Dark Fever

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He shook his head, everything in him rising up in protest against what she wanted him to do. He didn't want to forget her. She was...she was nothing like anyone he'd ever met. She was extraordinary to him and furthermore, Gabriel had started to think of her as his. She was his and he didn't want to lose that, to forget her soothing touch and her words, to forget her smile and her eyes, her laughter and their conversations. He didn't want to be empty again. He didn't want to be lost.

In the end though it wasn't up to him and as the memories started to disintegrate under his hold, his glazed eyes locked on Cassandra, panicked, desperate to memorize her as if he could choose to remember the curves of her face by sheer will alone. Even as he watched her, though, he started to forget her and Gabriel spoke pleadingly, the last words he'd say tonight. "D-don't leave. P-please...don't...leave..."

As the last of the memories went, so did his hold on consciousness and Gabriel's eyes shut even as his body finally relaxed, drained completely. His fever started to cool and his chest rose and fell evenly. He'd remember nothing in the morning, not even his own name.
 
Cassandra waited a while to make sure Gabriel was truly asleep before she let out the flood of emotions that she had been holding back for so long. She remained sitting next to Gabriel as she pulled her knees up to her chest and sobbed. A while passed as she rode out the waves of emotions and when sleep crept up on her, she fought it. It was crucial to her that she be awake when Gabriel awakened. She wanted to help him as soon as he needed it - even if that meant staying up until he woke up. She truly did her best to stay awake but in the end, she was far too tired and sleep took her as well.

----

Cassandra woke up later that day with a jolt. Her sleep had been plagued with nightmares of the previous night and as a result, she slept a lot less than she truly needed. Still, she was angry at herself for sleeping at all. She quickly sat up then and looked to where she had seen Gabriel last, hoping he would still be asleep so that he wouldn't have had to spend any time alone in his confusion.
 
Gabriel had woken with the sun. His body knew his habits even if his mind didn't and it didn't matter that he was exhausted. He laid there for a good minute, looking around, not understanding where he was and at first feeling no panic for that fact. He didn't know if he was in danger or not. He didn't know why he was here. He didn't know the person laying near him no matter how he studied her beautiful face and he no idea who he was.

It was that last thought that had jolted him into being awake, completely, and Gabriel had sat up, his eyes frantically searching again, recognizing nothing and he'd looked once more at the woman near him before scooting as far away from her as he could. He didn't know if he should leave or stay. He didn't know where he was or how he'd gotten here. He didn't know if she was a friend or a foe or if he even knew her. He didn't know who he was.

Fear had completely set in by the time the woman woke and Gabriel watched her from his place across the small room. He didn't speak to her and his eyes were completely cat-slit and his body coiled and tensed, nothing separating his emotions from his instinctual reactions. It was as if he were a newly infected person, no control and no inkling of what he could do.
 
Cassandra felt her heart sink when she saw Gabriel. She knew this was going to happen. She knew he would lose his memories and not recognize her. She knew he would probably perceive her as a threat and be confused. She knew all of this, yet that didn't stop her from hurting when she saw how scared he was and how his eyes held absolutely no recognition for her. She took a deep breath. The situation was delicate and she needed to act carefully.

"I know you are confused. I know that you don't remember anything. Your name is Gabriel. My name is Cassandra. We're friends. Something...unfortunate happened and you have lost your memories but they will return in time. I will not hurt you." As if to reinforce her words, she held her hands up to show she wasn't holding any weapons.
 
Gabriel. Gabriel. That felt right. He didn't remember it, but it felt right, like something he would respond to and the blond's eyes flickered with indecision. She had said she wouldn't hurt him and she wasn't armed that he could see, but...she smelled more powerful than she looked, than she was making herself out to be. But she also didn't smell of a lie either, of deceit and malicious intent. It was his nose that finally decided him and Gabriel relaxed just a little, his amber cat-slit eyes watching her carefully.

He finally spoke, finding that the first word that sprang to his lips was her name. "Cassandra." He frowned, risking looking away from her as his hand came up and the heel of his palm pressed against his temple. His head hurt. Maybe he'd hit it? Was that how he'd lost his memory? Cassandra. Why did that name suddenly make him feel...safe? Comforted? She'd said they were friends...

Gabriel looked at her again and his head tilted in a familiar way, in a way he wouldn't recognize about himself as he watched her and his eyes slowly started to fade back to normal, pupils widening like they should. He didn't move from his spot, still unsure, but he did speak again, the last threads of fear still in his voice, but not as potent as before.

"Wh..where are we?"
 
"Phoenix, Arizona. Not the capitol though. That got blown up." Cassandra blinked, for the first time realizing just how much she had to explain to him. "Let me start over. Twenty years ago, a virus began to spread. It was very deadly and to prevent its further spread, the government used bombs on all major cities. It didn't exactly work. Most people died and the virus is still present. Some people, however, do not die when they are infected with the virus. Sometimes, they become more powerful. You are infected and I am as well. You have abilities that normal people do not have. Unfortunately, most people do not like the Infected very much so you will have to hide that part of you when you are outside. We are currently in an abandoned basement in a town that is trying to become the new capitol of this state."

She stopped there, letting the information soak in with Gabriel. She didn't even want to try touching upon the more complicated parts of his life - such as the agents pursuing him and his memory problems. He had suffered enough last night and if she could, she would introduce him to all new information as gently as possible. For right now, she figured the bare basics would suffice.
 
Gabriel stared at her, trying to process that, to wrap his mind around it. He knew her words, they were logical and he knew what she spoke of when she named things. It wasn't his knowledge that was missing, only his personal experience of it and he understood what she was saying. He just couldn't bring any recollection to his mind. And it made his head throb to try so he didn't, merely accepting what she told him as fact.

It was a very powerful position Cassandra held right now. She could tell him anything she wanted and he'd most likely believe her and to an extent, he wouldn't question anything she wanted him to do either. She was the first person he was seeing after 'waking' and like a newborn imprints on its mother, he would be reliant on her, loyal to her as long as she could make sense of the world around him and explain it to him.

Even now he was growing more curious instead of wary and he had moved closer to where she was, every movement graceful, every muscle rippling smoothly as the animal part of him seemed to blend perfectly with the human side, no barriers between them anymore. Not yet.

"I'm 'infected'? Does that mean I am sick? Am I powerful? What can I do? What happened to me? Why can't I remember anything?" That thread of panic was starting to come back and Gabriel swallowed, his hand running back through his hair as he forced himself to breathe, to calm. Panicking wouldn't help. It was an encouraging sign that he was controlling his own emotions. It meant that Cassandra didn't have to work so hard to do so for him
 
Cassandra felt a little better when he came closer and started asking questions. It meant he was starting to trust her. Even if that trust was forced because he literally had no other option, she was relieved that she wouldn't have to worry about him bolting for the door anymore. "You are infected, but you are not sickly. You are one of the more powerful infected I have come across. You have enhanced reflexes, fangs, a sixth sense of sorts, and the ability to talk to predatory animals. You move more gracefully than normal humans and your eyes look like cat eyes when you are tense, so watch out for that. As for what happened to you, it's a very long story so we will have to talk about it another time. Just know that you will eventually have your memories back."

She wanted to avoid reaching for things and making sudden movements so she merely motioned to his bag. "That is yours. Everything inside is yours. You won't understand some of it right now but you will eventually."
 
Fangs? Gabriel's tongue came up to touch his teeth and he blinked, surprised to feel the sharpness that greeted him. Perhaps he shouldn't have been startled, Cassandra HAD just told him about them, but it was new for Gabriel and he found himself looking at his hands next, wondering just what it was he could do. He didn't feel different, but then again, he had nothing to compare how he felt to anything else. He felt like such thoughts were leading him around in circles, solving nothing, so he left them and focused on something else.

Namely Cassandra. His eyes studied her with an intensity he couldn't even control at this point, his gaze taking in every detail from her hair to her eyes, the tired circles under her eyes and the light tone of her skin, like she didn't see the sun often. Her pupils were large, like a night-creature's a part of him noted and Gabriel didn't know why, but he started to smile, the expression slightly lopsided. His voice was soft and he didn't even understand why. It just felt right, so he did it without question.

"You have night vision. Your pupils are large and they don't like light. You haven't once gone into the sun coming through the door." He studied her again before going on, not knowing how the information came to him, not knowing he'd been trained in such things, in deducing the abilities of others. "You have excellent balance, you stay on your toes but don't teeter and your reflexes are like mine, fast, though, you are trying to be slow. It doesn't come naturally to you. You have an extra sense as well."

He'd said that last part without a reference for it and Gabriel winced as his head throbbed almost warningly for a moment before subsiding again.
 
Cassandra watched him with surprise as he figured out everything that she had worked over the years to hide. For the first time in a while, she felt a spark of hope. She knew Gabriel was observant and that could explain how he was able to deduce some of her abilities. His knowledge about her extra sense however, seemed completely out of the blue and she sincerely hoped it was a ghost of a memory that led him to that conclusion. She smiled faintly and nodded. "You're right. You are very observant."

Gabriel seemed to be adapting quickly so she decided to tell him more. "Right now we are low on water. We have been traveling for a while so we need to go to one of the town wells to refill. After that though, we should leave this town."
 
Gabriel nodded slowly and he looked down, frowning slightly as he felt something, like a ghost through his mind, trying to tell him information he couldn't quite grasp. He hesitated for a moment before going after it, trying to pull it back to him once he'd caught the edge of the thing, only to release the faint memory immediately upon feeling a flash of pain behind his eyes. He gasped, surprised by it and brought his fingers up to his left temple, more wary now of doing that again.

Still, in the brief moment that he'd been able to latch on to the ghost images, he'd seen something that puzzled him greatly even as it felt important. Very important, but....not to him. It was..important to someone else and Gabriel found his eyes going to Cassandra, now slitted again thanks to the pain that had run through him.

"Forest..." he breathed the word, wondering if it was right even as he said it, watching Cassandra's face for reason he didn't understand. There was something inside him that was making him act before thinking, guiding his actions and his emotions and Gabriel wondered if that was normal for him. He wondered if Cassandra would know...
 
Cassandra blinked in surprise. Because of everything that had happened recently, she had forgotten about the forest entirely. Now his reminder brought back the rush of longing she had experienced the first time she heard about it. As soon as she felt it though, she pushed it back down. They didn't have time for that. She looked up at Gabriel and smiled sadly. "Yes, there is a forest. We had a conversation about it and you had started to remember where one was. We were going to go there. However, more important things came up so we won't be going there after all."

A thought suddenly struck Cassandra. She needed more information about the government but infiltrating a known government building would be far too risky. Forests were heavily protected, but they would be less protected than an actual government establishment. There would probably be government centers surrounding the forests too – maybe even with computers. Then they could try to figure out what the microchip did. Perhaps going to a forest wasn't such a bad idea after all.

"…Actually…I just thought of a few reasons why we should still go. There might be something there that could benefit you."
 
Gabriel had felt strangely disappointed when she'd told him they weren't going to the forest. He didn't know if it was because HE wanted to go for some reason or because she seemed so sad at not going, but he didn't like it either way. And he really didn't like not knowing why he felt the things he did. It was like trying swim blind, feeling various objects around you but unable to identify what they are, never knowing when you were going to hit the wall of the pool.

He didn't have any choice but to trust Cassandra's judgement, though. If she said they couldn't go, then they wouldn't. Wait...was he staying with her? Dark amber eyes came up to study the young woman again and Gabriel didn't feel any desire to leave her. In fact, it was the complete opposite. Whatever was inside him - his power maybe? - was drawing him closer to her, wanted him to be at her side, prompted him to trust her without question and among the many confusing emotions and things going on around him, to feel something so strongly...was actually relieving. And he supposed it made sense if they were friends that something in him would remember her even if his mind didn't.

Gabriel blinked in surprise when she changed her mind rather quickly and he didn't really realize that he'd moved closer to her, his head tilting, question in his gaze. "Why would a forest benefit me?"

She wasn't telling him something and while that shouldn't have bothered him considering everything he didn't know...he couldn't shake the feeling that whatever she was keeping hidden was important.
 
Cassandra watched Gabriel in silence for a moment as she thought. She didn't want to trigger any memories that would hurt him but at the same time, she couldn't keep him in the dark forever. If she didn't tell him now, then when? She sighed, deciding that Gabriel should at least know the basics.

"Your memories were taken from you by the government. Your past is important to them and they believe taking your memories will lead them to the answers that they want. To prevent this from happening again, I need to find out more about the government and I think I can get that information from the forest."

She didn't want to reveal too much; she didn't want to bring in any names or tell him anything specific just yet. When the time came that she felt Gabriel would be able to handle that sort of information, she planned on just giving him the notebook. Everything she had written in the notebook had been his own words and she figured that would be better than explaining it to him second-hand.
 
Gabriel stared at her and his eyes very abruptly went cat-slit as his mind started to whirl with what she'd told him, connection things she'd already said together like a puzzle. Gabriel didn't know now and the memory hadn't been important to tell Cassandra the night before but in the old world he would have been considered borderline genius. His father had been military, but his mother had been a scientist, one of the leading ones in the research and development of the vaccine that would cure cancer....otherwise known as the Dark Fever Virus - DFV. Gabriel had gotten her mind and now he was putting it to good use.

Cassandra...she'd said that he was 'starting to remember where one was' about the forest. That meant that he'd had this memory problem before else why wouldn't he have just known where the forest was? That meant his memory loss was ongoing. But it didn't mean he'd known Cassandra for very long. She seemed hesitant when telling him things and that meant this was probably her first time dealing with him and a large memory loss. He'd trusted her enough to be sharing information that was obviously important if she believed they could get information to help him from a forest....a forest that must have something to do with the government she spoke of. If they were interested in his past and he'd been to one of these forests, he must have discovered something there, something he'd shared with Cassandra...

Gabriel's eyes faded back to normal slowly and his body relaxed of the tension he'd gained without knowing it. He didn't remember anything, not really, but the fact didn't bother him all that much right now. He was sufficiently distracted with getting more answers. His eyes locked on her own, an odd confidence in them that had been absent since he'd woken.

"They've been chasing me for a while, haven't they? I have something they want, but I won't give it to them." If he had, he felt strongly he wouldn't be here right now.
 
Cassandra was surprised at how much Gabriel was deducing and she wouldn't be able to guess what train of thought could have led him to the conclusions that he reached, but she was pleased that his mind was working well and he was figuring things out quickly. He appeared hungry for more information and she decided that until his curiosity was satisfied or until his head started to hurt, she would continue to answer his questions.

"Yes. There is now a resistance group opposing the government. You were part of it and you hold the memories of where their main base is and more. The government believes you will eventually give them information about the resistance so for the past six years, they have been toying with your memories."
 
Six years?

That thought, just the idea of it made him feel both sick and angry at the same time. He hadn't known Cassandra for that long, he'd deduced that much, so that meant that he hadn't always had someone like her to help him after he lost everything. He had the strongest feeling he'd been alone for a great deal of those six years and remembering the fear he'd felt just waking up this morning... Yes, it made him angry to think of someone leaving him like that, lost.

Lost. He was always lost. His brother had told him he'd always search for him if he ever got lost. Years ago. The Resistance had never left him alone, never left one of their own...

Gabriel winced, groaning softly as pain spiked through his temples and his fingers came up to try and massage the ache away. It wasn't horrible, but he was already getting tired of it even as it seemed familiar. The blond looked up at Cassandra again after a moment and his eyes slightly hazed over, but his voice was determined and questioning. "Do I...do I have a brother? Is he..with the Resistance?"

Gabriel shook his head before she could answer, frustrated. "I don't...I can't remember him or the Resistance you speak of, but...they feel like they should go together somehow."
 
Cassandra was quiet for a few moments. He was picking up his memories much faster than previously and she started to wonder if holding back information would benefit him anymore. He seemed to be coping just fine with the new information.

"Yes, you have a brother. His name is David and you have a picture of him in your bag. He is the leader of the resistance."

Cassandra then reached into her own bag and pulled out the notebook. "This is yours as well. You told me it was your father's and I never read anything that your father wrote, but you did tell me to write in it every time you remembered something. Anything you remembered from these past three weeks is written in there."
 
Three weeks, they'd known each other for three weeks. So why did he FEEL like it had been longer? He couldn't have told anyone what Cassandra's age was or her preferences. He didn't know her favorite color or her fears. He had no idea what she'd been through or even what she liked to do in her spare time. But he felt like he knew her in a different way. Like...they were connected somehow and while he didn't understand it, he didn't question it either. There were so many things that needed answers, but this...this didn't.

He brought his focus back to her words and Gabriel looked at the notebook in her hand, an instinct stronger than curiosity making him pause before he even thought about taking it. His head already ached and hearing the name David had already made it worse if still tolerable. He didn't remember his brother, but if just knowing that general information; a name and an occupation, could make his mind protest...he didn't want to know what three weeks worth of memories could do. Gabriel shook his head, giving her a sad kind of smile as his hands rubbed at his thighs, itching to take the notebook, but knowing better.

"Keep it? I don't...I don't think I am ready for it yet."

When she stopped trying to hand it to him, he relaxed and looked around again before focusing back on Cassandra, a different kind of curiosity taking over. "What about you? Why are you with me? Are they chasing you, too?"
 
Cassandra was relieved that Gabriel had shown restraint - he was aware of his limits and he didn't want to push them. That meant she wouldn't have to watch out for him as closely. As she put the notebook back in her bag, she listened to his questions and she suddenly realized.... why am I with him? Nobody was chasing her. Nobody was forcing her to be with him. He was being pursued and that made him a danger to be around. Why then, was it so repulsive to her to even consider leaving? The thought of leaving him made her stomach twist and even though she couldn't explain it, she knew that all she wanted to do right now was help him.

"I, um....no, nobody is chasing me. I guess...at this point, I just want to help. I don't like the government and I don't like what they are doing to you. I want to do my part to help stop it. That's all." She looked away then, embarrassed. She wished she had a reason that sounded more compelling but she didn't, and she didn't want to lie to him about it either.
 
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