"Urhgh…"
My head pounded like a bad hangover. The world around was like puddy, slippery, formless, and melting all around. A weight pressed against me, not Haylen but something lighter, thinner.
It took me a few seconds to realize it was a blanket. I adjusted my body, throwing it away and let my eyes adjust to the slight darkness. I was under a desk I didn't recognize, the last thing I remembered was passing out in the Junjujunjun Library. I remembered their amber eyes and the steps that followed me the night before.
My entire body trembled with both fear and anger, fear at the creature chasing me, anger at the creature I had carried on my back.
It was his fault all this had happened, it was his fault my hands were…burning?
My hands, which the night before had been red and raw, were now wrapped in bandages. They no longer burned, they felt cool and numb. Almost as if they were covered in an illusory ice pack.
"She's awake." A voice broke me out of my haze, a voice I had heard only once, but its impact was one I couldn't forget. I shot out from under the desk and there he was.
Shirtless and sitting upright, Haylen was being tended to by an unknown woman. He had a still-healing wound on his side and a small scar along his cheek. His hair, which had been white the night before, was once again black.
My eyes glazed over with anger as I walked up to him.
"Explain." He owed me at least that much, after ruining my life and forcing me to save his ass.
"Relax, I just came back from the de-"
I slapped the grin off his face.
"Eliya's gone, either you start explaining what the fuck is going on or I'll make you wish you were still sleeping in that ice cube."
Before he could part his lips to speak, the woman who had been tending to him spoke up.
"I think it would be better if I did that. I'm Levi." She flashed a reassuring smile.
Her soothing voice matched the round and soft features of her face. Large square glasses framed downturned eyes radiating with warmth and medium-length almond hair fell to her shoulders in waves.
Her elbow playfully hit Haylen's stomach as her cheeks creased in a wider grin. "I'm surprised you made a friend." She teased the boy.
Her face grew a bit more serious as she addressed me.
"Have you ever wondered what the limits of the human body truly are? Have you ever asked yourself what would happen if a group of scientists were allowed to experiment and modify humans with no regard for morality?"
I grew uncomfortable at the thought. I couldn't imagine a world where such a thing was allowed but looking at Haylen, it felt a little less inconceivable. The anger I felt towards him for taking Eliya from me subsided, instead replaced with a deep curiosity. I didn't forget my anger, far from it, but the veil of confusion that had covered the situation was slowly dissipating, and that was the current priority.
My back instinctively straightened and my ears strained to not miss a single detail.
"I think you know where I'm going with this, Haylen comes from such a place. A hellscape called Project LUCENT. It's a place where humans are turned into guinea pigs for the profit of those who wish to surpass mortal limitation."
"Lucent as is L.U.C.E.N.T. Pharmaceutical?"
"The very same, they're owned by Project LUCENT. The pharmacy is a cover up for their darker dealings. They work with governments, businessmen, and other people of wealth to achieve greater levels of strength, speed and in Haylen's case, immortality."
[Immortality?] Looking at him, it made sense. His skin was far from smooth, littered with scars and bruises, and his body was one of lean muscle, not large but functional. Both of his eyes carried a weight only death could give.
The phrase he had tried to say before I slapped him flashed to mind.
"You just came back from the dead?" I completed.
He nodded while rubbing his reddened cheek.
"O-Okay, let's say I believe all of this. What do you mean by achieving greater strength or immortality?"
"Branches," Haylen cut off the soft-featured woman before she could speak. His voice was heavy with both exhaustion and emotion, he seemed intimately familiar with the subject.
"The project's main goal is to create an upper class of superhumans, an upper class accessible only to the rich who can afford such modifications. But the rich don't want to be guinea pigs and so Project LUCENT performs tests on innocents, criminals, anyone they can get their hands on, really, in an effort to make sure each of the modifications they offer is as safe and painless as possible."
He took a deep breath, each word seemed to weigh on his soul like a sin he hadn't committed yet was forced to bear the punishment of. His eyes closed and he whispered something to himself before continuing.
"They have 5 branches, each representing a different type of modification: Immortality, Protection, Warfare, Debauchery, and Disease."
His explanation only raised more questions. How was this legal? How long had this been going on and how had no one found out? What did each branch actually entail? It was hard to imagine what kinds of abilities someone from the Debauchery branch would have.
One question at a time. There was one that already burned at the back of my mind.
"You're from the Immortality branch so that means you're like immortal immortal?"
He gave a slow nod.
"Essentially. We'll be working together for some time so it's fine if I tell you, you'd have figured it out anyways. I'm from a sub-branch of the immortality branch focused on immortality through cryogenic preservation, you're familiar with the concept?"
"Yeah, you freeze someone in the hopes that after a long period of time has passed, they'll still be alive when unfrozen."
"Well, I'm in a constant state between life and cryogenisis. I won't go into too much detail as to how or why but my injuries all freeze over, perpetually remaining in their infancy, while I heal. In the event I take too much damage, my entire body is envelopped in an ice chrysalis and undergoes an intensive healing period where I basically rise from the dead."
That kinda made sense. Just as I was about to ask my next question, something stood out to me.
"What do you mean by 'we'll be working together for some time'?"
"You want Eliya back, don't you? I'm not exactly in a state to be moving around too much at the moment so you'll be my eyes and ears on the outside world. Nes likely knows I'm already awake, he has eyes everywhere, so he can't act as rashly as he did before."
"I'm assuming Nes is the guy controlling the students? Why would it matter to him whether you're awake or not? His goal simply seems to be getting to you."
Haylen's lips curled up into a slight smile. "His goal isn't just getting to me, he wants to capture me and bring me back to Project LUCENT. The reason why my being awake matters is quite simple…
"If we ever fought while I was at full power, I'd likely kill him a hundred times over."
That should've been great news, I could just throw him at this Nes guy and problem solved. But the way he phrased it made me wait before celebrating.
"You're saying it like you're not at your full power."
"I'm not, it's taking every bit of will in my body not to pass out."
Of course, nothing had ever been easy since this man came into my life.
"Sure, I expected that. What now? Do you have a plan since you want us to work together?"
"I have the latter half of a plan, everything's been moving too fast for me to actually sit down and think, especially while being dead for a few days. We have six days to deal with Nes before LUCENT sends a wave of reinforcement. They usually give each team they send 6 to 7 days to complete a task, and if they can't, they send another wave to take care of it. If we can find a way to completely stop that second wave from being sent, LUCENT will back off for some time. They can't risk being exposed to the public. To that end, I have an idea.
"Your job is figuring out the first half of the plan. We just have to corner him in those 6 days."
'We just had to corner him', he said it like it was easy. I had spent the entire night powerless to do anything but run from him, and at that, I hadn't even been face-to-face with Nes.
With no better plan of my own, the only choice I really had was to go along with this freshly revived, crazy, idiotic boy's plan.
Great.