As Fxeni worked away at the power core of his weapon Yamalok, his fever intensified. He continued on though, knowing that the core needed to be purified or disposed of so that it wouldn't affect anyone else. He felt the sweat running down his face, and he wiped it away with one hand while continuing to make adjustments to the core with the other. I hope I get this done before I collapse... he thought to himself as his vision blurred momentarily.
"You always did overwork yourself..." A voice echoed in his head. He recognized it and stopped for a moment, but then continued on as if he hadn't heard it.
"You should relax for once..." The female voice returned, in a very soothing tone.
"I can't. Not yet." Fxeni retorted bluntly.
"All this work isn't good for you..." The voice continued, now coming from a very blurry figure sitting to his right.
"I'll be just fine. I need to get this done, for everyone's sake." Fxeni replied, casting a quick glance to the figure before going back to his work.
"Why won't you ever take my advice?" the now fully visible figure asked with worry in her voice.
"Well for one, you're not real. I'm either delusional, or this Frenzy energy is getting to me." Fxeni replied while looking at the figure, waving around the screwdriver he had in his hand. "Or both. Probably both."
"All the more reason for you to rest now." The figure said with a smile. Fxeni stared at the woman before him, a frown appearing on his brow. A rest did sound very nice to him right now, but he knew better than to succumb to the wiles of this figure.
"Look Ariani... even though I know it's not you. Right now, at this very moment, I am talking to a figment of my imagination. I know this. You know this, since you're just a projection of my memories of you. Let's just stop here."
"But Fxeni... that's all the more reason for you to know that I'm right."
"Part of me feels that way... especially because of this." Fxeni said as he pointed to the power core, which was now glowing almost exclusively red. "But I cannot give up. I will not give up. If you were real, you would know why and respect that."
"Sometimes you need to give up... you can't do everything yourself."
"I'm not doing everything by myself. I have plenty of friends here that will help me, even those that I barely know. Look, I know why you're here. I know I failed to protect you, but I'm moving on. There's no point in me dwelling on it, there's no point in me beating myself up about it. What's done is done, and all I can do is learn from it and make sure that it doesn't happen again." Fxeni said, now grasping the pulsing power core in his hand. The green glow started to overshadow the red, and the pulsing was much more frequent.
"You have too much faith in them..." The figure said as it started to grow blurry again.
"I think I have just the right amount of faith, thank you very much. I might not trust them implicitly bar some exceptions, but at their core they're good people. Most of them at least. That's good enough for me. I'm in good hands here, Ariani. You can rest easy."
"Alright... I trust in you..." The figure said as it faded away, with what looked like a smile.
"Heh... success..." Fxeni said as he looked at the power core, now shining a vibrant green that was stronger than it ever was. He took hold of Yamalok and wobbled a few steps forward before collapsing to the ground, the core and Yamalok still in hand. He faded into sleep while sprawled on the floor of the lab.