Chapter Text
Slow wake. Always sluggish…more sluggish? Aches, pains…it’s been so long.
Tethered will, tethered body, tethered soul.
“—can only handle so mu—“
Thoughts swirling, congealing, ripping apart at the seams. Threads unraveling, more intangible than tangible.
“—don’t want— —to break, you’re going to have—
Break… it’s already happened. Red across the edges, red through the lenses. Their will seeping through the cracks, red will. Tampering. Always tampering.
“—suspect— —to recover— —hospital wing”
“—It’ll be fine we can fall back on—“
“—should be safe—“
Red control, no orange… yellow. Bright.
“—one precaution”
Yellow, yellow, yellow
And then nothing, restful nothing, nothing until—
A crash, a dull ache in her ears. Rumbling in the distance of her mind. Rumbling louder and louder. Booming voices, crumbling and crashing like waves against her temple. Booming voices.
…wait no …she thought, it’s more like the type of boom that happens before something crumbles, not in the mind, but before a building crashes apart.
Not in her mind indeed she realized abruptly
Just as suddenly as the realization that thoughts were occurring. Slowly as the mind does when it wakes from a long slumber. Slowly until another dull crash occurred and ears that weren’t really delivering information to the brain previously, suddenly alerted her to the sound.
Gasping for breath, she sat up in her bed. A hospital bed. Looking up from under dusty brown and sandy gold bangs, she found that there was more noise coming from hallways further in the building. She couldn’t see further, the door blocking her sight. Not just the door though, her eyes were dry and crusty. Whatever sleep she’d been having must have been a long one.
But as she went to wipe her eyes, she heard a snapping noise occur. Squinting down she saw black bands, now loose from the bed. More explosions, she registered in the back of her mind. Her mind still felt wrapped in cotton, her body felt like it was wrapped in one big painful bruise.
Still, some buried instinct drove her forward. Restlessness, somewhere in her muddled consciousness. A push to move, move while you can. Move while you’re free, move, move, MOVE
She fell off the bed. Or more accurately, she fell with the bed. Those blasted cuffs were apparently also on her legs.
“Ouch,” she croaked, twisting around to break the bands strapped around her ankles.
Peering more closely, she observed spots of purple and yellow dotting around her body. Bruises. But they didn’t look toobad, what did worry her slightly was the amount of them that dotted her body.
What the hell had she been doing before she got here?
The building groaned around her, dust falling down into the room from cracks growing in the ceiling above her. She had to get out. A buried instinct screamed at her to be careful. No one can spot you, out of sight, out of sight, stay out of sight.
Her head pounded, but before she could heed the buried instinct that was driving her forward, she spotted something near the foot of her bed. Reaching out to grab it, she saw a piece of paper wrapped in a neat piece of plastic. It must have hung from the foot of her bed before it fell over.
Pearl E. Moone
Her name? It sounded right. A piece of her that could be clicked back in place. Her name was Pearl and she needed to get out of this hospital room right now.
Voices sounded from outside the door, footsteps rushing towards her location.
Get out, get out, get out, don’t let them get you.
The door shot open as she shot to her feet. Two people ran through it. Stopping in disbelief as they saw she was now up and awake, instead of tied up on the hospital bed unconscious as she was before. The two seemingly medical staff wore white coats with a strange symbol stitched onto them. Their disposition changed suddenly at the unexpected change to what probably should have been an unconscious person.
The first staff member splayed her hands in a placating gesture as she slowly walked forward. “Now miss you’re not supposed to be up, your caretakers aren’t here yet.” She took another step forward and Pearl’s heart-rate shot up. “We can just put you under again real quick and it will all be all-right.”
Quickly, she surveyed the room. Dust and debris clattered down around her as the two figures slowly inched closer.
The window. If she gets to the window, she can get out.
Her heartbeat thundered against her chest. Adrenaline surging as the last pieces of her drowsy mind awakened.
She rushed towards the window. Twisting the handle so it opened up to the side. Distantly she registered wide eyed blue orbs looking back at her through the reflection as she did.
She quickly slid her body over the windowsill as she looked down at the street beneath her. The figures yelling in panic. An emergency staircase, but it was quite a far distance down from her window. The drop looked a bit too big for her comfort, but her mind told her that this would be many times better than what would happen if she lingered.
So she jumped. Air rushing past her as the two figures yelled at her to stop as she fell down to the iron staircase below.
Next came the impact. Steel bruising her body all over again as she rolled over the iron plateau. She felt more clearly than before how bruised her body had been in the first place. Her stomach lurched for just a second before her subconscious screamed at her to move again.
Run. Get away from here. Don’t look back. Don’t let them get you.
Not letting the pain slow her down, she shot back to her feet. She rushed down the iron stairs and further down towards the alley. The hospital gown combined with a pair of white ankle socks didn't exactly make great running gear, but the sheer adrenaline coursing through her body made up for it.
And so, it only took her a few more seconds to reach the floor of the alley. The explosions and rumblings within the building dying down bit by bit as the noise of whatever fight was happening moved away from her side of the building and further into the city.
Now’s your chance, get away, get away, get away.
She took off running once more, the fact that she was running in socks didn’t make it a smooth start. The fear and anxiety her subconscious pressed into her mind drove her forward hastily nonetheless. She heard the figures up at the window shout into their comms as they ran back inside the building.
She’d only run a few steps before she heard multiple sets of feet exiting out of the building she just came out of. Fear gripping her heart tighter, she set out faster into the streets. Looking around she had a split second to choose the way she’d take before she had to sprint off again.
Every second counted if she didn’t want her pursuers to catch up. No doubt they’d communicated her location to the other staff in the building. Judging from what she’d heard there were at-least six people running after her.
You have to disappear, and fast, fast, fast
She ran faster and faster into the familiar yet unfamiliar city. Adrenaline pushing the exhaustion out of her body as she dove into alley after alley. People gave her strange looks as she passed, but that really didn’t matter to her at the moment. Fear crept into her as she couldn’t to quite seem lose her pursuers. Her mind unhelpfully telling her that if they caught her, her life would be forfeit.
And because she currently couldn’t remember anything from before the hospital, she was inclined to believe that.
Right as she ducked into another alley, she crashed into a stranger. Losing her balance, she stumbled and fell back onto the dirty alley floor. She looked up at the stranger, breathing hard through the panic as she heard the clattering of a walking stick on the alley floor. The slightly scarred face of a brown haired man looked back at her, olive green eyes peering into her own with equal measures of shock and confusion as he was suddenly thrown off balance.
The stranger wore what looked like a light green uniform with pink and cream accents. But she didn’t have the time to just stop, her pursuers had gotten too close and she couldn’t just keep running away in socks and a hospital gown. Looking up into the stranger’s eyes, she made a split second decision.
“Please help me”
The stranger looked back at Pearl, his eyes wandered from the myriad of bruises dotting her skin and then to the direction the footsteps were coming from and seemed to make his decision. Picking up his cane, he stuck his hand out and pulled her to her feet quickly.
“In here, quick.” The stranger pulled her up towards a door in the alley. He opened it quickly with keys he pulled out of his pocket and in a split second they were inside and he had locked the door again.
Pearl breathed in heavily as she listened in for the incoming footfalls of her pursuers. The brown haired stranger’s eyes hadn’t left her since she’d first crashed into him, even now he was observing her as she listened out for her pursuers.
Footsteps rushed into the alley, slowing down when they couldn’t catch sight of their target. The stranger decided that these guys were worth his attention a bit more than she was in the moment, as he moved his eyes to peer at them through a peephole in the door.
“How is she so fast and how the hell did she even wake up in the first place,” a voice exclaimed before the footsteps continued. “Those meds should not have worn off yet.”
“Move, we cannot lose the target,” another voice sneered.
The footsteps rushed off again and with the danger having at-least temporarily passed, she could finally breathe a sigh of relief. With the adrenaline having faded she slowly slid down the wall of the unknown hallway. And now that she’d escaped from whoever the people were that had been holding her, the voice that had driven her forward since she woke up fell silent.
“Seems like you've gotten yourself in a bit of trouble huh.” The stranger commented, after which he moved to hang up his hat on the coat rack in the corner of the hallway.
“Gosh,” Pearl sighed. “You don’t know the half of it, and for that matter, neither do I.” She ran her hands through her hair as she breathed out deeply. “For all I know, I was literally born today, and born tied to a hospital bed no less.”
She didn't get much time to chew on her thoughts further though. As a voice called over from further in the apartment.
“Scar? Is that you, I thought you were headed out for work?”
Pearl’s eyes shot up as a shorter man wearing round glasses walked down the stairs. The figure appearing around the corner as Pearl stumbled back to her feet.
“Uhm Scar, why did you bring me back a hospital patient?”
“Well Grian I’m glad you asked,” Scar answered, “that’s because this particular hospital patient is being followed by a Watcher Corp team.”
“SHE'S BEING FOLLOWED BY—”
“Wait I'm being followed by who?”
Both heads swiveled to look at her then. The dark blond's confusion palpable as he looked back at the brown haired man for some kind of confirmation, some confirmation that what he was hearing was true.
Scar shrugged at him as Grian sighed, “Okay well I think this calls for some tea.” He started walking upstairs as he called out one more time, “and Scar? Maybe give Lizzie a call that you won't be able to make your shift.”
“Gem and Joel won't be back until later, maybe you can get hospital girl some better clothes while I start the kettle.”
“Oh man, she's gonna be so pissed when she gets back and sees that I snooped through her stuff.”
“Anyways Gem is a bit shorter than you but she has some oversized stuff that should fit,” Scar said as he guided her upstairs. They stopped before a bedroom door with pretty plants painted on the front.“Wait here a sec, I'll go get the clothes. It's not gonna be anything exciting, but it will definitely be better than those hospital robes”
A few seconds later Scar emerged from the bedroom with a pile of what looked like loungewear. Then he showed her the bathroom were she could get changed.
“So uhm when you're done the dining room and kitchen is just through this hallway and then second doorway to the right. We'll have a cup of tea ready.”
Before Scar could walk away though, Pearl couldn’t help but blurt out, “Why are you guys helping me so much? You don’t even know me.”
“… Well let’s just say that we aren’t very fond of Watcher Corp either, besides you looked terrified and the fact that they called you ‘the target’… well that did not sit well with me.”
Pearl nodded as she closed and then locked the bathroom door. The first thing she noticed was the reflection in the bathroom mirror. The girl looking back at her had just slightly too long bangs, long tousled brown and dark blonde hair and tired light blue eyes. The pupils still slightly more dilated than what would strictly be considered normal.
She sighed as she ran her hands through her hair to fix it, after which she moved to put the new clothes on. Basic shorts, a t-shirt, a black hoodie and some new socks. She already felt way better now that those horrid hospital garbs were off.
She only spared a single moment to gaze at the bruises that dotted her skin before she moved on. She decided her time was better spent throwing the hospital robes in the bin and the socks in a nearby washing basket before opening the door and heading towards the dining room.
“–We can't just be taking in strays Scar. Especially not me, Gem and Joel”
“You know we don’t have space at the cafe and you guys have an extra room anyways. Besides Watcher Corp wants to find her, that should be enough of a reason.”
“I’ll have to convince Gem and Joel”
“If I tell Lizzie, Joel will definitely agree. Then all you guys need to do is convince Gem.”
“You understand that this makes stuff way more difficult right, it will make—“
It’s at that point the dark blond noticed her in the doorway. The two men turning around as she shuffled in the doorway.
“I’m like super thirsty, is tea still on the table?”
The two men let out a breath at the lack of acknowledgement that she had heard their conversation. Grian nodded as he asked, ”Earl grey alright?”
The three sat down as Pearl gulped down the tea when it had cooled down enough. Grian refilling the cup as she told them everything she could remember: The waking up, the explosions in the building, finding her name, the creepy hospital staff, the even scarier hunting party that had so quickly caught up to her and the fact that her mind just told her to run and that she couldn’t actually remember why.
Scar and Grian had been mostly silent, but after she finished her pretty short recollection Grian spoke up, “The hospital near here is one of Watcher Corp’s private ones. If you can’t remember anything it’s probably because they don’t want you too. But it seems like they were planning to have you collected at some point, you probably escaped in the knick of time.”
“I don’t suppose you could let me know who the Watched Corp are now?” Pearl said as she moved to she sip her second cup of tea more slowly. Scar and Grian seemed to grimace in unison at the inevitable question about her pursuers.
“The Watcher Corp controls the city as it were,” Scar said, “They ‘watch over the city’ and are the ones who created the hero program to do so.”
“Hero program? Like superheroes?” Pearl blurted out, after which she had a sudden realization. “Wait am I some kinda criminal then??!! Gosh and here I thought I might have a heroic energy about me with my daring escape.”
“You’re coping awfully well for an amnesiac whose only memory is getting chased by watcher staff out a hospital,” Grian said as he crossed his arms, eyes narrowing slightly behind his glasses.
“Well if I didn’t laugh about it I’d probably cry or breakdown!” Pearl chirped and at that the suspicion in Grian’s eyes all but vanished. Scar smirking as he gave Grian a nudge.
“Ugh fine! I’ll convince Gem, Scar you update Lizzie on the situation so Joel will be on board.”
“Whu–What do they have to be on board for exactly?” Pearl asked.
Scar decided to answer that one again, “Well since you’re currently a bit of a fugitive and we really don’t like Watcher Corp we’ve decided that you can stay here for a bit.
“Scar says that like he has any real say in the matter, he doesn’t actually live here. This place is mine, Gem and Joel’s. Scar stays with his coworkers above the café they own.”
“Awhh but you love having me over,” Scar replied cheerfully.
“You just come over to mine because your room is always a mess!” Grian snapped as he stood up and pointed at Scar.
“Nooooo of course not, I also love the extra space you guys have … oh and the great lighting obviously!”
“Why you—!” Grian seethed as he launched himself at the aptly named scarred man.
Before it could go too far though Pearl interrupted, “Wait so you’d let me stay here? Really? Free of charge? Even if I might be some dangerous criminal that escaped those Watcher guys?”
Grian chuckled at that, “I don’t think you have quite the makings of a criminal Pearl, besides we could handle it. Aside from that, the idea is that you stay here until your memories recover, maybe you could even provide some insight into Watcher Corp, they obviously didn’t want you to remember what happened before you woke up so it must be important.”
He stood up again as he continued speaking, “You look knackered though, I’ll show you to the guest bedroom so you can get some rest. Gem and Joel will most likely only be back by tomorrow.”
Pearl looked out the window as he said that, the sun still high in the sky. Nevertheless Pearl did feel exhausted, the words from her pursuers coming back to her. She wasn’t even supposed to be up from the coma she was in yet. The marathon she just ran combined with the residual meds most likely still in her body weren’t exactly helping against the exhaustion either.
“Yeah you’re probably right, I’m super tired and I’m not sure about much of anything right now.” She stood up, finishing up the rest of her tea in one gulp.
“We’ll continue this conversation tomorrow with Gem and Joel present, I can’t promise anything yet until they agree.”
Pearl let out a slight sigh when he said that. It was a reminder that she might just get booted out for the Watcher corp to find tomorrow if they didn’t agree. Her nerves would have flared if she wasn’t so tired.
Grian guided her to the last bedroom in the long hallway upstairs. Opening the door she saw a plain bedroom, potted plants on the windowsill and a water bottle paired with some granola bars on the nightstand.
“I thought you might want to replenish some calories. Sprinting away from the authorities is a pretty intense exercise for a freshly awakened amnesiac.”
Pearl smiled. For the first time since she woke up she felt a flutter of happiness stir in her chest at the thoughtfulness.
“I know I might have to leave tomorrow, but I just want you and Scar to know that I’m really thankful for what you guys did today. Today has been terrifying to say the least.”
Grian nodded, the round glasses moving slightly down his nose as he did. After which he closed the door, leaving Pearl in the room alone. She decided to eat one of the granola bars on the nightstand before moving to lie in the bed.
And even though the day’s events swirled in her mind, it didn’t take long at all for her to fall asleep. The exhaustion finally catching up to her, her bruised and fatigued body finally getting the rest it deserved.
“—Pearl! Pearl!” A voice called, a dreamlike haze surrounded her. She opened her eyes and blinked slowly, after which she looked at the field she lay in. A field surrounded by plain white walls.
Everything in this place had such a dull white color.
That’s why she liked being in this field. A splash of green in the otherwise dull building.
“—don’t like it when we’re late,” the voice spoke up again.
Memory her spoke up next, “yeah, yeah I know. It’s just I don’t know… I feel like ———, ———and I have been drifting apart lately. It’s just…”
The person who called out earlier sat next to her as she rested her head on her knees, curling up under the only tree in the field. Their presence filled her with warmth as she leaned on them.
Memory her continued speaking then, “We promised to stick together, I just don’t get why the two of us becoming friends suddenly made them so …distant.”
But when she turned to look at the figure, the dream suddenly blurred. The comforting person next to her becoming utterly unrecognizable.
She had to turn away, but the person spoke up anyway, “You know Pearl if they really liked you as a friend then this shouldn’t be enough to break that bond. You guys have known each other for forever.”
She nodded and steeled herself, wiping her eyes as she went to stand up again. The figure next to her doing the same.
“Do you know what they’ve got planned for today?”
“I don’t know exactly but I did hear today is an important one so we should get going”
But as they walked towards a familiar hallway the memory faded. The yellow haze in her mind pushing them away. The memories fading away as the rest of her sleep devolved into restful pitch black once more.
This time when she woke up it wasn’t as much of a rude awakening as the last time. The sun shining once more through the curtains of the room she was in. She breathed in deeply as she stretched her still somewhat sore body.
She got up from the bed, yawning as she took in the room again. She moved to the window and opened the curtains as she took in the city properly for the first time since she’d first escaped.
She’d find out if she could stay today. She was at the mercy of two strangers once more
Nerves fluttered in stomach, nevertheless she turned around and walked back through the hallway she’d come through yesterday. She heard the kettle whistling as the smell of breakfast wafted in the air, Pearl’s stomach growling at the smell of it.
As she approached the doorway she saw three people sitting at the table. She recognized Grian obviously with his glasses sitting skew on his nose. The second person was a guy with dark brown hair and matching dark brown eyes, she thought she caught a few strands of green, but she chalked that up to still being tired.
The final person… was looking at her, wait no she was kind of glaring just a little bit. She was really pretty though, with captivating yet piercing green eyes and a full head of ginger curls
Where have you seen that before.
“Ehh … good morning?” Pearl said as she took a few steps into the dinning room.
“Well, well, well if it isn’t the hospital runaway we’ve heard so much about,” the dark haired man said as he leaned back in his chair. She assumed that this was Joel which meant that the other girl was probably Gem.
Gem, who was still looking at her, eyes narrowed as she ate her pancakes. “Gem stop glaring holes into our guest please, she hasn’t even had breakfast yet,” Grian said as he flicked her on the forehead, the girl recoiling in indignation as he did. “So Pearl, you alright with pancakes?”
Pearl nodded as she went to sit down at the only free spot at the table. The only free spot which was right next to the ginger haired girl who had decided to refocus on her plate again. Grian stacked three pancakes on her plate with Joel sliding over the syrup. Gem mumbled something about being allowed to grab whatever was on the table to drink as well.
As Pearl started drizzling the syrup over the pancakes on her plate, Grian spoke up again, “We have a verdict.” Pearl looked up at him as he continued. “You can stay here—“ Pearl’s eyes lit up “—for now.”
Pearl nodded in understanding. “We don’t know you and you don’t know us, but for now you’re in no way ready to just be getting going—”
“—Which is Grian’s way of saying welcome to the family,” the dark haired man interrupted, she swore she saw green in his hair again as he moved to face her. “Now me and Grian are fine with whatever, but Gemmie here is the one you’ll need to convince if you want to stay here for longer.”
Gem let out a long suffering sigh as she said, “Gosh, sue me if I don’t trust some runaway amnesiac girl.” Pearl cringed slightly because honestly that was fair enough from her perspective. Nevertheless she got the feeling that Gem wasn’t quite as stone cold and moody as she presented herself to be at the moment.
So Pearl decided in a moment of pure boldness to turn towards Gem, looking her right in the eyes as she spoke up, “Well then Gem I look forward to becoming your favorite person.” Gem sputtering up her tea as she did, obviously not expecting that retort.
Joel broke out in laughter as Grian tried and failed to hide his smirk. As Gem recovered from her coughing fit she turned back to look at Pearl, “We’ll see about that,” a slight shiver went down her spine at the slightly dark look Gem used.
“Well welcome to the family Pearl”
