Movement, and the sensation of falling. He jerked awake. Darkness and light blurred in front of his eyes, refusing to establish form. Something sharp and metallic pressed against his cheek. The hover hummed to itself. The world continued to recede.

His roommate was gone. The hover was parked at a charger, idling while electrons were forced to flow against the concentration gradient. It wasn't moving but the world refused to be still. He wondered how long it would be before it vanished completely.

The coat crammed between his head and the hover's frame rustled as he tried to lift his head. It wasn't his coat. He hadn't brought one. The zipper clicked against the door as it fell, and he squinted through the windshield.

Orange lights. Purple haze. White streaks bleeding into the darkness. He blinked again and again, but each time his eyes fought a little harder to stay closed. Blinking actually made it harder to see. Finally he gave in.

The frame against his head was hard and uncomfortable, and his muscles were protesting the forced inactivity. He wished desperately for the reprieve of sleep to claim him again. The hover was still sliding around him, twisting in a way that signaled imminent unconsciousness, but he seemed to be trapped between waking and dreams.

"You awake?"

He heard the click as his roommate opened the other door. There was no perceptible shift as the hover accepted a second occupant. He knew what was coming. He didn't flinch from the hand on his shoulder, but the world flared bright and painfully chaotic at the touch.

He must have made some sound because the hand withdrew. He managed to lift his head, and this time he put some effort into the struggle to sit up. It seemed to reassure his roommate a little.

"Here, I got you something to drink."

He wanted to sleep, but he was too uncomfortable. The drink was cold in his hands. It made his fingers slippery with condensation, and he rubbed the water into his eyes without thinking. Even if it only made them tear it seemed to help.

He saw his roommate watching him, and there was worry in that gaze. He knew he was worse. He couldn't muster the strength for normalcy, so he didn't try. He drank, though, and it did make a difference. His roommate knew what helped.

"Should we keep going?"

He didn't care about getting away anymore, just that he was away. All he wanted now was to rest. He had almost finished his drink.

"I'll set down in a few minutes. You can sleep in the back until then if you want."

He knew that. He knew his roommate had already offered once, but he wouldn't. "I'm staying here," he muttered, his voice hoarse with fever and sluggish with sleep.

There was no argument. The hum of the hover pitched up to a purr and then a low rumble before falling off again as the accelerators leveled out at cruising speed. The noise was comforting and harsh at the same time.

The morpher was under his seat.

He didn't know how it had gotten there, but it glowed in his mind. He fumbled for the coat he hadn't brought. It pressed soothing coolness against his forehead as he buried his face in it, cushioning his head against the frame once more.

The morpher was still under the seat, so at least he knew his roommate hadn't brought it. Unless it had fallen out of the coat earlier when he woke up. Maybe it had followed him. He had heard that it could do that. It could appear when it was needed.

If it could disappear when it wasn't needed, he'd be feeling a lot better right now.

He shifted restlessly, fingers clenching on his roommate's coat. There was nothing he could do but wait it out. He wasn't aware of much like this, but he felt every second that crawled past. Sometimes he had to count them to make sure they were moving at all.

This was going to be one of those times. The moments had frozen together, and he began the painstaking process of separating them once more. It was, if nothing else, a distraction. One.

Two...