Chapter Text
He heard it before he felt it. That sick, wet thunk, followed swiftly by the scraping of bone. The grunt that escaped his lips as the knife lodged itself deep into his chest, puncturing his lung. Volt and Eddie's voices are somewhere far away, screaming “Live Wire!” With a level of distress that Valen had never heard from the two men. He falls to his knees, vision blurred, listening to the screams of the audience and the shocked horror of Amir as he rushes to his side. The mirror would never have hurt him purposefully, Valen knows, and can only muster a weak smile at the guilt and horror-stricken man as he apologizes over and over again, being pushed aside by Eddie as the Breaker Box Boys come tumbling over.
It's long delayed, likely from the shock of the moment, but now Valen feels it. The blood, seeping through his shirt- the pain, oh god the pain. He can't breathe right, a gurgling wheeze being punched out of him with each agonizing breath. Valen can hear his boys talking, frantic, and feels himself being lifted. He thinks, for a moment, that he hears Skylar's voice too, but he can't understand what any of them are saying. He's dizzy, he's hurting, he tastes iron on his tongue.
He's dying.
The knife is lodged quite firmly in his chest, and he feels every minute movement as he's taken from one location to another. He hears more voices, more frantic worrying from the other objects in the home. Valen isn't sure if they've left the Breaker Box; he just knows that he's beginning to feel awfully cold. A soft whine escapes him, and a cough that leaves blood behind on his paling lips. A soft, gentle touch to his face, a worried whisper in his ear. His head is sat on someone's lap, he realizes, a hand running through his hair.
Someone else begins to talk, and Valen recognizes it as Farya's voice. She's touching him, examining the site of the wound as carefully as she can. It doesn't stop him from whimpering and whining in pain with every touch. Even the soothing touches from those he assumes to be his boys do nothing to ease the ache. He opens his eyes with great effort, not even realizing he'd had them closed to begin with. He takes stock of the situation as best he can with his blurry sight.
Farya, tending to the wound, trying to stop blood loss. She's close enough he can make out her concerned, focused expression. As excited as she always is about injury and illness, it's clear in the time he's taken to befriend her that she doesn't feel so excited about him being hurt, possibly dying (Definitely, he certainly feels like he's dying), bleeding out as they speak. Eddie is holding his hand firmly, face drawn tight and pale. Volt above him looks much the same; he's the one running his hand through Valen's hair and holding his head in the man's lap.
A long moment passes, and his vision slowly fades. He sees Skylar pacing, sees Amir off to the side, and hears Phoenicia talking somewhere he can't see. Before he can do much more examining of the situation in his pained delirium, he loses consciousness, everything going black and deathly quiet. It's... almost nice, the silence, the darkness. It feels like Skips could show up at any moment, and he wonders how he'll react when he learns the news. How could Skylar possibly explain this to him, to any of the objects in the house?
Amir would be blamed, and he doesn't want that. The man is skilled; there was no reason to believe he couldn't do this without hurting anyone. Valen didn't blame him, and if he could, he'd tell the mirror he forgives him. But... he can't, because he's dead. At least, he feels dead. The pain is gone, everything is quiet, it's dark... It's a bit lonely, really. He hopes this isn't all there is, just endless floating darkness and silence, forever.
There are still so many things he wanted to say, to do. He was planning on realizing people soon; he had the S.P.E.C.S for it. He was going to start with Eddie and Volt, offer them their freedom as a gesture of his love. Now he'll never get the chance, and the objects in this house will be stuck like this. Skylar will likely be found and taken- God, he doesn't even want to imagine what might happen to her if she ends up in Valdivian and the Department of Overseas Violence's hands again.
Valen's depressing train of thought is halted by a sudden flash of light above him. There and gone, just a flash of white that he almost thinks he imagined. But then it happens again, and again. Then, the black void he's floating in turns white all at once, blinding him and making him gasp in shock. He feels electricity running through his body, feels the burn of it in his chest.
He opens his mouth and screams.
Suddenly, he jolts awake, in his own bed, Dateviators on and at full charge (The hearts are... yellow, instead of red?). His... everything aches, chest especially, and he grunts as he tries to sit up. “Don't overdo it, mate.” He hears Dorian chide, the man rushing up to his side to lay him back down. “You gave us all a right scare, you did. I didn't see what happened, but Farya says it was an awful sight. She fixed you up right, though.”
He reaches up with a shaky hand to touch his own chest, feeling the bandages wrapped across it. “Good thing she'd passed her test and has been training for the past few weeks, yeah? We were all worried for a minute you wouldn't wake back up.” Dorian shifts to stand straight-backed, hands clasped in front of him. “Phoenicia tried calling 9-1-1, but they couldn't exactly hear any of us, and you couldn't talk, so the dispatcher thought it was a prank call and hung up. Really didn't help the tension of things, I hear. I'm glad you're awake, though, you have people who wanted to see you when you opened your eyes.”
“S-Send them in, then- Not too many, I-I'm not sure I can handle a crowd, y'know?” Valen's voice is foreign to his own ears, weak and fragile and raspy. He continues to rub his bandaged chest as he lies there, aching and sore. How long has he been unconscious, he wonders? He should have asked Dorian when he had the chance. His thoughts are interrupted by the sound of Volt's voice, pitched and worried. “Live wire, thank Amp you're alright!” and Eddie quick behind, chiding him. “Keep your voice down, our spark just woke up, don't be yelling in his ear.”