[June 27th] [Perry Mason] Lux Aeterna, 27

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Title: Lux Aeterna, scene 27
Day/Theme: June 27th - The chain that snaps
Series: Perry Mason
Character/Pairing: Perry Mason, Della Street, Hamilton Burger, David Gideon, Florence (OC), Lieutenant Drumm, Mignon Germaine
Rating: T/PG-13

Takes place at the climax. Yes, let's see things from many different angles!


By Lucky_Ladybug

There were things Hamilton had on a mental list that he never wanted to see. Some were stark serious, such as witnessing someone mutilating a helpless person. Some were on the ridiculous side of the scale, such as Tragg imitating one of the current pop artists.

Perry losing all self-control was at the top of that list. Hamilton was a complete believer in the idea that the quiet and composed were the most dangerous when angry. He had seen it time and again with criminals. And during the last battle against Florence, he saw it with Perry.

Even when the tower began to quake, Perry continued his desperate fight with the woman who had caused so much heartache and grief. She had been planning and plotting this takeover for years, dating all the way back when she had posed as a nurse to Howie Peterson. And when Vivalene had unleashed her own spell Florence had allowed it, wanting to take the opportunity to get rid of her as competition for the Box. She was evil, more evil than Vivalene as far as Perry was concerned. And he was not going to take it any longer. He grabbed the Box, struggling to wrench it out of her hands.

Hamilton tried to run forward to help him, to do whatever he could. But the floor was cracking. Already there was a chasm forming between him and the other two. He could only stand where he was, struggling for balance. And Perry seemed not to notice that anything was amiss.

“Perry!” Hamilton yelled over the sounds of destruction. “Everything’s falling apart. Let go!”

“I’m not going to give her another chance to harm anyone here!” Perry retorted.

Della ran past Hamilton to the edge of the rift. “Perry, no!” she screamed. “We’re all going down. There has to be a way to stop it!”

“Fix this!” Perry yelled at Florence. “You’ll die too!”

“I already told you that I don’t care!” Florence sneered. “And you don’t have the power to stop it. Your secretary is right—we’re all going down.” She tried unsuccessfully to shove him away. “Go spend your last moments with her. Or as close to her as you’ll be able to get.”

Perry held fast. “Even if we all die, I won’t let you keep this Box. It should die with us, to never again be used to bring such suffering to anyone!”

Della was not willing to accept any of this. “If you’re going to stay there, then I’ll get over there with you!” she cried.

Hamilton and David both ran to hold her back. “Della, you can’t!” David burst out. “The hole’s too wide. You’d never make it across!”

“David’s right, Della,” Hamilton said. “You’d be sacrificing yourself needlessly. It’s true, maybe we all will die. But why invite it to come any sooner than it has to?”

Della struggled against them. “Maybe I’d make it across!” she retorted. “Maybe I could help him!”

“There’s no way to get across!” Steve yelled.

More chunks of the floor vanished. Steve fell through with a cry, disappearing from sight. The others stared, horrified and sickened.

Tears slipped from Della’s eyes. “Steve,” she choked out, her fingers locked in deathgrips on Hamilton and David’s arms. “Oh no. . . .” She looked to them with a start. “What happened to Paul?!”

“I don’t see him,” Hamilton realized. They had never known if he was dead or alive. If he had already fallen, he was surely dead.

David looked back across the chasm to Perry and Florence. “Mr. Mason, there’s no way to stop this!” he cried. “Lieutenant Drumm fell. Paul is missing!”

Perry was now trying in desperation to slam the lid on the Box. “If I could close it, maybe everything would stop!” he called back.

“It won’t close until all of the magic to destroy the tower is out!” Florence shrilled. “That is how I willed it.”

Mignon, on the opposite side of the tower and far from Hamilton, clutched at Larry. “Weren’t you ever taught that all magic comes with a price?” she shouted. She rarely ever raised her voice, but now she had to in order to be heard at all.

“The price is all of our lives!” Perry said. “Including yours, Florence.”

Without warning Florence squirmed in his arms, just enough to blast him point-blank with the Box. Perry yelled in pain, releasing her as he fell back.

Della screamed. The rift was all the wider now, but that did not deter her. “Perry!” she wailed in anguish. Again she tried to break free and run to the edge. Hamilton and David fought to hold her back.

Florence got to her feet, the Box held high in her grasp. Perry lay near the other edge of the chasm, which was forming a circle around the platform where he and Florence were. Florence sneered down at him as he gasped in pain and gripped at the marble and onyx floor.

“You see, Mr. Mason? Biding my time always pays off in the end. I caught you completely off-guard. You weren’t expecting such an assault after I’d tried and failed to get away from you. You mistakenly let yourself believe you had the upper hand. And now, now as everything gives way beneath us, I will destroy that which is most precious to you.” She spun, aiming the Box directly at Della.

Hamilton and David dragged her to the floor at the same moment Perry lunged, tackling Florence from behind. The forward motion was too much. They toppled and fell from the platform into the nothingness below.

The color drained from Hamilton’s face. “Perry!” he yelled.

Della was shaking in his arms, horrified, despairing. “It was to save us,” she said. “That blast would have hit all three of us. No! No, Perry, no. No. . . .”

And the floor caved beneath them as well.
****
It was some time after everyone’s revival amid the debris and devastation of Florence’s castle when Della managed to find time to talk with Perry. They had been tending to the injured for what seemed hours. There were always more. And there were so many fatalities as well. Bodies kept being discovered under parts of the walls, ceiling, and floor. Della’s heart broke a little more each time.

At last Perry laid his hands firmly on her shoulders and steered her around. “Take a break,” he said. “That’s now an official order from your boss.” The worry was completely entwined in his stern voice. He had tried before to get her to step back from all of the blood and heartache, without success.

This time Della’s shoulders slumped and she let him walk her away. “Oh Perry . . .” She looked up at him, the tears glistening in her eyes. “I . . . I thought you were dead, too.”

“I thought it myself when I fell,” Perry said.

Della shook her head. “I don’t think I’ve ever been as frightened and horrified as I was when you tackled that witch. Perry, I never want to see anything like that happen again!”

“I’m sorry.” Perry drew her close. “When I realized the full extent of her selfishness and evil, I couldn’t hold back. And then she dared to turn and aim that wretched Box at you, and Hamilton and David too.” His grip tightened.

Della shuddered. “Didn’t she know you wouldn’t stand for that?”

“Oh, she knew. She just thought she’d have the chance to blast all of you before I could stop her.”

“She wasn’t even driven by revenge before that,” Della pointed out. “What made her suddenly turn and do such a thing?”

“Desperation, perhaps. Anger that she wouldn’t be able to have the world the way she wanted it. We’d torn down everything she desired, with me right in the lead. And she tipped over the figurative edge. She struck out in one vicious and cruel attempt to take away what she knew I cared about, nevermind that we were all about to die anyway.”

“That’s horrible.” Della looked out at the scene around them. “There are so many people hurt or killed because of this fight. It could have been any of us so easily.”

“It almost was,” Perry said. “I don’t honestly know how any of us survived that fall.”

Della kept close to him. “Mignon might say it was the last lingering magic,” she said. “And I guess it could have been. When we landed and woke up, we started seeing that everyone else was dead. Maybe it wanted to keep us alive to torture us that one more time.”

“That may have been part of Florence’s plan,” Perry nodded.

“It was a cruel ending.” Della gripped Perry’s arm. “Hamilton and I thought we were the only ones left, and you thought you were the only one left . . .”

“And Tragg thought Andy had been killed.” Perry sighed, gazing at the scene too. The most seriously injured were resting peacefully now, as they waited for ambulances and helicopters to come. The dead were lying to the side for the morgue. There was nothing to drape over them, so for now they were visible to all.

The less seriously injured wandered amidst the chilling sight, some dazed, some sad. Most, such as Steve, were both. He was limping, and had quite a harsh cut on his forehead, but his wounds were minor compared to some other people. And he would be the first to admit that. He was hard as nails on the job, but he felt a great deal for the people he associated with. The haunted look in his eyes was reflected in the eyes of every other survivor.

“. . . I know it won’t do any good to beg you not to take such chances again,” Della said. “When you attacked Florence . . .”

Perry shook his head. “If necessary, I’ll do the same thing again. But I wasn’t the only one taking deadly chances.”

“I know.” Della did not offer anything further. She did not have to.

She and Perry stood in silence now, taking it all in.