"Lyekka?" "Kai?" "Kai, Kai, I can't find Lyekka anywhere and I, er - look, I think we're being attacked." "By whom?" "Well, I don't know, does it matter?" "Look Kai" " I hate to break the news to you, but you're not a plant!" "You're a Brunnen G warrior, and then you became an assassin for the Divine Order, you're not meant to rot in a garden!" "So get up out of there and kill!" "May I help you?" "What's happening?" "We are being attacked." "I know that, but by who?" "Balloons." "From Fire?" "Likely." "Lyekka!" "Stan." "No." "I just wanted to make you happy Stan." "You have - you do!" "Listen, Lyekka, are you OK?" "I didn't see them coming." "Stan?" "Yes?" "I have to say goodbye now." "No no no no no, we have to take you back to the Lexx and we can fix you up." "You make me happy." "I'll always be in your heart." "If you cry, you'll lose the memory of our love." "No." "She is dead." "No!" "Yes." "And Stanley, you are in danger." "I can protect you, but I cannot protect you and the moth and Xev at the same time unless you stay together." "Yeah." "I guess you're right." "Where's Xev?" "Xev!" "They've got the moth!" "Xev!" "Xev!" "Can you reach it?" "Yes, I can." "Kai?" "Yes?" "I'm coming with you." "Hang on." "Xev?" "Kai, you fly, I'll help Xev." "Xev, is that you?" "It is Xev." "Xev, Xev?" "I don't get it." "Let's go." "Where?" "Out." "A moth, it doth go boom." "A moth, it doth descend." "Kai and Stanley assumed that you would be in the moth, exactly as I had anticipated." "It was an excellent plan." "Clever." "Brilliant." "Insightful." "Genius." "Stupid!" "Stupid?" "Do you doubt me, Xev?" "Kai can't be killed, he's already dead." "But Stanley can." "And Kai does not float." "Correct?" "My prince thinks of everything." "So, we have you, and Stanley and your dead man are out of the picture, isn't that excellent?" "Wonderful." "Satisfying." "Exciting." "Inevitable." "Evil." "I won't disagree with that." "That's what we do." "We're bad." "It's our job." "Our lives." "Our commitment." "We're the opposite of good." "Anything but." "You see Xev, that's what Fire is all about." "It's the repository of all that is not good." "Precisely." "Don't you have a mind of your own?" "Oooo..." "No." "Am I beautiful?" "The most." "Witty?" "The sharpest." "Do you love me?" "Completely." "Would you die for me?" "In an instant." "I think I'm going to be sick." "You see Xev, Priest lives on Fire and I am its ruler." "And he knows that the least hint of disobedience would mean an immediate return to terrible pain and suffering, and as you know " "I'm very good with pain." "However, as he is my priest, he does not suffer much - for now, at least." "My prince - we have a problem." "The sky's full of balloons." "They're everywhere." "They're all around us." "And one of them likely contains Xev." "Xev!" "Can you hear us?" "Kai!" "That was Xev, did you hear that?" "Xev!" "We can hear you!" "Xev, where are you?" "Now the game will become more interesting." "A challenge." "A test." "A contest." "A battle." "Which you will lose." "A defeat." "A defeat?" "For them." "Victory for us." "Precisely." "You see Xev " "Flying a balloon " "Flying a balloon is not a science." "It's not an art." "There's a lot of luck involved." "Sometimes you get an updraft " "Sometimes you don't " "You never know." "But if you have a lot of balloons " "As we do." "Then you're more likely to get a favourable wind than if you have only one." "It's a simple matter of mathematics." "In order to destroy their balloon, our balloons must rise higher." "Or at least one of them must." "What?" "Rise above all the others." "We need to shed some weight." "Her?" "No." "Thank you!" "We need you more than we need them." "You could be useful." "We gotta make it to another one of those cities." "Don't you want to rescue Xev?" "Well, yeah Kai, but we gotta get some help first." "I have observed that the residents of the various cities on Water suffer from   or perhaps, benefit from - a certain complacency in relation to the potential dangers they face." "Yeah." "They seem to live for the minute, in a kind of continuum, and will likely show no interest in our problem." "OK, what do you suggest then?" "Engage the other balloons in battle, to save Xev now - on our own." "But what - but they're all around us, how can we attack them all?" "We will not have to attack them." "They appear to be organising themselves to attack us." "Oh, come on, there's way too many." "They're gonna beat us." "Likely you are correct." "OK, I'm correct." "What are we gonna do?" "Whatever we can." "You know Kai, that's easy for you to say because you're an assassin." "You see, I'm a security guard class 4, formerly an assistant deputy backup courier." "You know, doing battle's not part of my nature." "You are captain of the Lexx, the mightiest weapon in the two universes - what's left of them - and have been so for more than four thousand years." "They seek advantage by rising above us, so they are shedding weight to gain in altitude." "I'm pumping this thing as hard as I can." "Did they hit us?" "Not where it matters." "They are not trying to hit the gondola." "Their strategy is to puncture our balloon's bag and make us descend." "Make sure they all stay out of range of his weapon." "Excellent plan." "Would you care for a drink?" "Very well." "I won't bother to offer you one again." "They're rising above us." "Correct." "Well what can we do?" "We can wait." "Wait for what?" "For them to make a mistake." "That's our entire plan?" "Yes." "Yeah, well what if they don't make a mistake?" "Then they will succeed and we will fail." "What does that mean?" "It means, that you will die " "And I will sink to the centre of this planet." "Why is it that I do all the pumping and you do all the standing around?" "I will pump if you request, but then I will not be able to stop darts." "Oh, that's OK, I like to pump." "Did they get the balloon?" "Not yet." "Close." "You seem so far away from me now - and we used to be so close." "We were never close." "I remember your kisses well." "They were warm and close." "I was vulnerable, and you took advantage of me." "There was nothing real." "I see hate in your eyes." "You should be one of mine, you should be with me." "If you can hate me, you should be able to hate others." "It's a small step for you to take." "Take it Xev." "Be mine." "No." "Why do you do this?" "I tempt those who can be tempted, and I punish those who deserve to be punished." "That is my function, my occupation, my job - my joy." "What is wrong with that?" "And I also punish some who have done nothing wrong, who slip through the cracks - but then, no system is perfect." "You may not understand why I do what I do, but even less do I understand why you make the choices that you do." "I can see into you, Xev." "I can see things inside you that even you do not consciously remember." "You have every reason to hate." "Good baby." "Good baby." "Good baby." "Good baby." "Good baby" " Xev of B3K." "Good food." "Good food." "Good food baby" " Xev of B3K." "Do you remember that?" "Your childhood, Xev of B3K?" "No." "But you were raised in a box." "I was raised in the wife bank on B3K, yes." "But I really don't remember much of it." "There was not much about it to remember." "We've been hit." "We're losing altitude." "We have punctured their balloon bag." "They are going down." "Soon they will be in the water and we can shoot at them at will." "We do not want that." "So what do we do?" "We wait." "Good morning matron." "Good morning, Xev of B3K." "Lesson 376." "Your husband asks you "Do you think I'm fat?" What is the correct answer?" "1." "No!" "2." "It's not what you look like on the outside, but the man on the inside that matters to me." "3." "I like a man with a lot of meat on his bones!" "Can we get naked now and play ridethe tower of power?" "It's not what you look like on the outside, but the man on the inside that matters to me?" "Wrong!" "The correct answer is" " I like a man with a lot of meat on his bones!" "Can we get naked now and play ride the tower of power?" "Xev of B3K - always flatter your man." "Never admit his failings." "Use any occasion to please him in bed." "Xev of B3K - at this rate you will not graduate from the wife bank for - 5.9 years." "I'll try to do better in future, Matron." "Do you remember that?" "It's all a blur." "Hard to remember exactly - but also hard to forget." "So much pain." "So?" "No." "Should we fire everything at them now?" "Firing everything at them will have no effect on the dead man." "It is now time to change our strategy." "The right thing to do." "You should have come over to me Xev." "Never." "I once gave you the chance to let Stanley Tweedle destroy this planet, but you refused my chance because you are a good person   which means you are my enemy, which means you have to die." "Throw her over the side." "With pleasure." "But, we will attach a piece of string to her, to improve our negotiating position." "What was that?" "Xev." "The time has come for you to make a deal!" "He wants to make a deal, what now?" "We wait for him to make a mistake." "Well, he hasn't been making too many so far." "Listen Kai, why don't you just, you know, do the assassination thing with your brace and get this over with?" "I would, if my brace were fully functional, but it is not." "What, what's the deal?" "The dead man will jump over the side and sink into the sea." "Unless he does that in ten seconds, Priest will cut the cord on Xev, and she will sink into the sea. 10." "No." "9. 8. 7.." "No!" "Don't do it, Kai!" "6. 5. 4.." "No Kai, don't do it." "You're our only hope." "3. 2. 1.." "Look!" "He's climbing over the side for you." "Isn't it sweet?" "!" "No, Kai!" "No, Kai!" "Why did you do that?" "The ten seconds were up, so I cut the cord like you said." "I did not tell you to cut it." "I am deeply sorry, my prince." "It will not happen again - but I don't know what I did wrong." "You - made a mistake." "Look." "Kai!" "Bring me down to Xev." "There is a faint possibility that your stupidity will lead to my opportunity." "We certainly have the advantage of height now." "Thank you." "You're welcome." "Oh, it's nice to see you Xev." "Why don't we just crash, down in the water?" "In that case, I would be fine, but you and Xev would become very easy targets." "Kai." "Kai, I hate to interrupt your meditation, but things are not looking very good for us here." "Release the stays." "Release the stays?" "Yes, we must release the stays which suspend the gondola from the balloon - now." "Fire everything." "We must kill them now, before they get any higher." "How can they get any higher?" "Fire everything!" "We have to kill them now!" "Good move, Kai." "Look." "Shall I release the mainstay?" "Yes." "The balloon's losing air." "How can we make it to the Lexx?" "We will have to be very lucky." "We're already slowing down." "Soon we will start to drop, rapidly." "We must shed weight." "What weight?" "Oh no no." "Look!" "Are you ready?" "Nearly." "We're losing time." "What are you doing?" "I have to release the mainstay from up here or else I will go down with the gondola." "You're going down with the gondola." "I'm sorry, I'm not clear " "I have no further use for you." "You're dead weight." "Now please fall to your death with the gondola, and don't waste anymore time about it." "Is that clear enough for you?" "Very clear." "You are my prince." "Your mistake provided my opportunity." "Their balloon is losing air, ours is not." "It will be easy to rise above them and pick them off." "You are my prince." "Now get on with it." "I will get on with it!" "You, you fool!" "What do you think you will gain?" "What else would you expect?" "Now I will rise to the top." "No." "And I will rule this planet!" "You will suffer!" "We're not gonna make it, are we?" "No." "Our balloon is losing too much air." "Well what, what now?" "Look, there." "Oh no." "No no no no no no." "You're not actually suggesting that I let go and throw myself down there, and if I'm incredibly lucky land on Prince's balloon, are ya?" "No." "No." "Well that's good because, you know, I wouldn't die after I missed the balloon and hit the water, because my heart'd stop long before that." "We have to jump Stan." "No Xev." "I'm informing you right now that I am in no way equipped for a jump like that." "You know, my fingers won't respond to the instructions from my brain to let go." "My brain wouldn't even produce an instruction like that." "I will jump, and then I will bring you over." "Well how?" "No no no no." "Your brace isn't working right, remember?" "Hopefully, you will still be close enough." "I think I must pick up Stan first, then I will grab you." "Ah!" "I'm not ready for this Xev." "You go." "Captains first." "My heart's still working." "I don't believe it." "Xev's balloon is outta control." "Fire your brace Kai, fire now!" "She is out of range." "Well we have to go down and get her." "We will, but in a moth." "A moth?" "We don't have time." "The other balloons'll get to her first." "We are now in the divide between the atmospheres of the two planets." "Xev - will land on Fire." "We can reach her in a moth, before the other balloons." "All night by the Kai, Kai." "All night by his corpse I did moan." "I dreamed he was tweaking my circuits." "While I was tweaking his bone." "Do these mothbreeders ever stop?" "No." "All night without Kai, Kai." "I'm lonely, I'm blue, and I'm sick." "I dream of his frozen kisses." "And fondling his frozen " "Kai!" "You've come back to me!" "Come here, oh dark dead and delicious one." "Kai!" "Kai, I'm here." "Come back." "Come back!" "Come back." "You'll come back." "You need me." "You're just in an awfully big hurry." "That's all." "I understand." "It's OK." "No, really, it's OK." "It's not OK!" "It's not OK!" "I love you Kai!" "What are you doing here?" "I must build more moths." "Are you one of the mothbreeders who were taken to Duketown?" "I must build more moths." "I know this probably doesn't mean anything to you " "But like me, you were a prisoner on the Cluster, and they turned you into what you are now." "But you were once a real person." "A real person who lived a real life." "Can you understand that, even a little?" "You were a real person!" "I must build more moths." "Poor you." "Poor me." "You again." "Me again." "How did you get here?" "I died." "You don't look dead." "I'm not." "I died, and now I have been reawakened here, for you." "Why?" "I want to be with you when you die." "I've never seen anyone die for the first time." "What makes you think that I'm going to die?" "You're on the surface of the planet Fire, the sun's up - you cannot last the hour." "And you?" "Oh, I will also die." "How sad." "Not for me" " I'm used to it." "And it will not be so bad for you, although your friends will miss you." "Do you know what a Cluster lizard is?" "Not really." "A Cluster lizard is a very nasty animal, that I think originally came from a very hot place." "How does that matter?" "You will see." "When?" "In less than an hour." "We'll never find her." "We will search for the balloon." "How are you going?" "Fine, thank you." "I'm not." "I'm hot, I have to stop." "Why aren't you dying?" "I'm very good with heat." "Ironically, I'm not." "How is it that you're not dying?" "I'm not all human." "Can you still find whatever memory you want with your hand, like you did before?" "Yes." "Think Cluster lizard." "Then I guess you get to see me die." "Do you still feel anything for me?" "A little." "You shouldn't." "I agree." "Well" " I didn't admit it before, But I'm hot, too." "Really hot." "Hey, look, look, do you see it?" "Yes." "She's not in it." "She may be somewhere upwind." "I hope." "The dead do not hope." "Yeah, well Kai - the living certainly do."