by Kei

...and then gasped aloud as the world and the people around him  suddenly disappeared in a grey vortex of vertigo. He felt himself falling, but from what and to where, he did not know. Behind closed lids, pale blue eyes struggled to shut out a sudden , violent burst of all-consuming bright light that blanched night into impossible day...and even as he forced his eyes to open...it began to rain.

Not the sweet, gentle cleansing showers of spring, but a punishing scarlet torrent that burst from a suddenly angry green-grey sky that was slashed by blinding daggers of lightning. Wherever...whatever the viscous fluid touched, literally burned as if doused in acid. Trees shriveled to nothing. Land became a putrefied muck. Swollen, boiling waters ran sanguinous red. Flesh melted from the bones of animals...and humans.

The Earth died.

"BOZHE MOI!"

It felt like hours, though it was probably only minutes, before the rhythms of Illya Kuryakin's madly racing heart slowed to a nearly normal beat, and several minutes more before he realized that strong, comfortingly familiar arms tenderly cradled his still trembling form. "Napoleon..?" But even as the Russian's eyes met those of his partner, he saw a mirror of the same haunted look of horror he knew to be in his own...and he suddenly understood. "You...also saw?"

Napoleon Solo swallowed deeply before he offered a shaky nod. There had been times during their career together as partners that he might have suspected that he and Illya could sometimes sense  each other's thoughts -now, he really believed it. Twins in heart *and* mind...  "I did... My God...I did." Even as he helped his partner, his *lover*, to his unsteady feet, the dark agent's haunted gaze hardened into an angry glare as he took in the reality that Sergei and the others that remained were just standing there, seemingly just waiting...watching...as if whatever had happened to Illya and himself was no more and no less than what they had always expected to happen. Solo's temper boiled over. "What the HELL was that!"

Sergei shook his head almost sadly. "It is something that even Pierun could not be told until now -it is the Way. As the chosen, you may be, at times, granted insights from the Light which we serve to aid you in the battle against the enemy. The *bonding* you shared serves to bind you together all the more closely and makes visions clearer, knowledge more certain, for both of you." There was a heavy sigh. "It is said not to be an easy gift to bear."

Solo winced as vivid ghosts of the nightmarish vision appeared before his mind's eye -and Illya had seen it too? Yes, he believed that. But *what* had they both seen?

"Illya?" No answer came as the Russian UNCLE agent bent down and retrieved the fallen, scattered papers he had been holding only moments before and then, single-mindedly studied them, the papers beginning to tear in his tightly clenched fists. "Illya..?" Napoleon repeated worriedly, placing a hand on a shoulder which trembled ever so slightly. "What is it?"

"We...have less time than we could have thought..." the slight Russian said softly. "What we saw...what my cousin works on for THRUSH...are the same."
 

The question hovered on Napoleon's lips, but remained unspoken as a shared glance seemed to cause bits and pieces of their shared ghastly nightmare to merge with their knowledge of recent THRUSH wrongdoing -it suddenly made sense. Solo spoke first. "The overthrow of that African government..."

"To procure their government's supply of a deadly virus for which there is no cure."

"The chemical weapon of South America..."

"The answer was just as certain as the first. "A degenerative super toxin...certainly fatal."

"Japanese high technology and Soviet super fuel..."

"To provide the means to transport in stealth a weapon more lethal than a nuclear bomb..."

"To the upper atmosphere where it would release-" Napoleon gasped as he remembered the blinding flash of an explosion and then, that deadly putrefying rain beating down on a dying world. "They *can't* ...not even THRUSH would create a weapon that would destroy a  whole world!"

"No..." Illya concurred gravely. "THRUSH would *not* send a planet- killing toxin into the sky because even THRUSH is not the ultimate evil, but those who follow the Darkness *are* -and they *would* destroy a world and themselves rather than lose the battle. Sergei!"

"Da, Pierun!"

"If a new rocket fuel is being developed, then there is likely a rocket base nearby."

The older Russian puzzled for a moment. "Da...but it is only for the launching of weather satellites. There is to be such a launching within the week."

"But the name!" the smaller Russian snapped, glancing back at his partner, both dreading the answer they already suspected.

"The name of the rocket carrying the satellite!"

The older man's mouth became an "o" of understanding and horror -he did not need the gift to understand. "'Thor's...Hammer.'"

In the hidden room, a stray breeze turned the fragile pages of the ancient book; unseen this time, words only recently read: "'In those days hence shall there be twins in heart and mind to destroy the great hammer that would destroy the world...'"

Now they knew.