Letting Go While Holding On

[Kinsey Calhoun]

She touched his face and kissed him deeply as she picked up the kidlen.

“Jack,” Kinsey whispered against his lips. “I love you.”

[Jack Ryder]

"I love you too K'n'zy." Jack replied as he closed his eyes and waited for the end.

Ophelia smiled wickedly as she watched Kinsey take the kilden and prepared to strike down the one solid link to her 'old' life. Although it was a good thing she had the psionic filters dropped only slightly so she could sense 'her' Jack, but... not know everything.

[Kinsey Calhoun]

She kissed him again as she activated the kilden and sank it into Jack. Tears streamed down her cheeks as the blade fell from her hand.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered as she held on to him tightly.

[Ophelia]

"Well done." Ophelia took the kilden and put it on her belt. "You're learning there are things more important than silly notions of love and loyalty." she said and snapped her fingers. "Take him away... send him to the capitol." she said with a smirk. Looking down at Kinsey she patted her cheek. "That hate, that grief, that anger and sadness... focus on it. Because there's a lot more coming... " grabbing her by the hair she dragged her back to the cell. "Like I said... don't fear dying. Fear living."

[Ian]

Ian stood with a grin on his face watching as the minions drug the body away, "Not my style, but I have to admit that you are truly and evil genius."

[Ophelia]

"Only getting started dear brother." Ophelia said and secured Kinsey in the cell and closed the door. "That only took five tries to find just the right one." she said as she watched the minions drag the body to the airlock where it joined the other five Jack Ryders floating in space. "Only one that had the right selflessness. Far too many Jacksons in the multiverse. Some realities will be thanking us for relieving them of their resident psychopathic genius. And I simply hate having a rival."

[Ian]

Ian chuckled, "Don't get any ideas. You may be better at the kliden than I, but I'm every bit as strong as you in the ijulna, and I out match you in size and physical strength."

[Kinsey Calhoun]

The world was plunged into darkness again as Kinsey laid on the floor. She laid like that for some time tracing the groves of the floor. There was an emptiness in her soul. Jack was gone but her children…the children were still alive.

“K’n’zy.” Jack’s voice called to her in the dark.

“Jack.” Kinsey said as she sat up, hope flooded into her. “I thought you were dead.”

“K’n’zy.” He whispered as he gently touched her faced.

She leaned into his touch and closed her eyes. He was alive maybe it had been some trick of Ophelia’s to make her think she’d killed him.

“This isn’t real.” He whispered as his hand fell away.

Kinsey’s eyes opened and she was holding the kilden as it protruded from Jack’s body.

“I’m so sorry.” She cried as she held him. “I’m so sorry. Mackenzie and Jason…they’re okay. They won’t harm Terra Alpha.”

“Are they?” Jack said as he drifted away.

“Don’t go.” Kinsey pleaded to the empty air his last words playing through her mind over and over.

What if he was right? What if she killed Jack and they still destroyed Terra Alpha? What if everyone else was dead too? What if M’k’n’zy, Jason, and her sweet Carly were gone to?

Kinsey let out a rage filled scream activating the psionic blockers. Blood trickled from her nose as the pain in her skull increased. The bed in her cell moved half an inch just as she blacked out.

[Axii Kerstav]

Axii now knew what it felt like to start to go mad. He sat silently in the nearly pitch-black cell with only the screams of the other prisoners to keep him company.

There was an empty food tray. The oatmeal-like dinner had been licked clean drawing every calorie from the bland meal, and yet there was still the perpetual pain of near starvation. A cup of water sat close by. The contents carefully guarded and rationed.

Then there was a scream. It was felt as much as it had been heard. The psionic scream activated old senses that he had been so careful to hide all his life. The Humans accepted a being's affinity to what they called the ijulna The Empire did not. Especially his own people the Hylon.

The scream had been a woman's. That much he was certain of, and it felt somehow familiar. Like he knew to whom it belonged to.

Carefully, and tentatively he closed his eyes and started to focus on his inner... He didn't have a word for it. His inner transmitter? ~Hello? Is there anybody out there?~ He projected in the direction of the scream, and not expecting a response.