I slowly wake up to Orange poking my shoulder, whispering.

"Sabre? Sabre, you awake?"

"I am now..." I mumble, rubbing my eye and sitting up.

The windows let through a lot of light, letting me know it's definitely not morning anymore. I must have slept in for a while, and as usual Orange came to make sure I woke up.

I wince for a second as I absentmindedly use my injured arm to support myself, quickly switching them. Glancing at it for a second, I can see the bandages Orange helped me wrap over the injuries last night are already fairly worn, a small amount of a light, rusty red color beginning to be visible where the scratches are. Everything is sore, and now that I'm awake, I notice that I feel slightly dizzy.

"Was hoping that wouldn't happen." I groan, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed and standing up. Orange has already backed up a little, and is looking at me with concern.

"What wouldn't happen?" Orange asks. "Are you okay? You're not sick, are you? Do I need to-"

"Orange, I'm fine. You can stop fussing over me." I chuckle slightly. He's been like this since what happened last night. "You saw for yourself, I'm able to fight off the Darkness. Remember how I said the ocean here has bacteria in it that isn't good for me?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, since the cuts exposed me to a little of the seawater, a little bit of probably just got into my system and is being annoying. It's nothing bad, I promise, I'm just a little dizzy and- Eugh..."

It gets worse for a split second, and I have to grab onto the nightstand for support for a moment. I use my free hand to hold my head for a moment, hoping steadying myself a little better will make it go away faster. Once I open my eyes again, I see Orange looking as if he was ready to rush forward and catch me as if I was gonna fall over.

"Orange."

"I'm sorry! I just- Nothing like that has ever happened before! And I'm worried!" Orange says, standing up straight and throwing his arms up for a second. "You can't just make a survival instinct used by generations that says 'this thing is bad' calm down just by saying you're fine! What if it's having a different effect on you?!"

"Orange, I've dealt with things like what I'm dealing with now before. A lot." I reply. "I'm very sure it's just unwanted bacteria, and the Darkness didn't have any effect on me. You saw yourself; my blood disintegrated it. It didn't even get a chance to enter my body."

Orange just looks at me for a little bit, then he relaxes slightly. Sighing, he still gives me a worried expression as he continues.

"Well... what now then?" He asks. "How do you get rid of the bacteria's effects? Do I need to go find some stuff to help, or?"

"You don't have to do anything, bud. This is something I have to wait out." I say, smiling. "I just need to take it easy for today, and I'll probably be back to normal by tomorrow morning. Alright?"

"Oh, okay. That's not bad." Orange says, sounding relieved.

I walk through the hallway, heading towards the ladder downstairs. Orange follows after me.

"Alright, now to check for things I need to scavenge for today..." I mumble to myself as I reach the bottom.

"Hey, hang on, didn't you just say you need to take it easy today?" Orange asks, opting to jump the rest of the way down the ladder instead of taking the last few rungs. "That means you can't be going around scavenging today."

"Oh, I had some more difficult things to do planned today, but since I don't want to deal with dizziness while trying to do that, I'm just going to do my usual easier tasks." I reply, getting to the storage room. "Now, do I have enough titanium to-"

"Nah uh, hang on buddy."

Orange grabs the back of my shirt and pulls me back into the main room, making me face him. I get another dizzy spell for a moment because of how fast it was, Orange saying a quick 'sorry' as it passes before continuing with having an attitude.

"Sabre, 'taking it easy' means rest. That means you're not going out and exerting yourself like usual while you're still trying to recover. That'll slow down recovery, if not just making the effects worse." Orange says in a stern tone. "And you told me yourself that your people are not built to be swimming for most of the time like my people, meaning going out and doing stuff in the ocean is one of the worst thing you could do right now. Especially with how you keep getting dizzy whenever you move at a slightly faster pace than just standing there! You think it's bad now, inside a habitat thingy that makes the pressure match how it feels on the surface? How do you think it feels if you go outside this thing, where you're completely underwater?!"

"...I regret telling you so much about my species already." I reply. "And if I don't do the tasks I need to do, then it's not going to get done!"

"Uh, hello? I'm right here!" Orange exclaims. "I can go out and do your tasks while you stay here and recover!"

"Orange, the stuff I was talking about requires actual knowledge on how any of the stuff from my species works. You won't know difference between a blueprint cache and a digital crew log."

"A what and a what?"

"Exactly."

"Then I'll just do the easier tasks for today, and then I can help you do the difficult ones once you're better!"

"You're making it sound like I don't have a choice here."

"You made me hide inside while you fought the literal bane of my people's existence. So no. No you don't."

I groan, running a hand through my hair. Orange then has an awkward expression and looks a little guilty.

"Also, uh... going out into the Shallows is probably not the best idea until people calm down." Orange says, avoiding eye contact.

"What do you mean, 'until people calm down'-?" I ask, looking up.

"Well... this morning, I kind of went back to the village to talk to the Leader because I was panicking and anxious and worried, and I told him about how you fought the Darkness and was immune to it..." Orange explains. "And the Leader promised not to say anything about it, but we didn't notice some of the villagers were eavesdropping until we got outside, and by the time we did notice some of them had already gone to talk about it with other people... and now there's a lot more people in the Shallows than usual. Including other Chromatics. I... was bombarded on my way back by so many other colors. Just- just stay inside."

I just stare at him for a moment.

"...Orange."

"I'm sorry, okay?! I didn't know they'd try eavesdropping!"

Groaning again, I facepalm, remember how horrible it was dealing with just a bunch of Orange Steves. Now other colors too? I've already heard stories from him about one color that's really energetic, and another color that tends to be... overbearing. I don't want to deal with this.

"...I'll let you just go back to bed?"

"...You are so lucky I'm tired."

—————————————————————————————————————

[Orange Steve's POV]

I'm glad I convinced Sabre to just rest for today, he needs it and it'll give a little more time to see if the Darkness did end up doing something to him. That, and... I'll avoid him being annoyed at me for a little while.

He gave me a small list of things he needed to gather, and I'm happily collecting them and putting them in a white bag he said I could use, kinda similar to the one he always carries on him. It's mostly more minerals and things from wrecked ship parts, so I'm having a fun time looking through stuff. Until, of course...

"Hey, there he is!"

Great, another one.

Turning around, I see it's actually two more; two Yellow Steves. They swim up to me, excited and curious. Two things I recognize from my own people, except with them it's way more.

"Hi! You're the Orange Steve that's friends with the alien, right?" One of them asks.

"Duh, it's him. He's the only one with weird fins." The other says to the first one. This one has a jacket made of some kind of leathery material he's probably scavenged from another pile of wreckage. The saltwater has slightly ruined it, but even I have to admit it looks cool.

"Uh... hi." I say, really wanting to not be having this conversation. "I'm kind of in the middle of something-"

"Is he actually immune?" The first Yellow Steve asks. "Does he have powers you just didn't know about? Did he really fight Darkness with just a tiny blade thing?"

"I- I don't know much, we only found out about it yesterday." I reply. "He was just trying to protect me from it, and he got in a fight with it and it managed to hit him. Somehow it can't infect him."

"How is he immune?"

"I just said I don't know, the only thing I could know for sure is that his blood dissolved it."

"That's so cool! Is-"

"Alright Chatty, calm down." The other Yellow Steve says, making the first one back up a bit. "Let's not pester him alright?"

"Please and thank you." I sigh. "I've already dealt with way too much of that today. Why can't everybody just ask around instead of basically hunting me down...?"

"Pretty sure they don't want to hear any false information about someone being immune to the Darkness." The Yellow Steve with the jacket says. "I mean, this has never happened before. Ever. Nobody wants to get their hopes up just for it to be false."

"...Fair enough, but..."

"Hi!"

A sudden new voice makes all three of us jump. Turning to look, it's a... Violet Steve. What's a Violet doing here?!

"Wh- What are you doing here? Violets literally live on the other side of the ocean from the Shallows." I ask, the Violet Steve just... staring. "How did you get here?"

"Duh, teleported. Anyway-" The Violet Steve starts, but I just turn and start swimming away. "Hey! Where are you going?"

"You're like the 27th person I've had come up to ask me about Sabre in two hours!" I shout as I leave.

I hear the Chatty Yellow Steve and the Violet start talking as I leave.

"Great job, stupid. You scared him off."

"Hey, you probably scared him first! I just wanted to ask him about the alien! What if he's the Savior- Catalyst- whatever he's called in the prophecy?!"

"Oh wait, you're right-"

I start swimming faster before any of them have the chance to look where I went. I do not want to even think about the possibility of that.

...

...But what if he is right?

—————————————————————————————————————

I hear Orange enter the base as I finish sewing the tear on my shirt back together, since it got ripped in the fight yesterday. He sounds annoyed as he finds what room I'm in (the storage room, since I set up a table and chairs in here recently) and walks over.

"Hey Orange. You alright?" I ask, putting the small scissors back in the sewing kit. I was lucky to find this during one of my searches through debris.

Orange sets the bag of materials he gathered down on the floor next to the doorway, and sits on the chair opposite of mine, practically faceplanting onto the table.

"I currently hate people." Orange says, his voice a little muffled because his face is squished on the table. "I had to deal with way too many Yellow Steves, some other Orange Steves, some Green Steves, and heck, even a few Blues, Indigos, and Violets found me."

"That's what you get for running your mouth." I shrug.

Orange looks up and glares at me for a moment, then mumbles something and sits upright.

"Anyway. I got the stuff you asked for, and found some things while scavenging I thought might be useful to you." Orange says. "Including a new shirt that I found, since the one you have right now is sorta... bloodstained."

"You found clothing? Where? I haven't been able to find any." I ask.

"I uh... I got too close to the big spaceship while trying to avoid people." Orange says nervously. "Once I realized where I was though, I got outta there pretty fast. At least we don't have to go there anytime soon, huh?"

Orange laughs a little at his own joke, but I avoid eye contact.

"...Sabre?"

I guess I have to tell him now.

"Actually, I... one of the more difficult things I have to do is figure out how to navigate that area safely." I explain. "Remember the issue with radiation?"

"Eesh, yes. People talked about that too. They're worried about it." Orange replies. "Why?"

"The cause is the Aurora. Components inside the ship must have broke when it crashed, and now they're leaking radiation. I know how to fix it, and once I do the radiation will go away, but in order to do that I need to be able to get inside the Aurora."

Orange has a strange look on his face for a little bit before replying.

"...Oh." He says, a both scared and concerned tone in his voice. "That's... oh, yikes. How are you going to do that? Do you have a plan, at least?"

"Yeah, I just need to make some tools that'll protect me from the radiation and will let me be able to navigate the broken ship. Then, I'll go to the broken components and use my repair tool to fix the leaks. After that, I'll go out the way I came and come back here. After a while, the radiation will dissipate on its own and won't be a danger to anyone here anymore."

"That's easier said than done. What about the Reapers?"

"I'll... just have to avoid them."

"Sabre, no offense, but you get scared by Peepers." Orange says. "I want to fix this too, so- I'll help you. I can-"

"What? Orange, you can't go with me. You'll get hurt, or worse." I interrupt. "I get that you want to help, but you don't know how dangerous things on the ship can be to you. That, and do I have to remind you about the radiation?"

"Sabre, please, just trust me on this okay? I can help. It- It doesn't affect me like it affects the others."

I just look at him for a second, confused and a little curious.

"I- I don't know why, but it doesn't make me sick like how it does with everyone else. It just... stings. And that's it." He explains. "Me and Red found that out a long time ago. Heck, it worried him so badly he somehow got a Green Steve over there just to make sure I was okay. And... I was. Somehow. Just... let me help you fix this. It's just as dangerous for you as it would be for me, and I don't want you going in there alone."

He gives me a pleading look. We both just sit in silence for a minute.

"...Fine. But you can't follow me into the drive core." I sigh. "Without any protection, that part will hurt you no matter what."

Orange smiles, almost looking grateful.

"Thank you."

A noise coming from the window interrupts the moment, scaring both of us. Scrambling to hide in the other room, I see it's just another curious yellow version of Orange's people. This must be a Yellow Steve, based off what Orange was saying.

As I watch from the doorway, Orange yells at the stranger through the glass for a little bit, before Gerald suddenly rushes over and starts chasing him. Orange cheers on his little buddy as he pursues the intruding Yellow.

I sigh as Orange goes to help Gerald chase him off, holding a stick for some reason as he leaves. This guy... serious to goofing off in a heartbeat. It'd probably give anyone else whiplash with his fast he switches.

I decide to go back to my room while waiting for Orange to return. Hopefully it won't be this bad tomorrow when I actually have to go out.