I Give Her To Eternity

by Seven


Disclaimer:  Earth: Final Conflict and its characters are copyrighted by Tribune Entertainment Company.  All rights reserved.



Note from Author:      Shortly after "Between Heaven And Hell"



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Doctor Julianne Belman sat down at her desk and sighed, tears streaming down her face. Her office was dimly lit, and the soft footsteps of the aides and nurses could be heard in the area outside.

Joyce was gone.

Her baby, her little girl, was gone forever.

Joyce had always taken risks, ever since she had been small. If there were a tree that was too high, she had to jump. If there was a limit to be reached, she reached for it. Sometimes she had failed, and sometimes she had succeeded.

And Julianne wasn't certain whether what had happened was a failure or a rousing success. Her daughter had changed, mutated into something both more and less than human. She had been endowed with superhuman powers, but as her powers had grown, her conscience had diminished.

Neither Liam nor Da'an had been forthcoming on what had happened, but Joyce had told her everything on the walk to the park...

*I love you, Mom...*

She had dissolved, dissipating into a thousand sparkling golden particles that had spiralled upwards like a blooming flower. Belman had started to cry.

*I love you too...*

And now she was gone, and only questions remained. Who had tainted the vials of accelerant with Jaridian DNA? How had Max recovered?

Would Joyce continue to grow and develop? Would she feel any kinship to the alien Jaridians, part of whose DNA she possessed?

And would she remember, as time went by, the tiny blue planet and the mother who had loved her and given her to eternity?

Julianne Belman stood up and crossed to the window. A single rose was lying on the windowsill, something she had cut from the Embassy garden earlier that morning. A day later, the rose would have lost its bloom; Belman had wanted to salvage its beauty while she could.

Belman pulled a lighter from her pocket and set fire to the rose in the ashtray. She watched it calmly as the blossom flared and died, turning into a fine gray ash. Then she opened the window and felt the cool breeze on her face, holding up the ashtray toward the sky.

The remnents of the rose were swirled up on the wind and carried to the sky...

*Goodbye, Joyce. Goodbye...*