CHAPTER FIFTY TWO

Whisper focused on the grenade. With Cougar in the fight, there was no way he could throw it. He might not be able to do much more, but he used his power to nudge it into position.

He could feel Binky behind the behemoth and he caugt a glimpse of Marlena as she tried to keep away from the other elemental as it tried, and thankfully failed, to consume her.

Madness all around him, he did the only thing he could— embrace it full throttle.

As the grenade reached its target, Marlena let out an angry scream and dove into her home realm, leaving the grenade, the fire elemental and Binky.

"Fire in the hole," Whisper transmitted as he pushed the grenade into the elemental and let the temperature to the rest.

#

Clay watched as the fire elemental grew in intensity and suddenly vanished leaving a vacuum in its wake. Without thinking he grabbed Roque, doing his best to keep them both anchored until the worst was over.

He could feel Roque being lifted off the ground as everything around them was sucked towards the hole where the elemental had been a moment ago. His muscles strained to keep his hold on Roque as he hooked his arm around a batch of pipes.

He knew the period while the vacuum was filled was brief, a matter of seconds, but from his point of view, holding on for dear life as his very breath was sucked out of him, it felt much longer. Then, as suddenly as it began, it was over.

There was no warning, no force gently easing them down. It went from holding on for dear life to having what wind was left knocked out of him as he was dropped unceremoniously onto the deck with Roque landing on top of him.

He looked up, and tensed as he saw a smaller fire elemental hovering over them.

"Roque?" he called worriedly.

"She's with us, as is the transparent gentleman to the left," the mage answered with a sigh. "And thanks. Didn't see that one coming."

Clay nodded, already calling to the others for a status report. The message wasn't good.

'Pooch,' he ordered through the com. 'You and Teagues, get the others on deck now. Tell Casey she's up.'

He paused the next words stinging as he spoke. 'It's Cougar.'

#

As the shot rang out, Casey remained watching the waves and calling them out until Teagues placed a hand on her shoulder.

"We got him," he assured her as the boat continued to rise and fall without her count. She nodded and immediately grabbed the medical supplies she'd gathered and stuffed into a duffel bag

She'd seen enough of the fight to know she was needed. She ignored those things she didn't understand or could do nothing about and focused on what she could. It was going to be interesting climbing up the side of the ship with the medical gear.

With that in mind she began working on distributing some of the gear so that if she lost the duffel, she could still do her job.

She was not the least bit surprised when Pooch signaled her towards the ladder, but as she reached for it, he shook his head.

"Teagues first," he told her.

That told her what she needed to know: the deck was not necessarily secured. She was going into to a hot zone with Teagues in the lead.

She drew a deep breath and fought to calm her nerves. She gave a single nod and waited: there was work to be done, but it had to be done right: a medic couldn't do their job if they were dead.

#

Teagues moved as quickly as he dared. With his rifle slung over his shoulder, he was all too aware of just how well he stood out against the hull of the ship. The by-product of his training meant he knew what a juicy target he made as he climbed aboard the Serenity.

Given his choice he would have stayed on board the boat, but someone needed a medic, and that meant Casey. It also meant securing the area and clearing a path to the injured.

He knew his duty and he performed it with the same single minded focus he had displayed in shooting. Once over the rail, a quick sweep of the area revealed no immediate threats. He made a quick study of the area, picking up the prime shooting positions as well as the secondary ones and then identified the 'safe zones.'

Once he was sure the area was as secure as it could be, he signaled Pooch and resumed his watchful study of the immediate area. When Casey reached the top he quickly pointed out the safe zone, waiting until she had settled and pulled her own weapon before signaling for the next person.

He repeated the process with Jolene, and finally Pooch.

#

As Pooch slipped over the railing, he quickly took up position and scanned the area, always on the lookout for threats. He noticed the way Teagues looked after the others and smiled, knowing the man knew his job was one thing, seeing him demonstrate it was another and it set Pooch's mind at ease.

Once Pooch had unslung his rifle, Teagues guided him to one of the cover points where they could 'discuss' their situation and plans for moving forward. Teagues quickly pointed out the sniping positions he'd noted earlier than waited for Pooch to take over.

Pooch studied the area then indicated the direction they were heading. Teagues held up two fingers then gave him a questioning look. It was almost like working with Cougar.

He pointed to himself, indicating that he would take the lead, and that Teagues should cover. He gave a furtive glance towards Jolene and signaled that Teagues should keep an eye on her. He wasn't sure if he entirely trusted the woman, but she'd done all right by them, much as Teagues had, and if he'd been willing to admit it, she was a damn sight prettier.

When Teagues gave a single nod, Pooch wasn't sure if he understood that he should watch for a potential threat from her, or if he'd also noticed that she was rather attractive.

It didn't really matter as they were moving again.

Pooch touched Casey's arm as he passed her, taking up the the scouting position and signaled her to wait for his signal. They inched their way along, moving from cover point to cover point until they reached the area where he knew Jensen and Cougar had last been.

He'd thought he was ready for everything but not for the scattered bodies that lay around them or the way Jensen held a very still Cougar. As one of the 'bodies' started to move, Pooch's gun came up, ready to take the man out if he made one wrong move.

'Don't, he's on our side,' Jensen said aloud and over the comm unit, making sure both men heard him.

The 'body' gave a slow nod and began to confiscate weapons from the downed soldiers.

Even as he turned towards Casey to give her the okay, she was on the move unslinging the medical kit as she moved in and knelt at Cougar's side.

#

Casey did her best to assess Cougar's injuries but it was hard with Jensen holding him. One look at the man holding her patient and she knew that joking with him was the wrong thing to do at this point. No, this was way past humor and into the 'make it better now' stage.

"Corporal," She called barely recognizing Jensen as she spoke. "You need to lay him flat so I can do what I can to help him, all right?"

She was surprised when Jensen almost growled at her and even more surprised when Pooch began barking orders at the man. She had started to turn towards Pooch when she realized that the orders were sinking in when her request hadn't. She gave Pooch a grim nod of thanks and set to work.

"Slap patch applied," she said as force of habit took over. It didn't matter that her kidnappers had long since taken her recording device, it was what you did so you could file the reports when you did the hand off, only something told her that 'hand off' wasn't going to happen like it normally did.

She kept her breathing normal, not wanting to upset Jensen any more than he already was. Keeping it cool in combat was one thing, watching a friend get nearly beaten to death and dealing with the aftermath was quite another.

She worked with one purpose in mind, to stabilize the injured man as quickly as possible. She remembered him from before and realized he was the physad from the flight that had started this whole mess for her. She knew if she didn't engage Jensen he was going to go into shock as well.

"He's a physical adept right?"

The Corporal gave her a dazed look and nodded.

"Okay," she said. "I need you to talk to him. Doesn't matter about what, but I need you to give him something to focus on, a baseline. I'm going to try and get him to trigger his body's own abilities, but I need him to focus."

Again he gave her a dazed look, but didn't say anything.

"Dammit Jensen, now is not the time to not have something to talk about!"

It was Pooch again, and Casey gave him a dubious look but when Jensen started talking, she had her answer. The Corporal was well past kindly requests and well into auto-response mode. That meant it was also going to be dangerous for him.

She ignored what Jensen was saying, tuning out talk of cats, duct tape and orange juice. It didn't matter, he was talking and his friend was responding. Reaching out to the familiar.

She began patting her patient's shoulder in a nice steady rhythm, using her own heartbeat as a metronome, another point of reference for Sergeant Alvarez to follow. She knew if she couldn't synch him up and get him working on his own, she would have to rely on more intrusive measures which would only complicate the healing process.

She could almost feel the Sergeant coming around when suddenly everything around her seemed to turn inside out and she found herself facing the man, only this time his eyes were open and they were alone.

#

Pooch focused his attention on covering Casey and Cougar. After a moment he realized Jensen was more of a patient than a teammate at this point.

Judging by Jensen's warning of 'don't' to both him and the man who had just finished gathering up weapons, Pooch realized that the man was armed even when he was unarmed. That meant 'mage', but if he was a mage why wasn't he in there working on Cougar?

He was about to ask when he heard Casey urge Jensen to speak and he just sat there numbly. It wasn't like Jensen, but then again, this whole mission had been nothing but one cluster-frag after another. When gentle urging failed, he decided it was time to channel Roque, although, to be honest, Roque would have been the one telling Jensen to shut up, not to initiate chatter.

"Dammit Jensen, now is not the time to not have something to talk about!"

That at least got him going. With Jensen at least showing signs of cooperating, Pooch returned his focus to the litter of bodies surrounding Jensen and Cougar. He kept his weapon trained on them, looking for any sign of movement, unsure what had actually happened, but it seemed to lend itself to the theory that Jensen's 'friend' was indeed a mage. That thought brought him back around to the original 'why wasn't he healing Cougar.'

"You," he said calling to the 'friend.'

"Whisper," the man answered in an almost cryptic tone.

"Whisper," Pooch said. "You're a mage right?"

"Yes," he answered. "And before you ask, right now, I'm running on fumes. This," he added gesturing towards the unconscious soldiers. "Knocked me for a loop. The fact that I am upright at the moment, is a small miracle in and of itself."

As the man gathered up the last of the weapons, Casey reeled for a moment then collapsed next to Cougar.

"Frag!" the mage, Whisper, growled as he all but dropped the confiscated weapons into Jolene's arms. "Something's pulled them astral. When I get them out, keep them both awake."

Pooch barely had time to acknowledge the man's barked order before the mage had followed Cougar and Casey into the astral, his body falling unceremoniously to the ground.

"When I get them out, keep them both awake," seemed to echo over the still area.

#

Cougar felt a combination of rage and loss as the warmth was ripped from him. He heard angry voices and all he wanted to do was yell back. It wasn't fair.

He had done what he set out to do. He had kept Jensen alive. He had faced off against Martinez and lived and just when he'd started to relax and accept the end, he was once again pulled into something he did not understand. He started to relax slightly when he heard Jensen talking, but it was prattle. It wasn't anything encouraging or endearing, just mindless prattle.

Then he felt a rhythm being tapped out on his shoulder. The touch felt alien and yet there was something familiar about the contact. He forced himself awake, focusing on the rhythm, synching his body and mind to the tapping, if for not other reason than to get the stranger to leave him alone.

Suddenly, instead of being on the deck of the ship he was staring at the woman who'd left Jake behind to die. Hurt and anger blinded him for a moment and then he realized he was on the astral planes.

"Why have you done this to me?"

She looked at him, her mouth opening in confusion as if she didn't know where they were.

"You," he repeated louder this time. "Why have you brought me here?"

She opened her mouth again, but nothing came out. She was obviously trying to speak, but failing. When he followed her gaze he saw the reason why. Martinez wasn't the only sec-man who'd been given to the bugs. His men were now losing the last illusion of humanity, and while their host bodies were out cold, they were were not.

He pulled the woman behind him as he tried to figure out how to get away from them, but they were everywhere.

Even as he started to deal with the new threat, another form appeared next to them. Cougar moved to take this new form into consideration, then smiled. Although the mage appeared younger here, there was no mistaking him for anyone other than Pendergast… Whisper. He gave Whisper a questioning look, then nodded towards the bug spirits.

"You have got to be kidding me," Whisper sighed wearily.

Cougar tilted his head slightly and gave him an apologetic smile. "With all that has happened, you expect differently?"

"Hoped," the mage answered, tilting his head as if seeing the medic for the first time. "We'll talk more later."

He focused on the spirits who were beginning to move faster. "No time for niceties. When you come to: stay awake. Don't care what happens, stay conscious. Tell Tracker and Duck they're Bullet-Ants and there's at least one queen."

Cougar tried to object but as suddenly as he'd arrived, he was back on the deck of the Serenity with Casey tapping on his shoulder.

#

Much to Pooch's surprise a moment after the 'friend' had collapsed, Cougar sat bolt upright and stared at Jensen for a moment before turning to Casey.

Pooch looked at her, his brow furrowing as she sat there staring in stark horror at the bodies of the soldiers who surrounded them.

"Casey, talk to me," he called worriedly, but the medic simply shook her head and pointed at the soldiers.

It was almost as if Cougar and Casey were speaking an odd shorthand, because Cougs looked at Casey tilted his head questioning and she simply nodded.

Cougar turned towards Pooch, his expression one of infinite sadness. "Kill them."

"Are you insane?" Pooch demanded, beginning to wonder if he was missing something. "They're down. They're no longer a threat."

"Bug Spirits," Cougar informed him. "Killing them is a mercy to those they have taken, and it is the only choice."

Pooch shuddered. "Are you sure?"

"I wish it were not so— but there is no mistaking it."

Pooch studied the two of them, his eyes narrowing. Bug Spirits were serious business and on a ship like the Serenity, they'd have a ready supply of host bodies and plenty of places to hide.

"Ants," the Cougar growled. "Whisper said they were Ant Spirits- soldier ants and at least one queen. There is nothing left of the men they were."

Pooch closed his eyes for a moment before turning towards Jolene and Teagues. While Jolene seemed reluctant to move, Teagues paused, stretching out his senses.

When Pooch saw the man's expression, there was no doubt in his mind that Cougar had spoken the truth. Together they delivered the MAs the coup de gras.

Something told him that their current situation was going to make their time in the jungle seem like a picnic.

#

Jensen looked up in shock as Pooch began killing the downed men. It was as if he'd woken up from one nightmare only to find himself stuck in another.

At least in this nightmare Cougar was awake, injured, but awake. There was a woman next to him, and he knew he should have known her from somewhere but for the life of him he couldn't remember.

"This can't be happening," he stated woodenly. "This just... can't be real."

"It is real," Cougar told him, and if he hadn't just told Pooch to kill the soldiers, Jensen might have believed him, but that wasn't Cougar talking. It couldn't be.

"No," Jensen objected, unsure what had happened to his friends.

"Jensen," Cougar called softly as he picked himself. "The men they were are gone— they were infected and they never even knew it. It wasn't until they pulled me into the astral that the change began in full."

He should his head. "I should have seen it…"

Jensen gave a half snort. "You've been through a lot," he offered.

Jensen saw Pooch, and then recognized Casey.

"You got her back," Jensen said to Pooch.

"Obviously."

'Okay,' Jensen thought. 'That's definitely Pooch.'

#

Whisper drew what remained of his power to him and formed a shield between himself and the bug spirits. He didn't have the strength to conjure let alone hold a full barrier, but he hoped a shield would suffice.

He felt the path he'd used to send Cougar and the medic back and quickly closed it. The last thing he needed were two people unused to the metaplanes caught in the middle.

This was no place for the uninitiated.

Even as he closed the path he could feel more enemies closing in on him.

He felt the last of his energy sucked into the void as nature rebalanced itself, and was thankful for small favors. He might be stuck there, but at least the bugs couldn't follow Cougar and Casey

He felt his mind mulling over the parallels between physics and metaphysics and sighed as he felt the shield close in on itself. It had been nice while it lasted.

He turned, knowing that the bug spirits were studying him. He wasn't sure if he was thankful or not that they had waited. At least he would be fully aware of them eating away at his essence.

He paused, unsure if they would feed, or call upon their queen to dispatch him.

As they circled him, he realized they weren't planning on feeding on him, but honoring him. He froze. He could feel the metaphysical equivalent of cold sweat dripping down his back.

He reassessed his initial opinion. Facing the bugs here, in this way was at least five times worse than it was on the physical plane.

He could feel their song in his bones as they called out, guiding their queen to him, their pincers joined in such a way as to hold him without damaging him.

As she neared he could see her egg-sac trailing behind her. He faced the cold certainty of a fate worse then death and as he tried to back away he felt the pincers close in on his wrists.

He felt it on the astral and he could sense the damage being done to his body back in the physical world.

He focused on the pain, and upped his estimate. This was ten times worse than facing the spirits on the physical plane.

He closed his eyes, knowing he was out of options. In this situation Duck would punt, but he was no good at ad-libbing. He paused, thinking of Jensen. The man was as magical as a box of crayons, but that never seemed to stop him.

He smiled. One man's improvisation was another man's BS. B.S. he could handle.

He stopped struggling and tilted his head, studying first the soldier ants and then the queen herself. She towered over him, her antennae twisting around him as she felt him out.

"Stop that," he said shaking his head. "That tickles."

"You," she hissed, the contempt rolling off her in waves. "You are puny, yet you do not tremble."

"I gave it up for lent," he explained, allowing the ambient energy around them form a spark.

"You have no magic, yet you are here."

"I have plenty of magic," Whisper answered with a shrug. He was now channeling, Jensen, Duck and Tracker, all at the same time. It was a heady yet dangerous combination.

"You will become the vessel for my daughter to come forth and you will be mother to a new generation of our peoples."

"I don't think so," Whisper said lunging forward, only to be stopped by the queen's guard.

"You have no choice in the matter. Here I do not need the shamans to do my bidding. Here I reign. There will be no stopping me, unless you wish to plead, trade your worthless soul for another?"

"Twenty times," he said reassessing the situation and realizing he'd said it 'aloud' as it were.

"Twenty times, what?"

"No."

She moved forward, nodding to the soldiers to hold him, but they were prepared for him to recoil from her, not spring towards her. Even as they changed their tactics, he parted the veil between planes and dropped back into his body.

He had absorbed just enough power, not enough to defeat her, but more that enough to get away and deliver a message.

He prayed it was enough.