The Sentinel Awakens [PNPC Unlock]

Every single day, without fail, Macht had come to the hospital to visit Jenny in her room. It had gotten to the point where he knew all of the staff on a first-name basis - it'd been several months by now, of course - and some of them had even come to visit his sister alongside him. Every day, he'd talk to her about the things going on in his life, to catch her up in the event she could actually hear him. FEAR, RIOT, the bad things were obvious. But then, he also told her about the good in his life, the vast majority of which came from the woman he loved. Ira was someone he spoke about more often than not, even to his comatose sister, and when he wasn't talking about her, he was reflecting on past memories of him, Jenny, and Mikey all horsing around with Adelheid during their youth. While he knew it was unlikely she could hear him, he accepted about two months in that the talking was more for him than anything else.

Sitting in silence was painful. Each passing second stretched out to unbelievable levels, feeling longer than even mere minutes or hours as the relentless ticking of the clock, the mindless chatter from outside, and the beeping of the heart monitor all flooded his ears. To let it continue would likely send him careening into a downward spiral, the descent itself leading inevitably to madness. That was not something that could be allowed to happen. Foolish though it may be, Macht felt as though he needed to at least attempt to be happy, as if the connection he and Jenny felt would somehow enable her to wake up if he was persistent.

Jenny had awoken some time before Orochi's first public attack, the one the students of #552 had put a stop to. The very moment her eyes open, the doctors called Macht and he dropped everything he was doing and rushed to the hospital to be with his sister. What he saw when he got there was something he could not believe: she'd been smiling, crying as she waited for him. In fact, the whole way there, he'd been doing the same. Finally, after all these years, the two would be reunited, this time without a barrier of consciousness between them. Their eyes fell upon each other and simultaneously, the twins' lips stretched far enough that their faces were nearly metaphorically ripped in two by the grins they shared.

"Well, don't just stand there," the young woman started, wiping the tears from her eye with a light giggle. She held out her arms and tilted her head to the side. "Hug me, you big oaf."

The twins would embrace, and for a time, all felt right in the Starkes' world. Now, Macht could talk with Jenny, rather than just to her. He'd be able to tell her about all of the things he'd actually wanted to talk to her about and, like Ira, she'd begin to play a key role in maintaining Macht's sanity.

The twins would continue to spend a fair amount of time together in the hospital room each day, even after the disasters with Orochi and the Apostles, after the wall went up, even after Knuckles' death. There was very little keeping him from just bum-rushing an Apostles base and taking out as many people as he could before he died, and all that did would be the two women in his life anymore. Jenny would always remind him of what he'd be leaving behind, and how Knuckles' death would have been in vain if he'd done what he did. While he hated it, he would inevitably listen and calm down, like she and Ira would have suggested hundreds of times over.

Days after the debacle with the Apostles that resulted in him being Apex's sole leader, the doctors Macht had put in charge of Jenny's recovery informed him she would finally be able to get out of her bed and walk. The medicine she'd been given was expediting her recovery at a rate that was unheard of - admittedly, this was also likely due to a side-effect of her implant - and they'd said it was only a matter of time. She would need to undergo vast amounts of physical therapy to get back to how she used to be, of course, but the important thing here was that she would be able to get through that physical therapy rather than be forced to lay in her bed for months to come.

---

Day One of Recovery.

Macht had outfitted the Underground's training room with a therapy course Jenny could go through at her leisure, from things as simple as rails to walk along to treadmills and weights she could hopefully reach sooner or later. The floors were padded to make sure any falls she'd endure would not be painful, and chairs were frequent enough to allow her to rest when she needed. While some might call it coddling, Macht knew Jenny was unlikely to take many breathers since the two shared the Starke spirit, and these were all simply safety precautions.

"Suppose we can't wait a single day, huh?" Jenny asked sarcastically as she wheeled herself down the ramp to the basement.
"We could, sure, but we both know you don't want to."
"Ha, you're right. I'm so sick of waiting."
"Then stop. For now, I'll help you stretch, then we'll get you to start walking."
"Lucky me."

Kneeling in front of her wheelchair, Macht took his right hand and cupped the ball of her right foot, while his left hand held her heel. He lightly pushed upward to stretch her foot and shin, and she winced ever so slightly as he did. "Easy now fuckface," she laughed in between pants. He simply smirked, easing off to give her time to adjust better. Slow, steady breaths continued for roughly thirty seconds before he eased the pressure back on. Once again, she winced, but this time, it seemed like something she could handle. After another minute, she would nod, signifying he could flip the pressure now to stretch out her calf. With one leg done, he'd move on to the next, and despite it being a painful experience for the girl, Jenny wanted to go through it now rather than later.

"Up," Macht spoke as he stood to his feet and grabbed a walker. Wheeling the thing out in front of himself, it was turned so that Jenny could use it. She gripped the handles, and steeled herself for several moments before propping herself up with all of her strength. The girl yelped in pain, and her arms were visibly shaking as she did so. Two steps forward, slowly scuttling toward the walker and away from her wheelchair like she knew she needed to do. Her steps were staggered, feet pointed inward and knees trembling. The force in each step was so uneven that she pushed the walker forward and nearly slipped, and she would have fallen were Macht not there to catch her.

"Damn it," she cursed at herself.
"Hey, it's alright. You're like five minutes in, of course it won't be easy."
"I know, Macht. I know, just..."
"Just nothin'. Breathe. Take it slow. You fall, I'll catch you. That's how this works."

Jenny looked up into Macht's eye and he simply smiled at her. A light nudge to her shoulder, and she shortly found herself smiling back. Lightly biting her bottom lip, Jenny nodded, then cocked her head to the side to signal she wanted him to step away from her path. A few more deep breaths and she pushed forward once again. Like before, the steps were staggered and her feet practically slid across the ground. The strength to lift them off of it simply eluded the frail woman, but that clearly did not hamper her determination. While it was difficult, Macht watched Jenny push herself to the opposite end of the long room before she finally collapsed in a would-be heap on the ground. Macht caught her, pulled her to a seat and placed a cool, damp rag on her forehead.

"See, wasn't so bad, was it?" The man chuckled, reaching into a nearby ice chest and pulling out a bottle of water. He twisted the cap off and handed it to Jenny, who proceeded to chug it all down before she even attempted a response. "Bad? Hah. More like - phew - like t-terrible. Gimme another one, damn it." Panting, or practically wheezing, the girl gestured toward the ice chest, and Macht reached in to get her another as she asked. This one, too, was chugged in a few seconds, and Jenny tried to crush it. She gave up, realizing she was pretty weak, and just threw it at Macht's face. "Fuuuuck, Macht, my legs hurt. I forgot what it was like to actually walk around... how the hell do you do it?" I just want to sleep, haha."

---

The rest of the day would proceed quite similarly. Macht would let Jenny rest for a while, then stretch her legs out so she could go for another short walk. His intention was to have her do a walk or two a day, tops, but she was insistent on doing so much more. Progress needed to be made, and the girl knew she couldn't achieve it by lazing about and doing nothing. So, after every walk, Jenny would chug a small amount of water, then request to go on another one, averaging about ten minutes at a time for one walk and one break. They'd have been stuck in that room for hours on end, simply because Jenny refused to stop putting in effort. In fact, they didn't stop until she literally could not stand any longer without falling to the floor almost immediately.

It would initially be expected that Jenny would require two months to be able to leave her wheelchair behind. That's what Macht was told, and that's what he was accounting for. Jenny wasn't willing to wait that long, though. No one knew for sure whether it was a result of her hard work or the chemical enhancements her father implemented when she was younger, but the girl managed to completely shatter those expectations. Within three days, Jenny had made enough progress to walk without the wheelchair for extended periods of time. She still required the use of her walker, or at least a cane, but that was progress and it amazed Macht to see how far she was coming in such a short time. Day in and day out, Jenny would be found training, to the point where it actually worried anyone who knew her. She lost sleep so she could complete her therapy, because, for her, it was all she needed. Whenever anyone asked her why she didn't want to rest, she'd always simply reply "Oh, I've done more than enough of that."

Within no time, Jenny was working on her burst agility. Due to having been frail even before the whole FEAR project, she knew she would never have the endurance to handle any sustained effort in anything. That said, she was always fast, and her lighter frame and enhanced physiology would make it easier for her to do, even despite her condition. So, without making Macht aware, Jenny go on runs for Apex and the Haas, disguising her cane as a weapon and using numbing drugs to ignore whatever pain her body felt. During these runs, she would transport goods while managing to even elude the Apostles, and it would go on for roughly a week before Macht finally began to notice what it was she was doing. Needless to say, he did not approve.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?! You could get hurt out there!"
"I'm didn't, though, Macht. That's the point - I can do this! I'm making progress!"
"I know you are, but what would happen if you didn't manage to-"
"Don't throw hypotheticals at me, baby bro. I did manage to do whatever you were worried I couldn't. That's all that matters. I did it, I'm here, I'm alive, I'm well. I did it, Macht."
"... I guess you did, huh?"
"Damn fucking straight. You know what that means, right?"
"... I'm pretty sure I can guess."
"You'd be right - it means I'm not just going to laze around. I'm gonna help you guys out."

//Word Count: 2078