Queen's note: …hey look, 'NEW' Hyper fixation. Editing? Spelling? What's that?! WE DIE LIKE WOMEN HERE WITH MY DYSLEXIA! ...okay I did a little editing.

Garnets

Chapter One:

Sea Platform

The music was doing a pretty good job of blocking out the sounds of the storm in the upper area of the platform. As well as, well, other less natural sounds. The more inner areas were still firmly locked down, with all sound buffers in place so the music did not need to be as loud, so as not to stress the animals any more than the vibrations from the storm might.

The sole person in the room sneezed, and then started coughing. They fumbled for the mask and small tank on her chest. It was a very rigged up medication dispenser but it worked. She could breathe better after a minute, closing her eyes against the dim light of the room.

Not just because she was laying down, it had to be dimmed to keep who she was waiting for from getting aggravated.

Lily fought the urge to cry again, she had done that enough already today. Watching old recordings, both of her family's making and snippets that the platform's AI had found in security feeds before the chaos.

The room the young woman was in was pretty bare. Two shuttered windows in the north, with a bank of computers that overlooked a good part of the loading docks of the platform. Possibly this room was originally a sort of security station before the place had been converted for marine science. To the young woman's right was another long window and door, it was darker with red lights at the moment. The door behind her that led to the inner complex was closed. The hall to the right was a checkpoint from the outside to the inside. There were two boxes below that window, pushed together and against the solid half wall.

Now, after the demonic end of the world, that hallway was the last airlock between her little pocket sanctuary and…

Everything.

"Outer doors opening." Riggs, the mentioned AI spoke up with a warning. The music turned down in the room before the muted sounds of shuffling feet were heard.

Lily did not move at first, trying not to look right away. As if that would help her pretend that the walking creature… the former person was still who he used to be. There was a thump against the thick window, trying to get the young woman's attention.

"Outer door closed," Riggs said softly, "It seems he dragged a crate in this time. I'll turn the speaker on now."

Lily lifted her hands up to scrub at her face then sat up. Took a breath and smiled at the form hunched against the safety window, making herself smile, "Hi dad,"

Something like a wheeze and growl came out of the hulking form, but it changed to a low grumble that seemed pleased.

The young woman got up, Lily brushed herself off as she walked to the half wall and window. Using those boxes like steps to put her closer to the creature's head level. He was mostly human-like compared to the other possessed and altered outside. Though missing his right eye, it was almost filled in, or scabbed over, the brown still there in the remaining eye. Not glowing yellow or red, like a lingering trace of the man he used to be.

More so that the gaze seemed to soften as Lily stood up, by him. Both hands lifted to press against the thick glass, though never trying to break it. Just scratching with the right clawed hand, and the gloved left.

His blue armor was starting to fade, or corroded, showing a lot more signs that he had been fighting some of the other hellish creatures outside since he last game by.

Lily rested her head against the glass, tilted a bit to one side, resting her own hands almost in the same spots as the altered man. "Happy birthday dad. I made cupcakes."

There were no words from the speaker, just a wheezing breath. Maybe something like a happy grumble if she imagined.

Lily stared at the glimpses of silver and gold chain under the collar of his armor. Before her eyes shifted to the name engraved off-center of the chest plate.

Fredrick Hawkins.

"I'm doing okay so far Dad." Lily spoke up, closing her brown eyes again, trying to imagine how he used to hug her. "I miss you and mom, but the guinea pigs are breeding really well. I still can't cull them myself, I have to use the freezer."

Lily paused, taking a steading breath as the creature that used to be her adopted father thumbed his head against the glass near hers. She could see the seaglass-like growth on his right shoulder. She did not have long before she had to go lay down again as that demonic side started to get aggravated.

"Pretty sure Mom was onto something about the saltwater hurting the monsters out there." Lily opened her eyes to meet the one brown, hazy eye. How much did he recognize her? She wanted her dad back, and wanted back the times before he was infected. She wanted to be back before hell truly broke loose.

Lily wanted to feel safe with her dad protecting her and her mother.

There was a hissing over the speakers, making Lily step down, away to her left.

"Sorry, guess you gotta go. Don't… don't get washed out by the storm." She smiled and shuffled slowly backwards in the dim room to get the possessed soldier to calm down. "Love you dad."

She had to sit back down, laying down to more or less play dead until the armored not-man would shamble his way out again after five minutes. The speakers turned off before that. Lily pressed the heels over her eyes as if that would stop her from crying. No sobs came, just tears as she finally rolled over to hug herself and just… cry.

Lily was an adult, had been for a little while, definitely had to be one in the last, nearly year since Hell erupted on earth. The last few months were hard. Becoming harder as she became alone after losing her father two months ago.

She was an adult

In the apocalypse

All alone.

Riggs was quiet, letting Lily be for now. Get the sadness out until she rolled over onto her back again, staring upwards at the ceiling as the music was turned up again at a requesting hand motion. His way of trying to help when he had no body or drones to control. The young woman closed her eyes tight, thinking of the one cupcake down in the staff kitchen she had spent the most time on.

There was a beep from one of the computers.

"What was that?" Lily asked, feeling a vibration through the floor of a bigger wave hitting the platform.

"I can not tell if it was a ship on the west dock, or a portal." Riggs reported, not for the first time seemingly annoyed at the damaged sensors on the outer sections of the platform.

"Waves are coming in from the north west right?" Lily opened her eyes, staring at the ceiling.

"Yes miss Lily." Riggs confirmed. "Do you think it's someone trying to get to a safeplace?"

"Unlikely if there's a portal, it might just be the things from hell again." Lily stretched, trying to clean her face as she felt herself crying again. "Open an comm. to the outside for a minute, let's try and get the storm to wash off as many of them as possible."

"Ready in, 3, 2… now," Riggs started as normal before his voice dropped and then the music dimmed outside. A distinct click that let the human know she could speak.

Lily took a breath, her voice sounding more cheerful then she felt, "Hello-hello! Invaders coming in! Lets Go, hop-hop!"

The woman clapped her hands in time with her words in a way that got the mindless creatures to respond.

"Trespassers in the-"

"South east," Riggs supplied in a low tone the best place for the creatures to get swept off by the waves.

"-South-east! Port sided! Let's go-go!" Lilly finished as another bigger wave hit the platform. The coms turned off as the music outside turned to something cheerful to keep the creatures distracted from the storm and willing to stagger to the dangerous edges of the platform.

Her arms dropped back to the ground, and then shifted as Lily stretched her back and legs. It seemed almost impossible to get the energy to finish rolling over and get up. So she stayed there, legs drawn up to make it easier on her spine to stay laying on the ground.

Maybe it was depression, hopelessness, or just apathy, but Lily did not want to get up. She had plenty of things to do with the grow tanks. The plants were growing, as much to help feed her as the guinea pigs. Litter boxes needed to be cleaned out, cats fed.

She needed to actually eat something today other than frosting.

…Lily really wanted some more frosting.

The music stayed the same in the room she was in, slightly older rock then current trends. Pre-apocalypse trend? It was not too heavy but the current song was nice to get lost into. Just that slight repetitiveness that was not hard for the mind to keep up to.

A precious few minutes to zone out and lose herself away from her reality. Feeling the vibrations of the storm that would hopefully make the platform safe again.

Mostly safe.

Her dad would likely not be bated out into the storm, and mom…

Lily shivered and curled her arms close at the image of what her mother had turned into. Pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes and then ears as she tried to force her thoughts away from what lay coiled up under her area. In the lower section of the platform.

"Riggs, change it to the 'don't think' playlist, please," Lily whined, motioning so the camera in the room could see her request to turn the music up again where she was. It was harder to recenter herself, given how she was already upset with meeting the altered creature that was and was not her dad.

Just the thought of what her mother became… It was not easy to calm down again. Breathing was shuttering and not just from whatever after effects and damage from the outside toxic gasses. The medication did not do anything to stop her from crying. Sobbing? Grieving the loss of her world, her family, again. Not knowing what would happen to what was left of her parents.

She was exhausted and numb after a few songs.

"Outer door opening?" Riggs announced, sounding startled as the outside door was almost forcefully opened after it hitched half way. The sensor had not picked up the old key card still attached to what was left of Hawkins' left wrist. It was the key-pad itself that had been used to type in a still active code. The big form was already walking in the hallway before Riggs could warn his distracted charge, the music turning down as a code was punched in the inside door rapidly once the stranger saw the young woman. "Miss!"

"Dad?" Lily asked confused, not really registering what Riggs had just said, looking up from the floor as she lowered her hands from her face.

The big form stopped short in the doorway, he was outlined in the now open door by the red light in the side hall. The outline looked alike enough that in her addled state she thought it was her changed father. He had his old armor on after all when he changed.

Had she not overrode the locks?

Lily took another shuddering breath, coughing despite her best effort to stay still just in case. As if the changed form might go back again if she had been still. But just enough of the gasses from outside slipped in that she had to pull up the mask to hit the dispenser.

That was when she noticed it was no extended, clawed right arm on this being. He, it? He? had rifle or shotgun grasped in his right hand, and a half extended metal blade on the left forearm. The latter was dripping something dark, as rain or sea water too was finishing running off his frame.

It was such a strange moment right then as they clearly stared at each other.

Mostly clear, Lily could not see past the helmet, as what little light in the room reflected off a tinted visor. She could see her own small reflection in it, sort of.

Slowly, this new creature, being- person? They lifted the shotgun and then smoothly swung it around to their back before taking a step forward.

Lily did not react, just staring up at him from the floor. Not fully sure if this was real, but something finally shook loose as she remembered her father's helmet was downstairs, in the room they used to share. His face had been exposed when she saw him a little while ago.

It took only two strides for this being to come into and across the room. Moving far faster than someone of his bulk should be able to with the armor, as he knelt. At the same time he somehow seemed as if he was not trying to move fast, as the now free right hand slowly reached out to touch her middle.

Not until the feeling of warm, almost hot metal and some kind of fabric touched her arm did Lily start to realize this was no fever dream. Not some sort of desperate hallucination.

This was not her changed father finally getting inside.

He used the floor to help push the blade on the outside of his left gauntlet back into a retracted state. The left hand that touched her exposed right arm was damp. A mix of the storm wetness and something dark being left behind.

He seemed in just as much shock at finding someone else alive.

Lily tried to get up at the same time as impossibly large hands were closing around her shoulders as she started to cough.