Dr.
Ages watched as Mrs. Brisby scurried out of his lair, returning with medicine
for her ailing child. “Oh yes, madam. I am working on something very
important. Very important, indeed.” The mouse hobbled back into his lab,
comforted by the sight of the massive tubes and strange liquids in them.
“Nicodemus... you have served the Rats of NIMH well, but no longer. You’ve
outstayed your welcome.” He couldn’t remember when he’d started talking to
himself... it was a long time ago, indeed. A mouse in a society of rats just
couldn’t have many friends, and that was that.

The
project he’d been referring to rested ominously in the corner. “Thalakos, you
understand me. You know what it’s like to be alone in your cause.” Of course,
the large metal construct in the corner didn’t respond. It didn’t matter. He
was to be the solution to their problem. The Nemesis. The avenger who would
even the balance between the rats and their Nemesis. Dr. Ages had wished
many times that it weren’t the case, but he could see no other solution.
Nicodemus had to die.

{][}

Nicodemus
sat in his throne, watching Justin and taking a moment to compose his thoughts.
“Justin... I’ve called you here with news, and not the good kind.” The ancient
rat motioned at the scrying sphere with one paw while using the other prop
himself up on his staff. The sphere whirred to life, and its picture was quite
clear.

Mr.
Ages’s profile had appeared in the left side of the spinning metal, and the
mouse was trapped in some kind of machine. Wires and metal bands encircled his
tiny frame and a clear green glass covered his left eye. Another scrying sphere
was visible in front of him, and to the amazement of both rats, it started to
move. Ages’s sphere showed Nicodemus’s throne room, complete with his
sphere. Further remote viewing was prevented when the rats’ scrying sphere, and
presumably Ages’s as well, ground to a halt with an ear-rending screech amidst
a shower of blue sparks.

“What...
what was that?” Nicodemus’s Captain of the Guard was extremely confused by the
viewing, and Nicodemus himself shared that response to some degree. The big
machine, he’d known about. That Ages had a scrying sphere and the means to use
it... an unpleasant surprise.

“That
was Mr. Ages, but not as we know him. I’ve been watching his thresher closely
of late. He seems to be slipping into madness, which bodes ill for us all. We
can deal with his mental health once we have him in the Rosebush, but we do
have more pressing concerns right now. I do not know the details of its operation,
but Mr. Ages has a machine that can destroy us all. I saw a metal cylinder,
stretching from floor to ceiling and surrounded by lights. He plans to use it
to call NIMH. Take three of your guards and destroy it at all costs. You must
hurry! There’s not much time.” Justin looked ready to reply, but hurried out of
the room at the last. The façade of command Nicodemus wore wilted as soon as
the youthful rat’s back was turned.

Nicodemus
sighed. This is all my fault. Mine, and that ambivalence-demanding stone. It
manifested the thoughts and beliefs of the wielder onto the physical presence
of the world. The problem lied in that the stone didn’t rely so much on logical
reason as it did on emotions like hope... and fear. Every bogeyman, every
imagined noise in the night, every command from that little nay-saying voice in
the back of the mind was turned into a real object.

The
Leader of the Rats of NIMH had first noticed the effect shortly after he’d
gotten the stone. He feared that his power would ‘go to his head’, and that
he’d become a suspicious tyrant. Here he was, a not-elected leader with
borderline-schizophrenic paranoia. But it didn’t stop there.

He
still had the stone to grant his every unconscious wish. At first he’d been
using the stone (at great physical cost) to simply destroy the fears as they
took form. Since he only thought about them briefly, and in far-between
intervals, the issue was a small one. This lead to fears that he’d think about
them more and generate more problems, which quickly became the case. Now,
Nicodemus did his best not to think much at all.

The
issue with Ages stemmed from Nicodemus illogically imagining him as a vengeful
mechanical genius that wanted to kill Nicodemus for exiling the mouse from the
Rosebush. And it had come to pass, despite all the logical arguments and pleas
for sanity his normal mind could produce.

The
worst part was that Nicodemus now feared for his sanity.

{]—[}

Justin
stood in the briefing room with the three other rats he had hand-picked to
break into Ages’ thresher machine and destroy whatever it was that Nicodemus
had seen. He had had to put aside his doubts for the moment, because the Leader
had been quite adamant; truth be told, however, Justin was sure he’d be talking
to the old rat about precisely who had senile delusions a few hours from now.

Even
so, he thought it best to prepare for the worst. And, after all, Nicodemus was
still Leader. With him in the room were the best the Guard had to offer:
Arthur, Sullivan, and Reginald. Justin had already gone over the situation with
them, and all that remained was to gather up their equipment and head out.

{]—()—[}
|

They
arrived in the threshing machine, only to find it empty. Curious, the small
band of guards progressed into the bowels of the construct. They reached what
they had all thought of as the lab, but it was also abandoned. A bookcase was
missing, and behind where it used to sit was a staircase leading out of the
machine and underground.

The
stairs dragged on for several feet, eventually opening up into a room full of
machinery. One device dominated the others, and demanded their attention.

Exactly
as Nicodemus described it, a tall metal cylinder was rotating rapidly. A series
of lights ran up the sides, lit about halfway up from the bottom.

“What
was that?” Reg was looking around, his ears twitching rapidly.

I
don’t hear anything... After waiting a
moment to satisfy himself that there wasn’t anything to be heard, Justin
responded. “This place is creepy enough, Reg. We don’t need your help.”

Clanka
bang thunk chink chink chink... A rapid-fire series of metal-on-metal sounds
issued from somewhere near the ceiling, going left to right across the room.
They all heard it clearly, and cautiously advanced, swords drawn. The blades
wouldn’t do much against a machine, but bows and claws would do less.

A
wave of relief passed through Justin as they saw the source of the noise: a
speaker on a pole, apparently set to slide back and forth making noise. What
they didn’t see was the repair drone that lowered itself silently from the
ceiling behind Reg, then injected him with a greenish liquid. When they heard
his body hit the floor, they whirled around just in time to see Reginald being
hauled through a hole in the ceiling.

“Come
back here and fight, you sneaky bastard!” Arthur took his anger out on some
nearby equipment, throwing it around in hopes of discovering what Ages had used
to see them arrive. Searching around more calmly, Sullivan found a camera and
microphone setup in a corner.

“I
know you can see me, Ages! Give him back!”

The
same speaker which fooled them earlier carried the mouse’s reply. “Leave now.
I’ll let him go once you’re out of the thresher.”

“It’s
over, Ages.” Justin pointed his sword at the cylinder. “We can chop up this
machine, and do what we came to. What good will Reg do you then? If you return
him, there will be no concrete evidence any of this ever happened. Harm him,
and his family will demand your head. I’ll demand your head.”

“Doctor
Ages. I am a doctor. Even if you’ve come here to kill me, at least give me that
modicum of respect. You just don’t get it, do you? Well, you will soon enough.
And if you want to chop something up, why don’t you start with this instead?”
The ceiling tile opened back up, and the same drone hopped out, with a drill in
addition to its syringe. Silently, it charged them.

Sullivan
jumped to the left while Arthur dodged right, leaving Justin to meet the
attack. He swung his sword up at the drill, but it was spinning so fast it
ripped the blade right out of his paw and sent it sailing into the cylinder,
jamming it against a light strip. The machine thrust its needle forward to stab
Justin, but missed when a slashed hydraulic hose threw off its aim.

Arthur
and Sullivan were hacking away at the machine from behind, dividing its
attention. After cutting the hose, Sullivan broke off and was running around
the room looking for something while the machine was trying to drill Arthur.
This left Justin enough time to grab one of the wires from a power supply
Arthur destroyed. Arthur barely managed to jump free before Justin jabbed the
drone with the frayed end of the live cable. The current fried whatever brain
it had in an instant.

Sullivan
found what he was looking for, namely something to wipe the oil off of his
face. A loud snap distracted everyone when the motor that turned the cylinder
sheared off from the stress. Now free of the ceiling, the cylinder crashed to
the ground, revealing its contents. “What the...?” Arthur rushed up to the
cylinder’s carcass. “I recognize some of these... They’re monitoring devices!
This is what Ages uses to keep track of the farmers, not some kind of
telephone.”

The
camera moved to aim straight at Justin, and Ages’s voice could be heard over
the speaker. “Exactly. Why would I make something that could destroy everyone?
Just leave me be, and you can have Reg back.”

“If
you’re telling the truth, why kidnap Reginald in the first place?”

“You
charged into my home on a mission to kill me. I think I’m entitled to some
self-defense. He’s still alive and well, by the way. Just asleep.” That’s
good news... We’ll keep going. If he’s lying, than that’s what we should do. If
he’s telling the truth, we can confront him and learn the whole story. Either
way, we’ll know what’s going on.

_
{:]—(*)—[:}
/ \

Dr.
Ages was a mouse. He knew it, and nobody else let him forget it. Mice were not
as large as rats, or as strong, or really as skilled in any physical
measurement. It was his firm belief, however, that mice were every bit the
mental equals of rats.

Nicodemus
didn’t seem to agree, but that hadn’t always been the case. Lately, he’d seemed
to... decline, almost. Were it in a human, Dr. Ages would call it senility, but
in a rat...? While still at NIMH, Nicodemus had been on two lab technicians’
list of rats. When they went around giving injections, Nicodemus got double
dosages.

Hence,
Nicodemus had special abilities. Or, at least that was Dr. Ages’s theory. He
had closely monitored Nicodemus after they’d left NIMH, but there hadn’t seemed
to be a problem. Nicodemus aged faster than the rest of them, but that was all.
The Plan had been formed in his more lucid days. Those days were gone.

Dr.
Ages had had suspicions for some time, but only when he saw Nicodemus’s journal
did he truly understand. Nicodemus had to be removed. But how? He would never
abdicate while still living, not in his current condition. One, perhaps two of
the council members had begun to notice. The other major powers in the council
were still fiercely loyal. Justin was proving that fact by invading with
nothing other than Nicodemus’s word. Jenner was the second member of the ‘Big
Three’, the third being the old leader himself, and Jenner was even more
Nicodemus’s retainer than Justin was. Sighing at the unavailability of it all,
Dr. Ages run a hand across the curved mirrors surrounding him on all sides.

Out
of the corner of his eye and through a few reflections, Dr. Ages noticed that
Justin and Co. were nearing his location.

_ _
/..\__/..\
_/|^)*(^|\_
\/ \/

“Where
the hell are we?” Justin, Arthur, and Sullivan had been trekking around for
hours now, with no sign of Reginald. It seemed impossible that Ages could have
constructed so much by himself, but then again, Justin would have sworn that the
drone they fought earlier was also impossible. Where did he get all of this
metal? It’s as if it appeared out of thin air... oh, damn!

Justin
kept quiet, wanting to be sure of his theories before he spoke. His rats
approached the twenty-seventh door (Justin was keeping count), and it slid open
like all the others. This time, Ages himself was waiting. He looked about to
say something, but Justin wasn’t waiting. He charged the miscreant as soon as
he saw him; Ages had to be satisfied by a surprised yelp instead of a rambling
monologue. Justin dimly noticed Sullivan and Arthur flanking him.

Justin
saw Ages turn to run, but the mouse vanished after a single step. A system of
mirrors and a large mirrored bowl under the floor had projected his image.
Swinging his sword with both paws, Justin smashed the glass around the tiny
catch, causing most of the panel to swing aside. The Captain of the Guard
dropped down to pursue his quarry, heedless of the sharp glass, while Sullivan
and Arthur checked nearby for Reginald.

“When
I catch up to you, I’m going to tear you limb from limb, you arrogant little
shit!” Justin’s claws found good purchase on the floor’s grating, and he began
to close ground on Ages as he chased the madman down the hexagonal tunnel.
Theories or no, all the evidence still pointed at a very dangerous mouse.

_ _
/...\,____,/...\
[8|^)<*>(^|8]
\~~/ \~~/

Dr.
Ages ran as fast as his primitive legs could move him, uncomfortably aware of
the hulking beast bearing down on him. He was about to lose hope and throw
himself on the mercies of his attacker when he recognized a side corridor and
dashed into it. Wasting no time on conversation, Dr. Ages clambered into
Thalakos and powered the war machine on. A vaguely humanoid mass of tubes and
metal, it was a truly menacing sight to behold. Misshapen and loud, it was
perfect for what Dr. Ages wanted it for. He didn’t want hatred when he killed
Nicodemus; it was bad enough he’d never be able to talk to the rats again. He
was shooting for the pity given a madman. The green display popped into place
over his eye just as Justin entered the room. Moving swiftly, Dr. Ages caught
him completely by surprise.

Responding
to the cues of the mouse, Thalakos’ larger right arm lashed out, and seized
most of the startled vermin’s torso. The smaller left arm aimed what was
obviously a tiny firearm at him. Surprise, Justin was more willing to talk this
time. Dr. Ages figured it was good enough, so long as he was willing to talk sometime.

“What’s
happened to you, Ages? I thought we were friends. Why would you do this?”
Thalakos secured his grip, as Justin struggled on in vain.

“Slow
down, Justin. Think a moment. I assume Nicodemus sent you here?” Justin nodded.
“He saw something in his sphere he didn’t like, right?” Another nod. “Based on
your reactions earlier, he described my Monitor. That’s hardly a huge threat,
but he thought it was, and there’s no way science can fool divination. So if
Nicodemus was thinking clearly, why did he send you after a harmless tool?”
Justin stopped struggling suddenly, eyes focused on something in his mind. Just
in case it was a trick, Dr. Ages held on to him for a while longer.

“Wait...
how do I know you didn’t switch the configuration when you spotted us coming
with your Monitor?”

“A
fair question. But, as you will recall, the humans’ telephone companies have to
allow one to make a call. Therefore, I would need to use the farmer’s line.
However, there are no lines leading to this thresher, and the Fitzgibbons do
not have a cordless phone for me to tap into.” Another pause from Justin; Dr.
Ages felt safe in releasing the Captain of the Guard. It was fortunate timing,
as the other two attackers had found Reginald and came in to find a calm
conversation instead of their Captain in a vice.

It
took some convincing, but Dr. Ages won an armistice. Justin would return to the
Rosebush and claim to have been unable to find Dr. Ages. He would get a look
into Nicodemus’s journal, which was the only hard evidence of the leader’s
mental corruption. If he was satisfied, Justin would go through with the plan
Dr. Ages had wanted to use in the first place. The only obstacle before had
been a lack of help, and Justin– hopefully –would fix that.

       / * \ | / * . \ ,
   [ *|^ --*-- . * ]
  \ * / | \ * /

“I’ll
just wait inside for him.” Justin smiled his most charming smile, hoping the
secretary wouldn’t try to stop him.

“Are
you sure? Nicodemus will not be back for another forty-five minutes.” Justin
simply nodded, and went into the throne room. Once inside, he made sure the
door was shut before searching for Nicodemus’s journal. It was painstaking
work; he had to be sure nothing was out of place when the venerable rat
returned. After a not completely intolerable delay, he found the journal.
Biting down like he was about to get a shot, Justin opened it to the most
recent entry. Despite his precautions, a hiss escaped him.

Mr.
Ages had been right. Something was terribly wrong with Nicodemus. One could
tell that just by speaking with him. Justin had thought it was simply the
burdens of command weighing the old rat down, but that was not the case. The
journal contained the specifics. There was a diagram of the Rosebush, and
several sections were blotted out with ink. They were ‘corrupt’, and if one
went there, one would decay within hours. They corresponded to areas
Nicodemus had ordered abandoned, but with little explanation to the public.

Justin
had been there, however. He’d seen the blackened bodies of those rats in the areas
before they were cordoned off. Justin had blamed the Rosebush itself for their
deaths and said no more of it, but the plant had been perfectly normal when the
rats first arrived and Justin knew it. Without a way to attack or solve the
problem, he’d agreed to Nicodemus’s Plan under the assumption that the Rosebush
had been at fault all along.

According
to his journal, the Rosebush was innocent. Nicodemus wanted to leave for Thorn
Valley to escape “The coming darkness which threatens to warp us and twist us
into something unbearable. Many times I curse my abilities, for they have no
doubt taken their toll on my mind as they have on my body, but even so they are
indispensable, even as they slowly kill us. My only hope is to lead the rats
away from the Rosebush and into Thorn Valley, where we might start anew.” Never
once did the old rat consider his own removal as leader, or at the very least
giving up the stone. Nicodemus hadn’t told a single person that he himself was
the source of the problem.

Dr.
Ages had outlined his Plan back at the thresher, “just in case, so we
can act as soon as possible”. Justin had protested that killing Nicodemus was
farther than he wanted to go, but the solution had to come swiftly. He still
thought it was a little odd that Mr. Ages wanted to actually go ahead and murder
Nicodemus, but if they didn’t act fast, many more would die... At the rate
Nicodemus’s entries had snowballed in insanity, there was very little time
indeed.

There
was more, but Justin didn’t have time to read it. He replaced the book and
left, favoring the secretary with a sheepish grin to go with her triumphant
one. People would die from what Nicodemus spawned unless he was stopped. If
they ran to Thorn Valley with Nicodemus, they’d just have to deal with it
again, and the move would almost certainly claim the lives of at least a few
rats. That was unacceptable; therefore, the leader had to be stopped.

“C’mon
Justin, cut the rope already.” Sullivan glanced back and forth, visibly
worried. “Or someone’s gonna see us.”

Justin
sighed as he slashed the fiber. That’s it... I’ve killed him. I’ve killed
Nicodemus. He walked back calmly during the cacophony, then started to
issue orders and assume control of the situation. It seemed that only Nicodemus
had been crushed; everything was going according to plan. Soon, he climbed up
onto a rock. Like it or not, he had words to say and a rabble to direct.
“Friends... we cannot move the Brisby home.”

“But
we...we just can't leave it here...in the mud.” Dr. Ages kept to his lines.

“The
equipment is in shambles.” Justin shook his head resignedly, and tossed a piece
of wood off of his rock. The few rats still working on the block stopped, and
began to clean up under the watchful eyes of their foremen. He was just about
to wrap things up and leave when he heard Mrs. Brisby’s voice.

“Justin!”
She was running up at full speed, obviously concerned over something.

Justin
motioned to Dr. Ages, getting him to help Mrs. Brisby. He turned and addressed
the crowd once more. “One day we shall journey to Thorn Valley just as
Nicodemus wanted... but not now.”

Mrs.
Brisby was interrogating Dr. Ages. “Oh, Mr. Ages! What happened? The children!”

“They...they're
fine. Nicodemus is...dead. I just wish we wouldn’t have had to.” Dr. Ages
sighed. Mrs. Brisby nodded mutely, grieving, but she snapped out of it quickly
at Justin’s next words.

“Come.
Let us return to the Rosebush. Where we belong.” Justin hopped off the rock,
and approached Mrs. Brisby, but he stopped short.

“You're
in great danger. NIMH is coming!”

“NIMH!”
Justin couldn’t see the speaker or recognize the voice, but whoever he was, he
sounded twice as scared as Mrs. Brisby looked.

“In
the morning!” The mouse herself was addressing every rat in the area.

“NIMH?”
Other rats had picked up on the conversation, snowballing the panic effect.

“Yes.
You will all die unless you leave the farm tonight.” Oddly enough, Mrs. Brisby
was one of the only ones not overwhelmed. Shouted voices began to rise from all
over the area.

“What
if it's true?”

“We'll
all be killed!”

“Don't
panic!”

Justin
could hardly blame them. This is just what we need... I have to kill the
only rat who ever fathered me, and now we have to abandon our home like the
poor mad rat wanted, or we will all die. Amidst the chaos, the other hammer
fell.

“What
you said, Ages... is it true?” Justin spun around to confront Jenner. The
councilman had his sword out. The massive rat addressed Justin now. “Did you
kill Nicodemus?” Justin came very, very close to panicking.

“You
don’t understand...”

“Oh,
I understand. I understand just fine.”

Jenner
shoved Justin backward, and slashed at him with his sword in the process. The
wavy sword connected with Justin's arm, and he grimaced with pain. Jenner,
having considered Justin stunned for the moment, rounded on Dr. Ages. “And you!
A physician, helping in this plot!” Jenner moved to attack Dr. Ages, but Justin
had recovered. He charged Jenner and kicked him off the mouse, sending the
large rat into the mud and causing him to lose his weapon in the process.
Sullivan heard the commotion, and makes a beeline toward the combat.

“Jenner!
Jenner, my sword!” He lobbed his blade to Jenner, then turned to look at
Justin.

“I
couldn’t... I couldn’t let you do that to Nicodemus... but I did. He was our
leader! And you just abandon him? Worse, you kill him! I’m sorry,
Jenner... I couldn’t stop them, but I can still try to make it right!” Jenner
sprung to his feet while Sullivan was distracting Justin. The two armed rats
advanced on each other and began to trade blows.

“It
was you!” Jenner’s sword struck chips from the rock behind Justin as he
spoke.

“Yes.
I did it, because I had to! He’d gone insane! First he tried to trick me into
killing Dr. Ages, and then he wanted to abandon the Rosebush for Thorn Valley,
but not to stop stealing! He knows his use of the stone is
poisoning the Rosebush! That’s why he wanted to move to the valley—to escape
his mistakes. It would just happen there again, and we’d die; Nicodemus knew
this, but went ahead anyway!” The fight resumed. Justin struck furiously at
Jenner, but Jenner’s greater size and strength finally sent Justin tumbling
from the top of the rock face down into the mud. Jenner stayed at the top,
savoring the moment. Then, a soft yell rose up. From Sullivan.

He
was standing in the wreckage, with Nicodemus’s journal in hand; it must have
been thrown free before the block landed. It might have been tossed by
the impact, but far more likely Nicodemus threw it free on purpose. “It is
true... The Plan... Those rats who went missing in the ‘abandoned’ areas...
He-... He was going to kill most of us with the stone, and he couldn’t give it
up! Some part of him knew he was going to die today, and he came of his
own free will despite it!” Jenner snarled raised his sword high above his head,
ready to jump down and finish Justin.

“You
claim our leader was crazy, and yet you talk of ‘poisoning the Rosebush’ with
the stone. Nicodemus thought he’d found a Plan to take care of things, but you
opposed it from the beginning. Above all, you murdered Nicodemus. The
rest is semantics.” He tensed to jump, but fell instead; after a short flight,
Sullivan’s dagger landed firmly in Jenner’s back. Toppling instead of lunging,
Jenner landed face down in the mud and didn’t get up again.

~~~~/\~~~~
~~~/\/.,.\~/\~~
  /./.,.,.,\,.,\

The
rats worked through the night clearing the wrecked machinery, and a rescue
party lead by Sullivan retrieved Mrs. Brisby’s children from her home before
the mud claimed it. The stone itself was lost, as Nicodemus’s body- complete
with stone -was sublimated into the earth beneath several pounds of concrete.
When the scientists arrived to take care of the rat problem, they set up their
equipment like they would for any other nest. For all his paranoid delusions,
Nicodemus never thought to fear that his demons were immune to cyanide gas. The
rats enjoyed an unmolested trip to their new home in the valley. With nowhere
to stay during the winter and a new sense of communion with the rats after learning
of her husband’s death, Mrs. Brisby elected to join the Rats of NIMH on their
journey. Rather than risk imprisonment or worse, the few people who knew what
had happened decided to leave it a disaster instead of a coup.