The world around Nathan was fading.
The hospital room smelled faintly of antiseptic, the steady beep… beep… beep of the monitor dragging him through each laboured breath. His body felt like it was made of lead, bones fragile, lungs struggling to draw in even the thinnest wisp of air.
Seventeen years old, and already at the end.
On the nightstand, his phone screen glowed faintly. He'd forced himself to hold out for this, just this one thing.
On it played the final episode of Once Upon a Time.
Snow White and Prince Charming reunited with their family. Emma embracing Henry. Regina finally finding her redemption. The stories he had clung to during endless hospital nights… ending at last.
A smile tugged weakly at Nathan's lips.
"Heh… I actually made it to the end…"
But the smile wavered, bitter creeping in with the joy. All those characters had adventures—loves lost and found, battles fought, destinies rewritten. And what did he have? White walls. Medicine. Loneliness.
"…If only… if only I could've had a life like that. To live. To fight. To protect the people I cared about…"
The whisper was faint, almost lost to the hiss of the oxygen.
Without realising he start thinking about the people in his life...or better to say, lack of.
No family or friends come to visit any more, its been years since the last visit. No matter how much he try's to contact his parents or siblings, they either don't answer the phone or tell him they are busy and will come later. Which never happens.
It doesn't help that he see them on social media on holidays together, going out to anything or even just at home enjoying their time together. It hurts knowing they are smiling in pictures, posting about their accomplishments, when they post something sad or hurt they get the comfort, support and love.
Where's his love when he's scared to die alone, his comfort to soothe him when he's at his lowest and support to help him through this.
Nowhere, they don't mention him, don't see him, just acting like he doesn't exist.
Don't even talk about friends they distanced themselves faster then his family. A couple of visits at first after that less frequent, last time was 7 years ago.
They're all just leaving him here to slowly die, at least the nurses or doctors stay for awhile to check up on him before being called away or going about there business.
It's not like he haven't tried to ask for them to stay longer to talk or listen, it just seems that they don't care and just do the minimum for there job.
Luckily he keep his self occupied with tv shows and novels, not like there anything else to do but it's the best and the worse for him anyway.
With shows they take me away to there worlds, fighting monsters, being the hero, getting the girl and away from this suffering, antagonising body.
Same for novels but even better as I can visualise the scenes plus imagining myself as the protagonist taking me far away making me forget what happening around me. I feel free, that I can do anything.
...Sadly after I'm done with the novel or show I snap back, in the hospital, in pain waiting for all this to end.
Nathan eyes stayed on the credits as the show finishes, the pain starts to come back like it wants his attention back on it, letting him know its the only constant in his life.
And then...
[Finally found you]
[Scanning host's body]
[Scan complete. Status: Terminal, host is on his last breath]
[Utilizing 50% remaining power to secure soul]
[Getting ready for transfer ..1%....5%.....10%....]
A voice not of this world rumbled in his head, mechanical yet divine, like the turning of celestial gears.
His eyes fluttered open in shock. "Wh-what? This...can't be happening."
[85%...90%....99%...]
[Ding 100% compl@&^%$]
[Error..Error....]
[Something is rejecting the transfer]
[Using everything to transfer host safely]
[Transfer Initiated Immediately.....Soul Protected]
Warm light wrapped around him, dissolving the pain, the weakness, the broken body. For the first time in years, Nathan felt free. The monitor flatlined, the beeping ended and his world went dark.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
When he opened his eyes again, he was lying on the ground looking straight up at the vast expanse of the bright blue sky with the sun shining down on him, feeling its warmth that he hasn't felt in such a long time.
No ceiling tiles, no hospital machines. Just a gentle breeze, bright skies and the distant chatter of voices and cars somewhere close by.
"…I… I'm alive?"
He sat up slowly, his hands small, delicate looking nothing like before. Not the frail hands of a dying teenager. These were the hands of a small child.
Standing up with wobbly legs, using a wall to balance himself trying to get used to standing, looked around to find something to his reflection. Finding a murky window in a alley way he stumbles towards the nearby window, Nathan froze.
The reflection staring back at him wasn't the boy he remembered but for some reason felt right.
Short, platinum hair, strands catching the sunlight like silver fire. Thin streaks of crimson red wove through the locks, vivid, like embers smouldering at the edges of snow. And his eyes....
Golden, bright and radiant, yet lined with mysterious purple rings that shimmered faintly, as if secrets lay dormant within.
"…That's… me?"
The boy in the glass was striking, otherworldly. Not just alive, but almost too perfect, too captivating. Plus the eyes are too conspicuously.
And then the sound appeared again.
[Transfer Complete]
[Finding Best Way To Intergrade With Host, Using Host Memories...]
[Found Suitable Memory, Using System as new form...Standby]
The voice again, this time much more human like less machinal, it wasn't as frightening. It was… reassuring I guess.
Nathan staggered back from the window, heart pounding.
He remembered the last thing before arriving here that he was being transferred somewhere, looking around, it seems normal nothing out of place.
Just as he was about to leave the alley...
[System is damaged from transferring host's soul, going into hibernation to repair. Will be in a fractured semi awakened state until arriving at the nexus of this world, Storybrooke]
[Before hibernation, quest preview unlocked]
[Quest: Find The Truest Believer]
"…Find…the truest Believer?" Nathan repeated under his breath, his golden eyes narrowing.
He didn't need the System or whatever it is to tell him what that meant.
He already knew the child who would change everything with just a quill.
"Henry…"
His eyes narrowing then widening when it struck him all at once at the impossible.
"…Once Upon a Time."
This was the story he had just finished watching. The story of fairy tales reborn in the modern world, the story where Emma Swan, Regina Mills, Mary Margaret, David, Mr Gold and Henry changed everything.
And now… he was here, not just watching but living it now.
A shiver of anticipation coursed through him. His second life his chance at adventure had just begun.
But first things first, he needs to figure out where he is and how to join in with the story, that's starts by getting out of this alley.
I'm back but don't have a set time don't want to pressure my self haha, hopefully this chapter is better then the previous one would like to know your thoughts on the difference if you like the way it is now, will be rewriting this story but as I said won't have a set time or schedule cause that was the problem last time making promises I couldn't keep haha, your unreliable author :)