Neo couldn't hide the gut wrenching worry that coiled in his stomach as he paced in that lonely room of the hospital. When he had awoken from his unexpected nap, he nearly had a heart attack when Jacquelyn wasn't with him.

Calm down Neo, she can handle herself, a little voice whispered in his ear.

He knew that somewhere deep down, he should have trusted the voice. His body however, thought otherwise. His brain was reenacting a civil war against itself which left him feeling useless.

"How long has it been since I actually slept?" Neo asked to no one in particular. He finally collapsed back into his chair and held his head between his hands. He was, in all sense of the word: a wreck. He eventually found himself dozing off despite the head splitting headache that had never left him since the attack.

The door opened with a soft click and with a voice so soft he felt he could truly melt as the worry fled from his body. Within seconds he was up from his chair and across the room and had the woman he needed in his arms.

At least... so he thought.

"Um... Sir?"

Startled he looked down to see a small Vaulkarian woman instead of Jacquelyn. His heart sank.

"I'm sorry... I was sent to tell you that visiting hours is almost over." The small woman, her name tag reading Annabelle, bowed an apology before quickly leaving the room.

Neo was left feeling empty and unsure of himself. His body was beginning to shake from the exhaustion and to top everything off, the worry that had left him so long ago had wrapped it's heavy arms around him again. He felt hot tears running down his cheeks and laughed at himself. He must have been going insane. This was the end of the cool collected Neo Adranni. All that was left was a raving lunatic who wandered around aimlessly until exhaustion overcame him.

"Are you scared of death yet Neo?" A voice down the hall echoed into his mind.

Neo felt his heart stop as he looked around trying to find the source.

Where did everyone go?

All around him, where the once were people, only shadows and empty rooms remained.

"Neo?"

He spun around to see her of all people walking towards him.

"I knew you would come back!" She cried, her face blooming with a smile that reached her cyan eyes. Before she could reach him however she suddenly stopped, her face once happy turning confused and into one of pain. "Why did you leave me..? I thought we were supposed to be together... Did I do something wrong?"

"Yuri I," he reached out for her but just then a scream sounded out from behind him. Distracted by the noise he turned to see an empty hospital bed tipped over. When he went to face his past again she was already gone.

"That's right Neo. She is gone. Didn't you know that? Or were you too fed up with yourself to notice her pain?"

Neo glared at a dark figure that seemed to be taunting him from down the hallway.

"Shut up!" He screamed. "You don't know anything!"

"Don't I?"

The shadowy figure retreated into a door, a light flickered on inside the room and proceeded to grow dimmer.

"Come back here!" Neo exclaimed running after it. He pushed the door open only to fall down into a puddle of mud. "What the fuck?"

He instantly heard the sounds of crying from a woman he had never seen before. He looked up to see people all around him wearing black.

A funeral?

He pushed up off the ground, ignoring how the rain felt colder than ice and how it ran down his back. He looked behind him to see the hospital gone, the door from where he ran through now nothing more than a tombstone, the name was blurry and too faded away for him to read.

"Neo?"

Feeling dizzy, he turned around once more to see only the people in black leaving and returning to their cars. In front of him stood Yuri. Just like how he remembered her from when he last saw her. She wore her black hair down, letting it curl around her face and drape over her shoulder. Her skin was pale under the cloudy sky, strangely enough however she was dry. She wore a silky white day dress that flowed down to just above her ankles, her feet were bare and looked cold. He looked at her strangely. A burning sensation was beginning to throb at the base of his skull.

"Neo?" she called again.

He only stared, unsure of what to say.

"Neo...." she gave him a curious look as the throb began to worsen. His body began to shiver under the icy rain drops. Where was Jacquelyn?

"Why are you standing on me?" She suddenly asked, her head tilted to the side with a look that sent shivers down his spine.

"What?"

"It hurts Neo... Please get off of me... You're so heavy. Get off of me... Why are you standing on me?"

He looked down to see freshly piled dirt, worms wiggling their way to run from the water that flooded their homes. He tried to look back up to Yuri who had been there a few moments before when that same voice called to him again.

"Are you afraid of dying yet, Neo?"

This time, the voice came from within the tombstone. Where the words were once faded and blurred, now in freshly carved words read:

Jacquelyn Adranni

"Neo! Neo! Wake up damn it!" a voice called from above him. He was within a black sea, his only light the soft rays of yellow flooding in from above. The voice called again and he felt a slight sting on his chest and face. Jacquelyn?

He forced himself to swim up, to reach the surface of the suffocating bog bellow. His body felt like lead, his limbs screamed at him to not move but he endured it and continued. The closer he got the louder the voice became. Below him he could swear he heard the whispers of his nightmare which only encouraged him to go further. Then finally..

"Neo I swear to god if you don't wake up I'll-"

What were once a pair of strong arms, now weak ones wrapped around Jacquelyn's torso. They shook with the rest of his body, his long sleeve shirt drenched with sweat.

"Don't go..." His coarse voice called. Jacquelyn felt her heart shatter and as she tried to pick up the pieces, he broke it more by holding her just that much tighter despite his condition.

"I'm sorry," she whispered as she held him.

When she arrived, a couple of nurses who had recognized her rushed over to her, their fear of her temporally forgotten. They talked frantically like frightened squirrels all the while they pushed her into the hospital room that they had hurriedly prepared for Neo after he had collapsed in the hallway. She later then kicked them all out and had been caring for him ever since.

"Where did you go?" He mumbled into her side.

"I was out... " she quickly thought of an excuse. "I left some clothes on our ship, I went to get them."

He only nodded and drifted off into another sleep.

Jacquelyn sighed and instead of hurting herself by staring at his breaking figure, she turned her attention to the window and watched the sky for the rest of the night.

"You need to take it easy today..." Jacquelyn warned a yawning Neo. It was all playfully however. After last night his mother and his sister had awoken from their sudden coma like state. After have hearing the good news, it was as if a switch had been flipped and the old Neo was back. It was a strong attempt that Jacquelyn was gracious enough to let slide, but nothing could hide the dark circles darkened the lower lids of his eyes.

"I need to," he pushed her over and crawled on top of her. "Make up for lost time."

"No," Jacquelyn laughed, "you need to take it easy today. Please?"

He pouted.

"For me?" She added with a small pout of her own.

With a heavy sigh he nodded. "As you wish.."

He rolled off of her and laid beside her. They had left the hospital and were taking some time out in a nearby park. She curled up beside him and played with his hair.

"I'm sorry about these last few days mir Jacquelyn.." He whispered, running his hand through her hair and down her shoulder.

Jacquelyn smiled sadly to herself as he pet her. It was these moments that seemed to become more rare with each passing day. She thought of their time on the ship when it was just them and suddenly felt melancholy cloud over her.

"I won't be so weak again," he said, his voice stronger than it had been.

She propped herself onto her elbows so she could look at him, the sudden fire burning in his eyes something she had least expected to see.

"Jacquelyn," he started, he took a deep breath and cast his fiery eyes down to hers. "I'm done running from my past. I have responsibilities here that I've neglected for too long. I'm going to take my place after my father."

Understanding overcame her and she smiled at him. "Does this mean I should call you, your majesty?"

He scoffed and allowed himself a moment to laugh before he shook his head. Suddenly the air was serious and he found himself struggling to form his next sentence.

"It might mean you could call me something else," he whispered, no longer having the strength to, he cast his gaze to the sky before closing them. "Only if you wanted."

"What?" Jacquelyn felt her chest flutter and unknowingly her breath quickened.

"I-"

Suddenly a loud shout cut him off.

"Yo Neo! I haven't seen you in forever man!"

Both of the Vaulkarians turned to the sudden man who sauntered over. He was a common looking man, for a Vaulkarian. He was still completely gorgeous, but compared to the man beneath Jacquelyn she hardly saw anything worth staring at. She could say she did at least feel something. Anger. Annoyed. Slightly pissed. Either one would work.

"Eric?" Neo called out curiously, almost as if he couldn't believe the man in front of him was real.

"It is you! Here I thought I stumbled across some different womanizing man whore." Eric stopped in front of them and gave them a cocky grin that seemed to only crawl under Jacquelyn's skin.

"He's not a man whore," Jacquelyn hissed. Something about the guy seemed to only make her feel more livid.

"Uh huh..." He hummed slowly, almost as if mocking her.

Oh Gods please, give me just one reason to kill him? If not kill, then seriously injure.

"How are you Eric?" Neo asked suddenly, sitting up and placing himself between Jacquelyn and the-Eric-who-was-about-to-get-his-ass-kicked, almost as if he could sense the sudden behavior change in her.

"I've been good, I'd like to talk about you more though, if that's alright?" Eric asked, offering a hand out to Neo.

Neo, much to Jacquelyn's surprise, took it and used to pull himself to his feet. Stubbornly, Jacquelyn followed suit only so she could keep her eye on the guy she found shady.

"This isn't a good time..." Neo tried.

"Oh come on man, you left me and my sister here. The least you can do is come hang out," Eric pouted. Jacquelyn felt grossed out and silently prayed Neo would just turn him down.

"Jacquelyn?" Neo asked her for permission instead making Jacquelyn curse the Gods.

She never got a chance to reply when Eric butted in. "So you'll only come if she allows it?" Eric asked. Neo only gave a shrug which only pissed her off more. Who the fuck is this guy?

"Hey, Jacquelyn right?" Eric grabbed her and pulled her aside. "I haven't seen Neo in forever and my sister hasn't either in a really long time. Could I steal him away for a bit?"

She was about to cuss him out and tell him to fuck off when her via-comm buzzed. She stole a quick glance to recognize the coded number and sighed.

She bit her tongue and swallowed what was left of her pride.

"Yeah..." She stole a glance from Neo who had been watching her curiously. "I actually have somewhere I need to go right now. So you two go ahead and have ...fun?"

"Great!" Eric exclaimed with joy and pushed Jacquelyn out of his way and made it to Neo's side.

"Jacquelyn," Neo called out, making her turn to look at him one last time. "Are you okay with this?"

She gave him the best smile she could muster at the moment and nodded. "You go on. I'll see you at home."

He nodded and watched as she turned and walked away. He found it hard to swallow after she disappeared, images of his dream flashed in his mind.

"Hey, Neo. You coming, man?" Eric's voice shattered through his thoughts which relieved him for a short while.

"Yeah. I'm coming," Neo stole one last glance towards the direction where Jacquelyn had run off to. I'll have to ask her what she's hiding when I see her again. Neo then turned and followed his old time friend Eric and wondered how he'd feel once this was over.