Disclaimer: I do not own Biker Mice from Mars or make any profit from this fic other than your enjoyment. Also, I use the characters of Survivor's Log with the permission of their creator.

Now that that crud's done- On with the Fic. (You can thank Vikki if I completely ruin the mood of this fic.)

Warning: There is a slight amount of bad language in this fic.

Note: This story starts just at the end of Part V.

Nightstalk starts to leave the busy room filled with partygoers, but first walks over to Bordeaux standing by the refreshment tables.

Bordeaux sees him and smiles. "Good job," she says.

"My pleasure," laughs Night while glancing over his shoulder at Rex and Shelly clinging to each other, swaying to the slow music.

"It took him long enough," grumbles Bordeaux. Night laughs.

"I wonder how long it'll take them to realize they look like they're having too much fun?" Bordeaux chuckles and Night takes his leave.

Since the party noises drain through the thin walls of Level 8, Nightstalk stalks through the upper levels, succeeding in not looking like he's looking for something to get into.

A woman's voice calls out, Nightstalk?

Night spins around. What was that? He searches the hallway but finds no one. Shrugging it off, he continues.

Night! Help him!

"Who's there?" shouts Night. No answer. He listens for anyone. Anything. No one. Nothing. He suddenly realizes the voice is coming from in his own mind.

Help who? he wonders to himself.

Help Ripper, is the faint reply. That jars Night down to his bones. He remembers seeing Ripper leave with Sprite, so he rushes in the direction of her room.

****

Jack dodges Sprite's lunge again. Dodging is all he can do! He doesn't want to hurt her, but she seems very determined to destroy him. He watches Sprite turn and can't help but notice she looks like she lost all her grace. She usually moved like a cat. Now she resembled a fish out of water.

Sprite clenches the dagger in her hand; her eyes as cold and dead as glass. Suddenly, she grips the side of her head with her free hand. Sprite's other hand trembles and the knife slips out of her fingers and clatters on the tile floor.

"Shut up!" shouts Sprite, coldly, to no one.

She replies, in a softer tone, "I... won't let...."

Sprite cackles, "Let?! You don't have a choice!"

Jack stands frozen from the sight he just witnessed. He reaches out to her. "Sprite?"

Sprite glares at him. Then she kneels for the dagger, but her tail wraps around it and hurls it out of her reach. "Wretched brat!" she shrieks. She grabs for Jack, intent to strangle him if she has to. Jack grabs Sprite's wrists and holds her away from him. Sprite struggles, but suddenly Night comes from behind and pins her shoulders to his chest. Terrance grabs one of her arms and sedates her.

"What happened? An attack?" asks Terrance. Jack shakes his head.

"I'd call it an attack!" shouts Night, holding Sprite by the waist. "She looked like she was trying to kill you!"

"Something's wrong," mutters Jack.

"Let's get her to the infirmary," commands Terrance. Night picks her up and gives Jack a sly grin.

"This time I get to play the dashing hero."

****

Terrance has been tapping at his computer for an hour at least. Night is sitting back and dozing in a chair. And Jack is trying not to start pacing. Terrance lets out a surprised whistle and Jack turns to him.

"Found something?" Jack asks.

"Yeah. Look at this."

Jack walks over and looks at the screen. All he sees are two zigzagging lines going across the screen. One looks more violent than the other. Jack turns to Terrance and shrugs.

Terrance sighs. "I'm monitoring her subconscious brain functions, since her conscious is... well.... unconscious."

"So?"

"Two different brain spikes."

Jack is starting to feel really dense. He isn't understanding any of this; and he's wishing Terrance would just hurry up and help Sprite. "Which means?" he asks.

"My best guess is multiple personalities."

A cold cackle sounds behind them. They both turn to see Sprite smiling venomously at them from the examination table they had to tie her to. With an air of superiority she says, "Your best guess?! You mice are truly pathetic!"

"Then you tell us what's going on," says Jack.

"Poor, Ripper," she taunts. "So worried for her, aren't you?" She looks down at her bonds. "Well! This looks familiar, doesn't it, Sprite?" She cackles again. "We're right back where we started! But this time it was your very own friends who did it!"

"I'm sorry, Sprite," Jack calls out.

"Don't bother, mouse. She can't hear you."

"Who are you?" asks Terrance.

Sprite's mouth smirks. "Dr. Cairo Solven."

"What have you done to Sprite?" asks Jack anger boiling inside him.

Dr. Solven chuckles. "You can't scare me, vermin. I know you won't hurt this body."

Jack snaps. He pulls up a chair behind the bed and places his antennae on Sprite's forehead. "If you won't tell me what's happened, I'll find out myself!"

Terrance shouts, "Jack! Don't! You don't....."

****

The scene before Jack is a Plutarkian lab. An unusually thin Fish stands in front of giant comp. screen watching the brain waves dance across the screen. He punches a few buttons and the waves become more erratic. Jack doesn't seem to be noticed.

A child's bloodcurdling scream can be heard behind him. He and Jack turn to watch a young girl mouse, around age seven with a dirty bandage over her left eye, scream and squirm on the medical bed against her bonds. Strange wires are attached to her head, near her antennae.

The fish smiles sadistically and turns a knob increasing the child's pain to where she almost passes out. He moves over beside the girl and grabs her chin in his scaly hand.

"You might just save my life, Brat. You'd like that? Wouldn't you?" Her response is to bite deep into his thumb. Jack chuckles. The fish slaps her across the face then reaches behind the bed and brings to himself a metal ring with lots of wires attached. He places the ring on his head and leans back in a chair. From a distance he can hear shouting. But he is too busy to worry.

"If this works," he says. "Not only am I cured, but I will be rich!" He quickly turns the machine to full power. The child shrieks in agony and his own body jerks rigid as the energy passes through him.

Suddenly the door bursts open and a mangy creature who used to be called a mouse dashes through. It's feral eyes focus on it's captor. It's torturer. And now its revenge. It lunges for the fish's throat. The fish is frozen in place by his experiment, and can only watch as his death comes for him.

The scene freezes and the exact same fish appears beside Jack. "That's what I did to her." He walks over to the girl, a scream of pain frozen on her face. Then he squats beside the frozen image of himself. "I was dying. A tumor in my brain. I had a good year left though." He points to the creature. "But he decided to change that."

Jack asks, "What ...."

"What does this have to do with her?" finishes Solven. "Since my body died, instead of amplifying this mouse's psychic abilities, this infernal machine uploaded my consciousness into her brain!"

Jack's eyes go wide in surprise. He calms himself and glares at Solven. "Where's Sprite?"

"Where she won't cause me any more problems." Solven grins. "I don't no whether to hurt you or thank you. You filling her head with ideals of friendship made her will strong. But, you gave her practically free reign around that base and you confused her so much that I just had to wait for the right moment to seize control and walk out of there. My people would be happy to have a Martian traitor."

Jack grabs Solven by his lab coat, but the fish vanishes and the scene changes to a dirty cell with at least twenty inmates mingling around. Jack picks out Sprite as a little girl, still about seven but no scar. She is innocently drawing in the dirt.

Suddenly, a burly mouse, grime covered and reeking of unknown stenches grabs her by her hair and drags her to a corner and proceeds to claw at what passes at her clothing.

Jack rushes at the mouse, but as he tries to tackle him, he passes through him! Jack stands and Solven laughs.

"This is a memory! You can't change what has happened!"

The memory mouse grunts painfully and Jack sees Sprite's bony little knee has rammed him in the groin. Jack smiles, but it is wiped away as he notices the man's hand clench around a sharp piece of broken metal. Jack turns away but hears Sprite's young voice shriek in pain. He hears a hiss of, "Stay still!", and feels like he's about to throw up.

A faint voice sounding from everywhere pleads, "Stop." Jack looks up.

"Sprite?" Jack turns to Solven, who looks a little pained. Jack smiles. "She's still fighting, isn't she?"

Solven snarls. "Not for much longer." He disappears and the surroundings changes to a very familiar scene to Jack

He is standing in a corner of Sprite's room at the base. Sprite's sitting on her favorite beam, just staring at the wall. She and Jack hear the door open and both turn to see Jack enter the room with a portable radio. Jack stares at the memory image of himself. It was like looking into a very creepy mirror. He and his image (now being called J2) watch as Sprite jumps down and walks to the table. J2 sets the radio on the table and says,

"I'm taking a wild guess and thinking you've never heard music before so I brought this. It's a radio." He turns it on and a soft woman's voice comes on in a slow ballad.

I was a wayward child

With the weight of the world

That I held deep inside

Life was winding road

And I learned many things

Little ones shouldn't know

The verses jar Jack just like the did that first time. J2 moves to change the station but Sprite stops his hand.

But I closed my eyes

Steadied my feet on the ground

Raised my head to the sky

And though time's rolled by

Still I feel like that child

As I look at the moon

Maybe I grew up

A little too soon

Funny how someone can learn

To grow numb to the madness

And block it away

I left the worst unsaid

Let it all dissipate

And I try to forget

As I closed my eyes

Steadied my feet on the ground

Raised my head to the sky

And the time rolled by

Still I feel like a child

As I look at the moon

Maybe I grew up

A little to soon

J2 sees Sprite holding herself, eyes dry but crying on the inside.

Nearing the edge

Oblivious I almost

Fell right over

He takes her into his arms and makes slow steps with the rhythm. Sprite looks up at him nervously. "What are you doing?"

"We are dancing," he answers.

A part of me

Will never be quite able

To feel stable

That woman-child falling inside

Was on the verge of fading

Thankfully I

Woke up in time

Sprite wraps her arms around J2 and hides her face in his shoulder, but still no tears fall.

Guardian angel I

Sail away on an ocean

With you by my side

Orange clouds roll by

They turn into your image

And you're still alive
(You're always alive)

As I closed my eyes

Steady my feet on the ground

Raise my head to the sky

And though time rolls by

Still I feel like a child

As I look at the moon

Maybe I grew up

A little too soon

The music fades and they stop moving but Sprite still holds J2 and he doesn't make a sound.

"I think I may throw up," snaps Solven's voice. The memory freezes and Solven walks up to Jack. He laughs. "She liked you, you know?"

Jack turns to him. "What do you mean, 'liked'?"

"Doesn't make much difference how she felt. I'm in charge now."

"I'll change that."

Solven smirks. "Threat or promise?"

Jack stands in front of the fish and looks directly into his eyes. "Both."

****

Night yawns and stretches. He notices Terrance tapping like mad at the computer and Jack sitting bent over Sprite's head. "Hye, cuz? Whatcha..." Jack doesn't move. Night walks over and reaches for Jack's shoulder.

Terrance grabs Night's wrist. "Don't!"

"What's up?"

"Jack's fell into a sharing trance. Any disturbance may break the connection."

"So?"

Terrance rubs the space between his eyes. Too much stress. "His conscious is drifting. Breaking the connection could trap his conscious outside his body, causing brain death."

Night grimaces. "Not good. How can we help?"

"Make sure nothing happens to his body."

Night nods, then chuckles. "I didn't even know Rip could share."

Suddenly, Jack jerks back, nearly knocking him and his chair to the floor. He holds his head in his hands. He sees Night and Terrance staring at him. From the corner of his eye he sees a cruel grin stretch across Sprite's face as Solven sees Jack's pain. Jack stands and ushers Night and Terrance out of the room and tells them what happened.

"So what do we do?" asks Night. Terrance, who has been pacing, answers,

"We have to find some way of purging this Dr. Solven from Sprite."

"How do we do that?" asks Jack.

"You said he was 'uploaded' into Sprite. Like a computer file?" Jack nods. Terrance snaps his fingers and points to Night. "Night, you go find Ludwig." Night gives a "thumbs up" and rushes down the hall. Terrance turns to Jack. "Tell me every detail of that lab!"

To Be Continued.


Song- Close My Eyes by Mariah Carey.