Cory's POV

I gasped in my first breath of air, choking.

It burned in my throat, rasping in my windpipe with a hollow clunking sound. I coughed, grasping my neck with both hands. I tried to sit up, but was pushed back down by two strong arms. I couldn't hear anything. It was all muffled by a soft ringing in my ears.

My vision cleared a tiny bit, and I saw the stone ceiling of a cave high above me. Rippling light reflected on the walls, making beautiful, aqua blue patterns shine in my eye.

I blinked. Something else came into focus above me. A face.

It was glowing blue and black in the dim light. It was a familiar face, but I couldn't quite place it. Their mouth was moving, but I couldn't hear what they was saying. It was still just a blank fuzz. They stopped talking, and reached up to touch something in my left ear. I let him fiddle with it, not fighting against him. Then there was a small 'click'.

The fuzz gently faded to a slight throbbing, and I could hear water rushing somewhere nearby, as well as heavy, mechanical breathing. As I listened, I realized that it was my own. The person above me spoke again, and this time I could hear him.

"Hello Cory," he said, loudly. "Can you hear me now?"

I nodded in confusion. Who's Cory?

The boy above me sighed in relief. He looked elated, like he had just done something incredible. I opened my mouth, moving my jaw around as I got used to how it felt. The boy spoke again. "My name is Dawn. I want you to try to move your arm so I can grab it. I need to see if it worked."

Even though I was confused, I forced my arm up, looking at it. I hissed through my teeth in surprise. The bicep of my bare arm seemed normal enough, except for some thin stitches going down the length of it, up until my wrist. My hand was made of shiny silver metal and glowing red lines ran through it, pulsing with energy. I opened and closed my metal fist, testing it out.

It felt... strange. To say the least.

I looked up at Dawn, or whatever his name was, and extended my hand to him. Dawn grabbed my fist and squeezed it. I felt the smooth contours of his palm, marked with the same nuts and bolts that mine was. I felt like I should be confused by all this, but I just.... Couldn't remember what I was supposed to be confused about.

Dawn nodded in satisfaction and let go of my hand. He then reached behind my head and supported it, holding me upright, and helping me sit up. I obliged willingly. As the blanket fell off my body, I saw that I was wearing a thin, white tank top. The neckline was low, exposing my chest. A glowing, mechanical, red heart pulsing with light was embedded inside a cavity over my ribcage.

I looked up at Dawn, who I saw was wearing a black jacket with two neon blue spots on it, vertical to each other, and also had what looked like black headphones on. This was getting too confusing. My head was starting to swim from all the deja vu that I was feeling.

"What is this place? Who am I?" Rasped a voice that wasn't mine. I growled in discomfort. I could feel my lips moving, but the sound that emanated from my own throat was mechanical, harsh, unrecognizable.

Dawn looked at me in pity. "Oh, sorry about your voice. I promise I'll fix that later." He grabbed a rag and started wiping his metal hands, rubbing off the grime. "And this place?" He gestured to the cave walls around him, "This is my home. I found you here a couple days ago, and I decided to fix you up."

I reached up and felt the heart embedded in my chest. Then I looked back at my hands. "S-so... I was broken?" I stutted. I felt like a five year old asking my parent why the sky was blue. I hated this feeling. This... cluelessness.

Dawn nodded sadly, as if he had thought that this would happen. "You had a... fall," he said softly. "I put you back together."

(If any of you get that reference I'll be very happy! XD)

I suddenly got a massive urge to move around. I needed to get out of this bed, out of this cave, out of this entire place.

Pulling the blanket off my thin body, I noticed that my legs had the same vertical stitches in them as my arms, but my feet were the same as my hands. Shiny metal was attached to my ankles, molded into the rough shape of bare feet, just with no spaces for toes. The soles had tiny holes in them, which emitted a light heat.

Dawn bent down beside himself and picked up a pile of fabric, and placed it next to me.

It was a gray hoodie with a dark gray shirt, thicker than what I was wearing now. There were also a pair of casual black jeans and gray and white shoes.

"I thought you might want some of your old clothes, and some new stuff too," Dawn said. "It'll be a little more comfortable than what I gave you for... the operation." He trailed off at the end.

"Ok, thanks," I replied, realizing that it was going to be difficult to figure it out now.

I slipped the shirt and the hoodie on, covering my mechanical heart. I pulled the pants on, but Dawn picked the shoes back up before I could get them.

"I need test something," he said. "Can I help you stand up?"

"Sure," I rasped in my mechanical voice. I extended my metal hand out to him, and Dawn took it, firmly yanking me to my feet. My head swam, and I stumbled, leaning on his shoulder for support. My metal feet wobbled, and I could feel the heat coming out of the soles rising through my body.

"Ok," Dawn said. "Now focus all your will on standing up. Not anything else, just standing."

I gave him a look, but didn't question it.

I focused on straightening my legs, locking my ankles. Suddenly, a strange, obscure memory of doing the same thing, but in a field of green grass, with pale, bare feet. Not these cold, metal things that I had now. But as fast as it had came, the flash was gone, lost in the folds of time.

But the instant it did, something clicked in my ankles, and my entire body lifted off the ground, suspended in midair.

"WOAH!" I gasped in surprise and astonishment. Dawn clapped and whistled in praise as I flung out my arms for balance. Looking down, I saw a muted gray light shining out of the soles of my feet, hitting the ground and keeping me aloft.

Despite myself, I started grinning from ear to ear, excitement filling me like a tidal wave. Adrenaline rushed through my head, making me giddy.

Dawn was also ecstatic about this accomplishment, almost unable to contain himself. His clapping echoed throughout the cave, bouncing off the walls.

I lifted one foot higher than the other, testing out this ability. I wobbled in the air, and my heart dropped for a second, but I stayed up, and I kept going.

I leaned forward. The rockets on my feet propelled my body forward, directly at a wall. "WOAH!" I yelled in surprise, and windmilled my legs in the other direction, trying to slow myself down. I skidded to a stop, and breathed a sigh of relief. I turned around to look at Dawn. He was grinning from ear to ear.

He waved me back over. With a little less force, I flew back over to him, making a not-so-elegant stop at his feet, landing on my knees. I couldn't even feel the pain over my adrenaline rush.

"You have no idea how happy I am that that worked," Dawn said giddily. He offered a hand to me. I took it and stood up.

"That was so much fun!" I breathed happily. "Whoever I was before this, they probably didn't have flying powers like me!"

Dawn's face fell. He looked like someone had sucked all the air out of him. I looked down at his hands. And I gasped. They were just... gone. Like someone had taken a white out cue tip and erased them. As I watched, his arms disappeared as well, slowly going invisible.

Dawn looked down at his hands, or the space where they were, and sighed. "I'm sorry. That happens when I get nervous or stressed. I guess it's normal for me." He looked back up. "I'll tell you all I know about your past in due time, and I'll tell you what I know about mine, too. Hopefully it'll help you understand more."

I nodded, still slap happy from what I'd done.

"Good. But first...." Dawn bent down and picked something up from behind him. "You need to see something."

He held the object out to me. It was a mirror. I suddenly froze. I dreaded seeing my reflection, based on what had happened to the rest of my body.

With trembling hands, I took the mirror, and held it up to my face.

I gasped.

You all know what I saw.

(Cory breaking the fourth wall to help the progress of the story XD)

But it wasn't the massive camera lens that was embedded into my face, just above my top lip, that scared me.

It was the fact that as soon as I saw it, flashes started pouring into my head.

I saw a tunnel.

I saw this very cavern that we stood in right now.

I saw a black rock with a strange symbol on it.

I saw Dawn's face, high above me.

And I saw my reflection. The camera.

I looked at Dawn, broken from my trance. "I died, didn't I." I said blankly.

Dawn hesitated, then nodded sadly. "Yes Cory. Yes you did."

--------

Phew. Finally, that's done. I had SEVERE writer's block in this, and it took me forever to write.

I didn't want to take Cory's memory away, but apparently that's what happens when you die and get brought back to life, so yeah... I bent those rules a little bit, just so it's more interesting. ☺️

Next chapter is going to be EPIC!! I have a really good idea for it, but just so you know, by the time it takes place, Dawn has told Cory everything he knows. This won't make much sense now, but it will eventually...

If you haven't seen my profile thingy, I added something that... you know what? I'll just explain it again to save your time. I have made a little bit of a schedule for TFOOL, (The Fight of Our Lives) and WWCP (When We Cross Paths.) I am going to try to update these every Friday or Saturday. It depends if I have it done or not. Like I said, I'm a slow writer who writes long chapters... XD

Have a sweet tweet day!!