At first it was a slow pulse of consciousness, sliding in one moment and back to complete blackness the next. The pulses slowly grew closer together, until there was just one steady bright light in the middle of the blackness. A humming- he could hear again. Sensation crept over the rest of his face, excruciatingly slow. That was fine, Zima was patient. Eventually it spread down, he could feel his neck, his torso, his arms… so it went, for how long he could not yet guess.
There. There it was. His feet, he could feel his feet. Maybe… his eyelid snapped open on command. Perfect. There was a white ceiling above him. Was it the same white ceiling he'd seen the moment that he'd seen at the NTDH, right as the last of his files were destroyed or transferred? Hopefully not. That would be far too cruel, to tell him it was all over just to wake him up again.
Zima realize he wasn't strapped to the table as he had remembered. Where was he? Only one way to find out, Zima told himself. With a heroic effort- he was stiff, damn it all, so stiff, he realized he hadn't even known what stiff really meant until today- he sat up. Relief so intense he hadn't felt the like of it in thirty years washed over him. He was in Minoru's workroom.
He swung his legs around and slowly stood. The stiffness ebbed away. He was naked, but that was no surprise, as he had been in his last waking memories as well. He ran a hand over his face- the eyebrow ring was gone, but there was no hole where it had been. Turning, he saw a mirror in the wall. His hair was no longer the light brown he'd grown used to, but it's original jet black. Groping at the back of his neck, he realized that his rattail had reappeared as well.
The door opened behind him, and Zima whirled around. There stood Marie, who did a slight double take at his lack of clothing.
"Well, hel-lo," she said, giving him a once over.
Zima tried to hiss "Do you mind?" but it came out all wrong because he was smiling.
"I don't mind in the least. I'm glad you're up."
"What's going on? Why am I at Minoru's? Wasn't I shut down?"
"You were shut down," Marie said. "but when Florence re-hauled you that time, Kameko suggested she made us copies of your hard drive. She didn't tell me or Allie about this beforehand- gave us a scare." Marie smiled. "When we realized that we had lost you, Kameko brought those copies to Minoru. That was about two months ago. Him and some of his geeky computer buddies made you and Dita new bodies."
"Dita?" Zima asked. "Where is she?"
"Right here." Dita walked around the corner to stand next to Marie. "I've been working for a while- I guess there's more of you to re-download."
"My god, Dita-" Zima crossed the room to grab her and pull her against his chest. "Dita. You're all right."
"Until you crush me, I'll be fine."
"I thought you were gone. I thought I'd lost you for good this time."
"You came after me."
"What else was I supposed to do?" He pushed her back so he could look at her.
She shook her head. "I should have know. Stupid, pigheaded 'com that you are, you couldn't let things be, just this once."
"Whenever you're in danger, that is the absolute last time I'm going to let things be."
"I'm the firewall. Who's protecting who here?"
"I love you. A lot." Zima said, in what even he had to admit was a fairly lame response.
"Ahem." Marie was still there. "You two can get on with whatever needs getting on with, I'll just leave these here." She dropped a pile of clothes on the table. "Come downstairs. Whole family's waiting for you." She raised and eyebrow and shrugged, then disappeared.
Now alone, Zima bent his head to kiss Dita. It was a strange sensation, a new one, first times all over again. When they pulled apart, Zima started to get dressed. Dita watched him, looking pensive.
"What the matter, love?"
"Did Marie really just say 'family?'"
Zima pulled on a shirt, then looked at Dita. "I suppose she did. Why, do you have a better word for it?"
Dita struggled for a moment. "I guess not."
When they descended, they found Marie, Kameko, Allie, Minoru, and Yuzuki waiting for them in the living room.
"Hello, there," Minoru said. "How are you feeling?"
"A little strange, but it's not unpleasant," Zima said. "It's a relief to be feeling anything."
"I can imagine," Minoru agreed.
"Thank you, Minoru, for everything that you've done," Zima said. "Kameko- everyone. Thank you."
"Thank you," Dita echoed quietly.
"Of course," Minoru said. "We wouldn't have done anything less."
"I take it you'll be staying with us for good now?" Allie asked. "No more hiding or worries about putting us in danger?"
"If you'll take us, we'd love to," Zima said.
"Don't even ask," Kameko said. "Of course you're welcome."
Marie, no longer able to contain it, flung herself forward and pulled Zima and Dita into an embrace. "What is wrong with you all?" she said around a surprised Zima and an embarrassed looking Dita. "Why is everyone being so damned iformal/i? They're back!"
Zima gave Dita a questioning look. Surprising everyone, she smiled and said, "We missed you too, Marie. We missed all of you."
FIN