Hey guys!

So this is just a short one-shot story I wrote after reading the Red Dwarf novel 'Better Than Life'. I found the book version of the Polymorph attack truly touching and felt inspired to write a short fic including my OC in the mix. It's based obviously around series 3 and I thought it would be best if I don't explain how my OC came to be aboard the ship. Saves the confusion. You can decide that plot for yourself if you really care or want to.

Anyways, it's only short but I hope you enjoy, nevertheless.

Please don't hate me for the OC-ness. It's really more about Rimsy anyway!

Any feedback you have, please post in a review - I always love to hear what you guys think of my work!

Happy reading!

Love,

RavenclawCookie

They ran. In that moment, that's what their soul purpose was. The beast was after them, snarling, raging and thirsting for their blood as it slithered, rampant for flesh and raw emotion, down the corridor. It needed sustenance and they were skidded round the corridor, panting, sweating and wheezing profusely from the immense effort to keep going. Their limbs ached, bursts of pain shooting through their thighs telling them stop; but still, onwards they ran.

"What do we do now?" The girl with the golden hair gasped, trying to keep up with the four figures beside her, her lungs clawing desperately for air.

"Keep - running!" Arnold Rimmer hissed through jagged breaths, the metallic 'H' on his forehead glinting as they passed under the ship's dull light.

And so they did. Hearts pounding (all except Kryten, who was a Mechanoid and so had the fortune not to possess one), eyes watering, breaths escaping their gaping mouths in rasping waves. Beads of sweat trickled across their brows creased with the effort to push through, meandering down their faces like raindrops on a damp winter's morning.

They turned and fled down another corridor, knees simultaneously threatening to buckle. Surely they couldn't keep running forever. The Polymorph had to catch up with them eventually. It was inevitable.

Sure enough, an unearthly shadow fell across the path that opened out before them, making them stop dead in their tracks. Raising their heads, they each let a yelp of terror escape their lips. It loomed over them, sulphuric acid dripping from its snarling lips like blood from a wound. It's teeth receded from it's unfurled lips in a ferocious roar. It's body looked like it was formulated from some sort of toxic rubber, allowing it to change its molecular structure to any thing it desired.

Lister raised the Bazookoid clenched in his iron grip, his face twisted into a formidable grin. The Polymorph had already drained him of all fear; completely careless, he squared up to the beast like a knight in shining armour. With a nifty flex of his wrist, the Bazookoid fired and a pulsing orb of electric-blue light exploded from the gun's sturdy snout and into the direction of the beast. With lightning-speed the Polymorph fled out of sight, toppling huge stacks of cargo to the floor as it dodged the heat-seekers and disappeared from view.

Sighing with relief, the crew sunk to their knees, their hearts racing with adrenaline.

Rimmer, forehead shiny with sweat, mopped his brow hastily and turned to Dani, the girl at his side, his face contorted with worry. "D'you think it's finally given up?" He panted.

"Honestly?" Dani replied, glancing upwards into his deep eyes of molten bronze.

Rimmer nodded, his heart pounding as he looked at her. Not from exhaustion, but for a different matter entirely.

"No. I don't think it will stop until it's got all of us." She admitted, shrugging off her jacket and tossing it aside in a desperate attempt to cool herself down.

Rimmer sighed. He hated this, he truly did. Already being a coward at heart, he felt as if he may collapse from the fear any second. His stomach churned, the urge to vomit rising within him. Fighting the feeling, he swallowed hard.

"What now?" he asked. All of them, except he and Dani, had been victimized by the monster. Cat had every last shred of his vanity drained from his soul, and had lost all of the self-absorbed narcissism that he prized himself most highly on; Lister was now fearless and Kryten had lost his very powerful sense of guilt that would usually trouble him into catering loyally for any human being on a daily basis.

"Ahh, who cares?" Kryten snapped, a sour frown curving the angular features of his robotic head.

"We do." Dani and Rimmer snarled back, with as much formidable anger as the Polymorph itself.

Lister strode forwards, the onyx war-paint streaking across his cheek glistening in the light. Teeth clenched together, he said. "Come on then, Slags. We've got to think of somethin'. I suggest we tie me to a stack a dynamite, leave me in the middle of the corridor, set the bundle alight then...WHAM!" The crew blanched simultaneously. "...Polymorph vindaloo. It can't resist."

"Oh really great plan, Bozo." Kryten spat, frowning sourly. "Really great. You've got about as much brains as a gerbil."

"Kryten, stop being so selfish! Sorry Lister, but we can't just let you sacrifice yourself. We're in this together." Dani protested firmly, her eyes blazing, challenging anyone to disagree.

Stupidly, Kryten did. "Who cares about you guys? I'm looking out for number one. It can tear you lot into shreds and serve you up with salad for all I care."

Ignoring the Mechanoid, Dani turned to Cat, who was slumped against one of the cargo stacks, chugging thirstily from a bottle of suspicious-looking bronze liquid. "What about you, Cat? What do you think we should do?" She queried.

"Hey, it doesn't matter what I think. I'm not worth smeg. Just listen to Goalpost Head or Doormouse Cheeks, because their opinion is much better than mine...ok?" He slurred, his breath singing with the sharp scent of whiskey. He was hammered and the loss of his vanity had prevented him from thinking he was ever important enough to even voice his own opinions.

Rimmer sighed, "Look, we need to find a way to get it off the ship and then-"

Rimmer was cut off by a blinding pain erupting like a volcano in his stomach. Tears welled up in his brown eyes and he swayed dangerously on the spot, his fists curled round his hips, his breaths short and ragged with the inhuman pain; it was unlike anything he had ever felt before. It was even worse than when his brother Frank had given him a wedgie so hard his pants completely tore in two. His mouth opened, his shapely lips parted in a silent scream of agony and he swayed dangerously on the spot before dropping to his knees.

"Rimmer?" Dani whispered, turning on her heel just in time to see his tall frame collapse to his quaking knees. Like a tree bent against the wind, he swayed, battling with the pain until it finally bettered him. Like a stone plummeting into the depths of the icy ocean waters, he keeled over and dropped to the ground, moaning softly to himself. His hands pressed against his stomach, grappling madly at the source of the pain, like a bullet caving a wound in his innards.

Rimmer's face was contorted with a mixture of agony and fury, his eyes closed as if he was battling the immense effort to keep from passing out from the pain. His lips parted slightly, just allowing a deep moan to escape his throat. The Polymorph had corrupted his files; it had access to all of his memories, his feelings, thoughts, every single emotion he had ever felt that was logged within that database - the Polymorph now had the power to control them all.

It wanted his anger; That was the last and most vital ingredient to fuel it's energy. It craved it, a burning thirst pulsating in its foul veins. The beast would do whatever it wanted in order to get a taste of his fury.

Rimmer doubled over in pain, curled upon the cold floor of the cargo bay like a child. Dani dropped to her knees beside his quaking body; she could not touch him and that frustrated her. She wanted to hold him, cradle him and console him until the pain died. She watched with horror as his moans escalated into cries of anguish and the image projected by his light bee wavered dangerously.

"Rimmer?" She asked, eyes wide. "Rimmer, it'll be okay..."

"Dani..." He gasped, refusing to open his eyes, for the pain was relentless and he was too scared. Her voice reached him through the abyss and he held onto it like his life depended on it; as if it were his only way out of this unforgiving world of pain. "...it hurts." He wailed.

Dani's heart gave an aching jolt of sympathy, her eyes closing to stop the tears from falling. Every painful memory he'd ever experience was running through his tortured mind. It made Rimmer so angry. His fists clenched...the groove of his brow dipped low into the bride of his nose, his nostrils flared with fury and his stomach continued to burn as if it were exposed to white-hot flames.

She reached out to touch him, but as her fingers brushed the emerald spectrum of his light projection, a shock of electricity coursed through her hand, travelling up her arm with alarming speed. She tumbled and fell, clutching her arm as though it had been scolded. Stunned momentarily, she tried her best to scramble back to where Rimmer lay.

So angry...

Rimmer's breath escaped his body in uneven, rasping gasps. He was going to explode, but the memories just kept on coming, like a relentless torrent of rain, engulfing him, smothering him. He could barely breathe. Then, one last memory finally tipped him over the edge. The one that the Polymorph knew would surely finish him off and satisfy it's desires to finally be fed.

In Rimmer's mind, as clear as day, he saw a girl. A girl with golden hair of sunshine that fell to just above her shoulders. She smiled at him and he extended a hand towards hers, which was already outstretched, eagerly awaiting his touch. They were almost connected, but then, as his fingers made a bid for hers, they slipped straight past. His fingers slid through her solid palm like a ghost; a spirit from the underworld who was nothing but an entity. He had no real presence...he was just a projection.

In that moment, Rimmer realised he could never be with her; it would never work. He was just a hologram; he wasn't even real. He watched her face fall; her smile fade, as did his. Their hands fell limply to their sides, defeated.

A love lost.

Why couldn't he ever get what he wanted? Just once in his miserable smegging life, he wished something good would finally happen to him. The life he'd led, the miserable days he'd spent wandering time and space in the far reaches of the galaxy would make any good man turn bad. So for once in my pathetic life, he prayed, let me get what I want. Lord knows it would be the first time.

The pain, the torture. It made him so...

The anger was becoming unbearable. The pain mounting in the pit of his stomach was released, like the lid being lifted from Pandora's box. Any minute he would implode. Sure enough, just as he felt he could tolerate the agony no longer, Rimmer's eyes flew open, his cry echoing around the cargo bay. And then...silence. His scream was cut off almost as soon as it had escaped his throat and his eyes drooped, rolling back into his skull. They fluttered shut, the deep brown of his iris could no longer be seen and he was plunged into darkness.

The pain was gone. The anger had stopped.

The Polymorph had got what it wanted.