Chapter 27: Mad Hatter’s Faith

Moving aside the girl’s long, ink-black hair with its shimmering streaks of light-blue, Rachel revealed a patch of plated scales along the spine on the back of her natural bra. Everyone winced at a small patch that had been carved out, revealing unprotected skin and a light cut with sticky, azure-colored blood. The sea monster had been trying to hide the damage, but she noticed their shiny glint at the bottom of the pool.

"Luckily, it wasn’t the needles but its daggers," Rachel warned, letting the woman groan and pull away, rubbing her neck and glaring at the ground. "They flared for half a second, and it wasn’t a coincidence where it struck; the toad was trying to paralyze you."

Zoe ducked to the leviathan’s back again, staying clear of her agitated and deadly tail to examine the area again. "Ouch! Yeah, let’s get that covered."

"I’m fine," Selvaria groaned, arms crossed. "I have really good Resistances and Defense—it’s my specialty—I even took bullets from that thing," she huffed, pointing at the fifty-caliber turret.

Rachel snickered. "Stop downplaying it, Selvaria. I get you want to be a heroine, and you’ve done a great job taking out one of the aliens, but you need to fight smarter, not cooler."

"Can’t we do both?" Selvaria grumbled, shoulders sinking as a Coast Guard medic cautiously approached to dress the wound.

"Sure," she returned. "You can protect everyone here in case I’m wrong."

"About what?" Scarlet hesitantly asked, hopping down to glare at the blood entering her body. "There’s no way you can fight these things."

Rachel flashed her teeth while bringing everyone’s attention to the suddenly self-conscious vespertine reaper.

"What? No... Me? I’m so unstable and, heh, dangerous that I don’t want to let my blood do anything at all." She jabbed her finger at the crimson liquid entering her skin with disdain. "It may have looked like I was just sitting pretty up there, but I was a freaking hostage; it wouldn’t let me go until just now!"

Mateo worked around his jaw. "Scarlet’s not wrong; her abilities are incredibly volatile, much of which appears to be out of her control."

"I get that," Rachel sighed; she hadn’t realized the girl was stuck on the disk, but it didn’t change her plan. "The aliens seem to be reading a message the cultist left behind."

Scarlet sucked in her bottom lip, grasping her head and walking away while hissing, "No way! Mrs. Peck was talking to aliens, too?! No! No-haha. No, this—this can’t be happening... Why is this happening to me?"

"Scarlet... Scarlet," Rachel repeated, slowly moving forward to take her arm and keep her focus as her shoulders and bottom lip began to tremble. "I get that your entire life is crashing around you... I can’t know how hard it is, but I know it must feel so unfair."

"What am I supposed to do?" she wept, bloody tears leaking from her eyes as everyone backed away; caution was even more advised given what they’d learned happened to the toad with his infected arm. "I’m trying—I’m trying so hard to keep it under control—to not listen to Scarlet! She’s evil! She’s so evil! All she keeps telling me is to reap souls—drink blood...to kill! I don’t want to! I don’t!"

Nodding and tightening her grip around the girl’s quaking hands, Rachel’s heart went out to the teenager; Scarlet hadn’t asked for any of this power that most would probably jump at. Rachel knew she couldn’t understand the weight she carried in her soul or the trauma she felt.

"Remember, I told you I would help you with your powers... Do you trust me?"

"Haha! I just barely met you!" Scarlet laughed, blue eyes closing. "I don’t know... I’m so scared of myself... I don’t trust myself, so how can I trust you?!"

It was a fair point, Rachel had to admit; how to overcome it, though?

"Faith."

"What?" Scarlet asked, vision opening and forehead furrowing.

"Faith isn’t just belief," Rachel said, squeezing her fingers and smiling as she repeated a line from a workout motivational video; although, in the actual video, there was a lot of screaming and cursing to push you past your normal reps. "Faith is an action—a garden doesn’t just grow because you believe it will...

"You have to prepare the field, plant the seeds of faith, and do the work..." Rachel lifted the emotional girl’s hands to keep her attention. Really, she was just BSing her way through it in the first way that popped into her head; it kind of fit. "I have faith in you, so will you help me plant the seeds so you can see why I have that trust?"

Scarlet gradually returned to a more rational state. "You...want me to save everyone...but what if I make everything worse? I always make everything worse."

"Prove me wrong," she beamed, making Scarlet laugh at her insane take.

"You want me, hehe...to prove you wrong when I think I’ll kill everyone? You really are crazy, Rachel!"

"Haha. Recently, I think I may be a bit crazy, too! A mad hatter, huh?" she snickered, bringing the girl’s mind to a place that would probably make her laugh more, which succeeded.

"I really hope you’re right... Let’s hope this isn’t Alice: Overwhelming Madness, right?"

Rachel’s mind blanked. "Uh... I don’t know what that is."

"Booo!" Zoe called out from behind Selvaria. "It’s a super spooky take on Alice in Wonderland game—a classic."

Zoe and Selvaria’s lighter mood and added comments managed to help Scarlet past another hurdle. Apparently, the leviathan was somewhat versed in games, as well, although more the ’wholesome’ kind, as she called them. Scarlet was making progress. As for the toads, Rachel tracked them meticulously, and they appeared to become far more cautious after one of the aliens returned with the infected arm.

Mateo sighed as the environment calmed down, pondering Rachel’s approach; the Coast Guard fidgeted at Scarlet’s emotional outburst, unsure if they should take any sort of action.

"I admit, you do have courage, girl, and with more than a few screws loose, but you haven’t told us your plan or why the aliens haven’t gotten to us yet... Are you saying the toads are reading that cultist’s ramblings on killing you, telling them how to take you out, and your plan is to lure them in so Scarlet’s blood will do the work?"

Rachel shrugged, Zoe’s eyes going big at the reveal as Anthony got up and listened in. "Not entirely, but the general gist of the idea. I don’t think Scarlet can kill them without me dying."

Scarlet tensed up. "Wait, really?"

"Hehe. No. A single one, who, might I add, was caught off-guard, managed to almost get to us through your blood field, despite the dangers, much less five who have warning and are cautious. However...what if we were able to help you have more control over your powers and strengthen them?"

Zoe’s ears flicked up, eyes shimmering with excitement. "Training montage? Wait, eh...no, that’d take too long... Really! Like...really?!"

Anthony joined them, wearing a grin with black cat whiskers for face paint that made Zoe glare at him. "Hehe. I couldn’t help it. So, Rachel’s planning to teach Scarlet about upgrading her Feats—let me tell you, Level 5 is no joke—really interesting stuff."

Rachel brushed away any follow-ups. "We’re running out of time. While they’re debating amongst themselves regarding the message and Scarlet’s blood rose infection, we’ll get Selvaria and you up to speed on upgrading your System. This is all you, Scarlet, and I trust you to handle this—no problem."

"Yeah, you’re OP, girl!" Zoe chimed in.

Selvaria gave Scarlet an impressed thumbs-up. "Blood rose infection? Nice."

Anthony followed the leviathan’s gesture not to butt in.

"Hehe." Scarlet rubbed her already-clear cheeks; tears soaked back into her body. "You’re all insane...but if—if I can help... I’ll do my best!"