Chapter Nine:

So Little Light

I always knew that the secrets could hurt me
I never knew it was yours that would kill me
I never tried to be yours to take care of
You never said you were mine to beware of
How many more will there be?
I only feel alone when I'm with you
Learning to pray
I could never be all that you want me to
I fall away
How many more will there be?
I'd never wish myself upon you
But I cut myself trying not to
If you can't share yourself with me
You're the person I thought that you would be

…

How many more will there be?

-Dave Navarro "Very Little Daylight"

"So Korben," Lily-Ray said as she cuddled into her husband's finely shaped chest that evening as they lay in bed. "You and Mr. Zorg seem to be getting along well. I'm glad." Korben sighed.

"Yeah well, he's not as bad as he was at first… I guess…" he tried. Lily-Ray snorted.

"I think you two just finally discovered that each other is not so bad anyway," she said. Korben sighed again.

"Yeah maybe. Leeloo isn't sleeping in there with him is she?" He asked. Lily-Ray made a face. She hadn't thought about where Leeloo was sleeping… she just kind of assumed that she was in a room… sleeping… uh oh.

"I don't think so, honey," she assured her paranoid husband. Korben glanced at her.

"I just want to be sure," he said as he slid out of bed and towards the door.

"Korben," Lily-Ray called in an attempt to keep her volatile love in the room.

"I'll be right back," he lied as he walked out.

"Oh no," his wife muttered under her breath as she too slid out of bed and followed him down the long, dark hallway.

…………………………………………………………………………………

"No badaboom," Leeloo said as she cuddled into Zorg's warm body. "No badaboom." Zorg laughed. She was still very determined.

"No worries, alright Leeloo. I don't plan on going badaboom," he assured his worried angel. Her frown turned into a smile as she began to nuzzle with his shoulder using her nose like a puppy. Zorg laughed and ran his hand through her fiery hair.

"Leeloo be good? Leeloo be good? Help doctors?" She asked as Zorg admired her hair. He loved the colour.

"Yeah. You were really helpful Leeloo," he said as he continued to play with her hair. "You did not let anyone leave and no one came in but the doctors, and you stayed too. You were very helpful." She smiled at him and licked his lips like a puppy would. He laughed.

"Leeloo like help," she commented before licking his lips again. She held the puppy-eyes in place on his for a moment until he couldn't hold himself back anymore and she got what she'd come for: a kiss.

"Zorg help, Zorg help," she muttered as he cuddled against her and kissed her neck gently. She giggled and wrapped her arms around his tiny body. She would never let him go badaboom. Never. Never. Never.

"What the Hell are you doing to her!" Zorg thrust away from Leeloo and fell backwards off the bed when Korben burst into his bedroom.

"Zorg? Zorg?" Leeloo leaned over the bed and gasped when she saw him crumpled on the floor in a heap of blankets.

"What are you doing!" Korben roared as he pulled the weapons designer up off the floor just as Lily-Ray ran in.

"Korben!" She cried. "Huh?" She just watched nervously as Korben released the death grip he had on Zorg's shoulder. Lily-Ray was afraid Korben was going to rip off his mechanical arm, which was already in bad shape from the blast.

"What's going on?" Korben asked with a little less fire as when he first came in. Zorg's trembling eased a bit. He didn't look scared… just nervous. He was just trembling… like a child. Like a little soldier new in battle.

"No bad, Zorg good to Leeloo," Leeloo said as she crawled to the end of the bed and embraced Korben's waist. She cuddled against him and repeated her statement. "Zorg good, Zorg good to Leeloo." Korben sighed and then looked back at Zorg.

"Keep it that way," he said threateningly as he led his very confused wife out and back to their bedroom. Zorg glanced from the door where Korben had just left back to Leeloo who was staring at him. She shrugged.

"Korben want Zorg to keep being good," she said with a smile as she helped him back up onto the bed. Zorg smiled at her as he tackled her back and hugged her. Leeloo laughed with feeling. She laughed with love. "Zorg good!"

……………………………………………………………………………

"Korben," Lily-Ray held her nervous husband. "He'll be good. I know he will." Korben took his head off of her shoulder and glanced deeply into her dark brown eyes suddenly feeling what he knew Leeloo felt for Zorg.

"Yeah, I know," he said and Lily-Ray's eyes widened a bit. "I know he'll be good. He loves her and she loves him… so… I know that… I love you… and I could never do anything bad to you. Love does that to people," he explained his reasoning and Lily-Ray laughed softly.

"You're a hero Korben," she said as she embraced him and leaned him back onto the bed.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

"MORNING!" Zorg shot out of bed and bounced towards the door when Leeloo stood in the hallway banging a pot and spoon together.

"WAKE UP!" Lily-Ray flew out of the bed taking the blankets with her… revealing Korben's bare body.

"Ah!" Korben grabbed his pants off the floor and put them on before handing his wife her dress.

"L-Leeloo," Zorg panted as he walked out of his bedroom followed by Lily-Ray and Korben who walked out of their bedroom a few doors down.

"Morning, wake up. Morning," Leeloo said as she led the three tenants into the kitchen. Zorg's eyes widened when he saw what his normally bare and boring table had become. Leeloo had set it with a flowery centerpiece and a tablecloth (which he was currently unaware of where she found it…) and an aromatic breakfast of cereal (Zorg's breakfast really…), toast, and bread rolls.

"Wow," Korben said as Leeloo motioned him and his wife to chairs in front of empty white, shiny plates.

"Zorg," Leeloo said as she sat him down in front of the plain cereal. Zorg grinned when Korben made a face at the shredded wheat.

"No wonder you're so skinny," he laughed and Lily-Ray hit his shoulder. "All you eat is grain." Zorg shot him a playful glare.

"I ain't that skinny… and anyway… I like my shredded wheat," he said as he pulled out the chair next to his for Leeloo who sat down in it. Leeloo packed her plate full of bread rolls before sitting down next to Zorg.

"Yummy red rolls," she said as she munched on one. Korben looked oddly at her.

"Red rolls?" He laughed.

"Alright, so what did Dr. Alessa plan on having us do to entertain ourselves…?" Korben muttered as he flopped wearily onto the sofa. Zorg shrugged as he bounced playfully onto the loveseat next to the sofa. He didn't know how Korben could be so tired after breakfast. Zorg could get sugar-high off a glass of (sugar-free…) water. He was always a hyper man. His parents hated it, but he couldn't help it. He was always so happy and bouncy.

"I have no idea… maybe she wanted us to play videogames and run around the house and—"

"Oh my God Leeloo, did you have to give him the sugar-coated shredded wheat?" Korben groaned as Zorg flew madly around the room liked a caged canary.

"I'm gonna go crazy in here!" He wailed.

"Are you okay, Korben?" Lily-Ray asked as she sat down next to her husband who looked like he was about to doze off. He nodded.

"Yup. I am soooo," he tried to say while yawning, "tired…" Lily-Ray giggled and leaned him over onto her shoulder.

"Sleep," she said as she stroked his hair. She couldn't help but snort when she saw Zorg bobbing back and forth on the love seat muttering to himself.

"Sleep, sleep, sleep," he chanted madly as he rocked back and forth with what looked like clinical insanity.

"Lily-Ray," Korben muttered as he stood up quickly.

"What's the ma—oh no!" The woman with the long black hair said when she noticed her husband's bloody nose. "Korben! No!" She pulled the box of tissues off of Zorg's side table and began to wipe away the seemingly endless blood flow. "No, no, no!" Tears began to stream down her face just as perpetually as the blood seemed to flow down her husband's.

"Korben, no! Korben, no!" Leeloo cried when she noticed the problem. Zorg continued to rock insanely on the chair and Lily-Ray suddenly wondered if he was getting sick too.

"Uh oh, another. There's another," he muttered sadistically.

"Zorg well? Zorg well?" Leeloo said as she approached him cautiously. Zorg's head shot in her direction.

"Leeloo, watch them for a moment, I'm going to call the doctor!" Lily-Ray cried as she ran into the kitchen.

"Yes," Leeloo said as she sat Korben down on the couch. "Korben be alright. Well and healthy?" She said with a cute smile that Korben couldn't help but grin at.

"L-Leeloo," he muttered as she laid him down, getting blood all over Zorg's sofa.

"How many more? How many more? How many more?" Zorg began to mutter from his place on the chair while simultaneously rocking insanely back and forth.

"She says she'll be over immediately," Lily-Ray said nervously as she walked back out into the living room. She sighed when she noticed Korben dozing lightly in Leeloo's arms.

"Korben be okay? Healthy and well?" She asked his wife. Lily-Ray nodded.

"I hope so," she said as she sat down on the arm of the loveseat and strung her arms around Zorg who shrieked and pushed them away.

"It's okay, it's alright," she assured him as she held him tighter and rocked with him.

"No more, another. No more, no more," he muttered as Lily-Ray stroked his hair.

"It's alright, we'll get him fixed, it's okay," she said as more tears escaped her eyes. She looked at Leeloo who was wiping more blood off of Korben's face with the tissues. Then she turned and looked at Zorg whose eyes were so bloodshot that they looked almost solid red. "Oh no," she muttered as a knock sounded from the door. She was kind of wondering why he was seemingly losing it. Leeloo stood up and ran over to it.

"Doctors help, Zorg says doctors help!" She cried as Dr. Alessa and a few EMTs ran in with a stretcher.

"We're going to take you all to the hospital. We didn't know if any of you were infected, but apparently so," she said as she lifted Korben onto the stretcher with the help of the young EMTs.

"Doctor, I think he's sick too," Lily-Ray said as she pointed to Zorg who was glaring around the room with eyes like blood.

"Oh no, Mr. Zorg," the doctor muttered as she commanded the EMTs to go and get another stretcher.

"Thanks… I love you guys too," Korben muttered with a smile from his place on the stretcher as one of the EMTs wheeled him out followed by another who was going out to get another gurney. Lily-Ray waited inside with Zorg and Leeloo while the other EMT came back in with the white bed on wheels.

"Help me," Dr. Alessa said as she took Zorg's good arm and tried to lift him onto the stretcher. Lily-Ray grasped his waist and lifted him the rest of the way up.

"No!" Zorg screamed madly as he flipped himself off the stretcher.

"This is bad," the doctor said.

"What do you mean?" Lily-Ray asked nervously. She was already too worried about Korben. What next?" Dr. Alessa sighed as she watched Zorg back away from her.

"The virus only seemed to affect the body at first but it seems that it's already mutated into a encephalitic disease… a disease of the brain as well as the body," the doctor relayed all she knew. Lily-Ray sighed.

"Oh no," she muttered as she looked at Zorg who now resembled a rabid animal as he backed away from them, down on his hands and knees from his fall off the gurney.

"Come now, Mr. Zorg. We must bring you to the hospital, we can make you all better," Dr. Alessa tried. She would try not to admit it but she had a strange admiration for Zorg and she was so very afraid of losing him. "Okay, I'm going to tell the EMTs to bring Mr. Dallas to the hospital. Leeloo I want you to stay and help me but Mrs. Dallas you can go with your husband. Have them send for another ambulance for when I get him sedated," she said. Lily-Ray nodded as she ran frantically out the door.

"Korben!" She cried when she saw him lying motionless on the gurney with blood surrounding him. "Dr. Alessa says to just take us to the hospital. She says call for another ambulance because it is going to take her a while to get Mr. Zorg," Lily-Ray explained to the EMTs. The one with the blonde hair nodded and climbed into the driver's seat while the other pushed Korben into the ambulance and got into the back with him ad Lily-Ray.

"It's okay Korben, it's okay," she said to him as she stroked his hair.

"Where's Leeloo? And Zorg?" Korben muttered quietly. Apparently unlike Zorg he still had his senses…

"They're back at the house. Dr. Alessa's going to bring them in a bit. For now they just want to make sure you're okay. Don't worry, Zorg and Leeloo will be fine," she tried to convince her husband.

"It's so dark," he muttered before coughing up blood.

"Korben," Lily-Ray cringed and helped the EMT wipe the blood from her husband's face. "What do you mean dark?"

"Dark, dark. So dark," he muttered before passing out.

"Korben!"