Griffin's Death.

Nemo was relieved to be out of the rain, and far away from the crowds of people as they evacuated the city. The Indian science pirate had never liked crowds which went with his quiet, serious demeanour, but with the way this extraordinary war going, he liked them even less; with the Martians slowly burning the city down and gaining more and more ground as the British army struggled to fight back, it had been nearly impossible for him and Samson the coachman to get here with the food in one piece.

But Nemo was worried.

Thanks to Griffin who had betrayed them all for the Martians, the museum which served as the base of operations for the League was compromised. And yet Hyde had been convinced there was no danger. But truthfully Nemo welcomed the change of scene; there was little he could do from the Nautilus while his submarine ship was imprisoned by the red weed the Martians had contaminated the Thames with, immobilising his ship, so the change of scene was something Nemo welcomed.

"Marvellous. Do you know, I'm absolutely starving," Nemo and Samson looked up the stairway when they heard Hyde's familiar guttural voice, and when they looked up they saw the massive, twisted ape-like figure of Hyde at the top of the stairs. He looked incongruous in the smart blue smoking jacket and matching trousers and crisp white shirt.

"What have you been up to since we last parted ways, Hyde?" Nemo asked as Hyde walked with them through the corridor to the dining room. "You have been here for some time now."

A crooked smile crossed over Hyde's twisted ape-like visage. "You'll soon find out, Nemo," he growled in a way that prevented any more questioning as they walked into the dining room and they sat down. Samson dished out the food, and soon they were eating.

Nemo ate very little. He was too busy watching Hyde, who was scoffing his meal like some savage beast.

"Your appetite is quite considerable. Jekyll would only pick at his food. I note we have not seen the doctor recently," Nemo observed while Hyde was ripping into some cooked meat. Nemo's observation had made the beast-man pause for a moment before he resumed his meal.

"'Gronff," Hyde growled, "No. Jekyll's a weakling…. All these Mars men about, he might get me killed."

"Huh. Strikes me you're more likely to do that yourself," Samson observed quietly.

Hyde turned his head to face Samson. For one hideous moment Nemo wondered if Hyde was going to explode with rage; because of Jekyll's work in unleashing his darker impulses which transformed him into a monster, a deformed, lumbering, hulking, looming monster, Hyde's temper was volatile at the best of times, and Nemo was worried this almost pleasant scene was going to be ruined by Hyde's explosive temper.

But curiously Hyde took the comment in his stride. In fact, he even agreed amicably. "Yes, you're quite right," Hyde replied. "But at least that will be when I say so. I wouldn't give Jekyll the satisfaction."

He wasn't in the League hoping to make friends, indeed he had been surprised when he and Quatermain had become friends since they had some things in common, Nemo had known for some time Jekyll and Hyde had a mutual feeling of animosity towards each other. He wondered why. Was it because they shared the same body, and they were two sides of the same mind?

Samson seemed to share his curiosity. "Sounds to me like you don't care for the feller much."

"Indeed. Especially considering it was his genius that gave you independent life," Nemo added, but he had carefully chosen his words to see what Hyde said and how he reacted.

Hyde laughed. "His genius? What, Jekyll?" Hyde let out a laugh that sounded so painfully loud in the dining room that both Samson and Nemo shivered. It was unsettling to hear. "Jekyll's a flinching little Presbyterian spinster frightened by his own erections. He's probably doomed us both!"

Nemo raised a brow. While he shared some of Hyde's opinions of Jekyll's personality, he felt it was a bit harsh. But he was understandably curious about what Nemo meant by that. "What do you mean?"

Hyde turned to him, food falling from his mouth. It was ghastly to see, but it was even more ghastly to hear his voice. "I mean by…'hrronch'…by separating us in the first place. All because he wanted to be pure. Fucking idiot."

Nemo like the rest of the League was aware of Jekyll's experiments which led to Hyde's creation in the first place. Himself, Griffin, and Jekyll were all scientists, but their fields were split into different fields, but out of all of them, Jekyll's long-term plans for an elixir which could bring out the darker persona of a human mind into the living world, while interesting, raised more questions and worries than Nemo cared for.

That was one of the reasons why Nemo didn't really have anything to do with Jekyll; he found more sense in Griffin's work than anything else.

"He was a doctor, wasn't he? I should've thought he'd not have many sins to purge," Samson commented.

Nemo had to admit Samson had a point, but everyone had a dark side; for some, it was more pronounced but it was there. But Hyde seemed delighted by the observation though.

"Exactly! Exactly! First sensible thing you've said," Hyde's grin reminded Nemo of a gorilla's skull, showing yellowed fangs, but the Indian captain felt it unfair to say that to Samson. Meanwhile, Hyde had lifted a paw-like hand and he began theatrically counting down the things Jekyll had done.

"Should I tell you what they were, eh? These evils he was so desperate to get rid of?" Hyde said mockingly. "We, he'd once stolen a book. More borrowed and never returned, but still….Oh, and he played with himself, sometimes while he thought about other men. That's about it. Anyway, what the silly bastard did, he thought if he quarantined all these bad parts, what was left would a fucking angel," Hyde laughed gutturally.

"Hang on. If you're this chap's sins, how did you end up so bloody big?" Samson asked suddenly.

"Good point," Hyde said through a mouthful. "That's a very good poimb. I mean, once I started out, Good God, I was practically a fucking dwarf. Jekyll, on the other hand, a great big strapping fellow. Since then, though, my growth's been unrestricted, while he's wasted away to nothing. Obvious really. Without me, Jekyll has no drives, and without him, I have no restraints."

Nemo was fascinated by this explanation, and it soon became clear that thanks in some way to him although he wasn't sure how, but Hyde had been growing stronger, and he had been feeding off of Jekyll like a leech. But while Hyde had been speaking, stains of red had been appearing and spreading, not just on Hyde's shirt but on the tablecloth as well.

"Great Gods," Nemo declared. "Hyde, you are wounded."

Hyde stopped and he looked down, noticing the blood spots. Suddenly Nemo realised that it was not his blood. "Mhuhm? Oh… no, no, this isn't mine. This is Griffin's. It probably means he's just this moment passed away. He's in the library. Didn't I mention it?"

Nemo leaned back from his chair in shock. Griffin? Dead? There was no doubt in his mind at all Hyde had deliberately kept the information to himself. Nemo stood up, shaken by what he had learned. If he knew Hyde, Griffin had just died a very violent death, and while he deserved it, Hyde had likely pushed the boundaries. "The library?" He stammered as he left the dining room and went off through the door.

As he walked out, Nemo noticed the tablecloth's blood stains becoming wider. "Huh. I say, that looks rather marvellous, doesn't it?" Hyde commented, sounding like an art lover who was just commenting on a painting in a gallery, and not the blood stains of a human being whom he had just murdered. "Like a Daghuerrotype developing. anyway, where was I?"

Nemo turned away and walked through to the library. The sight that met his eyes made them shoot open in horror. The room was a shambles with the furniture smashed to pieces, with a large chair torn in half. The window was smashed in a single pane, with shards of glass on the ground, and there was a smashed bottle with roses crunched on the ground, petals nearby.

But the most horrifying thing he found was Griffin himself. The former invisible man was dead, alright; the invisibility process had worn off with his passing. His jaw was dislocated and at an angle which looked like it had punched over to different sides of Griffin's mouth until it had nearly been twisted off. The rest of Griffin's face was bloodied and bruised, and lumpy with horrible wounds although a part of his skull had been torn off. All of Griffin's limbs were snapped and broken. But the most horrible injury Griffin had received yet was around his anus. It looked like….No, surely Hyde would not do something like that?! But it was true, especially since Nemo had seen similar crimes committed by the British during the Mutiny; many perverted soldiers would rape Indian women and they didn't care about the injuries they were inflicting. Griffin's anus had been virtually torn to pieces by Hyde's more massive girth while the invisible man's own penis, which he had used to rape the young girls at that posh upper-class school, had been torn off and shoved into Griffin's mouth until his throat was bulging.

But there were bite marks around Griffin's bloodied body, and the rib cage had been ripped open, and Nemo knew the invisible man had been awake the entire time this had been happening, and some of the organs had been bitten into as well. The bites were quite deep, and they reminded him of the dead whales he had seen floating on the surface of the sea, nibbled to pieces by scavenging sharks. Hyde had fallen to a new low, Nemo realised, not only had he raped a man, but he had fallen into cannibalism.

Suddenly Nemo realised why Griffin was missing part of his skull. Hyde had bitten it off.

These thoughts and realisations passed through Nemo's mind at the same speed as a bullet. He recoiled and he yelled in choked horror.

Captain Nemo had committed his own fair share of crimes - piracy, murders a plenty, and terrorism, but he had never raped or torn someone apart like this before.

"AAAAHNN! HYDE!" Nemo tore the scimitar he wore on his sash and raced out of the library in a rage, determined to get that evil beast sent straight into hell for what he had just done. "Mad animal, what have you done?"

Samson reacted quickly by leaping to his feet. "Captain, No sir! Don't!"

Nemo ignored him even though a part of him was pleased that Samson was quick to stop him from making a mistake. But he was too angry and focused on Hyde, who just sat eating. "You are the shit of the world! I shall kill you now!"

Samson had had enough and realised nothing else would work. He grabbed Nemo and tried to push him back, but the Indian struggled with the help of his own training in the martial arts and his yoga-induced fitness. "Unhand me! That horror shall not live a moment longer!" Nemo yelled indignantly.

"No, and nor will we!" Nemo stopped and paused to listen to Samson, and he found himself looking out of the window, to where the burning city could be seen outside. Samson was right. With the Martian invasion, they needed Hyde's strength to help them combat the alien invaders. But after what he had done, did Hyde really deserve to live?

No.

He was a monster. An evil beast. He was a rapist and a cannibal. After what he had done, feasting on Griffin's flesh, it was only a matter of time before he killed someone yet again. Nemo had no intention of letting that happen; he might hate Britain and the people within it, but even they did not deserve such a horror.

Hyde grunted as he finally took stock of what was being said and what was happening around him. "He's right, Nemo. And you know it. Now sit down and finish your supper."

Nemo seethed with rage, refusing to even follow through with that, but he sat down anyway out of nothing better to do, but he had lost his appetite.

Author's Note - I always wondered what else Hyde had done to Griffin in the comics; rape was only a part of it, and Hyde was vicious and savage enough to go much, much further. And before fans claim that if you bite some of the skull and the brain, you're dead already, think about what happened in Hannibal where Hannibal cut open Starling's boss' skull and removed a piece of brain. He was still alive. The same principle is here.