To wake the dead

Inasmuch as he could think rationally in his current state, Marcus thought that maybe his machine could make some change to his condition to make this thing that was causing him so much excruciating pain stop. He had no idea what. A complete longshot.

The immediate effect of the machine adopting maximum power was that Marcus’s body instantly jolted, his back arched and instantaneously lifted him from the chair.

Marcus was past noticing, but the apparently lifeless Rufus on the adjacent bed jolted and lifted up too... then twitched. Implausible after so much time, but was this recovery, or rebirth?