Signals - Chapter Six

Signals

6. Losing It
Kaisional Tempest

On her return, Lara found Alex and recounted her journey to Atlantis, telling him about Needa and the Firebird, leaving out the part about her having to die.
“That’s wonderful!” Alex exclaimed happily.  “And in horrowshow time, too.  Rasputin’s camp has been viddied up the north side of the mountain.  You can just itty right in there and snuff the bastard.”
“Yeah,” Lara said, trying to smile.  She didn’t make it and ended up bursting to tears.
Alarmed, Alex quickly put his arms around his sobbing wife, “Easy there, love.  What’s the matter?”
Lara just shook her head, “I love you, Alex.  I love you,” she sobbed.
“And I love thee, you know that,” Alex said.  “There’s no need to fret.  Thou art stronger than any veck I know, remember?  You’ll defeat Rasputin and you’ll like win this war.  Then you can live a nice, peaceful jeezny like with your chellovecks and Tony and Lexa and yours truly.  See then that there’s no reason to weep.”
But this only made Lara cry harder, and she hugged Alex so hard that he gasped a little in pain.

The next day, when Lara had rested and eaten, it was decided that Lara would fight Rasputin at sundown.  Alex and the unicorns would ambush Rasputin’s armies, leaving Rasputin alone to deal with Lara.
Lara spent most of the morning with Lexa.  She locked herself in the bedroom alone with the baby.  Standing in front of the window overlooking the meadow, Lara held Lexa to her chest, tears running down her cheeks, and kissed her again and again.
Lara insisted that a picture be taken of the family.  Although Alex thought it was an odd request, he called for a photographer to be brought in.  Lara held Lexa, and Alex had his arm around Lara, and that’s how the picture was taken.
The day passed too quickly for Lara.  Soon the sun went down, the unicorn herd showed up at the castle, and it was time for the ambush.
“Good luck, Lara,” Alex said, kissing her.  “I’ll viddy you when we get back.”
“I love you,” Lara whispered.
“I love you too, little devotchka,” Alex confirmed.  He mounted Tony, waved goodbye to Lara, and rode off with the rest of the herd.  Lara waved back sadly, and walked off, heading towards Rasputin’s camp.

Alex leaned forwards, pressing his body against Tony so that she could go faster.  He reached up and touched her horn.
“So, where’s thy husband,” he asked.
“Adam’s acting as a scout, along with some of the other gypsies,” Lara answered.  “The plan is we surround Rasputin’s camp, and wait for Adam’s signal. When it comes, we attack.”
Alex said nothing more, and they rode hard in silence towards the place where Rasputin’s soldiers were camped.  When they reached it, they quickly arranged themselves in a large circle around it, and waited for the signal.
After about fifteen minutes, it came.  A small flash was seen along the trees, as if it had been reflected from a mirror.  Tony turned her head and nodded at the unicorns standing to either side of her.  They began to play the Infernal Dance, from the Firebird Suite.  As the frantic tremors of violins and violas shattered the silence, the unicorns charged.

Lara ran hard in the dark for a while, and eventually she changed into a bat and flew the rest of the way.  Rasputin was staying in a small fortress that had been built about a mile away from the camp were his soldiers were located.  Lara changed back into a vampire and walked towards the fortress.  Before she reached the doors, she stopped and listened.  She thought she could hear orchestra music playing.  The unicorns are attacking, she thought.
The doors to the fortress were heavily guarded, of course, but Lara preformed a quick spell that made the guards fall asleep.  She walked though the doors and entered the fortress.
She was standing in a room that reeked of blood.  It was dark, but Lara could see the outlines of various torture devices.  Along with the common breaking wheels, boots, forks, racks, and thumbscrews, Lara could see an Iron Maiden, a Scavenger’s Daughter, and a Brazen Bull.
Lara raised both arms in the air and cast another spell.  All the torture devices were destroyed.  Whistling, Lara walked into the next room, where the prisoners were kept.  Some were in cells; others were in cages that hung from the ceiling.  Lara raised her hands again and cast another spell.  All the doors sprung open and the prisoners were freed.  Most of them fled back to their homes and villages, but a few stayed behind.
“Let us help you, my lady,” they offered to Lara, but Lara politely refused.
“Go back to your families,” she told them.  “Leave Rasputin to me.”
All the prisoners left, except one who lingered behind long enough to ask, “What are you going to do, my queen?”
“I’m going to raise hell,” Lara said, and she ran up the stairs, headed straight towards Rasputin’s laboratory.

Three soldiers were gathered around a small fire inside a circle of tents.  A pan of burned, gristly bacon sat over the fire.  One man spoke:
“Does any of ye knows when we is goin’ to attack that vampire castle down in the valley?”
“There’s been no word from the boss,” his friend answered.  The first man spat into the fire.
“Rasputin’s off his rocker, if ye ask me.  Been waitin’ for nigh on a year to attack the castle, while that vampire witch keeps sendin’ ‘er bloody troops down ‘ere for us to fight, an’ all that wizard does is wave ‘is ‘ands about in the air and make newts come out ‘is arse.”
“Better watch your tongue, Amos, if ye wish to keep it,” the third man said.  “Rasputin knows what he’s doing.  He’s sensed that the vampire queen’s going to come and confront him directly.”
“Well she’d best get on with it, so’s we can get out of this scum ‘ole,” the first man replied.  “Gettin’ damn sick of ‘aving nothin’ but wormy gruel and spoiled bacon -,”
“Shhh!” the third man hissed.  “Do y’hear that, mates?”
All three of the men listened.  They heard violin music, and it got louder and louder.
“What the hell?” the third man exclaimed.  He didn’t get anything else out, because he was knocked over flat by a unicorn.
“Sound the alarm!” he cried.  “Sound the -,” and he was impaled through the chest by a unicorn. Soon the whole camp was up.  It was complete pandemonium, with soldiers and unicorns running all over the place.  A tent was knocked over into the fire in the panic.  This started a huge blaze, which quickly spread to the other tents, illuminating the chaotic scene.
Alex, mounted atop Tony, was striking soldiers left and right with his sword.  Tony whirled and leaped, twisting her head to stab attacking soldiers with her horn, usually before they could get to Alex.
After fighting like that for a while, Alex jumped off Tony and started chasing soldiers into the woods, where the gypsies quickly captured them.  Alex saw a group of soldiers fleeing towards a larger, official-looking tent, and he followed them.
As Alex neared the tent, he found himself surrounded by eight soldiers.
“Good evening, O my brothers!” Alex called to them.  “Anyone here have the slightest idea as to what a britva is?”
Before they could answer, Alex pulled out his knife and threw it at the nearest soldier.  It sunk beautifully into the soldier’s chest, killing him immediately.  Alex flicked his wrist, and the knife came flying back to his hand.  The other soldiers angrily began to attack Alex with their swords, but Alex jumped out of the way and threw his knife again.  
Alex went on like this, throwing his knife and bringing it back into his hand, almost as if he was playing with a yo-yo.  Soon all the soldiers had either run away, or were dead.
Alex was bending down to wipe his knife in the grass, when he heard someone walk out of the tent and say, “Well! If it isn’t you.”
Alex saw a pair of tall, black boots.  He looked up at the person the belonged to and saw Jareth, the Goblin King.
“Welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, well. If it isn’t His Highness Jareth in poison.  To what do I owe the extreme pleasure of this surprising visit?”  Alex asked.
“I’d look about you, my boy.  You don’t have a unicorn lass around to protect you now,” Jareth snarled, and he threw a crystal at Alex.
Alex disappeared just before the crystal hit him, and reappeared behind Jareth.  He threw his knife at Jareth, but Jareth jumped out of the way.
“So, you’ve learned some magic tricks of your own?” Jareth asked.  “Impressive, even for the murderer of three people.”
“Are you volunteering to be the fourth, brother, sir?” Alex asked, furious.  He flicked his wrist and his knife flew back towards Jareth.
Jareth caught the knife in his hand and began to chase Alex back towards the main tents, which were all on fire now, and made the whole camp as bright as day.

Lara didn’t even bother with a surprise attack.  She marched right up to Rasputin’s study, knocked on the door firmly, and said, “Open up, Rasp!”
There was no answer.  Lara silently counted to three, and kicked open the door.  The room was empty except for a table in the center of the room.  Potions were arranged in a circle around a grinning skull, on top of the table.
Lara marched over to the table and kicked it over, smashing the potions and the skull to the floor.  Vapors rose up from the spilled liquid and took the shape of a tall, gaunt man in dirty robes, with a long, tangled beard and wild, staring eyes.  Lara quickly averted her gaze so that she didn’t look into those eyes.  She knew it was Rasputin.
“Hello, Lara,” Rasputin hissed, his voice like that of a mummified snake.  “Come to kill me?”
When Lara didn’t answer, Rasputin spoke again, “Look into my eyes.”
Lara refused to look.  She pulled out a scarf and blindfolded herself.  Rasputin shrugged.  “Very well.  Fight blind, then,” and he threw a spell at her.
Lara dodged out of the way, and the spell hit the wall behind her, burning through it like acid.  She thought back to when she and Tony were younger, and she would blindfold herself and practice fencing, with Tony fighting back with her horn.  Now, all those years of training would finally pay off.
Lara drew her own sword, sensing were Rasputin was in the room, and made a cut at him.  She felt him pull away and send another spell at her, which she dodged again, feeling the heat of the spell move past her.  Becoming lighter on her feet, Lara shifted her weight and flipped over Rasputin, landing on the other side of him, and she immediately stabbed him in the back with her sword.  
She heard Rasputin laugh, and she felt him move off the end of her sword.  Hearing the blood hit the floor as it poured from Rasputin’s stomach made her own stomach growl.  Lara dropped her sword and prepared a magic missile spell, and then she threw it at Rasputin.
The missile passed right through Rasputin, and he threw a fireball spell back at Lara.  Lara heard the sizzling of the flames, and blocked that spell with a cone of cold, which froze the fireball and made it shatter to the ground.
Lara felt an arrow pass over her head.  Rasputin had formed an arrow and thrown it at her.  She raised her hands and began to prepare another spell, when she sensed that the arrow was coming back from behind her.
Lara ducked, and heard the whistle of air as the arrow shot just over her head, grazing the back of her skull and cutting through the material of her blindfold.  The blindfold fell from her face, and Lara tried to close her eyes, but it was too late.  Rasputin was there, staring at her, and Lara stared back into his eyes, transfixed, unable to blink or look away.
“Kneel,” Rasputin commanded, and Lara obeyed, still staring up at him, as Rasputin raised his hands above him, and got ready to perform another spell.
“Dasvidania!” he called down to her.
“Fênghuang,” Lara shouted back, and she felt the warmth in her stomach turn into a flaming inferno.  Lungs on fire now, Lara was able to break eye contact with Rasputin and look down at the floor, sweat running down her face.  As the Firebird left her body, Lara felt herself leave her body and became one with the bird.
The Firebird became a huge, flaming phoenix.  It bore down on Rasputin, who gazed at it, terrified, unable to move as the Firebird began to dance.  It embraced him, and Rasputin’s body burst into flame.  Soon there was nothing left of him but a charcoal skeleton.  The Firebird spread its wings and the entire fortress caved in on itself.  A huge fireball rose up and disappeared into the sky, as the Firebird gave a horrendous shriek, and extinguished itself.  Lara’s body collapsed on the ruins of the fortress, lifeless.

Jareth and Alex ran around burning tents, chasing and throwing spells at one another.  Alex had gotten his knife back, and had just crawled under the wreckage of a splintered cart to avoid being hit by Jareth, when a huge fireball shot into the sky in the distance.  Everyone stopped what he or she was doing and looked up at it, open-mouthed, as the fireball rose in the sky in the shape of a bird, and then disappeared.  Then everyone went right back to fighting each other.
Alex had found a small pot underneath the wagon he was crouched under.  He rose up from behind Jareth and gave him a sharp knock on the head with the pot.  
“Ouch!  Alex, I’m not evil anymore!”  Jareth protested.  But Alex hit him on the head again anyway.
“Ow!  Stop it!  Rasputin’s dead,” Jareth exclaimed.  
“Appy polly loggies, brother.  Couldn’t hear you over the all the shoomy going on,” Alex said innocently.  Then he and Jareth both looked at each other.
“Lara!” they both said at the same time.  Alex started looking for Tony, but she had Adam on her back and they were both busy fighting soldiers.  Jareth ran over to his tent and returned with two horses.  He and Alex both got on and rode through the trees towards Rasputin’s fortress.

When they arrived they found nothing but a pile of smoldering rubble.  Jareth and Alex jumped off the horses and began to frantically search for Lara.
Jareth tripped over the charred remains of a table, overturning it and revealing a skeleton in a pile of ashes.
“I found Rasputin,” he called over to Alex.  “What’s left of him, that is.”  Jareth began to search in the rubble again for Lara.  “I’m sorry about everything I ever said or did to you, Alex.  I know I gave you kind of a rough ride,” Jareth said.
“Nothing to apologize for, brother,” Alex answered.  “It was Rasputin fillying around in your gulliver, not you.”  Alex stopped talking as he came across the body of a young woman.
“Lara?” Alex whispered, a lump in his throat.  He knelt down and felt her pulse.  Jareth hurried over, a concerned look on his face,  “Is she all right?”  One look at Alex’s face told Jareth everything he needed to know.
“Lara!” Alex replied, shaking her.  “Don’t fly away into the forever spatchka, where thy life here was just a passing glimpse at a world lost far from thee.  Please, don’t leave me, little devotchka.”
The two men heard the clip clop of hooves, as Tony trotted up, blood dripping from her horn.  She changed into a woman.  “We taught those soldiers a lesson.  The ones that aren’t dead have fled into the woods, and the gypsies are capturing them now. Where’s Lara?” she asked, concerned.
Jareth and Alex looked at her, but said nothing.  Then Tony saw the lifeless body in Alex’s arms, and she lowed her head.  “So passes my best friend,” Tony said sadly.
“A loyal ally and a good friend,” Jareth said.
Alex lowed Lara’s body to the ground.  “Here lays my soul’s companion, and the only women whom I ever loved,” he said, and ran off into the darkness.

Lara’s funeral was held in the same garden that she was married in.  It was a simple one, but the whole kingdom showed up, along with the goblins and the gypsies and the unicorns.  Alex was not there.
Kenneth stood in front of Lara’s flower-strewn coffin, and began to speak, as the unicorns played The Moonlight Sonata on their horns.
“Lara was a kind and wise leader, one of the best that this clan has seen.  She has stood by all of us, even when she was younger, helping everyone out and making sure the kingdom ran smoothly.  She became queen a year before her time, in the face of war, and she defended her people bravely.  She sacrificed so that we might be free, even giving up her life for the clan, and –,” Kenneth stopped and turned, and everyone else did the same.  They saw Alex standing alone by a rosebush.  He wore all black and carried a bouquet of flowers.  Alex walked forwards, placed the flowers on Lara’s coffin, and slowly turned to leave, looking as though he was struggling internally with something.
“And we may be assured that she will enter into God’s good graces,” Kenneth continued, as the funeral bell began to toll.  “May she rest in peace.”

Alex changed into his old white clothes, put on his hat, and left the castle grounds and traveled to a nearby village.  Walking into a local pub, Alex sat down at the bar.
“What’ll ye have, mate?” the bartender asked.
Alex looked up, narrowed his eyes, and said, “Milk.”  
After Alex was given a bottle of milk, he took a small jar of liquid and poured it into the milk.  Alex shook the bottle slightly, and then chugged the whole thing.
The bartended grabbed Alex’s arm, “What did ye put in that?  Ye can’t bring your own around here.”
Alex yanked his arm out of the bartender’s grip.  Wiping the milk from his lip, Alex asked, “And just what are you going to do about it, brother?”  He smashed the bottle and held the broken ends up to the bartender’s face.  The startled bartender whipped out a knife and held it up to protect himself.
“You calm yerself down, son, and we’ll talk about it,” he said to Alex.  
Alex stood up, kicking his chair over.  The chair flew into the table behind him, where three men were playing poker.  One of the men swore, picked up Alex’s chair, and threw it back at him.  
Alex ducked and the chair hit the bartender instead.  This started a brawl that spread threw the whole tavern.  Chairs and tables went flying, people were punching each other and swearing, and Alex pulled out his knife and joined right in.