Your POV

Black really was quite a lovely color. It hid everything good and bad and left everything so very neutral and uncomplicated.

Half of my body was burning up, and the other half was frozen. I wasn't sure whether I wanted a blanket or a fan.

"Water," a voice croaked, and I felt as though I was outside myself, looking down at a girl on a gurney.

"She's waking up," a cloudy male voice said, "knock her out again."

"We can't. That much sedative could kill her."

"We don't have a choice."

The poor girl. She was being discussed among these people as though she was nothing.

"What happened to her?"

"One of the drones exploded. She's been exposed to Alpha and Omega radiation. I'm not sure how extreme the damage is yet."

"Then why don't we wake her up so that we can find out?"

"Because I need to stabilize her inner body temperature. We're not playing with easy radiation. This is the hard stuff. Gamma is nothing compared to what she's been exposed to."

"This is your fault."

"You think I don't know that? I wasn't planning for your girlfriend to be attacked by one of my drones."

The hooked up the girl to some beeping and flashing machines. I tried to float down to see her closer, maybe whisper a few calming words, but something tethered me near the ceiling.

"She's going to be so posed when she wakes up."

"If she wakes up."

"What do you mean 'if'?"

"Chase, she might not make it. Her body is changing to accept the radiation, and that hardly ever works out in the long run for anyone."

"Wake her up."

"Chase..."

"Wake her up now."

The shadowy man unhooked something from the girl's arm, and I felt a tugging at my waist.

It pulled me down, down toward the gurney, and I finally got a good look at the mystery girl.

It was me.

"Oh, (y/n), I'm so sorry," I could hear Chase say before my vision turned back to black.