NOVEL NEXT Arc 1 - Chapter 61 - Conflicting Emotions
As Thea slowly regained awareness, her inner eye was inundated with a stream of messages, each punctuated by the unmistakable chime of the Allbright System notifications, startling her into full, albeit severely groggy, wakefulness.
[System]: Messages have been grouped by related content for streamlined reading. To revert to the raw format, Participant may adjust settings using the standard procedures.
[System]: You have received 77 Contribution Points, 83 System Merit and 274 System Credits. (Combat)
[System]: You have received 41 Contribution Points, 54 System Merit and 212 System Credits. (Objectives)
[System]: You have successfully completed Faction Mission “Survive the Ambush”.
[System]: You have received 75 Contribution Points, 125 System Merit and 540 System Credits. (Mission)
[System]: You have completed Silver-Rank Accomplishment “Knack for Sabotage”.
[System]: You have completed Silver-Rank Accomplishment “Fledgeling Scout”.
[System]: You have received 83 Contribution Points, 106 System Merit and 442 System Credits. (Combat)
[System]: You have received 258 Contribution Points, 134 System Merit and 826 System Credits. (Objectives)
[System]: You have reached Level 5.
[System]: You have gained 4 Unspent Attribute Points.
[System]: HP Resource maximum increased by 10.
[System]: Focus Resource maximum increased by 10.
[System]: Stamina Resource maximum increased by 10.
[System]: You have successfully completed Faction Mission “Survive the Ambush - Again”.
[System]: You have received 150 Contribution Points, 210 System Merit and 1,550 System Credits. (Mission)
[System]: You have completed Silver-Rank Accomplishment “Fledgeling Infiltrator”.
[System]: You have received 134 Contribution Points, 142 System Merit and 656 System Credits. (Combat)
[System]: You have reached Level 6.
[System]: You have gained 4 Unspent Attribute Points.
[System]: You have received 156 Contribution Points, 187 System Merit and 961 System Credits. (Objectives)
[System]: You have successfully completed Faction Mission “Destroy the Artillery”.
[System]: You have received 250 Contribution Points, 450 System Merit and 4,565 System Credits. (Mission)
[System]: You have completed Gold-Rank Accomplishment “Unseen Death”.
[System]: Vitality has increased by 0.01 points.
[System]: Vitality has increased by 0.01 points.
[System]: The Participant’s Blueprint has been updated.
[System]: The Strength Attribute distribution within the Participant’s body has been adjusted.
[System]: The Vitality Attribute distribution within the Participant’s body has been adjusted.
[System]: The Finesse Attribute distribution within the Participant’s body has been adjusted.
[System]: Vitality has increased by 0.01 points.
[System]: Recovery has increased by 0.01 points.
[System]: Recovery has increased by 0.01 points.
[System]: The Participant’s Blueprint has been updated.
[System]: “Shell Modifications” interface now available.
[System]: Meditation Focus has reached Level 1.
[System]: Inspect Target has reached Level 1.
[System]: Sky Step has reached Level 1.
[System]: Penetrative Shot has reached Level 2.
[System]: Armour of Resolve has reached Level 2.
[System]: Improved Sprint has reached Level 1.
[System]: Silver Respiration has reached Level 2.
[System]: Agile Stealth has reached Level 3.
[System]: Meditation Focus has reached Level 2.
[System]: Inspect Target has reached Level 2.
[System]: Sky Step has reached Level 2.
[System]: Penetrative Shot has reached Level 3.
[System]: Armour of Resolve has reached Level 3.
[System]: Improved Sprint has reached Level 2.
[System]: Silver Respiration has reached Level 3.
Overwhelmed by the torrent of information flooding her inner eye, Thea struggled to make sense of what had transpired.
She was grateful that she was lying on what felt like a comfortable bed; had she been sitting or standing, the barrage of System Notifications could have easily disrupted her ability to stay upright.
Although the notifications were designed to be as translucent as they needed to be for any given moment, minimising their obstructive potential almost entirely, their sheer number would have inevitably shattered her focus on any other task.
'Seriously… What the fuck just happened?' Thea wondered groggily. After a brief moment of groggy non-recognition, Thea focused intently on her own mind and started shaking off her mental fog, before resolving herself to assess her current circumstances.
'Priority one: Check my [Status] and see what's up. That should give me a good one-stop look at everything that’s changed. Once I've done that, I can figure out where I am and what happened to me. Step by step. Slow and methodical, Thea.'
With a brief mental command, she pulled up her full [Status & Currencies] interface.
[Status, Attributes & Currencies]:
Thea McKay - Level 6.78 - Contribution Points: 417.55 / 533 - Unspent Attribute Points: 8
HP: 131 / 131 - Stamina: 165 / 165 - Focus: 225 / 225 - TBD - TBD
Class: None - Specialization: None - Title: None - TBD - TBD
Strength: 3.38 | 3.18 (+0%) + 0.2
Finesse: 4.73 (+0%)
Vitality: 2.51 (+0%)
Recovery: 2.72 (+0%)
Stamina: 3.11 (+0%)
Focus: 4.31 (+0%)
Perception: 7.39 | 5.28 (+40%)
Resolve: 8.35 | 5.97 (+40%)
[Psychic: TBD (+0%)] (Locked 22.56/30)
[TBD: TBD (+0%)] (Locked)
System Credits: 10,338
System Merit: 1,795
With her eyes clenched shut, every fibre of Thea's being fought the instinct to snap them open in disbelief as she digested the avalanche of data bombarding her inner eye. 'Level 6?! And I gained how many Credits and Merits?! You've got to be absolutely shitting me!'
A wave of excitement surged through her, and she clenched her fists involuntarily. Her muscles tensed, but she exerted iron self-control to keep her physical body as still as a statue, a deceptive mask of tranquillity. Without knowing where she was, Thea did not want to risk being found out.
'Wait, there's a bonus to my Strength? Where in the world did that come from?' Her thoughts whirled, her mind grappling to make sense of her newfound reality.
Memories from before her black-out flickered into her consciousness, like scenes from a fragmented movie reel. 'The mission was to eliminate an artillery outpost... Morin, Einor, and Vi were with me...'
When her thoughts touched upon Viladia's name, a surge of potent, primal rage bubbled up from her chest. It was a molten wave of emotion, almost overwhelming in its intensity. Again, her mental resolve came into play; she reined in the emotion, swallowing it down, lest her body betray her emotional turmoil.
'What just happened there…?’ Thea mused, stunned by the forceful wave of emotion she felt toward her recent ally. Despite her attempts to dissect the origins of such strong feelings, she found no clear answers.
Shaking off the bewilderment, she refocused on the main task at hand: Piecing together the events that had led her to her current predicament.
‘I had them covered. We demolished the outpost. Then...darkness?'
Gauzy images of Stellar Republic soldiers launching an assault on her position swam through her mind, their forms blurry and indistinct, as if she were reliving the experience through a lens smeared with fog.
Despite the confusion and the sheer amount of unanswered questions, she remained physically immobile, a picture of serenity, even as her internal world was anything but.
As she endeavoured to extract more from her memory, a piercing headache bore into her skull, as if punishing her for her curiosity. 'Ah, fuck! I won't figure this out without first knowing where I actually am, will I? I need someone to clue me in…'
Cautiously, Thea began to shift her heightened perception toward the environment surrounding her, taking painstaking care not to betray any signs of consciousness.
James had made painstakingly sure to etch certain protocols into her mind for situations like this. "Be smart. Be resourceful. Don't tip your hand too soon, and whatever you do, never give away anything for free. Bargain—trade information for vital resources like food and water; things that will facilitate your escape. A starved or dehydrated prisoner has no chance of surviving, much less of getting out."
Taking this survival wisdom to heart, Thea first honed in on her sense of smell and hearing, the senses least likely to give her away.
She meticulously honed in on her sense of smell, working through the layers of scent in the air as if peeling back the pages of a dense, mysterious book.
Initially, her nose was overwhelmed by the aggressive smell of disinfectant, a harsh chemical aroma that pervaded the space. Alongside it was the unmistakable tinge of sweat—human exertion—possibly a clue about the presence of others in the vicinity. Focusing more intently on this particular one, however, Thea quickly realised it was her own with a frown.
As she consciously chose to ignore those initial smells, new olfactory sensations came into focus. The metallic scent of dried blood mingled with the clinical aroma of sterile fabric.
Medical attention had been given here, and recently.
Once she filtered those out, a more organic scent layer emerged. She detected the earthy fragrance of damp soil and the unmistakable aroma of trees—bark, leaves, and all. She was somewhere close to nature, or at least, she had been at some point very recently, before waking up.
As she pushed her sensory capabilities, she couldn't help but marvel at her ability to selectively focus on and blend out various scents. ‘Is this possible because of my high Perception…? I’m pretty sure I wasn’t able to do that before… Not that I’m complaining. This is fucking awesome!’
Finally, when she felt she had isolated and catalogued all of the immediate smells, a final, faint aroma caught her attention. A subtle, floral aroma that evoked a sense of calm and familiarity within her, yet its exact origin eluded her.
She had encountered this particular scent before, but where? A delicate blend of petals and nectar that somehow seemed more personal, more intimate than the other scents.
Thea strained her memory, sifting through past experiences in an attempt to identify the subtle floral aroma that now teased her senses.
Her memory had always been one of her strongest attributes—capable of holding onto the most minute details with astonishing clarity. On a focused day, she could replay entire conversations in her head, word-for-word, visualising the setting with almost photographic precision. Yet even with this remarkable gift, she found herself thwarted.
Despite her best efforts, the origin of the fragrance remained frustratingly elusive. She started to wonder if the scent had been a fleeting backdrop to other, more pressing memories, rather than something she had consciously noted. It seemed to be a subtle accompaniment that hadn't lodged itself into her mind with the same assertive presence as other details had.
Disappointed but resolute, Thea continued to peel back additional layers of scent, as if each was a veil hiding some vital clue.
Next, her nose picked up a clean, soapy aroma, as if something—or somewhere—had been freshly laundered or scrubbed. The scent was in stark contrast to the previous ones, almost as if it was challenging her to make sense of these incongruent pieces.
Pushing the boundaries of her exceptional Perception, Thea felt the mounting pressure of her headache intensify, as if her mind were stretching taut like an overburdened wire. Yet, she steeled herself for one last effort, resolved to set aside the clean, soapy scent that had most recently registered in her senses.
Her goal: To glean one final clue about her immediate surroundings, a last fragment that could be the keystone in the puzzle she was frantically assembling.
As Thea honed her focus to an almost razor-sharp point, she detected something subtly different—an aroma that was slightly salty, tinged with an elusive element she couldn't quite place. It wasn't a scent that registered as distinct or recognizable, but something more primal, a scent that bypassed rational thought and went straight to the base of her brain, eliciting an unbidden feeling of unease; of worry.
Confounded and slightly alarmed, she couldn't make heads or tails of this enigmatic aroma.
Realising she'd hit the limit of her stretched Perception, she released her mental blocks.
Instantly, her sense of smell was bombarded by the familiar, overpowering smell of disinfectant, as if it were a dam that had just burst. Simultaneously, she felt the tension of her headache dissipate, as if washed away by the flood of more easily recognizable scents.
Holding back an almost involuntary sigh of relief, Thea quickly shifted her attention to her sense of hearing.
'With all the sensory clues I've gathered from the smells, adding sound data into the mix should definitely give me more to work with,' she thought hopefully, her frustrations of being unable to properly use her sense of smell to get much of a clue of what was happening around her, still fresh in the back of her mind.
She began by stripping away the layers of ambient sound, starting with the most immediate.
The mechanical whirring and beeping of machines around her became the first layer she filtered out, followed by the biological symphony of her own body—the steady thump of her heartbeat, the swish of blood coursing through her veins, and the subtle hum of her organs functioning.
Yet, she noticed a conspicuous absence—the sound of blood circulating through her right hand was missing.
A bolt of alarm surged through her. 'What is wrong with my hand?!'
But she quickly suppressed that thread of thought, reminding herself that she needed to prioritise. 'Stay focused, Thea. One thing after another. I need to figure out where I am, then we can figure out what’s wrong with my hand. The [Status] said I’m fully healthy, so I should be fine.'
Turning her Perception outward again, she mentally sifted through the subtler sounds.
Faint footsteps echoed in the distance, the soft cadence suggesting a measured pace. She also discerned the murmurs of conversation—indistinct, but very much there. She strained her ears, almost feeling like she could parse the words if she focused just a bit harder.
'Machines, footsteps and conversation? Am I in a medical facility…? Or maybe a holding cell of some kind?' The questions whirled through her mind. But with her attention focused so keenly on each detail, she knew she was assembling the puzzle, piece by piece.
And more importantly, she felt like she was getting closer to the finish line.
As she continued to peel back the layers of sound, Thea's ears picked up something new—a faint rustling of leaves in the wind. It was so subtle she might have missed it if not for her sharpened senses. 'Leaves? That combined with the earthy and woody smells from before... I must be in a forest,' she reasoned.
A notion dawned on her. 'The Azure Forest? But that’s controlled by the Stellar Republic, last I checked.'
A jolt of alarm mixed with disbelief tightened her chest. 'Did I really manage to get captured on my first mission?! James is so gonna kill me…'
The urgency of the situation became apparent to her immediately, and she put those thoughts aside, focusing intently on filtering through more layers of sound. She sifted through one layer, then another, her mental senses narrowing to a pinpoint.
Then she heard it—a heart beating, not her own, coming from just metres away from where she lay. It was a controlled, steady rhythm but unmistakably close.
Someone was in the room with her.
The realisation made her freeze, every muscle in her body tensing involuntarily.
She kept her breathing steady, willing every part of her to remain as still as a statue. 'Okay, I'm not alone. Whoever they are, I can't let on that I'm awake,' she thought, her mind racing.
Thea reminded herself of her plan to regain her composure, 'First, I had to gather information, now I have to decide how to use it. Very, very carefully.'
Intently homing in on the location of the heartbeat, Thea channelled all her sensory perception toward extracting any additional information she could glean from it.
As Thea narrowed her focus on the heartbeat, the faint sound of rushing blood began to fill her ears. A headache pounded at the edges of her consciousness, signalling that she was pushing the bounds of her perception to its absolute limit.
For a fleeting moment, the heartbeat she was attuned to quickened, an ephemeral skip, before settling back into a steady rhythm.
That momentary fluctuation pulled at the fringes of her memory, like a fading echo calling out to be recognized. She channelled every scrap of her concentration, meshing her present sensory data with fragments of past memories. The task was akin to weaving an intricate tapestry in her mind, each thread of information and memory finding its rightful place.
And then it clicked—the tempo, the slight acceleration, and the subtle nuances in the beat.
She knew this heartbeat; it was almost as familiar to her as her own.
It was the exact rhythm she had subconsciously registered from Karania during their interactions and many hours spent together. Her mind suddenly catapulted back to the opening ceremony, the first moment she'd met Karania.
She remembered how Karania had leaned in to examine her cyan eyes, and how the faint floral aroma of her perfume had graced her senses.
Realisation flooded Thea like a tidal wave. She wasn't in a prison; she was in some form of medical facility.
But most crucially, Karania was in the room with her.
Every disjointed piece of information, every sensory clue, every fragmented memory, they all snapped into a coherent picture. Despite the many questions still swirling in her mind, one thing was abundantly clear: She was not alone.
Karania was with her, and that meant safety, at least for the moment.
With the utmost caution, Thea gently fluttered open her eyes, not wanting to make any abrupt movements that might give her away.
Despite the clues she'd pieced together, there was still a part of her that questioned the accuracy of her senses. As much as she yearned for them to be right, she was prepared for the worst.
However, what she saw next stopped her cold, sending her heart into a crushing grip of an emotion she couldn't even begin to name.
The Karania she knew—the unwaveringly stoic and perpetually cheerful Karania—was crying.
Discarding all caution and filled with sudden concern, Thea made a swift attempt to sit up, but failed as her body refused to heed her commands. Her voice emerged as a hoarse, fractured whisper as she managed to stammer, "K...Kara?"
Karania's face, marred by trails of tears, snapped upward, her eyes locking onto Thea's weakened figure.
Without a moment's hesitation, she rushed to the bedside, her voice tinged with both surprise and relief as she exclaimed, "Thea! You're awake!"
But before Thea could formulate a response, Karania's fingers were already flying over her data-pad at an astonishing speed, pausing only to scrutinise the information she had just pulled up.
Thea observed that Karania had reverted to her usual composed demeanour, the earlier visage of tear-streaked despair vanishing as quickly as it had appeared—like tears lost to the rain.
Before she could even part her lips to speak, Thea saw Karania give one final, decisive nod. Lowering her data-pad, Karania's eyes met Thea's once more, her gaze fixated.
Just as their eyes locked, a stinging slap suddenly landed across Thea's face, the sound reverberating through the room.
For a split second, she was stunned, her cheek ablaze and her thoughts scrambled. Before she could react or form a coherent thought, Karania lunged forward and enveloped her in a warm, secure hug.
"You're a fucking moron, Thea. A complete, utter moron of unfathomable proportions, that does not deserve to be alive right now," Karania muttered into her ear. Then, softening her voice, she added, "But I still missed you. Welcome back."
Thea was a whirlpool of emotions—confused, her cheek still smarting from the slap, yet inexplicably comforted by Karania's embrace.
She had never been much for hugs, her experience limited to the occasional embraces she'd shared with Thomas and James back on Lumiosia. But in that moment, cocooned in Karania's arms, she couldn't deny the sense of warmth and security that enveloped her. It was a strange juxtaposition of feelings—pain and comfort coexisting—but somehow, it felt exactly right.
Summoning her willpower, Thea tried to lift her arms to return the hug. They felt sluggish, heavy, as if weighed down by invisible anchors. Gritting her teeth, she focused, managing to lift her arms bit by bit, until finally, her hands met Karania's back.
Just as she was about to exhale a sigh of relief, her entire being seized with a jolt of terror—something was profoundly wrong with her right hand.
The sensation was uncanny.
Although her hand’s signals mimicked the feeling of skin and muscle, there was a cold, mechanical detachment to it. A tactile void, like an emotional gap, seemed to separate this hand from the rest of her body. The flesh felt devoid of the natural warmth, the delicate network of nerves, and the intricate movements she'd always taken for granted.
And yet, it was almost disturbingly similar—a simulacrum of the hand she had known, like an actor performing a role to eerie perfection.
Even the very weight of it felt different, subtly off, in a way that gnawed at the back of her mind. It was as if she'd become detached from a part of herself, estranged yet bound to this strange new appendage that rested on Karania's back, outside her own view.
Karania sensed Thea's sudden freeze and tightened her embrace, as if trying to shield her from the unnerving reality she was about to face.
Pulling back slightly, but still holding onto Thea, she began to explain with a weighted seriousness. "Listen, Thea. There are some changes with your body that we couldn't avoid... We had to replace parts of your jaw with bionics, and your entire right hand was replaced with a cybernetic one. Your hand was completely destroyed—melted off and torn apart. We couldn't even begin to figure out how to save parts, much less all of it."
She paused for a moment, her gaze searching Thea's eyes for understanding before continuing, "Don't worry, these can be reverted back to their natural state... just not here. Not during the assessment. You'll have to make do with them for now."
She went on, "Staff-Sergeant Venn made sure to get you the best of the best that HQ had on offer. He promised they'd feel fairly normal, but I knew you'd notice the difference right away... You've always been perceptive, after all."
Karania's face softened. "I'm glad you woke up while I was here, Thea. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them. Your vital signs are all in the clear, so you should be okay. But you might continue to feel slightly weakened. You've been in a coma for nearly five days..."
As Karania spoke, Thea's thoughts whirred, trying to digest the avalanche of information. The reality was surreal, almost too much to handle, but having Karania there to guide her through it offered a strange sense of comfort amidst the upheaval.
Gently pulling her hand away from Karania, she raised it into her line of sight—she had to confirm it for herself.
The hand that replaced her original one was nothing short of an engineering masterpiece.
It sported a sleek, muted silver surface that appeared to seamlessly flow from her wrist, embodying a futuristic elegance.
The hand's joints were intricately designed, looking as if they had been crafted by an artisan in painstaking effort rather than mass-produced. The construction was flawless, leaving no visible screws or seams, as if it were downright sculpted rather than assembled.
Adding a layer of ethereal beauty, the hand featured accents of iridescent, multi-colored hues that shimmered subtly when they caught the light—hints of cerulean, fiery orange, and verdant green that pulsed like far-off nebulas.
These colourful highlights immediately suggested the incorporation of System Materials to Thea, having seen these peculiar hues in a dozen different pieces of equipment over the recent days. The blend of traditional metals and System Materials not only gave it a cutting-edge look but likely contributed to its exceptional functionality.
It was technology elevated to art, a marvel that would usually provoke awe and excitement from her tech-savvy self. Yet, the complexities of the situation dulled what would have been her typical reaction. Even so, she couldn't entirely suppress her admiration for the genius that went into crafting such a hand, which was undoubtedly leagues ahead of any cybernetic implant she had ever encountered.
As she flexed the mechanical fingers, she could feel the fluidity and precision in their movement. It felt almost natural, yet it was accompanied by a faint hum of servos and the subtle clinks of metal against metal. Each digit had an impressive range of motion, responding almost intuitively to the neural commands she sent. When she clenched her fist, she felt a responsive strength that betrayed the hand's delicate appearance; a strength she could swear was beyond what her old hand had been able to exude.
Yet, for all its technological brilliance, it wasn't her hand.
As she manipulated the mechanical fingers, trying out different grips and movements, she couldn't shake the odd sensation that it was simultaneously a part of her and something entirely alien.
The texture was different; there was no warmth of skin, no subtle give of muscle or tug of tendon. Everything was precise, calculated, mechanical—attributes that thrilled the tech-loving corners of her soul but also left her feeling disconnected and somewhat bereft.
The reality of her situation began to sink in, overpowering her initial excitement over the technological marvel now attached to her arm.
The sense of loss was palpable, a hole in her being that this incredible piece of engineering, for all its capabilities, couldn't truly fill…