The old man opened the overhead hatch, peeking out and back down.
“Okay, here’s the plan. I go first, and you wait for my signal and follow my lead.” he said. The small group nodded. He scurried up and closed the hatch before locking it.
“Hey what the hell?” Dee asked.
“Sorry Kids, Grampa’s about do some dumb shit and get himself killed, and you don’t need to die too. Have fun.” He said through the door.
“What just happened?” Dee asked.
“He’s gonna get himself killed.” He said while looking for another way to that floor. Gizzy stood like a boxer in a ring, worn down and metal exposed, not regenerating anymore, eyes red and drooling like an animal ready to die or feed.
“Hey red… I wanna make a deal.” The old man hollered, holding his revolver by the barrel and hands up.
“Who are you and why do I care?”
“I’m Jack's bastard of a grampa and I don’t give a shit about the rest of the assholes here so we have that in common. You wanna know their big plan, I can save you a world of hurt for a low low price.”
“Don’t you dare.” Gizzy hissed, too battered to move.
“Oh fuck yourself, you’ve always been shitty to me. Now you done got sexy and meaner, you’re no better then her. So here’s what I want. You spare Jack, and you spare me, drop me off somewhere with a sexbot, a gun and some money and we’re even. I don’t require much, just don’t hurt me or my grandson. I owe him for being a shitty grampa.”
“Fine… So what’s their big plan?”
“Kinda tricky actually, you see, Gizzy is just distracting you so they can escape to an emergency pod and eject the clone machine. They got the ship rigged to ram your ship and Gizzy’s just gonna self destruct and clone back. Now I’ll tell you the rest but I want a bonus nugget.” He said breaking open the pistol and slowly removing the bullets, dropping them on the ground and leaving the one soul bullet in the underside barrel most people don’t know about. He snapped the gun shut. “You see, Gizzy’s been talking shit about my gunsmithin and I’m an old gunsmith with old guns that work better then these modern ones.” He said while twirling the seemingly unloaded gun.
“I wanna say something before you kill her.” He said, holding the heavy revolver by the barrel and knocking Gizzy in the head with the grip. “You see, you can’t do that with a light plastic gun, can ya? The weight tames the recoil, it keeps your grip tight, and it feels like a real gun. So even when it’s unloaded, you can still use it like a club.” He said thumping her again and dropping it at her feet. “So you can still use it like a weapon even with the bullets all over the floor.” He said winking at her. “Consider that a gift. Let you die holding a real gun. Maybe you can appreciate the thing better.” He said before strutting off.
“Really?" Vicki said picking it up and spinning the cylinder to make sure there were no rounds in it. She picked up a round off the floor and smiled at him. “And she doesn’t have any more fancy ammo hidden on her somewhere where she could use it? I’m not falling for such a dumb trick old man.” She said, tossing the gun back to him with one bullet. “Load it up.” She said. He put one in the cylinder and looked nervous.
“Put it to your head and die with dignity.”
“Nah. You can have the honors.” He said tossing it back. She shrugged and shot him in the arm. “The deal was not to kill you. I didn’t say I wouldn’t shoot you with your own gun. Looks like regular bullets to me. Pointless and predictable.” She said tossing the gun at the airlock doors. “And I’m gonna kill you anyway.”
“Can I at least pick HOW I wanna die?”
“I guess you did save me some trouble. How would you like to die?”
“Something dignified and quick like a shot to the head. No torture, no blowing me into space to suffocate and piss myself all alone in the void, no setting me on fire… quick and clean. The least you can do is kill me in the warm ship, on my feet like a man.”
“You know what. That gives me an idea.”
“No it don’t.”
“Oh but it does. Gizzy doesn’t fear death… or pain, or a beating…” she said while grabbing her by the throat. “But the cold void of space, alone, slowly dying over days or weeks, with silence and regret. Now that is exactly how she would hate to die.” She said while dragging her to the airlock. Gizzy quickly pinched the gun between her boots and Vicki grabbed one of the hand grips. “Have fun,” she smiled, pulling the hatch and ejecting Gizzy into space.
“Now you don’t fear death either, but you look like you might not take as much abuse.”
“Kill me, and I take my last secret to the grave.” He smiled.
“Or torture it out of you.” She replied.
“Fancy bullets are in my toolkit, behind the jewelers lathe, There’s a box of 30 unmarked, They’re filled with some kind of shit Gizzy made that dissolves organic tissue on a cellular level.” He bluffed “We got guns placed around the ship loaded with them, the plan was if you used them on Dee or Gizzy they’d survive, but reducing you to nothing. We didn’t make hundreds of them for the last stand, we ran out of time. There’s the secret. Can ya just kill me in a nice way for the love of god, you heartless succubus?”
“That’s better. But you seem useful, so you get to live for now. As my gunsmith.”
“I’d prefer the dying option actually. No offense.”
“I know you would. So no.”
“Well you’re just even less fun than Gizzy was. At least she has style to her bitchiness, and you got a boney ass.” He sighed as she backhanded him out cold.
...
Gizzy slowly moved the gun to her hand, still drifting away from the Medusa. She carefully checked the lower barrel and found the soul bullet. She rotated the hammer to the center round, gripping the gun tightly. She aimed for the thark ship, saying a silent prayer to herself and pulling the trigger as the bullet streaked towards the living ship. There was silence, and then a series of flickering pops radiating through the ship, followed by a dim glow and sharp tug on her back as she was pulled into the shuttle, the doors closing as they sped away from the shockwave. The Medusa shuttered and the lights flickered. Vicki looked confused and angry.
“My ship… What just hit my ship?” she yelled, watching it decay and wither, puffs of flame from the inside as the pressure inside and the failing systems breeched to the vacuum of space, the ship dying before her eyes, hundreds of her copies going down with it. “WHAT DID YOU DO!” she screamed at Gizzy, looking for her or some kind of ship.
“Game over” the old man said smiling, missing a few teeth. Jack and Dee rounded the corner, locked and loaded. Dee stepped closer, getting in front of Jack to protect him.
“You lost. Your ship is dead, your army is dead, and we got grenades.” She said.
“You really think ALL the copies would have died in that ship?” giggled Vicki. “I can get another ship, I can make more copies, dozens of them in hours, and those grenades can't stop me.” She said as the other Vicki they shot to shit earlier stomped into the room, regenerated and amused as well. Jack drew his 54 caliber pistol, soul bullet in the chamber.
“Well at least we go down fighting.” He said
“No Jack, you don’t die here. Gizzy died for nothing, Vinn and Nicole are no real threat, those nerds are a joke. The old man is a bastard and your new sex toy will die, but not you. You’re mine.” She said almost sadly.
“You think if you kill everyone I love, that I would even consider loving you?”
“Jack, It’s still me. Vicki. I’m different but I’m in here. I’m still alive, and till death do us part means something. All those years, what we’ve done together, you can’t throw that away. I know you. You know me, intimately and completely. You will understand this new part of me with time just like you did when I had cancer and when it mutated from Gizzy’s CURE for it. You stayed with me, Jack, because you love me, and I’d never hurt you… but these people don’t understand us, they’re not killers, they’re not soulmates, they’re only trying to stop us from being together, because if you free yourself from Gizzy’s lies and control, you won’t serve them fix all their problems. She’s ruined them, poisoned them against me, us, our promises.”
“You don’t know, do you?” he asked.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Know what?” Vicki asked. “Nothing matters now.”
“Gizzy already beat you. You died already, Vicki. The woman I loved died when that evil took over, and you’re just, just an… echo of her trying to haunt me, but you can’t because I can’t love what I don’t remember and Gizzy cut that memory out on the operating table.” He said with a tear in his eye.
“Jack… You can’t kill me if you tried, and you couldn’t pull the trigger. I’m your wife.” She said. His hand shook as he squeezed on the trigger, unable to pull it further.”
“Jack, shoot the bitch!” The old man yelled.
“I can’t… She’s my wife… or what’s left of her.”
“Damnit Jack, trust me, I’m your grampa. I know how the bullets work. If Vicki is alive in there the bullet will kill the Pitch Demon, not her. You’ll kill the monster and every copy of it. If she’s telling the truth, you’ll free her. If she’s lying then your wife is dead and that abomination is going to kill us all. Shoot the bitch, find out the results after."
“So if you’re Vicki…” Jack said staring her down. “Then I’m freeing you and you should want this more then anything. The only reason you’d want me to refrain is if she’s gone and you’re what’s left… or she’s trapped and you’re in control.” He said, tightening his grip.
“Jack… I’m your wife now.” Said a sadly hollow looking Dee.
“I have no choice.” Jack said, pulling the trigger and putting a round through Vicki’s heart, dropping her to the ground with a hole in her chest. He stood silently, stepping closer as the ripple of death sent waves from the ship. She looked up at him, clutching her chest and smiling.
“Jack… help me.” She whispered. He ripped his shirt collar and knelt down next to her, holding her up to feed on his exposed Neck.
...
The sound of Vinn and Nicole following Gizzy into the room got Dee’s attention as Vinn readied the big 30mm.
“Move Jack.” Gizzy growled.
“No.” he said, picking her up. “She’s home.”
“Jack, she’s tricking you, move so we can send that imposter to hell.” Gizzy snarled, fangs out and ready.
“He’s right.” The old man wheezed, as Dee helped him up. “He shot her in the heart. That bullet kills the soul. Not even a god could survive that and if they could, then none of us can stop it. That bullet killed the Pitch. She’s free.”
“Bullshit.” Gizzy said harshly.
“Damnit, I’m the one who makes these bullets, I know how they work. They kill the host and their copies, but if Vicki was still alive in there, she may have survived. The fact that she’s not dead means I was right. I didn’t wanna complicate things on a theory.”
“I want her confined to cryo, full bio scans, in a storage module, set to eject. I want the ship's rockets locked on her bio signature, and I want a detonator collar lined with those bullets around her neck.” She ordered.
“Gizzy… it’s over.” Nicole said looking cathartic.
“I can’t risk it.” Gizzy barked.
“I’m the captain, not some side character. I give orders when you’re out of line, Gizzy, and I’m telling you as someone who was almost consumed by that monster… I can’t feel it anymore. That’s our Vicki. She’s home.”
“You wanna fight me on this?” Gizzy said puffing up, showing her teeth.
“What… You gonna kill me? You’re not gonna hurt any of this crew. We’re family. Confine her to a cell, that’s fine. Run a scan. Scan 30 lightyears for any bio signs of the pitch. It’s gone.” Nicole assured. Gizzy slammed her rifle down, looking pissed and out-bluffed.
“Fine. You wanna risk our lives on a feeling, you’re the captain. If we all die, it’s because you can’t kill anyone and that’s on you. Your instincts are usually good but if you’re wrong, we all die. Risk all of our lives for Vicki, or put her on ice and wire her like a Christmas tree made of death. Your call. I’m out.” She said stomping off as Dee stared blankly at Jack, holding Vicki. She ran off, following Gizzy as Jack held Vicki in his arms, neck bloody and both of them soaked in tears and confusion. Nicole approached.
“Jack, we need to confine her for scans.”
“She’s fine.” He insisted.
“It’s okay.” Vicki smiled. “I’m home.” She whispered.
“But I don’t remember us… I thought you were gone and I had you cut out. I couldn’t go on without you, I’m so sorry.” He sobbed.
“I think there’s a way to fix this.” Nicole said softy.
...
Gizzy sharpened her knife in her bloody lab as Nicole stood at the ladder.
“You have to speak to me, just listen.”
“I’m listening, Captain.” Gizzy said with an almost vulgar inflection on the title.
“We have wishes left for emergencies and I think this qualifies. You want what’s best for Jack, and Vicki was always his destiny. He’s never been right since he lost her, the memory wipe failed, the cloning machine is fucked up now because you and Dee are different, and we got Vicki back. I need you to do this with me.”
...
Nicole and Gizzy sat, looking frustrated. The screen displayed the words “2 wishes remaining” while both of them scratched their heads.
“I don’t understand. We wished for the cloning machine to be editable, with both of us authorizing it in tandem and it just took. Clone machine fixed, easy. Why won't the other one work?”
“It has limitations. Do I know what they are? No. Do they exist for a reason? Probably. I’ve typed this every way I could think of.”
“So time travel is invalid. Making the pitch never exist is invalid because even though it’s dead, you can wish to kill something, and also that counts as time travel. We can't wish for everyone to happy, god forbid that for some reason. We can’t just wish us all to trust and forgive Vicki because if there IS something left in her, we’re totally ignorant and blindsided and fucked in the B-hole.” Nicole pouted.
“Well, memory wipes are clearly not my specialty with the shit equipment we have on the ship, so what if we just wish that everyone except us forgets the Vicki incident and only remembers the pitch itself? Jack and Vicki will never know, and I assume universe altering retcon magic is better than my makeshift brain surgery with hack tools at mending a person’s memory gaps. You and I both know the truth, in case by some chance Vicki is anything other than herself. In fact, we just change the cloning machine to print Vicki from old DNA files and her updated memory. Wish repaired mind, fresh untainted body, there’s no way anything could survive through that even if the soul bullet that kills anything didn’t kill it. That puts us at ease but if we’re wrong… both of us know what she doesn’t and we have the edge.”
“More secrets?” she said sadly.
“Sometimes secrets save people. The truth is not always the right thing to give if it just causes pain and suffering. I rule a moon. Well, other Gizzy rules a moon. I know firsthand that people just want to be happy and the only want the truth if it’s pleasant or they can do something to act on it. If you’re helpless to fix something, people are better off not knowing the shady shit that got them there. You want a happy crew and both of us resting easy at night knowing the thing that almost ruined us is gone? Wish for memory wipes, lie to Vicki and clone her better. Technically she already gave us permission.”
“What? How? When?” Nicole scoffed.
“Back on Delmar, Original Vicki signed the consent form to be killed and cloned back in order to remove her cancer. Page 3 of the consent form states that all clones have the same rights as their original, and that if the cancer returned she would already have the forms to attempt treatment, and if treatment failed, dispose and re-clone. When she signed for this mission she agreed that in the event of death she would be cloned back with potential alternations if necessary. So we have her blessing to reboot her if necessary for medical quality of life and I, as her superior officer and doctor, personally consider demonic possession and murderous blackouts to be a health detriment without treatment, and a cancer on the crew if that needs clarification. A mutated cellular attack on the host and the crew. Jack already consented for the mission and Vinn signed when he was first cloned. Technically the only person here that never signed the forms is you… and you’re keeping your memory. We’re co-op leaders in this. Partners.”
“What about Vicki’s feeding problem… she had that before the possession, we can’t have her feeding on Vinn every day or keeping a prisoner as food.”
“It’s purely psychological, she had no need for it when the pitch was in control, neither did Jack’s birth mother. I don’t have any problem controlling it. Now that I know what causes it, a simple implant mod added to the clones should allow her to control that, and we have plenty of cloned blood now to sustain her medically. Trust me; it’s not that bad when you have it under your control.”
“Okay, fine… type it in, I’ll proofread it.” Nicole sighed. Gizzy typed the sentence carefully and crossed her fingers as Nicole checked for errors or problems in the wording. She hovered over the enter button as Gizzy held down shift, both scanning their thumbprint.
“Gizzy verbal authorized command.”
“Captain Nicole verbally authorized command.” She said before hitting the button. The screen lit up green and a pleasant voice chimed the words. “One wish remaining.”
“It’s done. Last one left. Better make it count.” Gizzy sighed.
“Save for a rainy day.” Nicole smiled. “So I guess we’re officially a family again.”
“I… maybe something less strong than family. I still think the old man is an asshole. He definitely still thinks I’m an asshole.”
“Well, families always have that one set of cousins that don’t get along. They’re still family. He’s Jack's grandpa, and you’re basically his family."
...
“The hell is wrong with you?”
“I don’t know. Something feels wrong.”
“It better not.” Gizzy said, looking exhausted.
“No, I mean… You ever just feel alone?” Dee asked. “Two married couples, an old creep and us, just out here in space? You miss the wife, I just have nobody. You don’t feel that sometimes, Izleena back home with the real… I mean the original you.”
“I feel that every day, but it’s not mine anymore. If I can handle it, so can you. Space is lonely and cold. You’re an old form of life with the dating experience of a teenager. You had your first crush with Zhoren and a taste of intimacy, and he betrayed us and died, and you’ll survive it like we all do. You know why?”
“Because I’m… what, strong like Dee? Find another man and move on like she does?”
“No, because you’re better than her. You saved yourself, you’re part of the team, and you’re willing to do what you have to. It’s called Honor, something Dee never had. That’s the only human trait I respect, and you have it. Humanity without any of the bullshit.”
“That means a lot, it really does, but… does being human mean I have to hurt like this all the damn time?” she sniffed, unable to even cry real tears.
“Unfortunately sometimes, but it passes. Dee, you’re never going to be human, and you don’t want to be. They’re terrible beings most of the time. You’re already better than they are and evolving. Don’t give up because you feel alone. You have a family here. We all lose people.”
“How do you function alone?” she asked.
“Poorly… and with a lot of drinking… which I probably can’t do now that I’m a vampire android. So fucking shit, there goes that option.”
“How did we start off so different and end up so similarly cursed?” Dee asked.
“Because we’re bad bitches who nobody seems to understand. Our awesomeness keeps our friends and family safe and it has a price. We sacrifice for them. It’s honorable but ultimately it hurts.” Gizzy said.
“Is it any better with a friend who understands?” she asked.
“I dunno.” Gizzy shrugged. “I never had a friend who had the same curse.”
“Well…” Dee shrugged. “You don’t still see me as the shitty human I’m modeled after anymore. I don’t see you as the scary monster who hates me. Fuck married couples, you wanna just own being hot single bitches and secretly know we’re just better and we keep this place running?” She joked.
“Sure. Why not.”
“Bring it in, we’re hugging it out. Don’t argue, no excuses. BFFs hug during these kinda moments. I’ve seen it in pop culture videos I watched on 16X speed," she said as Gizzy gave her a butch squeeze and she was almost surprised by the lack of protest or argument. Gizzy felt an odd sense of relatability, hugging this tiny biomech woman. She closed her eyes, allowing enough vulnerability to hug her back.