"Why isn't she going into the cube?" Matt asked Jack as the men frantically tried to repel the encroaching Vena as she climbed up the side of the wall, her long arms pulling up her slender body matted in black blood from the pores opening up on her skin.
The mutations resulted Vena's body morphing into something that even the originator never expected and he looked fully human when he attacked his victims, that's how he got close.
Vena, however, the mutations would've made it difficult for her to hunt so easily and that'd drive her to kill any she finds without hesitation.
Her face morphed, narrowing her jaw, pointing her nose, widening her mouth, and all her original teeth pushed out to make way for the spiny black teeth that replaced them. The tongue long and sharp tipped, twisted and turned effortlessly as her jaw hung open, sludgy salvia dripped from the underside of her pale lower lip.
"I have no idea," Jack winced as he didn't know why Vena wasn't going towards the cube.
The scent of Ripley's blood is stronger near the cube, she'd have no reason to turn to them and instead go near the cube as intended.
She felt differently and stared at them, her teeth shining from the dim lights.
"What now?" Ianto asked Jack as he and Stephen readied their firearms, pointing them at Vena.
Looking at her, Jack pondered before saying that this is a trap. Vena wanted them to flee out of the observatory room. She'd try to keep them from entering it again and make sure they couldn't escape the bottom basement alive.
She knew bullets wouldn't do anything to her anymore, she's aware of her own strength and prowess.
No longer human, she didn't have the issues that humans normally would and instead focus on her goal. Eating them. Her black eyes, her soulless eyes, once filled with joy and love, now with meticulous calculating and animalistic tendencies.
Even if they could've done something to help Vena, by this point, there's no going back. She's lost to the annals of genetics.
If they tested her blood now, any remaining bit of human DNA, whatever left of it, won't be in her blood.
Somehow, the genetic lottery won and the blood transfusion caused an unprecedented mutation that even the originator couldn't have predicted when he attacked Vena.
Vena's eyes have no pupils and yet the men felt her staring at their very cores, even though the observatory window's shielded.
The hands slammed into the window as Vena attempts to break into the observatory room, knowing the men wouldn't go through the secret hatch that Ianto and Jack kept as a way to escape should anything go wrong with the cube.
She knew they won't leave the human in the cube alone.
She knew the lanky one won't leave her.
Bullets didn't phase her as the men except for one shot her countless times, her skin thick as Kevlar.
Unflinching, Vena tore holes in the window, her arms sticking through them as she attempted to pull the window outward.
Crackling under her clawed hands, Vena growled as she lapped salvia collected on her lips. The men kept firing at her as she tried reaching for the tall one.
"Vena!" she stopped when she heard a foreign voice.
Her lanky neck bends as she turned her head to see a woman standing there with a look on her face.
"Vena!" she heard again.
Fresh blood, she smelled it, and her body moved on its own as she gradually pulled out her four arms as she lowered herself from the wall.
Slowly, Vena tried to move towards the woman but she ran towards the weird thing in the centre of the room and her body lurched after.
Like a spider she moved meticulously towards the woman as she disappeared into the cube and Vena rushed through the open doorway.
She couldn't find them, no matter how much she looked, the women, they weren't there, and she looked everywhere in the cube. Growling, Vena attempted to leave, but there's no doorway, she tried to make her own, but even her strength couldn't tear a hole in the wall.
Slowly, Vena felt her skin charring and she didn't even recognize the pain as her nerves burnt away.
The only thing that came out of her mouth, the only thing she could ever say after her horrifying mutation.
"Leeā¦" she whimpered before she turned into ashes as the cube incinerated her completely, burning even the ashes, until there was nothing there but the faint smell of burnt flesh.
Pulling Ripley out of the cube, Lee yanks off his wig and looked towards the cube as Ianto powered it on and the sudden silence as Vena burnt into nothing.
"Ripley!" Matt ran frantically out of the hidden doorway and wrapped his arms around her.
He couldn't help himself and planted many kisses on her cheek.
Ripley squirmed in his arms as she told him that she's fine, but if Ianto so much as poke her again, she's kneeing him in the daddy bags, and she's not going to stop at one time, either.
"Lee!" Jack shouts as he ran towards Lee as tears ran down his face.
Lee said he had to come and help Jack because he felt responsible.
"Lee, it's not your fault," Stephen shook his head.
Lee wiped the tears away from his face as he said, "I told her she'd be safe, that she didn't have anything to worry about!"
Just before Lee left that night, he assured Vena she'd be fine. When she went missing, well, it sealed Lee's regrets as he felt like he lied to her. If he'd told her she couldn't go to work, to stay indoors, she wouldn't have turned into this demented creature that killed more people and almost them as well.
Jack held him close as he bawled into his collared shirt and Ianto stroked his back.
"Let it all, out," Ianto frowned as he comforted Lee.
Stephen asked if there's a chance Vena might've made more like her and Jack said that they'll incinerate the bodies of her victims. Burn the ashes, just to be sure.
It took time, but Lee calmed down and washed up as Jack regrouped with his team. He told them that Vena's finally dead and his plans to incinerate the bodies of her victims. If they have to, incinerate the bodies of the originator's victims, just to make sure nothing like this ever happened again.
For now, Jack authorized therapy sessions for his team, as it's painful knowing that someone close to them mutated into a creature and that there's nothing they could've done to turn her back into a human.
Lee's given time off and extra therapy and some counseling to go with it.
He'll have to go twice a week for a year, however long he needs.
If he goes back to dating, Jack will make sure his future girlfriends won't suffer the same fate as Vena, making sure that this situation never happened again.
As the team discussed the therapy sessions Jack ordered, Jack took the time to thank Matt for the difficulty of ensuring Vena died. It was hard for him to use his Sonic Screwdriver to do something like this.
He also thanked Ripley for her help in luring Vena and in a way, keep future victims from meeting the same fate, and Ripley waved her hand, her arm bandaged from Ianto poking her with the knife.
It's a small cut and won't take time at all to heal.
Her wrist'll take a little long, but she's still alive and not fated like Vena was.
With that, Ianto and Jack saw the pair off and they returned to the blue beauty that waited for their return.
Upon entering, Matt took them back to his flat where he spent time with Ripley, reflecting what happened.
The fact that within hours of the blood transfusion, Vena transformed into a creature far beyond what the pair seen, and the fact that one point, she was a happy woman who Lee thought could've been the one.
"Think he'll recover?" Ripley wondered as she sat next to Matt.
Matt frowned as he quietly pondered before he said that there's a chance that Lee won't fully recover, but with the team at his side, he'll find the strength to soldier on.
Maybe he'll find another love, time will only tell, but for now, he needed all the help the team mustered to ensure he won't feel helpless.
It's as good as an ending they'll get.
If Matt could've, he wouldn't hesitate helping Vena return to her human form, no matter how long it'd take. If only, to prevent this from happening.
Of course, it didn't work out the way he hoped, but Matt's accustomed to adventures not ending the way he wanted. It's his duty to acknowledge that there's things beyond his help.
"Hey," Ripley called to him.
He turned his head towards her as she frowned.
"Look, I don't wanna jinx it, but if that ever happens to me, if I ever become a creature so distant from my human self that I'm my own creation. Don't hesitate putting me out of my misery. In fact, I rather die before I forget what it's like to be human," she sincerely said.
This experience led Ripley to the belief that if it should happen to her, she'd want Matt to kill her while she still had human in her, rather her becoming like Vena, where there wasn't anything left in her.
Matt nudged her with his elbow as he said, "I won't ever let you turn into some monster. Of course, I must accept that there's things I can't control. I won't let you get lost, either."
The pair agreed, that if anything happened to either that they become something grotesque as Vena, and there's no chance of them turning back, the unturned partner euthanize them humanely as they can, while they're still human in bits.
"But I won't let that ever happen, not on my watch," Matt vowed to keep Ripley and himself from turning and causing the other to painfully euthanize the turned.
Even if he's limited, Matt won't hesitate to do everything in his power to keep them both safe and sound.
An arm around her, Matt held her close as they attempt to watch a movie, something lighthearted for a heavyhearted situation.
THE END
