Disclaimer: I don't own 'em (except for Major Boyer). Square does. If I owned them, though, I would share!

Author's Note: Happy Halloween! I couldn't figure out a way to fit Major Elliot in here; sorry to those of you who were hoping to see him. But anyway, here's the conclusion. I hope that I at least slightly amused you all. And now, I can get back to Infinite Requiem.

Zombie Love

Five – The Zombie Queen

"Sid?" Aki screamed. It wasn't, no, it couldn't be, there was no way this empty shell was her brilliant mentor… But as it turned its empty eyes towards her, she knew. "What… what happened…?" she couldn't finish; a lump had formed in her throat.

No, it wasn't a lump – Dr. Sid had lunged forward and placed his claw-like hands around her throat, shutting off her air. His strength astonished her; the aging doctor had never been able to grip with this bone-crushing force before! He pulled her closer, his mouth gaping wide. Aki tried to scream, but couldn't. Fetid breath, smelling like rotting meat, filled her nostrils and she began to gag.

And then a sharp, authoritative voice cut through the buzzing that had begun in her ears. "Bad Doctor! Bad! Put her down, now!" The hands released her throat, and Aki fell to her knees, gasping. Dr. Sid had backed away, a confused and slightly guilty expression on his face, much like a dog who has just been scolded for something it knew was bad. "Sorry about that, boss," Neil said from behind her. "He was acting on instinct; can't really think rationally, you know. Or at all, for that matter." He went to stand by the cowering Dr. Sid and patted the doctor's bony shoulders. "He'll be okay now, though." Neil's cheerful grin faded when he saw the expressions on the faces of the others. "Uh…" he said.

Gray folded his arms across his chest, the normally stoic stance ruined by his left elbow's sudden decision to disjoint. "Neil… what's going on? Do you know something about this?"

Neil suddenly seemed to find his shoes very interesting. He mumbled something that none of them caught, and Jane surged forward, grasping the tech's chin and forcing him to meet her gaze. "What. Did. You. Do." she snarled.

"I…" Neil tried to shrink back, but Jane's grip was firm. "He threatened the boss's project – er, us – and so I… I had to protect her interests!" Neil blurted out defensively. "Dr. Sid would have ruined everything for her! So I… Well, maybe it was a little extreme, but I was hungry…" Neil dithered. He wrung his hands. "But he won't do anything against the boss now! See? He's perfectly docile now; he just needed direction." Neil patted Dr. Sid's cracked cranium. His squadmates could only stare in horror (except for Ryan, of course, who was working at chewing off his restraints) at this newly-revealed monster in their midst. It was Aki who finally managed to break the silence.

"You… did… this?" Aki whispered.

"Sorry, boss," Neil said, his face falling. "I was just… I did it for you!"

Aki's face was very white. "For me? Why, Neil? You barely know me! Why would you do this for me? Why the hell would you do something like this?" Her voice rose. Then her eyes widened. "Neil… you said you stopped for a bite to eat before coming to my apartment. Did you…?"

He was saved from answering by the sound of the door slamming open, and in swept an unwelcome figure. It was Major Boyer… or rather, what was left of him. The top of his skull was gone, as was what was supposed to be contained inside. His uniform was stained with blood and gray matter, and Aki felt the gorge rise in her throat. But the major seemed completely unaware of his condition, and he raised up his arms, a mad gleam in his glazed eyes.

"I am the Zombie Queen!" he shrieked.

"Dammit, how'd he escape?" Neil muttered from somewhere behind them.

"I have come," Zombie Boyer continued, "to make you part of my army of the glorious undead!" At his words, a dozen or so soldiers in equally brainless condition came in behind their, uh, queen. "Together, we shall… we shall… we shall…" Now Boyer looked a little confused; clearly, elaborate evil plots were beyond him. Aki doubted he'd even be able to manage an evil act as simple as placing a thumbtack on Councilwoman Hee's seat.

"We shall conquer the world?" Neil suggested.

Jane smacked him. "Don't give him ideas," she hissed.

"We shall conquer the world!" Boyer shrilled. "We shall feast on the brains of all who stand in our way, and… and…" His brow furrowed. "Uh… Get them!" he commanded. The soldiers surged forward.

"Run!" Gray cried, yanking Aki to her feet and giving her a push towards the lab's rear door. Aki stumbled, caught herself, and started running. Neil was hot at her heels, followed by Jane. Gray glanced towards the chair where Ryan had been tied, and, seeing only an empty chair and gnawed ropes, he turned on his heel and followed. He could feel muscles tear, and his body wasn't responding like it should. Any moment, he knew, the zombies would be on him, hold him down, eat his brain and make him one of them. Any moment…

Any moment…

When death didn't immediately take him, Gray turned, and slowed. The zombies were still coming, but they moved at a shambling pace that could have been outwalked. Odd; considering how fast they attacked, one would think they could at least maintain a decent walking pace. Gray shrugged and followed the others, taking his time so as not to damage himself further.

Even so, he left behind several huge peels of skin in his wake.

XXX

"We lost Gray!" Aki cried, skittering to a halt. Jane grabbed her sleeve and tried to haul her along, but Aki refused to leave her beloved behind – she wanted to salvage as much of him as possible, and she wanted that portion to include his brain. "How can you leave him behind?" Aki asked accusingly. "He's your captain!"

"He ordered us to…" Jane slowed. "Shit," she muttered, turning to sprint back the way they'd just come. Neil skittered to a halt, feet slipping on the tile. He gave Aki an inquisitive look, visibly crumbling when Aki shot him a look of pure loathing. She hadn't forgiven him for what he'd done… "Never mind," Jane said, interrupting what promised to be a particularly nasty staring contest. "Here he comes. Slowly. And there doesn't seem to be any pursuit."

"Oh, there's pursuit," Gray said as he drew closer. "And they're very doggedly following us at a slow, stumbling walk. If we keep walking, maybe taking ten minute breaks every half hour or so, we could probably lose them."

"Zombies aren't all that fast," Neil said knowledgably. "The brainless ones, anyway. Not having any mind kinda interrupts the signals that make the muscles move." He suddenly realized he'd brought attention on himself, and tried to blend in with the wall behind him. With the pallid color of his skin (how had they not noticed how pale he was before? Aki wondered), he almost did blend in with the wall.

"We're not through with you," Gray rumbled. "This is your fault."

Neil slumped. "I only did it for the boss," he mumbled dejectedly. He gave Aki a hangdog look, as though he hoped to win her sympathy. Aki just glared at him, and Neil's gaze dropped. "I… I can't help it," he said in a very small voice. "The bo – Aki – is the one who raised us, and… well… I live for her. In a matter of speaking, I mean. You might say that she's the zombie queen, not Major Boyer. And I didn't intend for them to all become brain-eating zombies; that's just a side effect." He looked up, saw they were still glowering at him, and said, "It's not my fault. The boss is the one who played God."

"Don't pin this on her," Gray snarled. Or tried to; one of the muscles in his left cheek ceased functioning, causing his mouth to partially go slack. Aki cringed; despite Gray's defense of her, Neil was right. This was her fault…

But she wasn't about to admit that. Not when she was pissed at Neil, too, and knew it would make her feel a little bit better to see him reamed out.

"Uh, guys, I hate to interrupt," Jane said, sounding not at all contrite, "but the zombies are still coming after us," she pointed down the hallway, towards where the undead army had come in to view, Major Boyer at their head, "and if we continue to head in this direction, we'll lead them right towards the lobby, which," she made a show of checking her watch, "will be filling with people coming in for work. Since most humans can't function this early in the morning – I know I'm half-zombie without my caffeine fix – they'll be easy pickings for these guys. We're going to have to lead them somewhere else."

"Jane has a point," Gray said, backing away from Neil. "We need to keep them away from people." They began walking again, slowly enough that the zombies could keep up, but too quickly for the undead to close the distance. "Any ideas?" Gray turned to Aki.

Aki wondered how she had become the leader of their twisted little band. Gray was a captain; he should have been the natural leader here. But he was deferring to her, as Neil had been doing all evening. Was he, too, influenced by the fact that she'd been the one to revive them? Aki didn't know if that was a bad thing… or a good thing… Then she shook herself. It was a bad thing, of course!

"We need to destroy them," Aki said. "Fire always seems to work in the movies; do we have a flame thrower?"

"That could work… or it could just make them a burning undead army, setting fire to whatever they touch. Zombie's don't really feel pain, ya know, and in the time it takes for their bodies to be incinerated, they could do a lot of damage." Neil didn't sound particularly distressed to be discussing the destruction of his leftovers, Aki noted. Was it because they couldn't be destroyed?

"This way," Aki interrupted, and they all turned down another corridor. Aki had decided to circle around back to the labs, which shouldn't have any human occupation yet; for lack of any other options, maybe they could at least lock the zombies in the labs. "I've got an idea," she said as they ran along. "When I made the serum that revived you two, I figured out how to make a serum that had the opposite effect. I didn't think I'd need it, but it might work…"

"Convenient," Neil commented. "Do you always keep magical zombie-killing serums handy?"

"With my silver bullets and wooden stakes," Aki muttered. They reached the lab, and Aki ran in, trailed by the others. Gray was last; he took up position beside the door, ready to close it and lock it. Aki ran to the freezer and pulled out a vial – a teeny, tiny vial, with only about ten milliliters of red fluid.

"That's supposed to bring down all the zombies?" Jane said skeptically. "I'm a little dubious about your plan."

"How is it transmitted?" Gray called from his position by the doorway.

"By… injection," Aki said weakly.

"Oh, this is going to turn out really well," Jane muttered.

"Given time, I can synthesize more and make it into an aerosol," Aki said.

"We just ran out of time," Neil said. "They're heeeeere…"

The zombies had begun shuffling in, ignoring – or perhaps not seeing – Gray as the last one filed in, and Gray hurriedly shut the door behind them. Major Boyer grinned, and lines of spittle ran down his chin. There were shreds of brain in his teeth. "Hell…loooooo…" Boyer drawled. Aki's skin crawled, and she wanted to run. But she couldn't; they were surrounded.

This hadn't been very well thought out at all.

"Okay," Jane said, "I agree that luring the zombies to the lab and locking them in was a good idea, but who the hell thought that we should be locked in with them?"

There was nowhere to run, and Aki and Jane shrank back as the zombies advanced. Jane lashed out at the foremost with her fists, only to have her hand sink into the man's ribcage. Aki screamed.

"Hey, guys, back off!" Neil said. "You're creeping out the ladies!"

"I'm not creeped out," Jane muttered, finally yanking her fist free with a wet sucking sound. "I'm just disgusted.

The zombies backed away. Boyer looked a little confused, and Aki suddenly realized why. He'd been given conflicting orders – world conquest, but to leave them, the only people standing in their way, alone. Both orders had been given by Neil. Aki whirled on him.

"Wait… so they do anythingyou tell them to?" Aki asked. Neil nodded. "Anything?"

"Yeah," Neil said.

"And you do whatever I tell you to do, right?"

"Uh-huh." Neil's tone was totally guileless. "You are the zombie queen, after all."

"So, if I told you to tell them to drop dead and stay dead and never again become brain- or flesh-eating zombies, would they?"

Neil finally saw where she was going. "I guess so," he said uncertainly.

"Then do it." Aki's voice was commanding.

Neil sighed, "All right. You heard her, guys. Drop dead, and don't rise up for any reason, okay?"

As one, the zombies all fell to the floor with one loud, wet thud.

Jane's brow furrowed. "That was… disappointing," she said.

"And gross," Aki said.

"It's not over," Gray said.

Aki looked up. "What?"

"Neil made two of these zombies, remember? What's to stop him from doing it again?" Gray's voice was pained. "I'm sorry, Neil, but… we can't risk that."

"Can't I just order him not to?" Aki asked.

Neil's gaze was downcast. "I need to eat," he said pathetically. "Without food, I'll die. Again. And… well… brains are what I eat. If you order me to starve to death, I'll either die or lose control and be unable to restrain myself, orders or no."

Then there was only one thing Aki could do. Neil was too dangerous to leave 'alive.' Even knowing all that Neil had done – Sid's gone! Sid's dead! – it was still hard to do. "Neil, I want you to drop dead, too."

He didn't immediately obey. He looked up at her and said, "You're joking, right?" He started to back away. "I mean… I won't kill many people. One a week, if you prefer. It won't be so bad, you'll see! You can just whip up that serum stuff and use it on my leftovers, and ta da, no zombies!"

"Neil," Aki said firmly. "Drop dead. Don't walk this earth again."

Neil's shoulders slumped as he realized this was a command he couldn't refuse. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he fell to the floor to lie beside Dr. Sid. Aki turned away, unable to look any longer. Gray came over to her, stepping over the brainless corpses to take her in his arms.

"Cheer up, Aki, we averted disaster and saved the world. I guess, anyway, since I can't imagine Boyer would have actually succeeded in world conquest when he couldn't even keep his own gender straight. We did it!" Gray exulted, pumping his right fist in the air. "We won!"

With a wet thunk, Gray's right arm plopped off, to the floor. Gray just gaped, and Aki stifled a gasp of horror. She went over to Gray, intending to comfort him but not really sure how.

"I'll fix this," she vowed, her hand on Gray's shoulder. She moved in closer. "I'll do everything in my power." She raised herself to her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his, trying not to flinch away from the dry, rubber texture that didn't even feel remotely human. Gray's body might be cold and dead, but his emotions still lived, and she could feel the heat of his passion as he returned the kiss eagerly, thrusting his tongue into her mouth, and then…

…then Aki had to pull away, face scrunched into an expression of disgust.

"Gray?" Aki asked.

"Mmmph?"

"Was that… was that your tongue I just swallowed?"

XXX

"Your body is degrading too fast." Aki backed away from the microscope, an expression of defeat on her face. She looked over at Gray – or what was left of him, now that his limbs were falling off, limb by limb – and winced. "It… it is stabilizing, but… but I'm not sure you can be saved."

Gray's expression was unreadable, because all the muscles in his face had gone slack. "Is… there any… thing you… can do?" His voice was slow and thick; only by listening carefully could Aki interpret his words. He still had most of his tongue, but not enough to prevent a speech impediment.

"No," Aki whispered. "By the time I found something that might work… you'd be gone."

"Then… I want you to do something for me. Aki… Let me die, Aki," Gray said.

Aki thought she didn't hear him right. Maybe he'd said, "Let me fly?" But Gray continued. "I can't live like this… I don't want to live like this. Just find a way to end it now; I don't want to suffer any longer."

That was clear enough. "I can't… Gray, don't make me do this. Don't make me watch you die again."

"I'm already dead," Gray pointed out. "My spirit just needs to be reminded of that fact."

There was a way she could do it, a way she could end his miserable existence quickly. A simple injection of the compound she'd come up with while whipping up the resurrection serum that would have the reverse effects – the serum she'd wanted to use to destroy the zombies. There was no reason it wouldn't work on Gray.

"Get him on to this table," Aki told Jane. The other woman complied without comment; the situation had deeply affected her, as well. The corporal lifted Gray to the metal table as Aki prepped the hypospray. "I'm just going to inject it into your heart," she said. "It… it'll be quick, I promise." She opened Gray's shirt and ran her hand over his chest. What had once been well-defined muscle under hot skin was now rigid, cold, and waxy. Gray grabbed Aki's wrist with this remaining hand, cradling it.

"Do it," he said. Aki pressed the spray to the previous injection point and pressed the trigger. As the serum made its way through Gray's body, she pressed her lips to his. Beneath her hands, his body began to stiffen, and Aki pulled away. "Good bye," she said.

"Good bye," Gray breathed. And then his mockery of a life slipped away.

Jane stayed silent throughout, but she gave her captain one final salute.

XXX

Jane, Aki found out several hours later, was fine. Her body had stabilized, and her cells had continued dividing until her entire body was alive, truly alive, as though the events in the hangar had never transpired. If Gray or Neil hadn't had their Problems, they would've fully recovered.

Aki slumped into her chair, burying her face in her hands. She had no idea how she was going to explain why the bulk of the USMF army was lying dead with empty craniums in her lab. She didn't know how she was going to explain Jane's presence, or why Gray and Neil's bodies – which should have been in their graves – were now in a freezer. She didn't know what had happened to Ryan, if he had recovered completely or if he was, even now, creating another zombie army.

All she knew was that she was alone.

Jane entered the lab, but Aki didn't look up. It wasn't like the woman could tell her anything to soothe her, after all. She just sat down silently beside Aki, and Aki found herself pouring her heart out to the other woman.

"I… I just wanted to live happily ever after with someone to love," Aki said dully. "I saved the world; I think I deserve happiness, don't I?"

Jane regarded Aki thoughtfully. "You know, it's still possible," she said slowly. "You don't have anyone… I don't have anyone… and I seem to be a nicer, more caring person ever since you revived me. Maybe we could…" Aki stared at her in confusion, and Jane clarified, "I'm just saying, I'm willing to give it a try, if you are." She held out her hand towards Aki.

It slowly sank in, what the other woman was offering. And when it did, it occurred to Aki that the idea wasn't totally objectionable. In fact, Jane was a rather attractive woman… and they'd already slept together, in a matter of speaking. Maybe they could give it a shot… "Okay," Aki grinned, taking Jane's offered hand and giving it a squeeze. Maybe it wasn't what she'd hoped, but a happy ending was a happy ending.

XXX

Somewhere, beyond the barrier, Ryan ran hooting through the barren landscape, his body stabilized and no longer zombie-fied, naked as a jay bird and reveling in his freedom.

The End

And there's Unusual Pairing Number Five… Sorry, I had to do it. I know, it's fast, especially after Gray's death, but this isn't exactly a serious story, remember? Don't kill me, 'kay? Being a zombie would really ruin my life… And no, I'm not planning a sequel about Ryan. But, if anyone else wants to do it…