PART IX: Love

It was a rainy day. You could hear the clippity-clop of the horses' hooves clippity clopping against the road. Ling and Crutchy were atop of them. Of course, I mean the horses.

"Ling, do you think we'll ever find Blink and Snipes?" Crutchy asked sadly.

"I don't know. But I do know this--being a peacemaker means being able to communicate what you want, need, think, and fell." Ling felt the tears stream down his face.

"How does that help?" Crutchy asked boredly.

"Well, it doesn't, I just felt like saying it," the other man replied. He wiped the tears away with his sleeve, then took out a whip. "Yah!" he yelled, whipping the air.

Crutchy did the same and they rode off through the grassy hills and fields.

"Doesn't it fell good?" asked Ling. "Have you ever felt this good? Have you ever felt happy? Truly happy?"

"Well, considering the fact that two of my friends are missing I don't fell very good," Crutchy replied nastily.

"Y'know, am getting darned sick of your attitude, you little upstart!"

"Well, I'M not the one who keeps crying!"

Ling chuckled. "Me? CRYING? Ha! I haven't cried in years!"

"Yeah, right. You were crying two minutes ago. The tears were streaming down your face!" As he said this, Crutchy felt the tears stream down his face. "Y'know what, Ling? I just don't think we make a very good team."

"No, I think the problem is you just don't work well with people!" Ling shouted.

"Excuse me."

"What do you want?" Ling demanded.

"I didn't say anything!" exclaimed Crutchy defensively.

"Then who did?"

"I did."

The two of them looked down at Ling's horse. "Did you just say something?" Ling asked it.

"No, I did."

The two of them looked at Crutchy's horse. "Did you just say something?" Crutchy asked it.

"Boy, you guys are quick," the horse whinnied sarcastically.

"We are?" Ling brightened. "Thanks!"

The horse rolled its eyes. "Hello? Sarcasm? Jesus Christ, are you two ever stupid. Which reminds me. WOULD THE TWO OF YOU PLEASE SHUT THE HELL UP???!!!!!"

Gasping, Ling cried in shock, "Such language!"

"Didn't I just tell you to shutup?" the horse demanded.

Ling blushed furiously. "Oh yeah, you did."

"Please, Spooky," Ling's horse sighed. It had a British accent, unlike Crutchy's horse, and it sounded female, also unlike Crutchy's horse. "Please excuse Spooky," she said cordially. "He's had a terribly unpleasant day." She leaned her head back and whispered conspiratorially, "The stable master neglected to give him his oats this morning."

"Ohhh..." Ling and Crutchy nodded and shook their heads sympathetically. They knew EXACTLY what that was like.

Spooky blushed furiously. "Aw, you didn't have to tell them that, Buttercup."

She laughed. It was like the tinkle of a hundred tiny bells.

Ling and Crutchy were in love.

Suddenly, Crutchy heard the rattle of a rattler snake. "Whoa, Nellie!" he called.

"It's Spooky!" the horse growled through gritted teeth.

"Oh, sorry about that," Crutchy apologized, patting the horse's cheek.

"Don't do that," Spooky growled again.

Crutchy blushed furiously. "I'm terribly sorry." He ruffled Spooky's long, majestic mane.

"STOP IT!" Spooky yelled.

Crutchy blushed even more furiously than before, which caused Ling to blush furiously as well.

"Anyways," Crutchy began, hiding his face, "I thought I heard a rattle."

And indeed he did, because in the bushes yonder laid a rattler snake. The most dangerous, blood-thirsty, venomous snake on the prairie.

Buttercup began to walk again. "Let's keep going, we wouldn't want to be late to wherever we're going."

"But Buttercup!" Ling protested. "You could get hurt out there! The snake could get you!" He felt the tears stream down his face. He didn't want Buttercup to die. So from that moment on, he would do ANYTHING for Buttercup and ANYTHING to keep her safe. Anything.

"Ling's right," Crutchy jumped in. He felt the tears stream down his face. He didn't want Buttercup to die. So from this moment on, he would do ANYTHING for Buttercup and ANYTHING to keep her safe. Anything.

Ling...Crutchy...

"Did you say something?" Crutchy asked Spooky.

"No," he grunted.

I did... It was a snakey voice. My name is Issssta...

"Issssta?" he repeated out loud.

No! Ista! it shouted. Ista was in his mind. She was communicating with him telepathically.

Crutchy grabbed his head. "It's in my brain! Get it outta my brain! GET IT OUTTA MY BRAIN!" Tears streamed down his face in frustration. How was he going to get this...this THING out of his brain? Was it even possible?

"Crutchy, it's alright," Buttercup soothed. "It will be gone soon." She paused. "As soon as we get out of these fields!"

Crutchy felt the tears stream down his face. but this time the cause was happiness! "Ya think so? Do you really...REALLY think so?"

"Didn't you hear her?!" Spooky snapped. "Yes, it will be gone when we get out of the fields!"

Crutchy looked down at Spooky. "The let's ride!"

The horses galloped off away from the psychotic fields.

~

PART X: THE EXPERIMENT

"Excuse me, I think you'd better let me out of here!" Nuka yelled.

The pale-skinned, black-haired man turned his vibrant lavender eyes on the lion. "I think you misunderstand. I just saved your life."

"Yeah right! Then why do you keep taking samples of my blood?!"

"Oh...I was hoping you wouldn't notice that." Weyoun poured some liquid into a flask and placed it on a shiny silver machine. "If you must know, you're going to be the first living creature to see a project of mine."

"Yippee," Nuka said sarcastically.

Shockingly, Weyoun didn't blush furiously. Nor did tears stream down his face. "When the time comes, you'll see. For now, I have to make sure you aren't carrying some kind of...disease."

"Well, I happen to KNOW I'm not carrying any kind of disease!"

"How could you possibly know that?"

Nuka thought for a long time. "Well...I guess I don't."

"My point exactly."

"You think you're really smart, don't you?"

Turning back to the various test tubes and vials on is lab table deal, Weyoun responded, "I KNOW I'm very smart."

Seeing that Weyoun was really a lot smarter than him, Nuka shut his mouth and watched the Vorta (that's what Weyoun is--if you didn't know before, you do now) work, even though he had no clue as to what he was doing. That was okay, though. No, it really wasn't! Nuka was afraid. He was afraid of this strange alien. He was afraid of what this strange alien was going to do. But most of all, he was afraid of this strange alien's enigmatic experiment! "We're all gonna die out here," he whispered hoarsely to himself. He felt the tears stream down his face. God, if only his father hadn't beaten him! If only Father hadn't beaten Mother to death in front of him! Oh, wait, that had never happened. He was thinking of something he'd read. That was a relief.

At that moment, Nuka noticed that Weyoun was staring at him with an interested gleam in his eyes. "Interesting," he murmured to himself. "Do you have multiple personalities?"

"No!" Nuka exclaimed.

"Well, then be quiet!"

Nuka blushed furiously even as he felt the tears stream down his face. So many tears...so many faces for so many tears to stream down!

"Keeping you quiet certainly is a tedious process, isn't it?" Weyoun sighed.

"What?" Nuka wiped away the tears streaming down his face.

"You're talking to yourself."

"Oh!" Nuka blushed furiously. "I'm sorry!"

Suddenly, Weyoun smiled widely. "You're disease free."

"I'm disease free?"

"You're disease free!"

"Oh goody!"

Clasping his hands together in barely contained glee, Weyoun informed him, "And now...the Bear Which Project."

"Oh no!" Internal alarms went off in Nuka's head as the Vorta walked away. The alarms were in his brain! And he listened to them! He had to get out of there! Because BWP...it stood for something! He didn't know what, but it stood for something horrifying! Psychologically horrifying!

After a minute, Weyoun reentered the room, towing a cage-like thing behind him. "Don't look so terrified," he advised.

But Nuka couldn't help trembling. He WAS terrified! "You'll never take me alive!" he cried.

The Vorta sighed. "You're not going to die. Don't worry."

Abruptly, the lion stopped trembling. "Really?"

"Really."

"Oh." Nuka thought for a second. "So nothing's going to hurt me?"

"Correct."

"Oh. Okay."

Weyoun pulled a shimmering cloak off the cage-like thing, revealing...a horrible, slobbering, disgusting monster! Actually...Nuka took a closer look. It was another lion. A lioness, actually.

"What's that?" he questioned.

"My creation," Weyoun answered proudly.

Nuka got to his feet and cautiously approached the cage. "Is it really alive?"

"She," Weyoun corrected. "And yes, SHE is alive."

"She's real?"

"Yes."

"How'd you do it?"

At that moment, the lioness spoke. "He employed the technology used to clone him to create me from...well, who knows what." She blinked her large, slanted, blue-green eyes. "He's a good guy. A good guy! You should give 'im a chance!"

Entranced, Nuka drew closer to the cage. "So...what's your name?"

She gazed into his glimmering red-gold eyes. "Haidera."

"I'm Nuka."

Lowering her eyes, she said, "That's a good name."

"Yeah...yours is really pretty, too."

She giggled, and he giggled as well. They reminded Weyoun of giggling school children. Not that he'd ever been to school or been a child. Well, actually...no, that got too confusing. Suffice to say they reminded him of what he thought giggling school children would giggle like. "Haidera," the Vorta said. She tore her eyes away from Nuka and looked at him dazedly. "Would you like to be let out?"

"Yeah, that would be nice," she snapped, coming out of her reverie for a moment.

He reached down and put a finger on a locking apparatus, which played a merry little tune, then unlocked.

Haidera drifted out and she and Nuka headed--well, drifted, really--out the door of the lab.

Weyoun turned back to his lab table and stared at the various liquids bubbling in the test tubes, vials, and flasks. "I have no idea what I just learned."

~