Chapter XXI: Grim Reading, or The Days End

AN:

Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

Welp. This is the end. Only the second fic I've finished in my five years of writin' on the internet. Thanks for sticking with me through this whole thing, or for reading this late, if you've waited until it's finished. You kids are all awesome. *cheesy finger guns*

On a specific chapter note, writing this was a nightmare. I started off finishing up at three-thousand words and was like "Well, I can't write *that* little for my bloody finale. Imma right some more." and then I hit ten-thousand words and was still going. Eesh. Not a big fan of some of the scene transitions either. They're a bit jolting. Lot's of literary whiplash there. But c'est la vie.

I'll fix it in editing. :D

Oh, and in the unlikely event anyone wants to continue this or write in the 'Dead Space is Strange' universe I've got going, you have my full endorsement to do so. All I ask is that you send me a link. :)

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

Every member of our little party froze instantly. The others were still concealed, I think, and we were all definitely spooked, but yeah. The game was up, for me. No sense avoiding the inevitable. I stood a little straighter and looked them in the eye. Confidence, Caulfield. Always confidence. Jefferson seemed delighted, clapping my stance like I'd just finished my solo in a concert performance.

I smirked at him, then focused on the two Prescotts.

"Well, if it isn't itty bitty Maxine," Nathan crooned. His voice had a strange, wispy tone to it that he definitely hadn't had before... well, before. Even after ten years of... comfortable padding from a happy life of love and laughter, my memories of him were clear on that. "What a special guest we have in our Church today, right Dad?"

That- wait. My hand flashed to my closed helmet. How did he-

"Indeed, Nathan." His father responded in similarly creepifying tones. "Have you and your infidels come to help us with the ritual? To help the Gods bring Unity to Arcadia? To bring Convergence to us all?" His eyes glittered with fervour, locked on mine.

"Uh, no. No, we haven't." I rubbed the back of my neck and stepped slightly out from behind the pillar. The identification question could wait, I guess. Though it was gonna keep annoying me 'til I found out, I just knew it. "Actually, we came to stop you."

"Really?" Sean said, mildly bemused interest across his face. He stepped away from his spot at the console - and the bloody whirlwind was still whirling. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Um. Thanks?" I paused. Well this was... weirdly polite. "We're still going to stop you though."

Whatever was holding Nathan back just snapped right then. He jolted forward, like an angry dog on a rope. All growling and barking and fury. "Like you stopped Jefferson? You think just because you fucked up his plans, bitch, that you can get the better of a Prescott? We own this station, Maxine. We own you, we own your wife, we own your mom, your dad, your dog-"

"I... don't have a dog."

He stopped talking and just gave me this look. "-your... what?"

"I don't have a dog." I shrugged, seizing on the topic like a drowning man in a confusing as fuck conversation. "Never have. More of a cat person."

A fond smile, memories of Bongo padding around the old Price home. He was a good cat.

"Huh." Nathan blinked. Paused. Blinked again. His eyes went glazed and distant, his expression vacant, confused little frown upon his brow. A moment of that before he twitched wildly, his next word exploding from him. "That's-"

"What my son is trying to say," Sean smoothly interjected, his hand soothing the rapidly agitating Nathan back to calmness. Heh. Though calmness was relative. "-is that you have no hope of stopping us, Max. And why would you even want to? Do you not wish for unity? To feel the tender embrace of your fellow man, to feel the embrace of the last evolution our species will ever know or want? To feel all your wants, your regrets, your pains and sorrows be subsumed into the whole?" His voice grew from the peculiar murmur to joyous exultation by the end. A true believer.

He paused and looked at me, like he genuinely wanted an answer. His whole face drowned in utterly sincere, hopeful curiosity. One more sinner, needing to be saved. "Um. No?"

He raised a surprised brow. "You sound unsure, Max. Are you-"

A flash of flesh, a stinking planetoid crowd of humanity, too loud, too warm, and far too close. "N-no. Definitely not."

"A shame." And Sean seemed genuinely regretful. Nathan had gone placid beneath his hand. "Well, I'm afraid we can't let you stop this, infidel."

Chloe stepped out with a snort. "Who says you get a say, asshole?" And then she shot him. Two quick little bursts.

He cried out at the first as it took a chunk outta his shoulder, but darted out of the way of the second, impossibly fast, and brought Nathan down to the ground with him. The Prescott scion let out a burst of swearwords as he landed, coming up into a roll and darting for a small box I hadn't previously noticed. He pulled something from it and ran, ducking and diving and laughing as he went while Chloe's shots just... bounced off of him. He darted behind a pillar and out of sight, still laughing.

Sean just stood up again. I took the opportunity to fire a bomb at him. It flew and- right at the last second, he swung a swagger stick that he'd pulled out of fucking nowhere and hit it back. I dived left as the thing collided with the pillar I'd been hiding behind and exploded, dragging the metal into a singularity and vanishing, leaving two stubs as the only evidence a pillar had ever been there.

When I looked at the bastard batsman in shock, he shrugged. "What? Have you never engaged in the finest of human pastimes before? I had the highest under-eighteens batting average in the sector, before I became Enigma of this Congregation."

Well, fuck.

I quickly reloaded and took another shot. He batted it off again, taking out another pillar and a section of the floor around it.

"Stop it, Max!" Rachel yelled, stepping out and hurling the knife at Sean. He moved, ever so slightly, letting it scrape a line across his cheek before it buried itself to the hilt in the metal bulkhead behind him.

Sean's face lit up in delighted surprise as he recognised her. "My, oh my. If it isn't our errant angel-to-be. You've worried a great many of my flock, Angel, running from your destiny as you did."

Rachel laughed. "I'm sure."

He seemed almost affronted. "No, really. You-"

"Oh, I believe you." She said, "You Unitologists might be mad, but you're sure as hell earnest."

He raised an eyebrow. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Please do," Rachel wafted her hand and the knife wiggled slightly before yanking itself from the wall and hurling back to her, though- Sean cried out through gritted teeth as it rammed into his non-destroyed shoulder. Rachel smirked. "Ooops."

Sean's head bowed for a moment and he took a few stymied breaths, still through those clenched teeth, before looking up, his eyes locking on to her. His mouth curled into a feral smile. "Oh, you bitch."

Her smirk grew into a full-blown smug-bitch grin. "Guilty." She trilled, before raising her hand again. The knife tore itself free, and Sean definitely screamed at that, before flying through the air and settling neatly in her hand, blade down. "Kinesis Magnets. They're wonderful things."

"Yes, they are." Sean ground out. "And they're ours!" He pulled up his swagger-stick and pointed and something shot out of fucking nowhere and hit her in the midsection, sending her flying across the room. She landed somewhere in the extended section, rolling out of my sight.

Then, Sean turned to me. Chloe shot him again.

This round he barely reacted to, flinching like the bullet to his belly had been a harmless poke. Instead, he lifted his stick again and, in a grave tone, said, "You will fail, child. You cannot fathom the depths of-"

Chloe shot him another time, his non-stick-holding arm snapping back and falling limp next to his side. The man shuddered and his eyes fluttered closed as his jaw clenched.

That momentary flash of weakness from his father was enough to drive Nathan out of his hiding place, angrily yelling some borderline gibberish as he fired wildly at us.

I darted back behind the pillar I was nearest - if the idiot wasn't such a bad shot, I'd've... done something I'm not thinking about right now. Either that or I'd've shot a bomb at him and turned the little prick into spaghetti.

Non-existent, extra-dimensional spaghetti.

I started to poke my head out again, only to dodge back behind as a random shot pinged off the pillar. Fuck. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and apparently the same holds true for an idiot with a minigun. Shoot enough bullets and eventually one will hit.

I took a glance and checked on the others. Chloe was the only one I could see, ducked behind a pillar that was covered in bullet-made pock marks. Copse was nowhere to be found. All of a sudden, something off in that side-room fell with a screeching crash of metal-on-metal. I looked over to see Rachel crawling out from where she'd fallen and woozily getting up to her feet. She planted her hand on the thing that'd fallen - some kind of crate - and took a moment to breath. "Shit, Rach'!"

Chloe thrust out her hand, enveloping Rachel in a soft blue glow before yanking her hand back. A moment later, the spot Rachel had stood in was filled with bullets.

Rachel landed with another muffled cry of pain, and one hand flew to her ribcage.

Chloe blanched, sticking out her hands to- "Sorry, sorry, sorry!"

She skittered forward, grabbing Rachel roughly in her efforts to help her up. Efforts that quickly soured, as Chloe's booted foot came down hard on Rachel's unarmoured hand. Sean laughed, distracted from his pain for a moment by the slapstick comedy routine going on in front of us all.

"And these are the challenges we're sent? The infidels to stop us?" He only laughed harder. "The creators of the Marker must have a sense of humour!"

Chloe, once she'd gotten back up, scowled at the laughing bastard and pulled up her gun once again. Almost lazily, he lifted his stick and pointed, another mysterious object flying out and hitting her before she could ever take a shot. The thing hit her in the shoulder, spinning her around as she flopped on the ground. For a moment, I wanted to run over, but she rolled over and groaned and I knew I had to wait.

But maybe I didn't have to wait quietly. "Hey, Sean!"

"Yes, Max?"

Another burst of fire from Nathan forced me back into cover, but Sean held out his hand to Nathan to stop, and gestured me back out. "Are you beginning to see the futility of your actions?"

"Not quite," I guess. "I think I need some answers, first."

He laughed again. "Only the Marker can give all the answers you want, Max, but I'll do my best to help. All are welcome to bask in the glory of the Markers."

"Right. Obviously. Uh..." Come on, Max. Think of something! Oh dog, this is like that time Chloe- Chloe! I can do that annoying question thing! "So, the Markers are... Gods, then?"

Sean shook his head. "No, not Gods. Only the tools of Gods, Max. As we are nought but their servants, the Markers are their tools, their gifts to us, dragging us up from the primordial muck, that which allowed us to reach for the stars. That which will prevent us from dragging those stars down, as our greed begins to consume all the galaxy."

"Okay... So, then, why are you doing anything? Shouldn't the Marker God People be able to make it happen on their own, if they're so powerful?"

"The makers of the Markers knew that there would be... ah. Wrenches in the works. Bad cogs in their design. As all good creators do." He shrugged. "The Church was motivated by our great founder, the silenced prophet Michael Altman, to remedy that. To ready our people for their final evolution."

He smiled suddenly, sadly, and raised his stick once again. "But I'm afraid you've delayed too long. The next step of the ritual must begin. So, goodbye, Ma-"

A knife, several bullets, and a host of plasma bolts flew in from three different directions. The knife went through the hand holding the stick and the bullets and plasma peppered across his torso.

Sean stood proud, bleeding openly from several places - Chloe's gun and Rachel's knife had both left their marks. He threw open his arms and laughed. "Go ahead, Infidels! I can take whatever you can throw at me. The Marker protects-"

Chloe put a bullet in his knee, then another in his chest, and Sean crumpled near-instantly. She snorted. "Marker doesn't seem to be doing much for you now, dude."

I gave her a look. Dude? Really?

She shrugged.

I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to Sean, now on his knees and gasping. His hand was held tight to the wound on his chest. Looking at him, kneeling there, you could almost forget what he'd done. Almost feel sorry for him. The little hitches in his breath were just... so pitiable. I started forward to help, to do... something, but Chloe stopped me. Then I remembered who he was and what he'd done, and that feeling fucking vanished. Well, it didn't. But it did get small enough and felt so blindingly wrong that I could ignore it and finish this.

I strode forward, scooping up my black-hole-bomb arc-welder along the way. He looked up as I approached and his eyes went wide. A little thrill ran through me. He knew what was going to happen.

I took the barrel of the gun and swung. With some errant last burst of energy, Sean surged upwards, grabbing the stock and holding the gun in place. In place, with the barrel pointed right at my chest.

"Fuck. You. Infidel."

He pulled the trigger.

For a moment, my life flashed before my eyes. The highs, the lows, and all the way through... Chloe. Always Chloe. Chloe... Dog, I'm sorry, Chlo'. I really thought we'd make it. Just-

Something hard and spherical slammed into my chest. I looked down and my eyes widened. I threw myself backwards moments before the black hole bomb exploded and Sean... vanished. I looked down, the hole in the deckplate finished barely a centimetre from my soles.

That... That was... I felt a rising nausea. Oh dog. That-

"No!" Nathan suddenly charged, face contorted in blind fury.

Copse sniffed contemptuously and lazily raised his gun before shooting the idiot kid in the leg. Nathan went down. Hard. Copse shook his head. "Idiot."

I lay there for a few mute moments, swallowing down the vomit before I stood and dusted myself off.

With the two Prescotts down, we all took a moment to sigh in relief before turning our attentions to the- "Ooof!" I groaned as Chloe slammed into me, wrapping me in a tight hug.

She leaned in and murmured lowly in my ear. "Nice one, Maxie." Before I could respond or react, she pulled away and strode over to the machine. Her hands glided over the input panels, swapping between several display screens. Each one made Chloe's expression turn more and more grave.

"I... I don't think we can turn it off." Chloe's hands and eyes flew over the console's inputs and outputs once more respectively, then she nodded to herself. Her face set in determination. She waved a hand at the still swirling, now growing, torrent of blood that had once been Kate Marsh.

"But, we have to be able to turn it off!" Rachel stared at the machine, her mouth working uselessly for a few moments before she shook her head, blinked a little, and focused intensely on all of us. "If we don't, everything will- It's-"

"You know what it is, don't you?" I asked, stepping forward and meeting her eye with a level of bravery I most definitely absolutely Did Not Feel^TM. "What this machine does?"

Rachel nodded.

"You lied to us again? Really?"

Said the frog to the scorpion.

"That isn't going to stop 'til it swallows the fucking station whole. We need to destroy it."

A single voice cut through the quiet. "No."

We all looked over to Copse in surprise. He had his gun trained on Chloe, a little laser-targeter pointed unwaveringly at her heart, and an expression on his face I hadn't seen on his before. Cold malice. "I can't let you do that, Miss Price-Caulfield."

"What, why would-" We all started, in varying states of outraged confusion.

He raised his hand and a familiar blue rose appeared in his palm. He laughed at our astounded looks. "I have my assignment, Miss Amber had hers."

We looked between him and her, and I knew we were all thinking along the same lines. And boy were they confused ones. For one, they were both Roses. Seriously? For two, why weren't they working together? Or..?

That. Bitch.

Chloe and I both turned to look at Rachel. Her face paled near-instantly and she shook her head slightly manically. Her hands came up and waved negative in a similarly desperate fashion. "I swear, I didn't-"

"You've lied to us three times in the last fucking hour alone, Rachel!" Chloe yelled. She gestured widely to the machine. "That thing sure as fuck isn't a tractor beam, in case you hadn't noticed!"

"No, I-"

"You can die assured that Miss Amber was not lying to you, Miss Price-Caulfield. This time, at least." He smirked. "As I said, she had her assignment. I have mine. When the Unitologists blew her cover-" My brain let out a very deep 'ooohhhh' of realisation. 'Had'. "-I was sent in to clean up. Both lucky and unlucky, really, that I arrived only a day before all of this happened. And then I wandered into our errant agent's two best friends in all the world."

My brain just 'ooohhh'ed again. His elated expression when he met us makes so much more sense now. I thought he was just happy to see other living people, but... Dog. Wowzers. Shoot. FUCK. The Unitologists in the corridor, back when we first went to the Church! They were talking about him? That... that... jerkface bastard!

He chuckled at my expression. "Indeed. But I have my orders. Take the Prescott son and the Prescott machine, and-" He steadied his gun once gain. "Eliminate the failure, Prescott the Elder, and any witnesses." His face turned mockingly sad. "Too bad, really. I did try to save you, but I was too late. I killed the elder Prescott in a fit of anger, but let the son live, to pay for his family's crimes. Your parents will never know the-"

A sudden roar, loud enough to cause pain, rocked the room, and the blood-tornado wooshed upward from the machine, the swirl spreading wider and wider as it ascended. There was a weird wumph-splat sound and Copse's eyes widened. Rachel looked... her face had set in determination, but something grave, something horribly, horribly grim peeked out in places - her hand's slight shake and the tension in her jaw was all that gave her away.

She backed out of the inner circle as the remaining pillars glowed and a tremendous, vibrating howl, louder than any we'd heard before, shook the room like a- a quake.

Copse looked up suddenly, up into the tower above. "What the-"

A giant toothy maw shot down and clamped onto him, enveloping his entire top half in flesh and teeth and tentacles. I just stared at it, too horrified to even consider stepping back, but too focused not to see every wrong inch of the thing that now was the roof of the Apse.

Tentacles swept back from the head, almost forming a long crest that flowed down the creature's back and disappeared into the tower-space. And that head was huge, blocking almost the entire fifty-foot space. An almost... bat-wing-like fleshy, veiny material, a deep tan colour, starting somewhere up in the tower that was blocked by the giant head of this monstrosity, stretched out and across the roof sections around the tower. And, of course, ten tentacles that wriggled and waved through the air around it, each one covered in long, wicked sharp thorns.

Because of course they were. Because tentacles alone weren't fucked up enough. Dog, I hate this fucking day.

"Fuuuuuuuck."

Yep. Couldn't have said it better myself.

Fuck.

I heard another deep sound coming from the creature, growing from somewhere deep in its gut, the pitch building and building until the giant mouth opened and it let out an ear-piercing screech that had us all crying out ourselves. I held my hands to me ears and I knew that if it weren't for the helmet, I'd feel blood.

I darted out of the pillar-loop and ducked behind it, breathing deeply. Fuuucking tentacles. Wowzers.

I looked back out just in time to see Chloe and Rachel dragging each other back into the far room, and a tentacle snaking around Copse's top-less corpse before slowly dragging it up where it disappeared into the folds of flesh in the ceiling.

I shuddered.

Then I quickly ducked back with an eep as a tentacle threw a blob of gross at me.

I glanced down and shrieked. My fucking suit! A small bit of Gross was eating away at my right thigh and it was agony. It felt like burning and electricity across my skin, both at once. Neither sensation I'd been familiar with before this fucking day, but now I knew them all too well. I clawed at the spot of goop in a panic, trying frantically to scrape it off and only really managing to spread the fiery tingles to my hands as well.

I could hear distant shots and shouts, but that's all they were. Distant. The burning was somewhat more preoccupying.

My screaming brain couldn't set on what to do, what might actually do something. It was just... locked up, burningsuitshockingskinburningskinshockingsuit. Round and round. I could feel it, finally reaching the skin of my thigh, and then-

It clicked.

I reached up, pushing through the pain with determination and definite-insanity, and started tearing my suit apart, piece by piece. First the thigh armour, what little remained. Unfortunately, I had to drop the undersuit as well, leaving my right leg entirely bare aside from my fluffy sock. My hands, weirdly, were fine.

I looked down. I looked ridiculous.

I pulled up my gun. I pulled out a grin.

Fuck with me like, will you, you big... Monster... thing?

I'm gonna kick that thing in the no-no zone.

Rachel had a slightly approving look in her eye as she glanced me over when I slid into cover next to her. Pervy bitch. "How do we kill this thing?"

She beamed. I gave her my best withering look. She beamed more.

"Shoot anything that isn't skin."

I blinked, opened my mouth to ask for just a bit of clarification. I was interrupted. Chloe flew past with a yell, slamming into one of the walls with a grunt before rolling up into a crouch and shooting off a burst of bullets. She looked over at us and grinned, then back to the creature and her eyes widened. "Move!"

She dashed further away from us, and we ran the other way. Just in time to avoid another ball of Gross exploding where we'd been crouching. Thank fuck, that acid was annoying.

I took the opportunity to fire a few shots of my own, gasping and dodging when a tentacle launched at me. Only thing that saved me from getting scratched by one of those giant spines. Seriously, who designed this thing? Or where the heck did it evolve that tentacle spikes were necessary?

Just... what the fuck?

I ducked down below another gob of Gross and skittered as far away from it as possible. I ended up in the little side-room thing, hiding behind a box and occasionally sticking my arm out and firing blindly in it's direction. Not good for helping kill the thing, but very good for giving me a moment to think.

Shoot everything that isn't skin... What does that even mean?

I mean, I know the obvious thing it means - like, the literal interpretation - but... Eep! A tentacle slammed down on my cover, tearing the metal in half. I blinked in shock at it before a hand grabbed me and yanked me back. I looked up at Rachel. She smirked down at me. "Falling for me, Max? Are you-"

The tentacle cut her off, mid-banter.

She didn't get hit by it, just ducked under and had to shut up for a sec. I felt a moment of gratitude to the thing. She glared up at the creature then hopped up onto the tentacle, letting it take her away with it. She pulled the knife.

I turned back to trying to work out what to shoot. I know I said I'd kick it in the no-no place, but where the hell is that on a creature like this? I took another look back and tried to look it over. Not skin... Well, the bat-leather stuff is definitely what she was-

A sudden revving and a sudden yell came together as Chloe fired a sawblade from her Ripper into the tentacle holding Rachel. Or the tentacle that Rachel was holding onto. Not sure which.

The sawblade immediately got stuck.

We all stared at it for a brief second. It quivered slightly. The monster didn't care. Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuckity fuck shit fuck balls.

Rachel continued stabbing merrily away at the odd joint midway up the tentacle, and Chloe let out little controlled bursts of fire from her rifle at random spots on the creature. I had no idea what she'd done with the Ripper. Again, their actions got barely a quiver. Sod this. I gave up on the pondering and pulled my own weapon. One black-hole grenade, up into the side folds of the creature.

I waited, with baited breath until... nothing. What? Why isn't it-

The room was rocked by a sudden explosion as my grenade opened up a bulkhead straight to space. That... may have been a mistake. The gravity plating failed almost immediately and we were floating. I quickly tapped the gravity-boot key and- one leg dragged itself to the ground and locked into my place. My other leg continued to free-float.

I looked down. Fluffy sock was all that greeted me. And while these socks were soft and comfortable, they didn't have magnetic plates in them. Fuck. Again.

I- Eeep! A tentacle collided with me, tearing across my torso with those barbs, and the impact forced me to bend around the magnetised boot and hit the fucking floor with an awkward 'dunk' sound. I rolled back up with the weightless feel and deactivated my boots, preparing to jump. I launched myself up and-

The gravity plating came back online.

Dunk.

Ow. Fuck.

Rachel would've landed in a spin. Chloe would've landed in a roll. I landed in a heap. It took a few moments for my head to stop spinning, but it did, and I managed to clamber back to my feet. Well, my knees. But still. Baby steps.

Baby clambers.

Whatever.

Wowzers I'm dizzy.

I heard another volley of shots and looked up to see Chloe firing recklessly at the creature - the shots pinged harmlessly off it's tough hide. She dashed out of the way of a tentacle strike, then ducked under it when it attempted to sideswipe her. She stuck the barrel of her gun right up against the tentacle and fired. The creature screamed. She pulled the gun away and dashed off, revealing the surprisingly large, rapidly-reddening hole she'd left behind.

Not bad.

Useful, too.

And of course, Chloe's success came with Rachel's failure. An unlucky twist of the tentacle pulled her free and she fell. She spun in mid-air and threw the knife. It slammed to the hilt into the tentacle. She nodded in satisfaction. Then, she looked down and her eyes widened. With another twirl, her curiously lazy fall came to an end. And she somehow came out of it running. She also seemed to have pulled some sort of improvised oxygen mask from somewhere, as small tubes coming from her mouth and nose disappeared into her clothing.

That was when I realised I'd been spending way too much time watching them and I really should start paying proper attention and getting involved before I- Oh no.

That knife-cut tentacle was coming for me. I tried to jump, like I'd seen Chloe and Rachel do, and it just hit me in the side. Yep, that's another rib. Ow. I was starting to find it difficult to think. Well, to think anything useful. "Aaaaaagh, my ribs, my ribs, why does this hurt so much? How does this hurt so much? Ow ow owie ow!" wasn't exactly helpful.

And wow, I sounded so much like Victoria there.

I reached for my belt, flailing blindly until my hand landed on the little pouch there. I pulled a medpack - my last, apparently - and jammed it into my bare thigh.

Needless to say, that was not a smart move.

But, whatever was in those things took away the pain of my ribs, as well as the newly snapped needle fragments in my thigh muscle, and I pulled myself over behind another box. I could hear Chloe and Rachel yelling and fighting still, so I could take a sec to stay the hell out of the way again. Might not be useful to killing the monster, but it was useful for me not dying, so I'd let myself have this one.

I took a long, deep breath, numbed to the pain of my ribs while they knitted themselves back together, or however the medpack actually worked. I really should've asked before I started injecting these things into me all willy-nilly, huh?

I peeked out from behind the box just in time to see one of the tentacles, glowing bright blue, slowly falling to the ground with a cacophonous clang. I couldn't hold in a whoop of triumph. And another tentacle came for me. I squeaked and dashed out of the way, just as it tore through another metal box.

Half the annex was in sharp, metal tatters.

Interestingly, it revealed a whole new door. The far wall had three in it, apparently. Not useful knowledge in the slightest, but pretty cool!

I managed to dodge the tentacle once more - and dog, my ribs were grateful, pain or no pain - and hid behind another random thing. I stepped out and took a potshot at the creature. Electricity crackled across the room and hit the head of the creature. It... didn't bat an eyelid.

Of course, it didn't have eyelids, so I suppose that's fair enough.

Still, I could feel the haze set in at this creature taking everything we had to throw at it and feeling fuck all. So, I shot another bomb at it, and opened up yet another hole to space.

I didn't bother with the mag-boots this time. Instead, I went for the thrusters. I winced as they activated. Loud noises in small places - ugh. Not a good combination. Though, thanks to the vacuum rapidly filling (did vacuum 'fill'? can literal nothing fill the place of something?) the room, the sound wouldn't bother anyone else or give away my loca-

Tentacle, torso, a rapid change in trajectory. No pain though. Those drugs were real good at their jobs. Seriously, thank fuck for painkillers. Morphine is a gift, and I don't care if anyone says different. I blinked and shook my head as - ceiling, floor, ceiling, floor, oh. I wiggled again and activated my one foot thruster and tried to straighten up with my hands alone. I flailed and flapped as best I could, but my stomach kept rolling along with me. And apparently the room, because- oh no, that is just me.

Chloe was upright (though upsidedown-upright-upsidedownagain from my perspective) and firing up into the mouth of the creature and it was gorgeous. She shot upward with a single burst of her thrusters, twisting out of reach of a tentacle- and dog, did my heart stop in my fucking mouth while I waited for her to dodge that right at the last fucking second- before planting both feet down on the side of the creature's head.

She planted the barrel of her gun right up against the skin and pulled the trigger. More bullets flew and more chunks of monster were blasted away. Dog they were gross. Human looked like pork and bolognese. The monster's bits looked like... rotten salami and melted cheese.

Chloe pushed off the creature and she flew and it was still so gorgeous I had to pause to admire.

Unfortunately, of course, that was when the room blew up.

Though blew up was not technically the right word. Or phrase. Whatever. Though there were explosions, big booms that rocked the station and me, even though I wasn't actually touching anything that was shaking. The creature's reaction to having bits of it's head blown off had been... a lot. It screamed and thrashed and growled and howled and hungered and it managed to pull itself and the roof of the Apse off of the station with it's wild movements.

And then vacuum did what vacuum does and dragged us all out into the cold of space. [AN2]

I screamed the whole way out.

As I spun wildly out into the black, something in me yelled to reach out and grab NOW. So, fuck it. I did. And I grabbed an antenna and kept a tight hold as my leg set itself on FUCKING FIRE. I wailed like I was six and I'd just scraped my knee for the first time. But there was lava running through the veins in my leg, so I think I could be forgiven that one.

The pain didn't stop, but eventually I got used to it enough that I could think. I finally forced my eyes open - and when the heck did they even close? - and looked down. My leg was going purple. Wowzers. That's... fuck. Owie owie owie.

A sudden voice crackled in my ear, broke through the haze of pain. "Max? Where are you, Max?"

Good old Chloe. She's always there, kicking ass and taking names. "I'm-" Actually, where the heck was I? I took a glance around me. "I'm on an antenna."

Chloe chuckled. I heard some muffled sounds. "That's great. Where's the antenna?"

"On the outside of the station?"

There was a very conspicuous silence on the Comm. I waited for a second, then...

"Chloe?"

"Look up, Max."

This was space, so... uh... shit. Directions, directions, directions. "Up is the antenna I'm holding onto, Chloe. Could you maybe be a wee bit more specific?"

I may be in too much pain to think straight, but I bet perfectly-relaxed-me would have trouble with that too.

"Okay, darlings." Rachel's voice butted in, "As dreadfully amusing as this is, I'm afraid we really don't have the time. Look at the antenna."

I did so. "Done."

"What's it attached to?" Chloe asked, taking control of the conversation back again.

"A... panel?" Silence again. Oh jeez. I could feel that silence. Might've been worse than the freaking leg - flare of fiery pain up to the knee, now - and... I shook my head, coughed. And that was bad enough on its own.

A tentacle grabbed me by the uninjured leg and pulled. The antenna snapped in a second - poor thing - and I was pulled screaming backwards upward (like, away from the station upward, this time) until I came face to face with the screaming, slavering creature. It was still stuck in the tower, and had brought sections of the pillars and floor with it. It looked...

It looked like a snail.

I snort-giggled, slightly madly. I couldn't stop myself.

We were all about to be killed by a giant snail with tentacles and teeth like a the bastard offspring of a lamprey and a shark, unless space got us first.

As the tentacle stopped to hold me in front of it, I kept going forward. Until the rigidity of my bones stopped me turning any more. I jolted with the impact and my bones felt... strained. I'll leave it at that. Suffice to say, I was screaming again. Everything below my knees burned and bruised. But somehow, I kept on going. I swung back, then forward again, and swung my gun down.

It... basically just bounced off the skin.

Fuck.

Fuck again.

The thing seemed to get tired of my wriggling and started dragging me in to the mouth. The massive, gaping, tooth-filled maw. That thing of fucking nightmares. It went slow, weirdly, like it was trying to give me time to escape. Or trying to compensate for zero-G. Probably the latter. I twisted again, screaming again, and pulled at the tentacle wrapped around my ankle. Shit. Definitely the latter. Definitely the latter!

I had to get away. I had to get away. I had to get away before it fucking ate me alive and I absolutely do not want to be aware while something digests me. I was grateful, then, for the fear that well up inside me. It took away the pain, it took away everything but the fear itself.

And fear was really fucking motivating.

I started to spin and twist and wriggle and all those other words that mean try desperately to escape from the tight hold something else has on you. Because I was desperate. I was really, really, really desperate and escape was all I could think about and more than just my leg was burning with the strain of fighting against a giant muscled tentacle.

I didn't know at the time, but Chloe and Rachel had both seen all this and had worked their way over to me. I didn't see anything until Chloe's helmet suddenly appeared in my view and a voice crackled in my ear. "Hey, Max. Don't go anywhere, we'll getcha out of this."

Don't go... "Chloe, help me!"

"We're trying to - keep your shit together, fuck." She vanished again.

This is, I- aargh. Wowzers. Dog. I just- Chloe suddenly flew past my view, clung onto the tentacle next to me. I couldn't see her face, but I knew she was grinning fiercely at me. "We be the cavalry." She quipped, then jabbed the gun right into one of the wounds on the tentacle. It jolted and jumped suddenly, sending smoke out of the wound.

She only jammed it in harder, twisting her hand into the now-gaping wound. There was another burst of smoke and another jolt as the gun jumped. The tentacle finally moved in response, trying to hit her away, but she just clung on. And the hold around my ankle loosened ever so slightly.

But it was enough.

I shoved free and grabbed Chloe and pushed off the tentacle. It immediately came after us, but Chloe grabbed my weapon from where it hung loosely on my shoulders (on the strap, of course) and fired lightning at the thing. It might not've been hurt, but it sure as heck paused for a second. Again, it was enough.

Chloe swore over my comm. "My gun is still in that fucking thing, Hippie!"

Oh, shit.

That's no good.

"No shit, Maxie!"

I said that out loud. Dangit.

Chloe suddenly spun us as we hit the station hull, and I instinctively grabbed out for a passing thing to still us. No idea what I grabbed, but it didn't work. I gasped in surprise as it immediately came loose and we continued to float off. Chloe tapped a key on her suit and activated her thrusters, punting us over to the hull the thing I'd broken came from.

We looked up to see Rachel, floating alone, like a little speck hanging on front of a giant monster, slashing at the tentacles and swinging around them like they were fucking monkey bars. Like... what.

Yes! From this distance, I could see the tentacles were now covered in long, bloody gouges, and several of their joints were leaking an oddly glowing liquid. We weren't dead, and we'd hurt the thing. I felt my confidence soar.

Out of curiosity, I lifted my gun and shot a grenade at it. Baited breath until it closed, then- it batted it out of the way. "Motherfucker."

It's learning.

Chloe stuck her hand on my shoulder. "We need to go and help."

"Sure we can't leave her to it?"

"Max." She said, warningly.

"I know, I know. Right, okay. You go that way, I'll go that way, and we'll surround it, huh?" I asked, only half joking.

"I don't know if we can surround it in space." Chloe drawled in return. "Maybe just run at it and shoot the tentacles off?"

"Fine, though I think the tentacles are a little small for my gun."

"That's what she said." I knew she was leering. I just knew it.

"About tentacles? Ew, Chloe!"

Gross.

She laughed, pushed off, and went after the tentacle that we'd left her gun inside.

I... had no idea what I was going to do.

Fuck it. I'll play distraction, I guess? I activated my thrusters, then remembered I only had one boot - and ow, burning - just as I started to fly wildly all over the place like a burst balloon. My foot burned, my stomach roiled, and my head pounded. Left and right and up and down and round and round and round and round.

I may have vomited. I don't really remember. I don't really recall anything that happened before I finally ran into something and hit it at full force. I ended up legs upright, shoved into the wall by the still-going thruster. I was also screaming again. I flailed desperately for the button before it snapped my spine.

When I got it, I just relaxed straight into the hull plate. Fucking shit fuck balls freaking heckfire. I felt down to my belt and- aw, shoot. My pouch was gone. And so was my morphine. I mean, medkits. So, I just leant back and hurt. I also watched. Chloe and Rachel were still fighting, after all.

I watched as Chloe launched herself toward Rachel, getting closer, closer, closer. At the last moment, Rachel twisted and caught Chloe, both her arms looping behind Chloe's. Rachel then spun and launched my wife over at one of the tentacles - I assume the one that was holding her gun.

She caught it with her legs and spun herself around so she was sitting upright. She held onto the tentacle with one hand and raised the other above her head, shaking it around in circles. I didn't have to imagine the accompanying 'woo hoo!' to the image, because Chloe had opened her comm and was broadcasting her joyous whoops to both of us.

The tentacle tried desperately to buck her off, but she wasn't having any of it. She shuffled forward, bit by bit, until she found herself at the big, gouged, bloody hole that she'd torn to help me. She jammed one hand in and wiggled it through the pulpy mess. She found it and pulled it out, holding it up triumphantly.

And then they started to fall.

It took the big bad Rose out first. All ten tentacles went after her at once. I couldn't imagine what it'd've felt like - dodging and weaving and in control and then it's just everywhere. Everywhere she tried to dodge, there was a tentacle waiting and it grabbed ahold and twisted and her one body became two pieces, floating apart from each other.

I could see Chloe, still holding her tentacle, blasting away with her gun. She hadn't seen yet. How would she react, now that Rachel was... was...

The two pieces of Rachel twisted and warped, glowing a violent, bright red. Her... the arms bent and buckled, reshaped and rescinded until they formed a bow. Rachel's long, blonde hair snapped from her head like a chunk of ice and melted outward into a string. It pulled back, then fired, and the torso shot off, back to the legs. There was another flash of red, fury and anger and hunger, and suddenly she was whole.

What..?

She was unconscious, floating, unmoving.

A single tentacle swiped out from the horde and she bent double around it, then it knocked her spinning. I watched her float off, feeling nothing as she ended up flying into some random tech attached to the station hull. She hit hard, and didn't move again.

I looked back to Chloe, who wasn't anywhere near the tentacle with her gun.

She also didn't seem to have the gun, which was... weird. Instead, she'd pulled up her Kinesis module and had a sharp javelin of an antenna floating in front of her. The other tentacles seemed to be picketing for the one with her gun inside, weaving about and keeping her away. So, she took careful aim, then fired.

The antenna hit! It fucking it! The thing pierced through one of the bloodier, more ragged spots on the tentacle and the monster writhed with agony. Good. Fucker. The tentacles gave up the defence and went after her. She dodged one, flipped around another, and reached out to grab a new antenna to launch. She threw it and the two collided, and whatever was keeping the tentacle together ripped.

And then another tentacle hit her, and she went flying.

My heart dropped when Chloe fell, her weapon dropping from her hand as she spun wildly out. She flailed, and I could see air hissing out from her suit and fuck, that was right where the oxygen tanks were. What the hell had happened? Nothing had hit her and- it had to be fake. It couldn't be real. It couldn't be.

But it looked so genuine. Her hands grabbed at her throat and her legs kicked wildly and before I could even think about moving to help... it all just stopped and the body floated away.

The torn tentacle landed near me and exploded into a cloud of fleshy chunks. I ulped. I'm never eating meatballs again, after this. The meat came to rest across the hull of the station and I just stared at it. Rachel was gone, Chloe was gone, the Engineers are probably long gone by now. What the hell did I have to lose? What the hell was the point?

A sudden bright light drew my attention back to the monster. It'd moved. Pulled itself out of its tower-shell and curled around the machine, glowing a bright, pure white as symbols floated on the edge of perception, floated on the edge of the whirlpool of blood now back inside it.

The machine began to whirr again, louder and louder and louder. The creature huddled tighter, more protectively around it. The little flashes of light, bright white, blood red, and leafy green, shone through the gaps between its tentacles. I could see parts of the sphere spinning in there too. Something in there seemed to be building up to something. To the conclusion of this shitty day. Nearly there now. So close to the end. Bastard. Could've told me that I wouldn't make it.

I looked back to me again, as a wet squelching sound came from right near me. The meat was moving. Bits of it moved, like coal on a conveyor belt, lightly vibrating with the pulse of the machinery. It pulled together and shaped itself into a familiar form and I looked up at it, pearly white teeth and pearly white eyes staring back down. Jefferson stood, suitless, a beacon of grooming amidst the chaos.

He shook his head, and clucked his tongue, and I felt stung. "I can't believe that you're giving up." He leaned down and gave me this look, like I was nothing but dirt on his shoe. "My Max wouldn't give up. Wouldn't let her friends, her family down. Wouldn't be such a coward. She'd see the scene, know everything about it, and then? Then, she'd take the shot."

I couldn't talk back, but I could sure as fuck glare.

He laughed, and there was a vast, vacant emptiness in it. "You deny it? Your love is floating off into the void and your flowery friend, whom you still care for no matter how scared you are, is bleeding on..." He looked over to Rachel's possible corpse and the mess of machinery it was sprawled over. "-whatever that gizmo is."

I coughed up and I could feel it in my shins. Blood, body, blood, walls, blood, stars. Blood and nightmares and death and hunger, always, always hunger. A bloody void that'd never be filled.

Bloody Jefferson.

"You need to go now, Max. You need to get to the machine. You can still stop this." He leaned in, looked me over. "I can see your'doubt. But you can do it, Max. You really think I'd've picked someone who couldn't do the job? You're my choice, Max, and you can see this through. No matter how hard the job gets, you can see it through. You can take your shot."

He's right. I could do this. I could make their... I could make it all mean something. I could do this. I looked up and met Jefferson's eye. "Fuck. you."

He grinned, wolfish, predatory, and he pulled me to my feet. "That's my girl. Go give that pretender hell."

I dashed forward, feet going as hard as I could. And I practically flew, and my aim was true. I dodged over one tentacle, then twisted around another. I moved without thought or consideration, just going with the flow and moving where the voice in my head told me to.

I curled my body just in time to avoid another tentacle coming in for a jab. It tried to stab, but I grabbed ahold and twisted myself around it. The other tentacle that came in to pull me away followed me around it and when I jumped back, the two stayed tangled together.

I grinned wide and wolfish and went after the next one. I ended up with two threes and three twos, all braided together neatly and floundering as the body joints tried to strain in directions they weren't made to do and I beamed at that. Then I took the opportunity and shoved off, gliding in closer.

The tentacles tried to stop me. I grinned, as the muscles in them strained, but they never hit, and I threaded the needle right through them to get to the machine. I landed easily on the piece of the platform still below it.

I'd seen a wicker basket in a museum, once - this kind of reminded me of that. If the wicker was made of giant tentacles. It was an oddly surreal feeling, probably the oddest I'd had, despite all the stuff I'd seen and felt and been through throughout this shitty day.

So I ran up to it, stopping in front of Sean's console - he'd never trust the important buttons to his idiot son, surely? - and looked down at it. A breath on my ear. "You need to switch it off, Max. It brought that thing here, it can take it away."

"And how the fuck do you suppose I do that?"

A light laugh. "That... is up to you. No artist should take credit for another's work, don't you agree?"

"Fine. Be like that." I grumbled.

Another laugh. "Good luck, Max. Take your shot." And the breath disappeared.

I scowled and started to look over the buttons. Inflow, outflow, sump drainage (whatever that means), Begin, Emer- Emergency Stop! I slammed my hand down on the Emergency Stop button, before anything could stop me.

Symbols I hadn't previously noticed along the two arms of the machine glowed a vibrant white, and I could feel my spirits rise - I might actually kill this thing! But then it turned a dark, rusty red and the machine flared. The blood tornado suddenly exploded outward with the same force Kate had, covering me in viscera from head to friggin' toe.

I blinked at it for a second, then looked up at the monster. It's... it didn't do anything?

How could it not do anything?

"Jefferson!" I screamed. "Jefferson you bastard, you said it would work!"

"No," He stepped into view, somehow taller and more solid than before. "I said it would end this. And it will. For you. You turned it off. You removed the reins on our Unity. You made us whole. Thank you."

He smiled, and those pearly white tombstone teeth turned into fangs. His skin slumped, and his eyes went hungry. And he launched himself at me. I shrieked and pulled up my gun and hit him in the face with it. His jawbone shattered and his cheek tore, leaving those pearly white tombstones shining in front of me.

He grinned, "Good shot, Max. But you won't resist for long. We will be one." He wafted a hand and five tangled tentacles splayed up behind him like a set of scorpion tails. They were probably about as dangerous. At least they didn't have poison.

I threw myself out of the way as two of the tentacles pulled apart and came for me. It carried me into the still-surrounding tentacles and they tried to grab on. Though it ended up with me getting stuck between the still-tangled tentacles, which I guess was a success. It was gross and horrible and my bones were creaking under the strain, but at least they hadn't grabbed me.

It's the little things, y'know.

I braced my feet and shoved myself out of the tentacle grab, landing back on the platform. I looked up. Fuck. Another couple of sets of tentacles pulled themselves apart and fanned out above me, each of them tensing to strike. Jefferson stepped out from between them, pearly white smile as he held up a clenched fist. "Embrace Convergence, Max. Humanity devours everything it touches, Max. Don't you want to be free of all that? Don't you want Unity?"

I ignored him, but... that's not a bad idea. I pushed off the ground, launching myself back into the machine as those tentacles struck the spot I'd been in. I landed in a heap and pulled myself up. It took a moment to de-load my gun, until I had a handful of black hole grenades.

I activated all of them and jammed them into the machine.

I wasn't ever good at science in school, but there was one thing I remembered. Action- reactions. I dashed for the edge of the platform and flipped underneath, crawling along until I was right in the middle. One of the the tentacles narrowly scraped me - the spike ripped something, but I couldn't tell what and I had more important things to worry about.

I planted my feet on the bottom of the platform and grinned, bearing all my teeth. "I-" Shit, I don't have a quip! Fuck it. "Choke on this!"

Eugh. As Victoria would say, how totally cliche.

I activated my single foot booster and pushed off the platform, sending it flying towards the creature. I flew back, watching it glide away from me until it was right in the maw of the thing. It was-... it was... why isn't anythin-

In an instant, my vision was filled with light and the devouring dark of the singularity my bombs had made.

Heh. Maybe choke on that wasn't such a bad line after all.

I hit bulkhead hard enough to rattle my brains. My head spun, I couldn't think straight, but I knew I'd done it. I let me face crack into a broad smile and I drifted off to join my wife in darkness and rest.

Though, right before I passed out, I could've sworn I felt arms around me...

"We have to get moving, this place is coming apart around us!"

I blinked blearily back to consciousness and looked up. Wait a minute. I know those cheeks. That's my wife's ass! "Chloe!"

"Max?"

I heard her voice come from somewhere below me - I looked down and frowned up at... the... ceiling? Huh. Oh. I'm over her shoulder. What... what happened? Oh, Chloe. Right. What's the... the thing with the words? Oh, yeah. Conversation. Dog. Everything feels so... sluggish.

"Yeah?"

There was a beat of silence. "You're awake! Thank fuck - you really are way heavier in that suit than out of it." I thwacked her for that, she just laughed, plonked me down on my feet and gave me quick dust-off and then she grinned, eyes twinkling with delight as she said simply, "Run!"

And so we ran.

We ran down corridors I didn't recognise, corridors that shuddered and shook the entire time. It was a miracle the gravity plating was still working - I could feel my steps get longer and more loping the more we ran. And dog, it felt good! The rest of this crappy day, I'd been focused on what I was running from, or where I was running to. I'd never just focused on the running.

'cause I had no idea where the fuck we were running to, and we were running from the station exploding, which was everywhere already and thus entirely obvious and unworthy of further thought.

This felt like the free breaks of childhood, when Chloe and I would go down to the main promenades, sometimes with other kids, but mostly without, and just run and race about. She always won, obviously - I'm basically the same height now that I was those twenty years back - and I don't remember if that ever bothered me back then, 'cause it sure didn't now. It just felt... freeing.

I could feel my heart pumping and the regular swing of my arms and legs - my ribs had that dull pain of a wearing-off medpack, so I assumed someone had fixed me up while I was out. Adrenaline and dopamine surged through me and I felt myself let out a joyously delighted laugh.

And then, I slammed into Chloe's back. "Shit!"

I looked around her, and she was right to swear. I almost let out one of my own - would've, if it hadn't been such a instant comedown from my runner high. The way forward was blocked. My heart dropped and I started to get a very bad feeling as it began to beat in my head. Drums. Drums in the Deep. I recognised the room, though. It was certainly branded obviously enough - we were in the EarthGov base again.

"Back! We can try that last corner again." We turned to leave, when a sudden nearby explosion rocked the room, and we all stumbled - just for a moment, but that was all it took. A piece of the station, just a giant hunk of metal, hurtled past the giant ceiling window and smashed into the way we'd come back. For a moment, I thought the entire section would she sheared off, but instead it just crumpled.

Chloe and Rachel both immediately rushed forward, grabbing onto the pieces of metal jutting out and trying to lever their way through. They both quickly fell back.

Chloe's hand dropped to her side suddenly, like she was injured. I couldn't see any wounds though - I guess she was just achy like the rest of us. Heavy lifting always gets me twinging. "Shit!" She shook her head suddenly, then looked up to us. "What do we do now?"

"I haven't the faintest idea, you're the engineer!"

"And you're the secret fucking agent, why don't you think of something!?"

I snapped. "Would the both of you shut the fuck up!? We're all dying and you're acting like fucking children, so stop it!" I sagged, all the fight quickly draining out of me as I looked at their faces. "Just... this isn't helping."

They both looked at each other, then nodded. "Okay, um. So, we've got no way out, and I don't know if you even have one, Rach', but my kinesis module is half dead."

"I don't," Rachel answered. "This is a prisoner's suit, after all."

"Great." Chloe let her helmet deconstruct and ran a hand through her hair. There was a bit of blood running down her face from a cut near her temple. I found myself watching it for a moment until she spoke again, pulling me out of the trance. "Okay, okay. We can't use Max's black hole thingy to clear the way, the pressure will tear the whole fucking thing apart and that'll ki... get us nowhere. We need to lift this stuff." She was shaking her head again, eyes gone hella-wide. "No, uhm. No, that won't-. Or that. Shit. Uh, maybe..." She strode back and forth across the entryway, muttering to herself and gesturing wildly.

Rachel and I just stayed back. Me, I had nothing. Again, I'm a fucking photographer and writer. I don't know shit about engineering... But I know my wife and she just got something.

She turned to us, eyes slightly too wide, "Look, there was an under-panel access back there, you can climb down and turn the gravity plating around - that plus our kinesis modules should be able to clear this up enough." A pause, the barrage of words slowed. "If nothing else explodes, I guess."

"Chloe!" I whined, "Why would you even say that?"

She shrugged. "Well, shit seems to be exploding a lot right now. And y'know, seems like something to be prepared for."

I shook my head. Not the time. "Okay, so... how does that help? We're here, and it's over there."

"My kinesis module wouldn't lift the whole thing, it doesn't have enough power left. But it can lift some of it. Enough to make a way to crawl through."

Oh. "Oh."

She gave me a significant look. I... fuck it. I just nodded.

"I can do this."

"You can."

"I got this."

"You do."

I glared at her. "Would you stop? I'm saying this for my benefit."

Rachel blushed. "Sorry."

I shook my head. "It's fine. Just..."

"Sorry."

I took another deep breath, then dropped to my knees and looked up at Chloe. "Get to it, then."

She nodded, raised her hand and started to gesture. The wreckage lit up with a blue-ish glow and started to slowly rise up, leaving a small gap. I stared at it. "You want me to squeeze through that?"

"I've seen you shrug into some pretty tight hipster-jeans, Maxie. You can get through there."

I eyed it with some trepidation. "Sure you can't get it a little bigger?"

"Sorry. This thing is straining enough already." Chloe shrugged apologetically. She twisted a dial on her Kinesis module. "I can keep it going, but this is the best I can do."

"Right." I just... went in. "Oh shit."

"What?"

"It's really cramped in here!"

"It'll be okay, Maxie. Just... keep moving forward!"

If I was back there... Man. Wrath I would have. Yeah. She'd regret being all... positive and shit while I'm wriggling through here. I reached out and grabbed onto a jutting bar, pulling myself along until I could squeeze under it. And boy, did I have to breathe in hard to get through. Eeesh. Another explosion shook the area and everything around me started to shake and- oh no.

I couldn't turn and I couldn't see the other end, so I just hurriedly scrambled backwards to Chloe and Rachel. I saw light and faces. I heard rumbling and screaming. I screamed as the entire structure collapsed and my legs exploded into pain. "Max!"

I had no idea who yelled. Oh dog, oh dog, wowzers that hurts, "Ow, ow, ow, fucking-" All that was going through my head was gutturalscreamingpainscreaming. Aagh.

"Max, your legs, they're..." Chloe stared down at me, half buried, eyes more honestly horrified than I'd ever seen her.

"I know," I grunted. Dog, it was hard to think, nevermind speak. This hurt so much.

"They're fucked! They're fucking fucked! I can't even see them and they're so hella fucking fuckity-fucked! I'm so sorry, the Module just failed under all the strain and I couldn't do anything and-"

The girl was babbling and it was really not helping me think non-agonising thoughts. My temper snapped. "I know, Chloe! Stop telling me shit I already know! I-" I caught a glance at the look on her face and just wilted. It hurt even more. "I know." I said, in a quiet, quiet voice.

Rachel laid a gentle hand on Chloe's shoulder and Chloe looked back and met her eye. Another moment of wordless communication and Chloe sagged. "Okay. Shit. Yeah." She blinked suddenly, a few rapid times, then shook her head. "Can we move her, at least? Get her out from under there?"

"Not unless you have another medpack. If we pull her out, whatever is keeping her innards internal will move too. I definitely wouldn't be comfortable doing that unless it was absolutely necessary." A pause. "Though, the station is falling into a gas giant, so I suppose that would count." A pause, a hesitant addition. "But we could just-

"No fucking way, Rach. I'm not leaving her, even to go get help and come back. What if we..." She shook her head. Her shoulders set in stubborn determination. Chloe stood tall and gave a single nod. "And I'm not going anywhere, even if I thought that was a good idea."

While I was glad she loved me and all, I was furiously trying to stay conscious. So, my response may have been a little... blunter than I intended.

"Fuck no to that! You two can still go-" I gritted my teeth, trying to keep my head together through the pain radiating out from my leg. "-go get out. Through the gl-glass. Oh dog." I cringed around another bout of pain.

"I really can't, actually." I looked up, blinking at Chloe. Her face was... wow.

"W-what? Why?"

She reached down and opened the pocket I'd... oh no. The pocket I'd seen her oxygen tank in. The tank was leaking oxygen. "It got broken when the monster hit me. It's pretty much empty at this point. I'm not going anywhere. There's probably no-one else to get help from, anyway."

I ignored her usual pessimism and insisted harder. "Well, take mine then, you-"

Chloe just pointed downward and- oh. Said oxygen tank was buried along with my legs.

"Fuck."

Chloe chuckled. It wasn't an amused sound. She dropped to her knees beside me and turned 'til she was sat cross-legged next to me. "Yep. Guess we're stuck here."

"W-What about Rachel? Can't she-"

She shrugged. "I don't even have thrusters on this. I have a little more oxygen than Chloe, but... shit. She's right." Rachel looking like that just felt... wrong. I quickly averted my eyes, wincing at the extra pain now in my neck. Dog, everything hurts so much. "I hate it, but she's right. Where would I go? Our deadline is nearly passed now, and we won't get anywhere close before Temba takes the ship and leaves. And I tried the comms while you were under there - nothing."

They weren't on comms? But... "Don't you think Joyce and David would-"

"The two of them against a shipful of engineers?" Rachel asked. She gave a shrug. "Besides, they probably think we're dead too. That monster battle was huge and your little singularity explosion would've been visible from the docks. Everything in me is screaming to try anyway, but... my bet, they're already out of the system."

"Damn."

"Yep. My trainer would be ashamed of me - not even bothering to attempt the impossible like that." She gave a bitter laugh that grew and grew until it was almost desperate. Neither of us said anything or moved as it trailed off into quiet. Then, Rachel lifted her head and gave us all a soft, open smile. Acceptance. "Well, at least we killed that thing. It won't be able to spread, or hurt anyone else."

I mean... "Yeah. We did some good. Still sucks we're gonna die though." I let out a wet little chuckle at the sheerly irritated tone of Chloe's drawl. She looks at me. "But shit, if I'm gonna get blown to pieces and-or die 'cause of space, I'm glad it's with you guys."

Rachel and I both gave little nods, and then we went quiet. After another moment, Chloe suddenly asked "Has anyone ever fallen into a gas giant before, anyway?"

Rachel nodded. "A few. Why?"

Chloe shrugged. "Just wondering what it'd be like." A pause, a thoughtful amendment. "I mean, if we don't, y'know, asphyxiate first. Would we get blown to pieces?"

"No. We'll be crushed under the intense gravity, though. Probably somewhat close to how coal feels before it turns into diamond." Rachel said simply, dryly.

Another moment of quiet. "Shit."

"Yep."

"Well, I bet we'll be hella dope diamonds." Chloe quipped.

Rachel chuckled.

We went quiet again.

We huddled together and listened as the station fell apart around us. Chloe held out her hand, palm up, and I smiled before interlacing my fingers with hers. I couldn't feel anything, not through two layers of gloves, or the slowly-numbing-pain in my legs, but it helped. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Chloe offer her other hand to Rachel, who took it.

And then we just sat.

I could hear the systems straining, distant alarms blaring and the static scream of metal starting to buckle under pressure. And a bassy rumbling over it all.

The wreckage above me quivered.

And I couldn't feel a thing. Finally.

I let my eyes flutter closed and just... waited.

"Someone call for a cab?" Mac's smug, arrogant, beautiful voice spoke from our comm speakers. We looked up to see the ship flying in through the cracked ceiling and I'd never seen anything so beautiful in all my life.

"Here," We shoved Nathan's unconscious body at one of the engineers. We'd been incredibly surprised to find him already in the airlock when they'd pulled us in. Apparently they hadn't recognised him when they found him floating in space near the explosion. We hadn't held back, when explaining. "Stick him in the bathroom."

Chloe chuckled. "Perfect place for him to be interred." [AN1]

Rachel groaned. I just blinked at them both, my arms over their shoulders. "What?"

"Don't worry about it."

I blinked a couple more times, then shook my head. "Can someone get me some drugs?" I looked down, gave a wry half smile. "Or new legs?"

The Doctor stepped forward and glared at me. "Did you get hurt again, Mrs Caulfield?"

I gulped. Somehow, I felt guilty for being nearly murdered by tentacles, being attacked by monsters, and having my legs near-sheared off by debris. This was weird. So, I glared at her and pulled out my inner Chloe. I'd gone through too much to let someone make me feel like this. "I'm fine."

"Your leg's're off."

"No they're not."

"It- what are you doing?"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to diagnose you!"

"Well, you can't be that good if you haven't noticed I don't have a leg anymore."

"But you do, and I did and-" She threw up her hands. "Fine! Just bleed to death, see if I care!"

"I will!"

As the Doctor stormed off, Rachel leaned in. "Were just pulling a Chloe?"

"Yeah. She's great for antagonising people when they're being dickholes to you."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Dickholes?"

I shrugged. "She uses some fun terms sometimes."

"Fair." An acknowledging head tilt, lips slightly pursed. A pause, and a smirk. "Well, just remember that the dickhole you're antagonising is also the only person on this ship who knows how to deal with your legs, so..."

"...And that's why she has us, to remind her that antagonising people isn't always the best response, even if they are being annoying dickholes."

"Exactly."

I sighed. "Damnit. Hey, Doc, wait up, I'm sorry!"

A small ding sounded through the ship, echoing oddly pleasantly off the bulkheads around us. I looked up from the med-bed, admiring my new, hastily-improvised legs. I hear cyborgs are cool. Though I think my right knee technically started life as an elbow. Not sure how cool that is, but I can lick my knee-bow now. "Hey, David? What was that sound?"

"Time-cycle alert."

I frowned. "What?"

One of the engineers chimed up, "Syncing ship clocks is difficult, so they each run on their own day-night cycle. The cycle alerts are like, uh... 'bell chimes' to let you know what time it is."

"So, what time was that, then?"

"Midnight. Welcome to Monday."

"Well, at least that hella bad day's over." Chloe smirked. "It'll be nice, to not have to worry about monsters and shit going wro-"

She broke off at the ferocious glares everyone in the ship levied on her. "What?"

"Why would you even say something like that?" Victoria said, aghast.

Chloe looked baffled at us all. "What? It's fucking fine, what could possibly hap-"

"Chloe!"

AN1 - Interred = In Turd. Blame Critical Role - they make the same joke in Episode Seven of Campaign One and I've been rewatching. :D

AN2 - I know this isn't actually how space works, but as we've established in past space scenes, Max absolutely definitely does not understand it.