"Who wants to live forever?" For the Song Story Challenge

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

This is a redux of a PicFic posted three years ago but it was too perfect for this challenge. I've made quite a few changes.

The THRUSH temptress known only as Marlena leaned forward, flashing her milky white cleavage at the Russian.

Surprisingly, she unlocked the handcuffs that held him to a chair in their interrogation room.

Why these women insisted on going by their first names was beyond his comprehension, Angelique, Serena and now Marlena; a name was a name and to Illya it meant nothing more than that. Napoleon, wherever he was seemed intrigued by the single-named women, especially Angelique...

“Marlena? What are you doing?” Illya asked, rubbing his reddened wrists.

“I’m setting you free...”

“Really? And for what reason may I ask, though do not misconstrue that I am grateful for your actions.”

“I want you to come with me.”Without warning, she leaned in and kissed him on the lips; taken off-guard, he did not return the embrace.

Illya followed her down a corridor lined with numbered doors and for a moment he thought it was a hotel as he’d been unconscious when they’d brought him in as a prisoner.

They stopped at door 5E and Marlena opened it to reveal a room in which laboratory equipment had been set up, though unlike most labs that were in basements, this one had a sliding door to a balcony with a rather spectacular view of a cityscape, backlit by a full moon.

“This is my lab, and I have a secret to share with you,” she announced...something that didn’t surprise the Russian. THRUSH were known for having big mouths.

He eyed her suspiciously, though THRUSH were notorious for bragging about their plans and schemes, this seemed different. He supposed it was the kiss that had thrown him off.

“Illya, how old do you think I am?”

He looked at her carefully, not wanting to rush to judgement as telling a woman her age could be a tricky thing.  Too young and you were lying, too old and you had insulted her.

“I would say you are in your early thirties, though possibly a tad younger.”

“Wrong, I am,” she hesitated,” eighty years old.

The look on Kuryakin’s face said it all.

“Yes I  know you do not believe me. Yet it is true.  I have discovered the secret of eternal youth. It was a surprisingly simple formula that allowed me to reverse the aging process and essentially live forever.” She approached him, slowly running her glistening red fingernail along his cheek,  and finally  kissing him in earnest but this time the Russian responded in kind, kissing her back with great zeal.

“Mmmm,” she came up for air. “I knew you were the right choice. I found you to be quite enticing, but it is eternity I do not wish to spend alone.  You intrigue me Illya Kuryakin...you are handsome, boyish but quite masculine. Strong willed yet, gentle and a gentleman.  I could see myself spending forever with you. I’m sure you are quite the spectacular lover.”

Illya blushed, “Though I am flattered by your offer, I must decline the honor.” He slowly stepped backwards towards the balcony.

“But why wouldn’t you want to stay young and verile? Wouldn’t you want to live forever? You will be handsome, never growing old.  Or do you want to die, going out in a blaze of glory?”

“I would prefer neither,” he said, opening the sliding glass door and walking the end of the balcony.  He stared out into the night at the city lights that surrounded them, heaving a long sigh.

“But there’s a chance for us, “Marlene said.” The world is not just one sweet moment set aside, we can have many if we live forever. We can love forever...it will be our today.”

“if I must, I must,” Illya sighed.

Marlene smiled as he seemed resigned now.

He grabbed the railing.” Adieu Marlena, perhaps you will find another taker.” Kuryakin leapt and plummeted out of view.

“Noooooo!” The woman screamed, running to the railing, and hearing the tree branches snapping below in the darkness where the Russian must had fallen to his death.

“Damn,” she cursed.

Marlena turned and left her lab, distraught at the loss of her beautiful Russian...but not that much. This was only a minor setback; she would find another, though probably not one with such beautiful blue eyes.

Illya lashed out, grabbing something in the darkness as the sudden jolt of his body weight yanked at his arms; it was another railing, and in one fluid motion his other hand latched onto what felt like a chair; he dragged and flung that over his head, sending it crashing down into the trees below.

He was hanging onto the railing of yet another balcony, and after peering carefully between the white railings, noting the accommodations in the adjoining room confirmed it was indeed a hotel and not a satrap...well maybe it was a satrap too.  How clever of THRUSH to simply be using hotel rooms to fill their needs. Their nefarious goings on were intermingled with legitimate hotel guests perhaps, ensuring UNCLE would not blow things up this time.

He flung his leg over, pulling himself up and over onto the balcony. Now to find Napoleon. Illya sauntered into the hotel room, and at that moment a woman stepped from the bathroom in a state of near undress. She screamed at the top of her lungs of course.

“Pardonnez-moi, madame,” he spoke with heavy French accent. ” I am hotel security and am searching for a cat burglar. You need to keep your balcony door locked for your own safety, s'il vous plaît?”

“Oh, why thank you,” she smiled, and seeing how cute the blond stranger was, she let her towel drop just a little, giving him quite a view of her cleavage.

“What is is with women flashing me their bosoms?” Illya asked himself as he begged off, and quickly exited. Not that he didn’t mind seeing what he saw, being a man who happened to like women’s breasts; he had to put it out of his mind as he had a job to do.

Illya located Solo purely by accident, just as a Thrush guard was escorting him out into the hallway.

“Pardon me, but I will take it from here,” Illya tapped the guard on the shoulder.

“And who the hell are you?”

“Your friendly neighborhood UNCLE agent,” the Russian grinned before slugging the man and knocking him out cold.

“About time you showed up,”Napoleon said as Illya untied his hands.

“That is my line my friend. Are you aware this place is a hotel?”

“I sort of had that feeling when they tied me up in what looked like a master suite."

The two agents headed down the hall together towards the elevator.

“So any idea what’s going on here?” Napoleon asked as the doors closed behind them, and Illya hit the button for the floor above them.

“Yes, Marlena led me to a lab on the next floor...take a guess how old she is,” he asked.

“Huh?”

“Napoleon, how old did Marlena look to you?”

“Maybe thirty three...why?”

“She is, rather she claims to be eighty years of age.”

Solo stood with his mouth open, not believing it. “So don’t tell me, she’s discovered the fountain of youth.  I remember at one time THRUSH was looking for it in St. Petersburg, Florida.”

“Not the legendary fountain of youth, but she claims she has a formula that reverses the aging process.”

There was a ‘ding’ as elevator door opened to the fifth floor and Illya led the way.

“5E, this is the room.” He pulled a wire hidden in his mouth, wrapped around his back molar, intending to use it to pick the lock, but Napoleon turned the doorknob and found it unlocked. Solo shrugged as his partner looked up at him; they walked in quietly, oddly finding no one there.

“Here it is this one,”Illya pointed to a vial containing a putrid looking liquid hanging in a rack of test tube.

“Sample?” Napoleon asked.

“Good idea, then we must somehow figure out how to destroy this place, but first we must get any innocents out before doing so,” Illya looked rather grave at that prospect.

“Click...”

Both men froze as they heard the hammer on a revolver being cocked.

“Ah, so you are more resourceful than I thought my dear Illya. Might I convince you to change your mind one last time,” Marlena said as she stood behind them aiming her gun straight at the two agents. She hesitated for a moment. “Hmm still not accepting my offer? Perhaps Mr. Solo might be interested? How would you like to stay young forever?”

“What offer? Napoleon asked.

“Marlene asked me to take her formula and live forever as her companion,” Illya said dispassionately.

The two men turned slowly with their hands raised, with Illya still holding the vial.

“Like my partner here, I must decline,” Napoleon crooned.” Say by the way have you looked in a mirror lately? Seems you’re developing some crows feet.”

“What?” Marlena gasped.  That served as an instant distraction for Napoleon to grab her, grappling with her for the gun.  In the brief struggle the trigger was pulled and a single shot was fired.

Solo staggered back, blood on his shirt.

Marlena screamed before she hit the floor, and the agents watched in horror as the woman rapidly aged. Her hair turned white and thin, her cheeks were sunken in as her skin wrinkled; she went from a voluptuous woman to one who was weak and fragile.There was a quiet moan as Marlene breathed her last breath and died.

“It is not nice to tamper with Mother Nature,” Illya quipped. He, as usual, was cold hearted when it came to the death of a deluded enemy.

“That’s an understatement if I ever heard one, now let’s ‘blow’ this place.

Illya removed the vial containing the formula and tucked it safely in his breast pocket.  He looked around the lab, examining some of the other compounds.

“These will do,” he said, handing some to his partner. “Empty the contents.” He grabbed a box of matches sitting near a bunsen burner and lit it. “The fumes will ignite in a few minutes.”

They exited the room, and quickly hit a fire alarm on the corridor wall; both taking off at a dead run for the stairs.

They were met with other people on the fifth floor landing, no doubt Thrushies. As they went down the stairs, more and more of the feathered ones seemed to appear. Apparently the hotel had a greater infestation than the UNCLE agents had first surmised.

A voice came over a PA system asking all guests to immediately exit the building in a calm and orderly fashion.

As the crowds spilled out into the lobby, the hotel manager and employees directed them to the exit. “Quickly to across to the other side of the parking area!”  Luckily the hotel had few guests and minimal staff on duty. Everyone had gotten out. The order to move was followed by a loud BOOM, and all eyes were directed to the fifth floor.

Flames erupted from one of the rooms, and the agents looked at each other knowingly. The fire spread quickly, engulfing the upper half of the small hotel. This one had not been equipped with a sprinkler system and by the time the fire brigade arrived, the entire building was engulfed in flames.

“This is getting too hot to handle,” Napoleon mumbled.

“Hmm, yes. I have a burning desire to leave. Shall we?”

Napoleon winked, and they casually walked away from the scene.

“Do you have your communicator?”Illya asked.

“No. I take it yours is gone too.”

“Burned to a crisp no doubt. Do you have any money?”

Napoleon reached into his pockets, finding nothing. “Hmm, guess we’ll have to make a collect call to headquarters buddy boy.”

“Accounting will love that,” Illya.

“What ever...hey will you look at that moon?” Napoleon smiled.

For some reason Illya suddenly broke out into a song in Spanish.

“¿Cómo es la luna? Redonda, redonda, como una rueda, como una ronda.¿Cómo es la luna? What is the moon like? Small and pretty, half a moon lights me up too.I don’t know, I don’t know,where it comes from and where it goes. I don’t know, I don’t know, but UNCLE will tell me.:

“What was that all about?” Napoleon asked.

“Oh just a children’s song called ‘The Moon”

“Appropriate that it mentions an Uncle,” Solo smiled.

“Napoleon, I changed the lyric, as is was supposed to be ‘mother’...

“Ohhhh... so what do you think of the idea of never aging?” He suddenly asked, changing the subject.

“Really my friend...who wants to live forever?”

“I just wondered how it would be, only for a second mind you. You know, that would make an interesting song lyric wouldn’t it?” Napoleon asked.

As they disappeared down a darkened street Solo just knew his partner was rolling his eyes.

Comments

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I don't remember the original, so thanks for posting this.

Thrush is performing above normal, with that good idea of using a hotel for a nest. And I do like the bit about Illya getting out his carefully cached lockpick, while Naploeon tries the door.

Also at the beginning, showing how Marlena is feeling more and more lonely as she lives.

only a minor setback - how Thrushian!

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Thank you. The original, I think, was posted for a PicFic 3-4 years ago and this reboot is much longer. Glad you liked it an appreciate your comments!

[jantojones.livejournal.com]

I remember reading the original version and, even though I knew he was fine, my heart still stopped when Illya leapt of the balcony. It fit the prompt perfectly :-)

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. The prompt was stuck in my head and I just couldn't get a new story going because my mind kept wandering to this story. I actually added enough words that the site was telling me it was too big a file (which it really wasn't but that was LJ being glitchy again) so I pared it down a bit. Didn't want to post it in parts.

[alynwa.livejournal.com]

I remember that prompt! I don't remember the original story, but I think that's good because I could read this one with fresh eyes. I love how Napoleon's comment about her face distracted her and you're right: The prompt song is perfect for this story.

Thanks for participating in the Challenge!

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

I was just so taken with that prompt, but couldn't come up with another story as this one kept popping in my head. I made enough changes to it that I think improved the original, and fit this prompt.

Glad you liked it! Maybe next Song Story I can come up with a new one, I hope.