[Doctor Ciel]

Previously: The Omega Problem

And more recently: In the dark of night

Now...

It was a good week after The Omega Problem. Everyone is in various stages of recovery. 

PolarStarQuote Zero: You awaken mostly rebuilt. You feel a little different though. The metal making up your body feels a little more solid. Things are moving a bit more fluidly. You have a pleasant 'new car' smell. You can tell that Ciel has put a great deal of love and care into your new body, to the point that you might be impressed with just how close to the original it is. You are however running in a lower power mode ill-suited for combat while Ciel finishes adjusting certain things. You can't quite strain yourself physically without slowing down and becoming sluggish, but you feel just fine for around-the-house stuff.

TheSpatialWeeg Aile: Ciel and probably Roll have been taking care of you and treating you for a few days while you recover from that head injury. You may be keenly aware of Ciel's mothering tendencies by now. You are fully recovered.

Coolshaymin Roll: ...Ciel has taken a very careful look at your hair to make sure you're looking your best. She has also given you a great many hugs.

Maverick Hunter Zero Vent: Oh hey Vent! You missed this big fight we had! ...You were there? Really? Huh. Welcome back! You're fine.

Jade Callisto Protoman: You are just being turned back on as the thread starts. You feel... very different. Physically. Not personality wise. Your body feels significantly more solid, but also less heavy. It seems that whatever metal your new body is made of is lighter than the old stuff. You feel a lot less power draw from your weapons. And that core in your chest? It's much lighter than your old nuclear core. However, programming wise you seem to have been unaltered. You are currently laying on an operating table that has been propped up diagnally. You are at 95% if not 100% functionality.  To the point that you probably can't tell the difference.

DLN-002-02 is currently sleeping in a chair that's too big for her.

Everyone's on the path to recovery! ...Except Ciel.

Ciel is looking a little rough. She hasn't been getting proper sleep for about a week now, and she appears to have fallen ill during that time. She's looking a little pale, her hands aren't as steady as they ought to be, and you can kinda see the lack of energy in her eyes. She's been pushing her body so hard that her wounds haven't even fully healed yet, the stress having slowed her body's natural healing process down. She has also been forcing herself to go out and aggressively seek out spare parts to get the robots repaired in such a short span of time. Those things aren't just laying around, y'know!

As she turns to address the recently powered on Protoman though, Ciel does her best to perk up, smile, and pretend she doesn't feel ill. You can kind of hear that she's a little low energy in her voice though.

“...Good morning, Proto Man. How are you feeling? It's been about a week since the fight with Omega.”

[Jade Callisto]

Doctor Ciel

Darkness. Endless darkness. Things couldn't be any more dark as the red robot master had laid there for hours on end after Ciel worked so hard to rebuild him. No response at first but as the power started to fill his body he would feel an unfamiliar vitality rush through his circuits. It was as if he could feel something in the depths of his soul as he started to flinch a bit with his fingertips starting to move slowly. His eyes had started to open to a bright light as it was already clear that Blues's face was completely exposed and without his helmet or shades on to help him look cool. He did not need protection from the light of course but it was brighter in the room without them on.

Slowly adjusting his self on the table he would feel new things as he moved his new body. First his body felt like it would protect him more than before but was not as heavy as he would have thought. Second he no longer felt like he was a huge powerhouse but at the same time he felt safer and more at ease. Turning his head to see Ciel there smiling but seemingly tired from her tone of voice Blues would smile a little as he realized she rebuilt him. Blues would whistle a bit as he lay there on the operating table as he waited for his new body to recover it's full amount of energy before looking back over to Ciel.



"Well good morning to you Ciel." he said appreciating her for all she had done. "I can tell you changed my core but I still feel to be myself as well. As much as I would have hated to lose that extra power I actually feel relieved. A bit of a new vitality from all of this." He looked back up at the ceiling in thought. "How are the others?" he would ask Ciel as he was more concerned about them than his own well-being. He realized that with this new core nothing about his personality changed with it. It was already a risk letting Dr Wily change it but this was different, he felt safe and relaxed.

It was as if a huge weight came off his body and he was reborn a new person. In a way that was the case as Ciel looked rather tired and it seemed she built him back using whatever means she could to fix him. "Thank you for everything." he said simply as he continued to lay there before feeling his power reach close to 100%. He knew he could get off the table now but decided to rest a little longer and get his energy reserves back to normal. 

[DLN-002 Roll Light]

While Blues was being maintainanced, Roll took a brief leave to rest a moment and make Ciel some coffee to... help her finish her work. Roll was fully aware of how long it was healthy to work on this kind of stuff. Sure, Light probably needed more breaks than Ciel, but the amount of time Ciel was working wasn't healthy for any age. Still, she couldn't bring herself to make her rest yet. She knew Ciel probably felt responsible for what happened.  Still, if she keeps going on like this it could be disastorous in the long run. "Hey, Roll..." a voice interrupted Roll as she nearly dropped the cup to look to Seriri, a mermaid that was being allowed to live in the place because she was not exactly comfortable living completely without water.

"Oh, hi Seriri. Sorry, guess I didn't notice you," Roll said rather meekly... It was hard to be her usual cheerful self still. Ciel did help relieve a lot of her emotional stress in the time since the Omega Situation, but with the conditions of everyone, she was still a bit down. Seriri checked on her every now and then.

"How is everyone? Are they doing better?" the fish person asked in obvious concern.

"Yeah, I think Blues should be functioning soon. Maybe soon she will get to rest for a bit..." Roll explained.

"... Good to hear. I hope so too. Well, I won't keep you. See you later." she finished before turning around and going.

"Yeah," the reploid girl replied simply, looking down at the cup for a moment before moving to finish setting up the coffee and going back to the lab.

---

As Roll entered the room she noticed Blues finally awake. She ran over quickly, probably spilling a drop or two she swears she will clean up later, deciding against hugging him at the last moment. "Blues. I am so glad to see you're okay..." she said, looking like she'd be tearing up a bit normally before looking to Ciel. "Oh yeah. Here, Mom..." Roll began to offer the coffee before retracting a bit.

"... Although you already done so much. Don't you think you should go rest now? I want everything back to normal too but if you continue at this rate... forget work performance, you look... sorry if this is out of line, but horrible..." Roll suggested in concern. Light has worked some late nights, but never this bad.

[TheSpatialWeeg]

Over the course of the week, Aile had received medical care from Ciel and one of the Roll twins. The first couple of days had her deal with a rather harsh headache, some dizziness and a rather hazy memory on what happened, but these mostly subsided after that.

During one of these headache-less days, Aile had offered Ciel to help around the house. She was perceptive enough to notice that taking care of her while also rebuilding Zero and Protoman was starting to take a toll on her, and maybe if she did a couple of small chores, she could help the scientist, even if only slightly. The negative response from Ciel was unsurprising, considering the concussion still had a ways to go in terms of recovery, but this exchange had revealed to her a side of Ciel she only had a small glimpse of - a motherly side.

Aile was conflicted about this. On one hand, it was rather worrying that this girl was already acting motherly, considering she looked to be younger or the same age as her (no, Prairie is a completely different matter), but on the other...she...actually kind of liked this? It was confusing, yet it also reminded her of a time long ago where she was but a toddler, and her own mom was...still there...

...

By the time Protoman was activated, Aile was already up and about on the house, holding a mug with hot cocoa on one hand. Standing at the door leading to Ciel's lab, she knocked on the door twice and opened it...

“ Hey, Ciel? I brought you--oh! ”

Turned out one of the Roll twins had brought the doctor a cup of coffee. She looked at the mug she had with her for a moment. There's...a bit of awkward silence before she chuckles.

“ Guess you and I had similar ideas, eh Roll? Haha. I'm just gonna put this here...drink it if you want. ”

Aile set the mug in a desk, before turning her attention to the recently reactivated robot. She looked noticeably relieved as she took a good look at Protoman, with him looking well and not--well, blown up all over the place. She lets out a shaky breath, but her smile doesn't falter.

“ Hey, Protoman. Glad to see you up and running again. ”

[Zero, The Red Hero]

. . .

Zero opened his eyes to the feeling of wholeness. He was attached, Whole, Completely put together. It felt much better than how he felt last he was awake, certainly, as he lifted up a little bit, Flexing his hand a little bit to get a grip as to how he felt, as he sighed, Now rolling his head to get a feel for his synthetic muscles and machinery moving. He was slower. But...He was happy he was ok, as he fell back to laying down for just a moment, a sigh of relief escaping him as he would slowly rise up from the operating table, now standing up fully.

Zero would look toward the rest of the group, Giving a mild smile that it seemed like all was going well after all of this...He would proceed to walk up to Ciel, Coming right after Protoman. "Guess I owe you one, Again." Zero would say pretty happily to Doctor Ciel, Looking around for sign of the rest of the cast, now counting down specifics on who was there to make sure all were accounted for. 

"Looks like we all made it back home...And we got put back to one piece. Did...Did it work?" Zero would ask, Asked Ciel for the truth in there Mission's success.

[Doctor Ciel]

Ciel chuckled slightly at Protoman's remark.

“ Ehehehe~ Sorry. I couldn't work on your old core without being irradiated. The lab's not equipped for nuclear fission.  But... you're welcome. I hope you'll come to me if you ever need any help... ”

She then pulled up a computer nearby, checking over her notes she took while rebuilding Protoman, double checking some math real quick, all the while silently considering the consequences of her actions. Sure, she hadn't corrected Protoman's... lack of free will. But maybe by showing him he could trust her she was preventing harm in the long term. It was a comforting thought, anyway.

“ The good news is, a lot of the replacement parts I got for you are more efficient than your old ones, including the amplifier in your buster. I couldn't compare your old output since your body was too damaged, but I think you might actually see an increase in your energy throughput once you get out on the field. ”

At this, she turned to address Roll, appreciatively smiling at her as she was brought the lifegiving drink. Bean tea! Wonderful invention. She reached out to accept it, but hesitated as Roll pulled it away from her. Before she knew it, Aile was offering her a cup too! She could really use the boost to get her through the day. She just had to...

...?

What was it she needed to do again? Brain addled by exhaustion, Ciel had slipped right back into her workaholic mindset, only to realize all the reploids she'd been working on were up and functional. She went silent for a moment. The comment on her looks didn't feel good, but she wasn't oblivious. She was in poor health. Not technically bedridden, but she knew enough about medicine to know that she should be. She was like a day or two more of hard work and sleepless nights away from winding up in a hospital. Light? That old dude? His body probably couldn't even handle this amount of abuse. Nevermind the exposure to nuclear radiation. While she had ways to prevent long term damage from that, it certainly wasn't doing her any favors right now.

“. . . You're right. I'm sorry for worrying you, Roll.” she softly relented, reaching out and ignoring the coffee for a moment to affectionately pull Roll into a very loving embrace, just kind of holding her for a moment. Roll could feel that her arms were trembling very slightly as she held her. Ciel spoke very softly to Roll...

“ ...I'll go lay down for a bit on the couch and try to relax. You can catch up with your brothers. You're in charge, okay..? ”

...before releasing her. She then grabbed a little work cloth from nearby and gently brushed it across the outside of the cup of coffee, collecting the spare droplets to limit the dripping on the floor. She then put the cloth back and moved to enter the living area, note worthily never taking the coffee. However, she stopped to address Zero before she did.

“ ...I think I might still owe you a little bit more. But it was honestly really cathardic to be able to work on you like that. ”

It was true. The last time Zero had 'died', she hadn't been able to save him. There simply hadn't been enough to salvage and rebuild him. Being able to save him this time had helped open and heal those old emotional wounds a bit.

“ ...But, yes. We gathered all the data we needed to prove Ashe's innocence. She actually visited a few times while I was working on you guys to say thank you and helped get some of the parts I needed to do it. That data will also help with fixing Ashe's Model A so that an incident like this doesn't happen again. ...Thank you. ”

Ciel bowed her head for a moment in humble thanks. And then... to Aile.

“ ...It's good to see you, Aile. I was just about to take a break. ”

Ciel beamed slightly at Aile. You could tell she was trying to hide her physical weakness. She wasn't doing the greatest job. Finally, she wandered over to where the other 'sleeping' Roll was and gingerly, carefully pulled DLN-002-02 's head into her lap, leaning back to get comfortable and affectionately brushing a hand through the robot's hair. After a moment, DLN-002-02 clingily cuddled up to her, bringing a smile to Ciel's face. The battle had been extremely hard on DLN-002-02, and Ciel knew she needed the comfort. It was something she could provide without doing much other than resting an arm on her and letting Roll lean on her.

[Maverick Hunter Zero]

Vent was seated in a chair, his eyes closed as he rested, a book propped open on his lap. The reason for his tired expression was due to the fact that he had to gather the data and deliver it to the police station, and when he came back, he had to take a rest before he could see more action.

The light snoozing and the open book made him look like he was an old man, but he was still young inside, the only thing that seemed to bother him was what Omega said to him...