Disclaimer: They ain't mine. They belong to the great maker.
Italics = thoughts.
"According to our best information, this is where she’ll strike next." The younger guard paused, biting his lip slightly. "Mr. Allan do . . . do you really think this can work I mean . . ."
The Security Chief sighed eyes closed, "I don’t believe that she could go that far. I just don’t."
"What if… well, what if you’re wrong sir." They were passing through the Earthside medlab facility. Going away from the cryo storage.
"Then heaven help us all." Everything hurts. Lyta, don’t do this. I know you’re better than this. "Are the units in place, just in case I’m wrong?"
"Yes sir."
"Good." Zack finished a few final details before he turned down the corridor toward his temporary quarters. I don’t know why I even try to sleep anymore. At best I lay there staring at the ceiling. More often, the nightmares. Lyta…. Don’t do this. Wake up; please Lyta, just wake up from this rage.
A few brief hours later his suspicions were proven correct, both in that he would be unable to sleep, and that Lyta Alexander would be coming to attempt to destroy the shadow altered telepaths. And anyone else who got in her way. And that is where I come in. I keep hoping I’ll wake up. That this’ll just be some really twisted nightmare, maybe from a pepperoni and broccoli pizza or something.
"I made myself clear, no one else is to come in. No matter what."
The assembled personnel, Earthforce guards and a smattering of medlab doctors and technicians, glanced at each other momentarily. After a few moments one stepped forward, saying what was likely running through all their minds. "Chief Allan, if you’re wrong . . ."
"Then you let her pass. If I’m right she’ll turn and leave, if I’m wrong . . . then anyone in her way will be throwing away their lives. Am I clear?" This last was spoken in a low growl.
And that’s how I got here. Zack was perched on a crate in the medlab. Waiting. Praying. Praying with everything he was that she wouldn’t come. There was the soft swish of a door sliding open. Damn.
"Well, Zack, it’s been a long time." He could hear the hard clacking of her boots. It went well with the cold voice.
"Lyta. It’s been a long time. I hear there’s a good pizza place nearby."
"Forget it Zack. You know why I’m here. Get out of my way."
He stood to turn and face her. God, I still love her. Even after everything. Even after what I know . . . "You know I can’t let you do that Lyta. Those people in those tubes never wanted the implants. Hell, Steven’s almost figured out how to take them out safely."
"Irrelevant. They are a threat to me and my plans."
Zack took a few steps forward and grasped her hand. "Damn it Lyta, listen to yourself. This isn’t you. This isn’t the woman who has the strongest set of ethics that I’ve ever met!" She pulled sharply out of his grip and glared at her former friend while he continued. "You sound more like a Vorlon then yourself, it’s like all of that programming is taking hold and you can’t see it."
"And what the hell do you know about not being in control of yourself? Get out of my way Zack, I’m going to get rid of that problem. If I have to get through you, then I will." The telepath started to step around the black clad Security Chief, when he stepped back in front of her.
"You know I can’t let you hurt them Lyta. They have rights."
"What rights, since when have telepaths ever had rights?" She glared, poking him in the chest.
"Then if you’re going to fight, fight for that, and not to make another Psi Corps!" Zack was beginning to get desperate. Knowing that he had to get through to her. Believing that it was still possible. "Lyta, you’re better than this. I know you are. Please, don’t do this. You’ll only destroy yourself."
"Last warning Zack, move."
"No."
She shrugged, a slow fluid, casual motion. "Fine, have it your way." An instant later he felt the cold pins and needles racing through his mind. It took another moment for him to disbelievingly recognize the sensation. A scan. She’s . . . was I so wrong about her? By the time another moment had passed, he was crumpled o the floor, trying to fight the scan, and at the same time not wanting to. Not that it made much difference. Lyta was able to cut through his flimsy walls as if they were paper. It was a matter of seconds to find the needed access codes.
And for a moment she knelt there beside him, looking at the gentle blue eyes that had once held that warm twinkle, that were now so full of pain. "You really should have stayed out of my way Zack. I would have thought you would know better."
He swallowed once, twice. Bringing his mind into some kind of focus, in the background still aware of Lyta’s mental presence. "I trusted you . . . I really trusted you. Thought that you of all people would never . . . With Byron, I was so afraid that he’d get you killed. When it was all over . . . thought that at least you were still alive, at least I’d been wrong about what would happen if you got mixed up with him." He swallowed again, then looked her sadly in the eye. "Too bad I was wrong about that. I don’t know who you are anymore, but you aren’t the kind, strong woman I fell in love with."
Lyta ripped into his mind quickly knocking him out. But it wasn’t in time to keep from feeling the truth, and depth of his words. And the heart breaking anguish in his soul. A few seconds later she stood, and mechanically moved toward the cryo chamber. She stared for a good minute at the tubes, debating. And then calmly strode forward and switched each one off, one, by one, by one. She didn’t pause for an instant, and when the telepath had finished she calmly, coolly stepped over the fallen security chief and left.
Everything hurts. It feels like a six-day bender, and someone has taken a hammer to my head. Slowly his memory returned, and the bright light in front resolved itself into Doctor Steven Franklin shining a light into his eyes. "How do you feel Zack?"
"You know what’s happened by now, guess."
The doctor sighed, "That wasn’t what I meant, physically how do you feel?"
"I hurt, everywhere, ‘specially my head."
"If it’s any consolation, you’ll be alright in a day; and just a bad headache till then." Zack only grunted a response, too worn to try to speak. But after a moment’s debate, he did so anyway. "Did it work? Plan B."
"Yeah, as far as we’ve been able to tell, she never looked into the tubes after she finished with you."
"What was Caroline’s final decision?"
"If it had just been her, she’d probably have tried for a last minute miracle, but with the baby . . . She decided she wanted it raised out of the Corps. Even if it meant not ever seeing Bester again."
"Somehow, I’m not surprised."
"Zack . . . maybe Lyta saw what your backup plan was, maybe . . . she decided to play along with it. Give them an extra bit of help . . ."
The Security Chief rolled over, away from the doctor. "She didn’t know. She believed she was killing them. The Lyta I knew died a long time ago."
Franklin tried for a few minutes to find something to say to ease the numbness enveloping the younger man. After a while though he realized that there was nothing he could do. And simply rose and walked away, to leave Zack in some peace.
He didn’t see the tracks of grief born tears on the other man’s face.
Zack . . . ‘I don’t know who you are anymore . . .’ ‘The kind strong woman I fell in love with . . . ’ Lyta was sitting on her bed, thinking and staring silently at an old style 2-D image. I attacked Zack…. It had to be a lie . . . how could Zack ever have loved me?
But he did, didn’t he? You could feel the truth in his words. And now? Now . . . now I can’t feel anything. A part of me wishes I could. A part of me wants to go back, kiss him, hold him, love him . . . But I can’t. I feel like a shell of a person, all I can feel anymore is the destruction. Even if I live through this, he’ll never speak to me again, and I’d never be able to face him.
There was a dull rap by the curtain that separated her room from the rough-hewn hallway. Lyta closed her eyes, she didn’t need to be a telepath to know that it was her aide, come to tell her that they were almost finished with preparations to move against Psi Corps HeadQuarters. "Ma’am, if you’re ready . . ."
"Yeah Max, in a second." Lyta stood, looked at the image in her hand one last time and then harshly threw it into the fire, guttering in the wall. The aid paused, and curiously glanced at the quickly burning image. He saw a dark haired, warm blue eyed man and Alexander, who was actually smiling, before the image became on more cinder in the fire.
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