||The Rescue||
Having a high morale and being optimistic wasn’t going to help her with this one. As much as keeping her determination and will in order had helped her with her previous episodes, this was too far gone for any kind of emotional deterrent. How many deaths had she gone through? She couldn’t count anymore, couldn’t think, she couldn’t even sit up anymore. Her body lay in a crumpled mess, pink strewn in all directions as she simply tried to breath. Why did this have to happen to her? She couldn’t understand why it had to be her. Was it because the opposite to her class and aspect was long gone?
Was it because she didn’t help enough? Surely it couldn’t just be because she was the first success in the trials? But it was. That’s all the reason that damnable Game needed. It was then that the information from the Core began to leak into her mind, giving her the answers she sought. Years of torment and she was finally getting somewhere. ”There’s cracks in the surface. The code was never completed properly. You’re the Core because you are the first successful player. But the administration died. Now, the one you call Dirk Giovanni Strider resides over the code, he is the Administration. He is fixing the corrupt lines, and he is fixing you by doing that as well.”
What did that even mean? How was it fixing her as well? Was her harabeoji fixing the glitches? The corrupted code that was too damaged to run? If she’s the core, and he’s fixing the codes in the core, then she must be cycling through the poison to show him the corrupted lines. It barely made sense to her, and soon, she was hit by another wave of agonizing pain. Her throat was raw, sore from screaming as she let out another shriek of pain as she laid there. Hadn’t she done enough for this stupid Game? Hadn’t she finished her personal session the moment it began?
What more could happen? Little did she know that Seb, Lei, and Karkat were all looking for her. And it was Lei’s capable ears that heard her screams through the one opening in the door and tracked back. Having come to the complex with the others to search all the rooms and labs, they figured she would’ve ended up here eventually. But Abbi didn’t hear them banging on the door, she didn’t hear them yelling for her to let them in. No, all she heard was the blood rushing through her ears and the pain grinding her nerves to nothing.
She just wanted to sleep, she was so exhausted that keeping her eyes open was a trial in and of itself. The tunnel of shadow that ringed her vision only further expanded seconds before she let her eyes close. If she could get any paler, she would have. Alas, there were many other indicators to the stress on her mind and body. The sweat that coated her pallor combined with the ragged breaths and limp position did all the work of showing how worn she was. Her head was throbbing so badly that she didn’t hear the loud banging against the door.
There was no indication that she even heard the hinges break or the door slam against the ground. She didn’t move, simply laying there as the three barged in and immediately took to seeing to her. Seb practically fell to his knees and scrambled to get to her, scooping her larger frame up and holding her head in the curve of his arm as he shouted for her to wake up. “Abbi!! Please get up!” She groaned at his yelling and he immediately relaxed, his arms pulling her against him tightly as she forced her eyes to open ever so slightly.
“Please stop yelling...” The raspy voice fell from her lips in broken syllables as she moved her bloodied hand to her temple and sighed. It took her a moment to realize that she had three people staring at her in mixed fear and concern, but when she did, she immediately started to push against her eomma with her hands to get away. “Get out.. Get out! GET OUT!” Their expressions contorted with confusion before Seb finally let her go and she proceeded to struggle in order to get a little ways away. Just as another death was about to be lived.
They all stared in horror as her frame contorted and moved with the proverbial blows being dealt and Seb couldn’t even watch. He turned his eyes to the side and clenched his jaw. Karkat was quick to hold the feline that clung to him, letting Lei bury her face into his shoulder with her ears pinned back. None of them could handle seeing Abbi go through this hell. Not one of them could stand to watch her writhe in pain as she relived someone else’s death. It wasn’t right, nor was it fair, but it confirmed the theory they had.
Meanwhile, Dirk and Elvira were hard at work to fix the code that showed up. With every line they fixed, though, Abbi experienced another death. Another vast array of emotions to confuse her own and send her spiralling. However, fixing those corrupt codes weren’t doing more harm than leaving them alone would. In fact, if he didn’t fix them, she would continuously glitch in that suspended moment of death until it was done. Perhaps long enough to kill her permanently. Which, no one was going to risk.
After an hour of watching her live through various deaths, Abbi’s frame finally stilled and she just laid there. Her breathing shallow, beaten, and bare as she rested in a contorted pose. Nothing could be like this. No one should have to suffer like this. That was how the three of them felt. Even Karkat had started tearing up when Abbi’s flesh began to burn away like his own had in the lava. To think that someone else would have to live through his death. It just wasn’t fair.
When they were sure that the hell had passed, Seb slowly moved over to his daughter and gently scooped her up. She didn’t protest, didn’t move, hell she would have looked dead to anyone who hadn’t just witnessed what they had. “Someone pick her hair up.. Gently..” He muttered, looking as though he was just an empty vessel being guided by strings. It never settled well with a parent when their child was hurt, and this? This was just too much. Lei carefully bundled the long pink strands into her clawed hands and tried to hold back her sniffling as she did. It was hard to see this, for all of them.
They took her back to Dirk’s flat and as they walked into the room, Elvira slapped her hands over her mouth to muffle her gasp of horror. Dirk didn’t even know what to do or say. He just stared as Seb placed her down on the bed and gently situated her and her hair onto it. Placing a kiss to her forehead, he remained silent in his fury towards the Game for doing this to his precious little one. “.. She’ll be okay..” The eldest man piped up, taking off his shades to look at the others properly.
“She’s one ‘ah th’ah strongest people I know. Stronger than me even. We can take shifts lookin’ after ‘er. I’ll put ‘er in th’ah medical wing.” He straightened up and moved to pick Abbi up, watching Seb step aside sullenly as he did so. In silence, he moved her to the medical bay and started checking her over. Of course, he left no stone unturned and even had Sys run an analysis that was above and beyond what was needed. Setting her up on a few IVs, he kept his blank facade up and soon left the first watch to Seb who silently volunteered himself by sitting stonewall style by her bedside.
There was nothing left to do now. All they could do was help her recover, and that was going to be no easy task.