To the Core (Drake)

[The Guardian]

"No, but I appreciate the offer. Let us take care of you for now. Get better. Then you can see what you are able to contribute if you still feel up to it. Okay?"

[Drake]

Drake sighed.

"Fine. In that case... can I get some food... I'm a little hungry, and that bog water is all I've had for some time..."

[The Guardian]

"That I can do. Get some rest, I'll see you get some food and let you know when the results are in."

[Drake]

Drake would lean back and rest his eyes. Just for a moment.

[The Guardian]

Drake's exhaustion would catch up to him. Drifting off into a restless sleep. He found himself alone in the dark, feeling something pulsing around him in all directions. A strange mix of energy, similar but not unlike the one that had driven him to the man of worms. But this one was distant and wasn't calling to him.

In the darkness, he could make out a figure, but any time his eyes tried to focus on the man he'd find himself forced to look away, unable to bear the sight of his light. His heart beating quickly in fear and excitement. A mix of emotions and familiarity threatened to overtake him every time he looked at the figure before being forced to turn away.

[Drake]

"Its you again, isn't it. But the real question. Is it the real you, or am I just hallucinating like the good Doc said I would?"

Drake rolled his eyes. Right, smart to ask the hallucination if it was real. This was all in his head. Well, now wasn't a time to cower. He would turn around and try and force himself to face the light no matter intense, he would use his hand to sheild from the brightest of it peeking through his fingers. For a glimpse at what was behind.

[The Guardian]

The hand did little to stop the brightness from burning him. It shielded him just enough that he could feel a sense of familiarity from the figure. Like he knew him. From more than the incident with the worm man. A feeling of nostalgia and hope and fear that were primal and fluid. Shifting from one emotion to the next in an instant until they blurred together. The feeling of power all around him began to close in as the darkness grew. Suffocating him.

Pain wracked his soul as he felt something burrowing and gnawing away at it. Vision flashing through his mind. Maggots crawling out of a hole in the ground. A green fog pouring out of countless bloody corpses in front of him. His teeth ripping into Melody's neck, ripping out her throat. He could taste the blood as it poured out of his mouth. A single green flower oozing it's toxic nectar over the field of corpses.

The visions flickered. Melody was in his arms, her stomach swollen with growing life. It flickered again he was alone surrounded by green fog facing a horde of monstrosities. Time after time he watched his life end. Snuffed out by the monsters. Sometimes dying on his feet, sometimes crawling away as he mutated and became one of them. Vision after vision of failure, but through them, all the figure hovered above, just out of sight watching in silence. The horrible crushing feeling of hope radiating off of him.

[Drake]

Drake watched in mix horror and confusion as he witnessed all this that happened on front of him. He clenched his fist. The lapse, the familiarity... he looked at the glowing being despite the pain it caused.

"So, how long have you and I been at this little game of yours? These are more than visions aren't they?"

He asked wiping the blood from his face.

"How many times have failed? How long do you intend to watch?"

He asked not really expecting an answer... he looked about as the visions continued to flash and he would look back at the being.

"I don't care how many times I fail! I'll never quit! I'll find a way! Not just for me but for them too! You watch! Since that's what you do, and you will see!"

Drake called out in challenge!

[The Guardian]

The figure started to descend getting closer to Drake as he yelled out his challenge. It was blinding, it was almost impossible to not look away but he was so close. Almost within touching distance. Just another inch...

[Drake]

Drake reached out. But not to snag, nor to touch but to offer his hand. A handshake. A formal sign that he was going to stand by his words, and wasn't going to back down!

[The Guardian]

He'd awaken to a startled gasp and the clattering of a tray. His arm sticking out toward Melody who dropped the tray of food at his sudden movement.

"I'm sorry. I'll fix you something else to eat."

She was kneeling down cleaning up the mess she made.

[Drake]

Drake would lower his arm. Feeling like a Jack ass.

"I'm sorry, I was just... bad dreams."

He would say as he helped her clean.

"Melody... where can I go to learn more about the blight, when it started and how it came to be. Stuff like that?"

[The Guardian]

"No, don't apologize. I'm just being jumpy. Nighttime always gives me the heebies. It's not your fault."

She sounded more frustrated with herself than anything. Frustrated and embarrassed.

"There really isn't anywhere to go. The great cities of the past are all swallowed by the bog. What we have and know is all here. This is all that's left."

[Drake]

Drake would nod.

"Well, don't worry too much. We do have the great Sir Reginold Meyers the sixth watching and keep us safe. Right? So, it's ok. As for me, I won't be rippng into your flesh, I gotta promise to keep."

He would say with a humorless chuckle.

"Who would you say is the oldest, or most knowledgeable here?"

[The Guardian]

"I know he comes off as strict. But he really is a good guy. He's done a lot to keep us safe, my whole life. It can't be easy."

She frowned, putting the soiled food back on the tray and standing back up.

"That would probably be Reginold Myers the Fifth. He was the Commander before his son took over. But he's the oldest one of us still alive."