Marcus jolted awake screaming in agony, his entire body shaking and trembling with pain as his mind was straining in an attempt to rationalize what happened.
Tears of that same translucent blue fluid were flowing down his cheeks as he continued to sob and weep.
The pod he was in cracked open with a hiss, and began to rise up, revealing the virtual lab.
Marcus could see personnel running back and forth between pods with medical equipment. He could hear screaming and shouting, alongside the sounds of other pods hissing open.
"She's having a seizure, get her out of the pod now!" One doctor shouted to another.
"Calm down, it's ok!" Another doctor said as she explained the situation to a screaming cadet, "It was just a simulation."
Marcus' expression grew perplexed as he overheard their conversation, suddenly his memories began rushing back to him,
"Right…" Marcus said to himself as he slumped down into his pod, "It wasn't real."
As Marcus began to calm himself down, the pod next to him cracked open with screams of joy and cheer.
"Oh yeah, oh yeah, I was sick of her ass!" A familiar voice spoke excitedly with a German accent.
Marcus looked over to see Felix sitting up from his pod with a large smile. "I knew those bastards were trying to play me, I could just feel it."
Marcus raised an eyebrow. "Felix?" He said with concern in his voice.
Felix turned to look at Marcus with a grin, but as he saw the state of Marcus's face, his expression turned compassionate. "You ok bro?" He asked.
Marcus nodded, "yeah I–"
Marcus was cut off by another cadet awaking from their pod in a panic.
Both Felix and Marcus turned to look in the direction of the commotion, they saw a cadet grabbing at the side of his head in a panic.
"It's gone!" He shouted, "It's gone!"
Felix's grin faded completely at the sight." I guess not everyone got lucky this time." Felix said with a sigh.
"Yeah." Marcus added, "But it seems you didn't do too bad, seeing as you were cheering and all."
Felix chuckled sheepishly. "Well, I knew that guy at the bar what's his name…. Fox was it?"
Marcus nodded.
"Yeah, I think that's right," Marcus affirmed as the image of Fox flashed in his mind.
Felix nodded, "Yeah, I knew that guy was full of shit the moment I saw him, so I beat his ass and made him explain everything he knew."
Marcus's eyes widened. "You did what?" He asked in disbelief. "Didn't he threaten Elise, you can't just…"
Felix nodded his head. "He did." Marcus said cutting him off. "that's why I fought him, I had a feeling she was already dead."
Marcus fell in silence as he leaned back in his pod.
"I see." He whispered softly.
Felix watched Marcus lean back in his pod with a sigh, he then pulled himself out of his pod and stumbled forward. "Don't feel bad Marcus." Felix said in a strained voice, "I still died in my simulation."
"Well, you seem happy about it," Marcus grumbled frustratedly, as screaming and yelling echoed out in the background.
Felix approached Marcus's pod and reached a hand out to him. "Well yeah, but I took a lot of people with me," Felix said with a chuckle.
Marcus sighed as he accepted Felix's hand. "If you say so."
Marcus began to pull on Felix's hand for leverage when suddenly Felix screamed out in pain. "Aufhören!" Felix screamed in his mother tongue as he tapped Marcus's hand.
Marcus immediately released Felix's hand. "What's the matter?" Felix asked in a panic.
"My arm is still sore from the physical training we did this morning, I uhm…. I forgot about it." He said sheepishly as he rotated his shoulder.
Marcus had almost completely forgotten about those exercises. "Right, I'm probably just as sore as you are," Marcus said as he grabbed the sides of his pod for leverage.
During the commotion, one of the assistants rushed over to Felix and Marcus with a first-aid kit.
"Are you two alright?" He asked as she slowed up in front of the boys.
Felix and Marcus nodded in unison. "We're fine." Felix answered, "Just, chatting about the simulation."
The assistant nodded as he sighed in relief. "Well that's good, keep this up and you two might go far in this program."
The assistant then nodded at the boys as he rushed off.
As Felix watched the assistant run off to help another cadet, Marcus was slowly pulling himself out of his pod.
Standing up on his feet, Marcus got a better look at the virtual lab. He saw that several cadets were still panicking and shaking, while others sat in their pods with emotionless expressions.
There were a few making their way towards the exit, some limping while others walked proudly.
Eventually, Marcus found himself searching for Sang-hee, just out of curiosity.
Eventually, he spotted her sitting in her pod with a frustrated expression, her arms crossed and translucent blue tears streaking down her cheeks.
They looked to have dried somewhat but still looked recent.
Felix traced Marcus's gaze, when his eyes landed on who Marcus was looking at, he chuckled.
"Got your attention on something good, bro?" He asked teasingly.
"I was just curious," Marcus replied. "That's all."
Sang-hee noticed Marcus looking at her and gave him an annoyed glare.
"Stubborn." Marcus mouthed.
Felix shook his head playfully as he stepped away from Marcus. "Well, we better turn in for tomorrow bro, still have 12 days of this mess."
"I wish I could slide past all the pain and stress as well as you do," Marcus said with a sigh as he turned to face Felix.
Felix chuckled as he began to walk towards the exit, Marcus following closely behind him.
Reaching the exit, Marcus and Felix were greeted by Lieutenant Revia and Lance, standing with tablets in their hands.
"Ms. Revia." Marcus said with a smile as he spread his arms wide, "How are you?"
"It's Lieutenant to you Felix, don't get cocky because I gave you a compliment." Lieutenant Revia said sternly.
Felix nodded before turning to look at Marcus. "She acts hard, but she's really like a mother to me–"
Before Felix could finish speaking lieutenant, Revia had hit Felix across the head with her tablet. It wasn't hard enough to cause any visible damage, but the pop that sounded was loud.
"Ms. Revia!" Felix exclaimed in pain as he held his head. "That hurts, I'm not in good shape to be getting hit like that, you know?"
"Stop whining boy, and give me your thumbprint." Lieutenant Revia spoke sternly, yet there was a hint of affection in her voice.
Felix reached out his thumb with a frown, lieutenant Revia then placed it on the bottom bezel of the tablet.
After a short second, the tablet pulled up Felix's information.
"Signature logged." The tablet reported.
"Ya happy now?" Felix said with a pout as he rubbed his head.
Lieutenant Revia smirked as she stepped away from the exit, "Get going, I don't wanna hear any excuses about you being tired tomorrow."
"Fine," Felix said in a dragged-out manner.
Marcus had watched the entire situation unfold with shock.
He never Expected Felix of all people, to get along with what he assumed was the most stern and serious woman in this entire complex, even giving Dr. Fletcher a run for her money in showing no emotion.
Yet here was Felix, chatting her up like she was his mother.
As Felix walked out, Lieutenant Revia turned her attention to Marcus.
"You know the drill." She said as she handed the tablet to Marcus.
Marcus reached out his hand to touch the tablet, as his signature was logged, Lance tapped Lieutenant Revia's shoulder.
"Ma'am, do you mind if I walk with Marcus for a minute?" He asked quietly as he glanced at Marcus with an unreadable expression.
"Is it of importance?" Lieutenant Revia asked.
Lance shook his head. "It could be nothing, I just want to satisfy my curiosity."
Lieutenant Revia sighed as she reached a hand out to Lance, "Ten minutes." She said coldly.
Lance breathed a sigh of relief as he handed her his tablet. "Thank you, ma'am, I'll be back in nine minutes."
Lance then turned to look at Marcus. "Come on, we gotta catch up with your friend Felix."
Marcus gave Lance a skeptical look before hesitantly following him.
As they stepped out of the virtual lab, Felix greeted Lance with a confused expression. "What's going on sir?" Felix asked as he walked up to him and Marcus.
Lance took a deep breath before grabbing both Felix and Marcus's shoulders.
Lance guided the boys down a few steps before finally speaking.
"Marcus, how are you feeling?" Lance asked casually.
Marcus felt slightly nervous about how friendly Lance was acting towards him, it felt almost like when a teacher was being overly nice before dropping a bombshell of bad news.
"I'm fine, I guess," Marcus replied.
Lance nodded his head as he glanced at Felix, "And you, I've heard a lot from Lieutenant Revia, you're her star cadet right?" He asked.
Felix gave Lance a curious glance, before hesitatingly nodding.
"Why don't you head on to your dorm, and get some sleep so you can really impress her tomorrow."
Marcus watched Felix's reaction, it was one of concern and skepticism.
Felix turned to look at Marcus with a questioning face.
Marcus looked up to Lance, who was staring at him with a feigned smile.
Marcus wasn't a complete idiot, he knew Lieutenant Lance wanted to speak to him alone and this was just a nice way to go about it.
"Yeah, Felix." Marcus finally answered. "You should probably get some rest, I'll catch up later."
Felix glanced at Lance one final time before nodding. "Alright, bro." He said before quickening his pace down the stairs.
Lance stopped walking down the stairs and kept a hand on Marcus's shoulder to keep him from walking.
They waited until Felix was a good distance away from them, then resumed walking.
"What's your relationship with Dr. Fletcher?" Lance asked in a whisper.
Marcus shrugged. "Honestly I don't know, I guess she's like my benefactor and mentor, why?"
Lance nodded his head. "I'm just curious, she hasn't mentioned anything to you? Given you any information or drugs?" He asked.
Marcus's eyes widened as he looked back at Lance. "No?" He replied. "What kind of question is that?"
Lance narrowed his eyes. "She mentioned something about prescribed pills, what's that about?"
Marcus fell silent as he racked his brain, eventually he realized what Lance was talking about.
The ether suppression pills.
"Yeah, she did give me some medicine, a suppressant," Marcus answered, keeping his answer purposefully vague so as to not draw further suspicion.
Lance paused for a second before his expression grew into one of sudden awareness.
Lance turned to look at Marcus with an almost sympathetic expression.
"Oh…" he said in an awkward manner, "I-I'm sorry," Lance said in an apologetic tone.
Marcus looked up at Lance with a bewildered expression.
He thought that maybe he was in trouble for something involving Dr. Fletcher, but now it seemed Lance was taking 'pity' on him.
"What's the matter?" Marcus asked in confusion.
Lance began to rub Marcus's back gently as he sighed. "You're not alone, you know?" Lance said softly.
"Huh?" Marcus replied.
"I know they said if you seek out counseling or therapy you'd be disqualified from the officer program, but they didn't say anything about talking to lieutenants," Lance said with a small, but genuine smile.
"Lieutenant." Marcus began cautiously. "I don't understand what you're talking about, is this about my pills? Did I get in trouble for them or something?"
Lance shook his head. "No, I just, thought you were taking enhancement drugs, not antidepressants."
Marcus couldn't believe it, the Lieutenant thought he had depression.
"Oh…" Marcus said in that same awkward tone.
"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about them, but I don't think it's against the exam rules to take that kind of medication," Lance added.
"R-right," Marcus said softly in acknowledgment.
Lance looked down at his feet as he huffed a deep sigh. "I really am sorry kiddo, I'll uhm, I'll leave you to it."
With a reassuring pat on the back, Lance turned to walk away, leaving Marcus feeling a strange sense of relief and confusion.
In all honesty, Marcus had forgotten about the pills, taking them became something like a second nature to him.
Still, the fact that he had been so careless with them, put both Dr. Fletcher and Luna, at risk for no reason.
If Lance had been just a little less compassionate and pushed further, Marcus probably would've cracked and told the truth.
Marcus shook his head as he tried to push the thoughts aside. His mind was already swirling with enough already, adding more guilt would only make it worse.
"I need some sleep," Marcus said to himself softly as he slowly descended the stairs, slowly but surely making his way to the dormitory.
Upon reaching his dorm, Marcus found Felix sprawled out on the bottom bunk with an empty jug of water in his hand.
Marcus chuckled softly upon seeing the sight.
No matter what, Felix would always be himself.
Marcus closed the door behind himself as he stepped further into the room, with each step he took towards the bunk beds, his exhaustion grew tenfold.
When Marcus finally crawled onto the top bunk, he almost immediately fell asleep.