Elkay groaned to himself as he turned over inside the glass observation and quarantine cell he as sleeping in. Just outside the cell, his husband was arguing with someone, probably one of Kal, but Elkay didn’t particularly care right now.
“I NEED to comfort him! I need to help him! He needs my embrace, so he remembers who the fuck he is!”
“Teekay, he needs to be quarantined.”
“He’s FINE.”
Leh rubbed his eyes, then clicked angrily. “I am going to swear now. Teekay, your partner fucking turned himself into a Corruption, then started infecting and eating another Corruption, while somehow breaking what we know about Corruptions. We NEED to quarantine Elkay, because what he did was utterly messed up!”
“But he’s absolutely fine! He’s not corrupted at all, your little scanner thingy fucking says so!” Teekay continued to argue. “Elkay needs me right now, I need to be here for him!”
“No, Elkay needs to be quarantined, he needs to be kept separate from everyone else, in case he turns into Corruption again! We don’t know what Elkay’s own strain is like, it might be decidedly deadly, like it was to that Unending Ancient One strain that Elkay killed!” Leh clicked some more. “Teekay, it’s nice that you care but Elkay could turn and he could hurt you.”
“Elkay would never hurt me! He’s bound to me, the same way Arkadin is bound to Retvik and Litvir! And it’s not like Elkay hasn’t done this before!”
Leh paused and dimmed his eyes briefly. “What?”
“During our Decay Lord Trial. We had to find the source of the Corruption and kill it to escape. But it was trying to get into Eksi’s head and infect him, so Elkay briefly turned himself into his own, personal strain of Corruption to trick the bad Corruption to talk to him and reveal its source. He turned back on his own, hugged me then rubbed Vohra spit across his face and he was fine!”
“That… is both insane, different and fucking dangerous!” It was clear that Leh was getting more frustrated, as he was free cursing. None of Kal normally swore, and if they did, it meant they were stressed and angry. “He could have infected all of you! He might still be infectious!”
“He’s not though!”
“You don’t fucking know that!”
“I fucking do though! He’s my wife, I know him better than anyone!”
“You don’t know about completely unique strains of Corruption though!”
Thankfully, someone stepped in. Elkay briefly glanced up to see who it was, rolled his eyes and went back to sleep again.
“Teekay, Leh, dears, we are going around in circles…” Litvir sighed. “Teekay, I know you want to be by Elkay’s side, that is very sweet of you, but we do need to quarantine him, just for couple of hours, just to be on the safe side. But you can remain here, on this side of the glass, until the quarantine period is over, so you can be as close as possible without compromising your own safety, because you are right, your presence makes Elkay feel better. At the same time, Leh has a good point, we do not know what Elkay’s personal strain of Corruption can do, so it is better to err on the side of caution.”
Teekay took a deep breath and finally calmed down. “Alright. Fine. I don’t think Elkay would ever hurt us, but you have a point. Can we at least give Elkay a blanket or something in there? He looks uncomfortable.”
Leh hesitated, then shrugged. “Yeah, sure. I’ll go get some bedding. Back in a bit.”
Teekay watched as Leh clomped off, then sat down by the edge of the cell, his back pressed against the glass. He then glanced up at Litvir. “Thanks, boss. I was worried he’d not let me stay here.”
“It is fine…” Litvir sighed. He glanced down at Elkay, who had turned over and was sleepily looking at both him and Teekay. “Elkay, dear, how are you feeling?”
It took a moment for Elkay to reply. “Uh… tired, I guess… And angry at myself. What I did was stupid.”
“I… don’t even really know what you did…” Teekay admitted. “You didn’t let it infect you, did you? You did what you did in our Decay Lord Trial. Your own strain.”
Elkay grunted, then nodded. “I saw it knock Elksia out, because it was running wholly randomly. It knew it had hurt Elksia, she was in danger, so I did something very stupid to draw attention away from everyone else. And then I… I do not want to say I got hungry. Because that gives the wrong idea. But I got… angry. And then I got curious… And then, as I bit down into its flesh, because I struggling to do two things at once, I…” Elkay paused, then fell completely silent.
Teekay pressed his hand against the glass, close to where Elkay’s head was. “Babe, we won’t judge you. You know I’d never judge you, and Litvir’s an asshole, sure, but he’s not judgemental either.”
“I am a monster.”
“Elkay, dear, you are not a monster. You killed the monster!” Litvir tutted. “We just want to know what happened, so we can speed up your recovery in case it happens again. Kal are only freaking out because you broke existing data. According to them, only older Corruptions can infect newer Corruptions, not the other way around, and they do not like my theory that your mimicking Elksia’s Time Drake powers altered that in some way.”
Teekay shrugged. “They could also, like, just be wrong? We’ve been wrong about a LOT of random stuff about Elkay because everyone’s fucking stupid and we only have, what, two points of data? It’s literally just you and Arkadin, babe. And some references to some bitch called Vryda, who, like, no one seems to know what she was, and I think was just a Life Goddess or something. Heck, half the stuff we know about Elkay being mimicky is stuff we know from Arkadin.”
Elkay sighed. “I have been texting Arkay, and he seems to think that I am a better, more powerful version of him.”
Litvir thought for a moment, then sighed as well. “Admittedly, you are probably right. At the very least, you have the potential to be equal in power, but without the massive drawbacks that Arkay has. That being said, Elkay, did you pick up any information from the Corruption when you infected it?”
Elkay shook his head. “No more info than you got.”
Teekay blinked for a moment. “What do you mean by that?”
“Eksi and I were telepathically scanning the Corruption, trying to find out how it got here and what it wanted. Eksi did not pick up anything, but I picked up a stray thought that it had been pointed in our direction by something else.”
“Oh… Oh fuck…” Teekay whispered. “That… that’s fucking bad…”
Elkay however seemed less concerned. He sat up straight, then pressed his hand against the glass, next to Teekay’s. “It is bad, but we beat that thing back, we have beaten everything else back. And… well… that Corruption was the Ancient Unending One strain, or whatever it is called? The intelligent strain? We beat it. With not too much damage to ourselves. And if I can… control myself?” Elkay trailed off briefly. “Hm… If my personal strain can outdo older strains? We might have a novel new way of removing Corruption, by infecting them with my unique, non-infectious strain, which can consume the old Corruption and then self-destruct safely…”
Teekay blinked some more. “That… that’s insane.”
“Hmph. It… it is…” Elkay grunted. “I admit, my brain is pretty damn scrambled right now. It is hard to concentrate and I am exhausted.”
The conversation was interrupted by Phovos, who was standing in the doorway with two blankets and some pillows. “Hey, guys, Leh asked me to bring these to you. I brought some extra for Teekay, because I assume you want to be close by.”
“Phovos, you’re such a dude!” Teekay grinned. He watched as Phovos created two miniature portals, so she could give Elkay his blanket and pillow without breaking quarantine too badly. She then sealed everything shut and handed Teekay his blanket. “Thank you!”
Phovos smiled back. “No worries. You doing alright, Elkay?”
“I am fine, just tired.”
“Alright. I’ll leave you guys to rest!” Phovos waved as she left.
Litvir turned to Teekay and Elkay. “I shall leave you both to it as well. Please, call me if you need me, alright?”
Elkay and Teekay both nodded.
“Thanks, Litvir!” Teekay perked up. “Thanks for helping me and my stupid wife.”
Litvir snorted. “Hah. I will be back in two hours to check on you both. See you soon.”