Disclaimer: Though I originally forgot this….and no one bothered to drop me a note about it… --shakes head sadly-- I honestly don't own the Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century series, however wonderful it is, or its characters, though I admit to borrowing them for the purpose of this story from which I cannot gain any form of money. However, any original material or characters in this story are rightfully my own, as usual.
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Of the Remaining
CyleFlynt
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Summary: When the world suddenly seems so much bigger…
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Chapter One
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Stormy skies loomed overhead, yet a tragic stillness hung in the air. Impassable silence reigned in the New London streets awaiting the threatening storm. A woman, clad in simple clothes, a black shapeless dress that hung to her mid-knee, stopped near a discolored mass. She stooped down and lifted a coat that, having layered itself upon the shapeless lump, masked the still object. She barely blinked, but neither did she gasp in horror or shed tears of loss. Instead, her forehead knitted in what looked from afar to be adoration. Gently placing the coat back down, she continued on her way.
Another woman followed far more haggard and with little stealth, much like a rabid half starved wolf might stalk its prey. A rabid wolf could have indeed been an apt description as she stumbled forward with a dogged determination. Her right leg buckled beneath her and she growled viciously as she fell to the ground. She wore a uniform of a time not long ago, though its foundation was as torn and decimated as the remnants she wore. Holes and tears etched across its façade and loose fabric hung from the several rips along her limbs. Her hair was disarrayed and just as ragged as her clothes and her face gaunt as if stripped of its former life. The only feature that belied her soul was her eyes, once locked on the figure ahead, but now chancing a curious glance at the heap nearby. She crept noisily over to it, whimpering from the pain in her knee. Flicking the coat off with her ionizer, she gasped.
A child laid there, cold and dead, her eyes glazed over in an endless sleep. A look of agony was engraved upon her face and a fresh wave of putrid stench rose from the uncovered corpse. It was just another victim of perhaps the world's worst human epidemic. Anger rolled within the woman and she glared up in the direction her prey had vanished.
There, not five yards away, stood the first woman, staring in an almost curious manner, as a scientist might examine a test subject. The woman's face was content and her eyes, though resting on Lestrade's own struggling form, seemed to be focusing in a more distant area. "Wonderful…isn't it?" she stated, tilting her head just slightly in order to study Lestrade further. Her voice settled in the air as distant and well-educated and her accent was one of those born into opportunity. It was captivating, and though somewhat hoarse, projected a subtle deepness through its fluidity and tone.
Lestrade struggled to get up in vain and hissed hoarsely, "Murderer!" Her grimy, scuffed ionizer sprung up in her hands in a manner that seemed both instinctive and unconscious. Her aim leveled off, pointed at the woman's face while her pointer finger quivered just above the trigger. Her right leg shook uncontrollably as it lay otherwise, still, upon the ground.
"Murderer?" The woman echoed somewhat taken aback, yet still detached and uncaring. "On what grounds?" The dampness in the air seemed to condense upon the scene, making every move all the more sluggish.
The Inspector struggled to keep her aim up and grit her yellowing teeth together. "You are under arrest, for the murders of over one thousa…" Her practiced speech was cut off by a faint laughter, mocking and derisive in tone, growing steadily with each passing second.
The first woman held a pale clean hand up to her shaking chest, willing herself to calm back down. She shook her head much as a show horse would and looked down upon the officer of the law. "Isn't my Mark Delta felony a little out of your….jurisdiction, Inspector?" She smirked at the young grimy officer, wasted away to near nothing, as her eyes rippled over the Inspector's form like a callous technician summing up the condition of the most recent test subject.
A new fire blazed within the former's tired, dark blue eyes. She struggled to stand, but finally settled with dragging her unresponsive right leg limply to her side. Her features narrowed and hardened giving off a distinct aura of hatred. The Inspector, though duty failed her, had found a new strength to back her reasons. "You will be cryptonized according to your sentencing!" Her trigger finger halted just above the trigger; the safety was long ago removed.
The first woman's eyes suddenly stopped their patronizing stare and softened upon the pitiful officer. She shook her head and slowly frowned. "Do not bother. You do not want my burden. It is mine alone to harbor. That is my sin, my responsibility." She first turned her face to the side, unable to bear seeing the Inspector still alive, before completely turning herself away. A soft metallic click served as the only warning of her imminent mortality.
"Don't move!" The Inspector commanded, shifting a grimy hand covered in dark burgundy streaks layered upon darker, older ones to her side near her cuffs. "I will shoot if necessary!" A single growl of thunder rolled from the clouds overhead threateningly.
The woman dropped her gaze to the ground and closed her eyes in a silent mourning for a person long lost. Looking up, she stared at the ominous clouds overhead and softly voiced, to no one at all, "Neither heaven nor hell awaits me now. My sins are so abhorrent that even the devil himself would turn me away in disgust as hell would be too kind an eternity for one such as me. How cursed am I to linger here, even after my deed was done."
Lestrade continued to smolder, "Remorse?"
"No." Came her reply. "Acceptance of my fate"
Lestrade's glare intensified as she began to slowly inch closer. Her gun remained outstretched as she fingered the cuffs. "Your fate ends here. You are nothing more than a murderer."
Suddenly the former woman spun around in place, glaring back at the lone tattered Inspector with feral eyes. "As if you are any different!?" she spat viciously. Her brown eyes retained no emotion, the windows of an empty soul.
The sudden flare of aggression caught the Inspector off-guard, causing her to stumble backwards onto her injured leg. She slumped down once more catching herself on her left leg and right arm. Her aim never faltered, though a light of uncertainty now etched itself across her face. This was no longer something she could easily handle. Gritting her teeth, she struggled to force her legs to move.
"You, the acclaimed Inspector Lestrade," the young geneticist snarled sardonically, slowly beginning to circle the helpless detective. "The pride and joy of the New Scotland Yard…" Her gaze was locked upon the still form as she continued to circle, staring deep into quivering blue eyes, "who pulled an old, tired man from his mortuary slumber for your own whims. You, who meddled in the eternity of the dead!" Her voice raised just slightly and as she narrowed her eyes at her victim. "What right had you!?"
The filthy, tired woman opened her mouth to respond and found that words had abandoned her. Her mouth hung agape as she tried in vain to form the words, the only words that managed to spark in what was left of her being. For the first time since the two had properly registered one another, she turned her smudged, battered face away from her mark. Her once clear, determined voice transformed into a soft, unsure one. "How did you…?
"You don't have to read the tabloids to know of your little scandal." The woman stopped in her path right back where she had started a moment before, staring down upon the injured Inspector.
The derisive words crackled across the Inspector's features, causing a visible flinch. The woman's aim slowly dropped and her eyes clenched shut in denial. Her breathing turned ragged as she attempted to regain some form of her prior control. "It…it wasn't like that…" she started shakily, her eyes still turned away from her mark.
The young geneticist stared impassionedly at the broken officer, her only mark of disdain and ire being the tension in her body. "Hmph." She sneered, once again slowly circling the woman that was once her predator. "In effect, you were the one who caused his death, for had he not been revived, he would never have had to greet his old companion a second time."
Her scathing words cut into the pathetic officer struggling to retain her purpose. "But you… I…." The woman's mind was reeling from the fiercest battle she had ever fought, and though it was far from over, she could feel her resolve ebbing away. She reached inwardly for the one belief she knew she had to hold onto in order to survive this battle. "There is a difference!" and of this, she was certain she knew. "I gave life! And you…you took it away!" With her newfound resolve and reason she raised her ionizer to the circling felon once more, a cold, hard, steeled look burning within her eyes. To her horror, the other began to laugh.
The geneticist held a pale, clean hand over her heart. Her chest shook with the laughter as she stood there and even after her fit of laughter had quelled into a lighter snigger, her face held a look of barely contained amusement. "You speak to me of life," she began. The remnants of her humor immediately faded as she continued on, "There is only one truth, one end; Death is the only certainty in this world." Like a vulture, she moved to once more circle the Inspector. "Yes," she agreed nonchalantly, passing behind the hell-torn Inspector's sight, "I murdered all those people." She passed again into the officer's sight and then cast her a smug glance. "Yet, I only sped up the inevitable." The young geneticist looked up into the foreboding skies and proudly stated, "You, on the other hand, were selfish."
The kneeling officer brought her hands up to her head, clutching at her forehead. The ionizer in her hand dangled loosely from her finger and from her ragged breathing, it had become clear to both parties that this was an encounter that would soon end. Gazing blankly at the ground before her, the wounded officer dropped a hand tiredly to her side pocket, fingering an item hidden within. Her eyes softened as she turned the object over between her forefinger and middle finger within the pocket and her breathing slowed. Calmly looking up, she faced an ionizer's barrel. Realization dawned in her eyes, though she never moved to defend herself.
The geneticist stood over her with the ionizer in a two-handed grip. Though it was apparent the woman was unfamiliar with the advanced pistol's workings, the tired, defeated officer knew the range would compensate. "If you are so certain of my sins, first, deal with your own." With a solid, mechanical movement, the lone geneticist fired the gun and shot the officer where she kneeled. The wolf-like Inspector slumped to the ground like a haggard beast defeated and bleeding its lifeblood out. Though the fire in her eyes had died out, the officer remained barely conscious. The geneticist stooped down in front of her, holding the ionizer languidly in her left hand. "I suppose one stunner just wouldn't do…"
The pitiful officer released a gurgled, throaty groan as hot tears peeked out of the edges of her eyes. "Drop your futile attempts at vengeance…." The woman paused a moment in thought before continuing. "…or retribution……or justice…whichever it is." The woman stopped again and looked at the pathetic officer, who now was doing all she could to just prevent her own tears from streaming down in brown, solitary rivulets. Her well-polished hand slowly reached out for the poor woman but halted just inches away. After a hasty retreat, her hand soon found its way to her own forehead as she shook her head, glowering to herself and muttering almost silent curses at herself. She turned her face away from the Inspector and bit her lip nervously.
Her mind made up, she stood up and turned away, staring once more up at the dark, threatening sky. When she spoke again, her voice held a tone of gloominess and melancholy. "If life really matters so much to you, help those people left. Protect them. Guard them. Guide their next steps. Prevent…." She paused for the last time as she shook her head to herself. "Prevent something like this from ever having to happen." She walked over to her bag and rifled through it noisily. She tossed a set of packaged rations upon the ground in front of the stunned officer and lifted the bag to her shoulder. "If not, then I will surely see you again."
The young geneticist continued on her way from there, never looking back. A small whimper escaped from Lestrade's aching, wretched form as she heard the footsteps fade in the distance. Her hand remained caught in her pocket, clasping a tiny item she had carried with her for more days than she could recall. The skies let forth a great rumble and though the rain never broke upon that lonely desolate street on which lay a pitiful remnant of a person and a rotting corpse.
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A/N: Hey folks! I return! My apologies for not updating in who knows how long, but now that I have some extra time again, I'll get my butt in gear on things! This is actually an introduction to the real story I plan on some day posting (as the second chapter). I hope you all enjoyed it, well, as much as one can. And for those of you who have requested that I post the next chapter of the other stories I am currently working on, I shall soon fulfill your requests, and I thank you all for your kind words you have bestowed upon me.
E/N: I am the editor. Well, I try to pass off as one, but my real job is to simply amuse my very impatient, demanding, procrastinating, egotistical, genius of a writer busting my chops about reading her story. --leans in slightly-- In all honesty, I think she just enjoys listening to me do the voices and dramatic pauses when I read the chapter out to her. leans back But, that's all right. I did manage to do a 'wonderful' read out on one of her stories. The title is one you fans should know well… "A Hot Day in New London." Well, for some reason, she did not find it as 'wonderful' yet at the same time she did. So, now, she is screening my….readings. --mutters-- What a jerk! --clears throat-- Anyways, enjoy the story, and please HELP ME ESCAPE!!!!
A/N No. 2: Please…disregard the screams of the editor.