Woo! Third Shadow Madness fic up on this site! Anyway. I got a game over screen by stupidly deciding to go and fight Red Tom the first time you go past his cave. So upon seeing the game over screen I went "Ooh, fic idea!" and promptly wrote this. In this fic, Stinger, Windleaf, and Harv made it to Karillon but went back to get rid of Red Tom, which is what I generally do.

If yer looking for something happy... click the back button right now.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this fic. I wish I did. Especially Harv. But that's beside the point...

Windleaf awoke very suddenly on a cold stone floor. She couldn't move and could barely see. Her hearing seemed to be damaged as well; the only thing she could hear was a buzzing and whirring. But the pitch sounded familiar... "Harv? Is that you...?"

"You're awake. How do you feel?" the robot's voice was curiously garbled and slurred; the whirring increased in volume as he spoke.

"I'll be fine, I think. But what happened to you? Your voice..."

There was a noticeable pause. "I am... damaged."

She didn't like the sound of that. "How badly damaged, Harv? And... where's Stinger? I don't remember what happened."

"Perhaps that is for the best..." he replied quietly.

She began to get very frightened. She'd never seen Harv act like this, although she'd only known him for a bit more than a week. "Harv. Tell me what happened." she told him, voice shaking.

"We lost." he replied simply.

For a moment she didn't know what he was talking about. But then it hit her. "This is Red Tom's cave, isn't it? Harv, where's Stinger?!"

There was no reply.

"Keerg's blood, Harv! Just tell me!" she cried, half crawling, half dragging herself towards the sound of his voice.

Another long pause. "Red Tom took him first. I couldn't stop him... Windleaf, I could hear... hear him... from the other side of the cave network..."

She stopped dead in her tracks. "You could hear him..." she whispered, not daring to finish her sentence.

By now her vision was clearing and she could see him turn away from her slightly. "He was screaming... I never... never thought that humans could be that loud..."

The tears began to flow. She couldn't help it. Stinger was her friend, despite the fact that they'd argued almost constantly. He and Harv were the closest thing she had to family. She moved to lean on the robot but a sharp word stopped her. "Don't!"

And she could see why, now: he was covered in blood. "Harv... is that... from..." she couldn't bring herself to say the name.

"Mostly; some of it is mine and some is from other beings." Yet another long pause. "Red Tom came for me after he was finished with..." he stopped for several seconds, and then restarted. "...After he was finished. It isn't easy to eat a robot..." Windleaf thought she could see traces of a bitter, somewhat pained smile on his face. "...But he certainly tried."

"How long can you...?" she didn't want him to answer to question, really, but she knew he would.

"If I'm left alone - though that is unlikely - I would not survive for more than a few days; my batteries are running low and I cannot recharge them here."

There was another long silence. "Can't you just... walk out?"

"No. You may be able to later, once the venom wears off. But I won't be going anywhere."

"Why?" she asked sharply.

"As I have said... Red Tom made a very good effort to... dispose of me." he paused a second, then added, "My right arm is malfunctioning, my right leg is useless and... my left no longer exists."

She stared at his face for a moment, and then her gaze slid down to her lower body. She could see his right leg laying completely still at an awkward angle. But there was no sign of his left. Hesitantly she touched his hip and when he didn't move she gingerly felt the exposed wires and - were those severed arteries and veins? None of the wires sparked but the robot still obviously had some feeling there; he twitched as she brushed a sensitive spot. "Are those...?"

"I am bio-mechanical in nature, so yes, those are what you think they are."

"Harv, doesn't it... hurt?"

"It's more of a... dull throb, now." he replied, gently brushing her hand away from his injury. Before she could say or do anything in reply, he continued on. "Windleaf, I want you to try to walk, or at least crawl. You have to get out of here before Red Tom comes back." he looked away from her again and his neck servos whirred loudly in protest. "I could not save Stinger when I was fully functional and I will not be able to save you now, with the damage I've sustained."

She gaped at him. "There's no WAY I'm leaving you behi-"

He cut her off mid-word when his head snapped back towards her, neck emitting a harsh screech. "You can and you WILL. If I have to attack you so you leave, I won't hesitate to do so." his voice softened. "Windleaf, you're the first friend I've ever had. You still have many years of life ahead of you; if my existence must be terminated so that you may live, I will gladly sacrifice myself. In the most technical sense, I am not even alive in the first place."

Ignoring the blood covering her friend, Windleaf laid her head in his lap; she didn't have enough energy to sit up. "You're alive to me."

Neither of them moved nor said anything for a long while. But eventually Windleaf felt Harv moving his arms. Doing what, she wasn't sure. For a moment he was still; and then she jumped when something warm and metallic rested on her arm. It took her several seconds to realize what it was. She could easily feel the intricate gears and wiring with the organic tubes running amongst them. The tips of the four digits were soft and felt very much like human skin; she could feel a pattern, a fingerprint, on each of them. "You have very detailed hands." she told him softly.

He smiled down at her, though she couldn't see it. "I will take that as a compliment." when she said nothing in reply, he added, "Do you hear anything? My audio sensors may be malfunctioning."

She strained her ears, struggling to tune out Harv's labored buzzing and whirring. "Yes, something; like shuffling... hissing..."

"...Run, Windleaf! Run NOW!"

"Oh... oh no... that's Red Tom, isn't it?!" she struggled to stand, but collapsed back into her robotic friend after a moment. She simply did not have enough control over her body yet; the venom was still very much in her system.

"Try again." the robot told her. Something close to panic was making his slurred voice come out higher-pitched than normal. "You MUST escape!"

With Harv's help she managed to stand up twice more, but to no avail. She couldn't take more than a step before falling. "I can't do it, Harv. I'm sorry..."

He pulled her back to him with his good arm. "Don't be; you tried." he stopped, staring past her. Red Tom was near enough for him to see, now. Windleaf rested her forehead on his, too tired to do much of anything else. "Windleaf, I... I can make it so that you... don't feel anything. Don't see or hear anything. Do... do you want me to?" he whispered to her.

She knew what he meant. He was asking permission to give her a quick, painless death so she would not have to experience what Stinger had. After a moment, she nodded, closing her eyes. Strong, but currently very gentle hands caressed her neck, moving into a position in which her spine could easily be snapped. One of his hands was jerking and twitching; his damaged one, the one that still had a glove on it that was slippery with blood.

"And what about you?" she murmured, beyond tears by now. "I won't let you go through this alone..."

"On the back of my neck." came the soft reply, "...there is a depression with a button in it. I cannot reach it; you must press it."

Windleaf ran her hand over the back of his neck until she located the indentation. "This?"

"Yes; push as hard as you can."

She kissed him where his cheek would have been if he were human, knowing that Red Tom was right behind them without having to look or even really listen. "You've been a good friend, Harv."

"As have you, Windleaf."

The robot twisted his hands strongly and smoothly and Windleaf more heard than felt the crack. She was dimly aware of Red Tom pulling her away from Harv, and her finger pushing down on the button as hard as she could. There was a click and Harv slumped against her.

And then there was only blackness.