't reply, simply turning your head back towards the ceiling and going up the ladder slowly. You peek your head out the huge opening at the top, looking around quickly. The lights turn on while you exit through the hatch, with Ryland following you behind. You seem to be in some sort of lab, but the tables and chairs are, somehow, on the wall. Frowning, you take a few steps towards an area where a few hallways connect, crossing your arms after removing your long (Y/HC) off your face. You will need to cut it eventually.
What was this place? It definitely wasn't a normal hospital. And why does everything seem to be on the wrong place? You don't have time to think too much, turning around when Ryland gasps.
"No... It can't be...", he babbles, stepping closer to a big porthole at the end of one of the halls.
You raise an eyebrow while following him, with his body blocking the view of what has caught his attention. And once you're close enough, you realize. Through the porthole... you can see a massive, pitch-black ocean with white dots everywhere.
You're not in a hospital. You're not on Earth. You're in space. And this is a spaceship.
You drop to your knees next to Ryland, who has his hands and forehead pressed against the glass. Both of you have your eyes widened in shock, staring at the infinity of space that expands in front of you. What the hell were you both doing here?