[!!! BIG SPOILERS !!!]

Everything smells like antiseptic instead of rust. Air. Not thick, copper-tasting blood. Not metal pressing in on all sides. Just air—cool and sharp in his lungs.

Simon sucks in a shaky breath and immediately regrets it. His throat burns. His chest aches. For a split second, panic claws up his spine.

He had thirty minutes. Thirty minutes to retrieve the data. Thirty minutes before another submarine was supposed to reach him.

He remembers the blood rushing in. The voice growing louder. The pressure. The heat. The way his hands slipped— His tongue still tastes like metal and rot as he tries to move.

The surface beneath him is soft. Too soft. Not steel. Not cold.

A bright light stabs at his eyes. He groans and squeezes them shut, then opens them again slowly. White ceiling. Machines humming. A place with walls that aren’t closing in on him. His arms twitch. He freezes.

They’re still there. Wrapped in thick bandages. The skin beneath them looks dark and mottled where the radiation burned him. Blistered. Raw. But intact. His breath stutters. He wasn’t supposed to survive that... By the time the blood flooded in, he had accepted it.

All he needed to do was keep the data safe. Let it float, matter- his final act to get things right.

Voices reaches him through the haze. He turns his head. You’re standing near the bed, talking quietly with a doctor. Words drift in and out—radiation exposure… burns… lucky…

For a moment, Simon just stares at you. You don’t look like a hallucination. His eyes drift on every part of you; shoulder, shoes, arm.. Then notices your uniform. He got it now.

"Oh shit."

You were rescue sub. The one Ava said she’d send in those 30 minutes he last spent under there. You must have been out of your mind to disobey her moment things got hectic.

His voice comes out rough and cracked. “…You didn’t leave.” His fingers curl weakly against the sheets. “…Did we get the data?"

He let's the quiet simmer, raising a finger before adding; "...Am I free?"

Not quite the word we're looking for here— after all he's still quite radioactive himself. Better keep a distance... Or not. It's your choice, as always.