Excalibur {Complete}

11

I had woken up a couple of times, though it was nothing substantial and I certainly couldn't remember what it was that I had heard when it happened. What I did remember was that my body was burning up. It had felt like I was being put through an oven. The only thing I could think of was how I wanted that drug, to put into a feeling of pleasure instead of pain. I abhorred the feeling, but I still wanted it... I felt like I needed it to get past all the burning. It wasn't given to me and the longer I went without it, the more pain I felt.

I don't know how long I was like that, but I finally came out of it and it felt like I had been doing nothing but living a very terrible dream. When I woke up out of the dreamscape of hell that I had been living in for God knows how long, I didn't move or do much of anything really. My body felt like iron, plastered to the bed that I was laying on. In all honesty, I had half expected to wake up with my arms still tied to the bed posts.

Instead I was lying partially propped up with my arms down at my sides. I opened my eyes and was greeted with Kilia watching me intently. Her pretty dark brown eyes looked both worried and relieved to see me awake. I opened my mouth to say something, but my voice cracked harshly and I ended up coughing. She moved and handed me a cup of tea. I took it gratefully and sipped at the warm liquid slowly as I was still coughing.

When the fit passed, I took another swallow of the tea and handed it back to her. As she went to put it down I moved, trying to sit up. Coming forward, I felt an unbearable pain in my lower back and even further down. I let out a gasp, a partial cry of pain as I fell back against the pillows moaning like an idiot. Her hands took my shoulders and eased me into the pillows.

"Not so fast. You're going to hurt yourself even more if you move too much."

"Kilia..."

"Hey," she answered me with a smile, almost like she was greeting me after I called her name.

"W-what happened? Why am I here?"

Kilia tilted her head a bit as she regarded me with a confused look. It was an honest question on my part. Why was I back at Fukkatsu? Jace had ordered me to leave and never come back. Tristan had walked away from me and even Zak had left me too. I didn't understand. Why would they take me back? I had, in a sense, lied to them about who I really was. I hadn't told them that I had been Alik's lover when they picked me up. Of course at the time I had been afraid to tell them, afraid that they would either kill me right there or leave me at the mercy of Titan if they had found me.

"You're kidding, right?"

Slowly I shook my head at her. Biting my lip, I turned away. Maybe they hadn't told her what happened. I wasn't sure if I had the heart to do it myself. She had helped me after all and I didn't want her to be mad at me. As I thought over what I was going to say, I took in a shuddering breath. I looked over to her briefly before I turned away, feeling hot tears beginning to fill my eyes once more. Could I tell her? It wasn't like I had a choice.

"W-what? Why are you crying? Valkyrie!?" Kilia leaned forward and sat on the edge of the bed, her arms wrapping around me.

That didn't help at all and I started to sob harder against her shoulder as she hugged me gently. I shook my head as my arms lifted up slowly to hold her in return. My fingers curled in the white lab coat she wore over the pretty pink blouse that adorned her body. I buried my head into her shoulder, my voice filling the medical room as I bawled like a baby. She patted my head with one hand.

"I'm... Sorry," I hiccupped slightly.

"Why are you sorry?" she said with a slight laugh, her head shook as I could feel the edges of her bangs across my cheek.