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CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN swallow me whole
⋆*✧･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:
WHEN NADINE WOKE UP, she wondered if she was dead. This was actually quite a logical conclusion; after all, the last thing she remembered was being blown backward by a plume of fire as the kugelblitz throbbed behind her. Perhaps the burns—and there were burns; Nadine also remembered the searing pain that had shot up into her side—or the kugelblitz had finally done her in. She'd been lucky so far, but really, how long could that luck last? There had to be a tipping point. A moment the universe decided that it was her time to go.
But when she opened her eyes to find Viktor's concerned face swimming above her, she realized that she was still alive and kicking. Which may have been for the worse, given the way her side ached. It wasn't nearly as bad as the agony that had occurred when she'd first been burned, but it was bad enough to immediately make her grit her teeth. Fuck. She was so tired of being in pain.
"Nadine?" Viktor asked. His hand was in hers. Holy shit, he was holding her hand again. "Are you with me?"
"Unfortunately," Nadine groaned. "Why am I always getting beat up?"
"I think you go looking for trouble."
"Or trouble just looks for me." Nadine shifted in bed—a hospital bed, though the silky sheets and comfortable mattress didn't feel like the ones she was used to—and immediately regretted it as her burned skin stretched. Red spots dotted her vision. "Fuck."
"Don't try to move yet," Viktor chided. "We need to give you another dose of meds. Then you can be up and about, since I know there's no way in hell you're staying here."
"You'd be right about that." Even with the pain, Nadine was tempted to swing her legs out of bed now. Before she could, though, something occurred to her. "Wait."
"What?"
"What the hell happened to the kugelblitz? Is it still, you know, there? Or did we defeat it? Is that why you're huddled around my bedside?"
Viktor pursed his lips, trying not to smile. Just that gesture made her discern what he was going to say even before he opened his mouth. "Yeah. Yeah, we did. It was a little difficult without you, but we managed." His entire face glowed. There was no other word for it. "The kugelblitz is gone."
"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Seriously? Like, one hundred percent serious? We're done? The universe is saved?"
"Yeah." Viktor squeezed her hand. "Yeah."
"Oh, my God."
The kugelblitz was gone. The kugelblitz was gone. Even without her, the Umbrella Academy (and the Sparrow Academy, she supposed) had managed it. They'd vanquished the beast in the basement. They'd saved the fabric of reality from becoming unravelled.
