Ronin slowly opened his eyes to see that the world around him was blurry to the point of being almost impossible to see.
He felt a pressure on his hips and a green blob appeared directly in his line of sight. Hair brushed his face, at least he hoped it was hair, and the blob began shouting excitedly. Several minutes later a blue and red blob appeared on either side of the shaking blur of green.
The green blob, Silas he figured from her voice, moved closer to him and he felt wetness on his cheeks, she was crying...why though?
"Silas...Silas...what's going on," he tried to ask, though it came out as a gasping mumble.
Squeezing him tighter, Silas said, "We thought we were going to lose you! All the bones in your chest were broken!"
Another voice from beyond his fuzzy line of sight, different, but familiar in some strange way said, "That's an understatement. The bones in your chest were dust, Ronin, frankly I don't know how you're even alive, let alone recovering so quickly."
He tried to sit up, but a hand from the red blob pushed him back down to a lying position and said, "You didn't come and try and save me just to end up killing yourself in recovery, stay down."
"Mi...Mira?" he asked, confused.
The red blob got brighter and a voice that could only be Azue said, "Calm down, cat."
Mira said, embarrassment clear in her voice, "I'm not excited!"
The blue blob changed to a deep shade of blue, almost black, and Azue said, "Look at your hair. It is clear that you are getting excited over something stupid."
Silas's hair shook from side to side and she said, "Both of you shut up, Ronin's alive!"
Putting his hand on his eyes, he said, "Yeah...but I'm having a really hard time seeing...what's up with that?"
The voice from beyond his vision said, "Not sure. Right around the time you started your magical recovery, the Aether in your body started fluctuating and getting more intense."
"Scalpel, is that you?"
The voice returned sarcastically, "No, it's Trigger."
Hearing Trigger's name sent Ronin careening back to what Jet had said, "How different are you from me?"
Anger filled Ronin's chest and he forced himself up, past Azue and Mira's hands trying to hold him down.
As he got more upset, his vision started to sharpen and clear until he was back at his usual sightedness, though this did nothing for his anger.
A soft tone rang in his mind and a thought struck him.
Why did he care?
Why was he so angry, for no reason?
Why had he been so enraged when he heard the screaming and saw the corpses?
None of that was new to him, but he'd never felt that way before, such an intense rage that it overwhelmed his logic.
He should have tried to find a safe way in, even with his Aether abilities not working the way they should have been.
The whole situation could have been a setup to kill him, one that he ran in at the slightest sign of someone he barely knew being hurt.
He'd attacked Jet without so much as a thought as to whether he could stop him, even though logically, Jet was right. Why would he be able to stop someone who could raise the dead if he couldn't even put those risen down on his own?
Another tone raced through his mind and he realized the most concerning part of all of it.
Why hadn't he even tried to consider anything?
Breaking his train of thought, Silas grabbed him again, holding him tight to her and said, begged, "Please, please, please, don't do anything like that again!"
Ronin looked at her confused and Scalpel said, "You ran off without so much as even telling us you were going. If it weren't for Mira dragging you back, you'd have very likely died and we wouldn't have had any idea what happened to you."
Silas started sobbing, gently hitting his back as she spoke through her tears, "We're not the strongest here Ronin! There is so much about this damn city we don't know, you can't be running off! You have people here who love you and NEED you!"
Ronin, caught off guard, looked at Scalpel for support, who shrugged and said, "I'm with her on this, Ronin. Hell, I was ready to let you die, that's how bad you were. I don't know how you're getting better from this, but Sellius and Trigger have some choice words for you. Delta has barely spoken a word or eaten since Mira brought you in."
Azue, having been silent since Silas quieted her, grabbed Ronin's face and kissed him, hard and deep, while Mira put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed. Letting him go from her kiss, Azue said, "If you ever do anything like that again, I will freeze your legs so you can not go running to your death ever again."
Mira kissed his forehead and Trigger came running into the room, out of breath and visibly upset.
"Ronin, oh my god, I can't believe you!"
Looking down, Ronin said, "I'm sorry Trigger."
Trigger, shaking so much that Ronin had to look up, was holding a revolver in his hand.
"Trigger…," Ronin started to say.
"I...I was going to go and get whoever did this to you. I was going to kill them so they could never hurt you again," Trigger said, holding the gun, gleaming with some inborn menace, in both hands.
Scalpel rolled her eyes and said, "I stopped him because he's an idiot and would have just ended up worse off than you."
Scalpel pushed a button on her V.U.I and a few minutes later, Sellius and Delta walked into the room.
Delta's eyes widened and she ran to him, trying to find room to hug him amidst the others on his bed.
Sellius smirked and said, "Looks like you got into something you couldn't handle."
A gentle melody played in the back of Ronin's mind and he said, "I'm...I'm sorry guys. I should have said something...we're a team."
Sellius shook his head and said, "We may have started as a team, you may have brought us together, and that may be what we are to survive...but I think deep down inside you know what we really are."
Ronin cocked his head and looked confused.
Silas wiped her eyes on Ronin's shirt and said, "We're a family, you idiot. A strange and unusual family, but a family nonetheless."
Ronin looked around at the people in his room who worried and cared for him, who would fight and die with and for him and said, "Strange and unusual is a good description."
Scalpel smiled and said, "And it looks like we just adopted a new member. Mira's got no place to go and I think she's earned her place here as much as anyone."
Ears perking up, Mira said, "I couldn't...I can't...the bomb…"
Scalpel rolled her eyes and said, "There was never a bomb. They lied to you, and besides, based on what you've shown me over the last week, I'd say you have very little to worry about when it comes to any bomb."
As Mira's hair flushed red, Ronin asked, "Wait...a week?"
Silas nodded and said, "You've been out for two weeks, Ronin."
Mira nodded and said, "How's it feel to wake up from the dead?"
Ronin's expression darkened and he said, "It's getting old."