trans_9 | The End

[[OOC: Read this before tagging.]]

Shiva was about to scream some more at the council’s representatives when he heart the sound of his devices powering down. The force field flickered and shut down, which meant the power dampener was also inactive. The “god” had suddenly become very much a mortal, very much vulnerable…

And oh so very screwed.

“DO NOT COME ANY CLOSER!” This time when he yelled he was not smug or disdainful. He was terrified. “I WILL KILL THEM! I WILL—”

It wasn’t clear if it was planned. With the way Kawalsky’s body was twitching, with the way the sweat poured down his face, it could have been a mistake. Or it could have been intentional, if misguided. However it happened, it was a profound mistake, one the goa’uld would pay for with his life.

He pressed the trigger for the bombs. He had no way of knowing they had all been deactivated. All but one.

And though he was voiceless, though no one could hear him save for two telepaths, Kawalsky screamed. He had tried to help the crew. Communicating to the engineers any advice that could help them disable the devices. They wouldn’t have been able to deactivate them without him, not for a while. So many months after he had broken, he thought he could stop the goa’uld from killing.

He was wrong.

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She had frozen in his grip for a moment, too shocked to move, to speak, to sing. But when she found her voice again, it came out as a scream. "Alto," she cried, struggling against the man's hold on her. "Let me go, you... you...!"

A sudden chill swept across the impending battlefield, coming literally from Matt. His hands still in his pockets but his face was shrouded by shadows as he heard the dying wails and cries of despair.

"You..." his voice was quiet, like ice. And when he snapped up, they were brilliant, glowing more brightly than two stars as electricity crackled from them. "Release your host, and walk away," intoned Matt calmly, his voice reverberating and the air ionizing with each syllable. "These men are willing to beat you to a bloody pulp and toss you out the nearest airlock. I would do something far worse than that."

There was a telltale impending explosion, the chill in the air offset by the rapid ionization of the air around them, a sharp metallic tang. The fifth element was in Matt's possession and he was this close to unleashing a cold fury upon Shiva.

After all, one could walk away from being electrocuted to death and revived in the same motion.

They were way past negogiations now.

Nathan was tensing up now, ready to hurl himself into the air to grab the hostage away. They couldn't save everybody, but they could stop more deaths occuring here.

"By my authority as First Officer, you will stand down, and agree to be placed under arrest and escorted to the brig."

He glanced at the others, give a brief curt nod. Save the hostage, save the host if at all possible.

Otherwise? It was simply collateral damage.

A ghostly figure rose up from the floor behind Kawalsky, eyes glowing malevolently in the shadows. Jonas scanned the human before him until he located the parasite that was the cause of all this.

Then he thrust his intangible hand into the back of Kawalsky's head and dug his fingers into Shiva's body, altering his density just enough that it began to play havoc with the Goa'uld's systems.

He raised his head to meet the eyes of the assembled Command Staff, finally locking onto Nathan's face. Tears poured down his cheeks.

"[She's dead,]" he said hopelessly. "[Cassie's dead.]"

The 'muscles' in Jonas' forearm flexed, and those with very sensitive hearing might, perhaps, hear a faint noise as if someone had popped a wet paper bag in the distance.

Shiva hadn't seen it coming. In the brief moments he felt something reach into Kawalsky's brain, and then touching the parasite's body, he flooded the host with the toxin. It didn't matter. The brain was a phenomenal organ. It could recover from a bullet wound, a steel rod impaling it...

But there was a limit to the damage it can take. The tissue the goa'uld had buried itself was incredibly delicate. Even the smallest of damage could have massive effects, and this damage was catastrophic.

All that Shiva felt was a brief moment of pure fear.

All that Kawalsky felt was a brief moment of relief. His constant psychic screaming, begging for death ended, replaced with one final emotion. If he had the time to recognize his thought, let alone relay it to the telepaths, he would have sent two simple words.

Thank you.

Both host and parasite crumpled to the floor.

It was over.

"No..." Superman whispered.

Two people were dead. It shouldn't of been like this. Not at all. Cassie shouldn't of died, Shiva should have paid for his crimes.

"...it's over..." he said, starting to calm. He pointed to Jonas. "...stay where you are. Let's make sure Miss Nome's alright, everyone..."

It was over, just like that? The command crew had taken this long, when one person could stop everything? When this guy could have stopped the explosion in the caverns?

Sheryl pulled out of the would-be god's grip as he collapsed to the floor, backing away from him numbly, still reeling. She stared, wide-eyed, at the ghostly figure that had appeared out of nowhere. "The pods... did anyone in the pods die?"

"Kawalsky... NO!" He aimed his gun at the Vision and stared at him. "What have you done!?" He couldn't believe that Kawalsky had just died in front of him. Despite not knowing him too well, it was comforting knowing someone else from your world was there with you. The ex-runner was beside himself in disbelief at the conclusion.

You poor bastard. Nathan thought silently as he glanced down at Kawalsky's body, and sighed, "Damn." Who knows how long that parasite was burrowed into the guy, and trapped like that.

Especially after the detonator was pressed, he knew there would be casualties. And while he didn't know Cassie, he knew enough to know she was far too young to die. Just a kid really, probably about Claire's age, only her powers didn't include regenerating.

He quietly remarked to Ronon, "We didn't have much of a choice. Shiva already said he was going to kill him."

He looked to the hostage, Sheryl, right, "Are you all right?"

Edited 2010-09-03 16:18 (UTC)

She hesitated, still staring at the ghostly figure, then ran the short distance to Nathan, putting a hand on his arm. "You can find what happened to the pods, right?" she implored.

Jonas stared down at Kawalsky's body, horror and a distant confusion warring with the despair on his face.

"[...I only damaged the parasite...]" he murmured in a lost-sounding voice. He had made very, very sure of that. He had absolute control of his density, only the parts of his fingers that had been in contact with Shiva had been even remotely tangible. Why was Kawalsky dead too? Killing something as evil as Shiva was one thing, but killing his host, a hostage? An innocent bystander?

He had lost Cassie and now he had lost the right to call himself any kind of Avenger.

Willing himself solid, he touched down and then crumpled the rest of the way to the floor. If someone wanted to shoot him now, that was their business. He would not stop them.

The End

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