The Protagonist System

165 A Choice Made

That was how our lives together began and how they went on. We eventually learned to love Jenkins and Janine like they were family and would never reach the point that we would want to share everything with them. There was never any swapping of wives or husbands, even if it was only just us around.

What I hadn't told the others was that I had placed aversion wards all around our space to stop anyone or anything from ever coming into our living area. I also used the strongest weed-killer around that space as well and ensured that no infection could ever infest the area ever again.

Both Jenkins and Janine had been shocked when they were shown the food stocks we had stashed in the stolen resistance cargo truck that was parked behind the hotel. They were both relieved that we wouldn't have to worry about food for several years, even with two extra mouths to feed.

When you added in the MREs I had snuck in, they would extend the normal food to last for almost twice that long, assuming we rationed out at least two of the quick meals each per week. Since the MREs actually tasted half-decently, no one had a problem with it.

Of course, I was going to keep cheating with magic and what was stored in the truck were copied and duplicated from the originals. I wasn't going to waste any food if I could help it. Plus, I was a great cook and no one complained that I had become the person that made the majority of the meals.

With all the dry ingredients she could ever want to practice with, Tammy eventually became a very good baker and plied her talents to make us all into dessert connoisseurs. That she did the naked apron trick a lot to tease me, quickly became a part of her normal routine when it was just the three of us.

*

Time moved on and weeks slowly turned into months as our lives became routine. It didn't take long for years to pass and we were all happy. There were even several colts born to a very proud Hermes. Unfortunately, it was not all sunshine and rainbows. Tammy had been hiding a secret from us for a while and I didn't catch wind of it until she went into the bathroom one morning and stayed there.

When she didn't answer Sandra's panicking yells and pounding fists, I was called on the walkie-talkie while exercising the horses and I rushed upstairs and broke the door down. Sandra gasped at the sight of a blood filled toilet and Tammy unconscious on the floor.

I went over to her and checked her vitals. “She's still breathing.”

“Get her to the bed.” Sandra ordered and I picked Tammy up and did just that. She watched as I performed a medical examination and my frown let her know it wasn't good. “What is it?”

I took out my wand and cast several diagnostic spells. I sighed at the results.

“Eli, what...” Sandra stared at my hand and then at my face. “What is that?”

“It's useless.” I said and stored the wand.

“What?” Sandra asked, clearly confused.

“She has late stage stomach cancer and it's spread to her lymph nodes and it's in her bloodstream.” I said and sat down on the bed to stroke Tammy's hair.

“But... but, you... what...” Sandra sat across from me and pet Tammy's hair, too.

“It must have been an especially virulent strain, because the potions I've been feeding you all didn't take care of it.” I told her and her face was blank. “Either that, or it's a mutated strain that's resistant to normal treatments. With the way the Cordyceps virus can infect almost anything living, it wouldn't surprise me.”

Sandra gasped and jerked her hand away. “She's infected?”

“No, she won't turn into one of those things.” I said and kept petting Tammy's air. “The cancer might keep growing after she dies, though.”

Sandra stood and walked around the bed. “If she has... that... inside of her, how can you touch her like that?”

“I'm immune.” I said and she caught her breath. “I've been secretly working on trying to make a vaccine, except the scientists were right. I need to harvest more bone marrow than my left arm alone can produce in a year, even when kept in stasis. I also need to analyze my brain tissue to study the effects of the virus and any serum I make. Since I need my brain in order to conduct the experiments...”

Sandra didn't need me to finish that statement to understand. “You'd have to die and there's still a chance it won't work.”

I nodded and sighed again. “I had really hoped it would work, you know? I didn't want to sacrifice myself for a sole chance that it would work. I even tried to...” I caught myself and stopped talking before I explained about not having the ability to buy or upgrade a vaccine with Karma Points.

The only thing available was for me to give myself up to the FEDRA patrols and then I could spend a ton of Karma Points for them to try the procedure to make my entire body into a vaccine. It still wasn't a guarantee, since all it would do was increase the chance of success to 65%. A 35% failure rate was way too high for my peace of mind, especially with my Blessing of Fortune disabled.

“What... what do we do?” Sandra asked me.

I looked down at Tammy's pain-filled face and sighed. “We can either confront her about her not telling us she was sick or we can ignore it and just live our lives.”

Sandra looked scandalized. “Eli, you can't seriously think we can ignore this!”

I looked up from Tammy's face to look at Sandra's. “She's been hiding this from us for a long time already. We can just pretend she still is.”

“Eli!” Sandra almost shouted.

I sighed and thought about what to do, then shrugged. “All right, when she wakes up, we'll ask her why she didn't want us to know.”

Sandra nodded and sat down beside me and didn't touch Tammy, which made me feel disappointed. I know it wasn't fair of me to judge Sandra for not wanting to touch someone she thought had the infection. She had grown up into an adult with everyone telling her that the fungus was dangerous and that wasn't something she was going to ignore.

Several hours later, Tammy woke up with a groan and she saw the two of us hovering over her. She saw our worried faces and didn't ask why I was the only one touching her. “How long was I out?”

“About 5 hours, so not long.” I said and kept petting her hair. “Would you care to tell us why you covered the toilet with blood and vomit?”

“I... I don't know.” Tammy lied.

I sighed as I moved my hand from her head and then lightly patted her stomach.

Tammy's eyes widened at me touching where the largest growth was. “H-how...”

“It doesn't matter, does it?” I said, my voice dangerously calm. “You're dying.”

Tammy sighed this time. “Eli, I... I didn't want to worry you. I've been sick for a while...”

“It's been longer than that, since you're in the last stage of cancer.” I interrupted her. “It's also much too late to do anything about it.”

Tammy blinked her eyes at me. “You could have?”

“Maybe. If you had said something, anything really, I might have slowed it or even stopped it. If it was only in your stomach, I could have easily cut it away and sewed it shut. Eating more food over time would have stretched it back out to a normal size again.”

Tammy closed her eyes with another sigh.

“You've always been too stubborn for your own good.” Sandra said.

Tammy opened her eyes and saw how far away she was. “Why are you...” She stopped talking and looked at me. “What aren't you telling me?”

“I took a sample of your expulsions and tested them. I can only conclude that your cancerous growths are similar to the fungus.” I said and Tammy's pale face lost all of its color. “You won't turn while you're alive; but, as soon as you pass away, the cancer is going to keep growing.”

“What... what would...” Tammy paused and took a breath. “What would I become?”

“I'm pretty sure you'll become one of those bloater things. The cancer would convert you over into actual fungal growths fairly quickly when your immune system stops fighting it.” I informed her and she didn't start crying or anything. “It kind of explains why their appearances are few and far between.”

Tammy stayed quiet and didn't say anything in response.

“How long does she have?” Sandra asked.

I was hesitant to say and Tammy's hand reached up to cup the side of my face. “Since I don't know when you reached this stage, I can only guess from this point in time.”

“Stop hesitating and tell us!” Sandra shouted.

I sighed and put a hand on Tammy's. “A few weeks to a few months, depending on when you first started throwing up blood.”

“Oh.” Tammy whispered and looked really sad.

Sandra's eyes started leaking tears when she realized what Tammy didn't say. “How long?”

Tammy pulled her hand away from where my hand held it to my face. “Anytime.”

Sandra burst out crying and walked away, then she slammed the bedroom door.

“Eli, I... I'm sorry.” Tammy said and couldn't meet my eyes. “I should have said something.”

“It doesn't matter now.” I said and started petting her hair again. “I'll stay here with you.”

“No, you can't. If I really do become...” Tammy started to protest.

“I won't let that happen to you, I promise.” I said and she nodded. “If you want, I can keep talking while I keep you company.”

Tammy took a shallow breath and let it out. “Can you tell me about your life?”

“I think I can do that.” I said and laid down beside her to cuddle her. “It all began when an evil little sperm decided to kill all of his competition before killing himself as he stabbed his head into the toughest egg ever and lost his tail.”

Tammy let out a cute giggle at that and then listened intensely as I told her all about my first life in High School DxD. She passed away with a smile on her face right after I told her that I impregnated a demon princess and how disappointed she was that I did it without actually having sex with her.

I cast immobilize on her body and thought about what to do with it, then nodded at doing the right thing. I carried her out of the bedroom and out of the suite. The ride down to the ground floor was quiet and I didn't see Sandra anywhere, so I went into the stables and Hermes neighed at me.

“Yeah, we're heading out to the dead zone.” I said and laid Tammy's body down on the hay and saddled my horse up, then put her over the front of the saddle and climbed on. I rode him out of the hotel and into the sunlight. Her body twitched, even though it was supposed to be immobilized, which meant the magic was starting to fail.

Hermes sped up and we crossed the clear area very quickly. He came to a stop where the warning barricade was and I hopped off and pulled Tammy's body off of him and held it in a princess carry. I walked over to the barricade and laid her body down before taking out a small bottle of the most powerful weed-killer I had, which I then poured half over her and the rest went into her mouth.

A fast spell sent some of it into her stomach and circulated it through her blood, then I lifted the body above my head and tossed it over the barricade. The hissing and screeching was fairly loud and I stood there and watched as the cancer tried to grow and expand, only to hit the weed-killer and freak out. It was a hard fought battle that the cancer eventually lost and the weed-killer finished it off, almost mummifying the body.

A Molotov cocktail was lit and tossed over the barricade as well, just in case, and the fire burned strongly as the probing vines and fungal growths tried to claim the fresh body to take it over. They didn't succeed and Tammy's body burned up like dry kindling.

I stood there and watched until there was almost nothing left except bones, which I vanished. I didn't want to leave anything for the infection to try to claim and I knew that Tammy wouldn't have wanted to become a part of the disease that had ravaged the entire world.

I whispered a prayer to anyone that was listening to watch over her soul and to make sure she was happy. With the important task done, I climbed onto the saddle again and rode Hermes back home at a slow trot. I was not looking forward to what was going to happen next.

Almost as soon as I entered the hotel's front doors, Jenkins was there and demanded that I tell him what happened. I ignored him until I put Hermes back into his stall and removed the riding tools from him. By that point, Jenkins was yelling at me to react, so I did. I punched him right in the face and dropped him to the floor.

“A woman I loved just died because she was too fucking stubborn to tell me she was sick and I had to dispose of her body like it was trash instead of burying her properly.” I said calmly and walked around him. “I am in no mood to deal with anything else right now, so kindly fuck off.”

Jenkins looked shocked and watched me walk across the lobby and over to the elevator.

I entered it and rode it up to the top floor. When the elevator opened, Janine and Sandra were there, their faces soaked with tears. Neither of them said anything as I walked by them and I entered the Presidential Suite. I went to the bedroom and saw the bedding had already been stripped off and bundled in the corner.

I used my wand to shoot the bundle out through the doors of the balcony and set it on fire, then levitated it up and over the railing to let the air fan the flames as the bundle dropped all the way to the street below. Nothing else would catch on fire and I closed the doors and went to the closet. I added new sheets and a blanket to the bed and stripped off, climbed inside, and laid down.

That was when I felt the wetness on my face and didn't bother trying to wipe my silent tears away. I hasn't even realized I had been crying the whole time and fell asleep with the idea of making a statue in her honor. I had done it before to honor Hestia, so why not do it again? Tammy deserved to have something around to keep reminding people that she had existed.

*

Sandra decided to stay in the hallway with her friend Janine until Jenkins came back from confronting Eli. The three of them had been shocked that Tammy was going to die so quickly, then Sandra went into their suite and found out that Eli had somehow left with Tammy and didn't tell her. What was he going to do with her?

Then Eli came out of the elevator and his face was blank and streaked with tears. Both Sandra and Janine could guess what happened and didn't say anything, because Eli looked like he was in no mood to answer any questions. He passed them in the hallway without saying hello and went into the suite and quietly shut the door.

Neither of the two women knew what to make of that and turned back to look down the hallway when the elevator dinged again. Jenkins stepped out and walked over to them, the red mark on his face highlighting where he had been punched.

“I think he just needs some time to deal with what he's feeling.” Jenkins said and rubbed his jaw. “Sandra, you can stay with us until he's ready to talk.”

Sandra opened her mouth to refuse and Janine touched her arm.

“Just for tonight.” Janine pleaded.

Sandra didn't protest and entered their suite. The couch was quickly made up and she laid down, then she rolled over, then she rolled back. She was unable to sleep and she didn't know what to do about it. Or what to do about losing someone she loved so quickly. She just didn't know. Her tears soaked her borrowed pillow and she wondered what was going to happen now.