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I feel myself hovering in a semiconscious state, locked in my Coffin. It won't let me out fully until I specifically decide to Rise, and now that won't be for another few days, or until I regain consciousness in the Sleep so I can decide that. My parents won't be worried, though: I've stayed in the Sleep for weeks at a time, because the Coffin will provide my body with the minerals and nutrients that will keep my body from eating itself for about an extra year. So, in other words, I could stay in the Sleep for a year and forty days before I start to slowly die.

I fade between semiconscious and unconscious for a few days, not aware of anything aside from the comfort of the darkness. It feels like a warm, soft blanket...

***

The harsh, bright light from the hospital lights blinds me as I open my eyes. My ribs feel completely healed, which at first surprises me, but then I think that I don't know how long I've been in the hospital. I lift my left arm up and squeeze my EarMuff. The familiar blue screen pops up and I send a quick email to my family, explaining what happened, and what my plans are for the next few days.

The nurse--who I can't help but notice is a fox--bustles in right as I lower my arm from turning off my EarMuff. "Were you moving?" she asks, not stopping in her moving around and checking all the machines.

"Um...yes. Why?"

She hesitates for a split second before finishing her checks on the machines and proceeds to check my vital signs. "The surgeon demanded that you not move or be moved for at least another week from now."

"Again, why?" I ask. "I feel completely fine."

Now she actually freezes. "Is it alright if I have you wheeled over to the X-Ray machine?"

"I can walk over there," I say, throwing off the hospital sheets and sitting on the edge of the bed for a second while I let the head rush dissipate. Then I slide off of the bed and stretch my arms over my head, leaning from side to side. I let out a deep breath as I let them fall to my sides, and a grin spreads across my face. I'm pleased that my ribs and sides don't hurt at all.

Then I realize the nurse is staring at me. "What?"

"You shouldn't have been able to move that much without any pain for several more days, if not weeks."

"How long have I been hear?" I wonder aloud.

"Only four days." I hesitate, nearly causing myself to trip. Then I continue my circuits of the room. "Now you see why I'm worried?"

I grunt. "I don't see how there's anything to worry about." I shrug. "Weren't you going to take me over to the examination room?"

Without speaking, the nurse hustles me over to the room and puts me under the X-ray machine. I sit still while she takes the X-rays, then look over her shoulder at the results.

"I don't believe it," she says, staring. "You actually are completely healed. That's amazing." She hurries over to the door, glances back at me in the doorway: "I'm going to get the doctor. He needs to see this."

So the doctor is a male, I think, making a mental note to remember that. "Okay," I say, but she's already out the door.

A few minutes pass, which I spend spinning around in the chair behind the computer. Then the door bangs open and the doctor stands there. He storms over to the desk and pushes me out of the way, staring at the X-rays. I shake my head--rude as well--and sit back quietly, even though that's not my style.

After a minute of examining every pixel, he steps back and shakes his head in amazement. "Well, I'll be darned, but he does appear to be in perfect health."

The nurse doesn't even look my way--she follows the doctor's every move, tracking him with hawklike precision, which I thought was impossible for foxes, focusing, that is. He takes me over and sets me up for another X-ray, just to be sure, and when the pictures come up the same, approves my release.

I leave the hospital to see my face plastered on a television screen. Interested, I lean in to hear the announcer.

...and apparently, there is a warrant out for Colton McGaven's arrest. This is solid rumors, though, and the only thing on his head is a bounty, for 15,000 dollars. I don't see why this happened, but it has... And this just in! Colton was just approved release from the hospital! Only four days after he was found on the side of the road with his dragon buddy and diagnosed with broken ribs, and he's back with full bodily function. Colton, if you're watching this, keep an eye out. Everyone's gonna be on you like a pack of mad, rabid wolves--no pun intended, of course...

I growl and spin away from the TV. The fact that I have a bounty on my head won't help the fact that I need to get back together with Cain. "This isn't helping anything," I growl between my teeth, almost too quiet for anyone to hear--almost.

"What isn't?"

I let out a big, long sigh and put my hands on my hips. "Why are you here, Michael? Are your human friends not here to play Patty-Cake with you?"

Michael fumes--I can tell--and retorts, "I'm not a Tangent anymore, you know." His voice is surprisingly calm for such an angry person.

"You might as well be," I snap. "You basically killed a human--or his soul, I'm still not sure how that works--and took over his body."

"Kaine did that!" His voice cracks. "Look, Colton, I don't know what your game is, but you'll never be able to beat me--in my own world."

"See? You admit it--you are still a Tangent at heart. You and your family may have human bodies, but you're still Tangents--your lives are connected to the VirtNet." I smile.

Michael screams--in frustration, I hope--and snaps, "I may have been the one to take over Jackson's body, but that doesn't mean I feel good about it! I'll bet you his soul's still out there somewhere, floating around in Space..." His voice gets quieter. "All we need to do is beat Kaine."

"And I don't see you fighting him. So maybe you should man up and take your own advice, and fight him!"

Michael spins around and stalks off, throwing over his shoulder, "You just have to have the last word, don't you?"

"No," I say under my breath, "obviously, you do."

I open up an IM window and messaged Cain.

Hey, I gotta stay over at your house tonight. Don't ask

Just after I send it off, I jog down the street toward Cain's house.

Just outside the house, I stop and grin slightly. "Well, if it isn't Michael's henchman. Why are you here?"

"I thought that it might be a nice welcoming committee if you murdered someone right outside his door."

My smile turns into a frown. "I'm not in the mood for jokes."

"Who said I was joking?"

"I'm not in the 'massacre people' mood, thank you very much."

"I never said you were. I simply said I though it would be a nice welcoming committee."

I throw my hands in the air. "So who's getting massacred?"

"Well, who else do you see here? It's either you or me. Whoever dies first."

I turn to face him and feel my lip curling in disgust. Then I smack my muzzle to make sure I'm not dreaming. It hurts enough that I'm convinced. "Jeez, you really are serious about this, aren't you?" I sense another man step out behind me. "And you really aren't going to be defeated, are you?"

"I don't plan on it, no," he says as he pulls out a gun.

I roll my eyes. "And now a gun. What's next, an homing missile?"

"That would be fun, I admit, but it doesn't suit my purposes." He spins the gun on his finger, and I realize that the tension and realisticness of the situation has caused me to forget that I'm only in the Sleep.

That's why I laugh now. "You know you can't kill me."

"Unless I rip your Core out."

I freeze. If he ripped my Core out, my body wouldn't be able to properly process the information from the Sleep properly and I will die there if I die here. "You wouldn't. That's murder."

"It's Michael's order, so he will be charged."

I roar and charge at him. I see him raise the gun. I see the muzzle flash.

But I feel no pain. Is this what heaven feels like? I wonder. However, the mugger is still standing in front of me. He wouldn't be if I was dead.

Then I hear the sound of the man behind me collapsing. Unable to stop my momentum, I crash into the guy in front of me.

"Why?" I ask, confused. "Why him and not me?"

"Because," he says, "I'm not a mugger. I intercepted one of the guys sent to kill you and took his gear, disguising myself as the man. I had to convince you to attack me and the man behind you that I was his friend."

"Who are you?!" I ask wildly.

He pulls his mask off.

"Cain?!?"