Paradise Lost (JSAB)

S.D

The next subplot before the Industry arc is gonna focus on the bosses, so hope you're happy with seeing Fresh and co. again! Oh, and also- we have a brand new special friend ;)

The Tower, 2245 hours

"...Who is this?" Was Fresh's immediate reaction, turning towards the newcomer, narrowing his eyes, uncrossing his arms and walking straight towards the unconscious Corrupted. "Is he an Awoken?"

"It appears so." The Corrupted carrying him in nodded. Fresh pried the Boss's eyelid back, and to his horror the glazed over, still sleeping eye was human-like. "He was given to me with no headphones, and I was told there was a heavy chance that he was never given a pair in the first place."

"What? By who?"

"By Barracuda-"

"Barracuda?" Fresh spluttered, eyes widening. "Wait, she's alive?"

"Yes my lord, she arrived at the tower not too long ago, carrying him, saying that he was an Awoken, probably not even old enough to be one, and needed care." 

"Where is she now?" 

"I'm not sure, she disappeared off somewhere shortly afterwards."

"What else did she say?" 

"She said that she didn't know how, but when she fought the Guardians they had come into possession of a pure leaf."

"A WHAT?"

"A-A pure leaf, My lord-" 

"How-" Fresh immediately stopped after that one word, taking a step backwards to gather his thoughts and find a logical solution. None, there were no logical reasons that come to mind. This shouldn't be possible, that shouldn't have happened, so just how? "That should not have happened."

"That's why she warned you, Your Majesty."

Fresh breathed a heavy sigh. "Anything else?"

"I also told her all that happened. She seemed... Very exasperated."

"I'm not surprised."

"My Lord, you literally had the equivalent of an overdose attempting to take in more power from the Tree of Life, went into a coma for a day and a half, and the first thing you did after waking up was try and attempt to do it again, you barely even took in half a leaf when you suddenly started foaming at the mouth and immediately went into ANOTHER coma for over two days. I would be shocked if Barracuda wasn't surprised. With all due respect, My lord: You are an idiot."

"I know, I know. But now is not the time to discuss the number of braincells I have left after that incident."

"My lord I swear to god if you try doing it a third time..."

"I won't. But now I understand that there's something I have to do, which I have to be conscious for. Infirmary, now."

"We are in the infirmary, as we speak. You still haven't recovered fully from your previous overdose."

"Right. Forgot about that. I just woke up, you see."

"I stand my point- With all due respect, My lord: You are an idiot."

After a quick laugh, Fresh grew serious, motioning the corrupted to place the unconscious newcomer onto an empty bed. He purposefully had many medically trained Corrupted reside on this level of the tower, so gathering doctors and nurses were not hard. Within minutes, there were several Corrupted checking his vitals. There were small wounds across his body, namely in his arms and thighs, which resembled puncture wounds. Other than that, he was unharmed. Their diagnosis was that he was simply comatose from exhaustion, likely from overusing his abilities, though one had the hypothesis that maybe when Mount Clearwater was purified, he too was also purified but was corrupted again, causing a mass amount of exhaustion.