Chapter 47: Awakened [2]

"How...do you feel?" Professor Hathaway inquired, managing to successfully mask his intrigue and surprise.

He pried his gaze away from the tablet screen in his hands and raised his head to meet the person sitted right before him.

Lyra sat with an odd expression and blinked strangely at the Professor. There were bandages round her head and and neck as she was adorned in what resembled a light cyan colored hospital gown. Her now sapphire eyes darted all around the interior of the room as she cautiously took in her surroundings.

'Where is this? ' she wondered silently. She couldn't clearly remember how she could have possibly ended up here, her memories were fuzzy and all over the place.

"Err...how do I feel? Ummm...not sure, I guess?" She raised an arm to rub the back of her neck but winced in pain as soon as her fingers grazed her bandaged nape.

Her expression contorted and her posture nearly doubled over. The pain was sudden and sharp like a stabbing needle, and she felt a strange sensation roll down her spine making her shiver and her skin crawl.

"You should be careful not touch around your neck too much for the meantime. The Core transplant may be complete but the area around your nape will still be highly sensitive and sore for at least a day or two. " Hathaway advised, then adjusted his glasses and added,

"Maybe in your case, in a few hours time."

" Huh? " Lyra was clearly confused and failed to understand a single thing the greyish white haired Professor said.

"Core? Transplant? Erm...what do you mean, sir, and where could I possibly be, if i may ask?" The young lady inquired uneasily and Hathaway just stared at her silently.

Then with a slight hum, the professor drew his gaze back to the screen in his hands.

"I see. Temporary amnesia for the meantime. This may be as a result of the partial deep sleep you just awoke from," he seemingly spoke to himself, living Lyra to only listen and blink emptily.

"Very well, let's do this. What is your name, young miss?" Hathaway asked and studied closely her face and the vitals displayed on his screen at the same time.

Lyra displayed a strange fake smile, and rebuked internally.

'What is this, therapy? '

"Lyra Diego." She responded simply. For the meantime she would go along with whatever was happening. At the very least, the middle aged man before her didn't seem to be harboring any ill intentions.

"Yes, that is correct." Hathaway nodded approvingly.

'Of course it damn is! ' Lyra continued to smile.

Oblivious to her silent lampoons, Hathaway continued.

"And what is the last thing you remember?"

" The last thing I remember..." Lyra muttered, trying to recall. Her memories were fleeting and when she thought too deeply about it, she would be struck with a minor migraine

Just then, the mechanical sliding of the steel door echoed in the silent office as a figure stepped through and bowed just slightly.

"Professor, I heard our guest has woken up and came to see how well she is faring. "

" Ah, yes. To my surprise, she woke up much earlier than anticipated. Aside from a minor issue of amnesia, there are no noticeable complications so far yet. " Bling Hathaway turned to the newly arrived person and briefly explained.

It was a young lady with short silver hair and shinning azure eyes. She had olive skin, cherry lips, rather beautiful features and stood as tall as a 177cm and was dressed in the Ntuli native wear.

Tyla's cold and distant expression oozed a rather unfriendly vibe as she raised her head to gaze at the person in question.

Azure eyes met sapphire and a stuffy silence ensued.

Immediately, Lyra's head thumped with a flood of memories and recollections. She remembered nearly having a whole punched through her guts by this same person and her eyes sharpened dangerously.

Lyra sharply stood up and swiped a pen off a nearbye desk when a dull ache in her head rendered her movements sluggish and filled her with pain and she winced.

With a grunt, Lyra took a step back and held her throbbing head, all the while still keeping an eye on Tyla's unmoving figure and indifferent gaze.

Meanwhile, Professor Hathaway watched the whole exchanged with peculiar interest.

"My, seems like she's recalled." He said, his voice betraying the clear amusement he felt.

Lyra didn't bring down her guard; despite the sudden headache, her brain began working at insane speeds.

"What is she doing here?!" She threw a finger at Tyla who hadn't said a single word or moved a single inch.

Then her years of experience on the field began to prove themselves. She slowly gathered together the clues, arriving at a certain conclusion.

'Fuck. I must have been captured by these Outsiders. But how come they haven't killed me? And...she said 'guest' just now didn't she?' Lyra slowly regained composure and she calmly collected her thoughts without bringing down her guard for even a single moment.

Her eyes darted around, and her fingers tightened feeling the grasp of the ball pen in her hand. She was preparing herself for a confrontation and devising a possible way out.

Lyra hadn't realized it, but the rate she was adapting to the unraveling situation as it went on wasn't something she usually previously was capable of despite her experience.

'Fuck, where's Huey!'

"Alright, young miss, calm down. We are not here to hurt you, I believe you should have understood that much by now already." Professor Hathaway put down his tablet and slowly stood up, spreading his arms to disclose his lack of aggression.

"I'm sure you have questions you want answered. Where are you, how you ended up here... however I'm sure you've reached a certain conclusion or own an idea already. First off, I'll introduce myself then. My name is Professor Bling Hathaway, perhaps you may have heard of me, Miss. Lyra."

Lyra darted her eyes between the two people present in the room whe she froze and let out an intelligible voice.

"Eh?" her gaze lingered on the professor in a white lab coat. His white hair was messy, and there were traces of exhaustion around his eyes and on his face.

Bling Hathaway...of course she was familiar with that name!

Compared to Huey who missed out on the Seventy years history of the Earth, Lyra was born directly into this Era and the Hathaway family were big names in today's society. Most importantly, they certainly were not Outsiders.

Him saying this would seem like a blatant lie to someone like Lyra.

Hathaway awkwardly coughed after feeling Lyra's glare on him intensity.

"Perhaps I shouldn't have introduced myself in such a manner." He cleared his throat and fixed his posture.

"The man known as Huey Blade brought you here. You probably know this better than I do, but your little group had a misunderstood run-in with a scouting group of the Ntuli Tribe and you were severely wounded in the confrontation. Huey managed to reach a concession wth the Tribe; they would attend to your health and one other matter, in return he would provide his assistance concerning a previously existing issue. " Hathaway summarized and explained concisely.

Lyra wasn't entirely buying the whole story, but once she considered that her wounds indeed have been healed, and she even felt far better than before, and that she wasn't dead and neither was she in cuffs or imprisoned, she was a little inclined to at least listen to them.

But her guard never went down. Hathaway posed it as 'a misunderstood run-in ', but the Outsiders were the one who went on a brutal offensive against them. Those people were wild and aggressive, Lyra constantly kept caution against the silver haired lady by the door who still hadn't done anything.

After some thoughts, Lyra withdrew her animosity and bloodlust. She shifted on her feet and stood up straight, seemingly casual, but the pen was still held firmly in her palm.

She appeared nonchalant, but Lyra was vigilant, as she said at Hathaway.

"Where's Huey?"

"He's currently away and will be back tomorrow." Hathaway responded and Lyra frowned at the reply.

"What does that mean?"

Bling Hathaway sighed, he hadn't gotten the chance to properly rest since the previous day and the development so far had been taking a lot of excitement. There was the revelation, Lyra's transplant, her unexpected awakening and the surrealness of her vitals so far.

"I don't think that's what we should be more focused about at the moment," he said in a low voice. Lyra grew pensive hearing that but masked away her true thoughts but ultimately wasn't doing well.

Hathaway pretended not to notice then continued.

"I asked how you were feeling since you woke up. Do you...feel strange? See things? Hear voices or any other peculiar characteristics you've never experienced before?"

'Yeah, this is disturbing. ' Lyra controled her facial muscles then lingered before responding, hesitantly.

"...No. Why? Am I supposed to for some reason?" She asked, growing more pensive, and the silent gaze of Tyla wasn't helping either.

"This is indeed peculiar," said Hathaway in a small voice filled with intrigue, but Lyra was still strangely able to hear that.

Hathaway gestured for the tab he put down, " May I?"

Lyra only stifly nodded and watched as the expression of the Professor transitioned and warped with a variety of emotions, most especially bafflement and intrigue. His tired eyes slowly lit up and glowed with rising excitement.

Just then, Lyra felt a wave of vertigo crash against her. All of a sudden her senses were disoriented and became more distinctive.

"Wh-what?" She voiced her worry over the sudden sensation and stumbled backwards till she hit the wall. She held her mildly throbbing head as the world continued to twist and warp before her with various sounds and ringing resounding inside her ears.

She feel the texture of her gown more clearly against her skin; each thread felat like tiny little ants rubbing against her body and her hands were covered in goosebumps.

Her disoriented senses felt highlighted. The colors were lighter, the blue was bluer, the white was whiter, the black was blacker.

Various distinctive smell assaulted her nose along with the sharp smell of sulphur that almost made her want to hurl. The ringing in her ears sharpened slowly.

Her body was suddenly assaulted by a vast number of stimuli plunging her consciousness into vertigo. Everything felt, smelt, looked, and sounded more clearer. Too clearly. And just when it seemed like it couldn't get any worse, the back of her nape stung with a piercing pain.

"Argh!" Lyra leaked a painful groan and she held her neck and fell to her knees, leaning against the wall.

She fought against the pain and resisted the overload of her senses for the next few minutes. Beads of sweat trailed down her face from her soaked forehead as she pulled away the bandage wrapped around her head letting her black hair which had grown more darker and even longer with a deeper ebony sheen fall down her back.

Then at a speed visible to the human eye, the tips of her hair turned blueish-purple like a halfway mixture between amethyst and sapphire.

When it was over, Lyra was panting almost breathlessly.

She felt cold, and uncomfortable. Her fingers were trembling and her eyes shivered. She placed an arm against the wall to provide support....then crushed a hole through it from just her grip.

Her mind felt numb but her heart was racing. She raised her throbbing head and uttered weakly at the professor.

"Wh... what's happening to me?" There was fear an uncertainty in her voice, and Lyra began to believe they had done omething to her prior to wake up.

But as if to debunk such thoughts, Hathaway shook his head sideways with a warm smile, then said softly.

"You've just become a Knight."