Disclaimer: Erik is mine, but everyone else belongs to Square. Even if Square pretends they don't exist, as if the TSW characters were disowned… I would never have disowned them!

Author's notes in epilogue. Ugh… this is barely longer than the epilogue!

METAMORPHOSIS

Chapter Ten

…But With A Whimper

The screaming in his mind abruptly cut off, and the only sound Erik could hear was the rapid pounding of his heartbeat, and his own ragged breathing. Get up, he told himself. His body refused to listen; his limbs were spasming, an uncontrolled blow of his hand knocking the rocket launcher down the hall. GET UP! He flopped over onto his stomach, then pulled his protesting limbs under him.

Then his body when limp, and Erik heaved a sigh of relief. His muscles ached from the convulsions, and sweat beaded his brow, pasting his bangs to his forehead and into his tightly-squeezed-shut eyes. Carefully, he forced his eyes to open into narrow slits. What he saw, as if through a haze, made his breath catch in his throat.

Aki was there. She was ignoring him utterly, her attention focused on the steaming chunks of meat and exoskeleton that had been her mate. She crouched in the center, holding in her hands what was left of his skull. She made an inarticulate gurgling sound as she struggled to vocalize the despair Erik felt beating at his temples. She seemed completely unaware of him, and Erik struggled to take advantage of the distraction by pushing himself to his hands and knees, casting his gaze about desperately for the rocket launcher.

When he saw it, he barely suppressed a groan. It had skittered down the hall, past the corpse of the dead Phantom hybrid – and now Aki was between him and it. Erik started to back away, with half a mind to go back to the armory and find something else, when the ringing click of his claws on the floor drew Aki's gaze. Her eyes darkened when she saw him there, with something unidentifiable dancing in their depths. The force of her gaze made Erik freeze; even his heart seemed to cease its pounding.

"You killed him." The accusation was stated without the rancor he would have expected. She closed those commanding eyes, temporarily freeing him from her spell, and rubbed her cheek against the grisly remains of her mate's. "He was strong, he was loyal, and he didn't fight his new nature because of his desire to be with me. He lost so much, just for me." Then she dropped the head, and what was left of the skull shattered. "Now he is gone, and I must find another to take his place."

Erik closed his eyes, refusing to let himself meet her hypnotic gaze. And he struggled to once again empty his mind, to give her nothing to hold onto.

"That won't work," she told him, a faint chuckle echoing through his skull, the sound shattering into a thousand little laughs that filled his head and nearly defeaned him. "I am your mistress; you cannot disobey me."

No… she wasn't his mistress… she was a monster… a monster that he was here to kill! Finding a reserve of strength Erik didn't know he had, he lunged forward, past the startled Aki, and his fingers brushed the butt of the rocket launcher… Then hope was shattered, as Aki's armored foot smashed down on the barrel, denting it beyond use. Aki loosed one of the fleshy tentacles that were sheathed in her arm and knocked Erik into the wall, forcing the breath from his lungs.

Aki loomed over him, lipless mouth curving into an approximation of a smile. "You're stronger than you look," she said approvingly. Erik lashed out with one foot, catching her in the ankle joint and making it buckle. With an ear-piercing cry, she went down to her knees, and Erik rolled away, staggering to his feet with the help of the wall. His breath still came in ragged gasps, but he had no choice: He had to finish her somehow… If he ran, she would find him once his metamorphosis was complete. Even if he somehow managed to get to the armory, to find a new weapon, he didn't think he'd be able to get close enough to use it, not if she could capture him with her eyes, not if her thoughts turned his legs to jelly unless he expended all his strength battling her.

Erik's hands found the knife he always carried in his coat. She wasn't armored everywhere; if he could just ram it into her throat… Erik sprang forward, knife in hand…

But he'd seriously miscalculated. He had to keep his eyes open to see his target, and just then, Aki lifted her head to meet his eyes… What happened next, happened in slow motion, and Erik watched, a helpless observer, as his hand curved around, until the point of the knife was against his own chest… and then it thrust inward…

He couldn't even scream… all that came from his throat was a whimper.

And, just like that, his world ended.

Aki drove the knife more deeply into his heart, giving it a cruel twist that snapped one of his ribs. Blood flooded his lung, and Erik no longer had the breath to scream. "This is no different from what you did to me," her voice said coldly into his mind. "You'll likely live. And if you do…" That lipless mouth twisted into what could have been a smile. "You'll have proven yourself strong enough to take the place of my mate."

Erik's eyes rolled into the back of his head. As red-tinged darkness took him, he could only pray that he was as weak as everyone thought him to be…

To Be Concluded…