Corruption

Hope

==POV: Yang==
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I shouldn’t just throw away my life like that. By the way, did you guys see Allison at all after she left?“ Hilda shakes her head.
“No, she dropped Ryuno off and then left us to keep her alive. She is fighting, you know. She does want to live.“ Ryu’s tail flops out from under the sheets, splotches of pink where the tiny black scales have been burned off by Brimstone’s fire. The spade on the end is an arrowhead shape, hairline cracks making their way through the magenta bone. Her blaster lies on the bedside table, fully repaired and waiting for her to wake up, take it in hand and shoot the shit out of some bandits.
Ash squeaks, desperately wanting Ryuno to reawaken. I took him out for some practice to try to take her off his mind, but I know we don’t have the same bond that she has with all her slugs. I wonder what slugs do in this kind of situation. They have to have somewhere they can go to…
I remember something from a children’s story I was taught when I was being looked after by the Shadow Clan. A source of Light energy for all creatures in this Cavern system;
The Lightwell.
It’s supposed to be heavily guarded after the last time a human tried to get into it, and it was almost destroyed, but they should let me through, right?
I turn my head to Lyth, and she nods, understanding what she needs to do. Katsu follows her, ready to lend a helping hand if need be. There’s just enough room for a Bubbaleone to velocimorph, so I fire Lift (my Bubbaleone) to grab Ryu, the IV drip and the oxygen machines that breathe for her when the line goes flat.
Taking a deep breath to halt myself from breaking down again, I glance back at the base again - just in case we don’t return. In the back, Nova attaches a hammer to his prosthetic arm and tries to fix the blasters. Usually he has a grudging look on his face, but this time he just looks sad. Lyth chirrups questioningly in the bubble, and I nod to her to let her know she can start giving Ryuno the light energy that keeps her alive, even if it’s not enough to purge the dark energy from her body. That’s why we’re going to the Lightwell.
I swing my leg up over my mecha’s saddle, checking that Ryuno’s still breathing. When I’ve assured myself that she is, I rev the engine of my mecha and we start moving. It’s only when I’m about thirty miles away from the hospital that I remember I have no idea where the Lightwell is.

==POV: Ryuno==
I can feel the cold dark energy swirling inside my body, capturing and crushing my remaining pieces of light until I can barely breathe. I don’t want to let my subconscious take my mind back over, because I would rather stay awake knowing that I’m suffering than face… that. The Goon still haunts my mind, he still knows enough about me to give me the worst nightmares anyone has ever had.
But I’m so tired…
Maybe if I just close my eyes for a second…

I’m thrown back into the Deep Caverns, watching myself cry on the floor of Brimstone’s palace. The same sentences, asking Liam to choose who to save. The same dive to protect me, the same fireball burning my older brother to cinders. If I could, I would stop him from saving me. I would have told him it’s not worth it, that he’s got Alina, that he has so much more of a future than me. But I’ve been through enough of these dreams to know that I can’t change them. The scene jolts, and I see something that happened almost before the Goon took me. Me, curled on the ice in Chillborne Cavern, trying desperately to fight against his hold, before I succumbed to his energy and began my work for Blakk Industries. It seems like something that happened to someone else, now. All the stuff before the Goon; those three years have been burned into my memory so much that I can’t imagine a life before them.
Yet again, the memory I’m seeing shifts, and it’s one I haven't seen before. A tight air vent, and of course me, controlled by the Goon now. There’s a hole in the floor, but the thing I notice is Scorchy; Ashura’s slug, the Fire Elemental. The red slug squeals as he’s ghouled, and snarls of ghouls come up from the room below as all the fire slugs turn as well. But Goon Me doesn’t just let Ashura fall to the room below; she loads a Neoshard into her blaster and fires it at the white-haired Shane. His scream is short, but the fear in his eyes is clear, and the impact of his scream remains long after the purple crystals have destroyed his heart. I didn’t know he went out this way. I mean, I knew he died, I knew Goon Me was the cause, but I didn’t expect it to be that brutal. But the three memories have passed; now it’s time for the real killer.
I’m thrown abruptly into the misty green landscape of mine and the Goon’s shared consciousness, not ready for the confrontation that dominates my mind every single one of these encounters.
The basil-green slug that I’ve gotten so used to seeing looms over me, grinning as he imagines the torture he’s going to put me through… tonight? Today? What even day of the week is it? My mind floods with these questions, making me yearn more than ever for my life back on the surface. What if I die down here? Will I ever get to see my ‘surface friends’ again?