**
Clem called later in the day reporting success. Better than expected actually. He’d needed Hugo to open a portal for him because he’d found a toy. Hugo jumped when John, the security officer that had betrayed Christian and Gideon Enterprises, walked through the portal, grinning, but CJ was alongside him.
“Hey hey, it’s not as bad as it looks,” she said, waving her arms a bit.
“I found him with one of the groups. I’m thinking of keeping him,” It was John’s voice, but Clem’s attitude.
Hugo's brow furrowed, “Clem?”
John’s voice was smug, “Bingo. He tried to fight us, bad idea.”
“Clem…what are you going to do with him?” Hugo couldn’t help it, his skin was crawling a little.
“Well, Vitaly’s a big bad right? And we’re going to fight him tomorrow,” John shrugged, awkwardly conveying Clem’s easy air, “I thought I could use a big meat shield.”
Hugo swallowed, looking away from the man Clem had most likely mentally hollowed out so that he could use him as human armor. The advantages were clear, but had it been necessary, or had Clem done it for fun? Hugo’s stomach knotted itself, “C-Clem, what are you going to do with him until then?”
“Prop him up in my bedroom? He’s not going to try anything on his own ever again. Trust me.” The words were ominous and final, confirming what Hugo had suspected. And Clem said it all with no remorse. “Oh. You may be interested to know, he got brain-fried by the memory wipe-dude, and that’s why he attacked Christian and helped shut down Gideon Enterprises. That’s why he didn’t show up on your betrayal radar.”
“Clem! That’s really disturbing. I think you’ve gone too far,” Crysta said, taking a step away from him.
“This is war, miss.” Clem saluted.
“And he was a bad guy anyway! Remember, he nearly killed Christian on purpose and let out Patrick. And Patrick is going to try and blow up the world,” CJ pointed out.
Crysta sighed, looking away, but she didn’t say anything else.
Despite the awkwardness of John being there, well, physically anyway, they gathered in the conference room and discussed their plan. Then everyone, for once, tried to get a good night’s sleep.
It didn’t go well for Crysta. He woke up to the sound of her microwave beeping. The power must have flickered out.
She was whimpering in her sleep, so he lightly shook her. “Crysta, Crysta, wake up,” he said softly, trying not to startle her, and then he was back in the hallway of the Phoenix Foundation, but it was from someone else’s perspective; Crysta’s perspective. Her eyes were fluttering and she was slowly sliding to the ground, one hand on the wall. There was a loud roaring sound and Vitaly came charging down the hallway, members of The Lazarus group trailing behind him. They looked distraught, like they were trying to catch up to him.
“Crysta!” She turned her head to find him leaning out into the hallway, expression horrified. He reached out to her, but he was eclipsed by the hulking blue body, tentacles whipping wildly. He let out a gurgled scream and blood splattered the walls. Crysta tried to stand, but her knees were weak and she was shaking so hard her teeth chattered.
“No!” She screamed over and over, but the monster didn’t hear her, drowned out by his screams. And then the screams stopped and there was a sick flopping sound. “Hugo!” Vitaly moved to meet the others that had followed him, and they yelled for her help, but she couldn’t hear. She crawled to the limp, bloody form on the floor. She turned the mess so she could see his face. He had a large cavity in his stomach, blood was pouring out of his throat; his open eyes just started emptily at the ceiling. “Hugo!” She screamed again, but he didn’t respond. Her body became warm as she tried to heal him, but when nothing happened words tore themselves from her throat, “Please…! Please…! H-Hugo no…!” Her body warmed up again and again but nothing healed, and the bleeding slowed, then finally stopped.
Crysta was looking up at him, her eyes dark and wet in the moonlight.
“It’s ok,” he said, a little shakily, “It’s ok.” She curled against him, placing her head on his shoulder. Sniffled a few times, and then eventually her breathing evened into a slow rhythm. It took him much longer to get back to sleep. He was going to enjoy killing Vitaly.