The strangely haunting echo of Frank Sinatra wafted through the ship, and the sound of a welder spattering behind it.

“Fly me to the moon… and let me play among the stars…” sang Gizzy, helmet up and smoking a cigar as she checked her repairs. “I think that should hold. Ugh, you just never know until you try it though. Can't x-ray the welds and this damn welder is garbage… You enjoying the movie?” she hollered.

“Yeah, I know you’ve seen it over and over, it’s probably pretty boring by now but we don’t have a lot of entertainment. What do you think, you think she’s bored yet?”

“It’s highly likely, given the duration and number of cycles.” Said a faint voice.

“Maybe we should just stop. Once it gets to a point of emotionless repetition it’s just pointless and has no effect. Not like music. You know people can listen to the same song a thousand times and still love it. You watch the same movie… what’s the count?

“One hundred and fifty seven” said the voice.

“One hundred and fifty seven times and it can drive you insane. I think I’ve seen it maybe 4 times just in passes and it’s almost lost it’s meaning and I’m clearly insane or approaching that. But Frank never gets old. I guess it’s the quality and details that matter. What do you think?”

“I have no feelings on the matter.” the voice repeated coldly.

“Knew you would say that. Don’t know why I bothered asking. Probably the insanity building up.” She said flipping the helmet down and welding some more.

“In other woooooords… hoooold my hand.” She sang along, lifting her helmet with tears in her eyes. “That line still gets me, you know. How many times have I tried that now?”

“Twelve” the voice said, getting closer, Dee stepped into the light and stared mechanically. “And it just never works. Doesn’t do a damn thing for me. Because you’re dead.” Gizzy said sadly. “Dead people don’t hold your hand, you just hold theirs till you get tired of waiting.”

“I am fully capable of grasping in response.”

“No… no you're not. Because I’m talking about Dee, and you’re not her. You’re just plastic parts that look like her and she’s dead. So I can hold hands with a toaster, but Dee can’t hold my hand. Ugh, that fucking line hurts every time. I’m gonna stop the video. She’s seen it enough.” Gizzy said getting up and heading to the cargo bay. She stepped into view of the screen hanging on the side of the elevator, the video of Nicole’s last message playing on silent, her final slapping on the glass before the video cut out and it switched to the security footage of Jack's body being drug across the room and Vicki smiling into the camera and returning to the body to feed.

“You done watching the movie?” she asked, looking down and getting no response. “You don’t have to answer; I know you want it turned off. I’m just debating on whether or not it’s still working. You’ve been so quiet for 2 days now that it’s hard to tell if it’s doing anything at all. I don’t know if you’ve gone numb to it or it still hurts to watch because frankly I hate seeing it every time I come in here to check, and if you’ve gone numb and it’s still hurting me, then we might as well just stop moving night entirely. I feel like 2 weeks is enough. Not for mercy, but for my own sake if it’s not causing you physical pain anymore. Your reactions to it just get dimmer and dimmer. Hey Dee… do you think her emotional responses have desensitized to the video or do we keep going?”

“He responses appear to be diminished if not entirely absent.”

"You really can’t even try to sound like a person? Throw a contraction or a fuck in there randomly. Is there really no way you can just… fake it better?” she asked angrily.

“My responses are limited. The crew logs and date have been destroyed completely, the absence of security footage and retrievable data make-.”

“Just say no. Just say; no, you can’t fake it. God, you’re worse than the human Dee they modeled the fucktoasters after. Kinda tempted to… no, too risky. Brain surgery is sketchy enough and you don’t even have a biological reader that could translate Vicki’s brain INTO digital input so scooping out her brain for memory of Dee is just way too unreasonable, she’d just die. And we can’t have her dying unless it’s via the blue bullets because otherwise the copies keep living and we don’t want that. We want them all suffering. So if we’re gonna kill ya, we’re gonna kill all of ya. Just nod if you understand.” Gizzy asked nicely. She sighed frustratedly and reached forward, grabbing something and lugging it up out of the water, tentacles grasping her wrists and almost assisting as she lifted the chunk of flesh. Gizzy stared at it’s eyes, now cold and dull red behind the glass of the mask, air hose leading to the pump, pump humming in the background. Vicki blinked and shifted her eyes upward, the tentacles grafted to her shoulders in place of arms and legs still writing automatically without any real purpose.

“I can’t tell if she’s catatonic or suffering silently. Maybe she’s used to it, doesn’t care, maybe she just doesn’t wanna talk. Doesn’t wanna give me the satisfaction of a response. Are you that stubborn and cleverly mean or are you just brain dead? It’s so hard to tell, she doesn’t even whisper PLEASE anymore. I think we’re done. Dee, what do you think? Is she a torso with automatically moving tentacles and nothing going on upstairs, or is she still suffering in there and just can't communicate it?”

“It is more likely the brain has lost conscious emotion and reason.”

“Fuck. Well I guess that’s it. Vicki… you were an interesting little science project. Shame I ran out of food and had to kill Candice but I got so much meat I had to try something fun, and you did love tentacles and Candice, so this just fit too well to pass up. I kinda hope there’s some of you left in there to say goodbye. I’m going to miss you in a weird way but not for that long. Dee. Bring the gun.” Gizzy said as she was handed the pistol and Gizzy casually scratched her head with the barrel, finger dangerously near the trigger. "Gotta make sure got the bullets in the right order. Regular bullet, soul bullet, high explosive. Yep. Dee. I’ll miss you, but honestly I already do, and the fucking toaster just annoys me now. Still, seems cruel leaving you on alone even if you’re a… scrapped together garbage-bot with no concept of sentience. Still feels wrong, but not doing it feels more wrong.” She said shooting the robot in the head and dropping it on the spot with a loud echoing bang. Tears welled up in her eyes a she struggled to stop shaking.

“Your turn, bitch… any last words?” Gizzy asked the remains of Vicki. “No? Well, fuck you anyway.” She said firing the soul bullet into her head and splattering brains and glass all over the tank. “Frank… I’ll just let you play me out. In other woooords…” she said putting the gun to her own head and pulling the trigger with an oddly silent lack of sound.

...

Gizzy opened her eyes, total darkness fading to dim light as the smell of musty cave and water filled her nostrils.

“Fuck!” she yelled, leaning forward from the stone pillars and noticing the waist deep red water flooding the cave and covering the altar. She looked forward and locked eyes with Vicki in an awkward stare, the rest of the crew seemed groggy as well, struggling to peel themselves off the wet stone.

“Okay, nap time is over, everyone move their asses back to the shuttle."

“What happened?” Vinn asked, falling and sloshing into the water, then back up.

"Complicated answer, room filling with high tide, move now, shuttle go go go.” She said helping Nicole and Dee along as they blinked and looked confused. They trudged through the red water, Dee in Gizzy’s arms and Nicole just swimming in almost head deep current to the shuttle, sitting up on a rock for height. They piled in and began lifting from the planet. Silent looks exchanged as jack fumbled with the controls and Gizzy tried to focus her eyes to the light.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

...

Gizzy sat down at the table in the mess hall, still uncomfortable with the exact spot as everyone waited for the explanation.

Well… mission is over. We won.” Gizzy shrugged.

“Excuse me?’ Vicki said

“What we experienced was a shared dream, all our worst fears and nightmares manifested as a shared inception created by the foreshadow the moment he died. Everything was real until Jack fired the shot. Killed the chaos god, and then as he died he hit us with one last fuck you. And none of us need to talk about it because it wasn’t real. Just a shared nightmare.

“Bro, I thought I died.” Vinn said. "I can’t go through that again for the final one. If that was that bad, the final boss is beyond me.”

“There isn’t one. That WAS the final boss."

Nicole opened her mouth to object, confused for a moment. “I thought the book said there were 2 gods remaining.”

“It’s a metaphor, Nicole. The book said one wish left, so anyone could use it to become a chaos god, so the book itself needs to be destroyed to end it. The items we’ve gathered were to find and kill the chaos gods, we’ve killed the last one. Only the wish and the scroll can create one more, so we have to remove the temptation and prevent someone from ever finding it. We don’t get one last wish. We don’t face one last god. The last wish is just something for us to disagree on, that one of us might eventually use to create the final chaos god.”

“That doesn’t seem right.” Nicole sighed.

“It’s right. I need you to trust me. Right now both of US need to activate the book, so we need to separate, so it can’t be used. I need to take it alone and destroy it. The book, the quill, the last raven’s feather, the imposter blood. Everything needed to make a chaos god in on this ship and we’re all tempted to use it. Eventually one of us might.”

“So you’re leaving us?” she said looking sad.

“We’re all leaving you two. It started as you and Vinn, and that’s what it comes down to. Jack and Vicki came with me to complete the mission, and we’re going home with Dee. You and Vinn take the Medusa and just go onward. Wherever you want. You can even print a maid-bot again. Live the adventure you always wanted to with your husband, no more death and cloning and nightmares. Go to the planets on the charts, the adventures you had in mind when you went into space on this ship, and before we fucked it all up. We’ll finish the mission, destroy the items, and prevent the last chaos god from existing. That last symbol is potential, not literal. Mission accomplished. Easy. We go home, and on the way we throw the scary ring into the volcano it was forged into, and all is better. Except it’s a book and quill, and the volcano is a black hole.”

“Just feels like saying goodbye. We’ll miss you.”

“We knew it would happen, eventually. You either complete the mission or die trying, we did the dying and trying, and now the mission is over. So back home we go.”

“You can’t stay?” Vinn asked.

“No. Sadly, we need to take a lot of information back home, artifacts, our memories, and the cloning machine. It’s too dangerous to leave them on the Medusa, so it will be taken back. You’re back to where you started, pirates in space. With a story to tell and your own little new adventures for just you and Vinn. A happy one, without ancient gods, vampires, abominations and professional killers. The Medusa’s list of tasks is done. Just have to part ways, burn the list and return home. That’s it. A little anticlimactic but that’s how these go sometimes.”

“Well, I guess that’s it. We just get you another ship and send you home. It won’t be the same without you.” Nicole smiled.

“Hopefully not, we made it horrible. You’ll find new friends, go on fun missions, vacations, no more doom and fate and nightmares. The last nightmare just ended."

...

Gizzy stood at the launch bay of a very foreign shipping yard, staring at an old cargo ship called the “Translation Failure 33.” Nicole gave out hugs and Vinn made his rounds as they loaded the crates from the Medusa to the new ship. A few tears were shed as they waved goodbye to the Medusa, lifting off as they closed the rusty doors to their new ship.

The four of them made their way to the humble central meeting room around a navigation table. Dee seemed oddly excited, but the others seemed unhappy to be going home.

“Why haven’t we taken off yet?” she asked as everyone looked darkly serious.

“Because I lied to them.” Gizzy said bluntly.

“What do you mean?” Dee asked. “We’re going home, to your home moon and we won, we just have to drop off the evil book and quill and then easy peasy, like you said right? Right?”

“It wasn’t a dream was it?” Vicki asked.

“No. He’s a foreshadow, not a dream shadow. That wasn’t a final fuck you of a dying god, it was a glimpse of the future as a warning. The foreshadow wanted to die. He was the last of his kind, he helped us find what we needed and he helped us see the truth.”

“What… that were all gonna die?” Dee chuckled nervously. “That can’t be right, we left Vinn and Nicole so Vinn doesn’t get shot, Jack doesn’t get riddled with guilt and Vicki doesn’t kill us… right? Vicki wouldn’t kill us all…” she said scooting slightly further from her.

“Vicki and I lived a little longer then you guys did, didn’t we?” Gizzy asked as Jack and Dee got nervous.

“Yeah, we did. We had some bonding time.”

“But it was just a dream. There’s no more chaos gods left, what am I missing here, are you two about to fight to the death or something.”

“No.” Gizzy said calmly. “But we both know the disturbing truth that there could always be another chaos god and either of us has the potential to become one. Even Nicole, the purest of heart, wasn’t immune to it. The items we have need to be destroyed, and the temptation both me and Vicki have to embrace that power.”

“Yeah.” Dee shrugged, with a nervous smile. “We throw the book into the black hole. No more chaos power.”

“We’re both past that now. Vicki is just another dose of radiation away from going out of control, and I’m just one traumatic death away from becoming the god of vengeance. ALL the artifact need to be destroyed, because they all contain some of the chaos gods remaining power, and both me and Vicki are marked for it. We have been since the beginning, and now we know it.”

“So we destroy ALL the items and get Vicki some radiation medication and get you some chill pills. What’s the problem?”

“There’s 2 problems. First off, me and Vicki know too much; we’re too corrupted to be trusted anymore. She can always turn on us, and I can always turn on her. If she turns on us, I’ll kill her, and Jack doesn’t survive without her. If she kills Me or Dee, Jack will never forgive her. Either way, one of us snaps and Jack suffers the loss. The other problem is you.”

“Me? What did I do?”

“You’re one of the artifacts. The very thing that gave you life and sustains you is a weapon powerful enough to destroy worlds, and if me and Vicki aren’t tempted, someone else might.”

“So we have to kill… me.” Dee said. “Are we going to like, wake up back at the altar room or something?”

“No. This is the way it was always supposed to be. I’m not the original Gizzy, I’m a different entity, something built and designed to do the mission and run out of time. Vicki was corrupted the moment she was cloned outside the protective shielding of Delmar. Jack is a copy of a man who dies on missions and gets cloned back home. None of us can go back home, duplicates, broken versions of ourselves meant to be temporary, and unfortunately Dee, you are made of the very thing we came to destroy in order to save the universe from it. None of us can go home. We’re all live weaponry with a cloning machine that can print more of us, powered by the very book we have to destroy.”

“Okay wait,” Dee said with a broken look in her eyes. “You promised both of us were going on another mission when this is over. You said you weren’t gonna leave me, and that we were gonna go on an adventure together and you promised."

“Dee, in a way we will. Just hear me out. I don’t wanna lose you, and you don’t wanna lose me.”

“But we’re gonna.”

“Yes and no. I’ve copied our memories and sent them back home to Delmar. The Gizzy there has instructions to bring us back, you exactly the same, without the AI cube, and me as I was before this. So I’ll be physically different but the same me, I’ll remember us, and we’ll be together again. This is just where the body dies and the story ends. The greater good continues, and the universe is saved, what we’ve done echoes eternally. But these bodies were always finite. The body is temporary.”

"So like, we just wake up home and everything is fine?”

“In a way, yea.h We just have to die first.”

“No, why? That’s not fair.”

“Because I already made the necessary adjustments, and Gizzy back home has the technology to make us without the broken pieces, memory fragments removed, traumas we don’t need haunting us, just the essence of you and me. The copy is sent, but the originals, us, right now, we don’t just disappear. Dee, we’re already on Delmar getting ready for our adventure together. But unfortunately, the part where we still exist here is the problem. So this last bit of us has to be erased.”

“What about Vicki and Jack, don’t they get sent home?”

“Honey, they never left home. They’re still there, just like the original me. I’m only sending you and my memory of you there. Jack and Vicki don’t want to remember this hell, they knew that when they signed up and so did I, I just didn’t know I’d find someone like you I can’t lose, so I’m saving you.” She said as Dee snuggled up for a hug.

"So we’re not going home, we already are home, and the dangerous part of us is what’s left here to die… and we have to do that.”

“That’s one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is that we won. You escaped your world and saved countless lives on a mission to take out the most evil things the universe has to offer… and all we have left to destroy is… that crate… me, and Vicki. Jack, Dee, I want you two to take that crate into the cargo hold and each of you secretly make up a random passcode, and then DNA command lock the crate so me and Vicki can’t get into it. After that we just… head into the black hole together."

“You could have just lied to me and said the black hole takes us to Delmar.”

“You’d know I was lying.” Gizzy sighed.

“We all would.” Vicki said.