Mirror Cycle By: Fox Cutter Chapter 18 I was tempted, just for a moment to kick the door open as Cain reached for it, but there wasn't enough time even if I had wanted to do something as foolish. By the time I would have gotten into position, he would have opened the door. So instead I watched as he grabbed the outside handle, and swung the door wide. I responded by extending my arms out into firing position. I didn't have to aim. My target was so close I couldn't miss him. "Hello," I said casually. "Surprised to see me?" He cracked a smile, letting go of the door and slightly lifting his hands. "Quite a bit, I didn't expect you to find me at all. I have to say I am very impressed." "Thanks. Now, care to take a few steps back to the center of the room? I don't want you getting any stupid ideas." I didn't make the mistake of motioning with the gun. I just stared down the barrel at him. He took a few steps back, his eyes focusing behind me for a moment. "Hello there, Samantha, what a pleasant surprise." I stepped to the left, allowing her to stand by my side. "Which surprise do you mean?" she asked, taking a second step forward. "That I'm here, or that I'm alive?" A thoughtful look passed over his face for a brief moment. "Both actually. I was sure that I had killed you, and I have no idea how you found my base, but I suspect Fox had something to do with it." "I got lucky and caught a ripple," she replied, taking another step closer. "Got out just in the nick of time. As for finding you, I didn't need any help for that," her cloth tail flickered quickly behind her as she spoke. He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment, still holding his hands in the air. "You know, Sam, I'm really starting to regret having slept with you." "You're not the only one," she snapped in response, taking another step forward, coming almost within arm's reach of him. "I'm in favor of witty banter as much as the next person," I commented, taking a short step to the side. "But I don't think this is the time or the place for this type of conversation. Samantha, please take a step back. If you get any closer he's going to be able to attack you." She muttered something under her breath, and took a couple steps away from Cain. For the moment he looked disappointed, rolling his fingers down into his palm a couple times before snapping them back up into the air as he smiled at me. "I take it you heard most of my conversation with Leib?" "Quite a bit of it," I answered, making eye contact with him for a moment. "Funny, I actually think I remember who you used to be back on Triya. Pity you survived that mess. Though if it's any reassurance, if it wasn't for your timely explosion I would never have made it out of the base with the vaccine for the plague." "What was that you were saying about witty banter?" he asked with a touch of a smirk on his scarred face. "I just had a thought," Samantha said, her tail sweeping in a low arc. "Why are we sitting talking to him right now, when we should be killing him instead?" Cain's face lost all expression, his eyes catching the light from the fixtures in the ceiling for just a moment. "Because it would bring every guard in here down on you in a minute." "That's a good point," I said. "We need something a little quieter if we wish to kill him." Samantha snorted, "He's a bastard. I say just kill him now. We can fight out way out after words if we have too." "No," he snapped in return, a surprising lack of emotion on his face. "I'm not a bastard, I'm a killer, a terrorist and a mass murderer. Get your terms right." I frowned, looking him over as she again took a step forward, motioning outwards with her gun. "You forget terrible in bed." There was obviously quite a bit of hatred for him in her. The argument was just a fraction of it. Far more was being shown in her body language. She edged forward again, holding the gun tighter, her tail twitching at full speed behind her ankles. Cain simply just stood there as she pushed her gun out. His expression never changed. "I grow tired of you, Sam," Cain said, "And you Fox-- I have plans for you, as does my God." I quickly moved over to Samantha, pulling her a few steps back from Cain before moving to her other side, my own gun still pointed at my double. "You can tell the Bitch, I have no interest in working for hir, ever." "You don't have much of an option," he responded, his eyes never changing position. In fact he wasn't even focusing on me anymore, or Samantha for that matter. He was looking off into space, beyond the wall, not really focusing on anything. I suddenly had a very bad feeling. Something was going on. People don't act like that. They don't hold perfectly still and expressionless, especially with a pair of guns pointed at them. This wasn't Cain. At least it wasn't anymore. It had been before, but not now. I suspected some how he had switched himself with something else. I glanced around the room looking for anything that seemed different. The door was still locked, his desk wasn't disturbed in any way, and the wardrobe was still hanging open. As I looked closer thought what clothing I could see seemed to be moving, like a breeze was blowing past them. "Shit," I said as I snapped my head back to look at him. "You're not even here!" The copy of Cain laughed, deep and long, but again without moving. Then it simply broke apart into beads of light and collapsed into itself, the particles drifting down to the floor as it vanished into the air from whence it came. "What the hell!" Samantha yelled, running to where the image had vanished. "He was an illusion! When the hell did that happen?" "I don't know," I answered, moving swiftly to the open wardrobe and grabbing a handful of clothes, throwing them out onto the floor. The back wall was gone, swung away, revealing a passage through the rock. Light from a few feet down its length fell onto the floor at my feet. "Another secrete passage," I muttered. "I should have known. Come on, we have to follow him." "It's a trap," she said from over my shoulder. "Everything in here is a trap," I responded, stepping through the wardrobe, and into the passage. It went a few feet before making a sharp turn to the right. I followed around the corner very carefully, my gun held back and my arm in a blocking position in case someone tried to attack me. Nothing. It was just a tunnel in the rock. We both dashed down the tunnel, unsure of how much of a head start Cain had on us. After another sharp turn the tunnel came to a sudden end, opening out into a small workroom. There were a few tools and various parts laying about on a workbench, but no one was waiting there for us. Nor was anyone waiting in the hallway on the other side of the door. I looked down both directions of the hallway. "Two guesses; care to make one?" She turned her eyes to the floor for the moment, scanning down both directions. "That way," she said, pointing to the left. I started down that direction, "Why do you say that?" "Rock dust from the tunnel; you can see his footprints," she explained as we moved carefully down the hallway. I glanced at the floor. She was right, I could see faint gray footprints heading in the direction we were going. Each print was light and short; Cain had been running this way. Just as the prints were finally fading away, they turned and went through a doorway. The light on the side said it was locked. Samantha was immediately at the door, working the controls. I took up a cover position to her left, making sure no one surprised us in the hallway. I glanced back down at the footprints again. Cain had paused in front of the door for a few moments. I could even see a small pile of the rock dust in the doorway. I could easily follow the prints back down the hallway the way we came. What struck me as odd was that there was only his set of footprints. Neither Samantha or I had left any. I reached out with my foot, and pulled it across one of the prints. The dust smeared easily. They were fresh, that much was for sure, and I had got some on my own shoe just by smearing it. That meant Cain had led us exactly where he wanted us to be. "Got it!" Samantha said, standing up and hitting the controls for the door. I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back with all my strength. I was too late, as the door exploded outward in a ball of fire, blowing the door frame away and sending bits of metal out around us as the force thrust us onto the floor. The landing was hard, knocking the wind out of me as Samantha landed half on my chest and half on the ground. "You ok?" I asked. She didn't say anything. Pushing her to the side, I sat up, holding her head in my hands. I was all right, nothing more than a sore back from the landing, and my glasses had been thrown somewhere. Samantha, on the other hand, was much worse. Her right arm had been caught in the explosion and was simply gone from her elbow down. She was bleeding pretty badly. I reacted quickly, almost ripping my belt off. I wrapped it around her arm, above the wound and pulled it as tight as possible, then tighter. It was cutting into her skin, pulling in deep, but the flow of blood had slowed from spurting to seeping. I buckled the belt tightly, glad I wore a mesh one, so I didn't have to worry about making holes. I pulled her to the side, and took my jacket off, putting it under her head. Then I picked up my second gun from where it had fallen when I took my belt off. Sliding it out of the holster, I flipped the safety off. My other gun had been dropped during the explosion, and I expected it was in the debris that was left of the door. After a moment of searching, I found my glasses a few feet away, and worse for the wear. The frame had been bent down the middle, and a crack was running down the left lens. Forcing them back into something close their to proper shape, I put them back on my nose. "I'll be back for you," I told Samantha as I stepped away from her, and through what was left of the door. It led into a short hallway, which I followed to another door. Inside it was a small garage, with a few cars parked on the side, and a large door at the top of a small ramp, presumably leading to the surface. Cain was standing next to one of the vehicles, a smile on his scarred face. "There you are!" he said, leaning back against the car; "I was hoping the blast hadn't killed you. Though as you're alone, I hope I have finally managed to kill Sam." Saying nothing, I just pointing my gun at him. He was too far away for me to be assured of hitting him. I wasn't that good a shot, but I wasn't simply going to let him get away for a third time. I started walking towards him. Cain suddenly moved, and I heard a series of thuds from the floor and the ceiling, as well as the sound of the door shutting behind me. A short look around told me all I needed to know. A thick yellow gas had started to fill the room. "Time to go to sleep, Fox. When you wake up you'll be at your Mistress's feet." Cain said, smiling at me as he brought a mask up to his nose and mouth. The gas already waist high and was still flooding into the room. I fired off a shot at him, which I could hear as it hit the car, missing him. A moment later the gas enveloped me, closing over my head. Holding my breath, I tried to see through the gas, but it was like being in a heavy fog, and it was starting to sting at my eyes. It must have been some sort of knock-out gas from what he had said. Which didn't give me much time to work out something to do. As it was, the lung full of air I had was already running out. It was a fight to keep my body from breathing in the gas. My lungs and throat were starting to burn as I feel to my knees, trying to use my shirt as some sort of makeshift filter for the gas when I remembered that I already had one! At the beginning of the year, all the people in charge of the Consortium, myself included, had been implanted with a kind of gill to filter out any gases and poisons in the air. This was the exact situation it had been made for. Sitting up, I very slowly let out the stale air in my lungs, first out my nose, then transitioning it to my mouth. I adjusted it back and forth until I was exhaling out of both. There came a sudden, and strong, snapping feeling at the base of my throat. I let out a cough, and involuntary brought in a large breath of air. I held it for a moment, then let it back out again, then took in another longer breath. There was a peculiar feeling just under my Adam's apple, an electric tingling. After a few more moments, when I felt no effects from the gas, I knew for sure that it was working. I stood up, but didn't say a word. Just stood there in the thick gas, starting at where I thought Cain was waiting. I didn't want to give away that the gas wasn't affecting me; I wanted him to think he had knocked me out. Minutes passed before I heard a heavy whine start up, and felt the gas start to move again, this time to the sides of the room, letting the center clear. As the visibility returned I could see that Cain had moved. He was now against the wall working a set of controls as fans on each wall pulled the gas out of the room. He wasn't looking at me, or even for me, he just continued to work at the controls. I slowly walked towards him, my gun held outwards as the last of the gas drifted from the room. "That was a bit of overkill, wasn't it?" I asked, now only just a few feet away. He spun around, fire in his eyes as his face pulled into a snarl. He said nothing, just dropped his mask and leapt at me. I fired the gun, but he rolled under my line of fire, coming up right in front of me and punching me in the chest. I staggered back, as he grabbed my hands and kicked my chest again, twisting at the gun. I fell to the floor, and the gun was left in his hands. Cain flipped it around so it was pointing at me. "Get up," he snarled at me. "Now." I pulled myself back to my feet, coughing a bit as the implant deactivated now that the air was clean. I glared at Cain, keenly aware that if I had gone with Ravindar's plan, it would have worked perfectly. "You should have killed me when my back was turned," he snapped. "You're too keen on talking to me to kill me." "It won't happen again," I replied in a dry voice. He smiled. "Oh I know it won't. I'm just going to kill you." "I though you were working for Ruhk," I commented. "You're suppose to deliver me to hir aren't you? Killing me would piss hir off." "I don't fucking care," he replied. "I am tired of dealing with you, and I'm sick of hir constant fucking demands. So if I can't use you to kill hir, I'm just going to kill you now." He let out a short laugh. "You know, I've killed you once already, before sie even told me to capture you." I nodded, "Yes, Little Fox, my real double. He actually survived that. He was found and brought back to the Keep. They have good healers there." He smirked. "Well, this time I have the right one. I won't simply leave you for dead. I'll make sure of it," and with that he fired the gun. I tried to dodge; I could see where the gun was pointed, I could work out its trajectory, and as his finger squeezed the trigger, I dodged the other way, but I wasn't fast enough. The all to familiar pain ripped though my left arm as it hit me. I twisted around, and lost my footing, falling to the floor. Cain took a step towards me, pointing the gun at me once more. I could see a look of pain on his face, as well as blood. Streaks of it were also running down the side of his hand. He tried to fire again, but this time nothing happened. The cause was not the gun. His hand had locked as he tried to fire. He was just holding it there, looking down at his hands, as blood started to drip from them. More started to run down his face and from his wrists and neck. As the blood fell from his skin it darkened, and became a black color as it landed on the floor. The scar on his face almost ripped open, wider and longer than the scar itself, a gash leading from his mouth all the way back into his hair. His hands released the gun, dropping it to the floor as they shook in the air. His eyes rolled back into his head as he tried to say something, but more blood came out of his mouth. More gashes were opening on his face and neck, like something was chewing at him from the inside out. I picked the gun up, rising to my feet, My arm was in a great deal of pain, but it hadn't lost too much strength. Taking a step back, I raised the gun up to point at Cain. He let out a gasp, and fell to his knees in a puddle of the black blood. More of the gashes opened around his neck. His body started to convulse as he tried to let out a scream, and collapsed on the floor. His body twitched for a few moments, his blood turning black all over his body, still seeping out, but in a slow, thick mess. I stood over him, gun pointed at his head for a few moments, before stepping forward and nudging his head with my foot. His head rolled to the side, and I could see that most of his face was gone. He was dead. * * * "I managed to get one of the cars running with a few minutes of work, though only because Samantha had shown me how the day before. After that, I went back and got her from where she was laying. She was barely alive, and what was left was just slipping away." Fox sighed as he sat down on the bed. "I took a little time to get the doors leading to the outside open. I actually had to shoot the lock off. What surprised me the most was that no one ever came to see what had happened. Neither the shots nor the explosion brought any attention." "That is strange," I said with a frown. "It doesn't make any sense." He shook his head, adjusting the sling around a bit. "None of it does; Cain's death, or that we were left alone. I can only think that either the base was evacuated when Cain ran, or we were in some isolated section of the base and the only way to it was through the passage." "I don't think it matters," I said, sitting down next to my husband. "He's dead, and we still have to take care of the rest of his people. We just can't leave them there." "I've already handled it," he answered, wrapping his good arm around my shoulder. "I had Ravindar go to the Guild with the fold number, and directions to the base. They will deal with it; I'm sure of that." I nodded, remembering some of my training. Cain had crossed the Guild enough that they would retaliate to insure that his people were stopped. To what level, I couldn't hazard a guess. Most of them would not be hurt, but some would, they would have to be. "I also asked him to go back to the car," he continued, his fingers running through the fur on my shoulder. "To picked up my jacket, I left it there, and some blood samples from the back seat." "Why?" "It's Samantha's blood," he answered, "I hope to have a way home for her when she comes out of the re-gen tank. I can use the blood samples to track down her native universe. If we're lucky, it's one of the three Earth's in the Database." "And if you can't find it?" I asked, wrapping my arm around his waist, and pulling him closer to me. He shook his head. "I don't know. I'll find something out. We'll at least have a good idea of what her universe is. We know she's from an Earth. Not mine, her home doesn't jive with the local folds, and not the version that Elena is from, which isn't even considered an Earth. So there are two possible ones left in the database. We'll work from there if we have no luck." I nodded, flicking my tail against the bed sheets. "And what about Cain?" "He is dead," Fox answered, his head dropping a bit. "I wish that was the end of it. Something, or someone, killed him. More than likely it was done to save my life. I do not like that idea at all. I like less the only answer to the question of "who?" The only person I can think of who might be in any position to do that is Ruhk." "That's what I was thinking," I responded, taking his good hand in my own. He shook his head a bit. "It's hard to believe. Last I heard, sie was in a small box, covered in more spells than most magic talismans have, and guarded by a legion. Hir capture happened after she gave Cain my body, and he admitted to feeding hir power with his destruction. There might have been some kind of connection, some kind of hole in hir prison. One that sie must have destroyed to kill him." "Sie probably has other agents out there," I said, feeling a slight chill run over my spine and tail. "And sie will send them after you now that Cain has failed." He nodded. "I know, I'm worried about that too. I've called Elena, but sie is out off-world right now. I've told hir people that I need to talk to hir as soon at it can be arranged. I gave them a good idea what's going on, but they said sie won't be back for at least a week. First thing in the morning I'm going to send a message through formal channels to hir world as well. Not in full detail, but enough to get the Senate looking into it." "So what do we do next?" I asked, hugging him gently. He laughed, returning the hug with his good arm. "I'm going to bed. I'm going hold you close, and sleep with you in my arms, because I love you, and I want to hold you forever." Fox then pulled me closer, and kissed me. Sometime later we curled up around each other in bed, and slept in each others' arms. ----- This story is copyright 2001 by Fox Cutter. Hardcopy reprints limited to one per person, all other rights reserved. This story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed. Ruhk and Elena copyright 2001 by Chris Bradford.