7 Regrets

"Uuughhh.." Ori groans as his eyes flicker open, finding himself staring up at a dirty, cracked white ceiling.

As soon as he gathers his thoughts he leans over and vomits off of the side of the bed, memories of recent events filling his mind and throat with bile. He lets out a hoarse breath and slumps backwards back onto the bed, grabbing his eyes and bawling, unable to stop himself.

An agonized shout leaves him as he cries even harder, almost everyone he ever loved and knew was DEAD! TAKEN FROM HIM BY PSYCHOS WHO DIDN'T GIVE A SINGLE FUCK ABOUT WHO THEY HURT! BY PEOPLE THEY WERE PROTECTING!

His Dad, the look of hurt and betrayal on his face as those Scavs tore him apart for parts was burned into his mind. The ignorant yet focused expression on Rick's face as the grenade blew him to pieces. His burning house, his sister missing...

And it was all his fault... He'd even frozen up, unable to save his father from that grizzly fate...

It was too much to bear...

"AHHHHH!!" he cries out again, angrily slamming his fist down on the metal frame of the bed.

"Holy shit! Ori! Kid! Calm down!" Bats' familiar voice exclaims as he runs into the room, grabbing his shoulder and shaking him to help him recover his senses.

Ori continues this until he exhausts himself, breathing heavily and ignoring his now bloody hand as he looks at one of the last Quadranos remaining, "B-Bats... W-what happened..." he forces back a pitiful sniffle that threatened to escape him, along with the looming question that had been haunting him ever since he'd awoken... Why were they still alive? Or to be more accurate, why aren't they dead yet?

Bats just takes a seat on a stool next to the bed and rests his forehead on the metal railing of the bed, "I don't know... By the time I woke up we were just laying in ash, alone... I dragged you here, but-," he sucks in a sniff and stifles the tears gathering in his eyes, "I couldn't go back there... O-Ori, I'm sorry." he quietly mutters, choking up.

...

"Cat..."

Bats shakes his head, "Didn't see her... I couldn't bring myself to check the bodies." he admits.

"S-so... They're still there... Their bodies, just lying in the tunnel..." Ori rasps out, fury rising at the very idea.

Bats nods, "I'm sorry-, so sorry... Kid, I-I'm not strong enough for this, never have been, never will be." he offers sincerely, despite how little that eased Ori.

Thoughts rush to Ori, wondering if things would have been different if Bats had managed to fight instead of instantly getting knocked out... He stifles them however, knowing that 'What ifs' would only ruin what relationship he had left with his only remaining family.

That didn't stop him from blaming himself however, if he'd just left that old man alone, none of this would have happened... If his body hadn't just given out, maybe he could have saved his dad?

He wipes his face of tears and snot and hobbles to the bathroom, stepping in front of the sink mirror... His black hair was matted with dust, ash, and blood, his face gaunt with big black bags under his brown bloodshot eyes.

His focus trails down his face to his chest where the large ugly scar remains, he clutches it tightly for a moment, wondering if he should just finish the job and be done with it...

No. He still had things to do, Cat, she might still be out there... His family, they didn't deserve to rot in a tunnel... And... Revenge.

The old man.

Marv.

Tyger Claws.

Maelstrom.

Animals.

Everyone involved deserved what was coming to them, even if he died doing it, Ori was determined to bring it fruition. As far as he was concerned, he died in the tunnel with the rest of his family.

He spits the rest of the bile in his mouth into the sink before washing his face and stepping out of the bathroom. Bats was still sitting lifelessly on his stool, refusing to meet Ori's gaze.

"Where are we."

"An apartment near the Kabuki Market..." he looks up at him, "There's something else, Ori."

"What?" he growls, unable to stop himself.

"When I was operating on you to fix your ribs... I found something-, odd. Shit that shouldn't be there..." he forces himself to his feet and grabs a laptop from the other room, "Recognise this?" he asks, opening it and showing a closeup of something...

It looked like a barebones spider-robot of some kind, it was composed of many metallic segments and looked like it could alter its form judging by the peculiar add-ons here and there... "No... Why?" he questions.

Bats anxiously chews his lip, "Because you've got billions of these things, at the least, in your blood..." he states, causing Ori to still at the news. The Ripperdoc continues, "They're mainly concentrated around your heart, that scar from what I can tell but-, they're making their way up your spinal cord and into your cerebellum... By this time next week, they'll have infested your entire body..."

...

"C-could these things manipulate my body? They're in my brain so, could they... Take control, of my limbs for example..." he quietly asks, heart thumping hard in his chest.

Bats just gives a tired nod, "Yeah... They could..."

Ori clutches his face and begins pacing, the cigs, his arms, his legs... These fucking bots were the ones that'd stopped him from saving his dad! "Get them out of me, now!" he growls.

"I'm sorry... I really am... But there's nothing I can do..." he quietly says, he pulls something up and turns the laptop, "These things, they're self-replicating, even if we could isolate them, by the time we removed a part, they'd have recovered their numbers. Continue to do this and they'd expend all your body's resources rebuilding themselves."

*Thud!*

The sound of Ori's fist meeting the wall causes Bats to flinch, he pulls his bloody fist back and glares at Bats, "You, you're-..." fucking useless he mentally spits, before shaking his head. "Gun."

"What?"

"I said GIVE ME A FUCKING GUN!" he shouts in response, spittle flying from his mouth.

...

Bats uncovers Ori's pillow, revealing a brand new Budget Arms Slaught-O-Matic pistol. "Kid, don't do something stupid... We're all that's left..."

Ori just shakes his head, grabs one of Bats jackets and storms out, ignoring the man's pleas to stop.