Even if these Ss'sik'chtokiwij hadn't been worm possessed, convincing them about Jesus would be impossible without my maimed secret tongue.

I climbed the wall in attempt to escape, but my kin just pulled me back down.

There's a time to be a martyr and a time for self defense. I saw nothing productive in dying at the moment. Instead, I searched the debris strewn floor for the case of explosives.

I wished Maria could have been present to remove the worms from their individual bodies, to save them, but as much as I prayed for a miracle, I knew I'd be dead before a peaceful resolution could be reached.

I grabbed a section of pipe, knocking my foes back to a safer distance. They circled me warily like a pack of wolves before a torch wielding caveman.

I recovered the suitcase, but the moment I took out an explosive, the faint (but very much alive) Kumar raised the detonator like he intended to blow me to pieces.

"No!" I shouted, waving my claws. "Wait! I got a plan! Don't do it until I tell you!"

The man looked at me with mistrust, but refrained from pushing the button. "Quickly," he mouthed.

I rushed to an assailant, handing them the blinking metal cylinder. "Here. Hold this."

Either Ssorzechola lacked multitasking skills, or Maria had severed her communication lines somehow, for the young Ss'sik'chtokiwij stupidly did what I said.

The two others came close to examine the device, as if they'd found newest Android tablet or something.

I fled up the wall like the devil were after me. "Now!"

A great horror of the Civil War was the pitting of family members against each other, the wholesale slaughter of such by means of various explosive weaponry.

Although not quite the same as a shot from a Parrott gun, but the resulting blast proved equally catastrophic. Three young Ss'sik'chtokiwij snuffed out in the early years of their lives. I stifled my tears.

Kumar gave me the thumbs up. It made me feel a little better, but did nothing to lessen my guilt.

Human attackers lay sprawled on their backs near Hissandra-me, one bleeding to death as she ripped out the victim's throat, the other just limp, staring at the ceiling in a daze.

Someone fired a shot at me, but I scuttled out of the way.

"Maria! Sarah!" I rushed across the broken, bomb damaged floor, diving into the sewer.

Although slightly different from the system at the other end of the base, it didn't smell any better.

A river of milky white sewage poured in from pipes and channels all along the compound, steaming from the various septic solutions, which incidentally didn't kill the worms. The silken coloration and warm thermals of fluid did nothing but conceal the presence of infectious parasites. A set of crawl spaces hemmed in the channel, beading with foul condensation. I estimated the depth to be about six feet. My head only cleared the surface when I stood on my toe claws and pushed myself up by my tail.

Of course, I could easily walk along the bottom, my face plate providing adequate protection for my sight organs. My only concern: Getting to Maria before Ssorzechola did. I couldn't pretend to have that much hope in myself as a swimmer.

I climbed onto a walkway in a crawl space, dashing alongside the channel in search of my friend.

A few yards ahead, two white Ss'sik'chtokiwij fought in a dry section of sewer pipe.

Printed with the Yutani logo, the steel and aluminum pipe resembled the barrel vault of a chapel flipped upside down, the grated intake and outflow pipes taking on the appearance of arched portals and alcoves, albeit filthy sewage caked ones.

As I approached, Maria came leaping upon Ssorzechola, ripping into her exoskeleton with her claws.

Ssorzechola, understandably upset, hurled my pale sister into the gutter wall, striking her in the chest and stomach so hard that her exoskeleton broke.

"Maria!" I rushed to her aid.

With one punch, Ssorzechola sent me sailing across the slimy floor.

"Leave me," Maria groaned. "Help the humans."

"But Maria!"

"Trust me! I have a plan!"

And then she reared up and clawed at Ssorzechola's face.

Maria had gained much power over the worms, but still, difficult to trust a Ss'sik'chtokiwij that small to make a dent in a creature that large. It took a lot of faith...Faith I wasn't sure I had.

Honoring her wishes, I removed myself from that gutter, giving the two combatants one last sad backward glance.

What happened next caused me to flinch. I couldn't look away.

In response to the clawing, Ssorzechola smashed Maria into the gutter, beating her until her exoskeleton cracked, body falling into such a sorry state that she no longer appeared to be alive.

"It seems your plan has a fatal flaw!" Ssorzechola remarked.

No motion from my poor sister's body. I slowly turned my head.

That's when it happened.

Like a poisonous viper snapping up a rodent, Maria suddenly sat up, distending her jaw as she vomited millions of thread thin tapeworms on the larger Ss'sik'chtokiwij, to the point in which Ssorzechola resembled a loom.

The worms kept coming, giving my aunt the appearance of an alien shaped castle wall being scaled by an army of tiny unseen commandos. Ssorzechola screamed.

Any elation I would have felt by this apparent victory soon became dampened by the sight of its aftermath.

My dear friend and sister deflated like an empty paper bag.

Her head shriveling, arms losing tone and definition, chest and midsection flattening. A leg sunk inward.

Sickened, I looked away, retreating in fear.

I glanced back again, and my friend was nothing but an empty husk, like a discarded suit of armor, or a hollow cicada shell.

"No..." I moaned. "Please Lord, don't let this be the end."

Looking very wild and disoriented, Ssorzechola staggered back from the flattened exoskeleton, covered in a mass of wiggling worms.

My aunt screamed so loud that the sound reverberated through the entire sewer system.

She fell backwards, as if dead.

I stared at the giant body groaning and twitching in the gutter, unsure what needed to be done.

The answer soon presented itself.

"Kill...me..." Ssorzechola croaked.

I crept back into the gutter, not quite comfortable enough to get more than a foot within range of her claws. "Why should I kill you? What if killing you makes things worse? What if that only gets everyone else infected? Why should I even trust you?"

Ssorzechola let out a gurgling sigh. "I'm still in here, Ernie."

I wept. "No...No no no!"

"Ernie. You shouldn't be sad. I've lived a purposeful and interesting life. A real life. My death saddens me, but it is a death I chose freely. Instead of being a victim, I became a hero, just like you."

I couldn't help but cry. "What about the worms? What happens to them when I kill you?"

"They cannot exist without Ssorzechola. It's just like those vampire movies we watched. Destroy the head vampire and all the other ones die with it."

"Is this Sarah speaking, or Ssorzechola?"

"Both. Ssorzechola never wanted to do all those terrible things. The core worm, the Visjodro, took over her brain. Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik, I've converted what worms I can, but you must destroy the Visjodro! The worms keep reverting to their original evil state! I can't hold them off much longer!"

I coughed and sneezed in sadness. "I'll do what I can."

I had no weapons, and the sewer didn't have anything useful, not even a sewer cleaning robot or a power conduit.

I could beat Ssorzechola to death with a large pipe wrench I found nearby, but that seemed more cruel than purposeful. I had to go back.

In the crumbling remains of the unit, I found dozens of blunt objects, broken chairs, pieces of ceiling, pieces of Ssorzechola's tent, which I supposed I could use to hammer Ssorzechola to death, if I wanted to. But then again, worms can reproduce by fragmentation.

I found a couple handguns, which wouldn't have been worked any better than the other crude implements.

I searched around for explosives, but when I counted the number of foam sockets in the empty suitcase, I quickly deduced that we'd used them all.

The explosive Pale Ones' weapon had also run empty.

That left me with only the blowtorch. I hoped it would be enough.

As luck or miracle would have it, the weapon lay exactly where I left it. I only hoped that the fire sprinklers' torrential downpour hadn't permanently extinguished the item's usefulness.

A few test blasts proved it to be...adequate. Still, hard to tell under the spray.

I descended into the sewer.

Grief weighed heavily upon me as I approached Ssorzechola's body. "I have only found one suitable weapon. I am sorry. I tried to make this as painless as possible, but this is the best I could come up with on such short notice."

I demonstrated with a puff of flame. It looked a lot more impressive out of the fire sprinkler.

Maria-Ssorzechola nodded. "It is sufficient."

I bowed my head in sadness. "Maria? Sarah? Is that really you in there?"

"Yes, Ernie, Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik." I almost thought I saw her grin at the little joke.

I smirked, despite the sad occasion.

"`If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.'"

"You have loved."

"Yes. I wouldn't have done this, if not for those children, and the people who are still alive, and you."

"I love you, Sarah."

"As do I. I never knew what love was before you shared it with me." She sighed. "You must destroy me. I am losing the fight."

My dear friend fell silent, giving me an expectant look.

Sniffing and coughing, I brought the torch close to Ssorzechola's body, set it ablaze.

Her exoskeleton lit up from head to tail, shoulder plate to claw tip, worms popping and sizzling as they curled into blackened ash.

I circled the burning carcass, torching every worm sized crack and seam around the perimeter, killing every worm that attempted escape.

Her worms whipped out, drawing loose ones back into the flame. Everything seemed final.

Complete.

But then the glowing figure of a Ss'sik'chtokiwij rose up from the gutter floor, snarling as she slowly distended her jaw, claws balling into fists. "You may have made me into the devil, but I'm taking you with me to hell!"

I confess that the human concept of Satan hadn't struck home until the moment I Ssorzechola came after me with her body all afire.

The horned vision in flame gave a face to the forces of evil, an image not easily forgotten.

She only needed to run a few yards to immerse herself in liquid that could potentially smother the flames...or hit a gas pocket and turn the entire base into a giant fireball.

I couldn't let her do either. Afraid or not, I would have to stand my ground, keep Ssorzechola burning hot, or die trying.

I picked up a pipe wrench, a heavy, solid looking thing with a handle longer than your average household tool.

My action did not go unnoticed. All four of Ssorzechola's dart organs pointed at me.

Throughout the course of this whole ordeal, Ssorzechola hadn't utilized the weapon very much. There had been a few moments in which such a thing would have been handy, but I supposed they had been depleted, either by the process in which she captured escaping prey in her little temple, or possibly something that happened during her battle with Kumar and my sisters during my absence.

Now, however, they appeared to have replenished themselves.

An ill conceived attack. While the darts did manage to stick into my thick shell, poisoned with chemicals that did not enter bloodstream. Mostly it worked for weaker prey.

For a moment, we both made clumsy swipes at each other, Ssorzechola clawing at me with her flaming limbs, me making awkward baseball swings with the pipe wrench.

But then I let her have it, hurling the wrench as if trying out for an ax throwing competition, blasting her with fire for good measure.

The wrench head struck her squarely in the abdomen, shattering her armor and burying itself in her wormy guts.

Despite the damage, she approached me again, this time giving me a pitiful look, and an out-of-character whimper. Her voice changed to sound exactly like Sarah. "Would a loving Ss'sik'chtokiwij do this to a friend?"

I wept, backing away. "I'm sorry, Sarah. I thought this was what you wanted."

"You should have left things alone, Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik. Now I'll have to kill you."

I stepped back another foot.

I heard a string of thunking and clanking noises behind me, but paid them no attention, thinking it only the roof collapsing.

The voice of the burning Ss'sik'chtokiwij changed. "Don't listen, Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik. I'm still in here. You must finish this."

I bumped into a retaining wall.

Human Sarah's voice again: "It's a lie. Why would I volunteer to be burned to death? Why would you even listen to a request like that? I don't want to die, Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik! I want to live! My death will spread the worms, not destroy them!"

Her claw reached for my throat.

A voice behind me yelled, "Catch!" then something heavy hit me in the head.

"Sorry!"

A section of pipe.

The moment I raised the weapon, Ssorzechola grabbed me around the neck. The pipe clattered into the gutter.

I pointed my flamethrower into her partially opened mouth.

The device belched one last fireball, then sputtered out. Now I really needed to keep her away from liquid.

I gave Ssorzechola a shove, burning myself in the process. She barely moved an inch.

A tail unfurled from the ceiling. A black body dropped down on my aunt's burning head, impaling her with a jagged piece of metal.

Ssorzechola wobbled backwards.

"A little help?" Hissandra-me barked. Still strange to hear what my own voice sounded like.

Quickly, I picked up the pipe, walloping Ssorzechola repeatedly across the face while my sister dismounted, scuttling down the ceiling with steam from the fire rolling off her body.

When Ssorzechola charged at me, I rammed the pipe through her chest.

Her armor, weakened by the flame, and possibly parasites, crumpled from the impact, the pipe cutting through her worm infested innards like butter, emerging out the back of her shell.

Another object bounced off me, some wood and metal piece from the tent. The clanking I heard earlier had been Hissandra stockpiling weapons.

I rammed the curtain post through aunt Ssorzechola before she had a chance to attack, Hissandra impaling her with another object for added emphasis.

Ssorzechola fell backwards with a loud thud, her shell bubbling and crackling as fire ate away at her diseased body, our makeshift spears resembling candles on a really ugly cake.

Our enemy looked dead, but neither I nor Hissandra-me felt convinced, so we armed ourselves with more crude spears, running her through some more.

All at once, the stress, the grief, and my hatred of Ssorzechola for taking Maria's life, my hatred of her distortion of everything that is sacred, in short, everything, came to the fore, and I went mad with rage, stabbing her again and again, until her head became like a caved-in rotten pumpkin, her body pulverized like a crushed beetle.

Hissandra put her claw on my shoulder. "She's dead, Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik."

I wept. "I know. And so is my dear little friend."

Sidjendo surprised me by wrapping her arms around me, my old body's face pressing against the exoskeleton I currently inhabited.

My sworn enemy, now a shoulder to cry upon!

I let myself go.

Loving my enemy.

Forgiving my enemy.

Maria would have wanted it this way.

And it would have never happened without her love, her sacrifice.

Hissandra coughed. "Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik, how are we going to get back into our old bodies?"

I frowned. "I...don't know."