Factory Reset

Chapter Forty-One: The End

Pain. Horrible, distinct, pain.

Mason had hoped that the pain in his heart had stopped, that he would feel that everything was going to be fine, that everything is okay and right. Nothing was right, and nothing was okay. If anything, it just got worse.

He awoke in a hospital like room, with bandages covering up most of his entire body. He couldn't move, he couldn't speak, he could only listen for sounds and noises. He felt his energy shot, and his entire right side burned greatly.

He guessed that this was deserving for him. He could've done more, he should've done more, he thought. The pain of losing him was still fresh, the slash mark on his heart still gushing blood and anger and sadness.

Even the slightest breeze disturbed his side, and whenever the doctors that Catalyst had entrusted Mason to open the door, he felt like his eyes were going to bleed. The brightness of the outside was far too bright for him.

Mason blamed himself so much. He was left alone in a dark room, his friends not allowed in due to the boson energy they have, and Mason would have to heal before going outside, even as someone that could harness the energy.

Since Hannah was his sister though, Catalyst made sure that she could see him. Mason had asked when they got here, and apparently it was right after Mason was rushed to the hospital, sometime after The Machine and B-64's fight with B-01.

The military had responded quickly enough. Right after Mason had passed out the military arrived. Catalyst had told them everything, and being as high in the government as he was, he directed them to rush Mason to the hospital.

Catalyst had Ion's backup restored as well into a new body, though Mason was saddened to hear what the backup meant. The original Ion, the one that froze and was glitching out slightly, was dead. There was no longer that version of Ion.

The backup was merely a copy of that consciousness. Technically alive, and their own individual, but not the same. Mason had nearly teared up again at that point. Not only was B-64 a casualty, but Ion to.

For the most part, Mason rested in the room. With small, introductory doses of Red-Boson Energy, he could heal at five times the normal rate, and with some top of the line technology on the Protogens part, they could definitely rebuild that side of his body.

But it would take a long time, and even longer before he could do anything else but rest.

Mason wasn't ashamed to admit he cried a lot after the whole fiasco. Through the nights, into the mornings and sometimes the entire day. He cried so hard that he could no longer cry, or his vocal cords were shot.

He sometimes chided himself, saying that he shouldn't be this hung up. He only knew B-64 for a little over a week, maybe two. He couldn't really remember. The point being, he should not be this emotional.

But he was. No matter how many times he scolded himself, no matter how many times he attempted to stop feeling this way, he always returned to the same sentiment. He lost someone he cared about, someone who cared about him.

Someone he loved more than a friend, more than a best friend.

He wished he had more time, even for just a few minutes. And nothing, nothing pained him more than that. In B-64's last moments, he wasn't there by his side, he wasn't even near him. He was hiding, like a scared and abused feral.

Was it his fault? No, it wasn't. Everyone that could hear his thoughts knew it was not his fault that it had happened, he couldn't do anything they said, but it still didn't stop Mason from feeling horrible about not being there.