Becoming monsters is the creation of AiLovesToGrow, setting used with permission

  This idea comes from Amethyst Dragonfly.

  —

  Chapter 17: The Key to Recovery

  Todd stared openly at Abbey’s best friend. Brittany stared openly at Abbey’s houseguest. Abbey stared at both of them. Justin stared at the back of his eye shields, but definitely listened closely.

  “What do you MEAN ‘what are you doing here?’ What are YOU doing here?” Brittany had gone from seated to standing, her face a mask of incredulous shock.

  “I’m here because those two are helping me out with an assignment, and May needed this hospital’s facilities. They’re letting me stay in a guest room at their pce.”

  “Their pce? Justin has a dorm room in the second-worst building at his college, and Dee lives near my apartment block. Neither of those has a guest room.” It was hard to remember sometimes that others still called Abbey that. Justin knew she didn’t like the nickname as much and never did.

  Todd held up one finger. “No mysteries yet, just facts. Your turn, what are you doing here? Both in this particur city and in this particur room?”

  “I’ve been in this city since leaving the University. I needed to put a mountain range between me and it. Abbey’s my coworker, and when she didn’t show up I came looking for her.” Brittany looked angrily at the two people who were actually supposed to be in the sterile white room. “And none of this expins anything about how you two keep disappearing!”

  Justin coughed, drawing all eyes. “Look, I do assure you there is a good expnation for all of this.”

  Brittany snorted. “You WISH there was a good expnation for all of this… why are you ughing?”

  Justin was ughing hard enough that it looked like he was having silent convulsions on the bed. Abbey couldn’t even keep herself standing, she fell to hands and knees from her own gales of ughter. Both were ughing so hard they were crying, even if Justin’s was mixed with pain from a body that protested such movements. Abbey gasped for breath, letting out a squeak that only served to set both of them off even harder. Brittany could only look at them in puzzlement, with a gnce at a chuckling Todd. “Oh, don’t look at me. It’s not my story to tell.”

  “The fact that YOU, of all people, are saying that is not exactly reassuring.” Brittany looked over at the two who were only just regaining their composure. “Well? Are you going to answer the question or just stay there giggling?”

  Justin ended up being the one to catch his breath first. Something about the shooting pain across his skin cut the mirth down a hair earlier than Abbey could manage. “Alright, alright. Abbey, I won’t share this one without your permission. It feels kind of sensitive.”

  “Will ONE OF YOU please just answer the freaking question?”

  Abbey caught her breath. “Brittany can know, and Todd already does. Go ahead.”

  “Okay. Brittany, remember when you came into my coffee shop and accused me of using some kind of magic on her to make her mine?”

  “That was a hard conversation to forget. First time I’ve been kicked out of a coffee shop by someone who knows my order.”

  “The fact that you had to add the st six words is concerning.” Justin paused to think how to phrase the next part. “Anyway, you were right. Kinda.”

  “Care to expin why I shouldn’t be putting poison into the IV line?”

  Todd interjected, “Because May, Song, and Ghata are going to arrive soon and won’t take kindly to it?”

  Before it could get any more heated, Abbey practically yelled “because he Wished for it! He didn’t know he’d get one granted when he asked for a girlfriend, and honestly he’s been the best person I’ve ever been with.”

  Although Justin still couldn’t see, he could practically hear Brittany turn her head to look at him. “Really? That’s been a while. What were your other Wishes? She and I have talked about these things. I know you have to have made more.”

  Justin exhaled sharply. “My other one was for a pce to live with Abbey. For the rest of our lives, if she’ll keep me. That’s why you haven’t been able to find us, you were looking in the wrong spot.”

  “Okay, that’s cute, but that only makes two. I can count. Two doesn’t equal three.”

  “Third one is still in reserve. I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do with it.” Justin sighed. “I don’t know when the compulsion is going to hit, but I want to be ready for it and Abbey is safe until then as long as I don’t use it up. Nobody can take her from me and abuse her magic.”

  Silence hung in the room. Briefly. “WHAT?” Brittany was somewhat in disbelief. “You have had that power in your hand for HOW long and just haven’t used it?”

  “No reason to. Look, stuff this strong is dangerous, and I’m happy with what I’ve got. Present circumstance excepted, but that’s on me specifically.”

  “I didn’t go to school for psychology, but if I ever do I’ll make sure to interview you. What the dissertation topic might be, I don’t know yet. Todd,” she sharply looked back over at the still-chuckling man, “cat’s out of the bag. Now, what in the heck brings YOUR group to their door?”

  “I mentioned May needed the facilities here. Her pregnancy was complicated, and after the dust-up st year we weren’t taking any chances.”

  “May’s pregnant? I’m assuming you’re the dad, and congratutions. I wasn’t around after that to get the news.”

  “Alex was born st week, thanks, and he’s healthy. Since we were going to be here anyway, though, Professor Otterly arranged a research project to keep our studies on track. Lots of weird things are happening on both coasts so we’re investigating. Abbey and Justin seem to be at the center of one of them, and they’re putting us up in that Wish-powered home of theirs while we recover and get our bearings on the rest of them.”

  There was silence. Brittany took a deep, slow breath. “Okay, there’s a lot to unpack there. Abbey, mind telling me where this secret house of yours is? You know, just in case something like this happens again and I have to come find you.”

  Abbey was back on her feet, breathing easily. “Mind handing me a pen and a piece of paper? You might not believe it if I told you directly without a way to check what I said.”

  “You know what? I’ll take that deal. Write it down, I’ll finish out the shift and let them know you were in the hospital without a phone so that people don’t think you’re dead. This chat isn’t over, any of you.” She gred at Todd while handing a pocket notebook and pen over to Abbey. “Especially you.”

  Todd, for his part, just shrugged. “Not all that much more to tell. You’ve got the directions and it looks like Justin and Abbey are going to be here tonight as well. Come visit after your shift and we can chat. Maybe reminisce a bit.”

  “I’d rather what happened in Yellowstone stayed in Yellowstone, but I’ll take you up on the rest.” She looked over at Abbey, who handed over the information. The speed with which her left eyebrow flew towards her hairline upon reading the paper, if measured, would likely have qualified as teleportation. “Are you serious right now?”

  Abbey, for her part, gave a wry sort of shrug. “If it’s any consotion, we didn’t expect it to py out like that, either. Had a Dragon from the IRS drop by already.”

  “You know what, don’t expin that one. I’m not sure I want to hear it just yet.” Brittany shook her head. “I’d best be going. Now that you have a charger again, please keep me in the loop? I’d rather not have to hunt for you again while wondering if you’re still alive.”

  “You got it.” Further discussion was interrupted by a nurse entering to get some vitals, who immediately became irritated at how crowded the room had gotten and shooed out the guests. Abbey got to stay at Justin’s insistence. Something somewhere between significant other, assistant with working eyes, and possibly-affected magic partner worked. She got her measurements, readings, and other assorted beeps. They must have indicated something was going right, since she eventually left with a grudging smile. Dinner came and went, and the fatigue of the day began to take its toll on the two.

  It was getting te, the sun having already set, when yet another nurse came in and checked on him. This time, though, Justin was not silent. “Ma’am? May I ask a question?”

  The nurse, a Human doing her st round of the day, paused in her checks. “Go ahead. I’ll answer if I can.”

  “Thanks. The doctor said that Song turned in the gss fragments she dug out of me. May I have them? At least some of them.”

  The nurse considered for a moment, then nodded. “I don’t see why not.”

  “Okay, then here’s the strange part. If any of them were not cleaned off, I need those specifically. It’s alright if they all were, but if you can I need ones that weren’t.”

  The nurse frowned. “Even assuming any haven’t been yet, I need a good reason to ask for that. Especially if some of it is still contaminated by your blood.” Abbey frowned right with her. There wasn’t exactly a long list of reasons Justin might ask for that in particur, and none of what she could think of was positive or uplifting. She didn’t say anything this time, though, and Justin could not see her face.

  “It’s a System thing, ma’am. Whatever else is true of the circumstances, I leveled up while I was unconscious and need to practice. Even if it’s light.”

  “Then the earliest you’ll be getting them is tomorrow morning, young man. I won’t do that, knowing you have that intention, without a doctor signing off on it.”

  Justin sighed, there on the bed. “Understandable. Thank you for listening.”

  The nurse finished her checks and gave Justin a dose of the painkillers that were making his life tolerable at the moment, then left. He thought he was going to get to sleep then, but Abbey had a slightly different idea. “I really hope you realize how potentially bad of an idea you’re talking about. Something almost exactly like it just blew up in your face. Again, literally.”

  Justin tried to stretch. It came out more of an uncomfortable wiggle. “That’s the point, Abs. Trying to make sure it doesn’t. I need to test… two things. On a small scale, on low power. If I get those, then I can work bit by bit from now until the project is due.”

  “Just… be careful, alright? Use safety gsses or a face shield if you can?”

  “Good idea. I’ll ask for them, at least. And I promise what I’m working on won’t be more than an ounce or two of gss. Just enough to see if what I want to do can work.”

  “And that you’re going to stay over half mana?”

  “And that. I’m going to be a… a lot more cautious, I think. For a while.” Justin suddenly seemed tired. “I don’t like nding in the hospital. I don’t like this kind of pain, or shredding my body. I really hate worrying you.”

  He heard her sigh. He felt her hand on his, a warm and peaceful presence with him. “I think I can live with that,” Abbey said, “I hate having to worry about you, too.”

  They slept like that, exhausted from the day, together through the hurt. It helped, both of them.

  The morning came, as mornings do. There were no arms, which was good. Justin unfortunately didn’t need one, instead suddenly being able to feel everything again as the painkillers lost effect sometime around sunrise. This was extremely effective at waking him up, and his sudden tight grip on Abbey’s hand was extremely effective at waking her up in turn. This thankfully also set off his monitors, which brought orderlies, who, in turn, brought painkillers. And breakfast.

  Justin’s opinion of the coffee was much, much lower than his opinion of the medical care.

  It was near the end of this particur barrage that Justin remembered something. “Um, Nurse? Sorry, I can’t see your nametag, but am I allowed to remove the eye shields yet?”

  “Yes, dear, you are.” The woman helping them now was quite tall and slender, with wispy gray fur but otherwise human features. “In fact, I do recommend you do so. There are approved eye drops on the bedside table, you’ll likely need them.”

  As he reached for them, he felt a hand on his wrist. A very familiar one. “Let me, Justin. Please?” Abbey’s voice carried a thick mix of hope and fear. She was tired despite the hour, but needing to see this through.

  “Do it, love.” The hand let go of his own, and he felt her touch the eye covers. The brush of her fingers on his cheeks as she got a grip on them. They lifted, slowly and reluctantly, the edges seeming to stick a bit like they didn’t want to let go. Suddenly, they released his skin and came clear, the morning light striking his eyes for the first time since his magical healing. It painfully stabbed at him, the sun neither knowing nor caring that he was not ready for it, but in the brief moment between that and his blinking he saw something that cheered his heart. The azure face of his love in front of his, in enough detail to be able to see the tears in her own eyes.

  Slowly and painfully, Justin cracked open his eyelids again, getting used to having a sense he had taken for granted two days ago, one he likely would never take for granted again. He blinked, trying to tell himself that the gritty feeling and blur this time were expected. “I… I think the healing worked, but can you give me those eye drops? My eyes still feel like that entire beach full of sand is stuck in them.”

  There was a scrambling sound, and Justin realized that he could see the motion. He didn’t have to track it by sound alone. His girlfriend’s white business shirt contrasted with her skin as she rapidly moved to get it for him. She turned to face him, smiling. “Okay, open your eyes wide, Justin. I’ll be able to put the drops in your eyes better than you right now.”

  He wanted to object, but realized two things. First, she was probably right. Eye drops were just not something he’d ever had to use, and he’d likely waste half the bottle trying to learn. The second, though? Even if he used those drops every day of his life, this one time it would still be best to let her. The expression of simple joy as he nodded was proof enough of that. It was a struggle not to flinch from the tiny dropper, but when the eye drop hit his right eye and his body reflexively blinked three or four times he rapidly noticed the difference. That eye could suddenly see. It could perceive the pattern on the ceiling, it could make out the wrinkles on Abbey’s shirt, it could see the thin fur on the nurse’s arms and the fangs as she smiled.

  The tter might not have been reassuring most of the time, but all things considered Justin could deal with it.

  The next droplet went into his left eye, and the gritty feeling went away. Mostly, anyway. He was definitely not back to a hundred percent. Compared to twenty-four hours prior, though? Heck, twelve? His face was shockingly free of pain, and what was left kept receding as his eyes could move around and spread the effects to where the air couldn’t reach. “Yeah. It worked, Abbey. Looks like you won’t have to help feed me lunch. At least, not unless you really want to.” She was suddenly in his arms, slightly awkward as he sat up in the hospital bed but certainly welcome. The nurse left at some point, but he was too distracted to care. He could see his love again, his hubris had not cost him that forever. When he opened his eyes again, arm full of Genie, he spotted one thing he didn’t expect in the room. “Abs? What is that paper bag on the table?”

  There were two there, actually, but one was obviously the one the medicine had come in. The other was pin brown paper, the kind of thing you might carry a small lunch in, unmarked and unremarkable other than its presence. It definitely held something, though.

  “Oh, that? One of the orderlies brought it in earlier, they said it is the gss you asked for. I… kind of couldn’t bring myself to open it.” She was looking at it as though the bag’s contents might be radioactive.

  “Mind bringing it over? I at least want to know what exactly is in it.”

  She stood, slowly. “I’ll do you one better.” She carefully stepped over to a cabinet first, reaching in to pull out two pairs of clear safety gsses. Hospitals might not have needed them often in the days before the Change. Now, however? Given the number and kinds of being that could be coming through? Most did. She put on one pair as she grabbed the bag, and brought the other to Justin along with it. “You promised.”

  “I did. Hand it here? I’ll put it on before I even take the stuff out of the bag.” True to his word he did, despite the fairly ridiculous orange color of the pstic frame. Once he did, though, he looked into the bag itself to see what he was working with. Not finding much, he poured it out into his waiting hand.

  The edges were still sharp, but not too bad. It was not very clear, still cloudy and somewhat grainy-looking. Justin could still see the incompletely joined panes in pces. Two of the shards, though, had not been fully cleaned. There was still blood on them. His blood, from his arms and face, spilled because of his own hubris. Well, it was time to start fixing that. “Abbey, it feels like I’ve got a few ounces of gss here. Not going to do anything complicated. Just cleaning, purifying, and merging them. Maybe one more thing if it comes out well.”

  “Okay. Any reason why you’re describing it before you get started?”

  “Two reasons. One is so that you know what I’m trying and can see if something’s going wrong. The other is so that you can smack me with a rolled-up magazine if I get tempted to do something else. Deal?”

  “Deal.” Abbey’s smile made it worth it. The slightly feral quality to it convinced Justin that she had not taken that st part as a joke.

  Onto the task at hand. Or in hand. With eyebrows furrowed in concentration, Justin allowed a trickle of his mana to flow into the gss, first blunting the sharper edges, then seeking to take hold of the impurities he could see and expel them. His newest ability, Atomos, let him. The cloudiness within the gss seemed to swirl a bit. Seemed to drift. Bit by bit it was moving outward toward the surfaces of the gss, where it could be lightly brushed off. The blood, he moved into a small ball to one side as he melded the sides of the pieces together. This time, the merges were cleaner, and when he paused for a breath he had a much harder time seeing where one piece ended and the next began. His mana was still doing well at 75%, the enforced rest had ensured that he’d started this with a full pool.

  Now that he had one piece, he sought out the blood once more. This time, though, he took a hold of the iron from it with the oxygen from the air, leeching it back into the gss before brushing off the rest. It was enough, the lump in his hands taking a reddish cast as he permeated it with what he had avaible. Finally, pushing himself just to the limit he’d agreed to, he fttened it in his hand until he had a small disk. Perhaps half the size of his palm and half an inch thick. A pommel weight, translucent red in color. And, notably, it hadn’t exploded. That was a bit of a relief. To both him and to Abbey.

  “It… looks like I might have the hang of this, love.” Justin, despite keeping his mana and stamina above half (if barely), was sweating. The focus he had poured into this had not been easy, the memory of his mistakes both a stressful weight in his mind and a sharp prod to not take undue shortcuts. They say the burnt hand teaches best. The fyed face seemed to be just as effective.

  “Let me get this straight. You just woke up in a hospital, asked the staff for shards of gss they dug out of your body, melded them into a piece of a weapon, then stained it red using your own blood. And you’re an artist paying his way through college as a barista.” Despite knowing everything that was coming, Abbey’s face was incredulous.

  “I mean… when you put it that way…”

  Their discussion was interrupted by a rather irate-looking Human doctor coming through the door, limping on a cane. Justin recognized him, the same man who had given them the news that Abbey wasn’t pregnant. Doctor Abode. His grumpy voice began with no preamble “what is it with my patients coming back entirely sooner than they should? I’d say that if you wanted to be here that much you should just get a job, but the st one actually did. Now, you. Stop. Using. Magic. Eat your lunch and rest. What part of ‘traumatic recovery by direct magical intervention’ did you not understand?”

  “Uh… yes sir.”

  “Good.” He left, just as abruptly.

  There was absolute silence in the room, broken only by the soft beeps of the monitors. Abbey eventually found her voice. “That… just happened.”

  “Yep. Almost lunch time. Want to make a bet that they forget to bring you anything again?”

  “No bet. Just remember you still need to eat more than normal. Unless they let a bear into the hospital, that was your stomach.”

  It was getting te for lunch, so the guess was reasonable, but Justin realized something. He heard the roar, too, but it wasn’t his stomach. Breakfast had been huge, and the spells affecting him were much weakened from the night before. He was still comfortably full, to be honest. No, the sound had come from the direction of his window. The one overlooking the ER entrance to the hospital. With a growing sense of dread, Justin stood from his bed. Step by weak and shaking step, he walked to the window. There should have been bustling streets outside. There should have been a city at work outside.

  There should not have been an enormous entity of shadow and fme, rge enough that its face was level with his third-storey window, wings spread the width of the street and roaring its hatred of the world. That didn’t belong.

  The thing’s fming aura was scorching the road and the buildings as it passed, cars in its path were stomped ft. It was walking up the street, directly towards the hospital. Directly towards where he now stood. Justin’s stomach lurched, he reached out his hand without looking and took Abbey’s into his own. “Abbey… there’s no way we can get out of here in time. Either that thing gets distracted, or we’re about to be at ground zero.”

  She looked at the trail of destruction it was leaving. “You’re right. I hope something stops it, but you’re right. Justin?”

  “Yes, Abbey?”

  “I love you. Even without the magic, I would.”

  Justin breathed it in, finding heart in those words. “I love you, too. I think even before you gave me your Coin, I did.”

  They clung together tightly, praying for a miracle. A miracle that came swooping around a corner. Seven miniscule-seeming beings followed by four camera drones flew in from the side and charged up the street, firing their weapons and fanning out to battle the threat. Bystanders opened fire with guns and spells, pelting the thing with what they could in a vain hope that they’d slow it down. Maybe, just maybe, they’d turn the tide. A wave of fme flew from the demon, dispersing as it got close to a green-scaled defender. It shed out as a bestial fox and a bck-winged woman ducked in to attack it up close. It called bsphemous clouds of darkness upon the back row defenders. Still they held it off. In the end, it shed out with its whip to grab a gray, winged man. As it slowly pulled the man in, though, he did… something. His arms certainly moved as though he were bsting the thing with some kind of ability, though what it was neither Abbey nor Justin could even see. The titanic demon burst into fme and colpsed in on itself.

  Amongst the burning wreckage, the defenders scrambled to aid those who had been in the line of fire. Despite the titanic threat they had taken down their work was not done. The strength left Justin’s knees, though, and he fell to the floor. Shaking, Abbey sat with him, leaning on him and letting him lean on her. “Justin?”

  “Yes, love?” His voice shook. He hated that it shook, but he couldn’t help it. He’d witnessed a threat he could do nothing about, and was alive only thanks to the intervention of others.

  “I think… I think that just proved something. Whoever those were, they had to be with the Camp. That means we both need to go there. If that is what they do, they’re going to need all the help we can give.”