The Dawn of the New World

The Glaive fell on the now muddy ground, its blade still half embedded in the sorcerer's chest.

The sorcerer's halo flickered a few times and finally went out, signaling the end of the fight.

Hao Xuan's chest heaved up and down as fatigue from the battle and the preceding chase that lasted for more than sixty kilometers finally took over.

The nanomachines had stopped functioning several minutes ago so he was completely on his own since then.

All of these combined, the toll on his body was immense, much more than what initially he expected. His arms and legs felt like they were made of lead. His body was covered in small and large wounds and the blood loss was making him light-headed.

He took a few seconds to catch his breath before recalling the glaive to his meridian.

"Haha...I'm gonna feel this tomorrow," he chuckled looking up at the moon but the response he was waiting for didn't come.

Hao Xuan turned around with some effort and saw Ceni laying a few meters behind him.

"Oi Princess, don't go falling asleep here," he spoke a little louder this time but she didn't react at all.

"Damnit," he cursed under his breath and stood up. Every single muscle in his body was screaming for help.

Slowly limping over to Ceni he tapped her on the shoulder, not getting a response. Again, with a little more strength this time but the result was the same.

"Did she pass out?"

He placed two fingers on her neck and checked her pulse, barely feeling anything.

"Baracus run a scan on her now!" he ordered immediately.

*Beep*

Baracus activated with his iconic signal tone and gave instructions.

"Place your hand on the target's heart."

Hao Xuan looked towards the passed out princess and where her 'heart' would be, awkwardly pulling his arm back.

"Does it...HAVE to be her heart?" he asked hesitantly.

"Is there a problem?" Baracus inquired, a little confused.

Hao Xuan nodded, "Well...yeah. I can't just grope her like that, it feels like I'm taking adv-"

But Baracus cut him off mid-sentence to clarify further, "On the females back. That would be enough for a reading."

"Oh...good....good"

Hao Xuan didn't say anything else and did as instructed. The bottom of his palm lit up with blue lights as he gently placed it on her back.

Baracus only needed a few seconds to run several full-body scans.

"Extremely low blood pressure, heart rate is 50 BPM and falling. Almost zero nutrients in her bloodstream. Cardiac arrest and brain death imminent within 180 seconds," he relayed all the important information to Hao Xuan in the vernacular so he could easily follow.

"WHAT?!" Hao Xuan shouted out of shock. He just thought she passed out from exhaustion, not that she was teetering on death's doorstep.

He panicked, thinking of any medications he still had left.

"Baracus, what do I have in storage?"

"Nothing that would help her," Baracus gave him the bad news already aware of his intentions.

"Fuck," Hao Xuan cursed in his usual manner.

"Why did you push yourself so hard, idiot," he said looking at her pale complexion. It looked like someone had painted her face white.

Ceni's jaw was clamping down with such force that it looked like her teeth were about to break off. Her face ashen and drawn in a look of pain. She had obviously been suffering a lot on her own without saying a word out loud so as not to distract Hao Xuan during the fight.

"Stupid woman," Hao Xuan mumbled and reached out to wipe the sweat of her forehead.

There was nothing else he could do for her right now and his heart ached thinking of it.

But as soon as they made contact, a sudden jolt of electricity ran up his arm and towards his left chest.

*Badump*Badump*

He felt two heartbeats in his own heart. It actually felt like there was something else there.

And Ceni who was unresponsive until now suddenly trembled.

*Beep*

"Blood pressure rising!" a written notification popped in front of Hao Xuan's eyes.

Several other numbers and graphs popped up, each giving real-time information about each of her vitals.

"How..." Hao Xuan mumbled in a daze. He could feel every single thing about her body like it was his own. It gave off such a familiar feeling that one would think they were twins.

Hao Xuan's heartrate synchronized with Ceni's, slowly bringing it back up. He could feel a stream of thick energy going through his body towards her, but he didn't know where it was coming from.

Just a couple of minutes later color returned to her now rosy cheeks. Her eyelids fluttered and slowly lifted.

****

Authors Notes:

Just moved houses today and finally have some privacy.

Expect an increase in the frequency and length of daily chapters from this week onward and soon even "privileged" chapters if everything works out well.

Have a good day ya'll and even though it is a Monday, try to have fun!