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Chapter 20
Somewhere he could hear people talking. They seemed so close, and yet he didn't want to hear them. It was soft and warm here, and he was feeling relaxed for the first time in a long while. He could feel himself floating along, exactly where he wasn't sure.
There.
Was it that voice, again?
It could wait, he was sure. He wanted to hold onto the softness and warmth, if only for a moment longer.
Wade!
His eyes fluttered open as the echo of his name died away. He could feel the water before he saw it. Everywhere there was water, clear and blue like the color of newly thawed water at the poles of his home planet-a light, almost milky, pastel blue.
He was still warm though, but he slowly came to the realization that he was not floating in the clear, blue-green water, but rather he was standing on it. It felt like he was standing on the top of a wet glass that was just above a large pool of water. There was about five or so inches of water above where he was standing. He moved his toes, the warm water felt good.
He looked up and felt the wind against his cheek, blowing his hair forward with its warmth.
'Was everything here warm?' he thought absently.
In the distance he could see fields of gold. As he squinted, he could see that they were some kind of grain that looked strangely familiar, yet he had never been around such grain crops that he could recall.
A thought began forming in his head.
"It's real," a male voice called from just behind his shoulder.
Wade turned.
No one was there. Turning back, he saw him. A thin, athletic man looked back at him, just inches from his face. Wade jumped.
"Me?" he asked, finally. "You're me?"
The other man shook his head. "Blaine," he said.
As soon as the other man spoke, Wade realized his mistake. "Blaine?" he asked, as if testing out the name. The other man's eyes were the clearest and most vibrant shade of blue he had ever seen.
"You didn't want to keep going, Wade, did you?" Blaine stated more than asked.
Wade struggled for a moment to recall those memories that seemed just beyond reach, as if they were floating just below the water's surface. "No," he said finally, his shoulders slumped forward. "No, I didn't."
Blaine seemed to smile for a moment. "I knew him once too,"
"I....I think I lost him," Wade said, slowly and quietly.
Blaine just smiled. "The situation is a little more complex than it seems."
Wade looked up, the wind was steadily dropping in temperature. Its chill bit into his exposed skin. "What do you mean?" he asked, trying to turn away from the cold.
"It's true that Unity consumed the Infection," Blaine said, looking out over the far away fields of gold. He paused. "I wish I could go back," he said quietly.
"...back to the farm," Wade finished the thought before he caught himself. He looked up, stricken. "We're inside of my head aren't we?" he asked.
Blaine just smiled again. "Unity did not manage to consume every piece of the Infection as you are well aware. The last vestige of the program was injected into your body as soon as the Infection became aware of its impending destruction."
Wade's fingers slowly moved over the age-old scar before he spoke. "Then why didn't I just become consumed by the infection? Why did it wait this long to do anything?"
A ripple, more like a spasm, flushed over the water and was gone. For a second, in the wake of the spasm, the water flashed a multitude of colors.
"What was that?" Wade asked, trying to step back.
"We were sure that you would be assimilated as soon as Unity took over," Blaine spoke softly, his eyes brimmed with fresh tears. "So, the Infection infused you with something special."
"Something special?"
Blaine looked back at Wade with those hauntingly blue eyes. "It didn't have enough time to transfer more of its programming into your body before the change took place. Instead, it managed to imprint into you a kind of fail safe."
Wade stepped back. "Then....you..."
Blaine shook his head. "Like I said, the Infection thought that you would have been assimilated immediately. But it failed to take into account one thing."
"And that would be?"
Blaine smiled so deeply and genuinely that Wade felt almost overcome by its warmth. "The debt of his feelings for you," he stated simply. "Neither technological creation can cope with strong human emotions. Moments of rage, confusion, fear, happiness, love, any strong human emotion can stem the tide of influence - even if only for a moment."
Wade stopped and stared at the distant fields. Somehow the air didn't feel quite so cold any more. "Allan..." he whispered into the wind.
"Because of his love for you, you weren't infected that day," Blaine said, looking out at the fields of moving and shifting gold. "As a result, the Infection remained inside your body. So it had to adapt. It modified you," Blaine said, looking over to Wade. "By now you've seen the improvements."
"Coordination,-" Wade began.
"Speed," Blaine continued. "Strength. Even a regenerative ability. But that had to be hidden for the short term to avoid detection. It was only used in instances to prevent complete system failure-death."
"Why?" Wade asked. "Why this change?"
"Because," Blaine replied, "It was silently nudging you forward. Towards a goal."
"Getting closer to Unity..." Wade said, as if to himself.
Blaine nodded. "It adapted you to get close to Unity, so that the fail safe would be activated."
"Why wait this long though?"
Even Blaine's eyes looked warm, "Because activation was needed."
Wade shook his head. "But," he looked back, tucking an errant piece of hair behind an ear, "What about the weird effect I have on the creatures? Why do they bubble up like that?" His eyes darted away for a second. "What happened with Allan anyway?"
"Ah," Blaine replied, turning and placing one hand on Wade's shoulder. "That's the most important aspect. The fail-safe mechanism functioned on the premise that you'd be assimilated by Unity, sooner rather than later. Think of it like a giant self destruct button."
"Will I explode or something?" Wade asked.
"Your body is designed to absorb a portion of the programming before the self-destruct mechanism is activated."
"So that's why my touch hurt them?" he asked. "And also why the suit, the transport sphere and all the other things failed?"
Blaine nodded. "Correct. Your body was absorbing portions of Unity's code." Blaine turned back to glance at the wheat.
"Why...?" Wade asked. "Why do I seem to be seeing bits of memories and feelings that are not mine lately? Is that part of the same-"
Blaine looked at him. "Now is almost time for the final act," he interrupted.
"The self-destruct?" Wade asked.
Blaine nodded and smiled once more.
"What will happen to me after it activates?" he asked. "Will I explode?"
"I can't say for certain," Blaine replied, his blue eyes looked glassy for a moment.
"What about..." Wade's voice grew quiet. "What about Kylan?"
Blaine looked at him and said finally, "Nothing can be guaranteed here, Wade."
"Blaine," he asked, "Are you?"
"I was absorbed by the Infection years ago," he said, his eyes grew distant for a moment. "We're all here as part of the programming."
Wade looked around, confused.
"They're linked you know," Blaine said.
"Sorry?"
"They're linked," Blaine repeated. "In this world, and the next. Unity, and what's left of the Infection, are linked," he said. "I don't think that either creature fully understands the larger picture here, much less why it happened but...the memories and emotions that you've been experiencing are the leftovers. Echoes of those that Unity and the Infection have paved over on their tirade for power."
"I felt like I was going crazy," Wade said. "Like my head was struggling to keep in a waterfall. It.... it hurt," he said finally.
"That doesn't matter now." Blaine shook his head.
"Then what does?" Wade asked as Blaine moved in close and placed a hand squarely on Wade's chest.
"Only that you embrace what's coming," he said. "I can't guarantee you anything, however."
Wade thought back, remembering Chuck's hands roaming over Kylan's unmoving body. "...I-" he began but stopped as Blaine suddenly pushed him backwards.
Wade was toppling back and he could see Blaine's clear, blue eyes look at him as the sky rushed to meet water, and a million sets of hands reached up to claim him.
As if it were in another world, in some distant reality, Wade was still wrapped around Kylan - holding him tight, chest-to-chest, and lip-to-lip. Stray blood had traced a pathway down Wade's chin, making twin, curving fiords of crimson.
"Pathetic," Charles laughed. "Kylan, quit playing with your food and get rid of the remnants of that prodigal program."
Nothing. Kylan stood perfectly still.
"Kylan?" Charles stopped, looking back at his loyal puppet. "I said, get rid of him."
Nothing.
One by one, the streamers of black and silver shrank and traveled up through Kylan's flesh until each of the streamers drew up into his mouth and out from his lips.
Stunned and breathless, Kylan fell backwards. His eyes were wide and tears streamed from his eyes, falling like twinkling stars. "Wade!" he called, "Oh god. I could see it happening but I..." Kylan desperately tried to scramble to his feet, but was unable to gain his footing.
Charles Jameson, meanwhile, was too stunned to move. "Wade!" he growled. "No matter," he smiled, staring transfixed at Kylan's prone form. "You only made it so that I can take him all over again."
Kylan couldn't hear him, as Charles leered, Kylan stared at Wade. The sword was still lodged in his chest and his eyes were unfocused, closing slowly.
Suddenly, bursting out from Wade's lips, black and silver lines blossomed, swiftly etching themselves down his body.
Charles stopped, gaped, and then started to laugh. "Oh, this is too rich," he sneered. "Wade, you were so much more of a fool than I had thought." Charles stepped over to Kylan, his fingers outstretched and ready to claim his prize. "It really is more satisfying after a long, heated struggle," he said, leaning forward.
A sharp noise made both men stop and stare.
The sword.
The sword had fallen to the floor, except there was something very wrong; it was now in two pieces.
Kylan looked up through tear stained eyes. The wound on Wade's chest was starting to close.
He took a step forward. Wade took a step forward.
"Fight it, Wade," Kylan hissed through clenched teeth
"Did I give you permission to move?" Charles demanded, his eyes dark and venomous.
Wade took another step.
Charles stepped back, his eyes wide. "Stop," he commanded.
Wade stopped.
"Now that's more like it," Charles said, smiling. But something was wrong. The floor where Wade had once stood was starting to dissolve.
"Wha?" Charles asked, taking a step back.
Abruptly Wade's eyes flew open. Strangely, they were the most breathtakingly blue eyes Kylan had even seen. They were achingly familiar.
"Oh god," Kylan breathed, staring at him. His clear blue eyes were almost glowing. In fact, the lines of black and silver were also glowing, each one emitting a soft silver-white light.
"What the hell is this?" Charles growled, averting his eyes.
Wade took another mechanical step forward as if pushed by some giant, invisible hand. The light from the lines covering his body was growing brighter by the second and in no time at all the holes left from his foot steps had started to bubble up with water from some unknown source.
Kylan was too awed to notice, but as he stared at what was once Wade, a warm breeze brushed past his blond hair.
"I run this fucking planet," Charles puffed out his chest, standing tall and proud. "Hell, I run this fucking galaxy."
By now the water had begun spreading through the room. Everywhere the water touched, things started to dissolve in a disheveled wash of foam and steam.
Kylan stood up slowly, trying to take it all in, while still shielding his eyes from the breathtaking glare. "Wade," he called, "what are you doing? This isn't you!" He tried to step forward, towards the other man but he was suddenly pushed backwards as a gale force wind picked up inside of the room. What was a warm breeze only moments ago was now whipping violently around the room.
Kylan stepped back, and looked down at the pocket dimensions just outside the nearby glass partition. Gone was the inky darkness that he had seen from when he was under Chuck's influence. Instead, it was filled with a maelstrom of activity. It looked like a galaxy on the verge of destruction. Swirls of energy came cascading past the window and sharp jagged arcs of something that looked like electricity crackled menacingly.
Kylan looked back on the scene, this time shielding himself from both the light, and the spray of water and wind. Wade was slowly walking towards Chuck. He looked oddly serene, as if at peace while not even being completely conscious. Chuck, on the other hand, looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack.
"I'm a god!" he screamed over the wind. "And you," he pointed at Wade as he once more slowly stumbled forward. "You're nothing but an insect! A speck of worthless flesh." He looked around as the water sprayed against his skin, and had to shield his face from the light and battering torrent of water and wind. "I'll..." he started, "I'll show you your own destruction." Chuck let loose a huge bellow and his body was slowly ripped open. As soon as the outer shell was shucked, the mass of machine and flesh inside of what was once Charles Jameson's body expanded exponentially in a matter of a second or two.
With a colossal grunt, Charles ripped the top of the building clean off as his body expanded beyond the confines of the room itself. Kylan stumbled forward, landing in a half assed roll as the sides of the roof and a significant portion of the glass in the room came crashing down all around them.
By now Charles was large and growing larger. He was a mass of silver metal and expanding sinew and bone. It looked like a grotesque painting of a warped human figure; a mixture of silver, and striations of black and angry crimson red. It looked as if a troubled, angry child, armed with many red and black wax crayons had drawn the monster into being.
Kylan couldn't see Wade anymore. The light was too bright, and he was pinned by a fallen piece of debris from when the roof was cleaved off of the building. The air in his lungs burned, and he could feel a warm wetness across his face. His mind kept going back to those eyes. What the hell was going on?
His mind began to wander, as if fraying on the edges, until he could feel a warmth wash over him. The water! The swirling mass of water from before was now reaching up to Kylan. He watched in wide-eyed amazement as the water quickly dissolved the debris all around him.
Slowly, Kylan struggled to his feet. As his vantage point lifted above the remaining debris and water, he spotted Wade. The young man was a huge starburst of white light. If Kylan squinted, he could only just see the interlacing lines of bright, hot, white.
"Now," the creature that had once been Charles Jameson bellowed, its voice, like its body was huge and strong, "now you'll see my true power!"
Without a moment's hesitation, the metallic monstrosity raised a sinewy, meat-encrusted fist high into the air. Wade on the other hand, looked up at the creature with an almost childlike look of bewildered amazement; his eyes relaxed and unfocused.
"Wade!" Kylan tried to yell, but the noise from the wind and the water was too over powering for his small, human voice. Still he cupped his hands his mouth and bellowed, "Wade... Wade, get out of the way!"
Wade did not seem to hear him, or seem to care as the giant fist crashed down into the floor below.
Instead of the floor buckling, however, Kylan watched in amazement as the giant recoiled in pain, clutching its hand.
He was startled to see a large hole in the hand where it had hit the smaller man.
The creature glared and swung again-what remained of its fist arching to the side as it swung. This time, as the creature almost made contact with Wade, it was as though that portion of the arm was cut free. It looked like the light itself absorbed part of the arm, sending the fist flying, crashing just inches away from where Kylan stood.
Immediately after it fell, the flesh on the fist reared up like millions of tiny snaking tendrils of inky darkness and silver, making Kylan stumble back out of the way. He watched as the swirling water moved quickly over the remains of the hand causing it hiss and spit as the material itself dissolved.
A lurch and a tremor wracked the building as Kylan once more struggled to his feet. He stumbled forward, but managed to catch himself on what remained of a console at the last second.
They were moving. Slowly, but they were still moving.
Kylan felt a sinking sensation in his chest as the roof slowly sank toward the ground far below, while the building tore itself apart. Like melting wax in a candle, the floor sank away towards the ground. As they slowly but surely dropped ever closer to the earth, the water was swirling in circles around the edges of what remained of the top of the building, as if it was being whipped around in a gigantic, invisible bowl.
By now the arcing energy from inside of the maelstrom of dimensions had begun leaking into the outside world. Kylan watched in horror as the city outside felt a touch of the devastation and destruction that played out from the top of the central building. Where the strange energy struck, large explosions and oddly sparking flashes of light flared up, swiftly followed by the familiar tinge of firelight.
"Oh my god," he breathed, looking skyward at the clouds that were boiling and rolling. It was almost as if the clouds themselves were dark and swollen as a sordid reflection of the destruction below.
Kylan looked back and saw a pillar of light extending up from Wade into the center of the swirling, dark, ominous clouds. Wade was now almost standing on top of what was left of Chuck. Having obviously expended most of his body trying to crush the other man, Chuck's remains were tattered and broken.
The creature was saying something, but above the whine and howl of the wind, Kylan had to strain to hear the once booming voice.
"I may not be able to kill you," he heard Charles spit, "but I can do something much worse."
Kylan didn't have a moment to react as the remaining mass of twisted metal and frail humanity lunged forward at him. The parody of a human face gleamed with victory as he closed in. "If I can't have you," it howled, "he won't either!"
Kylan had enough time to raise his arms in a vain attempt to shield himself from the expected blow. He stumbled back, falling hard on his ass, but....
Nothing happened.
Kylan opened his eyes and gaped at what he saw. The swirling mass of water had moved to block the attack. Not only that, but as Kylan looked at the water he could see something strange. Inside the waves and fathomless depths, he could see the outline of...
It wasn't possible.
Kylan blinked rapidly and looked again. It was...people. Hundreds and hundreds of people were dimly reflected in the water, like washed out old paintings. They stood, grasping and clinging to what remained of Chuck's body.
"What the hell is this?" Charles spluttered, his eyes wide and shaking with terror. Behind him, Wade still stood, a pillar of light and a blank expression on his face.
Kylan looked closer, he swore he could see the faces of family and friends. "How...I?" he breathed.
Wade slowly walked closer.
The light was intensifying, and Kylan could still feel the roof dropping slowly downwards. The arcing of light and energy from the collapsing energy fields was also reaching fever pitch, and the city below was steadily being ravaged.
"Let...let me go, you bastards, you worthless maggots!" Charles yelled as Wade stepped closer, the wind now was almost as blinding as the light. "Don't you know what I am?" it was screaming now. "I'm a...a God!"
Kylan could hardly see what happened next. It was all he could do to shield himself from the wind, water, and light and remain on the rooftop. He looked up as Wade regarded the creature and slowly walked in close. Wade's arms were raised outwards, reaching for the other being.
"Let me go!!" Charles screamed again, his voice was now nothing more than a mixture of inhuman fear and screeching, ruined electronics. Still, even with all his struggles, the ethereal people in the water held him tight as Wade's arms encircled Chuck's large and bloated neck.
Kylan managed to peek out from behind his arm, as the light and the wind suddenly burst forth from Wade in unheard of proportions.
All at once, the noise and the pain from the light's flare burned away and for a brief moment Kylan could see Wade clearly. The light was now overpowering everything else around, so that everything was a glowing, brilliant white.
"Wade!" he screamed.
The other man turned his head towards Kylan. He stopped. The bright blue from his eyes was the only other color, as he silently mouthed the words that Kylan desperately wanted to hear, before everything was lost in one final burst of brilliance.
Kylan didn't even have the breath left to scream out the only name left on his lips.
************************************************************************ Author's Note:
One more chapter to wrap things up!
Again, many thanks to Kane for making this story readable,
As always comments are welcome.... Corporeal09@yahoo.com
Cheers,
Gene