#ftlog!au

Simon’s whole body buzzed with sudden, unexplainable energy. Practically the whole ocean did. He could feel it in his bones, his blood, right down to his very core.

Something foreign has entered the bloody waters of the Moon.

He couldn’t exactly see it, but he could sense it, in a way. His mind became aware, too aware, when he succumbed to the blood in his pod. Simon could now feel things like tugs against his brain itself. The tug didn’t feel particularly malicious— it felt just like a hunk of metal— but he went to explore anyway. It could be a ship the COI sent when he didn’t surface. It would be fun to tear it apart.

His new body was an odd one, for sure. If the COI did actually send more people, he would look so entirely different from what they know what “human” looks like. Webbed hands and feet, tendrils of what could only be described as tree branches sprouting from where his arm had ripped off during the time inside of the pod. They were barely of use, really just there because his body needed to course correct itself with a limb. Gills ran the length of his neck and down his shoulder blades. The clothes that once kept him a semblance of warm in the cold hull of that ship were long since lost to the sea.

Clawed hands reached out as Simon got closer to the hunk of metal. Delicately, almost as if afraid to break the thing in front of him, he ran his nails over the surface. It made a sound he didn’t particularly like, so he pulled away. Now he thought it was just a probe from Ava trying to get more information about the sea. He knew better than to mess with her tech.

But the thing itself didn’t seem to care. The metal expanded out a bit, sucking and pulling blood into its internal hold. That included a bit of Simon’s tree-arm-thing he just self-referred to as his tendrils.

A low, rumbling sound came from his throat as Simon put his working hand on the metal junk. With claws digging into the metal now, he pushed and fought to get out of the blasted thing’s grip. It fractured a bit under his hand, but the efforts were in vain. He was trapped to the ball.

Something akin to the sound of hydraulics thrummed through the thick waters around Simon. He realised just a second too late that the metal ball holding him hostage was shifting; breaking apart.

Thin, twirled wires shot out from the holes around the large ball. They wrapped themselves tightly around Simon, pulling him closer, trapping his chest against something too cold for his tastes, forcing his legs together, slamming his arm to the chain above.

Then the winch started up.

Simon found himself ascending rapidly. It turned his brain to mush. So long in the blood ocean had he grown comfortable with the pressure of the ocean floor. Now that he was being pulled up, the pressure on his eyeballs and skull was lessening increasingly every second that passed, causing both to feel like they were about to burst. That same low sound emitted from his throat again, this time louder and definitely more panicked.

Sometime up, he could see the blood shifting up, could feel the tug on his brain. He was getting closer to the surface. He hated the surface. The pressure was too little for his head, making the entire upper half of his body burn. A few more pushes on the chain and ball did nothing to help his predicament. Simon could feel himself start to panic now, which was something he hadn’t had since the submarine. It made his entire body lock up.

The surface of the sea was getting closer.

Closer.

Closer.

He breached the top of the sea along with the ball. His gills flung open to search for any blood, any oxygen to pull in and breathe with. But they found nothing. The moon had essentially no atmosphere, which is why the COI sealed both the submarine tightly and the facility it was made in. Any leakage from the submarine and it would have veered off-course and surfaced, meaning that the limited oxygen supply they provided Simon would dwindle very quickly, and it was apparently a hassle to get another convict, so they’d rather have kept their little guinea pig alive.

Well, obviously that didn’t turn out well.

Simon’s hand went slack as he breathed in nothing but essentially the vacuum of space. His vision didn’t even tunnel. It immediately went black as he slipped into unconsciousness. Whatever or whoever was pulling him from the depths, he just hoped they were merciful with his body.

.・。.・゜🩸・.・🚀・゜・。.

‘Alright buddy, I think we’re ready to drop it now.’ Grace spoke as he checked over the screen for the fourth time within a human hour.

The Eridian scientists, once his biodome finally was adjusted to Grace’s tastes, turned to the technology he had bought with him in the Hail Mary. Rocky’s design to actually see the screens came in very useful during the period starting to transfer technology over. Soon, they learned how to recreate the screens well enough to be used with Eridian biology. Then, they looked up at the stars again. With Grace’s guidance (and maybe a few snarky comments thrown the Eridian's way), they could figure out the paths needed to visit surrounding systems with the knowledge of relativity and time dilation this time. And with the Astrophage under control, they could use the alien species as fuel to get there.

A particular planet nearby made the Eridians bring the project to Grace. It had been a couple months of him saying he’d much rather never go in a spaceship for as long as he needed to, but they were insistent. He was confused of the importance at first, until he made them get actual images of the planet using a telescope/probe hybrid that they managed to get together pretty quickly. The rough image Grace had been shown didn’t translate to what he was looking at.

Blood. On a moon orbiting the planet completely devoid of life, past or present.

It took a couple of days of convincing, but eventually Grace agreed to board the Hail Mary again to go see what the moon was about. After all, he was a scientist at heart. He couldn’t ignore this mystery for too long.

‘Dropping the blood collector!’ Rocky’s pippy music notes shouted up from near the laboratory window, bringing Grace out of his head. He fiddled with the remote for a second, then waited. A thunk told the two the collector had dropped as planned. Now they would wait a couple of minutes for the Eridian steel ball to fill up with blood due to the viscosity. After that, all that needed to be done was to bring it back up into its holder, then Grace would spacewalk out to get it. Simple. Just like the Adrian adventure, except they had full control now due to upgraded command panels and no gravity to force them closer to the rocky terrain below.

There was silence for a few minutes. Grace found himself humming a tune. He wasn’t the best at replicating Eridian tones just yet, but he was getting there. Human brains were remarkably capable at mimicking whatever it saw fit. And besides, it was just a small rhyme he made up for his class regarding the solar system they resided in to keep their little brains grasped onto that knowledge.

‘Grace. Stop baby-talking yourself. I can hear it.’ Rocky’s voice sounded from the laboratory below, causing the human to chuckle. Rocky never particularly liked the rhymes he came up with for the classes, especially when the Eridian had pebbles of his own that wouldn’t stop saying it. He had grown quite annoyed with the sequence of notes.

Grace smiled a little wider. 'Sorry, bud, it's stuck in my head too.'

Silence followed once more. Things taking forever was normal, but this was an odd amount of time.

‘Rock. What’s taking the collector so long? It’s supposed to be back by now.’ Grace leaned forward and brought up the Petrovascope. It functioned like a regular camera too, which was its main feature nowadays. He tilted it as far down as it would go so he could see the ocean a couple kilometres below. That was to no avail. It was best to get as close to the ocean as possible to reduce risk of the chain breaking, but it made it difficult for the Petrovascope to tilt down far enough to see the blood. He wished they were a little further up so he could see. Grace was staring into mountains of rock lining the horizon instead of the red below.

Rocky’s thinking hums floated through the ship. He too did a second later, as he came climbing through in his xenonite suit. An Eridian version of an iPad sat in two of his hands.

‘I do not know. The weight is unusually heavy. Is there too much blood?’ Rocky “looked” back up to Grace from where he floated near the head of the pilot chair. Grace shook his head.

‘No, I know how heavy blood is. I know how heavy it should be. Did debris cling to it?’ There was no explanation for the added weight to the blood collector. The substance had a very set weight and they accounted for that with the xenonite chain and speed of ascent. Only explanation was a rock was now stuck to their data. Unlucky. They just needed the blood since the moon's landscape looked like a similar compound to Luna's make-up.

‘Whatever.’ Rocky let his tablet float away into the space of the cockpit. A hand grabbed at the back of Grace’s headrest. The Eridian was ever so impatient. ‘Get into the suit, Grace. I will take over from here. The collector should be back any minute soon.’

The human sighed, but did what he was asked. Rocky settled into the seat instead with two of his arms crossed while two more tapped away on his tablet. Rocky could technically do the spacewalk himself and get the collector, but he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see Grace struggling with it himself. It was funny, so could you really blame him? Besides, Grace did whatever he wanted.

The procedure to get outside was the same as always; get into the Olsan suit, depressurize the airlock, attach two tethers and open the outside door. That was over and done with quickly. It was basically second nature to the scientist. He spent about a third of his time doing spacewalks on his original mission.

Once outside, Grace started to climb down the side of the Hail Mary. He let the tethers keep him close to the metal under his hands and feet. Luckily, there were plenty of tether points near the collecting station the Eridians installed among other things on his hull. That was also semi-easy. Only once did one foot slip and Grace saw his life flash before his eyes. But that was about it. Pretty decent for his old man joints.

A couple moments passed after Grace got to the collector point. He let himself rest against the tethers like one would do with a full-body harness. A quick glance down showed him the collector rising from the surface of the sea. Finally. Now they could figure out what was going on with this confusing moon, and why it had blood on it in the first place, and whatever was stuck to the ball needed to be studied too, that’s why they added the net feature for if anything touched it, because—

Oh.

Oh no.

That… Grace leaned against his tethers the best he could to see. The object was dark and covered in red, except for the thing sticking straight up from the main portion. Most of the thicker blood had pulled away from the thing’s extended limb, revealing…

A hand. A human hand.

Human.

Grace stared straight ahead. He was sat in a rolling chair he had brought into the medical bay. Rocky was sat next to him, tinkering away on a small xenonite board. The human was confused by his friend's insistence on watching the creature, but let it happen anyway.

The creature, if he would be allowed to call it that, was strapped down to the bed. Webbed feet remained motionless at the edge. Deep valleys of scars ran the length of the humanoid. They closely resembled vines up the side of a building, climbing the thing's legs and torso. Grace could barely look at the tendrils coming out from a stub on its arm without feeling like he was about to throw up. It was unnatural, and wrong, and definitely shouldn't be growing on something like that.

'Armando, what's its vitals like?' He hadn't asked the question before, afraid of the answer. Was it human? Was it alien? Was it even alive anymore?

The robotic arm spun back from where it was inserting a tube down the thing's throat for nutrients. Grace winced internally at the sight. He had choked on that very tube when he first woke up on the Hail Mary. 'Species detection: unclear. Observed variations: human and aquatic animal. Blood pressure is 140/60. Heartbeat is too erratic to gather a formal reading. Overall, he is in critical condition, but shows signs of steadily recovering.' Armando's voice sounded through the small space. He had grown used to the thing in his home as just another commodity. Now that it had been reinstalled in the Hail Mary and doing its job, he didn't know how to talk to it.

'How long will it take for it to– wait, did you say he?' Grace tore his eyes away from the thing on the bed to look at Armando properly.

'Correct, Captain Grace. He presents male biology and has an abundance of testosterone in his body.' The arm shook at him for a moment before returning to threading the tube down the (apparently) male's throat.

Grace looked over to Rocky in confusion. The alien turned one of his faces at his friend— the one reserved for smugness or disappointment— and spoke. 'Grace, this creature is partially fish. You are an excellent scientist. Please use your squishy brain.'

Okay, now Rocky was just being disrespectful. He was usually bright and happy, if not a little sassy sometimes. Yes, the realisation of mutated biology registered in the back of his mind vaguely, but his friend's sudden snappiness was of more importance.

'What's wrong, Rock?' He asked in the kindest voice he could muster through the stress of the situation.

The Eridian let out an equivalent to a sigh by humming lowly. "Grace is taking a lot of interest in the new subject. I feel as if you will... I do not know. Forget about our friendship, I suppose. All of your attention will be on the creature.' Rocky spoke with his carapace lowered to the floor a little. Grace felt a twang in his chest, and a smile rose to his face.

'Bud... are you jealous? Of this thing?' He didn't mean to, but he was a little taken aback. Rocky never really got jealous over anything. Most of the scientists on Erid were too afraid to use the xenonite suits to visit Grace, and his classes didn't last very long, so Rocky had all the time on the planet to spend with his friend (and his mate, when ze wanted to join in zeir free time). Rocky clicked a short tone; nothing that was a word, but an affirmative to Grace nonetheless.

He chuckled and leaned down, wrapping a hand around his friend's upper arm in a comforting gesture. 'I won't spend all of my time with him, I promise. You are my best friend, and I will always have time for you.'

Rocky leaned into the contact. He had grown fond of Grace's human need to touch. Eridians had something similar, so it was not as weird as it could have been. 'I am happy with that. I will always have time to spend with my friend.' He chirped, his carapace held a little higher now and his tones a bit more pitched up. Grace nodded, still smiling.

Armando jumped back from the thing on the bed, drawing both Grace's and Rocky's attention. Grace leaned back up from Rocky with a furrow to his brow.

'Armando, what's wrong?' He barely got the words out before one of the straps came loose from the thing's arm. The tendrils had started to move and pushed the leather off of themselves. Rocky ignored all of the warning signs going off in his body and skittered over.

'I will fix this. He will be restrained again, I promise.' The worried tone to the Eridian's notes was clear. He didn't believe the creature could be harmless. And, if Grace was being honest, he seconded that notion.

The xenonite suit clicked and clacked as Rocky climbed the table to get to underneath the thing. The straps were designed so it looped over his body, but not back into itself, instead being attached underneath the thing's torso. That way, the creature couldn't get itself out by unlatching.

Grace watched in a healthy amount of trepidation. The weird tentacle things were just lazing about now instead of freaking, but he still didn't trust them. There was a watchful eye as Rocky chambered up and onto the thing's chest to fix the strap. The tendrils swayed in their own wind, inching up and up and up— 'Wait, Rocky–' Grace rose from his seat just a second too late.

The slam of xenonite against steel echoed in his ears.

.・。.・゜🩸・.・🚀・゜・。.

The first thing Simon saw was light. Bright, shining directly into his face. It burned his retinas so badly he almost started crying on the spot.

The first thing Simon smelled was cleaning product. His skin had been scrubbed clean and disinfected before being placed on a table. He could feel air (not blood) hitting his skin.

The first thing Simon felt was leather straps around his body. Encircling his arms, his legs, his feet, his torso. They were thick and held down with heavy bolts.

The first thing Simon heard was clicking and pinging. The sounds rang in his ears as he shifted a little on the table, only to realise that he couldn't. There was something large and very heavy on his chest. One eye trailed down to look at it, and he almost swore.

That wasn't anything he'd seen before. It moved like an insect, but sounded like a bird. Articulated, stony hands grabbed at Simon's face as soon as the thing realised he was awake.

A surge of panic rose in his chest. His body reacted before his brain did. The tendrils lifted and curled around the thing on his chest. The other hand ripped itself free from the leather to push it off of him. The combined force of his hand and his extra limb sent the alien flying across the room. It hit the wall with a sickening crunch and slid until it hit the floor.

Simon sat up, lungs heaving in oxygen like his life depended on it. The gills opened too to bring in air. He almost overloaded himself on pure oxygen. Everything went blurry as his vision swam and a hand gripped the edge of the bed for support.

When his eyes seemed to want to work again, he scanned his surroundings. They took in the medical equipment, the robotic looking arm pulled away from his bed, the tube on the floor, speckled with blood. From the raging sting in his throat, Simon could tell it where it was just a minute ago.

Finally, they found the alien again. It was sat against a metal wall nearby, limbs curled around itself protectively.

Then he saw it.

An angel.

It was knelt over the alien, hands running the lengths to check for injuries. Golden hair shone under the bright lights of this new prison and even more gold was dashed across its face. Pure white cloaked it in layers and folds of comfortable looking clothing. It spoke lowly to the alien in tones of comfort and support.

This humanoid was looking after an alien. Checking it, understanding it, taking care of it. It cared for this little rock amalgamation. It looked so soft for a caretaker. It could only possibly be an angel. No human was this kind to another not of itself.

GRACE:

Neck/shoulder beading. Gift from Adrian. Holds his glasses as well. Wears it on Erid.

Arm band from Rocky. Made of parts of his and Adrien's carapaces. Essentially a family crest.

Noisemaker anklets from his class for ease of understanding of questions vs statements.

Arm band from Adrien. More of jewellery then for practical use.

SIMON:

Disciplinary harness. Used to fix posture during prayer and rituals. Remade on the Hail Mary due to Simon not liking being without.

Seed from Eden. Exploded during the crash of the sub and grew out. Somewhere in Simon's body 😓

And obligatory Simon doodle but on whiteboard

'Captain Grace.'

Mary's voice sounded through the room. Grace looked up from his laptop. Rocky barely moved his carapace up, but he was listening.

'Patient number five is now awake. Would you like to go talk to him?' Her voice was soft against his ears. It had been quite a few hours since the creature was hauled up into the ship. Grace calmed down ages back. The combined effort between crying, the adrenaline from the previous situation and his terror at Rocky being hurt had caused a major crash, and he took a nap. Now he was checking over statistics of the ship.

'Uh, sure. But can we not call him just "Patient number five"? That feels dehumanising.' Grace pulled his legs up from over the edge of the walkway. Rocky looked over at him.

But you keep dehumanising him. You keep calling him a creature, a thing. His mind spoke to him. Grace shook his head a little to rattle the thoughts around. He didn't need to be thinking like that.

Mary was quiet for a moment. Possibly pulling up a passenger information sheet or whatever she used to note down names and stuff into her interface

'What do you want to call him then, Captain Grace?'

He thought for a moment. He was never great at naming things to begin with, let alone another human (?). The image of the person flashed in his mind again. Covered in blood, absolutely terrifying, but also somewhat scared. He prayed to a god of some kind. Grace looked over to Rocky and saw a bloody handprint. Probably from when he was bat across the room. An involuntary shiver ran down his spine.

'Uh, let's go Hemo. H-E-M-O.' That sounded right. With all the blood and stuff he had on him. It was a bit on the nose, but not as bad as him naming Rocky or the students in his class. He liked the name.

'Understood, Captain Grace.' The feminine voice sounded cheerful as she always did. 'Hemo is now awake, do you wish to talk to him? Hemo is displaying signs of aggression.'

Grace thought for a moment. Hemo was a dangerous person. He was violent and incredibly strong. He was also not exactly human anymore. But Grace was curious, and he never knew when to stop.

'Yeah, I'll go talk to him.' The laptop lid made a small noise as it shut. 'He might just need someone there.'

'What is Grace doing!? Hemo is dangerous! He threw me, he could hurt you very very much! I don't want you hurt, friend. Let me see him instead.' Rocky pulled on Grace's cardigan insistently. Points dug into the metal of the walkway as if digging his heels into the ground. The human turned and looked down quietly on his friend.

'Rock, I'll be okay. Armando probably has him strapped down.' The man spoke as he leaned down, hand sliding between Rocky and his cardigan. He pried the stony fingers from the article of clothing so he could continue towards the medical bay.

The Eridian didn't look entirely convinced by the reassuring words cast his way. But he couldn't argue. Silly humans and their stupidly dumb ability to disregard all danger towards themselves.

The walk to the medical bay was short. Grace hummed— thankfully not the solar system tune— while Rocky tapped nervously against his arm. There was a new carving there; one that represented Grace. His family, his closest friend. Ever since getting it, Rocky found himself gliding his knuckles over the carving whenever he was stressed. It was a small comfort.

Before they even walked in the door, there was a low vibration through the floor. Grace cast a nervous glance at Rocky. When the Eridian didn't respond, he put a hand on the door handle and pushed it open. Inside was something he's never seen before.

Hemo was sitting upright on the medical bed, eyes wide open. The white one seemed to almost be shining slightly in the dim lighting. Saliva shined along the teeth on his cheek, leaving small strands as it moved open and shut in a rhythmic pattern. His arm no longer had the odd tendrils coming out of it and was bandaged in clean, beige cloth. That seemed to be a major problem for him, clearly. The other arm gripped the edge of the bed like a lifeline.

'Yeah, no kidding about that aggressive behaviour.' Grace murmured to himself as he walked in. Hemo didn't even notice the added presences to the room. An ear bent down, as if protecting his eardrum from the noise of Rocky's chittering. That caught Grace's attention.

He took a further step into the room. A crack resounded as Hemo's neck snapped to the side. He was now looking right at Grace. A shiver crawled up the man's spine.

'RYLAND. GRACE.' Wow, okay, it knew his name. The voice out of Hemo's mouth was definitely not the same one from earlier. It... Grace didn't know how to describe it. It pressed into his skull, came from everywhere around him, came from inside his own body. He couldn't breathe when it spoke.

But that wouldn't deter him. No, not at all. Despite the abnormality of the situation, Grace felt a sense of unease. Hemo didn't seem to be in control of this voice. It seemed to be forcing its way out of his mouth.

'Yes. My name is Ryland Grace. What's your name?' That seemed a good place to start. Hemo was a good nickname, but if he didn't like it, he didn't have to respond to it.

Hemo tilted his head towards the microbiologist. 'NAMES ARE INCONSEQUENTIAL. THEY HOLD NO MEANING, NO PURPOSE. HUMANS DELUDE THEMSELVES INTO STATES OF IDENTITY USING NAMES.'

Grace sighed. Okay, this thing was being a prick. Also wasn't human, but he kind of knew that already. Rocky gripped his cardigan tighter.

'That's fine, you don't have to have a name. Do you at least want clothing?' Yes, perfect. An excellent thing to ask to a potentially completely inhuman being. It would at least provide Hemo with some decency... if he ever came back to consciousness.

The being cracked its head down to look at Hemo's body. His hand raised to touch right above one of the person's pecs, feeling over his heart.

'THIS BODY IS PERFECT. WHY WOULD YOU COVER IT? IT HOLDS MY PATENT.'

Grace squirmed a little in place. Rocky had become silent next to him, observing this new development in the human-like.

'Well, the body is human. Humans like covering themselves.' His voice shook a little as he spoke.

The shining eye turned towards Grace. The entire time, the brown one was glassy and out of focus. For a moment, just a moment, it came back. Fear flashed behind it. Then both eyes rolled, and Hemo was slumping back in the bed. Armando whizzed around to put a pillow under his head before he cracked it against the metal.

'Alrighty then. Just ignore me, weird yelling light thing.' Grace murmured as he stepped forward a couple more times. A hand raised to Hemo's head to check that he hadn't bruised it because of the being while the other rested on his collarbone.

'Hemo is bigger than Grace. Does he need bigger clothing?' Rocky sidled up to the bed and placed a claw on the edge. Grace looked down with a small smile. Even after being chucked across the room and having a bloody handprint left on his xenonite suit, Rocky liked watching this new human. He was curious. The teeth intrigued him the most.

'Yeah, probably bud. We can make some when we get back to Erid. For now, we can just make-do with the larger pieces of my own closet.' The human stepped back and turned towards the door. Something should fit the man without restricting his body too much. Pretty much everything would fit Hemo fine, they were of similar builds, but he had a feeling the man would not like tight clothing at all.

It took a few moments for Grace to find what he needed. The clothing ended up being a pair of flowy brown pants and a navy shirt that said, "I wear this shirt periodically". He was tempted to give Armando the black shirt that said "I had potential" but the joke might fly over Hemo's head and he would get upset. Grace didn't want the new human upset.

'Hey, Ar, I have clothes for Hemo. You alright to dress him?' Grace smiled at the robotic arm when he returned to the medical bay. It twirled away from the human's arm, where it was taking blood pressure, to grab the clothes. A short bob up and down indicated to Grace that Armando was just focusing on the results too much to run a verbal command. Oh well.

Rocky had left to go eat something just a few minutes ago. He loved Grace, but fuck did he still hate when he was watched.

Armando clicked its rubber tips at Grace when he tried turning to leave. He turned with a question on his lips, only to see a small xenonite box on a bench nearby. He clicked his tongue twice as he moved over. Had Armando left him a gift of some kind?

Yes, apparently. Small pieces of the tendril sat in the box alongside sliders and a pair of gloves. He loved this robot to pieces.

'Thanks, Ar. You know me too well.' Grace couldn't help the grin that came to his lips. If he couldn't poke and prod at the real thing, why not have a go at the things cut off of it?

.・。.・゜🩸・.・🚀・゜・。.

His back popped. Well, at least the floaty feeling in his head wasn't death, because why would his body hurt in death? Unless this was purgatory, and the pain was part of his punishment. He deserved punishment.

A hand raised to his face. He felt the teeth on his cheek respond to the warmth by opening slightly. Was he... hungry? It must be that. But he didn't feel hunger. He couldn't. He lost that ability ages ago.

Sharp, stinging pain brought Simon out of his head. One of his teeth had nipped his finger, drawing blood to the surface. Clearly, they wanted something to do. Food it is.

The hand slid down his face and to his chest. Simon expected more expanse of skin to run his hand over. But no. There was fabric where he expected gills. It felt... odd. The scratchy material rubbed against the openings in his collarbone uncomfortably. The weight on everything else felt nice, however. He missed the feeling of clothes on his body.

The mechanical arm from hell descended upon him again.

'Angel... where-where is my angel?' He didn't know why he asked. Maybe he wanted the robot to go away. Maybe he needed the reassurance that the being from before didn't abandon him. Didn't leave him.

The three-clawed demon backed off a little. It tilted at him. 'Do you mean Captain Grace?'

Simon turned his head a little. He could see around the room a little more, which was nice. The lack of restraints also reassured him. He had barely noticed through the haze in his mind. The drugs must still be in effect. His arm sort of stung from the needle earlier. The speed of his thoughts was slower than he would prefer.

'I am calling for Captain Grace.' The demon announced into the air. It didn't take Simon's turn of the head as a negative response. Could it not see him?

Maybe two minutes after he awoke, the angel returned. He had a darker green shirt on with black pants. Despite the duller ensemble, he looked... heavenly. Strong arms, good stride, clearly eating enough. Excellent signs of a healthy being. The guardians of the Last Tree did not get this privilege.

'Hey, you called for me? Is there anything you need?' The angel was pulled gloves off as he walked in. Red coated the plastic as he threw it into the tub nearby. Had he been pulling another soul apart before he received the call?

Before Simon could respond, his teeth pulled apart again. They curled out, saliva clinging to the tips again. He could feel them moving independently.

'Oh, are you hungry?' Somehow, the angel knew exactly what he needed. The being lit up a little at the chance to help out.

He scuttled out of the room only to return a moment later. 'Here, this is the quickest thing I can pull together. Do you like burgers?'

Simon reached out wearily to grab at the food. The angel stepped closer instead. He placed the food onto Simon's lap. Then an arm snaked under his body, and he was being pulled up so carefully into a sitting position. The teeth almost nipped the angel's cheek because he was so close, but Simon refrained himself.

He picked up the burger and took a bite. He almost shoved the whole thing into his mouth at the second. He quickly took it apart, letting the cheek teeth handle the meat while he chewed on the bread bits. The angel was still holding him up just in case he fell back without support, and seemed utterly fascinated by the movement of his cheek.

Simon finished the burger off in less than a minute. Crumbs got wiped off his face and the separate mouth took care of their own mess.

'Can you sit up on your own?' The angel asked him quietly. When he gave a minute nod, it let go and shuffled back. Simon swayed a little, but stayed sitting. He decided to turn himself so his back was against the wall and his legs dangled off the edge of the bed.

'Well, uh, hi. I'm not sure if we've met before– we probably haven't, but–' The angel started speaking again, this time with a little stumble to his words. Cute. 'But my name is Grace. Uh, Ryland Grace. I'm captain of this ship, and the rock alien you threw across the room earlier is Rocky. He's our engineer.'

Ryland and Rocky. Easy names to remember. Perfect for them, too. A rock angel called Rocky and a kind angel called Grace. Utterly perfect.

'We've, uh.' He swallowed thickly and dropped his eyes to the ground. 'We've been studying the roots that were in your arm. I'm sorry that Armando forcefully cut it off. We should have asked if you wanted that or not. There was just so much going on that I let him do it.'

The angel was apologising for the demon? Were they friends? Co-workers? Was this entire dance of people to determine if he went to hell or not?

The angel looked back up at him with a small grimace on his face. 'I've also been studying the roots. I should have asked first, but you were so loopy on drugs that it couldn't have waited. And... holy moly, dude, what happened to you?'

That confused Simon. The angel should know all about his life. He was an angel because he was kind despite seeing the things he had done for Eden. Why did he not know?

He felt the words slipping from his lips before he could stop them. 'Angel... why do you not know?'

The being looked surprised. His hands came into his lap to fidget a bit while he looked around the room a little. One foot started pawing at the back of his other.

'I-I don't know what you mean. I'm not an angel. I'm-I'm Grace, but I'm not whatever you think of me as.' The being grew uncomfortable at the mere mention of his divinity. He bit his lip before standing.

'Me and Rocky have been calling you Hemo for the past couple of hours.' He started. There was a clear change in subject that he was desperate to grasp. 'Can we continue calling you that?'

Simon's mind spun. The thing before him... wasn't an angel. If he trusted its word, he was just a regular human. Just... human. And he knew what humans were like. Cruel, degrading bastards who only thought for themselves. Eden proved that time and time again. The COI proved that time and time again. He had proved that in any place he went. The Grove, the prison cell, throwing Rocky across the fucking room because he was scared. All because he couldn't handle himself. And now one was taking care of him. Kind eyes looked at him, strong arms kept him stable and safe. If this human truly was human, he didn't need to know. Simon wouldn't tell him. Why anger him? It would lead to more pain. He wouldn't tell him about anything.

'Yeah, Hemo is fine.' Simon grunted. It was for the best. He didn't need to understand who Simon was. Maybe if he kept up this "Hemo" nickname for a while longer, he could play pretend. He could sit in this room with a beautiful angel and pretend nothing bad ever happened to him. That sounded good. Better than good.

'Alrighty then!' That seemed to make Ryland happy. He tapped his hands on either side of his thighs. 'Well, I have to get back to my microscope, and I'm sure you need plenty of rest. I'll see you later, Hemo.'

Simon looked at Ryland with droopy eyes.

Grace stared at the cells in front of him. He adjusted the settings of the microscope slightly.

Okay. That wasn't normal. Staring him dead in the eyes were a combination of circular, oval and rectangular cells. Huh.

He leaned back in his chair and sighed. This wasn't making sense. The tree root thing that had sprouted from Hemo's arm had been cut into extremely thin slices and placed in sliders. On one such slider was a little portion from near the base of Hemo's arm. This couldn't be possible. Plant, human and animal cells couldn't exist in the same body together, let alone thrive like these ones were. It really shouldn't have been possible.

Grace sucked in a deep breath. The implications of this were astounding. Would Hemo be exothermic or endothermic? Did he even hold heat at all, considering the plant matter apparently in his body. Maybe he was endothermic but also poikilothermic— he could hold heat in his body, but it majorly fluctuated based on environmental influences. But even then, that wasn't possible. Could he change Hemo's environment enough to test this? Probably not, since he knew Hemo would think of it like an experiment (it technically was), and he might not like the idea of experiments done on him. Besides, to get the medical lab hot enough for long enough for Hemo's body to change temperature would certainly mean he couldn't go in for hours. He would pass out immediately in that heat. And Hemo needed to eat. So, no doing that.

He shifted in his seat, causing Rocky to look up. The Eridians who worked on the Hail Mary to put it back into commission installed seats high enough that Rocky could comfortably sit under, but also low enough for Grace to climb into. They were hesitant at first, but Rocky said it was for safety during sleeping in the lab, so they obliged. He was now sat underneath it, using one of his many tools for a blanket of some kind.

'Grace friend, what is wrong?' Rocky spoke softly. Him and Grace had a very long, very uncomfortable talk after he went to go talk to Hemo.

He was scared.

Eridians knew very little about radiation still, even with Grace's teachings. He was scared that they had missed protections against it while rebuilding the Hail Mary. He lost his first crew to it once; he wasn't ready to lose another. The only reason he went on the mission was because Grace did. He wasn't going to let him go alone back up into space. Not without his best friend.

'These silly cells. They can't exist in the same biome together. Plant, human, animal. Probably some kind of eel, considering Hemo's mutations. They just- this science is not possible.' The human put his hands to his face and sighed again, this time deeper. The chair squeaked as he turned in it to see Rocky. There was a headache brewing behind his eyes. There always seemed to be a headache whenever he discovered something new. Maybe it was his brain recalibrating to the information. It hurt when he met Rocky, when he first experimented with the Astrophage. Hell, it even hurt when he landed on Erid.

Rocky was quiet for a moment.

'Radiation was not possible science to us when we first set out into the stars. Now we know, and we study it.'

Grace felt his heart crack a little. He didn't mean to remind Rocky of that. An apology bubbled in his throat, and he caught it before it came out. Rocky would just change the mood around to berating Grace. The man had quite the habit of apologising when he didn't need to. Rocky didn't like when he apologised for things he didn't do, so he grew into a habit of telling his human off for it. If he couldn't control it, he shouldn't apologise. Radiation wasn't his fault.

Grace cleared his throat softly. 'I-uh. Yeah. So, the cells are from three different categories of species. I don't know how they could exist next to each other without either rejecting or just simply dying.'

'Grace friend, I think I know how.'

The human looked down at Rocky in confusion. The alien friend pointed up at an overhead screen. Grace always put it on just in case he needed to move around the room for some reason so he could keep watching his experiments. Rocky was fond of watching him work, so he sat with him and watched the screen too. The scientist almost fell out of his chair in shock.

Two cells were clinging to each other; a human blood cell and a plant cell. The human blood cell was slowly being consumed by the other. Heterotypic cell fusion. That's how they all survived. The plant cells were consuming the human blood and animal cells in fusion. However that could happen, Grace had no idea, but he didn't particularly care right now. All he knew is that he finally got an answer. They survived through consummation and survival of the fittest.

Without even thinking about it, Grace started bouncing in place, his feet performing short, sharp stomps while a laughed ran its way up his throat and from his mouth. The table made a creaking noise as he threw his body against it, eye pressing against the microscope. And yep, sure as ever, were the two cells merging together into one. The nuclei seemed to want to be separate, however. Good for them, and good for Grace! He now had a multinucleated cell; a syncytium made of human and plant origin. He buzzed with excitement. Rocky made small chittering noises from under his chair, showing his own excitement at the discovery. He didn't exactly know why this was so exciting, but yay! More science! Science no one else has touched!

Grace found himself grabbing at the closest laptop to write all of this down. His hands could barely stay still enough to type. Metal squealed against metal as Grace slid the laptop onto the lab table, screen blaring to life. Rocky made a pleased sound and returned to his blanket-creation. Grace smiled, and that was all that mattered to him in that moment.

🚀

The man pushed back from the table, letting the wheels of his chair bring him over to Rocky. The friend had repositioned himself up on a xenonite table on the other side of the clear substance. The re-working of the Hail Mary resulted in a mishmash of human and Eridian metals. They had expanded some of the rooms out to include spaces for Rocky to work in his own atmosphere without need of the suit. Xenonite held the pressure well, so they used what they knew best.

Grace wheeled himself into a hole in the xenonite. He could put his legs under an overhang, much like a desk, and pressed his hands into the more flexible alloy of cerium and xenon to point at things Rocky was doing. At first of hearing that particular alloy, Grace was not keen on touching it, but when the scientists on Erid exposed some of his cloned flesh to it and nothing happened, his anxiety lessened.

'Whatcha doing, Rock?' He had wheeled over to just annoy his best friend. The report was getting boring. He knew he didn't need to write one, but Eridians were incredibly intelligent and could probably do something with this information. So, he wrote one anyway.

'Making a blanket. Insulation. You said Hemo might not be able to regulate his temperature well. I am making a blanket that can do that for him.' Rocky held up the blanket for Grace to touch. He pressed forward in the soft wall material and felt it. The material seemed to be organic and woven together like how humans would weave reed baskets. And it was very heavy.

Grace chuckled, withdrawing his hands. 'He threw you across the room and now you're making him a present?'

Rocky tilted his body before replying in short, sharp chirps of regret. 'Hemo was scared. He did not know where he was. I misjudged and approached without checking he was alright. It reminded me of you, Grace friend. I feel bad for upsetting him. Hopefully he will be calmer with the blanket.

Grace withdrew his hand from the blanket, a little stunned. Rocky was a very giving kind of guy, but this was excessive. But he could tell Rocky was proud of his creation— as organic material wasn't exactly his line of work, metal was— so he didn't comment on it. He just gave it a small nod and turned back to his laptop. Oh shucks. It died. A black screen stared back at the human instead of his hours of work and meticulously drawn diagrams. A short huff of breath left his nose.

.・。.・゜🩸・.・🚀・゜・。.

Simon rose from the medical bay bed once more, head pounding. The stump of his left arm was in absolute agony. A muffled groan slipped from his lips.

The demon twirled down from the ceiling once more. It assessed him for a moment. 'You require an additional dose of pain medication as your last dose was five hours ago. Hold still.' One part of the arm rose again, and there were the sounds of mechanical movement from above. The metal lowered again, this time bearing a needle. There was a red, slightly translucent liquid sloshing around inside. A terrified eye locked onto the sharp metal. Before he could realise what he was doing, Simon let out a deep, rumbling noise directly from his chest. His hand scrambled to find something to hold onto so he could pull himself away from the demon.

Clattering came down the hall. The door, previously with a handle but now automated, slid open with a short hiss. It wasn't the angel. It was Rocky.

He surveyed the scene for a moment. Then his little rock limbs were flailing as he ran inside. What sounded like angered chirps and hums filled the space. Simon automatically shrank back into the firm bedding. However, the alien didn't rush him. Didn't climb up and berate him for the physical harm he caused earlier (that morning? Yesterday? Time was hard to tell). Instead, the rocky amalgamation skittered up to the demon and began waving two arms about. The thing seemed to be able to understand it. The needle arm retreated back up into the ceiling.

Rocky turned to Simon. He hummed a low tune softly. A blank, brown eye stared forward with a slight crease to his eyebrows. He hummed again. Simon didn't respond.

The thing held a hand up, or was it a claw, and exited the room. He returned a moment later and made a noise similar to clicking.

'Can you hear me now?' A masculine voice spoke through a system overhead. Simon, admittedly, jumped at the sound. Had this tiny little rock thing actually turned on some kind of translation thing so Simon could hear him? How smart was this guy?

'Uh, yeah. Yeah, I can hear you.' He murmured. The hand was still gripping the bedframe tightly. Rocky seemed to notice, responding by tilting his body towards it. Simon let go and shook his hand out a little.

'Excellent!' The rock figure clapped two of his claws together in an imitation of human joy. Next thing Simon knew, he was climbing up onto the end of the bed.

Simon stiffened once more. 'Where's Grace?' He found himself saying.

'Working. He never stops–' a pause in the translating voice, but not Rocky's chirping '–working when he gets excited about something.'

Simon found himself relaxing a little. Grace was just working on something else. He was close, just somewhere else. He could live with that fact.

'What was that pause? You said something else, but the human voice didn't say it.'

Rocky let out a few amused hums, sounding similar to human laughter. 'It is what Grace would call a swear word, a curse. He does not like cursing himself, so I do not do it around him. He does not know that my people use swear words. He has not programmed them in yet due to this.'

The human-like was surprised. It seemed these two aliens worked together pretty well and could understand each other's languages perfect. Yet a huge chunk was missing because Grace didn't like swearing? That seemed... counterproductive.

Simon lowered himself back down onto the bed. He was careful to avoid laying on his stump for an arm as to not cause more pain for himself. Rocky seemed to notice his pain and chirped something. The voice didn't speak aloud, so it must have just been a noise, similar to a human grunting or humming.

'Arm, give Hemo some of Grace's pain medication.' Rocky spoke up to the demon arm. Simon stiffened once more, back on guard within a second. He opened a mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by Rocky. 'This will not be the needle. Grace does not do well with them, so he had our engineers program Arm to give him liquid or tablet medication instead. You will have some of his, do not worry.'

He couldn't help but worry. That arm could descend from the ceiling again and quick as anything give him a poke. He didn't trust it at all.

Bu, true to Rocky's word, it came down once more with two pills held in a metal scooper on one attachment with a bottle of assumed water held in the rubber grip. Simon was hesitant, but he took it all after a few beats of silence. He held the powdery white pills in his hand while the bottle slid in between his thighs. A glance was thrown at Rocky.

'It is just morphine, Hemo. It will help with the pain. Grace says it sometimes makes him sleepy, just a warning.' Rocky spoke as he skittered out of the room again, calling behind him as he went. Simon turned his gaze from the pills and to Rocky, then back to the meds. He didn't trust them. He should, seeing all of the help Grace and Rocky had given him, but he was still wary.

He bit his lip. If he wanted to feel better, he'd take them. They were easy. Grace wouldn't drug him like that; he was too nice and too nervous of a person to do that. So, he raised the pills to his lips and took them both. He tried twisting the cap of the bottle one way, but it wouldn't budge. He tried the other right as the pills in his mouth were starting to dissolve, leaving a bad taste. The water inside was quickly shoved down to get it off his tongue. He sputtered and coughed, bile crawling up his throat once he swallowed. They tasted fucking disgusting.

Simon was laid back down when Rocky came back into the room. The coughing had caused something in his chest to move, and he needed to curl up before he vomited. The alien was dragging something behind him when he re-entered. Hemo didn't even bother to open his eyes.

'Are you alright? What happened?' Rocky sounded a little concerned as he lugged the large thing behind him. A claw grabbed the end of the table so he could pull himself up.

'Just... sore.' Simon muttered. He didn't want to speak again. He felt the bile in his throat, threatening to spill over if he even dared to move a muscle.

Rocky stared at him for a moment. He then came up in front of the human-hybrid, large fabric in hand, and draped it over him gently. It was warm, and it felt nice against Simon's too cold body. He finally stirred to look up at Rocky blearily. Yep, the morphine had kicked in already, Rocky could absolutely tell.

' 'm sorry. F' throwin' you 'cross the room. Wa' mean of me.' Simon slurred as he wrapped his hand around the edge of the blanket. His feet pulled at the edges so he could pin them down, trapping the heat against his body. Rocky chittered softly.

'That was not your fault, Hemo. You were scared. You reacted the way any human would. I am not hurt. I forgive you.' Rocky pulled the blanket tighter around Simon's body. Sleep was threatening to claim the man once more. Involuntarily, he let out a small whimper of pain. He hated how much more vulnerable he felt close to sleep. His guard lowered automatically, his body failed to respond to his commands. By complete instinct Simon curled up more into himself, the cheek without the extra mouth pressed against a stiff pillow.

Rocky made a soft keening noise as Grace's hands skittered over his xenonite suit. The human's eyebrows knit together a little more. That wasn't a word, which meant his friend was in a lot more pain than he originally thought. Good lord... he just hit an Eridian weighting 450 pounds across the room.

His eyes raised to the thing. A wild, fearful brown eye bore into him while one that looked like it didn't work properly— milky white with a red sheen— made his skin crawl. Without thinking, he placed a hand on Rocky's suit.

The creature's eye flicked over to the contact. A dark gaze ran over the length of Grace's arm, slowly making its way up to his face again. The thing's lips parted, causing the teeth that protruded from his cheek to slide open too. Grace both wanted to get closer to inspect this anomaly and get very far away from it. With strength like that, he could snap Grace's spine in half with just a twist of the wrist. But he was curious. Oh so very curious.

It took a second for him to realise the creature was speaking to himself. Grace glanced down at Rocky, who was getting himself onto his feet, and stood fully. A shaky breath left him as he approached the thing. Its eyes followed him in a way he could only describe as predatory.

'– To the Tree, who nourishes all those under the protection of the Father, I thank thee for bringing me an angel, a protector to my soul on its way to the Roots. I thank thee for the consideration to my actions, and I beg for pardon of my misdoings. Keep the angel close, keep it pure as so it remains an angel, untainted by my blood. My blood nourishes the Tree, and my soul nourishes the angel.'

What the hell was it talking about..? Never mind that, it can talk! He can speak English! Grace found himself drawing nearer, hands raised in a placating gesture, as he heard what sounded like a prayer slipping from the thing's bruised lips. The creature spoke breathlessly, voiced ragged and strained from presumed non-usage.

Grace stepped just a little too close in curiosity, and the thing started to flail. An arm reached behind to pull it away from the human, while the roots that sort of counted as an arm sprang forth, trying to touch Grace. The prayer dropped immediately. His feet almost tripped over each other trying to get away from those weird, soft looking tentacles.

'Foreign body detected.' Armando piped up from behind him. Grace whipped his head around to look at the robotic arm, eyebrows furrowed.

'What-what does that mean?' Unsurprisingly, his voice was shaky. Rocky made another small keening noise. Grace felt his head go light. There was too much going on at the moment. The lights were blaring, Armando wouldn't stop talking, Rocky needed him, the creature needed him, he needed his heart to stop going so quickly, he needed he needed he needed he needed—

'Captain Grace.' The robotic arm's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. He looked up with tears in his eyes. 'Your heart rate is elevated and your breath intake has increased by fourty percent. You are having a meltdown. You need to leave.'

Grace looked down and realised his hands were trembling. Rocky's suit clunked against the ground as he sidled up to his human's side. A gentle hand got placed on his calf, causing the man to jump. Armando was right; he had let the stress of the situation build until his mind couldn't take it. He had to have time to cool down before attempting anything else important.

Rocky pulled a little on his cardigan. Grace took one shaky step forward, then another, then another. He let himself be led out of the medical bay and into the rest of the ship. He couldn't stop the tears from falling then. Sniffles and choking breaths filled the corridors as the two walked down. They found themselves in the 'don't go crazy' room. Rocky forced his friend to sit with insistent clicks. The throw had just caught him off-guard, it hadn't caused any actual damage to him.

'Grace, are you alright? What has happened?' Rocky curled up next to his friend, one arm on Grace's so he knew someone was there. The human took in a shaky breath. He couldn't calm down no matter what he tried; box breathing didn't work, counting in his head didn't work, holding one of Rocky’s claws didn't do the trick either. He knew that he couldn't control himself in a meltdown, but this was getting ridiculous.

Grace buried himself in his thoughts, ignoring Rocky's question.

Another arm came up and curled around Grace's wrist. Rocky knew his friend just needed time. Time to slow down his mind, to gather himself. He's be there the entire time. It would be okay.

.・。.・゜🩸・.・🚀・゜・。.

Simon fought the arm back through the haze in his eyes. The angel had left with the little alien, leaving him to this spawn from hell.

The arm was trying to restrain him by pushing him down into the bed. At one point, something pricked his shoulder and Simon jerked around like he'd been struck by lightning. Now he was sluggish and slow. He didn't like that feeling.

The hand pressed lightly against his head, and for some reason, it followed. Despite his best efforts in batting the thing away, he lied down. Messy, ratty hair clung to the pillow behind him and his arms rested lightly on the metal bed.

'No... no, please. Please... stop. Please, no...' The begging wouldn't work against a robot, but he still had to try. Some were intelligent, right? He had read about them in books when he was younger. Some responded. Did this one?

'Foreign body detected. Removal required. You will be sedated during the surgery.' The way the robot spoke made Simon want to curl up into a ball and cry. It wasn't responsive. It didn't hear him. Didn't listen to his cries and stop. It wasn't programmed to do that.

And now he was being strapped down for surgery. Fucking surgery. Like he was something broken that needed to be put back together. He was fine, he just wanted to go home.

But... where was home?

It didn't exist anymore.

Because of him.

Because of the Butcher.