by LARDLAD (ANTHONY E. TAYLOR)
Pru could only sit agape in her hospital bed after the little globlike creature told her what it did. She wondered if some mistake could've been made or if the creature was intentionally deceiving her for some reason. She was too dumbfounded to question the creature further. Instead, she quietly watched as the creatures continued what they were doing.
The seven virtually featureless aliens resumed their quiet semi-circular formation around Lardlad (or was it Lardlad?). Slowly, their small forms began to glow. Pru noted that the glow was very similar to the one that surrounded her and Lardlad (?) when he extracted all the poison from her system. The glow first linked all the aliens then passed on to the comatose patient. The glow seemed to enter his body, and he suddenly looked less pale. Pru saw that the readings on the monitors changed. Even with her rudimentary medical knowledge, she could see that the readings were showing a marked improvement.
Soon, the aliens broke their formation. They seemed noticeably drained but still able to stand. Wordlessly, the seven of them filed out of the room. The last of them, the same that shocked Pru with the revelation, paused long enough to glance at her, as if to plead for her to be understanding and tactful in her handling of the matter. Nonetheless, it paused only briefly and said nothing. Pru understood it's tacit meaning.
The next day, the patient who'd been visited by the seven aliens regained consciousness. The doctors examined him and delighted in what they perceived as a medical miracle. They truly hadn't expected him to live, they explained. Their prognosis was that he'd eventually fully recover but that the recovery would take several months. The patient aknowledged that this was much better than the alternative.
After many tests were run and visits from friends in the LMB, the time came when Pru finally had a chance to speak to her savior privately. For the first time since her hospitalization, she got up out of her bed. She turned on the light, pulled up a chair next to her roommate and said, "wake up 'Lardy'! You've got some 'splainin' to do!"
Reluctantly, he opened his eyes and said, "Pru? What are you talking about?"
"What I'm talking about, 'Lardy', is about who you really are!"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"You know what I mean, 'Lardy'...or should I say 'Pro-D'?"
His face suddenly turned pale again as he realised that she knew. There was a long pause before he got up the nerve to say, "you know?"
"I know," she said coldly. "There was NO miracle involved here. Seven of your little friends came here last night and gave you some of their lifeforce. One of them told me who you really are. Because I owe you my life, I didn't spill the beans. Yet. Now, tell me why I shouldn't tell the world!"
"Okay, Pru...in a way it's a relief to finally tell someone after over five years..."
"Five years? You've been disguised as Lardy for five years?"
"Disguised is not the proper term...I've BEEN Lardlad in every way that matters since I took his form...since he died."
"'Died'? Lardy's dead?" She had to fight back the tears really hard.
"Yes, Pru...he died during the event the media dubbed 'White Twilight'."
"No, he didn't die..."
"...Pro-D did," the erstwhile Lardlad completed her sentence for her. "That's what the history books say, anyway."
"Yes," Pru remembered, "it was reported that Pro-D sacrificed his life to destroy the Entropy Spinach and prevent it from devouring the sun! That was when Lardlad decided to quit the LMB!"
"Only it wasn't me, Pro-D, who died...it was Lardlad," he answered, beginning to sob. "I tried to to it, but Lardlad wouldn't let me...he shunted me aside with the Lardforce and charged headlong into the entity with the Order Bomb fashioned by Tsarin Kid..."
The storyteller couldn't continue for a while as the grief all came back to him. The tears poured down his cheeks. Pru fought as hard as she could, but the tears came to her as well.
When she saw he was regaining his composure, she pressed further. "Why...," she began slowly with a hint of anger lacing her words, "why did you decide to assume Lardy's identity?"
He paused for a long moment, gathering his thoughts. Finally he said, "It was a kneejerk reaction, an act of denial of sorts. I didn't want the greatest friend I'd ever had to be dead. It was just too horrible to accept. Lardlad...Anthony had done so much for me in my life that I couldn't bear to live without my friend...who'd given his life to save my meager one. He was more than a friend to me...he was like a father." Again he paused as the raw emotion poured over him.
"So..?" Pru pressed him to continue.
"So..my race obviously has the ability to change it's shape...but if we choose, we can also permanently assume any form we want."
"And you chose to become Lardy?"
"Yes...only when we will this particular transformation, it's final...and it goes deeper than just the superficial...the physical assumption."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean...that once a member of my race chooses to permanently take a form...it literally becomes that form through and through...meaning I am Lardlad in every meaningful way. Not even the most sophisticated scientific tests would uncover anything but human physiology. More important, I have all of his memories, his emotions, his powers...everything."
"I don't buy that for a second!"
"Don't you? It is Lardlad's feelings for you, his empathy and his love, that drove me to help you when I realised what had happened to you. Those feelings wouldn't let
me ignore your plight...they hounded me until I did something!"
"His...love?" Pru was barely able to whisper.
"Yes," he said firmly, "I now realise that he...that we...love you. I'm not sure of the exact definition of this love...as he wasn't...but I'm sure that he loved you on some level. I think it may be reciprocated, too."
"I-I don't know. I'm not sure what love is, really," Pru said. She found herself wanting to change the subject. "Um...so does anyone else know?"
"No. You're the first not of my race to know. In fact I didn't know for a long while after my assumption of my friend's identity. Shortly after I left the LMB because I didn't want to deceive any of his/my friends, my old personality completely submerged, and all memory of being Pro-D disappeared. It wasn't until about three years after the event that I remembered. You see, my race senses when a member permanently assumes a form. Our ruling council sends seven representatives--the same seven you saw last night, I'd wager--to remind the transformed of his heritage. From then on, the truth is remembered, but the new form's consciousness is still dominant. My life as Pro-D is remembered more from Lardlad's perspective than my own."
"What about Helen?"
Those words sliced through him. "I pursued and married Helen before I remembered the truth. We also had the twins before this. I...know I have to tell Helen someday...but I'm afraid of losing her so much."
Pru was definitely softening. She believed the changeling's story, and more importantly, the emotions behind it.
The two were silent for a long time, perhaps mourning the fallen hero they mutually admired so much.
Unexpectedly, it was Lardlad/Pro-D who broke the silence with a stark change of subject as he said, "Now, it's YOUR turn, Pru."
"My turn?" she repled, shocked. "What do you mean? I AM Hummer Lass, trust me!"
"Yes, I know you are...what I don't know is why you didn't take the second chance Lardlad gave you and why, instead, you fell into the abyss of drug addiction!"
Pru shuddered and felt shame enshroud her. "I don't know," she said, head hung.
"Well," he said confidently, "we're gonna figure it out!"
End Part Five (To Be Concluded)