World Filter

The trip back to the Order’s territory was far less scenic. Mark flew back quickly, making sure no one followed him. The woes of the city were unable to catch his attention this time.

Their perimeter guard was quieter than it had been in days and people were enjoying the downtime while they could. The only thing that was still cause for concern was the large amount of intakes they had to manage. People were still being processed, and Ethel and her team were working hard to vet all the different personalities.

Mark slowed as he arrived closer to their core, just before he landed on their rooftop, he spotted a large group returning.

Mark distantly remembered Sam saying she was going to try her first group of candidates before he’d left.

Which meant that must be her returning, now whether that was victorious or not he wasn’t sure.

Touching down, Mark walked down a couple of levels to their private floor. He didn’t head to his own room, instead, he continued down the hallway to the end where the spire joined their building. The very last room was one of their less-used areas, but Mark nodded to the guard that stood vigil in front of it.

The Aura user saluted and opened the door for Mark to step through, closing the door right behind him.

As he entered, the same bare room greeted him, except a bed and an EKG machine beeping away in the corner. Its charge resting quietly in the bed.

One of Mark's healers looked up from the chart as she saw him enter, he brow held a worried look. Mark nodded to the woman, she handed him the chart and left the bedroom.

Looking at it Mark frowned.

None of the information on it was useful. Technology could determine how well the body was doing but Corruption twisted the body to its limits.

Often making even the most simple results unusable.

Looking up at the man sitting propped up in the bed on stacks of pillows. Mark couldn’t help his brows drawing together.

Donny lay there with several wires running from his body. The corruption had caused Mark no small amount of stress and energy.

Sadly keeping his body alive was all Mark had been able to do.

The corruption threw off the machine results, and unfortunately, most of the delicate equipment used for brain scans had not survived the fall.

Placing a hand over Donny’s forehead, Mark sent a string of power in. Using [Prana pulse] to gauge the damage, Mark tried to find something to fix, but it was the same as always.

Nothing.

When they had managed to retrieve Donny, Mark had tried to heal the guy, but it would seem Grace had left one final, ‘Fuck you’ for Mark to find.

At first, he had thought Grace had just altered Donny’s memories again, and while evil, it was fixable. The problem came when Mark attempted to gather Donny’s mind, and only found darkness. Where before had been recovering memories, now there was nothing.

For lack of a better term, Donny was brain-dead. His personality had been entirely erased to make way for whatever Grace had planned. Mark had hoped he could coax them out of hiding, but even days later nothing had changed.

It was becoming obvious that he wouldn’t be able to repair anything this time because there was nothing to fix.

Donny hadn’t physically died on that day but it was taking everything Mark had to keep him alive. Nothing remained of his friend and honestly, Mark didn’t know what to do for the guy.

He didn’t want to give up on him, not after everything else he’d lost recently.

Fluffing the pillow Donny leaned against, Mark didn’t avoid the hollow gaze that stared out at the room, seeing nothing.

Only the odd involuntary blink and gentle rising of his chest showed he was even alive.

Mark had reverted the outward changes, and while imperfect, he was at least humanoid again.

It was Donny’s insides that were in absolute chaos.

Like the previous session, Mark sent forth a surge of Prana and let it rest in Jonathan's body. It was all he could do for him, and frankly, the only thing keeping him alive at this point.

His body had been irreversibly changed like Mark’s and the only thing stopping his heart from shutting down was to either allow Corruption to complete the transformation. Or regular, potent doses of Prana to keep his body functioning.

The cost was getting larger by the day, and he was only healing so fast, but right now it was all Mark could do. He could only hope it would be enough.

He could potentially recreate all of Donny’s missing memories, but that felt incredibly wrong for so many reasons. The problem was Mark was running out of time. If things didn’t change, he may have to try it.

Mark was just getting ready to leave when a knock on the door and a word from the guard came, letting him know that Sam was on her way up.

Leaving the room, he made a mental note to check in on Donny later. Just as he was making his way down the hall once more, Mark spotted Sam making her way towards him.

Her shoulders were drooping and Mark could only assume the test had not gone well, but he still asked.

“Yeah, not a single one. We tried over three hundred candidates, but it was not by, level, power, or attribute. Lisa’s gonna again try later but, I’m thinking we should make time tomorrow night to use our rights.”

Mark frowned because that meant he’d have to be in the same room as Jonathan and he still hadn’t figured out what to say to the guy, but it was time. They needed to get this out of the way now that the life-threatening disasters weren’t in their backyard.

“Alright, sure. I’ll grab the list of questions from Ethel and go over them tonight.”

Sam nodded as she departed, probably off to begin compiling new candidates. If he knew anything about the woman by now, it was that failure just made her more determined.

With the rest of the evening, Mark went over some work for the faction and reviewed the clinic's design. He’d decided he needed to build one from scratch. One that would not collapse under the various disasters that befell them. Sadly Metayo had passed during the battle. So Mark had to make do with what he had until logistics could find another skilled architect.

Like this, Mark fell into a restless slumber. When he woke up he had to peel a page off his cheek and make a mad dash for the bathroom. After a quick shower, Mark headed down to the lobby.

There he saw Willow making her way into the building. Greeting her Mark took her to up to the third level where most of their healers resided.

Introducing her to the processes he had in place. Many of which she agreed on, and many of which she told him flat out could be improved.

Mark found her candor good and was just finishing up when the door to the room burst open.

Andy's eyes brushed past all of them, but when they landed on Mark, he knew something was wrong.

Without waiting, Mark moved forward. Andy started speaking before they had even gotten halfway.

“Mark! Jonathan sent me. Somethings wrong with Donovan!”

Mark's eyes narrowed as his head shot up. He could just about feel Jonathan above them. Meaning they were in his room.

Moving toward the window, Mark clenched his fist, and the wall nearest to the outside opened all at once.

Just as he was about to jump out Willow grabbed his shoulder. Mark turned but all she said was.

“Take me with, I can help!”

Without hesitating Mark wrapped them both up in a construct and bolted out of the new opening in the structure, wind buffeting around them.

They Shoot up the side of the building at his top speed, Mark used Jonathan like a beacon, rushing towards their level and opening another hole in the side of the building.

When they entered, Mark saw Jonathan trying to hold down a thrashing Donny, as he screamed in pain.

Mark put Willow down and moved to the side of the bed. Sending in a large bundle of Prana into the guy.

The amount he had put there last night was entirely gone, which was worrying because it had been no small amount.

“What happened!” Mark asked over Donny’s screams.

Jonathan continued to hold Donny down but still answered.

“I’m not sure, but the guard called for help as I passed. Luck thing too, he went feral just as I got here.”

Mark’s eye homed in on Donny’s behavior. He hadn’t noticed it before but Dony was attempting to bite Jonathan but could not get through the muscle on his forearm.

His demeanor was that of a trapped animal… no, a Corrupted.

His eyes were not yellow, but they carried no intelligence behind them, only instinct. And his desire to consume had been triggered.

Mark kept feeding Prana into Donny to calm him, but it seemed to have little effect. What he didn’t notice was Willow coming from the side. She had a syringe in hand and adeptly administered the drug before anyone knew what was going on.

A couple of seconds later Donny began to thrash less until he went completely still once more.

Mark turned on the woman with a questioning glance. She grimaced and held out an empty sedative vial for him to inspect.

Nodding to himself, he saw she had given him an exact dosage, even with all the chaos.

Thanking her, Mark turned back to Donny, keeping a steady stream of Prana going.

Willow then approached too, and with permission began doing her own inspection of Donny.

All the while Jonathan didn’t move from the bed, keeping an eye on Donny just in case.

Looking toward the door Mark saw the nurse he had assigned was hiding behind the guard. Mark was glad she was safe and nothing had happened.

He had assigned the guard for this reason but he’d underestimated the threat.

Mark was stirred from his thoughts by Willow speaking, a sense of shock in her voice.

“Mr. Young… how is this man alive? Looking at the level of muscular atrophy, it seems as though this man has been in a coma for years. There are so many complications here, the least of which is multi-organ failure.

Mark had known this would be the outcome, but he had secretly hoped she had some answer he didn’t. Mark had been using a large amount of power daily to keep Donny’s organs from shutting down completely.

He had told himself it was to buy time to figure things out, but in all honesty, he wasn’t sure anymore.

This wasn't something he could heal, because Donny’s body wasn't broken, it was in the middle of a metamorphosis. Similar to what would have happened to Jonathan, only much further along.

If Mark let it complete, Donny was dead. If he kept holding Donny’s body in suspension like this, the same outcome.

Mark didn’t know what to do, Donny was dead either way but he couldn’t accept that, he just kept hoping he’d figure this out.

Willow said something else but Mark couldn’t hear it.

He needed to figure out what he could do next. There had to be something he hadn’t tried, he was sure of it.

Then a ringing in his ears snapped Mark out of his daze, turning to look at Jonathan. The connection between the three of them still singing like a plucked guitar cord. Sam had taken notice of it too.

Jonathan was looking at him with a steady gaze as he spoke

“You won’t want to hear this from me, or anyone for that matter. But I’m probably the only one who won’t mind calling you on this, because you’re being cruel. Mark, you need to let him go.”