Hello internet.
It's been an entire year since I started this fic. Since then, my mental state has improved greatly. As the original goal of the fic was to let me burn off steam and get my head in order, I'd say it's worked.
A year ago, I made the decision to stay here. I can now say that I'm glad I did.
I'm grateful to all of you who continue to read my self indulgent drivel. You've all made the time invested in this story worth it.
As an aside, guns should only ever be pointed at things you want to destroy with a chunk of metal at high speeds. Never point one at a human/animal you don't want to kill, an object you don't want to destroy. John probably needs to be reminded of this.
"RED ALERT! RED ALERT!"
My eyes are drawn to the far wall, once a bright bluish white that showed just how clean a spaceship is kept.
Currently, it's decorated in enough blood to cover the panel from floor to ceiling.
The source of the blood is one of the two guards that had been tasked with keeping Zan locked up: Judging by Meia's horrified yells and the other guard's screams, her name is Kymnal.
WAS, Kymnal.
Zan clearly got stronger with her upgrade, and faster too. Not sure why that resulted in turning herself into dissection dummy, but hey. Kymnal attempted to square up with Zan and lost pretty gruesomely. Her skull is bleeding quite profusely, which probably means she'll bleed out soon if she hasn't already.
Zan let me go once the party of four had approached her and I'm currently pinned in a corner that she's defending. It's actually a nice tactic on her part: I'm practically a hostage, with Meia and the others afraid to fire weapons due to the fact that they might hit me.
"ALL PERSONNEL, AVOID SECTORS E-G, I REPEAT, AVOID SECTORS E-G!"
God, that siren is loud.
Meia is saying something over her radio, probably reporting the situation. The good doctor Duelo is intently observing Zan. The surviving guard is finally getting her bearings back, raises her laser rifle and pulls the trigger.
The laser punctures on of the skin-wrapped lungs, bursting apart in a spray of yet more blood. The hallway is starting to look like it was intended to be covered in a coat of maroon.
And, I figure out why each organ is wrapped the way it is. The damaged lung sloughs off, and a new organ replaces the old. A new lung grows back in a matter of seconds.
"I said," Zan growls."Stop interfering!" She takes a slight breath and her throat starts emitting a stream of electronic noise.
The lights go out. The laser rifle fires a few more times, and then there's a sickening crunch... and then silence aside from short bursts of chirping and heavy panting.
If i'm going to get out of here, now is definitely the best time.
I push myself up against the wall, since I'm still a bit too weak to move about on my own. From there, I start edging around the room.
Two blue lights turn to face me, coming from about where the second guard had been. For a moment, Zan appears to be heading right for me.
A hear her hand colliding with the wall where I had been. "John? Where did you go?"
Okay, she can't see in the dark. That would be reassuring, but she can just turn the lights back on.
...Right?
I continue moving around the hall, steadily and slowly edging away from Zan as she scrabbles around in the dark.
A hand clamps onto my arm, then another clamps over my mouth.
My right arm reaches up to trap the hand covering my mouth, My left clamps the other arm between my bicep and ribcage, and I open my mouth wide to bite down as hard as I can.
A sharp hiss comes from beside me, and from the complete opposite direction, a pair of lights points in our direction. I quickly release my jaws.
The person holding onto me sinks down to the floor, dragging me down with her. It's a her- clearly identified by the close proximity of our bodies.
The blue lights come closer.
As the only surviving female around when the lights went out, I'm assuming it's Meia that's got a hold of me.
The throat chirping picks up speed again, only to cut off in confusion a moment later. "What? Who stopped the singing?" Zan asks, her voice almost pleading.
Meia finally releases my mouth and my arm, and I return the favor.
"John? Where did you go?" Something wet and meaty slams into a wall. "John?" Zan's voice continues to grow more desperate.
The two of us continue to crawl away, following the wall as it takes a curve, then heads around a corner, and then we reach a door.
Meia stand back up, fumbles around a keypad for a second, and then the door whooshes open, blinding me with the light on the other side.
Meia yanks me through the door, turns, and quickly closes the door behind us, engaging some sort of locking mechanism with a loud "Clunk". Then she sinks down to the floor beside me, cradling her injured hand.
For several seconds, the two of us sit there, eyes adjusting to the light.
I made a mistake resting my back against the door. It suddenly buckled slightly from inside, sending me face first into the floor.
"She..." Meia begins, swallowing nervously. "She's not going to be able to break down the door that quickly. We need to have a plan."
"I already have one." I say. "But, what happened to Duelo?"
Meia shakes her head. "I don't know. Possibly the same thing that happened to Kymnal and Ursis." She squints at me. "You have a plan?"
Ah, that's the second guard's name. Was her name.
Fuck, things were going so well up until a week ago.
"Do you know where Barnette is?" I ask the blue haired pilot.
"Hmm? John?"
I can hear him singing... but he shouldn't be singing, he wasn't earlier.
"Did you come back into this room?"
I head to where his song come from, and find a tube. On closer inspection, it doesn't sing quite like John... but I can still sing to it.
The canister crumbles under my grip.
Something is wrong with John.
I mean, he'd be the first to tell you, but recently I've been dismissing it as attention grabbing blustering. He wants attention, claims to be sick in the head, and hey presto, he's the center of attention.
That was before he shrugged off two people getting murdered in front of him with nary a blink.
I barely had the presence of mind to drag him away from that monster and get out of the hallway while trying to keep my stomach down.
He explains his "plan" if you could call it that as we head to engineering.
It should be quite obvious, but it appears that Zan immersed herself into the Paksis, and the Paksis caused her to mutate. This has pretty much been confirmed by the girl herself, according to John. John's solution though...
I look down at the shiny weapon in his right hand, a, what did Barnette call it, "Sig Sour Pea 229." Barnette had reluctantly parted with the weapon under threat of being thrown in with Zan, and is currently heading to the sealed hallway to reinforce the rest of the crew there to contain Zan.
I don't know what sour vegetables have to do with Barnette's aging collection, but John's eyes lit up when he saw her pull the pistol out of its case. Even as we jog down to engineering, he cradles the damn thing like it's a precious jewel. Or maybe a girlfriend? He was talking to it earlier.
No, I refuse to be jealous of a chunk of metal.
Anyway, his solution is to threaten the Paksis.
He's going to attempt to threaten some dimension hopping sapient energy source that as far as we know doesn't even have a significant enough mass to actually interact with the .40 cal bullet the thing spits.
It seems he thinks that he can get the Paksis to reverse it. Possibly through force.
"So, what happens if your little show of force doesn't convince the Paksis to fix Zan?" I ask.
"Oh, I'm not worried about that." His face looks a bit strained. "I have a way to logic bomb it into a panic."
I gesture to the weapon in his hand. "Then what's that for?"
He grimaces. "Backup plan number 3."
John's song starts spreading around the hallway. It's spreading from the tube.
I ask it what it's doing.
It says that it's looking for John, just like me.
So we start looking.
And they find three other bodies.
The doors to engineering open with a swoosh, and I stride in with Meia hot on my heels.
Parfet looks up at me, a nervous tick forming on her face. "Eh, can it wait? The Paksis is acting up."
It is a bit hot in here, isn't it? However, I ignore the engineer and head for the entrance to the Paksis' chamber.
Meia intercepts Parfet. "Actually, it might be the fastest way to fix the problem."
"How? We've been experiencing weird fluctuations ever since Zan screwed up an entire sector of space." Parfet replies a bit snippy. She slaps a button on one of the consoles and the door in front of me lets out the "Chunk" sound of the mechanical locks being engaged,
"John thinks he... can..." Meia hesitates. "Look, just let him through?"
"No way." Parfet cross her arms. "Last person to head in there got turned into a grapevine of organs." She shudders.
I turn back to the pigtailed woman. In any other life, I'd probably get along well with her. After all, she's an engineer just like I am. "Parfet, you know that the Paksis is sapient, right?"
"No, that's just your imagination running away from you." She argues. "It does seem a bit in tune with emotions, but it can't think for itself."
I shake my head. "Okay, fine, believe that. But in any case, it transformed Zan." I pull the pistol up to my chest and rack the slide back and forth once to chamber a bullet. "And I'm pretty sure that it can put her back if it wants to. I just need to make it want to fix her really badly."
"...With a pistol?"
"It's plan C. And D, for that matter." I say.
Meia asks "Plan D?"
"It does the same thing to me that it did to Zan." I bring the gun up and poke my temple. "And I stop myself before it actually becomes a problem." Seeing as I don't actually want to kill myself- again- I quickly remove the gun and point it at the floor three feet in front of me, a nice neutral position that shouldn't be accidentally brow anyone brains out.
Parfet looks between Meia and I. "What are plans A and B?"
"A is to ask politely." Meia responds.
"B is to ask not so nicely." I finish. "Let me through so I can talk to it."
Parfet warily eyes Meia once more before reluctantly leaning over and pressing the switch to disable the locking mechanism.
"Thank you." I say, turning back to the door and pulling the lever.
The door swings inwards, and I step through into the chamber containing the sphere of light that started all of this.
I check the P229 in my hand one last time before closing my eyes, counting to three, and jumping into the blue ball.
The bodies are damaged! Cries the song. The remnants of John's song cover the bodies. They start to eat.
One of the bodies isn't heavily damaged. It appears to be resting against a wall rather than dead.
Which means that they weren't crushed.
Maybe they don't need to be crushed?
The others were crushed because they were in the way.
Is this last one in the way?
No, that one is useful.
It... he... has a name. There's not many "he"s on the ship. Not John, I feel him around me. Not the jumpy pilot, no this is the doctor.
Duelo.
He can fix John. He can make John sing again.
I'm sure of it.
Funny.
I last time I was in here, I was running away after having assaulted Meia.
I... really should do something to make up for that.
But first, I have a glowing blue ball to intimidate. I check the Sig Sauer P229 one last time, verifying that yes it is loaded, racked, and full of bullets. Nice .40 caliber rounds, 13 of them. 12 in the magazine, one in the chamber. This model happens to have a holographic sight on it, increasing the point-n'-shootyness of the firearm. just make sure the red dot is over the enemy's torso and use a nice, smooth trigger pull.
Ah, I need to stop grinning. Game face.
So, the war against the blue ball. First step is to determine a motive.
I walk right up to the perimeter of the sphere, right before I would have to enter the field.
"Paksis." I say, removing all emotions from my voice. Or, trying. I'm a bit giddy.
The sphere doesn't really seem to respond. It... well, it never really talks, does it. It usually does the bumblebee thing of hacking together other people's voices, and that only happens when you're inside the Paksis.
Which means that I can only go by it's color for the time being.
"Do you remember how you got here? You fled Earth, leaving behind a fragment of yourself. You got rid of your fear, and left it to rot where less scrupulous humans could get to it." I gesture around at the ship, hoping the thing gets my intent to point out the rest of the crew not present. "Up until a day ago, we were the best chance this universe had to get rid of your fear for good, but you ruined that. Now, we've got a rampaging... probably no longer technically human version of Zan killing the crew. Congratulations."
Again, the sphere doesn't seem to change. However, in the background I can hear Parfet squawking about weird power fluctuations. The now-familiar chill creeps down my spine, ever so slightly.
Good. It's listening, at least.
"So I've come to make you a deal." I pull my phone out of my pocket. "I figured out how to send messages to Earth. Right now, I can send a text straight to them, leading them here. Leading them to you. If you'd rather not get reunited with your other half in probably the worst way possible, how about you help me turn Zan back to normal, what do you say?"
A trace of red over the surface of the sphere. It heard me. Now I just have to wait for a response.
Er, which probably means I need to go in. The red is swirling a bit faster now, more obvious against the blue background.
"What the hell are you saying?"
I whip around and level the pistol at Meia- FUCK! I yank my aim to the side to get the barrel away from her. Oh god, I almost shot her-
"You can't just call the enemy here! We'll all die!"
"Please Meia, just trust me for a moment-"
"No! You're this close, THIS CLOSE-" She puts her fingers up a puts her thumb and index finger a centimeter apart. "to being completely off the deep end. Look, I care for you. God knows why, but I do. Ever since Christmas you've been getting worse and worse." She takes a breath to calm herself a bit and continues. "Please, stop doing everything yourself. You really suck at it. Just tell me what you brilliant plan is so I can find the three hundred obvious flaws in it."
I look down at the gun in my hand. "Okay then. Step one, confront the Paksis. Step two, convince it to help me turn Zan back. Step three..." I turn to look at the Paksis. "It took me to the Fixer before, and I figure I'd like to have a chat with him about screwing with my toys."
"Duelo." I say, moving up to where John's song remains dancing around the man.
"Ah, Zan. I don't suppose the other two are alive?"
Ah, this one is trying to confuse me. "I want you to bring the rest of John's song back."
"His song? I apologize but last I checked- eight hours ago, in fact- his vocal cords were working as fine as ever."
"NO!" Duelo flinches slightly at my yell. "I want you to bring back his song. Like the one that flows through the ship."
Duelo pauses. "I don't hear anything."
"I... I can't hear it now either." Frustrating. "The only song I can hear is John's."
"But...?" Duelo prompts.
"It's not right. It doesn't fill John, it spreads around the room like dust."
"Ah, I guess the nanobots got released then. I wondered what that shattering sound was."
"So fix his song." I demand.
"Of course." He seems lost in thought. "It will be hard to collect enough of the nanorobots to restore his 'song' as you call it. We also need to get to him, and deliver the nanorobots to him, then give them plenty of raw material to build up their numbers again."
"We need to collect his song?" I call out to the remnants of John's song and order them to come to me. It flies over to me and starts drifting onto my person, a light coating of dust. "Okay, I've collected it."
Duelo hmms. "I see, since they're not with their master, you can take control of them. Useful." He gently moves his hand out grasp my arm. "Do me a favor. Lead me to the exit."
With that declaration, John steps into the Paksis, with me right on his heels.
First, the cool blue wash envelopes me, a feeling familiar from before. Then, the nice coolness is replaced by something... dryer. Less welcoming. I open my eyes to find...
Nothing. A space that is completely white.
"Eh. Meia, you're here too?"
I glare at John. He holds up his hands in preemptive self defense. "No, I'm just surprised the Paksis brought you here too. I wasn't expecting you to come... Hopefully the Fixer isn't expecting you either."
"Huh? That creepy guy who sent you here?" I ask. Suddenly, I'm glad I always have my laser ring on me.
"Mmhmm. I know he's behind this. The Paksis is mysterious, but as far as I can tell it's never been malicious. It wouldn't do something so twisted for its own amusement. If Zan had asked to be turned into a mass of flesh covered organs, the Paksis might grant that request, but I don't think that was her intent. If the Paksis hadn't immediately sent us here, I was going to ask it exactly what she asked for, and possibly what the Fixer has on the Paksis to ensure it's cooperation."
"Oh, that's simple."
John and I both whip around and level our respective weapons on... well, he looks human, aside from being all different shades of grey.
He looks unconcerned with us pointing our weapons at him. "I used the same threat you used, Jerry."
John narrows his eyes. "Well, it's not that hard to figure out that threat if you can see everything before it happens."
Jerry? I've heard that somewhere. Didn't John say that to himself before we attacked the Flagship?
"Of course. Enjoying my little gift to you?"
"The DVD? Yeah, it's only caused another headache piling up over another thirty."
The Fixer sighs. "So hostile. After I gave you the powers of transformation, brought you to a world you understood-"
"Cut the shit." John snarls. "I met some of your friends from U-2. They claim you're the one who brought me here, and you're the one screwing with all these realities. So, you better have one hell of a good explanation."
The grey man shrugs. "Oh no, you caught me." His grin spreads out to cover his face, a lot wider than would be possible on a normal human face. "I must say, you've certainly been entertaining to me so far. Your friend was so distraught, she came to the Paksis and begged to be useful to you. I made sure the Paksis granted her wish. And here you are trying to take that away from-"
CRACK
The pistol roars in John's hand. To his credit, it was mostly accurate and would have hit the Fixer right in the stomach if he hadn't blocked with that shield.
Huh? Where did that shield come from? He didn't have it a second ago.
"Oh, so you get hammerspace? Give me a fucking break." John snaps. Two more shots report, only for the shield to practically teleport to block the rounds.
"It's not hammerspace." The Fixer still seems unconcerned. "It's actually a product of this dimension I designed." He gestures grandly. "Here, I can manifest my will however I like. I can creep into dimensions, conjure objects, and even create life!"
John's face untwists and he looks genuinely surprised. "Wait, you made a universe that can just create stuff at will?"
"Yes!" The Fixer gloats, hands on hips. "Anything I can imagine!"
"Just like Green Lantern huh?" John says, as if to himself.
"Yes! You get it! I designed this place to create things with just a thought-"
John's face twists into a mirror of the Fixer's manic expression and points his gun. "Black hole."
For a brief moment, the Fixer looks surprised. He claps his hands together in a hurry and the black sphere that hard just appeared collapses. "Now now, I didn't say you had access-"
"One hundred N2 Mines."
The Fixer quickly scrambles to waves away the hundred balls of death that had just appeared in the sky. "Now, see here-"
"Orbital Laser."
The Fixer dodges out of the way of a beam of light so powerful that it singes the very air turning the beam visible.
"Handcuffs!" I yell, and suddenly the grey man finds his hands behind his back, bound by metal rings.
John mutters to himself. "I guess that works." He levels his gun at the Fixer once again. "You know what really irritated me about the Green Lantern movie?"
The cuffs start to disappear, so I imagine that they're unbreakable, and, what was the word John was throwing around trying to look smart? Immutable?
Well, it works. The cuffs stop disappearing, at least for the moment.
"Hal Jordan, the hero, is so unimaginative. to escape a black hole, he harnesses two jet engines, and struggles to get away. Why not imagine a third engine? Or, something more powerful than jets, like a rocket engine? If power was the concern, then why not create the biggest counter black hole he could to drag him out in one instantaneous burst of speed?" John fires his gun a three more times, but the shield comes back up.
The Fixer spits to the side. "I hate this about you humans from U-3. You always have something else up your sleeve. Why can't you all just do what I tell you?"
"Haven't you heard? Humans are crazy." John fires yet another round, just as ineffectively as the first. "And you picked one who reads all kinds of crazy stuff." John's eyes narrow.
"Tarrasque."
Google Tarrasque. Do it.
Zan's mutated form is supposed to evoke something between a Banshee from Mass Effect, the flood forms from Halo and the Necromorphs form Dead Space. Add in a dash of SOMA for some nice lighting tricks...
...
This story is still tagged "Angst" and "Sci-fi", not "Horror", right?
I should probably go lay down now. And I need to go turn off all those LEDs around my room. The blue ones are staring at me.