that Abaddon had contributed some of his power to regenerate them. Then, what had happened flew into his head, and he stood up slowly, a look of hellish fury rising in his face, and he screamed out long and loud. “SORROW!” Suddenly, his eyes turned a bright yellow, emitting yellow light, and blood began dripping from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose as he once again tapped into the power of virus rage. He knew it had nearly killed him before, but he didn’t care; he kept adding to the power, intensifying it many fold. “Master it,” Abaddon said. “You can make it work for you instead of against you. Bend them to your will!” Balto focused all his power on the viruses inside him, and his anger and love suddenly fused into that power, making it surge like a wave. Then, out of nowhere, Balto’s vision became virus vision spontaneously, but not as it had before. Abaddon and the others glowed brightly, but now, he could actually see the world around him, in very sharp focus. He could hear every tiny sound, every breath of those in the room, every scrape of claws on the floor. He could smell everything distinctly; old wood, blood, myriad smells of fur, leprous skin, and a host of others. In his muscles, he felt a new strength, and he felt now that he had the energy to keep going. “I’m going to find him,” he said, with a strange, humming, half-virus voice. “You can follow me if you want.” He went out the door, and Abaddon got the others together. “We’ll go with him. This isn’t over yet.”

Balto thought hard about what he should do, where he should go. Where could Sorrow possibly be hiding now? It must be the third hideout. But where was that? Sorrow had erased his tracks fleeing the boathouse, so Balto couldn’t follow him that way. He thought back to all the directions Sorrow had given him, everything he knew about where Sorrow had been… Then, suddenly, it hit him. On the first map Sorrow had given him… He ran out to the canyon, thinking about the map. It had led him to the warehouse…but the warehouse was not in the direction Sorrow’s first tracks had gone, the ones that had suddenly stopped. When he reached the canyon, he looked at where Sorrow had gone, focusing his virus vision, and out of the white snow, red splotches appeared. They were Sorrow’s tracks. He looked on ahead, in the direction the tracks were going, and about a hundred feet farther on, they began again, and headed off into the distance. “You picked the wrong wolf-dog to mess with!” he yelled, taking off and running along the tracks.

Sorrow paced back and forth inside the secret third hideout, a sled team supply depot, growling angrily, as Jenna stood by, weeping with fear. “You cheated!” she choked. “You said if he beat you, you’d let us go. You tricked him! I hope he comes here and tears you to shreds!” “Shut up!” Sorrow roared. “Your filthy Balto isn’t going to find you here! He doesn’t have any idea of where this place is. If I were you, I’d stop talking before I completely silence you!” Jenna began to sob harder. “I need to think,” Sorrow said out loud. “There must be something…” A tremendous metallic crunch rang through the barricaded door, and Jenna’s heart leapt. Sorrow froze. “No…” There was a second crunch, and a third…and the door broke in, with Balto on the other side, yelling. “End of the line, Sorrow!” He ran into the room, and Sorrow backed up, his breath coming in terrified gasps. “No, no! How did you find this place?” “I followed your tracks from the canyon. The fact that they were days and days old didn’t matter. Now, give Jenna back!” He growled menacingly. “You took her from me, you made me kill an army of your servants, I beat you fair and square, and you cheated at your own game. You took her away from me again.” His voice built to a furious scream. “AND I AM NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT!” Balto’s virus arms shrieked violently at Sorrow, who was nearly cowering in terror. “By the way,” Balto said, “your servants weren’t the only things I killed.” Sorrow’s terror turned to confusion. “What do you mean?” “I mean the historical records were true.” Sorrow’s face became flabbergasted, then angry, then absolutely dumbstruck at the memory of the telepathic firestorm he had felt four days past, now realizing what it had truly been. “It was because of the Ebola,” he said slowly. “It was because I decided to do it this way.” He shook his head, not believing his own stupidity. “I should’ve found out how you did it, and gone from there, but now…” Balto spoke again. “I’m giving you a choice, Sorrow. If you give Jenna to me right now, I’ll leave you alone, and you can go home in peace. But if you don’t, I’ll fillet you like a fish. Understand? I’m tired of your little games.” “Funny…so am I.” “Hand her over, or you’ll die.” “Oh, one of us is going to die, I’ll give you that. But I wasn’t planning on it being me.”

Sorrow lunged forward, seized Balto, and pierced his chest with a pair of spikes that he extended from his mouth, spikes that looked strikingly similar to the ones Balto had used to breed the viruses at Seaman’s Sleep. Balto uttered a strangled shout as Sorrow dropped him, smiling wickedly. He couldn’t figure out what was going on…until he looked over at Jenna, who apparently had. “Oh, no! Balto! NO!” She broke down into sobs. “What, Jenna?” he asked, rapidly becoming more disturbed. Sorrow spoke to Jenna. “See what your love has gotten you? Now, you get to watch your beloved Balto rot alive.” Realization hit Balto like a freight train: Sorrow had infected him with leprosy, and judging by how he was suddenly feeling, it was a quick-running variant. Pain and numbness began creeping through his body simultaneously. Some of his fur turned a sickly green, and small raised patches of white, decaying skin appeared under it. He looked at one of his paws and gasped. It was almost completely whitened, the fur dead and all feeling in it disappearing as it curled and shriveled up. He could feel his whole body wasting away, and terror swept through him. His mind raced. “What’ll I do? What can I do?” “Jenna…” he groaned. “Fight!” she said. “Fight it, Balto!” “How?” She nodded towards the virus arms. “Use those!” Sorrow shook his head. “Don’t bother. It’s unstoppable. Don’t prolong your pain. You can’t win.” Balto looked at Jenna again. “I believe in you,” she whispered. “Believe in yourself. Fight it for me. For us.” Resolve flooded through Balto, and he began spilling Ebola viruses into his body. He gasped from the sudden fever, and blood trickled from his eyes. Soon, however, he was able to master the viruses, and they stopped injuring him. He pumped more and more into his body, until he reached the lethal infection level. Then, he turned them on the leprosy bacilli.

Abaddon walked in with the other dogs, not knowing what was happening. “Balto should be just in…” He stopped when he came to a balcony overlooking the room. “Oh, no…” he breathed. “What?” Boris asked. “What is it?” They all gathered at the edge. “Sorrow infected him.”

Balto could almost feel the individual pathogens killing each other inside him. He forced the Ebola viruses along, driving them through the ranks of the leprosy bacilli. Pain nearly overcame him, and screamed, nearly crumpling to the ground, making a desperate effort to stay standing. “If he falls,” said Abaddon, “I don’t think he’ll ever get up. He’s fighting it, but…” Balto summoned more strength from within himself and returned to standing normally, gasping and groaning as the infections raged.

Then, at the edges of his rotting, sloughing skin patches, tiny flames erupted. They grew, moving along the patches, and as they went, they healed the skin. Balto coughed and lowered his head. “Balto!” Jenna wept, terrified by what was happening. He raised his head again. “It’s losing,” he hissed. He extended his paw in front of him, and flames exploded over it, rejuvenating the white fur and uncurling the stiff toes. All over his body, flames were cleansing the decay. He was winning. He looked up in time to see Sorrow approaching him. The advance form seized him again, lifting him off the ground, and drove the spikes into his chest once more. Balto cried out from the pain as the skin around the spikes immediately turned white…but it went no further than that. Sorrow couldn’t understand. “Why isn’t it working?!?” Balto stared into his eyes, gritting his teeth. “That was a very bad idea,” he growled. Sorrow could see traces of green smoke coming off of Balto’s skin, which revealed where the dead leprosy bacilli were going. Balto was forcing them out, and as the smoke moved toward the front of Balto’s body, it was clear there was only one place for them to go: right into Sorrow’s head. He was flung backwards as Balto channeled the dying infection out through the spikes, and he struck the wall, falling to the floor and screaming with pain, clutching his head as his body was injured by the rapidly dying Ebola viruses. Balto moaned and nearly toppled. “Oh, Balto!” Jenna cried, running to him. He extended a virus arm to keep her back. “Don’t touch me yet!” he warned. “I haven’t cleansed my skin. You’ll get both diseases.” He stood tall again and used the virus arms to support his temporarily weakened body, taking crashing “steps” toward Sorrow, who lay on the floor, almost unable to get up. Balto stopped in front of him, and he looked up. “What now?” he asked. Balto’s face was stone cold. “You taught me a new trick.”

Two spikes shot out of each virus arm’s mouth.

Sorrow’s face took on a look of panic.

Balto drove the spikes into Sorrow’s shoulders, pouring a tremendous amount of Ebola into the advance form, who yelled with pain. Balto backed off, and Sorrow stood up. “You little…” he growled, taking a step forward.

Plop.

Sorrow looked down. A massive drop of blood had fallen from one of the holes in his skin. A trail of it began running down his back. More began to stream from other holes. Sorrow stared in horror at the blood running down his arms, and