The car doors opened with a soft groan and Astonia and Colin stepped out. Colin carried a black suitcase. His jaw was clenched tight, as if any word might snap him. Astonia held his free hand, but her eyes betrayed only worry of a mother who had read every Rafael’s report.
The doors to the base opened. As they stepped inside, that’s when they saw Notori. He stood at the far end of the corridor with shoulders hunched. His red rimmed eyes met theirs almost immediately. He hadn’t slept. That much was obvious. There were faint bruises beneath his eyes and sweat still dampened the collar of his shirt and then there was the fire. It moved lazily around his fingers. Still there was hope in his gaze. No matter how fragile it looked.
Both Astonia and Colin stepped into the medical wing. The hallway ahead glowed under sterile lights, humming faintly above. They moved toward the guarded door behind which their daughter fought against herself. Mike and Rafael also already waited them behind the door.
“It’s ready,” Colin said simply.
Rafael nodded, though the relief was fragile around his eyes.
“It responded by burning out the corruption… If she accepts the cure, she might too.” Colin added.
Astonia’s hands twitched at her sides. “Might isn’t enough.”
Mike’s jaw tensed. “She’s awake. She hasn’t said much since yesterday except… ‘Please don’t let me hurt anyone.’ Over and over.”
The door hissed open, and stronger light poured in from inside. Lili didn’t look up. Her gaze was fixed on the wall. She thought it was another doctor.
“Lili…” Her mother’s voice.
Lili turned her head slowly and when she saw both of them—father with tired eyes, mother with tears already slipping down her cheeks.
“Mom…?” It came out hoarse. “Dad…”
They were at her side in seconds. Astonia reached for her hand. “We’re right here, my love.”
Colin kneeled beside the bed, one hand wrapped tightly around hers. “We didn’t come sooner because we wanted the cure to be safe.”
Her lips parted, but no sound came. She simply nodded and then she broke quietly.
Colin opened the suitcase slowly. His fingers brushed over the latches hesitantly. Both of his hands started to tremble soon after. He chose one vial, then reached for a syringe in a side compartment, loading it slowly. The needle nearly slipped twice from the tremor that refused to leave his fingers.
Lili, watching from the bed, offered a weary smile that barely hid the fear beneath. “Dad,” she said softly, “everything will be alright… either way.”
Colin gave a jerking nod, but the trembling only worsened. Astonia saw the falter, and without a word, reached out. “I will do it,” she said gently, and took the syringe from Colin’s trembling grasp, while her eyes never left her daughter’s face.
She drew in a long, quiet breath, and reached for Lili’s pale arm, veined with faint traces of shadows.
“Whatever happens, Lili,” Astonia whispered, “we love you. Always. You hear me?”
Lili’s nod was barely a twitch, but her eyes never wavered. She watched, lips parted, breath shallow, as the needle slid into her skin and the liquid fire slipped into her bloodstream.
At first, nothing. But then her body tensed, her mouth open in a silent scream as heat flooded her, vicious and endless, blooming from the point of injection.
She gasped sharply, then again as her powers, though still suppressed, seemed to rattle their cage. A hiss vibrated deep inside her.
And then tension drained from her as sweat bloomed on her brow and her arms fell limp against the bed. Her eyes fluttered once, then again and finally closed after sleep took over her.
Colin collapsed into a nearby chair with both hands over his face, shaking, breathing hardly. Astonia remained by Lili’s side, one hand still holding her daughter’s, the other pressed to her heart like she needed to be sure it hadn’t stopped.
***
The door creaked open softly. Margherita stepped into the room. Her eyes moved immediately to Lili now resting, and then slowly drifted to Astonia and Colin, who looked like statues.
“Did it… work?” she asked in whisper.
Colin looked up, and let out a deep breath. “We can’t be certain yet,” he admitted. “For that… we need her awake. And…”he hesitated“…without the suppressor still in her system.”
Margherita’s expression changed in an instant, tension went through her shoulders. “Colin… when Lili hears about that, and how this is supposed to work…” She swallowed hard.
Astonia didn’t flinch, but the hand still clasped in Lili’s twitched ever so slightly. “We know,” she said quietly, “but she deserves to feel herself again.”
“But if it doesn’t…” Margherita murmured.
“If it doesn’t,” Colin finished, staring at his daughter, “then we lose her either way. Slowly… or suddenly.”
It took hours before Lili stirred again. The first thing she felt was the absence of restraints digging into her wrists and ankles.
Her eyes fluttered open only to find her parents and Margherita already watching her.
Lili blinked once, then again and sat up slowly. “Did it work?”
“We’re… about to find out.” Colin replied almost instantly.
“The powers suppressor is out of your system,” Margherita said softly.
Lili’s gaze drifted from Margherita to Colin, then to Astonia. Slowly she shifted into a sitting position, her knees trembling beneath the thin blanket. Her hands came to rest in her lap, trembling slightly. She closed her eyes searching for the familiar pull of the darkness, the seductive murmur of the voice she had learned to hate, to fear, to resist. Her breath stuttered out of her chest, shaky and weak, and she opened her eyes slowly. “I… can’t feel them,” she murmured, and a strange, fragile smile tried to form at the corner of her lips, only to collapse again beneath the weight of uncertainty. “They’re not answering.”
Relief rushed through her, but with it came a loss as well. The powers had almost destroyed her, but they had also made her herself. And now they were gone… or hiding. Was it peace? Or simply absence? She didn’t know yet.
“What now?” She asked.
Colin exchanged a glance with Astonia, but it was Margherita who answered first. “Now…” she began gently, “we observe and most importantly give your body time to adjust.”
Lili looked at each of them and then down at her hands. She swallowed hard. “So…,” she whispered, her voice trembled. “Does that mean if my powers return… it’ll be a bad thing? Were they supposed to be gone… for good?”
“No,” Colin said softly. “We’re not hoping they vanish, Lili. That was never the goal.” He glanced at Astonia, who gave him a small nod. “We hope they’ll return… yes. But the darkness? That sick, whispering infection that tried to crawl into your mind…that’s what we wanted gone.”
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