A/N: Thank you pallysAramisRios for reviewing!
Chapter 42: Checkmate
Rios lay on the sofa, trying to keep his breathing steady as Agnes loomed over him with a scalpel. He really didn't like this, but he was burning up and feeling sick, and then there was the whole radiation thing…
"Hold still," Agnes said tightly as she angled the scalpel down to his chest.
She'd given him a local anesthetic, but he didn't expect it to make this excision completely painless. The blade pressed into his skin, and at first it was just a sensation of pressure, but then it was like acid bubbling under his skin and he cried out. Agnes yelped and jerked back.
"What the—"
Rios glanced down as the pain migrated, and he saw the tattoo slither around his torso to his back where the fiery pain settled into just a sunburnt spot.
"This won't work," Agnes said, distraught. "The tattoo will protect itself. Any other options?"
Jean-Luc's mouth pressed into a tight line. "Maybe something at the Warehouse…"
His Farnsworth pinged and he answered it.
"Dahj is trying to kill me!" Soji's voice hissed from the device.
Rios sat bolt upright.
"I hit her with a neutralizing grenade but the artifact must not be on her," Soji continued, keeping her voice low like she was trying to hide.
"Go," Rios told Jean-Luc. "Agnes and I can go to the Warehouse."
Picard hesitated only a second before rushing off.
Rios grunted as he pushed himself to his feet and grabbed his shirt to shrug back on. Agnes reached out to support him but he pulled back.
"No, I don't want to risk this thing transferring to you."
Her mouth pursed unhappily but she respected that and kept a short distance as Rios staggered out to the SUV and bodily hauled himself into the passenger seat. Agnes got behind the wheel and drove to the Warehouse. But when they tried to open the door, it was locked and his key wasn't working.
"Picard put it on lockdown," Agnes remembered.
Rios pulled out his Farnsworth to call the holos, but no one answered. He pounded on the door with growing desperation. "Hey!"
Nothing. They were locked out.
Rios doubled over as a flush of intense heat and pain coursed through him. Time was running out. "Agnes…I need to find a place to minimize the damage."
"What are you talking about?"
He looked at her through watering eyes. "I can feel it, it's going to explode soon."
She shook her head and turned to bang on the door herself. "No. Hey! Let us in! Hello!" She spun and snatched Rios's Farnsworth from him to try calling again. But there was still no answer.
"Maybe they're not even on anymore," Rios said. "Maybe the lockdown somehow turned them off."
"There has to be another way in. The Warehouse can't just get locked away from its caretakers," she insisted. "Seven would know."
"Agnes, there's no time." He gritted his teeth under another wave of agony.
"We can't give up!"
"We have to save everyone else."
Her own eyes welled with tears as she gazed back at him. "There's- there's an old mine shaft nearby. I don't know if it'll be enough—"
"It'll have to be," Rios interrupted.
Fighting back tears, Agnes headed off into the woods and Rios followed. They found the old mine shaft, partially boarded up but with enough of a gap for Rios to squeeze through.
He turned to Agnes. "You need to leave. Get as far away from here as you can."
She shook her head staunchly.
"Agnes!" He resisted the urge to grab her arms and kiss her goodbye. "I love you."
Her face twisted in devastation. "I love you too."
"Then go," he begged.
Tears spilled from her eyes as she started to back away.
Rios tore his gaze away from hers and strode into the mine. He could only hope he could get deep enough to contain most of the blast, and that it wouldn't end up hurting the Warehouse.
Fire pulsed through him, stealing his breath and threatening to suffocate him, but he pressed on doggedly into the darkness, lit by the blazing veins of his own body.
Seven was furious. "You expect me to believe that?"
"It's the truth!" Pete insisted.
"And where can I find your nephew?"
"Hey, the kid's a rotten thief, but I don't want him swimming with the fishes over it."
Seven glowered at him. "I promise not to hurt him, but I need that figurine. So where is he?"
Pete shifted reluctantly. "He lives in his parents' basement. 42 Batton Lane."
Seven turned on her heel and strode back over to Raffi, who was covering her ears like she was in pain.
"I can't take much more of this," she moaned.
Seven took her arm and teleported them to the nephew's basement dwelling. He wasn't home, and Seven quickly searched the room for the Aphrodite figurine. It was in a box under the bed, and she snatched it up, reattached it to the clock, and then swiftly stuffed the entire thing in a neutralizing baggie. She then whipped her gaze toward Raffi expectantly.
Raffi blinked back at her, eyes wide with fear. "I think I'm deaf now," she said, then frowned. "Wait, I can hear myself…"
Seven breathed a sigh of relief. "Can you hear me?"
Raffi broke into a beaming grin. "Yes, and it's the sweetest sound I've ever heard." She threw her arms around Seven and kissed her, but only for a moment before she drew back and quickly sobered. "We need to get back and help the others."
Seven teleported them to the B&B, but no one was there. Raffi pulled out her Farnsworth and called Rios. It was Agnes who answered, tears streaming down her face as she moved hurriedly through the woods.
"Agnes?" Raffi said in concern. "Where are you? Where's Rios?"
"We couldn't get the tattoo off, and we're locked out of the Warehouse. Cris- he went into the old mine to try to contain the blast."
"What?"
"He's almost out of time," Agnes went on, distraught. "Seven, can you get into the Warehouse? Is there an artifact, anything, that can help him?"
"Yes."
She teleported out without another word, as time was of the essence. Reappearing in the Warehouse, she could immediately sense something was wrong. Something was disturbing the very foundation of the Warehouse. At first she wondered if it was the shockwave of a nuclear explosion underground…but no, there was something else to this…something artifact related.
But she couldn't get distracted. She found the artifact she needed—Alessandro Volta's Biscuit Bin—and immediately teleported into the mine to find Rios. Heat buffeted her face, and there was a distant orange glow down the passage. Seven hurried down it and found Rios curled up on the ground, writhing in pain and irradiating like he was about to blow.
She dropped down beside him and opened the Biscuit Bin, drawing out all of the tattoo's energy into the container, which was capable of storing it. Rios gasped and collapsed onto his side. It was now completely dark.
"Are you okay?" Seven asked, reaching out to feel for his arm. She could hear his shuddering breaths.
"Is it gone?" he gasped after a few moments.
"We need light to see. Come on."
She pulled him to his feet and helped him make his way out. Raffi and Agnes were arriving just as they emerged from the mine. In the light of day, Rios yanked his shirt over his head and twisted and craned his neck around trying to find the tattoo.
"I think it's gone," Agnes said, also taking a circle around him.
"Unless it went, you know," Raffi added, nodding to his pants.
Rios shot her a look but then blanched. "Um…"
"Give us a moment," Agnes said quickly and ushered him through the foliage and out of sight.
Raffi looked anxious as she and Seven waited.
Seven placed a hand against her stomach as something sharp stabbed her insides, but she managed to mask it until Agnes and Rios came back, the two looking immensely relieved.
"It's gone," Agnes confirmed.
"Now we just have to find Elnor," Raffi said.
"No," Seven interjected. "We have a bigger problem—something's wrong with the Warehouse."
Soji darted from one section of the department store to the other, trying to evade her homicidal sister. There were no other customers; likely the place had been evacuated when Elnor marched in to plunder the jewelry section. Soji couldn't think about him right now.
Her Farnsworth pinged loudly and she scrambled to answer it before it could give her position away. "Help," she hissed.
"I'm outside," Picard said. "Where are you?"
"Hiding inside the store," she whispered back, trying to peek through the clothing racks for signs of Dahj.
"Can you get out?"
"Give me a minute."
Soji tucked her Farnsworth away, checked the area again, and then darted for the nearest door. She made it outside and around the corner, only to skid to a stop as she came across Elnor having a standoff with police.
"Drop the sword!"
Elnor scoffed back at them, jewelry hanging out of his overly stuffed knapsack.
One of the policeman fired his gun, and Soji jolted at the sharp report. Elnor twisted the cutlass, easily deflecting the bullet. More gunfire erupted, and Elnor deflected each bullet with his blade. Soji was so gobsmacked she didn't think to get out of the way.
"Soji!" Picard shouted. "Close your eyes!"
She squeezed her eyes shut. There was a flash of bright light behind her eyelids, then nothing. She opened her eyes again to find Elnor and the cops were now all frozen where they stood.
"Soji!" Picard yelled in warning.
She spun just as Dahj came up behind her and swung the tire iron. Soji tripped and fell to the ground, narrowly avoiding getting bludgeoned.
"Dahj, stop!" Picard shouted.
Dahj didn't pay him any mind. "You got the life I should have had," she said scathingly to Soji.
"If you want to be angry at someone, be angry at me for leaving you there!" Picard yelled as he jogged over.
Still Dahj didn't shift her attention from Soji.
Picard raised a Tesla and shot her. Blue squiggles of electricity zinged over her body as she fell to the ground beside Soji, unconscious.
Soji scrambled to her feet and away. "What artifact are we dealing with?" she asked breathlessly.
Picard's expression was grim. "I have an idea. Where's the car?"
Soji reluctantly left her sister on the ground—and the cops and Elnor frozen—and led Picard back to the Beetle that was crunched up against a pole.
"What happened?" he asked.
"First murder attempt," Soji said bitterly. "What are you looking for?"
Picard wrenched open the back door and crawled inside. He came back out with a silken cord. "Dahj had tossed this in the backseat when we drove from the Warehouse back to the B&B," he said. "I didn't think anything of it, but given her fixation on you…" He wrapped the cord around a jagged piece of the car and pulled until it ripped in two.
"What is it?" Soji asked.
"Mehmed III's Silken Cord. Causes the holder to murder their siblings."
They hurried back across the street to where Dahj was just waking up and looking around in confusion.
"What happened?"
"You don't remember?" Soji asked.
Dahj shook her head. "No. You called needing help at the B&B and then…where are we?" Her eyes widened as her gaze landed on Elnor and the cops.
"We'll explain later," Picard said and turned to head for Elnor where he threw a baggie over the cutlass. Purple sparks flew, neutralizing the artifact. But Elnor and the cops remained frozen. Picard went around with something small in his hand, flashing it in each of the cop's eyes. He then went back to Elnor and unfroze him.
Elnor blinked rapidly, then furrowed his brows. "Oh no."
"Oh yes," Picard said, reaching for his backpack stuffed with stolen jewelry. "We'd best leave this here."
"What about the cops?" Soji asked nervously.
"They won't remember anything."
They all hurried back to Picard's vehicle, and then he used some artifact to unfreeze the police from a distance. While they looked around in bewilderment, Picard drove away.
"What happened to your car?" Dahj exclaimed as they passed the busted Beetle.
"Um, you crashed it."
"You and Elnor were also targeted with artifacts," Picard explained.
Dahj blanched. "What did I do?"
Soji grimaced. "You, uh, wanted to kill me."
Dahj's brows rose sharply in horror. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Soji assured her. "Not a scratch. Well, I'm a little pissed about my car, but Soong's going to pay for that."
"What about Raffi and Rios?" Elnor asked.
"I don't know," Picard answered.
Soji pulled out her Farnsworth to call them.
"Yeah," Rios answered.
"Are you okay?" Soji asked urgently.
"Yeah. Elnor?"
"We got him back."
"Good. Get to the Warehouse. We have a problem."
Rios didn't elaborate, and Picard pressed harder on the gas pedal.
They pulled up in front of the Warehouse where Rios, Raffi, Agnes, and Seven were gathered.
"What's going on?" Picard asked as they got out of the car.
"We can't get in," Raffi answered, holding Seven's arm as though supporting her. Seven was pale and breathing heavily.
"The holos?" Soji asked.
"No response."
Seven suddenly gasped, and an echoing snap rent the air. The front of the Warehouse split, a blazing red crack like fluorescent magma creeping up from the bottom.
"My god," Picard breathed in horror and bolted for the opening.
"JL!" Raffi yelled.
Soji went after him, the others following behind. They wedged themselves through the crack and down the Umbilicus into the Warehouse. The lights were off in the main office, but a fulvous red glow was emanating from further inside.
They reached the landing above the Warehouse storage and came to a horrified stop. More red cracks were climbing their way up the walls and across the floor. And everywhere they spread, the Warehouse was beginning to disintegrate…