POV - Kyas
I don't want to wake up. It hurts too much. I couldn't make Elias' bond blue. Everything is lost. For a second, it got a little bit better. Who? Cale? Ok, maybe I do want to wake up. Let me try. Not working. How did I get my bond with Cale back? Another one? Alpha? Cole? What the hell? I'm not doing it. I can't. I can't even wake the fuck up!
Oh, my Goddess! It hurts, but someone's making it better. Someone… is putting them back. Two? Two just snapped in at the same time. I want to cry… Cale's bond went blue, it's like ice on a burn. Ember… I can't wake up, but I can see my colors. Wait, my eyes are closed. How can I see them without doing it myself? Did… someone else pull up my colors?!?
Then I hear it. Cale. "I'll help you, Papa." My sweet Goddess. He's like me. Suddenly, the bonds start building at a steady pace. More than once, two snap in at the same time. Is… Violet..? Then I hear it.
"CALE! I was supposed to do that one!" she argued.
"But I wanted to." Cale retorted.
If I could smile, I would. Why can't I wake up? Why can't I help them?
'Not strong enough, Kyas.' Chaos said. Again, I wanted to cry. I was cut off for so long.
'Relax, and let them help us.' Chaos said. 'Watch the colors bloom.'
So I did. Individual strings became a pattern, then a woven basket.
I felt a kiss on my cheek. "This is fun, Papa, but I'm tired. I can do more tomorrow. Then, HE put my colors down, and I felt him lay over my chest for a hug. I want to wake up! I want to hug him back!
A minute later, the soft feel of Violet. She kisses me, brings up my colors herself! "They are looking better Papa." Then she puts them down. I am shocked. I… think I need to take Elias' advice. I need to research… US. What do you do with THREE true Gammas? Obviously… we can help each other. Noted.
They had replaced So many bonds. It still hurt, but it was tolerable. It wasn't all consuming anymore. I could think.
'Sir?'... Still nothing. Odd. No pack link yet either. They took the chains off, he said that's what stopped Chaos, and he can talk to me. I should be able to talk to them, outside that cell. Something's off.
'Chaos, can you pack link?' I asked him.
'No. I just tried. Nothing.' he said.
I'm starting to think he did something he didn't tell us.
Maybe there's just not enough replaced bonds yet.
Probably best to sleep but… how do you sleep when you're not awake yet?
Someone's checking stuff. "Doctor?" Ember. "How is he?"
Kinda pissed, that's how he is.
"We're not sure, yet." Dr. Collins. He better not have a damn needle. " His vitals have stablized, the nutrition serum should be helping, we've got his hydration back where it should be, he should be awake by now."
Well, he's trying but it isn't working.
"I think it's time to take some blood samples, make sure he wasn't dosed with something." Dr. Collins said. Then he poked me with another damn needle. It's official. First order as Alpha - Dr. Collins is fired.
This is boring. I wanna argue with Sir. Or anyone really.
Some time later. "Ember… is Kyas, allergic to anything that you know of?"
Allergic? Shifters don't get allergic. Do we?
"Not that I know of, why?" She said.
"His blood work shows that his body is having a reaction to something, but we can't tell what it is." Dr. Collins said.
This… is annoying. Makes me wonder if Elias dosed me with something that only he knows could get me. I want to tell them to research it, but I can't do anything.
Wait, what if it's Elias' bond? I couldn't turn it blue, what if it's toxic because I took it? Or what if he knew I'd do it and knew how to make it that way? I need to pull up my colors and see. Which I can't.
Guess I need to wait for Cale. How crazy is that? I have to wait for my SON to come raise my colors. This is unreal. And kind of awesome, but mostly not fun.
Finally, after a while, I heard them both come back. I felt the same body hug from last night. "Morning Papa." he said. Morning, Cale. "Morning Papa." Violet said. Morning, Violet. One of them raised my colors and yelped. I could see why. It WAS Elias' bond. It was… bleeding into the other bonds around it, turning them black. There was only a small amount of the blue I had sent down it left.
"Wait, Cale! Don't touch it there, try only the blue part." Sir said.
"It's a bad bond, Sir." Cale said.
"I know it, but I've never seen a bad one before, we need to be careful." Sir said.
Someone touched one of the damaged bonds. I watched as they… fixed it. Which one was that?
"Hey, we can fix the ones that were not bad, Cale, I did that one." Violet said.
"Can we try something, Violet?" Cale asked.
"What?" She responded.
"I can put some more blue on the bad bond, but it's hard. Can we try it together?" Cale asked.
"Ok." She said.
I watched as the blue expanded, but the black fought it, tried to consume it. Violet started making frustrated sounds. She was getting angry. Papa's right there with you, pet.
She growled. "It's not working! She shouted in frustration, and hit my shoulder.
The shift ticked forward once. And the blue expanded. She yelped and took her hand off me. The shift ticked back. Holy Hell?
"Whoa, Cale…" she said.
"What if we both touched him and then tried?" Cale said.
This is something else. We were all learning on the fly I guess.
I felt them both lay one hand on my chest, again, I'm in the care of tiny hands, and I could see when they touched the bond.
The shift ticked forward once. They PULLED it forward. The blue moved faster.
I felt it, they pulled harder, and ticked the shift again.
"Steady there, pups, don't take too much, use what you've got." Sir said. They pushed the blue all the way back, then one of them solidified the bonds and the other… pulled it off. The shift ticked back all the way.
My eyes snapped open! It was beautiful. Papa's babies. I hugged them immediately.
"Papa… stop, we're not done." Cale said and pushed my arm off. Yes, Sir, Dr. Cale.
'Kyas?' Sir sent. There were no words.
'Sir.' I sent. All the relief I felt went with it.
'What do you need?' he sent.
'Quiet command removed, and like the pups said, the bonds put back.' I responded.
'Are you sure? I kind of like you quiet.' he said.
I laughed. 'Yeah, I'm pretty sure.' I said.
I felt the command release. While talking with Sir, the pups were fixing the damaged bonds. I brought my hands up and started helping them. Un.Real.
"You pups are Papa's official bond doctors. You both did such a good job!" I told them.
"We didn't even know we could do that!" Violet said.
"Me either. I could see what you did, but that bad bond was really bad, wouldn't let me help." I said.
"How did you get the bad bond?" Cale asked.
"Uncle Elias," I answered. "I didn't know it was bad, but we have to be careful around him."
"I'm glad he went away, I didn't like him." Violet said. Cale agreed, and so did I.
I used one of my hands to reach for Ember's.