Felix felt his body failing even as he lay there.
He didn’t care anymore. Everyone was dead.
“Be your own hero, Kit. Don’t let them use you as a weapon,” Felix managed to say. He blinked, staring up at the ceiling, not seeing it. “You deserve more than that.”
He’d put in a word with No-Name a long time ago. If he died, release and free everyone from their contracts. Both slave and indentured.
“You just wait. When I get myself back together, I’m going to b-urrrrrrhhhhhnnn,” groaned the ever-regenerating hero.
Kit leaned over Felix, her hands gently pushing his hand away and pulling at his clothes.
“Damn,” she said.
“Sorry,” Felix gasped, his breathing getting short. “Couldn’t leave you here. Needed to at least try.”
Kit gave him a bitter smile and looked back to his wounds. “Stay with me, alright?”
“Sleepy,” Felix said softly. He really was sleepy. Everything was warm and nice.
Closing his eyes, Felix sighed.
“Damn you, wake up,” Kit growled at him. Then it felt as if someone were bathing him in fire. Someone had clearly pulled out every nerve in his body and then set it on fire.
Arching his back, Felix’s eyes shot open. Kit hovered above him, exactly where he’d seen her last.
Where’d that regenerating guy go?
“Regenerating hero,” Felix mumbled. “Everything hurts.”
“Dead. I killed him. After your stupid attack the crown deactivated. Threw it off,” Kit said, her fingers pressing into his side. “Sorry it hurts. Doing it to help you. You need to stay awake.”
Then she paused and looked off to one side. “Let’s hope this works,” she whispered.
“Huh?” Felix asked stupidly.
His arms and legs dangled at his sides as he was lifted up into the air. Felix rolled his head to one side, catching sight of the regenerating hero. He wasn’t split in half anymore, but he didn’t move. His face was slack, drool sliding free of his mouth, his eyes unseeing.
“Oh,” Felix said, then closed his eyes.
His nerves caught fire again. Groaning, Felix opened his eyes, trying to curl up into a fetal position.
His limbs wouldn’t respond to him. They wouldn’t move. Looking to his body, he found his arms and legs were strapped down. Tied down to a gurney.
How did I get on a gurney? Was it an illusion? It had to be.
Looking to the side as he was being rolled along, he passed his Warden.
“Did you jump down the shaft?” Kit asked from the head of the gurney.
“Yeah… no elevator,” Felix tried to say.
“Shhh. Rest, try not to move.”
Felix leaned his head back and attempted to listen to her orders.
“Up we go,” Kit said, moving the gurney into the decimated elevator shaft.
Except that when they entered, it was a fully working elevator. One that hadn’t been there a moment ago.
Kit reached over his head and flicked one of the buttons.
Felix closed his eyes as the hum of the box carried them upwards.
Only a second or two later, he opened his eyes as quickly as he could. He didn’t want Kit to hurt him again.
Taking a slow breath, Felix looked down to himself.
He was covered in blood. Almost to the point that it looked like he was made out of blood.
“Am I dead?” Felix asked, watching blood pour out of one of the bullet holes.
“You should be. You’re full of… you’re full of illusionary blood. I’m creating illusionary blood in you as fast as you’re losing it.”
“That sounds impossible. Impossible and hard.”
Felix felt strange. Lethargic and on the edge of passing out, but not.
“It’s hard. Very hard. But not impossible, it seems. Shh, concentrating.”
Felix fell into silence, his mind stubbornly fighting through what he’d been told.
“Make sure they collect all our corpses. Need them,” Felix said. As soon as he said it, he felt unbelievably tired.
Despite his best efforts, his eyes slid shut.
Every now and then, he managed to get his eyes open.
All around him, things were changing. Hallways, rooms, his own people flashing by.
The interior of a car.
Open sky.
Clouds.
A bird.
Then impenetrable darkness.
And the quiet hum of a machine.
In that darkness, Felix thought.
He planned.
He questioned.
He had a lot of questions. Lingering questions. Questions that he was sure he needed answers to.
The crowns and how they worked. How Kit could toss one aside.
The vanishing hero who escaped after Felix attacked.
Why the heroes never bothered to approach him if all they wanted was Kit.
For all they knew, he would have agree.
Too many questions.
Epilogue
Lily’s eyes popped open. Her pupils dilating wildly as they adjusted to the overhead light.
Taking in a deep, choking breath, her hands came up to her face.
“I died,” she said.
“That you did. Have no fear, though, I put you back together, and now you’re back in the land of the living,” Felix said happily, leaning over her. “Or so I hope. Got any extra parts I should know about? Probably didn’t make it back with you.”
Lily’s eyes snapped to him and held fast to him. “I don’t remember being dead… there wasn’t… anything.”
“I should hope not. Your memories are a result of your brain, not your soul. Want to sit up? That tray is pretty cold.”
Felix took a step back and picked up her hands, giving her a tentative tug.
Lily didn’t argue, and she got herself into a sitting position. “How long…?”
She hesitated, as if not wanting to ask the obvious question.
“About three weeks. Forgive me for the delay, but we had to get everything put back together before we could start resurrecting people. Didn’t have the points for it.”
Felix moved off towards the corner of a room and came back with a pair of jeans, blouse, socks, running shoes, panties, a bra, and a windbreaker.
“Sorry, I kinda raided your room for clothes,” Felix apologized, laying her clothes down next to her.
Lily looked down at herself, finally realizing she was in nothing more than a medical apron.
Turning his back to her, Felix walked over to the door. “So there you have it. I do have to apologize for something else, though. You had no file on record on whether you wanted to be resurrected or not. I chose for you.
“I was selfish and couldn’t think of a… a Legion without you.”
The rustle of clothes was all he heard behind him. Lily didn’t seem very talkative, and he could understand.
Not every day you’re brought back from the dead.
“The form. I… hadn’t decided on if I wanted to be brought back. Part of me was afraid that… well… I can’t imagine ripping a soul out of someone does me favors to get into heaven. I doubt asking to be resurrected like a zombie would make it any better, either.
“I forgive you, though. For both actions. Fill me in here, what happened? I remember we were attacking the base, but that’s it.”
“You were hit by a lightning bolt. Went through your head. Dead before you hit the ground.
“After that, we killed everyone, saved Kit, and got out.”
“Just like that?”
“Well, not quite just like that. I got shot. A lot. Getting shot hurts.
“Kit patched me up with illusionary blood and got me back to headquarters where Felicia stuffed me into a machine that put me back together. Took two days.
“Anyways, after we got out of that base, we gave No-Name a call to see if we could get bounty payouts for that entire base. Since the vast majority of them were all heroes.”
Felix shifted his foot from one to the other.
“Got a pretty large payout from that. Hit up auction after auction and bought anyone I could with a decent point value.