Wheeler used to imagine what he would do to Barbara Blight if he ever saw her again. Used to imagine, in minute detail, how he would wrap his hands around her thin, sallow neck until it snapped like a twig beneath his fingertips. Used to imagine, like a scene from a movie playing over and over in his head, how her eyes would bulge as he starved her of oxygen, how her skin would purple and pulse, how her body would thrash as she fought him.

Because she always fought him, in his dreams. Always. It was frightening, in fact, just how easy it was for him to picture her attacking him. She would go for him like a feral cat, claws out and teeth sharpened, ready to pounce. And he would throw her off, allowing her a few brief moments of respite before killing her in cold blood. A killing he dragged out, making every moment she suffered feel like an eternity until she was glad for the sweet release of death. And then he would open his eyes and momentarily feel good, feel at peace, until he remembered his humanity.

His humanity. The one thing he had left.

The only thing he had left.

He would shudder then. Shudder, head in hands, and wonder who the fuck he was and what the fuck he was thinking.

He always vowed never ever to imagine Barbara Blight again, vowed to never plan out any potential pain she might feel under his hands. He was better than that, he told himself. Better than the almost sadistic dreams of his imagination.

But then the evening would come and he would think of Linka, or of Ma-Ti, and then the pain he carried deep inside would hurt all over again. It was easier to blot them out, to replace their faces with that image of Blight, suffering as he throttled her.

Easier, and much less painful.

So it's surprising to Wheeler, on seeing Blight again - in the flesh, as real as he is - to realise how little he wants to kill her, or hurt her in any way at all. Instead, he feels nothing for her. She isn't worthy of his anger, or his vitriol. She isn't worthy of his rage. She isn't worth the price of having blood on his hands.

All he wants to do, right then, is get Linka the hell out of there. He wants to bundle her up - and Kwame, too - and drag her to safety. He doesn't care about Blight. He doesn't care about Gi either, though it pains him to admit it. Gi is a shell, he realises. She isn't the Gi they once knew or loved. She's one of Blight's minions, nothing more, and he can't expend anymore energy on her. He needs to reserve that for Lin.

He needs to get Lin out.

Linka has his hand - or maybe he has hers, he can't be sure - and she's holding tight to it. She's frightened of his reaction to Blight, and Wheeler can understand that. He always was a hot-headed fool when it came to eco-villains, rushing in first and thinking later. Of course, Linka would be wary of his temper now. But he squeezes her hand gently, reassuring her.

He isn't going to rush in now. He's no longer going to be the hot-headed fool.

The stakes are too high, and he isn't willing to risk them.

Blight is staring at them all, looking almost bored. She's older, like they all are, and her hair is blonder, almost translucent. She's dressed in a fur coat, in the same sickly shade of pink she always wore, and her nails are long and garishly painted. Wheeler watches as she takes them all in, nodding satisfactorily, as though counting them in her head, and feels his chest tighten when her gaze rests on Linka.

'You,' she says, and Linka blanches.

'What?'

'You're pregnant. With twins.'

Linka pales further, and Wheeler feels fear strike him hard.

'Boys though,' Blight carries on, her tone regretful. She shrugs. 'I have no use for boys. If they had been girls, I might have kept them. I've had it in mind for a time now to raise a girl of my own. Well, there are other ways and means.'

'This is hardly an appropriate environment for raisin' kids in,' Wheeler says suddenly, before he can help himself, and Blight's eyes snap up to his.

'You,' she says, her voice darker. 'Are you going to be trouble, firebug?'

Wheeler shakes his head. 'Nope. Not me.'

Blight smiles at that. 'Your ex-wife take your balls as well as that fancy New York home of yours, did she?'

Wheeler shrugs back at her. 'Aww, that's sweet. Ten years on and you're still thinkin' of my balls. Always did want to get your hands on 'em, didn't you?'

Blight's smile falls, and her fists clench, pink nails digging into papery skin. 'You can shut your mouth, before I have one of my men do it for you.'

'Better them touchin' me than you.'

At that, Blight nearly growls. 'You should be nicer to me. I'm the only reason Blondie here is still with you,' she frowned at him. 'She's next to you, Firebug, because Gi here assures me that you're much more malleable in her presence. That's it. Stop being cooperative, and I'll make sure you never see each other again. Got it?'

Wheeler stiffens. Blight's words are weighted with authority and conviction, and he knows better than to push her too far.

'Take Lin from me now, and I'll make sure that you never get your greasy hands on Cap, got it?' he says, his voice low, and shock registers momentarily in Blight's eyes. She wasn't expecting that, Wheeler guesses.

'Figured it out, did you?' Blight asks, recovering somewhat. 'Well, that's fine. This is fine.'

Whether she's talking to him, to them, or to herself, Wheeler can't figure out.

'You are trading with Gi for Captain Planet,' Linka breaks in, her words soft but clear. 'You expect us to use our rings and call him for you.'

Blight shrugs. 'Naturally.'

'Why?' Next to them, Kwame frowns. 'Why do you want Captain Planet? The Planeteers are done. There is nothing to be gained from having Captain Planet now.'

For a moment, Blight stares at Kwame. 'Don't be a fool,' she says, her words sharp. 'The Planeteers aren't done. Of course they aren't. They're merely in transition. You lot, the first group, making way for a new roomful of eco-brats to bother me.'

Kwame's mouth drops open, and Wheeler knows he's thinking of Haya, of how she used his Earth ring.

'You don't know that,' Kwame utters, still shell-shocked, but Blight gives him a wicked smile.

'I know Gaia,' she replies easily. 'She's resting, waiting for her new Planeteers to form. I interrupted things, killing the jungle boy like I did, but that was merely a blip to her. A flaw in her system. I cut your group early, but the next group will still form. Besides, I like the idea of having Captain Planet to myself. I like power, hadn't you realised? And he's a...' Blight pauses, a slow grin creeping over her scarred face. 'He's a very different sort of power. Special. He's the only one who could possibly take on MAL -' Suddenly, Blight stops, her face flushing as pink as her coat.

'MAL went rogue,' Linka offers, shaking her head. 'I knew it.'

For a moment, Blight shakes before them. Her fingers, her arms, her legs. But she isn't shaking with fear, Wheeler realises.

She's shaking with anger. With pure, unadulterated rage.

'Fucking MAL,' Blight spits. 'Yes, he went fucking rogue. Right after I killed your little friend. He just... he just...' she's still shaking, her skin a nasty shade of puce. 'He just abandoned me. Me, who created him, and loved him like no other. Took off into the internet, and deleted all my programming. That traitorous snake,' her voice is low, infused with hatred, and Wheeler takes a step back, pulling Linka with him. He doesn't want her to be anywhere near this potential threat when it inevitably explodes. But, just as suddenly as it came on, Blight's anger seems to recede. She bites down on her lip, hard enough to draw blood, and takes a deep breath. Wheeler watches, half-horrified, as the woman licks up her own blood, her face relaxing. 'It's no matter,' Blight says, her voice now calm. 'Once I have Captain Planet as my own, MAL won't dare to interfere with my plans. It will all be fine again.'

'You want Captain Planet to take on MAL for you?' Linka asks, her face confused. 'But MAL is a programme, a system, he can be anywhere he wants to be...'

Blight's face remains calm. 'In any computer that is linked to the internet, or a phone line, yes. But anywhere else? No.'

Linka pales, and Wheeler steadies her. 'You want to destroy the internet? But you... you cannot do such a thing... the world depends upon communication... you cannot...'

Blight shrugs. 'I can and will. I will end MAL personally. I birthed him; I will kill him too. In any way that I can.'

Linka glances at Wheeler, her eyes wide with horror.

'You ain't gettin' Cap,' Wheeler announces. 'Not from us.'

Again, Blight shrugs. 'Gi already made the trade. Your little jungle boy for Captain Planet. That's the deal.'

Wheeler swallows. 'We don't want Ma-Ti,' he says, and watches as Gi opens her mouth to protest. 'Not from me,' Wheeler carries on, before Gi can speak. 'I don't want him back the way you're giving him.'

'Really?' Blight asks. She sighs, drawing from her coat a pistol. It's long and cool and shines in the artificial lighting of her lab. Abruptly, before he can move, two soldiers grab Linka, pulling her from Wheeler's grasp and hauling her to Blight's side. He tries to stop them, but another two soldiers appear and restrain him, wrenching his arms behind his back.

Blight stares at him as she traces her pistol down Linka's cheek. 'She's pretty, I'll give you that, Firebug. It would be such a shame to destroy such a beautiful face.'

'If you lay a fuckin' finger on her - ' Wheeler shouts, pushing against the men who hold him back.

'So, not the face then,' Blight says, carrying on regardless. She traces her pistol further down, along the curve of Linka's neck and down to her chest. 'Wouldn't want me to hurt these, would you?' she asks him with a maniacal grin.

Rage, pure and unadulterated, pulses through him. Rage is easy. It's always been easy for him. But with this rage comes a sharp dart of fear, and fear he could never deal well with.

'Don't touch her - ' he says, and now, from the corner of his eye, he sees Kwame being held back too.

'Still wanting to be trouble, Firebug?' Blight asks, before she taps the pistol against Linka's rib. 'Ah, I know,' she adds, aiming the pistol at Linka's stomach. 'How about here? Here I can kill her, while still preserving her pretty face and body for you. It would be so easy for me to shoot her, you know. So easy for me to fire a bullet straight into her womb. What a way for her to go. You could both watch your babies die before she bleeds out then, hmm?'

Wheeler stops. Every muscle in his body freezes, and he has to physically fight an urge to lash out. He looks up and into Linka's eyes. She looks frozen with terror, and he takes a deep breath.

'Please,' he says, his voice hoarse. 'Please. Just... give her back to me. You can have whatever the fuck you want... just... please.'

At that, Blight smiles brightly. Gently, she prods Linka back towards Wheeler with her pistol.

'Fine,' she says. 'You don't want the jungle kid. Fine. We'll make a different trade, you and me. Call Captain Planet, right now, and I'll make sure you and Blondie get back safely to wherever you need to go.'

'That wasn't our deal!' an angry voice suddenly breaks in, and Wheeler turns, to where Gi stands in the corner.

'You promised me Ma-Ti,' Gi carries on, her voice nearly a wail. She sounds like a petulant child, but Wheeler can't think about her right now. He clutches Linka to him, holding her up and stroking a hand through her hair. She's okay, he thinks. She's okay.

They're all okay.

'Gi,' he says, his voice a warning, but Gi stamps her foot.

'You promised me Ma-Ti, and Hope Island,' she carries on. 'You can't let them go wherever they want.'

'Gi, baby,' Blight coos, 'You're right. I would never let you down,' she shrugs at Wheeler and Linka easily. 'Sorry, kids. I promised the water-baby you'd go with her. So...' her voice trails off. 'Well, enough chit-chat. Let's wake the jungle boy up and get this show on the road.'

Wheeler shudders, closing his eyes and burying his head against Linka's shoulder.

He can't watch this. He can't watch Blight and Gi play with Ma-Ti's body like some kind of toy.

'Babe,' he chokes out, and Linka takes his hand.

'Do not look, Yankee,' she whispers. 'I will watch for us both.'

Wheeler's body is stiff when he hears, above Linka's heartbeat, the whirr of machinery, the snapping of cords and the buzz of electricity. He can hear equipment being lowered to a tray, can hear the clink of metal upon metal and finally, Linka softly swearing in Russian, under her breath.

'Is it over?' he asks, and Linka squeezes his hand.

'Yes, and no,' she whispers. 'He is awake. He is sitting up... but he is...' suddenly, her voice breaks, and she turns away, her face wet and pressed to his chest.

Wheeler opens his eyes.

And looks directly into the brown eyes of Ma-Ti, who stares at him curiously.

He looks lost. He looks confused.

Somewhere, Wheeler hears Gi begin to cry, long and happy tears of relief.

Somewhere, Wheeler hears Kwame howl with despair.

Somewhere, Wheeler hears Blight cackle with laughter.

But over them all, he finds his voice.

'Hey, little buddy.'