Author's Note- Firstly you may want to note the new Front Cover of this fic. Wonderfully illustrated by MyFantastiWorld. It's a scene from the first chapter between Wilks and Aidie, and makes me very happy indeed to see my imaginings of these two characters in illustration format. Nothing could make me happier.
On a more important note, here is the penultimate chapter. It is finally coming to an end and here we start the spiral. It took me a long time to get this chapter right as I wanted a different ending, the characters, it seemed rejected my vision, but the moment I started playing with something different the chapter wrote itself. Possibly one of my favourite chapters in all the wrong kinds of ways.
As always I look forward to reading your responses as we go along.
Chapter Twenty-Four - Redemption
"Lem?" a quiet vaguely recognisable voice sounded from the shadows.
Every part of Lem's brain told him it was a trap, that he should turn and flee. But that familiar voice drew him forwards.
"Lem it's me,"
His heart leapt into his throat at the possibility.
"Gelo?" He approached.
His shoes slipped slightly on something underfoot, glancing down he caught sight of something wet and sticky. Crouching down his fingers touched the puddle, drawing them back to assess it. Blood smeared across his fingertips. He let out a gasp, wiping his hand across his leg.
"Gelo, are you hurt?"
"Are we going home, Lem?" The voice sounded so innocent and scared. It reminded him of the young lad that had clung to him when they had fled their destroyed home, all those years ago.
"Angelo, I'm here,"
He caught sight of a shadowy figure staring out towards the darkness. It moved slightly at his advance as if beckoning him closer. Lem hesitated a moment, wanting nothing more than to join his lifelong friend. But the streets seemed to be eerily silent, and it made the hairs on the back of his neck bristle. His fingers gripped around the handle of the Gorgon on his hip as he took a step closer. He could sense movement in the shadows around him, watching every motion he made. Still, he went closer.
"Are you hurt Gelo?" he asked nervously.
As he neared the figure, he could see it was kneeling down, almost in prayer. The darkness surrounded him now as the sound of hushed breathing filled the air around him, a faint hiss in their voices.
"Gelo?"
Moonlight glinted upon the figure revealing a slumped body with his head flopped to one side, and his neck ripped apart. Lem choked down a cry as he stumbled backwards, pulling his Gorgon from the waistband of his jeans and holding it out in protection. He pivoted in a circle desperately trying to pick out where he should aim, panic blurring his vision.
"What the hell is this?" he stammered.
A figure appeared from the rooftop above, leaping down and landing smoothly beside him. It straightened out and revealed itself to him. Imulsion glowed and pulsed from inside, surging through his veins at each pump of his Lambency infected heart. If Lem hadn't already known who to expect, he would never have realised that this was once the boy he had pledged his life.
"Oh shit!"
Angelo's Former gave him a toothy grin, his Lambent insides brightly destroying any hope Lem had of bringing him back. Around him, the Formers appeared from the darkness, blocking all routes of escape.
Angelo hissed as he indicated for his Formers to draw back slightly. They snapped impatiently at him in response.
"Lem," It approached him standing intimidatingly close. From his extensive research Lem had never known his Formers to show any functioning brain activity other than to respond to their bloodlust. Angelo was proving that the Lambency had done something unique to his creation. But then he had always been different.
"D...Don't come any closer Gelo, please," his quaking hands lifted the Gorgon at the Former before him.
"You're scared," it chilled him to the core to hear the voice of the lad he never thought he would hear again. Angelo sounded much older and more confident than he had ever heard before.
"Of course I'm scared, you're trying to kill me,"
"Does it surprise you?" Angelo's Former circled him, his Lambent hands running over his limbs, leaving singe marks each time he touched him. Lem flinched away at the burning sensation.
"Stop!" he yelled, throwing an arm backwards to push Angelo away.
The Formers spat back at his audacity, threatening to lunge angrily at him. A shrill call came from behind them, and the Scientist's daughter emerged, also consumed entirely with Lambency. She approached Angelo and rubbed herself affectionately against him. Their skin seared black with the heat of their contact. She jerked aggressively towards Lem and swung out at him, clawing her talons across his cheek. Lem felt the burn of Imulsion against his skin, resisting the urge to touch the blood now trickling down his face. He could sense that every one of those monsters wanted to rip him apart limb by limb.
"You made us," Angelo told him forcefully.
"I was trying to cure you, Gelo!" Lem couldn't understand why he was so defiant to the creatures that would likely kill him, "Everything I did was for you."
"This is not what I wanted!" Angelo shouted, his entire body ignited in response to his anger. The Imulsion seeped over his warped limbs and twisted him further. His eyes fired fluorescent as the Lambency consumed him until he was able to control his temper. His skin cooled back to a scorched black, and his muscles pulsed their new glow.
Lem watched as his old friend shook himself, flicking Imulsion to his feet around him, creating poisonous puddles.
"I am sorry Gelo, I really am. I thought I could cure you before it got any worse," He responded honestly, "I never thought it would come to this."
"You treated us like animals," Angelo sounded hurt more than angry, standing in front of his collected Formers, "tortured them like their feelings never mattered."
"I would have destroyed the world for you Gelo, don't you understand?" Lem felt tears fill his eyes as he tried to stagger backwards from him, "you were everything to me. I gave up my life for you."
"I didn't ask you,"
A Former behind him grabbed his arm and clamped its teeth into his skin. Lem let out a cry, whirled round and fired at the creature. It flinched away before lunging back to him. He pulled the trigger again until it blasted into ash. The responding Formers surged angrily towards him, but Angelo screeched at them all in warning. They drew back looking to Angelo for permission to respond, but instead his Former gazed back at Lem.
"I can't let you go, Gelo," he sadly called back, "there is no life for me without you."
"You let your friends die for my sake?"
"You are the only one that matters," Lem took a couple of brave steps forwards, "I don't care what form you take. If this is the life you choose, I want to be beside you."
Luicie returned to Angelo's side, her eyes glowing in aggression as she turned angrily at Lem. Angelo nudged her gently in an attempt to calm her, but she seemed determined in her decision. She screeched before charging towards him. Lem stood his ground, clutching his fists to his side in readiness.
A blast from behind threw Luicie backwards. She struggled at the force of the strike before her body submitted and she burst into an entity of ash. The Formers responded instantly. Their Imulsion fuelled insides seething brightly to the danger. Angelo's orders dulled to nothing as rage overcame them and they lurched forward.
Lem felt himself get dragged backwards. He struggled a moment until his vision fixed upon Cam's grim face.
"What are you doing?!" he cried, wrestling himself from Cam's hold.
"I'm saving yer ass," Cam barked as he leant over Lem and fired at an approaching creature.
"I didn't need saving. I was handling it perfectly well,"
"Not from where I was,"
"I need to do this," Lem stubbornly added, "I need to be more than just this coward, I need to be able to save him."
"He's beyond saving, kid," Cam replied, catching a glance at the creature that Lem once called Angelo.
"There's good in him. I know it," Lem twisted around to face the soldier, shuffling his back against the wall. He could feel his emotions start to rise to a head. He had held back the fear for so long, denying himself the right to accept Angelo's fate. But now, he was unsure whether he could maintain the strength any longer. "I can't let him go yet."
"That thing," Cam roared, jumping forward and firing again to keep the monsters away, "it's no longer human. You're gonna have to decide which side yer on because these things have no loyalty."
The ground started to shake below their feet causing a look of fear to flick across Cam's face.
"Not again," he grumbled, "is it too much to ask for one break?"
A crack crisscrossed between them, breaking the paving around them. It forced Cam and Lem backwards again, stumbling over their feet to outrun it. Imulsion bubbled out over the path, splashing over the ground. The Formers started to pulse, their already intense glow now iridescent. Lem could see them change in front of them. Their bone structure twisted within them as the Lambency intensified. They started screeching in agony, clutching at their heads as they tried to resist the entity controlling them.
"They're evolving!" he exclaimed, "getting stronger."
"That's not a good thing,"
Lem peered from behind the wall to watch Angelo's further transformation. Now more Former than human his eyes began to glow as he flung his head back and let out a savage howl.
"M...Maybe I can make him see sense," Lem stammered, "help him realise that this is not the way. If they are evolving, we could peacefully find a solution,"
"Whatever that is, it has no interest in peace," Cam used the opportunity to pull Lem further away from the newly evolving creatures. As Lem struggled against him, the soldier pinned him up against the wall to face him, "what are yer trying to prove here?"
Lem gave the old soldier a look of desperation. Despite everything he had done Cam had returned to protect him, regardless of whether it was for an ulterior motive, it had been a long time since Lem had someone looking out for him.
"I created this," he responded sadly, "I'm responsible for those monsters. I need to make this right."
"Kid, this isn't the way,"
"I don't see another answer," Lem struggled from his grip, "I would die for him."
"Whoever yer friend once was, he's no longer there now,"
"I have to try," the youngster was defiant.
He had spent such a long time proving to others that Angelo could overcome Lambency, the aggression he had shown was just his way of dealing with his internal fight. He had been in denial for so long it had become his instinctive response. He didn't even know what acceptance was meant to resemble.
"I would die for him. He is all I have left,"
Cam dropped his hand from him, taking a hesitant step backwards, as a look of realisation dawned on him. After everything that had happened between them, he and Lem weren't so different.
"And what if yer fail?" he asked quietly.
"I would have died trying," He took a step away from Cam's protection and glanced momentarily back at him. The Gear silently watched him as he entered the circle of the unknown.
Angelo had finally gained restraint of his mutation by the time Lem had started to approach. He felt a twitch inside him urging him to lash out, but he held it back. The Formers around him were struggling to fight against the monstrosity that controlled them. But he knew they weren't able to keep the beast at bay. It wouldn't be long before Lem would be their next victim.
"Keep back," he hollered to him, but his voice just growled out a snarling roar in response.
"Angelo please," Lem called out, ignoring the threat that surrounded him.
"Lem!" Angelo staggered forwards, snapping at his advancing Formers, "keep back Lem. They'll kill you."
Lem stopped a moment, staring back at him as he tried to understand what was happening.
"You're evolving Angelo, do you understand,"
As Angelo opened his mouth to respond nothing but hissing whispers left him, it was then that he realised there was no going back. Yet here stood the one person that linked it all. He recalled an intense feeling for him, one that drew him to his childhood. An emotion he thought he had lost. He needed to protect this human.
The Formers, now completely dominated by Lambency, surged towards Lem. Angelo charged to meet them, his aggression matching their own as he sliced and mauled anything that came close to the one human that meant something. He could feel the fury build inside him each time he ripped apart another one of his people, the Imulsion absorbing further into his system until it started to control him. For each swipe he made he felt himself give into the parasite, allowing it to dictate his next move. Rage coursed through him for each Former that injured him, he lunged at their necks and ripped out their insides. The creature had emerged anew.
"Angelo stop!"
He heard a voice that drew him to a staggered standstill. His bloodied vision fixed upon Lem. He took a couple of steps forwards just as a flash of memories struck inside. He kept seeing the human torturing the Formers, the family he had slaughtered to protect this abomination. At the same time, another mix of conflicting memories surged through him. The look of the kid who had once taken his hand as he trembled beneath his parents' tattered bodies. The only person who had shown him compassion.
He let out a scream as the Lambency fought him to submit, blinkering back any memories he could hold.
He felt Lem's hand touch his shoulder as he rushed to him in concern.
"Angelo, I'm here," he breathed, "it's okay."
Angelo fixed upon Lem's face, his brain clinging to the last remnant of his humanity as he felt his body rebel. He slashed out, his sharp claws churning through Lem's unprotected chest. He felt his talons dig into the soft tissue of his neck, ripping it wide open. Arterial spray spurted outwards into his face, just making him angrier. Lem struggled against him, but it was a battle he was going to lose. His bloodied fingers slipped and fumbled as he coughed up blood, flopping backwards.
Angelo felt the mist clear as he caught Lem's limp body.
"Lem?" He cried, almost unaware that he had caused so much destruction.
Lem's glazed eyes fixed upon him for a final time as he weakly lifted the Gorgon to Angelo's head and pulled the trigger. The Former burst into a smoke of bloodied ash that rained down upon the one person who had given his life to save him.
Lem choked again on the blood that seeped from him. He lifelessly watched as Cam raced towards him, staring back in horror at the torn mass that remained.
"Oh shit!" he bellowed, dropping to his knees to assess the first point of action and realised there was no way he could mend the mess before him.
Lem half-heartedly knocked Cam's arm with his own, opening his palm to reveal a small vial. The Gear let out a breath as he registered what he had offered him. He gently picked it up and slid it into his pouch. He leant over and placed a hand over Lem's chest.
"It's okay, just relax and let it take you," Cam's gruff voice soothed him, "don't be afraid."
Cam could see panic fill Lem's vision as he tried to fight the drowning sensation. He swallowed back the emotion as he carefully placed his hands over Lem's eyes. It broke his heart to feel Lem suffer under him. Every attempted breath a struggle as he gurgled blood into his lungs. All Cam could do was soothe him with kindness the kid had never experienced.
"Try to sleep,"
He picked the Gorgon from the floor and held it to his head.
"Shhh it's okay,"
And he pulled the trigger.