"It's a good thing we hadn't tried to expand the PRP's field," Rick observed dryly as Jim ran towards the girls. "That might have been messy."
He was talking to hide his shock. The very cute, slightly geeky women he had made then married (with Jim's help) was gone. In her place was the Robin Foster he remembered from countless wet dreams and lonely nights in highschool, wasp waisted, with wide hips and full, firm breasts, looking like a perfect 10 model or some sun-kissed vision even in the khaki trenchcoat she was wearing around her. Her legs and feet were bare, showing off toned tanned calves and slim ankles. Jim was already talking urgently to Sharon off in a corner while Caitlin had cornered Ryodjn speaking in urgent whispers with significant glances at Sharon. Andy ran off into the back room where Calla and Rachelle were still talking.
Everything was chaos, compounded by the bustle around the halls around the lab that Rick created when he alerted his security forces to a possible intruder in the next 24 hours. He was about to call out to Robin when she turned from Crimson to look at him and what was in her eyes stopped him dead in his tracks. There was absolutely nothing in them when she looked at him, no anger, no confusion and certainly not love. Then she walked towards to one of the doors set in the wall of the lab, and took the one that led to her office by a secret passage. Well it wasn't secret per se, but R&R Inc. usually had ways to get where you wanted to go without taking the more obvious ways. Rick found that he was thinking about those early days when he and Robin had founded the company and were buiilding the complex. Days that this Robin, more Robin Foster than his wife, would probably have found dull and tedious.
"You noticed," Crimson whispered in his ear, sounding almost delighted.
"What-what happened?" Rick asked, licking his lips.
"I wasn't there," Crimson replied. "But when Sharon swallowed Robin, whatever is in her helped dissolve the shape you placed her in. It wasn't a reality alter after all."
"No," Rick agreed. "It was a lot of hypnotics, drugs and a shell. And it's gone. All of it gone. Years of us." The pain was coming now, held at bay by the shock but seeping into him like a poison.
"That's not my province," Crimson said compalcently before moving off to confer with the little bit of light that resolved into Caitlin Taylor's fairy companion. Rick couldn't help it, he leaned against the wall of the lab put his hand over his face and despite his best efforts, felt a tear run down his cheek. A moment later even this was denied him when he heard Jim swear loudly. Looking up he saw his old friend taking several steps back from Sharon, a Sharon that to him looked like she always had, with curly brown hair, modest breasts and slim, athletic legs. Jim however looked like he had seen a ghost.
"No! Were you always this way?" Jim demanded of her.
"Jim, it's me, it's just me..." Sharon pleaded. But as she did, she held out her hand to him, and that hand was tipped not in nails, but claws.
"You killed Sharon!" Jim snapped. "How could you do that? You really are a monster." Sharon dropped her hand and looked down at her feet, but not fast enough. Rick saw her face crumple in an expression both lost and sad.
It was into all this that Calla entered, wrapped in a sheet and looking both scared and determined. The movement drew all eyes to her except the weeping Sharon.
"It's time," the blonde girl said quietly.
Go back - Go to the parent episode.
Tue May 23 03:33:01 2006
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