Charlotte walked into Mepe's 'safe space', prepared for the worst. However, when she entered the small cave room, she was pleasantly surprised to find it was sparsely decorated with colorful rocks and painted, wooden chests.

Her muddy boots sank into the woven grass mats placed haphazardly on the floor as she stepped further into the cavern. She gazed wondrously around the room, admiring the light crystals glowing dolly in wooden containers driven into the grey stone walls.

"Mepe...Did you make all of this? " Charlotte asked, turning around to face the bug girl.

She blushed, her carapace turning bright blue. "Y-yes? Does Charlotte like Mepe's safe space? Mepe worked hard!"

"Yeah, sure," Charlotte mumbled.

"Does Charlotte want to see Mepe's tools?" Mepe asked, skipping toward the cluster of wooden chests. She paused by the one crudely painted in an orangish-purple color, bending over to open it up.

Charlotte wanted to refuse, thinking it would be something stupid and primitive. However, she was somewhat curious about what 'tools' Mepe would be able to make in this wasteland. She wasn't sure if the bug girl was smart enough to craft something useful from the resources around her.

Imagine her surprise when Mepe pulled out a full-blown hammer, a few glass bottles, and a small spade. Charlotte stumbled over to her, mouth agape. She took a glass container from her clawed hands and studied it.

The human girl’s mouth flopped open and closed like a fish"This...Mepe, Is this real glass? How did you make this? Where did you get the sand from? Where's the heat what is the-the- how?"

Mepe giggled, her feelers clicking together rapidly. " Charlotte looks like fish. Mepe did not make glass; found in a chest. Phattie says it gift for good work! "

Charlotte frowned. She hadn't known that PHAT could give gifts; why hadn't she gotten one?

Oh, that's right, she thought sarcastically, I was 'blasphemous' toward the Makers. Whatever.

"How many more of these 'gifts' have you gotten from...Phattie?"

The bug girl perked up, her feelers clicking together excitedly as she dug through the rest of her chests. She pulled out random bits and bobs of stuff - an odd-shaped knife; tiny, colorful glowing marbles; packs of granola bars; a tiny baggie with three black pills; various glass containers.

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Damn. She must have done a lot of good stuff for them to get this much stuff.

"Mepe, what did you do to get them to like you so much?" Charlotte asked, her expression hardening as she stared at her companion.

Mepe shrugged, flushing bright blue under such intense scrutiny. "Mepe made lots of cures. Phattie says that Makers like cures so Makers give Mepe lots of gifts for making cures!"

“I - I see..."

Mepe started to say something but paused, her antenna twitching from side to side. She hissed in distress, hurriedly shoving everything from the chests into her pouches. Charlotte frowned as she watched the bug girl schedule around the cave, snatching up her possessions and tucking them into her bags.

"What are you doing?" the human girl asks, retrieving her own bat.

The other girl only shook her triangular head, waving her antenna back and forth. She didn't stop moving until she had every one of her tools and supplies in her bags. Then she grabbed Charlotte's hand and tucked her toward the exit.

Charlotte tried to protest, fumbling to get a good grip on her oversized weapon but the terrified Karikit refused to let her go. Confused, the human girl decided to listen to her barely formed instincts telling her to trust Mepe. She had survived so long on her own, after all. She knew what she was doing.

At least, Charlotte thought, that's the hope.

Following Mepe's lead, the two ran out of the cave, and back into the jungle are they were almost immediately assaulted by four Naids hiding in the bushes. Quick on the dime, Mepe activated her scream animus Tama blowing the heads off two of the night and somewhat disorienting the other two.

"Mepe!" Charlotte yelled, tapping into her own anima. She stopped running, planting her feet into the dirt and swinging her bat into the head of a charging Naid. Its skull cracked on impact, folding in on itself with the sickening crunch. The force of the collision jarred her strengthened arms, the magically enhanced muscle straining to keep themselves together. Charlotte grimaced as slimy blood and gray matter splattered her in the face, gagging when salty gore dropped into her mouth.

Rather than risk glancing back to yell at her companion, Charlotte called all over her shoulder as she faced the last Naid. "You said we could stay here for a few days! That it was your safe! Space!"

All she got in response was a low growl before something heavy around its head into Charlotte's side. She stumbled back, her feet tripping over themselves as she struggled to stay upright. The distraction cost her, giving the first Naid a chance to lunge and tackle her to the ground.

It bit her shoulder, jagged teeth tearing deep, stinging gouges into her skin before she could throw it off of her. Charlotte cried out as a dug its claws into her arms; once healed cuts reopened, join by newer, more painful lacerations in her skin.

She lost her grip on her anima, reverting into her unenhanced base form. Her sudden lack of bulkiness drove the Naid on top of her to nip her in the neck, tearing out an alarmingly large portion of her throat as it jerked its head back.

A gurgled moan escaped Charlotte's lips, her consciousness fading the longer she stayed under the Naid's brutal torment. Through the haze of pain and confusion, Charlotte called out for Mepe one last time. The cackling jitter coming from the surrounding Naid drowned out her strangled cries, silencing her further as the parasite seeped through her wounds and into her body.

Alone and abandoned, accosted by the most vicious infection known to the Embassy, Paladin-Human #42426 was no more.