So. This is it. The finale.

In many ways, this whole fic has been more difficult to write than Rimmer's Return. In RR, you get to see the broken Rimmer; the aftermath of something truly terrible. But this fic had to show you the hows and whys. What could have knocked him so badly that he could make such a fatal mistake, even as Ace? What has he seen or experienced that could turn him into a man who was prepared to slaughter the simulants, purely for revenge? Let's see, shall we?

Thanks to everyone who has tirelessly reviewed and emailed me such lovely feedback. It really does spur me on to continue writing. You guys rock.

P.S. I've finally added an ugly mug profile pic; a photo that was taken yesterday as I showed off my 'finger guns' after the Spaced flashmob in Trafalgar Square - wherein two-hundred people took part in a renactment of the slo-mo gun battle. Photographic evidence that I am, in fact, obsessed with gunporn.

The humans had survived for over three million years.

They had banded together in deep space to keep the generations going, passing on traditions and religions so that they still felt a sense of connection to their old home and ways of living.

They had grown and adapted to the increasing number of hostile races and species out there in the infinite cosmos, defending, networking and protecting to ensure their longevity.

Shame they still hadn't learned when it was best to keep their mouths shut, McGruder reasoned bitterly.

He was overseeing yet another day on the Colony, watching over the inhabitants as they went about their business. Yet even as a part of the group, he felt alone. Being a leader was always a lonely standing, but today it felt especially so.

Now out of the MediBay after having recovered from his physical injuries, the shared group laughter that swirled around the central square seemed to isolate him from the crowd. He found himself wondering how long it would take for the deeper, hidden wound to heal.

Why did he have to tell him? He'd made a pact to himself once he'd regained consciousness that it was perhaps best not to reveal who he really was. And what did he do? At the first opportunity, he'd retaliated in a moment of weakness and used the revelation as a comeback in an argument.

It was official, he thought to himself. Michael R. McGruder was a genius.

But even so, he was his father. Wasn't he supposed to have been shocked but happy about the revelation? Slap him on the back, thank him for his help and tell him how proud he was? He was supposed to be a space hero for goodness sake. Surely he shouldn't have flashed his best 'rabbit trapped in headlights' impersonation before doing a runner?

Knotted up in his own thoughts, he hadn't even heard his name being called.

"McGruder - ? McGruder, sir?"

McGruder glanced over his shoulder and noticed with a start that a man was stood beside him, trying to capture his attention.

Midshipman Jarvis was a tall, lanky man, his dark hair closely shaved to hide his rapidly receding hairline. Ever since he'd arrived on the Colony ten years before, he'd been keen to bring an element of Space Corps formality to proceedings. Most likely a manifestation of comfort and familiarity that McGruder was happy to allow.

Jarvis flicked a sharp salute. McGruder arched an amused eyebrow.

"Something's shown up on the scanner, sir."

"Something?" McGruder echoed patiently.

"Some sort of ship, sir. No life signs," he confirmed. "Showed up out of nowhere, sir, so could be another derelict - "

But McGruder was no longer paying attention. Instead, his gaze had been caught by the man stood beyond Jarvis's shoulder, watching him intently. His heart thumped hard in his chest as he approached.

"McGruder," Rimmer swallowed.

McGruder stared back wordlessly for a moment, before he made a conscious decision. "Ace," he acknowledged tightly.

Jarvis noticed the awkward silence between them and cleared his throat with a less than subtle cough. "I'll, erm, I'll keep you up to date with any changes sir," he mumbled, before crossing the square and heading up the metal staircase to the Flight Deck.

Now alone, the pair exchanged charged stares, neither uttering a word. McGruder shrugged in challenge, as if to silently ask his intentions. When Rimmer didn't respond, his eyes falling to the floor, McGruder shook his head, disappointed.

"Listen - " Rimmer sighed eventually.

But McGruder couldn't. "Don't. Just - don't, ok?"

Rimmer regarded him sadly. There was no malice in McGruder's words, only a sense of resigned acceptance as he stared back, the old sparkle in his green eyes now lacklustre in mourning.

No more words passed between them. With a slow nod, McGruder tore away his gaze and began to wander through the crowd and towards the stairs.

There was a moment of silence, and then, "God, you look so much like her," Rimmer called after his retreating back, before adding, "Michael."

At the name, McGruder stopped and turned back to face him, an onslaught of unreadable emotions thundering through his face. Rimmer offered a weak smile, an olive branch. McGruder's eyes searched his for a moment before a small smile of his own tugged at the edge of his mouth. Acceptance.

Without warning the ancient loudspeaker howled into life, the warning sirens blasting through the recycled air of the Colony. The milling groups of the main square glanced up hurriedly, panicked whispers flitting across the crowds as they all looked at one another, uncertain what to do. Others emerged from doorways surrounding the square, eyes wide with fear.

Clutching a radio transmitter that linked to the Flight Deck, Midshipman Jarvis pushed his way back through the crowds and hurried over to McGruder. "Lord save us," he mumbled under his breath, catching McGruder's arm with shaking hands, all protocol lost. "We've had a threat warning, sir. It's simulants."

Stood a few feet away, Rimmer couldn't hear their hushed conversation. But one word carried across as the crowds that separated them echoed the word of the feared race, like a rising wave that gathered in panic and momentum until it thundered through Rimmer's being.

Oh no.

Chaos erupted. The inhabitants began to wail, shout and cry, fighting to snatch up belongings and stagger around aimlessly in a panic of where to hide. Rimmer simply stood, jostled from side to side as if caught in a storm of disarray. Most of them had never encountered simulants before. But the rumours and stories were clearly enough to instil fear and dread.

"No Ron, don't!"

"Just let me get hold of the bastard - !"

Rimmer turned back towards the familiar voices over the sea of cries, just in time to see a punch land hard on his right cheek. Caught off guard, Rimmer staggered back, tripped against an unseen person behind him and fell to the floor in a less than dignified heap.

"Ron!" Ellie cried, appalled.

"Don't you see?" Ron demanded in his deep, bellowing voice that slowed the panicked crowds to listen as they parted. "I keep your secret and how do you repay us? You holograms are nothing but trouble!" he snarled at Rimmer recoiling in shock on the deck. "You come here pretending to help us, but all you've done is brought this stupid simulant war of yours right onto our doorstep! You've sentenced us all to death!"

Rimmer felt sick. Not only at the accusation but also the dreaded realisation that it was partially true. The simulants were there because of him.

He scrabbled to his feet, his hand held out in defensive protest before him as the people's faces turned to looks of shock and contempt. "No it's not - " he jabbered. "I mean, I didn't - "

But this only seemed to anger Ron further. "Don't you dare suggest - " he drew back another fist but Ellie caught hold of him.

"Ron, I said no!" she sobbed angrily, tears now streaming freely down rosy cheeks.

McGruder broke through the crowd. "Stop it!" he ordered, taking a stand between Rimmer and Ron, a reproachful scowl fired at the latter. "We need to think and act fast to survive. What good will it do fighting between ourselves and seeking someone to blame?"

"Then what the hell are we supposed to do?" Ron demanded, the fear and desperation creeping into the edges of his voice.

"What we've always practiced, that's what the drills were for," McGruder replied quickly before taking a steadying breath. "Right everyone!" he hollered out to the crowds gathered around them. "You know what to do. Take only the essentials, get down to the Fallout Zone and seal down the locks. Do not release them until you hear my signal for the all clear, is that understood?" He swivelled back to face Rimmer, his voice unsteady. "Ace and I will take care of the simulants."

"But he's a hologram!" Ron cried. "You're risking your life with him over us?"

McGruder's face hardened. "It's not like that."

"Then how the hell can we trust him?"

"Because he's my father!" McGruder snapped suddenly.

Shocked silence descended across the crowds, leaving only the piercing wail of the alarm to sound its surprise. Ellie's eyes flitted back and forth between the men before her.

McGruder squared up to Ron, his features quivering as he fought to hold back an onslaught of words unsaid. "And I trust him with my life. My everything."

Ron stared back at him wordlessly for a moment before releasing a relenting sigh. "You heard what McGruder said!" he shouted across the crowd, drawing back. "Down to the Fallout Zone!"

Clearly shaken, McGruder watched as the crowds tore themselves away and followed Ron and Ellie as they herded them down to the bowels of the Colony; the only part of the space station that could hold off an attack or could afford its inhabitants an outside chance of survival should the worst happen.

But Rimmer seemed calm. There was something in McGruder's words that suddenly made everything click into place. He began to back off with slow yet meaningful steps. "That's why I have to face them alone," he said quietly with a resigned nod.

McGruder spun back to face him, aghast. "What? Why?" he spluttered.

To Rimmer, it was all now so very simple. The two people he'd ever dared to care for had sacrificed a part of themselves for him. Yvonne had raised their son alone; giving up her blossoming career with the Space Corps so that he wouldn't have to jeopardise his - no matter how misjudged and over-zealous his perception of his own career path had been. Nirvanah had given up her very existence simply to allow him to find the happiness she could see in his eyes he so desperately wanted.

And now his son, already having risked his own life on two occasions to save him, was defending his honour from the hostility around him. Even after he'd run away from the truth that bound them together.

Too many people. Too many sacrifices.

"Because you and your mother have already given me far too much," he explained evenly. "It's about time I paid my dues."

McGruder shook his head loosely. "You don't owe us anything," he pleaded.

Guilt wrenched at Rimmer's chest. He couldn't even look McGruder in the eye anymore. "Look after them, won't you," he started as glanced over his shoulder at the receding group, his chest shuddering at the forced change of tack. "They need you."

"But - "

"McGruder, both you and I know the simulants followed me to this place," he insisted in hushed tones. "They shouldn't even be here in this dimension." Rimmer straightened. "It's my responsibility. If I brought them in," his jaw tightened, "I've got to take them out."

As Rimmer turned to leave, McGruder hurriedly caught his arm. A life-changing decision made in an instant. "Let me come with you."

"What?"

"Let me come with you," he repeated. "I'll travel with you, fight alongside you." Noticing the sadness that had begun to creep into Rimmer's gaze, McGruder sensed his reluctance and scrabbled for some shared moment of connection. "Remember b-back on that derelict?" he stammered. "We kicked some serious arse together."

"McGruder - "

"We'd make such a great team, you know we would."

"I know."

McGruder's eyes dropped to the floor. "But you still won't let me come with you," he mumbled.

Rimmer released a breath that caught in his throat. "McGruder, I can't take you with me. It doesn't work like that. It can't."

"Why not?"

"It just can't, ok?" Rimmer fired back suddenly before dropping his voice. "It can't." Noticing the hurt painfully evident in McGruder's eyes, he looked away, defeated. "Back there on that derelict, I was terrified I'd let you die on my watch," he recounted quietly. "Now I know who you are, it only makes it a hundred times worse." Rimmer bit his lip. "If you died trying to help me, I'd never forgive myself."

McGruder blinked quickly, reeling back at the stark admission. He nodded, understanding.

"That's the thing about being Ace," Rimmer snorted bitterly. "Everyone thinks you're being brave, but it's all bullshit. You're just a guy with nothing to lose." He shook his head at the man stood before him, desperate to push him away for the sake of saving him. "I can't be Ace and be a father to you."

The square was abandoned now, the remnants of lost and abandoned belongings littering the deck. Lives scattered and afraid.

"Just this once can you do as I ask you?" Rimmer ventured quietly. "Please."

And in that one moment in time, McGruder knew what he had to do.

As much as it pained him to do so, he extended a hand. "Good luck," he offered, his voice barely a whisper.

Relieved, Rimmer seized it and pulled him in an embrace so close their foreheads pressed together, breathing in their last and only moment. Neither of them said a word. They didn't need to. Everything that needed to be conveyed, had been in that one final act.

Then just as suddenly as he'd pulled him in, Rimmer released him once more. He turned away to stride across the square and towards the Landing Bay, leaving McGruder to stand alone.

"Did I make you proud?"

Rimmer slowed and stopped before risking a final glance over his shoulder. McGruder looked almost embarrassed at having broken their silence.

"She always used to tell me that even though you weren't there, you'd always be proud of me," McGruder explained, as he blinked unsteadily. "I hope I've lived up to that."

A small chuckle spilled forth, unchecked, almost bemused to be asked. But then Rimmer realised why. He'd told Lister all those years ago that all he'd wanted from his own father was for him to say he was proud of him. Just once.

"You've made me infinitely proud," he replied.

McGruder released a shuddered sigh of relief. Content, he smiled distantly before turning away to follow the others down to the Fallout Zone.

Rimmer bit back painful tears as he watched him walk out of his life. "Infinitely proud," he echoed, in his own voice rather than Ace's.

Some say love makes you do crazy things. Others say becoming a father changes everything; awakening a fierce strength and protective instinct that can never be matched.

The unmistakable black form of the SS Orion waited in distant expectation before him, silent and still against the twinkling stars. Rimmer scowled as he gripped Wildfire's steering column so tightly it could snap. Their pursuit of him had always been vindictive and relentless; but now they'd followed him one step too far.

His comms link crackled into life with a voice he'd grown to detest.

"Mr Rimmer. I'd like to say this was a nice surprise, but I'm afraid I'd be lying through my teeth."

"Get the hell out of here, Pizzak," he spat. "You don't even belong in this dimension and you know it."

Glaring angrily at his scanner, Pizzak's grey eyes locked with the tiny white pulse blocking their path to the human colony beyond, as if it were an irritating dirty speck on the screen that he longed to flick away.

"You're in my way, Mr Rimmer," he replied tightly, his voice edged with distorted feedback. "So if you'd be so kind as to shift your arse," he drew in a cleansing breath to calm his rising temper that often had the nasty habit of flaring up into murderous rampages, "I can get on with my business of wiping your disgusting race off the face of this cosmos."

Rimmer ground his teeth. Far too often he'd treated Pizzak and his ragtail band of rogue simulants with a reluctant sense of lenient mercy. After all, as a human-created race they had as much right to exist as any other species in the universe. Such was the responsibility of impartiality that came with being Ace Rimmer. A freedom-fighting species in one dimension could be a slave-driving species in another. He simply had to restore order, keep the universe ticking over.

But backed into a corner like this, something deep inside Rimmer made a menacing shift.

"If you set one foot on that Colony," he threatened evenly, "I swear I'll kill every last one of you."

Pizzak was silent for a moment; presumably just as unnerved by the hologram's sudden, raw aggression as Rimmer was.

"If you try and stop me," Pizzak replied darkly, "I'll make you regret it. Everyone will know what a useless, self-centred murderer you really are."

Pizzak's haunting words sent an icy shiver crawling up Rimmer's spine, as they both stepped into a new territory of mutual hatred. Although he could never have comprehended that Pizzak's threat could ever be realised in a dimension and moment in time far too close for comfort, he would have still consented to his downfall for the sake of his son.

Rimmer pulled back hard on the steering column and Wildfire immediately blasted forth towards the Orion, wrenching him back into the leather folds of his pilot seat.

Pizzak staggered back as the pulsing white blip accelerated towards them at alarming speed. "M'Aiden!" he barked urgently to his fellow simulant sat at the helm. "Take him down!"

Red warning lights flashed and buzzed across the Wildfire's dashboard.

"Incoming fire! Two shots!" the computer wailed.

Clearly distracted, Rimmer's free fingers danced frantically across the keypad to his left, as he strained against the intense G-force. His dark eyes flitted back and forth between the keypad and the viewscreen. "Little bit busy at the moment - !" he hollered back in his old nasal voice over the deafening, high-pitched whine of the engines.

"Ace!"

"Oh, for the love of - "

As the twin pulses screamed towards them, Rimmer snapped back his hand and yanked the steering column to the right, sending Wildfire into a swift barrel roll that dodged their fatal trajectory and allowed them to streak past, unharmed.

"Any luck hacking into their Drive Systems?" he cried over the din.

As a series of bleeps signalled she had accessed their network, the computer's CPU quivered with horrible realisation. The riddle of how Pizzak and the simulants had managed to follow them from dimension to dimension for nine long years was now abundantly clear.

"I think I've done one better," she confirmed quietly.

The systems screen on the Orion suddenly flashed with green text error messages. M'Aiden quickly leant forward and punched ineffectually at the keyboard before him.

"Pizzak - " he mumbled nervously. "I think we have a problem, my friend." He swivelled in his chair to meet Pizzak's expectant glare. "Our Dimension Jump drive has been hacked. We've been locked out."

Metallic fingers curled back wordlessly into murderous fists.

The dark shadow of the SS Orion was growing rapidly in the glass viewscreen as Wildfire hurtled towards the simulant ship at kamikaze speed. In order for his plan to work, he had to make the jump dangerously close to the simulant ship. An error margin of only a few seconds. But Rimmer didn't care.

For one single moment in time, Ace Rimmer was fighting to protect his family. And for one single moment in time, that made him the most dangerous man in the universe.

"I've programmed it in. You ready, computer?" he cried.

"Ace, the DJ drive isn't designed to carry two crafts at the same time," she clucked nervously. "There's a 67% chance we could burn up in non-space."

"I've had worse odds." Rimmer released a quivering breath. "Besides, I think we've all outstayed our welcome in this dimension. Prepare to jump."

M'Aiden's neon blue eyes widened in realisation as the systems screen began to reel, uninvited, with instruction code.

"Our Dimension Jump drives have been synchronised," he jabbered, glancing back to the scanner as the tiny white blip closed the gap. "I think he's going to - "

The entire ship whited out as with a creaking groan of distorting metal, the SS Orion was wrenched out of existence.

Wildfire's engines squealed white-hot, straining at maximum acceleration as they powered through non-space with the Orion in tow. Rimmer's grip on the steering column tightened, frantically struggling to hold their trajectory in place. The cockpit resounded with the panicked wails of emergency alarms and pulsing red lights, the entire ship juddering violently.

"Ace, the jump is becoming too unstable!"

Deep down, Rimmer was panicking. He was desperate to put as many dimensions between the simulants and the Colony as physically possible. But even he had to relent that he risked the two ships disintegrating as the DJ drive began failing to keep their entities held together in existence.

"Ace!"

Rimmer closed his eyes. Now or never.

"Disengage!" he yelled.

Rimmer was thrown back in his seat as the DJ link between the two ships was severed and the Orion fired free as if from a slingshot, blasting out of the unreality slipstream and into another dimension.

But Wildfire continued to wail, shuddering violently as it struggled to regain reality equilibrium.

"What's happening?" Rimmer cried fearfully.

"Ace, I'm trying to lock on to the nearest valid dimension but I can't get us stable! I don't think - "

Wildfire lurched wildly, as if it had just crashed in a head-on collision into some unseen object. Thrown forward against the restraints of his safety harness, Rimmer tried to shield himself with his arms as he smashed head-first into the steering column, and in a pulsing red flash, his vision blacked out with a crackle of static.

The small toy spaceship slowly arced through the bedroom, ably brought to life with the appropriate noises by a young boy in blue and white striped pyjamas.

"Ground Control, this is Commander Mikey!" the boy cried excitedly. "About to hit light speed!" The flaked red paint on the metal winked in the lamp light as he raced across the room and leapt onto his bed. "Whoosh!"

"Ahem."

The boy whipped his head back to the voice, where a tall figure stood watching him in the doorway, arms folded.

"Commander Mikey, this is Ground Control. I think it's supposed to be bedtime."

Mikey pouted. "Oh but, Dad - !"

Rimmer shook his head as he strode slowly over to the bed, fighting back a grin that would undermine his authority in one moment. "Bedtime," he repeated emphatically.

With all the boundless energy typical of an eight-year-old, Mikey bounced down to lie in the soft folds of the bed and reluctantly parked his spaceship in its usual hanger location by his bedside lamp. He snuggled into the warmth of his blanket as Rimmer began tucking him in.

"Dad?"

"Hmm?"

Mikey cuddled the treasured teddy bear as it was handed to him. "Do you think that one day I can be a Test Pilot like Uncle John?"

Rimmer smoothed down the blanket and smiled. Michael was doing incredibly well at school, and seemed to have a fearless flair when it came to climbing trees and playing sports that he'd never had as a child. Rimmer was quite content with a desk job at the Space Corps Ground Control base on Io, working alongside Yvonne in the navigation and geo-planning department. He didn't believe he'd have even reached that level if she hadn't have tirelessly aided him with his revision during her pregnancy, helping him to gain a pass mark in the Navigation Exam that he'd always so desperately coveted. Test Pilot posts were tough heights to reach.

He pinched Michael's nose playfully between his knuckles causing the boy to giggle ferociously. "I think you can do anything you want to, Mikey."

As Rimmer clicked off the lamp, he heard those words in the darkness. The words that had knocked him sideways even when they'd come from Yvonne after she realised he'd followed her to Miranda when she left Red Dwarf. But from his own son, they just made his heart melt.

"Love you, Dad."

Rimmer stooped down to land a kiss on Michael's forehead. "Love you too, son."

"Arnie?"

He turned away from the darkness of Michael's bedroom to see a woman stood silhouetted in the doorway against the stark light of the hallway, the overwhelming brightness blinding him with its brilliance.

"Ace - ?"

And with that name, Rimmer was wrenched back to reality.

" - you hear me? Ace?"

Rimmer reluctantly pulled open his eyes with a low groan.

The dashboard flickered chirpily with white lights. "Thank goodness you're alright," the computer gushed."We made it. We've emerged in Dimension 8423."

Hauling himself upright in the pilot seat, Rimmer blinked slowly as he took in the view through the glass. Nothing but eternal blackness.

"I closed the dimension skid as we left," the computer confirmed quietly, choosing not to reveal the precious drive that Pizzak and the simulants had in their possession.

"Mm - " he acknowledged, non-committal.

The computer's CPU heaved a silent sigh. "Listen, I know you're worried but you shouldn't be. As I told you before, the universe has a natural order for these things. A skid will open in another part of the sector and continue to keep the humans on the Colony safe for many generations to come." The mainframe paused as she noticed his silence. "Ace?"

However, Rimmer was no longer listening. He couldn't tear his thoughts away from the man he had left behind. Obsessing whether he'd been right to choose this life over staying with McGruder. His own son.

If the universe's natural order had brought them together, his commitment as Ace had torn them apart once more.

He was, in a word, distracted.

Which was probably the main reason why in less than three weeks time, he would make the biggest mistake of his life. A mistake that would result in the deaths of one-thousand, three-hundred and thirty-two innocent people.

Pizzak was right. He would regret it.

Any final reviews you may have would be much appreciated. Thanks guys, it's been fun.