The End, And After

(Chapter title is from Red Dwarf book. I think. Anyway, we didn't make it up.)

"Beat?"

Gum crept over to Beat. She glanced from Beat to the body of Tab to the remains of Onishima.

No more was said. Combo carried Future Tab's body back to the garage.

Cube arrived back some time later. "I did it. She's dead. So are Koji and Omega."

She knew she should be feeling something – remorse, happiness, excitement – but she didn't. Her head felt empty of thought.

Everyone else was sitting around looking solemn.

"Future Tab's dead," Beat said.

Cube swallowed. "Onishima?"

"Yep. But he's gone too."

"I never got to thank Tab for this." She touched her armour. "If it hadn't been for him I'd have lost that fight."

"Are you sure you didn't? That she's dead, I mean?" asked Mew.

"She plunged into a pit of molten metal. I think that counts as dead."

"Are you okay?" Slate's voice floated over from the pinball machine.

Cube turned to face him and her mouth dropped open. "Coin? How did you – how did you –"

"Kell and Tab. She sliced my face in half, he put me back together. What do you think?"

"What do I think?" She ran over to him. "Here's what I think…"

It was their first kiss since – well, for a long time. She savoured it. At long last, she was safe.

"Yo-Yo?" Mew crept closer to Yo-Yo, who was sitting on the car, looking at the wall.

"What?"

"I wanted to say I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted." Yo-Yo didn't move.

"Yo-Yo, I'm sorry, I didn't know how you felt…"

"Oh, like I didn't make it obvious enough! What did you want me to do, spell it out for you? I'll probably never say this again, but Kell was right – you are a ditz!"

"I – I thought you were just joking around!"

"Just joking around? Do you really think a joke would last this long?"

"Well, I don't know what you want me to say!"

"There's nothing you can say."

"There is something." Mew sat down on the car.

"Oh, yeah? What?"

"Thank you. You confessed to try and save me, and I won't forget that."

"Well, yeah. I suppose." Yo-Yo shrugged.

"Maybe we won't get together, but for what it's worth, I think you're a lot braver than people take you for."

She kissed him on the forehead, and then slid off the car and walked away.

Shackler sloped out of the garage at the sight of Alex and Blizzard kissing. He walked down the street and into a nearby bar.

As he walked up to the bar, he saw Data sitting there, her head bent low over a small glass of vodka.

He ordered a beer, and sat down next to her. "Hey."

"Hey."

"So, what're you doing here?" He sipped at his beer.

"Thinking."

"Oh. 'Bout Giga? And Omega?"

"Yeah. S'pose."

"Are you drunk yet?"

"No."

"Are you gonna get drunk?"

"S'pose."

"Can I get drunk with ya?"

"If you want."

Shackler downed his beer. Data downed her vodka. They ordered two more drinks. Each.

"So…what're you doing here?"

"Getting away from Alex and Blizzard playing tongue tennis."

"Oh." Data stared off into the distance for a few moments, then said, "You know what happens now, don't you?"

"No."

"We both sit here, getting more and more drunk, telling each other tragic tales of lost love, and end up deadening the pain by having a night of full on bursting passion and end up completely ruining our professional relationship."

(A/N: Yes, we know, that speech is © *gag* Spiceworld: The movie. I know, I know, we watched it, groan, shame, etc…)

Shackler took another drink of beer.

"Well, I'm up for it, if you are."

"I can't believe I'm dead," Present Tab said.

"He was a good friend." Beat sighed.

"Yeah. I was a real good friend."

"Tab, are you sure you didn't feel anything when you died?"

"Well, sort of. I felt a pain in my heart…but I thought that was just cos of all the smoke."

"Future Tab got shot in the heart. You felt his shot, man." Beat sighed. "I'm gonna miss him."

"Technically you won't, because I'm him."

"But we went through stuff, man! We went to the future and back together. You know, he fixed my eye. No offence, Tabster, it's just…I am gonna miss him."

"I will too. Me and him made a great team."

"How'd you think we should bury him?"

"Well…since I'm him, I think we should bury him in our secret lab under the elephant slide."

"Yeah. That's where he fixed my eye and where we cheated death again."

CRASH!

Both GGs looked up at the sound of the dustbins hitting the pavement. Beat got up and went to the window, then turned away rather abruptly.

"Okay, nothing to see here…"

"What?" Tab said. "What's going on?"

"Umm…It's Data and Shackler. They're making out in the alleyway and just knocked over a couple of dustbins. They're up against the garage wall."

"I think we'd better close the blind now."

"Gum?"

"Hi."

Gum stared out at the sunset, sitting on the roof of the garage hugging her knees. She could hear Beat's footsteps behind her.

"Um…I heard about what happened."

"Hmm."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." Gum felt tears begin to course down her cheeks.

"Gum…it'll make you feel better…"

"No, it won't. I don't ever want to go through that again."

"Gum. You'll end up feeling terrible about it. It'll come back to haunt you. If we talk about it, we can get it off your chest for good. I won't tell anyone."

"Why not? They already know. And they wouldn't care anyway."

"Gum, how can you say that? These guys are your friends. They've been through everything with you. From fighting the Rhinos to…well, this!"

"How do you know they actually care?"

"Gum. No matter what, I'll always be here for you. And so will Tab. The three of us."

"Why do you want to be there for a weakling like me? I gave in. None of the others did, they fought. I couldn't. I'm nothing but a coward."

She felt Beat put his arm round her. "Future Tab did not die to hear you going on like this. He died so you could be happy. He gave us a chance. So we could now carry on."

"Well, sorry. At the moment I don't feel too damn happy. If you have a problem with that then you can just go jump off the roof right now!"

She waited for him to walk away, but he didn't. He stayed sitting by her, one arm round her. A few minutes passed. To Gum it seemed like an eternity.

"I'm sorry," she said at last. "I just…I just…"

Suddenly she was crying for real. She buried her head in his chest and felt him hug her.

"She…she made me…I didn't want to do it but she made me…and I hate her, I hate her…I just feel like, like I hate myself, I don't want to be here, I don't want to be alive…"

"It's okay." He was holding her, keeping her safe. "You're mad because she forced you to, aren't you?"

Gum nodded. She didn't want to talk about it, but she knew if she didn't she'd be cutting off any hope of freedom from her misery. "She…she made me kiss her skates…"

Beat's arm tightened around her. "Don't worry about it," he said. "She's dead, she's dead, okay?"

"I know." She looked up at him. In the half-darkness he looked furious.

"Why so angry?"

"If I could have done anything – anything – to stop her doing that to you, I would have. I mean it. I hate seeing you like this. I wish you'd not been caught. I – oh, you know. I love you, I guess."

"You guess?"

"I know. I love you. I always have." She heard his voice catch a little.

Gum hugged him, more tears spilling from her eyes, and whispered, "I love you too…"

Beat grinned as they sat silently watching the sun set.

Cube, Combo and Slate – or rather, Coin – were having a three-player game on Power Stone 2. It mayn't seem appropriate, but they were trying to wind down.

"Arrgh! No! Combo, you can't do that!" Cube shrieked. "I'm on your team, doofus!"

"Hah, I'm going to destroy you all, all of you, mwahaahaaaa!" Combo pounded the specially customised controls with his metal claws.

"I think being a cyborg has gone to your head," Cube muttered as she concentrated on directing Mel around the screen.

Coin coolly directed Falcon to drop a crate on top of Combo's Gunrock. Cube then hit them both with Mel's umbrella.

"You know –" Whapwhapwhapwhap – "I've been thinking –" BOOM – "life – " bang bang – "is gonna be easier from now on –" ZAP! Cube wrestled with the controls.

"The last time you said something like that I got blown up," Combo said. "Watch your tongue, okay?"

"You are sure she's dead?" Coin said, under cover of an explosion.

"I think so. I hope so." The glow of the screen outlined Cube's features. She squinted in the dim light. "If she comes back –"

"She won't," Coin said quickly. "She better not."

"No. I suppose not." Cube shivered. "If she does –"

"If she does I'll look after you. You know that. I'm not letting her get you."

Cube didn't answer. A memory was crawling into her brain, a memory she didn't want to see.

"Coin…" she said. "Did you ever know her?"

"No. I don't know what she was on about, I don't know how she recognised me."

I could tell you something about Coin…that you really wouldn't want to know…

Cube swallowed. "Sure."

"Hah! Gotcha!" Combo punched the air as Gunrock flipped both Mel and Falcon into the claws of the space monster.

"Combo!" Cube and Coin yelled at him.

"You gotta be smart to survive in this game," Combo said smugly. Then he yelped as the other two began to pelt him with popcorn.

Cube looked round the garage. By the sound system Garam was kissing Piranha. Yo-Yo was drinking Coca-Cola with Gamma and Mew, grinning at someone's joke. Alex was talking with Blizzard – they were looking into each other's eyes. Tab was on hands and knees adding a jet booster to the GGs' car, being watched by Potts. She could hear crashes from the alleyway where Data and Shackler were, and could see Beat and Gum through the skylight, staring out at the sunset.

Combo flung a handful of popcorn down the back of her neck, and she dashed back to join the battle.

Meanwhile deep under the molten metal, something stirred.

"Ohh, you're gonna suffer for this, Cube. You're gonna suffer!"

The End…Or Is It?