Spoilers: DMD, mainly because... oh, duh *smacks herself upside the head* Sure Raven, put the spoilers IN the spoiler note, that's real smart!

Feedback: is a thing almost more acceptable than chocolate. (Almost.)

Please no archiving without my consent.

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Whom the Gods Would Destroy
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Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.

Strength fueled by rage had released him from the straps of the operating table; will fueled by grief had made him struggle to the door and reach out his hand for what he felt must be the last time; a will to live fueled by some emotion he could not describe forced his grief-stricken, fragmented mind to make his hand, feeling so dismembered, flip the switch of the bio-filter light. Fingers going limp, he crumpled backwards into a pitiful heap.

All strength, all will, all irrational want for life had gone out of him with that movement, as he realized what he had done. He had so wanted to die then, and yet... an emotion on some unknown level had made him save himself. Why' was a question often asked and rarely answered - whereas a year, two years ago he would have been perfectly willing to ask, await the expected silence, and then proceed to go in search of the answer himself, now... now... the character in the mechanically induced nightmare encounter with the Scarran's fake Earth came to mind. He was callous, he killed when necessary and sometimes unnecessarily. He had, after all, shot the Vorc, smashed Lt. Heskon's skull, and... and he had... after all... drowned Aeryn.

He lay on his back in the cold, stale room, watching his breath, growing ever fainter, blow out in clouds of white condensation, and he felt in his heart of hearts that, whatever the others claimed as truth, the chip had played no part in her death.

The tears came unbidden.
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FIN