Damon's Ascension

Damon's eyes shot open, his mind coming to rapidly as he gathered his bearings. He saw that he was in the medbay of the Normandy, which was quite large since the Normandy was a sizable ship.

Looking around, he could see that the walls were clean and white, being the kind of sterile color that didn't calm you but reminded you that pain had happened here.

Some high tech machines hummed softly, while several automated pods lined the room, each open like a flower mid-bloom, filled with nutrient solution and packed with sensors, tubes, as well as bandages.

One of them had Felicia inside, the top half of her body submerged in light-blue healing gel, her breathing steady but shallow. Her eyes were closed, and her usually thoughtful expression was marred by tension in her brow.

Another pod held Nicholas, his limbs twitching slightly every so often, likely from residual nerve trauma.

Across the medbay, Kyle was propped against a raised gurney, a thick band of regenerative material wrapped tightly around his waist where the blade had sliced through. His eyes were open but distant, showing more annoyance at being temporarily crippled than in actual pain.

Connor was in a sitting position on the floor, leaning against the wall and using his own shadow portal as a blanket. His face was pale, and blood loss still lingered despite the emergency patches over his abdomen.

Nearby, Levi had a deep gash down one side of his face that refused to close properly despite the nanite swarm working overtime to stitch it. He didn't complain, just stared forward, like he was still in the casino.

Xela stood in the middle of the room while barefoot, sleeves rolled up to the elbows. Her normally playful face was now heavy with exhaustion, her lips pale and skin covered in a sheen of sweat. The VQD on her wrist flashed red repeatedly, a soft warning about her vitals, but she ignored it.

She was moving from patient to patient, adjusting levels manually. She wiped Nicholas' brow, double-checked the slow-drip IV feeding his recovery protocol, then turned to Levi and made a slight adjustment to his nanite calibration.

She said teasing words like usual and her movement was even more professional than some trained doctors. The young lass was a model of quiet, consistent effort.

When she passed by Kyle, she gave him a cursory glance and their eyes met for a second.

"You're lucky, Kyle. Another two seconds and your spinal column would've been exposed." She said, voice hoarse and full of fear, still shaken by the sudden violence earlier.

Kyle grunted in agreement. "That fucking pre-chaos freak was faster than anything I've seen. Don't know how he slipped the rules."

"That place is terrible, I hope all Areas aren't like that one." Xela muttered, more to herself than to him.

At that moment, the auto-scanner over Felicia let out a sharp beep, causing Xela's head to snap around. She rushed over and frowned as she saw the numbers on the screens because while Felicia's vitals were stabilizing, her body had begun absorbing it own energy at an accelerated rate, likely a side-effect from the orange energy that had touched them all when Damon collapsed.

"Not again," Xela whispered.

This had been happenings many times over the few hours since they had successfully escaped the casino and reappeared on the bridge of The Normandy, half the team sliced at the waist minus Bane who was holding Damon, Levi, Protizen, Henry, Marshal and herself.

Those few seconds would be forever burned into Xela's memory, seeing her newfound friends split in half while screaming in agony since they were too strong to die right away. If it hadn't been for Bane rapidly transforming and carrying everyone in a rush to the medbay, the her at the time who had frozen in shock might have had to resurrect someone.

Since then she had used her ability to stabilize everyone and reattach their bodies, though even that was not necessary since the advanced medical facilities here could have done that, and were also doing that.

Unfortunately, she couldn't help them all fully because there was something sinister in that slash from that Pre-chaos fellow that was eating away at their wounds, so she had to use her healing ability on them multiple times this past few hours.

Felicia had it the worst as she was the first target of the slice since she had been in the lead, and the energy that bisected her was the strongest. Xela had expended most of her energy on her, only to find that she begun to spike crazily like this afterward.

Protizen stood near the back with his arms crossed, watching everything with that strange emotionless expression he always wore, but his posture was tight and rigid.

He had actually been hit too, though not bisected. His armor was still cracked along the side, and his usual golden glow was dim.

He was the reason the reason did not get hit as the blade bounced off his armor after expending a lot of energy.

Marshal, sitting on the far edge of the room, whispered under his breath his ability held back for now but ready to go if someone reached critical situation. His eyes kept darting toward the adjacent chamber, the one Damon was in, as if waiting for something to go wrong.

Henry hadn't said a word since being dragged in as his right arm was gone, neatly sliced at the shoulder. Xela had clamped the wound, started the regrowth process, but until then, he just sat on his medical bed staring at the ceiling.

He was the one that saved them, as Connor used his shadow portals at the first moment but because he was also sliced in half, he almost passed out. Henry replicated Connor's ability and then used the final shadow portals to get them to the ship in the end.

Bane was in the recovery alcove next to the wall, knuckles bandaged and cracked. His high Fortitude had saved him, like always, but he had shielded Damon's body with his own and the act had mangled his arms from the elbow down.

Even now, nanites crawled over his flesh like ants rebuilding a broken colony.

Connor's voice broke the silence. "He's still not waking up?"

Xela didn't answer.

"...It's been over an hour." He continued, softer this time.

Xela finally looked at Damon. Her voice didn't raise, but it cut clean. "He was actually the closest to death among all of us."

No one said anything after that until Damon sat up without a word.

The movement was sudden and precise, almost like a machine rebooting after a long silence. His eyes, still bleary from the internal strain, swept over the room once, then again.

Each passover his group made his eyes sharpen, especially when his gaze settled on Felicia's pod. He breathed out deeply and turned to Nicholas, then Kyle.

Xela realized he was up before anyone else noticed. Her hands stopped moving in shock. "Damon…?"

"I'm alive and well thanks to you all." He said, voice rough from dehydration but clear.

Everyone froze.

Kyle blinked in pleasant surprise while Connor actually sat up straighter. Even Protizen, who hadn't moved for half an hour, stood up right away.

Marshal stopped his whispering, while Bane walked towards Damon with a nod. Levi also glanced at their leader and seemed to finally relax deeply.

Henrys dazed eyes came back and he sighed with audible relief.

The chain of command, shattered briefly by emergency, had just snapped back into place.

Damon swung his legs off the bed, ignoring the sharp spike of pain in his lower back as his muscles screamed in protest, but he didn't show it. He stood up slowly, bracing himself on the frame with one hand.

Xela crossed the room and touched his forearm, fingers brushing over his skin. "You shouldn't be moving. You're still…"

"Thank you Xela, you have been as precious to this team as everyone expected. However, I need you to tell me what happened." Damon interrupted firmly.

His eyes didn't leave Felicia's pod. "All of it."

Xela inhaled, slow and tired. "You collapsed after the probability shift, fully drained with less than 1% of your life energy remaining. We rushed you out, but one of the Pre-Chaos prisoners went crazy and attacked. Half the team was bisected before we could react."

She gestured loosely to the room. "I've stabilized everyone, mostly. The medbay helped, but... whatever that blade was made of, it's still burning inside them. I've had to heal everyone multiple times just to stop it from spreading."

Damon finally looked at Xela with appreciation, but his tone was hard. "And Felicia?"

"She was hit first and took the worst of it, so I spent most of my energy keeping her stable." Xela explained slowly.

Xela said quietly. "Now... she's spiking. Her body's reacting to something, possibly the orange surge." "

Damon frowned. "The Chaos Essence."

"Yes, but she's the only one absorbing it like it belongs to her." Xela said.

That hung in the air.

Damon digested it with furrowed brows, wondering what the cause was. He could use Chaos Essence because Probability Manipulation could make use of it for reasons he was not yet fully aware of, and it did not actually interact with him truly, but just used his body as a conduit.

Like all Post-Chaos beings, Damon couldn't absorb or use Chaos Essence.

However, what was happening to Felicia now?

She also had EX abilities, so was it because of this that her body was absorbing it?

Or wait, could it be!?

Damon's eyes narrowed as he thought of something he had forgotten, the fact that the Universe Will had been caught hitching a ride in Felicia's body and was beaten up by the Chaos Eye.

So was it the Universe Will absorbing the raw Chaos Essence form the earlier reaction autonomously? Maybe to restore itself?

So many damn questions!