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Chapter 2.A- Reality's Hard Reset-

It had been almost three weeks of daily poking and prodding. The soreness in Keece's throat had finally subsided as his eye sight slowly continued to get better. For that period of time he had been in and out of consciousness only knowing for sure he was in the Medical Facility. It gave into one of many questions, perhaps not the most important of two; 'What is the nature of my being here?'. The nasty head aches made it hard to think with his pulse booming inside his head. In the brief waking moments, Keece could feel the balance between his left and right eye was slightly off. His prosthetic was crystal clear, which was a stark contrast to the left eye as it was having difficulty staying focused on anything. Deciding to keep one eye open to see; that being the prosthetic, caused just as much strain. Keece had almost forgotten the period of adjustment he endured when it was first implicated until now. 'I was fine before all this happen. Why does it feel like it is the first time again?' he asked in thought knowing the gnawing discomfort was going to be frequent. His energy was almost null, and Keece was getting increasingly piqued with the fact he couldn't move without fatiguing quickly. His mind clicked away with the notion that something was missing, as quickly the notion came; it was gone leaving a very empty feeling. Not long after he could make a fist, Keece's physical therapy began; this entailed his limbs and joints being slowly moved while the Medical Technicians asked him to do his best to resist. It started at ten minutes; then increased at the rate of two hours every other day to allowing rest between sessions. He couldn't wait to eat solid food again; the first thing he wanted was one of those decadent pot pies. It made his stomach clench and growl. He visualized Sahvina bringing him one to celebrate his first solid meal in... Then it hit, the most important thought, the one of someone; not something missing, the one whom he would shared moments with in that meal. From that moment forward, Keece kept wondering where Sahvina had been; why she had not come to see him. 'Where is my Mate?' was on his mind every moment he managed to stay awake. Knowing how she was with his well being when it came to injuries, it became increasingly odd that there was not a second bed next to his with Sahvina laying there with her with that big, round belly, heaving milk filled breasts, and that loving and yet less than pleased look she gave him the last time he was in intensive care. Their Daughters were going to be due some time soon; at least this was his thought because of not knowing how long he had been out. At first he thought it might just be not being conscious when she was around, but after four more days, a feeling of distress filled his being. Keece kept doing his best asking questions to find out what happened and where Sahvina was; if she was all right, and if their children had been born. It seemed like when he would communicate with the medical staff, they would either ignore him or act like they did not understand; then tell him to relax and that he was in the best of medical care. Other than that; they were never rude and always gentle. Some times at night while he was in and out of sleep, Keece could feel a familiar presence; the missing staple of his life. A heart's desire, a scent... Her scent; to burry his face in Sahvina's mane for comfort feeling those strong, gentle arms hold him close. 'Where is she?' His sleep was filling with dreams that added to his perturbation.

Lyla came in to check on Keece in the morning as she had been. Usually he was not awake, but had been. As she came in; his expression spoke of being in waiting for some hours. This was the moment she knew was coming. Keece recognized the tall Lupakkerithain Woman's familiar ice blue eyes, off white, and grey pelted face, with shoulder length dark brown hair pulled back. She was dressed in a charcoal grey and yellow uniform under a white lab coat. As she ran the scanning ring over him, Keece was almost begging her to just talk to him. Lyla stayed quiet as the diagnostics ran; this was not a situation she wanted to be in. For a few moments; while Keece kept seeking her attention, Lyla felt annoyed by the person who developed this situation. "Please, just tell me what I did wrong, tell me what I did to make Sahvina angry with me." Lyla made an audible sigh. 'You didn't do anything wrong, we are helping you recover.' she said with a concerned expression to the second part of his request as the ring completed its cycle He was a bit surprised, her voice was in his head. It triggered a flash in when he first heard her like this, the moment after everything went bad. "I thought I already had. The last time I saw you was when we shared a meal at Sahvina's Den with Otsanda." he said. "I don't recognize this place; what part of the Medical Facility is this?" 'I understand how all of this is confusing right now. Please rest assured that everything is going to be all right.' Lyla told him as she pushed the scanning ring into the corner it was pulled from before turning to leave. "Lyla, you would tell me if I did something wrong; right?" Keece asked her. She turned to look at him for a moment. 'I would if you had Keece, but you didn't do anything wrong. That was someone else.' she said before walking away. Keece was still confused about everything, but even with as cryptic as her statement had been, he was glad that Lyla had spoken to him even though it was odd to hear her voice in his head. Lyla felt bad for him. Even though her participation with Keece had been minimal, she knew what was unfolding between him and Sahvina. Nobody could hide from her; for Lyla's telepathy allowed for a higher insight into people's intentions, and emotional states. Keece wanted to be comforted and Sahvina was daunt with the situation at hand.

'Sahvina, you need to go see Keece, and explain everything. He is starting to think this is the result of something he did and believes you not being with him is the consequence of your anger.' Lyla told her while standing in her office. "I check in on him when he sleeps, but I don't want to complicate things any further, please tell him I am not angry." 'The complication is there whether you want it or not, it's not fair to him to be left in the dark. To assure him you are not angry will not carry any weight if it does not come from you.' "I need more time." Sahvina said. 'How much time? The longer you wait, the worse this will get. It may not be my place, but if I have to, I will disregard rank and tell Keece everything myself.' Lyla told Sahvina. "You wouldn't dare!" 'As your friend, I would. He loves you, just wants you to talk to him, and to help him understand what has changed. Besides, I will only act as your messenger for so long.' "All right... I'll do it, but I don't think it is going to make it any better." Sahvina said not being happy about being pushed. 'For who? You or Keece?' Lyla asked. "Either of us, I don't know... It's just that with his transition from the simulation.. He is not going to accept me." 'You don't know that.' "How could I give into another notion, the Female he is expecting to see is not the one who will be come through the door." Sahvina said giving off a pusillanimous attitude. "This needs to be dealt with, he needs to know the truth, and why everything is different.' Lyla told her feeling a little frustrated. 'You owe it to him after everything you two built together.' "I will go talk to him, I promise." Sahvina told Lyla. "Please, just don't go over my head with this." Lyla nodded then exited her office feeling Sahvina's apprehension and fear of that moment between she and Keece.

Five hours after her shift ended, Sahvina entered his partition, turned the overhead lights on to full, pulled up the stool that was next to the polish metal chair, and sat next to his bed. She knew he was tired from the physical therapy; it was an unfair tactic, but Sahvina was not sure how else to approach him that felt comfortable. "Hello Keece." she said plainly and controlled to cloak her anxiety. His eyes opened and blinked a few times due to the over abundant light. Keece rolled his head to the left to see the blurred figure of her looking back at him. Sahvina was dressed in the same uniform and white lab coat Lyla was, but she seem different; something did not feel right. "I need to tell you something. Can you understand?" "Where have you been?" he asked Sahvina doing is best to reach out for her right hand. "I have missed you." "I have been here overseeing your care." she replied just sitting out of his grasp. "While attending other duties." "What happen? My last memory was of us in our Den talking with Camille before.. Then some putrid peppermint like odor that filled the day room, and how everything started to break up." "Keece, when we found you; you were almost completely expired." Sahvina explained. "Beside your physical injuries from impacting the ground as hard as you did, the multiple types of radiation you were subjected to from your origin had cause a lot of internal damage." "How do you mean? What radiation?" Keece asked feeling disconcerted by what he was being told. "I know what you told me about my injuries a year and some months ago, but why is this happening again?" "Please, let me finish. The only way you had any chance of survival after going through decontamination was to subject you to an induced coma; then being placed in a hibernated state while recovering." she said continuing. "You have been in stasis for over a year. We discovered the Nanotechnology in your blood sample and realized that they had been using the radiation as fuel while repairing the damage to your body; we did not know if they would succeed in their endeavor, but here we are with you almost completely recuperated." Keece was shocked. It was like something had triggered a reset switch. He found himself back where he started, but the reality was skewed. "The time we spent together at the Medical Facility, the people we knew, our life..." he said before she cut him off. "About that; you were connected to a neural interface that we use when patients are in a state like yours." she told him. "I don't follow what you are saying; what interface?" he asked. "It is designed to allow for communication between patients, Physicians, and Family in situations like yours. A system controls the environment that every one interacts in." she told him. "That was the place you remember coming from." "Why would you link me to that system?" "Because there is a higher therapeutic success with severely injured people in an environment that allows them to live, and you are a Straggler. We wanted to see how you would interact with us. Mainly to find out if you were a threat." she replied. "After all, you know as well as I do, you are a weapon." "You were in my head the entire time?" Keece asked sounding fraught. "No, there was a period of five months where you were in the black, with your mind completely closed off as you healed. I waited for signs to see if your conscious self was still active. We had thought you were completely lost until one day; you had come out of the darkness." she told him. "What about the others? Are they even real?" "Very much so. The core group that were chosen as a group to interact with you, and a few others; some of the people were digital constructs to populate the simulated environment." "What about us? Our unborn children?" he asked her. "That was an unanticipated anomaly." Sahvina said leaving out the fact the interface would follow the desires of those connected and create the environment and situations to suit. "So, this was all an experiment. None of this was even real. Not even the feelings we share for each other?" "Sorry; however, you still have friends here that are hoping you are doing better." Sahvina said knowing she was concealing the truth about the way she felt for him. "If you want, I could tell them when you are up for some visits." Sahvina did her best to explain to Keece that the people he interacted with did have genuine concern for his well being, and there was another like him they had found. "Why? Why would you do this to me... I know we interacted; I have memories of us. The life we were both building . I love you.. I still remember the night we became Mates; then the morning we first made love with each other." "Keece, you need to stop and take a look around. That world doesn't exist outside the simulation." Absorbing those word; he took a moment to give thought to the verbal stab. "So, just like that; my feelings for you shouldn't exist." he said sounding cold as his expression went blank as he rolled his head center and looked at the ceiling feeling sick. "You should have just left me where I was found, at least then; I could have payed my debt." His last statement stung. "Keece, I.. We couldn't leave you their, it is our duty to render aid to those in need." she said; then continued to justify everything thinking it was going to make a difference somehow. "Now an unwanted pelt less toy for someone's amusement..." he let out in a barely audible whisper. Sahvina heard it, but with her still talking, she missed the statement. Keece was not in a good head space, he could hear her voice as she continued, but was not listening anymore. Some part of him was almost convinced that he was in hell; not that he didn't deserve it. He barely had any recollection of Sahvina apologizing again before she left him to be alone other than the blinding light dissipating to darkness. After entering her office, she pulled up a replay of the surveillance in his partition to listen to what he whispered. Sahvina sat in shock hearing what Keece said. It looped for twenty-eight seconds before she shut it off. Those words stabbed at her as she got up to leave. Some of the crew greeted her while Sahvina made a quick pace back to her quarters giving short acknowledgements to them passing by. 'I did what is best for him. I did what was best for him. I did what was best for him...' she repeated in thought feeling worse with every step as flashes of her memories of them together and the happiness they shared ran thicker. As soon as Sahvina entered her Quarters and shut the door, she did her best to fight the emotional flood of what had been done, and how much she had just hurt Keece. Not being able to hold back anymore, Sahvina laid on her bed crying knowing she had not only failed him, but also failed herself by acting timorous with the assumption of rejection for her not being aesthetically perfect.

After that evening, Keece had stopped communicating with the Infirmary Staff reeling in everything that he was told thirteen hours ago; it hurt being buried in the conflict of whether or not his experience was just a fantasy, or if any of it substantiated the truth of what his memories held. He wanted this to be some bad dream, to have Sahvina gently wake him from it. If he could not have that; then her coming through the door to to tell him she is really the Spirit that is going to take him to the dark place to pay his debt. Keece found neither of these things, just the daily routines he had started to become accustom to again. The Medical Technicians had shown great concern in his behavior. For almost a month and a half he kept finding creative ways of pulling the nutrient I.V. out. They decided to keep him sedated in order to prevent Keece from continuing this behavior. The Medical Technicians knew that they could not keep medicating him for extended periods without health complications and had considered returning him to an induced coma. Lyla knew that he was not dealing with everything very well and would not speak. She did her best to talk with him, but could get very little dialog. 'Don't do this to me; I am not the one who hurt you.' "I know." he replied. 'Then why are you being curt with me?' "I am just a weapon. My being is nothing more than.." 'Unacceptable; you are more than a mindless killer.' Lyla asserted cutting him off from the negative statement. 'I know your story, and just because it was a simulation doesn't mean we don't know who you are.' He started to stare at the ceiling visualizing a black void thinking of the hum and the grinding sounds he heard from the great machine before everything ended. 'Very smart.' Lyla thought to her self. Keece had manage to isolate himself by focusing on these things. 'Fine, I understand why you feel this way. Your Mate is being stupid, but this is no excuse for your behavior... I can wait.' Lyla told him before leaving. Physical therapy became null. The Medical Technicians assigned to this effort would do their best to get him to comply, but Keece would not resist as they asked staying focused on the black void and sound while being moved around. His continued behavior started raising concerns with more than the Medical Staff, their Captain had been apprised that their guest was degrading. Lyla made her reports, which seem to undermine Sahvina's way of handling the issues with Keece as she saw fit. Lyla knew the motive; it revolved around the aesthetic stigma she felt trapped by. Sahvina saw Keece the same way she saw Males of her own people; her imperfections in essence would repulse him, therefore negate what they built in the simulated world. All of the disparage due to her self image was taking away hope to continue their relationship in this one. Lyla felt it as well, being that she did not speak vocally, and had the ability to infiltrate the minds of everyone around her at leisure even though she restrained herself unless it was called for. Now Keece being as intelligent as he was, figured out how to block her. This told Lyla in absolution that his emotional suffering was deep. Knowing enough about the pelt less Male they had named Faolan, she understood this kind of pain was very foreign; to be rejected and separated from his first true love tore at him to the point of shutting down. Keece regressed to the state he was in after being brought out of stasis. Lyla knew if he was really sleeping, or just keeping his eyes closed; her concern grew as his dream state was becoming nightmarish. Her question at this juncture was if it was loathing blended with rejection; which could be kept as self pity, but he was a complicated individual that had been reborn from a dark past. One night, Lyla had enough of Keece's torturous dreams as they kept interrupting her sleep. This was odd due to the fact she could block out everyone on the ship; yet he was continuously disruptive. As Lyla entered his partition, she could feel a strange pressure that pushed a surreal feeling of being in a different place as if he was projecting a different reality in the small space. What she saw was not disturbing; rather it was more real than his current being. "Release me." the silver lupakkerithain like being told her. The intense mental feed coming from this point in time gave Lyla an inside track to what she was seeing; the truth. 'You are your own capture; this is not my doing, but you already know that.' she told him. 'You will rest now, and quit disrupting my sleep.' The being glared as Lyla approached Keece and rested her hand on his forehead pushing one thought through his mind; 'Peace.' As she walked out to return to her Quarters; the thought of the other being gave a strange rush as if another memory had come into mind like de ja vu. 'A new path has been revealed after all this time... Oh I can't wait to give that Male a nice head butt when he gets here.' she thought to herself knowing there had been a shift with something that was his doing.

Otsanda caught wind of Keece being conscious from Lyla and decided to make a visit to her friend and see if his transition was going well. Lyla did not let on to the current events of his well being so Otsanda would not focus on those items and would interact with Keece with a positive energy with hope of bringing him out of this isolation he dwelled in. "How are you feeling?" she asked in all earnest entering his partition smiling. Keece looked away. Otsanda noticed he was looking thinner in the face, but had to take in account the last time she saw him was in the simulation. "It's been a big shock transitioning from the simulation to here from the look you just gave me." Otsanda said. "I am glad to see you, and can't wait for you to be up." "You should just leave, all I am is a waist of time." Keece told her. "What? Why? Keece what is wrong?" she asked taking the stool next to his bed. "I know this wasn't what you were expecting, but has it been that hard on you?" He continued to stare up at the ceiling. "Don't you remember the time we spent together?" Otsanda asked. "That and other things I am not sure really happened." he replied . She looked at him with a smiling frown of confusion. Otsanda was almost in the dark like he was, but also knew the world outside of the one he started in with them. "I know things are a bit different now, but I think you will come around just like you did before." she said. "I appreciate your sentiment; I know your intention is to mean well, but your time would be better spent elsewhere." "All of us interacted while you healed. It may have not been in the physical world, but every one of us remember all the moments we shared with you." she told him. " We are still friends just like before." "You should pick your friends more wisely." "Why would you say that?" she asked. "I am nothing more than an instrument of death just waiting for the end. You deserve better company." "Keece, I don't understand why you are being like this. Would you tell me what happened to have you be so distant?" "Everything I thought was real isn't... It doesn't matter. Please, just leave me be." he replied closing his eyes. Otsanda stood up frustrated looking down at him. Before turning away to leave, she noticed a few tears running from his left eye. "I am still your friend, and care about you deeply. Please don't forget that." she told him before exiting the partition. A few minutes later, Otsanda found Lyla talking with a few of the other Medical Technicians. Otsanda patiently waited for them to finish. Lyla could feel her brooding thoughts. The conversation with the other two continued for a few more moments before she dismissed them. Lyla motioned for Otsanda to follow her. Once they were in her office, she shut the door. 'So, you have questions about why Keece is in this state of mind.' Lyla said offering Otsanda a chair. "Yes, and I don't get it other than he is in shock with the transition from the simulated world to this one." she said taking the offered seat. "However, I feel you wanted me to go in blind to these issues." 'Yes, you are right about me not divulging the situation that I led you into; I have my reasons for that. There is much more to it than transitional shock from the simulation.' Lyla explained. 'It has to do with Sahvina.' "I don't understand, they were together as Mates. Did Keece refuse her after he was bought out?" 'No, she is the one who refused him. You see, Keece did not know about her imperfections. Sahvina also changed a few conditions while connected with him and played puppeteer with our digital constructs while we were away fulfilling our duties here.' "Why? This doesn't sound like her at all." 'No, it doesn't, but her actions are causing this. Sahvina did not represent her true self in the simulation. She made herself look ten years younger along with augmenting her appearance.' Lyla explained. 'Now Sahvina is confronted with reality, and is very afraid of what Keece may think of her. She is treating the situation with him like he is a Male of our people.' "I can't imagine that it would make a difference to him.. Well, that isn't entirely true; may be a little, but I know how much Keece loves her." Otsanda said. 'She is supposed to be pregnant with his twin Daughters.' "She wasn't pregnant when I interacted the last time during my participation of the pub rescue." 'Sahvina was able to cloak that part from you and everyone else the same way she cloaked her true self from Keece.' "I don't understand why she would do all of this." Otsanda expressed in a confused tone. 'She finally found Love and became stupid like an adolescent Female riding the high. Sahvina didn't think Keece was going to survive and decided to give him a fantasy life. Now it has backfired on her, and rather than owning up to this and being with her Mate, she lives in fear of his rejection; which know Keece is dealing with her rejection of him.' Lyla told her. "I'm going to talk some sense into her." Otsanda declared standing up to leave. 'Don't, someone else is going to do that.' "I don't want to leave him to this foolishness. He needs to know that his friends still care." 'There is more; isn't there?' Lyla asked feeling something trying to break emotional restraints in Otsanda. "I will not give in to that notion, nor speak of it any further." 'Deep down he knows that you do, but you all need to stay out of their relationship. Go do your best to maintain your presence, but don't interfere with he and Sahvina's path.' Lyla said doing her best to give guiding insight without divulging what she knew doing her best to circumvent what could be felt clicking away in Otsanda's mind. "I will stay out of the way. Please let me know if anything changes with him." Otsanda said before getting ready to exiting Lyla's office. 'Otsanda, I need you to keep the details of our conversation to yourself.' she asked her. 'Sahvina has disgraced herself with all of this, but the last thing I want to happen is to have the others confront her for tampering.' "Why? Maybe it's what she needs." 'I can agree with you to an extent, but it may run her off from restoring her vow to Keece. Look; do it as a personal favor too me. Please?' Otsanda nodded; then took her leave not happy and a bit confused as to why Lyla was doing her best to keep them together. She had been in possession of knowledge that would drive most insane. People were like maps; so many directions, but only one path would be generally followed. That was unless certain things would happen, and were happening. There was only one other that shared the other aspect of this cognition, but Geoffrey wasn't due to make his entry for a while longer. Yes, that Male was going to get a firm head butt...

Sahvina was always in her office watching Keece via the CCM system when not making rounds, or on duty. Saturated in the mistake going as far as she did in the simulated world without telling him the truth; it had been gnawing at her spiritual being since the night she casted him off. She kept trying to make sense of everything that led up to this point; had it been strange sense of morbid curiosity in the simulated world? In this, the waking reality, it had become deleterious for both. Whatever the means, she found the answers to a lot of questions; even some of hers, but being rejected still had a tight grasp on her emotional ego. The concern that weighed heavily on her mind now was 'How can I make it up to him?' still saturated with trepidation. Four days later, she had been given authorization to return some of his intact items to him that cleared and deemed non lethal; then requested Lyla deliver them to him to get a better bead on where he was at mentally. She was not happy with the fact that Sahvina would not do it herself, but did it for the sake of getting him to open up, and communicate. Upon entering the partition, Lyla was a bit shocked seeing Keece on the floor in the right hand corner furthest from the entrance. He had just gotten himself sitting upright minutes before she walked in. 'Keece, what are you doing?' she asked setting the case that held his items down on the bed. 'Let me help you back up to rest.' "No, just leave me alone." he replied. Lyla noticed some swelling on left of his face along the jaw line. Turning back to look at the bed, she saw the metal chair and realized he had rolled off to the floor and smacked with his head on the way down. 'Would you at least let me look you over?' Keece said nothing has he looked down and away from her. She got on her hands and knees and slowly approached him. 'Please let me look, I have to do my duty even if you don't want me to.' she told Keece. He nodded and complied with Lyla's request. 'Listen to me very carefully. Do not reply vocally; I want to explain what is really happening and I know a particular someone is watching us right now. For that matter don't react either. If you think it; I can hear it.' 'Why do you care?' Keece thought. 'I care because I see two people hurting and it is not necessary. I care for Sahvina and know her pain.' Lyla explained as she got up to get a few things to examine him more thoroughly. 'We have been close friends for a long time...' 'What does this have to do with me?' 'Everything; Keece, she still loves you, but Sahvina is really scared because of what happen in the simulation. The way she presented herself is not what her being is in this reality.' Lyla said getting back down on her knees to continue to assess his injuries. 'I don't understand.' he said in thought. 'I know. Sahvina is not perfect in appearance, and not as young as she portrayed herself to you. To understand this with more clarity, our people have a shortcoming when it comes to aesthetics. This is due to how our society was over a twenty-thousand or so years ago. The idea was for only the strongest and mentally fit people to have offspring. If you looked like you were defective, or exhibited certain mental traits and issues, you did not have offspring in order to keep the next generations strong and without problems deemed a detriment to our survival as a species. It eventually became perverted into what it is now, which has nothing to do with survival, but a choice.' 'How is this the cause of Sahvina being like this towards me?' Keece asked. 'She does not see you as being different then any Male of our people. Sahvina figures that you would reject her because of how she looks as have many other Males in the past. For instance, I am not mated because I cannot speak vocally, and have the ability to pry into peoples minds if I so choose.' Lyla said. 'That's foolish; only someone with something to hide would treat your ability like that.' Keece said. 'Yes, well... Here I am with no Mate. Look, I am not justifying her reaction to the situation between you two, but I know she won't come out and just say it. I know you still love her, and even with all of this, you still desire her comfort as I know she does yours. Unfortunately, Sahvina is being a scared adolescent Female about all of it.' 'Let her do as she sees fit. It is her life and I am just a fragment of it.' 'I understand you pain is deep. I know that emotions like these are not familiar to you due to your life before this one. All I can say is do not give up, it will get better.' Lyla said standing up. 'It doesn't matter, I am not of your people. At least I got to know what is was like to feel joy for a moment before having it slip away; not that I do not deserve it. Now, I think that it would have been better to have been left where you found me.' Keece said. 'Things like this always feel that way, but not forever.' she told him. 'Let me help you back into bed.' "Just leave me be." Lyla gave an agitated glare shaking her head seeing his mental image of rolling off the bed again. 'Suit your self.' Lyla said. 'Before I leave, I was asked to give some of your personal effects back. I will tell the other Staff to not bother you short of small meals.' After handing him the case, she left feeling frustrated. Lyla had hoped by telling Keece what Sahvina would not, it would change his demeanor from being withdrawn to more proactive.

A few minutes after leaving Keece's partition, she entered Sahvina's office figuring had been watching them feeling a touch angry. 'Did you enjoy the show?' "What is that supposed to mean?" Sahvina asked feeling criticized. 'He injured himself flopping to the floor, but you must know that already.' "No, I left to relieve myself and been gone forty minutes at least." she told Lyla. 'You need to quit hiding behind the surveillance system and go talk with him again.' "I can't, it will only make it worse." 'It will only be worse if you carry that notion in there. He is in bad shape right now, and you are the only one who can bring him out.' Lyla told her. "What if I do and Keece still doesn't come out; what then?" 'You continue to care for him until he does. I don't understand why this is so hard for you to do outside of your scars.' Lyla fired back. "Great; yeah, he's really going to want to see the ugly truth that is me." Sahvina scoffed. 'Shut up and quit acting like a spoiled little Female!' Lyla snapped. 'You took the plunge with him in matrimony along with having children. That is what he has been expecting up until now. Everything on his mind besides emotional pain revolves around the life you both shared; then, why you don't want him anymore!' "Even if he still wants that life here, Keece will reject me once he sees what I really am!" Sahvina almost yelled out. 'Oh good, that's it; just take the decision from Keece before he can decide for himself in order to dodge responsibility to your Mate. Sahvina, if you truly love him, go tell Keece, and restore his faith in life with you two as a whole. After this, I won't bother with it anymore except to do my duty to keep him alive and in good health.' Lyla said as she walked towards the door. 'That is under the guise he doesn't attempt anything else stupid.' Lyla exited leaving Sahvina alone to think about her parting statement. 'I keep forgetting Lyla can see right through me. What if she is right about Keece not caring about my ugliness...' She quickly accessed the surveillance log starting a minute before she left for the restroom and played it watching the 'show' Lyla accused her of enjoying. Sahvina watched Keece slowly inch towards the left side of his bed; then witnessing him slide uncontrollably off hitting the left side of his face on the chair. She took a sharp breath in horror as Keece laid still for a moment. He grunted a little, then started to work his way to the back corner. Five minutes later, he managed to sit up leaning against the walls for support to have Lyla enter shortly after. Sahvina stopped the playback feeling even worse. After resuming the live feed, she saw him with a small case next to him that he was staring at. A couple of moments later, Sahvina noticed him starting to interact with some of the items in the case. One in particular caught her eye, it was a small rectangular device that came out of a pouch with a couple of small round items that he put in his ears. She watched as his expression changed, Keece leaned in a corner of his room and closed his eyes. Concerned they might have made and error on whether or not they removed all non lethal devices, she increased the audio sensitivity to see if what ever he was doing could be heard. It was music. Nothing like she had ever heard before, but music none the less. For the first time, of any of her people, Sahvina was listening to Acid Jazz. She closed her eyes and listen to the chop snap of the drum beat with the rolling bass, then the crisp holler of the horned instruments being looped backed followed by vocalizations, and other sounds like rain. In Sahvina's minds eye, there was a black pool that emanated ripples to each sound that were all different colors colliding with each other in some strange chaotic beauty. The sounds were incredibly moving, and had Sahvina thinking of him; then the fact he moved her the same way the music was starting to.