Corrupted - A JSAB Fanfiction

Chapter 9 - Far From You

I've just recovered from a severe case of writer's block so don't kill me if this is shittier than usual

Luna's eyes fluttered open, and three blurry little faces stared back at her with anxious looks.

"Wh-what?" she muttered weakly, rubbing her eyes. "Why are you staring at me like that...?"

Ferris practically collapsed in relief. "Oh, thank the Tree you're alright..."

"What? What happened?" Luna asked urgently, but she immediately sat up when the memories hit her full force. She was lying in a stone cave with glowing mushrooms, and she could see the two pieces of the Tree of Life propped up in a corner. She felt her side, but there was no wound. The pieces were safe, and there was Lili, Verdan, Ferris-

She froze. "Where's Kinn?"

Verdan hesitated. "I-I... she's... still up there..."

"WHAT?"

The green-haired teenager flinched. "I-I don't know! The last time I saw her was when I carried you down here and she was holding down a Corrupted - h-hang on, Luna, where are you going?"

Luna had scrambled to her feet and rushed outside the cave, recklessly throwing herself up the nooks as she desperately climbed the near-vertical cavern. "Luna, wait! You can't go up there now! It's still too dangerous!" she heard Lili shriek. But she didn't care. Kinn was still up there with that monster. Who was he, again? A Corrupted version of Cyan? Luna paused for a second before climbing again as she remembered the Corrupt's response to Kinn's horror. Maybe not. Maybe he was just lying to destroy their hopes. He could be some sort of Corrupt doppelganger. There was absolutely no way in Paradise that a Guardian, one of the most powerful beings who walked this earth, could ever get Corrupted. The idea is preposterous, and she refused to believe it. She'll try to find out about Cyan's safety later. Right now, the one thing on her mind was Kinn.

Finally, Luna reached the ground where it was a lot more horizontal and broke into a sprint. The cavern where they slept was right around a particular corner. She sped right, left, turned right in a fork, and eventually reaching the corner leading to the cavern...

...and found it empty.

The discarded sleeping bags still littered the floor, and the only signs of struggle were the blast mark on one wall and strange, deep knife marks on the other that seemed to suggest that a dozen sharp objects had, somehow, been driven into the rock. But no one was there. And most importantly, Kinn.

"KINN?" she yelled as loud as she dared, but there was no response. Unable to believe it, she ran towards the mouth of the cave, where outside, the heavy storm continued to rage. There wasn't a single sign of life anywhere, and it was simply impossible to look for anything or anyone through the black shadows of the trees in the heavy downpour.

She refused to give up now. She frantically searched through the empty caverns, checking every single cave near the main sleeping area, but there were only blue dimly glowing mushrooms and the occasional strange insects. It was obvious that, whatever happened to her, she wasn't hidden in any of the caves around here.

Luna dropped to her knees.

First Neptune. Then Blixer and Cyan. And now Kinn. If Kinn died, Luna would be the only Caretaker left to protect and guide the remaining three Guardians. And that would be a burden too heavy for her to carry.

No, she thought desperately. I can't lose another one. She can't be dead, can she? She couldn't be. If she was, she would've felt it in her very soul. But Paradise was vast and looking for people here wouldn't be easy, especially with every single Corrupted hunting them down at that moment. There was no doubt that they would all be killed on sight. Trying to look for her without a plan would be a death wish.