Why We Hate

"He's so fucking dead" Jay seethed.

Artemis checked his rifle calmly, having finally come down off of the rage-high. "Mmm" he uttered.

"What?" Jay barked.
"Your rage for Lindstrom" Artemis replied.
"He killed my WIFE Artemis....MY FUCKING WIFE"
"Yes, but he's taken more from me than I thought any human being could ever lose"
"Oh really? I didn't see The Missus get shot"
"This isn't about my family, Jay, this is about my life. That bastard pretended to be my friend for years, undermining ever single thing I did. The Q-Bomb, the industrial GELF's, the ZLORG computer, hell, even his 0wn cloning experiments because I was appointed to them. But that's not all. That bastard caused one of the biggest scientific blunders in existence and let me take the blame for it. Thousands of innocent scientists, security staff...my friends and adoptive family...dead in an accident with the Q-Bomb. Turned to radioactive dust. My family abandoned me, the guild abandoned me, everyone abandoned me. I spent all those years on Blue Dwarf thinking that I was responsible for all of those deaths, and millions of years later, even knowing the truth, I still hold myself responsible. Then I found him again..."
"On the swamp moon, yeah, I remember"
"I let him go, Jay....I was seconds from killing him and I let him go. This, all of this, is my fault. The one time in my ENTIRE life I had a moment of true humanity and I let that backstabber get away scot-free. If I had killed him then and there Katrina would be alive, Kenneth would be operational, Plisken wouldn't have been subjected to Lindstrom's interrogations, Jaxx wouldn't have been shocked half to death, and we would be home right now. This is all my fault...." Artemis sighed. "That's what he took from me, everything that I am, was, and will be. That's why I want to kill him so much, because if I let him get away again I'll never have another opportunity"

Artemis put his hand on Jay's shoulder. "I'm not even going to pretend to understand what losing Katrina has done to you, or what it will to your son, but I can guarantee that one way or another, that bastard isn't leaving this facility alive"

The escape pod docked.

Artemis cocked the rifle. "Let's go get him"

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