down his arms, and then happened to make eye contact with Balto, who stared into his eyes with a vengeful gaze. “No one takes Jenna from me. And I mean no one.” He cleansed his body, sending flames shooting over the whole outside, and walked back to Jenna, holding her. They looked at Sorrow. He fell to one knee, groaning, blood gushing from his whole body. He retched, tilted his head up, and vomited a torrent of blood. His head exploded, showering Balto and Jenna with gore, and his body fell to the ground, liquefying into green fluid as it hit the floor. It spread out in a large pool, and the edges caught fire, slowing burning it away, finally reaching the center. Then, there was nothing left. Balto and Jenna nuzzled each other. “Is it over?” Jenna asked. “Yes, baby. It’s over. All of them are dead. Here, I’ll clean you off.” He touched the blood and skin sticking to Jenna’s fur with the tongue of one of the virus arms, and the flames evaporated it all. Jenna winced. “Ow…” “What is it, Jenna?” “When you did that, something just stung.” “Where?” “On my left shoulder.” Balto looked at her shoulder and used the virus cleansing again. A tiny flame burned on Jenna’s shoulder. It was tiny and faint, but Balto knew it was not supposed to be there. He stared at it, concerned. “I don’t feel well, Balto,” Jenna said. “Abaddon?” Balto called, having sensed the presence of the advance form. He walked down from the balcony. “Yes, Balto?” “Could you see if Jenna has some kind of disease? I don’t know how.” “I’ll take care of it.” “Don’t worry, Jenna, it won’t hurt. Just go with him.” Abaddon took Jenna into another room, and Balto sat down, badly in need of a rest after surviving a bloody battle and a pair of lethal infections. Abaddon came back after a few seconds, a terrible look on his face. “What?” Balto asked urgently, knowing that anything that disturbed Abaddon was dire. “Abaddon, what is it?” The advance form could barely speak. “Balto, she, um…she has leprosy.” Balto’s mouth opened, and he began shaking his head in utter shock. “No…” he said desperately, “it can’t…oh, please, no…this can’t be happening…” “I’m sorry, Balto. I truly am.” Balto was now in tears. “But, well…what exactly does that mean? Does she have a fast version?” “No, but it is still the Alpha-Micro enhanced disease.” “What’s going to happen to her?” “In the best case, she could live for a few months. Those virus tools of yours could ease the pain, but…she’d have to live isolated from everyone else, without any contact. Humans or other dogs could get it from her. She’d eventually just…waste away, though.” He sighed. “In the worst case, it could be a few weeks of unbearable agony, meaning torture pain.” “So she’s going to die either way?” “I’m afraid so.”

Balto broke into sobs, feeling utterly hopeless and defeated. “I can’t believe it,” he thought. “We survived everything they could throw at us, only to have it end like this? I took on all these demons and won…and I still couldn’t save her…” An image of Jenna dying, taking shallow breaths as she struggled to cling to life, her beautiful face rotting and deformed, entered Balto’s mind, and he trembled, tears pouring down his cheeks.

But as he hung his head, trying to shut out thoughts of a life without Jenna, something flew into his mind.

He scoffed. “I am such an idiot,” he said, sounding astonished. “No, Balto,” said Abaddon. “This wasn’t your fault. There was nothing you could have done; don’t blame yourself.” “I’m not. It’s just…I should have expected this all along. When I met Equinox, he said the tools wouldn’t be for what I would think they would. He said I would find out what they were really for in time. He knew this would happen. That’s why he gave them to me. It wasn’t for anything else…just this.” He took a deep breath. “I know what I have to do.” He walked into the room with Jenna. Abaddon had put a blanket on her, and she looked more comfortable. “Balto?” she said. “What’s wrong with me?” “Um…you have…it’s…” “Be honest,” she said. “I want to know.” “Oh, Jenna…you have leprosy.” She stood up, stunned. Then, she backed away from Balto. “Don’t get close,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes. “Jenna…” Balto said, taking a step towards her. “No!” she choked, crying. “I don’t want you to get it.” “I’m immune, Jenna. I have the tools, and I fought off the infection. The bacilli won’t even touch me now.” He hugged her, and she lay back down. “So what’s going to happen to me?” she asked. “Basically…you’re dead to rights.” Jenna sobbed a little. “Can you…sniff…help me?” “There’s only one option. I have to…infect you with Ebola and then turn the infection on the leprosy bacilli, the way I did a minute ago, only inside your body, not mine. The trouble is, there are a lot of things that could go wrong. I could lose control of the infection, and it would run rampant and kill you in a few…very horrible minutes. Then, there’s when I have to pull the viruses out of your body. That could kill you right there. It’s just…” He began to sob. “If I hurt you, Jenna, if you died and it was my fault, I could never live with myself.” She licked his face. “Well, look at it this way. Could you live with yourself knowing that I was eaten alive by disease, and you may have been able to stop it…but you never tried?” Balto shook his head. “You’re right,” he said. He took her paw. “This is going to be unpleasant,” he said. “It’ll hurt when they first go in and when they attack the spots where the leprosy is, and you’ll feel them…moving. When I pull them out…it’ll feel like you’re whole body is being torn up on the inside. But whatever happens, I want you to keep your eyes on mine.” He took one of her paws and held it. “Just remember, your Balto’s here, and I swear to you I won’t let you go.” She nodded, smiling bravely through the tears of fear that were running down her face. Balto stuck out the spikes. “I’ll run them in quick so it won’t hurt as much, okay?” “Okay,” she said, bracing herself. “Ready?” Balto said. Jenna nodded and closed her eyes tightly. Balto stuck the spikes into her chest. “Agh!” she groaned. “Oh…” “It’s okay, Jenna. You’ll be alright.” The viruses spread. Balto had been right; it wasn’t pleasant. Jenna moaned and writhed. “Just keep your eyes on mine,” Balto said soothingly.

In the other room, Abaddon was using bubonic plague bacteria to create a visual effect so the others could see what Balto was doing. One of the things on it was the virus level, as compared to what a fatal infection would be. “He must raise it to 100%”, said Abaddon. It was steadily climbing. “86, 87, 88…”

Jenna cried out as the Ebola viruses tore into her body, raiding the infected areas. “I know it hurts, Jenna,” Balto said. “It’s okay.” Jenna began uttering strangled groans. “Oh…ugh! I’m…coming apart…inside…” “I know how it feels, Jenna, but you’re okay, I promise. Just keep your eyes on mine.”

“97, 98, 99…” The level hovered for a moment… “100,” said Abaddon. “Now, Balto will make the Ebola viruses purge the leprosy bacilli.” They watched the leprosy infection level. It was at 100%. They watched, and watched…and suddenly, it turned to 99. It kept dropping, going faster and faster, from 98, to 96, to 91, to 82, to 65, down, down, down, until zero. “Good. Now, he’ll have to get his viruses out.”

Balto began pulling the Ebola viruses back through Jenna’s body, and she screamed. “AAAGGHHH!” “Just keep your eyes on mine,” Balto said slowly, extending a paw and turning her head towards his. The viruses moved to her upper body. “YEEAAAGH! OH, BALTO, PLEASE! HELP! I’M DYING!” “You’ll be okay! Just hang on!” Jenna uttered a horrible cry of agony as Balto sucked the viruses out of her, withdrawing the spikes, the wounds immediately sealing up. The arms spit a rapidly vaporizing mixture of dead viruses, bacteria, and blood out onto the floor. Jenna gasped, trembling, her vision whiting out.

“I love you,” Balto whispered.

Jenna was still, her eyes closed, not making a sound, not breathing.

Time ground to a near halt, and everything but Jenna became hazy in Balto’s eyes.

“Jenna?” Balto said, fear and emotion in his voice, putting a paw on her cheek. “Jenna? Come back, baby. Jenna, please. Jenna?”

Suddenly, Jenna gasped, and her eyes opened slightly as she took shallow breaths. “Are you okay?” Balto asked. “Yeah…” Jenna said weakly. “I’m alright…”

Abaddon stared in astonishment. “He did it.” The visual effect showed zero Ebola, zero leprosy. “He did it!” Abaddon shouted, and all the others began cheering. Balto looked back at Jenna. “Thank goodness. I…” He broke down into sobs, holding her. “I thought I was going to lose you. I’m so glad you’re alright.” “You told me you would do anything for me. I knew you could.” They held each other close and shared a wonderful kiss. Before they were done, a certain someone entered the room, and Balto looked up. “Equinox.” The advance form nodded, smiling. “So you figured it out.” “Yes.” The advance form looked at Jenna and scratched her behind the ears. “Are you feeling better?” he asked. “Yes. Thank you,” she replied. Balto spoke. “I don’t understand, though. Sorrow said she wouldn’t get the disease. Did he infect her on purpose?” “No. Sorrow was absorbing so much power in preparation for commanding the leprosy swarm that he began to lose control of his more minor powers, such as controlling his infection release. He probably just touched her one time with active bacilli on his hand.” “Um…could anyone else have been infected when she had it?” “No. It only reached a transmittable point right before you purged it.” “Is this whole thing over now, Equinox?” “Yes, it is. Leprosy is no more. Actually, the normal disease lives on, but the mutations are all destroyed.” “Are you leaving?” “Yes. I came to see if you had figured out why I gave you the tools…and because I assumed you would not want them forever.” “You’re right. They aren’t part of who I am. I don’t want to keep them.” Equinox stuck his spikes