"Don't you think they should be back by now?" I asked Di, leaning back in the chair she'd provided. Both teams should have returned. What was keeping them?
My fears were about to dissipate when I heard the door open but the tremors in my heart didn't end because only Zora and my stupid boss were standing there. I thought he'd left.
"Where's Mary?" I asked, rising from the chair slowly. "Is she—"
Zora's eyes started to tear up, which only made me more afraid. Waving her gun at the ceiling, she walked toward me. "They killed her."
Huh?
My numb mind thought that over for a moment, trying to figure out if there was an alternate meaning of what she'd just said. Killed? Mary? Who was they?
Once the full realization struck me, the world started to spin. I felt ready to throw up and had to lean over the desk to keep from fainting. "You're lying!" I whispered, my throat too dry to form the words fully. "That's impossible."
"Those three..." She pointed at the far door, her voice cracking from emotion. "They pushed her out into space. Said something about how she'd keep them from stealing the alien artifact. I tried to stop them but..." Her voice cracked once more and she had to look down, unable to continue speaking.
I couldn't believe it. Mary couldn't have died. I wouldn't have allowed it. "Is this true?" I asked, looking to John, the last man in Manica I'd ever want to ask.
The coward nodded slowly, his entire body shaking. "If it weren't for Zora we'd be dead too," he whispered, fiddling with the gun dangling from his hand.
"That..." It couldn't be real. I had to be dreaming. "But she's a Valdis. Why didn't she teleport?"
"They put some device on her," Zora answered, clenching her teeth in anger. "I should have stopped them. I shouldn't have run!"
My body suddenly snapped out of its stupor. I ignored Zora and ran to the computer, suddenly yelling for Di to bring up the security cameras. I needed to see this for myself. If this was true, which it totally wasn't, then I could still save her. There had to be a way!
"I detect a heat signature floating toward Manica," Di informed me as I brought up the footage. "I've dispatched a drone but it will fail to reach her in time."
"Do something!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, my nose starting to sting and making my eyes water. "She can't die!"
I was trying to come up with a plan B but as soon as I rewound the video and saw John shoot the camera, I turned on him with my teeth bared. His eyes were wide. He knew he'd been caught.
"You were in on this too?" I hissed, drawing my pistol from my belt and aiming it toward his heart. Actually, maybe I should aim at his head. He might not have a heart.
He stepped back, whimpering like a dog, but I didn't lower the barrel.
"Why?" I asked but already knew the answer. He wanted the alien artifact. They all did. They knew it would bring in more money than anything else in this world. They had killed my wife over it!
"Why did you bring him in here?" I yelled, turning my gun toward Zora. "Are you in on this too?"
The woman shook her head. "I couldn't care less about that ball of yours. I just wanted him here so he could prove I was telling the truth. Then I was planning to kill him."
True to her word, as soon as she finished speaking, she pulled out her own gun and shot him through his open, screaming mouth. She then sent a second bullet through his left eye as he fell to his knees and splatted on his bloody face. I didn't feel an ounce of regret as he fell.
Now I was at a cross roads. Trust Zora, who had no motive, or kill her and believe in Ace and the others.
"Di." I turned to the computer, my gun still trained on Zora. "Where are the others right now?"
Di studied the security cameras. "They were in the hangar bay. They are now on their way here. They should arrive in a few minutes."
"Derek," Zora pleaded, lowering her weapon. "I swear on my father's grave that I am telling you truth. I would never think of killing your wife. She was the sweetest woman I have ever known."
"But...Ace..."
"Jala was the one who orchestrated it and he is in love with her. Why wouldn't he work with her?"
"What?" I was so confused. I had to make a decision. I needed to choose. What should I do? What if they tried to kill me too?
My head was spinning. The floor was tipping back and forth as though I was on a cruiser. Back and forth. Back and forth. I could feel the back of my head burning. I could hear every breath I took. In and out. At times like this, when I felt something pressing on my heart, when I wanted to strangle someone, Mary had always managed to calm me down.
How was I supposed to control this rage if she wasn't here?
"Have you saved her?" I yelled at Di.
"It is too late, Derek. I am sorry. She has made contact with Manica's surface. At the speed she was falling, there was a...zero percent chance of survival."
I couldn't hear anything. More spinning. I was rotating now. The pressure was too much. I needed to scream or throw something or punch something until my hands bled and I could no longer hear the ringing in my head.
Then the door opened.
Perfect timing.
Jala was the first one to step inside, her expression one of anger until she spotted the blood covered body on the ground. After witnessing that and noticing the gun in my hand, her expression shifted into one of fear.
As soon as I saw her step inside, I turned the barrel of my on her. I wasn't taking any chances.
In the show, I had become the villain. It was Jala who made Ace betray me, who made him leave me on the moon by myself. In the show, she'd been the one to kill my daughter. In the show, she'd been the one who killed me. It was always Jala.
There was no question about it now. She had done it. She had killed my wife. She'd hurt me in another reality so why wouldn't she do it now? She and I were destined to be enemies forever. "Good" and evil. Head to head. More like evil and evil, really.
As I stood there with Zora at my side and John Philip's dead body lying at the tips of my boots, I made a decision.
I decided that I would spend the rest of my life hunting down these three heroes and killing them off one by one. I could kill them now, sure, but I would wait to murder them.
I'd let them escape. I'd let them think they'd won.
But I wouldn't let them live and I wouldn't let them steal the artifact. I would use it against them. I'd use the very thing they'd been after to kill them.
As my expression shifted to one I'm assuming was filled with rage, I felt Zora relax and take a step back from me, allowing me my vengeance without interference. Good. I wanted it that way. I didn't need help.
Jala continued to stare at me almost daring me to fire.
Challenge accepted.
I pulled the trigger.
The bullet tore through the flesh on her skinny arm and the impact sent her into the doorway where Maddox and Ace had been standing out of sight. She had barely risen from the cold floor, her blood soaking her clothes, when I cocked the gun and aimed it at her other arm.
"I would suggest that you run," I whispered, walking toward her slowly, deliberately. "Run away, hero. Run and hide so I can find you and tear your limbs off one at a time." And I would. Dark had done it before so why couldn't I?
"You're insane," Jala yelled at me, no longer caring why I was so mad. She spat in my direction before tearing down the hallway, screaming for Ace and Maddox to follow her.
"You were insane for killing my wife!" I called after them, shooting the ground beneath their feet to keep them going. "You thought you could steal from me? The man who hired you? The man who saved your lives? Betrayal must be in your blood because no matter what I do you still manage to take away everything I love!"
Now I understood why Dark had been so angry. He had seemed so irrational before, so bipolar, but now I could sympathize with him.
Mary had been my foundation. My pillar. My savior. And now that she was gone I had nothing to hold me up. I had relied too much on her through the years. Now nothing could fill that void.
As I'd watched the live footage of my wife floating toward her death, her body no more than a speck in the video, I had felt every inch of life drain from me. I was nothing more than a shell now. The remains of a man who had once been full of hope for the future was gone.
Now, I was the villain. Did I care? Not one bit.
As I walked back to the control room, shoving Zora out of the way so I could focus on the control panel, my shoulders began to shake from the sobs threatening to break free. I couldn't see the screen. My vision was a blur of black and blue. The metallic taste of blood was filling my nose and mouth. Maybe it was John's. Maybe it was mine. Was there even a difference anymore?
"Di," I whispered, throwing my gun across the room so I could use my hands to wipe the clear liquid off my face. "Now that John is dead, Hikarius needs a new leader. Send the news that he's been killed by a rogue alien and order all available employees to return to the station."
"Yes, sir."
"And...bring Polly here. I need to see her."
"Yes, sir. And her nanny?"
"...Fire her."
"Are you certain, sir?"
"You're not self-aware, Di! Just do what I tell you!"
"Yes, sir."
[So...that happened.
Thoughts? (Please let me know if Derek's actions came across as logical. It was meant to show that he believed Zara over Jala because Jala had betrayed him in the comics so many times and he had assumed she'd done that now. Please let me know and give suggestions for improvements.)
Also, I'd suggest watching the music video at the top. It may be weird and in another language but I listened to it while I wrote this chapter and felt like some parts of the mv really demonstrated Derek's inner turmoil.]
[Also also....To Rescue a Villain just reached 1000!!! Thank you so much to everyone. I am thrilled! It took me a year and a half for my first book to reach 1000 but you guys have managed to let this one do it in less than four months! :D ]