S1, E10 | Evolution

​Season 1 Finale
“Massaro!” both Vic and Scarlett shout, bursting into his office in hopes of his knowledge of the realm being able to serve them a key out of it. “Vic? Scarlett?” Massaro calls out, staying in his seat as the girls rush over to the desk his work is sprawled upon in another plane. “Massaro, do you know anything about how to get out of the realm without killing yourself?” Vic asks, refusing to do anything other than get straight to the point.

“Geez, that’s a loaded question” Massaro replies, lifting his hand to his chin to ponder over the possibilities. “Even if it is, we need whatever you can think of” Vic replies, “we were drugged in the realm above and now we need a way back.” Though the girls cannot see it, Massaro’s eyes widen in shock, wondering what the reasoning behind drugging two teenage girls on a flight doomed to death serves.

“Whatever the point of it was can be saved for another day” Scarlett responds, “what can’t is how to get back.” Standing from his seat, Massaro places his hand on a specific spot and guides Vic to rest her own hand on the same spot. Once done, Massaro takes the form of a blue light in Vic’s hand, actually able to be felt in her palm whilst Vic takes the same form in Massaro’s plane.

“Follow the blue dot” Massaro beacons, leaving his office and leading the girls into the hall of the faceless, where he directs them to a set of doors in the very back. “Those fucking things again!” Scarlett exclaims, Massaro admitting that he had been hearing of some troubles. “If you can manage to get the doors open, even if you can somehow force them open, the realm will react in a hostile manner, setting out to put you down before you can harm it further.

“What if we can’t get them open?” Vic asks, feeling Massaro struggle to find any alternatives. “You can’t control it from within the realm, but if you suffer any physical damage in the realm of reality, you’ll be shot right back up there to deal with whatever the cause is.” Apologizing, Massaro feels guilty that he has no better answer, breaking the news that the girls are completely shut out from the realm above without a direct line back.

“Either open a back door, force the realm’s hand or hope you get lucky in time” Massaro concludes, “there’s nothing else I can think of that’s been proven than that.” Thanking the man for his help, Vic informs him that she’ll let him know how it all unfolds. “Which one do we go for?” Scarlett asks, getting herself ready to take on the double doors on the spot, already forcing herself to think of all the trouble they’ve caused her to further her motivation.

“Let’s figure out the back door option first” Vic replies, “if we’re gonna fuck with the realm, I’d prefer if it was a last-ditch resort.” Groaning, Scarlett surrenders to Vic’s plan and asks where they go first. Thinking about it for a moment, Vic recalls a spot that helped in the past and makes the suggestion that they use it again. Without warning, she takes Scarlett by the hand and returns to the downtown Baton Rouge area, the empty streets a perfect metaphor for their optimism.

“Okay, now that we’re here… Why are we here?” Scarlett asks, looking around the street before Vic points her in the direction of the end of the street, leading her by the hand to it. “That’s where the star crashed, right?” Vic asks, pointing to the scenic space above a set of buildings beneath the sunset. “When it hit, everything turned into something completely different from what we’re used to” Vic explains, “it sent us into some kind of nightmare.”

“Why is that important?” Scarlett asks, struggling to follow Vic, though making her best effort. “When people realize they’re in a dream and force themselves to wake up, it’s always because they’re having a nightmare” Vic concludes, “all we have to do is convince the realm that this is a nightmare, and we’ll follow whatever fucked up thing tugs at our arm this time.”

“Like the terrorists did last time!” Scarlett replies, finally catching the drift, and able to move onto the next issue in their way. “How do we turn this into a nightmare?” Scarlett follows up, that question somehow turning into a more difficult one to answer than the one that came before it. Conjuring up a thought in her head, Vic takes Scarlett by the hand one more time, popping her into the sky above, placing her in the realm beyond’s replica of their current doomed flight.

“What the fuck!?” Scarlett shouts, feeling the plane’s speed increase as the pilots hope to get to land quick enough, forcing the blonde to look out onto the wings at the smoke billowing into the orange sky. “Holy fuck! How the fuck!?” Scarlett shouts, her hands gripping onto the armrests with such force that her nails begin to tear into the cushions. To her left, Vic lays there unconscious, completely oblivious to what’s going on around her.

= Dream Sequence is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards =

“This makes no sense!” Jared says, putting his seat belt on as Rachel pulls her vehicle out of the school parking lot. “They killed her!” Jared shouts, his hands stretched out to visualize his point, “hasn’t the cop been given enough fucking justice?” Shaking her hand, Rachel pushes the notion of ‘too much justice’ out of the window. “It doesn’t matter who’s hurt by what” Rachel responds, “saying ‘justice hasn’t been served’ is just a reason to keep fighting each other.”

Approaching the end of the parking lot, Rachel slows her vehicle as the patrolling guard waves her down just ahead. Finally at a full stop, Rachel rolls her window down and asks the guard what it is they are being stopped for. “The school isn’t letting anyone out right now” the guard replies, putting a smirk on Rachel’s face and a grimace on Jared’s, “you need to turn around and return to your parking spot.”

“I don’t care what the school is doing” Rachel replies, “but that paint job was a death threat to people like us, and we’re not gonna sit around and wait like fish in a barrel. Move.” Proceeding to pull her talkie free and refuse to allow the girl through, the guard informs Rachel that she’ll have to call authorities if she does not comply. “Oh, so my choices are to get pulled over or get shot at in my own school?” Rachel retorts, pushing her foot to the pedal and running through the arm.

Just as she had warned, the guard phones for one of the school officials to phone the authorities, watching Rachel drive onto the main road and disappear within seconds. “You just got us in so much trouble!” Jared exclaims, watching the amused smile creep over Rachel’s face. “No more trouble than we were already in” Rachel returns, glancing towards Jared and reminding him that it’s the person behind the wheel that’ll catch the blame.

“For someone that cheated on a chick with a broken back.. You’re a real fuckin’ pussy” Rachel mutters, catching Jared shrug in agreement enough to break out into laughter. “Well, fuck…” Rachel says, “as long as you’re self aware!” Refusing to dwell any further on feeling bad about what he did, Jared allows himself to laugh at his errors, knowing that the effort to better himself as a person won’t allow him to make the same choice again.

“It’s the kind of shitty part of trying to be a better man” Jared says, pulling Rachel’s intrigue as if he had it on a string. “You’ll still be guilty of the same shit that caused you to want to change in the first place” Jared continues, his admission of both guilt and hope being the first thing to make Rachel actually feel sorry for him. “I don’t think you’re a bad guy necessarily” Rachel explains, “I just think you did a really shitty thing to the last person that deserved it.”

Admitting that she never hated him, only simply disliked him, Rachel tells Jared that he’s being too hard on himself far too often. “Things like cheating on Scarlett are things you should blame yourself for, things like what she had to do are things you shouldn’t” Rachel replies, giving Jared something new to find interest in. “What do you mean by ‘what she had to do’? Why did she have to do it?” Jared asks, having yet to be made aware of the less discussed areas.

“There’s just something really shifty about the whole thing that doesn’t make sense” Rachel responds, pointing out a lack of video from the dash cam as a red flag. “I don’t think she killed the guy for no reason, I think the cop did something that forced her to act in self-defense” Rachel concludes, “the classic routine of the corrupt cop getting killed and being made to look like a hero.”

“So she shouldn’t have been chased away?” Jared asks, his expression turning sour as he pieces together the fact that Scarlett may have been justified in her actions. “You’re saying she wouldn’t be dead if there wasn’t a cover up?” Jared continues, Rachel’s hand pressing against his as she tells him to calm down. “You’re getting worked up” Rachel counters, “we don’t know all the details, and we probably never will.”

Taking in a deep breath, Rachel confesses that nothing is as definitive as they’d hope for on either side. “Because of that, there will always be a reason to fight for Scarlett and Tori’s justice” Rachel says, pausing as she realizes the nature behind her follow up, “just like there’ll always be one for the cop’s.” Continuing to drive, Rachel pulls into a diner and tells Jared to get some food in his system since they skipped out on lunch.

Hopping out of the car and entering the building, the pair miss an old fashioned truck with a modern coat of light gray paint park beside Rachel’s car just seconds after they arrived. Exiting his vehicle, the figure with dark gray boots steps onto the ground, the strings from his worn down light blue jeans almost getting caught on one of the door’s hooks. With minimal effort, the figure slips a note into the space between the passenger’s side door and the window.

Returning to his vehicle, the figure pulls out of the lot and drives off, leaving the folded paper sticking out, sturdy enough to keep from being effected by the gust of wind that ruffles through the trees around it.

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“Vic, wake up!” Scarlett shouts, her body being forced into the seat by the air pressure of the cabin as the plane slowly breaks apart, splitting open at different sections of its body. In a matter of life or death, the auto pilot on Scarlett kicks in, prompting her to place her feet firmly to the floor and beginning pushing upwards. Fighting her seatbelt for position, Scarlett grabs onto the head of her seat and pulls, trying to get enough leverage to combat against the velocity.

Her teeth pressed together harder than they ever had been before, Scarlett decides this is the best opportunity she is going to be afforded and makes the move she’s been setting up for. “Wake up!” Scarlett shouts, taking one foot off the floor and kicking Vic directly in the face with it before being forced back into her seat. Looking back, Scarlett finds Vic still unconscious as the sound of the engines giving out begins to fill the air.

With a growl, Scarlett clenches at the arm rests with extreme force and bursts into another rage, her hair glowing once again, and her grip on the sides of the chair beginning to crush them. Lunging forward, Scarlett easily snaps out of the seatbelt and takes the seat in front of her clean out of the ground, throwing it across the cabin as it unnaturally explodes into thousands of pieces against the divider.

No longer burdened by the increasing velocity, Scarlett strolls over to Vic and lifts her from her seat, throwing her against the cabin walls in an effort to awaken her. Unaware of just how much strength she has at her disposal, the attempted forced return into the realm above sends Vic crashing through the side of the cabin, ripping another massive hole in the interior and quickening the plane’s descent.

Within moments, the engines completely turn off, losing power as the plane is amidst a forced nose dive, effectively placing the metaphorical tombstone on the already prepared grave. Having given up on any other course of action, Scarlett looks to the end of the cabin ahead and watches it seperate from the remainder of the planes body, the ocean ahead zipping closer into view.

Meeting the surface halfway, Scarlett becomes engulfed with the waters rushing through the planes body as it burrows deeper into the drink. As the cold waters run against Scarlett’s face, the matter of the realm beyond splits her existence apart and returns it to the replica Baton Rouge streets. Touching her hands, arms, torso and face, Scarlett finds herself to be perfectly fine, safely returned to the simulated world unharmed and alone.

After a few seconds, Vic appears from the sky, dropping from a tear in the realm and crashing into the asphalt below. “Fucking shit!” Vic shouts as she falls, the sound of the asphalt breaking her fall sounding like a metal hammer being taken to freshly-laid bricks. Stretching her arms out as if the asphalt beneath her were a cushion, Vic tilts her head back and groans at what she finds around her.

“What the fuck was that about?” Scarlett asks, continuing to prod at Vic for answers as her friend emerges from her roadway coffin. “Seriously, what was that?” Scarlett continues, listening to a disappointed Vic suggest that surprising Scarlett with such an issue would force her into a nightmare. “Well, guess what?” Scarlett asks, Vic cutting her off to assure her that she’s well aware that it didn’t work.

“What do we do now?” Scarlett shouts, her question being raised just before Esotera pops in, poking fun at the hole in the ground before addressing the more dire concern. “I know Massaro gave you three choices when you spoke to him earlier” Esotera begins, hurrying towards the bridge just a few blocks away as the girls follow. “But there’s more to one of those ways than just what he mentioned” the guide furthers, assuring the girls that the system can be cheated.

“Just like come can do in the realm above, we can do in the realm below” Esotera proclaims, “they descend into the realm, you can ascend out of it.” Looking towards each other with confusion, Scarlett and Vic piece together the ways in which that’s possible until the lightbulb in Vic’s head suddenly flickers on. “Levitating?” Vic asks on, watching Esotera stop and turn towards her, invested in this new line of possibility.

“You mean, you both levitate out of here?” Esotera asks, watching Vic concentrate on the ground beneath her before slowly lifting off of it much as she had in the walkway when alone. “When were you gonna tell me that you learned that?” Scarlett asks, Vic telling her that it just happened and she didn’t really think about it much. “The realm is putting its trust in you” Esotera exclaims, “great work, Vic.”

Lifting herself off the ground with slightly more effort, Scarlett asks what happens now that they’ve got another tool at their disposal. “Well, what I was going to say was that there is a law to the realm beyond’s nature in what is and is not plausible in inter-realm connection” Esotera concludes. “Just like the five disasters, the laws of nature guide what the realm is willing to allow. If you can descend into and ascend out of, there needs to be a specific place to do so.”

“So where is this specific place?” Vic asks, watching Esotera glance across the bridge at one building, unnecessary to point out with it needing no introduction, towering over the rest of the city like a traditional evil lair. “No matter what form the realm takees, there will always be one outlier above them all” Esotera states, “the central tower is the line of connection where the realm of reality and the realm beyond meet consistently.”

“Why didn’t you say something about this earlier?” Scarlett asks, Esotera glancing towards her with concern. “Because getting to the top isn’t as cut and dry as just taking an elevator” the woman responds, pointing out the glowing red lights surrounding the building. “The building has keepers” Esotera says, looking at the girls and informing them that they will not rest at keeping those that do not belong unless their hand is forced.

“So we just scale the side of the building then” Scarlett says, “bypass it all and float inside.” Shaking her head, Esotera points towards the very top of the structure, its abrupt end being the maximum height of the realm itself. “The connection is inside” the guiding light states, “the only way to get there is to go through it.” Nodding, Vic acknowledges the realm’s superiority over them.

“It brought us here for a reason, it’s not going to lax the rules just because we ask it to” the confident girl proclaims, “we’re not smarter than it… So we have to be stronger.” Nodding, Esotera wishes both girls luck before vanishing into the thin atmosphere, leaving Scarlett and Vic to go about the business they need to tend to. “Are you ready?” Vic asks, turning towards Scarlett, whose face lights up with a smile as the pair begin the final steps in their return to the realm above.

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“We’re always gonna be in danger, Jared” Rachel explains, putting her signature to the bill as she informs the man that their relation to Scarlett will always make them ‘in-depth’ sources. “Well maybe that’s the reason this person’s targeting us!” Jared retorts, “maybe we share information that no one else does and that makes us a threat to them.” Shaking her head and wiping her mouth, Rachel tells Jared that she’s worried he’s beginning to read too far into this.

“No, you’re not reading into this enough” Jared responds, Rachel being unphased at the confidence in his statement, “have you wondered who shot her dad in the first place?” The most recent statement being made catching her like a fly ball in an outfielders mit, Rachel looks at Jared with widened eyes. “I’ve thought about that every second since it happened” Rachel responds, “but I’m not about to assume the same person responsible wants me dead too.”

“What if they are?” Jared asks, making it clear that he understands the need for optimism, but isn’t about to put his chips in the center of the table on this bet. “This wasn’t a murder for the sake of murder, even people angry at Scarlett wouldn’t have wanted her dad dead” Jared replies, “there’s motives here that we play into just like he did.” Slamming her palms on the table, Rachel smiles at the few patrons of the diner as the silverware stops rattling.

“I’m not gonna buy into being a name on some random persons hitlist” Rachel says, making it clear to Jared that she’s not going to let her life be dictated by fear. “How much of that life do you have left?” Jared asks, watching Rachel climb out of the booth and give him a cold stare. “Whatever life I’ve got left will not be spent fearing someone that wants exactly that” Rachel concludes, taking her purse and walking out of the restaurant with it.

As they climb down the stairs, they spot officers waiting for them, their cars parked right beside hers. “Ms. Endrue” Sheriff West calls out, standing with a notepad in his hand alone, having been in the middle of writing Rachel a note and placing it beneath her windshield wiper. “Leaving school early isn’t a crime” Rachel says, “at least not in Louisiana.” With a smile, West nods in agreement, admitting that as the reason he was waiting for her.

“I still wanted to come down here and check in on you” West explains, “I’ve already heard plenty of chatter about what happened at the school.” Slowing her walk towards him, Rachel sarcastically thanks him for the effort. “I may not legally be an adult, but I can still take care of myself” Rachel replies, Sheriff West refusing to doubt that. “Victoria had been living on her own for years” West acknowledges, “it’s not a concept out of the realm of possibility.”

“So why are you still here?” the girl asks, “we spent a pretty long time in there for a reason.” As Jared walks around to his door, West goes from his lean against the hood of his own car and approaches Rachel with a ticket, his personal number on it. Without a second thought, Rachel crumples it up and tosses it to the side, amusing West even more. “Just because you can look after yourself doesn’t mean you should have to” the sheriff states, jotting his number down again.

Leaning towards the girls ear, West whispers in order to make sure Jared doesn’t overhear the words being shared. “I know you found the note Scarlett left you” West states, validating its authenticity. “It was the main thing she negotiated when she convinced me to let her and Victoria restart their lives elsewhere” the man concludes, watching Rachel’s expression shift into one of surprise.

“She saw you as the one person, other than her parents, that had always been there for her no matter what” the man continues, “she wanted you to be the one with the power of knowing what no one else did.” Looking at him, Rachel asks why that’s so important to bring up now, in the middle of a diner parking lot of all places. “Because I’m pretty sure that’s what the guy trying to scare her friends is looking for” West concludes, admitting that he’s been hiding the true motive from investigators.

“They’re trying to fit pieces where they don’t fit” West explains, “and even if they don’t know that you’re the one with the answers, they’ll keep fighting until they do.” With a deep breath, Rachel thanks West for the new side of the case before he rips a note from his pad and hands it to her again. “It’s the number to a burner phone I’ve got” West says, “the only people I want you telling about this conversation are the people you’ve shared your info with.”

Taking it and folding it, Rachel places the paper in her pocket and thanks him again. Before departing, West makes the suggestion to Rachel that she inform someone else of what she knows soon, just to make sure the truth doesn’t disappear in the event that this vigilante catches up to her. “Just be careful” West concludes, returning to his car and pulling out of the lot, returning to the road as Rachel climbs into her car.

Before she can put the keys in the ignition, Rachel finds Jared holding a folded piece of paper out to her, informing her of where he found it. Opening it up, Rachel reads aloud the message written in faded black ink. In brief words, the message declares that the individual guilty of the vandalism at the school is also one of the few to be aware of secrets being kept by those closest to Scarlett.

In brief, the figure threatens to eliminate whichever individual he finds to be guilty of withholding this information, killing off any false information at the root. “What is this guy talking about?” Jared asks, watching Rachel stare up at her front window and turn the car on, brushing it off as yet another poorly performed scare tactic.

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In Scarlett and Vic’s simulated downtown Baton Rouge of the realm beyond, a pit for off in the near-outskirts of the platform, a rip appears in the middle of the very bottom. The hole, with the bottom being surrounded by sides reaching miles high, begins to glow a bright orange, and the coin-sized slot in the bottom begins to crack open like a cracking egg.

Emerging from within are three figures draped in a sleek gray, two unnamed bald men and the mysterious flight attendant with the same “Suzie” nameplate sported on her left shoulder. Looking up at the mountainous crater they finds themselves in the depths of, the trio leave their feet and slowly ascend to the surface, leaving the bright orange split to close up, allowing them to invade Scarlett and Vic’s world with ease, nothing more than red skies above in their sights.

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Approaching the front door, Scarlett and Vic feel the ground shake beneath their feet, their legs trembling as the plane’s floor in the realm of reality begins to provide insight to the plane’s health. “We’ve gotta move quickly!” Scarlett shouts, pulling the doors open and leading Vic inside, where they are greeted by the same aggravating beast that plagued their initial doctrination into the realm beyond.

Running in the opposite direction of Scarlett, Vic notices the beast offering her his attention. “Alright, bring it on” Vic declares, welcoming the beast’s next action, taking the form of a swipe at her, his claws crashing into the ground at the same time as the plane jolts, rocking the building from both realms. From behind, Scarlett shatters a coffee table and uses her telekinesis to lift up a sharp glass shard.

“Hey bastard!” Scarlett shouts, watching the beast’s face turn towards her before burying the shard in its right eye, causing it to howl in pain. Now with the beasts back turned to her, Vic levitates into the air and throws herself at its heel, taking its leg out as Scarlett buries a second shard into its left eye. Now blind, the beast wildly swings at whatever direction it chooses to, shattering anything other than the girls.

Now stood together the girls reach for the glass pieces and use their powers to bury them further in its head, digging further in until the glasses penetrates brain, killing the beast, allowing it to drop with a resounding thud. The plane in the realm above continuing to jolt, the realm beyond’s ground begins quaking again, forcing the girls to be thrown from one side to the next, though unable to impede their progress further than that.

Running to where the stairs would normally be located, the girls find a massive well reaching the entire way up. “Learning really does pay off” Scarlett exclaims, joining Vic as they ascend into the air, flying upwards until the well begins to flash with a brilliant red much as it had done before. Above, a beast drops from the very top of the building, shooting down the well as the girls quickly fly upwards.

“Wait until the last second!” Scarlett shouts, the speed of their ascent increasing as they play chicken with the massive figure cratering towards them. Taking each other’s hand, the girls zip out of the well at the final possible opportunity as the beast splatters against the ground, leaving Scarlett and Vic to pop into a familiar office space. “Get ready for the swarm” Vic instructs, her warning being vocalized just as the malformed dwellers spill out of tiny little rooms at every direction.

Levitating once more, Scarlett and Vic pull whatever they can and throw it at the swarm, at points even taking dead members of the swarm and throwing their corpses back at them. “Crater!” Vic shouts, she and Scarlett plummeting into the ground and striking it on cue, jolting the floor and wiping out any member of the swarm that had already spilled into the space.

Now on the ground again, the ground shifts and sends the girls flying in each direction, Vic being the one to fall into the glass and create a massive crack through it. Despite the inconvenience, Scarlett and Vic return to the fight, sending bursts of energy pulsating throughout the room, dropping whatever dwellers are within eyesight. Suddenly, another jolt from the realm above shakes the ground, sending the girls flying apart again.

Hitting the widows once more, Vic notices the crack getting bigger, unable to withstand another crash without shattering. Returning to the battle, Vic brushes off the immediate danger, unaware of Scarlett taking specific interest in what happens upon a third quake. Looking to send off another shockwave, Vic pulls her arms back and takes her stance, locking her sights on the swarm just ahead of her.

Ready to send it off, Vic feels her feet dance upon the ground as the third quake hits, sending her into the window, causing it to shatter. Feeling the chips of glass on her back, Vic prepares to plummet back to the ground, her hand being taken by Scarlett at the last second, leaving her dangling out of the window as Scarlett keeps the fight going. Angered at the continuous jolts throwing her off, Scarlett begins fuming, the anger eventually beginning to consume her.

Her hair returning to a bright, golden glow, Scarlett forcefully bends the air as if she were god herself, downing the remainder of the swarm as Vic watches from her less-than-comforting position. Catching her breath, Scarlett comes down from her rage and her hair returns to normal as she glances at Vic, still hanging on tight. Pulling her back in, Scarlett hurries into the depths of the room, finding a stairwell with yet another lack of steps.

Ascending higher, the girls notice the blank, empty concrete walls end with one small doorway, the dark rectangle sticking out like a sore thumb in the bland coat of paint. Entering, the girls are greeted with a dark room only lit by torches burning with a red flame, the decour all a matching matte black. In the center of the room, the ceiling serves host to a hole, the picture of their perspectives of the doomed flight the only thing contained within it.

“It’s right the-” Scarlett begins, walking towards it before being sent flying into the wall, flattening against it on impact as Vic leaps back. From around the corner, a mystifying figure covered in ash and glowing a dark, menacing red glances towards her, ready to take her on next. Stretching his hand out, the figure shoots a bright red ball of energy towards her, missing her by inches as she rolls her way behind the cover of a granite support column.

Forced to dodge further oncoming bursts of energy, Vic slides and leaps beneath and behind whatever she can find, waiting for the single opportunity to make a run for the connection. Its sights set on Vic, the commanding figure fails to notice Scarlett climbing to her feet, allowing her to throw him against the wall opposite her, which he easily bounces off of, landing on his feet before throwing her against the wall with another ball of light.

Enamored with the reaction, Vic begins altering her strategy, viewing the figure as unbeatable, thus causing the new goal to simply become reaching the connection. Calling for her friend, Vic tells her to aim at his head before lunging forward, taking cover behind a marble block as another ball of dreaded energy completely wipes out the granite column. Glancing around the side of the block, Vic watches Scarlett stand up and take aim.

Taking a chunk of the granite into the air, Scarlett brains the volcanic figure, setting up the assist for Vic to swipe at him, sending him flying through the wall and cratering to the ground outside. No longer in immediate danger of being eviscerated, Vic and Scarlett chuckle as they catch their breath, amused at having pulled off what they consider to be an upset against the keeper of the realm itself.

Climbing to her feet, Vic stumbles towards the middle of the room until it begins buzzing again, her instincts instructing her to turn around. As she glances back, Vic spots the volcanic keeper hovering back to the massive gap in the wall, charging up another shot, aimed at a coverless Vic, simply stood there waiting for the inevitable to strike. Completely turned around, Vic watches Scarlett rush to the gap and leap towards the figure latching onto it as the energy is shot.

Sent back by the woman sacrificing herself in such a daring fashion, the figure’s aim is thrown off dramatically, the flashing ball of energy being shot into the connection itself as Vic watches both Scarlett and the figure disappear from her view. Not wasting a moment more, Vic runs for the center of the room and leaps, shooting through the connection and finally waking up in the realm of reality.

As she emerges, Victoria watches the energy ball crash into the end of the cabin, immediately splitting the plane in two, with Victoria’s cabin being left to the elements. The cabin now full of screaming passengers, Victoria pulls her hand back and slaps Scarlett in the face, jolting her from her sleep as the cabin turns downwards. Unlatching themselves from their seats, Victoria and Scarlett pull themselves forward as they watch the ocean come into view.

Forced against the back of the seats in front of them, Victoria and Scarlett watch the water approach just as it had in Scarlett’s vision of the events back in the realm beyond. Most passengers having lost consciousness from the altitude, the only soundtrack to their plummet back to earth comes in the form of the winds whipping past their ears as their doom inches closer.

With the end in sight, the girls fight past the force of the plane with their eyes sealed shut, no longer able to handle the wind flying into them at such great speeds. Losing their grip on the head of the seats now acting as the only things keeping them held back, the girls relinquish their grip and lunge their arms forward, their hands thrusting down in an effort to reclaim their hold on the cushions.

At that moment, a pulsating burst of energy flies from their hands, engulfing the broken body of the plane and bringing it to a complete and sudden stop. With the wind suddenly no longer forcing them backwards, and the plan now totally suspended in mid air, the girls wrap themselves over the seats before falling backwards. Opening their eyes, the girls look towards each other in shock, the chaos having ended and their lives seemingly no longer in danger.

The tube at a ninety-degree angle, the girls lay facing each other, their bodies being supported by the back of the chairs below them. Silent, not saying a word to each other, the girls slowly reach up to the top of the seat and glance down, their jaws dropping at the sight. Below, the ripping ocean waves act just as they should, and the metal body of the plane remains hovering above, suspended in midair, completely frozen in time.

Looking around the cabin, both the conscious and unconscious souls aboard remain frozen in time as well, only furthering the puzzling nature of what the girls are witness to. Out of their window, Scarlett and Vic watch the nose of the plane crater into the ocean nearly a mile out, the effects of which are shown in the violent waves directly beneath them. More shocked in this very moment than they ever have been in their lives, the girls stare blankly out into the waves below.

“Esotera!?” Scarlett calls out, no response coming from out of thin air, confirming to the girls that, despite having their powers, they are within the realm of reality. Directing their sights from each other to the waves below, the girls struggle to convince themselves that their assumptions of what’s going on are true. “Should we-?” Scarlett begins, looking for a question to ask before failing to find one befitting to what they find themselves at the center of.

“We should go” Victoria replies, shakily propping herself up on the chairs as Scarlett does the same. With a deep breath, the girls look towards each other and nod, taking one step off of the seats to find themselves levitating, able to walk on the air as if there was an invisible platform beneath them. Unable to say anything other than making belated gasps and shocked awes, the girls lower themselves out of the tube and hover over the waves to a nearby island.

Reaching the shoreline, the girls plant their feet into the wet sands, feeling the gusts of the real world’s winds brushing through their hair as their new reality begins to settle in. As they lift their hands to their mouths, the plane’s cabin snaps from its effect, plummeting at its prior speed into the waters below, disappearing beneath the surface as the girls teleport further onto the island to evade the sudden rushing current.

After a few minutes, the waters still, and the dawning of the sheer loss of life they had just witnessed clashes with the alteration of their new reality. The air calms, the waves return to a normal speed and the only remnants of the flight remaining are the seats and luggage of the fallen passengers. Still partially in awe, the girls slowly take a seat in the sands and place their chins to their knees, staring into the tragedy-filled night in wonder, horror, amazement, and bewilderment.