I'm... Alive...?

The soft, ambient glow emanating from neon light panels embedded into the walls, Illuminated the interior of a completely white hospital room.

Holographic screens hovered in the air, facing each one of the beds placed in the room, showing the patients' detailed information.

Atop one of the beds, the relaxed body of an unconscious man lay peacefully. Suddenly, his eyes opened to face a white ceiling.

His eyes squinted as the sudden attack of bright lights blinded him. His nose caught the scent of the disinfectants that coated the air as he felt the sensation of a soft mattress against his back.

*Where am I…?* He slowly raised his hand, covering the blinding light above him as a thought crossed his mind.

A sudden burst of memories flooded his mind. His eyes widened while his pupils started shaking chaotically.

His upper body launched upwards, having a narrow vision as he breathed heavily. His whole body was shaking as he held his head tightly with both hands.

Even though the bed was made to ensure the patient's comfort, his situation didn't mirror that intention.

He felt as if his whole body was extremely fatigued while he felt heavy-headed.

"You're finally awake. Hector…"

A weighty voice emerged from beside the struggling man, taking him by complete surprise. Hector hurriedly turned his head to face the one behind those words.

"It seems that you're still not completely awake though…" The brown eyes of a man with a slick-back hairstyle remained focused on the fruits he was cutting as he added calmly.

"Leader?…" stuttering, Harold's head flinched back a bit. "What are you doing here?…"

"Jack and Nate brought you here unconscious, and you've been like that for three days now"

"Three days?!…" Hector exclaimed, his mind unable to believe the story this man was giving him.

"I thought why not give you a visit since I'm free this morning, but also…" the Leader calmly uttered, wearing a serious look as his eyes met Hector's "Can you tell me why did you return in this state when the mission you were tasked with was very simple?"

Hector felt a shiver running down his spine as he watched the Leader put down the remaining of the fruit he was holding.

"Well… Umm…"

…

Hector couldn't bring himself to lie to the sharp eyes of the Leader, thus he started lying down everything down to the very minute details about what happened to him with Zen.

"I see…" The Leader murmured as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully "Did you say that man's name was Zen?"

"Ah, yes…" Hector nodded, his eyes still afraid of what to come of the man beside him.

"Well, I don't know how did you managed to do it," the man shrugged, a sigh escaping his throat "If I'm not wrong, you picked the very wrong person to mess with,"

"H-huh…? "

"Anyway, don't think about it too much, he is a chill person as long as you don't keep the same attitude," the man said as he slowly stood up from his chair "I don't think you will stay the same anyway after this incident"

"Rest your body for a bit longer for now" the man added, before he started walking away "When you get out, come to the meeting room, I have some job for you to do"

"U-uh… sure…" Hector stuttered. Puzzlement appeared on his face as he didn't expect this reaction from the leader. He was waiting for an aggressive attack of words to be unleashed on him, but the man seemed to defy his expectations.

However, once the man left the room, Hector's thoughts switched in an instant, as he started recounting the moments before he lost connection with this world.

"When those red chains appeared on that man's arms…" Hector recalled the moments before he found himself in a completely dark place, standing still as he was unable to move any part of his body before the same red chains appeared from nowhere, catching and handcuffing him.

He remembered the feeling of paralysis he felt back then before he sensed danger approaching him.

While he didn't remember what Zen was doing at that time, but he distinctly remembers starting to hyperventilate and his heart starting to beat faster before feeling as if something pierced through his body.

He finally was able to move his head, lowering it for his eyes to see a large spike piercing his body.

Soon after, multiple others emerged from the dim ground, penetrating his body one after the other like a hot knife through butter.

The last thing he was able to remember was him uncontrollably closing his eyes, as his vision was getting blurry.

*How was I able to survive that…* Hector questioned as he looked at his palm before placing it on his chest. He felt his heart beating very fine.

He opened the patient's coat that he was dressed in, only to find that his body was the same as he remembered it, and not even the marks of those spikes were left on his body. He started running his hand through his body, believing that he certainly was hallucinating and his eyes were deceiving him.

But again, he didn't feel anything unusual with his body. On the contrary, he felt that some of the parts that made him uncomfortable, such as his shoulders, were no longer bothering him.

This shouldn't have been possible considering the feeling he felt when all of that happened to him before he lost consciousness.

Even if one of the spikes missed his body, there was no doubt that the others landed, and the speed in which those spikes emerged from the ground wasn't even something that a normal person could comprehend, and even the Leader whom he feared so intensely would find a hard time dealing with them, so the thought of him coming out of that situation alive or with impossible-to-cure wounds that would end his career at best would be a miracle for him.

*That person is the one that reversed the effects or something, I'm sure of it* Hector murmured under his breath, picturing the face of Zen in his mind. *But why did spare me after what I did?*

Hector contemplated deeply about it, as he was raised in a place where the strong consumes the weak, so you must consume or you'll be consumed. That's just how the world works. But what Zen did was against everything that he was taught.

"Thinking this deeply about it won't do me any favor," Hector said. "I'll just make sure to apologize to that man the next time I see him"

***

Along a dark corridor, the Leader that just left Hector's room walked slowly, pulling a cigarette out of a small box and putting it in his mouth before starting to pat his pockets, searching for a lighter.

"Zen, huh?… I haven't seen that brat in a long time now… I guess he's already grown up" The leader murmured as he pulled a lighter out and started lighting the cigarette in his mouth "I probably should go and pay him a visit sometime…"