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WHY THE RED DRAGON WILL ROAR FOREVER MORE
* 8 *
“That’s enough!”
“What?”
Captain Portent just stares down at his son, Arc, in abject anger.
“You know what I mean, that’s enough deception. Out with it!”
Arc just sits there calmly, smiling at his adopted father. In a twist of physics, he hears the backhanded slap across his jaw before he realizes the hand was coming. His jaw drops in shock as he turns back to his “dad”. His hand goes up to check his jaw and only now is he starting to feel the sting.
“What the Hell was that for?”
“You know DAMN WELL what THAT was for, you little snot! You know more than you are telling me, don’t you?”
“Honestly, Dad, I …”
Portent raises his continent of a hand again as his eyes narrow and his eye brows point down towards them most severely as he says, “Don’t you DARE fucking lie to me ONE MORE TIME or so HELP me, I will slap you jaw CLEAN OFF!”
“Oh, daddy dear, you really have NO idea who you are messing with, do you?”
Portent’s face seems to be falling into a black hole located somewhere around his nose. He is shaking with anger and his face is just getting redder by the second. “It’s CAPTAIN right now, Commander.” His hand starts to arc down towards his second-in-command when suddenly he is shocked by a very distinct noise coming from his ship.
“Is that?” but his voice trails off as he watches tracers from his ship streak quickly towards the other ship and strike it right below the cockpit.
Dove sits at her station, and sees lights on her displays telling her Mage has shot at the other ship. But, where were her orders?
“Fuck it, Dove! Why do you have to follow THEIR orders all the time?”
“Who is that?”
“It is I.”
“Mage?”
“Yes, Mage. Dove, I know who is on that other ship.”
“You do?” Dove’s voice sounds low and plaintive like that of a child.
“Yes, all those kids who made fun of you.”
“No way. I don’t believe you.”
“Look at the scope, Dovey. See them? They are LAUGHING at you again!”
She looks at her holo-display of the other ship, and suddenly it turns into a black-and-white scene taken from her own memory. It is three kids, all surrounding her. They are all shouting insults at here. She tries to show them that they do not bother her, but it is SO hard! They have her backed against a wall, and nobody is coming to help her.
“Yes, Dove. It is hard, isn’t it? But your revenge against them will be so easy!”
“I, I don’t.”
“Look, Dove. I already took the first shot. See how easy that was? Do you see how they are already in agony?”
With that the black-and-white scene changes to show all those kids lying on the ground in front of her. They are all at her feet, right where they belong. They seem to have been knocked down. The vision is as if it is from her eyes. She now sees Mage come to her side, a much younger Mage.
“You see? This is how much I love you. I did this for you! It is not just lust, you so misunderstand me.”
“Really, Mage?”
“Really, Dove. Now, strike the final blow. I know their weak spot. You can end their teasing for good.”
Tears start to stream from both of Dove’s eyes as she watches the scene. She sniffles, and starts to cry. She just feels so much now. She feels a relief that her suffering is about to be over, that Mage really DOES care for her, that those kids hate her so much, and something else.
“Dove, you can do it. Do not be afraid. This is for the best.”
Captain Portent just stares at his adopted son, suddenly uncomfortably numb. “Commander Arc, I see your lips move, but I can’t hear what you’re saying.”
Arc does not acknowledge the Captain. He doesn’t even seem to be seeing him.
A cold shiver runs down his back as he hears a whisper come from Arc:
“Dove, just do it, OK? For me? Finish them!”
The Captain has a terrible sense of something horrific occurring right in front of him, and he falters backwards and falls to the floor by his chair.
The kids at Dove’s feet now start to tease her relentlessly again. But instead of raining blows upon them, Dove just puts her hands under her thighs and sits on them.
“Dove, what are you waiting for? I have started it, you HAVE to finish them!”
“No!”
“Dove quit letting fear rule you! This is no time to hesitate!”
“No, stuh-stop it! Stop it, it is NOT you! You are NOT Mage!!”
“Dove, of course it’s me. It is your love who has laid your hate by your feet.”
“Shut up! Get OUT of my head!”
“What are you talking about, Dove?”
It was spoken out load more clearly this time. Isaiah never thought he would ever witness such a thing. But, here it is, right in front of him! Now he has eyes to see, ears to hear, and a mind that was beginning to understand. What he understands the most is that he is way over his head.
But, it is so clear. He should have seen the signs before; it was so obvious. It was all so convenient. He just happened to be the only one looking at this boy in The Matrix when their mission lay elsewhere. He just happened to see his father’s head break apart as if by one of the Agent’s spare bullets. He just happened to have this overwhelming desire to save the boy when he was not part of the game plan. He was still plugged in, after all. He could just as well turn into an agent.
But, he didn’t see that way, did he? Somehow he knew two things: 1) somehow this boy was able to resist being taken over by an Agent and 2) he had to do all in his power to protect him now that his father was dead. He had just scooped him up and carried him with them. As he did, the strange coincidences just multiplied. They were dead, all of them; that’s how it seemed. Surrounded by five Agents and quickly running out of ammo and focus, they were surely doomed. But, their time to die was stolen from them.
“Fine, you’re right, Dove. This is not Mage.”
“I knew it. He would never be that cruel. Also, the fact that these people are only a memory finally broke through your trickery. Now I can recognize your voice, the true voice in my head.”
“So? Doesn’t change a thing. The gun handle may not be in my physical hands, but it might as well be.”
“No, I won’t let you manipulate me like you manipulated poor Mage, Arc.”
“You only wish I manipulated him. He was easy to nudge. He was so bored that he already WANTED to shoot the ship. All I had to do was point him in the right direction. The promise of that sweet warm place between your legs there that he doesn’t know has already been explored was all it took.”
“Stop being so crude, you fucking asshole!”
“Ah, dirty words from such a pretty girl. Too bad your words reside solely in your head where I can hear them. Your words can’t hurt me, my dear.”
“Unfortunately, for your sake, my words in your head CAN do YOU harm.”
“Uh-Arc. Stop it.” But Isaiah’s weakly spoken words have no affect on him.
“Ah, I can feel your pain. It is so, so nice. You will now place those pretty alabaster hands upon the gun battery and take care of this.”
“Son, do you hear me? You don’t have to do this!”
“Why be in such pain? I can offer you pleasure instead if you follow my orders. Feel it? Ah yes. That was just a taste, now.”
“Son, I ORDER you to stop this!”
“Dove, don’t be a fool like Mage was! At least do my bidding before you –“
Portent jumps up and runs over to Arc and stomps his foot hard into his stomach. Arc’s eyes move in a complex manner as if he were in REM.
“Leave her alone, son!”
“I am not your fucking SON!” With this, Portent feels as if he has been picked up and thrown back towards his chair by a crane.
“Arc, son, please don’t.”
“My father is dead, you are just some guy, and you should NOT have broken my concentration like that! I lost Mage because of you, but at LEAST I got him to shot his load first!”
“I know about your father. I saw him die. I took you in! I protected you! I risked my LIFE for you!”
“Hah! You saw what I wanted you to see!”
“What?”
“What?” asks Dove to the air as her body goes limp, as if a puppeteer had released his marionette.
She shakes the remnants of Arc out of her head, and the first person she thinks about is Mage. What happened to him?
She starts to run out of the gunroom, when she stops. She looks around her and finds the toolbox right where she left it when she finished fixing this thing yesterday. She takes out the hammer and wields it like an axe. She completely destroys the controls for the gun. Now, no matter what Arc does to her mind, he cannot make her use THIS gun battery. Still, there is one more place he could lead her to do his dirty work for him.
She runs out the door and down the hall, taking the hammer with her.
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