Hours later, the dragonling's corpse lay picked clean, gleaming scales stripped, raw sinew exposed beneath. It looked less mythical now and more like something halfway through butchery.

Akiko wiped sweat from her brow, satisfied with their progress. Until she glanced over at Raya.

She had frozen mid-motion, her face scrunched in barely concealed disgust.

"What's the matter?" Akiko asked, smirking as she flexed her claws. "Don't tell me this is getting to you. You're the healer."

Raya waved vaguely at the dragonling's flayed body. "Healing's one thing. This is something else. It's... unsettling."

Akiko tilted her head. "Really? Looks fine to me. I mean, haven't you ever skinned an animal before?"

Raya blinked, scandalized. "What? No. Why would I ever skin an animal?"

"Where do you think your food comes from?" Akiko said, arms crossing like she'd just landed a winning argument.

Raya gave her a flat look. "Not from anything like this. Everything we eat is vat-grown. Even the meat."

Akiko froze. Her ears twitched.

"…All of it?" she asked, wary now. "Even the meat?"

"Yup," Raya said, unbothered. "Has been for centuries. No messy bits."

Akiko's brain spun. Flashes of every protein slurry meal aboard the Driftknight and Sovereign hit her like a bad flashback. That gelatinous texture. The vaguely chemical aftertaste.

Her stomach turned.

"It all makes sense now," she whispered, tail puffing slightly. "You're telling me I've been eating… edible sadness?"

Raya grinned, clearly enjoying herself. "Afraid so. Welcome to the future."

Akiko shook her head, muttering darkly. "That's not food. That's suffering with a side of texture."

Raya gagged again as she glanced at the exposed flesh. "Honestly, I'll take sadness over whatever this is."

Akiko crouched beside the corpse, brushing off her hands. "It's not that bad. Just… imagine it's a giant chicken."

Raya recoiled. "That doesn't make it better!"

Akiko snorted. "Alright, alright. Let's finish up before you start dry heaving."

Raya mumbled something about barbarians and space poultry, but she followed without argument.

A few minutes later, Akiko hefted another gleaming scale and turned it in her hands. "You know," she said casually, "we could stow a few of these. For later."

Raya looked up. "The scales?"

Akiko nodded toward the dragonling's remains. "No, the meat. For food."

Raya stared at her like she'd suggested eating asteroid fungus. "You can't be serious."

"Why not?" Akiko said with mock innocence, that familiar wicked grin tugging at her lips. "Back in my world, taking down something like this? It's practically an invitation. Roast it, eat it, celebrate."

Raya groaned, burying her face in her hands. "You are not suggesting we cook a dragonling."

"Why not?" Akiko repeated, already warming to the idea. "Lila's plasma torches run hot enough. We rig up a makeshift firepit. Old-world adventuring, space-age style."

"You're unbelievable."

"Picture it," Akiko said, waving theatrically. "Jace shows up with that secret stash of booze, we get the fire going. Dragon steak for everyone. Sit around, swap stories. Could be fun."

Raya shot her a dry look. "In the middle of a toxic mana zone. With meat from a creature mutated by otherworldly forces. Yeah, sounds like a great night."

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Akiko shrugged. "That's what purification magic's for, isn't it? You purify, I cook, and no one dies."

Raya stared. "You're joking."

Akiko tilted her head, eyes twinkling. "Maybe."

Raya groaned again, but laughter slipped out. "Stop, I can't."

"And yet, here you are," Akiko said, tossing the scale into the pile with a clatter. "Still stuck with me."

"Don't remind me," Raya muttered, shaking her head. "Campfire dragonling. Gods help us."

Akiko picked up another scale, spinning it in her fingers like a coin. "You'll thank me when we're all full and Kara's secretly enjoying it."

Raya gave her a long look. "Kara would throw you out the airlock."

Akiko grinned. "Only if I didn't save her a bite."

Lila's voice crackled through the comms, equal parts excitement and frustration.

"I've got something," Lila said. "Looks mostly intact, but it's buried behind a whole mess of wreckage. Corruption's thick here. I could use backup."

Akiko rose from the last bundle of purified dragonling scales, shaking out her aching hands. "Copy that. Where are you?"

"Midway through what's left of a ship. No forward section, but the drive cone's still here. Might be something usable, if we don't get cooked trying to reach it."

Raya wiped her gloves against her suit. "Cooked how?"

"It's saturated with corruption," Lila replied. Her voice was tighter now, strain creeping in. "That sickly blue kind. I'll need Raya to clear it just to get near the thing."

Akiko clipped the bundle to the tether and locked it in place. "Alright. We're on our way. Don't go cracking anything open without us."

"No promises," Lila muttered.

They moved quickly, floating through the broken carcass of the hoard, slipping past wreckage that still pulsed with ghostly blue light. Akiko kept her distance from the corrupted patches, mana sense tingling at every flicker.

The jagged outline of a ruined ship came into view. The front was gone. Ripped clean off. But the drive cone had survived. Barely. Its hull shimmered with the slow pulse of corruption, like a ghost trapped beneath metal skin.

Lila crouched beside it, prying at a stubborn hull panel with a fusion cutter and no small amount of cursing.

"Took you long enough," she called without turning. "This thing's fused tight."

Akiko raised a brow. "I thought you liked a challenge."

"I do. I don't like getting turned into ash because I cut too deep." Lila jerked her chin toward the engine. "You see that glow? One wrong slice and I could end up very blue and very dead."

Akiko stepped closer, her HUD scanning. The readouts weren't encouraging. "Mana saturation's worst at the core. We'll need Raya to clear it before we even think about extraction."

Raya was already moving, crouching beside a ruptured seam. She pressed her palms to the hull, breath slow and deliberate.

Light flared beneath her fingertips, soft gold meeting sickly blue. The glow wavered, flickered, then began to bleed the corruption away.

"I can clear a path," she said, voice strained. "But it's not going to be fast."

"Do what you can," Akiko said. Her claws extended with a soft hiss. "Lila and I will dig."

They worked in rhythm: Akiko tearing through plating, Lila slicing through twisted girders, Raya keeping the corruption at bay. The air grew thick with tension. The deeper they cut, the worse the rot became, mana clinging like smoke, pressing against the inside of Akiko's helmet like breath that wasn't hers.

Then, light. Buried in the heart of the wreckage, tucked inside a warped support cradle, sat a micro-fusion core. Its casing was blackened, warped, glowing faintly from within. Akiko's HUD lit up with overlapping alerts. Heat. Instability. Mana bleed.

Lila let out a low whistle. "Well. That's either the best find of the year or our death certificate."

Akiko stared at it. The pulse of it. Like a heartbeat trapped in a box. Unusable as-is. Corruption too thick. But…

Her mind flicked to her mining laser. To the gutted energy matrix back on the Driftknight.

This could work. If they could cleanse it. If it didn't explode.

She turned to Raya. "Can you stabilize it?"

Raya's brow furrowed. "Maybe. I'll need time."

Akiko nodded. "Then take it. We're not leaving it behind."

She looked back at the core, a spark of something stirring in her chest.

This was it. The last piece. The heart of the rebuild.

And maybe, just maybe, the weapon they'd need for what was coming next.

Akiko barely made it through the Driftknight's airlock, one hand steadying the micro-fusion core while Lila kept it from tipping off the cart. It pulsed with faint, ghostly blue light, less like an energy source and more like a warning.

Kara was waiting in the cargo bay, arms crossed, expression unreadable. She didn't wait long.

"You're not seriously bringing that tainted thing onto my ship."

Akiko blinked. "It's... not that bad?"

Kara's eyes narrowed. "Akiko, it's glowing blue. That's never a good sign."

Lila coughed as she steadied the cart. "She's got a point."

Akiko shot her a look. "Not helping."

Then, to Kara, hands raised: "I know it's corrupted. But we've been purifying it. Raya's already made progress—"

"And yet it's still glowing," Kara said, her tone flat. "I'm not risking my ship, my crew, or the cargo hold turning into ground zero when that thing decides to detonate."

Akiko stepped forward, tail twitching. "We have a plan. This core's a perfect match for the mining laser retrofit. If we can integrate it—"

"No."

Kara's voice was final. Hard as vacuum.

Akiko opened her mouth, but Kara was already moving. She stepped in close, expression cold, voice quieter but sharper.

"You can run all the tests you want. But not here." She pointed to the airlock. "You build a test rig. Out there. Until you can prove beyond doubt that thing isn't going to tear a hole in my ship, it stays off."

Akiko's ears flicked back, frustration surging. "And what if we don't have the tools out there?"

"You've got a fabricator," Kara said. "And time. Figure it out."

Akiko stared at her, jaw tight. The core's faint pulse echoed between them.

Lila, still holding the rig, shrugged. "Well. Guess we're setting up a little workshop outside."

Akiko groaned, dragging a hand through her hair. "Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you when this turns out to be the breakthrough we've been waiting for."

Kara's lips curled into the faintest smirk. "Let's hope so, little fox."

Then she turned and walked away.

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