Helaron 21

Helaron's Saga 21: Dramatic Pause

Dr River was going to die.

Not even I was prepared for the scream of animal rage that tore its way from my throat.
Everybody backed away, quickly, except the Captain, who put his arms around me. And I couldn't stop myself from sobbing, sobbing like some little fucking kid, into that man's shoulder. He wasn't my original Captain, but he was a good one, and he was there.

The Count had only been there at all because he hadn't wanted to head for the exit by himself after we'd found him. I should have escorted him out then. He was my responsibility. He was my nemesis. I'd spent years of my life chasing him, fighting him; we understood each other in the way that only two people constantly struggling for their lives and freedom against each other can.

He was mine to defeat. Mine to capture and, if necessary, kill. And Dr River had taken him from me. Well then, Dr River would just have to take his place.

This man was too dangerous to capture. I would kill him. Dr River would be mine.

I took a deep breath, gently pushed the Captain away and rubbed the tears from my eyes. "What now, Captain? Where do we find our enemy?"

"I'm, uh... not sure. I mean, if we knew who we were fighting..."

I swallowed. Dr River was before the Captain's time. He'd never seen that smirking face as the man dashed off on the back of a giant mole, leaving you in a crumbling laboratory with your legs pinned by a broken toxic gas pipe and flesh-eating acid dripping toward you from broken beakers. A name would be nothing more than academic to him, nothing more than a label upon which to swear further vengeance. Against the man who had killed my nemesis.

"We head for the exit," Midnight muttered.

"We can't leave without defeating – "

"He'll be near the exit. He has... traps, machines. We got through the throne room. Not in the throne room. He'll be here for the break-in but this isn't his main base, see? Who keeps a bunch of their enemies inside their main base?" He gasped. His breaths were getting shallower, it seemed. "Traps to weaken us, kill as many as possible. Or capture, probably try to capture. We got to the heart of the base so now he wants to trap us in here. He'll be near the exit. Block our escape if we got past everything else."

"And can we get past everything else?"

"This many heroes? How can we lose?"

"Alright then!" the Captain called. "Everyone get ready to move out! New strategy: Yolund and Forcinor up front. Yolund can set off traps without being harmed, Forcinor's on defence. Let's go."

We went. CYBR carried Midnight, and Polaron, still too exhausted to move quickly, rode on Clockwork's walking robot. The thing's legs took up most of the corridor, but I managed to walk beside him. We lingered at the back of the group – we'd done far too much fighting for one day. There was surprisingly little for me to do on the way out, those at the front successfully countering any traps we found. There weren't many. We seemed to have tripped most of the automatic defences on the way in.

"Okay, this is far too easy for someone supposedly capable of capturing all those heroes," I remarked.

"He captured them one at a time," Clockwork replied. "There are a lot of us now. Besides, you heard Midnight... this isn't his main base."

"Not his main base?! It's huge!"

"Yes, but it's basically a research lab. Not a base of operations." He looked solemn. "We have to put an end to this."

"Damn right we do. I..."

There was a hacking cough behind me. I turned to see CYBR, frozen, staring at the man lying in her arms. "Are... are you alright?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"You said only one lung was punctured," she said accusingly.

"I lied. Cy... you're still mad at me, aren't you?"

"Mad at you?! Mad, and confused, and just a little suspicious! You think I don't recognise these things? Did you think I wouldn't recognise YOU under that flimsy disguise?! You just dropped off the radar and – hey, you alright? Breathe. Just breathe."

"Cy, I... I couldn't explain."

"Why not? I've trusted you this far, but why can't you tell me what's going on?"

"Oh, even if we had the time..."

"Don't you DARE die on me. I followed you in here. Don't make it for nothing."

"Death isn't... death doesn't... I promise that you'll understand. I organised things so that you would understand."

"Hey! Stay awake! Stay alive!"

"To what end?" I could barely hear his voice now. "Death is... no big loss..." He stopped moving.

CYBR stared for several seconds before prodding Midnight gently. He didn't move. What was left of her skin face pursed her lips. "Well, I guess we're getting no more help from him." She carefully adjusted her grip on the body in her arms and kept walking.