Behind Feng, Cathy shrugged. "I hope you have a good day," she called, then resumed combing the area with her partner. She made a few hand signals toward Fengs house as they walked away, and another pair began to approach. All clad in teal, they approached the door with its broken latch. Soft humming came from one side of the door.

Instead of drawing their attention, the two seemed suddenly very, very bored. One opened the door and glanced inside while the other turned away to lean his back against the house. The first stared into the darkness with glassy eyes for a few moments, then closed the door. The two began to walk away, and the first touched his ear as he spoke. "Nothing of note, Shears."

Inside, Aspa sighed and quit humming, then looked toward the bed, where Violi sat between Jade and the door, his size easily enough to block her from sight.

~*~​

Drake stalked through the streets. His clothing almost fit in, save the amount of pockets on his long coat. He appeared listless as he walked up and down. He didn't bother to turn or avoid people, and instead ran into them and kept walking.

However, he didn't really blend in—that was difficult when blood covered your entire front side, save where smears revealed he'd wiped the blood from his eyes and mouth. A few people watched him in worry, too distracted to notice Feng, let alone the soldiers in teal.

The Hunter stumbled to a stop and stood still, then groaned as his legs buckled beneath him. A few people murmured with concern, mistaking him for the victim of some horrific trauma rather than the perpetrator of the slaughter just outside of town.

Other people focused on the missing, their panic at family members lost increasing as the people they expected to listen to their woes instead paid attention to the collapsed and bloodied Hunter.
 
Running through the streets, Feng didn't particularly notice people, he only made sure to avoid bumping into them. He felt his legs burning and his lunges started to struggle. He could run fast for short periods of time, but now his limit was starting to be reached. The church was close by, it was big, he could probably hide in there.

Suddenly a loud sound was heard behind him and something flew past his shoulder. No, not past it, it went right through his shoulder. Feng grabbed his right shoulder as the pain caught up to him. This was not his day. As the people behind him got closer, he became slower. Most people would be fueled by adrenaline which would keep them running, but he couldn't muster up the fear to get that adrenaline kick. He probably should be scared, but honestly, what could these people do that he hadn't already gone through?

Maybe he could make it, maybe he could find a dark spot to hide in, if only he could reach... His body fell to the ground, blood rapidly leaving his body. How many shots had gotten him? Who knew, but like many other times, the immortal died right then and there, on those steps in front of the church. Would they leave his dead body there, thinking he wouldn't wake up? Or would they notice just in time that he was starting to heal even though his heart was temporarily silent? That was something he would not know before he awoke again.
 
When Feng woke, he was surrounded in sterile white. His limbs didn't move—strapped down as they were, they couldn't move. Needles in the back of one hand provided hydration, and wires stuck to his chest with round sensors transferred information about heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and even the brain activity from within his shaven skull. Beeps emerged from behind him in time with his pulse, but the rest of the room was utter silence.

His mind remained slowed and dim, but awareness remained.

Someone in teal entered the room, tight gloves on their hands, and they adjusted something behind Feng and just out of sight, then looked down at him. "Your name is Feng Hong, correct?" The voice sounded not only distant, but hard to distinguish. "Your Hunter allies turned on you in exchange for the release of one 'Kina'. Since you have no useful information, we have little use for you besides taking a few samples and performing a few studies on you, given your unusual characteristics. Your designation is Subject HUM-I52214. Human immortal subject number 52214 with the true immortality trait, rather than merely agelessness. Do you have any questions?"
 
Feng woke up in a white room. For a moment he almost believed he had finally died and gone to heaven, but then he realized that probably wouldn't have been the place he'd go to. Nope, he was probably still alive. damn it. He couldn't move either, this day was only getting better and better.

Odd sounds surrounded him, beeps he could not recognize, and strange devices surrounded him. Then, a man entered the room. There probably were questions he should ask, but why bother? He was too tired to care.

"Allies? You are saying the most ridiculous things." Feng chuckled. He had an agreement with Kina, that was all. They were no allies, and he would have given them up just as easily if there had been something in it for him.

"And my name is not Feng. I have no name. I have no questions either. Just remember this, when I'm finally out of here, I will make sure to kill you or any descendant you might have left behind after your death. The crux with capturing a true immortal is that you can't kill him when you're done with him. I always get out eventually. Look forward to feeling your skin being slowly peeled of your body. It's quite an interesting feeling. Take it from someone who knows." He knew that nothing he said would change his current situation, but if he was going to be captured like an animal, he took any chance he could to entertain himself. Usually that meant threats and intimidation of the enemy. Sometimes they were able to hurt him so badly he did go through with the threats once he could, other times he didn't think it was worth it.
 
The man's face behind the surgical mask looked unimpressed. "If that's all you have to say, we'll begin." Rather than draw a knife or a syringe, he walked from the room. Long minutes passed, and Feng emerged a little further from the drug-induced haze in time to hear clicks along the sterile walls as they opened to reveal spindly irregular arms, each ending in a different tool, with a tray of extras at the side. The arms advanced on the bound and helpless Feng, and the first cut stole a finger. The second stole a toe. Another stole an ear, and his nose came next, followed by several strips of flesh from other locations.

The robotic arms worked in silence, seemingly aware of Feng's immortality and healing, and only paused long enough for him to heal between each sample and bits of his body came away from him. A sharp an painful pinch came suddenly from below, somewhere pants should have covered, and if he looked, he could watch as numbed parts disappeared from his body in what should have been agony.

Still, the process continued. They took large quantities of blood. Large needles stabbed into his organs and took samples from their tissue. Holes drilled into Feng's head and metal capped them to hold skin and skull open as they scanned his brain and took a small sample of the fluids and tissue.

Within ten minutes, the arms withdrew suddenly, jobs completed, and two people entered and began to wash Feng with shocking gentleness, faces hidden behind surgical masks.

One left immediately, but the other lingered in the doorway. "Hey, Sarah. Is it true what I heard?"

The one who left first looked back. "Huh?"

"That the Hunter leader is trying to bargain for this subject's release?"

"No idea. I heard she was the one that handed him over. What's it matter, though?"

The lingering woman shrugged and glanced back. She was fair-skinned with green eyes. "I heald a rumor is all."

"Not really our business. Come on, or we'll be late for lunch. What's with the slur?"

The green-eyed woman shrugged and turned off the light, then closed and locked the door as she walked away with Sarah.
 
It was quite funny lying there, barely even feeling anything. Sure, he noticed that things were disappearing, and quick strikes of pain sometimes pierced him when things flew off, but most of the time his body seemed numb. Quite a nice bunch, letting him be mostly pain free at least. Compared to the traumatic things he had experienced in his past, this was nothing, though he had to admit, their odd machines were quite frightening. If he had been mortal, that thing would not have been pleasant.

Feng did become quite dizzy from the blood loss, but it wasn't big enough for him to faint. Listening to the conversation of the two women, it seemed to be confirmed. That woman had turned him in. He hoped she weren't expecting him to thank her if she got him out. If the option arouse at this point, he would have given up her position immediately, even if it hadn't resulted in his freedom. She had no reason to be loyal to him, and she had used that against him now, so why should he keep protecting her? Kina, whom had not proven that she could kill him yet, whom had only brought him a fairy tale, was not worth that effort. But then again, the chances of them still being in his home was very slim. They had probably left for some other place, thus he had no information to give.

"Every time you get involved with these types, you end up hurt. Why even bother?" He asked himself, lying there in the dark. "As if anyone has the power to grant your wishes either way. It's just a fantasy. Should have stayed coped up in that village, calm and collected. Might have been boring, but at least no one hurt you." Why didn't he ever learn his lesson? Not even witches had been able to turn him mortal, why did he still believe that dying was an option for him? He was no better than any simple human being. Believing in the impossible, thinking that he would have his happily ever after one day. Instead they died in their misery, just like he had to live in it.

"Keep her safe, she said. Yeah, good fucking idea idiot Asian. I asked you to kill me, not to get yourself kidnapped. Thanks for nothing." Feng continued to talk to himself for as long as he was alone in there. While he didn't admit it to himself, being alone in a dark room, unable to move, it did frighten him. Past memories was beginning to surface, so he spoke about anything that came to mind to make sure he didn't panic. He mostly complained about everything being those two womens fault, how stupid he had been for going with them and how he should have stayed with the Incas whom had believed him to be a God. Of course he had yet to hear about their empire being completely destroyed.
 
Hours passed, time unknown. Hunger gnawed at Feng as he was left in the darkness, strapped and unable to move except his running mouth. Time marched forward, and his hunger only grew. The Unifiers made no effort to contact him, to turn the lights on, or to even try and interrogate him. It may have seemed like this place was an oubliette for the immortal: a place to be forgotten, though the drugs continued to fog and dull his mind, and the beeps continued in perfect pace with his heart. Dehydration never happened, but his hunger grew and gnawed.

Occasionally, he could hear footsteps walk past. Sometimes, there was conversation—quiet murmurs meant for privacy, reduced to muffled and indistinct voices.

Primarily, his companion remained the beeps and darkness of the room.

~*~​

"Lady Jade! Kina found Feng," Drake reported as he held a slip of paper.

Jade sagged atop Feng's bed—a temporary headquarters for the past two months while she worked on the problem of getting Kina free. If Kina was the one to locate Feng after he went missing, the Unifiers had him. "Does she know the location?"

Drake looked away and shifted his weight, uncomfortable as he refused to look at her.

His silence answered with her worst fear, and Jade stood. "Action must be taken."
 
How long did he lie in there? Who knew.Time could have stood still as far as he knew, his time always stood still. Eventually he went quiet, and the only sound he heard was his own breathing which was sounding choked, as if something was tightening his airways, the second sound was the beeping from the odd devices. After a while, his stomach started sounding as well. Why the heck were they keeping him there if all they were going to do was one short sample taking? Everyone else who had captured him had at the very least done something to him instead of leaving him alone like this. He never got to be alone for this long.

He closed his eyes, only for a short moment, before they shot right back up again. Someone was in the room. He could feel it. Where. Where? He turned his head frantically, but saw no one. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness enough, he should be able to make them out. Where. WHERE. "It's nothing. It's nothing." He tried to reassure himself. It was just like in the tomb when he had been certain that the pharaoh had been there with him. It was just his head playing with him. Even so, he couldn't relax. If he could bite his own tongue off and bleed until he fainted, that would definitely have been something he would have done right then and there, but his tongue would grow out far too fast for him to bleed out enough. The only thing that reminded him that other people were close by was the footsteps that randomly walked by the door.

"Fuck it! If you're gonna haunt me, come out you decayed piece of toilet paper. See if I'm afraid of you!" He shouted into the air. A part of him knew that it was just his mind playing a trick on him, but that didn't make him less frightened. That's why he had to keep himself talking no matter how tired he got. From having complained to himself about his situation to taunting a mummy he hadn't seen for ages, it was probably quite entertaining to watch if anyone were monitoring his behavior.
 
Still, the silence dragged on. Another month passed, and still no food came for the man, nor any sign that he'd not been forgotten entirely. None entered, and fewer still passed at all, until eventually, the sound of footsteps outside became a thing of the past.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

The door never opened, but he could hear a sigh from beside him. "A-Feng Hong, my ke ai de xaio di," Kina breathed, "You look terrible!" The sensation leather-clad arms wrapped around his torso gently, and then fingers pressed against his face, though Feng could see nothing of Kina, even with his eyes adapted.

"Keep quiet. I will carry you from here. Tā huì shì quèdìng. Tā huì shì quèdìng," her voice took a note of someone trying to reassure another. "Lady Jade is distracting the Unifiers so we can escape. We need to hurry, because she is endangering herself for us."

With those words, her hands slipped under one of his straps, and she pulled until it snapped. She grunted, then moved to the next. "Tā huì shì quèdìng, A-Fengfeng. Tā huì shì quèdìng," she reminded, seeming unaware that he might not know Chinese.

The last of his bonds snapped, and Kina turned off the machine behind the immortal before she pulled away sensors and pulled the needles from him. Body hair came off with the round sticky pads, but Kina had no time to waste, and as she worked at the pads, she put the side of her hand into Feng's mouth so he had something to bite. "I have already destroyed the samples they took from you and set explosives."

Once he was wholly free, she became visible. She wore teal, but over it she wore her Hunter jacket. Her hair was covered in a red wrap, and she removed her jacket, then wrapped it around Feng while she picked him up. "And now you will not be hurt so badly if they shoot you. Time to go." Even as she spoke, with the needles removed, he could feel sensation return to his body.

The Chinese woman smiled at him, though it didn't meet her eyes as before, and she appeared thinner. Her eyes looked sunken, and dark circles lined their undersides.
 
Days past and he was still stuck in there, all alone. It was just for one blink of an eye. That was all the time he would be there for. It felt like a long long time at the moment, but once he was out, it wouldn't be that bad. He would get over it. Maybe it would take a thousand days, or a thousand years, maybe he wouldn't get over it, but simply forget it once enough time had passed.

Feng didn't have the strength to scream anymore. That must mean he had been there for a few months at least. His body probably wasn't strong enough to walk either in that case. His speech became more and more slurred for each day, eventually it was nothing but mumbles. Feng didn't even know himself what he was talking about, it felt as if his mind was shutting down. As if he constantly was right between the line of sleep and awareness. Then, he heard a voice.

Feng had heard many voice during the last few weeks. He recognized every single one of them, even though he might not remember exactly where they came from, but they were all from his past. This one was different, it felt more here. He wasn't completely sure if it was another hallucination or reality, and considering he couldn't understand even half of the thing she said, he just assumed it was his own imagination. That was until he started to get some sensation back in his body.

"Could just dig me out after it explodes, stupid woman." Feng reminded her with slurry speech. It wasn't like he would die, and she could get out much more effectively if she didn't have to carry him.
 
Kina giggled as she cradled him against herself like he was so much smaller and younger than the reality. It forced his head onto her shoulder and his knees against her torso, and her spare hand held him steady as she kicked the door open and darted out into a similarly dark hall. "Silly Feng. That would be too sensible. Hunters are emotional creatures." She grinned as she spoke, and her boots tapped firm against the floor with each step.

"I can't think of anyone who would think of it to suggest it except for you, Xiao-de-Feng."

They turned several times as Kina ran, though she seemed unperturbed, and the halls remained silent.

"Promise you won't cry if I get hurt, ok?," she teased, pretty certain he wouldn't. "We're almost to where they are fighting." With that, she pulled the coat up to cover Feng's head, though each step gave him a glimpse as the collar lifted.

"Kina!?" An unfamiliar voice shouted. "Get your ass back here before we—" The voice cut off as Kina fired a round between the man's eyes.

"Heh. They seriously thought I would break so easy? They are cute," she muttered derisively.

Gunshots rang from all sides, and Kina's grip on Feng tightened. Behind her, he could see Unifiers in teal raising their guns toward him and Kina. The rapidfire shots made a visible spark against the barrel, and Kina staggered. With a curse, her grip on Feng tightened, and shadow enveloped him as she cursed with each step. "Ow. Fuck. My leg. Ow—oh that burns!"

The sense of movement faded, and he could only hear Kina and feel her grip on him for several long minutes before light returned to his world, and he fell onto his back on solid ground. Kina collapsed beside him, panting as her wounds, smelling like cooked pork, steamed. Burnt holes dotted her legs, rear, and one side and shoulder, but she lifted herself, then lifted a one-finger salute to a building similar to the one from the forest, just in time for flame to engulf it. Debris began to rain, and Kina scrambled atop Feng to shield him.

Nearby, Jade shrieked, frightened as much by the sound as the sight, though she'd expected it. Violi and Drake shielded her and Aspa.
 
Fighting? Who was? Ugh, whatever, he was too hungry and tired to even care. Just let that woman do whatever she wants. At worst you'll get shot and dragged back into that room for a few hundred years. If he could, he would have shuddered at the thought, but his body just didn't want to do the simplest of movements right now.

Several minutes passed in which Feng was perfectly still in Kina's arms while she grunted about the pain. Guess she got herself hurt. He wasn't crying over it though. He barely cried for himself, why would he do it for her? Not that she expected it.

Soon he felt the ground underneath him and a loud explosion could be heard. That stupid woman continued to do unnecessary things of course. "How hurt do you think I can get by these pathetic drops of metal, stupid woman?" He asked her, his voice not completely back. His limbs were stiff after having been still for so long, and the simplest of movement hurt. He knew that his back would be the worst, but he started to sit up either way.

Luckily once he started to move, his aching body would heal within days. Once he started to eat, his body would gain back the weight within the week. Well, he would have to eat quite a lot to gain all his weight back, but he had done it before. Being this thin would only make it harder to train up his muscles again. There was a certain weight one should be to be able to get the perfect strength. Of course it depended from body to body, but he knew his body enough to know how much he needed.

"Just use a shield when you see one. It's me who's supposed to die here, not you." He scolded her like the old man he was before his stomach suddenly growled loudly. "An all you can eat buffet wouldn't sit bad right about now." He mumbled mostly to himself, but it could probably be heard by anyone who were right beside him.
 
Kina dropped a shiny, plastic-wrapped package onto Feng's chest. "Best I got right now. You'll have to unwrap it yourself, th..." She trailed off, then collapsed to one side.

"Kina!" Drake hurried toward the pair, followed by Jade. The gaunt man checked Kina's pulse, then looked to Jade. "Lady Jade, can you reach HQ?" The note of panic in his voice hung in the air as Jade remained quiet, staring down at Kina and Feng with wide eyes.

"Lady Jade!" Drake nudged her shoulder firmly with one hand.

Jade blinked, then swallowed. "I... Yes. Yes, I can get her to the infirmary," Her fingers drummed against her thumb, and a portal opened beneath Kina that led to a pristine cot on a shining steel frame. The portal closed, and another opened that offered another view of Kina on the waist-high cot, now with a few men and women around her.

"Fuck it," one older man said before he shouted, then pointed somewhere. A young man in green scrubs darted away.

Jade offered a hand to Feng. "Do you wish to come with us? The Unifiers will likely return to this world soon."

Aspa gripped Violi's hand tightly as she kept her lips tightly-sealed, body rocking as she tried to keep her breaths regular, and Violi tapped out a message on his phone, alerting the others that they found Kina, that it was time to go home. After a few moments, the wild-haired blond spoke up. "I told the others we got Kina back. Should someone check the wreckage?"

Jade glanced back, but didn't answer as she returned her attention to Feng.
 
Before Feng had been able to say a word about the package, Kina collapsed. Figures, she looked horrible. He didn't show even a sign of an emotional reaction towards the woman whom just saved him, but then again, who would be stupid enough to expect one from him?

He watched silently as they used those portals to transport Kina away. The feeling of surprise and aw at their technology was definitely fading at this point. It was interesting the first few times, then no more. Feng looked up at Jade as she spoke to him.

"Well, if they're anything like the witches I met once, I doubt I should stay here. The last thing I need on my consciousness is knowing my blood gave way for new crazy immortals again." He didn't take her hand, instead he forced himself up on his feet. His legs could only barely hold him up. He started to unwrap the package, knowing the effect of food would give an immediate increase in his strength. It wouldn't be a big increase, but enough to keep him somewhat steady. "So, how long was I gone? Based on my body mass I would say two months. Hard to keep track once the hallucinations starts. Definitely under six months. Wouldn't have been able to stand before I'd eaten at that point." He was just asking out of curiosity. What month was it? Had he been gone longer than expected? Shorter? What effects did those needles that pumped things into his body have on him?

All the anger he had felt towards them at the beginning of his imprisonment was gone, though probably not forever. He just couldn't muster any emotions when he barely had the power to walk. Even if he met the worst of the worst from his past, right now, he just wouldn't care. There were times to be angry, and times to recover. You didn't do both at the same time.
 
"Three months. I am sorry we could not free you sooner. We were delayed because we did not know the Unifiers had you until last month." Jade motioned him towards the portal.

Drake, too impatient for that, scooped Feng into his arms and stepped through as Jade blinked behind them, then followed and looked back towards Aspa and Violi.

"Will you two go to the infirmary on Headquarters?"

Aspa nodded.

"I see. Please let Doctor Alsoome know that Kina is found." She closed the portal, then looked around the metal-walled infirmary.

Drake placed Feng on a bed, then looked him over. "I'll bring some food," he offered. "How much can you eat in one sitting?"

From her own cot, Kina cursed quietly in English as the old man yanked a bullet from her back, then scraped away the burnt flesh. She grew louder and switched to her native tongue the more the old man worked, and every wound bled. The old man drew five from her upper back before he paused, and a younger doctor wiped her back.

Kina panted as she gripped the sheets, teeth smashed together as she kept her eyes shut tight. The doctors continued to wipe her back until the skin looked healed.

A doctor shoved a burger in front of Kina's face, and she snarled, then began to devour it as the old man began to yank bullets from her lower back and rear—three in total before he moved down to her thighs and pulled one from there, then five in her calves before he began to scrape out the scar tissue.

The Chinese woman's hand squeezed down on the burger and it fell away as a clump remained, smashed in her hand. She swallowed, growling and shaking, and began to curse again. Rather than single-word curses, these flowed together almost artistically. "Nǐ làn gǒu! Wǒ huì bǎ nǐ de báichī de liǎn zài dà shǔ xiǎobiàn!" Her head sagged as the wounds healed, quicker than the last, and she panted until the old man pulled four from her shoulders and one from her neck.

"Méiyǒu! Nǐ bù gǎn zhèyàng zuò! Yóu huángdì tā shānghài!"

And out came the scars.

"Bù xǐhuan nǐ! Bù ài nǐ de jiārén! Bù shǒu nǐ de niú!" She shrieked.

Drake, not really wanting to witness that, disappeared at some point, and now he reappeared and set up an adjustable table for Feng, filled with food—salad, steak, fish, sweet potatoes, buttered corn on the cob, rice, a dinner roll that felt sticky and tasted like honey, while being so soft it took no effort to chew—it filled three plates, and then there was a tall glass of water. Drake held another tray still, but carried it to Kina, who, healed now, lunged.
 
Didn't know? That did not match the story he had heard. Then where the fuck did they think he had been for the first two months? Sightseeing? Vacation? Got lost while getting the map? If he had the energy to, he would probably had said his thoughts out loud, but at the moment he was using everything he had to hold himself up. Not that he had to for long, as mister suicide picked him up and carried him to bed.

"How much can you carry?" He replied, not giving any proper answer. It was just to eat until the stomach said stop. You never knew how willing the stomach was right after having been starved.

Feng didn't even give a glance Kina's way. He was fairly certain what was going on just from the sounds she made. "And this is why you don't shield an immortal, stupid woman. " He told her somewhere in between her Chinese ramblings. Honestly, at least he had the decency to stay quiet when a doctor cut into him to get stuff out. Thousands of years made you used to pain, though if he wasn't completely ready for it, he could still scream quite a bit.

Soon Drake reappeared with food. It was quite the luxurious dinner, at least for someone who generally lived on traveler food. Sometimes now and then he did live in luxury, and he had gotten much better things than this at times, but for now he did live a life where this was quite the menu.

"Great. Need to find some new place to settle down. Japan is nice this time of the year. Don't tend to like foreigners though. Scandinavia is pretty neat, horrible winters though. Haven't been in Africa for a few thousand years, don't know many languages from there though. It would be Swahili, but that really isn't that spread around. Kenya isn't that interesting. Learning new languages now would be such a bother. Italy does have great food." Feng mumbled to himself while noming on the food that had been brought to him. Clearly it was a bit too late for him to get back to his town, and even staying within the country seemed rather risky, and of course he did not trust these people the least right now, but even if he dead, he wasn't intending to stay with them and he had no clue what Kina was even planning with her 'show me that you truly do wish to die and I'll kill you' idea.
 
"他媽的你。 他媽的你的眉毛。 吃一個爛雞蛋。" Kina shot a glare at Feng as he scolded her for shielding him. "Maybe I should have let their bullets hit you. Could discover if you are magic by having the magic in your skin ripped out so fast it burns you," she offered as she lifted her rice and reached for a pocket she didn't have—because Feng did. Drake handed her some chopsticks, and she began to try to eat the rice, only to scowl. "Bad rice," she muttered as she checked the temperature, then cracked a raw egg onto it and stirred, then began to eat the mixture as it became sticky enough to function with chopsticks.

"If we're going to Japan, we should take Kyoko. She is a good guide. We're in Scandinavia right now. Africa smells bad—whole continent, different reasons in each place. If we are to go to Italy, we should spend a week in that sinking city. I hear it is pretty, but stay too long and you remember that it is going to be gone in a few hundred years." The woman rambled right back, the glare gone as she took turns between commenting and devouring her food.

Jade simply watched, one blonde brow raised. "Should you not ask if you are welcome to join him?"

"He can't filful his side of our deal if I can't see him. My side is easy, as long as you agree to my request." The Chinese woman nodded. "And he cannot offer anything to you directly that would make you agree to take him to see your father, but I have information kept from the Council for their measure of centuries." Her eyes narrowed as her smile grew. "So, I will go with him. He will have a century to prove he has no will to live, and if he can prove it, I will make an offer to you that I believe you will have incredible difficulty denying."

The bird twitched. "We shall see."

"If Kina is going, I should as well," Drake volunteered. "She is my partner."

Jade chirped with annoyance, and the old doctor stared at her a moment before he turned away to snicker before he cleaned up and walked to Feng. "Once you're done eating, I'd like to do a general health check—make sure the Unifiers didn't leave a surprise in you. Would you agree to that?"
 
"Aah, sounds good to me. I've always wondered what it feels like to discover new things about oneself." He replied to her offer. He couldn't remember growing up, so all those changes when you could find out new things about yourself were lost on him. Well, it was probably for the best. He had heard puberty was a bitch.

Then that woman started to talk nonsense again. She was talking as if she was coming with him. Jade seemed just as bewildered by it as him, but he did not say anything, instead he just listened. Finally her plan seemed to come fully into light.

"Sure, just don't be surprised if you find any metal junk. If they didn't take anything out I probably still have that piece from the first explosion in my shoulder. Might be some bullets here and there from the last war that I missed. If they don't bother me I tend to forget them until they randomly pop out when I get badly injured some other time. Or they disappear when I loose body parts." He told the doctor with a shrug before finally turning his attention to Kina.

"Excuse me princess, but it took you approximately 1 hour from the moment we first spoke until the moment you got yourself kidnapped, and from there it took three months before we met each other again. You seem like the type to get into trouble way too easily. If the clock stops because you get yourself into trouble or God forbid, get me into trouble and you can't enjoy my misery with your own eyes, that century will be spread out into a millennia. I'll only agree if any kidnappings won't stop that clock no matter if we don't see each other for a month or ten years. If you want to keep your eyes on me, make sure you don't get dragged away again." As if he'd let her set up all the rules. Stupid woman. A human life wasn't that big of a deal, but if the clock stopped when she couldn't see him, it would take much longer than that if she would get them into trouble again.
 
The old doctor nodded absently as he listened and then pulled a device from a pocket and waved it over Feng's body before he looked at the screen. "Would you like me to remove the pieces of metal? Other than that, you have a clean bill of health. I can also run a few tests if you want—figure out your ancestry, any genetic abnormalities that could lead to trouble in the future." He ignored the commentary directed at Kina—as much as he could while holding back a smile.

Kina's lips drew into a smile and her eyes narrowed as she watched Feng with what looked more like victory than any sort of shame, she nodded. "That is fair. I will stay by your side as you request, 小弟馮馮1​." Once more, the Chinese woman nodded, perfectly pleased, and pain forgotten as she set down her rice bowl and reached for the next dish on her plate: the steak, which she picked up with her chopsticks and lifted over her head. She lowered it into her mouth and bit half off, then chewed and swallowed, then downed the rest of it.

She didn't really need chopsticks, but any excuse to keep a grasp on the culture of her birth was good enough to remain stubborn, even in the face of western-style cooking. She gave up her name, she gave up at least one ancestor—both denied in the face of the Council, but she would not give up what she remembered of her culture.

"Also, we are not limited to Earth, you know. I could take you to worlds that are similar, worlds that are vastly different, even a couple where the air itself will give you the most pleasant high as the native life sees to your needs until you must be fetched by someone because you forgot all your worries," she laughed. "But that last one, it is a little dangerous. If you are not fetched soon enough, you will eventually forget everything, and then when you are finally yanked out, it all comes back, everything from birth to present, and it hurts real bad."

1​小弟馮馮: Xiǎodì Féngféng: little brother Feng-Feng.
 
"Let them be, they will come out on their own once my head gets decapitated next time. Apparently there always has to be a next time for some reason." He told the doctor while switching plates, picking up the plate with the fish. It did hurt less to just die and having the whole body part with the pieces in them removed rather than having them extracted from you while being alive. Though the chunk in his shoulder was quite obnoxious. "As for the rest, no thanks. I'm over 5000 years old and that's just the part I can remember. If there was some abnormality that would become bothersome in the future, I should have noticed it by now."

He had no clue what types of tests could tell about someones ancestry, but he wasn't much interested. Whoever they were, they were probably dead by now. Why should he care about some fossils?

Feng froze in place as Kina spoke. "From birth?" He stared at the woman whom he had thought as annoying for the last few months. "Would it just bring back the memories you forgot while being there, or would it bring back all memories, even the ones you've forgotten earlier in life?" He asked, sounding more engaged in the situation than he had during all their time together combined. Sure, that wasn't a very long time, but still. "If the latter, you have to take me there. Now." Food was no longer on his mind, even though his body still needed quite a bit to recover. He was already sitting on the edge of the bed with his feet touching the floor, looking as if he would run off within seconds. The only reason he didn't was that he would need them to open one of their odd doors first, otherwise he would get nowhere.