trans_9 | A House Divided [Part 3]

The only problem is that currently Jaime Reyes is unconscious. There is no one in there to talk to. It's not that his consciousness is being suppressed, but that parts of his concussed brain are under repair and his body's being yanked around by the being hooked up to his nervous system.

But Khaji Da is capable of reason. Khaji Da is an Infiltrator. Khaji Da has access to every memory, mannerism, and snippet of speech Jaime's every thought, acted out, or spoken.

He's not ready to stop being angry, but he is smart and Jaime is at risk right now much more than Khaji is. Khaji's central consciousness is spread through the suit in this state and primarily hooked up at the backpack at the base of the teen's spine. Khaji would survive the shot--Jaime would not. And he won't let his actions kill his host.

This is why there appears to be a horrible internal struggle and then Jaime's eyes suddenly go wide, and he lets out a "Mmmph!" noise. The armor starts to go back to Jaime's usual armor.

He slowly lowers Sam back to the ground, and looks to Leon, terrified. "Mmph?"

Please to be taking the gun out of his mouth now?

Leon let out a breath, silently thanking whatever God that had answered his prayers. Leon slowly pulled the gun out of Jaime's mouth as the kid (well, Khaji, but it's not like Leon actually knew the whole story there) complied and released Sam.

He turned and aimed his gun at Sam, while lightly trying to push Jaime back and out of the way. Hoping that God was still willing to answer, Leon had one more prayer, that this idiot, Sam, finally got the fucking point already.

"Drop it, Sam. Just... let it go."

And now, Khaji the Infiltrator strikes. Leon's back is turned. Khaji grabs him by the back of the shirt, lifts him up and bodily throws him away, turning to Sam, his armor shifting back.

Now the fate of the parasite is between Sam and another parasite.

'Oh $*@*!' is all Sam is thinking whilst Jaime (Khaji) has him pinned against the wall by his neck, the armor-covered fingers pressing into his throat and cut off his ability to breath. He has only a few seconds between the moments when Jaime backs off, Leon aims his gun at him, and then Jaime tosses Leon aside to make any kind of move.

And, like any normal person facing off against a super-powered opponent, Sam does the only thing he can: he runs. With the Yeerk firmly tucked under his uninjured arm, Sam bolts.

You can run but you can't--well, actually, you can't even run, Sam. Not when your pursuer can fly as fast as he can. Wings sprout at Jaime's back and the parasite-controlled teen flies after Sam.

His arm turns into a blade and he slashes at Sam's achilles tendon in his right leg, trying to cripple him and keep him from running.

Sam's right leg gave out on him the instant the tendon was cut, sending Winchester crumpling to the floor. Unable to use his right leg or his left arm, he has few options left. But, rather than make the undignified attempt at crawling with his good arm and leg, Sam simply rolls over onto his back to face his opponent.

'Eliminated.' That's what Blue Beetle had said. That's what he'd deemed necessary for Sam Winchester. But Sam had always known this would be a possibility. He'd always known this was how this all could end. He'd, in fact, told Jaime and Leon that this was the only way this ended with the Yeerk still alive.

He'd tried and failed. And if death was the price he had to pay, then death it was. Looking directly at the approaching Jaime, Sam tightened his jaw and steeled himself for what was coming. This was it.

"You want the Yeerk back?" he said, his voice steady and unwavering. "Then you're gonna have to kill me. 'Cause that's the only way this ends."

Here he switches back to a recording of Jaime's voice, eerily sounding exactly like the teen for a moment: "'No one hurts innocent people.'

The parasite changes the bladed arm back into a hand--that grows huge, razor sharp claws.

Elimination doesn't necessarily mean death, though, Sam. No, he can maim you real good, too. That's not killing, right?

The creature slashes down.

Sam rolls, trying to get out of the way of the claws but he doesn't manage to move fast enough. Or, rather, perhaps he moved as fast as he should have. The razor-sharp claws slash right into the metal football Sam is carrying--the one protecting the Yeerk--and puncture the shell so thoroughly that Sam even gets a few cuts on his chest.

There's no way the Yeerk inside survived that.

The red-haired man is still watching, having slipped between buildings like a fox to always keep a good view. One might imagine that, had he the chance, he'd have brought some popcorn.

And as the capsule is punctured, his blood-crusted face breaks into a wide rictus grin. And - there's a little twitch in his face, and then another, and he starts laughing, and slides back, and drops from the side of the building, vanishing into an alleyway.

Green-gray oozes out of the football, and Khaji freezes for a moment, horrified, not even noticing the other figure nearby, what with his dearth of scanners. This is the first he's accidentally killed someone he or Jaime was trying to protect. The first time he's failed on his own rather than failed after his and Jaime's best try.

More than that, it was like him, something that was what it was, and forced to work for others out of fear.

The horrific, pained screech Khaji lets out is inhuman, and all the more horrifying since it's being made with a human voice.

Any thoughts Khaji had of trying to merely maim Sam are gone, any thoughts of incapacitating him are gone. It's his fault all this happened, his fault he was even in this position.

A blue field vorps around them both so that no one can stop him.

The claws lengthen and grow sharper, he raises his hand...

The noise of billowing cloth returns, and the outside of the forcefield blackens. Two eyes peer through the darkness at Khaji over Sam's shoulder.

"How long does this go on?" there's an undercurrent of anger in his voice, but it remains level, "You murder him in revenge for the life you just took, then what? Someone takes revenge on you?"

The eyes blink, but when they reopen they sit to Khaji's right.

"Kill him and they'll come for you. More innocents will be hurt. Jaime will be lucky if he's only hurt."

Batman. Jaime respects Batman. Batman's satellite helped take down the Reach, and for that reason alone, Khaji respects Batman as well. Batman trusted Jaime, but ultimately, by trusting the intelligence he was providing Jaime, he trusted him as well.

He breathes in deep with lungs that are not his own, ruing already that he took control of his host like this, terrified of explaining it when Jaime wakes up.

Of course, that begs the question of what Morality Prerogative Number 1 is.

All the same arguments they made for killing the Yeerk. Yet...yet, he still hasn't ended Sam's life. His hand remains suspended--Jaime's hand remains suspended there, and one of the main reasons it hasn't dropped is because Khaji knows what it would do to Jaime for him to wake up with blood on his hands.

He could have prevented this. Bruce knows that. He'd seen it coming, and let it come. But if that hand drops... he could never forgive himself.

"You're perpetuating the cycle. One movement from you and Jaime will never be an innocent again."

The eyes move again. Khaji won't see them, they're staring at the back of his head.

"We're fools. All of us, and this is a farce. The damn thing is dead and the war is already lost. That can't be undone, but we can still decide where we go from here. We can rebuild, nurse our wounded and make sure something like this never happens again."

There's a pause.

"Or you can kill him if you think that will atone for this mess. But I promise you-- if your hand drops, I will be first in line to perpetuate the cycle."

"No, you won't." Leon made his way back over, sore and bruised from being flung away. He was also highly annoyed. Mysterious people were popping out of the woodwork today. "This is going to end here and now."

His gun was drawn as he approached, for all the good it would do.

"Reyes... or whatever you are, you can end this all by doing the one thing Sam couldn't do... just stop. If you really want to protect Reyes, don't make a murderer out of him.

"Stop. That's all you have to do."

Jaime's face twists up into a pained expression. The symbiote is upset--hurting, from what it did. From taking a life. It's conflicted, as usual, trying to discern the difference between right and wrong, and with Jaime out cold, he doesn't have the teenager's sense of morality to guide him.

That expression twists up into an even stronger expression of rage.

And the claws come down.

Sam feels his heart stop and his eyes slam shut as he gasps out what air was in his lungs the moment the enormous claws plunge toward his head.

This is it....

Thunk!

...is the sound the stone makes when Khaji's claws sink into it, inches away from Sam's face, to the side of his head. After that, Khaji pulls its claws from the stone and stands again, straightening out.

Jaime's voice, in perfect imitation: "'We don't kill.'"

Not on purpose.

He walks away from Sam, and the shield drops. Khaji walks over to Batman and holds out both hands in a gesture of surrender, as the armor goes back to normal.

Bruce just looks down at him and nods, "We'll think of something."

"For now," he told Khaji, "if Jaime is unconscious and needs help, give him back to us so we can help him. We'll figure out what to do with you later."

He kept his gun on Sam and approached him slowly. "A lot of good people put forth one hell of an effort to make sure you didn't end up dead for being an idiot. Don't make me put all that effort to waste."

In other words, be still while you're being cuffed, Sam, or you're catching a bullet.

The armor recedes. There's a bruise on the side of Jaime's face and head that's healing much more quickly than it would be under normal circumstances.

Khaji kneels, so Jaime is closer to the ground. The glow of his eyes is the last thing to fade, eerie and orange-yellow as he looks up at them.

Then the glow fades, Jaime's eyes roll into the back of his head, and he slumps over. Apparently, he had indeed been completely out this entire time.

Creeeepy.

(http://s225.photobucket.com/albums/dd304/mysterio2000/Sam%20Winchester/?action=view&current=Sam-sam-winchester-4522787-100-1-1.jpg)

Sam surrendered without the slightest resistance. Even if he had wanted to--he didn't--he couldn't, not with a gaping wound in his left shoulder and his right Achilles tendon severed. But that was all moot. Escaping responsibility had never been in the plan. It had never even been a goal. Sam knew he would have to answer for what he did once it was over.

But, as Leon cuffed him, Sam looked around and saw the damage that had been wrought. He saw the injured and he knew he was responsible. He'd led those that wanted Schmuz dead. He'd been the one that had advocated it from the start. He'd been the most vocal. And in the fight to further that goal, people had gotten hurt. The people he was trying to protect in the first place.

He didn't regret what he done, but he did regret the injuries that had been inflicted on both sides. Now he was going to have to answer for them.

Batman stoops to pick up the inert Jaime. With the boy in his arms, he turns to Leon.

"I'll get him to medical. Let's wrap this up."

A House Divided [Part 3]

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