Chapter Text
The Patient Zero.
Oh, Subspace knew he goofed it up, and he goofed it up, hard.
He was just making a formula to strengthen his poison, and after DAYS of creating this stronger formula for his poison, he had finally made a formula stable enough that he was able to test it! He was pretty giddy to test his new formula. Now, he only needed a test subject, but who was going to be that willing subject? He would test it on himself, but considering his state, he dropped that idea. He thought of many people, Hyperlaser? Of course not, he still needs Hyperlaser for errands and other things. Decoy Deploy? Hell no, he would not put the alchemist in danger, that would get the higher ups breathing down his neck. The only option that was left was.. one of his Biografts. Subspace felt horrible about the idea, even debating if he should even test this new formula at all, but he steeled his resolve.
"It'll be fine, I can just rebuild them again!!" Subspace said to himself, but he still felt horrible about this; after all, he cherished the Biografts like his children, but the experiment goes on. Subspace commanded one of his Biografts into the testing room with him. So he started to test the new poison on the Biograft, but then, after a little bit of testing, he was horrified at the results.
The Biograft had started to corrode from the poison.
The corrosion was slow, but Subspace could see the pain on the poor Biograft's face. So he stopped the experiment early, and commanded the Biograft to come with him. He wanted to fix this so that the biograft would no longer be in pain. He tried his best, he knows, but he could only reverse so much of the damage. There was still a tiny bit of the corrosion, but Subspace thought it would be ok and simply patched it with a piece of spare metal nearby. He sent the Biograft away from the repair room, before going back into his laboratory.
He was proud of the poison in a way. Yes, it was much stronger than his usual poison from his tripmines. Yes, the effects were slow and painful which makes it easier to hear the suffering from his victims, but deep down, it felt like a horrible idea. So he tinkered around with the poison more, unintentionally isolating himself in the process. Subspace didn't know why, but he just felt.. bad, there was this nagging voice in his head to not do this, but he kept on experimenting with the new poisonous formula anyways.
He kept on experimenting, unaware of what's going to happen outside of his lab or what was going to happen to him as well.
\✶/
Lately, Subspace hasn’t been feeling well. Well, he’s always sick, but Subspace felt even worse than usual. He’s been coughing a lot more - much more than usual, his rot was also becoming more painful and spreading faster too. Subspace braced himself as he could feel the next cough in his throat; it was going to be a violent cough. He inhaled, then exhaled, but that exhale was interrupted by a violent torrent of coughing and toxic mist coming out of Subspace’s mouth.
“cAGCK- ACK- CoUUGH- UGH!!-”
Fuck. That hurt, that really hurt.
Subspace could only sigh, his rot was getting worse too, and it hurt a lot more as well. He could feel another wave of coughs coming up from his throat, but this wave of coughs were dry, not much of the noxious fog came out. The ventilation in his lab were trying their best, but it wasn’t enough to clear out the fog that was created by Subspace’s invention and Subspace himself. Subspace could only angrily mutter to himself.
“This was going to be my greatest invention. It was SUPPOSED TO BE MY GREATEST INVENTION!!-”
That spiteful talk was interrupted by even more coughing, this time, spewing out a lot more of the toxic smoke. Subspace had taken off his gas mask at this point, that thing was just getting in the way of expelling the noxious fog out of his ever-weakening system. He felt so weak, he didn’t have the body strength to carry himself out of his lab, he could barely stay awake on some days, on other days, he could barely recall anything, it was so blurry. Subspace wasn’t the egotistical, over the top, greatest inventor of Blackrock anymore, he was weak. So weak. Subspace swears if Medkit saw him like this, he would say something like ‘You deserved this.’
Subspace continued to rot away in his lab, he was barely surviving. He was given some form of sustenance by his beloved biografts, so that he wouldn’t die on them. On some days, he could barely recognize his dear creations, his co-workers (if they even visited him.), his flower. His coughing became less frequent as his internal systems slowly rotted away, from his own creation nonetheless. Subspace could feel his body rotting away, slowly, painfully. He hated it.
What a sorry state Subspace was in.
\💮/
Subspace could hear the door slowly opening. He could barely keep his eyes open, they felt so heavy. But once he heard her voice he knew who was visiting him. Even though his hearing was slightly blurry, and his vision was failing as well, he managed to crack a small smile at his very special visitor. He wanted to speak so bad, but his vocal chords were slowly failing too, but he did manage to croak out something in a very raspy voice.
“V-Vine Staff?.. I’m so happy to see you!!..”
He tried his best to speak, really, but his body was slowly but surely shutting down on him, but that joy he felt when he knew who was visiting him was immeasurable. He thanked the swords that once, this time, his memory didn’t fail him. He could make out some words like ‘ok’, ‘healing’, ‘spacey’ and a few more words, but his hearing was slowly being destroyed too, but then suddenly, he felt this warmth and safety surge through him. He recognized what Vine Staff was trying to do, but in his slightly better state, he spoke:
“My flower, I know you want to help, but I can deal with this by myself, you know?!..”
There was some of that classic Subspace. Vine Staff sighed then laughed, which made him feel even warmer, but that sad look on Vine Staff.. Subspace knows that Vine Staff understands him very, very well. He understands that she just wants to help, but swords, Subspace does not want Vine Staff anywhere near this mess he created. Subspace felt guilty, so guilty.
“Viney, everything will be fine, just let me handle it!!”
Subspace wished he could just, talk to Vine Staff forever, not worry about anything, to not worry about his rot, to not worry about her curse, wouldn’t that be really nice? But they could only talk and bicker for so long. Vine Staff kept the healing plants up just so that Subspace could have enough strength to keep on talking.
Swords. Subspace loved Vinestaff so much. Vinestaff knows what horrible things he’s done, yet she still loves him. Subspace could cry at that.
They kept on talking for hours, but Vine Staff was getting tired from keeping the healing up, and Subspace could see it on her face. So, as a parting gift, Subspace finally gave Vine Staff a loving kiss. Subspace doesn’t know if this will be his last moments or not, but goddamnit, these moments might be his last. So why not give a kiss at least.
\✶/
Subspace could feel his own body decaying. Subspace could feel it, he was dying. These moments would truly be his last moments. He could feel the rot eating away at every bit of his body. He barely had the strength to get out of bed. The crystal on his head was slowly fizzling out of existence.
Subspace could feel his eyes become heavier. So he mustered up the last bits of his strength to do some final things. Before he forgot it, before he forgot everything.
He sent a flower to.. someone, he could barely recall their face, he could barely recall their name, but he could smell flowers, and that was all he needed. He wrote a little note, and sent a text.
‘I love you.’
That was all he could type, and he sent the flower away to somewhere far, far away.
With his last dying breath, he tried to give a command..? He was starting to forget everything. The things he held closest to his heart, his body, his own name even. Despite all that, his shaky hands reached for.. something, but in the end, he grasped nothing.
Subspace took his final breath, his rotten body went limp
Subspace was no more.