14 Wake up call

As Harry slowly opened his eyes, he had to squint them because of the bight white synthetic lights that invaded his vision. The headache only made them worse.

'Where am I? What happened?' He wondered as he looked around. His muscles were sore and ached, especially his legs.

He was inside a ward of some kind. There were plenty of machines around his bed, some of them even had wires coming out of them and connecting to the bed. There was also a steady beeping noise coming from his left. The clock on the wall showed that it was 2 p.m.

Confusion raged inside him as we wondered what had happened. His eyes widened as the memories started streaming back. He remembered opening his eyes for just a moment and seeing the amount of blood and gore around him before he had lost consciousness once again.

Suddenly, he sat upright in panic and started running his hands across his body in an attempt to locate them. Yet, the only thing he found were wires and tubes connected to his entire body. There were no signs of the wounds on his body.

The frantic panic calmed down somewhat when he found nothing. He could barely remember why he had done that. He didn't even know why he had thought that it would be of help in delaying the dragon from taking control. Harry could only attribute it to some instinctual self-preservation tactic.

Harry could only thank his good luck that he couldn't recall any of the pain he must have felt during that time. That kind of shit was the thing that generated trauma. He breathed a sigh of relief as he continued to inspect his body.

The scales and wings had also disappeared.

'That's weird.' His nails seemed to be slightly translucent. Curious, he prodded at them. They were sharp, far sharper than nails had any right to be.

He brought a single finger to the palm of his left hand and lightly pushed it across. It left a small line of blood in its wake that quickly healed.

He stared at his nails. Sure, they were somewhat useful, but he would have to be extra careful with his hands from now on.

Looking around, he saw something that resembled a nightstand that had a handheld mirror laying down on it. Maybe someone had left it there for him, he didn't know and neither did he particularly care right now. He picked it up and inspected his reflection.

"Well, damn." His hair now had even more blueish-white streaks. The more obvious change was in his eyes, though. His eyes were now an equal mix of orange and red with just a little hint of brown if you looked hard enough.

He just stared at his reflection in silence for a moment or two before setting the mirror down back in its original place.

"I'm fucked up." It was a statement that was followed by a sigh as he laid himself back down onto the bed.

His mutation had fucked everything up. He had no home anymore, his family was who knows where by now, and his life was barely his own anymore. In hindsight, he would have rather lived with the dragon's whispers for the rest of his life if it meant that none of this would have ever happened.

The dragon was filled with rage, that much had been obvious. He just hadn't realized the immense amount that it truly was.

What had caused it to have such rage, he didn't know, nor did he actually care. What would it matter even if he knew?

He would never be safe again, neither would anyone around him. Harry was basically a ticking time bomb, just waiting to explode. The moment that thing killed him and gained control of his body, it would destroy absolutely everything in its path.

Maybe the world would have been better off if they had killed him that night, instead of bringing him here where he would only endanger more people.

"Those are dangerous thoughts, Harry." Someone spoke from his left. "Giving up so easily, is that what you want to do?"

He stared at the ceiling lights in silence for a moment before speaking. "It isn't, but what else can I do?" Harry looked at the man. "It's been growing its strength for years, biding its time to finish me off in one attack."

"Yet, it has failed twice now." The professor stopped next to his bed. "That means that it isn't infallible, it makes mistakes."

Harry let out a small self-deprecating laugh in response. "That doesn't mean anything, it will just come back again and again, stronger and stronger." The laughter stopped. "Until one day, it kills me."

"It may have had years of time to grow its strength and experiment with your mutation, but it has done so alone, without guidance or help from anyone." Charles smiled. "It doesn't have the advantage here, you do."

"The defenses you set up held it back for barely a day, what makes you think that this time they will hold it back for more than two days?"

"Because they already have."

'What?' What did the professor mean by that? "How long have I been out?"

"Nearly two weeks by now." Charles said calmly. "The dragon has made no further attempts to even peek at your mind, too busy trying to recover."

Harry gripped his head in worry. "Then that means it's already almost done? It recovered from the last time in a day."

"It's different this time." Charles tried to calm him. "Its recovery will take much, much longer this time and even then, it won't be powerful enough to break the cage immediately."

"What do you mean?" The worry abated just a little bit.

"Don't you find it strange that it was suddenly that powerful?" The professor asked.

"It is strange, now that you point it out." Harry started thinking. "If it had been that strong before, it would have consumed me before any of you even arrived."

"Exactly." Charles nodded. "My current theory, based on the current situation of the dragon, is that it used some sort of power to temporarily bolster itself in order to break free of the cage."

"If it has something like that, then why didn't it use it before?"

"Maybe it didn't feel the need to do something so drastic." Charles closed his eyes. "I say drastic because it has massive drawbacks. Each time I've tried to converse with it, it hasn't been able to even open its eyes, let alone speak."

"And because you sealed it, it decided it needed to be used?" Charles nodded. "How long do I have before it tries to kill me again?"

Charles seemed to think for a moment. "I would say that you have around a year of time before it is ready to try again."

"But, then again, I don't know if it has another power like that lying around and I was wrong before." The professor added.

Harry supposed that this was how people with terminal diseases felt when they received an estimation of the time left alive. Then again, it was a little different. Maybe those people had little to no hope of surviving, but Harry had some.

Maybe he could grow strong enough to beat that lizard's ass in the amount of time he had left. If he was going to die, it wasn't going to be because he had given up.

Charles smiled at him. Harry guessed that he had read his mind in order to make sure his thoughts of dying had disappeared. They hadn't but they had grown smaller, and it was enough for both him and the professor.

"If it ever comes close to killing me, you know what to do." Harry said as he sat up.

Charles closed his eyes, the smile disappeared from his lips, and he nodded. "If that is what you want." He opened them after a moment and looked at him. "Let's hope that we don't need to ever do that."

Harry nodded as he started to rip off the wires, tubes, and patches on him. He didn't need any more rest, he had to make the most of the time he had left. That meant that he had to train at every possible moment.

"How much longer do I need to wait till I can start the mental training?" He asked as he threw his legs off the bed. He was wearing a new pair of pants, that looked exactly the same as his previous ones.

"Jean already knows what to do, and I can give you a speed course today." Charles said. "So, tomorrow."

"Good." There was a glint in his eyes.

The lizard had made him despondent, made him want to die. It had destroyed his life; Harry would make sure that he paid it back in kind.