CHAPTER FINALE: THE END
Everyone was gathered in the medic lab, looking either really sorry or lost. The whole atmosphere was silent and no one uttered a word. All that could be heard were the sounds of beeping on the heartbeat machine. It seemed like funeral session or some sort, but they weren't mourning for someone dead. They were mourning for someone living.
They were mourning for Clover.
When Clover was brought in into the medic lab, she looked far worse than dead. Fortunately she was still alive, but the virus within her when she shed that tear, after being spreading silently out large throughout her body, caused an immediate reaction and caused her brain to shutdown, resulting into brain-dead. Nothing could wake her up, nothing could move her, and certainly nothing could ever bring her blue eyes back open.
They had to keep her in a cylinder tank filled with ice cold water because she couldn't be incubated back to normal temperature. A single heat on her caused her heart to go rapidly slow all of a sudden, closing in to death. She almost couldn't make it to WOOHPS because of the surrounding atmosphere that was bringing her temperature back to normal, and in the process, slowing the heartbeat rate. They had to wear a breathing mask on her for the rest of the journey. Coldness was the only thing that could keep her alive now, and with WOOHPS technology, the ice cold water she was in is breathable, as in you can still breathe normally although submerged inside this water. But still, nothing could bring her back.
She was gone. Not physically, but spiritually, she was.
Perhaps the people that felt the most grief were her best friends Sam and Alex and also their boss Jerry. Sam and Alex were pretty much high and dry and warmer, now that they've finally returned to their homeland Beverly Hills, but their hearts were still feeling the chills at seeing Clover suspending in the cylinder tank without ever able to hang out with them like they used to and going out in missions like old times.
"Is...Is the virus finally gone, Jerry?" Alex asked tentatively.
"No. It's still there," Jerry replied. "But after giving out such a big impact on Clover, it's now laying there dormant. You can say it has used up most of its energy and pretty much harmless to her."
"Isn't there anything you can do to wake her up, Jerry?" Sam asked, her heart still hopeful that there would be a cure for Clover.
"No, Sam. I'm afraid there's nothing I can do," Jerry apologized. "Her condition is brain-dead. No one has ever had a cure for brain-dead and not even the finest technology in WOOHPS had ever succeeded in reviving brain-dead people. I'm sorry to say that this time, my hands are tied."
"She risked her life to save us…" Alex sobbed as she fell onto her knees. "She knew that one single emotion...could kill her, and yet she...she did it all the same...she apologized to that bastard with all her heart and…he killed her! He killed her, Jerry! He killed our best friend! Jailing him is not enough! You have to sentence him to death!"
"Alex, calm down," Jerry said. "Everything must go to procedure. We cannot just simply take anyone's life as we want it."
"I have to agree with Alex," Sam said darkly. "He must not go unpunished. He must die. He must pay for what he did to Clover."
"Where is he? Where is that son of a bitch?! I wanna kill him with my bare hands!! I want to snuff the lights out of him myself!!" Alex suddenly stood up and grabbed a scalpel from a tray of one of the surgery tables there. Everyone was shocked. They tried to calm Alex down but she was bent on wanting to take Joe's life. She demanded to be taken to the prison confinement—where criminals arrested by WOOHPS are kept before being sent off to a real prison—and threatened to slit and scalp Joe with the scalpel. For once, Sam didn't do anything to stop her. It was surprising because she was always the reasonable person of the team.
In the end, Jerry had no choice but to ask someone to sedate Alex. As soon as the medication went to effect, Jerry looked accusingly at Sam and asked, "Why didn't you stop her? Why didn't you try and calm her down?"
"Because it's not worth to stop her. Whatever she wants to do with Joe is my sentiments exactly," Sam replied coldly.
"Listen to yourself, girls! You all are supposed to be the best girls in my team! You shouldn't be doing things that are influenced by your feelings! I've told you that everything has to go by procedure, not by blind hit! You're acting like unprofessional babies! And you, Sam, listen to what you're saying! Don't you know that you are acting just like Clover?"
That hit her really bad. Sam had never realized that this Joe character was really getting into them. She was shocked that she had never realized what her tone was like. So cold, so emotionless, so lack of mercy…just exactly like Clover when she was with the Ice Queen virus. She, too, fell to her knees and sobbed. Alex cried silent tears as the medication continued to take effect. Jerry walked over and hugged them both, hushing them.
"There, there now, girls. Don't feel bad. Although Clover isn't going to be with us physically, she will always be in our hearts. You can come here and visit her anytime you want, no exceptions. She wouldn't want to see you like this now, would she?"
In the midst of him comforting the girls, Jerry also shed a few tears of his own.
Joe was sitting in his cell waiting for the day he would be taken away from WOOHPS to Pilas, a prison somewhere in the 3rd World, a secret prison so-called tougher than Alcatraz the world's toughest prison. Only a few people from the government throughout the world knew its existence, and that includes WOOHPS. He was deemed guilty and also considered too intelligent and too dangerous even to be in Alcatraz, so he had to be in Pilas where there is no one he could get to ever.
He could be seen deep in his thoughts, thinking about what he had done. He remembered the day he was so humiliated when Clover went up to him with that Hawaiian transfer student in her hands and told him that she had someone else in mind. He remembered the rage that burned through his heart as he stood there and watched Clover dancing with the Hawaiian guy and him refusing to dance with anyone else although they approached him willingly. He remembered his determination and his feverish attempt to ace his class and be even better than his IQ expected to be, and he sure remembered the thrill of finding out that the place he worked for was going to create the anti-depressant medicine, the thrill of sneaking in and stealing the medicine and the joy of experimenting and succeeding in creating the Ice Queen virus.
Then he remembered the look on Clover's face as she decided to sacrifice her life to save her friends. That sad, faraway look, that longing pain she was desperate to show. He saw her shed the tear and then the seizure that followed. He remembered the look on Sam and Alex's face when they scolded and cursed and accused him of killing Clover. He knew she was alive when he picked her up—he had felt her pulse and could hear her tiny shallow breathing. Keeping her in that cold ice tank, he made sure that he had the built-in air vent well functioned. He had it all thought out.
But the looks he had encountered were constantly in his mind: Sam and Alex's accusing face and Clover's sad, faraway eyes. They both locked in his mind like super glue. He just couldn't rub them off his head. Those faces…Those eyes…Filled with so much anger…so much sorrow…
"Johannesburg Wilkinson?" Joe looked up when he heard his name called. There, in front of him, stood Jerry and a few burly-looking men. He could tell that it was time to go. He only had one last thing to say.
"Bring Clover back to life."
The day was spent rather blunt. Sam and Alex were back in Beverly Hills High and since Clover was a no-show, Mandy was gloating all over the guys again. And as expected, the Little I'm-Miss-Popular had asked David out for the Spring Seasons Dance. Not that Sam and Alex mind. They didn't have much of a mood to go for the Spring Seasons Dance anyway, and besides, they owe it to Mandy to give them Joe's name to help save Clover. It took the nice and sweet David quite an effort to persuade Sam and Alex to join the Dance when he found out that they were going to be a no-show as well.
During the Spring Seasons Dance, not many of the guys were enthusiastic about getting into the dance mood. They were all expecting the Ice Queen Clover to be around to give them the usual cold look when they ask to dance with her and diss them all away like they knew she would. They wanted to see Clover sweep into the hall coldly and not give a damn about them. They didn’t know why but they seemed energized whenever she did that and seemed to have a sense of purpose to bring down that cold encasing on her face to give them the feeling of accomplishment. They had that disappointing look on their faces when they found out that Clover wasn’t going to attend the dance due to health problems (Sam and Alex were swamped by them when they noticed her absence beforehand and they had to make that white lie).
Sam and Alex sighed inwardly as they stood near the buffet table looking at the rest of Beverly Hills High enjoying themselves, all dressed up to the nines and having a great time from school life. They didn’t bother to dress nice for this occasion—Sam was wearing a spaghetti string light yellow one-piece dress she got for her birthday 2 years ago and Alex a belly-button body-fit black top and a pair of canvas jeans. They didn’t bother because they knew that nothing—not even the greatest theme park in the world—can compare with being together as a threesome again. David tried to ask them to dance with him but they refused, much to Mandy’s delight. They’d rather stay there being gloomy than going out there and forget about their best friend who was forever confined in that water tank where she would never again come out and breathe the fresh air or speak to them again. It wasn’t easy telling another white lie to Clover’s mother that her condition was so bad that she had to be hospitalized in a federal hospital until further notice and it wasn’t easy to look OK when her mother was bursting into tears feeling so sad about never seeing her daughter again. They wanted to break down and tell her mother the truth but their job wouldn’t allow it. They’re spies and spies are meant to keep secrets.
Besides, Clover wouldn’t want her mother to know her real condition and risk breaking her heart even further.
“I still can’t get over the fact that we’ll never be with Clover like the old times anymore,” Alex finally voiced out after a long silence between them.
“Me too,” Sam replied. “But it’s no use. Even Jerry said that brain-dead cannot be cured. There’s no medical proof that brain-dead could be curable. She has to stay in there for her own safety.”
“If Clover never wakes up, would… Jerry perform euthanasia on her or something?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t wanna know. I don’t even wanna find out what Jerry will do to her. I just wanna get out of this nightmare and get back to my own life, as in my life before I was a spy.”
“You don’t mean to say that you wanna quit WOOHPS?” Alex asked in shock.
“That’s exactly what I’m trying to say,” Sam replied determinedly.
“But…But Clover wouldn’t want to see the team split, not especially because of her! She would be so upset!”
“Well, she’s not with us now, is she? I don’t wanna go through this life anymore! It’s bringing us more sorrow than happiness! Look what Clover has become! I don’t want anyone else to end up like her! I don’t! It would be much better if everything was the way before, exactly the way before we were even chosen to become spies!”
“If everything was the way before we’re spies, we wouldn’t be friends now, would we?”
Sam and Alex spun round. That voice! That voice so familiar! It was unmistakable. There was nothing to deny. It was…
“CLOVER!!!”
Sam and Alex almost screamed the whole place down as they saw the ever familiar Clover with her blonde bangs and her blue eyes looking at them with that facial expression they’ve missed so much. Not the cold face, but the ever glowing, ever emotional face of Clover. They were speechless at first when they saw her standing there wearing the dress Joe wore for her back at Poland.
“Hey, guys. What is it? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Clover grinned a little.
“We thought you’re…How did you…? What did you…? What…?” Sam didn’t know where to start asking.
“Joe came clean,” Clover replied, her face looking a bit sorry for Joe. “Before Joe was taken to Pilas, he requested to see me. He claimed that he could cure me, so Jerry, seeing that he’s a genius, gave him a shot. He went over to that tank and asked him to take me out.”
“But you can’t be out in normal temperature!” Alex exclaimed. “It’ll kill you! He should know that! What was he thinking?”
“Well, beats me whether or not he knew about my condition but when I was taken out of the tank,” Clover continued as she fingered a sparkling crystallite-shaped locket that was around her neck, “he took off this locket he was wearing around his neck—funny that I didn’t notice this—and put one half into his mouth and the other half into mine. Jerry thought he was trying to give me a last kiss or something, which I think he did, and a few seconds later I woke up to see him unconscious on my thigh.”
“What happened?” Sam asked.
“Turned out that this locket was his final creation after he was done with the virus. It has the mechanism which enables to transfer any kind of disease from one to another using his ‘kissing’ technique and leaves the infected one healthy and strong again. He…He actually transferred the Ice Queen virus and brain-dead condition into himself. He’s now taking over my place inside that water tank.”
“You mean…he actually sacrificed himself for you…?” Alex was surprised to hear about this side of Joe. Somewhere inside her felt sorry for the mean things she said about him.
“He really is a genius,” Sam said in admiration. “And…he really loves you.”
“Yeah, well,” Clover fingered the locket again with a thoughtful look in her eyes. “I really am sorry about the way we turned out to be, and I’m really sorry for getting you guys into this mess.”
“There’s nothing to forgive, Clover,” Alex said, her eyes brimming with tears while she reached over to hug Clover. “We’re just so glad that you—the real you—is finally back.”
Sam was also in tears as she joined in the group hug. It was a touching moment for this threesome as their friendship returned the way it had always been. When they all let go, Sam and Alex were surprised to see Clover back in her cold, emotionless state.
“What is it? Does it still hurt to feel?” they asked worriedly.
“No,” Clover stole a smile, sticking out her tongue naughtily. “It’s just that I’m actually getting all the attention and more cute guys than I ever wanted when I’m with this cold face. I just wanna put it on one last time. Besides, there’s a certain I’m-Miss-Popular Mandy I need to settle the score with. See ya!”
Sam and Alex wanted to stop her because they owed Mandy a favour, but then again, Mandy being nice to them just once cannot justify enough for all the times she had been a jerk to them, so they let her be. Soon, laughter from our green and yellow leather outfit spies could be heard as our red leather outfit spy walked around becoming the Ice Queen everyone was waiting for and making Mandy a total fool of herself.
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