Operation: Phoenix: Which Q is Who?

        by Centurion Cerberus, dscott@ccsi.com


	The two figures circled each other warily, one uncertain of what was
happening, the other uncertain of his counterpart's awareness of the 
situation. Both were dressed in black uniforms with red pinstripes, which 
no matter how many times they had been pressed always managed to look 
slightly rumpled. Shiny rank insignia flashed off their shoulderboards 
and collars, and both bore the WEDJEE logo on their arms.
	Some distance away, It of the One Tooth giggled, albeit a bit nervously. 
The tall reptilian known simply as Empress turned to him and mindspoke, 
[Why do you laugh so?  This is a serious moment.] 
	The HellWyrm giggled some more and replied, "Oh, nothing Your Majesty
...I'm just thinking how stuuuuuuuuuupendously interesting this match 
will be..."
	Meanwhile, oblivious to the conversation and battles going on around
him, Centurion Ashur Galand ("Call me Ash") Cerberus paced around his double,
studying him and rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "This is odd...I don't 
recall pulling THIS trick off."
	His doppleganger grinned in typical Ash Galand style and said, "No,
lately the only thing you've been pulling off is yourself...And even that 
hasn't gotten you anywhere."
	Galand frowned, but kept his temper in check. This was what was known
as a Heavy Sitch in his book, and he needed to stay frosty if he was 
going to do it right the first time. The *only* time. "Okay...who or what 
are you?"
	His dark double stood up, made a mock-sad face and said, cheerfully
ripping one of his favorite movies, "I'm...Bad Ash...and you're Good Ash! 
You're little goody twoshoes!" And with that, delivered a hefty punch to 
Galand's jaw that seemed to echo through the building.
	B'harnii clapped his hands gleefully. "Oh, goody! They're fighting! BJ,
Baby Bop, you have to see this!" All three prehistoric pustules cooed and 
ooohed and aaahhed as Galand's double delivered blow after blow to 
Galand's mistreated face. 
	The Empress merely watched the combatants, then watched Barney & Co. 
and sighed inwardly. She had been sworn to impartiality in this matter, but
Barney and his friends were beginning to wear on her nerves. She looked 
at the three and mindspoke,
	[Perhaps they have traded blows, but the true battle has not yet begun.]
	{All right...that's enough of this shit!} Thought Galand as his double
kept pounding him. {He wants to cheese off one of my favorite flicks, 
fine. We can do that.} Reaching his arm back and snapping his fingers, 
Ash flipped a good old-fashioned twin-barrel shotgun over his shoulder 
and stuck the barrel up his double's nose. As his double blinked, Ash
grinned and pulled both triggers, sending his doppleganger flying across
the platform in a smouldering heap.
	As Ash murmured the best phrase from _Army_Of_Darkness, "Good, bad, I'm
the guy with the gun..." and blew smoke off the barrels, his double stood up
and yelled, "ALL RIGHT, ME BOYO! IT'S TIME TO PARTY!!" And cast a wave of 
darkness at our hero, enveloping him in a crushing cloud.
	{Hmm. Time to get serious, methinks} thought Galand as he cast off the
dark shroud and closed in on Bad Ash. As they began circling each other 
he said, "Look...before we start the fireworks, I'd like to know one 
thing: Why?"
	His double, face marred from the shotgun blast but quickly healing,
grinned and said, "You want to know why? Ooooooookay." He grabbed 
Galand's arm and said, "Time for the nickel tour, me boyo, but don't say 
I didn't warn ya." With that, he gestured, and both vanished in a flash 
of light.
	As the Cerberus Twins bamfed out of sight, B'Harnii began whining again.
"Where are they? Did they obliterate each other? Huh? Where are they??!?? 
I want to see my creation massacre him!!"
	The Empress cast a frosty gaze at B'Harnii and replied, [They have gone
outside this plane, and into the Multiverse of possibilities from which 
you pulled your champion.  This is a valid choice, and while we cannot see 
them the battle is being conducted.  Patience, Barney. The Decision shall 
be Made soon enough.]
	At that the HellWyrm hrmphed and plopped down for a nice long pout.
	"Okay, Bonzo..." said Ash as he watched the Multiverse flicker by at a
high speed,
	"Where the bloody sneckbuggering hell are you taking me?"
	"Why, we're taking a whirlwind trip into the past. You wanted to know
why, so I'll SHOW you!" His opponent grinned as the first scene came into 
view. In it, a young boy was on his way to school for the very first 
time. Trusting and innocent, he tried his hardest to make friends, and 
got beaten for his troubles. As he grew older, the cycle continued, the
beating slowly transforming from physical to emotional as lovers and
friends alike deserted him or turned on him, for what reasons he could 
not know. 
	"You see?" His double cried, "Nobody loved me! My parents did, but I 
think they really couldn't stand to look at me...but watch...watch what 
happened..."
	As Ash and Ash #2 looked on, the young man was encountered by a being
who appeared before him in a flash of light. Dressed in a shabby cloak with a
permanently dour but kindly expression on his face, and introducing 
himself as Mervyn, this person whisked the young Ashur off and taught him 
his true power and potential. When the young man returned, he used these 
newfound skills to exact vengeance on everyone who had ever hurt him, 
each episode more chilling than the last as the young being constantly
came up with imaginative and horrific ways for people to die.
	Galand's face went dead white as he saw the double's parents -- HIS
parents tortured slowly and killed. Then came the best friend of 8 years 
who had drifted away from him and turned on him a few times. The first 
true lover he had had came shortly afterward, and so on, a whirling hate 
parade of faces, names, and places long forgotten...but not forgotten by 
his double. He squeezed his eyes shut and cried out, "Enough! Why did you
join him?!?"
	"Isn't it obvious?" replied the doppleganger. "Everyone in my life that
claimed they loved me proved themselves to be liars and cheats. When I 
found Barney, he showed me that he really loved me."
	Galand thought about this, then decided he didn't want to know just HOW
 Barney had shown him. "Well, your beloved B'Harnii is a liar as well. I 
noticed you didn't kill Mervyn. Why?"
	Dark Ash shrugged. "He was a kindly old man...and he loved me in his 
way, I guess. He also didn't betray me. I still think fondly of him from 
time to time."
	Ash grinned, seeing his angle. He grabbed his dark mirror's arm and 
said , "Okay, MY TURN!" and cast them off into the Multiverse again. The 
scene formed with the young boy, as before. He got beaten, but instead of 
becoming bitter about it, he avoided the situation, learning to defuse 
them before they came. Many of the hardships he suffered were the same as 
before: His beloved Grandmother's death, his first lover leaving him on a 
whim with only a garbled explanation, his frustration at home and at school.
	His temper showed, and showed often, but it was held in check by his 
innate love of life and of people.  Then he met Mervyn, who taught him a 
new way to enjoy and experience life through his powers. When he 
returned, he helped his loved ones in subtle ways, not revealing much of 
his power, but feeling good nonetheless. Then came the fateful day when his
doorbell rang and he opened it to find his beloved Master's head lying 
bloody and severed in a box, with a note from Barney.
	The dark one's hands began to tremble..."Y-y-you're l-lying...Th-this
isn't t-true..."  He backed away from Galand. He turned and fled, only to 
find Galand flashing into being in front of him, murmuring, "Search 
inside yourself..you know it to be true. You and I are of the same mold, 
but cast with different mettle."
	"NOOOOOO!!!!" screamed the duplicate and ran into nothingness, 
vanishing with Galand hot on his heels.

	B'Harnii was not having a sooper-deee-dooper time. In fact, he was 
having a soooper-dee-crummy time. His pet Q and his goody two-shoes 
duplicate had vanished into thin air, and so he was left to minister to 
BJ and Baby Bop, who were still suffering from the rather severe beating 
dealt them by the Empress. 
	The Empress, for her part, was spending the time in quiet mental 
meditation, pondering if it had truly been wise to ally her people with 
this purple demon. Her meditative state was interrupted however when a 
patch of air began to distort in front of her.
	"Wh-What's happening, Barney?" Asked the lacerated BJ. Barney's only 
reply was a shrug. "I dunno, BJ, but whatever it is, I bet it'll be 
sooper-dee-dooper!  Wohhoooohahahuuhu!!" Meanwhile the air began to twist 
as if it were a sheet of cellophane someone was trying to break through. 
Suddenly, with a *WHOOMPH!* of displaced air, one of the Galand's broke 
through, leaving a rip behind him that the other quickly dashed through 
and sealed behind him.
	The dark Cerberus whirled on his lightside opponent and started flinging
bolt after bolt at him, each spell charged with hatred, disbelief, and 21 
years of pain and suffering.  Galand dodged some, deflected others, and 
took more full on, holding his ground, but not returning fire. He yelled 
over the din, "I have no wish to hurt you. You have been hurt enough in 
your time. I only wish to release you from your pain."
	This brought the dark twin up short. No one had ever offered to do
anything for him before..."He...he really did do it, didn't he? He killed 
the only person who cared for me..."
	Ash smiled. "My dear brother...they all cared for you. But people 
change, and with them their affections.  I've known many children like 
myself who didn't turn out as well as you or I...when all they really 
wanted was a little attention and some love.  You may think you found 
that in B'Harnii, but you didn't...he is using you, just as he uses all 
others in his sway. THAT is why I joined the side I did. I do it for the 
children, in the hopes that maybe they will grow up like I did, learning 
to think for myself, to learn how to truly love, and how to forgive, if 
not forget."
	The dark twin dropped to his knees, sobbing. "I've been a fool..." He
looked up at Cerberus. "Do you think they could forgive me?" Galand 
nodded. "If they're like the ones I know, then yes...can you forgive 
yourself though?"
	The doppleganger thought about it for a long moment, then stood and 
said, "No. I cannot. Goodbye, brother." With that, he willed all his 
power to completely annihilating Cerberus from existence, knowing full 
well what it would do.
	Cerberus stood in shock as he seemed to contract, then expand, then snap
back to normal shape. He realized what his twin was doing, and had only 
time to shout "NO!" before the doppleganger exploded violently as the 
Universe recoiled against the destructive urge and threw the power back 
to its source, full blast. 
	Cerberus was blasted up and away to the edge of the platform, where he
encountered a wall of force, slamming into it back first. He slid to the 
ground, consciousness fading rapidly. He knew he had won, but for some 
reason he felt no sense of triumph, only a remote sadness...he knew not 
why, but as he slid gratefully into unconsciousness, one word echoed 
through his mind...
	{Brother....}

-={The End?}=-

Centurion Cerberus is the intellectual property of Stephen D. Scott and is
copyrighted to the same. All other characters trademark and copyright of 
their original owners/creators.

>-={AGC}=-

Steve Scott,
dscott@ccsi.com