"Lt. your hand"
"Wha..."
Karen looked at her hand and realized what was going on
"Blast I thought I would have more time"
"What are you talking about Lt.?"
(Sighs) "I'm sick and both the military and the EDC knows I'm sick"
"What about your firefighting family?"
"They don't know I didn't want them to know I had returned only to find out that they would lose me if a cure isn't found. I originally thought I had at least a year unfortunately a cure has to be found within the next six months or I will die seeing as how I am now actively coughing up blood"
"How did you get sick?"
"Do you guys know the basics of where I've been the last year?"
"Yes we heard about that country and how you were there for a year initially thought dead but apparently actually alive if incommunicado"
"The Nakodians used a biological weapon during one of their last attacks and I was caught in it. When I came back I informed both the military and the EDC about the attack and gave them all the data on the weapon that we had, they are collaborating to find a cure unfortunately I just basically ran out of time, the longer I cough up blood the less likely a treatment will work for me and all data says that the people infected die within six months of when they start coughing up blood"
"Is there any way to buy you more time?"
(Sighs) "Unfortunately not, my family has been working on a project for about three years now but as far as I know they haven't gotten very far despite the efforts of both them and the greatest minds the EDC has to offer, seeing as how everyone here is cleared I can tell you that it's a cryogenic pod meant to sustain life for an extended period of time though not indefinitely unless hooked up to a direct power source. The two problems are any power source would be drained drastically because of how much power the pod would be using and the other problem is that so far it isn't safe to freeze a person completely in order to sustain life. Yes hospitals induce hypothermia to help patients in comas or other situations but it's not the same as actually freezing a person in a point of time until a later date, my family hasn't even begun the testing phase and while I would gladly volunteer they would never allow it for many reasons"
"So basically you're dying and there's nothing to be done"
"Exactly, and part of this diseases trickiness is that nothing shows up in the blood work until you start coughing up blood so unless the patient tells you they've been exposed to the Nakodian bio-weapon you don't know that they're sick until blood comes up and normally that doesn't happen until six months after exposure, it's only been one month for me"
"Is it obvious in the blood work once you do start coughing up blood?"
"Yes and speaking of which I should get myself down to medical because they wanted to monitor me on a regular basis once the coughing started"
"Then why start the retraining process if you're going to die before you complete it?"
"For one didn't expect it to start so soon and for another it was a good way to regain balance"
"You had been away for so long you wanted to get back to a sense of normality, even though you knew you wouldn't have had much time"
"Exactly, the military understood that and as such granted my request, and while I did make contact with my firefighting family everyone agreed to hide the truth from them about my true status in health until we have no other choice"
"They aren't going to be too happy with you you know"
"Oh I know boy do I know about that"
"Wait I heard a rumor about you having an immunity to poisons one would think that includes bio-weapons so how are you sick?"
"Easy because while I do have a ridicules immunity to poisons even if it's not recognized as an immunity I was in the poisonous cloud for two hours making sure civilians were evacuated before the poison reached them and then was also in battle inside the cloud as well and even my immunity can't handle that much poison especially when designed to be a bio-weapon"
"So now you need to be monitored on a regular basis and are now forced to stay on the ground"
"Exactly, my firefighting family will know of my impending death a month in advance because by that time there will be no hope of a cure being found in time for me and like I said my family is working on a way to extend someone's life as a means to give people time to find a cure if they so choose but last I knew they weren't even in the testing stages"
"Maybe things have changed since you last heard of the project"
"It's possible but not likely and in any case I have something else on my mind that I need to fight before my death, something the EDC has been trying to do for a long long time"
"What's that?"
"To get my poison immunity recognized by the CDC as a true immunity, and I think a long explanation is in order for them to understand why the EDC and I call my poison immunity an immunity instead of recognition"
"That's gonna be a fight then"
"True but they did tests themselves and never declared it an immunity but maybe I can explain things better in a long letter that will let them understand why we call it an immunity and not recognition. Hopefully the CDC will recognize it then as a true immunity and if I die I die"
Karen goes to medical first and then writes that long letter so that her immunity could be recognized as an immunity. For two more months Karen does retraining and is re-qualified to become a Marine but nothing else and even then everyone could tell that she was getting weaker every day and as such she wouldn't really be able to do much with her re-qualification
"Karen you have re-qualified to be considered a Marine but I don't think you can be active duty if not for your unique circumstances you wouldn't have even been trained"
"I know, I think I'll simply stay here and help people where I can, the CDC can reach me here as can the EDC"
"What about your family?"
"As far as I know they still haven't gotten to the testing stage of their cryogenic pod"
"When did you last here from them?"
"A month ago, we agreed to monthly reports unless something comes up that requires an update sooner and yes that includes a working pod to test"
"I thought you said they would never use you for testing"
"Normally they wouldn't but this is a desperate case for everyone and the government is allowing it as are they"
"Okay then, well good luck"
"Thanks only four months to live I guess and only three months until my firefighting family discovers what I've hidden"
"There's still time Karen, don't give up hope"
"I'm not just stating facts really"
"Then why do you sound so defeated?"
(Sighs) "I'm afraid for me right now stating facts will simply sound like I am giving up but I'm not, however I am tired Lt. I am so incredibly tired, we're currently treating my symptoms and unfortunately it exhausts me due to how progressed the disease is"
"The CDC?"
"Still haven't heard from them either"
"If your immunity is recognized posthumously I'm not sure how your family will react"
"Neither am I actually but to be honest for it to be recognized at all will be an accomplishment"
Just then Karen was handed an envelope, she didn't know who it was from due to how non nondescript it was but she also knew better than to ignore it due to the fact that it could be any number of things. She opened it and saw that it was a letter and as soon as she started reading the letter everyone else could tell it was good news because there was shock on her face but there was also a smile as well
"What is it?"
"It's from the CDC, after reviewing their tests again and getting a further detailed description from me about what happens to me whenever I am poisoned and add in the fact that as soon as I started coughing up blood I requested the base to send blood samples to the CDC on a regular basis the CDC has recognized my poison immunity as a true immunity. They are treating it like the flu shot where if you get the shot it's unlikely you'll get the flu however if you do get the flu then it's not as severe as without. However they are also considering how much poison I am exposed to as well which determines how bad my symptoms are"
"But overall you're basically immune to poisons"
"Exactly"
"Now if only your family can come through for you"
"We'll see"
Just then the base came under attack by both Nakodians and Quintessons
"Great two enemies combined...alright take this Arranyan knife barrier"
Suddenly there were a lot of knives surrounding the base which acted like a barrier and kept several of the enemy forces out though there were areas where the enemy managed to get through before the barrier was completely up but the majority were not on base which was a good thing. Unfortunately that's when Karen discovered just why the poison was affecting her sooner than expected due to the fact that she had a severe coughing fit
"My powers...they're killing me from the inside out unintentionally, looks like this will be my final battle if I continue like this"
Karen realized as soon as she used her powers that the poison was interacting with her her abilities on a level that was basically like it affected her DNA. Karen had realized soon after her powers emerged that even when she wasn't actively using her abilities her abilities were right there waiting for her in her DNA and minute traces of her powers were always active, not enough to really affect the outside world because she did have to call on any of her abilities including her shields for them to be active, however because of the fact that her powers were part of her DNA they gave her a slight boost even when inactive. The poison she had been exposed to affected her DNA near the end of her life and now that she used her powers she realized that her powers were also affected by the poison and as such shortened her life drastically
"Looks like I have a choice now, die today fighting to keep the base safe or keep dying a slow agonizing death and telling my firefighting family in only a few months that I will only last another month...okay decision made"
Karen used her powers to the end even though several soldiers who had joined up with her as she weakened noticed she was coughing up more and more blood as she used her powers and one even tried to stop her and failed
"Karen stop...you're killing yourself"
"I know Lt. I made this choice freely"
Karen had one final attack in her and she knew it, she also knew what to use as well. Suddenly she jumped into the air and used several enemy aircraft to get pretty high and then she started spinning and stayed in the air and they all heard her final attack
"Arranyan explosion!"
Suddenly a burst of light came out of her in all directions killing most of the enemy, those not killed immediately retreated. Meanwhile Karen was let gently onto the ground where they found out she was still barely alive
"Tell...tell my firefighting family I'm sorry...and tell them about the lie I told them"
"We will, I promise Kerenai, we will"
"I know"
With those words Karen died. Several days later those who could leave the base were at Yellowstone. Karen had updated her will shortly before the mission that 'killed' her for a year and she requested that she be cremated and then her ashes spread across Yellowstone from the firefighting base. Her firefighting family mourned her during that time and understood why she never told them about the poison and quickly forgave her of her lie. They spread her ashes per her will and continued the fight to keep the forest and her inhabitants safe. Her Cybertronian family continued protecting Earth in her honor while Yellowstone designated a new building in her name. That new building was a sub station of the main firefighting base, Karen had worked for years to get a sub station approved because she had noticed it getting harder and harder for her team to protect such a large area from one base. The sub station however was not an air attack base but instead was for ground crews, and that station did not have a permanent crew. Instead firefighting stations from neighboring towns sent in volunteers on a one month rotation, though one time due to a huge fire it was a two week rotation but that was because the crew on rotation at the time all had injuries that required long term treatment in a burn facility though there were fortunately no deaths. Karen's Cybertronian family also eventually completed the cryogenic pod project and made sure enough were made around the world in case they were needed, though all countries had strict and different rules about cryogenic use, one internationally agreed term was for alien poisons so that the person would have time for a cure to be discovered something her family failed to do due to extenuating circumstances