Tears stung Sam's eyes.
"What do we do now?" Rhydian asked, for once sounding solemn instead of lighthearted. Sam closed the holoscreen. The video had been sent to the staff at Bonnie Springs. No other commentary, no verbal threat. Just the footage of the Shane Gang disappearing into the depths of the Great Abyss.
"We still scope out the area around the citadel. Alana's a strong girl, she might escape on her own, and we might be her only chance at being healed now," Sam said, clipping the holoscreen to her belt. Gwen ran her fingers through her pale hair.
"We cannot go help?" she asked. "She is just a child, she may not be able to escape on her own."
Sam led the healers out of the alley they'd pulled into when she'd received the transmission. They were all in white and pale green Mechas, with Alex's rhino pulling along a small cart with medical supplies and a gurney in case they found Alana in a bad state.
"No," Sam said, narrowing her brown eyes. "We can't just storm the citadel. We need to stay as neutral as we can. Not to mention, even if we did go on offense, we'd all get our butts kicked."
Alex protested, signing, hey there-
Rhydian interrupted her.
"Okay, Alex would rock it but we'd get destroyed," he said.
"Which is why we'll follow Eberly's orders. Observe, but don't engage," Sam said, glancing down at Ash, who nodded, but still looked worried.
A pit of dread was growing in Sam's stomach. She kept tugging nervously at her curly brown hair, trying to stop herself from imagining the horrors Alana could be facing. Alana felt like a little sister, but she was constantly undertaking tasks that no fifteen-year-old should.
Please let her be okay, Sam thought, to no entity in particular. She's such a good kid.
~~~~~~~~~
No. No, no, no.
Alana pressed her back up against the cool glass cylinder, watching as the dark water gas drifted down at her. She had a headache that felt like Dana had fired a Grimmstone at her temple.
She could feel the angry storm contained in the red gas. It was freezing cold, desperate to find something to contaminate and corrupt, ready to unleash anger and tear something apart.
"Dana, please," Alana gasped, unable to control her breaths. Her voice came out sounding more like a whimper than anything, but in that moment, she didn't care about sounding strong. She just didn't want to go like this.
But through the glass, Alana could see Dana in the control room. The ghoulslinger just kept a confident, cold smirk on her face before disappearing from view as the scarlet gas reached Alana.
Immediately, pain and iciness erupted where the gas came into contact with Alana's skin. She held her breath, desperate to keep from breathing in the dark water, but she wanted to cry out in pain. Her arms and face prickled as the cold dark water invaded, and Alana had to swallow out a cry ad she felt a bundle of cold begin to grow inside her.
Finally, Alana couldn't hold it in any longer. She gasped for breath, and immediately regretted it.
It was like inhaling knives of ice. Her lungs were so cold they burned. Small white bolts of lightning cracked around her as the dark energy corrupted her light.
"Please, STOP!" Alana screamed, writing in pain as she felt the darkness attack her heart and mind. She desperately pressed against the glass and screwed her eyes shut. There was only red around her.
She sank down to her knees, wrapping her arms around her stomach. Each shuddering breath brought in more pain, and she felt the raging dark energy invade her mind.
This is the end. I can't escape.
She didn't know if those thoughts were her own or just amplified negativity from the dark water, but Alana could feel the dread and hopelessness of the situation nonetheless. As she cried out in pain and fear, thoughts of what she was leaving behind surfaced.
She hadn't gotten to say proper farewells to the gang. All she had done was wave to Eli before slipping out if the hideout. That had been stupid. Maybe if she had trusted them more to tell them where she was going, they wouldn't be at the bottom of the Great Abyss.
And then there was Will. Five years of living and training with him and she was going down the exact same way as he did, in a flurry of red and black courtesy of Doctor Blakk and his dark water.
At least I can see Will again if this kills me, Alana thought, but as soon as the thought crossed her mind, she realized that Will wasn't the only one she'd lost anymore.
The two Paladins who'd been killed in order to buy the Caelums time- Marcus and Donatella. Without Cipher blocking her memories, she knew that the two had always loved having her around.
And then there were her parents. Evanlyn and Nathanael, perishing during the fall of the West. Their kind smiles, warm eyes, constant encouragement.
Alana couldn't fall now. They wouldn't want that.
She had to fix what Blakk was doing to Slugterra, and one day, she had to go back and fix the West. She had friends to save and light magic to protect.
Alana thought past the pain and cold, silencing her cries. She dug deep down, desperately pulling up the magic that flowed through her veins that hadn't yet been attacked by the dark water.
She focused on her emotions. The devastation of losing her parents and her home realm, the fear she felt when she saw the Shane Gang fall into the Great Abyss, the determination she now felt, because Alana refused to let this be how her story ended.
For a moment, everything was blue. Warm spread through Alana's body, radiating out in every direction. She heard a voice yell out, and she was pretty sure it was her own as the dark energy fought back. But her light overcame it, swelling up from the heart of Slugterra. She felt it running through the world, the life force of every plant and slug and person, all funneling through her body and coming to her defense-
And then Alana was opening her eyes, looking up at the gray ceiling of the citadel.
She gasped as her senses came back to her, wrapping her arms around herself. She was so cold- what had happened?
Groaning, she sat up. Her head was throbbing, and there were cuts on her arms. Broken glass littered the ground around her. As she carefully got to her feet, she began to cough violently. Her lungs felt freezing cold and clogged.
The dark water.
Alana stumbled forward as she remembered what Dana had tried to do. The glass tube, the dark water gas, and then she had released a burst of slug energy. Apparently it had been strong enough to not only save her life, but wreak havoc on the room. Smoke and dust drifted through the air- part of the walls and ceiling had crumbled away.
The glass separating the ghouling area from the control room had shattered, but that half of the room was empty. Three bodies laid on the ground in front of the door. It looked like they had tried to rush out of the room just before the explosion of energy.
The two uniformed workers' outfits were tattered and torn. One of them had a shard of glass sticking out of his shoulder. Dana looked the worst, with blood covering the right side of her face. She was shaking, and Alana guessed Dana was probably feeling just as disorientated as herself with so much energy being released in one spot.
Alana stood there for a moment, staring at the carnage around her, shivering and wishing her lungs didn't feel like they'd been breathing in freezing water from the Underriver.
I need to leave. The thought finally surfaced through the pain and confusion. I need to get out of here now.
She didn't want to move. She was sore and exhausted and tired of the constant action. But she also knew that if she was still around by the time Dana came to, she'd be pushing her luck on her old friend's reluctance to kill her.
So, motivated with the thought of being able to rest once she escaped the citadel, she forced herself to jog out of the ghouling room, her teeth chattering. Once she was out in the halls of the citadel, she had to just take random twists and turns in the hope of escaping. She carefully opened every door she passed, praying one would be an exit. She found herself continuously getting lucky- she hadn't run into any Blakk Industries workers. Normally, Alana would have been questioning the emptiness of the citadel, but at this point, she didn't care. She was just glad she wasn't finding another fight.
Finally, one door Alana swung open wasn't an exit, but it was close enough.
It was a storage room, with a line of red tinted windows that led to the back parking lot of the citadel. It looked like nobody had touched the place in ages. Filing cabinets lined each wall, labeled with letters of the alphabet. A sign read EMPLOYMENT RECORDS.
Alana didn't want to care. But the very small part of her that could still remember feeling like information about Blakk was the most important thing took over for a minute. Without even thinking, she pulled open the E drawer. She scanned the files and grabbed the one labeled Edwards in a shaking hand.
As she shut the filing cabinet, Alana heard faint voices in the hall. She jumped a bit and quickly hurried over to the windows, pushing one open. She climbed out, landing on the stone ground behind the citadel. She swayed, suddenly met with a head rush, but steadied herself and hurried over to the lot with the Mechas.
Alana was running on autopilot. She didn't know what to do or where to go, but she knew that the pain and fear she'd felt almost being ghouled were memories that wouldn't go away any time soon. She just wanted to leave, and then she could figure it all out from there.
She mounted a hyena Mecha and tore away from the citadel, still shivering and harboring a painful headache. She forced herself to keep moving, remembering how Dana had tracked her before on Midnight. She pulled up the hyena's control settings and switched off all forms of tracking and positioning.
And then Alana wrapped her arms around herself in desperate attempt to stay warm, still bleeding from where glass shards had cut into her arms. She didn't know where she was driving- there was no gang to return to.
But anywhere was better than the Blakk Industries citadel.
~~~~~~~~
The Lumino lights of the caverns were beginning to dim. Sam yawned, rubbing her eyes and trying to keep herself awake. She had been leading the caravan of healers through the caverns surrounding Blakk's citadel all afternoon. They couldn't get close, but they scanned every backway and alley in search for any sign of Alana, walking through town after town.
They'd found nothing. The group remained silent until Rhydian finally broke the silence as they traveled down a shopping district.
"Sam, should we think about heading-" Rhydian began, but Sam immediately cut him off.
"Absolutely not. We keep looking," she insisted. Rhydian's shoulders sagged slightly.
"I know you want to find her," he said quietly, riding his tiger Mecha next to Sam. "And I'm not saying we should give up. Just that once it gets dark, we should get a room at an inn or motel. Alex can pulverise a lot of people, but a group of healers wandering around in the dark is just asking to get jumped."
Sam sighed, running her hands through her hair.
"You're right. We'll finish this street and find somewhere to settle down for the night," she said. "I'm just scared for her. I don't know why, but I have a feeling this isn't going to be good."
"When is it ever?" Rhydian asked teasingly. But his gaze softened. "Don't worry, man. She'll be-"
Rhydian was cut off as a Mecha suddenly slammed onto its brakes to avoid hitting him from the side.
There had been a stop sign that the other driver had apparently missed. Rhydian nearly jumped out of his skin, speeding forward to avoid contact with the hyena Mecha.
"Watch out, dude-" he began, but was cut off when he saw the driver.
It was a young girl, her arms wrapped around herself. It looked like she was hugging a folder to her chest. Her hair hung in her face, but Sam recognized her, gasping and jumping off her doe Mecha.
"Alana?!" she cried out, sprinting forward and resting a hand on the girl's arm. "Alana, is that you?"
The girl raised her head and Sam gasped. Alana's skin was pale, and she looked absolutely exhausted, with faint circles under her eyes. Now up close, Sam could see dried blood on Alana's arms, and she almost began to panic when she saw red in Alana's hair, but it didn't look like blood.
"Alana, what happened?" Sam asked as Alex backed the medic cart up the hyena Mecha.
Alana opened her mouth to respond, but shivered and tensed up, shaking her head and hugging the folder closer to her.
"She looks like she is going to-"
Before Gwen could finish her observation, Alana slumped over. She would have fallen off the Mecha if Sam and Rhydian didn't catch her.
"Pass out," Gwen finished, swinging the medic cart doors open.
"She's so cold," Rhydian gasped, feeling Alana's forehead with the back of his hand. Sam stared down at the girl in her arms, looking dazed. "Sam? Sam, snap out of it!"
Sam gasped and shook her head, forcing her shock away. She had never seen Alana look anything like this, and she couldn't stop thinking, why her? She's just a kid. What did she ever do wrong?
"Right. Up we go," Sam said. She and Rhydian lifted Alana into the medic cart in unison, setting her onto the gurney. She and Rhydian jumped in, strapping Alana down onto the bed.
"We need to get her to Bonnie Springs now," Rhydian said, looking at Alana with wide eyes.
"I'll set your Mecha beasts to follow mine, I'll bring up the rear. Call me in if you need me," Gwen said, shutting the cart doors. Sam nodded and braced herself as the cart jolted forward. For a moment, everything shook. Then Alex got a handle on how to maneuver the vehicle with the added cargo and the ride smoothened out.
"What's this?" Rhydian asked, picking up the manila folder from where it lay on Alana's stomach. "Says 'Edwards' on it."
"Then it's no good, but probably important," Sam said butterly, taking the folder and setting it in in a mounted container on one of the cart doors where they put patients' possessions.
Even with the ground shaking beneath them, Rhydian and Sam kept their balance. They'd already had plenty of practice working the move- the more moves Blakk made, the more patients they saw.
"What could have happened to make her cold like this?" Rhydian asked, tugging off one of Alana's gloves and tossing it to Sam to put in the container so he could feel her pulse.
"It's... a long story," Sam said, remembering Alana's energy. The cold state combined with that red in her hair...
Many of the blue streaks were now scarlet, but Sam knew it wasn't blood. There were no other signs of a head injury.
"Pulse is weak and irregular, but she's not crashing. And I got a feeling there's a lot of long stories with this one," he said, gesturing down to the wrist he held. It was Alana's right arm. Sam winced when she saw the jagged scar on the slinger's forearm.
"That one's not what it looks like, actually," she noted as she grabbed bandages from a cabinet, pausing as the cart bumped and jostled for a moment before also grabbing a bottle of disinfectant. "A dagger cut, from the same person that I think is responsible for whatever's wrong with her."
"Blakk?" Rhydian guessed, gently feeling Alana's sides to check for broken ribs. "No torso injuries, I don't know what kind of fight she was in."
"No, not Blakk," Sam said, wetting a bandage with disinfectant before wrapped it around the worst of the cuts on Alana's arm. "Believe it or not, another kid. She works for Blakk. Do you notice her sleeves look a little singled? And her collar? Looks like a Tazerling."
"Probably an Amperling," Rhydian noted, looking at Alana's as Sam grabbed a headband from the cabinet, pushing back Alana's bangs so they could see her face. "Geez, she looks horrible."
Sam's heart sank as she clearly saw Alana's face. She looked older than any fifteen-year-old should. She was about to forget all about keeping Alana's energy a secret and get the group's Fandangos around when Alana's eyes suddenly opened.
She gasped and immediately began to struggle in the straps of the gurney. Sam saw that Alana's arms were shaking as she tried to thrash around.
"What- where am I-?" Alana gasped. Rhydian quickly backed away, holding onto one of the rails on the cart doors as Sam put her hands on Alana's shoulders.
"Alana, it's okay, it's Sam, it's Sam Gray," she reassured. "You're safe now, you're just strapped down because we're on a moving cart."
Alana relaxed, staring up at Sam's face with wide, tearful eyes. Sam's heart sank as the tears began to stream down Alana's face.
"I'm so cold," Alana said, and Sam realized that Alana's shaking wasn't from fear- she was shivering.
Rhydian needed no prompting from Sam. From a bolted-down container on the ground, he pulled out a heavy blanket and laying it over Alana.
Ash, who had been silently sitting on Sam's shoulder, afraid to interfere, hopped down onto Alana's stomach, his head aflame. Alana reached out a shaking hand and pressed it against the lower half of Ash's body, but Sam could tell that even the Infurnus wasn't giving Alana much comfort.
"Alana, we need to know what happened. There doesn't look like there's a lot of physical injury," Sam said, stressing the physical part. This was something to do with Alana's energy, but Sam had no idea how Alana's energy worked, or what could affect it like this.
"Dana... dark water... it was so cold," Alana breathed. "Did Max make it? Is Max okay?"
"Max is fine, she made it to Bonnie Springs," Sam assured. Her heart was pounding at Alana's mention of dark water, but Rhydian reacted much worse. He quickly backed away from Alana, looking relieved to be wearing his standard white gloves.
"Did you say dark water?" he asked, looking up at Sam fearfully. "You were exposed to dark water? Why aren't you a ghost thing, I heard that's what happened to the Deadweed miners!"
"Dark energy works in weird ways," Sam replied, thinking about Dana. "Especially when it comes to Alana."
"So much dark water. And then light," Alana said, her voice rattling. "I got out. My chest hurts. My lungs. I breathed it in."
Rhydian looked up at Sam in terror, then back down at Alana.
"You breathed in dark water?" he gasped. "What the heck happened?"
"Tried.. to ghoul," Alana croaked, beginning to shiver again despite the blanket.
"Someone tried to ghoul you?!" Rhydian exclaimed. Sam felt bad for him- he looked so confused and worried. "Sam, what is going on? Why would someone try to ghoul her?"
"She's a special case," Sam said, reaching for the phone connected to one of the the cart's walls. "Rummage around and see if you can find any more blankets while I call ahead to the hospital."
Rhydian nodded and began sorting through boxes and containers, still looking frightened and confused. Sam felt bad for him as she dialled the number to Bonnie Springs Hospital- Shane Gang business was messy and confusing, and it was definitely more than he signed up for.
"Bonnie Springs Hospital-" a voice said on the other side of the line, but Sam didn't give them a chance to finish.
"This is medical student Sam Gray, inbound with an emergency patient, I need to speak with Doctor Eberly," she said, glancing worriedly at Alana, who was still shivering even though Rhydian had successfully found another blanket.
"Patching you through," the receptionist said quickly. There was a pause, and then a new voice was at the phone.
"Doctor Eberly," the doctor said.
"It's Sam. We intercepted Alana during what looks like her escape from the citadel," Sam reported. "We're on the way back to Bonnie Springs. She isn't in good shape. I need you to get ahold of a Boon Doc and as many Fandangos as we can spare."
Boon Docs, already difficult to find, were becoming a true rarity. The more slugs Blakk ghouled and the more ghoulslingers that showed up in Bonnie Springs, the more the healers hid. The staff at Bonnie Springs would have normally adventured out to find the healers, but a warning from the Shane Gang had stopped them.
If Blakk decided he wanted to take the cavern, he'd ghoul the Boon Docs. And from the story Eli had told her, if Blakk got ahold of any more of those, there would be more tragedies like the Unbeatable Master.
"What's wrong with her that warrants so much healing energy?" Everly asked urgently. "Is she crashing?"
"No, she's stable for now," Sam quickly assured. "But... well, it's not really a physical injury."
She glanced up at Rhydian and sighed.
"They tried to ghoul her, doctor. I know that sounds crazy, but I need you to trust me that it's possible, and-"
Everly cut her off.
"Believe me, I know it's possible. I've seen it before with the Edwards girl," he said grimly. Sam nearly dropped the phone.
"Wait, what-?"
"We couldn't help her. She refused treatment. But Alana may be different," Eberly said. "Although, we've never had any experience curing humans like this, only slugs. She might not have enough left in her to save."
"She will," Sam promised, looking down at Alana's blue eyes, which were only half open. "Hypothetically, we can cure her just like a slug, just with a little extra energy from the Fandango slugs."
"What makes you think that?" Eberly asked curiously. Sam hesitated, glancing up at Rhydian again and sighing. It wasn't her secret to tell, but it could also be a matter of life or death for Alana.
"She has a bond to the light energy of Slugterra," Sam said grimly. "I don't know a lot about energy, but it should work like a slug, right?"
Eberly was silent for a moment. Rhydian was staring down at Alana, who was avoiding his gaze.
"O-okay," Eberly stammered, and Sam could practically hear the unasked questions in his head. "Then we won't do it inside if we're messing with energy. Once you're in Bonnie Springs, go around the back of the hospital, and we'll have the slugs ready in the lot."
"Sounds good. We'll be there soon," Sam said, hanging up the phone and holding onto the gurney as the cart met a few more bumps in the road.
She looked up at Rhydian, a small smile on her face.
"It sounds crazy, doesn't it?" she asked. He nodded, glancing up from Alana.
"Little bit," he said. "These kids keep getting crazier and crazier, huh?"
"You're telling me," Sam said, feeling Alana's forehead with the back of her hand. The girl was still cold, even with the two blankets, but other than that, she seemed fine. "Can you hear me, Alana?"
Alana nodded.
"Yeah," she croaked weakly. Sam offered a small smile, but Alana didn't return it.
She looks almost dead, Sam thought sadly. I don't know what happened to her, but she looks like she's aged five years.
~~~~~~~~~
After a while, there were three rapid knocks on the doors of the cart- Gwen's signal that they were approaching the hospital. Sam and Rhydian readied themselves.
The Mecha rolled to a stop, and Gwen swung open the cart doors. Sam and Rhydian immediately lifted the gurney up and out of the cart and onto the ground. Ash jumped back onto Sam, looking at Alana sadly. She'd barely responded to him.
The back lot of Bonnie Springs hospital had rows of Mechas and carts, some of them pushed away to give the healers enough space to bring Alana out. There were a half dozen doctors, all in white jackets and holding a Fandango slug and blaster. Doctor Eberly stood at the center, holding a small green Boon Doc in his hand.
Sam and Rhydian wheeled the gurney to the center of the circle, Alex and Gwen following behind them. Eberly looked down at Alana and his eyes widened.
"She isn't overheating?" he asked when he saw the two heavy blankets.
"The opposite, actually. She's still cold," Sam said grimly. "I don't think the dark energy took total control- she hasn't been attacking us- but it's definitely affecting her."
"Then we need to be rid of it as soon as possible," Eberly said, unclipping his simple white blaster from its holster and loading the Boon Doc. Eberly, Alex, Rhydian, and Gwen all backed away to the edges of the circle of doctors, but Sam hesitated, lingering by Alana's side.
"She'll be fine," Eberly assured. "But you shouldn't stand at the center of what is soon to be a whirlwind of energy if you can avoid it."
Sam took one more glance at Alana, pale and shivering, before backing away and standing beside Eberly and the others.
"Ready!" Eberly called, raising his blaster. The other six doctors did the same, loading their Fandangos.
"Fire!"
The Boon Doc flew in a spiral around Alana, with the six Fandangos trailing behind it. The slugs created a whirl of pale green and light blue light, and Sam's dark eyes widened as the lot suddenly felt much warmer. But it was warm in the way a hug felt, not searing heat from flames.
A funnel of red light rose up from Alana's chest. It looked like a jagged scar compared to the other blue and green lights. There was a flash of white, and the red light turned bright blue. It dove back down into Alana. For a moment, the girl glowed blue. Then the light faded, and the seven slugs returned to protoform, landing on the ground of the lot. The warmth faded away, but Sam could still remember how it felt to be in the presence of so much light energy.
The Boon Doc looked exhausted, and even the Fandango slugs were yawning. But they all looked pleased. The Boon Doc hopped back up into Doctor Eberly's hand and immediately curled up to rest.
Sam rushed forward to Alana, her heart pounding. She was excited to see her friend back to her lighthearted and happy self.
But when she reached the gurney, Sam's heart sank.
There was still a single streak of scarlet in Alana's hair, front and center on her bangs. Her skin wasn't deathly pale anymore, but it certainly wasn't as radiant as it had been before, and there were still faint dark circles under Alana's eyes. She appeared to be unconscious, but her breathing was back to normal, with no more rattling.
She was much better than she was before, but she wasn't the same.
She had looked so bad... it must not have all been because of the dark energy, she thought worriedly.
A hand on her shoulder made Sam jump a bit, but she relaxed when she saw Gwen.
"It looks like she will be fine, but she still looks very worn out," Gwen noted. "I am not sure what exactly happened to her, but there must be more to it than just what happened at Blakk's citadel."
Sam nodded as she and Gwen led the wall back into Bonnie Springs hospital, a towering white and green building with many glass panels that radiating light and safety.
"I don't know, but it takes a lot to make her like this," Sam said quietly. Ash hopped down onto the gurney. He laid down by his slinger's head, but didn't close his eyes. He just kept watching her like he was scared she would be separated from him again. "She has a tendency to bottle things up, and I... I'm not sure if she'd talk about bad things that might've happened, even with me. I might send you in once she wakes up."
Gwen gave her a wry smile.
"She's a child. If she won't talk to you, she won't talk to me," she said. "But I'll try to coax some things out of her."
~~~~~~~~~
For a moment, everything was warm.
Dana's anger faded. Why did she hate Alana so much, again? Why was she so bent on hurting her old friend? Why was she so determined to watch Slugterra crumble to ash? What had happened to her?
It was, in a way, a small moment of clarity.
Then her dark energy swelled in her, sending chills through her body. The storm of energy that dwelled inside her, momentarily calmed, swelled up again.
GET UP!
She bolted upright, hissing in pain. Broken glass was on the floor all around her. The two workers from the control room were nearby, face-down in the rubble. She saw their backs rising and falling- they were still alive.
Dana carefully raised a hand to her face and winced. Her right cheek stung, and when she pulled her hands away, her fingerless glove was stained red. Smaller cuts, from the shattered glass cylinder, riddled her arms.
Groaning, Dana got to her feet, leaning up against a wall, looking at where the glass cylinder had stood. Emergency ventilation had kicked in, sucking the dark water gas back into pipes running through the floor. The platform that was the floor of the cylinder was empty, and the doors of the ghouling room were ajar.
She'd escaped.
Dana growled and slammed her fist against the wall, creating a crack in the gray. She stared down at the ground, trying to think of what to do next, when she caught a glimpse of herself in a faint reflection from the broken glass. Her heart nearly stopped. Had it been a flash of blue she'd seen?
She stumbled into the control room, her breathing shaky. With trembling hands, she grabbed a holodesk from one of the tables and opened it, turning on the front-facing camera.
"No..." she whispered when she saw her reflection.
There was a gash on her cheek. Red was dripping down her face, but her skin looked tanner than usual. Almost like it had used to. And several red streaks in her hair had given away to light blue ones, just like Alana's.
The pain on her face didn't even matter anymore. The sight of the blue in her hair was enough to put any worries of pain out of her mind.
Dana slammed the holodesk shut so hard the case bent at the center. She whipped around, heading back into the ghouling chamber, her head spinning.
What if I don't fix it, and just hide it?
NO, I need to get rid of it, I can't have light energy in my system-
What's so wrong with it? That moment where I was surrounded by light energy, it was exhilarating.
Not as exhilarating as feeling the darkness course through you when you fight, knowing that you've got one of the most powerful forces in Slugterra up your sleeve.
Dana knew the light was clouding her judgement. And she know she had to get rid of it.
She walked over to the barrels that had contained the dark water meant to ghoul Alana. With a scowl, she saw that there was only one partial barrel left. The other dark water was either in Alana's system, or circulating through the emergency ventilation. A quarter tank would have to do.
It took almost no effort to yank the lid off the barrel. Without hesitation, Dana tipped it on its side. The sound of the metal clanging against the ground must've been enough to jolt the two workers back into consciousness, because they stirred, sitting up and watching Dana in confusion.
A smile formed on her lips as dark water seeped onto the ground, forming a puddle. There was a faint hissing as it made contact with the metal and glass, but that didn't stop Dana form stepping into the center of the newly formed pool.
"What are you doing?!" one of the workers cried out. Dana sighed, her shoulders relaxing as she felt the icy dark energy around her, already seeping into her senses and drowning out the warmth of the light.
"Fixing things," she said quietly, raising her hands. The red liquid began to bubble and glow scarlet. The red light shot upwards, spiraling around Dana.
It felt like she was standing in the middle of a blizzard in Chillbore Cavern. Ice in every direction, bare skin prickling. Furious, raging dark energy, resisting being tamed but excited to find a host, filling her with the urge to fight and destroy and take revenge and do whatever she wanted just because she could.
The two workers trembled in fear as they saw the streaks of blue in Dana's hair turn red, one by one. Her skin paled again, making her look like a ghost, and when the dark water on the ground had completely bubbled away and the red light faded, she took a deep, relaxed breath like nothing had ever happened.
When she opened her eyes, they were pure scarlet, and full of malice.
"Come on," she told the workers, stretching her arms out like she had just woken up. "We've got a mess to clean up."
~~~~~~~~
When Alana opened her eyes, the first time she did was take the deepest breath of her life.
Her lungs were clear, no longer tinted with dark water. She sighed in relief, but didn't truly feel relieved.
She sat up, holding her head with her hands. She felt like someone had hit it with a Rammstone. She blinked a few times and lowered her hands, looking around.
The room she was in was warm, and mostly white. She lay on a white hospital bed with a thick light green blanket over her, and fluffy pillows for her head. She had an IV in her left arm, which made her queasy to think about, so she ignored it. Ash slept right beside where her head had been laying, snoring softly.
Memories of the ride to Bonnie Springs were faint. She remembered talking to Sam and the other healer, and then being in the back lot of the hospital. She remembered the rush of light energy as the Boon Doc purged the darkness inside her.
"You're awake!" an excited voice sad. Alana turned toward the doorway, where Sam Gray stood. She wore a purple button-up shirt beneath her white jacket, and her dark curly hair was tied back in a bun.
"Hey, Sam," Alana said, giving a small smile. But it felt unnatural. Like so much had happened, so much had gone wrong, she shouldn't be very happy. Not after almost being ghouled. Not after learning about the West.
And she couldn't help but notice that Sam's smile seemed a little forced, too.
"I'm so glad you're okay," Sam said, walking into the room and resting a hand on Alana's shoulder. Ash stirred, looking up at his slinger and immediately smiling.
"Thanks. I'm glad you found me," Alana said, hoping she didn't sound as bad as she felt.
It was over. She'd been rescued. Dana wasn't there anymore, and she hadn't been ghouled. So why did she still feel so hollow inside?