Day 30: West Rooftop

[the_head_doctor]

The sky was blue and the sun was shining brightly, though all aspects of the good weather didn't fit the Head Doctor's current mood. His arms were crossed and his face was creased into a scowl; his eyes were sharp and although he wore his usual brown suit and tie, both were wrinkled as if he'd slept in them. His hair, usually combed and slicked

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[mister_radio]

....

Fuck.

It was amazing, how many thoughts were able to pass through his mind. His childhood, as ridiculous and cliche as it was. Before everything had changed and everything had gone to hell. His days working on his own, before he'd ever heard of Martin Landel or his revolutionary project. And the early days with Martin, the long days and the longer nights, falling asleep in his office, bright eyed and eager and so desperate for praise and attention from this man who had meant so much to him....

All of that flashed in an instant as he felt the pain bursting in his chest and the sticky heat of blood down his front.

"You....bastard..." he managed, feeling the blood welling in his lungs. Idiot, idiot, fucking idiot! Why had he trusted? Why had he let Martin get so close? He staggered, falling backwards, the blood pouring from his chest, feeling the hard cement of the roof coming up to meet him. He hardly even felt it when he hit.

He'd just lost everything. They'd been right. They couldn't trust him. He'd just ruined any chance they had of ever escaping alive.

[the_head_doctor]

The Head Doctor reveled in the look on Alec's face, the look of anger, of disbelief, of utter despair. This was why he'd allowed him fairly free reign, why he had continued distributing the radios among the patients in an attempt to give his old friend a very false sense of security.

It was all for this, the satisfaction of betraying his old partner in the same way he'd betrayed him, to hurt him as deeply and viscerally as he had been so long ago.

Dr. Landel let go of the hilt of the dagger as Alec fell, and he slowly walked forward, seemingly unfazed by the blood covering his own chest and hands. His face was calm, his expression strangely blank. He stood over Alec, watching him cough and gasp for breath the way a scientist examines the death throes of an insignificant lab rat.

"I'm truly sorry, Alec, that I feel nothing now but contempt." His eyes narrowed. "Nothing but righteousness and justice. Nothing but the knowledge that what I am doing is necessary and that what you are doing is wrong. You betrayed science and your species. You betrayed me."

He looked his dying opponent in the eye.

"And now you will pay for your arrogance."

[mister_radio]

Jack coughed, his body wracked with the force of it. Gouts of blood issued forth from his mouth. All he could feel now was pain, the exquisite pain that blossomed in his chest. It filled his senses. This was, he mused in a strange, calm place in his mind, what drowning must feel like. He lay there, eyes closed, his cigarette perched perilously between his unmoving fingers, his sweater torn and stained with that thick, bright blood that came from the heart.

But he opened his eyes, meeting Martin's with a cold, angry focus. He wasn't dead yet. Oh, he was nearly there, and he knew it; even he wasn't so foolish to think he could heal here and now. And he'd ensured that, hadn't he? By weakening Martin, he'd weakened himself, and sealed his own fate. But he wasn't dead yet.

"You...forgot one thing...Martin..." he was struggling to speak, blood filling his lungs and throat and mouth as his heart tried desperately to keep him among the living.

[the_head_doctor]

"Oh?" The Head Doctor asked as he finally put on a smirk, crouching down next to his adversary. "And what might that be?"

[mister_radio]

There. So very, very perfect. Another cough, another shake of his body, another spray of blood from between his lips. The edges of his vision were beginning to blacken. But still he held on. He had one last thing to do.

There should have been clouds. Storm clouds and thunder above, not that picture perfect blue sky that now seemed to mock him. This wasn't fitting. This wasn't right. It wasn't...poetic.

But that didn't mean he wouldn't give it a properly poetic twist.

He smiled, blood stained lips curving up as he flexed his weak fingers, laughing in Martin's face in the deafening silence of his own mind.

"You forgot...that I never...give up!"

It took all his remaining strength to make his body cooperate. His arm came up, quickly, feeling as though he were moving through water. His cigarette was clenched tightly between his fingers and with a wet, rattling exhalation he plunged the burning tip into Martin's eye with all the force he had left in him.

[the_head_doctor]

The scream that the Head Doctor let out was louder than anything he'd ever broadcasted on the intercom, any laugh of lunacy or shout of superiority that had ever rung through the halls of the Institute. He fell back onto his side, clutching his face, and the first thing that ran through his head after the initial wave of pain was, How could I be so careless?!

"YOU...!" He growled out through his agony, one hand held over his injured eye as the other glared murder at Doyle. He crawled forward, barely thinking, barely rationalizing his actions as he leaned over the other man, his hand groping for the slick hilt of the dagger in Alec's chest.

"I'll kill you... kill you!" The Head Doctor's face contorted into a strange mix of a grimace and an unhinged grin as he pulled out the dagger and began to stab over and over again. "You think you can win, but you can't! I'm coming on on top, Alec! ME! Don't you GET IT?"

[mister_radio]

The moment of triumph was fleeting, but worth the pain that followed. To hear that scream, see that horror and surprise....

Jack tried to laugh, but all that came was a wet sound. He hardly even felt the knife leave his skin or enter it again. His thoughts were fading, ludicrous even, as a strange warmth came over him. What would happen to the masses he'd promised to lead? What would happen to his carefully crafted plans? Who would feed Sam?

For a final time, Jack's mouth opened, words struggling to escape. Some final witty quip, some set of last words for the history book, fitting of the man who boasted of his wordplay and poetry.

But none came. A final trickle of blood slid out from between his slack lips and the blackness that lingered at the edges of his mind flooded in until there was nothing but dark.

[the_head_doctor]

The Head Doctor breathed hard, watching the life slowly leave his old partner's eyes, his limbs go limp and his muscles go slack after a final gurgle and shudder.

It was over.

Dr. Landel slowly sat back in the growing pool of blood that surrounded them. His whole front was drenched red, and as the adrenaline wore off and the pain from his injury came back in full force, he tossed the dagger away and held his hands to his eye.

It was over and there had been a price to pay, but it had been worth it in the end. Of course, the Head Doctor could get his eye fixed if he wanted to; with all the miracles that were performed at the Institute on a daily basis, such a simple procedure was certainly within their means.

For some reason, however, Dr. Landel wasn't sure if he wanted to. He needed this as a reminder of what foolishness could do to a man, what complacency could could cost even when one had a suitable safety net.

There was another reason that came to mind as he viewed the still body, but he wouldn't admit it even to himself.

"Dr. Landel," a voice crackled over the two-way radio at his side. The Head Doctor frowned and fiddled with the device's holster, finally bringing it up and staring blankly at it for a moment with his good eye. "Dr. Landel, what's the situation?"

"The situation..." the Head Doctor said after clicking down the talk button, glancing at Alec's unmoving form once more, "...the situation is under control. I'll need a clean-up crew on the West end of the roof and my quarters undisturbed. That's all."

After a confirmation, Dr. Landel stood up staring first at what he had done and then at the expanse of land in the valley in front of them. It truly was a beautiful day, and the Head Doctor could only marvel in awe at how much more he could accomplish now that something quite important had been crossed off his to-do list.

He smiled.