Chapter 10: The Serpent's Sacrifice

Rhode Island peered through what was left of the glass in the rear window, the hole in which they had patched with an old tarp to keep out the cold. It had been two days since they'd arrived at the north pole and there was still no sign of Doofenshmirtz and Isabella. The constant drone of the idling engines was beginning to get on Rhode Island's nerves. Ohio, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to the noise. He had succumbed to sleep, the incredible exhaustion of his many fights and chases having finally caught up to him. He was currently out cold in the co-pilot's chair, his fedora placed over his eyes.

Rhode Island knew that soon enough, they would have to head back or they wouldn't have enough fuel to reach Greenland. They could only afford to wait about another eight hours.

Ohio groaned as he awoke, pushing his fedora back and standing up. He stretched and joined Rhode Island by the rear window. "See anything out there?"

"Just snow." The wind wasn't gusting quite so hard anymore, but the visibility was still low as loose snow was blown around.

"I'd hate to imagine have to cross that landscape on foot," Ohio continued. "I almost can't imagine how you could survive this weather."

Rhode Island tapped gently on the glass. "I think they'll be just fine. Doofenshmirtz is much smarter now that he's gone screwy in the head."

Ohio crouched down to get a better view. "I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

There was a speck.

Was there? Maybe it was just a smudge on the glass. He picked at it with his finger.

Nope. That is definitely outside.

He ran to the control panel and picked up a pair of binoculars. He returned quickly to the window and looked through the glasses.

"Rhode Island?"
Rhode Island had just managed to doze off and was not thrilled about being woken up again. "Hmm?"

"Come look at this."

Rhode Island grudgingly pulled himself to his feet and trudged over to Ohio and took the binoculars. For a few moments he stared through the glasses silently. Then he handed them back to Ohio. "Sled dogs."

"Yup. I believe Heinz Doofenshmirtz has arrived."

Rhode Island grabbed the revolver from the copilot's seat where they'd left it and checked to make sure it was fully loaded. "Any ideas on how to gain the upper hand here?" He tossed the gun to Ohio, who caught it.

"As a matter of fact, I do…"

Doofenshmirtz hauled back on the reins. "Whoa! Whoa!" No sooner had the sled dog team slowed to a stop than Doofenshmirtz grabbed Isabella's arm and dragged her off the sled into the snow.

"You'll never get away with this! Ohio and Rhode Island beat you here!" Isabella screamed at him. They had noticed the zeppelin floating in the freezing air a ways back. "They'll stop you!"

"Oh, I quite doubt that." Doofenshmirtz took something out of his pocket as he spoke. It was a small black rock, polished smooth. He had found it with the head segment of the serpent, and it would show him where magnetic north was. He lightly tossed it straight up in the air. The stone flew away as if in slow-motion, and Doofenshmirtz chased after it, towing Isabella along behind him.

The stone skipped along the hard, frozen surface of the snow for some distance as if pushed along by an invisible hand. Finally, it came to a stop. "Ah, the magnetic pole of planet earth. You know, the magnetic north pole is actually the magnetic south pole because the north end of the magnet in a compass is attracted to it. So even though it's the geographic north pole, it has to be the south pole." He flashed an evil smile. "But in a few minutes, the pole will match the name."

Isabella opened her mouth to say something, but then shuttered and her eyes went wide with fear as Doofenshmirtz pulled a large knife from the sheath strapped to his leg. Then he produced a small cloth pouch tied closed with a piece of string. He untied it and poured the four segments of the Golden Serpent into the palm of his glove.

"What do you say we get started?" Doofenshmirtz suggested, an evil gleam in his eyes. Isabella stepped back from him. He held up the knife and grabbed her forearm again. He spun her around so she faced away from him and put the knife blade against her throat.

Isabella shook both from fear and cold. "Please…please…" she sobbed.

"Don't worry, dear. It'll be over quick, and you're lucky. You won't even have to suffer the end of the world."

"No!" Isabella shrieked.

Doofenshmirtz raised the knife.

There was the sound of shifting snow, an audible click, and then a cold voice. "Don't move."

Doofenshmirtz turned around, still holding the knife to Isabella's throat. Ohio Flynn and Rhode Island Fletcher stood almost knee deep in the snow, covered in the white powder. Ohio was pointing a revolver at Doofenshmirtz.

"Buried yourselves in the snow, huh?" Doofenshmirtz observed.

"Yup."

"Well, it doesn't matter. You're too late." Doofenshmirtz's arm twitched and the knife began to slide across Isabella's throat.

Ohio fired.

The sound of the gunshot echoed across the empty landscape. Doofenshmirtz fell backwards, releasing Isabella from his grasp.

Ohio had been aiming at Doofenshmirtz's head, but the wind had affected the bullet's trajectory. It only skimmed the side of Doofenshmirtz's cheek, tearing through the hood on the parka. Doofenshmirtz groaned in pain as blood leaked from his cheek and he dropped the knife into the snow.

Ohio lowered the revolver. He inhaled sharply. "Gotcha."

"Uh…Ohio?" Isabella was clutching her upper arm just below her shoulder. The sleeve of her gray parka had turned a deep shade of red. When Doofenshmirtz fell backwards, the knife had sliced across her right arm, right through her sleeve and into her skin. The blade was so sharp she had barely felt it.

Ohio and Rhode Island quickly rushed over to her. Blood was pouring out of the wound, running down her arm and dripping steadily out the end of her sleeve, turning a small patch of snow beside her red.

"Don't worry, Isabella, we've got medical supplies in the zeppelin," Ohio said hurriedly. "You'll be fine."

None of them noticed as Doofenshmirtz lifted his head behind them. He was still clutching the four segments of the Golden Serpent in his hand. He tossed them at the patch of bloody snow. "You're wrong, Ohio Flynn. Dead wrong."

They all looked at Doofenshmirtz and then down into the bloody snow. The four pieces were moving toward each other.

"No!" Ohio cried.

"Yes! Yes! It's working!" Doofenshmirtz yelled out in triumph.

Ohio dove at him, fists clenched. He smashed Doofenshmirtz's nose in, then pounded his cheek. Then the other cheek, then his left eye. Ohio expected Doofenshmirtz to cry out in pain, but the madman didn't. Instead, he was laughing. "You're too late, Flynn."

Ohio looked at the pieces again. They had all joined. As Ohio quickly stood back up, the gold color faded away, turning black. There was a hiss and the snake flicked its pink tongue. Rhode Island started to reach for it and it darted away, winding its way through the snow.

"Quick! Grab it! Don't let get away!" Ohio shouted as he stood up and started running. Rhode Island tried to crush it with his boot, but missed. He tried again and this time managed to stomp on the snake, but it just burrowed through the snow and continued racing across the ice.

The snake stopped where Doofenshmirtz's stone had landed and dug it's head into the snow, heading straight down. Ohio dove and grabbed for it, but the tail slipped between his fingers and the snake disappeared into the snow. "No!"

"No!" Rhode Island and Isabella cried.

"Yes!" Doofenshmirtz yelled out in victory.

"Ngrgrgrgrgrgrgr."

Everyone turned toward the sound. A teal platypus stood there in the snow wearing a dark brown fedora. The platypus ran full speed toward the spot where the serpent had disappeared and dove into the snow as if it were a liquid. And then it was gone.

"Did everybody else just see the anthropomorphic platypus?" Rhode Island asked calmly.

Agent P clawed his way through the snow, ignoring the stinging cold. After what seemed like forever, he hit snow too hard to dig through. He could still see the hole where the serpent had burrowed through, though. He quickly removed his fedora and flicked a hidden switch under the band. The brim began to rotate around the crown, from which grew a handle. Agent P pressed the hat/drill against the snow and a tunnel big enough for him to crawl through appeared.

The hard snow soon turned to ice, but the hat/drill chewed through it with ease. Finally, Agent P hit water. The hat returned to its original state and he jammed it back on his head before taking a deep breath and diving into the water.

He swam as hard as he could straight down, his beaver-like tail propelling Agent P through the frigid water with lightning speed.

Ahead was the serpent. It was almost to sea floor. With one final burst of speed, Agent P reached it. Just as the snake was burying its head into the sand, Agent P grabbed it. When he pulled it out of the sand, it whipped it's head around and tried to bite him. So, Agent P took off his hat and put the serpent inside, rolling the fedora around it and holding it tightly to keep it from escaping.

Out of breath and limbs numb from the cold, Agent P pushed off the bottom and swam hard for the surface.

Ohio picked himself up out of the snow and trudged over to Isabella. He knocked the snow off his hat before he spoke. "I think we've got a few minutes before the serpent can burrow all the way through the earth, so I need to say a few things."

Isabella, still clutching her arm, said, "No, I need to say a few things. I want to apologize."

Ohio raised an eyebrow. "You need to apologize? For what?"

She looked away from him. "For trying to take you away from what you love. I know you love archeology and adventuring, and I don't want you to stop. It was selfish of me to try to make you cut back."

"Well, I'm sorry that I neglected you. I should have done a better job of making time for you. I was selfish for not paying attention to your feelings," Ohio said.

Their eyes finally met. "I think we both could have done better," Isabella said, smiling sadly.

They wrapped their arms around each other in a comforting hug. "Are you willing to give me another chance?" Ohio asked.

"Only if you can give me another chance."

They looked at each other and smiled.

"This is real touching," Doofenshmirtz quipped from where he still lay on his back in the snow. "Too bad you couldn't have made up before the world was destroyed."

Ohio let go of Isabella and stepped over to Doofenshmirtz. He said not a word, he just kicked Doofenshmirtz in the groin. The madman finally cried out in pain and hurriedly covered his injured parts with his hands, moaning.

Rhode Island looked toward the airship floating about a hundred yards away. "We could probably survive the apocalypse in the zeppelin," he suggested.

"Why bother?" Ohio said. "We'd run out of fuel in ten or twelve hours and then we wouldn't have any food or water or medicine…we might as well just stay here and take our lumps just like everyone else on the planet."

Rhode Island shrugged.

The platypus suddenly emerged from the hole. He handed his now frozen hat to Rhode Island. The adventurer unrolled it and then quickly wrapped it up again as the serpent tried to escape. "He caught it!"

"What?" Ohio yelled. As he helped Isabella stagger over to Rhode Island, no one noticed as Doofenshmirtz picked up the knife from the snow and hid it underneath his jacket.

Rhode Island showed his friends what was inside the fedora. "Wow!" Ohio exclaimed. "I can't believe it! You saved us! You save the whole world." The platypus smiled and waved it off, wrapping his arms around himself, trying to ward off the cold. His fur was covered with little ice crystals.

"Don't let that thing get away, Rhode Island. That will be quite interesting to study when he get home." Ohio started walking through the snow back toward Doofenshmirtz. "Come on. We'd better get back to the airship so we can patch up Isabella. I'm sure our platypus friend here could use some warming up." He knelt down next to Doofenshmirtz. "I'm sure Detective Marcis will be very happy to have you back in prison."

Doofenshmirtz said nothing. His face remained stoic. Ohio pulled him up out of the snow and led him over to the others. "Come on, guys. Let's go."

Rhode Island bent down and picked up the black stone that Doofenshmirtz had used to find the magnetic pole. He looked around for the sled dogs but they were no where to be found. He shrugged and they set out for the airship.

They walked back toward the airship in silence. They were about halfway back when Isabella walked closer to Doofenshmirtz. She looked at his face and he narrowed his eyes at her. "I hate you," she said slowly. "I'm glad Ohio didn't kill you. That would have been too easy. You deserve to spend the rest of your life rotting in jail."

Doofenshmirtz slowed his speed just slightly so that Isabella walked ahead of him. He walked behind her for a few moments.

Ohio thought he saw something flash out of the corner of his eye. He turned just in time to see Doofenshmirtz thrust his big knife into Isabella's back. The tip of the blade exited her stomach, ripping though her parka. Blood began to pour from the wound.

Isabella could not speak. She just gasped, her eyes bulging wide.

"NO!" Ohio shouted.

Doofenshmirtz laughed evilly. "I may have failed to destroy the world, and I may have failed to kill you, but I can still make you suffer, Ohio Flynn!"