Showdown

Cola looked over the ridge.

She could see two guard bunnies standing attentive next to the burrow-hole. Their attention was split between the hole and the large cardboard box sited to their left. Cola could see two thick cables that left the box and ran into the burrow.

"Exactly as Biggs and Wedge described." She said as she pulled her head back. Cola pointed to the bags by Madison's feet. "You sure this will work?"

"Yes."

"I'm still not sure I can trust you."

"You know who I am?"

"I do now." Cola said quietly, "I reviewed the trial last night."

Madison nodded, more to himself than her. "Then you know that I know how dangerous Gilchrist is. You agree with the plan don't you?"

"Yes." Cola hesitated then, "But I'd just like to be there myself. I don't like the idea of just staying out here."

"But if you come with us, we lose you."

"But we're going to lose you."

"I'm no great loss to the universe."

Cola looked back at the warren entrance, "Strangely, to him, you would be."

Madison shook his head again, this time definitely to her, "Not really. He was always looking after his best interests."

Behind the two of them came a noise. Madison turned his head swiftly, "Keep him quiet, Phump."

"I'm trying," Phump whispered, "But he's trying to sing a song and he bites my paw whenever I put it over his mouth."

Strangely, Madison smiled. "Nearly time." He said. "We have to wait for the right time."

---*---

"We have to co-ordinate this properly; we have to get this done at the right time." Madison said to the crowd. "Biggs will signal us in the north. Wedge will signal you," he pointed at Al, Maisie and Bloxum, "in the south." He turned to Al. "You are sure what you've got to do?"

"I have to persuade Gladys Humanpamphlet and her people to attack the warren as noisily as possible, exactly when Wedge comes out of the warren, which will be about midday in two day's time."

"Good. Whilst you're doing that, whilst they are distracted, we'll try to take the whole warren out."

"I'm still not exactly sure how you're going to accomplish that?" Al asked.

"Well." Madison said, lifting a weighty pack onto the table. "These will do the hard work."

---*---

"It's hard work time." Cola said, pointing at the entrance. A coney had just popped out and was chatting to the guards. "That's Biggs."

Madison drew his sword. "Phump, with me."

Phump turned to Malcolm, "Please be quiet, just for a minute more."

Cola slid down next to Malcolm. "I've got him." She told Phump.

Phump drew his sword. Cola had a turn to shake her head. Phump had changed, no longer the overweight message bunny of old.

Madison watched as Biggs pulled something from his pocket and he smiled as the two guards huddled round to see what it was.

"Now." Malcolm said as he jumped up and over the ridge, Phump following him close behind.

Madison placed his sword to the rear of one guard's neck. Phump did the same with his, the only difference between their poses being a slight waver in Phump's blade.

"Kneel!" Madison commanded, "Slowly."

"Biggs!" Said the left hand bunny. Biggs hand went to the guard's mouth. The combination of Phump's blade and Biggs' hand persuaded that guard to kneel. The right hand bunny was persuaded solely by the thin trail of blood dribbling down his back from where Madison had nicked him.

"You'll be quiet won't you?" Biggs said to the guard he was muzzling. The guard nodded carefully, Phump's blade on his neck making him very careful.

Biggs grabbed the hands of the guard and wrapped a string round them a few times and tied it off. Phump dropped his sword and slipped a gag into the guard's mouth. Cola came over the hill, dragging Madison's pack as they tied and gagged the second guard.

The guards threw daggers with their eyes at the sight of Cola, not for long as Madison used the weight of his sword's pommel to knock each guard unconscious. "You'll thank me for that." He told them.

Phump buried his sword's point in the ground and rushed to the cardboard box. Cola and he pulled the box up and to the side, revealing the car battery lying underneath.

---*---

"These," Madison said, "are two power units from a spaceship."

There was a raised eyebrow or two around the table. Madison scanned the people and noticed that Cola's eyebrows were not raised. He smiled.

"If we hook these up to the Golden Carrot, we can overload it."

"Does that stop it working?" Al asked, "Cos I'd really like that."

"Not as such." Madison said.

"It will make the carrot work better."

"Oh yes. That sounds a great plan!" Al said. "So that means we all fall under his magic?"

"Not all of us." Madison said, looking at Malcolm. "Not all of us."

---*---

"I'm ready." Cola said from atop the battery. "All I have to do is screw this connection down."

"Make sure this works first of all." Madison said, looking down at his hand.

---*---

"So the only person who will be free will be a madman?" Al asked. "I'm sure that I thought we were intending on freeing everyone and living a long and happy life, but I really don't see how this plan is going to help us obtain that goal."

"I have other things I took from the spaceship." Madison said, quietly, "I have a copy of the... medicine... that made Malcolm the man he is today." He held out his hand, held in the palm was a glass ball filled with swirling colours.

---*---

Madison looked at the glass ball in his hand, the swirling colours seemed to hypnotise him for a second. Then he looked up at Cola and nodded. He slapped the ball into the back of neck, there was a small tinkling sound as the ball cracked and the 'medicine' seeped into his body. His knees gave way and he fell to the ground. He screamed.

Cola twisted the screw in her hand, there was a spark of light as it connected, and she toppled off of the battery to the ground.

"Stupid fluffy bastards!" Came Malcolm's voice from over the ridge. Then came Malcolm from over the ridge.

He rushed to Cola. "You shouldn't have done this." He said to her as he tugged her body to a comfortable position. "You should have found another way."

Malcolm straightened himself up and rounded the battery. Phump has dropped, still, where he stood and Madison was twitching with a small bit of frothing-at-the-mouth.

Malcolm went to Phump, shaking his head, "Boy. You should have found a better mentor." He said as he re-arranged the random sprawl of limbs the boy had become as he fell.

Madison got to his feet, "I'll help." He said, wiping his mouth.

"You've helped enough as it is." Malcolm said, then he turned, straightened up, and slapped Madison as hard as hard can be across the face.

"Bastard!" He screamed, slapping Madison again. "Why couldn't you two just leave us alone? Haven't you done enough harm as it is?"

Madison took the slaps without a sight of retaliation. Malcolm grabbed the white rabbit by the shoulders and shook him. "What is it with you two that you have to interfere in perfectly normal people's lives?"

Malcolm made a fist with his front right paw and drew his arm back. Madison stood there, waiting for the punch to land.

"Come on." He said, "Hit me. I deserve it."

The fight went out of Malcolm's arm. It slipped quietly away and his other hand let go of Madison.

"Your plan is mad." The nominally mad bunny said, "You've just condemned yourself you know."

"I know." Madison said, "But I've been condemned before." He pointed at Phump's sword. "Take that."

"Oh, I will." Malcolm said, drawing the blade from the ground where Phump had stuck it. "Maybe I should take your head with it."

"I'd rather we took Gilchrist's instead."

Malcolm sneered. "I think I'll settle for both." He rolled his head on his neck. "We'd better get going before the Golden Carrot blows a fuse."

"Just one more thing." Madison said, stepping round to Cola. "I've got a last present for her."

He pulled a small glass ball from his pocket and slapped it on her neck.

"No!" Malcolm screamed, "Not her too?" He grabbed his sword and made to run at Madison.

"It's not the drugs." Madison said. "It's some missing memories."

Malcolm stared at Cola for a few seconds. She didn't seem to have any adverse reaction to the nano, so, shaking his head, he stepped towards the warren. "Lets' go catch us some black bunny."

---*---

They stood either side of the Head Buck's door. Madison held his sword in both hands. Malcolm just held his in one hand. His spare paw reached for the door handle.

Madison mouthed "Three, two, one!" On zero Malcolm twisted the handle and the two rabbits jumped into the room.

Malcolm had never been in the head bucks quarters before now, so he didn't know what to expect. Madison had known Gilchrist long enough to expect anything.

There were three distinct areas to the room. In one corner was a feral nest which housed a dirty creature that Malcolm eventually realised was a doe. So that must be Lotte, he thought to himself.

In the other corner was the contraption that had caused all the grief. In the middle of a mass of electronics was a golden shape - a broken carrot. Two thick wires led from the contraption out of a hole next to the door and back along the burridors to the car battery outside.

Then there was the front of the room. To one side was a desk, clear of clutter, with a comfortable looking chair behind it, to the other side a couple of plain chairs.

In the middle of the room, stood Gilchrist. Hands on hips and a glare on his face.

"Brother." Madison said with anger.

"Son." Gilchrist replied with artificial tenderness.

"Father." Madison sneered.

"Brother." Gilchrist said with a sigh. "What would your mother say if she saw you now, coming at me with a sword like this."

"What would our mother say if she knew the countless lives you have trampled over?"

"I like to think she'd have been proud of me." Gilchrist smiled, "Of us."

"I was just your voice." Madison said, "I helped you because those were her dying wishes."

"Actually I might have lied about that." Gilchrist said, "Her dying wish was actually that I'd get off her throat."

"Now then," Malcolm interjected, "Far be it from me to get in the middle of a family quarrel, but I have a question that needs to be answered."

Gilchrist laughed the kind of laugh that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

The hair stood up on the back of Malcolm's neck.

"You want to know why I'm not a drooling wreck after you overloaded the Carrot?" Gilchrist said with a smile,"You want to know why I would subject myself to the nano that turned you into a permanent idiot?" He frowned, "Well, into a more permanent idiot."

"Dear brother, dear son." Gilchrist said softly to Madison, "You want to know if I'm going to be joining you in the madhouse when this is all over?" He laughed again. "I perfected the mix." He grinned, "Yes, I'm now naturally and permanently immune to the effects of a Golden Carrot no matter how strong the field is."

He looked at his fingernails.

"You realise what this means don't you, Malcolm?" Sharks have less teeth when they smile than Gilchrist now had. "I could cure you." He looked at Madison. "Both of you." He sighed, "But," he stretched his neck, "If you exact your revenge... Well we all know what awaits the two of you after this don't we? Malcolm has lived it for years, trapped in his own mind. Can you imagine that, Son?" He said, looking straight at Madison's eyes, "Trapped, unable to hold a conversation with an onion?" His smile was now all sweetness and light, "So if we forget all this, and let me slip off into the undergrowth I can let you both have the cure and you can be the heroes."

Madison realised that, even when they burst in, Gilchrist had not once looked at their swords. He hadn't actually acknowledged that they held any power over him whatsoever.

"You make me sick." Malcolm spat, "I wouldn't accept a cure from you if..." He thought for a second, "Ah. That's right. Not for anything."

"I must agree with my learned friend." Madison said, finding his smile, "I took this course knowing the outcome. I took the nano voluntarily knowing exactly what the results would be. You don't..." He stopped and looked over Gilchrist's shoulder, "Is that smoke?"

Gilchrist sniffed the air. There was a small explosion from behind him and he smiled. This smile hid nothing of his contempt. "Oh dear." He said with the glee of a small boy dissecting a frog, "You appear to have overloaded the circuits controlling the carrot." He turned and glanced at the contraption in the corner. "Yes, it's quite useless now." He turned back to Gilchrist and Malcolm, they had collapsed to the floor.

"Yes," he said, stepping towards them, "Quite useless." He kicked the sword from Malcolm's limp paw - it flipped over his desk. Then he stepped on Madison's sword and pushed it behind him.

"You poor deluded fools." He sneered, "You come in here threatening me with blades? Hah! I've been threatened with Nukes and I've always come out on top. It's a pity you had to break the carrot. I could have continued having my fun here for a long time, but I suppose all good things must come to an end." He laughed, throwing his head back, "And that's now the story of your life, brother. You've condemned yourself to insanity but you didn't complete your goal! Oh I really have to lau..." Gilchrist stopped mid-word, something shiny was poking out of his chest. Where did that come from? He thought, It looks just like Madison's blade that I'd kicked behind me?

"Keep talking." Lotte's voice came from behind him, "Oh please do keep talking. Tell them that you have to laugh." She twisted Malcolm's blade in his gut. "Please let's all laugh at your antics." She twisted the blade again, blood and guts spilling from the wound. "You don't seem up to gloating anymore for some reason?" She asked her tormentor. His knees had given way and he'd toppled forwards into a growing pool of his blood. She stepped forwards to compensate. Nothing could make her pull this blade out. "The bastard had forgotten all about me." She managed a laugh, "Sad really when you get that forgetful." She twisted the blade one final time as the black bunny breathed his last.