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CF/FF: HEART’S DESIRE, Prologue "Epitaph" by King Crimson, Lyrics by Peter Sinfield, courtesy of Rytalin The wall on which the prophets wrote
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ He walked in the shadows, stirring the dust of a former empire of power with his boots. Almost nothing remained, only shattered remnants, charred debris, memories, and the unquenchable thirst for retribution. The cavern echoed with his footsteps, and he drew his long leather coat close about his body against the gloomy chill. Once again he wondered at this choice of a meeting place, a choice he half suspected was designed to taunt him with his defeat. But he was nothing if not pragmatic. Someday, very soon, he would avenge that humiliation and achieve his greatest goal. She waited for him at the far end of the cavern, seated on a broken stalagmite like a queen on a throne, surrounded by her trolls. He wrinkled his nose. Why she chose *them* as minions was beyond him. At least clones, however poorly made they might be, didn’t smell. He stopped a few yards away from her. “I am here, Grandmother,” he said, “as you requested.” She regarded him through odd, blind-looking silvery eyes, and he wondered yet again how old she really was. She crouched on the stalagmite, wrinkled and rickety like some old toad, looking in fact as if one good breath would blow her away. But she was ancient evil personified, and by all accounts he should be afraid of her. He was not. The only thing he had ever feared was failure. And hadn’t his mentor always told him that there were many kinds of evil in the universe? One could easily counter another. Still, he should be cautious with her. In her way, she was more powerful than he. “Thank you for coming,” she said. “It was brave of you to come alone.” “Not at all. Actually, I’m curious. Why did you choose to meet here?” he asked. “It seemed most appropriate,” she said. “And besides… it is secure.” He snorted. “Secure! You see what was done here. Hardly what I’d call secure.” “It’s almost inaccessible. No one would wander here by accident. Their memories are so puny, they probably don’t even remember this place.” “No. I’m assured that at least *some* of them remember.” She smiled, an evil grimace that gave pause even to him. He glanced at the small coterie of trolls. They kept their eyes trained on the uneven floor of the cavern, or on the walls, or anywhere but on these two fearsome beings who had met in this forsaken place to discuss the future. “Yes. I can see that gives you great pain,” she said. It was his turn to smile at the wizened old creature. “As my mentor taught me to be,” he said, “I am very good with pain.” She raised her eyebrows and her odd, silvery eyes regarded him coolly. “Giving? Or receiving?” He shrugged. “They are two sides of the same coin. Where they meet… is the joy.” “Hm.” She grunted. “I could discuss the metaphysics of *that* with you endlessly, but we have more important business at the moment. There is something we both want, and together we might have the means to achieve our ends.” “Which is?” “Put bluntly, you want the Lexx. I can help you get it.” “The Lexx,” he said dreamily. His heart’s desire. “Yes. What power I could wield with that in my possession. I find it difficult to believe that you do not desire the same for yourself. Else why ask me here?” She waved her hand dismissively. “I have no use for the Lexx. I have no need for it. What I need is far more ephemeral and far more satisfying. If I give you the Lexx, I will at the same time achieve what I have coveted for more than six thousand years.” “A soul.” “Not just any soul. *His* soul.” He frowned. “Your cravings are difficult for me to understand. This obsession with a single soul, for instance, which… if you’ll forgive me… may not even exist, as its supposed possessor has been dead these many millenia.” She closed her eyes and lifted her face, her expression becoming one of longing and ecstasy mixed. “I am Mania, the Grandmother of Ghosts, the Eater of Souls. His soul exists. I can *feel* it… just there. Just out of my reach. For six thousand years I’ve pursued it, always close enough to feel, to taste… never close enough to touch.” She opened her eyes. “I will never be able to take it by force. Therefore I must approach it by indirection.” “And the longer you covet it, the more it holds you in its grasp.” She smiled her icy smile at him again. “But that is the pleasure… the *joy*.” He turned away. She had caught him in his own web. “Why not just take the souls that are here?” he said. “Surely they’re as powerful, and there are so many.” “There will be time for them. But first, I must have the source. Without that, I will never know complete satisfaction.” She tilted her head quizzically. “Oziel,” she said speculatively. “It is the Angel of Darkness, no?” “He was. Until I killed him and took his name.” “Help me, Angel of Darkness. Help me get my heart’s desire.” He controlled a start, unsettled by her use of his own, unuttered phrase. “In return, I will give you the Lexx,” she said, leaning forward, “and with it, you can use the Dark Universe as your private plaything.” “How will you do it?” he asked, curious in spite of himself as to what she had in mind. “You will see.” She smiled her evil smile. “In fact, I’ll throw in an extra gift… a small one, to be sure, but I think you’ll enjoy it.” “There is little else I desire but the Lexx.” “Ah, but that desire is large indeed. Surely, it has room enough for one small joy. And there is one who has thwarted us both in the past, is there not? One with whom you might wish to settle an old score?” Oziel fingered the burn scars on his cheek. “More than one, actually, if you’re speaking of the tribe over all.” “You may have them all. Achieving our
mutual ends entails their complete destruction, does it not? But
first…” She lifted a crystalline orb from a fold of her voluminous robes
and lifted it to her eyes, staring into its milky distances, “…we will
begin with one.”
CF/FF: HEART’S DESIRE, Part 1
DionysusKai, returning from a late night round of troll golf, thought he heard a noise in the passageway leading to the attic stairs and went to see what it was. It was dark and deserted in that part of the castle most of the time. The upper reaches of the castle had been the scene of strange goings-on before, so most of the inhabitants avoided it. But there might be an intruder, and Dionysus thought it best not to take chances. He walked down the narrow corridor, cautiously edging right at the bend just before the stairs, where he stopped. A dark figure stood there. “MyKai?” MyKai stood facing the stairs, silent and motionless. “MyKai? What are you doing here?” His older brother didn’t move, didn’t answer. He stared straight ahead, his eyes seemingly focused on nothing. Dionysus approached him, and laid a hand on his shoulder, causing MyKai to flinch and suddenly turn on him, his brace leaping into his hand as he whipped it up to Dionysus’s throat. “MyKai! It’s me!” MyKai blinked, looking confused, and then quickly lowered his brace, clicking it back into place. “I am sorry, brother.” “What are you doing here?” “I…” MyKai looked almost… embarrassed? Dionysus couldn’t suppress a smile. It would be just like his stoic older brother to be embarrassed at being caught unaware. “I thought I heard something up here,” MyKai said. “I came to investigate.” “As did I.” Dionysus peered down the corridor. “What is it, do you think?” “Ny,” MyKai said, turning toward him. “If anything happened to me, you would watch out for my queen, wouldn’t you?” Dionysus’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “Why... of course, brother. We all would. But what is this talk?” “And if something happened... to her...” Pain crossed his face, fleetingly, “you wouldn’t let them put me into cryo, or keep me animated, would you? You would let me go.” “MyKai...” Dionysus shifted uneasily. “This is crazy talk. Nothing’s going to happen to either one of you.” “I know. But... just in case something did ... promise me... if that happens, you will make them let me go.” MyKai took a step closer to his brother. “Please. I could not bear that pain again.” “A-all right, all right,” Dionysus stammered. “I promise. But it’s stupid. Nothing’s going to happen.” “Thank you.” They stood in silence for a moment, and then Dionysus, completely ill at ease, peered down the corridor. “So. Is it trolls trying to get in, do you think, or just pigeons again?” MyKai turned abruptly and strode away, leaving Dionysus to stare after him. “It was probably nothing.” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The old castle was always full of strange noises late at night: the wind moaning in the eaves, strange creaks and thumps as the ancient structure settled on the shifting earth, odd whispers and footsteps that might have emanated from a completely different part of the castle, echoing under the acoustic vaults and arches. MyKai had never paid much attention to them, since his finely attuned assassin’s ear was able to distinguish anything that sounded out of the ordinary. But this time… Had it been a dream? He was a Kai clone. He didn’t sleep, much less dream. A waking dream, perhaps? He’d been patrolling as usual, prowling the corridors silently, keeping watch over his beloved APEC. When he heard his name called, he thought it was one of them. But there was no one there when he rounded the corner. Nor at the next corner, and yet he distinctly heard someone calling him. He didn’t know how he got up to the attic stairs. All he knew was that he followed the voice and stepped through a doorway into Hell. The scene before him was one of utter desolation, destruction on a vast scale. Presumably it had been a city. Now it lay in ruins, mile after mile of rubble lit by blazes here and there below a dark sky roiling with smoke. Dazed figures staggered through the ruins, looking for a place to lie down and die. Overhead a line of long, square-cornered transport ships made their way out of the atmosphere, headed for… The Cluster? But how did he know? *Why* did he know this? The Cluster no longer existed. Did it? Something in his mind whispered that it did, and that soon he must return to it, now that his part in this destruction was ended. A man stumbled through the rubble toward him. The man’s skin was blackened, peeling, his clothes in soot-covered tatters. He held out his hands. “Help me,” the man moaned. “Help me.” “You and all the people of this planet are forfeit,” he heard himself saying. “I kill you now, in the name of---“ And then he was looking into DionysusKai’s concerned eyes, his brace pressed to Ny’s throat, in the passageway below the attic. Pausing at the door to his chambers, MyKai asked himself: should he tell dgrequeen of this dream? Perhaps it was just an implanted memory, left over from the incident with the soul-stealing orb. Luckily, he hadn’t experienced any holdover from that before now. Those memories, his Father Original’s memories, seemed to have sealed themselves off, or departed, he didn’t know which and he didn’t care. It had to be an anomaly, just a shred of momentary memory expressing itself and now gone. Nothing to worry about. He shook his head, opened the door, and went
in to his sleeping queen.
CF/FF: HEART’S DESIRE, Part 2
Xev stared at the viewscreen, a slight frown creasing her lovely brow. She pursed her full lips, locked her fingers together behind her back and began to pace in front of the bridge, thinking hard. “Are you sure of the signal, 790?” she asked. The robothead eyed her with contempt, but knew he had to answer or she would never leave him alone. “As sure as my devotion to my luscious hunk of love meat. Who, I might add, is far too good for the likes of you.” She ignored the remark, having heard it a hundred times before. “What do you think, Stanley? Should we wake Kai and tell him?” “Why?” Stanley stood on the pedestal, leaning on one elbow. “Why! Because these are his people! At least… the only people he has now besides us. If they’re in trouble, we should go help them.” Stan rolled his eyes. “Right. And get ourselves into a lot of trouble, no doubt, which we have no business getting into. They’re Kai’s people, Xev, not ours!” “They’re ours too! We have clones down there too!” “Well, we didn’t ask for ‘em, did we? I certainly didn’t ask anybody to make a copy of me! No, no, no, as far as I’m concerned, whatever mess those people are in, they asked for it, and we should just...” he waved his arms around, shaking his head, “stay out of it!” Xev turned on her heel. “790. How long would it take to get to where KaiTown is?” “Depending on when you two losers stop arguing, 5 to 7 days.” The robothead rolled his eyes, and then said, “As much as it galls my circuits, I have to agree with the security guard slug. I see no reason to put my delectable, dark, dumpling of death in harm’s way.” “790, we don’t know for sure there is any danger. All we got was a signal asking for our help. If there were real danger, wouldn’t they have signaled urgency?” “Perhaps,” 790 conceded reluctantly. “And they didn’t. So. I say we go see what they want.” Stan’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “I’m telling you, Xev, it means nothing but trouble. Why doesn’t anybody ever listen to me?” “Because you’re pond scum?” 790 offered helpfully.
CF/FF: HEART’S DESIRE, Part 3
The day had opened so overcast and dreary, that all the chandeliers were lit in the dining room where dgrequeen and VisionAri sat having croissants and tea, despite the fact that it was midmorning. Most of the other ladies had eaten and gone, but these two lingered, tired out from having had a bad night. “I don’t know what it was,” dgre said, “but I heard noises all night. Just couldn’t sleep. And MyKai was pacing around, back and forth, back and forth, for hours. Even Zen complained.” “I know what you mean,” VisionAri said. “Kai10 kept checking the windows. I couldn’t get him to settle down.” “You know,” Doffy, who had been passing by, said, “that’s odd. Cowboy was really restless last night, too.” “Uh oh,” dgre said. “You don’t think there’s another solar storm building, do you?” The three looked at each other for a moment in pale silence, and then shook their heads. “Nah. Couldn’t be. Not another one. Not this soon.” But Doffy walked on with a troubled look, and dgre and VisionAri finished their breakfast without another word. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Whispers went around the castle, even through the Newbie Quarters. Everyone was skittish. Dishroom_princess dropped a beaker in her lab, which shattered and cut her leg, causing her to curse and hop around on the uninjured one. When prince_kai tried to help her, she yelled at him, then was immediately sorry, and kissed and hugged him in apology. Lafemmenikita kept oiling and oiling her Glock; when she had it together, she took it apart and cleaned it and oiled it once again, until Techno asked her what was wrong. “Leave me alone!” she screamed at him. “BOTH of you!” she added, glaring at Recon. The two clones looked at each other and tiptoed out of the armory. Together, they decided they would stop by and visit DarkKai to ask his advice about what to do to get lafemme in a better mood. But standing outside Dark’s door, they heard a muffled, and quite heated, argument going on inside, and decided it was better just to pass on by. WOWKai and YeoZaaKai had to break up a fist fight between Kai21 and KillerKai down in the gym, and then they got into an argument themselves over baseball scores, something neither one of them had ever discussed with the other before. There wasn’t even any music coming from angelmay’s quarters, where normally at this time of day, Disco would be practicing and annoying the neighbors with his noise. Instead, gloomy silence pervaded every nook and cranny of the castle except for the moan of the wind outside, and mysterious echoes in the empty corridors. It seemed the whole castle was on edge, waiting for something to happen. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ A wind rose out of the southwest that afternoon, heavy with moisture. The sky took on a greenish haze that darkened to slate along the horizon, and all the trees turned silver with upturned leaves. The stones of APEC Castle shifted together and groaned against the weight of the wind like a living thing, and the moaning under the eaves soon turned into a steady howling. Loose tiles on the roof rattled like gunfire, and down below, a shutter at an attic window broke loose and began to bang madly against the wall. Trolls, foraging in the forest, popped their warty heads up from the underbrush, sniffed the breeze, shivered, and then disappeared into burrows and under logs. A storm was coming. A bad one. Prima Nightwind stood at the open door of her balcony and watched flickers of lightning play along the horizon. At least, she thought to herself, it was a *normal* storm. Nothing to worry about, beyond battening down the hatches. And it might explain the restless activity among the clones, although they’d never exhibited that kind of behavior before when the weather changed. “Something’s coming,” KaiForte said, from the shadows. He stood beside the fireplace where he had built a fire to ward off the sudden chill. The firelight, the only illumination in the room, flickered across his face, giving his serious expression an ominous cast. “Can you tell what it is?” Prima turned away from the balcony. “No. But it’s something bad.” “We should get the conjurers among us to see.” He shook his head. “Whatever this is… it doesn’t want us to see. Not until it’s too late.” “Then how do we prepare?” KaiForte stared into the fire. “I don’t
think we can.”
King Crimson lyrics for “Cat Food” by Peter
Sinfield, courtesy of Rytalin
CF/FF: HEART’S DESIRE, Part 4 Kai10, returning from town, hurried across the courtyard, anxious to get inside before the storm broke. He clutched a small bag containing a box of the best chocolates KaiTown (famous for its chocolate shops) had to offer, a treat for his VisionAri, who had been feeling peevish lately. As he walked, head down against the wind and the whipping dust, he caught a glimpse of another Kai clone crouching alone in the garden near the koi pool Fields-of-Heather had installed just that spring. The clone seemed to be leaning over the water, as if searching for something. “Brother!” Kai10 yelled against the wind. “Come inside! It’s going to storm!” The clone didn’t stir. “Come on!” Kai10 tried again. “Do you want to get soaked?” He squinted in the gloom to see who it was, and when the clone turned, he realized it was MyKai. For just one brief moment, in the flicker of lightning overhead, he thought MyKai’s eyes were glowing silver, but when he looked more closely, they were just the ordinary brown/green. MyKai stared at him and said something he could barely make out over the sound of the wind. “...mothers and their babies...” Kai10 thought he heard. “... no mercy!” “MyKai, are you crazy? Come on!” Raindrops began to spatter the dust of the garden. Kai10 strode over and grabbed his older brother by the arm, hauling him to his feet. “What are you doing? Trying to keep the fish from getting wet?” MyKai blinked, looking confused. He stammered something, and looked around. “Ten! What am I...?” Impatiently, Kai10 pulled him toward the castle doors. “Forget it!” he yelled. “Let’s go!” But they were soaked before they could get inside. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Down in his dungeon, Rytalin set out yet another bucket to catch the drips, and grumbled to himself. He could tell it was raining a monsoon outside. The depths of the castle always leaked when that happened. Luckily, all his Schlemmi posters were on the dry side of the dungeon, but they did tend to pucker when the air got too humid. He hated that. He had the humidifiers going full bore, but he knew it wouldn’t help on a day like today. “I really need to talk to the Council of Elders about getting a new sump down here,” he muttered, as he wrapped himself in his extra woolly shawl, the nice warm one VisionAri had given him for his birthday, and put his earphones on. Soon he was grooving to King Crimson with a glass of shiraz nearby, the miserable weather forgotten. Forgetting himself, he began to sing: “Lady Supermarket with an apple in her basket
knocks on the manager’s door
He was just about to launch into the chorus when there was a loud crash that he heard even through his earphones. Startled, he yanked them off and looked around. A stack of storage crates in the gloomy shadows near the far wall had fallen over, and just out of the corner of his eye he saw something small and gray skitter along the wall. Ack! Rats!? Picking up the Louisville slugger he kept by the bed --- hey, you never knew --- he tiptoed over to the crates and peered over them. Hmm. Nothing there. But he tensed, when something rustled in the darkness. “Okay, rat,” he said. “Your number’s up. I know you’re here. Come out and take your medicine like a man, or I’ll get my friend who’s good with chemicals to come down here and light up your leisure time.” Without warning, a furry gray creature leaped out of the darkness onto Rytalin’s shirt, causing both of them to scream. Rytalin swung the bat reflexively, meeting only empty air of course since the object of his panic was clinging to his shirt. He looked down into the quivering pink snout, not of a rat, but of TheKitchenPossum, who was staring up at him with great, fearful eyes. “They’re here!” she hissed at him. “I can smell them!” “W-who?” Rytalin asked, feeling his jellied knees tremble. “Trolls,” she whispered ominously. “They’re
in the castle.”
CF/FF: HEART’S DESIRE, Part 5
“Something’s wrong with him,” DionysusKai told his brothers. “He’s acting funny.” “MyKai’s always been an odd duck,” YeoZaa said. “Nah,” Kai13 said. “He’s just kind of anal. It’s hard even to get him to laugh, sometimes. That’s just the way he is.” “dgrequeen is always saying he has no sense of humor,” WOWKai put in. “I’m not talking about that,” Dionysus insisted. “I mean, he’s gone all morbid and stuff. Talking about if anything happens to him we should take care of dgrequeen, and...” “Well, he knows we would,” Kai13 said. “We’d do that for any of the mistresses. So what?” “But then he started talking about if anything happened to her, we should put him down. Like a runover dog, or something. He made me promise. It’s morbid, and I don’t like it. It’s like he knows something is going to happen.” “Yeah, and in the garden just a while ago, he was making crazy talk,” Kai10 said, toweling his hair dry as he walked up to the group. “Assassin stuff. It didn’t make any sense.” The brothers looked at each other. “Do you suppose his programming’s gone bad again?” “I wouldn’t want to keep going if anything happened to lafemmenikita, either,” Techno said, shuddering. “I don’t even like to think about it.” “I don’t either,” CowboyKai said, and several of the brothers grunted and nodded. “Yes, but what made him bring it up?” Dionysus said. “Why now?” There was a clatter of footsteps in the corridor, and the clones turned to see Rytalin hurrying up to them, wrapped in a granny shawl and wearing what looked like a fur hat, until they realized from the beady eyes peering at them that it was that awful possum of dgrequeen’s. “Kais!” Rytalin said, out of breath. “Warn your ladies. TKP says there are trolls in the castle!” “Trolls!” The clones exclaimed at once, looking at each other. “What trolls? How did they get in? I didn’t see any trolls! How would they get in without us knowing?” “I don’t know, I don’t know! Just get everyone together! Even if she’s wrong, we can’t afford not to check!” “I’m not wrong,” the possum said, sniffing. She jumped down from Ryt’s head and leaned against the wall, folding her forepaws in a huff. “Check or don’t check. I’m sure *I* don’t care!” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The alarm was duly sounded, and a thorough search was conducted throughout the castle by the grim-faced Kais and their equally grim-faced ladies. They turned up nothing. Even the Kais with special sensory powers couldn’t detect the shadow of a troll. “I think the possum was overreacting,” PsyKai said. “She does tend to a bit of hysteria.” “Yeah, well *you* tell her that!” DiscoKai said. “I’m not.” Lafemmenikita pursed her lips and rocked on her heels, thinking. “Okay, maybe we didn’t find anything, but it’s not a bad idea to stay alert. I’ve had this weird feeling all day. I think we’ll double the watch tonight.” Everyone scattered to their own direction, some casting doubtful or irritated looks at the possum, lounging nonchalantly on an overstuffed easy chair in the Great Hall. No one had paid much attention to her while the search was going on, so she had helped herself to the margarita mix and a good portion of the tequila kept in the kitchen. She burped and hiccuped, and bid them all goodbye with a jaunty tip of her paw. When they had gone, she hopped down and skittered down a back hallway to an unused storage room near the kitchen. She looked around cautiously, her eyes growing blacker and beadier, and then suddenly, she morphed into the misshapen body of a squat creature that was trollish, but not quite. She --- IT --- was a kobold, a creature even more ancient and possibly more wicked (if only because it was smarter) than trolls. It unlocked the storage room door with an ancient key, scurried in, and shut it firmly behind it. Kneeling in the middle of the stone floor, it took out a tiny orb, no bigger than a jumbo marble, and set it spinning on the floor. Leaning down, the creature hissed at it: “It’s in place. No one saw me put it there.” A tinny, crackly voice issued from the spinning orb. “Are you sure it’s secure?” “Of course! I know this castle like the back of my hand, and these people are incredibly easy to fool. This property should belong to the kobolds anyway,” the kobold added bitterly, “not these namby-pamby milksop humans and their clones. But...” “What?” “There was a small problem. I ran into somebody down there. But it’s okay. I fixed it.” There was a momentary silence. “I don’t have to remind you,” the orb crackled, “that we have come too far and this is too important to fail now.” “Don’t worry,” the kobold said. “You just get that army of clones up here on time, and I’ll take care of the rest inside.” “Good. Wait for my signal, then.” “Shall I try to lure the one we talked about away from the castle?” “Very soon. For now, lie low. Do what mischief you can, to keep them off-balance, but do not jeopardize your position there.” The kobold smiled an evil smile and rubbed its gnarled hands together, anticipating what was to come. "I certainly will not," it said, cackling.
"And when I have done with *them*, I will take care of *you*."
CF/FF: HEART’S DESIRE, Part 6 The storm stretched over 1000 kilometers, the product of a warm front moving north, and a cool front moving south, which collided and created a kind of slow vortex centered over the general area of KaiTown. It was likely not to blow itself out for some time, which weather forecasters found unseasonable but not too much out of the ordinary. Everyone complained about the miserable weather, but no one paid much more attention to it than that, except for those few unfortunate property owners near the river who were forced to shore up their foundations. The castle, of course, was impervious to the waters that lapped over the riverbank and into the moat. It had weathered many a worse storm than this. Still, it made flying difficult. Kai had a hard time holding the moth to its course, and he and Xev endured a bumpy ride down to the surface. “There it is,” Xev said, peering through the driving rain. The castle rose out of the gloom ahead like an ancient monster crouching on the riverbank. “You heard no other word from them? Nothing to indicate the nature of their need?” Kai asked, and she shook her head. “No, nothing. I tried to reach them, but communications seem to be out. Maybe it’s the storm.” She pulled the squawker from her belt, and clicked it on. “We’re almost there, Stan. We’ll contact you when we’re settled.” “I don’t like it, Xev,” Stan’s voice crackled out of the squawker. “I just feel I need to say that again.” “I know, Stan,” Xev sighed. “Keep on your toes. Whatever it is may not be confined to just the planet.” “Yeah, and *whatever* it is may not be anything at all!” Kai looked over at Xev. “Stanley may be correct.” “Maybe,” she said. “Maybe not. We *did* get a signal asking for help from them, after all. And besides... we can at least pick up some more protoblood for you while we’re here.” Kai looked down, thinking, but made no reply. “I do not think,” he began, and paused. “What?” He glanced sideways at her. “I do not think... you should put yourself in danger... for my need.” She smiled. “I thought the dead didn’t have any needs.” “That is correct, but...” “Look!” She pointed at something in the woods surrounding the castle. Kai looked and saw immediately what she was pointing out: a number of dark figures moving through the trees toward the castle. He banked the moth and flew back, buzzing the treetops, to get another look. Several of the figures looked up, faces a pale blur in the gloom, and Xev’s mouth dropped open. “They look just like you!” “Clones. I have heard that a number of them were created by those who are inimical to APEC. Recreations of myself made to destroy... other recreations of myself.” He glanced at Xev’s astonished face. “It can be... confusing.” “We’d better get down there,” she said grimly.
CF/FF: HEART’S DESIRE, Part 7 From “Epitaph” by King Crimson, Lyrics by Peter Sinfield, courtesy of Rytalin Confusion will be my epitaph,
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ More than usually sensitive to the unease permeating the castle, MyKai kept searching the castle, even after the others had given up. He noticed their puzzled looks in his direction, even if he did not acknowledge them. Their doubts about him mirrored his own self-doubt, and he prayed that his self-control would not slip and endanger anyone in the castle. On his second pass through the old dungeons, he was stopped by Rytalin. “Do you want to collect your animal?” MyKai dropped his gaze. “What animal?” “The rodent! The possum! She’s sleeping it off back there behind the crates, and I thought dgre might want her back.” “I don’t see why she should,” MyKai muttered, but he followed Rytalin back through his living quarters --- actually, he’d made quite a cozy little place here, MyKai thought --- to the storage area. Rytalin fished around behind some crates and dredged up the limp body of the possum, which hung from his reluctant fingers like a soiled, wet dishtowel. MyKai gingerly took her, sniffed at her, and then grimaced and thrust her out at arm’s length. “She isn’t drunk,” he said doubtfully. “She isn’t?” “She does... smell, as usual... but I detect no fresh alcohol on... or in... her. I do not know what is wrong with her.” With a screech, TKP woke up, and MyKai flinched, dropping her. “Who? Wha...?” TKP sat up, clapping her paws to her head. “TKP!” MyKai said sternly. “Were you in the margaritas again? You know dgrequeen has asked you to cut back.” “What margaritas? The last thing I remember is breakfast.” She groaned. “Ooo, my head! Is this a hangover? I don’t think I’ve ever had one. Especially when I wasn’t drinking.” “You were the one who told me about the trolls,” Rytalin said. “Don’t you remember?” “What trolls?” the possum said, looking irritated. “Yes. What trolls?” said a voice behind them, and they turned to see Dr. Oziel stepping through an interdimensional doorway opened by the spinning silver globe hanging in midair by the back wall. He was followed by several antiKai clones. He shook himself a little, as if shaking off a chill, and adjusted the lapels of his long leather coat. “Feh! I hate interdimensional travel.” MyKai trembled with sudden rage. “You!” Oziel smiled. “Yes. Me.” He turned to Rytalin. “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure.” “It’s Dr. Oziel,” MyKai said to Rytalin. “The one who attacked my queen.” He aimed his brace arm, the weapon clicking on ready. “This was a mistake, Oziel. You’ve stepped into the heart of APEC, and I’m going to kill you now.” Oziel continued to smile, unflustered by the threat. “Oh, really? I would think this is more like the bowels of APEC, rather than the heart. I say, are you going to kill me in the name of His Divine Shadow?” He snapped his fingers, and a beam shot out of the spinning orb, hitting MyKai directly between the eyes. MyKai dropped his arm and staggered back, while Rytalin turned and ran for the stairs, and TheKitchenPossum screeched like a thing possessed and disappeared into the shadows. One of the rogue clones started after Rytalin, but Oziel waved him off. “Let him go. What can he do anyway?” “No!” MyKai forced through gritted teeth, clenching his fists impotently. Oziel smiled and shrugged. “Yes. Struggle all you like, it won’t do any good. I’m here for the Lexx, and I’m going to get it. And you’re going to help.” MyKai raised his face to the stormy heavens
and screamed: “NO!”
*Warning: violence*
CF/FF: HEART’S DESIRE, Part 8
The moth landed in the courtyard, and Xev and Kai ran through the rain to the front doors. The whole castle was ablaze with light, which usually meant a celebration or danger, and since no one knew they were coming, Xev surmised that it was a time of danger. She lifted the huge brass ring set in the door and let it fall, the sound echoing inside the chambers of the castle, but no one came right away, so Kai turned the handle and pushed it open. “Unlocked,” he commented. “That’s unwise.” They stepped inside. Despite all the lights, there didn’t seem to be anyone around. Kai walked ahead of Xev, his left hand on his right wrist, ready for anything. “Is anyone here?” he called. The castle wasn’t exactly unprepared. Kais came running from every quarter, weapons ready. The ladies of the castle also came running, and Xev and the Original soon found themselves surrounded. “Oh, what are you doing here?” Pandora asked. “We’re having trouble now, it isn’t safe for you here.” “How did you get in?” Kai13 demanded. “The front door was unlocked. Didn’t you call for us to come?” Xev said. “We got a transmission from you.” They all looked around, murmuring among themselves. “No one called you,” said revolution9. “We didn’t even know there *was* trouble until tonight.” “It seems trolls have gotten into the castle, but we can’t find them,” Melusine said. “There are trolls and clones gathering in the forest,” Kai said. “They seem to be preparing an attack on the castle.” There were whispers in the crowd: “Who do you think it could be? Could Nadless have come back? What do they want?” “FIRE! FIRE!” Someone screamed from a level above, and as one, the Kais, APEC and antiKai alike, turned and went running up the stairs toward the battlements, followed by Kai and Xev. They were met with the sight of flames shooting across the roof despite the rain, spreading and dripping from the flammable substance that had been spilled over the tiles. KillerKai leaned over and saw an enormous catapult surrounded by trolls and rogue antiKais at the edge of the woods. “Where in the name of Lexx did *that* thing come from?” he yelled at no one in particular, and then ducked as another liquid firebomb sailed over the battlements and splattered over the stones. The Kais pushed the ladies who had followed them back inside, and began to battle the flames. “Kai!” Xev cried. “What can we do?” He allowed himself an instant to think. “We will take the moth and attack them from above!” he said, and they ran back down toward the courtyard and their moth. There was a loud crash above the Kais on the battlements. The catapult had flung a boulder this time, which crashed through the roof of the attic, and through its floor into the room below. The Kais could hear women and FAAs screaming down below. “We’ve got to disable that thing!” Kai21 screamed. “Explosives!” He yanked the lock off the chest where they kept their trollgolfing clubs, only to find that someone had been in it. Every club was bent and twisted, making them useless. The explosive golf balls were gone. Kai21 and the others found themselves staring into each other’s faces over the ruined clubs, suddenly wondering what they were going to do. “Oh, man,” MythicalKai said, leaning over the wall. “They’re tearing up the new ball field. The FAAngels are going to be pissed!” Kai10 didn’t wait. Trembling with anger, he flung himself off the battlements, braking at the last moment with his brace gripping the top of the wall, and hit the ground running. His brace retracted and shot forward almost too fast to see, slicing into the wires that held the catapult down, and it spun wildly, hurling its stone projectile into the wet earth in front of it with enough force to leave a crater that quickly began to fill with the rain. Kai10 didn’t look to see if his brothers had followed, but leaped into the mass of trolls and antiKais, slashing left and right with the brace, oblivious to the blows and cuts they rained on him. His brother Kais had followed, and were killing
trolls, but the fight between them and the antiKais was, as always, a stalemate.
Limbs and heads rolled in the mud, only to be reattached almost immediately.
Kai10 looked back to see more rogue antiKais pouring across the open ground
between the catapult and the castle, and he realized too late that he and
his fellows had been cut off. They would not be able to get back
in the castle now, unless they could dispatch these reinforcements, which
seemed impossible. His heart leapt, as his brace flew. He and
his brothers had been tricked into the open. Now they were being
overwhelmed, and his VisionAri was in there!
*Gruesome descriptions. Be warned.*
CF/FF: HEART’S DESIRE, Part 9
“As a Kai clone, much like the original, you cannot feel pain,” Oziel said to the rigid MyKai held in the torturous beam of light, as rogue antiKais and trolls stepped through the interdimensional door behind him and started up the stairs. “But, as you can see, you can *remember* pain. And I was taught to be very good with pain.” MyKai was looking at the slaughtered and impaled bodies of dozens of victims all about him. But, instead of being the instigator of these impossibly heinous acts, he was himself another victim, pinned to an upright stake with steel darts like an insect on display, a dying example to all who would defy His Divine Shadow. Below him, he saw the pale-faced man in midnight black, staring back at him dispassionately, before adjusting his brace and striding off to do more of His Shadow’s bidding. “Father,” he moaned. “Stop.” The scene shifted, and he was on his knees, begging for his life as the pale killer stood over him. A dozen times this scene shifted, so that each time he was someone else, crying and pleading to be spared, and always the assassin stared at him without mercy before killing him in some slow, excruciating way. Then the scene shifted once again and something even worse happened: he became the killer. Yet he was still MyKai, screaming inside himself not to commit murder after murder after murder, even while he did it. Men, women, children died at his hands, and he could not stop. “Do you remember your invasion of my stronghold?” he heard Oziel’s silky voice in his head, as he walked the pathways of death and slaughtered yet another victim. “I’ve been given the opportunity to repay you for that. And after I’ve done with you, I will have much to say to your queen, and... oh yes, incidentally, I will be paying a visit to that meddlesome faerie as well. In fact...” Oziel chuckled a little, “you can kiss your APEC goodbye.” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Xev and Kai didn’t make it to the courtyard. A swarm of rogue antiKais stood at the bottom of the stairs, holding struggling APEC mistresses; and terrified FAAs, and the panicked Rytalin they had caught on the basement stairs. They stared upwards at the Original in awe and greed. This was too good, they thought. Not only a chance to see the one from which they came, but perhaps to replace his legend with themselves. They grinned with expectation, and some anxiety that this opportunity might slip through their fingers. Kai stepped in front of Xev, his left hand on his right arm. “Stand aside,” he said. “Our friends are in danger. We must help them.” “Not bloody likely,” said the kobold, stepping from behind the antiKais. It spun on its heel, and morphed into the figure of an impossibly old woman with silver eyes. She stared up at Kai, licking her lips. “At last,” she said. Kai looked at her, tilting his head in puzzlement. “Do I know you?” “No, but you shall. I have followed you these many thousands of years, and always you have eluded me.” Kai slowly came down the stairs to stand before her, making all the antiKais tense up. He ignored them She barely came up to his chest, but he sensed the true menace came from her. “You have followed me all that time. Why? Who are you?” “I am Mania,” she cackled. “The Grandmother of Ghosts. The Eater of Souls.” “The soul-stealing orb,” he said thoughtfully. “Yes, I have heard of this.” He might have smiled, if he had not been Kai. “You do know that I am dead. My life essence... which is what I believe the soul to be... has long since departed.” “It’s there.” She held out her hand, almost touching him but not quite, and closed her eyes. “I can feel it. A magnificent soul, alive even in such a one as you.” She reached into her robe and pulled out the milky orb. She held it up for his inspection, fairly quivering with anticipation. “Do you know what this is?” “Don’t touch it!” cried VisionAri, struggling with the antiKai who held her. She stomped on the antiKai’s foot, which had no effect on him, and tried to get one arm free so she could turn him into something suitably amphibian, but he had been warned about faerie powers and held her close. “Take it, Kai,” Mania said softly, placing the orb in mid air, where it hovered. With a flick of her finger, she set it spinning. “If you do, I will release these people unharmed.” “She’s lying!” Fields-of-Heather yelled. “Once she’s got you, she’ll take every one of us!” The antiKai holding her smashed her in the mouth knocking her down. “Your choice,” Mania said. Kai looked with the cold eyes of death at
the antiKai who reached down and dragged Heather upright again, and then
he looked back at Mania. Slowly, he reached for the orb.
*More gruesomeness*
CF/FF: HEART’S DESIRE, Part 10
The APEC Kais and their antiKai allies were bunched back to back, fighting for their own survival now. Some had been hit with anti-protoblood darts and were lying in the mud where they had fallen to flush out their protoblood ports. The remaining APEC Kais despaired, desperately hoping that there would be an opportunity to replenish them, that all was not lost. Suddenly Kai21 pointed and screamed: “Look!” They looked up, and saw a moth swoop down over their heads, dropping bags that split open on impact among the antiKai rogues and trolls, splattering them with some kind of steaming liquid. The trolls vaporized instantly, and the antiKais screamed and scattered, trying to brush the liquid off their skin as it ate into them. The moth made several passes, quickly dispatching those trolls who didn’t run for the hills, and the rogues, who fell screaming and writhing. When it had cleared a sufficient space, it landed beside the APEC fighters. “Okay, fellas, get back to the castle! Now!” Stanley Tweedle and 790 looked out at them from the moth’s interior. “We’ll bring your wounded, as soon as the coast is clear!” “Yes! My delicious deadness is inside that pile of rocks!” 790 yelled. “Save him, immediately! Don’t trouble yourself about the clusterlizard slut, though,” he added. All except Kai10 ran immediately for the castle gates. Kai10 lingered just long enough to ask: “What was that you used?” Stanley gave a tight, smug little grin. “Lexx’s stomach acid inside pieces of his stomach lining. Even a Kai can’t stand up to that, believe me. At least, not *these* Kais. Now go!” Kai10 grinned at him and took off running. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Mania stared hungrily at Kai’s hand, reaching for the orb, hearing but not concerned with the cries from his blonde companion, from the APEC mistresses, nor even the noise of battle in the foyer, as APEC Kais came pouring in from outside. She would leave her antiKais to deal with them. She was but a breath away from her millenia-old heart’s desire. Only a fraction more. Kai reached for it, and Rytalin did the only thing he could think of --- in fact, he didn’t have time to think, he merely acted on impulse. He punched the antiKai holding his arm, yanked off his forgotten shawl, and threw it over the orb. It whipped around with the motion of the orb, spinning itself into a knot, and the orb made an unearthly sound like the shrieking of an engine seizing up. Smoke poured out from the shawl, as it tightened. Suddenly, the whole thing lit up and there was a monstrous outward rush of air and sound, throwing everyone backward to the floor. “Noooo!!!” Mania screamed, engulfed by the light. There was another flash, filling the air with smoke and the smell of ozone, and then they were all lying there staring at the space where she and the orb no longer were. Yelling, Kai10 and the other APEC Kais rushed in, bracing the rogues to pieces, those that didn’t immediately jump up and run for their lives. And those that did met the Original, who grimly dispatched them. The battle was over in less than a minute. The incinerators would be going full blast tonight. “What happened?” Kai10 asked, helping VisionAri to her feet. “Yes, what did happen?” Rytalin said, picking himself up. “How did my shawl cause that?” VisionAri looked abashed. “I - I think... it was the faerie dust.” “Faerie dust?” “Well,” she said defensively, “you live down there in the dungeon, which is no proper place for anybody, and besides I don’t think it’s safe down there, so I... I sprinkled the shawl with faerie dust for protection before I gave it to you.” Kai turned to face Rytalin. “Thank you,” he said. He looked at VisionAri, who would have thudded, if not for Kai10 holding her up with a rather pained expression on his face. “And thank you.” Rytalin blinked and shrugged. “Uh... no problem.” He frowned at the nearly fainting VisionAri. “Next time tell me when you’re going to give me magic stuff, okay? I might have acted a little sooner. Omigod!” The color drained out of his face. “MyKai! MyKai’s in the dungeon with that Oziel guy!” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ “It isn’t real.” MyKai heard the voice of his Father Original through his fear and pain, low and steady, a rock in the tide on which to cling. “These memories are not yours.” “Help me, father,” he cried. “You don’t need me. You have APEC. And yourself.” MyKai saw the future then. In his terrible, painfully clear vision, Oziel stood on the captain’s pedestal in the Lexx, his face lit with evil, insane joy at the death and destruction he would rain down upon the universe in a final cataclysm. It meant that everything MyKai loved was, at that moment, already gone. And at that moment, he knew inside himself, no matter what else happened, that could not be allowed. Oziel’s smug smile tightened as the Kai clone in front of him began to struggle, trying to throw off the hallucinations the spinning orb was beaming into his brain. Why did they not just lie down and die dead-dead, like good little clones? It was most irritating. Oziel glanced at the orb, and wished he had stuck to his own methods. He didn’t know how this evil magic of Mania’s worked, which meant he didn’t know how to increase its power. He sighed, as MyKai trembled violently with the strain of lifting his brace arm upward. Well, Oziel thought, it looked like he was going to have to revert to the tried and true. He reached into a pocket of the coat, and drew out a syringe. TheKitchenPossum, peeking over storage crates, had had enough. It wasn’t often that anything could frighten her --- well, never before in fact --- and she didn’t like the feeling. Not at all. This white-haired character in the leather coat --- the nerve, leather!! --- needed taking down a peg or ten! She leaped straight at Oziel’s head from the top of the crates, yodeling her possum battle cry. Taken by surprise, he yelped as she sank her claws into his head, and began batting at her, dancing around like a madman. She bit a great hunk out of his scalp, just before she launched herself from the top of his head toward MyKai, all four legs extended. She hit the clone squarely in the chest, knocking him out of the beam. MyKai sprawled backwards over crates and boxes, stunned, while Oziel screamed and hopped, unable to see anything because of the blood running into his eyes. Therefore, he did not see the face of death when MyKai raised himself up, lifted his arm, and fired his brace. The evil doctor’s head rolled across the dungeon floor, his last, fading sight the ancient stones of the castle that had once again, and forever, defeated him. “I kill you now,” MyKai whispered, “in the
name of His Divine Shadow.”
CF/FF: HEART’S DESIRE, Part 11, End
From “Epitaph” by King Crimson, Lyrics by Peter Sinfield, courtesy of Rytalin Between the iron gates of fate,
#Are you sure, 790?” Kai said, sitting in front of the crypod. The robothead, hooked up to Micromary’s neural regenerator, made a sniffing noise. “97.9% sure, yes. This subject seems to be resistant to memory erasure. From all indications, he has always been that way, which suggests genetic mutation, therefore not likely reparable.” “What does that mean?” Micromary said, peering into the cryopod through the ice crystals and mist. “My cloning process was correct.” “And we’ve never changed it,” dishroom_princess put in. “We’ve never noticed any problems.” “The fact that resistance to memory erasure is rare among your clones means this particular genetic mutation likely had nothing to do with your process,” 790 said. “Mutations can occur for any reason. We have no way to know how and why they do.” Kai glanced at Micromary. “What it means is... that it is not likely we will be able to remove all of the memories Dr. Oziel gave him.” Xev sighed. “This is very sad,” she
said, glancing at Kai. “If we have to bear bad memories, they should
be our own. No one else’s.”
SciKai, standing beside his mistress, shifted uneasily. “If we can’t get rid of the memories, then I don’t think we should revive him, Micromary.” “Not an option,” dgrequeen said firmly. “If you’re worried about it, lock us in, and I’ll do it alone.” “I would not recommend that,” Kai said. “Nor would I,” SciKai put in. “It took all three of us to get him into the cryopod,” indicating his brothers JustKai and Kai18, “and that was when he was low on protoblood and weak.” dgrequeen looked Kai in the eyes. “MyKai is not staying in cryostasis. That’s final.” He dropped his gaze down and to the side, thinking. “Then I will stay also,” he said at last. “Kai, I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Stanley said. “The storm is lifting finally. We should go.” “You and Xev should return to the Lexx, Stanley. I will bring 790 and the other moth... later.” “Stupendous!” 790 said. “Alone at last with my man!” “Are you sure, Kai?” Xev said. He nodded. “It will be all right... I think. Go back to the Lexx. I will return shortly.” She nodded, unconvinced, but not willing to argue with him. Stanley rolled his eyes and went to open the lab door, scattering a bevy of Stan and Xev clones who had gathered around the door hoping to catch a glimpse of their originals. Stanley shook his head. “This place is just... weird!” he said. “They even made clones of the robothead!” “Of course they did,” 790 huffed, “once they realized their mistake in making clones of you!” When they were gone, dgrequeen went to the cryo panel and began punching in numbers. “You don’t have to stay,” she told Kai as she paused over the last sequence, waiting for 790 to give her the final go-ahead. “You must love him very much.” “I do.” “I am curious as to why. He is a clone, but... like myself, he is not in a living state... as you understand it.” dgrequeen got a faraway look in her eyes. “At first, I loved him for his body,” she said. “Micromary created the clones to be fully functional, and it was wonderful to have such a young, energetic lover. But, as I came to know him, I fell in love with his spirit. He has a great soul, a great capacity to love, and in all of this, he’s completely fearless. I’ve never known anyone like that. I think...” she looked away, and then glanced back at him, suddenly shy. “I think, in that way also, he is just like you.” For once, Kai didn’t look down. He continued to meet her gaze, and it seemed to her that some sort of understanding bloomed in his eyes. Finally, he looked away. “Thank you,” he said. “The programming edit is as complete as it can be,” 790 said. “It’s now or never.” She punched in the final sequence, and the cryopod door hissed open. Kai stepped closer, as dgrequeen picked up the ready canister of protoblood and went to the cryopod. Quickly, she connected the canister tube to MyKai’s protoblood port and opened the valve. “MyKai?” MyKai opened his eyes. First he looked at Kai. Then he looked at dgrequeen, expressionless as she unhooked the canister tubing. “MyKai? Do you know us?” He straightened and stepped out of the pod, staring at her. Then he bent over her, and enfolded her in his arms as if he would never let her go. She threw her arms around him, and together they wept. “They will never trust me again,” he whispered into dgre’s ear, heartbroken. She stroked his hair and held him tight. “*I* trust you.” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ dishroom_princess had restored the injured Kai clones during the night, flushing the bad protoblood out. Troll and rogue Kai parts had been bagged up and tossed into the incinerator. The floors were scrubbed, and plans were afoot to repair the fire damage to the roof. Even the dreadful storm had blown itself out, and morning sunlight kissed the battered old castle with a warm smile. “The danger is not over,” Kai told the members of APEC, assembled in the Great Hall to say goodbye. “Dr. Oziel is dead, but the one known as Mania may still be alive. We do not know for certain, as we did not see her body.” “What should we do?” Strytlr asked. “I do not know what you can do... except remain vigilant. The help that Xev, Stan, and I can give you is... limited. But we will do what we can.” He started to turn away. “You have only to ask.” They followed him to his moth in the courtyard, where 790 waited. He started to climb in, but dgrequeen stopped him. “Wait! You almost forgot this.” She lifted a large protoblood canister up, and he took it and put it inside the moth. “Thank you,” he said. “No. Thank *you*. And Xev and Stan.” “What about me?” 790 whined. “I helped too!” “And you, too, 790. You know... you’re all welcome here any time. You don’t have to wait for danger to come.” She held out a small, white box. “This is for... well, anytime you think you might need it.” He held it, and she thought she saw just the tiniest of smiles brush his lips. He knew nothing needed to be said out loud, but his eyes said everything there was to say. He climbed into the moth, and flew away. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ MyKai watched the leavetaking from the battlements. He couldn’t have borne saying goodbye. In fact, he couldn’t stand to have anyone near him just now. Kai, the Father Original, had talked with him far into the night, while the storm blew itself out. MyKai had learned what he would have to do to keep the memories at bay. But it was going to be hard.
* End *
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