Reveck would be back. He always came back.
But for now, for this moment, Silco was here -- whether another hallucination or a dream, it didn't matter. He was here, and Vander could sense him more than he could see him. His sight had dulled, darkness creeping ever inward from the edges; but the familiar presence was there, with a heartbeat that, somehow, he would recognize anywhere -- even if it was hastened by fear.
And that voice... It left him nostalgic for long days and longer nights at The Last Drop, laughing and conversing as they exchanged drinks, finding those peaceful moments to be few and far between, and it made them all the more cherished to him.
What the man would give to go back to one of those moments.
What words were uttered were all that he could muster, voice simultaneously his and distorted from abuse. Raspy from days that bled into years of yells and cries that fell on deaf ears each and every time. Even his head felt too heavy to raise for more than a moment at a time, and each time that he glimpsed his visitor's horrified expression, he wanted so desperately to reach down to him, to touch that handsome, beautiful face and reassure him that it was alright.
Wasn't it? Something within bade him to close his eyes and rest. Rest, and this time it would be the last; he would be at peace. But something else within him urged him to hold on, to keep fighting it, to focus. Focus on Silco. So he did, he focused as hard as he could on his partner's face, even as he drifted in and out of consciousness. He could see him. He could hear him.
It didn't register that a set of footsteps had approached, nor did he grasp that his partner had killed his tormenter, even with the red coating Silco's knife. Even with the chemist's body lain out, and for once it was Reveck's blood that he was seeing, rather than his own. He didn't notice as his body was slowly, steadily lowered to the cold ground. No, but he could feel that touch, could feel the touch he'd longed for for so, so very long, removing his restraints then moving him and cradling his head. The heartbeat was so strong, it was so loud and frantic, but it sounded so real. Hazy heterochromatic eyes drooped closed, focusing on the sound and the touch... Letting himself find that comfort he'd been denied for so long, letting himself drift away.
And then the injector embedded into his back went off. The tubes winding around and through his body surged to life with that vibrant green chemical, and Vander writhed and seized up. His body had been mutilated, mutated, deformed and reshaped into something half-human, half-beast, claiming neither as his identity, and with the severe and sudden pain, it contorted in unnatural ways. His eyes went wide, glowing with such intensity; from his gaping mouth spewed blood mixed with that green compound. Then, like a frenzied dog, he began to froth at the mouth from the sheer, unmitigated pain.
His left hand clutched at his throat, while the right -- its forearm and digits encased in Chemtech -- clawed desperately at his chest, dragging out more blood laced with that same chemical.