Remembering The Light [Liltotto, Klein]

A myriad of frustrated experiences surfaced the dull pool of her currently murky consciousness, or rather, she just realized it was frustration. Hours of searching libraries, speaking to others, just overall peeking into whatever she could to get some information on whatever a 'Soul King' may have been, that talk that happened so long ago feeling more like a curse of knowledge than something of insight on herself at times. Again and again, a 'sorry, I don't know what that is' or incomplete answers met her. Even if she managed the nerve to ask a Shinigami, she doubted they would have been any more enlightened than the sprawl of people going off assumptions or lies...

Her caretaker wanted to help her figure it out, but... What even was there to figure out? Shouldn't she just be content with the vague 'human' label she'd run along with for so long..? But at the same time, humans didn't get an intense craving to eat each other if they were too hungry. Humans didn't sleep for long intervals if that hunger wasn't attended to regularly. Humans couldn't live for ages and ages with no sign of change... Humans scarred.

No matter how much she felt she was one of them, something happened to remind her otherwise...

Like... this...

Why she was here...

Her hands tensed as she felt more awake, rather, her body recalled the stress it was put under, heart about to burst through her ribs. Her headache worsened, chest held as she was under the sheets, only listening to what the small Arrancar had to say in response to her inane burst of truth...

...She needed to get home, but he was offering a realistic chance of actually learning something about herself. What would he even have to lie about at this stage? He said he finished up his testing, there wasn't anything else he could have gotten out of her even if he wanted to...

Quietly, she curled closer into herself, wishing those painkillers would come faster... She couldn't even remember the test very well, so why did her body... No, her head hurt too much to think about it for too long.

"...If you're really able to do that," She'd breathe with a bit of incredulity to her tone, "Then do it.. But my head's killing me right now..."

"Well, I'll see what I can do."

As Flosshilde once more entered the room, a tray with a golden injector nearly placed on it, Klein shooed her out just as quickly before turning his attention back toward Liltotto. This was lifechanging if he could get it right. This was a chance he just couldn't afford to mess up. Checking the golden tool to make sure that it was all properly prepared, he tapped it a few times to check that the needle was functioning correctly. Indeed, the white of the converted hollow mask was still intact, and he approached his patient with an apologetic smile as he readied to inject the painkillers into her arm.

"I can't exactly make any promises, I'm not a miracle worker. But I am a doctor, so helping people and learning more about the body is what I do. If you want answers, then I'll gladly do the work to find them for you."

With a careful push, he inserted the golden needle into Liltotto's arm, the specially designed tool injecting the medicine effortlessly into her bloodstream. It had all been tailor made just for her, after all, so there was hardly any difficulty.

"We don't need to rush right into more testing, though, if you don't want. I understand you'll probably want some more time to recover."

"..Okay."

Her acceptance of that information was but a gentle whisper; even if she was remembering the situation, the sensations she had being here, away from everyone for so long... Did they think she died... No, they'd know she went missing...

The gleam of that needle caught her pained gaze, squinted eyes barely focusing on it as she'd soon feel the sensation of white hot pain press into her arm, eyes widening as her heartrate increased to abnormal frequency, as if it was about to jump out of her throat, her instincts reacting to a foreign influence...

...And then everything dulled into a painless fog. Her chest went silent, that instinctive scream calmed to a sleep. She felt the edges of her vision darken as her body relaxed, eyes slowly rolling up to look at him in her calmed state. No more pain, it worked... Drugs never worked on her, much less could get into her... Was this what that relief felt like?

"..More testing..?" She'd calmly ask, blinking gently, "..I just need a bit... But i'd have to at least go back and let everyone know i'm alright... I..."

Sitting up, she swayed just a little. She felt like she could keep her eyes open, her body upright, "...I'm not sure, what would be faster?"

"It would probably be faster to stay here. I know you want to get out of here, but it'd just be delaying what we need to do, and I wouldn't be able to give you any painkillers while you're gone."

Of course, Klein hardly wanted to let her leave. That would give any number of possible ways for people to get a sense of what he was doing, and it might give an opportunity to analyze the seal Lucia had put on her. Did he think they'd be able to break it? Maybe, maybe not. He didn't want to take that chance.

"I know it's not great, but I can work best if you stay here just a little longer. Not more than a week, I promise. I'll make sure we get through this as quick as I can without hurting you."

That said, he had to imagine she might be willing to sacrifice that last bit for the sake of expediency. Klein knew that, and he was capitalizing on it. He'd offered her a kindness, and so either she accepted it, acknowledging what he presented as good nature, or she declined, and still was the one who had requested a harsher treatment.

Well, that was true... Her expression drooped in a bit of reluctance, but she had to admit that was right - leaving and coming back would take any amount of time, not to mention this damned seal was still on her, she'd hardly be able to make it back timely... The thought of not having painkillers on her wasn't as much of a hassle to her, she'd figure that the aches would go away on their own, but it wasn't exactly favorable to go doubling over in public with no other doctors able to discern what's going on or be able to treat her properly...

Regardless of her pesky beating down talk, everyone must be wondering where she was, or what happened to her - she'd put any sort of 'they don't care or noticed' talk far out of her mind; it was reflexive to think that way when you'd been living more of your life as nobody than somebody to other people, but again she had to remind herself.

"..Okay, if it'll help me understand myself better.." She'd breathe out, eyes shut in thought; if it wasn't going to hurt, she'd be fine, "Fine i'll stay. But I can't be any longer than that this time. I'm probably being looked for. Let's.. Just get it done."

"Alright. I won't be going anywhere this time, so I'll burn the midnight oil to get this handled right."

Of course he would. This kind of project, this kind of treasure, was something he would suffer in no small way to secure. Giving her a chipper smile as he moved back to his desk, Klein looked through the files he'd compiled on this woman already. He had one week to get this solved. That meant he probably wouldn't be sleeping much, but that was okay. If he succeeded, he'd be the richest man in the world. And even if he failed, he could still salvage his findings into something magnificent.

"I won't put you through any long stretch analysis again. I already have all the data I need for that, so we'll try and do this in shorter segments to reduce stress on your body. I want to make sure you get 10 hours of sleep every night to make sure stress is alleviated. We can do 5 hours of testing, 3 hours of rest, 5 more hours of testing, 1 hour for a meal, and then 10 hours for sleep. Is that good?"

He could adjust as necessary if she wanted. Whatever would make her the most comfortable, Klein was willing to accommodate. As he spoke, he was already typing into his console for adjustments to the sedatives he'd been giving her. Making notes for additives, supplemental dosages that would make things go a little bit more to his liking.

He had one week. He'd have her by the end of it.

If she hadn't felt that little bit of spacing from the painkillers taking effect, she'd have thrown in a sarcastic comment to all that regimented activity, but her mind was a lot more on wanting to get things done than to be smart-mouthed about it like normal. If it meant a chance of knowing herself a little better... Was it that bad? It wouldn't be painful...

It'd at least go by faster, and she'd go home... She wondered how everyone was doing.

Was Daniel okay? She hoped he wasn't too heartbroken over her getting him out of there.
Natasha must've gotten home alright too, she was beginning to miss her cooking...
Giselle.. Maybe Giselle just thought she missed her phone or was working... Maybe she wasn't too worried... She'll be upset about that when she actually sees her again.

She would be home soon. She just wanted to be selfish on this, it was something she needed to know.

"That's fine... It all works..." Her voice would gently carry across the room, as she'd sink into the sheets, "..As long as it doesn't hurt."