After trying the vaccine they headed to a more secluded space - aka Cassiopeia’s house - and vaccinated themselves (because getting your vaccines is important, kids). Now they were ready to go to the depths of the crater’s lab.
"Let me make sure Trash is doing well and we can go to the lab and get this done once and for all!" Cassiopeia declared.
"Trash… what trash…?" Hayley whispered in confusion.
(Please ignore how Erwin decided to change clothes in the middle of the scene)
Cassiopeia found Trash inside the house, on her bed. She looked like she was doing great despite the fact that she had been living on her own for more than a week. Cassiopeia knew she would be alright, she was a wild animal before she decided to live with her after all… But she couldn’t help feeling anxious about her little furry friend.
"Hey, little girl, I’m going to go again. I don’t know when I’ll be back... or if I'll ever be" Cassiopeia got weaker as she went on "So be good to Erwin, ok? I’m sure he will take care of you if something happens to me"
As if Trash understood what Cassiopeia meant she replied with a soft squeak.
There’s no going back now.
They reached the deepest level of the lab quickly, and Cassiopeia felt as disgusted as she did the first time.
"Holy watcher!" Erwin whispered, alarmed "What’s all this!?"
"A huge mistake" Hayley sighed.
Cassiopeia would have called it utter horror, she thought as they headed to the last door, but Hayley’s definition wasn’t wrong either. The girl could feel everyone’s anxiety, but she was strangely calm, even when she knew what was coming… She also knew this was what had to be done.
"Ready…?" Cassiopeia asked, to herself more than anyone else.
"Not really, I don’t want to look…" Erwin whined.
"You are going to need your eyes wide open. Here we go"
The door opened with a soft sound that was drowned by Erwin and Jess' gasps when they saw what was in the middle of the room.
I’m back Mother…
As planned Cassiopeia got on the platform to get closer to Mother, and her friends surrounded her. The plan was simple, it would be quick… If only Cassiopeia didn’t feel her heart wavering.
She told herself this had to be done… But she didn’t want to do it. She wanted to help Mother… but her heart ached just by thinking about it.
"Mother, I’m here, as promised. But I was wondering… there is no other way we can do this…? I want to help you, that haven’t changed but I… I don’t want… to leave…"
As the giant plant leaned in, opening her blossom, Cassiopeia realized it was not only about the plan.
She didn’t want to leave at all.
She didn’t even want to go back home anymore. She wanted to stay here with Erwin, Jess and Hayley, she wanted to meet more good humans. She wanted to keep protecting them.
"If we could–" She continued but Hayley, thinking Mother was threatening Cassiopeia when it leaned towards her, yelled in distress.
"Careful!! She is going to attack Cassiopeia!!!! Throw her vaccines! NOW"
"Wait… NO!" Cassiopeia screamed too. But it was too late.
That was not part of the plan! Cassiopeia told them to let her handle it, why were they throwing the precious vaccines at Mother!? They were hurting her… and that was making her really upset. So upset that she called a big group of possessed to come and help her fight.
Cassiopeia could feel it: Mother felt betrayed. Now she wouldn’t listen to her, she would take what she was promised no matter what.
It was wrong. Everything was wrong.
As Mother tangled her tentacle around her legs Cassiopeia regretted everything. She regretted not telling her friends the plan, which led to this terrible, terrible mess. She regretted making Mother feel betrayed. She regretted being a coward and not telling Erwin she was an alien, just in case he rejected her…
She regretted not being able to find a better solution. She regretted hurting everyone.
Cassiopeia could listen to her friends screaming her name when they realized what was happening. They didn’t know what to do, and that was for the better, this was what had to happen even if Cassiopeia wanted it to be different. And just for a brief second, as Mother was devouring her, Cassiopeia fought back to look at them one last time.
Thank you, she thought with a teary smile parting her lips, for showing me that even if it doesn’t look like it, there are good humans. Goodbye.
And then Mother swallowed her.
Erwin couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. That giant plant… Mother, it swallowed Cassiopeia as if she were nothing.
One second she was there, and the next she was gone. Cassiopeia was gone.
But Erwin wasn’t even allowed a moment to feel rage or hurt, because suddenly the monster let out an ear piercing shriek and its body shook and started to swing against the ceiling and walls. And as quick as it started… it stopped. The plant dropped on the floor, producing a huge racket and shattering parts of the structure of the lab around it.
Erwin covered his head, and when he tried to check if Jess and Hayley were alright… He saw it.
A beam of light pouring from Mother’s body, and inside the beam… A person.
Bofore Erwin could realize it, his feet were moving, quickly eating up the distance between him and the platform. He knew the simply idea was insane, but everything he saw today was insane. He saw a giant alien plant with his own two eyes, he saw Cassiopeia getting eaten by it just seconds ago, so was it really so crazy to think that person wrapped in light that came out of Mother was her…? It had to be her. It had to be Cassiopeia.
He started to climb the stairs up to the platform with his heart drumming so hard against his ribs he could hear it in his ears, but it stopped for a second when he saw the person at the end of the stairs.
It didn’t look like Cassiopeia… But somehow… he knew she was.
Erwin was taken aback for a second when his brain processed what he had in front of him: It was an alien. Cassiopeia… was an alien…?
Everything made suddenly made sense as if it were puzzle pieces coming together: How the girl appeared out of anywhere, how she seemed to be the smartest person Erwin knew but at the same time she had the innocence of a child, how she sometimes looked lost about the most normal things.
He always knew she was different.
And then again… after what he just witnessed and after almost losing her... who cared what she was? She was still the same girl who appeared in front of him one day asking for help, the girl who never judged his crazy ideas, the girl he…
"Cassiopeia… is it you…?"
He approached the girl and took her hands and she looked at him with her beautiful, completely black, huge eyes. Those eyes that were empty of all emotion when she shook his hands off and stepped back.
"The being you knew by the name of Cassiopeia is not controlling this body anymore, human"
When she said those words in a high pitched and robotic voice Erwin felt a chill running down his spine and a knot formed on the pit of his stomach.
"What… what do you mean she is not controlling…?"
"She gave me her body, it was impossible for me to leave this planet and go back to my own in my true form"
Erwin blinked slowly as her lifeless words sank in. It was Cassiopeia, but also it wasn’t her, because she gave her body to…
"You are that alien plant… You are Mother"
"I’m something beyond your limited human comprehension, but yes, I’m what your people knows as Mother"
As they were talking Jess approached them, confused when she saw the scene. Was that Cassiopeia…? Even when she knew her friend was an alien, she never saw her true form.
"What’s going on…?" She asked in a soft voice "Is she alright…?"
But her questions fell on deaf ears, as Erwin was still focused on Mother.
"You have to give it back. Give Cassiopeia her body back!"
"I can’t do that, it depends on her"
"What do you mean it depends on her…?" Erwin asked, getting increasingly upset.
Mother ignored Erwin and tried to walk past him, but the boy put a hand on her shoulder and stopped her. All the anger which was cooking in the pit of his stomach since he saw Cassiopeia being devoured was starting to boil, and it was mixed with helplessness and terror.
"Where are you going!? I said give her back!"
"Don’t touch me, filthy human"
Before Erwin could even say a single word Mother pulled out Cassiopeia’s SimRay and pointed at him with it, and when Jess saw it she ran upstairs, trying to stop them. But she was late.
"Why did you do this to him!?" She cried out.
"Be grateful I’m respecting her wishes and letting you all live, human"
Jess stared at her while she climbed down the stairs, frozen in place, unable to follow her. Her instincts were screaming at her not to do it because she would do to her what she did to Erwin, or worse.
Because she was not Cassiopeia anymore, Cassiopeia was already gone.
And so, Mother finally left StrangerVille with her.
StrangerVille was saved.
In the course of the next week following the incident, everything went back to ‘normal’ - as normal as StrangerVille could get -. The infection that took over the town for months suddenly disappeared and everyone was cured and happy again.
News reported it as an experiment gone wrong, but since it was already solved, and there were no consequences, nobody paid for it. They couldn’t find anyone to blame anyways, they couldn’t find evidences and the people involved wouldn’t tell a single word to the authorities. By the weekend almost every trace of the incident was forgotten.
Nobody would never know who truly saved them.