"Five more minutes," Lex relented, though it would be a lie for him to say that he was just agreeing at Blue's behest. The extra time was for himself, so he could steel himself for whatever might happen when he woke Dicen up. This was just a convenient excuse for him to stall without Marcus saying anything snide to him about it. He absent-mindedly dragged a hand up and down her back. Suddenly, or not so suddenly, he realized in his state of comfort that the alcohol had been the only thing that had given him the false bravado to do this.<br/><br/>His nervousness must have shown on his face, because Marcus immediately commented. "It's okay. Just, tell me what you need to do to... whatever it is that you're going to do to wake him up."<br/><br/>It wasn't okay. None of this was even remotely okay. But he'd already agreed to it, better judgment be damned. "I shouldn't need anything," he explained, keeping his voice low for the sake of whatever remained of Blue's slumber. "That bath that he's in contains hydrogen sulfide. It's not enough to be corrosive, or toxic. He's just in a state of hypoxia. It's so dense that air isn't getting in or out; his body is using recycled oxygen  at a rate 10-fold below normal human capacity. He's just... sleeping," Lex trailed off, contemplating how he could ruin that eternal slumber. Dicen could just go on, breathing the same oxygen that he did six years ago, blissfully unaware of the world around him. But instead... "The sudden oxygen exposure should give a kickstart to his system. I'm just going to drain the canister."