I shifted, causing a muted string of pain to course through my spine. I felt so incredibly sore. Hesitantly, almost scared of what I'd see, I eased my eyes open- rather, eye open. The Advent Ghost wasn't working, leaving me with just half of my vision.

I sat up, rubbing at my head. I was in some room I'd never seen before. It was a tiny concrete cell-like room just big enough to fit the small cot I sat on. I rubbed at my arms gently, feeling a slight chill in the air. My gear was entirely stripped off, laying in a heap near the end of the bead.

I reached a hand up to the Advent Ghost. An eyepatch covered the thing, which I promptly removed. Nothing. A sickening chill went up my spine as I probed around at the empty orbital socket. Back to being a cyclops, then.

Where the hell was I? Did Scavs grab me- no, my stuff was all still here including weapons… and I was still alive. Scarves were a one-stop chop shop. They weren't exactly known for their hospitality.

Now wasn't the time for this. I threw on my coat and armor once more, finding slight relief in it all being together. Wherever I was obviously wasn't hostile. There was no way a hostile entity would let me keep my guns

I got dressed, finding some difficulty in moving about. My head felt lighter than it had in a long time. Maybe because I didn't have a chunk of chrome thrown into my eye socket? Regardless, it was nice. I also felt refreshed like I got a good night's sleep. Weird considering the past few weeks of insomnia.

I checked everything for signs of tampering as I went. Nothing. Only Shinobu's wedding ring was gone for some reason. Did the Crusade have me? Then why wasn't I in a cell?

I hesitantly moved for the door, hand dropped onto my pistol just in case. It was a bit off-putting to walk with my screwed up depth perception. It'd been years since I only worked with one eye, though I fell back into it with relative ease.

The room exited out into a long, dimly-lit hallway. Doors, all incredibly similar to the one I stepped out of, sat along the hall partially illuminated by the flickering overhead lights. The end of the hall loomed close to my right, capped with a metal door. I slowly eased open the door-

Oh… yeah, I guess that made sense. I walked out into Absolom Clinic from the door I'd seen Nael take longer term patients. My entry into the room drew the attention of the room's inhabitants, both of which were familiar faces. Nael stood over the other man, running diagnostic checks on him.

Nael glanced back towards me, his expression instantly brightening. "Good to see you up, Shiro! Had me worried there. Just give me a few minutes."

"Chek." I dropped my guard and moved to a seat. My neck felt… off? Like I was missing something more than just an eye. It was like I had a crick in my neck, almost.

A couple minutes passed. In that time, I couldn't help but become aware of what I was wearing. I was still in full Crusade kit, and even my badge was evident against my chest. Nael knew I wasn't exactly clean, but impersonating a Crusader? That was way different then petty crime.

I slid up a hand and stuffed the badge into my pocket. It was a superfluous action. He'd already seen it, so I just had to wait and see what he would say. Hopefully, it didn't lower his opinion of me too much. I didn't know how I'd feel if Nael started to treat me differently.

The Medek finally moved, flipping up all of the complicated-looking machinery surrounding the chair. "You're good to go, Silas."

Silas, the friendly-looking one from a couple of months ago, sat up from the chair with a wide smile. "Thanks, doc."

Nael waved him off and walked over to me. "How are you feeling?"

The bell above the door lightly chimed as Silas left. I shifted uncomfortably in the chair. "Rested, I guess. Where's- uh, where's my eye?"

"I had to pull it…" He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "How much do you remember?"

I tried to think back to my last memory, but all I could summon up were long nightmares of twisting demons and hellish pursuits. Before that though…. I was supposed to help Shinobu out with something, I think. "I was working on a job?"

He slid into a chair next to me and ran a hand down his face. "Look, kid. I'm not sure how to say this- when you got to me, you were Glitching hard."

"W-what?" Fuck. The shadowed images in my brain started to make a lot more sense. Glitching though… I'd always heard of it, but actually experiencing it like this? And at the worst possible moment too.

"Yeah… thankfully, you seemed to be more inclined to flight than fight. You went down with some light sedatives. I had to remove your eye and Neural System Interface." He leaned back in the chair. "Been in a coma for three days."

Part of me wanted to curl up into a ball and cry, but the other wanted to laugh at the sheer absurdity of me Glitching. It wasn't even like I had a bunch of chrome! "What… what caused it?"

"Best I could tell?" He shrugged. "The Advent Ghost was too much for your old Neural System Interface. Your NSI exploded in your neck, and everything went downhill from there."

"So- so you removed both?" No wonder my neck felt so light all of a sudden. It exploded in my neck, though.

"The Ghost is in my chrome bank for now. The NSI was completely toast. It's a miracle it didn't cause any serious brain damage." Nael gave me a moment to think things through. "In my professional opinion, you should be on bed rest for the next two weeks."

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I brought my bank account into my HUD- right. No chrome. I was back down to just the Neural Link. Okay, think back? I might be able to go a couple weeks on my current stash of money, but rent was coming up soon and I couldn't afford to miss that. Two weeks of bed rest was way too much-

"That being said…" He eyed me for a moment. "You healed exceptionally quickly after the surgery."

Shit. He definitely noticed Quick Healing… What should I say? A magical floating box gave me the ability to heal quickly? If I say mutation, that would mean it was replicable. That with the right amount of experimentation, it could be easily turned- no, that was just paranoia speaking... Nael was a good guy. He wouldn't do that to me… right?

Maybe I wasn't back to a hundred percent quite yet. Rationally, I knew I could trust Nael. Yet there was an illogical side of me that just wanted to lie and get out, to get away as quickly as possible. Or maybe that was just my natural survival instincts? Ugh- my head hurt so much.

Regardless, if word somehow got out I mutated a healing ability? I'd be hunted down by the big corps to be experimented on, without a doubt. Everyone would want a bit of Shiro Slushy if it brought them immediate healing. That was the kind of thing Medtech would pay trillions to have.

"Kinetic… a- um- a couple months ago." It was the safest option. Everyone knew you couldn't forcibly activate a Kinetic ability. Hundreds of trillions had probably been sunk into it over the years, and likely millions died trying, but the fact remained. Awakening as a Kinetic just happened, and there was nothing a person could do about it.

He nodded his head. "Right… I saw something similar a few years back… Rest for a couple days, and I'll look around for a better Neural System Interface. That is, if you even want to be chipped again?"

"As opposed to what? Not having an eye?" That came out way too snappy. "S-sorry. I just can't live as a one-eyed freak."

"It's fine. I get it, kid" He stood abd grabbed a dataslate. After clicking around on it, he passed the thing to me. "You could go get clone-flesh from Slab Co?"

"Clone-flesh?" I took the offered data-slate and looked through Slab Co's sight. I'd heard about it, of course, but never had the time to actually look into clone flesh.

I looked deeper through Slab Co's cloning process and surgeries. They offered vat-grown body parts guaranteed to fit the genetic genome of the buyer to a T. It was a surprisingly cheap price too. For just fifty Ryan, I could have a whole new eye like I had back in my youth.

Did I even want one though? Chrome was just… better. At least, for the most part. There were the occasional glitches and bugs, but the benefits? Not to mention clone-flesh had its own host of issues.

"Why'd it blow?" I handed the data-slate back and motioned to my neck.

"It shouldn't have. Your NSI got through both me and Fodisa when we ran diagnostics. It was a bit old, but should've been fine." Nael took a step off the side of the room, then froze. "Right- you probably wouldn't want to see it, would you?"

The thing that nearly turned me into a brain dead sociopath so absorbed by paranoia and fear that nothing else mattered? "No."

Nael nodded his head a few times and moved to sit next to me once more. "It had some serious heat damage. It was probably already going downhill when you chipped the Advent Ghost, and then finally gave out with the added pressure."

Heat damage… Blackout? That thing was causing me no end of trouble, even now. "What now?"

"Depends, kid. I can look for a new NSI if you want chrome again. After some time without anything new, of course. I know you have Kinetic healing ability, but doing something so soon is… risky."

At least he was giving me options. "Am I… stable? Now, I mean."

He tried to smile at me. It looked forced around the edges. "I can run a few checks, but you should be, kid. Especially with that Kinetic ability of yours."

"Chek… chek, let's do that." I stood up and moved to the surgery chair.

Nael followed a few steps behind me and immediately set up the scanners. "You join the Crusade, kid?"

"Um… costume party. Pretty convincing, right?" I pulled at the Blue Crusade uniform uncomfortably.

He chuckled, though it didn't seem as if he wanted to probe any deeper. "Certainly. Freaked me out when I saw a Squire collapsed against the clinic's door. I definitely don't need the Crusade poking around."

The rest of the checks were passed in relative silence. Eventually, Nael disabled all the scanners and put everything back up. "Am I good?"

"Perfect. Still, even if you want to chip again, rest. Medek's orders. Even if your body heals quickly, the same can't be said about your mind." His eyes took a far away look, as if he wasn't really looking at me. "Even small injuries can kill legends if they aren't given time to heal."

I sensed a story there somewhere, though now definitely wasn't the time to probe. "I- I'll go home, then. Take a shower. Sleep in my bed."

He nodded his head and moved back to the corner of the room to an abandoned book. "Oh! Right. Shinobu grabbed a ring from you. You wouldn't stop asking me to pass it on to him. Said to call him when you got the chance."

That explained the mystery of the missing ring. "Thanks, Nael… I- um- I didn't say anything weird, did I?"

We waved his hand and picked up his book. Couldn't quite tell what it was, but it had a picture of a pink tree on the cover. "Don't worry about it, kid. Nothing I haven't heard before... Good luck out there."

I left the clinic and stumbled around for a while looking for my bike. It was where I usually parked it. Some habits were still strong even while Glitching out. I checked my phone, finding over a dozen missed calls from Shinobu, a bunch of messages from Mira, and a call from Carone.

I called Shinobu first. "Hey-"

"Mikata! You alright?! I found you at Nael's, but you really had me worried. Just disappeared after I sent you in. He said you were stable, but what happened? You are alright, yeah?" The enforcer's voice had traces of panic in it. See?

"Heh." I suppressed a laugh. "I'm good now. Chrome issues. You got the ring?"

He laughed, though it lacked any real mirth. "Seem to have a lot of those recently. Maybe get your chrome from somewhere else? The Fang has a supply-"

"I'm good… thanks though." Ishimaru tried to over me Jade Fang chrome several times in the past. I didn't want to be indebted to them any more than I already was. My family was in tight with the Fang, but that didn't mean I wanted to be. "The ring?"

"Right. Yes, I got it back…"

"Nova." I talked to him a bit more as I drove back to my apartment. Mostly, it was concern over me. At least, until Valerina came up. I had to hang up before he could talk my ear off.

There was a lot to think about on the ride home. Maybe I should just drop the experimental tech altogether. The last two times I used Advent's stuff, it burned me. Literally. Maybe I should just go back to normal stuff from the big corps?

But the utility provided by the Ghost had looked so good on paper… should I give it one more try? Hell, this time it wasn't even because of Advent's tech. It was my Neural System Interface that malfunctioned… still, if I tried again, would it finally kill me? Third times a charm and all that?

Was it even necessarily the chrome's fault? From what I heard, chrome was supposed to hinder and malfunction with Magi and Adepts. There was a reason neither had the stuff. Was my connection to the other dimension causing some issues as well?

Or should I just go back to flesh? It would be nice to be all… me once more. I didn't technically need any chrome, although I'd be giving up a ton of potential power if I went completely. What about Bio-mods? Should I try some of them?

I couldn't come to a conclusion the entire ride home. There was just too much to go over, so I tossed everything down and headed for the shower. For the next while, I just needed to take it easy. No matter what happened.

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