Chapter 1: The End of Shangri-La
It was dark.
Iria could almost see the stars. The swirl of the galaxies in some strange and cosmic plan moved hypnotically through her vision. Even though she could see all of this, Iria had the distinct feeling that her eyes were closed.
It was so hard for her to remember why she was here; what she had planned to do.
Out of the nether reaches a vision materialized before her eyes, it was Gren, her brother. Except something seemed out of place about the image, something that made it impossible for him to be here.
He was dead.
With that instant realization came other, even less pleasant thoughts, to Iria's mind. Gren was dead because of her. She had shot him in order to kill him and to... to...
Her mind blanked out and Iria struggled to focus her thoughts, there seemed to be something clouding her mind. It was holding back vital information and Iria fought it like she would any other enemy; without mercy.
The strange influence withdrew from Iria's unexpected counterattack and she suddenly had all the information she needed. She had killed Gren in order to end his suffering from Zeiram.
Zeiram!
Just the mere mention of his name caused Iria to remember the horrors that Zeiram had inflicted upon her and just as rapidly it caused Gren's face to mutate into the hated white visage of her enemy. As the nightmarish image was conjured before her, Iria's consciousness flooded back to her along with the secret to Zeiram's weakness.
Zeiram was trying to absorb her! He had been bisected by Kei's secret weapon and the top half was now trying to incorporate her genetic material to grow a new body. Iria had allowed it to happen as a last-ditch effort to try and connect with Zeiram's mind and discover his weakness. He had almost overwhelmed her, but the memories of her pain and grief over losing Gren had saved her.
Without thinking, Iria aimed as close as she could manage to Zeiram's assimilation tendril with one of her guns. She fired two shots but both were low and only served to blow out sections of his vast neck.
Zeiram reared back from the unexpected pain, probably more from surprise than from shock. He recovered quickly and sent his white head snaking out towards her in an effort to take her down.
Iria came to the sudden realization that Zeiram was scared. The unkillable butcher was actually scared! Maybe not real dread as she knew it, but in some dark recess of his alien mind he felt fear. In Zeiram's moment of weakness he had made a mistake and exposed the long fleshy tentacle that was attached to his face. It was his core being and now he had made it vulnerable.
It was a mistake that Iria was determined to take advantage of.
"You won't get away!" she yelled defiantly and reached for the closest weapon available to her at the moment, a small blade hidden inside one of her hairbeads.
With a hiss of compressed air, the blade snapped into place and fell free from her hair into her waiting hand. Iria felt a sudden surge of adrenaline and lunged towards Zeiram with all the strength her rage had to offer.
As strong as he was, Zeiram had been weakened severely. Not only had he been cut in half, but had several puncture wounds from Iria's guns. Zeiram tried to withdraw his head but his reaction time had been slowed.
With a satisfying abruptness, Iria's blade stopped its lunge and penetrated the long muscular tendril at its base. Zeiram's struggling only served to help Iria's progress until she had sliced it up to Zeiram's head. She felt resistance but nothing was going to stop her now. With grim resolve, Iria shoved the knife further and dug through the monster's pale countenance until her knife again fell through open air.
Iria stayed frozen in position as she felt the satisfying thud of Zeiram's body impacting the ground. She turned to face the creature again and was greeted to the welcome sight of Zeiram's split head and tendril shriveling up as life left the body.
Feeling no need to take chances Iria quickly smashed one of the shriveled ends beneath her shoe. The satisfaction that she felt from that one little action was immeasurable.
Iria looked at Zeiram's corpse dispassionately and slowly felt the rage wash out of her. The nightmare was over, Gren had been avenged and the galaxy wouldn't have to worry about the menace of Zeiram ever again.
It was then that Iria suddenly realized that she had no idea where she was, Bob never told her where he was going to transit her.
"Where am I?" Iria asked herself quietly as she noticed that she was surrounded by sand dunes that seemed to sparkle from the dim light. "I wonder-" Iria cut her sentence off before it had a chance to complete itself and her eyes widened in shock. There was no way Bob would bring her to this place!
"He wouldn't!" she said, if only to reassure herself.
"Iria!"
Iria turned to face the sound of the voice, it was Kei waiting for her beside the Kreper.
Kei clearly didn't realize the danger she was in. "Kei!" Iria yelled as she was about to run towards the Kreper but stopped before she had any serious momentum. In one quick movement Iria smashed the other half of Zeiram's head just to make sure that the creature wouldn't somehow be revived.
Then she bolted for the safety of the Kreper, yelling instructions to Kei along the way. "Kei, get in! Hurry up!"
Kei stood dumbfounded alongside the Kreper, still not moving. It was apparent by the sound of her voice that she was concerned. "What's the matter, Iria? Is it Zeiram?"
Iria couldn't take the time to placate her younger companion. "Zeiram's dead! Now shut up and get in!"
Kei crawled obligingly back into the Kreper with a little resentment. "Alright, I'm in! What's the big deal?"
Iria leaped into the driver's seat and immediately began to start up the powerful but compact vehicle. "This is the Stardust Desert," she replied matter-of-factly. Her only concern right now was to make it out of here before the sun appeared.
Kei was obviously lost. "The Stardust?"
Iria couldn't keep a sound of disgust from escaping at the mention of their present location. She still couldn't quite believe that Bob had actually transited her here.
"Are you okay?" Kei asked.
Iria gunned the Kreper to its maximum speed in a desperate attempt to escape the sunrise. "Never mind that. The sun is about to rise, and when it does…"
"And when it does?" Kei asked, trying to get Iria to fill in the rest of her sentence.
Iria looked at the time, just about sunrise. It looked like Kei was going to get her answer. "You'll see."
Already the sand dunes were beginning to light up with a blinding glare as the sun crested the horizon. Iria kept the Kreper at maximum speed but the action was futile, there was no way she was going to outrun the sunrise.
"Oh, awesome!"
Iria looked behind her to see Kei looking in wide-eyed wonder at the mirror-bright dunes that were even now threatening to blind them. "Don't look, Kei. You could blind yourself." As Iria imparted these words of wisdom she engaged the Kreper's shield in an effort to reduce the glare. It didn't keep Kei from watching the dunes behind them.
Iria couldn't be mad at Kei, stuck on Taowajan her whole life, the kid knew practically nothing about the galaxy at large. If anything, Iria decided to put the blame were it was due.
Bob.
As if reading her thoughts, the main viewer came to life and Bob's image filled the screen. "Iria! Are you okay?" he asked in a concerned voice.
Iria wasn't going to let him off easy, there were thousands of places that Bob could've dropped her off at. "Bob! Have you gone crazy or something? Sending me off to a place like this?"
"Uh, sorry about that. There wasn't any time." Bob's chagrin was apparent even though he had no readable expression to speak of. "Why don't you switch over to autopilot and get some sleep?"
Iria was simply incredulous that he had the nerve to suggest something like that. "You've got to be kidding!" she yelled, albeit a bit louder then she wanted.
In the background she heard Kei laughing. Iria closed her eyes in a small effort to regain control of the situation. "What now?"
"It's just funny."
"Brat." It figured that Kei wouldn't give her a straight answer, she was probably playing with her.
Iria suddenly felt two small arms grasp her in a friendly hug as Kei again laughed good-naturedly. "I love you, Iria!"
Iria wasn't sure what to do, it had been such a long time since anyone had been so friendly with her. She surprised herself by giving a small chuckle and grinning from Kei's affection.
"Why shouldn't I be happy?" Iria silently asked herself. Zeiram was dead, Gren had been avenged, she was still in one piece. She had her whole life ahead of her and when word got around that she had killed Zeiram her reputation would skyrocket.
Iria reflected that for the first time in a long time she was genuinely happy. Sure she was close to being blinded by the Stardust, but that was a minor discomfort. Once she got back to Myce she would finally have the chance to live a life free of Zeiram.
As Iria drove away from the sunrise and on to better things, she felt something gnawing at the back of her mind. There was something she couldn't quite put her finger on and she soon gave up trying. If it was important enough, she was sure she would remember it after a hot shower and a nice, long rest...
