Unforeseen Circumstances

Chapter 15

As the eyes of the dirty blonde haired girl finally closed, the raven-haired man, who stood steadfast by her side, her hand grasped in his, was being forced to remove himself from her side. It didn't sit well with him to be removed from her side as it would mean breaking the promise in which she was grasping so strongly to, that he would be by her side throughout the entirety of the process. After he had managed to shake off the workers that were trying to use force to remove him, when the polite attempts didn't seem to be particularly effective, they were replaced by the man in charge of the entire operation.

"Devon, you need to stand back with Naomi, Reece and Brent. It isn't safe for you to remain by her side throughout the entire process." Alex informed the panicked man in front of him, having both Devon and Faith's best interests at heart.

"But I promised her Alex. I promised I wouldn't leave her alone through it! I can't break that promise!" The raven-haired man stated in a distraught tone of voice as he turned around to face his good friend and the leader of the Resistance.

"I know what you are like with your promises Devon, but it is physically not safe for you to be with her throughout it. Just imagine how she'd feel when she wakes up to find that you didn't survive because you were so hell bent on keeping true to the promise you made her?" Alex put the scenario into context for the raven-haired man. He was well aware how blinded Devon got when he tried to stay true to his promises and it was only once a situation was put into a rational perspective, that Devon actually ended up listening and doing as he had been instructed. Alex watched for a moment as he let the information sink in with Devon as the man's face morphed from panicked to a reluctant agreement.

"I guess you're right, like you always are," Devon responded in a despondent tone of voice, knowing that he had been proven wrong yet again. Alex patted him on the shoulder before gently giving him a push in the direction of Naomi and Reece, wanting to get him into the safe-zone as quickly as possible so that they could begin the reverse before the serum worked its way out of Faith's system and she started to regain consciousness.

Once the raven-haired man was a safe distance away from where the reverse was to happen, Alex nodded his head in the direction of the make-shift control panel area. Several buttons were pushed before two identical machines lowered, so that they were now hovering, roughly a ruler's length, above the two bodies of Rosie and Faith. As the machines stopped moving, various different mechanical noises sounded through the area as they gathered the power and charge needed to carry out their jobs.

Over on the other side of the room, the three people who had helped Faith every step of the way, to get to this moment in time, were all dealing with the scenario unfolding in front of them in different ways. The raven-haired man was pacing back and forth, running a shaky hand through his dark, messy hair, as he tried to cope with the nerves and stress that he was being made to endure. Trying to accept the decision made by a person who you care about more than words can say, isn't exactly the easiest thing to do, and that was precisely the situation that Devon found himself in as the threatening machines loomed over Rosie and Faith's bodies. Whilst Devon was pacing to distract himself, the blonde, who longed for both her little sister and her best friend to survive this process, was sat on a wooden bench against the concrete wall as she held her head in her hands, foot tapping incessantly on the ground. Despite Naomi's original intentions of helping Faith being just to restore her sister to her own body once again, she had developed such a close friendship with the unknown girl who had appeared in her sister's body that she didn't know which was better, to have Faith remain in Rosie's body or to risk switching them both back. Finally, Reece and Brent. Although they hadn't known Faith for the same length of time that the other two had, they viewed her as a younger sister type of character that they needed to protect at all costs but could have a laugh with at the same time. Whilst Devon and Naomi were stressing individually, the stress that Reece and Brent felt was, somewhat, alleviated at the knowledge that even though Faith had been faced with a dire situation, that she would, no doubt, be making sarcastic comments to try and lighten the situation.

As the machines finished gathering the power they needed, a flash encompassed the room as everyone lifted their arm up to shield their eyes from the light that risked permanently damaging their eyesight. Once the flash dissipated, the very essence that was Faith's soul was being pulled from the body that she had been involuntarily thrown into just over a month ago. Devon's breath caught in his throat as he witnessed her soul being removed from Rosie's body and it took both Brent and Reece to pin him against the wall in order to prevent the raven-haired man from sprinting over to where Alex stood at the make-shift control panel, begging him to stop the reverse. He grunted in annoyance as he struggled against their hold, unable to just sit idly by and watch this happen.

The machine stored Faith's soul temporarily in its structure before it repeated the same process, but putting a soul back into the body that it had just extracted Faith's soul from. As Naomi witnessed her sister's soul being put back into her own body, she couldn't help the small smile that made its way onto her face as the hope of seeing her sister again was restored. Despite being exceptionally happy at this prospect, all that was left to do was wait and hope that the process went as smoothly for the restoration of Faith, as it seemed to do for Rosie. The machine moved up to the ceiling and away from Rosie's body just as the identical one above Faith's body came to life and proceeded to copy the process that the first machine had done. It stuttered as it carried out the process, only leading to the increase of the nerves and stress that Devon was currently experiencing from across the room. The raven-haired man couldn't help but run all the possible devastating scenarios through his head as the stuttering machine continued the last half of the reverse process.

One final flash encompassed the room, signalling that the process that everyone had been nervous for was finally finished. Although it only took around ten minutes, to Devon, Naomi, Reece and Brent, it felt like a lifetime. Before Devon could dart over to the slim figure of Faith, Alex approached the group, intending to warn them of the possible after effects.

"Now I know you're desperate to see both of the girls, but I need to warn you of some possible after effects," Alex started as the group gathered around him, anxious to get it over and done with so they could hear the voices of both Rosie and Faith once again, "although the process appears, to the eye, to have worked, it puts the girls in a comatose state, from which they will wake up on their own accord, or not. Even when they do wake up, there may be a sufficient amount of mental trauma that could be with them forever, potentially, as a result of the stress of the reverse."

The four people, who were all so eager just to get both of their friends back again, looked from one another, to Alex and back again. However, the only person who physically displayed how this information affected them was the raven-haired man who had formed a connection with Faith in the short time that they had known each other. Alex tilted his head in concern as he placed a reassuring hand on Devon's shoulder, causing the man to shake himself out of the daze that had fallen upon him.

"Ye-yeah, of course," He stuttered as he tried to acknowledge the man in front of him without showing how much that simple explanation had affected him. He was a character who hardly showed his emotions as he saw it as a vulnerability that others could exploit and use against him, subsequently weakening him.

With a sigh, Alex stepped out of the group's way and allowed them to go and get their friends, so that when they awoke, if they ever did, they would be on a comfortable bed, surrounded by those who cared about them, instead of in a random room where they switched back bodies. It should go without saying, that Naomi immediately rushed to the side of her sister's body, whilst Devon rushed to the side of the brunette beauty whose soul had captivated his attention as soon as he met her out on the streets, realising that she was no longer who he originally thought she was. He tentatively reached a hand up to brush a stray strand of her long wavy hair out of her face, taking a moment to take in her true appearance for the first time since meeting her.

"I have no idea if you can hear me or not Fay, but you're going to be alright. You'll wake up and we'll be free to be with each other and live our lives together, however we wish," The raven-haired man whispered to the comatose figure of the woman who had unintentionally captured his heart without realising the extent to which she had done so.

From a distance, Brent and Reece watched over their two friends who were both with the two girls who were unconscious on the metal, stand-like objects. Their expressions simply showed sympathy for both Naomi and Devon, knowing how much it would break the two of them if Faith and Rosie didn't wake up again.