Alex sat quietly in the palm of Jani’s hand as she entered the veterinary office attached to the hospital. Inside, she was greeted pleasantly by the receptionist. 

It had been several hours since Rixie had gone into surgery, and the butterflies in Alex’s stomach hadn’t let up one bit. Jani had had to issue status reports to her direct supervisors, answer questions from the Military brass and check in with Vanser and Maltak, updating them on Rixie’s condtion.

And finally, after all that, she’d been able to sneak away and get Alex’s injuries tended to. 

Alex hadn’t exactly been looking forward to the ordeal, so he wasn’t about to protest the delays. 

“I have a human here that was injured along with an Imperator that was brought in earlier.” She told the young man behind the desk. “I think he might have been injured as well.” 

“Okay. Well, the doctor is with another patient. How about if I have her assistant check him over first?” 

Jani nodded and smiled. “That should be fine.” 

She followed the receptionist into the examination area where a young woman in a lab coat was waiting for them. 

Alex blinked and examined the girl. She was young, probably not much older than a teenager. Her dark black hair hung into her eyes and her lab coat looked like it was a size too big for her. Despite that, she had a confident look in her eyes, as if she were completely in her element. 

She smiled at them and her turquoise colored eyes lit up. 

“Hello.” Her voice was soft and pleasant. “My name’s Fara. What seems to be the problem today?” 

“Alex here was injured when-” Jani began. 

“Oh no,” Fara interrupted politely. “It’s okay. He can tell me.” 

Alex’s started in surprise. He looked up into the face of the Titaness who was waiting expectantly, but patiently, for him to talk. 

“Oh well… I had a… an accident. I think maybe I injured my back a little…” Alex rubbed the back of his neck. 

“I see.” Fara lifted her hand and held it parallel to Jani’s in a clear invitation. After only a moment’s hesitation, Alex carefully climbed into the girl’s hand, settling himself on the soft platform of tanned skin. 

He was carried across the room to the examination table. Behind them, Jani seated herself by the wall, an amused look on her face. 

Alex was carefully lowered to the examination table. 

“Now, could you take your shirt off for me, please? You can leave your pants on if that would make you more comfortable.” 

Alex hesitated only for a moment before grabbing the hem of his shirt and lifting it over his head. 

Fara smiled. “Good. Now, Lay down on your stomach for me, please.” 

Alex slowly lowered himself to the table top, lying flat on his stomach. He had to move carefully to keep from agitating his aching muscles. 

A moment later a large black lens was lowered until it was situated right above him. 

“Hold still while I get some images of your back. Don’t worry, this won’t hurt a bit.” 

Alex gritted his teeth and screwed his eyes shut. There was a loud buzzing noise that lasted only for a second. 

“And we’re done.” Fara raised the lens back up. “You can sit up if you’d like.” 

With a grunt Alex pushed himself back to his feet. He looked over at the young assistant veterinarian who was studying her data pad with a look of concentration on her face. 

“Well Alex,” She said glancing over at him, “It doesn’t look like anything’s been broken. Just a bit of sprain, I’d say. As long as you don’t do anything particularly strenuous, I don’t think there will be any permanent damage.” 

“Well, that’s good to hear.” Alex sighed as he carefully got back to his feet and rolling his shoulders. 

The young Titaness crossed the examination room to a supply cabinet. 

“Would you like a rejuvenation scrub?” Fara called from across the room. “It will probably help with those sore muscles.” 

Alex shrugged, and then winced as his muscle twitched painfully. “Yeah, okay that sounds good.”

Fara walked back over to the table and set a small container of thick liquid on the table. 

Alex looked at the strange mint green liquid for a moment before shrugging and removing the rest of his clothes. He walked over to the small vat and quickly hopped into it. 

It felt like jumping into a vat of half-congealed jello. It didn’t feel bad in any way just… odd. However, Fara was right, the moment the strange substance touched his sore muscles a cooling numbness spread through his whole body.

Alex felt relaxed almost instantly. Suddenly, everything he’d been feeling the whole day caught up with him at once 

“I’m going to work it into your muscles now, okay?” spoke the Titaness soothing voice. “Just relax.” 

“Uh huh…” Alex muttered as his eyes drifted closed. He felt the young woman’s fingers press into his back and gently knead the liquid into the muscles of his back and chest. Alex found himself dozing lightly. In his mind’s eye he could see Rixie’s beautiful face above him. She was all right. There was no horrifying wound in her neck. She looked perfect. 

She smiled gently at him and it was her fingers that were caressing his body, and her soothing voice he heard. 

“Rixie…” Alex muttered sleepily and the figmentive Titaness’s eyes sparkled with amusement. “You’re okay…” 

Suddenly, the fingers wrapped around him and carefully lifted him out of the tub, jolting Alex back into full wakefulness. He shook his head to clear the fog out and saw he was in the grip of Fara’s hand. 

She lowered him down onto a clean towel and carefully wiped away the excess lotion or whatever it was he’d been bathing in. Within moments he was perfectly dry. 

“There we go.” Fara said softly. “That should help a lot.” 

“It does.” Alex nodded, smiling gratefully.

“You can put your clothes back on now.” Fara smiled gently.

Alex nodded. He walked over to his small pile of clothes and began dressing himself. When he was finished he looked up at the brunette young woman.

“Thank you.”

Fara’s face lit up with a bright smile. 

“You’re quite welcome!” 

Jani looked up from her data pad. 

“You have good timing. Rixie just got out of surgery.” 

*.*.*.*.*.*.*

It had taken him a long time to get across the city. The fact that all of Atlantis shook with the tremors from the brawling Titanesses didn’t help him at all. 

The disease had left his body drained of all strength, and after a few blocks he was reduced to crawling on the ground like an animal. 

But, his persistence paid off eventually. Panting and wheezing, Sulphur dragged himself into what remained of his home. 

He was dismayed, though not particularly surprised, to see that looters and vandals had ransacked his home in the chaos. Nearly every valuable he had had been taken away. 

But not all of them. 

As he stumbled into his bedroom, he was pleased to see the foot locker sized device had been right where he’d hidden it. Either the looters hadn’t found it or they’d deemed it too cumbersome to bother with. 

Of course, without knowing how it worked, the device offered little value to them anyway. 

To Sulphur, however, it was priceless. 

With a twisted grin, he depressed the stud on the side of the contraption. A moment later it whirred to life and projected a stream of colored light into the air above its surface. 

After several minutes of waiting, the light coalesced into the image of Syon Fand. 

The Titaness blinked down at him, a bored and sneering expression on her face. The sneer only deepened when she beheld his bedraggled appearance. 

“What do you want, Sulphur?” Syon spat. “I’m extremely busy.” 

“Please.” Sulphur coughed and fell to his knees in supplication. “You have to help me… I’ve become ill. The plague you sent… I’ve become infected.” 

Syon blinked and was silent for a moment, as if she expected him to continue. 

“And…?” She finally spoke, arching one perfectly sculpted brow. 

Sulphur gapped at her. “And you have to help me! Please, I beg of you, I’m going to die. Surely there must be a cure?”

Syon shrugged. “Of course there is.” 

Sulphur grinned and shot to his feet in excitement, the most strenuous thing he’d managed to do in hours. “Excellent! Please, you must give it to me!” 

Syon chuckled mockingly. “Really? And how do you propose I do that? Even if I had any desire to help you, which I really don’t I’m afraid… I’m light years away from your location. By the time it arrived on that pitiful little rock you call home… you’d already be dead anyway. 

Sulphur fell to his knees again in shock. 

“No.” Syon continued, oblivious to his reaction. “I’m afraid that you’ve gotten into this mess, you will simply need to find a way out of it.” 

“And if I don’t?” 

“You’ll die.” Syon smiled cruelly. “Which I daresay is the more likely outcome. It’s just as well; you’ve largely outlived your usefulness anyway. Frankly I see this as a good thing, one less loose end out there in the universe.”

“But I’ve served you faithfully for decades.” 

“Yes I suppose you have.” Syon admitted flatly. “And you’ve done a good job of it, for the most part. You can die happy knowing you’ve served a purpose far greater than your feeble little mind could ever imagine.” 

“But-”

“Now I’m afraid you’ve wasted enough of my time.” And with that the transmission abruptly cut off. 

Sulphur stared at the inert machine, dumbfounded. How could she possibly do-?

Suddenly, the communicator erupted in a shower of sparks and searing heat. Blue and green flames erupted from the metal, along with a white hot light that forced Sulphur to turn away lest he be blinded. 

The conflagration lasted for almost half a minute before dying down. When it ended, Sulphur cautiously turned to look, almost afraid of what he’d see. 

There, in front of him where the communicator used to be, was a useless puddle of melted metal sludge. 

Syon Fand’s parting message. 

Sulphur stared dumbly for a moment. He couldn’t believe that Fand would treat him this way, after all the decades he’d spent in her service. He’d known she wasn’t really a goddess, of course, but he was certain his loyalty had meant something to the beautiful Titaness…

Apparently not. 

Without any other options, Sulphur crawled over to his broken bed with its torn mattress and laid down. He no longer even had a blanket to cover himself with. 

Sulphur lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling and waited to die. 

Ironically, he was still obeying Syon Fand’s orders. 

*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Rixie’s eyes opened slowly. The light from above seemed to burn at her retinas and everything seemed to be a bit blurry around the edges. 

After about five seconds her vision cleared enough that she was able to look around. She found herself in a room painted sky blue, laying in a bed with stiff white sheets. Everything around her was very unfamiliar. 

Except one thing; the finger sized human curled up in a sleeping little ball in her palm.

Alex. She tried to say his name, but nothing seemed to come out except a faint wheeze. 

“Don’t try and talk, Imperator Tam. You’ve suffered a fairly serious injury.” Rixie’s eyes snapped up to a middle aged man in a white lab coat with thinning dark brown hair. 

Rixie’s brows knit in confusion and she tried to ask who he was, but again nothing came out. 

“Please, Imperator Tam… Don’t try and talk.” The man repeated. “My name is Dr. Alambra, head surgeon in the otolaryngology department here at the hospital. Do you remember anything about the last day? Please just nod or shake your head.” 

Rixie nodded. 

“Good. Do you remember your throat being injured?” 

Nod. 

“Do you remember the ambulance?” 

Nod. 

“Do you remember arriving at the hospital?

Head shake. 

“I’m not surprised, that was about the point you lost consciousness and we began prepping you for surgery.”

The doctor hesitated, as if unsure how to proceed, until Rixie gave him an aggravated look and he decided it was best just to get it all out. 

“The weapon used against you did serious damage to larynx- your vocal chords- Imperator.” The doctor continued. “You are very fortunate that it missed your spine as well as major arteries… but I’m afraid you’ve lost about ninety-five percent of your vocal capabilities.” 

Rixie’s eyes widened. 

“Now, don’t panic just yet.” The doctor hastened to assure her. “We’ve implanted an electronic vocal synthesizer that will give you the ability to speak… eventually.” He reached into the pocket of his lab coat and withdrew a small black device. It looked like a small remote.

“This is the pitch adjuster for your new voice box.” The doctor explained. “I’d like to test it.” He flicked one of the dials and Rixie felt a curious tickle in her throat. 

“Don’t worry, that odd sensation you’re feeling will go away after you’ve healed properly. Now, please, try and say something.” 

Rixie glanced down at the human in her hand. “Alex…?” 

She blinked in surprise at the sound of her own voice. For one thing it sounded a little higher than normal, and for another it sounded so… electronic.

“Don’t worry; you’ll have the ability to adjust it until it sounds a bit more like, well, like you.” The doctor fiddled with the dials a bit. “Try it again.” 

“Alex…” This time the sound was a hair too deep. 

“Uh huh. Once more?” 

“Alex…” The electronic undertone was still present, but at least now she didn’t sound like a man. “Alex wake up!” 

“I’ve been awake. What, you think you titans are quiet?!” The human sat up in her hand and rubbed his face irritably. “Seriously, I could have heard you from across the hospital.”

“That’s a very loyal human you have there, Imperator Tam.” Dr. Alambra smiled in amusement. “The little thing absolutely refused to leave your side until we took you into surgery. We almost needed to threaten him to have him checked out by a vet… and then, he sat right there on your bed until you returned. He told us, point blank, that he was not leaving your side. He threatened to bite one of the nurses.”

“I would have done it to the old battle axe too, if she’d had the guts to try anything!” Alex growled. 

“And I believe you.” The doctor responded earnestly. “So, Imperator, now that we’ve done the preliminary tests on your device, I’m afraid I’m going to have to turn it off for a while. Your throat still has a lot of healing to do, and using the device too much at this point might put a bit too much strain on it.”

Rixie grumbled silently and shook her head. 

“Don’t worry though; if you need to talk you can use this pad to type out whatever it is you need to say.” He reached into the pocket on the other side of his coat and retrieved a simple pad that was little more than a keypad and screen.

Thank you doctor. Rixie typed. 

“Ah see, you’ve got the idea. I’ll be back to check on you in a few hours.” With a cheerful wave, the doctor departed, leaving them alone in the hospital room. 

She tapped something on her pad, and then turned it so Alex could see.

It took a few minutes for Alex to decipher the writing. Despite his best efforts, he still had a tendency to transpose the characters. Eventually, he was able to make out the message, while Rixie waited patiently. 

I can’t believe I let myself get shot. Rixie typed with an irritated scowl on her face. 

Alex grinned and walked over to the pad. Carefully pushing down on the keys he was just starting to type out a message of his own when the pad was snatched away by Rixie. 

You don’t have to type! She spelled out on the screen. I’m mute, not deaf. You can still talk, you dork. 

“Oh, uh, right.”

Rixie smiled and rolled her eyes in amusement. 

“I’m…” Alex cleared his throat and tried again. “I’m glad you’re okay Rix. Seeing you lying there… It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.” 

Rixie typed quickly on her pad. 

I can understand. You have no idea how scared I was, seeing you lying there after Dorok had thrown you against the wall. 

“Yeah… No big deal though. Just a few bruises and some soreness. Maybe banged up my head a little, but I never use that anyway.” 

Rixie’s eyes widened. 

“Kidding, Rix.” Alex hastened to assure her. “My head is fine. …Sorry, guess that was a bad joke.” 

It’s okay.

Alex sat on top of the blanket that covered Rixie’s torso and stared up at her. She was looking intently at her data pad while typing a message. Suddenly she looked up and her eyes met his. She smiled, but then her brow creased as she noticed his pensive expression. 

Everything Okay?

Alex hesitated, and then sighed. “You heard what I said right after you were shot…didn’t you?” 

Rixie typed out another message. 

Of course I did. You said you loved me.

Alex’s stomach clenched. There it was, it was out in the universe, he couldn’t take it back now. 

“I… I did.” Alex gulped nervously. “And, uh…” Alex fell silent as he struggled to find the right words. He stared down at his feet, his skin flushed with embarrassment and his whole body shaking with nerves. He suddenly felt like he was even smaller than normal. 

He felt a feather light touch on his shoulder and he looked up. Rixie was smiling gently and holding the pad up. 

I said I loved you too, remember?

“Yeah but…” 

Rixie pressed a button and a new message flashed on the screen. 

What’s the matter?

“Where do we go from here Rix?” 

There was a moment of silence, so to speak, as the Titaness considered the question. After a few agonizing minutes where the only sound Alex could hear was the pounding of his own heart in his ears. 

Finally, she picked up her pad and entered a new message. 

Wherever we want. 

Alex shot the grinning giantess a sardonic look. “It’s not that easy Rixie.” 

Why not? 

“Because… Because… uh….” 

He fell silent as Rixie began typing quickly on her pad. Whatever she was trying to say took several minutes for her to spell out. 

I get it Alex, you’re scared. She typed. I am too. But that’s the beauty of it. We don’t know what will happen between us now. We have no idea what a relationship between a human and a Titan is supposed to look like. Not really. Isn’t that a little exciting? We can do whatever we want and nobody is going to tell us ‘how it’s supposed to be’ and if they try? Fuck them. 

Alex chuckled, before reading on. 

I do love you, Alex. More than anybody I’ve ever met. And that’s a scary idea. But being shot showed me something. It showed me that everything I have can be taken in a moment, and I don’t want to regret not acting when I had the chance. I think you saw that too, and that’s why you said what you did, right?

Alex nodded, rubbing his face with his hand- ironically being unable to speak. 

And you know what? If it doesn’t work… If you decide you don’t want to be with me anymore, you will be free to leave. I wouldn’t dream of stopping you. I don’t want that to happen, but if it does, I will understand and I will do whatever you need me to do to make your life safe and comfortable. 

Alex finished reading, though it took him awhile. He was silent for a moment before nodding with a relieved sigh. 

“Okay.” He said, raising his eyes to hers with a grin. “Let’s give this a shot.”