Fry felt his heart skip a beat. He'd thought Leela was hit, but she didn't look hurt. Cautiously, he peered around the curved metal surface of the silo he was using as cover and scanned the rows of identical silos for Chelsea. He thought he saw something protrude from behind one of the cylinders about 10 rows away. It took his mind awhile to register what he was looking at. Gun. He turned away just in time.

"Leela!" he called. "She's behind one of these container thingies, about, uhh, I dunno how far away that is!"

"Thanks Fry, that's very helpful." Leela yelled back, sarcastically. "Please don't hesitate…" she paused to fire off a volley at Chelsea dove across the corridor. "… to distract me again."

Deflated, Fry gave up and went to sit beside Amy's motionless form. A flurry of gauss bolts shot past, but he was well out of their reach. "Leela and Chelsea are fighting." He told the intern. He'd been talking to her ever since he'd decided to haul her into the maintenance tunnel, though he didn't really know why. Even if she could hear him, it was Locuteus he was talking to, not Amy.

"I don't think Leela's winning." He admitted. "Chelsea has that lightning gun, but all Leela has is Walt's little pistol. Her big gun must have run out of ammo or something." He paused for a moment. Wait a minute, where is Walt, anyway? The delivery boy looked around, but there was no sign of him. Uhoh, Leela's gonna be mad at me again.

"Umm, Leela?" Fry called.

Leela hurled herself across the open corridor and half rolled, half tumbled into the space between Fry's silo and the one in front of it. He couldn't see her anymore, but he could clearly hear her yell at him to shut up and let her concentrate.

Not quite sure what to do, Fry peeked around the side of his hiding place and saw Chelsea casually walking down the middle of the corridor toward him. When she saw him, her face broke into a grin that made his face turn pale. She must have somehow known that he was unarmed, because she didn't bother to move out of the way until Leela's pistol popped out into the open. Fry noticed with fear that Chelsea had cut the distance between them to five silo-widths.

Suddenly, Fry remembered Leela's discarded plasma rifle. It was still sitting where she'd dropped it, on the other side of the corridor, one silo closer to Chelsea than he was. I shouldn't let Chelsea get that. He realized. Leela might need it later. Swallowing his fear, Fry made a blind dash across the twenty feet of open space. Something very hot passed just behind the back of his head, but he managed to make it in one piece. Shaking from his close call, Fry rounded the side of the silo opposite the corridor and ran the short distance to Leela's weapon. Carefully he picked it up and cradled it against his body, much the way that he had done with the medkit that Leela had given him- and that he had lost about five minutes later. He was just turning to retrace his steps when he saw the unmistakable figure of Walt pass between a silo farther down his row and the wall that ran adjacent to the main corridor. He was walking in the direction away from Chelsea. The uniformed man didn't seem to notice that Fry had seen him. Fry, suspicious and sure that Leela would want him to keep an eye on their 'ally', decided to follow him.

Walt passed three rows of silos before turning left toward the corridor. He stopped at the silo adjacent to the corridor, which was positioned across the open space from and two rows behind Leela. Fry positioned himself where he could keep an eye on what Walt was doing and waited. After risking exposing himself long enough to steal a glance at Leela, Walt kneeled behind his silo and reached into one of his pockets. He pulled out something small and metallic. My stun gun! Fry realized. He must've snuck away to go look for it when I had my back turned! But to do that, he'd have had to actually pass Chelsea, run halfway down the corridor, turn around, and then pass Chelsea again. He wasn't planning to use the gun on Chelsea then, or he'd have done it already. So that meant… Actually, what did that mean? Confused, he watched Walt raise the pistol as Leela cursed nearby.

"Leela!" Fry screamed frantically and tossed himself at Walt. He landed on top of him just as Walt pulled the trigger. There was a hum and a familiar crack.

The stunner hit her a glancing blow in the legs, which immediately went numb. Losing her balance, the PE Captain toppled out into the corridor. Her head hit the smooth black tile with a thud that made her vision go blurry for an instant. Walt's laser pistol fell from her hand and skidded to a stop about five feet away.

Chelsea, sensing her victory, emerged from cover and began striding in Leela's direction. Leela, seeing the laser pistol, began to crawl toward it. Chelsea, seeing this, began to laugh. She stopped about ten feet from her helpless prey and put her hands on her hips. "Go on." She mocked. "Just a little farther. You can do it." When Leela looked up to glare at her, she laughed again. "Oh, don't be angry. You brought this on yourself, you know. Its what you get for associating with unmodified humans; they'll betray you at the first opportunity."

"Go to hell." Leela hissed through clenched teeth. The pistol was just about in her reach.

Another laugh. "Defiant to the last; I love it. You know, if you weren't so hideously ugly, I might actually be able to respect that. Oh, and you do realize that I'm going to shoot you the moment you touch that thing, right?" When Leela ignored her, Chelsea sighed. "Well, don't say I didn't warn you." She raised her weapon.

Walt proved to be more of a match than Fry had expected. The balding man wasn't very strong, but he somehow kept managing to worm his way out of Fry's grasp. It was like trying to grip a snake that had been dipped in robot oil. Finally Fry managed to snatch the stunner way from him. Then, raising his arm over his head, Fry brought the weapon down on his opponent's skull with all of his strength. Walt immediately went limp.

Panting, Fry stood and turned to find Chelsea standing over Leela while the cyclops slowly pulled herself along the ground.

He was just in time to hear Chelsea say "Well, don't say I didn't warn you." When the raven haired woman raised her gauss gun and pointed it squarely at Leela's head, Fry felt a wave of adrenaline crash through his body. Leela's discarded plasma rifle appeared in his hands. He screamed, and waving the gun wildly in the air, he charged.

Almost got it. Leela thought. Her fingertips just barely brushed the trigger guard. She knew she wasn't going to be fast enough. Chelsea would fry her long before she could pick the weapon up and use it, but, if she was going to die, Leela planned to do it with a gun in her hand. She wasn't going to get slaughtered while she lay helpless in the middle of the floor. With one last push, Leela managed to curl her middle finger around the trigger guard. There was a loud cocking noise a foot from her head as she pulled the pistol toward her. Well, this is it. She thought.

There was a loud yell, and the sound of running feet. Chelsea, who Leela could see out of the corner of her eye, froze in confusion. A moment later a volley of plasma flew over Leela's head, followed by a red ball of fury. Fry slammed into Chelsea at full speed, causing the woman to stumble back a few feet. Chelsea growled, and grabbing Fry with one hand, sent him flying back the way he'd come. The redhead skidded a good ten feet when he hit the ground. Leela rolled over onto her back and aimed the laser pistol, but Chelsea ripped it out of her grasp and stuck her own gun in Leela's face. She started to pull the trigger, but a searing greenish-white light came screaming down the corridor and caught her in the stomach. The plasma's momentum was enough to pick her up and hurl her into a nearby silo. There was a terrific ripping sound as the metal canister buckled under the impact, and then a terrific explosion as the ball of plasma lost containment. A gaping hole appeared in the silo, and something soft and purple flooded out into the corridor.

Fry let his arm slump to the floor. The plasma rifle clicked against the hard tile, and Fry let it go. He watched the cloud of smoke that had enveloped Chelsea slowly dissipate as he lay on his back where he'd come to rest. His head hurt. His hand came away sticky when he reached up to touch his forehead, and his surroundings seemed to suddenly retreat from him. He sank into unconsciousness.

It took awhile for everything that had just happened to really register in Leela's mind. She blinked a couple of times, and tried to look around her. "Fry?" She tried, but there was no response. Some of the sensation was starting to come back to her legs; not much, but enough that she was able to get up onto her knees after some considerable effort and crawl in the direction of her friend's body.

It took her awhile, but Leela finally managed to push herself alongside Fry. The bottom halves of her legs were about as useful as logs, but she was eventually able to get herself into a sitting position.

Worried by the blood trickling from a gash in the ex delivery boy's forehead, Leela bent over him. She noted with relief that he was breathing. "Fry? Fry, can you hear me?" She called softly. She took him by the shoulders and gently shook him when he began to stir. "Wake up, Fry. We won!"

Suddenly Fry sat bolt upright, and then winced as his bruised body protested.

Leela smiled at him. "You look like hell." She teased, hoping to provoke a smile. Fry just stared blankly at her for a moment, seemingly looking through her, before his eyes were drawn to the smashed silo. Alarmed, Leela grabbed Fry's chin and forcibly turned him back toward her.

"Don't." She said softly. "Don't look."

There were tears in Fry's eyes when he looked at her again. He didn't speak for quite awhile, but then a weak smile appeared on his face. "You too." He said.

Leela blinked, surprised. "What?"

"You look like hell too." None of the pain had left his eyes, but the smile stayed on his face.

Leela returned the smile and reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. "Do you think you can stand?"

Fry experimented with moving his legs a little. "Yeah, I think so." He said and, when Leela nodded to him, painfully hauled himself to his feet. When he was relatively sure he wasn't going to fall down again, he reached out and grabbed Leela's hand. After a few false starts Leela managed to stand, and was even able to walk if she leaned on Fry's shoulder. By the time the two of them had hobbled their way back to where they'd left Amy, Leela had just about all of her strength back.

Amy was still out cold, which was a little alarming. It had been a long time since she'd been zapped. She should have come around by now. Leela thought uneasily. Earlier, she'd told Fry that Amy was going to be fine, just like Fry himself had been when he'd been shot, but she wasn't sure that was the truth. Who knew what effect a stunner would have on someone who'd been merged with a computer?

A low groan reached Leela's ears. Oh yeah, Walt.

Bruised and disheveled, Walt lay in a heap against one of the silos. His left hand was pressed against the back of his head, where a large lump was forming. Leela crossed her arms and stood over him. "You shot me." She said flatly.

At the sound of her voice, Walt started. He looked up at her, and there was a glimmer of fear in his eyes for the briefest of moments. "Actually," he said, "I've shot you twice now."

That was a mistake. Anger flared in Leela's eye and she kicked him hard in the ribs. Walt made a noise like a balloon being deflated. "Want to try that again?" She spat.

Walt winced when he tried to talk. "That was the deal" he finally managed. "If you became too much to deal with, I was supposed to stop you somehow."

"Deal? What deal?" Fry demanded.

"With Chelsea, I'm sure." Leela answered. "I wondered how you managed to get in here so easily. It was because Chelsea's goons let you in, wasn't it? "

Walt nodded affirmative, and Leela kicked him again. "Why? Why in God's name would you help her, you slithery little worm?!" She raised her fist to strike him, but let her arm drop when Walt cringed away from her. Disgusted, Leela waited for him to speak.

"I didn't have a choice." He wheezed. "She has my brothers."

Leela was suddenly speechless. Walt caught the confused expression on her face. "When the cyborgs showed up, right after our talk in the alley, they got Larry and Ignar. When Ms. Xiao learned that you weren't human, she went crazy." He paused a moment to breathe before continuing "She was going to turn me into a drone, but I managed to convince her to let me and my brothers go if I helped her get rid of you."

Fry and Leela exchanged glances. "You risked your life to save your brothers? That's surprisingly… un-evil of you." Leela said finally. "But you didn't really expect Chelsea to let you all go, did you?"

"My brothers are idiots." Walt said with a bit of anger. "But they're still my brothers." With a groan, Walt managed to get himself into a sitting position, and then, after resting for a moment, he pulled himself to his feet. "I knew that Ms. Xiao wasn't going to let them go. I was planning to earn her trust by killing you, and then stabbing her in the back when she wasn't looking."

Fry nodded, relieved. "Yep, that sounds more like you." he said.

Walt scowled at the redhead, but, rather than making a sarcastic comment, he seemed to grow alarmed. "There is more smoke in here than there was earlier." He said.

With a start, Leela realized that he was right. The air was starting to get a little hazy, and there was no way it was all due to the fireball from the exploding plasma round. We completely forgot that the building is on fire. Leela realized in amazement. When she looked down the corridor toward the gigantic storage room, she could just barely make out a reddish glow. The fire wouldn't spread into the silo chamber- there was nothing for it to burn- but they could all suffocate to death if they stayed too long.

"Is there another way out of here?" Leela demanded of Walt, who nodded.

"Yes, through there." He pointed toward the metal door that they had been trying to reach.

"I thought that was where you hid your big guns." Leela said, suspicious that Walt was once again up to something.

"There are many rooms back there." Walt replied. "One of them leads to an exit."

Leela stared at him long and hard, but eventually decided that it was worth the risk. "Alright, fine." She said. "You're going to take us to the exit. Fry, do you think you can manage with Amy all by yourself, while I make sure this creep doesn't try anything else?

Fry nodded and started to walk briskly away.

He'd just about made it to the silo that Amy had been abandoned by when his eyes were drawn again toward the charred remains of the damaged silo. I have to know. Fry realized. He couldn't let his last memory of Chelsea be her look of confusion and fear as she disappeared into a fiery explosion. He knew what he was likely to find, but he had to see her one last time to say goodbye.

A hole ten feet wide had been smashed in the side of the cylinder. Something purple and soft had erupted from the hole and settled into a pile about three feet deep and ten feet across. At the far end of the pile was a motionless figure, half buried. When Fry tried to step on the purple stuff that was carpeting the floor, it seemed to suck at his feet. He stopped for a moment, trying to figure out how something so soft looking could be so sticky, when he realized with a start that the stuff was beginning to climb up his leg.

An arm came out of nowhere and hauled him backwards. He came free of the Moss with a loud sucking noise, only to find himself face to face with an angry cyclops.

"What the hell were you doing?" Leela demanded. Her left hand pointed at him accusingly while her right aimed her laser pistol at Walt's head. "I told you not to go look! What were you thinking?!"

"I had to say goodbye." Fry said, defensively.

The fire in Leela's eye flared for a moment, then softened. "I'm sorry, Fry." she said, obviously mad at herself for her outburst. She shook her head. "You scared me to death when I saw you start to walk into that stuff. Don't you know what that is?"

"Umm, no?" Fry said

"It's Moss." Walt said. "The last of last year's shipment. This is where we store the stuff once it's shipped down the Hudson River from the initial processing plant. Of course, these silos will be empty in a few weeks now that there's no new crop to fill them back up again." He looked pointedly in Leela's direction, and then grunted when the cyclops even more pointedly jabbed him in the gut with the pistol.

Fry was only half paying attention. "Oh" he said, but his eyes were fixated on Chelsea's half buried body. Leela made no move to stop him when he moved to go to her.

The redhead had to go well out of his way to avoid the morass of purple that covered the floor, but at last he was at Chelsea's side. Chelsea's lower body was buried in Moss, but everything above her waist was free. A pool of blood was slowly spreading out from under her.

Fry knelt and regarded her silently. The emotions he was feeling were too complex for him to understand. He was still terrified of her, but he also felt a deep sadness. Maybe she was right when she said my habit of seeing the good in everybody is a weakness. She had tried to kill him. She was clearly insane, but Fry couldn't help remembering all of the good times that the two of them had had before their disastrous attempt to find the PE crew. The words that she'd said when they'd been walking home from Elzar's popped into his head.

"It took me years to understand that she betrayed me, not because she was cruel, but because she was too ignorant to understand what she had done. I didn't hate her; I wasn't disgusted by what she did. I just had to tell myself that that's who she was. She couldn't help it…"

Chelsea had never told him who the person had been. Was it her mother? He wondered, remembering that her mom had turned Chelsea's father over to the authorities when she'd discovered his illegal cybernetic experiments. Fry repeated the words to himself again, and realized that he couldn't hate Chelsea, either. She wasn't cruel. He told himself. She just didn't understand.

Gently, Fry reached out to touch her, one last time. There was a twitch, and Chelsea's lips moved. Fry screamed and jumped back, and Chelsea's eyes opened.

"Chelsea? Chelsea?!" Fry was screaming when Leela finally reached him. She momentarily forgot that she was supposed to be continuously threatening Walt with death when Chelsea moved her head to look at her. Luckily, Walt also seemed to forget that he should be trying to escape, because he appeared to Leela's left a moment later.

"You're alive?" Leela managed, and then raised her laser pistol. "How is that possible? Fry shot you in the chest!"

Chelsea coughed. "Don't worry." She said, weakly. "Just give it a few more minutes." She coughed again, and a fine mist of blood escaped from her mouth.

Fry was forcefully shaking his head. "No, no. You can't die now; not like this." He turned to Leela, his eyes wet. "Leela, we've got to do something!" He pleaded.

Leela stared at Fry for a moment. "But… But she tried to kill us. Many times."

Fry shook his head again. "But now we can get her help! She's not evil, Leela. Not really. She's just confused." Frantically, he tugged at her hand. "Please Leela, we have to help her. Don't let her die!"

Leela started to say something several times, but, for some reason, she found that she was unable to argue. I guess I can't let her bleed to death on the warehouse floor. She thought at length. Maybe we can take her somewhere where she can get some help. Then: Damnit, Fry's optimism is getting to me. She sighed. "Alright." She said to Fry. "I'll see what I can do."

Walt grunted in surprise. "What are you doing?!" He demanded. "You aren't really going to try and save this- thing, are you?!"

Leela turned on him. "Unlike you, I can't let another person bleed to death while I stand around and watch." She snarled. "Chelsea isn't going anywhere. A layer of Moss half that deep was enough to keep Bender from moving even a footcup, and she can't be any stronger than he is. Now either help me save her life, or get the hell out of my way."

"But, but you can't… No!" Before Leela could react, Walt had reached out and grabbed the laser pistol from her. By the time he'd pointed it at her, Leela was already halfway through her flying roundhouse kick.

"Hee-ya!" Leela yelled, and her boot connected with Walt's jaw. The force of the blow twisted the balding man's head to the right, and a single tooth went spiraling away into the distance. Deflating like a punctured air mattress, Walt slid to the ground and didn't move. Leela was fairly confident that he wouldn't be getting up for awhile.

Still fuming- yet somehow feeling a bit better- Leela retrieved the gun and went to kneel next to Fry. The delivery boy gestured for her to hurry; the pool of blood was noticeably larger than it had been before.

When Leela reached out toward the wound, Chelsea jerked away. "Don't come near me, Leela." She warned. The all-consuming fury had left her eyes. Now they were filled with a combination of suspicion and fear. "Don't touch me."

"Don't be scared, Chelsea." Fry tried to reassure her. "Leela just wants to help."

Chelsea, of course, wasn't buying it, but, trapped as she was in the clinging Moss, she really couldn't resist. Leela was finally able to get an arm under the struggling woman's torso. Chelsea gasped when Leela's hand found the wound. Leela pulled her arm back as gently as she could.

"Fry" she said. "Give me your shirt. We'll try and make a bandage." This isn't good. Leela told herself. It's a big wound, and she's lost a lot of blood. Even with all of those cyborg upgrades, her insides are probably all smashed up. She doesn't have much time left.

In about two seconds Fry had stripped off his shirt and handed it to her. Leela immediately began ripping it into long strips. When she'd made as many bandages as she could, she told Fry to grab Chelsea by the shoulders. "You'll need to lift her while I put the bandages on." She said. "It's going to hurt her." She met Chelsea's eyes. "A lot." She said, before looking back at Fry. "Whatever you do, don't drop her, even if she screams, okay?"

Fry's face turned pale. He looked at Chelsea and then back at Leela. He gulped, then nodded. "Okay."

"Alright. On the count of three. One, Two… Three!" Fry hauled up on Chelsea's shoulders, and Leela slid the makeshift bandages around her body. By the time Leela had tied them off they were already turning bright red. Chelsea started to scream, but immediately began to cough up blood.

When Leela signaled to Fry to let Chelsea down, the black haired woman was crying. "Why?" She asked between coughs. "Why are you trying to help me?"

When she realized that the question wasn't directed at Fry, but at her, Leela knelt down by Chelsea's side. "You really don't know, do you?" She asked sadly, and shook her head. She sighed. "Chelsea, I'm helping you because it's right."

"But, I tried to kill you!" Chelsea protested, confusion and fear in her voice. "Why are you helping me?!" Now there was panic in the woman's voice. Abruptly she was silenced by an all-consuming cough. When the spasms ceased, Chelsea turned to Fry, and there were tears in her eyes. "I don't understand, Fry." She cried desperately. "I don't understand."

Fry realized that something had changed in her voice. He knew suddenly that he was no longer talking to the sociopathic killer, but the kind, gentle Chelsea that he had first met. "It's okay, Chelsea." He said softly. "Its alright." He reached out a hand to her, and Chelsea took it.

"I don't understand." Chelsea said again, and then threw up a river of red. "I don't…" Chelsea's grip started to weaken. She looked up at Fry, one last time, her tears running down her face and merging with the deepening pool. "I'm so sorry, Fry." She said, and the life went out of her.