Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Piece by Piece

Sunny sat with him, two hands holding one of his, the others resting gently on either his leg or his arm, in hopes she would be able to detect the first sign of movement. While she sat there, she rested her head against his good shoulder listening to the soft sound of his breath, now enhanced by a new artificial lung.

She tried not to dwell on the scene, despite being contained within it.

Sunny had a picture, an image of Adam from when he was younger, whole and healthy, both eyes, both legs, blond hair. And now, as he lay there, she couldn't help but feel she was watching him be chipped away piece by piece. It was then that she was assailed by a guilt she thought years gone by now as she looked down at his leg. His prosthetic had been removed and set off to the side leaving him with the missing limb from the thigh down.

She had taken that from him.

She was the first person to steal a piece.

And now here he was, cobbled together and held in place by a mixture of machine parts and flesh.

A leg, A lung, an eye and a heart. The entire left side of his chest was mostly exposed, a vast swath of artificial skin that didn't quite match the other skin around itt. There were still bandages of course, Krill and the other doctors expected some drainage from the implantation of the lung, and so had left tubes sticking out of his chest for just such reason.

He looked

Strange.

Barely human.

A missing leg, hair gone whit with stress little lines of orange light pulsing through his veins where the void sickness still lingered, only coming out now that he was injured.

Between the Adam she saw now, and the Adam in this picture.

He was unrecognizable.

Like Dr. Frankenstein's monster.

And yes she had read the book, Adam had insisted. Mary Shelley was the mother of science fiction after all. Sunny hadn't liked the book very much, but she had humored him. After finishing it, he grudgingly admitted that he didn't like it all that much either, but he thought it was important.

She squeezed his hand tighter, "Come on." She muttered.

He didn't move, and she sighed, leaning forward to rest her head back on his arm, soft, human skin pressed against her cheek.

From here she was at the perfect angle to see the light downy fuzz that covered his human ski, trailing up his arms and onto his shoulders. It was blond in color and so light and wispy it would have been impossible to notice at anything other than this distance. From here she could see where the line of fuzz terminated where real and artificial skin met.

"Come on." She muttered again, "Nane anidonish." she said again.

His face remained still and unmoving.

She sighed heavily.

She must have fallen asleep at some point, but woke up when the lights in the room were dimmed to the shuffling of feet.

She lifted her head to see Dr. katie standing in the doorway.. Her long, dark hair was tied back in a messy bun,and she held a holopad in one hand. She walked over quietly to look at the monitors, "Any change/"

Sunny shook her head, "Should he.... Have woken up by now."

Katie pursed her lips, clearly trying to think of the best way to phrase her next sentence.

"Don't sugarcoat it." Sunny said

Katie nodded, "It's hard to say. The injuries were incredibly traumatic. With the amount of bloodloss he sustained before we showed up, there is no knowing how long his brain was starved for oxygen. Celex says the anima is still there, so that is a good sign, but there is always a chance that the brain damage was so severe that the anima won't be able to interact through the damage...." She paused jaw working, "But he is incredibly drugged right now, and his body is trying to repair an immense amount of damage, so it might just be sleeping it off......"