It was getting harder to breathe. His chest hurt, which wasn't surprising with the twist of metal that was skewering it. Didn't seem to matter as much as time went on because it was getting less painful as he slowly suffocated. Until the first Enforcer medic arrived. He didn't bother confirming the death of the first SWAT Kat. He just moved on to him, and immediately started trying to save his life.
A second Enforcer medic arrived and both were working hard at stuffing packing into the sucking wound piercing his ribs. One medic grabs his arm and forces it aside. He feels an abrupt slice like a knife in his skin. Then searing pain streaks across his chest and he gasps, drawing air this time. An oxygen mask is slipped over his head and he feels the pinch of an IV in his forearm.
For a moment he is able to breathe better with the chest tube resolving the collapsed lung. He gives the medics a thumbs up and watches the relief on their faces. Until he coughs and blood fountains out of his mouth and pours down his chin to his chest. The medics go into near hysterics.
As his vision blurs a strange blue light starts to glow, and he sees a female form solidifying into a bright blue outline in front of him. Felina is looking a little confused as she hovers mid air and stares down at her own body, torn and mangled in the pilot seat of the Turbokat. She stares at him as well, her expression quickly growing more frightened.
Felina, how are you two places at once? he muses. It was a puzzling thought, but with his brain starting to die it wasn't one he was pursuing heavily. He did feel sorry at how scared she looked.
Then her expression brightens into an ecstatic smile and she reaches outwards. Another blue outline steps in and wraps his arms around her. It's Chance, and he's holding her the way he always said he wanted to. "Come on, Felina. It's time to go," he says and he pulls out of the embrace to take her by the hand. They start to turn away and move out of Jake's line of sight.
"Cha…." Jake whispers, and he starts to cough again. Bright blood foams on his lips and the rushing, dizzy feeling in his head thickens. Something is forced down his throat by the paramedics and he can't cough anymore. He can feel one of the medics packing gauze into the chest wound, and hear his voice, but it's softer, and the pain in his chest is lessening.
The beautiful blue light surrounding the two is starting to fade out and they're moving away. A sense of loss so intense his throat clenches washes over him.
Chance, wait for me! he calls out, in panic.
Chance's ear pricks and Jake watches him turn back as his vision blackens.
He feels suddenly like somebody's lifting him and he finds himself flat on the ground. The Turbokat is gone. There things are shadowy. Like there's thick smoke in the air. He stares up at the fog above them. A weird, heavy lassitude is filling his limbs. Color and shape like a mirage or a hint of aura gives him the impression that the medics are still working on him, where his body still is. That and the pain they're causing. But he has the distinct feeling that where his body is is not the same as where -he- currently is, inside this grey, cloudy bubble.
But Felina and Chance are also there with him, and Chance has that excited sparkle in his eyes that Jake had missed seeing.
"Hey partner. I didn't realize you were that close to crossing."
"Chance? You're not really here are you."
"Sure I am." His buddy's blue outline crouches down next to him. "You ready?"
"...Ready for WHAT? What's happening?"
"You're dying, buddy," Chance says gently.
"Chance, I don't… I don't want to die," Jake hears himself saying, and Chance just kind of shrugs. "Sorry, pal. You can keep fighting, but I don't think you got a choice." Chance sits down and Jake feels a familiar hand pat his shoulder as his old partner settles in next to him. Felina is standing at Chance's side. "Is he coming with us?"
"He will. They're still trying to save him," Chance explains patiently. Felina will crouch down next to Jake as well, reaching to cup his hand in hers. The sensation is getting more and more solid. In fact, she settles cross legged at his head and reaches to lift his head up into her lap.
"You're dead," Jake says, with dread as he looks up at her. Felina nods but quirks a reassuring smile.
He glances at Chance. "YOU'VE been dead for almost 29 years. You died pulling Callie out of the cruiser just before Mad Kat dropped the giant anvil on it."
"Oh trust me, I remember," Chance replies, then scratches at his chin. "Has it been that long though? Time flies. You know, you two have been pretty good together as the SWAT Kats since I got squashed." He stops scratching and puts his hand back on Jake's arm.
"Oh sure, we did real good. We're dead," Jake says bitterly.
"I know you're upset, but you'll feel better once it's over," Chance says.
"You're awfully calm about this."
"It's easy to be. I'm already on the other side," he replies conversationally. He reaches over to rub Jake's shoulder when his former WSO winces at a phantom pain. "Also, when I died I didn't feel a thing. How's Callie?" he asks abruptly.
"Her son made Lieutenant last week. This is an insane conversation. Felina?" He glances at her, and realizes belatedly that both of them are young again, like Kats of eighteen or twenty instead of… Chance had been thirty one when he died. Felina was almost fifty now. But not any longer. She was made new.
She smiles at him. "It's…. you don't have to be scared. I don't know how to describe how I feel other than that. There's nothing to be afraid of here."
He shakes his head, unconvinced. "I don't want to die now. What about my wife?"
"She'll follow us someday," Chance replies quietly. "When it's her turn. And you'll be there to bring her across."
"Across?" he asks.
"This place. It's…. a place between," Chance replies. "But after you cross, you'll be alright."
"Between WHAT?"
"Between where you are, and where we're all going." He glances to the side and watches the tracer outline of one of the medics, leaning over him with a stethoscope pressed to his arm. "It's almost over, partner."
Quietly in the back of his mind he hears a voice. -I'm not finding any pulse. And there's no pressure. He's gone guys. I'm calling it. Time of death, 1804.-
There is a snap like a cord breaking and the pain fades. Everything rushes into vivid, bright color and distinction. No more line drawings, but Chance and Felina like they were in life, when they were young. Vividly in color and more real somehow than they could ever be Before.
"Is it as bad as you expected?" Chance asks and Jake shakes his head. "What was I worried about again?" he jokes.
Chance grins. "Let's rock, Jake." He stands up, reaches down and takes Jake's hand, and raises him up to walk into newness of life.