The flight back to Headquarters was a blur of flashing warning lights and medical alarms. Max barely remembered Jod shouting at the pilots to fly faster, or the sight of medics swarming the transport bay as they landed. The adrenaline of Level 2 crashed hard, and before the gurney even reached the elevator, Max's world went black.
Max opened his eyes to the familiar, sterile white ceiling of the Medical Section.
It was morning. The artificial sunlight streaming through the blinds told him it had been at least ten hours. His body felt heavy, like his bones were made of lead, a lingering side effect of the Void overflow.
He sat up, groaning, and swung his legs off the bed. The room was quiet, filled only with the rhythmic thrum-thrum-thrum of heavy machinery.
He looked to his left.
Against the wall stood two massive, cylindrical glass tubes filled with a glowing, viscous green liquid. These were the Re-Genesis Tanks.
Inside the first tank floated Eren. He was unconscious, a breathing mask covering his face. Wires were attached to his chest. Max walked closer and looked down at Eren's legs.
It was a gruesome but miraculous sight. Where the Guut had torn the leg off, ghostly white strands of muscle and bone were knitting themselves together, visible through the translucent gel. The limb was re-growing, inch by painful inch.
In the second tank was Malina. She looked peaceful, her hair floating in the liquid like a halo. A massive band of light scanned up and down her torso, focusing on her stomach. The jagged hole the Guut had carved into her was already sealed, a fresh pink scar forming where her intestines had been exposed hours ago.
"You guys really took a beating," Max whispered, pressing his hand against the cold glass of Malina's tank.
He couldn't stay here. He needed answers.
Max found his spare uniform in a locker, dressed quickly, and left the medical bay.
He marched straight to the Command Deck, ignoring the soreness in his muscles. He reached Commander Zog's office and pushed the door open, ready to demand an explanation about the human-Guut.
The office was empty. The lights were off.
Max frowned and stepped back into the hallway, flagging down a passing junior agent.
"Where is Commander Zog?" Max asked, his voice rough.
The agent looked nervous. "Level B-9, sir. The High-Security Prison Section. He... he said he didn't want to be disturbed."
"Thanks," Max said, already moving toward the elevators.
Level B-9 was cold. It smelled of damp concrete and fear. The walls were lined with dampening fields to neutralize any Fluid users.
Max walked past rows of empty cells until he reached the interrogation block at the end of the hall. The heavy steel door was open a crack.
Inside, tied to a metal chair in the center of a spotlight, sat the blonde man Max had pulled from the crater. He looked pathetic—bruised, shivering, wearing a grey prisoner jumpsuit. He didn't look like a monster anymore. He looked like a scared kid.
Zog, Jod, and Raina were standing around him.
Max slipped into the room, standing quietly by the door.
"I'm asking you one last time," Jod growled, leaning into the prisoner's face. "What is your name? Who turned you?"
The man shook his head violently, tears streaming down his face. "I don't know! I swear! I don't remember anything!"
"You killed fourteen people in the Rose District," Raina said coldly, crossing her arms. "You ate them. You don't remember the taste?"
"No!" the man sobbed. "I went to sleep in my apartment... and then I woke up here! I don't know who I am! Please, just let me go!"
Max watched closely. The man's fear seemed genuine. His heart rate monitor on the wall was spiking with panic, not deception.
Commander Zog, who had been standing in the shadows, stepped forward. His mechanical eye whirred, zooming in on the prisoner's dilated pupils.
"He is telling the truth," Zog rumbled. "Or at least, the truth as he knows it. His memory has been wiped. A block has been placed on his psyche."
Zog turned around, addressing the room. "Guards. Leave us."
The two armored guards by the door saluted and marched out immediately.
Zog then looked at Jod, Raina, and finally Max.
"You three as well," Zog ordered. "Go. Get some rest. You look terrible."
"But Commander," Max stepped forward. "We need to know—"
"You need to leave, Agent Max," Zog cut him off, his voice dropping an octave. "I will interrogate the subject using... alternative methods. Methods that are not suitable for an audience. Dismissed."
The threat in Zog's voice was clear. Whatever he was about to do to get the memories back, it wasn't going to be legal, and it wasn't going to be pretty.
Jod placed a hand on Max's shoulder. "Come on, kid. Don't argue with him."
Max hesitated, looking at the crying prisoner one last time, then turned and followed Jod and Raina out of the cell.
The heavy steel door slammed shut behind them with a final clang.
They walked down the prison corridor in silence. The air felt lighter now that they were away from Zog.
"So," Max broke the silence, trying to distract himself from what was happening behind that door. "The tanks. The ones Malina and Eren are in."
"The Re-Genesis Vats?" Raina asked, checking her nails.
"Yeah," Max asked. "How do they work? Eren's leg was... gone. Malina was gutted. How can they be alive?"
"It's a proprietary compound," Jod explained, his voice tired. "It's a mixture of concentrated Green Fluid—which governs life and nature—and stem-cell nanobots. The liquid reads the genetic code of the patient and accelerates cell division by ten thousand percent."
"It hurts like hell when you wake up," Raina added with a grimace. "Your bones itch for a week. But it beats being an amputee or a corpse."
"It can heal anything?" Max asked hopefullly.
"Almost anything," Jod nodded. "As long as the brain is intact and the heart hasn't stopped for more than five minutes, the tank can rebuild the rest. They'll be out in another twenty-four hours."
They reached the elevator.
"Go rest, Max," Jod said. "You unlocked Level 2. That puts a strain on your soul. Don't push it."
"I will," Max lied.
As soon as Jod and Raina got on the elevator to the upper dorms, Max turned and went back to the Medical Section.
He walked back into the quiet room.
He pulled a metal chair up to the glass tank marked Subject: Malina.
He sat down, leaning his elbows on his knees, watching her float in the green light. She looked so small without her armor, without her scowl. The bubbles rose slowly around her face.
Max looked at the pink scar forming on her stomach. He clenched his fists, the memory of the Guut's blade piercing her playing on a loop in his mind.
"I was too slow," Max whispered to the glass. "I almost let you die."
He looked over at Eren, whose leg was half-formed, a skeletal foot beginning to take shape.
"I promise," Max said softly, his eyes drifting back to Malina's peaceful face. "I'm going to find out who made that man a monster. I'm going to find out who tore the pages from the book. And I'm going to make sure nothing touches either of you ever again."
He sat there in the silence, watching the bubbles rise, refusing to leave her side until she opened her eyes.