Sewing up Icarus' neck turns out to be harder than all the other wounds since he's awake. He can feel each time the needle goes through his skin and even though he tries to not show any pain, his eyes do wince a little and every now and then he even makes a little squeak sound from the pain.

It takes a few minutes to get him transferred to the gurney and then wheel him back to the freight elevator and up to the lab floor. From there Envoy takes him to the bio-lab, where the light is better. It'll be easier to do final checks there. For the most part, Icarus is quiet as he watches his surroundings pass by. It may also be that he's still groggy and disoriented.

Finally, Envoy is satisfied that no part of Icarus is about to fall off or start fountaining blood. She brings one of the blankets to try and dry the goo off of him and fluff him up a bit. "How do you feel?" she asks. "Any dizziness, weakness, hunger, thirst or problems seeing or hearing?" she asks in a cheerful tone.

"I hurt all over," Icarus admits in a near whisper, "I didn't know that waking up would be so painful." The hybrid then tries to push himself up into a sitting position, only to find his arms wobble and then give out. "Body feels sluggish and kinda weak," he says and swallows. "Is this normal?"

"You're been on a liquid diet for 70 years," Envoy notes. "Generally, 7 days is enough to risk cannibalizing your own muscles and organs for protein. I have no idea how that hibernation system worked, but it's probably good that you hurt everywhere. If there was a place you didn't, I'd be worried."

"If it's any consolation, I was asleep for 100 days recently and my skin fell off," Envoy adds with a smile.

"Uhm … you asked about if I had problems seeing?" Icarus says nervously. "Please tell me that everyone sees that you … glow?"

"And are you happy your skin fell off?" the hybrid asks. "Is that normal? Do people regularly shed their skin?"

"I glow to you?" Envoy asks. "Nobody has ever mentioned that before. Only bits of me usually glow. And I shed my skin cells if I don't get enough ultraviolet radiation to help break down metabolic byproducts… "

"It's … I don't know how to describe it other than glow. It's like there's this liquidy stuff all around you," Icarus tries to explain. He reaches out with a very shaky hand and waves it a few inches from her chest. "Like, right here… " he says. The odd part of it to Envoy is … she can feel it like Icarus was touching a warm pool of water and creating a gentle wave against her skin.

Envoy blinks at this. "Maybe you can see magical or gravitational fields. Or else it's because I have crystal implants like you," Envoy says. Then she sniffs herself, in case it's something else. "It's odd that I could feel you disturb whatever it is. Does it have a constant… uh… color?"

"It shifts colors," Icarus says as his arm falls and he strains to get it back up onto the gurney. "Do I make you nervous?" he asks, sounding nervous.

"No, did you want to?" Envoy asks, and goes to get some scrubs for Icarus. "Your fur isn't that thick, so I thought you might want to wear some clothes."

"No … it's just. I don't know. You seem confused a lot when you talk to me," Icarus says. It's about then it finally dawns on the hybrid he's been naked the entire time talking to someone who looks female. His ears splay out and he mutters, "Yes, I would like some clothes."

Envoy unwraps some clothing and gives it to Icarus. "Oh that? I get that all the time!" she explains. "I don't always understand mor-… people. Did you need any help getting dressed?"

Icarus tries to sit up again and fails horribly. "I don't want help, but I need help," he admits.

Envoy helps Icarus sit up, so that the pants can be put on without him having to stand, and then helps get his arms through the sleeves of the shirt. "Do I make you nervous?" she asks. "And are you hungry or thirsty? Do you need to eat and drink… or know what that is?"

Icarus has to think about that. "Yes and no," he finally admits, "You making me nervous that is. I've never talked to anyone real before and I really like how it feels. I keep getting this feeling like you're going to just vanish on me and I'll be alone again." The question about eating earns Envoy a confused look. "What is eating?" he finally asks.

"Is it like that stuff Morpheus has in a cup? The stuff we put in our mouths and swallowed?" Icarus asks, looking hopeful.

"Yes! That is what it is," Envoy says, smiling – while inwardly dreading the notion of having to toilet-train a teenager.

She puts her hand on her stomach, and says, "If you feel empty here, or it makes noises, then you are hungry and need to eat something."

"Do you have any? Can Morpheus bring us some of it?" Icarus asks hopefully. "Will he be coming by?"

"Well, if I can make him a body he will be," Envoy says. "I have some tea… or what the humans in New Zion call tea anyway, like what you drank in the dream. I don't have cream or sugar though… "

Icarus ears wilt, much like they did in the dream. "He's not already here? I liked him, he was nice to me," he says. "Even after I kicked his shin."

"You… kicked his shin?" Envoy asks. "Didn't that hurt your toes?"

"I thought he was the one that took you. He showed up seconds after you vanished," Icarus admits as he looks down and fiddles with his loose-fitting shirt. "It didn't really hurt. He just sort of blinked at me, smiled, then asked what happened to you."

"Oh," Envoy says, nodding. "Seems understandable. Would you like to try eating something? I have… uh… hard biscuits and some honey, and could make some tea… but I don't know have nice cups like Morpheus had. I've got lots of beakers though"

"I can try," Icarus says as he tries to sound hopeful.

Envoy hmms. "I'll bring a bucket too, just in case. I remember my first experience trying to eat – I hadn't even grown a stomach yet. It didn't go well."

"You … what?" Icarus asks as he looks completely confused again. "I … I hope nothing bad happens."

"Oh don't worry, I'm sure you already have a stomach!" Envoy says, patting Icarus' shoulder reassuringly. "Just remember not to breath and swallow at the same time." With that, she grabs her robe from the door, figuring she'll change before returning, waves, and heads back for her lab at the hangar.

The walk back is uneventful, though she does have a passing thought on if it was a good idea to leave him alone down there. Not that she had any choice. Her lab still looks as it did, completely in order and everything where she left it.

Envoy changes into her robe, and then starts gathering supplies. She doesn't have a lot of rations, but it shouldn't be hard to get more – or some seeds. She also packs a few beakers to drink out of and brew the tea in, a few water bottles, the rose from Morpheus and a few of the other Sifran crystals to see if Icarus sees things when he looks at them. Maybe he's seeing what I hear when I listen to the crystals? she ponders, before leaving the lab.

As Envoy ponders this, she feels something … then hears a rippling tone back deep into he lab. A split-second later, she hears a WHAM!, as if a door was thrown open and slammed into a wall somewhere below.

"No no no!" Envoy cries as she starts running!

The Aeolun darts down the stairs and through the test hangar. As the door comes into view on the bio-lap, she quickly sees that is has been completely blown off its hinges. It now hangs out of the far wall by its own handle (which has sunk into the wall). The door is twisted and bent, as if something extremely heavy hit it in the middle. "Icarus!" Envoy calls as she reaches the doorway, looking in to see if the boy is still where she left him.

Icarus is still sitting up on the gurney. His ears are flat, his blue-green eyes wide and he's shaking. He looks absolutely terrified, in other words. When he spots Envoy he draws his knees up and hugs them as he rapidly says, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to! It tried to grab me!"

"What… what tried to grab you?" Envoy asks, coming up next to the boy and then looking through the doorway to see if there's anything else mixed in with the blasted door.

There's nothing else mixed in with the door. "It was … I think it was a person," he says, "All shadowy. It reached for me and I tried to push it away from me. It felt wrong, like it wanted to hurt me. I was … I was scared and just wanted it away from me. My hand felt warm as I pushed and … I think I broke the door."

"Ghosts," Envoy says, shaking her head. "Echoes of past events, replaying themselves because of… well, because of who you and I are, I suppose. Let's get out of this room, to where it shouldn't be so bad," she says, and unlocks the gurney's wheels to start pushing Icarus out into the hall.

"You … you're not mad at me?" Icarus asks as he's wheeled out. Behind them Envoy hears the computer system chime, "Defensive pulse detected. Output registered at less than one percent of theoretical maximum. Cataloged for batch analysis."

"I should have realized it would happen and warned you," Envoy says, "so I'm upset with myself. But you need to try and not use your power, or it could draw unwanted attention."

"I wasn't trying to!" Icarus mutters.

"I know, because you don't know how to control it," Envoy says, as she pushes towards the training hangar. "How do you feel? Tired? Are you in any pain from using it?"

Icarus thinks, then shakes his hand. "My hand tingles a little," he admits. "Is that bad?"

"I don't know, it sounds… mild," Envoy says, not wanting to frighten Icarus. "I worry a bit about what that power can do to your body, but… that was a really 'soft' burst you did, compared to what you could have done."

"That was soft?" Icarus says, sounding terrified again. "The door was squished!"

The hangar is clear of any ghosts for the time being as Envoy wheels the gurney into it.

Envoy slows down here, since there's debris all over the place. She does point out the still-held robot. "That's our robot," she notes. "He bites."

"Will it bite us?" Icarus asks as he peers at it. "Does it think? Is it like us?" The trip through involves a lot of weaving about, but it isn't impossible to get through. Icarus blinks as they reach the entryway, then says, "Wait, stop."

Envoy stops. "I don't entirely trust it, but it obeys me so long as I sound like its former master," she explains. "It doesn't really think… much. It announces everything it's going to do though. Do you see something?"

Icarus squints as he stares at the robot in the room. His ears twitch about as if doing a little dance, too. "It's … there is like little lines of something flowing about through it. It … flows out from its chest and to all its limbs. I think. It's blurry," the hybrid says with a hint of frustration in his voice. "Unless I really concentrate on it, I don't see them."

"Energy, from the crystal that acts as its heart," Envoy says, then pulls out the crystal rose from her pocket. "What do you see when you look at this?" she asks him.

Icarus' head tilts from side to side. "It's like there are little balls of light? Well, they look like balls, to me, moving about inside it. They repeat the same pattern over and over," he tries to explain, though he sounds unsure about the whole thing. "It's blurry too. Hard to see."

"Morpheus made it," Envoy says, and holds it out to the boy. "If you hold it to your ear, you might be able to talk to him."

Icarus takes it and holds it nervously to his ear. "Hello?" he says. The rose begins to glow a bit more brightly in his hand and the petals all flicker and glitter. That's not all Envoy notices, though. Icarus' blue iris' start to flicker and sparkle in exact time with it. The hybrid starts and nearly drops the rose! "I heard him say hello!" he blurts.

"Be careful," Envoy notes, even though the rose shouldn't be as fragile as it looks – she just doesn't want to take chances. "It looks like you can synchronize to crystals faster than I can too. Have to watch that… I don't want you being classified as a Sifran servitor… "

"Sync? What are you talking about? I didn't feel anything," Icarus says with that common, bewildered, look, Envoy seems to elicit. He then frowns and adds, "Morpheus is laughing at us." He hands the crystal back.

Taking it, Envoy holds it up to her ear and demands, "What is funny?"

"You two," she hears Morpheus' voice. "I am imagining each of you looking very confused all the time. I think you should also know that when talking to you this way, you and he feel very similar. I suspect you were modified at one time to something similar to what they were trying to make him into. At least if it is not just a coincidence."

"Modified… me?" Envoy asks. "Someone tried to make me into a weapon?" She sounds really worried now!

"No, no. Tried to alter your … internals to be more compatible with Sifran technology. There is also a point of irony I should draw your attention to," Morpheus notes, "You came to Abaddon to try and rebuild your mind, to find your child, father, and other aspects. You found a child so far, just not your aspect."

"I suppose he will help me relearn how to be like a child then," Envoy says. "I was altered when I arrived on Sinai. Before that I ran on liquid magic. When are you going to come and make us tea?" she asks, teasingly at the end.

"When a certain, easily distracted friend of mine is able to make me a body I can animate remotely," Morpheus counters with an amused ripple undertone in his voice. "Hopefully before she, or her friend, manages to do something disastrous."

"I will try as soon as I can get to the new Life Dome," Envoy says, "Unless you'd rather I try to learn how to use the ancient technology here to grow you a human body?"

"I'm gurgling," Icarus notes from the gurney. He's also staring at his stomach. "That means I am hungry, right?"

"Hopefully!" Envoy says, and starts pushing the gurney again. "We can try eating in a little bit, where ghosts are less likely to interrupt us."

"Mm, I think it would be best if you kept to things you can work with and understand better," Morpheus comments, "Before using those machines, you may wish to have someone more familiar with how their technology works look at them. After that, we could consider trying them as a back up method."

"And that reminds me, please open your memory feed for me and replay the equations you wanted Cypher to analyze for you," Morpheus adds.

Envoy focuses for a moment, and sings a few snatches of song to open up her link, while holding the rose directly against her horn.

Envoy can almost see her not-Khatta friend tapping the side of his head as he listens to it. "Thank you. And that reminds me of yet one more thing. I found an old record of a group called the Tribunal," she hears him say once the song, and transfer, as finished. "I am not sure this counts as good news, though. It was the name of a sect of Sifras. The data core I found the record in is extensively damaged, I am afraid. It it taking considerable effort to rebuilt it."

"They had sects?" Envoy asks, surprised. "I'd think they would be more unified to enact such a large undertaking." She then looks to Icarus, and tells him, "By sects I mean sub-groups with differing agendas."

Icarus just looks confused.

"Well, sect may be a poor term. They seem to have had divisions within their race, each allocated to particular undertakings to benefit them as a whole," Morpheus notes. "That is, if I have reconstructed any of this correctly. I am hoping this is, for lack of a better term, an 'organizational chart' of how they separated their tasks."

"Stratification and specialization?" Envoy asks. "I suppose that would be needed."

"Yes. Now, you had best feed your son," Morpheus notes with a chuckle. "I will continue my efforts. Check back in a day or so and I will update you on what I can determine and if Cypher makes anything from these equations."

"Thank you, Morpheus," Envoy says, putting the rose back in her pocket and resuming the journey to the upper level. "Do you like my robe, Icarus?" she asks. "I need to find you some clothes other than the medical scrubs, so would like an idea of what you consider comfortable."

"Where do you get clothing?" Icarus asks after looking at Envoy's robe for a bit. "I'm not really sure what I would find comfortable," he admits, "Is there any way I can try on different things?"

"I'm sure there are clothing shops in New Zion," Envoy says. "Maybe I should say you are an Exile from Sinai… or just claim you are my son, since we are so similar."

"We are?" Icarus asks, "But I have no wings or horn." There's a pause and he asks, "What is a clothing shop? A place to … purchase? clothes. But I have nothing to trade with." Well, at least there seems to be some sort of dictionary implant. He's able to look up words and cross-reference and guess at meaning, judging by the pauses.

"I have money!" Envoy assures him. "I wonder if I can download information to you in a more efficient way, like I just did with Morpheus? We shall need to try something along those lines." She pushes a little faster when the get to the floor with the other offices and labs, and glances at the residential room. One of them must have a working toilet, she hopes.

A working shower would be nice too, really. The upper floor is its usual quiet self. Her lab isn't far now, if that is her intended destination. Icarus blinks a bit. "It feels less tense up here," he says.

"There should be less ghosts," Envoy says, making sure not to get too close to Dr. Daedalus' office as she hurries Icarus to the junction.

"I feel like I've been here before," Icarus notes as they pass through the junction, then head towards her lab. As they enter it, he asks, "Oh, is this your home? I think it is your home."

"Well… for now it is," Envoy says. She never really had a place she considered 'home'… but does have a seed for a giant tree waiting back in Abu Dhabi so she can grow one.

Envoy unloads all the stuff she packed up originally, and checks to see if the gas burners still work so she can boil the water – otherwise she'll have to do it with a piece of metal.

"Things in here glow like you do," Icarus notes as he pulls his legs into a lotus position. While he's looking about, Envoy discovers with a bit of prodding, the gas burners still light.

Smiling as she fills a beaker with water and sets it over the flame, Envoy explains, "There are other Sifran crystals in here. Do your hands glow in your vision? I've only got a few embedded in me."

Icarus holds out his hands in front of himself and squints. "A little, I think. It … comes and goes though. Yours is constant and like it has a purpose. Mine is … chaotic," he says.

"Well, I'm going to teach you to be more balanced then," Envoy says, as she sets out the rations – and hopes Icarus has hard teeth. "You're going to learn how to sing!" she says with a big smile.

"Sing?" Icarus asks. There's that pause again. "Oh, make tones that when done in sequence create harmony," he concludes. The hybrid sets his jaw and seems to decide something … right before he slides his legs off the side of gurney. "Right now I just want to walk," he says … and then tries to slide off the gurney and stand on his own…

Envoy eeps and hurries over in case the boy starts to fall!

Icarus stands there and his legs shake a lot. But … he doesn't fall. It's slow and awkward looking, but Icarus makes his way towards the spot Envoy was setting out the food. Even his spotted tail hangs limply as he goes. "For a great experiment, I must look pretty pathetic," he admits, sounding tired. "I bet you had no problems walking."

"Well, I had problems with lots of things until I had someone to copy," Envoy notes, and points out things. "This is a hardtack ration biscuit! They last a long time because eating a little bit encourages you to find a better food source. And this is honey. I think. I haven't seen what Abaddonian bees look like, but it tastes like honey."

"I feel pathetic," Icarus says as he picks up the biscuit. He sniffs it and his nose wrinkles. "Is it supposed to smell like this?" he asks.

"Yes," Envoy says. "I don't know why though. I think so you can't tell if it's gone bad or not."

"Does all food smell bad?" Icarus asks as he puts a but of the gooey honey on the biscuit and then tries to bite it. His expression is comical as he discovers just how hard, hardtack is. Again his ears do a dance as he tries to bite through it and eventually succeeds. As he chews on the part in his mouth, it's a dizzying array of facial expressions from disgust to confusion, to actual shock. All of them lead up to the great unspoken statement of "Why am I EATING this? Why does the world hate me so?"

"There is better tasting food," Envoy says. "Actually, almost all of it tastes better. I just carry that because I can carry a lot and don't really care about flavor too much."

Icarus manages to swallow the hardtack. "Why don't you care?" he asks just before he attempts another bite. His limp tail is actually twitching a bit now.

"I suppose I only notice something's flavor the first time I taste it," Envoy explains, checking on the water now that Icarus isn't about to fall over. "It always tastes slightly different each time, of course, but still… in general I prefer new things."

"You won't try to eat me, right?" Icarus asks, "I may be new, but I bet I don't taste very good."

"I don't eat things that talk," Envoy notes. "But I've also eaten things you probably would not find appetizing, like chalk." She adds the tea to the water, and stirs it with a glass probe.

"Chalk? A material composed mainly of limestone, which is primarily composed of calcium carbonate," Icarus remarks. He blinks, then asks, "How did I know that?"

"You must have a lot of knowledge embedded that you simply haven't had a reason to associate with reality," Envoy notes. "I have lifetimes worth of stuff like that, which I will likely never have reason to recall. Are you ready to try tea? It's hot."

"Hot. Slang for a measure of the kinetic energy contained within a collection of molecules being at a level which may cause discomfort to organisms. Hot is usually determined by observing a temperature difference, over the absolute measure of temperature. The absolute unit of measurement of kinetic energy is commonly called the unit kelvin. -273 degrees kelvin indicates a state where there is no more kinetic energy in the molecule. Also known as absolute zero," Icarus rambles off. He blinks, shakes his head, then remarks, "I don't even understand what I just said. I'll … just try the tea."

Envoy fills the beaker 'mugs' and hands one to Icarus. "Honey is good to sweeten tea if you find it too bitter," she suggests, and has a sip herself.

Icarus sniffs the beaker and his brow ripples. The hybrid then shrugs and takes a sip. He hmms, then licks his lips. "It is much better than the biscuit," he declares.

"Thank you, I take that to mean my cooking skills are improving," Envoy says with a grin.

"I have nothing to compare it to," Icarus admits. All of a sudden his ears splay and there's an ominous gurgling from his stomach. "Is it bad when it feels like you're going to explode out of your lower back?" he asks worriedly.

"Already?" Envoy asks, looking worried. "Do you know what a toilet is? I really can't show you how to use one because… uh… I never have myself," the Aeolun notes, and puts down her tea to take Icarus' hand. "There's one nearby that might be working," she says, and tries to lead the boy out.

"Toilet," Icarus repeats, "Okay, I know what it is. I think I know how to use one. But … I have to do that? That's … really weird. How did you avoid having to be weird?"

"Actually that's normal and I'm the weird one," Envoy says, dragging Icarus along. "Remember how I said my skin sort of falls off if I don't get sunlight? Well, it's the same thing, just… done all over my body… "

"I'm not sure I want you touching me now," Icarus complains as he's pulled along towards the residential area. After a quick inspection Envoy manages to find one of them that seems to work and leaves Icarus in there to deal with 'fun biological issues'. "What else don't you do that I can?" she hears him call from inside.

"Hmmm, I'm not sure you want to know," Envoy says, after thinking about it for a bit.

"Why not?" Icarus asks. "Is it something shameful?"

"Just disturbing," Envoy says, tapping her fingertips together.

"Okay," Icarus replies. He's quiet now. Well, at least speaking. The other sounds are not so pleasant. His digestive system sounds like it's a bit of a mess right now. Eventually there's the sound of flushing and the door reopens. "I wish I didn't have to do that," he grumbles as he wobbles out.

Envoy fans her wings a bit. "I concur," she says, and starts back towards the lab, checking to see that Icarus can walk alright. "You'll also need to sleep," she says. "Even I have to do that, just… not for very long."

His walk is still extremely unsteady. "I have to? Didn't I just sleep seventy years?" he asks. Of course the very next thing he does is yawn. "May I ask a favor?" he asks.

"Of course," Envoy says, hoping it's something she can actually grant.

"Will you stay close when I sleep?" Icarus asks as he looks down at the floor. "After so long of being with just … empty people, I don't want to be alone. I understand if you can't, though. You are busy with things more important than an abandoned experiment."

"Of course I can stay with you," Envoy says. "Do you want to sleep in the lab?"

"If it won't be a problem for you," Icarus says as they pair finally make it back to the lab.

"You probably will want to sleep lying down," Envoy says, and adds another blanket to the gurney to make it softer.

"Is that the normal way?" Icarus asks.

"Yes, unless you are an Eeee, who like to hang from the ceiling," Envoy notes. "Or me; I sleep sitting up."

Icarus climbs onto the gurney (it takes a few tries), then stretches out. "Why? Have you tried lying down?" he asks and yawns again.

"I can lie on my side, but I seem to prefer sitting," Envoy says.

"Why?" Icarus asks as he pulls one of the blankets over himself.

"Well, my version of sleep is more like meditation usually," Envoy explains. "But sometimes I really do sleep from exhaustion, and some of those times I've actually slept in a bed."

"Envoy?" Icarus asks.

"Yes, Icarus?" Envoy replies. "Would you like a story or a lullaby?"

"I don't know if it means much, but I don't think you're very weird," Icarus says as he watches her through the strands of his silvery hair. To the question, he answers, "No. I think I got what I wanted." He smiles, a genuine, if tired smile. As his eyes droop closed, she sees then shimmer just for a second. A moment later, all of the other crystals in the room, including the ones embedded in her briefly reflect that light. To Envoy, it carries with it feeling as well. He's happy.

Sitting on the table next to the gurney, Envoy feels happy too, even though she isn't a crystal. For now, she is content to sit and watch the boy sleep - the first natural sleep in his life, probably.