Elkay couldn’t help but grunt as consciousness returned to him. Thankfully, he wasn’t dead, but he also seemed to be strapped to a table. Again, that wasn’t too weird, after all, back at home, most Rethans were strapped to operating tables because they moved a lot while they were unconscious. No, the problem was that Elkay had clearly woken up mid-surgery, and he could feel metal holding a small hole in his stomach open.
“Uh, guys, he’s doing a Galyn…”
Elkay recognized that voice. It belonged to one of his fellow Decaylings. The smallest one. Tahvra’s statement would have amused Elkay had the little Vohra not been clearly referring to him. He wasn’t in pain or anything, really, he felt numb, but the sensation of waking up during an operation wasn’t what he expected.
The metal holding his stomach open seemed to move. It took Elkay a moment to realize that the metal wasn’t some sort of tool, it was a pair of mechanical hands.
“It’s fine, Tahvra. We’re done now.”
That voice was also familiar. Cold, robotic and vaguely emotionless, but also ever so slightly feminine. Elkay finally opened his eyes and realized what was going on. He had woken up in the middle of having a Kenic Spore removed from his body.
“Actually, about ten Kenic Spores!” Gah clicked, before swiftly apologizing. “Sorry, you’re doing something weird to our Silver Link. Didn’t mean to mind-read.”
“It is fine…” Elkay’s mouth felt dry, but the rest of him felt wet. He realized he was still soaked in blood. Not just his own either. “What happened?”
“You killed their leader, they thought they killed you, the Voidborn army retreated, a lot of them got destroyed…” Leh, Gah’s green-painted sibling, tutted, his red crystalline eyes glowing oddly. “Seventeen people got stabbed with Kenic Spores, you’re the last one we operated on because the other more medically folks wanted to inspect you first.”
“How long have I been unconscious for?”
Leh and Gah both glance at each other.
“Three hours? Not very long. And although your healing powers are a massive pain in the tail when it comes to removing spores, ten isn’t that many, and we had plenty of time before the spores got too spiky.”
Elkay tried to sit up, but realised he was still tied down. He glanced at Leh, whose claws were covered in Elkay’s blood. Embedded in Elkay’s right arm was a drip, feeding medicine into him, while his left arm was wrapped up in bandages. More bandages were wrapped around his head, but he could see the hole in his stomach already beginning to close.
“I’ll be honest, Galyn’s pretty good at codenames!” Gah would have grinned if he could. “You’re definitely un-end-able. Phantai doctors though seemed really concerned that you’re not just a normal Divine Guardian or Decayon or whatever and they’re probably going to… want more information.”
“I do not have more information though.”
Leh clicked, sounding vaguely annoyed. “Yeah, thought as much. The Phantai like to think there are standards and normality around here-”
“Being attacked by an army of Voidborns every month is normal?” Tahvra piped up. “That’s stupid!”
“It is stupid, but to the Phantai, it’s also normal…” Leh continued. “Most Phantai fit neatly into boxes, they all do the same thing and the anomalies are given jobs that suit them and that’s it. But there’s absolutely nothing normal out here…”
Again, Elkay glanced at Leh. Despite the lack of visible emotions, Leh seemed anxious.
“He’s worried they’re going to try and take you away or experiment on you or something!” Gah’s eyes flickered. “Why am I accidentally mind-reading so much today?”
“I don’t know, brother, but yeah, you’re absolutely right!” Leh hesitated. “You’re genuinely weird. You’re weird like Kanuva was, you’re weird like Arkay was and you’re weird like we are. Bad things happen to weird people. When we were Decaylings, we nearly got killed because people mistook us for Voidborn entities. The Thantir held Kanuva in quarantine for a week because they thought he was a security threat. You know what happened to Arkay…” Again, Leh hesitated. He glanced at Gah, who nodded cheerfully. “Alright, basically, we’re going to make the same offer we made to Tahvra, the same offer we made to Akah. Akah’s settled down now that everyone is more blatantly aware that he’s definitely not a Voidborn, but you might not get the same treatment. If the Phantai decide they want to hurt you and you feel unsafe, we’ll hire you as, I dunno, a bodyguard or something, and you come with us.”
“You can do that?”
Gah nodded. “We’re purifiers, we get a free pass to do pretty much whatever we want as long as we do our jobs. Hiring a bodyguard is pretty standard anyway.”
“I also accepted their offer!” Tahvra added. “I mean, I’m useless at fighting, so is Tenuk when he’s not shapeshifted, Kinisis chose us to pilot her stupid ship, not to be actual proper guardians.”
“Tahvra is so, so useful, nearly as useful as us all having separate bodies now!” Gah patted Tahvra on the back. “The spores we pulled out of you? We didn’t rupture a single artery doing so, because Tahvra produces this awesome chemical that makes your blood and organs glow under UV light, so we can more easily move the spores out of your body! Sure, you can’t do that, Elkay, but you kinda have Galyn’s poison powers permanently, you have telepathy and telekinesis and you’re big, scary and unkillable, we’d happily keep you around!”
Elkay sighed and tried to get up, but he had forgotten, yet again, that he was tied down. Tahvra hurried over and started undoing his straps. “I appreciate the offer, but I need to think about things, and I do not want to be separated from Teekay.”
“I don’t see why Teekay couldn’t come along as well?” Gah shrugged. “Speaking of which, he’s been pacing back and forth outside, hanging around like a bad smell. Do you want to see him?”
“He is?” Elkay sat up, but immediately felt a twinge in his stomach. Sure, his injures had healed up, but he felt achy and tired. There was also still a drip in Elkay’s arm, which Tahvra had been in the middle of removing. Once Tahvra was done, he moved to one side and tried to help Elkay to his feet, but decided to just let Elkay stand up on his own. Tahvra then made his way to the door and let Teekay in.
Without hesitation, Teekay charged into the room and wrapped his arms around Elkay.
“You’re a fucking idiot, you know that, right? Letting them stab you so they’d leave…”
Elkay didn’t answer at first. He held Teekay tightly and closed his eyes, taking a moment to remember who he was. Holding Teekay helped Elkay feel more like himself, and less like some sort of amalgam or hybrid freak. He was Elkay, and Teekay was his beloved partner.
“Yes, I can be an idiot at times…” Elkay finally muttered. “It worked though.”
“It did work, but you’re still stupid. You scared me.”
“I am sorry, my dear.”
Teekay let go and briefly patted Elkay on the head. “I forgive you, angel. You gotta make it up to me though.”
A small cough interrupted the happy couple.
“I’d avoid any overly strenuous activities…” Leh recommended. “Your body just stitched itself back together, you’re going to be sore for a bit, and Tahvra’s sedatives will wear off soon.”
“Yeah! That means no Vahrga-Vahyra stuff either!” Tahvra perked up. “At least for 24 hours. I know what you two are like.”
Teekay blinked in confusion. Elkay though laughed awkwardly.
“We will just snuggle for a bit then…” Elkay smiled as he led Teekay away. “I ought to go and take a shower and wash all this blood off me.”
“I’ll help!” Teekay smirked. “Thank you for fixing up my girlfriend for me!”
“No worries, just doing our jobs!” Gah waved as the door slammed shut. The three tiny creatures then went to work cleaning themselves and the room up.
After a long, awkward silence, Gah turned to Tahvra, who was busy gathering up stained plastic sheets and throwing them in a bag to be incinerated later.
“Uh, Tahvra, quick question, what’s Vahrga-Vahyra stuff?”
“It’s the Vohran word for sex!” Tahvra nonchalantly replied, before abruptly pausing. “You two don’t know what sex is?”
Gah glanced at Leh, and Leh glanced back.
“Uh, that sort of thing is kinda beyond us. We are almost completely mechanical, after all…”