Zeke shook his head slowly.

"She's not here." he said.

"She's on vacation." he went on.

"After that series of incidents which included that damn book and pen, Sharp's been allowing her some more time off to recuperate... but she's officially taken some vacation time." he continued.

"...." he was then silent, and almost passed out, before shaking himself awake.

"But short answer? She's not here." he said.

"And she hasn't been here for... about a month? I think?" he added.

"I can't recall, exactly."

"Ugh." Zeke grunted.

"I feel... weak." he sad.

"Like... well... I feel like half of me is drained. Like... I don't know how to word it..." he then mumbled, shaking his head again in an effort to remain conscious.

"I guess it feels like my mana is being... eroded away from inside me." he said.

"What he said." Azazel echoed.

"I feel pretty much the exact same way, except I feel like I'm ready to just... pass out and just drift away into the darkness." he added ominously.

Azazel was the one that suddenly looked a LOT better. He still didn't look good, but he no longer looked like he was ready to keel over and die.

Zeke looked much better than Azazel, but he still looked about ready to pass out and go to sleep.

"...thanks." Azazel said.

"I get the feeling I needed that." he commented.

"Yes, thank you very much." Zeke echoed.

The two males were silent, before they just laid back in their beds.

"K." was all Azazel said.

"Be careful." Zeke told her.

That was when they heard an announcement over the PA system.

"Attention, attention." Jake's voice said.

"If you encounter an individual, or individuals, wearing purple and yellow hazmat-like suits, do not panic. Cooperate with them, and so as they say." he announced.

This told Hollie that the team had arrived.

As Hollie made her way through the building, she saw that many people were heading towards the Medical Wing, some looking better than others, and some looking quite dreadful.

However, she noticed that those that were naturally human seemed to be doing better than those who were a magical creature of sorts... which made sense, mana was stronger in them than in humans.

Then she saw Rylie being carried to the medical wing by someone she had no idea who they were.

"Come on." he said to her.

"Need to get you to the medical wing..."

The male was silent, before sighing.

"I..." he stammered.

"Well... admittedly, I'm feeling off." he said.

"But... well... that's because I'm a being of minimalistic mana." he told her. "I barely have any at all." he continued.

"And this... what's happening here... seems to be born of my world." he went on.

"It's something from my home dimension."

"....I... I don't know." he replied.

He then paused for a moment, as something came to him.

"The ship we came in on!" he said.

"There might be some data left in its memory banks." he told her.

"Maybe. I don't know how much survived." he admitted.

"But it might have some information that can help." he continued.

"Admittedly, I don't know too much about it, as my sibling and I were off the planet at the time it got REALLY bad and spread like wildfire." he then told her.

"........." the male was silent, before nodding.

"Right." he said.

With that, the two of them left, and on the way back to R&D storage, he paused for a second.

"I..." he stammered.

"I don't think we've met." he said.

"I'm Emerald." he introduced himself.

"It's nice to meet you, too." Emerald replied.

"...I wish it could be under better circumstances, though..." he then mumbled.

The two of them then made their way to R&D, and started to make their way back towards the storage area.

"It should be back here somewhere." Emerald commented.

"I just need to remember which sector it's in..."

Emerald looked over towards her, and then nodded.

"Right." he said.

With that, the two of them set to work, with Emerald heading right to the shuttle and looking at it.

"....all right..." he mumbled.

"Control panel..." he muttered further, searching for it.

"Got it! Now... what was the code, again...?" he wondered aloud when he'd found it.