Chapter 14 - Stress under Bad Circumstances

She knew something wasn’t right. The darkness stayed for a long time and Ash couldn’t bring the light back up. It was lonely. She wished she were awake and with Kiro. He always comforted her in her time of need. That’s how they met in fact.
Finally the darkness turned into a fog and she blew through it. Her eyes opened slowly and she saw Kiro hovering over her once again. This time her stomach didn’t hurt at all. They must have fixed the problem with the mechanical implants. She wasn’t even hooked up to the machine anymore. It was no where to be seen.
“Hi,” she said softly.
“Hi,” Kiro said. His eyes were red from crying and swollen. They must have given him bad news.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered.
“Nothing now. You’re awake…now I’m whole again.”
“You’re so sweet,” she said, stroking his cheek.
“I know,” he replied.
“So what happened?” Ash asked.
“Let’s just say your body wasn’t taking to well to the implants because they weren’t completely attuned to your system yet, but the doctors fixed that. You don’t even have to be plugged into that huge machine anymore. The doctors believed that might have been the reason in the first place that it messed up your system. But everything is fully functional again. They say that you’ll be able to walk again, with help, in about 4 days.”
“How long was I asleep?” she asked.
“Actually, about another month. You have no idea how bored out of my mind I was…and worried sick. The doctors realized that last time you woke up too quickly and your body wasn’t completely ready for the shock yet, so they’ve kept you asleep until they felt you could wake up.”
“That’s very…generous of them,” Ash said.
Ash then realized something. A new feeling coming from her stub of an arm. She looked over and tried to move her arm in front of her. She was surprised to see a full length arm again, except this time, half the arm was mechanical.
“They added that when you were asleep. That was also another reason they kept you asleep so long.”
Ash started to cry.
“What is it?” Kiro asked.
“I’m not whole. I’m a cyborg…part human part droid. I’m a freak…I’m afraid you’ll never look at me the same,” she said. She whispered the last part.
Kiro looked at her with his deep blue eyes. The glow of his eyes warmed her heart.
“You’re still the same Ash I’ve known since the first day I met you. You’ll never change in my eyes,” he said.
Ash started to cry even more, but these were tears of joy.
“Thank you,” she said. “That means so much to me…I just don’t see how you could still think of me as the same because…I’m not.”
“But you are Ash…you’re a beautiful girl, but that isn’t the only reason I love you. It’s because of your personality Ash. Your personality is beautiful to me,” he said.
“Wow…I had no idea you could be so…romantic,” Ash said.
“What about this?” he asked and leaned in a gave her a quick kiss.
“That’s pretty romantic too,” Ash said smiling and raising her eyebrow. Now where near as good as the first time they had kissed…but still good…really good.Kiro laughed and leaned in to kiss her again, but then his comlink buzzed.
“Hold that thought,” he said and stood up.
“Yes?” he asked. Someone else talk over the comlink.
“She what?” he asked, surprised. Ash saw his knees buckle.
“No…that can’t be! Try something else!” he yelled back. The person on the other line garbled something else.
“Just shut up,” he replied and threw the comlink across the room.
“What? What’s wrong?” Ash asked.
“Echo was just pronounced dead,” he said. He could barely say the words.
Ash felt her heart crash and burn. It was for real this time. Echo had suffered a lot of trauma and Ash was surprised that she had lasted this long. But apparently Blaze won in the end. She got her wish.
Echo Chi was dead.

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