WARNING
This chapter was very painful to write and may cause crying, angst and fanboyish/fangirlish rage. If this kind of stuff isn't your bag, I suggest taking a few moments to prepare yourself because skipping this chapter isn't going to solve anything.
In short, before you decide to tear me a new one, don't say I didn't warn you.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Goodbye Forever
The light finally faded as Marcus stepped outside onto a large circular plateau. The passageway he had taken vanished behind him as expected and he saw that the path to the summit was blocked off by a translucent gate glowing violet. Unlike the last room, this area was an entire pool of ankle-high water, which Marcus began to splash over his wounds in hopes of washing away all the blood his injuries had stained his fur with, dropping to his knees as he did so.
After the clash with Malice, this water was sanctuary. He cupped it into his mouth and drank away the dry and coarse feeling in his throat, breathing heavily as he did so. He gazed into the reflection a little longer and looked at the sky. While on the outside, it would be logical to assume that there would be nothing but storm clouds here, but no. Marcus could see the beauty of all the stars in the sky twinkling above him like the same peaceful night on Sauria…that same night when…
He sighed. That seemed so long ago when really it had only been three years. He adored that night and every similar night after it. Why couldn't he just go back to that? Why did he have to work so hard just to save someone? Would he really go to the edge of the universe and back for Coyote? Well, yes because he was already there, and she was worth that…every person he cared about was worth that, and they thought the same about him.
Then came something else. Was he really worth this? This was his battle to face alone and everybody he loved was being caught up in it. It wasn't just because Kursed was targeting them to get to him. They wanted to propel him towards victory…but why? He was just one person. Space and time wouldn't collapse on themselves if he were to die. In fact, as long as Kursed couldn't get her dirty paws on his soul, it wouldn't matter if he died…maybe…maybe he was better off dead.
"No." he muttered. "That kind of thinking is for cowards. I'm going to stick through this to the end…but first, another sip of water."
When he went to drink some more, though, he saw a reflection in the water other than his own. A reflection of someone standing right behind him.
"Coyote?"
He stood and turned around to face her. There she was, looking completely normal save for her eyes being shut. If anything, she looked tired. Marcus stepped forward and began lifting his hand. He hesitated for a brief moment. He still remembered how horrible it had been to watch her change right in front of him, and after what he had just heard only moments ago…could he really just ignore that?
Whatever the case, he reached out and gently brushed his fingertips against Coyote's soft cheek. She reacted with a light exhale, and for a moment Marcus breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that she was back and the whole proxy story was just that: a story.
How wrong he was.
She opened her eyes and revealed that they were in the same blank state they had been before and were opened impossibly wide. Upon seeing Marcus, she growled in an unnatural way, sounding nothing like a wolf and far more like a demonic beast.
"Isn't it beautiful how much instincts can better a person, Marcus?" Kursed whispered from thin air.
"You…you call this bettering her?!" Marcus said in a panicked state. "You've turned her into a complete abomination!"
"Me? I didn't do a damn thing. And take it easy with the insults. That's your girl there."
"Why…why are you doing this? I love Coyote with all my heart and you're going to make me fight her again?!"
"It would be some fine entertainment, sure, but I'm not going to make you fight her."
Here he could swear she had been smirking from wherever she was, making want to stab his staff right down her throat and watch her choke on it.
"There's always the option of you just lying down and accepting your fate."
"Fate my aching ass!"
"So that's how you want this to go down, eh? Fine by me. Coyote, dear!"
Coyote snapped to attention and listened intently.
"I want you to have as much fun with darling little Marcus as you can." Kursed said softly. "But remember: don't go all the way with him. I need him alive, so bring him straight to me when you're finished."
Coyote grinned maniacally and turned her head toward Marcus, making a frightening strained breathing sound like she was insane rather than hostile.
"Coyote, don't!" Marcus cried out. "It's me! Marcus!"
"Nope. That's not gonna do a thing, sweetie." Kursed mocked. "She's her own mistress now."
Marcus felt a tear seep from his eye as Coyote began advancing on him menacingly. In one last ditch effort, he uttered the same words he had uttered after the Kew mission to try and calm her down. The Purifying Blast was released and struck Coyote at full force, but to Marcus' horror, it was completely ineffective.
"Coyote, please…" he begged, his voice now barely a whisper. "…I love you."
Coyote stopped walking towards him and her crazed expression seemed to fade away. A small shred of hope slipped into Marcus' heart as Coyote gently reached for him. He closed the gap by gently taking her hand…and instantly regretted it when the crazed expression returned worse than before.
"Fooled ya…" she seethed.
Marcus let out a surprised yelp as the spindly tentacles he'd seen before erupted from Coyote's back, seized his arm and threw him high into the air before slamming him down on the ground again. Marcus unsheathed his staff and reluctantly stabbed one of the tentacles with it, causing Coyote to let out a horrid shriek and release him and give him enough time to get back to his feet.
"Oh, God…this can't be happening!" he panted.
He didn't want to hurt Coyote, but he still had his staff ready to strike if she so much as came near him. Was there no way to get her to calm down? Was the girl he knew and loved more than anything really gone forever?
There was no time to ponder on this thought as Coyote roared and bounded towards him. He cartwheeled out of the way, not daring to counterstrike. One of the tentacles came whipping right as his face, which he responded to be ducking and out of habit hooking to Coyote's groin. She grunted and glared at him before kicking him in the chest and sending him sprawling backwards, as well as further injuring his already-cracked ribs from the fight with Malice.
Malice…that one thing that he had said still lingered in Marcus' mind. The loss of the elixir…Coyote was his elixir. The thing he loved the most. Was he going to lose her to her own dreadful instincts? Or was he going to lose his own life by her hands?
He didn't know. Nothing made sense to him anymore. It didn't make sense that Kursed had attacked his friends instead of him. It didn't make sense that she had chosen Coyote as a proxy, and it certainly didn't make sense that Coyote's tentacles had wrapped around his ankles and slammed him into the ground, not only further injuring him but causing him great emotional pain as well.
As he wriggled free and got to his feet, he said aloud the very words he feared saying: "I don't know what to do anymore…"
From within his head, Kursed chuckled.
"Decisions, decisions. Here, let me help you."
Horrible screaming began echoing very loudly in Marcus' ears, forcing him to clutch his head and scream in agony. Not only did his body hurt all over, but now his mind ached. All he felt now was pain in every single one of its definitions.
"SHUT UP!" he screamed.
The screaming in his head stopped and he glared at the monstrous Coyote with full-blown anger. He gripped his staff and held it at the ready.
"I have no choice…I have to fight."
Coyote lunged at him again, forcing him to kick her square in the stomach before vaulting over her and jabbing her in the back with his staff. She shrieked and spun around, though not quickly enough to hit Marcus before he could strafe out of the way. In a quick motion, Coyote activated her Repulsor Gauntlets…or wait…had she? It didn't seem like she had been wearing anything on her hands. The claws just seem to sprout from her fingertips and appeared more bone-like than metallic.
One thing was certain: there was no time to think about it as Coyote began slashing at him, more specifically his throat. Marcus slammed his staff into the ground, forcing Coyote to stumble about in the resulting earthquake. Once that was finished, Marcus flipped backward and kicked Coyote in the chin, knocking her off her feet. She growled and bared her teeth at Marcus before getting down on all fours and charging at him again.
"This is like something a couple of BDSM freaks would do in bed!" Marcus mumbled to himself before flipping out of the way.
Coyote stood and began slashing again with Marcus attempting to block every blow. Something he had noticed about her back when she was normal was that while she was physically a twig compared to him, she was much faster than he was, making her very hard to dodge when the two were wrestling on Valentine's Day. Now it was the exact opposite. Even though she was now much easier to dodge since she was being hostile and not thinking clearly, every hit that he blocked caused his bones to rattle (making his cracked ribs ache even more), and it didn't help matters when she slashed again and managed to make a firm cut on his wrist.
Marcus cried out and reeled back again, clutching at his left wrist as it began to pour blood. When he tried to move his wrist, it sent a terrible pain through his arm. Dodging Coyote's next attack, he tore off a piece of his muscle shirt and tied it tightly around the wound to hopefully soak up the blood. Not that it mattered whether he had vandalized his own clothes or not since Coyote's next attack caught his shirt's collar and tore it right off, exposing his sweaty, bloody and bruised torso. She made another slash which he dodged and countered with a punch to the side of her face.
It hurt him more than it hurt her to hit her like that. He thought they had finished fighting maliciously with one another after they had fallen in love all those years ago, but now thanks to Kursed, his worst fears were being realized. He was hurting someone he held dear. He didn't want to do it, but he didn't have a choice. She wasn't giving him a choice.
He performed a palm strike to Coyote's forehead, dazing her long enough for him to grab her around her waist and flip him over his shoulder. He wasn't counting on her tentacles reaching him, though, so he felt nothing short of shock and agony when he found himself slamming into the ground again. This time, he felt his stomach lurch and his head beginning to spin. This sensation got worse when he got to his feet. Coyote rushed forward and kicked him in the stomach, causing him to wretch and vomit before falling on his back again.
"Damn…" he groaned. "What did I do to deserve this…I'm in Hell, aren't I?"
Marcus steadily got to his feet only for Coyote to push him back down with her foot, wrap a tentacle around his neck and bend him backwards. He began to choke and feel his back aching horribly, and the worst part about the whole ordeal was that Coyote was enjoying it. She was enjoying steadily killing the boy she loved…Marcus had come all this way to save her and she wanted to kill him. She wasn't even thinking through all of this. It was just as Chase had said. She was acting only on primal instinct, complete inattentive to what little sanity she may have had left.
Marcus rasped and steadily began to lose consciousness when the grip on his throat miraculously loosened. He felt flat on his face and rolled on his back. Did he dare to get up and try to fight her again?
"Mark…what's going on?"
That voice…Coyote had spoken in her normal voice!
Marcus looked up and saw that Coyote's eyes had gone back to normal. In fact, she used these eyes to look at herself in absolute terror.
"She's turned me into…oh, God…"
Marcus rushed forward and embraced her, and the second she realized what was going on, she returned it with happy tears.
"You came back for me…"
"I'd never leave you behind, Coyote…I love you."
"I love you tOOAAAAARGH!"
Marcus pulled back and saw Coyote fidgeting uncontrollably before she let out the horrid roar and her eyes shifted back to the demonic state. She pushed Marcus away and performed a roundhouse kick to his head, which he managed to grab in time, though wasn't able to defend himself when her other leg came up and she used her body weight to flip him onto the ground.
"What happened?!" Marcus thought painfully. "She was fine and then all of a sudden…what?!"
Marcus whipped out his staff again at let loose with the Ice Blaster, freezing Coyote's feet to the ground long enough for him to deliver a sharp uppercut to her chin. Coyote got back to her feet, only to twitch uncontrollably again until her eyes returned to normal.
"What's…what's happening to my body?!"
Another twitch.
"KILL HIM! KILL HIM! TAKE HIM TO THE GREAT MOTHER!"
"No! I'm not going to kill him!"
"TAKE HIM TO THE GREAT MOTHER!"
"NO!"
The beast took control again and she slammed her tentacles down on Marcus' shoulders, nearly dislocating one of them when he smashed into the ground. With that, Coyote grabbed his head and shoved it under the water. His vision was cut off as he thrashed about, trying to get loose and succeeding when the better part of Coyote's mind got through.
"No! I love him! I won't do it!" she screamed.
Marcus pulled himself up just as the beast took control again, but he managed to knock it into submission with a punch to the throat. Coyote made an awful rasping noise before her eyes went back to normal.
"Mark…I think I've got it subdued for the moment." she said in a saddened tone.
Marcus wrapped his arms around Coyote's shoulder and leaned in to kiss her, only for her to stop him with her two fingers.
"Looks like I'm blocking the way to the big cheese, huh?" she asked.
Marcus said nothing and grew an expression of shock when he saw what Coyote was doing. She had taken the gun from Marcus' belt , and when he thought the other half had gained control and was about to shoot him, she pressed it into him hand and forced him to press the barrel to her stomach. He realized in absolute horror that the his vision was about to come true.
"No…I can't do that."
"The pain is too unbearable, Marcus…you'll just have to put me out of my misery."
"But what about your family?! What about Wolf, Lori…and Scott?! …what about me?"
"If they were here, they'd want you to do the same. Please, Marcus. Do it before the other part of me starts trying to hurt you again."
"Coyote, please…we can find a cure! We can get you back to normal!"
Then he realized what he had just said was exactly what the vision predicted he would say, and to his dismay, Coyote said exactly what he had heard her say.
"She's infected me beyond the chance of a cure, Mark. You know you don't have a choice. Just do it!"
He couldn't. There was no way he could end the life of someone he loved so dearly. She had her whole life ahead of her and she was asking him to just put an end to it before she even got to live it…and it was all for him.
"…I can't."
"Please, Mark…rid me of this curse once and for all. If anyone is going to do this to me, I'll be happy to know that it's you."
The look in her eyes was pleading him…no, IMPLORING him to carry out this act. The worst part was that deep inside, he knew that her suffering was just going to get worse. Chase was right. There was no cure. She would be like this for the rest of her life.
And so Marcus tensed his grip on the gun…
…and did the unthinkable.
The bullet ripped through Coyote's innards and only a small pained groan escaped from her mouth before she collapsed into Marcus' arms. Marcus himself fell to his knees and cradled her close to his heart, his eyes beginning to fill up with tears to the point of nearly blinding him.
"This can't happen." he whimpered. "I'm the one she wants…I'm supposed to make the sacrifice."
Clinging to what little life she had left, Coyote weakly attempted to reach up to Marcus' face. Marcus gently took her hand and brought it up to his cheek, knowing that this would be the last he would ever feel of her. To his surprise, she smiled.
"It's okay, Mark…" she said in a voice that was barely a whisper. "You freed me. I won't be her proxy anymore."
"What am I going to say to them…your parents. How do I tell them that I…"
She shushed him.
"They'll understand…no one should have to suffer through the pain that you and I have. I want you to…"
Here she had to take several deep breathes before she could speak again.
"I want you to finish the job. Finish what your mother started…show Kursed that you're not afraid of her anymore."
"No…not without you…"
Her smile grew.
"…y;know…I've always wanted to hear someone say that to me."
She looked up at the night sky and sighed.
"It's beautiful…isn't it? In all honesty, this is just a perfect moment…lying here with you under the stars...just like that night when you…gave me this…"
The necklace still hung around her neck until she reached up with her other hand and gently pulled it off.
"Here…" she said, her voice steadily getting weaker. "Take it…give it to Scott…"
The necklace shimmered in the starlight, and Marcus felt pained taking it from her even though it was what she wanted. He put it in his pocket and immediately brought his hand back to hers. She continued to whisper her pleas to him, her voice now undeniably fading away.
"Tell him I'm sorry…tell my whole family that I love them…and…one more thing…."
Marcus had to listen his best as Coyote brought her hand to his heart. She took in his heartbeat to the best of her ability, knowing it would be the last thing she felt.
"….say hello to the sunrise for me…goodbye."
She kept her eyes fixated on his and smiled once more before closing her eyes, breathing in, and letting out the longest exhale she had ever taken. Marcus' sadness and horror reached its peak when her eyes didn't open again. He felt her heartbeat against his body steadily growing slower and slower until it finally stopped.
"Coyote…Coyote?"
No answer.
"No…no, please! Coyote, don't leave me!"
It was too late. With that, Marcus began to cry, his tears being soaked into Coyote's fur. All the dreams that he had with her…all the happiness he had felt with her…now they were all just memories. Things he would never feel again. He cradled her closer and buried his face in her neck, sobbing even louder. It was useless, though. He knew that no matter how hard he cried, she wasn't coming back.
Coyote Lorraine O'Donnell was dead.
I warned you.
SOUNDTRACK SO FAR
Krystal's nightmare/"Save her..."- "Parabola" by Mer (Originally by Tool)
Marcus versus Coyote (friendly)- "Name of the Game" by the Crystal Method
F-Zero race- "F-Zero Medley" by Entertainment System
Space pirate attack- Space pirate theme from Metroid Prime
Ridley- Ridley's theme from Metroid: Other M
Falcon takes down Ridley- "The Meaning of truth" by Hiro-X
The date- Ilia's theme from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Coyote versus the shadows- "The Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson
The star Lylat- Magmoor Caverns theme from Metroid Prime
Marcus and Fox/Marcus and Chase- "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Fox versus Kursed- "Du Hast" by Rammstein
Marcus and Coyote versus Nightmare- Nightmare's theme from Metroid Fusion (ArcX version)
The Nightstriker- "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath
The death of Commander Dane- "Mad World" by Gary Jules
The prisoners of Kew- Byelomorye Dam from Goldeneye 64
Escape from Sargasso- "Hard to See" by Five Finger Death Punch
Marcus and Wolf versus Master Hand and Crazy Hand- Final Destination from Super Smash Bros. Brawl
To Cerinia- "Laser Cannon Deth Sentence" by Dethklok
Aileen- "Working Class Hero" by Green Day (Originally by John Lennon)
The slaves- "Forgotten Children" by Tokio Hotel
Aileen's sorrow- "Narcissistic Cannibal" by EarlyRise (Originally by Korn and Skrillex)
Marcus and Aileen- "Name" by the Goo Goo Dolls
Aileen versus Aphrodite/Marcus versus Malice- "This Fire Burns" by Killswitch Engage (suggested by ianagainstcliffhangers. Thanks, man!)
The river Styx- "Where the River Flows" by Collective Soul
Marcus versus Coyote (infected)- "Mermaids" by Xandria
Coyote's death- Laura Palmer's theme from Twin Peaks