A/N: Thanks once again to mudget for beta-ing. Seriously, she does such an awesome job of helping take what I've written and turning it into something actually readable. LOL. And thanks to everyone who has been reading and reviewing so far. I really appreciate it! Sorry about taking so long to update.
ALSO I had to delete and re-upload this TWICE for formatting problems, so sorry for anyone who got three notifications for the same chapter...
Chapter Twelve: Nightmares
Linka knew she should talk to Gaia about her suddenly stronger abilities, yet part of her was hesitant to consult the Earth Spirit about it. After diverting the storm, Linka had spent the rest of the evening in her quarters mulling over the strange events of the last week. Her mind kept wandering back to her time at the military facility, to the bizarre Colonel Luce and his companion, Becca. She wondered if they had anything to do with what was happening to her.
She tried to drive the idea out of her mind, realizing how unproductive - and potentially dangerous - it would be for her to dwell on speculation. However she could not shake the feeling that those two had done something to her. She recalled a few vague, hazy memories of her time at the base, of being examined and injected with something. Becca had assured her later that it was all just standard medical treatment, given the extent of her injuries. Yet Linka did not think it wise to trust someone who bore a suspicious resemblance to Dr. Blight.
The evening crept by slowly as Linka tried to find ways to keep herself occupied. Trying to focus on reading or watching television proved to be a losing battle. Finally she decided the best thing to do was to go to bed. Hopefully she would feel better in the morning, and her mind would be clearer so she could put all the pieces of this puzzle together. Then she would talk to the other Planeteers, and they would certainly get to the bottom of it all. If this were just another eco-villain scheme they would stop it, just like they always did. She pushed aside the thought that it might be something more than another typical scheme by one of their usual enemies.
Linka took a long, hot shower and put on her most comfortable pajamas before slipping into bed. No matter how hard she tried to will her mind to relax, sleep seemed to elude her. She spent almost an hour shifting uncomfortably in her bed before she gave up trying to fall asleep on her own. Getting out of bed, she stumbled tiredly into her bathroom and she pulled a bottle of over-the-counter sleeping pills from the medicine cabinet.
Linka eyed the bottle warily. Ever since her addiction to Bliss she had been hesitant to take any form of drug, even something as simple as aspirin for a headache. However tonight she gave in to the struggle. She had not slept very well the last few nights and the lack of rest was starting to catch up with her. Recently life had consisted of one mission after the other. The eco-villains never seemed to stop with their psychotic schemes, which meant the Planeteers never got to stop either.
After taking two pills Linka went back to bed and waited for the effects of the medicine to kick in. Slowly she felt her mind begin to give in to sleep as her turbulent thoughts became increasingly less coherent.
If she would have realized the kind of dreams she would be subjected to once she finally fell asleep, Linka would not have taken the pills.
First she dreamed of Boris. Not when he was alive and healthy, but she dreamed of him dead, a zombie, stumbling about helplessly in the dark.
"You could have saved me, Linka. You could have stopped this from happening. You could have stopped them." Boris' voice was accusatory and bitter.
"What could I have done?" Linka asked with tears in her eyes.
"You could have stopped them, you could have killed them when you had the chance."
"But I am not a killer, Boris. I could not have done such a thing!"
Boris looked at her, his eyes hollow and dead. He opened his mouth to speak again but there was only silence. Linka watched helplessly as her cousin faded into darkness. "No, Boris! Do not go!" she pleaded.
"He's gone now and it's all your fault." It was the voice of Verminous Skumm, the filthy rat that had sold the addictive and deadly drug Bliss to Boris.
"Do not blame me," Linka growled, feeling the anger well up inside of her. She clenched her fists and narrowed her eyes, her voice trembling as she spoke. "This is your fault. You did this to Boris."
Skumm laughed derisively. "No he did this to himself. He would do anything for the Bliss. Even trick his favorite cousin into becoming an addict…"
Skumm continued to laugh as Linka seethed with anger. She wanted to hurt him, she wanted to make him suffer for what he had done to Boris. For what he had done to her…
"That is the beauty of Bliss… once someone is addicted to it they would do anything for another fix," Skumm said, leering at Linka. He moved in close to her. "Isn't that right? Wouldn't you do anything for another fix…?"
"Get away from me!" Linka screamed. She tried to blow him away when she noticed that her ring was missing. Skumm laughed maniacally as he faded away and Linka found herself somewhere else.
She was now in a laboratory. It was dark and foreboding with tables covered in test tubes and Petri dishes.
"Do you like my lab?" It the was strangely sweet, yet sadistic, voice of Dr. Blight. "This is where I developed the drug that killed your cousin."
Linka spun around to see the demented scientist holding a bottle of Bliss. She pulled one of the pills out and held it between her thumb and forefinger as if she were examining it. "Isn't it amazing? Just one dose and the user becomes a mindless zombie. It's absolutely brilliant."
"It is absolutely terrible!" Linka replied angrily. "How could you invent such a thing?"
"I'm just doing my job. I'm a scientist, it's what I do."
"But why not use science to help people?" Linka asked.
Dr. Blight laughed wickedly, followed by her trademark self-satisfied sigh. "Why should I help people when being evil is so much more fun?"
"And profitable." This time it was the voice of Looten Plunder that interjected. Linka realized she was now in an impressive office, with Plunder and Greedly seated at a huge wooden table.
"We've made so much money selling those pills, we're really living high on the hog!" Greedly snorted as he shoved food into his mouth.
"How could you do this? How could you make money off the misery of others?" Linka asked, her voice shaking with anger and her eyes full of tears.
"It's easy, my dear," Plunder said arrogantly. "No one is able to stop us."
"The Planeteers have stopped you before and we will stop you again!" Linka shouted.
Both men laughed at her. "You Eco-geeks may have won a few battles, but we keep on making money!" Greedly scoffed. "I know I certainly haven't missed any meals."
"None of you Planet-pests have what it takes to really keep us from profiting from pollution," Plunder added. He chuckled derisively and smirked at her.
Linka was so angry now she couldn't speak. Boris was right. She should have stopped them when she had a chance.
"That's right, you should stop them before they have a chance to hurt anyone else." Now Ma-ti was speaking to her.
"Ma-ti!" She turned to look at him. "Do you really think I should do such a thing?" she asked uncertainly.
"Plunder killed my parents. Who knows how many more people he has killed, or how many more he will kill," Ma-ti answered, his voice laced with bitterness.
His words made sense. Linka stared at the ponytailed man in the green suit. He had done so much to harm the Earth. Getting rid of him would do only good.
Plunder smiled at Linka deviously. "I don't think you have what it takes to do it," he said, almost as if he could read her thoughts. He pulled a gun from a holster beneath his jacket and slid it across the table to Linka. "Go ahead. I dare you."
Linka picked the gun up and aimed it toward Plunder. It was cold and heavy, but it felt natural in her hands. Plunder was still smiling at her. "Go ahead, what are you waiting for? Don't you want to stop me once and for all?" he taunted.
Linka became aware of Becca's presence. The mysterious woman was staring at her with her cold blue eyes. "Could you do it, Linka? Could you kill someone to save the lives of others? Could you kill an evil man like Plunder to make the world a better place?"
Linka thought about the questions. Yes, she could do it. She could do whatever it took. She should have done it a long time ago.
She still had the gun aimed at Plunder's chest. He continued taunting her and she could feel the anger burning inside of her. He was so arrogant, so selfish, so greedy… he deserved what was coming. She felt her finger grow tighter around the trigger. One firm squeeze and…
Linka woke up with a start, sitting straight up in bed. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her forehead was covered in sweat. The dream had been so real; it still lingered at the edge of her mind. She glanced at her hand just to make sure that she was not actually holding a gun. Linka almost believed that she could still feel the cold metal against her skin.
After taking a moment to compose herself, she walked over to her window. The sun was just beginning to rise over the ocean and there were a few birds already singing outside. The other Planeteers would not be awake for a few more hours, but Linka knew she was not going back to sleep. Especially not if going back to sleep meant more disturbing dreams.
It still seemed so real. She could still feel the anger burning inside, like a fire threatening to consume her. She had wanted to hurt them. Linka had never felt that way before. She wanted to stop the eco-villains from polluting, of course, but she had never wanted to kill them or do anything that would harm them physically. Yet she had been more than willing to shoot Plunder in her dream, and it had seemed so real.
Linka felt a tear slide down her cheek as she started to cry. She sank to the floor, wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her head on her knees. She needed to talk to someone about her conflicted emotions. Though her first instinct was to speak with Gaia, she soon decided that perhaps it would be better to talk with another one of the Planeteers instead. She was almost afraid to talk to Gaia, in the sort of way that a child would be afraid to admit to her parents that she had done something wrong. Linka felt that her thoughts of revenge would somehow be a betrayal of the trust Gaia had placed in her, and she did not want to risk disappointing someone who had become like a mother to her.
She considered talking this over with Ma-ti. He already knew at least some of what was going on with her, and he had been through his own strange experiences lately. Somehow she couldn't shake the image of him in her dream though. She knew he would not really encourage her to seek violence against the eco-villains, but it had all seemed so unnervingly real. She also worried that she might upset him. It had to have been difficult for him to recount the story of his parents' deaths, so perhaps she should let him be for now.
Finally she decided Wheeler would be the best person to speak with. Though he often got on her nerves with his sense of humor, he was also the first to come to her defense when things got bad. She knew he would not judge her for having such harsh feelings, especially after she explained to him what Becca had told her about the origin of Bliss. He was so protective of her that she knew that he would be just as upset about that information as her- maybe even more so. Certainly he would not look down on her because of her emotions in this situation. Once she had Wheeler on her side the two of them could talk to the others together. She would feel better about it knowing that he understood and supported her. He had a way of winning people over, so even if the others did not understand her, he would still be able to explain the situation to them.
She stood up and stretched her arms over her head, trying to force herself to feel awake despite her restless night. She got dressed quickly and headed outside for a stroll on the beach. Wheeler would not be awake for several more hours, as he was typically the last to rise. Hopefully that time would give her a chance to gather her thoughts. As she walked along the water's edge, the cool early morning breeze ruffling her hair, she hoped that she was simply overreacting and things were not nearly as dire as she envisioned.
