"Is she... Dead?" Isaac asked as they stood over Sweetiebelle and Nexus. "She doesn't look like she's regenerating."

"She is! She's fine." Applebloom yelled at him. "Ah didn't know this would happen."

"None of us did." The guard said. "She's alive, right? So, if we just give her enough time then-"

"We don't have time." Isaac said. "We're all hallucinating, most of us have dementia that will kill us, Danik is getting closer to the others, and the Necromorphs are getting bolder. We can't risk letting Danik turn on the machine. One of us will have to stay here with these two."

"Ah'll do it." Applebloom said. "She's one of ma'h best friends, and she needs me now. Yall go, we'll be fine."

"Stay safe." Isaac said as he, the guard, and Babs began to walk away.

"Ah will." Applebloom mumbled as she looked at her charred friend and Nexus.

Isaac and others

Isaac pressed the holographic button on the door, it slid to the side and a small puff of warm air hit them. Letting it close behind them, they both stood in silence as the machine turned to open on the other side.

"She'll be... She'll be fine, right Isaac?" The guard said not looking at him. "We'll get through this? All of us?"

Before Isaac could respond, Daniks voice came through the speaker. Babs and Isaac both gripped their weapons tighter once he started speaking.

"A little trivia, Isaac," he said. "To put things into perspective. Fact: The original Marker, the Black Marker found on Earth, predates the rise of mankind. Are you listening to this?"

"I wish I wasn't." Isaac muttered and momentarily took aim at the speaker. "Not worth the ammo."

"Fact:" Danik began again as the door opened. "The Marker exerts a field of influence that guides and grows biological organisms, evolving them over time towards some greater purpose. Do you see where this is going?" He asked as if he could hear Isaac answer.

"I know where it can go," the guard muttered and got a nod from Isaac. "Right down his blowhole-mouth and then back up his ass. I'll send a few bullets too."

"Not before I shoot him a few times." Isaac said. "We still need that last piece. Come on, we should be able to beat Danik before his lackeys get to it first."

Stepping into the hall they'd previously been in, the floor was still streaked with the grime and boot prints they had left behind. Babs, sticking out her hoof, let the small locator run to the left and into the base of the Biology sector's door.

"The fuck is all this?" The guard muttered looking at the Corruption spread across the walls and floor. "And that thing on the floor?" He asked aiming his Pulse rifle at a Cyst pulsating quietly on a mound of Corruption.

"You're going to want to shoot that from a distance," Isaac said watching the yellow pustule fly into the air when the guard shot it. "They shoot explosive pus sacs."

"That's disgusting." He said watching the Cyst leak an orange fluid. "Right up there with being covered in frozen crap."

Stepping onto the fleshy mat, a puff of rancid air shot up and penetrated Isaac's helmet, passing through the filters and into his suit. He coughed from the old smell, but managed to get it under control, letting his body become accustomed to the foul air again. Babs and the guard weren't as lucky, they both were on their knees, coughing and spitting onto the mat.

"Don't worry," Isaac said. "The smell isn't the worst part. It's getting stuck in it while a trio of Slashers try and kill you."

He moved forward, letting Babs and the guard become accustomed to the air while he dealt with the other Cysts scattered around the hall.

Shooting another one in front of him, he pulled out the melting rod from it and threw it onto a Cyst hanging from the wall to his left. It shot out a pustule which he caught in his kinesis and let it slam back into the Cyst. Shouldering his way past a large growth of Corruption on the wall opposite to the dead Cyst, he shoulder the large weapon in his hand past and shot the Cyst on the floor.

With a bolt sticking out of it, Isaac was taking a step when a squishing from behind drew his attention. Slinging his gatling gun behind him, he heard a startled gasp before he saw the guard with his hands raised.

"Relax, relax, it's only us." The guard said shouldering past the Corruption while Babs walked by. "The Necromorphs are the ones you should point that end at."

"Sorry," Isaac said listening to a Cyst detonating up ahead. "I didn't know if it was you. Much less a human, or a pony."

Continuing on without hearing the guard's reply, Isaac spared a glance at the dead Cyst and Babs looting a locker by it. Stepping into the small booth a few steps head, he and the guard looked at the controls, and seeing the large touchscreen with a suggestion to release gas, the guard brought Babs in and Isaac pressed the command.

When no gas came out, Isaac and the guard both looked at the door to the side of the booth and entered. They were in a dark room with only their visors and the lift's light across from the illuminate the room. Letting the bar of the lift raise to let the two humans pass, Babs jumped up and pressed the small holo-deck to make it go down.

Partway down, Lurkers came out from vents on the wall and in the darkness, began to shoot at the two humans who were already aiming at them.

Isaac shot a rocket into the dimly lit room and waited for the bright flash. When it hit the wall, pieces of concrete came down with a Lurker that managed to catch itself on a lower part of the wall, but Isaac had already fired another rocket that, like the last one, sent concrete and half a Lurker coming down, sizzling with acid.

The guard was using controlled busts from his Pulse rifle, watching the Lurker occasionally be struck with a high pitched screech or to be illuminated by the bullets hitting the wall. As it was illuminated again, he kept his finger on the trigger and with a chorus of screeches and flesh ripping, the Lurker lost its two front legs and fell the rest of the way down, landing on a rail cutting it in half from the impact.

The lift set down to a brightly lit floor, two Lurkers on the floor bleeding profusely, and a large console of controls leading to a large tank with a skull and crossbones on it.

Isaac, getting onto his knees, opened a small panel in the middle of the console and began to move the switches around. Having it spark a few times, the pistons on the tank finally began moving while the lift remained active. Getting back on the left, the three of them held their weapons up in case any more Lurkers decided to attack them. When none came out from the shadows, they relaxed as the lift stopped and allowed them to exit back into the hall before.

Making sure Babs was in the booth, the guard lifted her up so she could watch the gas as Isaac pressed the command to release the gas.

The outside darkened considerably, and a flame-orange gas began pouring out of vents, burning any of the Corruption it touched along with the dead Cysts. At one point, the windows were covered with it while a high-pitched screaming rang out through the hall. Once the gas dissipated, the door re-opened letting them back out, while it let a foul cloud of burnt-smelling air in.

"It smells like burnt dog meat out here." Isaac said breathing in the burnt air.

"How do you know what that smells like?" The guard asked listening to the crunching he made whenever his boots went over a hollow piece of Corruption.

"It was a different outbreak," Isaac said. "A bus caught on fire and a dog managed to get out, but it was already on fire. A friend of mine killed her, a clean shot to the head, straight from the roof of a building we were on. You could smell it from up there, that god awful smell. It couldn't even cry out for more than a few seconds before the smoke choked it so bad and the heat burned her throat."

Babs and the guard said nothing while they went to the door that had been previously guarded by the wall hanging Cyst. Going in, a small hall that forked into two different paths. Going through the right one, the three entered a room made for a mad scientist.

Another vacuum was on the right was in the wall, brain graphs of an alien were stationed on screens hanging from a large wall of machinery, a leaper, looking like it had been embedded in the left wall hung there by the impressions in the metal. Going further in, past the Leaper, more X-rays were in front of them, all of them of different shapes and sizes, with most of them looking similar to the Necromorph's appendages if it weren't for the smoothness.

Turning the corner, a sickening wailing rang out as a Guardian spewed Swarm at them. The small spider-like Necromorph quickly went to a nearby corpse, burrowed into it in a spray of blood and was forcing it to stand up when Isaac killed it and the Guardian with a rocket.

"After you." Isaac said extending his hand.

The guard shook his head and went back to the Leaper, Babs went ahead, looking at the X-rays littering the wall. Isaac took the piece of Rosetta in his kinesis, holding the piece on front of him he was turning the corner when the guard suddenly yelled out and two Wasters came out from the vents, one walking towards Isaac and the other knocking the guard through the wall.

Babs, making quick work of the Waster, allowed Isaac to rush to the hole along with the piece of Rosetta. Looking through, he dropped the frozen body parts to look outside.

The guard, standing on a block of ice connected to a ruptured pipe, was looking at Isaac and the torrent of water rushing past him, sending team up as it flowed over the ice. Looking out, Isaac saw the crater more than half a kilo-meter away with similar rivers flowing into it.

"What the hell are you doing!?" The guard yelled at him as his block began to crack. "Get that piece to Ellie, make the Codex, stop Danik!"

"You can climb up," Isaac said looking back to send a barrage of acid-coated spikes into another waster. "Come on!"

"No, Isaac," the guard said stepping onto the loose ice block. "The building is coming down and if I move any more than this, I'll be swept away. Besides, there's something in the water. Now go!" He yelled, firing into the ice out of Isaac's view, causing more water to come pouring out.

Isaac watched as the guard suddenly aware of what was about to happen, dived off his block and into the river and disappeared over the waterfall when the water came rushing out. The floor began to feel loose so, taking the piece back again, Isaac put it in the vacuum and helped Babs get through the Wasters and out the door again.

"Okay, Ellie, another one coming your way." Isaac said over the comm while the floor behind him began to give out to the water rushing under it.

"Isaac, these slices... are you sure this is Rosetta?" Ellie asked uncertainly.

"Only one way to find out." He said making it under the door and onto concrete, safe from the metal floor panels that were gone now. "Let's keep going." He said to Ellie and Babs.

Babs, after Isaac got up, stuck out her hoof and the hologram led them to the small lift by them. Stepping onto it, Isaac pressed the button, looking at the door they had just come through, looking until he couldn't see it anymore.

The guard

Floating in the water, the guard shook off the initial shock of getting tumbled in the water as he had gone over the rim of the crater. Swimming up without his Pulse rifle, the weapon having been lost on his way down, he swam up to the mildly disturbed surface. Coming up by a large piece of ice, a small island in the crater, he hoisted himself up and took off his helmet and boots to pour out the water, fresh as it might be, it would still freeze quickly in the arctic air.

"Damn," he said slipping his accessories back on. "Looks like that blast must have traveled up the pipes and melted some of the ice. Looks like the buildings are coming down too." He said observing a room come crashing down with the water.

Looking around, the crater was a quarter of the way full and the water didn't seem to be letting up either. Scanning the ridges and sides, he saw the stone had melted in smooth patches, nothing to grab onto and nothing not covered in water. Going to the edge of his island, he cupped his hands and took in some of the alien water, feeling it, strangely warm his teeth. Looking by his edge, he saw one of the waterfalls pouring in further than some of the others, closer to him.

Taking in a few more handfuls, he gave a small belch and put his helmet back on. Sitting down, he was looking around when the water behind him suddenly started to swish unnaturally. Getting up, his breath caught in his throat when a Regenerator, the back half of it burned down to the ankles, was breaking the ice to crawl up. Its limbs weren't regenerating, from the extensive burning it had received, so it arms nearly gave out whenever it made a pull towards him.

"Well, look who it is." He said. "The fucking grim reaper himself, come to kill me in a giant alien cereal bowl." The guard muttered picking up some slush to throw at the Regenerator.

As he was leaning down for a third handful, something else came out of the water next to him. It flew through the air, spinning until it slid to his feet on the ice. Picking up his Pulse rifle, he aimed it at the Regenerator's arms and pulled the trigger, satisfied when a spray of bullets tore off an arm, he took aim at the head.

"This is about the best Tiedmann ever did," he said pulling the trigger and blowing the Regenerator's head off. "Giving us weapons to kill other things without weapons."

As its body lay there, the arm he had shot off came back in a spray of blood along with the head. Now, with a fully regenerated arm and head, it cut off its other arm before it too came back. Now, with two fully functioning arms, it began to quickly crawl towards him.

As he pulled the trigger, he held it until the clip went empty, but before he could reload, the Regenerator was almost on him. Attempting to back away, he bumped into something, something that grabbed him by the shoulders with in-human long fingers that passed him overhead to another and another that set him down. Looking in front of him, he saw a whole row of humanoid creatures coming out from the water, their lamprey-like mouths making sounds like a walrus with each amphibious breath they took.

He was about to club the one in front of him when he saw the ones ahead were tearing the Regenerator's arms off and eventually throwing it into the water before it could grow them back to attack.

Now, with no threat, the creatures all looked toward the guard as he held his rifle protectively.

"Hey, weird bunch of mermaids," he said. "Uh, thanks for... that. You wouldn't know how I can get back up, do you? Up there?" He asked pointing to the rim of the crater.

Two of the larger ones, grabbing him faster than he could react, pulled him into the water but kept him above the surface as they swam to the wall of the crater like a pair of twin torpedoes.

Slowing down so that he wouldn't be harmed, the creatures spit out a light green, nearly translucent gel-like slime onto their narrow fingers. Placing each hand opposite to the other one, they gradually climbed up with the guard dangling below them. They slowly made their way up, and ofter a few minutes of brisk climbing, the creatures hoisted him up and set him on snow again.

Before he could turn to thank them, the two creatures were already sliding back down the edge to the rest of their group, which was now converging on the island he was previously on.

"Alien mermaids," he said. "The others aren't going to believe this. Where ever they are."

Applebloom, Nexus, and Sweetiebelle

Nexus, letting the bones on the right side of his body slowly re-arrange themselves, sat by Sweetiebelle. The Unimorph's, coat was growing back in patches and locks where the color was beginning to return. Her body was healed, except for some major muscles that had been liquified and absorbed slowly back into her system while the skin grew over it, slowing the regrowth of those muscles down.

Applebloom, sitting opposite to Nexus, occasionally glanced over at her friend, but each time she did, a bloodied emerald green eye looked back, and occasionally a smile without any lips was there too.

"Ah wish this nightmare would end," she said. "Here, and in Equestria. Except, it ain't started there yet, has it? Tiedmann'll find a way to make more Markers; he's already stolen the basic minerals for one, just not the equipment to make one. Ah hope the others are havin' better luck than us."

Norton, Scootaloo, Danik, and Old Age Unitologsts

'Kill them! Just start lobbing grenades!' Scootaloo mentally shouted towards Norton. 'Say the word and I'll just smash them with a tentacle, just one swipe and it's all over.'

'No, not until Danik lets his guard down. He already distrusts me, after the whole him betraying me fiasco, he thinks I'm just pretending to get close to him. He's using me, again, and he knows I'm up to something. He thinks I would-wouldn't... Oh god, that noise. What's that noise?'

'Noise? Norton, I don't hear anything.' Scootaloo replied. 'Norton?'

Danik, turning around, watched silently as Norton staggered,leaned against the wall and put a gloved hand, clutching a grenade, up to his nose as he sneezed out a stream of blood that trickled for a minute before stopping, leaving a stain down his lips and chin. Looking at his hand, he slowly stood back up, blearily, looking around until his eyes focused again.

"Something the matter?" Danik asked. "You're not going to drop dead on us, are you, Norton?"

"N-No..." He said shaking his head. "What was that? That noise? It was like screaming, and ringing, and explosions going off in my head. It felt like someone was in my head, and it sounded like that too, above everything I heard someone else. I-I think it was Buckell? Austin... He's dead though, he's been dead, I'm sure of it."

"The voice of the Marker," Danik said looking at the blood dripping onto the floor. "It's voice being sent to you in a form that you are comfortable with. I often at times hear the too, I see the faces of the dead, hundreds of them, thousands. Possibly even a million, and I'm determined to see seven more in the vast ocean of blood that fills my vision, my ears, my mind, deafening all around me except for its guidance and wisdom."

"I... It didn't look like the Austin I knew, it looked sad, pleading with me." Norton said. "He told me to stop the others from making the Codex, to destroy it after it's been used. But he didn't say what was supposed to be used, the Codex or the Machine."

"I would assume the Codex," Danik said. "Seeing as how it's what's keeping the Machine off and the Marker's creations from spreading off this cold, alien, Garden of Eden. The home of the Markers, the birthplace of humanity's ascendance, the garden in which they grow."

'Yeah, and God also made weeds.' Norton thought, slowly following Danik as the man began moving again. 'Scootaloo, do you know what happened?'

'You're a dead man Norton.' Scootaloo said. 'You have the same form of dementia as me, Isaac, and the others had on Titan. We're to far away to get help, the only way to save yourself is either to pull a pin on a grenade, or destroy the Marker here.'

Author's Notes:

I haven't posted for so long because of the amount of school work I've had. I'll be posting more frequently now, much more than my last up date. If I go at the rate I hope to, I can finish this before Christmas... Still, I've got some heavy homework ahead to throw me a fastball, so it still might take some time to finish. Well see what happens.