Elizabeth felt her insides turn cold with horror at Jenner's words. Jonathan had in fact been murdered...by Josh? No, it couldn't be true! It had to be a dirty lie, another of Jenner's cruel tricks... Alas, the guilty look on Josh's face told her this was no trick. The horrible realization tore at her heart like a knife.
"What's he talking about, Josh?" she asked, dreading the answer. Before the hesitant Josh could formulate any sort of response however, Jenner beat him to it.
"What I mean, Mrs Brisby, is that your dear husband had been alive all that time, in my Exile comrades' captivity, on my orders," he said cruelly, "He knew too many of my Uncle's secrets to simply have him killed outright. But then your human lover came along to save your children, only to find himself confronted by their father, who wasn't very happy to learn that his darling wife, whom he sacrificed his freedom for, had been led astray by one of our kind's worst natural enemy – the same species he, like my foolish Uncle, idolized and believed there was more to than what met the eye! So what does Captain Anderson do? He kills your husband, making it look like he was killed by the enemy. The competition is eliminated and the hero returns to coveting the lonely widow, who is happy in her ignorance!"
"That's not true!" yelled Josh, finally finding his voice again, "Yes, Jonathan was still alive when I found him, but I did not kill him! It was an accident! The Exiles had set Dragon on us and I let my guard down. Jonathan pushed me out of the way to save me and got devoured himself! I managed to pull him out of Dragon's jaws but he was too badly mauled. Please, Biff, you've got to believe me!" He felt his heart sink, looking at the utterly distraught look on Elizabeth's face.
"You...you knew my husband was alive all along and you didn't tell me?" she muttered, the tone in her voice expressing volumes of pain, anger and betrayal, which cut poor Josh to the core, "Why didn't you tell me?! Why?!" she yelled, almost hysterically.
"I'm sorry, Biff!" cried Josh, trying to reason with her, "I couldn't bear to break your heart after you had already lost Jonathan once! He knew all about us, yes, but he wanted you and the children to be happy. I gave him my word I would look after you before he died! I swear I didn't kill him!" But the damage had already been done.
"And you expect me to believe you, Josh?" asked Elizabeth through her tears. The thought alone of what Jonathan must have thought when he found out that she had given her heart to a stranger thinking he was dead, slept with him, let him become a surrogate father to their children, made her feel so ashamed, so manipulated, she almost wished her captor would just end her life right there and then.
Jenner was watching the whole exchange with sickening satisfaction. His words had set the rot in even better than he expected. At last, he had taken away from that accursed human who had ruined him the one and only thing Anderson held dear in this world! Revenge was always best served cold. And he wasn't done yet.
"So you see, Mrs Brisby, as I've always so rightfully maintained, humans are nothing more than cunning, manipulative, murdering monsters, and those too weak or too gullible to see through their evil trickery! He deliberately let your husband die so that he could claim you and your children for himself! Just another sleek opportunist seizing the moment. Not that I blame him really, considering the pretty prize he had to lose..."
"Filthy liar!" yelled Josh furiously, utterly appalled by the sight of this hypocrite poisoning Elizabeth with his lies, and even having the gal to rub salt in her wounds, "I should have killed you that night in Rosebush City! Now let her go!" He raised his gun. But Jenner wasn't through playing games yet.
"I think not, human," he smirked, still holding Elizabeth as a shield, "You've been a thorn in my side for far too long. I'm not letting your transgressions against me go unpunished! The question is which one of you will die?" he asked cruelly, utterly enjoying himself, "It's your choice, human! Should it be you, the disgraced Captain Anderson, bravely choosing death to atone for his sins, knowing his memory will be scorned forever, or should it be the beautiful Mrs Brisby who gets sacrificed in order to keep your secret from coming out and keeping your honour intact?" The incredulous look on the man's face told Jenner all he needed to know. He smiled nastily.
"I thought not, human," he said vindictively. His expression darkened. "Now, drop your weapon and slide it towards me! Right now, or I spill her blood!"
Josh had no other choice. He slowly lowered his weapon to the floor, discreetly engaging the safety catch as he did, and slid it in Jenner's direction. Jenner put his foot on it, stopping it. Still holding Elizabeth securely in case Josh tried anything, he bent down and picked it up. There was a hungry, maniac look in his eyes – the look of a hungry predator about to kill its prey. Tossing his now useless hostage aside like a rag-doll, he aimed the deadly weapon in Josh's direction, who didn't even flinch. Elizabeth shut her eyes in terror.
"This is where you finally meet your end, you stupid, weak, useless human!" he taunted, savouring the moment, "If anyone ever remembers you, all they will remember will be a coward and a liar who died on his knees, begging me for death. And I, being a merciful warrior, obliged. Farewell, Anderson!" Giving Josh a look of pure malice, he pulled the trigger, only for the gun to produce an insignificant 'click'.
"Stupid humans, smart guns," said Josh smugly, watching Jenner frustratingly trying to fire the gun which didn't work. Without knowing about the safety catch or how to disengage it, it was useless. Realising the deception, Jenner angrily threw the gun away and drew his sword. He didn't need pathetic human gimmicks to kill scum; the blade of his warrior's sword would end the life of his enemy!
Unarmed and defenceless, Josh found himself cornered with his back against a bulkhead wall, Jenner's sword level with his throat. The evil Rat's eyes had a bloodthirsty look in them. "I will bury your remains, make every memory of you disappear forever! Do send my regards to my dear departed Uncle!"
"BANG!"
Suddenly, the blade of Jenner's sword shattered into hundreds of red-hot splinters as it was hit by the plasma burst of a familiar electric bullet. Both opponents turned in surprise at this interruption, wondering who could have fired the shot, only to see Josh's gun clutched in the hands of Isabella, who had appeared out of nowhere, retrieved it and, having managed to find and disengage the safety catch, held her traitorous cousin at gunpoint. Her face was set in anger as she glared at her rapist and tormentor.
"Leave him alone, you evil scum, or I'll kill you!"
Although taken aback by the sight of his cousin, whom he'd always regarded as little more than a breeding vessel and toy for his own sick pleasures, armed and about to kill him, Jenner didn't lose his nerve. He smiled evilly at the former princess.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't my concubine of a cousin," he smirked, his cruel eyes lusting all over her, "Or are you now the concubine of the traitor Justin? Tut, tut, Isabella, what would your dear grandfather think of your tryst? Then again, he was always content to associate with the riff-raff of society, such as Mice and humans..."
"Don't you dare speak about my grandfather, you murdering bastard! He was a thousand times the Rat you can never hope to be!" she yelled, aiming the gun in Jenner's face, "I should kill you right here for what you've done!"
"Then what's holding you back, dear cousin?" asked Jenner silkily, stretching his arms wide, giving her a clear shot, "Go on, take your vengeance!" Josh could see Isabella's hands were shaking; although she desperately wanted to destroy that monster that had murdered her grandfather and caused her so much suffering, she had never killed before.
"Shoot him, Isabella!" yelled Josh. "Don't think, just shoot him!" But Isabella couldn't find the strength to kill in cold blood a member of her own family. Jenner noticed her indecision and smiled nastily.
"You see, my dear? You are weak, you don't have it in you to kill!" he smirked tauntingly, "Or perhaps you can't bear the burden of soiling your hands because you are already so dirty yourself? Doesn't everyone know you bore my child? The child that will someday continue my legacy? You will always be branded with the mark of the beast, Isabella! You will never be free of it, never!"
His tormenting words had the desired effect on Isabella, who froze, tears of anguish running down her cheeks, memories of the multiple rapes and beatings Jenner had inflicted upon her, which had resulted in her being impregnated with Rasco, resurfacing. Satisfied that'd made her lose her nerve, Jenner began to slowly advance, ready to snatch the gun from her hands. But, Josh, noticing Jenner was right in line with the open bridge door, seized the opportunity.
Suddenly, he lunged at his enemy, grabbing him by the throat. They both went crashing into the bridge area, brawling all over the floor. Josh struggled to keep Jenner pinned, but the Rat was a mountain of muscle, clad in armour, making him extremely difficult to subdue. The furious Rat struggled in Josh's grip, his massive hands trying to reach the human's face and gouge his eyes out.
With Jenner's palms pressing over his mouth and nose, suffocating him, the Rat's razor-sharp claws only inches from his eye-sockets, Josh did the only thing he could think of. Noticing a particularly nasty burn wound on Jenner's shoulder, he grabbed hold of the blistered skin that was hanging loosely and ripped off a large strip of it, exposing the raw, blooded flesh underneath. Jenner yelled in agony, losing his grip. Not missing his chance, Josh grabbed him by the ears and slammed his head hard against a nearby control panel. Jenner sunk to the floor, momentarily stunned by the blow.
With only seconds before his opponent recovered, Josh got to his feet and run for the bridge door, hitting the control touch-pad as he exited. The bulkhead door began to slowly slide shut. Too slow for Josh's liking. Come on, come on, you...!
On the bridge, the stars finally cleared from Jenner's vision. He saw his enemy standing by the entrance to his chamber filled with all those strange human lights and gadgets. What was he doing? Then he noticed the closing door. Realising he was about to be trapped, Jenner sprang to his feet, making a mad dash for the door. But it was already too late. He slammed head-first into solid metal as the door sealed itself, shutting him in.
On the other side of the door, Josh watched through the observation porthole as Jenner tried futilely to break down the door with his fists and kicks. His blows didn't even make a dent. Even after 2,000 years, Nimh's super-durable metal alloys, designed for shielding against even meteor storms that could cause a decompression onboard ship, remained strong. At last, exhausted, he collapsed on the floor in defeat. He, who had intended to bury the evidence of his crimes, had ended up imprisoned on the very same ship his distant early ancestors had once been, in lab cages, thousands of years ago.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Josh turned to Isabella, who still stood petrified, and gently removed the gun from her hands.
"Thank you, Isabella," he said, patting the former princess on the shoulder, "That was very brave."
"Brave?" she asked incredulously, feeling so stupid, "I froze! I couldn't kill him when you told me to, even though I had him completely at my mercy! I couldn't avenge my grandfather...!"
"That's because you are better than him, Isabella," said Josh calmly, but firmly, "Death is too good for that scum anyway. Let him live the rest of his miserable life knowing he's a failure!"
His words seemed to restore Isabella's confidence. But she still had one last thing to do, in order to finally put her demons to rest. Slowly, she walked over to the observation portal, glaring coldly at Jenner trapped on the other side.
"Going to kill me for your human friend then, cousin?" sneered Jenner from behind the glass. "You want that honour all to yourself so badly?"
"No, Jenner, I won't be your executioner," she said coolly, "You tried to break me once and you won't succeed now. I just want you to know my son will be growing up to be everything you are not and everything my grandfather would want him to be. He will never even know you as his father; my beloved Justin will be the only true father he will ever know and love, something you, Jenner, know nothing about. I just wanted you to know that."
Her words really set Jenner off. In a fit of burning rage, he began attacking the bulkhead door again, yelling and cursing hysterically. Looking around him, he saw the illuminated control panels. Figuring one of them controlled the door, he began thumping his fists everywhere, smashing up everything in showers of smoke and electrical sparks, but to no avail. Finally, like a caged wild animal unable to find an escape route, he collapsed exhausted on the floor. He was not going anywhere.
Meanwhile, Josh had turned his attention back to Elizabeth, who sat trembling and sobbing on the floor. Gently, he knelt down beside her, gently brushing some locks of her hair from her eyes. Elizabeth violently pulled away from his touch.
"It's all right, love, it's over now," he said, trying to calm her down, but the damage had already been done. Elizabeth rounded on Josh, her face contorted with fury. Josh had never seen her so angry before.
"How could you, Josh?!" she yelled, tears of betrayal still running down her face, "You told me my husband was long dead, while he was in fact alive all this time! You let him die!"
"Biff, please, it isn't what it looks like," Josh desperately tried explaining, "I just didn't want to break your heart..."
"Well, you've broken my heart now with your lies!" spat Elizabeth, "I trusted you, opened my home to you, slept with you, even hoped you'd be my new husband someday, and this is how you repay me? Jonathan gave so much to our family and you made me betray him by telling me he was dead! Is that why you let him die? So he wouldn't find out? Or you couldn't bear the thought of him taking me away from you? How dare you!"
"Biff, please..." Josh tried again, but Elizabeth was beyond listening.
"Stay away from my family!" she hissed, "And if I ever see you again, Captain Anderson, it will be too soon!" Without another word, she turned and fled from the wreck, crying her heart out.
Meanwhile, Justin and Brutus and some others who had come storming in after Isabella, only to find the enemy safely contained, had overheard most of the exchange between Josh and Elizabeth, wore stunned expressions of disbelief. Justin, who of course also knew the truth about Jonathan and the serious implications it would have on Josh now that the cat was out of the bag, put a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Josh," he said, "If it's any consolation, it's not your fault. You did nothing wrong..."
"But it IS my fault, Justin!" said Josh hotly, "I should have come clean to her from the beginning about Jonathan! Now my blasted desire to keep her happy has ruined everything!"
Outside, all of Thorn Valley was celebrating their victory and the capture of Jenner. But poor Josh felt anything but in the mood for celebrating. It all seemed so bleak now.
A week after the battle, Josh sat alone in the Hab's kitchen, going over some mechanical blueprints he had been working on those past few days. The Hab was now deserted; Elizabeth had wasted no time in moving out and taking the children with her, although she had refrained from explaining to them why she and Josh had had a falling-out. She'd taken refuge is a tent provided to her by the other refugees, flatly refusing any help from Josh. He had tried approaching her several times, to try and reason with her, but she had only yelled at him to go away or just refused to acknowledge him, until he had finally given up. Jenner may have lost the final battle, but in the end he had successfully managed to destroy his and Elizabeth's love in revenge, probably for good, as a final blow against Josh.
Jenner had been arrested and was now in custody, imprisoned in a cave on the edge of the Valley, under heavy guard. Justin had already informed Josh that it had been decided the fallen warlord would be getting the death penalty for high treason and murder, his execution due to be carried out the very next morning. The news however brought little comfort to Josh, as it wouldn't repair the rift between him and Elizabeth. Simply hanging that bastard seemed far too lenient a punishment. He sincerely hoped Jenner would die slowly and painfully on the scaffold!
The Mousekewitz family had also moved out shortly after Elizabeth, claiming it was time to start building their own home like everyone else, much to Fievel and Tanya's disdain. Josh suspected however it had more to do with Emily finding out about Elizabeth's revelation about Jonathan. Josh had overheard her telling her husband that she thought it was disgraceful and unforgivable of him and that she firmly supported Elizabeth's decision to move out, despite Bernard's insistence that Josh had only made a mistake and deserved another chance. Only Justin, Isabella and baby Rasco remained, until the former could finish building their new house he was currently working on. Both Rats sympathised with Josh, constantly offering him encouragement that Elizabeth would eventually forgive him. Not that Josh expected that to happen in a million years.
With the life he had built for himself on Nimh-Beta shattered beyond repair, Josh could think of only one resolve: return to Earth. His work here was done; he had found all the pieces of the Stone and had helped Nicodemus' people make a new start in Thorn Valley. He no longer served any useful purpose here, so there was nothing stopping him from trying to get back to his own planet and to his own kind. He still had one return ticket – the unmanned probe still sitting up on the mountain – that could get him back home. Although it would be one hell of a gamble, with a lot of prior preparation needed, it just might work.
Studying the probe's schematics, Josh had determined that the sample container could be modified to transport one astronaut in suspended animation using a makeshift hibernation tank built into the container. He couldn't use one of the emergency hibernation tanks from the Hab's med-bay as it was; it was too bulky and too heavy to transport up to the top of the mountain, much less fit onboard the probe. He would have to strip the tank of its life support system and other key components, and jury-rig something up on the mountain.
The Nimh-Beta year was 420 days long and he had been living here for 334 Sols already. So Josh decided his return launch date would be set for Sol 420 – the first anniversary of his arrival, which seemed appropriate. That left him with 86 Sols to make all the necessary preparations for his departure. I may seem like plenty of time, but, as an engineer, Josh knew he would have to work like hell in order to make the deadline. Besides the major modifications to the probe, he would have to redesign the life-support system so it would fit in the small sample container, calculate a viable flight plan that would get him back through the electromagnetic storm and on a return trajectory to Earth, as well as run a thousand different tests and simulations if he were to have any chance of success.
On the far side of the Valley, away from the rest of the community, Jenner sat heavily shackled inside a small cave in the Valley wall. Outside, a small garrison consisting of the few remaining palace guards recruited by Brutus were watching him day and night, with strict orders to kill him if he made any attempt to escape. Not that Jenner had any intention of escaping...yet.
Justin had dropped by that afternoon to announce the verdict, informing Jenner that he was to die for his crimes in the morning. Jenner had of course been indifferent, mockingly taunting Justin for having won the heart of the Princess, asking him if he knew how many other palace guards she had slept with before him, to which Justin had answered him by furiously punching him in the face.
After Justin had left him, Jenner sat gathering his thoughts, scheming. In some ways, death seemed like a relief. He would rather die than live the rest of his life in prison, or, worse, as a banished exile with nothing. A life without power was an existence not worth living for a Rat like him. But he wasn't going to let his enemies have the satisfaction by allowing them to take his life in front of a group of jeering spectators. That was one humiliation he would never allow them to have at his expense. If he was going to die, then it would be by his own hand...
At dawn the next morning, a small procession consisting of Rat soldiers, Justin, Josh, Isabella, the Mousekewitz parents and some other civilians who had come to see Thorn Valley's worst enemy finally die, led the bound Jenner up the hill, to the edge of a high cliff overlooking the ravine with the river that flew out of the valley, where the execution was to take place.
Brutus was already there, applying the finishing touches to a hangman's post overlooking the ravine. Instead of using a trap-door, a short fall from the edge of the cliff with the condemned's neck in a noose would do the job nicely.
Jenner frowned disapprovingly at the less-than-satisfactory set up. Enemy warrior Rats were by ancient tradition executed by decapitation, which was considered an honourable death for a soldier. Instead that scum were going to have him executed in a manner reserved for Mice or commoners, letting his body hang as a spectacle for all to see, depriving him of every proper dignity! At least they had allowed him to wear his scorched armour from the battle, with which he would be buried in... Indignity upon indignity, no doubt to spite him, he thought. But no matter, he would soon give them a spectacle to look at.
The procession halted and the group of spectators gathered around in an orderly manner. The guards led Jenner over to the hangman's post. Brutus stood by with the rope, smirking at him. Jenner was one customer he had been waiting for for a long time! They turned him to face the crowd, while Justin announced the sentence.
"General Jenner, you have been found guilty of high treason, associating with criminals and enemies of the state, abuse of power, crimes against the people, the illegal coveting of the throne, the false imprisonment and abuse of a member of the royal family, the murder of Horatio Ages, and finally the murder of the late sovereign King Nicodemus IX of the Rosebush Empire. The sentence for your crimes is death by hanging! May the Great Owl receive you with mercy. You have anything to say before your sentence is carried out?"
Jenner glared daggers at the crowd, many of which were booing him and jeering at his imminent death. Among them were several Mice and Rats who had opposed him during his reign and been left to rot in the palace dungeons as a result, or had lost loved ones during his purges of opponents and undesirables. Some of them threw stones at him while the women spat at him and cursed him.
"You poor, pathetic deluded fools," he smirked at them all, "You really think you have won? That you have found a paradise of a life this foul human has promised you? Just you wait! He'll turn you all into his slaves when it's in his best interests! You are all unworthy of sharing in the supremacy of our species our ancestors strived to achieve and instead you choose to fall back in the shadow of humans! So be it! I choose to leave this world proudly by falling on my own sword, knowing I defended our superiority as Rats to the end!"
Before the crowd could register the ominous meaning in Jenner's words, the evil Rat suddenly ducked sideways, head-butting the Rat guard holding his binds and causing him to fall to the ground. Brutus, right next to him, made a grab for his sword, but Jenner was faster. In a flash, he kneed Brutus hard right between his legs, causing the massive Rat to sink to the ground, groaning and cursing. Still with his hands tied behind his back, Jenner made a mad dash for the edge of the cliff.
Justin drew his dagger and flung it at Jenner, striking him on the shoulder, just as the former took a giant leap over the edge and plummeted into the river far below. They all crowded on the edge of the cliff, looking at the churning water below where Jenner had disappeared. There was no way he could have survived that; even if he hadn't broken his neck in the fall, he couldn't swim with his hands tied, not to mention wearing heavy armour plating! In a final act of defiance, Jenner had opted to go out by suicide, instead of enduring the humiliation of a public hanging.
"I guess we've seen the last of our friend Jenner," said Josh dryly, feeling little satisfaction at the demise of his enemy. Too little, too late, he thought. Even with Jenner gone, it would not undo the irreversible damage he had caused to his relationship with Elizabeth, just like it wouldn't bring back his numerous victims to their grieving families, who had come here today to see justice done. If anything, he'd had the final laugh by taking his own life as not to let them have the satisfaction of killing him themselves.
"Well, look on the bright side," said Justin, always the optimistic one, "He's never going to harm anyone ever again. Nor will he have a legacy that will endure. Within a few years, no one will even remember his name. Good riddance, I say!"
The show over, the crowd dispersed and left to return to the Valley, satisfied that they had finally closed the book on Jenner and his reign of terror...
Far downstream beyond the waterfall, close to where Josh's original party had been washed up many months ago after wrecking Jonathan's raft in their escape from Thorn Valley, an exhausted and battered Jenner resurfaced in the shallows, limping to shore. With his hands free, thanks to Justin's dagger that had gone over the cliff with him, he had managed to hold his head above water long enough to swim to safety.
Coughing and splattering, he collapsed on the shore to rest. Incredibly, he was still alive! The Great Owl definitely smiled on him, he thought. Feeling some of his strength return, he struggled to his feet.
His first thought was to head for the mountains immediately before his survival was discovered, but an impulse held him back. He was not going to allow this last chance at revenge fate had allowed him to be wasted. He still had unfinished business to attend to with the human Anderson, and he would not rest until he had settled his score with his enemy!
Author's note: Another chapter up! Only two more chapters left to go! Thank you all my beloved readers for bearing with me all these years. Enjoy and please take a moment to review. Your feedback is always much appreciated!