.
Zarya does not respond.
"She's hypnotized! I can see it in her eyes!", says Rain as she walks backwards towards the crew. Mailen grabs her as she's about to fall.
"Rain! Be careful! Maybe she can't see us. She's 100% alive though, as well as all these people.", says Mailen as he looks around himself, seeing hundreds – if not thousands of people walking uncontrollably in the village, making him feel very uncomfortable.
Leo looks at the crew and says: "This is possibly what the force does... Hypnotizes people and makes them do completely random things. Just look at that guy!". Leo points at a man just walking, hitting a bench, like it's an NPC from a videogame.
"What is even going on here... It's... It's... very, very uncanny...", says Rain, somewhat scared, exhaling with a voice, indicating that she's having enough of it.
"Alright. Can you show us where that force is? Maybe it can help us bring Zarya back.", asks Aeternum, nearly aggressively, trying to get this done as soon as possible, in case Zarya and the people here die.
Leo tells the crew to follow him, and they go on a trip. Mailen – carrying Zarya in his hands so she doesn't get lost – is moving a little slower behind. However, he's able to keep pace with the rest of the crew, just because they stop a few times, to wait for him.
Around an hour later, they arrive at a weird, distorted place. The people there are entering a dark-green slime-y building.
"This is probably the most disgusting thing I've seen, ever. Not even Earth's radioactive areas are as bad as this.", says Rain, grabbing her stomach, so she doesn't collapse.
The building makes a sound.
"■■■■control■■■■intense■■■■pain■■■■agony"
Rain falls down to her knees and is starting to feel uncontrollably weak.
Mailen sits next to her and holds both Zarya and Rain with him. Just then, they all noticed that Vega isn't here.
"Leo, Aeternum. Find Vega. She must've been teleported somewhere else. I'll keep the girls' company, and I'll try to cure them.", says Mailen, giving Leo a small weapon he had in his pocket. It's a small kitchen knife he had since Kephar.
"Got it. Let's go.", says Aeternum, grabbing Leo and running away where they came from.
Mailen puts Rain and Zarya in a small corner on the ground to rest in safety, and runs into the building. There, hundreds of humans, being converted into some zombie-like monsters, are having the time of their life. One of them notices Mailen and alerts the mobs nearby.
Mailen runs as fast as possible, trying not to hurt the zombies, believing that curing them will bring them into a normal human state.
Meanwhile, Aeternum and Leo are lost. They do find Vega eventually, but they are trying to locate Rain, Zarya and Mailen. Their waypoint devices do not work in the Driftspace, and everything pretty much looks the same.
Rain, holding onto her consciousness, hears somebody speak. It's Zarya.
"Must...", says Zarya, in an extremely deep tone.
"Zarya?", asks Rain, looking at Zarya with half-open eyes, looking like she's about to die.
Just then, Aeternum runs from the back. He heard Rain's cries, and came up to them.
"Vega's here. She has the cure that has been developed so far. It will only help for a few hours.", says Aeternum, grabbing both Rain's and Zarya's hands. Vega puts a needle on their shoulder, and Rain stands up. Zarya – being in a worse condition, is only able to talk properly and have her consciousness mostly back.
"Huh?? Where am I?? Where's Mailen?". Zarya has way too many questions, and Rain answers every one of them one by one.
Leo goes into the building, because he was there before, fighting the 'force'. Aeternum asks: "Vega, why don't we feel anything wrong?"
Vega quickly replies, with a straight tone: "Rain is 25, right? Her and Zarya are young women, the most prone to the virus. Mailen might also be prone to it, but it depends on his physical build. The virus mostly catches on young women, senior long-living people, and muscular people. That's why Asparion isn't here. You're in your 30s, and I am in my 100s. We are not young anymore, but not old either."
Earlier, Leo gave Vega a part of the point that can bring one person back. Now, they all collectively agreed to bring Zarya back. Zarya vanished, and in reality, Asparion brought her to the hospital. She was going to be cured and saved, but it will take days, because the cure isn't fully effective.
Then, Leo comes back with Mailen. Mailen started to look a little 'corrupted' because he got infected. Leo quickly teleports him as well, and Asparion also takes care of him.
"So it's you, me, Vega, and Leo left. Rain. You're very prone to this virus. Please, go with Leo to safety.", says Aeternum with a serious face.
"I want to get rid of the problems here!", says Rain.
A few years ago, on Earth, Luvin Usen – Rain's late father, told Rain to bring peace and solve problems of the universe. She vowed that she'll bring safety and help the universe.
However, she failed to do so here.
"Rain. You are our leader. Sometimes you have to fail a mission. Please, return to reality. Vega, Leo, and I will take care of it. Please. For the sake of our future. Almatia's future as well.", says Aeternum, trying not to cry. Even he who is always serious shall cry.
Rain returns to reality, and is also sent to the hospital.
4 days pass, and Rain is healed again. Mailen is also mostly taken care of, and Zarya is doing much better. Rain and Mailen sit on Zarya's hospital bed.
"Have you guys heard from the crew yet?", asks Zarya. She is concerned with Aeternum's, Vega's and Leo's safety.
Mailen nods, confirming their safety. "Time works differently there, due to it being a memetic location. Their time flow runs much slower than here. It's only been a few hours for them there. They're going to come back tomorrow."
They quickly look at the newspaper nearby. It reads the following: