Chapter Two

E.R.O.S.

For the first moment Uri just gawped, until she broke her thoughts when she shook her head to kindle her mind from her current thoughts, realizing that she must have made a rather bad impression upon this girl. "Sorry about that, I just...wasn't expecting anyone to be here in this room," she bluffed quickly, though said it with a warm smile, putting a hand over her upper chest as though she were speaking to a child, and said, "My name is Uri, I was passing by here a little while ago and saw you sleeping-"

"Then if you saw me sleeping, how did you come to think that no one was in here?" Rei said, lifting a brow suspiciously at Uri, whom was taken aback by that seemingly wise and notional remark.

"So, I guess you caught me," she said with a meek laugh. "Now, is it alright for me to ask you for your name?"

"Name's are so trivial," she murmured, lowering her head, then looked up, forcing Uri to look into her vacant, emerald, childlike eyes. Behind those eyes Uri could tell was so much more than the default appearance. "But if you need to know so much, then my name you must know is Rei."

She nodded. "Ray," she tried out the name on her own tongue. "That's an interesting name for a girl."

Ray squinted, the shook her head and placed a hand over her forehead, shivering. Of course, she'd be cold because of those cloths, and even Uri had to admit that it was pretty freezing around here for some reason. It felt like somebody turned up the air conditioning unusually high today, yet had no real reason why they'd do such a thing.

The younger woman receded away, her back pressed to the wall, looking at Uri, revealing painful eyes. They were a strange color of green, like emeralds, only the color seemed much deeper than that. It was like one could see an entire forest held with a vast amount of history stored within them, yet one could only see what happened through skin deep. She'd never know what really happened to this girl just by cutting her in half and looking at the rings, or just by looking at her.

Ray shook her head, but as she started to try and move, her trembling knees started to give in, sending her tumbling to the ground. She must have felt weaker than Uri had first perceived her to be, as she ran towards her and grabbed her before she fell, hoisting her arm over her shoulder to keep the girl from falling again. For now she was concerned about her health, for she had no recollection as to how long she had been under her sleep, and for what reason. For all of Uri's knowledge, she might have had some sort of sickness she might have been recovering from, disturbing her may only make the illness worse on the girl. However, she didn't look sick, just extremely pale, possible from being either ill or from some lack of light. She was pent up in the darkness of the room, after all. No sunlight.

Uri smiled warmly and held out her hand. "Are you tired?"

Slowly, the girl nodded, just as Uri helped prop her to her feet. "I feel so...." she tried to move her arms and legs, yet without avail. She probably needed to exercise them.

"I bet, its probably because you haven't used them for a while," she told her, trying to remember for how long the nurse had said this girl had been under a coma, but the number slipped her by. All she recalled was that it had to have been long enough. Breaking herself free from thought once again, Uri looked at Ray with concern. "Do you want to leave?"

Nodding discreetly, there had been a sparkle within her innocent, adolescent eyes.

"Alright, Ray, I can take you someplace safe," she said, sliding off her jacket and making her way towards Ray again, helping her sustain her unstable balance. "I'll help you out and find something else for you to wear."

Just then, a nurse ran in, distressed. She was panting, as a couple of others were bringing in some equipment, when they halted and noticed that the body they were there to revive had gone missing. This was a different nurse than the one Uri had seen before, who was there to check up on Ray.

The nurse was looking bemused upon the absence of the body on the bed, then turned and saw the body that should have been there standing, and conscious. Her mouth agape, she took a step towards Ray, but the girl withdrew, making an escape behind her and peered over Uri's shoulder, looking at the nurse vigilantly. From what she could feel, the girl was trembling. The nurse waved to the others to carry out the equipment and told them that she'd take care of this. They did so without questioning the order.

"Are you family?" the nurse asked.

Uri looked over at Ray, then turned to the nurse. She shook her head.

"Then you shouldn't be here."

"No family," Ray said, her raucous voice catching the attention of both of them, since it was clear that she truly hadn't spoken for a long time. "I...I have no family. They're...gone."

"Gone? You mean that they left you?" the nurse asked.

Ray shook her head again, leisurely. "...dead. They are.... They're dead. All dead."

Both Uri and the nurse kept a watchful glance over at her, surprised. Neither of them had expected her to bring up this sort of topic, and a reply in such a nonchalant way. She looked up at them though, her hands shaking as well as her voice when she spoke.

"But I don't want to be here anymore. I want to go somewhere else."

"If it is alright...." Uri said, turning to the nurse again, "can I bring her in? I have a lot of room at my place, as well as plenty of food. I can provide her with clothes."

The nurse looked her over suspiciously. "I don't know. I don't know anything about this girl, but I don't believe it's legal to hand her over to some stranger-"

"I want to go!" Ray said, almost shouting. "Its too noisy here."

"See, I have a quiet place. I think she might like that."

The nurse nodded, rubbing her face with her thumb and index finger. "I've never been in this sort of situation before, so I suppose it might be best that you sign some papers, letting us know of her departure, and then she can leave. After all, she's not a minor, and there isn't anything we can do to hold her here, since she has no injuries. As far as our concerns go, she has the right to go anywhere she pleases."

Uri smiled thankfully. "Thank you. I'll sign those papers."

Within the next moments, Ray was finally an individual. From living in an internal prison for countless years, and the next, waking in a unlit world. Before she left, she was given some used clothes at the hospital, a gift from one of the nurses. They were too baggy and the color red really didn't suit Ray well enough for some reason. She had a loose shirt that hung down, nearly revealing her chest, and the jeans were too tight on the legs, yet large around her waist, in which a belt was needed to sustain it in the right position, making her feel more than just a little uncomfortable. Uri told her that she knows someone who'll find some better fitting clothes for her to wear once they get back, and with a rather discontented look upon Ray's face, they set out.

The first sight of sunlight which rested over her face caused Ray to flinch and jump back towards the doors, causing Uri to not just be clueless and confused, but to walk over to her, grab her by her wrist, and pulled her forward. "Come on, you don't want to go back inside, do you?" she said. "We'll head towards my jeep, it's right over- Hey, what're you doing?"

Ray had been keeping her hands over her eyes, shielding them from the light. Whenever she looked up her pupils dilated, letting out a whimper in pain as agony rushed over her head and made she shudder.

"I've got dimmed windows in my car, nobody can really see in without looking hard, might be good for your eyes," she said, now guiding Ray over to the parking lot like she were blind. She might as well have been blind, because the girl fumbled around the lot, then clung close to Uri, hanging onto her shoulder tightly to the point that it pained her, but said nothing. Her tolerance for pain was rather high, anyway.

Unlocking and opening the jeep's door for Ray to enter, Uri closed it behind her and walked around over to her side, hopping inside and turning on the car. She looked behind her through the mirror, squinting and hesitated. Ray looked over at her, curious. She asked her something, but Uri didn't hear it.

"What did you say?"

"I asked you if something was wrong," Ray said, blinking.

"N...No, it's nothing," she said, then turned on the ignition, the jeep sped backwards, and Uri started out and away from the hospital parking lot.

In truth, Uri had seen something move, like somebody was crouching through the bushes, a shadowed figure. It looked like an animal, much larger than any breed of dog she'd seen, yet small enough to be discreet as it huddled across the edge of the building. She shrugged, knowing well that there couldn't have been any way anything could ever get by the security, whether if it be an armed human or a perilous beast.

Maybe it was simple paranoia.

"So...where are we going?" Ray asked quietly, keeping her head low for some reason, and her arms crossed, fingers entwined within each other.

Uri smiled weakly and looked over to her. "I am surprised, most people would have known of us, since we are like, the only group of people who are fighting off the creatures for the passed few years." Once more, she was trying to remember how long the nurse had said Ray was under the coma.

Again, Ray gave Uri a puzzled look. "Creatures?"

Glancing over at her with a perplexed facade, Uri chuckled to herself lightly, then turned away from Ray, veering to gaze back to the road, growing more solemn. Of course Ray wouldn't know, if she had been in the hospital eighteen years ago, then that must mean she fell into a coma right before all of the incidents started happening. She cleared her throat and began. "A long time ago, there was a disaster in Chicago, a huge explosion, killed everyone from a parameter of five hundred miles from the heart of the city, I am sure you haven't heard of that. But not a single soul lived and remained in their normal state. There was some sort of effect that the radiation, or so what we think, that picked up into the air. Whatever was in the bomb that was set off, something went terribly wrong right after that. At first it started with the domestic animals, such as dogs, cats, birds, you know? Smaller, weaker organisms. Then it went on to bigger animals, like bears, tigers, horses, apes, and frequently humans who were affected. This happened if they breathed in the radiated fumes from the city, or were attacked by the monsters. Somehow, the ones effected passed their...disease or whatever, onto the ones they assault. Most of the animals of Canada and of the U.S. are all infected with the radiation. There were few that had made their way into Mexico and to South America as well."

"What were the effects?" Ray asked with a slight tone of guilt in her voice.

"They grew out of control. Their minds lost, they just ran on hunger, their instincts and mind gone. What the government was planning on doing was evacuating the U.S. and taking us all somewhere safe, while they nuke the whole continent. But it failed because the theory was already going around that the creatures came from the new nuclear missiles that was created, something in there that mutated their genetic structures, that was a thesis. The government had been arguing all this time about that. But then there were the people who didn't care, wanting to do something about it. Few were willing to risk their lives for the future, which is stupid. Why would anyone live and die like nothing ever happened, as opposed to dying trying to make a difference?" Uri laughed harshly. "There I go again, preaching mindlessly without thinking about your own views."

True, for all she knew, she might've just insulted Ray and not even realize it. But of course, she was too wrapped up in her own prattle to have allowed the girl to speak.

"Its okay," Ray said. "I think it's eminent to know what you think. So, this structure you were telling me about.... What does this have to do with what happened?"

"It seemed like it had happened forever ago. Ever since Xaden had lost his family during the incident in Chicago-mine as well, were gone-he felt the need to make a difference. We parted for a long while, within those years that we hadn't even seen each other, Xaden had been developing E.R.O.S., gradually he worked his way up to making it some sort of extermination movement to help protect the lower citizens from being attacked. We're more like protectors now than just regular citizens, because we don't work for the government, but Xaden's had his authorization from various bridges to resume his structure. Probably thought that if the government wasn't doing anything, then someone had to do the dirty job."

It almost seemed as though the girl was trying to laugh, but she barely had the strength to even smile, whether alone even release a weak chuckle. "I find it rather ironic that I ran into a couple who just happen to run such a group."

Somewhat struck with astonishment, Uri turned to Ray again. "...couple?"

"Yeah, couple. You two were together in one room, where you not?"

"Never mind."

She drove on, and within the next half hour, Uri pulled up to a facility around the outskirts of the city of Neo Angeles. It was made up of a solid entrance created of steel, the wording scripted over the heading looked like that of an epitaph engraved over a tombstone, too worn out for it to have been currently made decipherable.

Uri led Rei down the steps, and they entered a narrow passageway which led to a tightly sealed door. She took out her hand, pressed it over a slot next to the door, and a light sped up and down her palm, then beeped, clicked, and the door pushed open on either sides. Uri entered, however, Rei stared at it in fascination. Before she started to place her hand over it as well, Uri had turned around and caught her. "Don't touch that!" she called to her.

Rei flinched at the sound of an abruptly raised voice, like a kid who'd just been struck, then backed away with her hands behind her back, walking through the doors that instantly closed tightly behind her, the room echoed from the doors impacting.

Switching on the light next to her, Uri revealed to Rei a large open room, with five other doors of titanium, and the walls were made of the same material. There was a slope in the middle of the room, a table in the middle of three couches circled around a television set, and next to the TV was a counter with a coffee machine and cabinets at the bottom.

"Where did you get the money for all the titanium alloy?" Rei asked, referring to the material the walls were made out of. "It's the same metal they make with space crafts, isn't it?"

Uri looked at Rei in astonishment. "Well...was. They stopped using that kind of metal ten years ago, after shereen alloy was created. A mixture of titanium and some sort of new formula that was made. Holds together much better than titanium alloy. It was named after the woman who found the metal, Agata Shereen. Great scientist, she is. Now because of her, metal is cheep as hell-"

"URI HAWTHORNE!" exclaimed a fiery red-haired girl from a distance, in which Rei yelped, and hid behind Uri's back from the augmenting voice, shaking. Uri looked over her shoulder for a moment, stared, and then turned back to notice that Fia Neumann was waving over to her from across the circular room, grinning.

"It's okay, Rei," she told her calmly, trying to move away so that Rei wasn't clinging to her back anymore. "It's only a friend. Her name is Fia, I think you might like her. She's also the one who'll get you some new clothes-"

Being cut off by the sudden pressure of Fia's arms around her neck, as she gave her a tight hug that nearly lifted Uri's feet from the ground. Rei took a few steps back from the woman, looking at her with a wary gaze.

"Good to see ya again, Uri!" Fia said with a broad smile, setting her down. "We were worried after the episode with Xaden and that wolf recently, the one that came out from nowhere. His second injury after clouting the wall lately." She then turned and looked over at the blinking Rei, returning the identical stare. "Eh? Whose this? I didn't think we endorsed damsels anymore."

"Uhhh, this one's different," Uri said. "She actually needed it, badly. Fia, this is Rei, I found her at the hospital. It's too weird of a story, and I think I'll let you know about it later. For now we need to get her fitted into a better attire."

Fia looked her over, up and down, tilting her head so that she could get a view of her from a different angle. "Hmm...I see what you mean. But Uri, I don't think she'll fit your size. She less...endowed then you are."

Uri blushed, yet the girl had no idea what they were talking about, so she said nothing, just watching them patiently, submissively telling herself to stay there and try not to run away. To her, Fia must have been a scary person.

"Ah, yes," Uri finally said. "Which is why...I thought she'd...fit you much better. Just because of your height and all. Judging by height, I'm much more taller than she, but your at least an inch taller than her. So I was sort of hoping you'd let her borrow your clothes...just for now, until we go out and get her some better ones, that is."

Fia blinked. "But...they're my clothes. I never let anyone use them. Not even Bekah."

Sighing, Uri rolled her eyes in annoyance. "That's because Bekah is too big to borrow your wardrobe, not to mention you two have nothing in common when it comes to clothe ware. Rei is your size, just this once, and I'll have them returned, promise."

"I told you, they're mine."

"And I know that, look at the girl, at first she was stuck wearing a hospital gown," Uri said, bringing in a tone out outrage just to make the act a little more believable for Fia. "And now wearing a red shirt and orange jeans, in which the waist is too large and the boot cut is much too small. It might take her a while just to get them off. Would you want her to walk around in that?"

That seemed to have caught Fia's awareness, for her red, bushy eyebrows raised, and she slowly turned to the frightened Rei, now looking over her apparel. She might as well throw in a gasp to add the drama, Uri cynically thought, as Fia was too busy looking horrified at Rei's current outfit.

"Okay, nobody should walk in here wearing a size twelve waist," she said, raising a hand. "I'd say she's about a size five, and I personally have a six or seven, but nonetheless, she'll look good in a belt." She beamed, walking over to her and grabbing her lower arm, pulling Rei away and into the titanium doorways that automatically opened as the two ran through, and closed right afterward.

Uri rubbed her blonde hair, raising an eyebrow. "I seriously hope I didn't make some sort of really foolish mistake," she said to herself.

***

"Come on, please!"

"Gee, lemme think about it.... No."

"Pretty please!"

"Pretty no."

"With sugar on top?"

"You're starting to act like a little kid again. You're the one who complains that I treat you like one. So it's either that, or shut the hell up."

Taj gave Teji a sour look, and his brother went back into the computer. Taj had wanted to play around with Teji's mechanics, but Teji never trusted anyone with his inventions. Taj always had some sort of attraction towards the Galahad, a robot that is powers by high voltage electricity. A rider would stand at the center of the machine, and power the arms and legs by the movement of their own limbs by the push pads, or also known as "Power Pads," which was attached to the rider's hands, legs, and temples. The Galahad also had a blade attached to right arm, which is known as a sword, used a long, long time ago, and in the other arm was a gun, capable to carrying seven thousand bullets, firing twenty all at the same time. They were small, but strong enough to go at a fast enough speed through the thickest material. Ten bullets were padded at the tips, that way they'd cause more tissue damage to the target. The other ten was sharp and spiked, same effect a knife would have only with the ability to cut through shereen alloy like butter.

The Galahad was, naturally, his most latest creation, and Teji's favorite yet. He wasn't going to let his brother take the opportunity to play with it. Teji never let anyone touch it except himself, that is, weather along his seventeen-year-old brother.

"The Galahad is not a toy, Taj. You could get killed by it, and if you do, mom will kick my ass."

Of course, that wasn't going to stop Taj from trying. He always wanted to just touch the Galahad, for a long time he always had his eyes on the plans.

Taj turned the other way, and just then, Ragnar walked into the computer room, Taj smiled. The kid always looked up to Ragnar as well as Nickoli, making Teji feel a little down, since they were brothers after all. But with the way that Teji always treated him, it wasn't much of a wonder. He never cared to be the "big brother," whether alone the "big cool brother." He just decided to leave that job to Ragnar and Nickoli anyway.

Ragnar's olive skin was sweaty, wearing a white tank top and black jean pants. He had a towel wrapped around his neck, which was always what he did after he practiced on the Field located in the lower levels of the shelter, since Ragnar often always took a shower before he did anything after practice. He tossed his workbag over his shoulder, resting a hand over his hip as his eyes laid upon the sight with amusement.

"You two goin' at it again?"

Teji growled, his eyebrow twitching in his bother's irritancy. "Ragnar, would you mind telling Taj that the Galahad is not a toy?"

Ragnar laughed. "Hey, I'm just going to leave your family quarrel to yourself while I take a look at this thing of yours, Tej. Must be a pretty damn good machine by now if the kid's that gaga over it. Scoot!" He moved Teji out of the chair of his computer, Teji now standing. He pulled his sunglasses to the base of his nose, watching whatever it was that Ragnar was doing now. He turned on a screen showing the Galahad. "Need some work on it, but I guess a few little adjustments in it's right arm, but other than that, it should work like a charm."

"Needs work and adjustments? Excuse me, I've been working on this goddamned machine for over five years, developing it and drawing it on over a thousand blueprint sheets!" Teji said, outraged. "Its not just a machine, its a work of art! My art! And I'll be damned if you touch or insult my baby!"

Taj giggled. Teji punched his little brother's arm, and he hushed up, the boy's face flushed bright red then focused his attention to what Ragnar was doing. He had turned on a screen that displayed the Galahad, all of Teji's ideas laid out there on a glass screen, with labels showing what part was what on the machine, arranged out on blue print form.

"Not bad so far," Ragnar said. "Not bad at all."

"That's all you have to say? Not bad?"

"The words say it all," he replied with a smirk.

Within the next few seconds, the door opened and Uri sauntered in with her hands in her pockets. She looked up as her gaze fell upon the group, running a hand through her hair. "Hey. Thought I'd find you guys here," she said simply with a sweetened smile. "Just wanted to let you know there's a guest hanging around here, so do try and keep things rather peaceful."

Everyone blinked, turning to her with blank stares. "Guest?" said Teji and Taj in unison.

"Yeah," Uri scratched the back of her head. "She's with Fia getting a set of clothes. She's not much of a talker, and she seems really introverted, so I suggest you try and make her feel as comfortable as possible. I imagine that she's...been through a lot," her face veered away, landing on the computer screen with the Galahad's plans on it, then back to the others. "Well, her name's Rei. I dunno why but I think that for girls that's a Japanese name. She even spelt it out for me while we were in the car, and I could have sworn that name was really popular amongst girls in Japan. Hey, Teji, you're name is Japanese, right? Do you know?"

"Excuse me!" Teji replied quickly, irritated. "Do I look Japanese to you?"

Taj cringed slightly at Teji's sudden outburst. "...a little. Not the hair...nor the skin...or the eyes...or the nose, you're nose is very much American...." he stopped when Teji gave him a digested look (Like we aren't brothers, so why should he be the one saying that? thought Teji.).

"Or Caucasian," Ragnar added.

Quirking a brow, Teji turned to Ragnar. "Do you even know what a Caucasian looks like?"

"Umm...I know that their from...Caucasia?"

Teji slapped a hand over his forehead, and then Taj broke the silence with an inane question. "Well, how old is she?"

"Too old for you, I bet," Ragnar remarked, slapping a hand behind the boy's back.

"She looks around twenty, maybe around Teji's age. How old are you, anyway?"

"None of your goddamned business," he said with a slight smirk.

Uri took her hands back into the jean pockets, and started to walk the other way with a sigh. "Well, I'm just going to be...somewhere else. Leave you guys alone. If you run into Reuel, Bekah, or Nickoli, then be sure to tell them the same thing, because you know how they are with 'strangers.'"

"What? Beware of some girl with a guy's name is running around here?" Teji said with a smirk. "Sure, we'll tell them. Bekah will be pleased to hear of a newbie anyway."

She looked over her shoulder. "Don't get smart with me now, boy," she said and winked, then left.

***

Rei felt her eyebrow twitch. "W-What?"

Fia frowned, bringing down the blouse. "You don't like it?"

"It's see through!"

"Oh yeah!" she said, and chuckled nervously, then tossed it back in her closet. "No...." she muttered to herself as she tossed things around. "Not this.... And this one's for something else. Eheh. Hmm...dark shades.... Shades.... Shades.... Ah! Here we go!"

Rei was thrown back when she felt a large piece of garments cover her face. She let out a muffled yelp, sitting back up from the couch she had been sitting on, holding up a low cut shirt. She looked up at Fia. She already had her dressed up in navy blue jeans, which fitted her much better than the last pair she wore, and could finally breath.

There was a strange symbol that was on the chest of the shirt, too.

"What's this?" Rei asked, pointing to the symbol. It looked familiar.

Grazing the back of her neck, Fia squinted as she looked down upon the symbol. "I dunno. Looks sort of Chinese, I guess. Never was too keen on the foreign language subject. I, personally, just liked the way the shirt looked, that's all. Hey, when we head off to the store, maybe we can get you one of your own? How does that sound...what was your name again?"

"Rei," she said indistinctly, lowering her head as though ashamed of something. "And...I think I'll be okay. I don't want to be much of a burden upon you people."

"Aw, that ain't nothing but hot air," Fia said passively with a sweet smile. "Just look at it as either a simple offering or a gift, it's the least we can do. Now, as for shoes, you might want to stand up and walk around in those sneakers. They're not much for now, and I think they may be a little too big for you."

Rei sighed, and she did stand up.

What had she gotten herself into, anyway...?

***

There were inaudible voices coming from outside of the hallways. Xaden leaned backwards, stroking Nook's forehead as he watched people pass by from the exterior of the doors in the outside hallway. He averted his head to look up, turning on the television set. Nothing much on other than the news and some sitcoms, both which he loathed. He'd rather watch the news at least.

Not much for the topic, nothing useful, at least; No creature sightings, no attacks, nothing. It was like for a long while somebody had been holding them back, or they were just keeping themselves that way for a specific reason. They don't ever plot, do they...?

Xaden sighed and turned off the television set, tiring of it's ongoing trivial stories. He turned and looked back outside his room, watching stretchers squeak by, people murmuring and he even gritted his teeth at the sound of a weeping infant. Just what he needed to live with. The sound level of the atmosphere suddenly decided to pick up, causing Nook's ears to constantly twitch in the same irritation as Xaden shared.

"Anyone's seen that Shirawatari girl that was in the room?" came a muffled tone.

"Huh?"

"She's gone, did one of you guy's move her to someplace else?"

"Well, you or one of your coworkers told us that she wasn't to be awaken, and she never did. Not for years. I don't suspect she would have gone anywhere without our authorization," said the female voice. "Is something wrong?"

"Yes, something is wrong! I know she couldn't have woken up by herself, because she was in a permanent cold sleep, and meant to stay that way! You moved her, didn't you?"

There was an abrupt slamming sound of metal coming from outside. Xaden flinched at the noise, but continued to listen, interested. He could have sworn he heard of the name Shirawatari somewhere on the back of his memory, but couldn't quite recall it, however.

"What's so special about her, anyway, huh? Its not like she could do much anyway, falling into a coma at the age of eight years...she couldn't possibly know what was going on."

"You don't understand," said the growling voice. "She was a property of-"

"The hospital could really give a rat's ass as to who she belonged to. If she is gone, then that makes her either dead or somewhere else. Now, I advise you go search for this girl elsewhere, because you aren't going to find her around here if you keep pestering me. I'm a doctor, not your coworker, and get that straight into your thick, redundant skulls."

Silence. And then from across hallway, he could hear a voice.

"Westwood, gather your stuff and let's head back out. We'll come back later after it's finished."

"Yessir."

Two men walked across the door, one of them in uniform, the other a casually dressed man, wearing jeans, a white shirt, and a leather jacket. His hair was shimmering through the lights overhead, a light copper color, short cut. While the other man appeared to have been that of a government worker, while the other just looked like a ordinary citizen, perhaps it was only for the current time being, off duty maybe. In spite of his plebian appearance, there was something that seemed important about him, something that was there merely to fool the eye.

Xaden relaxed after they left, looking down at Nook who was resting his chin over Xaden's knee, slowly letting out a deep sigh, then softly shut his eyes, and slept.

Before he had done the same, Xaden gazed upward, just enough to see a nurse peer through the door, and close it, he thought, Wonder what they meant by "after it's finished," he asked himself. Sounded like something important. Oh well. His eyes closed. I guess it's not much worth worrying myself over.