Pieces - Part Three

[lule_bell]

All art by faberrys2



Part Three

The easy part was getting on board and if it wasn’t for the fact that they were off to rescue her partner, Olivia might have been excited at the prospect of hovering in the earth’s atmosphere. The hard part was keeping her mind clear and focused at at the task at hand. First she and Astrid would have to get in, drop the virus, and then she could rescue Erica.

“You okay?” Astrid asked suddenly, pulling Olivia out of the clouds and back onboard the transport they were riding.

“Yeah,” Olivia said.

Astrid smiled and leaned her head against the headrest, looking around at all the people and Vs that surrounded them. “We’ll get there, Olivia,” she cocked her head to the side and made it look like she was scratching her chin. “Just be patient.”

Olivia scoffed softly and looked out the window as they left Earth. Astrid squeezed her hand and Olivia looked down suddenly and back at Astrid quizzically.

Astrid shrugged. “We have to start playing the part some time.” She closed her eyes and tried not to smile in her sleep. Olivia didn’t say anything: she only squeezed back and hoped.

//

The welcome ceremony was beautiful, good and delicious food, and a speech from one of Anna’s representatives, who said that Anna was “regrettably unavailable for the event” which only made Olivia tense and Astrid grabbed on to her, pulling her into the party and into the conversations she was having with everyone else. To her credit, Astrid played the part of a devoted lover rather well. She stand on her tip toes and peck Olivia’s cheek while making excited conversation with the other new live aboards, which allowed Olivia the chance to smile and observe everyone she was talking to, everyone in the room, and the direction that she needed to go in.

“Oh, my partner is always this quiet, especially in front of new people,” Astrid said, explaining Olivia’s quiet demeanor to the others, who seemed to accept the explanation easily Olivia smiled shyly and squeezed Astrid’s hand twice. Olivia left Astrid to answer the other’s questions; she headed down a particular hallway, walking slowly, trying to make it seem like she hadn’t planned that direction all along.

She wondered down an empty hallway, slowly, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. There was nothing but walls and if she hadn’t been given a detailed map of the mothership, she wouldn’t have bothered with the only door hidden in plain sight. It was black with some red lettering overtop and a key pad where a door knob would have been. Olivia stretched her hand out, reaching out to touch the pad when a sharp voice made her jump and she pulled her hand back instinctively.

“You’re not supposed to be here.”

Olivia turned to find a V guard eyeing her, trying to stare her down. Olivia gave a sweet smile and gave a little flip of her head, tossing her hair. “Sorry,” she said as lightly as possible, as if her mistake was no big deal. “I got separated from the group somehow...” Olivia trailed off and turned from the door and started to head back towards the Welcome Party without another word from the guard. She found Astrid right where she left her, talking to the same people she was talking to before.

“Ah! Here she is!” Astrid said when she saw Olivia standing beside her again. “Hey, baby. How are you doing?” she kissed Olivia on the cheek happily and Olivia replied with a light kiss and a grin.

“Can I steal her from you for a moment?” Olivia asked the couple. She led Astrid away by wrapping her arm around Astrid’s waist, not bothering to wait for an answer.

“You found something?” Astrid asked softly as Olivia led her to a side of the room that had fewer people and a pillar that offered them some protection. Astrid put her hands on the small of Olivia’s back, pulling Olivia closer and making it seem like she wanted some alone time with her partner.

“Yea,” she said, leaning in and whispering into Astrid’s ear. “The door is at the end of the hallway, just like Ryan said it would be.”

“Hm,” Astrid said. She rubbed Olivia’s back affectionately. “We’re going to have to come back later tonight.”

Olivia leaned into Astrid, but not too close. She kept her arms on Astrid’s shoulders and focused her eyes on the corners of Astrid’s mouth.

“What did you find out?” Astrid asked softly.

“I have a plan. C’mon, I’ll explain it to you.”

//

“Can Vs see in the dark?” Astrid whispered as she and Olivia made their way from their assigned quarters to the hallway that Olivia had explored earlier in the day.

“According to Ryan, only V soldiers can see in the dark.”

“Let’s hope we don’t run in to any.”

Olivia nodded and her hand instinctively went to her hip, looking for her firearm, finding nothing but her clothes. She clenched her fists and took a deep breath, trying to stay calm.

They made their way along with lengthy V mothership, using their hands to feel around the walls, as the low lighting made it difficult for them to see.

“You remember the pass codes?” Astrid asked Olivia when they were standing in front of the door.

Olivia looked at Astrid with an incredulous look. She didn’t say anything to Astrid and she didn’t have to.

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry.”

Olivia stepped along side of Astrid and punched in the numbers on the pad key. There was a pause where nothing happened and Astrid looked at Olivia wide-eyed, almost panicked, but then the key pad clicked and the door opened with a hiss.

“Phew,” Astrid said, sighing with relief just before she was picked up and hurled to the other side of the wall, hitting it with a loud thump and crumpling to the floor.

“I told you that you’re not supposed to be here.” It was the same V guard from before and he charged at Olivia, pinning her against the wall with his hands on her shoulders. She struggled but he was too strong; she tried to kick at him but he held her legs still by pressing his knees against hers. The V opened his mouth and his reptilian teeth began to grow, extending outwards and as he opened his mouth to bite her, he collapsed at Olivia’s feet with a sharp metallic object protruding from his back.

Astrid was standing over the body with a determined look on her face, and as she circled the body, she looked up at Olivia and nodded. “He must have been sick from the cortexiphan. I didn’t think that he’d go down so easily.” Astrid shrugged one shoulder and turned back to Olivia’s astounded look.

“Astrid...?”

“What can I say?” Astrid said, as if she was expecting Olivia to ask her exactly how this happened, how a young junior agent who spent most of her time in a laboratory with the elder Bishop could have taken down a striking V guard. “No one suspects you to have any power at all when you’re tiny.”

“Where did you get that weapon from?” Olivia asked when she could finally comprehend the situation again.

“We couldn’t bring our weapons aboard, but I wanted to make sure that we were protected. I... found this in the quarters we were assigned.”

“Found it?”

Astrid grinned but didn’t elaborate. Instead, she pointed down at the body and then put her hands on her hips. “What do we do with him?”

“I don’t know... we’re going to have to hide him. They’ll send someone to come find him eventually.”

“Help me,” Astrid grabbed one of the V’s arms and with Olivia’s help, they pulled him into the room. It wasn’t very big but it had enough space for his body to fit and for Astrid to stand on so she could reach the ventilation shaft. She pulled the phials from inside the hem of her jacket by tearing it open with her thumb nail and started twisting them over her fingers; the liquid sloshed in its casing.

“Alright! I’m ready. I’ll see you later,” she said as she pulled herself up into the vent.

“Astrid, wait. I want to go with you,” Olivia said, grabbing one of Astrid’s legs and pulling her back down. When she stood on the V’s body, she was almost as tall as Olivia.

Astrid cocked her head to the side and looked at Olivia the way a teenager would look at her disapproving mother. “Olivia, I’ve got this,” she gestured to the body laying at their feet, hoping that would be proof enough. “You go get the bad guys.” She grinned from ear to ear and slid them back into their hiding places. “Go get Erica.” Astrid jumped up, grabbed the edges of the vent, and pulled herself into the duct.

“Okay, I’ll see you soon,” Olivia said. She turned to leave but hesitated for a moment. “Astrid?” She called into the vent.

“Yeah?” came a faint, echoing reply.

“Be careful.”

Olivia could almost hear her grin. “You too,” and she was gone.

//

The ducts were cool and empty, not in any apparent need of services. She didn’t know what she had been expecting, but Astrid was unaccustomed to working with some noise in the background. She was nervous, but she kept her focus. Quietly, she crawled hand over hand through the ducts on her way to the first of the ventilation systems. The mothership’s layout map she had been provided with were accurate, and even though she couldn’t read the V’s language, she recognized the vents from the map she had memorized.

Despite Walter’s promises of the virus not having any affect on humans, Astrid covered her face with a surgical mask, not wanting to take any chances. Kneeling before the first vent and with one phial in one hand, Astrid pulled out a compact metal fan; her cap almost blew off when she switched it on. Astrid set the fan down over the ventilation system and the liquid sloshed in the phial as she pulled the stopper out and dumped its contents over the fan. The fan cut the liquid and dispersed tiny droplets in the air, vaporizing it. The the air current from the fan pushed the virus away from Astrid and into the vents and as the liquid began to saturate the air.

“Phew,” she breathed as she packed up her fan and started moving towards the next set of vents. “One down, nine more to go.”

//

The virus was invisible to the Vs and the humans. It left no detectable trail as it floated through the mothership, odorless and colourless, making its way to V and human lungs. It was almost an instantaneous reaction and coupled with the cortexiphan that most of them had been administered, the virus proved to be a crippling weapon: random muscle spasms followed by seizures, Vs everywhere started dropping to the floor, screaming in pain, seizing until they died. Doctors scrambled to the victims, overcome with calls for help, trying to figure out what was causing this and what to do before they started to succumb to the virus’ affects, laying themselves down with the masses, and just let go. It infected more and more Vs - so much so that the humans started to notice and started to react.

They tried to help, but without knowing what was going on, the humans were afraid that it might start happening to them. When threatened with that chaos, they panicked, started running for the nearest transport ships, and left the ship in droves.

“Something’s happening,” they said to each other. “I don’t know what, but we’ve got to get out of here.”

“Shouldn’t we tell Anna? Shouldn’t we tell someone?”

“There may not be anyone left to tell if we don’t get out of here.”

And amid the screams and cries for help, the humans left the ship and headed back to Earth.

//

Armed with all of the newest research information that she had from Massive Dynamic, Nina boarded the first available transport to the New York mothership, passing a curious amount of ships that were leaving the mothership. She had information that would displease Anna, enrage her most likely, but Nina felt that she had an ethical obligation to report her findings to her business partner. Nina had always been given the best treatment on the mothership and she had no problems in arranging an impromptu meeting with the alien queen.

Anna approached Nina with a hand outstretched and a sickly sweet smile glued to her face.

“Ms. Sharp. How lovely to see you again.”

“Anna,” Nina said, taking her hand and greeting her with a slight bow of her head. “I’m afraid that I haven’t come with good news.”

“Oh?” Anna pulled her hands together, pressing the tips of her fingers together, making several small triangle shapes. “What would that be?”

“Unfortunately, our research at Massive Dynamic has concluded that the cortexiphan is breaking down the V’s DNA structure. The drug is reacting negatively with the V’s - they will be experiencing spasms, seizures and multi-system organ failure, and as their neurons continue to break down, they will die. You are facing a genocide if we don’t stop administrating the drug to your people.”

Anna listened to Nina for a moment until Marcus leaned into her and whispered: “My Queen, she may be acting only for her own interests.”

“You might have noticed this happening already,” Nina continued, watching Anna and Marcus ignore her. She focused on the back of Anna’s head, speaking directly to it. “ some of the Vs may be experiencing these symptoms and I’m sure that some have already died.”

Anna cocked her head to the side to indicate that she was listening and that Marcus should continue.

“She can’t see our potential. She’s trying to stop us from becoming the apex race on this planet. She’s circumventing her research for her own goals. She might even be a member of the Fifth Column - she might be trying to rescue Erica Evans,” Marcus let go of Anna’s elbow and took a step backwards.

She dropped her arms to her sides and turned swiftly, making her way over to Nina.

“Traitor!” Anna screamed, clenching her fists and arching her back.

Nina was shocked by Anna’s reaction and even though every inch of her recoiled in fear, she knew she had to stay calm.

“Anna,” she started but was cut off by a heavy slap to the face.

“You have betrayed me. You have betrayed my people. You will be punished for your crimes.”

The guards surrounding them went to grab Nina but Anna raised her hand quickly, silently ordering them to stop. They backed away and Anna stood nose to nose to Nina. “You’re coming with me.”

//

One minute she was standing in the great hall of the New York mothership and the next minute she was in a dank, dark, foul smelling room. It looked like a swamp and the intense humidity made her think that maybe this place resembled the V homeworld.

“What can I do for you today, daughter?”

Nina turned to the unfamiliar voice and took a step backwards, but kept her head held high. A woman of smaller stature approached her and from the shadows, Nina realized that she was human - or had least, taken human form.

“Oh,” the woman said. “Who are you?”

“I could ask you the same question,” Nina said.

The woman said nothing. Instead, she circled Nina, keeping her fingertips pressed together tightly. She opened her mouth and a strange sound, like hissing, came out. When Nina didn’t respond, the woman cocked her head to one side.

“You’re human.”

“Yes,” Nina said slowly, unsure of what to do. “You’re not?”

The woman smiled. “No, I’m not. Tell me,” she said in a commanding tone. “Who are you?”

“My name is Nina Sharp.”

“Oh, the business woman.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that we’ve been introduced.”

The woman smiled again. “No, we haven’t been. But I’ve heard a great deal about you from my daughter.”

“You’re daughter?”

“Yes. If you were brought down here, I assume that you know her.”

“Anna.”

The woman said nothing, she only raised an eyebrow and stopped circling long enough to change directions.

“Yes, Anna,” she said finally. “My daughter, on her rare visits down here, has told me of her plans to take over Earth and its second universe.”

“Then you support Anna’s invasion of Earth.”

Diana stopped moving and came up to Nina standing in front of her, face to face. “No,” she said with a certain conviction that made Nina believe her instantly. “No I do not support her invasion of Earth or any other planet.”

Nina didn’t say anything at first. She watched this other woman circle her around and around, building up speed and intensity and Nina wondered when she would finally strike. “What are you doing down here?” she asked finally.

“My daughter put me down here after she and a few of her followers staged a coup d'état. I’ve been imprisoned down here for many years and I believe that if she put you down here, if she put down this business woman who was helping her the whole time, you and I have a common enemy.”

“You know what she’s been doing?”

Diana didn’t say anything at first. Instead, she lowered her head in thought and pressed the tips of her fingers together, making several triangles. Slowly, Diana began circling Nina, not out of intimidation, but because she was still the Queen. She stopped right in front of Nina and held herself high, proud and regal.

“My daughter,” she began, “In her relentless pursuit of human conquest has left my people broken and dying. She’s robbed us of our very nature and made us forget who we are. She imprisoned me down her in order to take control of the Vs and the human race. She wants nothing but to stand over the humans declare herself queen, even if the only things that are left are corpses and her people lay broken and dying around her. My daughter will not stop unless she’s killed.”

Shocked by Diana’s declaration, Nina stood wide-eyed as panic started to grow in the pit of her stomach. “You would kill your own daughter?”

“To save them from the fate that Anna has planned for them, yes, I would.”

Nina sucked her lips into her mouth and turned away from the queen, surveying their bleak surroundings. “I appreciate your fervency, but you and I are not in the best of circumstances and I doubt that there are very many people who even know about this place.”

Diana tilted her head to the side, nodding in agreement. She eyed Nina carefully, eyes trailing over Nina’s body and down her side. The finally rested on her right arm.

“I believe that you have something that could help us.”

Nina narrowed her eyes; the robotic fingers in their gloves twitched as if they had a mind of their own. “And what would make you feel that way?”

“Intuition.”

Nina almost laughed at Diana’s answer. “Even if I did have something that could get us out of here -” her fingers twitched again “- how can I be sure that you’re not my enemy?”

“Any enemy of my daughter’s, even newly made, is an enemy of mine. She would not have put you down here unless she feared you, unless you know something that could derail her plans, unless you... have something --” her eyes again found Nina’s arm “--that could help our situation.”

“You have a plan then?”

“I do. I plan on killing my daughter and taking my people back to their home, to their rightful place in the universe.”

Nina took one last look around the dank pit that held the two women and decided that perhaps trust was indeed her best course of action.

“Long ago,” she started as she began tugging on the fingers of her black gloves. “I worked with a brilliant scientist named Dr. William Bell. There was an unfortunate... accident and he made this for me,” she pulled the glove off of her hand, revealing a silver metal that shined in what little light they had. “He made an upgrade to my arm but I’ve never had any use for it until now.”

Diana smiled slightly, the corners of her mouth peaking upwards; she looked very satisfied.

“In the event of a disaster, if I were ever to be incapacitated or imprisoned --” she gripped the pinky and ring fingers on her robotic arm and with the other hand, she jerked them to the right,“-- my robotic arm will function as a rescue device.” She pulled the fingers from her hand and they detached with a loud click; Nina dropped them on the floor.

It took a minute for something to happen and in those seconds, Diana looked as if she had made a mistake, that her intuition had been wrong and that there was nothing that could get her out of the dungeon, but then, the two fingers sprang to life, stood upright and fell forward, making a triangle shape. Slowly they began to walk towards the door, alternating left point to right.

“Fascinating.”

Nina turned to Diana and found her smiling at the sight.

“Do you have to give it any commands?”

“No,” Nina explained, folding her glove and putting it into her pocket. “It has a completely independent operating system. It’s programed to serve as a rescue device and will run until it completes its mission.”

“This is the first time you used it, is it?”

Nina paused for a moment, watching as her arm started to crawl up the side of the walls, picking and peeling, tapping and rapping until it found what it was looking for and disappeared from sight.

“Yes,” she answered finally. “At first, I didn’t think that such an upgrade was necessary, but then again, I never thought that I would be in business with invading space lizards,” Nina said remorsefully.

“How long do we have to wait?” Diana asked, ignoring Nina’s personal angst. She had bits of excitement peppered her voice and Nina raised an eyebrow.

“As long as it takes.”

Content with Nina’s answer, Diana crossed her arms over her chest. “I’ve been waiting a long time.” There was a hunger to her voice and a glint in her eyes that made Nina realize that she had been planning this for a long time.

They were silent for the next few minutes and each woman contemplated her particular situation; the air was thick and heavy, about to burst with the fate of the universe, when suddenly, the transporter rings appeared in the center of the room.

“This must be our ride,” Nina said stepping forward but Diana grabbed her by the elbow and held her back.

“If this is a trick,” she hissed in Nina’s ear, “I will kill you.”

“Your threats are unnecessary. We’re wasting time down here,” Nina turned to Diana and held her gaze. “If you’d like, I will stay in front of you the whole time.”

“And what good would that serve me?”

Nina eyed Diana from head to toe, traveling back up her torso, pausing at her hip. “It’ll give you easier access to kill me.”

Satisfied, a sly smiled smeared over the queen’s face and she let Nina go, waiting for her to step into the transporter.

The dank dungeon disappeared and Nina materialized in the empty hall of the mothership, her robotic arm waiting patiently at the side of the room. Picking it up, Nina reattached her arm to its socket as Diana appeared out of a beam of white light.

She took a deep breath and spread her arms open wide. Tipping her head back, she let out a happy cry. “Finally!” she screamed. “It’s been too long.” She looked around the empty corridor, narrowing her eyes on different rooms and pathways until she found what she was looking for and gathered herself up. “This way,” Diana said and Nina could only follow her to her daughter.

//

Bodies lay in the halls of the mothership and with no one guarding the ship, Olivia had no problems looking into every room on the ship in search of Erica. One V tried to stop her, grabbing her by the arm, but evidently, the virus was affecting him because he was easy to kick off and get away from. She wondered for what seemed like an eternity until finally, in the center of Anna’s viewscreen room, she found Erica.

The room was empty, but still Olivia was cautious. She could see Erica in the center of the room, tied to a chair and bent over herself like a broken doll; she was muttering to herself. Over and over again, like a broken record she repeated words, phrases, dates, all in the same order. Olivia recognized the act: Erica was trying to keep herself sane. Despite her precarious situation, despite having no backup and no one to rely on, Olivia found Erica and she was alive and that was all that mattered to Olivia in that moment.

After deciding that the room was indeed empty and even though she couldn’t be sure of any security cameras that were no doubt mounted on the walls, Olivia went to Erica and pushed her backwards, wiping the dried blood and tears from off her face and cheeks.

“Erica?” she whispered. Olivia kept one hand on her shoulder while the other pushed her hair behind her ears over and over again. She moved her hand to Erica’s face so she could adjust it, so that Erica could see her and realize that she was safe.

“Olivia,” Erica said flatly, finally breaking her never-ending cycle of words and smiled. “You’re alive.”

“Yes. I’m fine.”

“The last time I saw you...”

“I know, but don’t think about that right now. I’m here get you out of here.”

“... it worked...” Erica’s eyes lulled back into her skull and her head tipped backwards.

“Hey, hey!” Olivia said, standing up on her knees. She gripped the back of Erica’s head and forced it back into position. “None of that.”

Erica didn’t react and the more she shook Erica, the more she reassured her that she was indeed in front of her, alive and well, the more Erica fell inside of herself. hit Olivia like a tonne of bricks: Erica’s survival was dependent upon Olivia’s survival - upon Olivia recovering from her injuries and from her deal with Nina to follow through, and now that she knew Olivia was safe, Erica could let go and be done with this life that was filled with heartbreak and disaster.

Leaving her for the moment, Olivia ran to the other side of the room that had a few small drawers built into the walls. She ran her fingers over all of them until they popped open with a hiss, finding a faucet with running water but there was nothing to put the water in - no bowls or cups, only her bare hands and that would hardly be affective. Determined, Olivia ran back to the other side of the room and gripped the back of Erica’s chair; she pulled with all her might.

The chair was heavy and with Erica in it, it made pulling almost impossible and she broke out into a sweat almost instantly but she didn’t give up. She couldn’t give up. Switching sides, she pushed the chair over to the faucet and filling her hands up with water, she splashed it on Erica’s face, who sat up as much as she could, wide eyed and spluttering.

“Olivia...!” Erica tried to move but she couldn’t and she grimaced against the pain. “It’s not safe for you to be here.”

“You let me worry about that. I’m going to get you out of here,” Olivia said, ignoring Erica’s pleas. She paused for a moment before she dry swallowed. “Erica, I’m sorry.”

Erica didn’t respond and for a moment, Olivia thought that Erica didn’t hear her “I just...” she stammered, feeling even more guilty than she did before and suddenly she wanted to tell her everything that she was thinking, apologize for everything that had happened, and thank her for saving her life, but she didn’t get the chance.

“Olivia, stop,” Erica sounded tired, but not exasperated. She took the deepest breath that she could and drew Olivia in with her eyes. Olivia expected her to say something but she didn’t. She just held Olivia’s gaze for a few moments until Olivia finally understood and nodded her head.

“Okay,” Erica said, smiling softly.

“Okay,” Olivia breathed. “Now, let me get you out of here.”

“No, wait. Please, I need some water,” Erica looked at the running faucet longingly and then at Olivia pleadingly.

She didn’t say anything, but she raised her hands and then lowered them to wipe them on her pants in a make-shift attempt at cleaning them. She washed her hands off in the sink and then cupped them, letting the water fill until it was overflowing. Olivia brought the water over to Erica, careful not to spill too much as she moved, and she put her hands to Erica’s lips, and poured the liquid down her throat. Erica lapped it up, swallowing, gulp after gulp.

“More?” Olivia asked when Erica had drank all the water.

“Please,” she said hoarsely, nodding her head.

Olivia repeated the process over and over until Erica was full and then she left her briefly, trying to find something that would help her break Erica’s restraints.

“Olivia?” Erica called when she realized what Olivia was doing. “I don’t think you need that... I think there’s a button or something... a release button.”

Olivia looked confused. “Why would they do that?”

“Does it matter?”

Olivia dropped the scrap metal she found and knelt down in front of Erica, running her hands over the ankle cuffs. Erica was right: there was a small yellow button on each side and she pressed them together, releasing the cuffs so Erica could take her feet off the chair.

“Oh, God...” Erica said when she stretched out her legs and put her feet down on the floor. “That feels so good.”

Olivia found the same release buttons on the wrist and chest restraints and as soon as all of them were released, she helped Erica up, letting her lean over her back and holding her hand for support.

“How are we going to get out of here?”

“Astrid released a virus into the mothership’s atmosphere,” Olivia explained as she pushed them in direction of the door. “It’s infecting the Vs, and they’re reacting to it.”

Erica took in a sharp breath as they started moving, her legs wanting to give out from underneath her, but she clung to Olivia tightly. “Reacting? How?”

“They’re dying.”

“Anna too?”

“No, not Anna,” the voice was almost happy; Olivia and Erica turned to find Anna standing behind them, smiling mirthlessly. Calm and cool, she showed no signs of illness or denaturation, forcing Olivia to conclude that Astrid had yet to administer the virus here.

“I have been informed of these... events and believe me, I have sent a dispatch team of Vs in search of your friend. I suspect she’ll be joining you soon,” Anna eyed the recently empty torture chair and smiled even wider. “And now that I have you both, I can show you exactly what I’m made of.”

//

Astrid had one room left to introduce the virus too - Anna’s viewscreen room, the largest and most heavily guarded room on the V mothership. Astrid could see Vs scramble from one part of the ship to the other from her bird’s eye view and as they crawled on the floor, hand over hand, screaming in pain as their bodies spammed into unrecoverable strokes and seizures. They knew something was wrong by now. They knew that something was affecting them and not the humans and they even knew where it was coming from.

“... we’ve got to check every system. The water supply, the food processors, ventilation units, everything. Get your teams together....”

Astrid listened long enough; she hurried to her next target, hoping she wasn’t already too late.

//

Anna didn’t bother with the chair this time. Instead, she surrounded Erica and Olivia with V guards, while her tail shot out and encircled them and Marcus watched from the sidelines.

“This is the leader of the Fifth Column,” Anna said, and as she approached Olivia, her tail whipped around, closing in on the two women who stood trapped inside.

Neither Olivia or Erica said anything, but Anna wasn’t expecting them too. “I just wanted to get a good look at the woman who could... what was that? Travel freely across universes.”

Olivia tried not to look surprised at Anna’s statement, but her efforts fell flat and Anna noticed the sideways glance at Erica.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Anna said, almost laughing. “There is no blame to be laid here. I knew about this long before I met you - you see, there are lengthy documents on you and your magnificent abilities, and of course, I made sure that one of my operatives made good friends with your Dr. Walter Bishop,” Anna’s eyes glinted as Olivia realized what must have happened.

Olivia breathed in and closed her eyes. “Oh, Walter...”

“It was extraordinary easy to get this information too. All it took was a plate of home made cookies and a glass of warm milk.”

Putting Walter aside for the moment, Olivia realized that she was going to have to buy Astrid some time if the virus was going to take affect. She could only hope that Astrid hadn’t been captured and that she was still adding the virus to every ventilation unit. She licked her lips out of nervous habit, regretted the act immediately, and hopped that Anna couldn’t see through her.

“Your people have been reacting poorly to the cortexiphan. If you haven’t noticed, the majority of them are dying in your hallways,” Olivia noticed some of the V guards exchange glances and look to Anna for explanation.

“My people understand the risks that are involved. They can see the future of their species as well as I can. They can see the end results and are committed to the project no matter what hardships they face along the way.”

“And what about you?” Olivia’s question touched a nerve and Anna charged her, whipping her tail around the floor, encircling them and closing in on Erica.

“Do you really think I’d be stupid enough to use myself as a test subject?” she hissed at Olivia, leaning right in to her face; Olivia could almost feel the V’s incisors growing in length; Anna was clearly fighting her instincts and Olivia pushed all the air she was holding on to out of her mouth so that Anna could taste her scent, riling her up further.

“You’d let your own people suffer? You’d let them die, just so you can pursue your own selfish causes?”

Anna’s eyes darted from side to side, but still, Olivia held her ground. She refused to give in, even though she had Erica wrapped in a death grip. “I’m trying to better the lives of my people, I’m trying to help them realize their full potential and cortexiphan is allowing them to do that.”

“Cortexiphan is killing your people.”

“Cortexiphan is allowing my people to explore potential that they didn’t even know they had and it’s going to give them the ability to travel from this universe to the next one.”

Olivia almost smiled a mirthless smile. Shaking her head in disbelief, she allowed herself the one quick glance sideways: Anna’s tail was starting to snake up Erica’s body, rooting her to the floor. She looked desperate and helpless but there was nothing either of them could do, except keep Anna talking.

“The other side is a lot more different than you think. They’re a lot more... competent than our side is. They have the means to defeat you.”

“Perhaps,” Anna said as her tail wrapped around Erica’s neck and mouth, and she screamed into the pressure. “Or perhaps this is just another challenge for my people to over come so they can assert themselves as the apex race in both universes.”

“You still need the right conditioning to get yourselves over there. How do you intend to do that, exactly?”

Anna burst into a wide smile and her eyes glinted. “You’re going to do it - you’re going to open the door to the other side, Agent Dunham, so that my V soldiers can start their invasion.”

“It doesn't work like that. I can’t just make it happen.”

“You don’t think I don’t know that? You don’t think that I hadn’t planned for this very event from the beginning? I know exactly what you need to make it happen,” Anna’s eyes narrowed and her tail tightened once again. Erica tried to pull at the green flesh with her hands, but to no avail. Slowly, Anna lifted her up off of the floor. Olivia tried to keep her eyes focused on Anna, but her gaze kept shifting to Erica and suddenly her lifeless body hit the floor.

“No!” Olivia screamed and tried to run to her side, but she was struck from behind by a V guard. Her head was hurting but there was a pain in her chest that threatened to consume her from the inside out. Olivia looked up to see if she could see anything that would tell her what she was was wrong, that Erica wasn’t in fact dead, that she had just been hit and lost her balance, until she spotted Erica’s body across the floor and realized that she wasn’t moving at all. She clenched her eyes shut and lowered her head, resting her forehead against the cold floor as chaos battled around her.

She hoped with all hope that she wouldn’t die alone and hopeless in a foreign land and now it seemed as if she was indeed alone and that love had left her for dead. Olivia gasped for air but there was nothing but blood and refuse in the air. She had been empty for so long, everything was always being taken away from her and she was only just starting to think that maybe, that wasn’t her lot in life after all and that maybe, she was worth saving. Olivia closed her eyes against tears when suddenly, the room went black with curious white flashes and the unmistakable smell of smoke permeated the air. Olivia could feel it happening all over again and all the memories of the past months flooded her brain and she dropped to her knees, holding her head in her hands, until something touched her shoulder and she looked up to see Nina Sharp standing above her.

Olivia let Nina pull her up and back towards the wall for what little protection that it offered. Everywhere around them, V guards were falling to the floor, most of them dead before they hit the ground. Their agonizing screams saturated the air, but over top of their screams was another high pitched wailing sound. Olivia raised her head from her hands and looked up at Nina and suddenly realized what was going on.

Anna was floating in the air with something sharp and green protruding through her stomach. Not floating, but hovering; something was lifting her up off the ground and Anna struggled to get her feet back on the ground. Olivia couldn’t tell what was going on, what was happening or more importantly, where Erica’s body was laying.

“Nina...! What’s going on?” she tried to yell over the din of chaos and confusion.

“Olivia, listen to me!” Nina gripped her by the arms and shook her almost violently. “You need to close the rift. You need to focus all your energy and close this rift. Do you understand me?” she shook Olivia again and Olivia nodded. Slowly, she closed her eyes and focused her mind.

At first nothing happened and chaos still ran amok: V guards were writhing on the floor, arching in painful spasms, unable to say anything or to help themselves, and Anna’s still hovered above the floor, flailing her arms and legs. But then, another set of hands touched Olivia’s back.

They were warm and ... familiar somehow. Her first thought was that they were Peter’s but she dismissed that idea almost as quickly as she formed it. They belonged to someone else... someone...

“Olivia, I’m not dead. Don’t be scared. I’m here, I’m alive.”

Erica’s words lifted everything inside of Olivia up and she felt a sense of relief wash over her like she never felt before and suddenly, she remembered what she needed to do. She focused on Erica’s voice, breathing in steady streams of air and then the rift between the two universes closed and disappeared, leaving Olivia with a strange sense of peace: everything was suddenly alright in the world.
The constant feeling of uncertainty that was with her every morning and every night before she went to sleep was gone. Olivia breathed in for the first time, like a new born baby taking in new life. The air was lighter somehow, she was lighter as the universe’s anxiety lifted from her shoulders and disappeared into thin air. She blinked back tears of relief and joy when she realized that everything was finally over.

“What...?” Olivia tried to ask, but she stumbled and nearly crashed to the floor. Erica caught her by the waist and Olivia wrapped one arm around Erica’s neck as Erica hoisted her back on to her feet. “I thought you were dead,” she whispered into Erica’s hair.

“That’s what Anna wanted you to think,” Erica said, holding her close.

Olivia turned her head from the crook of Erica’s neck and stared at the sight before them.

Anna’s was still floating above the floor with something green sticking out of her belly. Blood was starting to drip out of her mouth and her body was beginning to go limp as she slid further and further down the green pole... not a pole, a tail. A female V’s tail had come up behind Anna and stabbed her on the right side of her chest and through her heart.

“Who is that?”

Nina looked at Olivia. “That’s Diana, Anna’s mother.”

Both Olivia and Erica turned to Nina in wide-eyed shock and Olivia slid out of Erica’s grasp and stood on her own two feet.

“So...” Erica started slowly. “The V Queen wasn’t...”

“... the real queen,” Nina said, nodding in agreement.

Diana flicked her tail suddenly, flinging Anna’s body off her tail and away from them and the V bodies that lay on the floor. She landed in the center of the room, blood pouring out of her open wounds. Diana approached her directly and the others followed; Erica and Olivia were still leaning on each other for support.

“Marcus!” Diana called out to the piles of bodies that edged the floor. “Flip her over.”

They all waited as Marcus crawled out from under a body that he was using for protection and even though his arm was beginning to spasm violently, he obeyed Diana’s order and approached the crowed that surrounded Anna. He picked her up by the shoulders and pushed her over on to her back, confirming to everyone that she was dead.

Diana knelt down beside her dead daughter’s corpse; with one finger, she traced the human skin that covered reptilian flesh and looked almost sympathetic. “My daughter was my mistake,” she said to everyone who was watching. “I won’t make the same mistake with the next generation.”

No one had the change to say anything: suddenly the glass celling shattered and another body landed on top of Anna’s. Everyone stumbled backwards and the force knocked Diana off of her feet and she landed behind her on haunches.

“... Astrid?” Olivia asked incredulously.

“Hope you don’t mind my dropping in,” Astrid said smartly, looking up at Olivia and turning to the crowd of people that surrounded her. It was only then that she realized exactly what she was standing on. She grimaced and climbed off of the guard and went to stand by Olivia, picking shards of glass off of her clothes. “Um,” she said slowly when no one said anything, “mission accomplished?”

“Astrid!” Olivia said, gripping her by the arm. “The virus, did you administer it here too?”

Astrid nodded. “Of course. Why...?”

Erica let out a gasp when she realized what Olivia was talking about. Without saying anything to each other, they both rushed towards Diana, grabbing her by the elbows.

“We have to get out of here! If it’s not already too late,” Erica said as her and Olivia dragged Diana towards the bay doors as fast as they could.

//

The streets of New York were flooded with people, all trying to find their loved ones, all trying to get a sense of what was going on above them. The TV news reports were offering the public only fragmented stories of a virus that was circulating the New York mothership and of the so-called planned human evacuation for their safety and protection, still with no word from Anna and Diana was already showing signs of the virus’ affects - her hands started to shake violently.

“What are you going to do now?” Astrid asked Diana when she had the first opportunity to ask amid the chaos that swarmed around them.

“I’m going to take the survivors back to the V homeworld. I’m going to reunite the people under my leadership and I’m going to train my granddaughter how to be a proper queen.”

“Can you all survive the trip?” Nina turned to Diana, who was already beginning to show signs of infection. Diana didn’t answer, instead she looked down at the floor when Astrid took a step forward, clearing her throat. They all looked at her as she pulled another glass phial from the hem of her jacket, only this one had a different coloured stopper from the phials that contained the virus.

“It’s an antidote,” Astrid said looking firmly at Olivia and Erica, jutting her chin out. “Walter and Sydney worked on it after Father Jack asked them to.”

“And this will cure my people?”

Astrid nodded. “It’ll counter act the virus and the cortexiphan’s affects on the V’s DNA.”

“How fast will it take affect?” Diana asked, taking the phial from Astrid’s fingers.

“As quickly as the virus did, they told me.”

Diana nodded. “Thank you, my dear.”

“What about the Vs who want to stay here?” Erica asked, thinking about Ryan.

Diana thought for a moment. “If they want to remain on Earth, I have no objection. I suppose there may be some issues with your government, but if that’s the life they chose to lead, I will not stand in their way.”

Erica nodded, satisfied with the answer as Walter came running towards them, calling out Astrid’s name. She turned and broke out into a huge smile. Excitedly, she stood on her toes and waved as ferociously as she could.

“My dear,” he said huffing and puffing when he finally found them. “I’ve been worried about you.”

“About me?” Astrid asked, grinning slightly. “I’m fine Walter and so is Olivia and Erica and everyone else.”

“The... the virus...?”

She shrugged one shoulder. “Worked like a charm, just like you said it would.”

“How is everyone else?” Erica asked Walter, who looked slightly surprised at the question, as if he only saw Erica until that moment.

“Everyone else... oh! Oh, they’re fine. I think... yes, they must be. I left them at that basement compound. I don’t know where they are now... but I don’t think there were any other causalities, aside from the infected Vs.”

“How about the universe, Walter,” Olivia asked. “Will the universe still collapse around itself, Walter?”

“I suspect so, but now on its own time perhaps.”

“That’s a battle for another day,” Astrid pulled her cap off her head, shook out her hair and let her curls dance freely in the wind. “C’mon, Walter. Let’s get out of here.”

“Oh, do you think that ice cream parlor is open?” He asked Astrid excitedly, trotting after her with a huge smile on his face.

“A few hours after the almost-apocalypse? Yeah sure I do, Walter. Sure I do.”

“She should get him a plate of home made cookies and a glass of warm milk,” Olivia mumbled to herself.

Erica smiled and shook her head as the two left her and Olivia standing amidst the chaos of the city’s recovery.

“What do we do now?”

Olivia didn’t answer her right away; she turned around in a slow circle, watching as the last of the V ships disappeared into earth’s atmosphere, as the people who stood watching slowly went back to their daily lives, as Erica stood unmoving on the sidewalk.

“I don’t know,” she answered slowly but honestly. “Try to put the universe back together? Go back to our lives and...” she paused for a moment and looked at Erica squarely in the eyes. “Try to start over, I guess.”

They both looked away from each other, but one hand brushed another and soon they were squeezing each other tightly, holding on for dear life, for the lives worth living.

Epilogue

Apologies meant everything in a world of broken hearts and betrayals; the casualties were hearts, bandaged and nursed to stop the bleeding. The hurt, once drawn out and excruciating, was but a distant memory. Healed from betrayal, new souls made whole soared through the sky with confidence and direction, where the smell of new life permeated the air. Brought together, the survivors walked hand in hand, into their rightful places in the world.