"Let me put it this way. I can't do what I am going to by myself. I need someone to help me. Or'b is going to be busy coordinating what I do, the boy can barely take care of himself in the condition he's in, and you I don't trust. Whether you like it or not, that leaves the Regman to take care of certain details for me."
She walked up to where Reggie sat with Mike, guarded by several of the putrid smelling dwarves. "What happens from here on depends entirely on you, Reggie. I hope you're up to it."
"Depends. What do you have in mind?"
"Two things." She concentrated and a dimensional gate appeared about six feet in front of them. A strange numbing cold radiated from it and made Reggie start shivering again. "In a few minutes I must pass through this portal. When I do there are two things you must be sure to do. First, you must close the gate behind me. I know you can do this. You've done it before."
"Now, I don't know about that. Everytime I screw with one of those those damn things I end up getting knocked on my ass."
Lucy scowled at him. "Reggie, if you don't close the gate after I pass through it, not only am what I attempting not work, everyone on this planet with the exception of myself, Or'b, and your tall friend will die." "All right. What else do you need me to do?"
"Watch my back. Don't let this construct be damaged." She looked up beyond the turbid red clouds. "There's finally enough hydrogen. It's time."
"Hydrogen? What the hell, you got the Hindenberg hidden up there or something?" Reggie looked up, but damned if he still couldn't see anything.
"Hindenberg? Ah... you mean your exploding zeppelin disaster. No, I have nothing like that up there. Although you are definitely going to get a bang out of this."
Lucy walked up to the gates. "Remember what I told you, Reggie. It's important."
She faced the frigid gate. Ice had formed on the sand nearby. "Time to rock and roll." She grinned, and then opened her mouth almost impossibly wide. Her entire body shook with effort, and yellow blood began to pour over her lips. A golden sphere forced its way down from where it rested and pushed through her distended jaws. As soon as it emerged, Lucy collapsed in a heap on the sand. The sphere rested over the limp form for a moment, as if bidding it farewell, and then vanished between the two silver pillars.
Mike had been watching this for the past few minutes, not understanding what was happening. "What's going on Reggie? What happened to her?"
"I'm not sure. Try to rest, Mike. There's a couple of things I need to do." Despite the numbing grief he felt, Reggie stepped over Lucy's limp body, summoned his concentration, and placed his hands on the two forks of the gateway. The cold froze his hands to the metal instantly, and when the gate closed with an audible 'pop', Reggie flew backwards, leaving peices of skin hanging from the inert columns. Mike stumbled to his feet just in time to catch him and keep him from falling backwards.
Meanwhile, the Tall Man had been watching them with no more idea what was happening that Reggie and Mike did. After Reggie closed the gateway, he reached out with his psychic senses, trying to discover where Lucy's sphere had gone to, but as far as he could tell, it was no longer on the red planet. Fury and disappointment darkened his face.
"Just as I thought. A TRICK!!" He shreiked with 150 years worth of anger. "The construct has abandoned you to your fate, boooy! You and your friend will pay for her betrayal!!"
Reggie looked with alarm at the raging Tall Man. He had never seen him this angry before. He swung his shotgun around and blew the head off the nearest approaching dwarf. "Get behind me, Mike. Things have really hit the fan!!"