Awakening
Sosuke is patrolling the perimeter of the school like he always does ever since the first monster showed up. He passes by an old tree surrounded by charred earth and recalls a distant memory from when he first arrived at the school.
|Flashback|
Lightning is crackling in the sky, thunder booming overhead while a young Sosuke is looking around hectically.
"What are you still doing here? The headmaster told everyone to come back inside." A young hope asks cooly, rain pouring down on them and turning the ground into a muddy, slippery trap.
"I..." Sosuke stammers but flinches when lighting crackles in the sky again.
"Come on. We're all wet. It's annoying." Hope says, offering him a hand with a sigh.
"No. Go ahead, I'm not a failure." Sosuke says with conviction in his eyes.
"What are you talking about? Let's just go. You can play in the mud once the storm has passed." Hope says, taking his hand and pulls him with her, only for Sosuke to slip out of her grasp when he tries to free himself and he lands in the mud, covering his entire front with a layer of brown-black goo which drips down to the ground again, most getting washed away by the rain pouring down on them.
"Come on, I don't have time for this." Hope almost hisses and packs him by his collar once he's back on his feet and drags him along with her.
Lightning suddenly strikes the ground ahead of them, the electricity shocking them both due to the muddy ground and they go down with a painful scream.
Hope falls down much like Sosuke did moments ago, seemingly unconscious.
Sosuke however fares much better, his legs only buckling and he sees something familiar shine through the muddy ground just under hundred meters away.
Looking down in front of him he sees Hope face down in the mud and hefts her out of it, carrying her in front of him, her breathing being labored and frantic.
"Your timing sucks." He curses silently, losing sight of what he was searching for while starting to head back to the school building which is a brisk 10 minute walk away.
Sosuke cleared about a third of the way when Hope's eyes flutter and she looks up to him with surprise and shock written all over her face.
"Set me down. This is all your fault." Hope tells him annoyedly and Sosuke sets her down on the ground, thunder booming over them again.
"We have to wait this out somewhere." She says, looking at the dark sky overhead.
"This place is flooded." Sosuke tells her doubting her plan.
"Over there. By that tree. It's elevated enough that its base is not flooded." Hope says and pulls him along to the tree, their feet touching solid ground shortly after and they sit back against the tree in silence.
Hope sees him tremble slightly and sighs, asking "Are you cold?"
"No. It's not the cold what's bothering me." Sosuke replies, looking up at the dark sky.
"We're fine here. What are the chances lighting will hit our exact spot?" She says.
"I have a bad feeling. We should continue to head back." Sosuke tells her, getting up, only to get yanked to the ground by Hope.
"No. We're staying here. But if you're so worried." She sighs annoyedly and whispers a spell, a faintly seeable barrier surrounding them seconds later.
"See, we're fine here." She says and moments later lighting hits her spell, creating a cage of lightining around them which lasts a few seconds before the string of electricity sprouting out of the clouds dissipates.
"It's Okay. I told you, we're save." Hope tells Sosuke, who is hugging his knees to his chest and nearly hyperventilating.
Hope puts her arm around him and pulls him into her side, continuing to comfort him for the next 10 minutes until the storm has passed.
"Come on, let's go you crybaby." Hope tells him while Sosuke is getting his bearings and opens his eyes, seeing the burned circle around them and the tree.
"I'm not a crybaby!" He protests and she rolls her eyes at him and continues to tease him all the way back.
|End Flashback|
"Tribrid is in sight." Sosuke hears someone a good hundred meters say while he sees something shining from a bush.
"Wait stop! don't..." Sosuke says, when he hears a weapon cocking and rushes towards him,l until he's standing in the line of fire.
The man squeezes the trigger and Sosuke falls to the floor with a painful shout, blood pouring out of his shoulder where the round pierced through and embedded itself somewhere in the school wall.
"Idiot. Stay down or I will finish you too." The man tells him and looks through the scope again. Before he can fully take aim however, Sosuke tosses a rock at the man and hits the scope. The man stands up angrily and pulls out his sidearm. He fires a few shots at Sosuke, the sound alerting the students at the school apparently, since his sidearm didn't have a silencer unlike his sniper rifle.
The man curses silently while walking away.
"Stop." He hears Sosuke wheeze out, the teen staring at him from his place on the ground, blood seeping all over him from the now 3 additional bullet wounds.
With a pained grunt Sosuke hefts himself back to his feet and takes out a throwing knife from behind his back and throws the weapon at the man, piercing through his arm and makes him fall down, Sosuke tumbling over to him and stabbing him through his heart with another knife despite the man trying to stop him. Sosuke looks down his body, spitting out a lot of blood while feeling where he was shot with shaky fingers.
One wound on his right shoulder from the rifle, one more just to the right of his breastbone, one bullet hole right through his left abdomen at belly button height and a final wound on his upper right thigh.
"Well my life sucked." He hisses in pain while stumbling in a seemingly random direction.
He blanks out, he doesn't even know how long for and when he comes back to he's sitting against the tree he just moments before recalled the memory of, the only time he ever felt protected by someone else.
"I guess the debt is repaid." He thinks, everything hurting and he just leans back against the tree, remembering Hope holding him.
Out of nowhere it starts to rain and thunder clouds form in the sky faster than seemingly possible.
Lightning crashes down on Sosuke who is barely alive at this point and the tree shatters behind him while the lightning seemingly just stays connected to him for multiple seconds, his wounds filling with yellow and blueish lightning before the lightning disappears, his wounds heal and Sosuke remains lying unconscious in a small crater which used to hold the tree he was lying against.
A few minutes later Alarik finds Sosuke and the dead assassin.
Checking for Sosuke's pulse he is surprised but happy to see that he's alive, his clothing burned in multiple places and blood covering what remained of his outfit.
The headmaster quickly hides the corpse of the other man and the guns he carried before bringing Sosuke back to the school, the students no longer worried because everyone but the headmaster thought the shots earlier were from the storm, but he is experienced enough with firearms to know the difference in the sound.
|A day later|
"Ugh shit ..." Sosuke coughs painfully as he awakens, peering around while moving as little as possible until he realizes that he's lying in his bed.
"Did I imagine all that?" Sosuke asks himself aloud, moving into the bathroom with pained steps and doesn't see any new wound decorating his body, only some bruises.
"And why do I remember... my past?" Sosuke says even more confused and holds his head in his hands, images of him in Russia and Afghanistan as a child flooding his mind.
"I was compelled afterall." Sosuke says, now remembering a KGB spy compelling him to diminish his feelings when he was 2 or 3 years old. And then remembers being compelled almost daily to forget about the experiments done on him by the KGB and one final time shortly after being pulled into militia camp he was in.
"I better get Mrs. Tigs." Sosuke grunts, his head pounding like crazy.
Sosuke unlocks his door, but it is already open to his surprise. When he tries to step outside however a barrier hits him full on.
"Seriously? What the fuck." He moans in pain.
"Sosuke?" He hears Hope's voice from behind her door and she opens it quickly, looking at him with relief.
"I'll fetch the headmaster." She tells him and hurries off, still in her pjs.
Sosuke looks at the clock in his room and sees that it's only 5 o'clock.
"I hope they bring a bucket of aspirin with them." He grunts and sits down cross legged in front of the barrier while holding onto his temple with one hand, looking to the floor.
"You're awake. And alive, good." Alaric says, sounding surprised.
"Gee thanks. Can you just bring me like the mother of all pain killers?" Sosuke asks them and Alaric tells Hope to get some supernaturally made medicine.
"What exactly happened to you out there yesterday?" Alaric asks.
"I don't know. My mind feels like a dumpster fire. I thought I was dreaming it, but I'm guessing I got shot and died?" Sosuke says questioningly.
"But you're not dead. Believe me I checked a lot." Alaric tells him.
"How reassuring." Sosuke replies with a sarcastic grin.
Hope then arrives with a potion.
"Why am I behind a barrier anyways?" Sosuke asks, accepting the potion gratefully once the barrier drops.
"Uhh, we still have our undead guest downstairs and given the state I found you in, I didn't want to risk you being one of his puppets." Alaric answers.
"I thought we established that I'm not dead." Sosuke reminds him teasingly.
"Better safe than sorry." Alaric replies.
"Fine. Then put it back up." Sosuke says and downs the potion in one go.
Hope chants for a second and a bluish hue covers the rooms door again.
"So you said your mind is a dumpster fire?" Alaric asks, hoping Sosuke will continue to explain what's going on.
"I remember my past for some reason and I didn't have that dream for the first time. Even thought I did die in this one." Sosuke says half to himself.
decorating his body, only some bruises.
"And why do I remember... my past?" Sosuke says even more confused and holds his head in his hands, images of him in Russia and Afghanistan as a child flooding his mind.
"I was compelled afterall." Sosuke says, now remembering a KGB spy compelling him to diminish his feelings when he was 2 or 3 years old. And then remembers being compelled almost daily to forget about the experiments done on him by the KGB and one final time shortly after being pulled into militia camp he was in was attacked.
"I better get Mrs. Tigs." Sosuke grunts, his head pounding like crazy.
Sosuke unlocks his door, but it is already open to his surprise. When he tries to step outside however a barrier hits him full on.
"Seriously? What the fuck." He moans in pain.
"Sosuke?" He hears Hope's voice from behind her door and she opens it quickly, looking at him with relief.
"I'll fetch the headmaster." She tells him and hurries off, still in her pjs.
Sosuke looks at the clock in his room and sees that it's only 5 o'clock.
"I hope they bring a bucket of aspirin with them." He grunts and sits down cross legged in front of the barrier while holding onto his temple with one hand, looking to the floor.
"You're awake. And alive, good." Alaric says, sounding surprised.
"Gee thanks. Can you just bring me like the mother of all pain killers?" Sosuke asks them and Alaric tells Hope to get some supernaturally made medicine.
"What exactly happened to you out there yesterday?" Alaric asks.
"I don't know. My mind feels like a dumpster fire. I thought I was dreaming it, but I'm guessing I got shot and died?" Sosuke says questioningly.
"But you're not dead. Believe me I checked a lot." Alaric tells him.
"How reassuring." Sosuke replies with a sarcastic grin.
Hope then arrives with a potion.
"Why am I behind a barrier anyways?" Sosuke asks, accepting the potion gratefully once they drop the barrier.
"Uhh, we still have our undead guest downstairs and given the state I found you in, I didn't want to risk you being one of his puppets." Alaric answers.
"I thought we established that I'm not dead." Sosuke reminds him teasingly.
"Better safe than sorry." Alaric replies.
"Fine. Then put it back up." Sosuke says and downs the potion in one go.
Hope chants for a second and a bluish hue covers the rooms door again.
"So you said your mind is a dumpster fire?" Alaric asks, hoping Sosuke will continue to explain what's going on.
"I remember my past for some reason and I didn't have that dream for the first time. Even thought I did die in this one." Sosuke tells him.
"Your past huh? Hope, thank you for getting me. But I think this should be between Sosuke and me." Alaric tells the tribrid who frowns at this but enters her room non the less.
"So first to yesterday. If this isn't my mind screwing me over, I was doing my perimeter sweep around the school when I heard someone get ready to shoot... A student." Sosuke says, pointing at Hope's door instead of saying her name in case she listens in on them.
"I tried to stop him and got shot." Sosuke says pointing at his shoulder, pulling off the shirt Alaric put on him and sees only a small mark still on the skin.
"Huh. Well, I tossed a rock at the weapon's scope and broke it before he could fire again... Then he shot me with his sidearm instead." Sosuke says, pointing three more spots which look like bruises.
"And I don't remember much more. I think I managed to kill the guy? But I don't know." Sosuke says with a sigh.
"If that's true, then why aren't you dead and where are your wounds?" Alaric asks Sosuke.
"Hey I just woke up here. I don't know if the Necromancer is responsible for this. But it's best if you keep me locked up, either here or down there with him." Sosuke tells them honestly.
"What about your past?" Alaric asks curiously.
"Yeah... It's still fumbled somehow but the gist I got I think. I was experimented on by the KGB and got my mind repeatedly wiped, then was sent on missions, one of which went sideways in Afghanistan. I got compelled again and the militia there used me as an assassin. And when I got rescued by some organization they offered me a job as a monster hunter." Sosuke explains as best as he can remember.
I think one of those facts I could have handled, but all of it at once is wildly unsettling." Alaric says.
"It was all the truth... If these memories of mine are real." Sosuke tells Alaric.
"I will ask Emma to talk to you about it later. For now I'm glad you seem to be fine and you should get some rest." Alaric tells Sosuke, getting up from the floor.
"Yeah. I'll try." Sosuke replies, closing his door and heads back to bed.