Vice blinked, looking at me through a haze of tears. "What?"
"You have to use it!" I shook her. "Capt told me! He said the Tickling Clock can stop time! It can reverse this! You can freeze his heart state before the brain dies! You can buy us time to fix him!"
Vice's eyes widened. A spark of life returned to them. A desperate, frantic hope.
"You are right," she gasped. "Time. I can stop time."
She scrambled to her feet. She raised her hand, ready to snap her fingers. That was the trigger. The simple gesture that activated the most dangerous Melios in our arsenal.
"Tickling..." she began, her voice gaining strength.
She snapped her fingers.
But...
Nothing happened.
The dust motes floating in the air kept dancing. The sound of Arararan's sobbing continued. Capt's chest remained still.
Vice stared at her hand. She snapped again. Harder.
"Work!" she screamed. "Damn you, work!"
"Vice," Prof said quietly. "Check your levels."
Vice looked down at her wrist interface. Her face went pale. Paler than Capt's.
"Zero," she whispered. The word was a horror story. "I am empty."
"What?" Chef stepped forward. "But you just fought! You were using the Gatling Rose like a maniac!"
"Exactly!" Vice cried, turning to us, panic distorting her beautiful features. "The Gatling Rose consumed everything! I poured every drop of Melios I had into those bullets to kill the Centaur! I didn't save any for the Clock! I didn't think... I didn't think I would need it!"
She fell to her knees again, burying her hands in her hair.
"I killed him," she sobbed. "I used all his energy to kill the enemy, and now I don't have enough to save him. I killed him!"
"We have the serum!" I said desperately. "The GX-778-C! Prof! You said it boosts Melios!"
"It boosts existing reserves," Prof corrected, shaking her head. "It acts as a catalyst, Xecta. It cannot create energy from a vacuum. Vice is completely dry. To activate a Melios as powerful as the Tickling Clock... especially to reverse death... she needs a full charge. She needs a Felt."
"Then let's do it!" Navi yelled. "Someone! Anyone! Give her energy!"
"It doesn't work like that, Tonix," Chef snapped, though her voice was trembling. "We are Melitos. We are receivers. We can't give energy to each other. Only an Inquor can give energy."
We all looked at Capt.
He was the Inquor. And he was dead.
It was a cruel joke. To save him, we needed his energy. But to get his energy, he needed to be saved. It was a loop. A knot we couldn't untie.
"Is there no one else?" Mama asked, stepping forward. She looked at Liquida Quarso. "Commander. You. You are his father. You have the blood."
We all turned to Liquida.
The massive man stiffened. He looked at Vice. He looked at the desperation in our eyes.
"Prof?" I asked, looking at our genius. "Is it possible? Can the Commander... provide the fuel?"
Prof tapped her screen furiously. "Theoretically... yes. The Quarso genetic markers are present. While he is not an active Inquor, his biological material shares a 99.9% compatibility with Ragia's. A Felt with a direct blood relative could, hypothetically, trick the Melito physiology into accepting the charge."
"Then do it!" I begged Liquida. "Please! Commander! You have to sleep with her! You have to fill her up so she can save your son!"
Liquida recoiled. He looked at Vice with a mixture of horror and absolute refusal.
"Are you insane?" he roared. "She is his fiancée! She is my future daughter-in-law! It's like having sex with my own daughter! I will not... I will not perform incest with my son's wife! It is an abomination! It is against every code of honor I uphold!"
"Honor?" Vice screamed, standing up and grabbing Liquida's lapels. She shook him, though he barely moved. "Your son is dying on the floor! Screw your honor! Screw the codes! Just fuck me! Fuck me so I can save him!"
"No!" Liquida shoved her back. "I cannot! I will not! Find another way!"
"There is no other way!" Vice wailed. She collapsed onto the floor, right next to Capt's head. She curled into a ball, defeated. "We are out of time. He is gone. He is really gone."
The silence returned. Heavier this time.
Final...
Three minutes. We had wasted two.
I looked at the clock on the wall. The second hand was ticking away. Each sound was a nail in his coffin.
"I have an idea."
The voice was small. Quiet.
It was Arararan.
We all looked at her. Arararan was wiping her nose with her sleeve. She wasn't crying anymore. Her eyes were wide, chaotic, and shining with a terrifying kind of madness.
"Private?" Chef asked. "What?"
"The blood," Arararan whispered. "Prof said we need the blood, right? Quarso blood."
"Yes," Prof nodded slowly. "But the Commander refused."
"But I have the blood," Arararan said.
She stood up. She walked to the center of the circle. She looked at Vice.
"I am a Quarso," Arararan stated. "I am his sister. I have the same papa. I have the same DNA."
"Arararan," I said gently, stepping toward her. "You are a girl. You... you don't have the... the equipment. You can't perform a Felt. You can't give sperm."
"I don't need a penis," Arararan said. Her voice was steady... eerie. "I have 'The Stick'."
I froze.
"The Stick?" Navi blinked. "You mean... the toy? The one Prof made? The replica?"
"Yes," Arararan nodded. She reached into her pocket... her deep, dimensional pocket where she kept her snacks... and pulled it out.
There it was.
The silicone replica of Capt's member. It was perfect. Veiny. Thick. The exact shade of his skin.
Did you remember?
"Prof," Arararan said, turning to the scientist. "You still have the serum? The concentrated GX.. GX... Mugururu Serum? The stuff that was supposed to kill the Krall?"
"GX-778-C? I... yes," Prof stammered, pulling a vial of glowing red liquid from her coat. "But that is a toxin for the Krall. For humans, it is just... raw, concentrated bio-energy."
"Load it," Arararan commanded.
She held out The Stick.
"Load the serum into the reservoir," Arararan said. Her eyes locked onto Vice. "I will be Ranyan. I will wear him. I will become him."
She looked at Vice with an intensity that sent shivers down my spine.
"I have the Quarso blood running in my veins," Arararan declared. "I have the Quarso hunger. If I channel it... if I focus everything I have into being him... and I inject that serum into you using his face... his body... his cock..."
She paused.
"It will work," Arararan whispered. "I know it will work."
We all stood there, mouths open, staring at the little girl holding a dildo and a plan so crazy, so perverse, and so desperate that it defied every law of logic and decency.
"You want to..." Vice stared at her. "You want to roleplay as your dead brother... and fuck me with a toy filled with experimental serum... to trick my body into thinking it's him?"
"Yes," Arararan said. "Ideally, right now. Before his brain turns to mush."
Prof looked from Arararan to the vial, then to Capt's body. Her eyes were darting back and forth, calculating.
"Hypothetically..." Prof whispered.
I held my breath.
"Hypothetically," Prof said louder, her voice gaining traction. "The psychological trigger of the Feltish... combined with the genetic resonance of Private's pheromones... and the direct injection of the bio-energy serum into the Melito's receptor walls... It creates a biological feedback loop."
Prof looked up. She looked crazy too.
"It is plausible," Prof announced. "It is highly improbable, scientifically obscene, and morally grey... but it is plausible."
"Then do it!" I shouted. "Do it now!"
I looked at the reader.
Yes, you.
I know what you are thinking. You are thinking this is insane. You are thinking this is the most ridiculous plot armor you have ever seen. You are thinking we are sick.
Good.
Be disgusted.
Be shocked!
Judge us all you want.
But if this crazy, illogical, toy-wielding plan saves him?
I will personally build a shrine to that plastic dick.
"Vice?" Arararan asked, stepping closer to Vice. She held out the toy like a sword. "Are you ready to clak-clak for his life?"
Vice looked at Capt's still face. Then she looked at Arararan.
She stood up.
"Put it on, Private," Vice growled. "And make me believe it."