A/N: So if you didn't figure it out from the title this has some major spoilers for chapter 6. If you don't want to be spoiled then don't read! That's the only warning I'm going to give you guys. Oh, and this is also my take on what should've happened during this chapter. Would love hear comments from y'all on what you guys think. If you were an Arknights writer, how would this chapter have gone?

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Everything was happening so fast.

So how strange was it that the world felt so cold?

Ice shards glittered over almost every surface. Doctor Y/N would've been worried about the structural integrity of this place if he didn't have many more pressing concerns. The struggle that had happened here was so brutal, so powerful there had almost been no coming back from it.

And it chilled him to think about this could've been a very different story, with a very different victor had things been just slightly off, had they not been able to hold out the way they had. Even Blaze was running out of steam. She'd been unable to access her heat to the level he'd hoped. It had left them all scrambling for a solution. And when Amiya's magic could not assist them with its defiant energy and GreyThroat's arrows were cracked brittle under the subzero temperatures it had become clear that holding on was truly the only option.

Hold on until FrostNova had nothing left to give.

And so they had.

The fight was over now. The misty clouds from all the ice beginning to settle. If he squinted hard enough it might've been possible to see trickling water droplets going down the icicles. But his eyes were on the person he carefully cradled in his lap, the source of all of this.

FrostNova.

With blurred vision of his y/e/c eyes he regarded her, his bare fingers digging into the small of her back. It had taken holding her to figure out how slim she was, bone so protruding to the point where it was near sickly. Her skin was ghastly, those eyes that once burned with hate during their fight had lost their lively ember. In the end, the happiness, the acceptance that all her pain would be brought to an end had washed over her in those final moments.

And that was where it should've ended.

But of course it had not.

She made sure of this, their touching skin on skin something FrostNova was unable to do with her arts. Unable to do for a long period, where even her adoptive Father Patriot only cradled her once as a child. His memories were mostly a blank canvas still, little fragments here and there tying to rise up and fill the gaps of space where there was nothing. He figured that if he could get closer to Kal'tsit and the senior operators (people who knew him from before) they may be forthcoming with some of those details his mind was unable to conjure. So he endeavored to gain their trust, to some success, though a part of him was coming more and more to accept the possibility Kal'tsit may never trust him.

And why did this sadden him?

Though, it didn't as much as FrostNova's dying words and last breath, a small tendril of warmth on his stinging cheeks. He never thought he would cry over a Reunion commander, but that's exactly what he had done.

Because this, this death had not been necessary.

How many more people would have to die for Rhodes Island's goals to become reality? He was sick at those imaginations.

There had been far too many deaths lately.

"Dokutah, are you--"

"Amiya, let him be." The quietness of GreyThroat went nearly unheard.

"But he, we need to get out of here." Amiya explained. The sympathy in her tone knew no bounds, clearly trying to hold onto the will to keep business and safety at the forefront. There really was no telling when this place might come down. The LGD would probably be displeased at all the damage, but at the moment he did not give a crap about politics, and who could blame him?

FrostNova . . . he thought they would finally save someone. This was wrong, so wrong.

"That we do. So you two leave, I'll stay here with Y/N and the bunny." Blaze responded firmly. The fiery cat shared a gentle glance with GreyThroat, words being conveyed without being said at all. The newfound closeness between them was just one of the many things that had happened during all this fighting.

And then there were those footfalls as the duo left. GreyThroat kept an arm around Amiya, sharing in warmth as they exited together. Even with the lack of arts being used it would be awhile before a place so frozen would go back to room temperature once more. Boots crunched as ice shards cracked, the loneliness swept the room when they were finally gone. His breath came out in a puff of fog. The once frozen face of his was now warm.

He lifted her head just a little. His eyes watched the way it lolled to the side, right into his chest. She had been hurting for a long time, he was sure of this much when they were trapped together in that darkened space back in Chernobog, and now right before the fight. She had been holding in pain for so long. It was likely a constant companion of hers for years, yet she kept living in spite of this suffering.

When she finally had the chance to get help FrostNova was yanked from the world by force.

She deserved better.

"Why did this happen?" He asked bleakly, to no one in particular.

A silent pause, a gentle rustle. The opening to this underground passage was letting in a gentle wind. Out of the corner of his eye a shadow approached. Blaze.

"That's something I ask myself daily." She admitted. There was none of the usual amusement to her tone, just a saddened acknowledgement of reality. "Don't blame yourself for it Doctor. There's nothing you could've done."

Reality . . . Did this really have to be reality?

No.

He refused.

There was something he'd been holding onto. It rested right above his rib cage, pulsing with a low beat. If there was one thing he did know from right before he lost his memory, it was that he had been in Chernobog for a reason. He had been looking for a cure.

And that was likely the reason why Kal'tsit agreed to rescue him in the end. Sure, there was the loyalty from Amiya and Ace, but the relationship he had with the other Doctor was pointedly clear: there was no love lost between them. His death wouldn't have hurt her conscious, nor would it have kept her up at night.

But a chance at a cure was another story.

A cure for the very same thing that killed her.

He hadn't spoken a word of this to anyone, kept this small vial a secret to everyone. Some little voice told him to keep quiet. Y/N couldn't say why, or where this voice came from or who it sounded like, yet he trusted it above all else. It came to him when he needed it most, and this voice guided him during the toughest of battles.

So when his free hand traveled up to the vial on his necklace, knowing the light on it was turning a brilliant blue, as it always had when he touched it. She was still lifeless in his arms, but hopefully not for long.

"This will work. It has to work."

Just as someone had helped him he would help her, guide her back to life before it really was too late. Unscrewing the lid, the small pop sound was white noise to his ears. Fingertips were stiff as he clenched the small thing. Several samples had been taken from this, but surely there was still enough, this would work.

"Doctor what are you doing?" She asked.

Blaze's heat reached him before her voice did. Her presence relaxed the building tension in his shoulders. His breath stuttered out of his lungs, the hood over his head wasn't casting its shadow. It was nice to push it off once in a while. Y/N barely paid her a second glance, too busy eyeing the precious vial. It had been with him since he woke up with amnesia. This vial was the epitome of his research in a past life he barely remembered.

"I've had this since I woke up in Chernobog."

"Without your memory?" Blaze hedged.

He was silent for a moment. "Yes. And I knew I would need to use this someday but . . ."

"You didn't know when." She finished for him. At his brisk nod she continued. "What are you going to use it for? What's it do?"

How to put this to words? Without his memories, Y/N was unable to explain all the ins and outs of it. Terminology evaded him like a sheep running from a wolf. The chase continued on stubbornly with no signs of success.

"I . . . If I'm right about this, well, it might just save her." He murmured. Y/N sat with FrostNova in his lap now, her head pressed up against his chest. Even in a state of recent death she was still warmer than she had been alive. And how messed up was that? Her lips weren't blue at all, the signs of death evading her. Why? Probably because her arts made her different, which meant she still had a shot.

A shot at survival.

"Save her. But Doctor, she's, she's dead." There was an apology in Blaze's tone, regret at having to burst his apparently hopeful bubble. But she was no scientist or doctor, so he understood her confusion.

Not for long.

Not if this works.

Please let this work.

"Yes, but death doesn't mean the end. And for someone with arts like her . . ." Death might not have truly come yet. Because if that were the case all signs of her brain activity would have stopped in full, and blood stopped its flow completely.

Her warmth was a sign this had yet to occur.

The very thing that brought her to death's door was ironically the thing still giving her a prolonged chance at life. The paradox of it was strange, yet he was going to take this chance while he still had it.

Blaze's gaze narrowed as understanding settled in. The heat in her sweaty palms hovered midair, like she too was trying to will this hope for life into FrostNova. He appreciated the sentiment.

"If that's what you think then do it. After everything I trust you to make the right decision."

"Thank you Blaze. Means a lot." Y/N told her sincerely.

With renewed confidence he brought the vial to FrostNova's slightly parted lips. He made sure to keep her sat up, propping her with one arm. There was a brief flicker of reality that this was him holding up a corpse —that this was wrong— but he pushed it down. Surely this had to work. He had to believe this would happen.

Drip.

Drop.

A few drops spilled at first, but upon the insistence of the tilt of his hand the rest streamed in like a small river. The blue liquid glowed even more upon contact with the rabbit woman's lips, disappearing into the abyss of her throat. Blaze watched the scene with rapt attention, holding the same bated breath he knew was caged inside his lungs. When all the liquid was gone nothing was said in those silent seconds. No breaths were uttered as they waited,

And waited,

And waited.

And then . . .

Light pulsed beneath pale skin, an ethereal blue glow matching arts that were a distant memory in his mind, or the color of the many rings Amiya wore. Seeing as he'd never seen someone come back to life before —that he knew of— there was nothing to relate this experience to. Time seemed to slow down as the body in his arms convulsed, almost as though it was in the grips of a terrible seizure. He held tightly onto her, hoping this was truly happening.

And then the shards growing from her skin, as was the case with all infected, diminished a substantial amount, diminishing until they were no longer visible at all. It was a dumbfounding thing to watch. Between one moment and the next those black shards were gone in their entirety. It was a moment doctors at Rhodes Island had been wanting to see, the defeat of Oripathy in bold statement of triumph.

But even that moment didn't compare to the joy he got when those eyes, the same ones that fluttered shut to grip him in the worst despair he'd known, fluttered open once more. Alive again, FrostNova blinked tiredly, like she was coming out of a dream and not waking up from her eternal slumber of death.

"I . . . I'm not dead? How can this . . ." FrostNova trailed off, meeting his gaze.

Blaze was torn between being tense and happy, the chainsaw she wielded beginning to groan in preparation for a battle that could come. Just in case hung in her movements, in the harsh grip on his hunched shoulder. Y/N ignored this, letting a laugh bubble from his lips.

"Glad to see you're back. Allow me to officially welcome you to Rhodes Island, FrostNova."

Maybe there was hope for the world after all.

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A/N: So I thought FrostNova dying was pretty ridiculous. Like, Arknights could really have some interesting villain redemption arcs (seeing as a lot of the villains are better developed then most of the Rhodes Island operators because their lore is gone into more . . . Take the hint developers👀) if they actually put in the time and effort to do them. And, I feel like it would make sense that Doctor would have some sort of connection to the eventual cure to Oripathy (though in my mind this cure wouldn't take away a characters arts abilities just remove the disease attached to them, I.e. FrostNova wouldn't be constantly freezing anymore). Like I said earlier, I'd love to hear what y'all think and if you would like to see more of living!FrostNova post chapter 6. Now that chapter 7 is on the way I couldn't be more stoked cause it'll help me with the timeline for the other Arknights book I'm currently writing (which you should totally check out if you haven't yet). I'm always open to suggestions for who to write next! See y'all next time!