It took a while for the yellow engineer bean Flash to arrive together with our injured Cain at the medical station on board the Blackcrow. As the mechanic door opened heard Flash Captain Pitch's bad coughing. He saw how Moon soothed him down by petting his head and even held his black hand to give him the needed comfort. Starla noticed Flash with Cain on the entrance as well as The Doc as they came in.
Without hesitation went the black doctor to Flash and took care of the dark, cyan-colored bean.
"Is everything alright with Cain?" The doctor asked but Flash shook his head. Wasn't it obvious that Cain looked injured?
"No, Doc. You need to take care of him too. He's injured." Flash told him.
On the other side moved Pitch his head up to look at Cain's direction and cawed in pain: "I tried to protect Cain, but he got bitten by an undead rat as well. Behind his head."
"Behind his head?" The Doc repeated, Pitch nodded, and Moon felt his head slowly sinking back to his pillow again.
He wasn't strong enough to hold his head up. Whilst Pitch said that, got Cain his own bed by now. The dark cyan bean touched with his claws his stomach. The Doc witnessed Cain's color change on his face, he looked green. Nauseous.
"Are you feeling nauseous, Cain?" The Doc wanted to know, and Cain nodded slowly. With that statement, took the doctor another medical remote in his hand to transfer a special medication inside Cain. He remembered what Saros said earlier but he hoped it would at least soothe Cain's pain a little bit down. He couldn't just do nothing and watch how his members suffered in pain. Where was Saros anyway? What took him so long to get his spell?
"Does anyone know why Saros is taking so long to find the spell?!" Frustration was the only thing Moon could notice on The Doc's voice. She was asking that herself too. Where was he?
But in that very moment, as if Saros knew he'd say it appeared the red wizard in the middle of the room with a book and the material in his hands. His legs looked wobbly. He could barely stand on his feet's.
"Saros!" Moon shouted worried as he fell to the cold ground. He was too exhausted from the fight which happened in the library. His power was almost overused.
Flash ran towards the wizard and helped him to get a bit up. He was now inside the engineer's arms, leaned his body against him as well and used him like a pillow. Saros was panting intensely, he was sweating. Everyone was confused of what happened to him.
"Saros, what happened to you?" Moon was worried.
"N-nothing important for now. I took care of it. How's Pitch doing?" Saros questioned but Moon went silent.
"His condition got worse whilst you were gone, Saros. Cain got bitten by undead rats as well, do you think you could heal him too?" The Doc wasn't sure how Saros would react to it but in his surprise, he was calm. Instead of panicking, tried the exhausted wizard to stay up, to get to Pitch's bed. As he looked down into the captain's visor, felt Saros something. A feeling which wasn't familiar to him. He wasn't sure if he had enough magic to cure Cain as well. He doubted it.
"My magic is almost overused." Saros admitted and laid a hand on Pitch's stomach. Pitch felt Saros's hand pressure on his stomach and avoided to groan. "But I'll try. Captain, you have to stay strong now."
Without any more procrastinating activated the wizard the healing spell. Moon walked a bit aside as he did and went to her daughter instead to give her a protective hug. Her daughter couldn't watch how Pitch began to loudly scream while Saros did his spell on him. Pitch's hands hold on tight into the bed sheets. A burning pain swam inside the captain and Saros concentrated with his last power on the spell. He closed his eyes and tried to ignore Pitch's painful complains. He was aware of how much it hurt him at this very moment but to kill the phantom virus inside him, Saros had to do it, in order to heal him. For a moment believed Saros that he almost lost control of the spell, but everything went well. Luckily.
Saros was done. The spell ended and he couldn't stand any longer. Saros's magic was empty. He was overexerted. He had no more energy left to activate his magic. Pitch was relieved as his pain was cured. He was sweating as well as Saros. Once again went Flash to Saros to give him balance. His visor was closed. He fainted in front of everyone. All Saros needed now, was to rest. To regain his energy.
"Let him rest for now, Flash. Use the bed behind you." The Doc advised and Flash carried Saros to bed.
After that, more painful complains behind them raised up. It was Cain who couldn't stop coughing. Everyone inside the medical station saw his veins changing. He kept coughing. He looked awful. His scars he had begun to bleed and black dust came out whilst Cain was coughing. The Doc focused back on him and tried to help. But there was nothing he could do.
Please, don't die Cain, it was Moon's thought. She was worried and secretly in panic to see Cain in such an awful condition. She feared to lose another crew member. A friend. Her daughter hid herself inside her mom's comfortable hug.
Suddenly, an unexpected familiar magic glow appeared on Cain's wounds, the same magic particles Saros just used on Pitch. Moon gasped out of shock; she wasn't sure if she should believe her visor. But she should believe it: Saros woke rapidly up from his fainting and tried with his last determination to use the spell to cure Cain. He couldn't let him die either. Not Cain. But his power flickered. His magic was unstable, and Cain groaned in unbearable pain. His cough got worse. The magic inside Cain faded slowly away. Saros couldn't heal him.
"Saros, don't overexert yourself!" The Doc said sternly but Saros didn't listen to him.
Until he heard Pitch's quiet voice beside him: "Saros, take a break. That's an order."
With a shaking head couldn't Saros refuse Pitch's order and deactivated the spell. Cain fell into his pillow and stopped moving.
The doctor checked on him and diagnosed, that he died. Cain didn't breathe any more. The others behind him looked afflicted and sorrowful to his direction and awaited a report. The Doc couldn't turn around but said: "Cain... is dead."
Starla in Moon's arms shed a tear and Saros fell frustrated and exhausted back into the pillow. He rubbed his forehead. Saros couldn't safe a crew member once again, just like in old times in their past crew. Flashbacks popped up in silence for him and started to feel guilty.
Pitch looked over to Saros but appreciated his effort in silence.
"Captain Hawk." Berry's voice raised up after the weird signal calmed down and reported the news. "The strange signal is gone all of a sudden. Everything seems to be in normal condition."
But Hawk had the feeling that it wasn't. How can such a strange signal fade away like that? Something bad must have happened in their library.
"Are you able to activate our cams in there now?" It was Shepp who was faster than Hawk with questioning.
"Let me try, Shepp." Berry said and gave it another try. He was baffled as the cams activated on his screen and wasn't sure what kind of chaos he was looking at. "Seems like there was a battle going on there, Captain, look. You have to see this."
The purple captain was a bit lazy to stay up from his chair instantly but after one thought inside his mind went the captain to his navigator, to take a look. There was indeed a battle going on there, but no one was seen. Not even Saros. The purple captain got quite concerned and contacted their medical station. Maybe he was there.
"Doc? Do you possibly know where Saros is? There was a battle going on in our library and he's nowhere seen." Hawk explained.
But all Hawk got as an answer was silence. He tried again.
"Doc? Are you there?"
"That explains Saros's loss of power." The Doc said thoughtful, more to himself than to Hawk. He was still mourning in silence about Cain's death, but he couldn't report it now.
Loss of power? The purple captain thought. That means, there was a battle going on for sure. Saros inside his bed heard everything and tried to raise his voice up, to let Hawk know what exactly happened. But he was too weak. He could only say the following:
"Their captain fought with me. And one of his members. He tried to... steal the material. Argh..."
Hawk clearly noticed how much in pain he seemed to be. His voice cawed in uncomfortable pain through the communication. Their captain... Hawk was lost in thoughts again and went quiet to think about it. How was their captain able to go on board just like that only to steal the material?
"There's also something else you need to know, Captain." The Doc then decided to report Cain's death. "Cain died a few minutes ago. I'm sorry."
Hawk looked appalled in Shepp's direction after he heard the unexpected report and hold back his sadness.
In the meantime, teleported Spec successfully himself back on board his own spaceship. Back where he last saw Slum. Zoricus was already there. The red light shined from the spaceship's walls on his blue ghostly body, and no one could see his visor. He was rolled together like a sushi roll on the cold surface. He didn't move. He didn't have the energy to stay up.
Slum was curious with what happened to him. Did he seriously fought with their crew even though, Slum advised him not to mess around with them?
The green ghost floated carefully towards his captain, to help him up. But he didn't even notice him until Slum quietly mentioned his name:
"Spec?"
He winced. But didn't move.
"I told you not to mess around with them." Slum said, a bit disappointed that he didn't listen to him. "But you did it anyway."
"You never mentioned a warlock in their crew, Slum." He cawed and rolled himself even more together.
Slum was confused. "A warlock?"
He didn't remember a warlock in their past crew either. "I don't remember a warlock in my past crew."
Spec couldn't answer, he winced once again in pain. A black heart-shaped outline appeared on his body whilst he winced, and Slum was even more confused to see Spec's heart silhouette on his ghostly chest. What did the warlock do to him? The green ghost was brave enough to float even closer to his captain, to lay his hand on his body. As Slum bowed over to look at him, saw the Spiritwave ghost black tears running down Spec's visor. Was he crying?
"What did the warlock do to you, Captain?" Slum was curious and couldn't resist to ask.
But his captain didn't want to answer.
Another one of his members floated closer to Slum and put a hand on his ghostly shoulder to get his attention on him. It was Saul who joined their conversation and suggested:
"Perhaps it's better when we give up and flee. If even our captain can't deal with them, it's better to -"
"No ..." Spec then suddenly said and gave his best to float again. To stay up.
"We need to get that material in our hands. There's no time for us to rest or flee. We have no choice. If fears aren't enough to weaken them, then we'll have to go deeper."