Origin II

Shun Kenzaki x OC

“Taylor, the man in Cell 50, there’s something wrong with him. You can’t let him out.” Evelyn began
mumbling and this completely caught Elliot’s attention.

Shun and Lana are still in the room and needed to be warned but she couldn’t just leave the injured
woman now she’s giving important information that might make them piece things together and
figure out what truly is happening to the ship.

“What’s wrong with him?” Elliot coaxes the woman, placing a gentle hand on the woman’s blonde
hair. Her nerves were very tense, partly not wanting to hear whatever the woman was going to say.
But Elliot needed her to talk, despite how much pain Evelyn was in. It’s better now than later where
chances that the woman might pass out for certain reason and they will not know anything at all.

“Something hit the ship…” Evelyn blurted between her gritted teeth; Elliot wiped off the beads of
sweat on the woman’s forehead to soothe her in slightest. “Something came on board…” At this, her
prior stupid assumptions seemed to have slowly sunk on her. Yet still she wanted to deny. Doesn’t
want to believe it. Regardless she let Evelyn continue to speak. “It started…it started killing the
passengers.”

Like a bucket full of ice, Elliot’s whole body went numb at the words but she managed to speak.

“This something you speak…what is it?” Her voice almost as whisper as it carried her underlying
terror.

“I don’t know but whatever it is it can get inside…” Evelyn answered while motioning a weak hand
over her body. Elliot noticed it but she needed to confirm.

“Inside what?”

Evelyn took a moment to gasp some air while her unblinking eyes was trained at her. She looked
hesitant but eventually she said – “Inside us.”

If the chilling numbness she felt can’t get any worse then she doesn’t know what it is. Her breathing
paused as she digested the information she had just acquired. It is real, isn’t it? They are in deep
space. The blasted space where any unknown lifeform may exist. She was a fool to keep on denying
such.

Elliot let go Evelyn’s head, fingers trembling and eyes unfocused as fear slowly ate what’s left of her
rationality. “I need to warn them.” She mumbled, voice quivering. And then stood and rushed into
the door where Shun and Lana had gone. As though on auto-pilot. She opened the door and jumped
away in the next instant when shew saw the two others she was after holding an injured man
around their arms.

“Get away from him!” Elliot hissed as her wide eyes stared at the man, particularly at the dog tag
around his neck saying ‘Max Taylor’. It’s him.

“What!?” Lana said back in shock and Elliot was quick to interrupt. “He was the one who attacked
Evelyn!”
At this Shun immediately threw away the man off his shoulder, leaving all the weight to Lana. He
trained his gun at the man; eyes are hard and cold. The eyes of someone who isn’t afraid of getting
blood on their hands. At that fleeting moment, Elliot considered if whether her decision of saving
him had been right. But the presence of Max Taylor was more pressing at the moment.

“No! That’s not what happened!” The man tried to reason, his terrified eyes pleading at Shun like a
deer caught in headlights.

“Get back, Lana.” Shun ordered, voice commanding and warning.

“No. No.” The man dignified.

“Get to the door.” Shun pressed with a wave of his gun at the man, wanting this to move back into
the small compartment that stood behind.

“No please. Believe me.” The man carried on pleading, gazing his fearful eyes at Shun, to Elliot, to
Lana then back to the former. It gave Elliot torn feelings. The man doesn’t look like he was guilty of
anything and if Shun would shoot him which she’s sure he would, it’ll make things more
complicated. But then this Max Taylor could be just acting, lying at their faces to gain their trust.
Worse, it must be the thing that they are speaking and not the actual Taylor. Elliot doesn’t what to
make of the situation.

To their surprise, Lana shoved the man off of her and stood back, revealing the gun she has on her
person now and pointed it at Taylor as well.

“You can’t do this!” The man cried between heavy pants but Shun is not buying any of it as he moves
closer to him. “Don’t move.” He ordered once more. Taylor made an unexpected move. Elliot gasped
at the surprise retaliation when this grappled with Shun’s gun. Her mind forming another
assumption that Shun might accidentally pull the trigger on the man or the other way around.

But like what she’d thought about Shun earlier, he wasn’t someone who can be simply trifled with.
He was stronger and faster. He folded his arm, elbow outward and used to punch it to Taylor’s
abdomen. The man staggered back, disoriented and before he could even regain his composure,
Shun throw his fist this time at his face throwing him further back against the compartment’s wall.
He fell on the floor ungraciously and out-cold.

“Stop!” Lana attempted to interfere and grab on Shun’s arm but he roughly removed her hand off.

Shun then pulled the steel bars and locked the man inside before turning sharply to Elliot.

“What the hell is going on?” Shun demanded, his voice was loud that caught Elliot a bit off-guard.
She blinked several times and breathed deeply not just from his voice but as well the prior intense
scenario.

“Evelyn has answers.” She responded and ushered the two to Evelyn who was still lying on the floor
and was heaving deeply.

Elliot was the first one to approach her, glancing briefly at the woman’s injury with worry.

“Tell us everything that you know.” Shun spoke as rounded around the injured woman’s eyesight,
making himself known and knelt down beside Elliot.
“Shun, we need to move her to a safer place and tend to her first before we could question her
further.” Elliot inputted and regretted it when the Japanese man regarded her with a hard gaze. But
then he was interrupted when Evelyn once again spoke.

“The-there was a rupture down here. The ship’s defense systems plugged the gaps, so we thought
we were…we thought we were in the clear. Until the passenger, they started dying…” Evelyn paused,
gulping for air before she continued. “Taylor, he said there was something inside his head. He told
me to leave him in there. I think that whatever killed those people, it made him attack me.”

“We should just torch that fucking cell.” Shun added with resolute.

“No, I need to see him.” Evelyn said then attempted to sat up, catching Elliot in surprise who
immediately stopped the woman “Do not move, we need to treat your wound.” But Evelyn was
stubborn.

“I need to see him!”

“Stay still.” Elliot insisted, holding down the woman’s arms but the latter didn’t back down.

“Listen, I need to see him. I need to see Taylor, please.” Elliot exchange glances between Shun and
Lana then sighed and leaned away from Evelyn. The necessity in her request was so dire and Elliot
can’t hold it against her. Evelyn knew the man to some degree and it would be traumatic if they
would just do Shun’s suggestion without her even having one last conversation with Taylor.

“Please.” She pleaded once more and Elliot nodded in understanding.

She carefully helped the injured woman to sit up and not forgetting this to keep the jacket clamped
around her injury. Shun decided to take the other arm of the woman and help her get further up on
her feet which Elliot was glad. Slowly, they move Evelyn where Taylor was locked up, just inside the
room where Shun and Lana went, near the door. She moved closer over the glass wall that now
bound Taylor’s compartment other than the steel bars.

“Taylor?” Evelyn called out to the man who was leaning against the wall. He was still unconscious
but Evelyn kept on calling. “Taylor? It’s me. It’s Rey.” Her voice was much louder and slowly, the
man’s eyes open and gradually widened as he stared at the woman. He started breathing heavily
and his face held an expression of shock and fear.

“Why did you do this to me?” She questioned with hard edge in her voice. Then Taylor rasps – “You!
You’re the one who shot me!”

Shun shot a look at the two women. All of them slowly beginning to get confused.

“Taylor, y-y-you stop it!” Evelyn stammered and Elliot wasn’t sure if it’s from the pain or from
something else.

“Don’t trust anything she says!” Taylor blurted.

“Taylor, stop it now!”

“She’s dangerous.”

“Taylor.”

“Don’t trust anything she says! She’s dangerous!”

“What happened to you?”
“She’s dangerous! You have to believe me!”

“Taylor!” Evelyn dropped her head down as she sobbed.

Elliot, Shun and Lana now glancing at each other with completely confused expression on their faces.
And at Elliot’s end, she wasn’t sure anymore if it’s just Taylor that was acting or Evelyn. Elliot decided
they had enough confusion for now and spoke to Evelyn.

“If we don’t deal with your wound, you’re going to die.” She stated the truth, it often works to
patients who had hard time comprehending how fatal their situations are and act like it was nothing.
And like any other, it worked on Evelyn she responded.

“There’s a medical center back on the crew deck.”

Elliot nodded to her words and then they started heading for the door only to be stopped on the
way by Lana.

“Wait. What about him?” She questioned at Elliot and pointed a hand at Taylor. “He needs
treatment, too.”

Elliot turned to the man, having second thoughts. It was hard what to actually decide in who was the
one she needed to believe but evaluating between the two’s psyche, Evelyn was more stable. At the
moment. Until they find out the truth, they need to take serious precautions and that’s by taking
Evelyn’s warning and lock Taylor for the meantime.

“You heard what she said. We can’t let him out until we know what’s going on.”

“What if she’s wrong?” Lana dignified. “What if she’s the one that’s lying?”

This forced Evelyn to look up at Lana.

“Why the hell would I make this up?”

“He said you shot him.” Lana said to her.

Then Taylor shouted from the small room.

“You have to believe me!”

None of them hardly paid any attention when Evelyn carried on speaking.

“I spent two years on this ship with him. That’s not the man I knew.” Then she turned to Elliot with
eyes oozing with desperation. “I told you, it’s inside him. He’s not him anymore.” The last words
sounded as if it had hurt her so much, her face scrunching in pain that wasn’t at all due to her injury.
It something else but Elliot can hardly put a finger on it.

Once, again Taylor shouted amidst their conversation.

“She’s lying! Don’t trust her! She shot me!”

Lana stared at Elliot for a moment, the latter was just as skeptic as her but she had no other choice
at the moment and she can’t afford to just let Evelyn die there. She needed the woman to be in good
health even though it pains her that she can’t just as well tend to Taylor. She doesn’t know how this
thing Evelyn had said can get inside in someone but if by staying away from a suspected one is how
it can be obviously avoided then so be it.
Evelyn let out very pained groan and Elliot pleaded at Lana to let her through which the woman
eventually complied. Lana just stood behind near Taylor’s compartment, looking like she has no
plans on following them and this made Elliot pause.

“Lana, aren’t you coming?” She questioned her and the woman just shook her head and replied. “I’ll
keep watch on him.” She said nodding at Taylor.

“It wouldn’t be safe here.” Elliot inputted then looked at Shun. “You can just stay here with her; she
needs someone to watch her back. We can’t let her be alone with him.”

“And so are you.” Shun said, his eyes glancing down at Evelyn. “And Lana has a gun, she can protect
herself.” She stared at the man for a moment and at Lana who was nodding her head in agreement.
Elliot sighed.

“I insist, stay with her. I can take care of Evelyn myself. Trust me.” She insisted, pertaining to the
obvious state of the other woman. If it comes down to it, she’ll know where to strike first. Which she
hopes it won’t come to it.

“Are you sure?” Shun pressed and Elliot nodded her head in affirmation. He stared at her for a while,
eyes searching and definitely uncertain before he carefully removed himself off of Evelyn then
looked down at the gun on his hand. He seemed to be considering it to hand it to her.

“It’ll be more of a use to you than to me.” Elliot spoke before he can even open the offer. It is
obvious, he’s a master of it.

Shun nodded one more time and stood back to stay with Lana.

“Be careful Elle.” Lana said with sincerity and Elliot nodded and smiled in gratitude for her concern.
“You two as well.”

And with that she walked back into the shuttle with Evelyn on her side, drifting in and out of
consciousness. They boarded the shuttle and deposited the woman carefully down on the floor.
Elliot then pressed the button for the right ring as instructed by Evelyn.

“What if he dies? I fucked up.” Evelyn muttered, breathing growing heavier. Elliot immediately went
to her attention.

“Evelyn please. Just try to stay calm.” She attempted to comfort her then the woman held Elliot’s
wrist and muttered one more time. “If you knew, you wouldn’t help me.” Elliot frowned at this. If
only she knew then she would know what to do other than what she does best, tending to the
wounded.

Evelyn then closes her eyes, muttering incoherent words under her heavy panting.

“What?” Elliot questioned her.

“C-2-5-X…the code to the medical center.”

Elliot nodded and took note of that.

“And it’s Rey. No one calls me Evelyn.” She added breathily then she slowly lost her consciousness.

This is bad. Elliot checked her pulse while calling her in her name ‘Rey’ but she was unresponsive.
Her pulse was becoming faint and her breathing shallow. Elliot looked up at the floor information at
the screen but they are still half way up to the correct floor. The hand that Rey has on her wound has
now come off slacked and her jacket have become more soaked with blood. Elliot immediately put
pressure on it but it won’t do so much now. Rey had fallen to syncope due to serious blood loss.

“Ring 1.”

The sound of the automated voice was like a God-send to Elliot and she immediately yet carefully
haul up Rey on her feet. But now, her being unconscious, moving for Elliot have become a serious
problem. The woman was so heavy but Elliot mustered up all her strength to move into the ring and
find the medical deck which was another set of problem for her. She shuffled through the hallways
until she ran into the guy 2 in a corner, the latter jumping out of his wits finding her there.

“JESUS!” He exclaimed in complete shock then paused and questioned when he saw Rey. “Who the
hell is that?”

“We need to get her to the medical center! Where is it?” Elliot directly demanded.

“Wait. What happened to her?” He again threw another question. They’re running out of time.

“Where’s the fucking medical center!?” She shouted at him and she again thanked her lucky stars
when he gave her a decent response. “I-It’s back here.” He muttered, stammering but he then
helped her haul the woman to the right area.

Again, guy 2 jumped unnecessarily when they rounded another corner and ran to the others, the
oldest woman, red hair girl and Arab guy. They immediately saw the situation and threw Elliot
questions she didn’t dare to acknowledge at the moment due to limited time.

“Please, not now.” She said to them and moved where guy 2 pointed in haste.

They finally entered the medical area and laid Rey carefully on a vacant operating bed. The others
stood outside looking out the glass wall while guy 2 surprisingly stayed by the bedside with Elliot and
Rey. He just stood there looking blown out like he had been just on drugs while Elliot prepared for a
surgery. Her hands were trembling as she slid them inside the surgical gloves. She had done this
before so many times but right now things are a bit different. She wasn’t just worried with her
patient but also at the revelations they’d discovered regarding with the situation in the ship. She
pulled her hair inside a plastic cap and took in a very deep breath. She needed to calm down.

“I need your assistance.” Elliot called out to guy 2 who jumped again at her voice but was attentive.
“Find me some drugs. Morphine, Ketamine.” She supplied while planting the bare part of her left
arm against Rey’s clammy forehead. The woman was burning.

Guy 2, for a moment stared at her with wide eyes but then he nodded and looked around with
surprisingly no objections. He was paranoid but also, he was a good choice at the current situation as
he obviously seemed to be very well versed with any type of drugs.

He immediately came back with the drug, Morphine and even with a syringe. Elliot grabbed it and
injected a considerable dose to Rey. She then grabbed an oxygen mask and put it on Rey’s face.

“Now I’m going to remove the shrapnel off of her abdomen.” Elliot informed after disinfecting the
proper equipment for the procedure. She cut a section of fabric from Rey’s shirt then handed guy 2
the disinfectant. “Once I pull the shrapnel you pour this into the wound. Got it?” She instructed him
then he again nodded.

Carefully Elliot pulled the shrapnel with a tong with precision, slowly and surely until it was off. She
stared at the shrapnel for a moment before she disposed it to a bag. She’ll be needing that later. She
turned back to guy 2 but found this stricken on his spot, his hand slowly slipping from the
disinfectant. His eyes are looking at the bleeding wound, his face was ashen like paper. She
immediately grabbed the disinfectant off of him and did the job herself with a bit of difficulty.

“If you’re feeling queasy you can leave.” She stated and when she turned back around, he was
already leaving the doorway. Red hair girl went after him for some reason. Elliot sighed and called
out. “Can anyone please assist me?” Immediately the oldest woman among them stood from sitting
on the chair outside and went to her aid. “I can help.”

Elliot smiled at her in relief before they proceeded on stitching Rey’s wound shut. She let out a sigh
of relief when Rey’s breathing has finally become somewhat even and her body temperature
dropping into almost normal. She then cleaned Rey’s wound and removed the stained blood off of
her before leaving her with the kind older woman whose name was Venisha and went to an adjacent
rest room. She shut the door then stared at the person in front of the mirror.

Disheveled dirty blonde hair, tired dead green eyes and a pale face smudged with remnants of Rey’s
blood that had fell on her earlier. She’d saved her, she managed to whereas she can’t even do the
same thing to the others. She did everything she could but still they died. Why? It’s not fair. All of it
just for him but in the end it wasn’t enough. Nothing is enough. He died by her own bare hands.