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Chapter Text

Nodoka had been fighting for so long. She had fought through fever and fatigue and all manner of symptoms that had tried to keep her down. She'd never given up, not for one moment. Her illness may have broken her body, but it would not break her will. She wouldn't let it.

Sometimes, a strong will just isn't enough.

It had been the dead of night. She had been alone. She hadn’t noticed though, so completely focused on herself, on her own body; buried so deep in her own mind. She could feel the fever, feel the sickness that had plagued her for so long, as if it was its own living thing.

They writhed and wrestled in the dark, fighting for control, fighting for victory. Nodoka could tell, no matter how this turned out, it would be their last fight. Either she would win, and that thing would be banished forever, or it would win, and Nodoka... Nodoka would be the one to fade away.

She had all the will in the world, all the fire to fight, but none of the strength. She had been fighting for so long. She had only been getting weaker. Her constant, terrible companion... well. It had only gotten stronger, leaching her own life away.

She could feel her body failing, succumbing to the thing within. Her spirit, her very being cried out desperately as she felt herself fall, felt her heartbeat slow, felt her fever burn. She tried to claw her way back up to the fading light, to bring herself back from the brink...

She wasn’t strong enough.

She had never been strong enough.

Everything was unbearably still. She was cold, and still.

Dead.

Her mind was still there, still hanging on with the last threads of that iron will of hers. Something was tugging at her, pulling her away. She knew that if she followed it, she really would be gone. She didn’t want to be gone. The only thing she had ever really wanted was to live .

She cried out. She screamed into the ether with her fading mind, physical lips too cold and still to make a sound. She begged with all her soul for someone, anyone, to answer her calls. It was painful, like nothing else ever had been. As her desperation increased, it was almost as if she could feel something deep inside her break.

She hadn’t been expecting anything. She had thought that her cries would go unheard, and she would be pulled away into the unknowable shadows. But- they were heard. They were answered.

By it.

The sickness, her plague, had come to her calls. The very thing that had stranded her here in the darkness in the first place.

Her first instinct was to recoil, to beat it away. She couldn’t. She was using all the power she had not to fade away entirely. Her two options, her tormentor, or the great Next. It was the worst choice she'd ever had to make. She wanted to cry.

But- something was different about it, now. Something had changed. She had always imagined the illness as a living creature, some sort of snake maybe, twisting about her insides and poisoning her being. In those brief moments between sleep and painful waking, she could almost see it.

Now though, it didn’t feel like a snake at all. It didn’t feel like the twisting, tearing thing that it had before. It had changed, evolved , with the strength taken from ending her.

Never before had she felt intelligence from it. Now, it came to her with a mind. With questions.

‘What are you?’ it asked without a voice. Nodoka considered not responding. She considered yelling at it, cursing it out for all it had done to her. But then- it might leave. She would be truly alone, and her last, terrible hope, would be out of reach.

‘I am Nodoka.’ She answered it as best she could. She was not very used to talking without speaking.

‘Why are you so small?’ Its presence swelled, as if to make a point. It was true, they were strong, and Nodoka was still only just hanging onto this world.

‘I am dying.’ She said, attempting to keep the emotions she was too weak to handle at bay.

‘That isn’t very smart.’ it said, somehow managing to sound snarky in a place that had no sound at all.

‘It was not my choice.’ her not-voice was getting smaller. She didn’t have much time.

‘Who’s choice was it?’ It asked. It… it really didn’t know. It didn’t know what it had done to her.

‘Yours.’

‘Why would I make you small?’ It was a child. A baby . He didn’t know anything. She… she couldn’t process- she couldn’t-

‘Help me-’ She was fading even more now. Time was up. ‘Give me your strength- Take me with you-’

‘Why?’

‘I want to li v e- Y o u  c a n  h e l p  m  e   l  i  v  e-’

‘You will be smart?’ Nodoka could barely not-hear its words anymore.

‘Y   e   s’

‘You will help me too?’

‘Y     e         s’

----------

Daruizen was a byogenz. Byogenz were parasites that needed the energy from elements and other forms of life to survive. Daruizen was a terabyogen. A general. He could think. he was intelligent. He was strong.

That was… a recent development. For quite a while, though he didn’t know how long, he had been a simple megabyogen. An unthinking, instinct driven creature.

Unlike many of his fellow generals however, it hadn’t been the call of King Byogenz to wake him. It had been the fading call of his sister.

His sister, who had once been his host. The being who had served as his energy source while he had been an idiot beast. He had been one of the only generals to completely destroy their host, suck them dry of all life and energy. That’s all hosts were supposed to be, a source of life and energy.

Except- she had called out to him, and he had heard her. Her desperation, her will, her fire- had ignited his own sentience. She truly had brought him life . He liked living. He liked being able to think, and it was all thanks to her.

She had asked him, then. Asked him for help, asked him for strength. Strength that he had more than enough of, more than enough to give. After all she had given him, surely, he could return the favor?

She had been too far gone by the time he had decided. All that had been left of her was her burning will to live.

It hadn’t been enough for her to survive, but it had been enough for something else.

She hadn’t returned to herself, as he’d thought she would. His corrupted energy had curled around her fading soul, giving it a new form. A rebirth.

And so, when King Byogenz had summoned all his sleeping generals, Daruizen hadn’t gone alone.

Chapter Text

For a moment there, Nodoka had been worried. Not just worried, terrified. Her strength had run out. She had fallen into the blackness. She’d had no idea if her terrible hope had bothered to catch her or not.

The first sense that came back to her was her sense of smell. Sulfur, mixed with the sickly sweet scent of rot and death. It was a terrible smell, but she was delighted to find that she had a nose with which to wrinkle in disgust. She’d probably only spent a matter of minutes in that horrible mental void, but to be back to the physical plane was the greatest discovery of her life.

As soon as she moved, her sense of touch came back in full force. Heat, the kind that Nodoka was intimately familiar with, surrounded her. It was so reminiscent of the constant fever that had plagued her for so long, yet it was outside of her. It was threaded through the hard stone underneath her, and in the harsh wind overhead. But her? She was fine.

Sound came next. There wasn’t much, and what little there was sounded almost… muffled. The soft clinking of stones. The rumbling of the wind. It was so soothing, it almost made her want to go back to sleep. The smell was bad enough to keep her awake though.

She twitched, curling her hand into a fist. Strength. Vitality. Ever so slowly, it was coming back to her. She felt like crying from relief. She was still scared out of her mind. Wherever she was, it wasn’t the hospital. But right here, in this moment, she was alive .

Pain. A single second of incredible impact, something slamming into her gut and sending her rolling over the rocky floor. She gasped and spluttered, eyes snapping open from the shock.

She saw red. Not in the rage sense, but in the literal color sense. Everything around her, everything she could catch a glimpse of while rolling from the blow, was a dark, horrible red color.

She landed on her back, staring up at the mottled black and crimson sky far above. This wasn’t… this wasn’t earth . Had she…? Had she actually…? After all her hope!?

“Ah! So you are awake!” A high, mocking voice called from somewhere to Nodoka’s right. She steeled what little strength she had, and forced herself into a sitting position. She turned her head, searching for the source of the voice.

She froze.

A woman stood there, malicious mirth spread across her face. She had pale skin that could have been mistaken for normal, if not for a distinct, sickly purple tint. She had two red horns poking out over the top of her unnaturally smooth purple hair, and a massive scorpion tail curled around from behind her.

“We all thought you would be too weak to open your eyes!” She laughed, the coldness of it standing out amongst the heat surrounding them. Other beings, similar to the purple woman, were spread around, lounging on various rock spires sticking out over top of a boiling red sea.

She felt herself start to shake. Demons . She was surrounded by demons. She really had died then, she’d died and gone to the bad place and now she was going to be tortured forever at the hands of these demons there’s nothing else they could be-

“You were wrong, then.” A distinctly disinterested drawl sounded from behind her. Another demon, a young boy this time, stepped in between Nodoka and the purple woman.

Nodoka felt the blood drain from her face. She’d never seen this boy before, had never heard his voice, but she knew him. This was… this was her tormentor . This was her plague . Her terrible hope . It- he- was somehow here. Standing before her, as if he wasn’t actually the mysterious pathogen that had kept her hospital bound for most of her life. As far as she knew, pathogens didn’t have legs.

“It’s not like you were right! You didn’t think she’d make it either!” The purple woman scoffed. Nodoka retreated into herself. She… she didn’t know what was going on, but she knew would rather be anywhere but here.

“I don’t recall establishing my thoughts on the matter either way.” Nodoka’s terrible hope said. She could almost hear the eyeroll.

“Whatever. Well, weakling, I am the great Shindoine! And as such a weakling, you have to do everything I saw, got it?” The purple woman- Shindoine- sneered. Nodoka flinched, her trembling worsening.

“Don’t listen to her.” Nodoka’s terrible hope said, turning to her with another eye roll. “She’s not your superior anyway.”

“No matter what you say, I still can’t believe something so weak that it can’t stand is a general.” Shindoine said, walking toward them in a distinctly threatening manner. She crouched down right in front of Nodoka, making eye contact. If she’d had the energy, she would have scrambled backwards, anything to get away from the demon woman. “So? What’s your name, weakling? Or can I just keep calling you that?”

Nodoka knew she should probably answer her. You answered people when they asked you questions. That’s how things worked. But when she opened her mouth to speak, no shaky reply came out. Something felt intimately wrong about telling Shindoine her name.

“Nemuizen. Her name is Nemuizen.” Her terrible hope said. Her eyes snapped to his. He stared back at her impassively, eyes empty of all emotion. The moment he had said that, it had felt right .

She hated it.

“Awe, you match!” Shindoine cackled, leaning back on her tail and giving Nodoka some space. She nearly collapsed from relief, finding herself able to breathe again. Her terrible hope glared at Shindoine, before grabbing Nodoka by the wrist. She only had a second to haul herself to her feet before he did it for her.

Trembling from both fear and exhaustion, she was led away from the cackling demon by the much more personally terrifying one. She wanted to cry.

He practically dragged her through the desolate landscape, weaving in between craggy spires and looming overhangs. She was only kept on her feet by small pulses of tangible energy that her terrible hope would send to her every few paces.

She didn’t understand- she didn’t understand anything . Just a few relative hours ago, everything had been normal. Just a few hours ago, she had been whole. What was all this??

“This place should be good.” He said. Nodoka realized they had stopped moving. The moment he let go of her wrist, she collapsed to the ground, completely exhausted.

She managed to lift her head, looking around at where they had ended up. It was a cave, dimly lit by the menacing glow of a pool of bubbling red liquid. Her terrible hope stood there, looking at her. Shadows dancing across his face.

“What-” She started, voice weak. “What happened?” He tilted his head, expression unchanging. 

“You asked me for help. I gave you energy. When King Byogenz called, you came with me.” He said.

“I-I don’t understand…” She whispered, trying to make sense of everything. She understood the first part of what he had said well enough, she had asked and he had given. That was… good. But, the second part… 

He kneeled down in front of her, and poked her in the forehead, sending her another pulse of energy. She squeaked, almost falling over. “In case you were wondering, my name is Daruizen. I’m sure you’ve been calling me something else in your head.”

“I… yeah, but-”

“You really don’t know.” He said, voice carrying the closest thing to emotion she had heard from him thus far.

“Know what?” She whimpered.

“Everything.” He stated, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. It might have been, in whatever this world was.

“I-” She choked. She had been holding back tears since she had opened her eyes in this horrible place, but here, alone with something- someone - who had both ruined her life and saved it… she couldn’t hold them back any longer.

“Stop.” Daruizen ordered over her sobs. “We don’t want anyone to find you like that, you don’t want to be seen as weaker than you already are.”

He was right. She didn’t know much, but she did know that wasn’t something she wanted. She tried to stifle her cries, with little success.

“I will throw you in the ooze if you don’t stop.” Daruizen said, almost bored yet completely serious. Nodoka clamped a hand over her mouth, and used the other to wipe her eyes.

Wait, was she wearing gloves?

Sobs thoroughly quashed by surprise, she raised her hands in front of her face and stared at them in fascination. Both were covered in long, thick, dark red gloves, so comfortable she hadn’t noticed them before. Experimentally, she tugged one of them off.

Her… her skin was blue . Honest to goodness, pastel baby blue.

That wasn’t normal.

Well, if everything about her surroundings was different, it stood to reason that Nodoka herself would be different too. Not any super logical sort of reason, but that didn’t really matter. What else…?

She looked down. She was draped in a long, heavy coat, similar to her gloves… it was also similar to what Daruizen was wearing. She looked up at him, at his annoyed face, and the blue skin that covered it. Just like hers.

Hesitantly, she reached up, above her head, and grabbed. She was met with oddly warm keratin. Horns. She had horns. Just like… just like…

She was going to throw up. So much. So fast. Too much. Too fast.

She curled up into a ball, her new tail coming up to wrap around her head. Her hair (which was a lot longer than she remembered it being) fell around her face, blocking out what little light there was.

“Not sure what I expected. Not sure I expected anything, but not even realizing your own physical form is more than a little surprising.” Daruizen said, the first hint of interest Nodoka had heard from him inching its way into his tone.

“What happened?? Why am I- why am I- ” Nodoka keened, tears slipping down her face again.

“I’m not entirely sure. I expected to give you a sliver of energy, just enough to let you live through the night. Without me there, you would have survived even after that.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “But when I was called away, you came with me.”

Nodoka stared up at him, wiping silent tears off her face. He shrugged, donning a bit of a sardonic smirk. “I suppose your body was already too far gone for you to return to it, so you took the only other option.”

“ What kind of option is this? ” She whispered, almost hissing.

“You’re supposed to know everything. Right now, you’re a terabyogen. Terabyogen are born with all the knowledge they need about themselves and the world around them. And yet, you don’t know any of it.” He said, tilting his head.

“But I'm not a- a whatever you said. I’m Hanadera Nodoka -” She cut herself off, clamping both hands over her mouth as a wave of nausea crashed over her.

“You were, I suppose. But not anymore.” His smile grew, becoming something befitting of their dark surroundings. Nodoka shivered under his gaze, which was quickly getting more and more intense. “Now, you’re a terabyogen that doesn’t know what a terabyogen is. You’re the second terabyogen to come from a single host, at the same time as the first.”

Nodoka whimpered. He leaned down, bringing his face close to hers, as if he had no concept of personal space. “That’s not supposed to happen. You weren’t supposed to happen. You’re an impossible little miracle.”

“I- I’m sorry?” She whispered. She had no idea what to say to that.

“Don’t be.” He said, leaning back again. “I’m lumped in with you, as I’m also one of two terabyogen to come from a single host. The oddness of it grants a certain angle of respect, and that goes for a lot around here.”

“Oh.” She said, not really understanding.

“The only problem is your weakness.” He said, sitting in front of her. “Strength is very important here, and you have little to none.” Nodoka winced. That was something that hadn’t changed. “I can supply you some. Just enough to keep your physical form, but we’ll need to find a more permanent alternative, or else the others will eat you alive.” The image of Shindoine’s malicious grin flashed behind her eyelids, sending a shiver down her spine.

“Not something I want.” She mumbled.

“I’ll tell you what I know about byogenz, everything you were supposed to be born with, and you won’t tell anyone where you came from. Got it?” He said. His strange glee had faded, leaving him cold and serious once again.

“I got it.” She nodded shakily.

“Our goal is to not die.” He said, and she nodded again. That, she certainly agreed with.

“One last question.” She whispered.

“Hm?”

“Why would you help me at all?” She looked at him. His horns and his tail, his cold eyes and demeanor. She didn’t understand much, didn’t know much about any of this, but she had the feeling that whatever byogenz were, they weren’t all that selfless.

He tilted his head, considering her question. He broke eye contact, looking away around the cave instead of at her. “I’m not entirely sure.” He admitted, still averting his eyes. “But I suppose I’ll say it’s because you’re the single most interesting thing in this world right now. Letting you devolve or be killed would be boring.”

“I guess so…” Nodoka mumbled.

She didn’t trust him. She didn’t trust any of this. But as loathe as she was to admit, he was her only hope. Her terrible hope yet. She may not have died entirely, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t gone to hell.

Chapter Text

Nodoka didn’t like being a byogenz very much. After a few days of being terrified, she had become acclimatized enough to complain . Not that she did it around anyone but Daruizen, of course. He wasn’t kidding when he said the others would eat her alive.

She had never really been one for complaining. She had been taught from a young age to be grateful for what she had, and that lesson had only strengthened itself in her mind when she got sick. On the other hand, she had to complain about her symptoms or else the doctors wouldn’t know how to help her. (not that they knew anyway-)

Right now though? Complaining was her only personal defense against her less-than-ideal situation. It was her only way to cope.

First, she objected to it on a personal level. She had been tormented by the parasite version of byogenz for years, to become one was an insult to her very soul. The fact that people even could become an actual disease was an insult to humanity itself. Daruizen listened to this complaint with plenty of scoffs and eye rolls.

Second, the environment was terrible. The air felt like a fever. Not just hot and muggy, but that distinct fever feel that she’d been dealing with for so long. Terrible. Add that onto the fact that there was absolutely nothing except crumbling rock and bubbling red ooze and Nodoka could see why Daruizen wanted to keep her around for no other reason than entertainment. There was nothing else to do. Even the hospital had been more routinely fun than this. Daruizen wholeheartedly agreed with this complaint. If he had a heart, that is.

Third, the company. The other terabyogenz were all jerks. They were all selfish idiots who cared only about themselves. Anyone who wasn’t at least moderately strong was treated as a slave by the others. Nodoka, as one of the weakest among them, objected strongly. Daruizen just sighed when she complained about that, and told her to get used to it.

Fourth, her own physical form. Byogenz didn’t have heartbeats, they didn’t eat, and they didn’t sleep either. Eating used to be one of Nodoka’s only joys, not having a heartbeat was just creepy, and sleeping would have been a respite from all the rest of the terribleness. Sure, byogenz could approximate sleep, but it wasn’t the same.

Not to mention the mental changes. Sure, she hadn’t woken up with all the information byogenz were supposed to know, but that didn’t mean she was untouched. She could constantly feel it, something off in her brain. Heck, she couldn’t say her original name without getting nauseous! She could still refer to herself that way in her mind, but if she was going to introduce herself, she had to do it as Nemuizen . Daruizen actually seemed interested, and asked questions about this one. He seemed particularly enthusiastic about ‘sleep’. As enthusiastic as he was capable of, anyway.

It wasn’t all bad though. For every complaint she made, she tried to find something good about it as a sort of counterbalance. She didn’t want to spend her second chance at life completely miserable, after all.

For her first complaint, well, at least she was alive? That one was a bit hard to find an opposite of, given the nature of personal grievances.

For the second, it might have been hot and incredibly inhospitable, but so were places like volcanoes and deserts. Similar to places like those, even the ravaged landscape of the Byogenz home could be beautiful. There were a few places in particular that Nodoka would visit purely to just sit and stare around. Places more peaceful and tranquil than the rest of this hell.

For her third complaint, well, There was no harm in being alone, right? She didn’t have to socialize with her new fellows. Plus, she’d been relatively alone for years. The only difference now was that she didn’t have her parents there for her. Which was… honestly a big difference.

Wait. No. Positivity.

She might not have her parents, but she did have Daruizen. She still hated him for making her sick for so long (Never mind that he was a mindless beast for all of that-) and for dragging her into this situation to begin with (She had technically asked for it, but it’s not like she knew what she was doing.) But other than that, he was… not that bad. Certainly not as bad as the rest of them.

In contrast to her fourth complaint, sure, she couldn't eat or sleep anymore, but she also didn’t have to use the bathroom at all. Really, most human bodily functions were completely abandoned. Byogenz were only similar to humans in their shape. 

But hey, at least her current shape was pretty. She’d never really had the energy to maintain her physical appearance before, not to mention the fact that being sick just made someone look sickly in general. Now though, she was using all of her energy for her form. She might look a bit like a demon, but she was a pretty demon. She’d never been pretty like this before, it was sort of nice.

“That’s something I could never understand.” Daruizen said. He was lying on the other side of the cave, facing away from her while she finished up her umpteenth rant. He wasn’t a very active listener. That was fine, she knew how hard it was for Byogenz to turn their ears off.

“You don’t do anything to make yourself look better?” She asked, also not looking at him. She was busy combing her fingers through her hair, her long, silky hair.

“What would be the point?”

“To look nice?”

“Why would I care about that?”

Nodoka sighed. There were some things that would never get through to him. “Never mind.”

“Now that you’ve complained so much, is it finally my turn?” He asked, an almost teasing lilt to his voice.

“I guess so.”

“You’re loud.”

“Not as loud as Shindoine or Guaiwaru.” Nodoka bit back without missing a beat. That sort of immediate retaliation was still foreign to her, but she used it just the same. It was practically essential here if you wanted any sort of respect at all. Your tongue had to be as strong and quick as any part of you.

“Yes but I’m not with them right now, I’m with you, making your loudness much more relevant.” Daruizen shrugged.

“I’m talking at a normal volume though.” Nodoka pouted slightly.

“It’s the quantity that’s the problem.”

Nodoka stuck her tongue out at him. Did he really have to insult her with such a deadpan tone? Well, he barely even had any other tones, so that made sense at least.

Nodoka hadn’t ever really had someone to argue with before. She’d never fought with her parents, and she’d certainly never fought with her doctors. It was weird. She didn’t like it all that much.

Complaint number five: The social expectancies were so wildly different that it was both giving her whiplash and grating on her innocence and morals.

“Talking is the only thing I can do. Do you actually want to sit in silence?” She sighed, resting her head on her knees. Daruizen tilted his head, considering.

“I suppose this is less boring, even if it is sort of irritating.” He said.

“You’re irritating.” Nodoka mumbled to herself. If she were talking to a human, the noise would have been inaudible. But she was talking to Daruizen, so he heard it anyway. He lifted his head, sending her a slightly triumphant smirk. She rolled her eyes at him.

The cave around them rumbled, shaking hard enough to knock Nodoka off her little rock shelf. She yelped, jumping to her feet. Daruizen sat up, glancing at the walls apprehensively.

“We’re being called.” He said, almost grave. Nodoka nodded.

The two of them made their way out of their cave, and toward where King Byogenz himself resided. Other Terabyogenz were following suit, poking their heads out of holes and all trudging in the same direction.

Nodoka ducked into Daruizen’s shadow as some other generals passed. He rolled his eyes, but allowed her cowardice. She may not like him much , but being by his side was the safest she could get in this place.

She gripped his jacket with shaking fingers as they came to a stop, the massive shadow of the King almost blotting out the sky. Shindoine came to a stop beside them, briefly glancing at Nodoka’s shivering form before scoffing and turning away.

The King still terrified her. Whatever else she may have gotten used to, this creature still made her blood run cold- or, whatever had replaced her blood.

“ My minions… ” King Byogenz hissed, making every Terabyogen present stiffen, a little. “ Our time has come. I have called you from your hosts for this purpose: the decimation of the healing garden. ”

“The what?” Nodoka whispered to Daruizen.

“I’m… not sure. I’ve never heard of it.” He muttered back, an odd, confused tone coloring his dull voice. She never heard that from him before.

“ The Healing Garden… The center of Earth’s defenses against us… ” King Byogenz rumbled, helpfully.” This world we inhabit now is dead… and a dead host is to be abandoned, lest we fall prey to the same fate.”

Nodoka glanced at Daruizen when the king said ‘abandoned’. He had his brow creased ever so slightly, as if he too was confused as to why he hadn’t abandoned her .

“ Tonight we strike! Your goal is simple: kill as many Healing Animals as you can. Grow stronger. Increase our chances and our power, at the cost of your very lives! ”

The Terabyogenz around her began yelling and cheering in response to their king’s words, and Nodoka forced herself to make some noise as well. She didn’t need any more negative scrutiny. At least she blended in with Daruizen, who may have been making noise, but in his dull and disinterested way.

Attack. Strike. Kill .

All things that should have come naturally to her, and definitely came naturally to all the demons around her. She felt herself start to shake. She couldn’t do this, she couldn’t be part of this, she didn’t want to-

Daruizen grabbed hold of her wrist. She looked up at him, startled out of her panic. He wasn’t cheering anymore, and had leveled her with a stern, though non-malicious glare.

“Lots of Terabyogenz are going to die in the battle.” He said evenly, without emotion. Nodoka gulped, cold fear chilling her to her core. Anything but that. “I’m not going to be one of them.” He continued, matter of fact. “And neither are you.

“I’ll make sure of it.”

Chapter Text

Rabirin had never really been much like the other Rabbit apprentices. All of the Healing Animals had different jobs to maintain the harmony and health of the Earth, and Rabbits were supposed to monitor prey populations, and make sure they didn’t drop too low.

Rabirin had something most other Rabbit apprentices didn’t; ambition.

She didn’t want to settle for being just another rabbit in the fluffle, she wanted to be something, the kind of Healing Animal that mentors would tell their apprentices about for centuries to come.

A Healing Animal like Queen Teatinu.

The queen was a legend , she’d risen above and beyond, and had saved the WHOLE EARTH in tandem with her human partner! It was an incredible feat that no other Healing Animal had pulled off since. Well, Rabirin was going to do it. She was going to go up to the human world, be super cool and competent, and get a Precure partner to help her beat up anyone who might want to harm the Earth!

The other Rabbits thought she was crazy, but they’d all eat their words!

“Hey hey, Mentor!” Rabirin said, floating over to her mentor rabbit. He sighed deeply, and turned toward her.

“What is it this time, Rabirin?” He huffed.

“Doesn’t something about this morning seem off to you? Like, there’s an evil feeling in the air, or something.” Rabirin nodded around at the apprentice quarters, which appeared to be peaceful, but she had a hunch they were nothing but.

“You say this almost every morning, Rabirin.” He muttered, already starting to float away. “Nothing ever comes of it.”

“Give it up, Rabirin. You’re not any more special than the rest of us.” Another apprentice called, and Rabirin scowled as she watched her mentor’s mouth quirk up into a smile.

It wasn’t that she thought she was more special than the rest of them, she just knew that one day, her hard work would pay off, and she would become more special than the rest of them.

Well, if they wouldn’t listen to her, she knew there was one person who would at least hear her out.

She growled to herself, and floated off toward another area of apprentice dens. None of the rabbits liked her, but that didn’t mean she was friendless.

“Pegitan!”

“Oh, hi Rabirin,” The little penguin apprentice said. He was another odd one out amongst his fellows, being such a coward as he was. The other penguins had bravery in spades, since it was their job to keep the arctic in check. “Is your mentor dismissing you again?”

“Yeah,” She settled on the patch of grass next to him. “Something feels different in the air today- and no one is taking me seriously.”

“You’ve said that before, though, and nothing happened.” Pegitan said, cocking his head at her.

“Not nothing! Some of the older animals were cooking! That’s why everything smelled weird.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“I think I smell smoke again- but I checked , and the tigers aren’t cooking anything this time.” She huffed, “It’s gotta be something more sinister.”

“Are you sure it’s not just Nyatoran messing around?” Pegitan sighed. Rabirin wrinkled her nose.

“ No , I checked on him too. He’s spent all day sunbathing, it’s not him.”

“Oh. Okay then… Do you uh, do you want my help finding the weirdness?” Pegitan offered, even if he looked like he would very much not like to do that.

“Sure!” Rabirin grinned. She could count on him when she needed him, hence why she could forgive his cowardice. “Do you think your mentor will notice you’re gone?”

“She’ll just assume I’m with you, this happens enough.” Pegitan said, floating into the air.

“Alright, I say we check out the forest first!” Rabirin declared, flying up as well.

They started searching, and kept searching, and kept searching for hours . By the time late afternoon rolled around, they were both exhausted, and had found nothing . Pegitan looked quite miserable, but Rabirin wasn’t deterred.

“Rabirin… I don’t think there’s anything out here,” Pegitan whined, sinking to the ground.

“But- can’t you smell it?” Rabirin said, trying to haul him into the air again. “The smoke!”

“I can’t- actually…” Pegitan paused. “I can smell something!”

“I told you!” Rabirin grinned.

“What is that?” Pegitan recoiled, eyes blowing wide at something he’d spotted on the ground.

“Wha- oh my gosh- ” Rabirin looked to see what he’d seen, and the sight sent waves of both revulsion, and vindication through her at once.

It was a horrible, creeping redness , oozing over the plant life and withering everything it touched. It smelled terrible- like ozone and sulfur, the scent burning her nose as it got closer.

“We have to get the mentors!” Pegitan whined, floating back.

“You’re not getting anybody! ” A hissing, slimy voice said, and Rabirin watched in horror as a- a thing stepped out of the contaminated bushes. It was humanoid, with sickly, green skin, and twisted red hors erupting from its pale scalp.

“Rabirin…” Pegitan keened. She was frozen, staring at the thing- the enemy! She should attack it, claim victory for the garden but… but… she couldn’t move .

Pegitan grabbed one of her ears, and pulled her away. The enemy screeched, and lobbed a glob of the horrible red stuff after them, which they only barely dodged. Rabirin saw it fly by, the acrid stench burning her nose, and her short life flashing by her eyes.

Still looking back as she was being dragged, she watched in horror as more, and more, and more of those horrible things stepped out of the shadows. Green, purple, blue, yellow and red- all in such sickly shades. Their horns glinted scarlet in the afternoon sun, and Rabirin felt normalcy crack around her.

She’d been right… but at what cost?

[Break]

The Healing Garden was beautiful . It was the first place Nodoka had set foot in that wasn’t that wasteland since she’d… been reborn, and it was all the more beautiful for it.

It was full of greenery, swooping trees and blooming flowers, with clear streams and such a soothing, cool wind. It felt so alive … and they were here to kill it all.

She winced as a low ranking Terabyogeznz ahead of her in the march trampled over a pretty yellow flower, the red ooze of their infection wilting it in seconds. At her side, Daruizen noticed, and rolled his eyes, very purposefully stomping on a blue one. She sighed, and he flicked her in the forehead, sending her a jolt of energy, stronger than usual.

“Consume to gain- it’s a basic principle,” He muttered in her ear, so that others wouldn’t hear. She knew what he meant- feed off of the energy here to get stronger. She gulped down her apprehensions, and stepped on a pretty little patch of moss as they marched on. It withered under her foot, but she felt refreshed.

“Oh,” She whispered, cringing at what she’d have to do to this lovely landscape if she wanted to live.

“Your only job here is to get stronger, got it? Don’t worry about King Byogenz’s suggestions,” Daruizen hissed in her ear. She nodded. She really did understand. What she still didn’t understand was his apparent loyalty to her, and absence of loyalty to their king. Not that she was loyal to him either, but she wasn’t super… normal, as far as Byogenz went.

“Alright,” She nodded. The one thing she was eternally grateful for in this attack was that she was allowed to stand by Daruizen’s side. Most of the generals were split up, leading their own battalions, but Nodoka was allowed to stay with Daruizen since they were ‘twins’ of a sort.

Their battalion marched onwards, and she watched the world around them fall- helped fell it, and grew stronger for it. She placed her palm against a tree, and felt its life flow into her, strengthening her core, and brightening her skin. It felt lovely and terrible at the same time, and she took a moment to just let herself feel.

We’ve met resistance,” Daruizen said, voice cold and powerful. She wasn’t the only one boosted by all this life around them.

“What?” She blinked at him. A moment later, the sounds of battle reached her ears. She looked up, and saw the animals .

There were lions, tigers, wolves and several other things whose names she couldn’t place. They were roaring, baring their fangs- the early evening sun glinting off of their armor . So, these were the healing animals, here to fight off their infection.

Nodoka had never seen most of these animals before- she thought she may have been to a zoo when she was younger, but ever since getting hospitalized, most of her experience with the world had become second hand. She hadn’t expected them to be this big .

“Oh, oh gosh,” She muttered. A Tiger laid its enraged eyes on her, and charged. She flinched away from the blow, but it didn’t come. Daruizen knocked it out of its arc, and it slammed to the ground- a new wound in its side oozing infection.

“You all know your orders! Wipe them out!” Daruizen yelled to their battalion, voice steely and determined.

“What about us?” Nodoka gasped, still reeling from her latest brush with death. Her heart would have been racing if she’d still had one.

“Ignore the defending forces- go further in. The best stuff is always at the core, and we need the good stuff if you’re going to live through this,” He said, nodding into the bright light that emanated from the center of the garden.

“A-alright,” She nodded, agreeing. She didn’t know what else to do.

“N-no! You can’t go there!” The injured tiger gasped. Daruizen raised an eyebrow, and stepped on its face.

“Oh? And why ever not?”

“S-someone, warn the- the queen!” It garbled, wheezing.

“The queen? Isn’t she strong enough to protect herself? Unless… there’s something more delicate at the center?” Daruizen’s face gained that terrible smirk again, and Nodoka averted her gaze. “Not that I hadn’t already figured that out,” He stepped off of its face, and it wheezed- but it was still breathing.

“Daruizen-”

“Nemuizen, let’s go,” He shrugged, and strode confidently in the direction of the core.

“Right,” She spared one last glance at the downed warrior, and another for the battle raging on around them, before sprinting after Daruizen.

In this together to the end.

Chapter Text

Rabirin had been wrong. She wasn’t some great hero, some… some chosen one who could swoop in and save the day, that had all just been a big fantasy like her mentors had said. She’d been right about the danger, but she’d been wrong about herself. Faced with all this, having all this disease and destruction right here before her eyes… it was awful, so far removed from her silly dreams of grandeur.

She felt like she was going to drown under the weight of her own fear. She was sure the air was clogged with fear from all sorts of animals, but even as they flew through the carnage, she could only smell her own.

Pegitan was right by her side, shaking like a leaf, but continuing onwards. They were just apprentices, as much as Rabirin’s fantastical side wanted to get out there and help… there was just nothing they could do. They were too small, too inexperienced, and too under-specialized for this kind of thing. If tigers and bears were collapsing after a single hit from these monsters, what could a rabbit do? What could a rabbit apprentice do?

Rabirin screamed, stopping dead in the air to avoid a strike, pulling Pegitan with her. Fly higher, escape, they were completely useless. The air smelled like blood, infection, and fear, and she hated it.

“Where are we going? ” Pegitan called to her, and she barely heard him over the blood rushing through her ears.

“I… I thought we were going to the apprentice barracks?” Rabirin called back, hating how her voice shook. As one, the two looked in the direction of the barracks, of their home. A huge, red plume of smoke was rising steadily from it, the haze of everything blotting it out. Was it even still there? She couldn’t tell.

“Bad idea,” Pegitan keened.

“Where else are we supposed to go?” Rabirin cried, pulling her ears down over her eyes, as if that would block out the horror.

“Maybe we could go to the castle?” He suggested, and she released her ears, flinching at the world around them. “Queen Teatinu would protect us!”

“Y-yeah,” Rabirin nodded. Queen Teatinu was her idol, she could do everything… everything Rabirin couldn’t.

With a proper goal once more in mind, the two of them shot off into the sky, flying high and as far away from the conflict as possible. Still, it was never going to be quite enough. They had to dodge so many projectiles, and the smoke filling their lungs threatened to take them out of the sky entirely. Still, they flew on, through the nightmare.

By the time they actually made it to the palace, Rabirin could admit it was a miracle they were as unharmed as they were. Their minor training had done at least one good thing for the two of them, and it was that they were both very good at avoiding predators, even predators like these.

The palace was a blessed center of peace amongst the chaos raging through the rest of the Garden, and both Pegitan and Rabirin relaxed into it as soon as they were safely ensconced inside. Safety. Refuge. Rabirin felt like crying, such things had been taken entirely for granted until that day.

“Rabirin! Pegitan!” A nasally familiar voice drifted over to them, and they both looked up to see Nyatoran, the lazy tiger apprentice, flying towards them. “What are you guys doing here?”

“What do you mean ‘what are we doing here?’” Pegitan asked, voice hoarse from the smoke. “We’re hiding from those… those things!”

“Well, yeah but-” He looked between the two of them. “I thought if any apprentice would be braving it, it would be Rabirin.”

“Oh shut up,” Rabirin hissed, her tone maybe a little more cutting than she’d like. “It’s a weird day, everything is changing anyway!”

“Jeez, sorry,” He nodded, lashing his tail.

“Children, calm yourselves,” That was queen Teatinu’s voice! Rabirin immediately refocused, seeing their leader and her idol laying in a patch of grass, surrounded by other apprentices, and even their princess Late.

“Teatinu-sama!” Rabirin called, immediately swooping down to join the other apprentices huddled up to her. Pegitan and Nyatoran followed, though at a slower pace. “Teatinu-sama, what’s going on? ”

“We’re being attacked… by the Byogenz,” The queen said, her tone somber. “ They are an infection of parasitoids that aim to kill our very planet.”

“But…” Some other apprentice said- Rabirin didn’t know their name. “We’re not going to let that happen, right?”

“Right,” The queen nodded, smiling kindly at them. “But they are a strong enemy, and our forces are going to need all the help they can get.”

As she said that, an explosion sounded from outside, startling all of them, making them draw closer to their queen. The princess whined, shoving her head into her mother’s fur. Rabirin’s own fur stood on end, and she did her best not to cower. She wasn’t a coward… she wasn’t.

“I’m sorry children… but I need to join the fight,” The queen sighed, getting to her feet, and gently shaking away the apprentices clinging to her fur.

“Then we’ll go with you!” A deer apprentice said, refusing to let go of their queen.

“If you must,” She dipped her head. “The situation is dire enough, you will be allowed to fight if you wish. Those of you that choose to stay here… please, protect Late for me,” With those words, she turned, and dashed for the entrance.

Rabirin wanted to move. She wanted to be there, fighting by her queen’s side, bringing glorious victory to the Healing Garden, and cementing her name in history, but… but…. She didn’t move. She barely even twitched. She couldn’t make herself move, no matter how much she wanted to.

I have to do something!

The other apprentices passed her by, flying out the door after her queen, her idol, who she was letting down.

“Well…” That was Nyatoran’s voice. “Protecting the princess isn’t too bad of a job, right?”

Rabirin slowly spun around, finding that there were only four people left in the room. Herself, Nyatoran, Pegitan, and Princess Late. Only the four of them. The princess, and the three biggest cowards in the whole Garden.

This was it. Her chance had come, and she’d let it pass right by her. This was her true nature, wasn’t it?

“It’s important, but it’s safe!” Pegitan was saying. “Perfect!”

“Right,” Rabirin squeaked, curling into herself a little.

“Hey, Rabirin,” Nyatoran offered her a winning grin. “Look on the bright side, if something does happen, then you still could get your hero moment!”

“I… I guess,” She sighed. At this point, she had no confidence that she’d actually be a hero if something like that happened. She’d probably just keel over and die, and let the princess die too, letting everyone down.

“Wan! Wan!” Princess Late said. She was so young, she hadn’t quite figured out language yet.

They stayed there for what felt like days. It was boring, endlessly so, but also the most nerve wracking experience of Rabirin’s life, and she was sure the other two felt the same. Inside the palace it was peaceful, but the walls couldn’t quite mask the smell of smoke and infection, and the echoing din of battle raging outside. It was suffocating, in a distant, inevitable sort of way.

Rabirin drew into herself, huddling up against the princess, and her fellow cowards. She’d always been Pegitan’s friend, but she’d never spent too much time with Nyatoran before this. In this situation… She was glad he was there. She’d always found him a little silly and unserious, but right then… she was grateful for his attempts to lighten the mood.

Wait- was that?

“Did you guys hear that?” Rabirin whispered, cutting off Nyatoran telling a story about something or other.

“Wha- oh,” He said, dropping his own voice to a whisper and listening as well. “ Footsteps. ”

“What!?” Pegitan whisper-hissed, hugging himself. Princess Late whined.

“Hide- we have to hide!” Rabirin gasped, already feeling adrenaline fill her veins.

The three of them quickly found an alcove, carrying the princess with them. It was a tight fit for all four of them, but it wasn’t an issue. Being this close, Rabirin could feel every one of their heartbeats, not just her own. A part of her was glad to know she wasn’t the only one scared out of her mind.

“Oh come on, is there nothing here?” A low, drawling voice carried through the air, and Rabirin froze, holding her breath. The smell of sickness got stronger, tickling her nose, but she refused to breathe it in. One of those creatures, Byogenz the queen had called them, was right in the room with them.

“Well, there has to be something , right?” A second voice, this one more feminine. There were two of them? “Then again, maybe not… we did hear that the queen had joined the fight right? A while ago?”

“That’s true,” The other one sighed, his clunking footsteps getting closer. “Let’s take a more thorough look around anyway.”

“I mean, do we need to?” The feminine voice said, her own footsteps speeding up to follow her fellow. “I’m more than healthy now, just from everything leading up to here!”

“You can always go further,” He muttered, and he walked right by the apprentice’s alcove, letting them get a good look at their monster.

He was just like the ones Rabirin had seen at the treeline, humanoid but slightly to the left. He had pastel blue skin, sickly dark green hair, and short red horns on top of it all. Now at this vantage point, she could also see that he had a long, scorpion-like tail curling out from under his dark red coat. Awful.

“Well, sure but-” She paused. In following the boy, she too had passed the alcove, and they weren’t lucky enough to avoid notice twice.

Rabirin felt herself start to shake as the parasitoid’s sinister yellow eyes landed on them, and her words stalled. This was it, they were dead. These two were going to kill them, and Princess Late, and Queen Teatinu wouldn’t forgive them even though they were dead, and-

“What?” The boy asked, annoyance dripping from his tone.

“Oh, uh, I was just saying that we might be able to find better stuff outside, you know?” She flashed him a quick smile, glancing away from the apprentices. What? What what what? She was ignoring them? Why?

“BYOGENZ!” A loud bang echoed out as the doors to the palace were thrown open, and the enraged voice of their Queen reached Rabirin’s ears. She’d come back for them.

“Well,” The boy said, stepping back into their view, letting them see the horrible smirk on his face. “Things are about to get very interesting.”