Disclaimer: I don't own The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Columbia paced around her room, becoming more and more worried about her best friend. That woman had a flair for the dramatic that nearly rivaled Frank's. Something as horrible as Magenta's brother dying before her eyes must've devastated her. From what little Columbia knew of Transylvanian culture, she guessed that they had some of the same weird ideals as the Romans.

Suicide was seen as honorable in a lot of old cultures. Yet Magenta had once said something about 12 hours of watching over the person after they'd died. No doubt she'd do exactly that. So at least she hadn't killed herself yet. Columbia desperately hoped that Magenta wouldn't do anything stupid.

Soon, Columbia became so worried she couldn't stand it. Though the television monitor in their room connected to all the rooms on the first and second floor, there wasn't a way too look at the basement level with it.

The only place monitors that could see everything happened to be in the lab.

Since Frank was probably still in his room screwing the hell out of poor Brad, there wasn't a chance she'd run into him.

So she headed for that room. There she could make sure Magenta hadn't run away or something horrible.

It has been almost 14 hours since he'd died.

Once they'd gotten to the lab, Janet didn't know what to do. She'd left Rocky standing in the middle of the room, still holding Magenta, while she went to look for a stretcher of some kind. It would be wrong to just set the poor dear on the floor.

In a closet near the freezer she found an old cot stained with something suspiciously reddish brown. She also found a plain white lab coat, an oversized brown trench coat, and a bright pink lab coat similar to the green one Frank had worn the previous evening.

Since she and Rocky still wore their floorshow outfits, and Magenta wearing a trashed 'spaceman uniform', Janet brought those with her when she went back into the lab.

"Set her down, now," Janet said, once she'd set up the cot.

Rocky did so, then looked at Janet as if waiting for his next order. So, she handed him the trench coat and told him to put it on.

How funny he looked now, especially since he wore that oversized coat. With his hair all stuck out and straw-like. She couldn't help but say...

"You look like a scarecrow!"

He stared at her in confusion. "A scarecrow?"

"Yes... I'll explain later. Right now we've got to wake her up... I think."

That's when Columbia entered the room.

"What's wrong? Oh my God, is she okay?" the pink haired girl shrieked.

She rushed over to where her best friend lay.

"What's happened to her?" she asked.

Janet sighed. "We don't know. She was still awake at about noon today. There's apparently a tradition or something about staying up for 12 hours... anyway, I convinced her to sleep while I kept watch. I think she must've been really trying to stay awake because she basically passed out the second I took over.

"Then I realized that she wasn't visibly breathing. And I could barely feel her pulse. I think she's sick. So we brought her here."

"Do you think it's some sort of self-inflicted suicide? I wouldn't be surprised if she could make herself deathly ill out of sheer willpower," Columbia replied darkly.

"I doubt it," Janet replied. "I mean, she's only human."

Columbia chuckled darkly. "Actually, she's not..."

"Hmm?"

"She's not really human. Frank, Riff, and Magenta are all aliens. Though they're basically just humans who've evolved to be a big weirder. I don't really understand it," Columbia explained.

"I don't think this sickness is intentional," Janet said.

"It not," Rocky Horror agreed.

Then Columbia checked Magenta's pulse. "She's alive at least... was there anything strange about that room?"

"Like what? This entire house is awfully strange," Janet replied nervously.

Columbia sighed. "Riff never let me go near that room because it's apparently got all sorts of dangerous equipment. I used to think he was just trying to keep me out of his way... now I'm not so sure. Just describe the room."

"Well... it was dark. The only light came from this weird, gloopy, glowing blue stuff oozing out of one of the broken-"

"Did you touch the 'glowing blue stuff'?" Columbia asked.

"No..."

"Did Magenta?"

"I don't know!" Janet cried.

"Mags did," Rocky told them.

He pointed at Magenta's feet. Indeed, there seemed to be something very wrong with her left heel. It glowed slightly, a bluish glow. And the flesh seemed to be corroding.

"Okay. So some kind of radioactive spaceship chemical is eating her feet," Janet muttered. "What has happened to me? Yesterday I was a bridesmaid at my best friend's wedding. My perfectly normal boyfriend proposed and everything was perfectly fine... until this castle! Now... I'm caring for a radioactive alien girl while wearing some kind of freaky burlesque outfit! God damn Lili St. Cyr!"

"You're hysterical, Janet," Columbia said sullenly. "It's not a good time for this."

It was at that moment that Magenta began to show signs of consciousness. She muttered something under her breath and her eyelids fluttered open for a moment.

Columbia grasped her best friends hand. "Magenta! Oh, are you alright?"

"Course... mm... not," the redhead muttered darkly.

"Does heel hurt?" Rocky Horror asked.

"It..." Magenta shuddered in pain. "Burns..."

"Of course it does. Vhy, it's a special sort of radium zat is very rare on zis planet! An old friend of mine, Dr. Kelly McCoy, found some in zis astroid in his backyard! It's very dangerous."

There, by the elevator, stood Dr. Scott. He now wore a dressing gown over his strange outfit. Janet was glad to see him. Surely he could help!

A/N: Hopefully this story isn't getting too strange. The bit about the radiation poisoning is a bit ridiculous, I know.

And I know that, in the movie, Rocky doesn't really speak. Though his character development is supposed to be about him becoming smarter. Also, I plan to make other characters compare him to a scarecrow. Well, he does want to be 'smart' just like the Scarecrow wanted a brain!

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