February 3rd, Year 715 A.G.

When Tyla first told him the truth, Leon thought she was being sarcastic. He didn’t believe her till he saw the calendar for himself.

He’d been on a coma for over 4 months, 4 freaking months!

He’d literally spent more time on the hospital bed unconscious than he’d spent exploring Neo-Tokara since he woke up in the stasis tube.

Well, that was a lot to digest, not that they gave him any time to digest it as immediately after their emotional reunion, Tyla spread the news and in a few short minutes the hospital room became full with familiar faces.

It was 4:13am in the morning but they didn’t mind.

Talia, Brick, Ghostwire, and Daren, they all pulled up to the hospital immediately after Tyla spread the news that he was awake.

Apparently, he was in the Central Hospital in Iron Reef, the biggest center of medical advancement and intelligence in the entire Freegrid Collective.

"Bro, you actually dared to spend 4 months just sleeping? What a lazy bastard!" Daren said, making everyone burst into laughter.

"Do you know how worried she was?" Talia scolded, gesturing at Tyla.

Tyla rode the momentum as no longer emotional, she folded her arms and glared at him. "You have a whole lot of explaining to do, just get better first!"

Leon was helpless. "It’s not like I did it deliberately".

"I don’t care!"

Despite how tough and stubborn she was currently acting, Leon didn’t pay much attention to it because he already confirmed something- Tyla was indeed the singular warm presence that always stayed there accompanying him throughout even while others were gone.

She was almost never absent, she was his anchor within the still expanse of wherever his consciousness was confined since.

His friends didn’t waste any time to update him on the current state of the world and what happened while he was in a coma.

Well, apparently, during the course of the past 4 months, a lot of dignitaries had visited this hospital because of him- from General Ren Nora himself to Colonel Alphonse, to even Major Roshfield of the Geneforge Clans.

With everyone being so loud, teasing him and celebrating his return in their own way, Brick and Ghostwire’s silence felt especially glaring to Leon.

He still didn’t come to terms with the fact that he’s been in a coma for over 4 months yet, but he still noticed their silence.

When he looked at Brick, he understood.

The once towering 7 feet tall Synth now looked shorter somehow, his mechanical body looked slightly disjointed. Despite the long velvet clothes he wore to cover his entire body, Leon could tell that something was wrong.

"Hey buddy," he called. "Are you ok?"

Brick hesitated slightly, then he forced a smile. "Thanks for coming back man, you almost made me kill myself out of guilt".

He chuckled. "I’ve been haunted by that day every night since then, I was so useless when you needed help the most. I still can’t believe that I and Daren were sleeping like fools while you were fighting for your life".

"Hey, speak for yourself. I’m not a fool!" Daren corrected but Brick just laughed, then, he pulled up his black velvet trousers, showing his left leg to Leon.

He also pulled his trousers up on the other side, showing his right leg too.

Leon immediately noticed the difference; Brick’s left metallic leg looked cleaner than the right, newer somehow. And more fragile.

"What happened?"

"Well, since I couldn’t help you to fight, the most I could have done is to at least stay out of the way but my useless ass couldn’t even do that". He laughed.

"I got caught in the crosshairs during that 1 minute when you fought for your life. I didn’t die, but well, let’s just say that I lost the entire right part of my body".

"The only reason why I’m still alive is because I’m a Synth and not a Geneform".

"The doctors say my Neural Core conductivitus was disconnected from my spinal grantifid servacus, a lot of medical bullshit like that".

"Well, what the doctor meant is that I’m paralyzed on my right side. It’s not a surface injury, it’s something connected to my Neural Core so it can’t heal. Not even Cell Repair can heal it".

"In essence, I can no longer pursue my career as an Ascended".

The hospital room fell silent.

Brick laughed; he was laughing a lot more than usual today. "No need to feel bad for me. I was already thinking of retirement after the Bill Zefyr mission, this just makes it an early retirement for me".

Leon looked at him somberly. "I’m sorry".

Brick rolled his eyes. "Stop saying it like someone died, it’s just retirement!"

Daren laughed. "Well, we can toast to that right?"

Brick glared at him.

"What? You said its just retirement".

The others laughed.

For the next few minutes, his friends took turns telling him about the current state of the world 4 months after he went into a coma.

Apparently, the Omnicore Federation still didn’t let go of the case from 4 months ago. Using their media propaganda machine, Neo Solace have accused the Freegrid Collective of being the no. 1 enemy of the world.

They released footage of the brutal murder of Earl Joe, a peace-loving noble of Neo Solace who was killed in cold blood by the brutal murderers who they now tagged as the Freegrid Collective.

By connecting this news to the nuke incident in the West, they accused the Freegrid Collective of breaking major military war codes.

For 4 months, they’ve been painting the Freegrid Collective as the Black Sheep in a harmonious world story that they invented. And like expected, millions of people were buying into the narrative.

Leon’s face turned grave.

This is because though they didn’t say it out, he still read in between the lines of what Talia especially was trying to convey.

The Omnicore Federation have been tolerating the Freegrid Collective’s presence for over a century now, partially because of Ren Nora and partially because they didn’t have enough justification to start a full-blown civil war yet.

Epsilon is the kind of dictator who didn’t just like to conquer, but he was one who liked to conquer while being praised for it.

He believed in propaganda, and with it, he was slowly preparing the world for the past 4 months for a full-blown Civil War to eradicate the Freegrid Collective from history, a war that was definitely going to break all the current war taboos that were established by him centuries ago.

Skirmishes already started between both armies as they fought at their border for months, and it was only escalating recently.

They didn’t want to tell him such news on his first day of waking up, but they didn’t want to hide such important news from him either.

Leon felt a bit overwhelmed by everything; first the fact that he’s been in a coma for 4 months, and now this.

He exhaled, then he finally looked at Ghostwire and forced a smile. "Congratulations, you’re now an E Rank NetRunner".

"How was your Trial?"

...

[Special Appreciation to byrdseede, Jah1140, Yametekudastop, and ImperialJadeDragon for the Golden Tickets!]