Chapter Text
James
I’m in my room. Where I have resided for three days, since the system in Rosabelles body was reclaimed by the reestablishment. She’s still asleep. The second Jing, Aya, and Elias, three medical super scientists Warner has had the joy of hiding from me, realized what happened, they shut her down. They stopped.Sometime yesterday I remember Kenji telling me I needed to eat.
Something about Nazeera.
I wanted to hear him, I wanted to care about Nazeeras state, for gods fucking sake i cared about Nazeera! Something was fundamentally wrong with me. Is fundamentally wrong with me. But all I can think about is how Rosabelle was right.
Rosabelle was right,and now, she may die because I didn’t listen. I know that she wanted to keep me away because I broke her façade, brought her to life. But just because she didn’t know doesn’t mean she wasn’t right.
Kenji had brought me food yesterday, and told me how he had made it in Nazeera's newly stocked kitchen. It has remained in the same spot since he set it on the desk in my room. I should have realized they weren’t gonna just let one person slip from their disgusting hands. They think that it’s a counter to Juliette’s power. Which is stupid, because no, it’s fucking not. Julliette has more power than anyone who hasn’t seen it in action can even grasp. They know what she can do, but I don’t believe that taking away Juliette’s power would be as easy and quick as a blast, that broke a few windows and…probably did more, but if I’m still standing and am not living in a destroyed city, which, I’m not, I don’t think they got to Julliette.
My pager buzzes. I wait for another, Kenji almost always sends multiple in a row.
What if it’s not Kenji?
The thought rings through my mind and I move more in three seconds than I have in 3 days.
Warner
We have had a breakthrough. Do not leave your quarters until you have showered and put on a pair of clothes that have seen a washer within the last thirty two hours, or I will legally change your title in our system to “Roadkill”.
I burst up from my position, and find the cleanest pair of clothes I have and take something more akin to a brief step in where one would shower than a real one, put deodorant and cologne on in an attempt to render myself clean smelling, before rushing to Rosabelles holding area.
When I arrive, I find Warner in the room, but not Rosabelle, and no scientists.
“She’s not in this room,” Warner walks out the door and down the hall of the medical wing, I follow.
“Jing and Alia have created something they believe should be able to remove the interface from Rosabelle.”
He turns around to face me. “Rosabelle will be on a table in a different room with a two way mirror looking into it. We have a set narrative being played out every time we walk into her room. We cannot risk Klaus figuring out what we are trying to accomplish.” He stares me in the eyes. “I underestimated the connection between you and Rosabelle, and for that I am sincerely sorry. But this will not be botched. It will be hard, and feel impossible to not barge into her holding room and sit near her, talk to her, touch her, anything. But you can’t. If you need to step outside you are absolutely permitted to do so for emotional regulation. It will be hard seeing her like this, James. Trust me, I would know”
Julliette. He had been thinking about how hard it would be for him to not barge in to be near Julliette. Warner waits till I give him a curt nod before entering. There’s soundproofing foam boards on the walls, not that they’d be necessary, as everyone has stopped talking and looked at me. 10 pairs of eyes wait for me to register her, or at least look at me. And I do.
She’s hooked up to monitors, in something dressed up as a hospital room. She’s still. Pale. There’s IV’s hooked up to her, her arms, her legs. She looks so..vulnerable. She’s in her shut down state, that’s obvious to me. If I look at her any longer I may have to leave, so l look back at the room. With the whiteboard, the long, rectangle table, and the identical chairs, it has a stark resemblance to a conference room. 10 of the 12 people in the room are waiting for me to say something.
Adam, Alia, Julliette, Elias, Aya, Jing, Sonya, Sarah, Castle,and Kenji are all waiting. Warner has begun to move towards his seat, and Emmaline has drifted to sleep in the tense silence. I look at the scientists standing near the whiteboard.
“What have you got?”And the room itself seems to relax as I make my way towards the nearest empty seat.
“Our original idea,” Alia starts, “was to use something akin to a vaccine. It would cell multiply and serve as a KC-“
“Klause cell” Kenji whisper translates, the seat nearest me.
“-elimination cell. However, due to the fact we have no way of being positive that the KC’s wouldn’t be able to rapidly adapt to this, and cause this to fail, which would mean it then knew we were trying to remove it, and it would only grow stronger, we scrapped this.”
“We have decided to use a proxy transfer method.” Jing takes over. “With this tactic, we will use a sedated surrogate as someone to take the technology into their bloodstream. It’s a work of medical art, really.”
“Who’s the surrogate going to be?” I ask.
“Her father.” Warner responds.
“Hugo?” Castle asks. Warners response is a tense nod. I have a feeling Hugo volunteered to do this.
“Which is very good for our plan. We’d need either shared DNA or similar age, and he possesses one of those, and at a very high rate. Due to their shared DNA, we have been able to preset Hugo with a set of cells designed to convince the KC’s that this is Rosabelle. That they missed a vein. Klaus is strong, but from what we know, he can only manipulate 10-20 thousand cells at once. This means that with the KC’s rapidly multiplying to make up for the new “vein”, this will make it even harder for Klaus in the situation it discovers the motive. Which he shouldn't, but better safe than sorry.” Aya is the one that makes this statement. I nod, processing.
“Why does he have to be sedated?” I ask, purely curious.
“He wouldn’t need to be if he were taking a lesser amount of the cells. Due to the fact he’s taking so many, sedation ensures his body is wholly focused on adapting to the new cells. We don’t need him to accept them. He’s aware there is a chance of death for him, even for Rosabelle-“ Elias stiffens. Everyone stiffens as they look at me. I want to hit something. I want to hit everyone in this room, well almost everyone, Julliette and Emmaline get a pass. I use the thought of them to calm me down. I take a breath, and in the corner of my eye I see Warner relax. However, I do have a question.
“How would Emmaline-fuck-Rosabelle die?” My mouth mixes the two up, i was thinking of Emmalines cute little face and chubby cheeks to avoid freaking out. Not that the people in the room know this. Everyone is looking at me in a state of shock, horror, or disgust. With the exception of Warner and Julliette, who are both fighting smiles, well, just Warner. Juliette is beaming. Everyone else seems to not understand why the mother of the child who’s death I just asked about is smiling. Elias however, fails to sense the severity of my word mix up.
No, he is more concerned of talking about the possibility of Rosabelle dying in my presence. I however, am not. Because she won’t die. I don’t linger on that thought, and how it is my whole and only truth in this moment.
“Uh~w-well youknowsheshouldnt beeecause” he looks over at Warner, needing an out from his pathetic attempt at stalling.”
“He’s competent enough, Elias” Warner says.
“You think ever so highly of me” I deadpan. Kenji snorts.
“Rosabelle would die if there was a malfunction in Hugo’s body. The truth is Mr. Anderson-“ I gag, I have to cover my mouth in fear I might throw up. Warner looks so disgusted he might turn green, Adam sports the same expression. Julliette has a slight intake of breath, while the girls, Alia, Castle, and Kenji all have the same deep cringe on their face. I recover-or something akin to it. Elias has paused, confusion on his face.
“Uh, it’s K- james is fine” I choke out.
I would choose Hitler, or Stallin, or god even Trump before I willingly would choose “Anderson” .
Elias doesn’t miss a beat after the correction.
“Well, the truth is James” the name sounds foreign to him on his tongue. “Is that we know what should happen. I’m positive in all of our brainpower and skills combined we would be able to determine what the problem is and how to fix it if one were to arise. But, coming across a problem we can’t fix, or even less likely can’t identify, would almost certainly be fatal for both Rosabelle, and Hugo”
“Thank you” I respond. He nods.
“We will begin the operation by sending in one of the girls, who both are currently playing nurses, into the room and apply noise imitating headphones to ensure Klaus can’t hear what we’re doing.”
“What does noise “ imitating” mean?” Kenji asks, airquotes included. Alia whispers something in Elias’s ear, he nods, and she walks off.
“Rather than cancelling noise out, they are programmed to sound exactly like the things happening in that room if we weren’t there, while simultaneously blocking any and all noise that may actually be happening in the room. “ the door opens and Alia rolls in two computers, which each are individually armored with two needles, and then two identical tubes lay on the second shelf of the cart, a needle decorating each end. I can tell they’re different, but I’m not nearly smart enough to know how they’re different as they both glean in the light.
“These computers will then be set up, one on Hugo, one on Rosabelle. These have two needles, one will take in blood, send it to a filter, which can determine the level of KC’s in the bloodstream. That number will then be displayed on screen. Once we start, we can’t stop.
To actually transfer the blood, one of these tubes will be placed going into Rosabelles body from Hugo, the other into Hugo’s body from Rosabelles. This makes room for Rosabelles cells, and replenishes some of Rosabelles. This is done purely so we can make sure Rosabelle's body has enough energy to complete the procedure. To accomplish this, we would only need to leave Hugo’s transfer tube in for around 40 seconds, however the extra cells should give Rosabelle some extra recovery energy, which is good. One thing to note, as you will be watching the procedure, is it looks like a blood transfer, but it isn’t. The tubes, or more so the needles, are designed to only let through cells that are not red blood or white blood cells, due to them being in a comatose state, they should also have minimal hormones in their bloodstreams. The procedure will take and estimated 2-5 minutes. Its this short due to the fact that for your red blood cells to make a round trip through your body only takes around a minute. The KC’s seem to follow the same pattern. Me, Jing, Aya, Sonya, Sara, Alia, and due to your new status of “competent enough”, also you, will be with us while we, or mainly the system I guess, preforms the operation.”
Even though I know it’s useless while Warner is in the room, I conceal my emotions from everyone else.
She’ll be ok soon. I’ll be ok soon.