A TALE OF MANY TERRIBLE CITIES

She came to him in the night. She was beautiful as he remembered and Sirius would have given anything to touch her hair again. She was too far from him whenever he tried to get a hold of her. Top far.

He almost wept when he felt another presence in the room he was in with her. Another person could see his misery. They saw how much Sirius needed to touch her, for him to be alive again, but they didn't help.

The person only called his name. Over and over till Sirius shifted his focus to them. Whoever that was, they looked awfully like him. Had he gone mad then? He almost laughed at the thought of losing his mind.

"Sirius!"

Why was he yelling at himself?

"Brother."

Brother?

The figure came closer into view and shook Sirius from his dreams. It was Darius looking over him from the side of the bed. He seemed ridiculously concerned.

"You're awake oh my,"he said.

Sirius stared beyond him at the walls trying to recollect what had happened to him. The events came to him in flashes. On his patroller rigjt before he descended into the alley. The alley full of gang members and the Boy!

The freaking boy who exploded right before his eyes. Fucking twat!

"You're starting to like hospitals aren't you? Four weeks has it been?" Darius continued.

"I think he just likes me'"

Sirius turned towards the raspy voice and smiled when he saw Dr. Molieux smiling back at him.

"Must be that then,"

Darius had his hands over his chest looking at them like some important git, Sirius found it a wee strange even for his own self-righteous brother.

"When will I be out and about?" Sirius asked.

"I'd like to know that too," Darius said.

Molineux looked down at her system.

"Probably a day. You somehow survived that blast and even better only got a broken arm. Which has healed in three days," she said.

Three days? It all felt like one long dream he'd woken from and here was Molineux saying he'd been asleep for three days. He stared at her as if she'd explain how it was possible for him to go that long asleep. She offered no explanations save for another gorgeous smile.

Darius cleared his throat.

"Right then, I'll excuse you lot for now," To Darius, "Dodie's still with me in the office. Sarah wiill be over to pick her once you're done here."

With that she left the two men in. An awkward silence. Sirius was surprised that Darius didn't insist on getting little Dorothy before doing anything else.

"There'll be a court case brother. The boy who exploded didn't die, in fact he's very much in good shape. You're expected to stand as a witness."

"What's he being charged for?"

"Three counts of murder and destruction of property," Darius said.

Sirius wasn't sure what to make of it. His memory still wasn't that clear about how things had gone.

"Well from the much I remember which is very wee, the boy was being attacked. He's a machine thing ain't he?"

Darius nodded. He pulled something from his system using his free finger and fowarded it to Sirius'.

An image of the boy, he assumed, came into view. He was remarkable to say the least. At least 17 he was but more frail than usual with differently looking eyes. The right green and the left purple.

From his face, one could already tell the boy was a machine thing but it was his arms that told. They were fully metallic, but the metal.

It wasn't like anything Sirius had ever seen. He adjusted his settings just to make sure what he saw was real.

"What am I looking at?" He asked.

"That's the thing mate, I don't know and I don't think anyone in the city does."