This had to be a joke. Everything.
"There's no way, it's- it's just a piece of harder metal, it's not-"
My breath staggered. The futility of trying to negate our fears was fatally obvious. Kev dropped the broken, bloodied operation knife on the floor, letting it clank in loneliness. Unable to muster words, we both watched as her little body shook once last time. We stared at her face through, twitching in subconscious pain, her forehead slowly opened up. A smaller burst of pitch-black shards peaking through her cleansed wound.
"God."
Cursing was of no use, being witness to such abomination with our own eyes... our mouths only call to god, in the hope he, for once, did answer.
"What- what do we do?"
I was lost. I was very damned lost. In the search for answers, I forgot I wasn't the only one.
"I don't know."
Kevin. As tough, sharp, and resourceful as he may have been. He did not have an answer or an explanation for what I was seeing.
Why had this happened? What were the odds..? How had one of the shards landed... Settled on her skull...
"Of all people. Why her?"
My fist clenched, my nails bleeding in silent agony as they attempted to bite into my skin. My sharp tusks dug into my own flesh, piercing it and peeling it off.
"We- Can remove it..."
I said, my voice unnaturally cold and rough.
"That thing has yet to completely develop."
If that creature, parasite, whatever it was, it had yet to grow to the point we'd seen on the cargo hold of the crashed spaceship.
If that was the case, then, there was a possibility we would be able to... cut its roots. Completely lost in my desire to destroy the outgrowing, flesh-devouring alien creature, I gave a subconscious step forward, nearing Martha's body.
A hand and arm stood in my way. How not, the old man stood between us. Again, both of our gazes met, sparking a silent battle.
"Don't get too near Vaam. That thing could-"
Chtin!!!
...
We both saw it.
It happened just like during the fall, back when the ice avalanche loomed over us. For less than half a second, my impression of time seemed to slow down, under a certain tingling along my spine.
As if by instinct, my vision seemed to clear off blurs, and was immediately drawn towards a dark ember traversing the air. Dangerously nearing Kevin's left cheek. He was not unaware though, his eyes gazed from above, overlooking the shard with a mix of raging disbelief and pronounced gloominess.
His head rapidly jerked to the side, dodging the projectile by a hair's width.
Clank!
Our bodies instantly turned back, towards the wall opposite to Martha.
A single, sharp black crystal had been accurately embedded against the wall. Having pierced the thick alloy behind us with frightening effectiveness.
"Fuck."
The edge of our gazes immediately turned back towards the self-aware menace.
It was not only me that tried to compute the sudden turn of events. In mere instants, the being had somehow developed the ability to launch its shards at us, breaking through a new level of threat. One we had completely failed to anticipate.
"We know too little. Ignorance will get us both infected."
Kev muttered under his breath, tangible spite accompanying his words.
"No Kev... We need to remove it, now."
I said to Kevin, my cracking voice tense with alarm and urgency.
"That thing It's in her god damned skull Vaam."
Shallowing his own emotions as best as could, Kevin tried to make sense of the situation for me. His voice was on the verge of bursting into flames. Yet I would not listen, I refused to listen to anything anymore. The four of us had survived death across the plains, we had overcome the odds stacked against us, and survived.
We had all survived, and Martha too had survived. She would survive. I would not allow some magic piece of rock to fuck with either our efforts, or our lives.
Bluish veins popped along my pale skin. My heartbeat ramped like the engine of an overriding mule. There was an idea in my head. A shitty fucking idea.
"Grgh!!!"
Like flowing tides, ones lost in a faraway place. A feeling of weightlessness invaded my body, and without waiting I moved forwards far faster than Kevin could react.
No matter the cost, I would remove that motherfucker from her skull.
At that moment, everything slowed down, it almost felt as if time had stopped. I knew what I had to do, and I was certain I would do it...
With all my strength, not caring about whatever came next, I gripped the shard and pulled in a single motion. Feeling the sharp edges digging into my flesh, moving and shaking in contact with new living blood. Trying to dig further below my skin.
"If I remove you."
I said, my teeth gritting as I spoke.
"Even if her skull is damaged..."
I thought I would, for a second. I didn't... with one swift motion, I yanked my hand free, together with the cracking cristal visible from the outside.
"She's tough, she'll heal."
As soon as the main body of the shard left Martha's flesh, the still-hanging creature rooting inside her bone let out a blood-curdling scream. Then, in an eyeblink, there was nothing.
The thing had vanished from view, there was no mark on her anymore, no outgrowing shards, no-
"Bluagh-"
A surge of pain and nausea rapidly overwhelmed me. Crushing anguish assaulted first my hand, then my arm, my torso, and finally my head and spine. My senses tingled, as if something small and vicious crawled through my nerves. My eyes lost focus and aim, my ears lied, hearing voices that did not exist...
"My h-!!!"
Something black had rapidly eclipsed my vision, then it was a world of hurt. My head span and my body shook in horror, noticing something I had yet to.
I stumbled backward, my hand covered in my own blood, and collapsed onto the ground. Everything went subtly quiet...
A void... An immense infinity, approaching that of the void of stars. Then, a vile, wretched voice.