The Crawler lunged at him

Jin mustered just enough energy to lift his busted baton—not to battle, but to stand his ground. The creature's claw shot through his chest, hoisting him into the air. Pain shot through him like blood splurged everywhere, and then... it was all blank.

*[HP: 0/160]*

*[VITAL SIGNS: NONE]*

*[CARDIAC FUNCTION: CEASED]*

*[NEURAL ACTIVITY: FADING]*

As the darkness thickened, Jin caught Rosa's angry shout, noticed Sera's rifle going off, and Clara shouting desperately. But honestly, it all felt pretty far away at that moment.

*"Jin! JIN!"* Asha's voice was desperate, almost human. *"Phoenix Protocol engaging emergency resurrection sequence! Hold on!"*

But Jin was already plummeting, everything around him slipping into darkness. The last thing he could think of was surprisingly straightforward:

*'I hope... I hope we can still build a garden in the greenhouse. Clara would like... fresh vegetables...'*

Then nothing.

**[SUBJECT: JIN TSURUGI - DECEASED]**

**[TIME OF DEATH: 14:47:33]**

**[PHOENIX PROTOCOL: ATTEMPTING RESURRECTION]**

**[SUCCESS PROBABILITY: UNKNOWN]**

---

Sera was totally frozen, her heart racing as the Crawler's claw went straight through Jin's chest. It was such a surreal moment—his eyes went wide with shock and then slowly lost that spark.

That bright light she had come to depend on just… vanished. Blood started pouring out over his ripped uniform, spreading out like a red flower.

"JIN!" She let out a scream that was totally spontaneous and unrestrained, a raw, rough sound that came from somewhere deep inside her that she didn't even realize was there.

She took her final shot, aiming straight for the Crawler's head, which went off in a gory explosion. But Jin was already falling, hitting the metal floor with a heavy thud that she'd definitely remember forever. The noise hung in the air, cutting through the sudden silence.

"No, no, no, NO!" Sera dropped down next to him, the cold metal digging into her knees. Without even thinking, her hands rushed to stem the bleeding from the wound. Blood was flowing through her fingers, warm and unsettlingly vivid. "You idiot! You absolute fucking idiot!"

Rosa lunged at her opponent and rushed over, her usual grin missing and replaced by a look of pure panic. Clara was right behind her, looking super pale as she struggled with the first aid kit.

"Check his pulse!" Sera gave a little bark, holding it together thanks to her training. The phrase "assess, analyze, act" kept playing in her head, but it felt pretty flimsy against the huge wave of fear trying to drown her. Honestly, that mantra was the only thing stopping her from losing it completely.

Rosa's fingers brushed gently over his neck, and they both paused in silence for what felt like forever until she finally spoke up and said, "Nothing. Sera... there's no pulse."

The words hit Sera hard, totally taking her breath away. For a brief, terrifying second, her mind went totally blank. But deep down, her heart wasn't about to back down.

"Then we make one!" Sera's voice shook a bit as she rested her hands on his chest. "Clara, prepare the nanites! Rosa, keep pressure on the wounds!"

One, two, three, four...

The compressions were clumsy at first, her movements jerky with panic. Every time he pushed, more blood spilled out of his chest, and his lips were starting to look a little blue. The color of death.

Five, six, seven, eight...

"Come on, Jin! Don't you dare do this to me!" She growled, really trying to will him back to life just by sheer determination.

Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen...

She casually tipped his head back, blocked his nose with her fingers, and leaned in to kiss him. It wasn't a passionate kiss at all; it felt more like an urgent attempt. His lips felt cold and didn't really respond to hers. A moment later, she saw him breathe a little; his chest moved up and down, but it seemed more like a robotic motion than anything alive.

But honestly, nothing was different. He kept his eyes shut, and his heart just didn't make a sound.

"I-I have the nanites ready," Clara sobbed, the injector shaking in her hands. "But the compatibility is only 27%. It might—it could kill him faster if his system rejects them!"

"I don't care about the odds!" Sera jumped back into doing compressions, this time counting them out loud, her voice a bit shaky. "One! Two! Three! You promised me, Jin! Four! Five! Six! You said you wouldn't die!"

She was crying hard, tears streaming down her face and mixing with the blood on her hands. She had never wept like this—not when her parents packed her off to boarding school, not when she realized they saw her more as a resource than as their daughter, and definitely not even with the world falling apart around her.

But watching Jin die was tearing her up inside. That hopeful, slightly reckless guy had turned out to be her bright light in all this chaos, and now he was slipping away.

"Twenty-eight! Twenty-nine! Thirty!"

He tried again to give her CPR, and she noticed how cool his lips felt against hers. There was a distinct metallic taste of his blood on her tongue.

"Please," She leaned in close and softly murmured near his lips, like she was making a wish to a god she didn't really believe in. "Please don't leave us. Don't leave me."

Rosa was really crying out loud now, a deep, heart-wrenching sound that mirrored Sera's own pain. "Twenty seconds, Sera."

"Shut up!" She was cranking out more compressions, her arms were on fire, and everything around her started to get a little fuzzy. "He's not gone! He's NOT!"

"Thirty seconds," Rosa's voice sounded empty, totally missing its usual spark.

Clara injected the nanites to Jin, and she was totally shaking all over cause of the panic. "Please work. Oh god, please work."

"BREATHE!" Sera screamed, pounding on his chest with a desperate, closed fist. "That's an order! You hear me? I'm ordering you to breathe!"

"Forty seconds."

Sera was really putting her heart into the compressions, going all in and being pretty intense about it. She might have been really pushing things and even cracking a few ribs, but she didn't care. All she wanted was to get his wild, awesome heart pumping again—the one that meant so much to all of them.

"You can't do this!" Her voice broke completely. "I never told you— I never said—"

She leaned in for another kiss, matching his breaths, feeling like she was sharing her energy with him, hoping to bring some life back into his still body.

"Forty-five seconds."

"I need you," She leaned in close, her forehead resting against his, her silver hair mixing with his messy black hair stained with blood. "Do you hear me, you idiot? I need you. We all need you. I... I..." The words caught in her throat, the confession she'd never been brave enough to make. I love you.

"Forty-seven seconds," Rosa gasped, her voice sounding really sad at the end.

Then Jin's body started shaking.

"Wait!" Clara gasped, her eyes wide behind her glasses. "Something's happening!"

Sera suddenly felt this huge rush of energy flooding through him—not just the nanites doing their thing; something way deeper was going on. It was like this weird, otherworldly light was shining from the wound in his chest. He was lifting off the ground, almost like some invisible force was pulling him up.

Then, out of nowhere, his eyes flew open, and one eye was this bright emerald green, full of wild energy, while the other blazed a cold, fiery red. And just like that, with a sound that rolled through the air like thunder, his heart started beating again. A strong, defiant thump that they could all feel shaking the floor.

"Jin?" Sera held his face in her hands, letting her tears drop onto his cheeks. "Jin, can you hear me?"

The weird colors in his eyes slowly faded away, swirling into each other before returning to their usual black-brown shade. Then he just closed them again.

"Did I..." He was speaking so quietly that it was tough to hear him; his voice sounded worn out and scratchy. "save the day?" He just said that and then dozed off, totally out. The gentle sound of his snoring was honestly the most soothing thing Sera had ever heard.

Jin had been totally knocked out, but he's condition is stabilizing now.

Sera let out a mix of a laugh and a cry as she pulled him into a big hug, not even bothering about the blood or how messy it was—she was just super happy he was still here.

"You absolute moron," she whispered into his hair, clinging to the solid, living warmth of him. "Don't you ever do that again."

Rosa and Clara jumped in too, all three of them holding onto him like he might vanish if they let go, a jumble of tears, blood, and pure relief.

"Forty-seven seconds," Rosa gripped Jin tightly. "You were gone for forty-seven seconds."

"The longest forty-seven seconds of my life," Clara said with tears in her eyes, holding onto Jin's hand really tightly.