A new continuing story

[CaptainWacky]

Mike wanted to rip Elijah's head off. He saw the vision of Rachel again. He knew, intellectually, that it was false. But it felt real.

"Join him," she said. "He can bring me back and we can be together. He's powerful, you have no idea how powerful..."

"How powerful?" asked Mike out loud.

"I'm everywhere," said Elijah, knowing exactly what Mike was asking. "I'm entrenched in the organisation. I've been studying them since I was a teenager. I know everything about them...it was so overwhelming at first, but eventually I managed to position myself all over their organisation using false identities, robot duplicates...of course at first it was to bring them down, now it's to run them."

"Everywhere..." repeated Mike.

"You should be on the side of power," said Rachel. "My Mighty Mike."

Ashley started waving her head in front of Mike's face. "Snap out of it, Mike. He just told you Rachel's alive."

"I know, I can see her right now!" said Mike. Elijah laughed. Ashley put her blade to his throat.

"Deactivate his nanos. Get them out of him," she demanded.

"But if you let me work on them I'll just programme him to kill you," laughed Elijah. "James knew a little about the nanos...same I tricked Mike into ripping his head off." Ashley stabbed Elijah...in the cheek. She put the blade through, but no further.

"Huh," said Elijah. "That hurt. Kill her, Mike."

"NO," spat out Mike again. He kicked Elijah between the legs.

"If you're going to abuse me like this then I'll just activate the suicide nanos I have in me right now!" said Elijah. "Don't worry, they won't work on you, Mike."

"Why not just activate them, then," said Ashley. "End this. End it all."

"Because you only live once and I might as well see it through to the end...and I'm not there yet. Maybe I'll turn good and redeem myself..."

"YOU COULD NEVER..."

"No, no, I know. I know. Hehe. Well, I said Rachel is alive but apparently Mike is more happy with the ghost I programmed for him..."

"You said...she was under the sea," said Mike, fighting to remain focused on this point.

"Yes," said Elijah.

"And that means?" asked Ashley. "Answer or I'll cut into your other cheek."

"Stop, you're turning me on," said Elijah, then hastily added, "I started building a new base for us, using robo labour. Years ago, back when my motives were still pure. I never felt secure having our base under the ground with the only entrance being a gay bar. I mean, what the fuck? That was not a base worthy of heroes. I started work on a huge complex at the bottom of the ocean. For all of us. It was going to be a surprise. Then I got distracted with turning evil."

"You'll take us to it or I'll snap your neck," said Mike, simply.

"Okay," said Elijah, smiling. He was still in the game.

 

[CaptainWacky]

"So we have a sub too," said Ashley. They were on their way to the undersea station after teleporting to a submarine which Ashley hadn't known about before.

"Yep," said Elijah. "Was going to be for us...to do good and all that shit. Maybe it still could be."

"You can't really believe that," said Ashley. Elijah smiled grimly.

"No, of course not. I went too far over the line. The real tragedy, my dear, and I hope you come to understand this someday, is that I didn't even know I'd went so far, I didn't know I was at the point of no return...until I tried to return, that is. You'd do well to remember that."

"I'll never be like you," she said, disgusted.

"No? Look what you did to poor Mighty Mike," he said, looking back. Mike was further back in the sub, patching himself up. Literally. He had refused any medical nanos from Elijah, even ones already in the sub.

"Because of you! Manipulating me!"

"They manipulated me at first, the organisation. When I was getting close, imitating one of them, they tested me...made me do something evil to stay in. I had no choice."

"You could have refused!"

"Absurd. After all those years? What is one baby compared to the lifes I can save in my new position of power? Once I control the world..."

"You'll never control the world."

"Well it seems unlikely now, true."

"You killed a baby?"

"Oh, it was going to grow up to be the next Hitler, the organisation's psychics said so. Nomrally that wouldn't bother them, they would have just turned him to their side. They tried to kill me when I was a baby, you know. Even then they were influencing my life on all levels. But this baby, the psychics said he could be a rival, he could bring the organisation down..."

"Doesn't sound like the next Hitler to me."

"Well, he was also supposed to nuke London and infected 10% of the world's population with AIDS. I can't remember why. But he had to die."

"Just keep telling yourself that..."

"We all have to die eventually."

"Like you will after we get Rachel back."

"If you say so."

"This journey's so long...why not just teleport all the way there?"

"Oh Ash, what's happened to you? So sharp once...what would be the point of having a secret base if it could be teleported to? All our enemies would have to do would be find the teleporter! Anyway, there it is."

It became visible in the murky water. It was a huge, impressive glass structure. Looking at it Ashley had to admit it would have made a fine base for them. The sub docked.

"We're here, Mike," Ashley shouted. He came through. He was covered in bandages. He looked like hell. "I'm so sorry," Ashley muttered.

"It's okay," he said. "Come on. You walk in between us, Elijah."

"Of course, of course," he said. They left the sub. The lights of the base came on as they entered. There were monitors everywhere like in their old base...and one of them showed the hill in Scotland where the battle had just taken place.

"Wait..." said Mike, looking at it. Elijah grinned.

"You REALLY THOUGHT I wouldn't have a back-up?" he said.

"You die, now," said Ashley.

"Yes, fine," he said. "But so do you." A giant robot octopus slammed up against the wall of the underwater base.

 

[Cassie]

I didn't see the new chapter til just now! Great story Wackypoo.

 

[CaptainWacky]

"Shit," said Ashley. "Never seen one of those before."

"You two are really really dumb," said Elijah. "You just let me bring you here, with no back-up plan, nothing?"

"Should you tell him or should I"? said Mike, smiling.

"What?" asked Elijah. The Octopus smashed up against the glass again. It began to fracture.

A woman stepped out of the sub. She was small, cute, wore glasses. "Hi," she said.

"You!" said Elijah.

"We put a call into Australia when you weren't looking," said Ashley. "Had Fiona here transport to your sub."

Mike didn't have his memories of Fiona back yet, but he felt a warmth and familiarity as he looked at her.

"This...this changes nothing!" laughed Elijah, crazed now. "She doesn't have the power to stop the octopus of DOOM!" The glass shattered, water came rushing in...but none of it hit them. Fiona was holding her palm forward, a look of concenration on her face. She was generating a forcefield around them.

"Good girl," said Ashley. The Octopus swam into the structure. It lashed against Fiona's forcefield. It did not break it

"So her powers have improved a little, big deal," said Elijah. "I arranged for the Australian mystic she was seeing to be murdered a while ago, so they can't have improved that much."

"Oh, so that's who sent that assassin my master easily chopped up into little pieces," said Fiona. "All the pieces fit." Then, suddenly, part of her forcefield broke off, a ball of energy. It moved out into the ocean...then came right at the octopus, smashing right through it. Then another ball of energy, and another, until the octopus was done with.

"I knew I should have made that octopus deadlier," said Elijah. "So, do I get to die yet?"

"I can float us all the way back to the surface, if you think he's rigged the sub in some way," said Fiona.

"No, I checked it out before, it seemed fine," said Ashley.

"You're going to stand trial for your crimes, Elijah," said Mike. Elijah burst out laughing. Even Ashley smiled at Mike's naivety.

"Mike, there's no court in the land that could try him," she said. "But there's a facility that will hold him."

"No, not there!" said Elijah. "Kill me, FUCKNIG KILL ME YOU WITCH." Ashley just smiled. Fiona looked away.

"Err, do I want to know?" Mike asked her.

"I'll explain later," said Fiona. "It's good to see you again, Mike."

"It's good to see you," said Mike. "Err, again, I suppose."

"My mystic should be able to help you with your memory," said Fiona. "And Mike...I'm so sorry about Rachel. She was a great person."

"She was never here, was she?" Mike said, turning to Elijah. "Your plan was to destroy your hidden base and all the evidence here and take out me and Ashley...I guess you had some escape route."

"The Octopus was quite comfortable on the inside," said Elijah, nodding. Fiona opened her forcefield at the door of the sub. They stepped inside. But as they did, Mike hear something. A voice calling for help.

"It's her!" he said. "RACHEL!" And he dived into the ocean, before Ashley could shout even her first protest.

 

[CaptainWacky]

"It's a vision, another trick!" said Ashley. "I thought he would have realised by now."

"He does have super hearing, it's possible he heard her and she's here," said Fiona. Elijah just laughed.

"Thought his will power was greater than the power of my nanos," said Elijah. "Ha!"

"Oh shut up," said Ashley, kicking him in the stomach in frustration. He crumpled up.

"That's a bit cruel," said Fiona. Ashley kicked Elijah in the face, knocking him out. Fiona gave her a scolding look.

"Just so that he doesn't say anything that'll make me hurt him worse," Ashley explained.

"Right," said Fiona. "I'm going after Mike. I don't care how strong he is, he can still drown and this could be a trap."

"How are you going to follow, you can't even swim!" said Ashley. Fiona generated another forcefield around herself.

"As I said before, my powers have increased," she said and floating off into the ocean in her bubble. Ashley looked down at Elijah, hoping he'd wake up so she got to hit him again.

Fiona floated in the direction Mike had went. The base was completely flooded now. It took a while, but she found him at the very bottom of it, pulling on a hatch. She was alarmed to see how wild and out of control he was, paying no attention to the fact that his lungs were filling up with water. She quickly took him inside her bubble. He span round inside it, almost punching her, then stopped. Then he coughed up a lot of water.

"The nanos really did do a number on you," she said. "Mike, I think maybe I can short them out. I'm learning to manipulate energy fields and such...I can actually sense them in you..."

"It's not the nanos," he said. "Well, maybe they're still affecting me, but I did hear her. It was different. It was real. She's through that door."

"Okay," said Fiona. "I can knock it in." She sent off an energy ball and it bashed through the door with relative ease.

"And to think Elijah didn't consider you a threat," said Mike. "Look, what you said about the nanos...can you short them out before I go in there? I want a clear head."

"Fine," said Fiona, who was also concentrating hard on generating a forcefield to stop the hatch they'd just opened from flooding. But she always made time to help her friends. She concentrated hard on the energy field she could sense inside Mike. At first she was worried that it would be hard to tell the nanos apart from his brainwaves, but as she looked closer she found they were quite different. She focused her awareness on all the nanos...and simply shut them down. Mike almost fainted.

"I...wow...I remember you," he said. He smiled as he looked at Fiona. How could he forget her? He hugged her.

"I'm glad," she said.

"The nanos must have been keeping James' mind control command going or something...so much is coming back. Rachel...oh God, I loved her, but I also...but she...wow."

"You had a complicated relationship," said Fiona.

"You slept with Rachel!" said Mike, suddenly remebering.

"Yeah, not my finest hour," she said.

"Wow...we were all quite sex obsessed for a while...we nearly slept together too."

"I was going through a bicurious phase," she said. "Shouldn't we, you know, be rescuing her now instead of going over all this?"

"Right," said Mike. "This is it. At last. The end of my quest and all that. I'll sort through my memories later. I just have to see her..." They floated inside. It was a small room, dark. Someone was sitting on the corner, in the shadows. Mike stepped closer. Fiona kept a respectful distance.

"Mike...you came," said Rachel, her voice unmistakable. "After everything you came for me..."

"Yes," said Mike, kneeling down. "And I love...OH MY GOD." He saw her now.

"What?" asked Rachel, alarmed, looking up at him...through metal eyes.

Rachlel was a robot.

 

[CaptainWacky]

"Rachel?" said Mike, looking at her again. He searched his memory. This was not right. This was very very wrong.

"It's me, what's wrong?" she said. "Help me up, I'm exhausted." She extended a metal hand and Mike recoiled in disgust. This was so wrong. Fiona walked over to him. She did not look too shocked, but Mike remembered that Fiona rarely showed what she was thinking.

"Fiona," said Mike. "I still don't remember everything, but please just confirm to me that Rachel wasn't a robot."

"She wasn't a robot," said Fiona. She walked over to the Rachel Bot and helped it up.

"Mike, I don't understand," said Rachel.

"Look at your hands, dear," said Fiona. Rachel looked.

"This isn't right," she said.

"Tell me about it," said Mike.

"I don't remember how I got here, I don't remember anything," said Rachel.

"This is all sounding very familiar," said Mike.

"Mike, I've been waiting for you to save me!" said Rachel. "Now you can't even look at me."

"I don't even know if you're really my wife," said Mike, coldly.

"I am!" said Rachel. "How can you say that, I love you...sometimes anyway."

"So you remember all our marital problems," said Mike.

"I remeber you were fucking Ashley on the beach most nights, if that's what you mean," said Rachel. "I just don't remember how I got here."

"Elijah's a traitor," said Fiona.

"Oh, I remember that," said Rachel. "I found stuff on his computer...I couldn't access it, of course. But then I had and used a plant, made it grow really fast, to tie him up, then I snuck in and read stuff...he had a lot of killer robots in Scotland."

"Killed them," said Mike. Could this really be his wife, somehow? What had Elijah done to her?

"We're at the bottom of you ocean, you know," said Rachel.

"Ha!" said Fiona, in a rare break of her regular composure. "How do you remember that?"

"Because everytime I looked out the hatch all I could see was water," she said.

"Oh," said Fiona. "That makes sense."

"We need to get back to the sub and figure this out," said Mike.

"You have a sub?" said Rachel. "Okay, let's go."

"Mike, this is prbaboly all part of Elijah's plan, you know that, right?" said Fiona. "He has plans within plans within plans."

"We can't just leave her here," said Mike. He looked at her agan. Her eyes...they were robot eyes. And yet the way she was looking at him...that was Rachel.

"You don't have to worry about Elijah," said Rachel. "I'll kill him."

"Right, that should help," said Fiona. She generated another bubble for them. They floated out and back to the sub, where Ashley was waiting. Elijah was still down on the ground, groaing, barely conscious.

"Rachel," said Ashley. "You're...shiny."

"True," said Rachel. "Now step aside so I can kill Elijah."

"Oh, you brought her," Elijah said, giggling. He sounded madder than ever. "Thank you, thank you."

"What did you do to her?" asked Mike.

"Put her in a robot body, obviously," said Elijah. "Duh. She's just a prototype though. The technology is meant for me. I wasn't going to risk myself first. But now I know it works. Thank you. KIWI CHICKEN SEX."

"What does that mean..." suddenly, Rachel's robot face went blank. Then let up again. "Nice body," she said.

"Rachel?" asked Mike.

"No, Elijah," said the Rachel Bot. Then it charged past them, out of the sub, and into the ocean, swimming up at an incredible rate. Fiona followed without saying anything.

"What...where am I now?" said Elijah...or rather Rachel in Elijah's body.

 

[CaptainWacky]

"Oh shit," said Ashley, looking at Elijah. "Is that really you in there, Rachel?"

"Why am I...why do I have a penis?" asked Rachel, standing up. She winced in pain. "This body hurts," she said.

"Yeah, sorry about that," said Ashley. "I beat the shit out of him."

"Not enough that you steal my husband, is it?" said Rachel. Ashley smiled. Mike ran back.

"Well, I've got the sub moving in the direction they went...but I don't see how we can catch them. I can't believe Elijah's in a robot body."

"You really can't believe it?" asked Ashley.

"Well, okay, given the lives we live it's not that hard to believe," said Mike.

"So you remember our lives now, then?" asked Ashley.

"What do you mean?" asked Rachel.

"I've been having memory problems," said Mike. "But yeah, I'm getting them back." His memories of his marriage were flooding back, of the good times, of the fights...the sex...but if he could actually see Rachel in her real body that would probably help. Seeing her in Elijah's body wasn't exactly causing the memories to flood back. "So where is your real body?" he asked her, then instantly regretted it.

"How should I know? I thought I was in it until you told me I was a robot. But that was better than being in this creepy bastard's body."

"Yeah, it was," said Mike. He couldn't even look at Rachel now. Couldn't talk to her like she was his wife, not while she looked like that.

"I guess we'll have a lot to talk about when all this is over," said Rachel.

"I've got something," said Ashley. "The sub can detect Fiona's focefields...she's on an island. Right here. I'll bring us up."

The sub surface. Mike and Ashley lepat out. Rachel followed slowy in Elijah's injured body. Mike moved in front of her, guarding her. There was nothing to see at first, just a desert island...then there was a crash in the jungle. Trees overturned. The robot body which looked like Rachel but housed Elijah's consciousness came flying into view. It landed on the beach in front of them. It was damaged. Fiona came floating out of the jungle, looking angry yet serene, a forcefield surrounding her, balls of energy around the forcefield.

"She's really cool," said Mike, dumbly.

"Yes she is," said Rachel. She readied her blades and approached Elijah...but suddenly the robot sprang back up.

"You fools," said Elijah. "You small small fools. You can't think like me! You don't see the world three dimensionally! I SEE EVERYTHING. I WILL BURN YOU ALL...ARGH. This body...it's not...it's memory capacity isn't enough! I made it for a normal person, it can't handle my superior thought processes. IT HURTS."

"You deserve to hurt," said Ashley, slicing into his robot arm, but Elijah still had some surprises left. He shot beams out of his eyes, knocking Ashley down. He then spotted Mike and Rachel in his body.

"NEED IT BACK," he said, shooting his eyebeams at Mike, knocking him into the see. But then an energy ball knocked robot Elijah's head off.

"You die now," said Fiona.

"Wait," said Rachel. "I need to know where my body is!"

 

[CaptainWacky]

Rachel pushed past Mike and ran to the robot's head.

"Tell me where it is!" she shouted. "I'm not staying like this."

"No, you're not," said the robot. Then Rachel dropped the head...and smiled.

"You," said Mike. He understood immediately. Elijah was back in his own body.

"Well, I gave it a try," he said. Mike picked up the robot head.

"I'm scared," said Rachel. Mike held her tight. Ashley watched them. Then she put her blade to Elijah's throat. Fiona floated down beside them.

"We kill him, now," said Fiona. "This has gone on long enough."

"You've never killed anyone," said Ashley.

"I have to start somewhere," said Fiona.

"I'll do it," said Ashley.

"WAIT," said Mike, angry at the way they were makng decisions without him. He remebered the role he used to play now. He was always trying to get Ashley to retain her humanity. "We're better than him. We can't kill him." He looked at Rachel, now trapped in a robot head, as he said this, wondering how he had managed to get the words out.

"This is no time for your Star Trek crap, Mike," said Ashley.

"Mike, he has to die," said Fiona. "I know how you feel, honest I do, but there's no court in the land that can convict him of his crimes, no cell that will hold him...it's the only way."

"Oh well," said Elijah. "I had a good run. Still all good things....ah, who am I kidding. What did you think I was doing in that jungle before you got here, Fiona? PLANS WITHIN PLANS." The island started to shake.

"What is this!?" demanded Ashley.

"Oh, this island is a spaceship in disguise. Aliens reached Earth years ago and the Organisation slaughtered them and stole their ship. It's been here for years. I had the codes to activate it. You can kill me if you want, but you can't stop the ship if you do. It's going to fly to New York and kill lots and lots of people. A cliche, I know, but I hope future generations will appreciate the post modern aspect of the massacre...HAHAHAHA. There's nothing left now, girls, Mike. Nothing but death."

The island took off. It hovered above the sea then began to move, fast.

 

[CaptainWacky]

They ran to the centre of the island, where Elijah had been. Mike carried Elijah under one arm, Rachel's robot head under the other. There was a hatch, the entryway to the inside of the spacecraft.

"I didn't have time to close before the witch arrived," said Elijah, looking towards Fiona. They went inside. "It's no good, you know, it's automatic and I won't even attempt to reprogram it. Just kill me now."

"What do we do?" asked Mike, as they went deepr.

"Find the propulsion system and beat the shit out of it," said Ashley.

"Oh, the forcefield protecting the drive cannot be protected even by Mike," said Elijah. "It was already strong when the ship landed and we made it even stronger."

"You will take it down or I will fry your brain," said Fiona.

"Go ahead," said Elijah. Then, with no hesitation, Fiona moved her hand, creating a forcefield inside Elijah's skull. He grinned as blood came from his nose and ears and mouth.

"No!" said Mike. "He's not going to help."

"James could mind control him, make him help," said Ashley.

"He's dead, hahaha!" laughed Elijah. "Mike pulled his head off, hahahaha!"

"The head," said Rachel, suddenly. "This ship is alien. You had access to alien technology...and you created robot bodies..."

"Using this technology," said Fiona.

"Quite right, ten points!" said the now delirious Elijah. "I could never build such a sophisticated robot with just Earthly technology! To transfer human brain patterns to it...it had to be alien."

"Then I can interface," said Rachel. "This head, I mean...I can shut the forcefield or shut the drive or something."

"You'll die, heheh," said Elijah. "It will fry you...but you might be able to shut it off in time. I don't know...should I be telling you this?"

"You can't, Rachel," said Mike.

"There might be no choice," said Fiona. "Mike..."

"Don't. You're not saying this. You're not fucking saying this," said Mike. "His brain might be fried but I thin he's telling the truth. It would kill her."

"I'm trapped in a robot head in a spaceship hurtling towars a suicide assault on New York," said Rachel. "It's not much of a life."

 

[CaptainWacky]

"We're getting closer," said Fiona. "I can...I can feel it. I'm interfaced with this ship too, my forcefields...I'm trying to get it down, but it's repelling me...IT HURTS." She doubled over. Ashley helped her up.

"We have to do it," said Rachel. Mike looked to Ashley and Fiona for support, but they said nothing. They knew.

"You'll die," Mike said. "You'll die...I just got you back."

"Mike, you said you were having memory problems, so maybe you don't remember that our marriage was over."

"Stop, you know what I meant," he said. "I still loved you, I always loved you...I always will." Ashley looked away.

"I can see it," said Fiona. "New York. I don't know if this is a live image, but I can see it in my mind."

"Maybe it'll kill you too," said Elijah. "That would be nice."

"Do it," said Rachel. "Millions will die if you don't, there's no time for debate. DO IT."

Mike ripped a panel open. "What do I do?" he asked.

"Just put the head in that slot," said Fiona. Mike took one last look at the head, not looking at the robot face but looking into the eyes...Rachel's eyes. They really looked like her ayes. Then he shaved her in the slot. The eyes lit up red instantly.

"OH GOD, OH FUCK...WHAT...OH...so much...it's all so much..." said the head which contained the remains of Rachel.

"Interesting reaction," said Elijah. "Very interesting..."

"What aren't you telling us?" asked Mike.

"Oh, we had problems interfacing fully with the ship," he said. "We cut it up, reverse engineered some parts...but there's a database in there we couldn't get to."

"But you managed to programme it to destroy New York!" said Ashley.

"Yes, that was easy," said Elijah. "But this database had special protection. The infromation in it...if it fell into the wrong hands...MY HANDS, for example, I could rule the universe. It could tell, you see. If people were good or evil. Seriously. We tried forcing a good person to open it for us, but even then it could tell that he was being forced! But because Rachel did it by choice...and of course the only way to get her to do it by choice was to engineer a situation where she would have to."

"Wait," said Fiona. "This, ALL THIS, everything that's happened, all the people you've killed...it's all been to get into this database?"

"It was one of my goals, one of many," he said. "The robot body technology was going to be used for me too, but the primary purpose of that body was for this. And now I have it, at last. THE KNOWLEDGE."

"I'll never tell you anything," said Rachel's voice, calmly.

"Power corrupts," countered Elijah.

"She she won't overload? She won't die?" asked Mike.

"Oh, she still will," he said. "But now that the database is exposed all that's left is for me to reveal that Fiona is secretly on my side and for her to kill both of you."

"Sorry," said Fiona, grabbing Ashley's blade and stabbing her with it before anyone could react. "I'm so sorry," she laughed, throwig a forcefield around Mike. She laughed. She looked at Elijah with lust in her eyes. "The power," she said. "THE POWER."

"Now," said Elijah, speaking to the Rachel head. "You can stop this ship from destroying New York if you want. But then you're turning the database over t me. Otherwise Fiona will killed your husband. Ashley's already nearly gone, but he could live."

"Unless I crush him," said Fiona, sounding detached.

"Fiona, no!" said Ashley, emotion in her computerised voice "Elijah I can understand, but you!"

"I didn't even know I would do it up until this moment," said Fiona, confused for a moment, the forcefield weakening. Elijah snapped his fingers.

"Your master was secretly on my side, he programmed you with subconscious commands, none of this was by choice," he explained, quickly. "But you're utterly at my mercy."

"Okay," said Fiona, blankly.

"Now," said Elijah. "About holding the power of Gods..."

 

[CaptainWacky]

"I don't understand," said Fiona, her mind obviously completely gone. "A minute ago I was excited about the power...but that doesn't sound like me...Elijah, what's going on?"

"Fight him!" said Mike. "He's programmed your mind, with nanos or using James or something!"

"Hurt him," said Elijah, and Fiona obeyed him without question, tightening the forcefield around Mike, pressing it again his brain.

"Nanos, James...I have many weapons at my command," said Elijah. "It is exactly as I said it is. The master really was mine. The assassin I sent to him was merely to delivery a message, show him my plans, my amazing plans. And Fiona's master understood that I could not be stopped. That even if ninety nine of my plans were foiled, the hundredth would succeed and I would win. I will always win. He killed the assssin for show then turned Fiona here into my ultimate weapon. He made her stronger than any you, but she was in his control. She had to trust him utterly to reach her current power level. He implanted her with verbal commands for me. That's all it took. Ever since she showed up in the sub I've been dropping those commands in her presence, bringing her over to my side."

"Then the octopus was a distraction," said Ashley, trying to stand. Fiona knocked her down with a small energy ball.

"Only because it failed," said Elijah. "You STILL don't understand, do you? I HAVE PLANS FOR EVERYTHING. If the octopus had killed you, that would have been my plan. As Fiona stopped it, the plan switch to using her against you. As Mike found the robot body, I decided to bring this ship into play as well. This is my endgame, really. This ship, the database I now have, it really is unlimited power. I was going to leave it until I eliminated you, but I had the contingency plan involving using Rachel in this way. I had other plans too in case that didn't work, but you don't need to hear them."

"There's one thing you don't seem to have taken into account," said Rachel. "You've just given me total control of this ship. What's to stop me crashing into into the ocean or flying it into the sun, killing you and destroying this database."

"Well, the fact that if you do your husband and team mates will die too," Elijah said, confidently.

"A sacrifice I know they'll be willing to make," said Rachel.

"Oh please, you can't bluff me."

"Not trying to," said Rachel. "I'm plotting a course to the sun. That's the only way to be sure..."

"Do you think I didn't prepare for this?" said Elijah, reaching forward and grabbing hold of the head. "I made your stupid robot head, now that you have access to the ship I can control..."

"NO," came a voice from the robot head. But it was not Rachel's voice. "YOU CANNOT."

"Scary," said Elijah, trying to open a panel on the head. But when he did, there was an electric shock and he pulled his hands back. "How did you..."

"I'M NOT RACHEL," it said. "I AM TG58445. THIS SHIP."

"What?!" said Elijah.

"Didn't prepare for that, did you motherfucker?" asked Ashley, weakly, blood still dripping out of her. Mike started to pull himself up off the ground behind Elijah's back.

"This is impossible, there's no articial intelligence in this ship!" said Elijah. "We searched it..."

"EXCEPT THE PARTS YOU COUDLN'T ACCESS BECAUSE YOU ARE A BAD PERSON."

"We programmed this ship to destroy New York and it never tried to stop us!"

"WE WERE BIDING OUR TIME."

"We were inside you for years!"

"AGAING, BIDING, TIME."

"No, no! You...no! NO! Fiona, a forcefield bubble please, we'll fly out of here..." as he turned round, Mike was standing in front of him. Fiona was trapped behind a forcefield, but not one of her own making. "You can make forcefields..." said Elijah.

"YES," said the ship.

"You were going to turn my wife into nothing but a component in your schemes," said Mike. "A tool to give you the ultimate weapon."

"It was just one of my plans! And it...it was nothing personal," said Elijah, weakly.

"This is," said Mike. Ashely tried to stand again, a desperate look on her face now.

"Mike, what are you going to..." started Rachel, in control of the head again. But she was interrupted by Mike punching Elijah with an uppercut, sending him right up and through the ceiling, then out through the hull of the ship.

"Plan your way out of that," said Mike. Then he looked at his still clenched fist, Elijah's blood splattered on it.

 

[CaptainWacky]

No one spoke for a long time. Fiona helped Ashley, Elijah's control over her apparently gone. Rachel and the ship's AI took control of the ship and landed it on another island. Mike looked at his fist the whole time.

"I'm sorry," he said, to the Rachel head.

"You could have asked him where my body is before you murdered him," she said, coldly.

"I didn't...I didn't think. It wasn't murder," said Mike. "It wasn't. He had to die...this would never have ended otherwise. Every time it looked like he was defeated there was something else...I couldn't take it...I can't take it." He held his head in pain.

"You're not yourself," said Fiona, putting a hand on his shoulder. "None of us are, he's messed with us all so much, our minds...believe me, Mike, I know. I understand."

"I remember," said Mike. "Everything now. But it wasn't me. That old life...it's just memories. I can't feel any of it." And he looked away from the Rachel head and towards Ashley. He felt intense passion for Ashley. He didn't want to think about Rachel. Didn't want to remember. It hurt too much.

"We've all been fucked over," said Ashley, simply. "I want to forget it."

"FINALLY I HAVE CONTROL AGAIN," said the AI. "THE ORGANSIATION DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT ME, BUT THEIR INTERFERENCE LOCKED ME OUT. RACHEL HERE SET ME FREE."

"I have to go with you, don't I?" said Rachel's voice. Mike span round now. Suddenly his love for Rachel was back.

"What?" he asked.

"I'm a vital component now, the ship will never be able to fly without me," she said.

"Well it doesn't have to fly then!" said Mike.

"It can't stay here," she said. "Elijah wasn't the only one who knew about this ship. The whole organisation knows, the upper level anyway. Oh God, I know who they all are now...there's more than we ever thought."

"Send the information to our base," said Fiona. "We need to know, we need to stop them all."

"So many..." said Rachel.

"Can I have some time alone with...my wife?" Mike asked Fiona and Ashley.

"Of course," said Ashley, and they left. She looked at Mike for a moment first, then was gone.

"You can't go," said Mike. "I only just got you back..."

"You remember everything, you said," said Rachel. "You remember you were cheating on me with Ashley, that I was cheating on you...that we both KNEW the other was cheating but agreed it could go on to save the marriage...that we decided it wasn't going to save the marriage at all...that we were going to get divorced."

"None of that matters now! It was another lifetime, for both of us."

"Exactly."

"We can start again."

"I'm a robot head which is now a vital component in a spaceship. You're in love with Ashley."

"I'm not..."

"You are."

"But I love you too."

"And I love you. I always will. Even when I travel to alien planets I'll still love you. But I have to go, Mike."

"I know," he said, tears in his eyes now. "I know."

"Kiss me," she said. And, without even thinking about how odd it was, Mike kissed the bodiless robot head which contained Rachel's personality...her soul.

"I'm going to make them pay," he said, after a long pasue. "I'm going to make them all pay."

"Mike, don't turn into a killer," she said. "You're greatest strength was that despite how bad things got you never compromised yourself..."

"Old me, old Mike," he said.

"Mike..."

"Goodbye, Rachel," he said, then turned and walked away without looking back.

 

[Cassie]

Poor Mike. I like the tragic hero thing, a lot.

 

[CaptainWacky]

TWO WEEKS LATER

Fiona did not like to wait. She knew she could easily take out the two burly bodyguards standing by the doorway, even though both were at least a foot and a half taller than her. But she couldn't mess this up. It was important. One of the bodyguards looked at her with hungry eyes. She could tell what he was thinking exactly and it disgusted her. The other did not look at her, but that was potentially worse. She could well have killed a friend of his and he was plotting revenge. Still, she was always ready for action. She had to be.

"Send the girl in," came a voice from behind the door. Fiona stood. The bodyguards flinched. She walked straight by them. The one who wasn't lusting over her stared at her as she went by. She looked back. He was very hard to read. She had a force ball ready to project right between his eyes if she had to. But he did nothing. She entered the office. Royston was sitting behind an overly large desk. Perhaps he felt more protected behind it.

"Royston," she said, flatly.

"Take a seat," he said. She sat down. "I was surprised to get your call," he said.

"I thought you would be," she said.

"I thought you'd think that," he said.

"Right," she said. "Can we get down to business."

"See, I'm not entirely convinced you want to do business with me. Well, I'm not even partly convinced. Not even my little toe is convinced," he said.

"We have a common goal," she said.

"Really?" he said, almost laughing. "And what would that be?"

"To bring down the organisation," she said, openly. She heard movement from the bodyguards outside, but Royston gave a sign.

"Your information is a little out of date," he said. "It's no secret that I once dreamed of bringing it down, but...then I found out what it really is. That it's more than just an Organisation...it's the world. It's society. It controls everything, girl. It is everything."

"So better with them than aganist them?" she asked.

"Certainly," he said. She was lying. She knew he was laying and she didn't think he was expecting to really fool her. "Look what happened to Elijah."

"I still have nightmares about what happened to Elijah," she said.

"I wonder if any of this subconscious commands are still planted?" asked Royston. "BARK!" he shouted. Fiona did nothing.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Just a test," he said. "So, anyway, you come here, speaking openly of wanting to bring down the organisation...you say this to a MEMEBER of the organisation, in his home base...what are you expecting to happen? Even if I did still want to bring them down, and I don't, you must know that I'm being watched even here. That they are aware of everything."

"You joined the organisation hoping to bring it down from the inside but were corrupted and joined yourself. The same thing happened to Elijah. My research suggests it may have happened to others. So if I were to join, what would happen?"

"Why, the same thing, of course," he said. "It's not just the size of it, of course. It's what they have to offer. Oh, I've consumed the most excotic, mind-altering drugs known to...well, actually NOT known to man because we've been keeping them secret. I've had sex with...things I can't even describe. I know you like sex, Fiona. You're a sexual being."

"Yes I am," she said, which surprised him a bit, and she saw that same hunger in his eyes she'd seen in the bodyguard. The exact same hunger, in fact...

"You're tempted already," he said and it was true.

"Yes," she said and it sounded and felt like releasing a great buren. "Oh God I'm so tempted. Fighting is so exhausting and the organsation...it's everything. Even the good things about humanity...it keeps them going to."

"Exactly," said Royston. "Join us. I never dreamed you would, but you would be so welcome."

"I...no," she said, and it was a genuine struggle. "No."

"But if you do what you came here to do, join in order to bring down the Organisation from the inside...you KNOW how it will turn out."

"Yes," she said, imagining it for a moment, her, at the heart of the world, keeping it going, exploiting, controlling, the power, the glory...the sex. "Oh yes."

"This is an out for you, isn't it?" he said. "You join us, trying to secretly fight us, but even more secretly your true desire is to be one of us. It's an excuse. You join with good intentions so that clears your conscience, allows you to be one of us truly when the time comes. Allows you to be evil, because you know evil is going to win. You're fighting a losing battle and you know it, but as long as you at least put up a fight you think you're donig something good."

"That's one way of looking at it," she said. She felt so excited by the possibilities ahead of her. She really had come here with the intention of arguing him to her side, of working with him to bring them down...even though part of her wanted to be one of them, wanted the freedom that came with giving up, with giving in to something larger than her. She really could go either way.

"Of course, to join you have to show you'll do anything...taking a life is the test," he said. "Elijah did it and so did I."

"Did you?" she asked.

"What?" he asked. Now she had a small advantage and it felt good.

"I'm just saying that it would be easy for a master of illusion to fake a murder," she said. "I wonder what else you've been faking, hiding with your spells."

"They would find out," he said, not denying anything.

"Of course," she said. "So it's okay for us to talk about it."

"Because it never happened," he said, smiling, and at that moment he altered her perception of the room ever so slightly so that she could see a map on the wall, with the locations of all the key players in the Organisation marked...he really was still working to bring them down. She looked outside and wasn't surprised to see that the two bodyguards weren't really there. They had been projections created by the master of illusion, Royston. When she turned back the illusionary office was back too.

"I'm glad we understand each other," she said, standing.

"We'll be in touch with the details of your test," he said.

"I look forward to it," she said. She felt a rush of excitement again as she imagined what would happen if she really did commit murder...for the greater good, of course.

There were so many possibilities ahead for Fiona.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Weeks later. Ashley and Mike were on the beach again, for the first time since that night when both their lives had gone to Hell. This was the night they were going to talk, Ashley decided. She'd been putting it off for far too long. He'd made it difficult, yes, but who was she to back down from a challenge? It had to be done. Just as soon as they killed the rogue AssassinBot who had just kicked Ashley into the ocean. She hated the taste of salt water.

They had thrown themselves into there work after Rachel had left. It had been Mike's idea. Ashley had just been along for the ride for the most part, making sure he didn't kill himself. He had destroyed every cell of agents they had discovered from the list on the spaceship. They had found more cells from the ones they'd destroyed and destroyed them too. It had taken them all over the world. Ashley had insisted on coming along. She had been amazed by what she saw. Mike, once so gentel, only commiting violent acts when needed...slaughtering agents. Hundreds, possibly thousands. Yet there were always more. They kept finding more lists, more locations. Ashley had suggested that the Organisation had been leaking these lits themself just to keep her and Mike busy while they did something bigger. Mike hadn't cared. He'd just kept killing.

Throughout it all they hadn't talked. Not about anything important anyway. Not about anything that had happened to them since Elijah had put his plan into action. Since he had ruined everything.

Ashley almost didn't want to go back to the beach, she just wanted to lie there in the ocean, lie down and die. What was the point of fighting? They couldn't win. The resources the organisation had were staggering. Mike's brute force wasn't even enough. And she couldn't watch him any longer, watch what he'd become. But she made her way to the beach anyway. She saw Mike and the AssassinBot locked in hand to hand combat, a crazy looking on Mikey's face...then she saw the AssassinBot's head fly off. She chopped it in two with her blade as it flew by. That wasn't enough, of course. Mike was now pounding the remaining parts down with his fists.

"We have to move," he said, when she approached him. "They tracked us, at last. They're bringing the fight to us. But we need to be somewhere where there's no people somewhere where it's just us and them...and we can kill them all." He started to walk away. She put a hand on his arm to stop him. It was the first time she'd touched him in weeks.

"Stop," she said. "Please."

Why? They're still out there."

"They'll always be out there! We can't stop them like this."

"So we should be like Fiona? If you can't beat them, join them?"

"She's bringing them down from the inside..."

"Keep telling yourself that. When was the last time you heard from her, exactly?"

"I haven't, but she can't risk..."

"She's sold out. Anyone who tries to play their game becomes corrupted. Elijah, now Fiona...we'll get to her eventually, don't worry. We'll kill her too." He had a mocking grin on his face. She slapped him, hard.

"WHO ARE YOU?" she shouted.

"Give it a rest, I do have super hearing, you know," he said.

"Look where we are, Mike! Back here, where it all started! Okay, I don't believe in destiny or signs or anything...but let's just talk, at least. Please."

"About what? There is nothing."

"There's me, there's you...there's our history. You got your memories back, didn't you? All of them?"

"I remember. So what? A lot happened, Ashley, in case you didn't notice. Did you expect me to be the same?"

"No, but doesn't it mean anything to you?"

"Nothing means anything to me. Not since...not since she left. I felt something then. But it was just a memory of feeling. I realise that now. I loved Rachel. She's gone. I loved you. You're still here, but the me that loved you is gone. I got my memories back, sure. But I don't feel them anymore. This whole experience...it's showed me the truth. That nothing's real. It's all just point of view. Mine's changed."

"For God's sake, it's more than that! Everything we went through..."

"You fall asleep and you wake up the next morning, are you still the same person? Or just a new regeneration of the same body with the same memories?"

"That's...that's stupid," she said.

"There's nothing now, Ashley. Nothing but them and me."

"You can't stop them this way, they'll give up millions of agents to you, just to keep you distracted, you know this..."

"Well, might as well keep killing them then. It's the same as Fiona. She knows she can't make a difference, deep down she knows it...but she's trying just so she can feel better about herself..."

"You're not doing this to feel better."

"No. Nothing's ever going to make me feel better. But I'm going to keep doing it. And there's no reason why you have to come with me."

"Maybe I won't. Maybe I'll stay here."

"Bye then," he said, turning his back on her and walked away. He stopped for a moment. Something had caught his eye. Something about the moonlight...he looked back. He saw her, in that light, the ocean behind her. And he did feel something again. The longing for her. The love...he suddenly wanted to be the old him again. She made him a better person. Without her, without Rachel...he was nothing but brute strength. But it was too late. He'd crossed the line. And his memories weren't going to be erased again. Still...

"What?" she asked, looking away from him, tears in her eyes.

"Please come with me," he said said. "I want you to."

"Okay," she said. It was a start, at least.

She walked beside him. After a while she took his hand. He did not let go.

They flew off into the night together.

THE END

 

[Cassie]

That was a good story with a good ending!

 

[CaptainWacky]

I told you'd I'd finish it.