The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Decerto Terminus

by J. Darksong & Baltimore Rogers

Part 8)

“Sassenach?” Duncan replied, eyebrow raised in question. “Really? Is that supposed to mean something to me? You’re the invader here, not m...me?” A sharp pain in the center of his back surprised him, and he glanced down to find a long piece of silver metal protruding from his gullet.

“No, Sir,” MacDonald replied, giving the Nth metal sword in his hands a savage twist, “Mean something to you? Doubtful. The only thing that holds ANY meaning to you is power. To me, though...it means everything.” Taking step back, he brought up his gun, releasing the stun settings, and taking aim.

“MacDonald...choosing to betray me now, after all these years?” Duncan asked, incredulously. “It seems I have underestimated you as well.”

“Well, yes, and no,” the ‘doctor’ replied with a grin, as his form shimmered, and changed, growing younger, slimmer, and decidedly feminine. “Yes, you sorely underestimated me,” Xirix replied, assuming her true shape, “you pompous, arrogant ass...but I’m afraid I’m not your little peon MacDonald. He’s still abroad, convalescing after his run in with his unwitting test subjects. I merely took advantage of his absence to insert myself into your organization.” She turned to glance at me, smiling. “My Master sent me all the relevant information needed to portray the good doctor. The rest was merely learning to kowtow to you, feed your ego, and basically let you walk all over me the way you do all of your minions.”

She took out the needle of serum I’d given her during my trip through the lab earlier to set the explosives. “Do you see this, Duncan Frasier? It’s the answer to the question of how to kill an unstoppable demon like you. My Master thought ahead, thought to bring extras in case you stopped him from injecting you earlier—”

“Xirix, that’s enough,” I said sharply, resetting my systems, bringing my weapons back online. “You played your role perfectly. Your job’s done. Now step back and let us handle it from here.”

Duncan sighed heavily. “Her role? She played her role perfectly?” Reaching down, he took the handle of the sword embedded in his gut, and, willing another change, causing his lower body to become intangible, pulled it free. The hole slowly closed up, healing rapidly. “All you are doing is delaying the inevitable. You cannot kill me. You cannot stop me. And for this last insult, shape shifter,” he stated, vanishing, reappearing directly behind her in an instant, “you will not escape me either!”

“Xirix!” I cried out, rushing towards her even as Duncan struck, a savage blow ending her short life. Super she may have been, superhuman, even, but fists capable of shattering stone and denting steel make short work of mere flesh and bone. Two seconds too late, I drove Duncan back, sending him staggering back even before the girl’s body hit the ground...but I knew. I knew...and a red hot wave of grief and rage overcame me.

“RRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!” I screamed, unloaded my entire payload, every gun, every missile, every charge, every beam weapon, lethal, non-lethal, everything but the kitchen sink. I threw it all at him, even knowing it would have no distance, no effect, knowing he would simply shrug it off, that what managed to get through his shields and his protections, and his invulnerability, would simply heal itself, just as the sword stab had. But I didn’t care. I fired, again and again, and again, trying to WILL my brother’s death, all the while raging at myself...

At myself, for having involved the wee lass in my schemes in the first place.

“Eugene! Stop! GENE!” Lacie yelled to me, shaking me hard from behind, finally managing to pierce the red haze. “Please, stop. It’s okay. Just...stop. It’s time for me to do what I should have done years ago.”

I nodded, spent, dropping to my knees. I was drained...in every sense of the word. My little tantrum had dropped my suit’s power levels to one percent, just enough to power my defensive systems, and nothing else. And so I watched, disheartened, and sad, as Duncan, using yet another newly acquired power set, healed himself, covered his body in shining golden metal, and grew to mammoth proportions, rising up to tower thirty feet over us. A huge booted foot raised, preparing to stomp me flat, and I found that...I really didn’t much care.

“You are insects compared to me!” Duncan crowed in triumph, “bugs to be crushed underfoot! And I...I am a god!“

“No, you’re not,” Lacie said softly, quietly, yet somehow her voice seemed to carry, sweeping over the horizon. I glanced up to gape at her in awe, as she floated, hovering several feet in the air, hair blowing wildly as if in a wind, glowing with a soft yellow glow, her black and silver costume melting away, replaced with a long flowing silver robe. “You are merely a man playing at being a god. Let me show you the difference.” Closing her eyes, chanting softly, a line of thin golden ribbons emerged from her, wrapping themselves around Duncan.

“What...what is this?” Duncan asked, frowning, not fully grasping what was happening. “What are you...doing to me? Stop this!” he yelled, slowly shrinking back down to his normal size. Angry, he raised a first towards her, attempting to lash out with his power, with fire, or lightning, or lasers, or plasma...only to have each attack fizzle out, failing before it was even formed. “My powers!” he yelled, showing fear for the first time since I’d known him. “You’re...you’re stealing my powers!”

“No, Duncan,” Lacie intoned, using that same eerie Voice, “the powers you wielded were stolen from their rightful owners, wrapping your own life thread with theirs, to make your own stronger. I am merely restoring the balance, removing the errant threads, and revealing your own, true, original thread, as it should be.“

As I watched in awe, each of the golden ribbons of light surrounding Duncan began to glow with a different color, as if they were drawing out each of his purloined powers, siphoning them from his body. The physical effect on Duncan was astonishing, the healthy youthful aura fading away, as he seemed to age years in seconds, his long dark hair lightening to grey, then to white, and his smooth tanned skin became old wrinkled and pale. When at last Lacie withdrew her tendrils, what stood before us was not the tyrant that had so dominated our nightmares for most of my life, or the would-be conqueror of the world. Instead, all I saw was a pitiful, tired old man, utterly consumed with impotent rage at his own helplessness.

Shaking his head, muttering softly, he stumbled away, withdrawing something small and silver from his pocket, no doubt a radio transmitter to signal for help, to run away and find some other rock to hide under for the rest of his days.

Lacie, meanwhile, was wilting, stumbling, as the glow faded from her body, and I moved to catch her, allowing her to lean against me. “Loveling, what’s wrong? Are ye well?” I asked, concerned. She replied with a smile, shaking her head.

“I’m okay, love....just tired,” she said with a sigh. “Using my Goddess powers away from Yggdrasil always drains me. But...it was worth it. Duncan is beaten. With his powers stripped and his research destroyed, he’s not a threat to anyone anymore.” She laughed softly. “I can hardly believe it...it’s finally over. And we’re all alive and well.”

“Alas, not quite all of us,” I replied sadly, removing my helmet, gesturing towards Xirix’s still form. “Her death is my fault, love. I brought her into this...used her to feed me information on Duncan’s operation.” I looked away. “She wasnae innocent, not by any means. A bloody viper she was, even at such a young age. She’d stolen and killed, for money and for thrills, even before breaking into our home and stealing my DNA scanner tracking system. It just seemed...fitting...using my cerebral scanner program to leash the viper and use her for my own plans, ye ken...”

I knelt down and picked up the syringe she’d dropped, holding it up to the light. It was just like me to assume that I’d known what would happen, from beginning to end, to assume that just because I had turned her into my obedient thrall that I utterly controlled her every action. I’d instructed her to stab Duncan with the needle while his attention was on Lacie and I when I activated her trigger. Instead, she’d stabbed him through the spine, then taunted him, assuming him to be wounded and helpless, giving her ample time to deliver the coup de grace. A long drawn out, and complicated gambit...and, as it turned out, completely unnecessary.

* * *

“So...she’s the little thief,” Lacie replied, kneeling down to stare at the girl’s face. She sighed softly. “Baby...you couldn’t have known things would happen as they did. Her death isn’t your fault. That despicable piece of garbage blubbering like a baby over there is responsible for all of this.”

“Did ye ken?” I asked her suddenly, turning to stare at her. She stared back at me, confused.

“Huh? Wha? Did I know what?”

“Did ye ken you could take away Duncan’s powers with a mere wave of yer hand?” I asked, shrugging helplessly. “What ye did earlier. Just before ye began, ye said that ye were goin’ to do what ye should have done years ago. So...why didnae ye do ju’ that?”

Lacie shook her head. “I only just found out myself. My...Sisters. They deceived me. The reason I couldn’t sense Duncan’s thread or see him all this time was because THEY were blocking my Sight.”

I blinked in surprise at that. “What? Why? Why on earth would they protect him?!?”

“No, not him. This. This event, this fight between you and he,” she said softly, frustration evident in her face. “Apparently this was one of those ‘important points’ in history that was fated to happen...and that any interference from me might prevent it from happening. And yet, I interfered. You’re alive and well. And the world didn’t bloody well end!” She growled softly, hands clenched tightly. “I love my Sisters, Gene. I truly do. They’re my kin, and my family every bit as you and Jimmy and Katie are. I just...I just can’t see how they could do something like this to me, knowing how important you are to me!”

I sighed softly, pulling her into a deep embrace. “Aye...I think I can understand. Loveling, I can hardly profess to be an expert on Norse mythology, or this ‘Great Tapestry’ thing yer all so eager to protect—”

“Great Weave, Baby,” Lacie corrected me with a smile.

“Aye, ‘Weave’ then,” I replied with a smirk. “But I am pretty fair at seeing the big picture. It seems to me that these kin of yers, the ones that see the future...they knew it was possible that I would die during this conflict, right? And that it could have easily come down to a choice of ye saving my life...at the cost of yer own.” He eyes widened at that. “Ah. Ye didnae consider that outcome, did ye? That if things had gone differently, that had ye not learned ye could take away his powers that way, trying to fight him head on...he could have verra well have killed ye. And that was apparently what they wished to avoid at all costs.” I stared directly into her eyes. “You, Lacie Ann...you are what is important here. Not me. Not Duncan. None of this. It’s why I was so upset when ye first turned up...why I wanted you to stay away!”

“And you think I don’t feel the exact same way?” she exclaimed, lip trembling slightly. “You wanted me to stand idly by while you, what? Sacrificed yourself to protect everyone else?”

“If necessary,” I replied calmly. I reached out to caress her face, but she turned away, angry. “Listen, Lacie Ann. I love you more than life itself. You know that. If there was any way at all to do this and come back to you alive, I would have. Ye think I’m so tired of life with you that I’d simply run off to get myself killed? Not in the slightest. But loveling...of the two of us...I am the expendable one.”

“NO! Stop saying that!” she yelled at me, inadvertently powering up, starting to glow slightly. “You are NOT expendable!”

“Aye, I am!” I insisted. “Look at me! I’m an old man, Lacie Ann. I’m well past my prime. I hurt every damn day just getting out of bed, the cold weather makes it worse...I cannae keep up with ye the way I used to! This little adventure...took more out of me than I’d care to admit. At best, I have maybe six or seven good years left...while you, you’ll live for decades, possibly centuries, if your grandma Vurdra is any indication.” I shook my head. Things I’d been feeling, been repressing for years, that we’d BOTH been denying, were coming out now. “All I’ve ever had to offer the world is my intellect...my little gizmos and gadgets...and most of my life’s work has been turned into weapons of death and destruction. I figured the very least I could do to erase the mistakes of my past is remove the threat my brother posed to the world...”

“That’s funny, brother,” Duncan growled, appearing suddenly, ramming the fallen Nth metal sword through my heart from behind, “that was exactly what I was thinking!”

* * *

Nigel Grimalde landed hard in his butt, glancing up at the man who’d just struck him. Echo stood just a few feet away, lightly rubbing his knuckles, muttering softly under his breath. Strangely, there seemed little in the way of actual animosity in the act, and when bodyguard Darryl, and Ivory, and Ebony and, of all people, Constance—weapon drawn—stepped in to repay the attack in kind, Nigel held up a hand, backing them off. “Well,” he said briskly, rubbing his chin, “do you feel better having gotten that out of your system?“

Parker glanced down at him, scowling for a long moment, before extending a hand to help him back to his feet. “Feel better? Not hardly,” he admitted after a bit, “but frankly, I’m not really sure what would do the trick.” He shook his head ruefully. “Goddammit...I HATE it when he’s right. Guess I owe the crusty old bastard an apology when he gets back after all...”

“You mean Eugene Frasier?” Nigel asked.

Patricia left their son and daughter with Delores and ran to Nigel’s side, placing her arms around him protectively, glaring a silent threat at Parker Albinn. Nigel hugged her in return and turned again to Parker, “I take it you and he exchanged words about me, then?”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Shinobi commented drily, coming up behind her husband, wrapping an arm around his waist. “I almost thought the two of them were going to come to blows. And frankly, I’m not nearly as forgiving as he or my husband, Nigel. You...and your wife,” she said, glaring daggers back at Patricia, “have hurt quite a few people, and those hurts run deep.” Her expression softened then. “Still...Gene says that you’re not the man you once were, and not nearly the monster we all believed you to be. And seeing your family like this, rallying to you, supporting you, not out of fear or obligation, but honest to goodness love and concern...and what you did earlier on the news for Armor Man...hell, you can’t be all bad.“

Nigel raised an eyebrow. “Careful there, Shinobi...that almost sounded like a compliment. And while we’re at it,” said Grimalde, looking Roni dead in the eye, “I thank you for your oh-so-generous grace in deigning to forgive me...us. But before you get too wrapped up in your own nobility, I want to remind you that lots of us have skeletons in our closets. Lots of us have done truly awful, criminal things. Things that would cost us dearly, that would cost us everything, if we were called upon to pay our so-called ‘debt to society’. Right, Shinobi?”

Veronica stiffened slightly, catching his meaning instantly. He knows about my past, she realized. My time as an assassin, a hired killer, before I...before my life changed for the better. Her eyes narrowed slightly. He apparently does his homework...

Grimalde turned now to his wife, “Patricia, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Japan has a pretty thorough extradition treaty with the USA, and I don’t think they have a statute of limitations on premeditated murder.”

Patricia looked at her husband quizzically, but confirmed his facts, “Yes, in fact I have been involved with more than extradition hearing for a Japanese murderer seeking asylum in the US. That’s a pretty accurate description of the treaty provision in lay terms.” She had no idea though why he might be bringing that up. It was all too clear to Parker though. He was seething now, literally vibrating, as his sonic powers now in full gear, ready to have another go at Grimalde. Does he think he can get away with threatening MY WIFE!. But this time Roni held up HER hand.

“Let him finish, Echo,” she said softly.

Grimalde continued, “Look, Shinobi, I know what it’s like when you’ve done such horrible things that the only thing you can do is run away. Believe me, I know.” Now he turned, looking at his wife again. “But now I also know what it’s like to do something so horrible that the only thing you can do is stay, and take responsibility, and do your damnedest to fix it, even though you can’t. Things...things aren’t always what they seem, Shinobi. Remember that.”

In response, the ninja silently nodded her head. He looked her in the eye and grinned. She grinned in return. Damn. Eugene was right. Despite everything, I think I might actually grow to LIKE this guy...if I can ever get past his screaming harpy of a wife...

“Oh, Patricia,” said Nigel, suddenly somber, “Don’t tell the kids yet, but...Richard didn’t make it.”

“Oh. No,” said his wife, eyes full of concern. Nigel had lost one of his closest—one of his ONLY—friends. “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry,” she said, reaching up and pressing him in a tight, fierce hug,

“It’s okay. I don’t think he...suffered. I must have been quick. But...In any case,” said Nigel, bucking up, looking up from his wife’s embrace, forcing a smile, “perhaps it’s just the smoke inhalation talking, or the concussion, but I do wish to thank you all for your selfless heroics here tonight. Truly. Despite our differences...despite problems caused on BOTH sides,” he said pointedly, squeezing Patricia to him even tighter, “you came to my rescue when I needed it. I owe you all one. And Nigel Grimalde never forgets a debt.”

“Yeah, well,” Parker mumbled softly, glancing down at his feet. “I...er...suppose we could just call it even. After all...you DID help out our Katie Ann, earlier. Not to mention helping the rest of the city recover our scattered brain cells.”

“You can say that again,” Patricia commented with a sigh. “I shudder to imagine what would have happened here if we were all still under the effect of that bimbo virus.” She frowned. “Speaking of which...we seem to be missing some people, aren’t we? Where’s Angela? And the Frasier girl...Katie Ann, you called her, right? Neither of them have returned yet.”

“Angela’s fine,” Parker replied, blushing hotly. “She, um...decided to stay over a bit longer at my Aunt Eva’s house after dropping off the antidote. Apparently there was an unplanned...um...orgy...and she kinda got dragged into it.” His blush deepened, remembering the image as he’d stopped by to check up on his Aunt just before the explosions started. “They’re probably still sleeping off the last effects of the virus.”

“Wait a second. Eva? As in Eva Snow, your little pet psychic?” Patricia asked, frowning deeply.

“Excuse ME?!?,” Parker snapped, scowling right back at her. “What do you mean pet psychic? Just what are you trying to insinuate ABOUT MY AUNT?“

“Patricia, stop it. Please,” Nigel said, calmly, interceding before things degenerated further. “Let’s not make assumptions. Frasier made us a promise, after all, and until I’m given reason to doubt him, I choose to take him at his word.” At the sound of the approaching helicopter, he let out a sigh. “At any rate, the question as to what happens next between our two families can wait for now. Constance and I need to get checked out at the hospital, and Delores needs to have her ankle tended to. I can only assume you two plan to head out and continue aiding the relief effort fighting these fires?” Parker nodded. “Sioban, take Tawnya and go with them, and help them as much as possible. Just be careful. I have enough of my people injured as it is—I’d prefer not to have to take our new friends to task for letting you two get hurt.”

Roni and Parker glanced at each other as the billionaire mogul limped his way over to his private helicopter, momentarily at a loss for words. “Hey, Nigel!” Parker called out a parting shot, as Grimalde and his family slipped inside, preparing to take off. “Be sure and have your jaw looked at as well! I wouldn’t want that little love tap I gave you on that glass jaw of yours to cause complications down the road!”

“Not a problem, Albinn!” Nigel shouted back over the sound of the rotors. “Constance hits harder than you do! Really, you fight like a girl.” Nigel grinned and winked at Roni, the girl who had taught Parker how to fight.

Veronica and the Angels laughed at Parker’s frustrated expression as the helicopter took off, heading for River City Memorial. “Dammit...enemy or friend, I still hate that guy,” he murmured. He sighed dramatically. “Alright ladies. We’ve got an entire city that needs our help. Let’s get a move on...”

* * *

I was...dead.

Unexpected.

Really unexpected. As my legs collapsed beneath me, and I dropped into a kneeling position, held aloft only by my damaged short circuiting armor, I contemplated this, the end of my existence. My heart was destroyed, pierced through and through, nothing but a bloody smear leaking precious blood from the gaping hole in my chest. Strangely, there wasn’t any pain, just a cold numbing sensation that seemed to flicker idly at the edge of my awareness...like a full body pins and needles.

I felt...mildly disappointed. I don’t know what I expected, a while light, a tunnel, or a floating sensation as my spirit leave my body...or at least a vivid replaying of all of the events of my life flashing before my eyes. What I was experiencing was anything but. Time continued to pass, but it felt as if the world was moving in slow motion.

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!!”

A piercing female scream. Lacie Ann, reacting to my dying. How long ago had that been, anyway? A minute. Two? Five? No...surely not that long. With my heart turned to hamburger and my lungs not working, my brain would have shut down by now if it had been longer than five minutes. So...what? A few seconds? What did it matter anyway. Did it matter?

“Yeeeesssss!” a deep baritone voice spoke, laughing gleefully. Duncan. My brother. My murderer. Son of a bitch...should have killed him when I had the chance instead of just leaving him alone. Stupid to think he was no longer a threat just because he’d been stripped of his powers. And yet...the way he moved...the way he continued to move now in front of my eyes...

Shite.

“I’ll destroy you!” Lacie screamed, channeling power, striking out at Duncan with the full force of her pain and despair. “I’ll fucking rip you apart with my bare han—aaaahhh!” she cried, caught in Duncan’s grip. Duncan, no longer pale and wrinkled, no longer weak and sickly, his long white hair now sporting a familiar golden tint, reminding me strangely of that Dragon Ball cartoon Jimmy was so fond of in his early teens.

“You can’t destroy me!” Duncan informed her, wrapping hand firmly around her throat, squeezing with all his prodigious strength. “You had your chance, and you wasted it. I, however, did not waste mine!” Gasping for air, Lacie grabbed him by the wrists, struggling to break his hold, but finding herself held tight. “You may have destroyed my lab...but you did NOT destroy all of my genetic samples! I kept one of them with me...a very special sample. Your DNA, dear sister-in-law. It seems I finally managed to incorporate it into my genetic matrix, just when I needed it the most! Now I am a perfect match for your strength and power.“

This was bad. Snatching-victory-from-the-jaws-of-defeat bad. Perhaps it was existing simply as a mind in a ruined body that allowed me to see the obvious before Lacie did, but even as she lifted a trembling arm skyward, bringing forth her Goddess powers once more, sending a stream of glowing ribbons at her attacker, I knew it wouldn’t work this time. Duncan’s laughter confirmed my fears.

“Fool! Simpleton!” he taunted her as the energy swirled about him, coiled and raged, unable to find purchase. “Do you not understand the genius of incorporating your powers into me? Your powers as a so-called Goddess might be fearsome, and without peer...but even they have a weakness! They have no effect on the one wielding them...and with your DNA bonded to my own, I am, in effect, you! You can no more strip away my new power than you can your own, ‘Goddess’.“

I saw it then, in her eyes, as Lacie’s face shifted then, turning to look at my still, nearly-lifeless form. Anguish. Despair. And worst of all...resignation. Seeing me, knowing I was gone, she had given up. The hands clutching at his around her neck stopped, dropping down, accepting her fate, as if to say ‘If you’re dead and gone, then I might as well follow you into death...’

Fuck. That.

No. No! NO! I refused to accept that! My own death, aye...I was pretty much beyond hope, but not Lacie, NEVER Lacie!

Think!

Useless brain in a useless body! Gahh!! All I was ever good for was tinkering with toys, gadgets and inventions...useless fucking numptie, blatherskite...

STOP IT! You’re letting your thoughts wander. You need to focus. Focus!

THINK!

My eyes still work, Dropping my gaze down and to the side, I see the answer to my love’s salvation: the syringe dropped by Xirix at her death.

Xirix...

Dead, like me...slain by Duncan, just as surely as I was—

FOCUS, GODDAMIT!

The serum. It would unbind Duncan’s augmented DNA, permanently. All I needed to do was inject him with it.

Aye...in a dead body with a dying brain. I might as well ask God himself to reach down and snap Duncan thick neck, and to heal me and make me thirty years younger as well while he’s at it!

“That’s it, Lacie,” Duncan cooed softly, seductively, as Lacie’s eyes began to flutter, her breath running short. “Just let it happen. You know you’re beaten. There’s no hope. Just surrender...surrender, and I’ll send you to my brother...”

Okay! Hypoxia is beginning to set in. Time is of the essence here. Think. I just need to reach down and grab the syringe and jab it into Duncan’s leg or thigh...or anywhere. The needle is right there, just beside my hand. I just need to grab it. I just need my hand to move.

Just move!

No sensation, no response. The muscles in my arm no doubt starting to burn sugar instead of oxygen, filling with lactic acid. Fine. Don’t care. I just need them to respond for a few seconds, for just one measly fucking task—

I don’t need them!

I don’t need muscular control! Damn my eyes, my armor, my electrical powered exoskeleton is damaged, low on power, but still functional. I just need to sacrifice my body’s nanomachines to mentally reconnect to my AI, which would have been potentially fatal, if I wasn’t already dying. I made the connection, powering up my AI, which instantly begins streaming warning messages at me.

WARNING! System integrity compromised. Fatal system error. Life support systems compromised! Danger! Danger! Vital systems reading zero. Flatline! Begin emergency resuscitation procedures—

Override! Reconfigure circuits, shunting all power into mobility of my right hand!

WARNING! System integrity compromised. Fatal system error. Reconfiguration will result in permanent damage to user through biofeedback—

Override, dammit! Reconfigure circuits!

WARNING! System integrity compromised. Fatal system error. Reconfiguration will result in permanent damage to user through biofeedback—

GODDAMMIT! Override ALL system warnings and bloody well RECONFIGURE!

Command accepted. Mobility reestablished.

Imagine the most painful thing possible. For most women, that would be giving birth, described glibly as grabbing one’s bottom lip and pulling it up over the top of their head. For a guy, try imaging having a catheter tube being inserted...except instead of a small thin plastic, it’s a ten inch diameter cactus being shoved up there. Now, multiply that sensation by a thousand, and extend it from the base of your neck, down one side of your body, down to your waist, and you have a close approximation of what it felt like to move my hand the few centimeters it took to grab the syringe.

I was fading fast. My sense of time was hazy at best, but it had to have been two to three minutes since my heart had been shish-kabobbed. Only two thoughts kept me going: Lacie, dying at Duncan’s hand, and the old saying that pain was good...that feeling pain meant you were still alive. Maneuvering my arm up, bringing the syringe into place hurt like the fifth circle of Hell, so I was pretty damn sure I was, for the moment, still alive.

Just a little more. Just a little more...

Lacie’s eyes fluttered, her face beginning to turn blue, no doubt mirroring my own, but I thought at her, willed her to fight...just for a few seconds more. Please, mo duinne...don’t give up yet...not yet...please! Her eyes, still fluttering, locked onto mine...and somehow, someway, a spark of recognition passed between us. The fire in her eyes returned, burning dangerously low, but there. Her hand trembled, but it struck out, grabbing Duncan’s, holding tight with the last of her remaining strength. Surprise flashed across his features, and he laughed.

“What’s this? A last ditch effort to fight for your life?” he asked grinning malevolently.“It matters not. This little drama is coming to a close. Fate has already decided, and my destiny is set! Nothing you do can change it now! No being alive can stop me now!”

Maybe not...but that doesn’t apply to me anymore does it? With a last herculean effort, I jerked forward, thrusting my hand up, needle first toward Duncan’s leg. At the last possible moment, he sensed his doom, felt it coming, and glanced down, staring in shock as I forced my broken body to move. He tried to dodge, to pull away, to no avail. Lacie’s grip on his hand hadn’t been a last ditch effort to break free; just the opposite, it was her resolute desire to keep HIM from breaking away at the last minute to save himself.

“AaaaawwwwkkkkK!!” Duncan gasped, gurgling in shock as the syringe pierced his flesh, delivering its full payload. Releasing my wife, who gratefully wheezed in life giving air, he turned, staring at me in disbelief. “How? How?” he asked me softly, staring at me in complete denial. “Impossible! It’s impossible!” The gold faded from his hair, which quickly turned gray, then fell out, fluttering to the ground in the slight breeze. Bright oily drops of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his eyes sunk back into his head, giving his face a skeletal look. He took a single step towards me, reaching out a hand. “How...how did you do this? How? HOW?!?”

I wish I could have turned away then. Watching a person literally rot away in front of your eyes is not a pretty image, certainly not the last thing I wanted to see before my own life finally faded. Luckily, Lacie, somewhat winded, but alive, came to me then, pulling me into her arms.

“Oh, Goddess...Gene,” she shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Please. Not now...not like this. Please! You just saved me, again...even at death’s door, you save me from the brink. Please...you can’t leave me now. Not now! Please!“

My vision started to haze over at this point, and the pain that had wracked my body was fading now, drifting off to a dull barely notable ache. I simply nodded inwardly. It was okay now. I could go like this. In my lover’s arms. It would have been nice, I suppose...if Parker, Roni, Eva, and others were here as well, you know, to see me off. And it would have been nice to see Katie and Jimmy again. I hadn’t got the chance to give them a proper goodbye.

Ah well...I’m sure Lacie would handle that for me. I’d done the best I could with what I’d been given. I’m sure they could manage well enough without me. At any rate....such concerns were beyond me. It was time for me to go.

Life’s a long, hard, grind, but I had finally earned my rest...my retirement...from everything.

Goodbye, Lacie, Ann.

I’ll love you forever.