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\ Realm of Reality /
“Back away from the premises this instant!” a general exclaims, standing at the forefront of his unit with a bullhorn in hand, the angry mob that stands before him, some waving fists in the air. Surging forward, an armoured cavalcade moves toward the unit, its progression moving sluggishly as the vehicle advances, its path largely blocked by the hostile mass impeding its furtherance. “This is fucking absurd” Scarlett murmurs, she and Vic having sought the comfort of a nearby set of bushes, concealing their identities as the group holds firm, refusing to let the convoy through. “I think releasing the video is even more absurd” Vic responds, her hands shuffled away to the sanctuary of her back pockets as she kneels toward the ground, her knee pressing into soft dirt, “this is the kind of thing that can cause a revolt.” “Yeah- that’s why I don’t think they did” Scarlett quickly responds, lowering herself close to the ground as Vic’s face gazes into hers. “Well, who else would have gotten it?” Vic queries, her eyes wandering back to the mass collective gathered at the troops’ borders, “I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a news helicopter- it would have gotten out by now, wouldn’t it have?” “I saw the wreckage when we took that first shot at him, it wasn’t” Scarlett retorts, her left hand draped against her bent left knee, “but that doesn’t mean it was the police’s call to put the video out there.” Her head shaking, Vic thinks quietly for a moment before taking Scarlett by the wrist, her right hand snapping its first three digits together as they evacuate the once-quiet town. “Who else could have done it?” Vic inquires, leaving her knee as she steps through the parlour of their Maldives villa, approaching the set of sliding doors near the room’s back. “The only people that would have a motive to do it would be some anarchist looking to set fires and walk away” Vic proceeds, stepping onto the terrace as Scarlett slowly follows, her hands swatting at her jeans’ stained left knee, “and I have my doubts that Lincoln or Suzie managed this from the grave.” Tucked behind her ears, Scarlett’s long, blonde locks flow in the wind as she joins her friend upon their Arabian Sea overlook. “Does it matter at this rate?” Scarlett raises the question, her sights setting upon the waves that crash into the large, wooden stumps that support their home. “What’s done is done. Praireville was fucking destroyed and it doesn’t seem like it’s coming back” Scarlett remarks, her hands folded atop the bannister’s railing, “people were bound to question it eventually.” “Yeah, ‘eventually’ is a lot different from right now” Vic responds, her right elbow pressing into the railing as her hip rests against the glass divider beneath it, her front centred upon Scarlett. “Lincoln and Suzie may not be alive anymore, but we sure as hell still are” the brunette persists, “with that video out there, how long will it be before someone sees us use our powers? How long will it be before someone mistakes us for the same kind of crazy as Lincoln?” “Has it happened yet?” Scarlett quickly counters, the question redirecting the conversations focus entirely. Her mouth closing, Vic looks to Scarlett with a frown, her eyes gliding toward the greater Maldives coastline a near kilometre away. “We’re not fugitives, and we’re not on the run. We haven’t been ousted yet and we live in paradise” Scarlett continues, letting free a sigh as Vic’s eyes pull toward her own, “can’t we just enjoy whatever time we have left?” Rolling her eyes, Vic offers a frustrated sigh as she turns away, returning to the home in a curious way. “What did I say?” Scarlett inquires, following Vic back toward the parlour with the assumption that she’d crossed the line somewhere. “I don’t fucking understand you anymore!” Vic exclaims, throwing her arms toward the sky as she spins around, facing Scarlett once more, “you convince me to not fight what the realm wants, then spend weeks ignoring me to do the exact opposite, and now you’re right back with the ‘live each day like it’s your last’ bullshit!” “What more do you want me to do!?” Scarlett shouts, her face scrunching as it turns red with anger, frustration taking her over almost immediately. “I told you that I knew there was a chance that I could have been wrong!” Scarlett continues, kept from continuing as Vic interrupts her. “And what did it take you to figure that one out? Huh!?” Vic qualms, stepping forward with a visibly fury, “the realm turning itself into some freak with a mouth to tell you it was all fucking hopeless!?” Bowing her head, Scarlett’s hands find their place upon her hips as the room falls quiet, the soft waves that shift beneath their home filling the background with faint noise. “I’m sorry” Scarlett sympathetically replies, her eyes taking toward her disheartened friends’ face, Vic’s loss for words quickly becoming apparent. “I turned you away and I shouldn’t have” Scarlett further explains, watching Vic’s head bow just as her own had, “families fight. We’re no different.” Her nostrils flaring, Vic’s chin lifts, her face still filled with a simmering aggravation, its flame having been reignited. “Yeah, we are” Vic responds, backing away as the fingers on her right hand press closely together, “we’re not family.” Mirroring similar actions to those Scarlett had taken, Vic vanishes without another word, refusing to allow the opportunity for her friend to put in a final word. Looking toward an empty corner of the room, Scarlett shakes her head just as she turns away, sights setting upon the vast waters beyond as she conscientiously makes the effort to calm herself, reclaiming her calm demeanour from the grasp of shamefaced vitriol. = 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 = \ Realm of Reality / With her head hung, Vic follows the Bourbon Street walkway, its roads largely void of travellers in light of recent circumstances. Her brunette hair falling over her silk top-strewn shoulders, Vic carries on with her day, the sky clear of obstructions as the sunlight rains down upon her. “Get indoors, lady!” a nearby man exclaims, sitting at the entrance of a cramped, narrow alleyway with a paper bag in hand, “it’s not safe out here!” Her eyebrow raised, Vic barely passes the man an ounce of her concern, “why is that?” she asks, hands hung by her sides as she walks along. “‘Cause the world’s ending!” the man shouts back, a few teeth from the bottom row of his mouth visibly absent, replaced with nothing more than an empty gap. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Vic half-heartedly mocks, continuing her venture as the man responds. “‘Cause no one believes it!” the man exclaims, kicking over a metal cup as he uncrosses his legs for a moment, “but it’s happening! It’s happening and we’re all gonna feel it!” Pausing her leisurely stroll, Vic takes her head toward the man’s street-side corner, unable to shake the feeling that the nonsensical ramblings may have some weight behind them. “I’ve seen crazier things happen” Vic responds, squinting to brace against the sunlight shining in the distance directly over the older man’s head, “how’s the world going to end?” With a chuckle, the man’s head tilts backward, his hand fumbling along the ground in search of his overturned cup. “It’s gonna make the wrong choice, girl!” the man grunts, lifting the cup to his lip before spitting into it, flashing what’s left of his smile in Vic’s direction, “we’re all gonna pay for it!” Her face gradually lessening its tension-filled muscles, Vic subtly bobs her head and carries onward, her regard carried elsewhere without another word to offer. | \ Realm Beyond - Eternal Office / Her fingers curling, Scarlett angrily steps through the halls of the Realm Beyond, her hand thrown forward without anything leaving her grasp. Within seconds, a distant explosion rips through the eternal office’s nondescript walls, her mastery of the time grenade seemingly improving the longer it’s tested. As the minutes pass, Scarlett begins her descent through a massive stretch of floorspace, walls stretching dozens of levels through the air lining each side she walks. Nearing the halfway-point between the way she’d entered and the destination she has yet to arrive at, Scarlett’s eyes take to the lone ghoul rounding the corner ahead, its attention directed toward her the moment it steps foot within the labyrinth-like walkway. The growling it greets Scarlett with is kept to a minimum, the ghoul continues along its journey, its intent clearly not set on cutting Scarlett’s voyage short. Despite the lack of ill-intentions behind the emotionless display the feral entity has put forth, Scarlett summons her service weapon, its brilliant shade of blue illuminating the walls she walks through, the ghoul’s progression forward stopping upon this sight. As if accepting its fate, the ghoul’s head begins to hang, eyes directed toward the floor as it falls, knees colliding with the ground below. Already aware of the effect she has on the aimless that wander the halls equally destination-depraved, Scarlett remains somewhat taken aback by the sight, unsure how to react for a brief moment before acting upon her instinct. Raising the weapon, Scarlett pulls her index finger over where she’d anticipate the trigger to be, the lack of a fired pellet making her question what had gone wrong. Glancing to her side, Scarlett’s eyes take to her hand, the trigger guard she’d expected her face to fall toward replaced instead with a handle, the reality-warping firearm’s body having become the hilt of a blade, the barrel of her weapon’s tip replaced with the sharpened edge of a blade. “All hail the king” the ghoul remarks sadly, momentarily looking up to Scarlett before returning its head toward the ground, the blonde woman’s posture changing upon this strange discovery. Looking upon the back of the ghoul’s semi-decrepit skull, Scarlett lowers her service dagger for a brief moment, its blue tip falling into the ghoul’s line of sight. “Do you say anything else?” Scarlett inquires, prompting the feral soul to lift its head once more, its eyes travelling toward the hall’s distance. Without a word, the ghoul gently shakes its head in refusal, eyes lowering as its head bows once more, awaiting the sentencing its decided king prepares to bestow. A disappointed look carried in her face, Scarlett’s eyes take to the way she’d arrived, now carrying the fate of the ghoul that prepares to step within it. Relinquishing her service dagger, Scarlett steps back, watching the ghoul’s face lift toward her. “Carry on, ghoulie” Scarlett orders, resuming her stride toward her initial destination as the feral spirit watches on, surprised at his life being spared. “Is that growth I see?” a hauntingly familiar voice inquires, freezing Scarlett in the place she stands, her attention called back for the moment her first syllable is uttered. Her service dagger summoned once more, Scarlett spins around, her face returned to its bright, blue colour in the shade of her weapon. “It does become grating eventually, doesn’t it?” Suzie’s voice whispers, her semi-transparent, ghost-like body standing directly within Scarlett’s sights, the red glow in her eyes leaving little to assume. “What the hell are you doing here?” Scarlett inquires, stepping away from the concerning sight as she wields the dagger, prepared to lunge her hand forward at the first sign of danger. “What? Did you think I’d die and not find my way back to the realm?” Suzie inquires, stepping around Scarlett’s tense, defence-readied self as the living woman turns with her. “You’re dead” Scarlett responds, a remark that Suzie’s apparition can only nod in agreement to. “Of course I am, you already made sure of that” Suzie replies, her chin lowering as her red eyes stare intensely into Scarlett’s deep blue’s, “and soon enough, you will be too.” | \ Realm of Reality / Making her way through the empty parlour, Vic picks up on the strange sense of loneliness carried throughout her home, Scarlett’s absence making the villa feel larger than it truly is. Though she carries a photograph in her hand, Vic’s attention holds upon the empty living room, the white falls falling to a dark, greyish colour as the sun outside begins to fall behind the cloudy sky. Brushing off the odd aura surrounding her, Vic takes her photo through the sliding glass doors, her feet carrying her directly to the cushion-covered patio chair. With a sigh of relief, Vic sinks into the seat just as the large, burning star her planet orbits around becomes covered entirely, her hand extending toward the heavens as she closes her eyes. “You’re just going to say goodbye” Vic murmurs beneath her breath, her eyes closing tightly as her head tilts back, her breaths steadying as her head sinks further into the seat’s welcoming embrace. “You’re just going to say goodbye” Vic repeats, her eyes slowly releasing from their intense closure, gradually returning Vic’s view to the puffy clouds above, “you’re just saying goodbye.” Parting, Vic’s sights take to the photograph momentarily, the blue skies greying ahead of schedule as the world goes numb, Vic’s mind travelling with the rest of her body elsewhere. A breath of relief leaving her lungs at the sound of glass cups clanging together, Vic awakens in a world mirroring that of her own, a downtown bar packed to its limits in every direction she turns. “Happy twenty-first!” one older woman shouts in the distance, joining a group of friends as they surround a younger lady not too dissimilar from herself, a celebratory drink thrown down in unison. “Yeah, happy twenty-first” Vic mutters beneath her breath, tapping an older man nearby on the shoulder to little effect, her presence not only unattended to, but non-existent itself. Stepping around those she crosses paths with, Vic’s eyes navigate the busy bar room, billiard tables surrounded by beer-holding men whilst booths sit occupied by younger, less bar-experienced groups. A metaphorical fish out of water, Vic listens into conversations that surround her, waiting a few moments and traversing a few further tables before finally uncovering what she’d hoped for. “To the first drink of the night!” one woman from a group of others exclaims, an abundance of shot glasses clinking together at the nearest booth, its tall seats situated in the corner of the establishment. Her eyelids pulling away from each other slightly, Vic’s attention takes to the declaration, a group of familiar faces capturing her attention. As the unfortunate club remix of already unbearable pop songs blaring through randomly scattered stereo speakers persists, Vic drowns the garble out, her senses refusing to pay any mind to the distractions that surround her. “God, we haven’t done this in forever!” one woman, seemingly belonging to the group’s older side by her appearance, remarks aloud, the palms of her hands pressing against the table. “Well, most of us have kids- I don’t know why you’d expect any different” a second woman, likely on the group’s younger side replies, turning her glass over before resting it atop the booth. “I’ll still never be able to understand why you’d do that to yourselves” a third woman, also likely belonging to the table’s younger demographic remarks, tying her hair into a short ponytail. “Because they make our lives whole” a fourth woman, whose voice immediately brings the hairs on the back of Vic’s neck to a stand, responds, “you can’t for much more than a happy family.” “Who’s got a happy family here, Bethanne!?” a fifth girl shouts aloud, her attention driven to the mid-30’s brunette sat near the booth’s rear. “Don’t dig on her and Artie like that!” the second girl responds, her index finger directed toward the question-baring lady, “every marriage has its troubles!” Raising her hands in surrender, the fifth girl defends herself, clearing the air before it has the opportunity to grow fuzzy. “I never named names! You’re the one who named names!” she responds, the woman serving as the conversation’s subject forced to get involved in splitting the discussion apart. “Let’s not start arguing when we’ve got plenty ahead!” Bethanne quips, sliding past her situated friends on her way to the bar counter, “we’ve got too long of a night ahead for that!” The potential debate thwarted before it has the chance to begin, the group of girls collectively cheer as their fifth occupant steps away from the carrel. Her eyes watching Bethanne pass by, Vic remains silent, her chest tightening as her eyes fill with emotion, her hands shaking by her hips without certainty over how to respond. Her every breath growing shaky, Vic begins to tail the older lady, following the path she wages ahead as she steps between men and women at random. Occupying an empty seat at the counter, Bethanne snaps her fingers at the rushing bartender whilst Vic watches on, the fish-out-of-water presentation she’d sported previously having strengthened as the minutes pass. “Ten tequila shots, please!?” Bethanne exclaims, waiting a few further seconds before the steward delivers her a nod. Taking advantage of her inconspicuousness, Vic peers over Bethanne’s shoulder as the woman removes a phone from her purse, her thumbs immediately dancing across the screen to open her text messages. As the seat beside the patron opens, Vic’s hands swipe through the air, freezing time before it has the chance to pass any further, each frequenter of the bar left immobile as Vic sets herself down. Her left arm pressing against the oakwood countertop, Vic’s eyes take to the woman she’d centred her focus upon, her lip quivering as her mind wrestles with the words to speak. “I’m sorry this had to be the place we did this in” Vic opens, trying her best to loosen the rigid posture she sports whilst her eyes take to the remainder of the rowdy tavern. “I really wish I would have picked a better place than this” Vic explains, making an attempt at becoming more comfortable with the situation she finds herself in, settling into the stool she occupies whilst coupling her hands together, the base of her palms resting against the bar. “I never thought I’d see you again” Vic mutters beneath her breath, parting her interlaced fingers to rest her hand upon the woman’s wrist, a sudden crack in her voice emerging, “hi mom.” Her mouth going dry, Vic uses her free hand to cover her lips, tears beginning to run from her eyes as a result of the conflicting gestures. “Goddamn, this is hard” Vic murmurs to herself, shaking her head as she pulls her hand away, rubbing the top of her jean-covered thighs as her head bows. “I don’t really know what I was expecting” Vic murmurs, pretending the conversation she has is one with the woman responsible for raising her, “there’s so much I thought I wanted to say that I- I convinced myself I’d never have all the time to say it.” Her fingers running through her hair, Vic begins to lean back, her left hand wrapped around the counter’s curve to prevent herself from toppling over. “Sometimes I forget I have these powers, y’know?” Vic continues, her eyes beginning to water once more as her words stray from the script she’d prepared, her heart assuming control of her voiced thoughts, “I forget I could have all the time- literally all the time- in the world to do... To do anything.” Licking her dry lips, Vic holds her hand against her mouth as the sensation of sorrow becomes too much to carry, her eyes pressing together as she leans forward. “I just don’t really know what to do anymore” Vic weeps, looking into the side of her mother’s face, “it’s like all of this just keeps ripping pieces of me away- and I didn’t even know how many pieces I had left before it all began!” Hyperventilating, Vic wipes the tears from her face as she struggles to speak, each compilation of words spoken through spotty breaks in her speech. “All I had was Scarlett and now, well, now it feels like I’m gonna lose her too” Vic explains, clenching her teeth whilst returning her touch to Bethanne’s hand. “I didn’t know how badly I wanted all of this to be over until now” Vic confesses, squeezing the woman’s arm tightly as her head rests against Bethanne’s shoulder. “But now I’ve started to realise that- when all of this is over- I’m gonna lose everything I have left” Vic proceeds, her breathing finally beginning to fall under control, “so, no matter what I do, I keep living this cycle of hell that just never stops.” Pulling her head up, Vic looks to her mother’s face, pulling in a deep breath as her eyes redirect, staring at the counter for a moment before taking to the phone screen. Her once saddened expression turning around, Vic’s eyes wander through the contact list upon her mother’s phone display, recognising one specific combination of name and face from the many others. “Lincoln” Vic whispers beneath her breath, her hand pulling away from Bethanne’s shoulder as she backs away, her once bitter-rival’s face on the single message log above her father’s own. With a scowl, Vic’s face fills with anger, her attention squarely centred upon the back of her mother’s head. “Bye mom” Vic callously remarks, her fingers sliding against each other as time resumes, Vic’s presence returned to the realm above as more important matters occupy her headspace. | \ Realm Beyond - Eternal Office / “You still haven’t answered my question” Scarlett responds, tailing Suzie’s spirit closely with her service dagger in hand, cautious to ease her guard for even the slightest moment. “Which one was that again?” Suzie mocks, a smirk carried on her face as she turns her head around one hundred and eighty degrees, eyes locking with Scarlett’s, “you ask so many that I sometimes forget you want them answered.” “What’s the abrasion?” Scarlett queries, her eyes kept peeled, still uncertain as to whether or not Suzie’s ghostly figure can inflict damage upon her. “Oh, you finally found that old thing?” Suzie laughs, her head shaking as she proceeds at Scarlett’s whim, stepping through the executive sector’s massive depths as her body begins to momentarily destabilise, almost glitching in a weird sense. “That’s the canyon Razul, Kazro and I emerged from to get inside this god-forsaken hellhole” Suzie responds, a slight amount of spite carried behind her remarks, almost bitter in a way. “Then fucking fix it” Scarlett responds, provoking Suzie into a fit of laughter as the climbs the first set of stairs. “That’s your job, darling- not mine” Suzie’s soul replies, again beginning to rapidly glitch, “after all, I was only able to make it by combining Vic and your DNA.” “Then uncreate it” Scarlett responds, persuading Suzie to halt her march forward as she reaches the top-most step, her eyes beginning to roll. “The two of you need to step through it if you want that to happen” Suzie replies, looking Scarlett in the eyes as they stand one step apart, “there’s nothing in this realm, neither you or Vic, Lincoln or I, or even Esotera that knows who you and Vic are better than that abrasion.” Gazing away momentarily, Scarlett takes Suzie’s remarks to heart for a moment whilst the forefront woman moves onward, leading herself to the vast workroom. “What happens if I step through it?” Scarlett inquires, following Suzie toward the collection of desks in the next room over, a few brief glances shared with the realm’s red-coloured wound paid as the discourse persists. “It’ll show you who the two of you are, I’d assume” Suzie replies, venturing down a line of desks with Scarlett in her shadow, “either that, or it’ll kill you. Either way, I’m fine with whatever outcome happens.” “That’s just great” Scarlett returns, the remark she follows with guiding Suzie’s attention back the way she’d entered, her eyes falling upon Scarlett’s distressed expression. Attempting to speak, Suzie’s figment goes momentarily silent, her eyes travelling to a dark corner of the room as she struggles with what she tries to say aloud. “I’d really try to keep that growth going if I were you” Suzie remarks, nodding to herself briefly as she turns away, continuing her patrol. “Why is that?” Scarlett goes out, again prompting Suzie to halt her departure, her face turning back just as the rest of her body does. “Because this is right around the time it happened” Suzie replies, able to see Scarlett’s face shrink in curiosity, “around the time Chris and I had our fallout.” Nodding, Scarlett’s lips pucker as her head’s up-and-down motion begins to swivel from one side to the other. “Vic and I are on good terms” Scarlett responds, watching Suzie subdue a laugh that prevents her from speaking further. “Yeah, Chris and I were too-” Suzie responds, coupling her hands together as she steps forward, easing her approach as Scarlett lifts her service dagger a slight amount, “-that’s when the sabotage began.” Her posture as unchanged as her demeanour, Scarlett watches Suzie continue as the thoughts encircle her mind, the sudden emergence of banging in the spacious hall they occupy captivating Scarlett’s sights. “Have you noticed Vic sticking her nose in things it doesn’t belong yet?” Suzie inquires, continuing to draw closer as her hand reaches out, another set of knocks emerging in the unseen levels above. “Police, open your door!” a distant shout calls out from above, stealing Scarlett’s attention as Suzie’s smirk widens, her words only continuing to linger upon Scarlett’s mind. “Maybe you’ve seen her doing things you can’t explain? Maybe you don’t know how to make sense of them yet?” Suzie inquires further, watching Scarlett’s head shake as the pounding above continues, “things that, as long as you trust that she’d never do you wrong, she’d be able to get away with?” “Vic’s not that person” Scarlett replies defiantly, again listening to the angered knocking persist. “Police! Open your door!” the voice above repeats, captivating Scarlett enough to draw her face upward, nearly allowing Suzie’s creeping hand to draw near. “You’re both after the same thing” Suzie responds, Scarlett’s arm nearly gracing the tip of her finger, “why should either of you have to stab the other in the front when you can just do it in the back instead?” Leaping away from her place, Scarlett creates further separation between herself and Suzie before snapping herself free of the realm, returning to the world she’s needed within. Her feet colliding with the floor of the villa’s parlour, Scarlett takes Vic’s arm into her grasp as the brunette approaches the front door. “We have to go!” Scarlett shouts, again snapping her fingers as she vanishes into thin air, the girls fleeing their villa just as the front door is kicked in, a fleet of officers armed to the teeth storming through their entrance just a moment too late, a patch of the American flag adorned on the left sleeve of each armed soldier as they invade the home. == Dream Sequence ==
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\ Realm of Reality /
Their hands coupled together at their lap, Scarlett and Vic stand beside each other in silence, their eyes held toward the ground where two fresh, unmarked graves reside. Refusing to utter a word, Vic’s eyes peer toward Scarlett, looking at the woman briefly before her stare returns to the ground. In the near distance, a fleet of helicopters soar through the air, monitoring the ground for activity they find intriguing. As the sky darkens, Scarlett’s period of mourning ends, her quiet turn away from the grave allowing her to retreat toward safer pastures. “When did you find out about all of this?” Vic inquires, a few steps taken away from the burial ground, though not enough to match Scarlett’s pace. “A few days ago” Scarlett answers, able to notice the distance between herself and Vic grow as the woman’s voice raises another question, continuing to leave the plot behind. “Were you ever going to tell me?” Vic wonders aloud, still greatly lacking behind Scarlett’s stride. “Sure” Scarlett responds, her reply purposefully brief and simplistic as she marches on, stepping through the remnants of Praireville’s natural landscape. Removing one hand from her pocket, Vic snaps herself directly into Scarlett’s path, returning the hand to its jacket-side pouch as her questions persist. “When were you going to tell me?” Vic queries, Scarlett continuing to approach with little intention of stopping. “In a few days, I guess- I didn’t give it much thought” Scarlett responds, directing her head toward Vic’s side before following that path, stepping around the woman as she proceeds forward. “Can you stop walking away?” Vic inquires, rolling her eyes as she spins around, looking at Scarlett’s back as she slows, additional helicopters passing in the distance. “Do I really need to walk you through this process?” Vic inquires, visibly aggravated at the woman’s nonchalant demeanour. Sighing, Scarlett spins just as Vic had, her eyes meeting the woman’s own as her head drifts to the side. “I’m not avoiding you like before, Vic” Scarlett remarks, a statement her other half agrees with. “I know that. I also know you’re trying to avoid talking about what happened in the realm” Vic responds, a declaration Scarlett has little argument against. “What do you want me to say?” Scarlett queries, her own hands falling into the pockets of a light jacket, “what you saw is what happened. Is there something I can tell you that your own two eyes couldn’t?” Forced to squint as her face aims toward the sun, Vic’s eyes take toward the distance, raising the questions that begin to mount. “How did you know to do that?” Vic first wonders aloud, her right knee bent as her foot stands outward, imprinting the pattern beneath her shoe into soft dirt. “I honestly didn’t” Scarlett responds, speaking with no reason to conceal secrets, “I was furious, I’d lost too many people to keep my mind right, and I took it out on her.” “Hold on” Vic calmly interrupts, her squinted eyes pressing closer together as she leans back slightly, “what do you mean by that?” “By what?” Scarlett responds, the look in Vic’s face implying a realisation Scarlett’s yet to find a source for. “You’d lost too many people” Vic replies, watching Scarlett’s eyes drop slightly as her question is finished, “what do you mean by that?” Taking in a deep breath, Scarlett’s face pulls away, the field they stand within ending just as asphalt begins, its surface covered in the thick overgrowth abandoned cities inevitably find themselves consumed by. Hands kept in her pockets, Scarlett steps through the tree line, Vic following the woman in silence as they emerge from their hiding, returning home if only for a moment. Catching up to her friend, Vic rejoins Scarlett’s side, their hands tucked into pockets as they come to a stop at the weathered walkway. “My mom died” Scarlett groans, her face shining beneath Praireville’s sunlight as Vic’s head turns toward her, looking at her with apologetic eyes. “Something about heart failure or- whatever it was- that’s what was on her obit” Scarlett explains, her head hanging as the tip of her boot kicks the small pebbles scattered along the side passage. “It’s just a lot of loss to process in so little time” Scarlett murmurs, a passing glance taken toward the broken skyline she’d previously had the ability to recognise by heart. “I’m so sorry, Scar” Vic responds, aware of how empty the response is, but unable to offer much else in the way of encouraging words. “I am too” Scarlett replies, nodding her head as she lowers herself to the ground, her legs crossed as her hands rest atop her thighs. “I’m starting to think we’re doing a lot more harm up here than good” the blonde confesses, able to feel the warmth of the burning star that stands out from the rest of the sky. “If we didn’t make it out of that plane crash, there’d be so many people alive right now” Scarlett continues, her seated stance eventually shared by Vic, who lowers herself to the ground just the same. “Even if we tried to do something about that now, it’d already be too late” Scarlett concludes, looking Vic in the eyes as she finishes her thought, “-everyone we loved is already dead.” Discomforted at the macabre sentiment, Vic sees the truth and irony behind it nonetheless, her spirit beginning to dwindle just as Scarlett’s seemingly has. “Don’t you think that’s part of the realm’s plan?” Vic responds, watching Scarlett’s head dip as she lets out a sigh, “even with Lincoln and Suzie around, I feel like there’s been too much that’s happened for it not to be.” Rubbing her calves silently, Scarlett stares ahead, intentionally refusing to look Vic in the eyes as she answers with silence. “What aren’t you telling me?” Vic wonders aloud, the look of guilt stretching across Scarlett’s face as her eyes slowly make their way back, looking Vic in the eyes. “She- Mother- She told me” Scarlett admits, a genuine worry held within her remark, Vic’s head pulling back as Scarlett’s thought concludes. “This is all supposed to make us stronger” Scarlett explains, Vic’s eyes taking to the same distance her own had when trying to avoid the conversation, “it ends with you and me.” = 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 = \ Realm Beyond / “Is Vic not with you?” Esotera wonders aloud, entering a vast, open space littered with empty desks as she walks ahead of Scarlett, the ceiling no less than four stories above their head. “No, she- uh- she needed some air” Scarlett replies, the tone in her voice making the blatant vagueness in her answer obvious, “with no more Suzie around, it’s not too dangerous coming in here on my own, is it?” “It’s as dangerous as anything you experience in the realm above” Esotera quickly replies, passing a glance to the light-haired woman following in her shadow, “you don’t hold her hand when you cross the street, do you?” “Not unless there’s an ice cream truck passing by” Scarlett quickly jokes, stepping through the large, ample bureau, “for the sake of her wallet, she needs to hold me back from spending a few thousand dollars on the driver’s inventory.” Each of their steps tapping loudly along the ground, Scarlett’s eyes begin to wander, the interior architecture inspired by the same brutalist craft as the rest of the office, though strangely feeling disassociated from it. Lining the walls, tall, concrete columns lift from the ground and toward the ceiling, their strange carvings unintelligible and cold to the unflattered eye. “Where are we?” Scarlett inquires, her voice carried throughout the spacious internal sanctum as the pair step forward. “The executive sector” Esotera replies, offering very little elaboration as if the room were second nature, “have you not been here?” “No, I haven’t- when have you?” Scarlett replies, following the spirit’s ascent with little other choice. “The realm continues to live its life with or without you here” Esotera replies, an eyebrow lifting as she glances over her shoulder once more, finally reaching the staircase’s peak, “you’re aware of that, right?” Hushed for a moment, Scarlett watches Esotera step through an already-open doorway, vanishing around the corner to a fate Scarlett has yet to join her in. “Yeah” Scarlett answers half-heartedly, never having asked herself the question that would have guided her toward such an answer. Continuing her progress forward, Scarlett joins her spiritual counsel down an equally-large flight of stairs, their concrete design comparable to the one she’d climbed minutes earlier. “And this place is the-?” Scarlett begins to inquire, her voice falling as her head turns toward Esotera’s direction, confused at what sits before her. “Is there something on your mind, Scarlett?” Esotera inquires, her back turned toward a large array of desks, faceless apparitions sat at desks whilst mimicking work, not a single thing atop their empty workstations to occupy their time. “Yeah” Scarlett replies, yet to pay any mind to the blank slates that line the room before her, sights instead set on an ominous display off to the room’s side. “What the fuck is that!?” Scarlett queries, wanting to step toward the crevasse sat across the room from her, though she refuses to do so. “Just how much of this realm have you seen thus far?” Esotera inquires, departing her stance near the vast office’s forefront in favour of the eyesore Scarlett’s attention has centred upon. “Not a whole ton apparently” Scarlett responds, watching Esotera venture closer toward the splinter whilst she slowly musters up the courage to do the same. Her face gradually coated in the glow of a bright, red light, Scarlett’s chin tilts upward, her eyes gazing at the impossibly deep gash carved into the room’s wall. “If this is the executive sector- what’s that!?” Scarlett asks for a second time, her arms hung by her sides as Esotera replies, unable to pull her focus away from the luminescent tower standing before her. “This is the Abrasion” Esotera replies, her hands coupled behind her back as she, too, stands in the deep, red glow of what lies beside her. Stretching a seemingly infinite number of stories through the air, a large, ninety-degree angle tear rips through the concrete facade, its limits reaching unfathomable depths. “The abrasion?” Scarlett repeats, peering through the wall’s breakage with her eyebrows furrowed, “you have names for all the other rooms, and this one’s called ‘the abrasion’?” “This isn’t meant to be here” Esotera quickly replies, her expression unchanged as if the sight were of no immediate worry. “If it’s not meant to be here, why is it here?” Scarlett questions with equal speed, the question she asks one Esotera had already come to anticipate. “I don’t know” Esotera returns, an answer that brings satisfaction to neither of the female figures, “but I’m sure it’s more than obvious that it doesn’t belong.” Stepping past Scarlett, Esotera returns to the post she’d occupied moments prior, leaving the blonde woman to stand beneath the abrasion’s glow. “My question still remains, Scarlett” Esotera remarks, guiding the woman’s face back toward her general vicinity, “you’ve come down here for a reason, haven’t you?” Subduing her intrigue at the striking sight behind her, Scarlett returns to Esotera, her eyes narrowing as she continues to fight her interest in the unnatural anomaly. “I wanted to figure out why I-” Scarlett begins, pausing as she makes peace with having to admit to her actions aloud, “-why I did what I did to Suzie.” Her hands still clasped behind her back, Esotera nods, turning away from the woman in order to peer out at the sea of nondescript employees behind her. “Do you regret what you did?” Esotera inquires, turning her back to Scarlett as she proceeds forward, eyes set on the workspace’s rear. “Of course not. She deserved every last second of her- well, of her last second” Scarlett replies, adamant in her stance, “I don’t know what I’d do to live that all over again.” “Well, there’s your answer” Esotera retorts, passing each desk, one at a time, whilst Scarlett begins to follow. “But that doesn’t tell me why I did it” Scarlett counters, hands swaying by her sides as she continues to pass a few momentary glances at the distant abrasion. “That’s because you don’t want to know why you did it- you want to know how” Esotera remarks, spinning around to look Scarlett in the eyes, aware of her correct assessment with a simple look into the woman’s eyes. “Okay, yeah- my apologies for using the wrong word” Scarlett mocks, rolling her eyes as she, too, stops stepping forward, “I still need help figuring it out.” “Of course you do!” Esotera responds, flashing Scarlett a smile before turning away, resuming her progression through the room without another word. Pulling her head back, Scarlett waits a few moments before replying, the follow-up she slightly anticipates not arriving as hoped for. “That’s it?” Scarlett calls out, refusing to follow the woman any further than she already had, “aren’t you going to help me?” Her mouth forming a smile, Esotera continues her departure, no longer offering Scarlett any help further than what she’s already offered her. “You shouldn’t need me to answer these questions for you anymore, Scarlett” Esotera responds, descending upon the next room without her blonde-haired shadow, “it’s time you answer your own questions.” | \ Realm of Reality / A pair of sunglasses worn over a dejected expression, Vic sits on a park bench with her hands in her lap, her dark hair shining beneath the sunlight as it floats across her face, carried by gentle winds passing by. A pair of earbuds resting upon each side of her head, Vic rests her back against the metal bench, its black coat of paint somewhat fitting for the trail her thoughts have recently taken to. Closing her eyes, Vic lets her head fall back, the back of her scalp resting against the curled bars the bench’s support is composed of, beginning to lose herself in the moment’s serenity. Paying little mind to the joggers that pass by, Vic’s awareness begins to dip, her eyes pressing closer together as her breath steadies, the expression on her face falling flat. “Ope!” a random civilian exclaims, tripping over her own shoe just as she begins to pass, leading her collapse directly into Vic’s line of presence. Jolted from her near-slumber, Vic catches the girl at the final moment, saving her head from meeting the unwelcoming railing she sits just beside, a fate worse than a concussion not unlikely without her intervention. Falling into Vic’s lap, the embarrassed woman can’t help herself from profusely apologising, gradually removing herself from the young woman’s body as she returns to her feet. “I’m so sorry! I don’t even know what I tripped on!” the woman exclaims, temporarily stationing herself on the open side of Vic’s seat as she calms herself. “It’s fine. Seriously, you’re alright” Vic responds, readjusting the glasses the woman had knocked off her face, the muffled music she’d been listening to now played to no one as the buds rest beside her. “Are you sure? Nothing’s broken?” the woman replies, brushing off her palms as she persists, wanting to ensure Vic’s reply isn’t out of sympathy. “Really, it’s fine. I’m okay, are you?” Vic promises, brushing a sand stain from the woman’s pant leg as she replies, silencing her music as the woman speaks. “Yeah, I think I’ll make it” the woman jokes, visibly flustered and ashamed at the incident’s occurrence. “Well I’m glad falling into me isn’t fatal” Vic quips back, sharing a laugh with the woman as she extends her hand, slightly relieved to see an unfamiliar face sport such familiar decency, “I’m Victoria.” Reciprocating the gesture, the woman takes Vic’s hand into her own, gently shaking it as she leans back in her seat. “Priscilla” the woman responds, undoing her hair tie as she fixes the strands of red hair that flow over her shoulders, knocked free from their restraint. “My friends call me Prissy ‘cause let’s be honest with ourselves-” the woman remarks, letting out a sigh of comedic relief as her thought finishes, “-what better shortname is there for Priscilla?” Parting her lips, Vic begins to voice her alternative aloud, her voice falling the moment second thoughts come over her. “Yeah, I see your point” Vic replies, allowing the question to fade off with her non-answer, “my friends call- my friend calls me Vic.” “Really? Not Vikki or Tori?” Prissy responds, watching the chuckle emerge from her new acquaintance as their conversation continues. “No. Well, my mom used to call me Tori. But, I don’t like people using it anymore, so it’s just a natural next-step, y’know?” Vic speaks, tucking the buds into her back pocket, “I’d rather go by Vic than Vikki.” Nodding, Prissy finishes returning her hair to the bind it had been pulled toward the top of her head with, “why don’t you like being called ‘Tori’ anymore?” she qualms, watching Vic’s face begin to fall. “Well, it’s a long story” Vic responds, fiddling with her hands as they rest in her lap, her back pressed into the bench’s corner to provide her with a better view of Prissy, “but at some point, she stopped calling me Tori. Ever since then, I’ve gone by Victoria or Vic.” Correctly assuming Vic’s privacy has influence in not delving further, Prissy respects the woman’s departure from openness, allowing her indistinct, open-ended response to prove a satisfying answer. “What about you?” Vic posits, redirecting the conversation’s focus to fulfil her need for reprieve, “does anyone else have a different nickname for you?” Appearing to shake her head in refusal for a moment, Prissy’s face soon drops just as Vic’s had, her eyes lowering as a change in demeanour presents itself. “Well, my fiance used to call me ‘Meadow’ instead. He used to think ‘Prissy’ was sort of rude, so he just went with something else” the woman responds, her smile less genuine than it had been before. “Did he start calling you ‘Cilia instead or something?” Vic queries, yet to truly recognise the disappointment in Prissy’s face until the question had already been asked. “He, uh- he died a few months ago” the woman answers, nodding her head as she tries with all she can manage to fill her grin with joy as it had been before. “Yeah, he got caught up in that stuff out in Praireville” Prissy continues, allowing herself to speak freely without worrying over the consequences, not feeling like there’s much reason to concern herself with them, “yeah, it’s been- it’s been tough.” “I’m so- so sorry” Vic replies, her stomach knotting at the town’s mention, her eyes steering away with a sensation of sheer guilt. “It’s okay! I’m- I’m kinda making peace with it” Prissy hastily assures, worried that the shift she’d sent upon the conversation’s mood had put Vic off. “It’s hard, sure- but it’s getting easier to stomach” Prissy explains, again trying to hide the pain-ridden expression that threatens to present itself, “I’m just waiting for the day they get the thing that did it.” Eyes pressing somewhat closely together, Vic’s face takes away from the sunlit asphalt, returning to Prissy as a sudden thought reaches her mind. “I- I’ve been out of the loop” Vic responds, choosing her words with great care, “I know something big happened out there, but I’m- I’m not sure what it was. Could you elaborate?” Surprised, Prissy answers the question, speaking from whatever recollection she can muster. “I mean, yeah- there was an attack on the place. Police said there were bombs and an army of sort, and that the city was pretty much levelled” Prissy continues, her left arm pressing into the low-setting armrest beside her. “They evacuated everyone and said the guy had gotten away. They told people to look for him and that was it” Prissy continues, “the national guard went in and he’s still on the loose.” Putting on a dismayed face, Vic nods her head and glances away, her eyes taking toward the sky as it begins to cloud, a further question springing to mind. “Are there any videos of this happening?” Vic posits, struggling to clarify the inquiry she makes, “like, is there any footage of what happened or is it just word-of-mouth?” “Well, people made a big fuss about a helicopter going down, but the cops said it didn’t have a camera on it” Prissy responds, her remarks giving Vic a better understanding of what’s occurred. “So that’s what everyone accepts? A big attack happened and the people that did it just- just what? Got away?” Vic furthers, noticing the hesitation behind Prissy’s eyes as she responds, reluctant to take any of the opinion’s she denotes as credible. “Well, of course not! There’s always people that think something’s a conspiracy, or aliens, or whatever” Prissy replies, wiping a bead of sweat from her brow as it begins falling. “They think it was some monster- like a space creature or something” the red-haired woman furthers, trying to make sense of what she says whilst speaking it, “apparently, a few survivors said they saw something in the sky. They were so spiked on adrenaline, though. I can’t believe people take it seriously.” Offering little more than an unauthentic scoff at the remarks, Vic nods in feigned agreement, her sunglasses returning to her face as she digests what’s been said. | \ Realm of Reality / Returned to the realm above, Scarlett’s face immediately takes to the heavens above, daylight having begun to pass as the evening sets in. Trees surrounding her in every direction, Scarlett’s face soon sets upon the unmarked graves she and Vic had dug hours prior, her chest growing tight as she stands at the foot of Rachel’s burial ground. “You guys deserved so much better” Scarlett mutters beneath her breath as she drops to her knee, the palm of her hand resting against the raised plot of dirt. “I’m sorry I got you guys into this mess” Scarlett confesses, her opposite hand taking to Jared’s empty gravesite as her voice grows stiff, flushed with guilt over her friends’ demise, “and I’m sorry I couldn’t get you out of it.” Her goodbye’s offered, Scarlett pulls away, another round of helicopters flying overhead in the distance, surveilling the ground as Scarlett’s senses begin to strengthen. “Scar!” Vic calls out, stepping through the thick flora they’d concealed the illegal crypt within as she takes notice of the flowing blonde locks she’d grown to know so well. “What are you doing here? I thought you were taking the day to yourself?” Scarlett questions, watching the woman draw near with a look of great concern. “They’re covering everything up” Vic responds, paying no mind to the woman’s prior two questions, her attention taken elsewhere, “they said it was a bomb and terrorists or something like that. They’re covering it all up!” “Or, alternatively, they don’t want to put people in a frenzy” Scarlett replies, again forced to speak over another fleet of helicopters that pass through the airspace, “would you want to be the person to tell people we have super powers?” “Well, boy oh boy! I’ve got something to show you!” Vic exclaims, taking Scarlett by the arm and snapping themselves away from Praireville’s outskirts. “Where the fuck are we!?” Scarlett exclaims, nearly falling to the ground as she’s thrown off-balance, her wrist taken into Vic’s grasp before she can meet the dirt. “Old Jefferson” Vic answers, climbing the hill she’d transported them to, the bridge above concealing their entrance as a horde of angry citizens scream at Praireville’s entrance. Without a sound, Scarlett follows Vic to the road above, her eyes dawning upon the quiet town’s raucous border, a swarm of helicopters circling above in an effort to provide assistance to the large military unit patrolling the ground. “This is a fucking warzone!” Scarlett exclaims, watching a plethora of men and women step over the bridge they’d emerged beneath, their faces mostly covered with masks, their bodies largely adorned with heavy sweatshirts. “I think everyone’s already in a frenzy” Vic explains, her finger pointing in the direction of a nearby group of young adults, the video they watch on their computer immediately raising concern. “I think every already knows too” Scarlett responds, the recording their eyes take to presenting little more than Lincoln’s enraged pose beneath the backdrop of a night they know all too well. “The cat’s out of the bag” Vic responds, her hands seeking refuge in the pockets of her jacket as she and Scarlett stand by, watching the video unfold before cutting off as the helicopter is rendered immobile. “What the fuck do we do now?” Scarlett grumbles, her head shaking as her eyes take to the rapid crowd, their hostilities proving difficult for the country’s forces to hold for long. == Dream Sequence == \ Realm of Reality /
The wind knocked out of her, Rachel collides with the ground, its metal deck replaced with soft, wet sand as she comes to a rest, drenched by a wave that stretches past the shoreline. Coming to after a brief second of disbelief, Rachel buries her hands in the damp seaside, her fingers pushing into the soaked mixture as she sits up, her below-surface vessel replaced for a long, empty view of a vast, blue, never-ending ocean. “Aaahhh!” Suzie yelps, tearing the dibber from the space in her chest cavity it had been forced into, roughly fifty metres separating herself from the scorned girl, whose head soon turns toward her direction. Her service dagger summoned, Suzie drives its tip into the open puncture, her howl of pain from before returning as the electricity cauterises the perforation. As she gasps for each breath to calm herself, Suzie’s presence is taken notice of by the young woman across the sand’s surface from her, Rachel’s face sprouting an intense look of vitriol. The scalpel’s deep laceration still unattended to, Suzie’s grimace returns, the palm of her hand pressing into the hastily-performed incision as she sits up, finally noticing the animalistic vitality Rachel eyes her with. “What?” Rachel coldly asks, speaking as if Rachel’s apparent anger was an unimportant burden to her. Answering without speech, Rachel pushes herself off the ground slowly, beginning to approach the woman before her swinging hand collides with the side of her leg. A strange weight felt within her waistband, Rachel’s advancement halts, the mechanical sound that subtly jolts in her pocket bringing the woman to a standstill. Her shirt stained with fresh blood, Rachel lifts her shirt a slight amount, the dark grip that loosely protrudes from her side stealing her focus. Eyes widening, Rachel’s hand wraps around the protruding piece, its handle stained as red as the soft fabric of her top, its rubber-like feel pulled from the denim band. Taken into her possession, the handgun Jared had narrowly managed to finish Suzie off with now falls into Rachel’s grasp, the man’s final act proving to be his best yet. Too far away to see what the object is with clarity, Suzie presses her eyes close together, focusing on what sits in Rachel’s control with curiosity. “What’s tha-?” Suzie asks aloud, the moment it takes the pain to distract her from the conflict at hand soon eradicated at the sound of gunfire. Pelting the sand just a few metres away from her feet, the first bullet fired draws Suzie away, the woman forced to crawl backward in an instinctual effort, strategically eying each shot with the intent of scurrying out of line. The next two shots drawing a slight distance closer, Rachel’s advancement increases in its swiftness, Suzie’s retreat gradually outpaced with each step. Over-shooting Suzie with her following two shots, Rachel’s aim provides evidence of her progress, the sand just above the lost soul’s head leaping into the air as the rounds collide with it, prompting the eternal tormentor to fall flat upon her back, shielding her face with both arms. No longer able to withdraw from the conflict, Suzie’s left defenceless, watching Rachel approach as her crawl ceases, the only thing separating the damned captor from certain demise being her attacker’s accuracy. A brief glance at her arm providing her with a last-ditch opportunity, Suzie presses her elbows into the sand and shuffles herself to the right, timing it with Rachel’s penultimate round as best as she can. Her dodge slightly put off, Suzie feels Rachel’s shot plunge into her side, the brass jacket she’d been pierced with choosing to make itself at home beneath her skin. With a subdued groan, Suzie’s eyes refuse to take away from the gun woman, watching Rachel’s final round line up cleanly, her finger pulling the trigger as Suzie’s head sits within her target. Saved by her own recollection, Suzie throws her hands forward, stopping time before throwing herself to the ground, her arms thrown over her face once more for protection. With a flash, the world and its inhabitants are brought to a standstill, the soothing rush of water upon the shoreline going silent just as the birds that fly overhead remain overhead, unmoving and unbroken from their flight. Unsure of what fate lies ahead, Suzie gingerly pulls her arms away, the sudden calmness of the world around her making it impossible to avoid the searing pain any longer than she has up to this point. Carefully looking forward, Suzie’s eyes take to the small pellet fired toward her with fatal intentions, its tip staring her in the eyes from a distance of mere centimetres. With a sigh of relief, Suzie pushes the bullet off of its trajectory, steering it toward an empty plot of sand before frantically dragging herself far away in the opposite direction. Composing herself, Rachel tears off her jacket and removes the thin button-down she’d worn, her telekinetic powers stripping its baggy sleeve from the rest of its material with relative ease. Though too thin to achieve its desired effect, the garment slows the heavy bleeding, serving as a fair alternative to bandages in the moment as far as the wandering soul is concerned. Her energy spent, Suzie stumbles backward, falling just as Rachel had into the sands warmth and embrace, an entry wound still present in her abdomen. Deep breaths whistling through her teeth, Suzie removes the firearm from Rachel’s hand, watching it float through the air before settling between her teeth. Her eyes wide, Suzie bites against the cold metal, her front teeth nearly touching as her telekinesis is put to use once more, her open palm hovering over the wound on her side. With a deep breath, Suzie runs herself through the gauntlet of excruciating pain, slowly dragging the bullet through her body just as it had entered as the barrel rattles within her mouth, its durability put to the test in the fashion of long past civilisations. Her fingers wrapping around the slug in the moment it touches her palm, Suzie relieves the gun of her dental pressure and summons her service weapon, the temporary bandage on her arm removed as she settles two scores with one strike. As the hangover-like migraine ensues, Suzie relents, her wounds cared to the best she can manage, the situation disarmed for the moment being. Her trigger finger squeezing the rest of the way, Rachel watches the sand fire through the air as the bullet collides with unattended ground, her target no longer laid defenceless within the sand. A brief glance taken toward her own hand, Rachel’s sights soon turn to her side, the momentary sound of grunting drawing her attention. As quickly as time had unfrozen, Rachel’s eyes close, squeezing together as her hands press against the sudden pain against her head. Groaning, Rachel turns to her back as Suzie steps over her, wasting little time in quashing the young woman’s efforts. With a second crack, the barrel of Suzie’s gun meets the empty space between Rachel’s eyes, the daze she’d thrust upon her victim turning to outright unconsciousness. Arms falling limply to her sides, Rachel’s vengeful assault comes to a definitive conclusion, Suzie’s eyes keeping on her for a few additional seconds just to be sure of such a fact. Able to take a moment for herself, Suzie falls to the ground for a second time, her eyes wandering toward the sky as her hand falls to her lap, the firearm still in hand. Her heart racing, Suzie pulls in a few deep breaths as she shakes her head, passing a glance toward the firearm as her hand raises, holding it in front of the sky and directly toward the injured soul’s face. Setting the view aside momentarily, Suzie’s hand raises once more, the woman forced into a double take as she peers into the weapon’s glossy reflection, a look of immediate concern taking over her. Just as she’d seen in her brother’s before, the sclera of her eye loses its milky, blank-slate shade of white, which it trades in for a stained, sickly shade of light yellow. “No- fuck!” Suzie whispers to herself, the weapon she wields leaving her hand as it’s thrown toward the sea in frustration, her chance at reprieve having quickly become redundant as her expiration looms near. Scrambling to her feet, Suzie expends her energy as she takes Rachel’s body with her weakened grasp, her opposite hand snapping the altercation’s remnants in the direction of sanctuary. = 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 = \ Realm of Reality / “This is much stranger than you think, Vic” Scarlett inquires, genuinely fascinated by the street she walks upon, its layout familiar in more than just a few ways. “The same can be said for everything we do- our existence defies logic in some ways” Vic replies, easing her friend’s concerns just as they emerge. “That doesn’t change how strange it is” Scarlett replies, a pessimistic tone in her voice as she walks beside Vic, the road she travels down marked with signage she’d been able to recognise for years. “I’m not disagreeing with that, but it’s no more strange than anything else we do- that’s what I’m saying” Vic replies, the paved road the pair wander down absent of vehicles or people, a blank landscape painted from the boundaries of comfort. “If you understand this enough to bring me into it, tell me how the fuck it works” Scarlett responds, her differences with Vic set aside for the time being, “are we still in the villa?” Waving her hand forward, Vic deconstructs the warped world they’d travelled along to return herself and Scarlett to the villa. “I think of it as a really realistic projector” Vic replies, stepping in front of Scarlett with her hands extended, her fingertips directed toward opposing walls, “when I turn it on, everything in the villa becomes whatever I want it to be.” Her voice subdued for the moment, Scarlett’s eyes wander throughout the parlour they reside within, her first instinct being to approach the nearest wall. “How do you know what’s real and what’s not if you can blend the two together?” Scarlett queries, resting her hand against the drywall as the question is raised, able to feel her breath bounce against the surface before wafting over her face. Recreating the street they’d walked upon, Vic approaches Scarlett, stepping past the woman who now stands in the road’s centre once more, the barrier that exists in the real world no longer capable of impeding her step. Seemingly walking through what would otherwise be a slate of drywall, Vic dissolves the false world once more, still stood in the same spot of the villa that she had been left in, the walls an equal distance away from her hands as seconds prior. “Alright, you’ve proven that part, but-” Scarlett begins, unable to finish her thought before Vic resurrects the cosy, quiet street, each finger aside from her index digit restricting as she proceeds. Out of sheer will, Vic lines the street they occupy with cars, the single-lane, neighbourhood street as busy as Times Square in the midst of rush hour, people passing on the walkways with little reason to believe anything around them is fictional. “I can’t do that in the real world” Vic responds, again tapping the air with her lone digit to erase the congested chaos she’d brought upon the small block. Visibly concerned, Scarlett sets her worries aside as she nears closer to Vic, another question lingering within the back of her head now that her prior two have been answered. “Why are we in Praireville?” Scarlett questions, the residential zone they stand within recreated precisely how it truly exists. “This is- like- three blocks from my house” Scarlett points out, stepping closer to the woman as the qualm remains open-ended, “why bring us here?” Her lips pressed together, Vic hangs her head and steps past Scarlett once more, this time without a point to prove. “I figured you’d appreciate it, I guess” Vic replies, turning back to the woman as she looks around the environment, a flock of birds flying just overhead as a calm breeze rolls through, “I thought you might like to go home for a little bit?” “Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate it- but, it just feels odd” Scarlett retorts, tucking her hands within the small pockets at her sides, “almost like it’s more than just a nice gesture.” Her face souring slightly, Vic unravels the illusion once more, returning them to the villa as she makes her way to the living room. “Well- it was” Vic defeatedly responds, occupying her chair the room’s length away from Scarlett’s, “I figured you might be less evasive with me if you got to visit home a bit.” Confused, Scarlett’s head drifts to the side, watching Vic’s arms rest upon the chair’s sides as she sits back with nothing left to say other than to offer the truth. Giving into the pull of Vic’s confession, Scarlett lets the walls she’d spent the last number of weeks building topple to the ground, stepping further into the parlour before settling into the chair across from her other half. “I’m not avoiding you because I’m moody- or homesick” Scarlett replies, interrupted before she has the chance to finish. “I know you’re not, but I figured it’d be easier to get you to open up if you could remember how life used to be. Some time where everything was simple, and life wasn’t so complicated” Vic responds, a great disappointment exhibited in her voice, “-a time where we were on better terms.” Her eyes falling just as her face does, Scarlett takes Vic’s remarks to heart, able to uncover the truth behind them as she distances herself from the hardened, closed-off persona she’d crafted. “I guess there’s not-” Scarlett begins to speak, a sudden, pitch-black darkness engulfing the room before her thought can be voiced, the midday sun having simply vanished from the afternoon sky. “The fuck?” Scarlett murmurs beneath her breath, joining Vic in disembarking from their seats, their feet carrying them to each other’s side as they stand before the rear patio doors. After a few moments, the lights in the home power on, their villa’s sensors recognising the darkness that engulfs the Maldives for what it truly is, a perfect representation of a totally caliginous sky comparable to that of night. “Did you do this!?” Scarlett shouts, sliding open the patio doors before stepping onto the terrace, the lack of life that surrounds their home making it impossible to gauge reality in its entirety. “How the fuck would I turn off the sun!?” Vic rebukes, joining her friend on the wooden platform, as their terrace lights powers on, beginning to flicker just as its bulb begins to burn. “Maybe your reality thing fucked the world up!? I don’t know!” Scarlett exclaims, turning to look Vic in the eyes as her hands flail aimlessly. Attempting to offer a second retort, Vic stops herself short, a sudden gust of wind throwing their hair in front of their faces, obstructing their view for a short amount of time. Emanating from their parlour, an awe-inspiring burst of energy takes the form of an incredible light, each lightbulb the villa is illuminated by made to burst in the same moment. Seeking comfort in each other, Scarlett and Vic press their hands together, their minds incapable of comprehending the great power emerging before them, but subconsciously reaching for the other in an understanding that they’re to accept it as a pair. Her face bathed in the light of the earth-shattering wound she steps through, Esotera emerges from the portal, her hand reaching toward the girls as she steps upon solid ground. “You’re needed in the realm” Estonia declares, pulling the girls from the patio with her own telekinetic force, their coupled hands ensuring they’re lured in as one. Returning the way she’d arrived, Esotera steps through the portal with Vic and Scarlett in her possession, the light-bound tear in reality healing up as she returns home, the realm of reality’s sky made whole again as its heat source returns, all returned to normal just as it was created to be. | \ Realm Beyond / “Ah! Fuck you!” Rachel howls, spitting in Suzie’s face from a place of defiance, unable to defend herself as her wrists are bound behind her back. Met with a similar response to that of the first time around, Rachel’s face is rattled by another solid slap, the power behind each strike increasing the longer Suzie has to wait. “Don’t make me tell you again!” Suzie exclaims, her eyes yellowing faster than her brother’s had, the bruise that builds on her side implying the bullet did more damage than just piercing her body. Her service dagger summoned, Suzie graces the soft skin on Rachel’s throat with its immensely sharp edge, a brief confrontation with such radiant heat prompting the hairs on Rachel’s arms to stand. “What are you gonna do, huh? I’m your fucking pawn in this fucked up game!” Rachel shouts, spitting in Suzie’s face once more without care over the consequences. Yet again, Suzie’s hand cracks Rachel across the face, her palm striking the same, exact spot with each attempt, turning the side of the young woman’s face a harsh, bright red. “Shut- the fuck- up!” Suzie exclaims, nearly falling over as she expends her breath, the dagger held to Rachel’s chin once more as the woman stirs. Sat on the ground with her legs outward, Rachel’s position provides no escape, her front facing Suzie whilst her back is directed toward the mezzanine’s descent into the abyss. “Where the fuck are the girls!?” Suzie queries, demanding answers Rachel continues to leave her without, abiding by the stance Jared had taken himself to the grave holding onto. “Go fuck yourself, prick!” Rachel murmurs, again bracing for a harder slap than the one’s she’d taken before, watching Suzie’s hand pull back in preparation to strike her. As a few seconds pass, Rachel’s flesh remains untouched, the puffy side of her face given mercy. “Fuck!” Suzie screams, brought to her knees by the inescapable pain that burns within her, unable to muster the strength required to force Rachel’s hand any further than she already has. “Jesus-fucking-Christ, kid!” Suzie howls, returning to her feet and repositioning her dagger, its point held near Rachel’s throat once more, “don’t make me have to kill you!” Her plea not given a proper response, Suzie watches Rachel’s defiant expression strengthen further, unphased by the triumph her situation’s setting makes it impossible to obtain. “What makes you think I want to live?” Rachel responds, looking Suzie in the eyes as the woman hunches slightly forward, listening to the retort given. “Thanks for telling me what happened to Praireville, by the way- it’s why I can ask that question without being dramatic!” Rachel exclaims, climbing to her knees whilst maintaining eye contact, “I have no home to go back to, no friends to see, no aspirations to have- I’ve got nothing! There’s not even a life to rebuild let alone live!” Pressing her teeth together, Suzie’s eyes pull away from her prisoner, finding great difficulty in arguing against the woman’s argument. “You could patch up the wound, but you couldn’t stop the bleeding from what it looks like” Rachel explains, directing her sights to the growing bruise near Suzie’s hip, “I’ve got a good feeling you’re just as long for this world as I am. So, for that reason, I’ll enjoy the last thing I have to look forward to in life... Watching you die.” Fueled by the anger that courses through her alone, Suzie eyes narrow, her spaced breaths growing more intense as her hand pulls back, prepared to refuse Rachel the satisfaction. In a brief moment, Suzie begins to thrust her arm forward, looking into the woman’s eyes as she does so. Hesitating at the last moment, Suzie watches Rachel’s eyes travel toward the distance, filling with hope despite the fate that appears to draw near to her. Becoming privy to the oddity of the moment within one moment, Suzie relinquishes her dagger, the arm she swings forward instead opting to wrap around Rachel’s neck, pulling her close as she shields herself. Flying through the air, Scarlett’s finger removes itself from the trigger of her service weapon, the element of surprise she’d intended to take Suzie by no longer present. Sliding across the ground, Vic halts her reserve attack just as Scarlett does, their feet meeting solid ground as they confront their penultimate obstacle. “Neither one of you move a fucking muscle!” Suzie commands, stood behind Rachel with the inside of her elbow around the woman’s throat, “I’ll kill her if either of you step out of line!” Just as Suzie had done, the girl relinquish their service weapons, abiding by the demands that Suzie puts in place, thunder beginning to roar as the momentum shifts. “She didn’t ask to be part of this, Suzie” Vic shouts, stepping away from Scarlett’s side to lead the discussion, “let her go and we’ll settle this the way we’re meant to.” With a crooked smile, Suzie shakes her head, using her free hand to dig through her pocket. “Not gonna happen, girls- you’re just gonna have to play by the rules” the woman replies, throwing a bloody scalpel to the girls’ feet, “one of you- drag that blade across the palm of your hand.” “Why would we-?” Scarlett begins to query. “I’m making sure you’re not asleep up there!” Suzie interrupts, answering the woman’s question in a scream, “if you snapped yourselves down here- and you’re vulnerable- you’ll be able to draw blood.” Questioning the order in silence, Vic prepares to respond, only for a metallic noise to catch her by surprise. Turning back, Vic watches Scarlett slice into her hand with a grimace, giving into the command without question. “Look at you!” Suzie shouts, resummoning her service dagger before holding it near the side of Rachel’s face, “you may be ‘team blue’ now, but that fire still-fucking-burns, doesn’t it!?” Hearing Suzie’s deranged response persist, Vic’s attention takes itself away from Scarlett, only returning at the sensation of sharp metal tearing through her palm. “Ah! What the fuck, Scar!?” Vic exclaims, jumping back as she shakes her hand, her blood flowing as Suzie chuckles maniacally. Holding no regret, Scarlett hurls the scalpel back to Suzie, allowing it to rest at Rachel’s feet as fresh blood drips from its hilt. “There, blood drawn” Scarlett replies, stepping forward with her wounded hand extended, gesturing to Suzie for Rachel’s safe return. “Not so fast!” Suzie exclaims, redirecting her dagger in Scarlett’s direction as she steps back, re-establishing the distance Scarlett had shaved away. “What more do you want!?” Scarlett exclaims, expecting an answer shrouded in vague phrasing. “Kill yourselves!” Suzie declares, her reply proving abrupt and straight to the point, unyielding in her desires. “It’s your lives for hers- no exception” Suzie reiterates, a gesture the girls immediately refuse, “Chris’ comparison to a game of chess was spot on. Everything in this realm is nothing more than just another piece- the two of you need to die once for the game to start, and then again for it to end.” “Have you lost your fucking mind!?” Vic exclaims, cautious to say much more out of two states of fear, the first being Suzie’s deranged demeanour, and the second being Scarlett’s unpredictability. “Rachel gets to live when the game ends! That’s my demand!” Suzie exclaims, her dagger continuing to suspend itself in the girls’ direction. “Don’t buy her bullshit!” Rachel exclaims, her chin slightly tilted toward the sky as Scarlett and Vic proceed forward, “she said the same thing to Jared and I! Guess how that turned out!” Her enraged expression falling to one of misplaced fury, Scarlett’s eyes set upon Rachel, working out the equation laid out. “Where’s Jared?” Vic inquires, taking Scarlett’s silence as an opportunity to resume her hold of the discourse. “She killed him” Scarlett murmurs, her voice low, though strong enough for the entire mezzanine to overhear. “She trapped us in some submarine and said she’d take us back to the surface if we told her where you guys settled down!” Rachel exclaims, resisting Suzie’s orders to stop speaking, aware of what her role in the conflict is whilst using it to her advantage, “she flat-out admitted it when we called her out! We fought, we almost won, and then she stabbed him!” “Shut the fuck up you incessant prick!” Suzie screams, burning the side of Rachel’s face with the tip of her dagger before redirecting it toward Scarlett, stopping the girl before she has the chance to intervene. “Stay where you are!” Suzie howls, overcome by the feeling that her control is lessening, the situation falling out of her reach without anything to halt its descent. “Scarlett, I remember you! I remember what happened before you left, and I remember your dad, and I-!” Rachel continues to scream, fighting the added pressure Suzie puts into her semi-chokehold. “I remembered everything before you left us in Paraguay! I’m sorry I didn’t say it sooner!” Rachel continues, Suzie’s strength lessening as her authority wanes. “SHUT UP!” Suzie screams, squeezing as tight as she can manage, though unable to prevent Rachel’s lips from continuing to move. “Rachel, we’re gonna get you out of this!” Scarlett replies, trying to stop the woman from proceeding down the wretched line of thinking she worries has been travelled. Losing the will to keep Rachel from talking, Suzie relents, loosening her hold and allowing the woman to blabber without restriction, believing she still holds the power for as long as her grasp on the woman remains intact. “Scarlett, you’re my best friend and I’m so grateful to know you! I know we’ve had our ups and downs, but I’ll always do anything for you!” Rachel confesses, finally able to breathe properly once more, “tell me you understand that!” “Rachel, stop talking like-” Scarlett quickly begins to reply, her orders left discarded as Rachel doubles down. “Tell me you understand that!” Rachel interjects, a tear rolling down her eye as the anger leaves Scarlett’s face, her expression quickly devolving into one of worry, “Scarlett, tell me you understand!” “Rachel, please-” Scarlett once more attempts to beg, falling short of her goal once more. “Scarlett!” Rachel shouts, stopping the woman from saying another unrequested syllable as her voice goes quiet, filled with dread and fear, “tell me you understand!” Her nostrils flaring, Scarlett finds herself fresh out of choices, only able to give into the request made in hopes the tension that fills the air with alleviate in due time. “I understand” Scarlett responds with a sigh, tears of her own beginning to form in the corners of her eye, her hands extended in a show of solidarity. Willing a smile onto her face, Rachel lets out an amused laugh, unable to process her anxiety through any better means. “Good” Rachel replies, nodding to the woman through grateful eyes, her voice falling to a near-whisper, “thank you.” As soon as her face had filled with appreciation, Rachel’s expression scrunches once more, her head firing back before colliding with the bridge of Suzie’s nose, immediately lessening the grasp around her throat. Repositioning herself, Suzie takes Rachel by the collar of the shirt and musters the strength to hoist her over the abyss’ drop, her dagger directed at the girls once more. “One more step and I drop her!” Suzie exclaims, yet to notice the restraints around Rachel’s wrists having slipped off, joining the trapped souls in the cavernous pit below. “Suzie, dont!” Scarlett screams, her hands extending in a show of good faith, her desperation clear in every manner. “Scarlett, it’s fine!” Rachel calmly replies, immediately calming the involved parties without her own serenity, something strange for her to have as she hovers over certain doom, only the tips of her shoes touching the mezzanine’s platform. “Everything’s fine!” Rachel explains, breathing heavily as she speaks through a smile, watching Suzie look at her in a state of shock at the slightest touch. “It’s like I said-” Rachel remarks, wrapping her hands around Suzie’s wrist as a tear rolls down her face, “-anything.” Without warning, Rachel throws herself back, releasing her collar from Suzie’s grasp before extending her arms, vanishing beneath the mezzanine’s level and to the chasm below. Yet to process what’d happened, Suzie steps back as Scarlett launches her pursuit, throwing herself into harms way as she chases after Rachel. Her laughter growing gradually, Suzie soon devolves into a full-blown breakdown, her eyes an ill shade of bronze by this moment as she kneels upon the ground, her eyes taking to Vic. “It looks like it’s just us now” Suzie diabolically remarks, resummoning the service dagger as she climbs to her feet, staring Vic in the eyes as her foe seethes, discovering the rage that Scarlett had succumbed to minutes prior for herself. Without a word, Vic’s breathing slows, her service weapon summoned as she prepares for war, Suzie’s nearly-deceased body stumbling toward her. Aiming the barrel of her gun, Vic prepares to pull the trigger, taking aim at her adversary as she draws near. “Time’s running out for-” Suzie begins to whisper, only stopping herself from continuing at the disappearance of her shadow, the heavenly white light that hovers over the mezzanine’s central tree becoming abruptly obstructed. Her mind trailing away from warfare, Suzie turns her focus where she’d last left it, gazing out at the luminous space she’d just departed from with wonder. Hovering over the abyss’ depths, Scarlett’s body casts a shadow over the pure, white backdrop, casting the level Suzie and Vic stare down upon within her shadow. Her head hung, Scarlett’s face is shielded by loose strands of hair, her eyes looking to Rachel’s lifeless body, which rests within her arms. Silent, Suzie’s service dagger fades into the realm, Vic’s feet carrying her away from the conflict in fear of what is still in store. Her strength exhausted, Suzie drops to her knees, waiting for Scarlett’s face to take toward her own. “Scar?” Vic worriedly calls out, allowing for a few moments to pass before her friend’s face emerges, staring into Suzie’s soul with the most villainous intent. Every last ounce of her eyes presenting a horrid red glow, Scarlett’s face looks to her enemy, the plan she holds in store for the woman permanently carved into stone. “All hail the king!” the legion howl, their voices growing louder as Scarlett’s army rises from the realm’s core at her command, emerging from beneath the level they stand upon to join their ruler’s side. “All hail the king!” the horde screams, their numbers reaching into the thousands as they await Scarlett’s call. “All hail the king!” the chorus cheers, their eyes centring upon Suzie as they chomp at the bit to serve their king. “KILL!” Scarlett howls, sicking her fleet upon Suzie instantly, the ominous, deteriorated souls firing out from the abyss before swarming the last pillar of the realm’s lost era. Like zombies to a corpse, the souls pile atop Suzie’s remains, the last ounce of her life drained at Scarlett’s hand whilst Vic watches from the distance, horrified and speechless. Sickened by the appalling sight, Vic directs her attention toward Scarlett, who continues to hover in the air, watching the events unfold from the best vantage point. Her eyes wandering further through the level, Scarlett’s eyes lock onto Vic’s, their red glow subsiding as they return to normal. Her anger subsiding, Scarlett’s eyes keep on Vic in silence, the expression she wields one of satisfaction rather than regret, accepting what’s happened and what is likely to follow. == Dream Sequence == \ Realm of Reality /
Reemerging from her unconscious state, Rachel’s head slowly lifts, her eyes staring into the harsh spotlight aimed directly into her face. A gentle groan emerging from within her core, Rachel bows her head once more and closes her eyes, the hands tied around her back making it impossible to shield herself from such headache-inducing brightness. As her eyes adjust, the room becomes more detailed, chips in its solid walls as visible as the droplets of water pooling along the floor are audible. Groggy, Rachel takes a closer look at her surroundings, the metal walls that surround her in each direction sloping upward, a circle formed the entire way around her. Blowing a heavy gust of air forward to free her sweaty face from loose strands of hair, Rachel pulls her head back, leaning in her seat as a deep exhale leaves her lungs. “Rachel?” Jared’s voice whispers, immediately capturing her sole, undivided attention. “Jared!” Rachel remarks in a panic, stopped from uttering a word further as the man insists she quiet down. “Shhh!” Jared hisses, actively struggling to free himself from the well-knotted binds, “you need to keep your voice down.” Though he whispers with an emphatic swiftness, Jared’s composure remains relatively intact, his words spoken with care and calmness, his mind trying to deflect their unenviable circumstance with empty optimism. “Where are we?” Rachel inquires, barely able to hear Jared’s hands carefully grating at his restraints. “I don’t know. Wherever it is, I don’t think it’s in the best condition” Jared replies, continuing to whittle away at the sisal-bound shackles behind his back. “Do you remember what happened?” Rachel wonders aloud, lifting her chin toward the air as sweat drips down her throat, hairs sticking to the back of her neck. “I know we got attacked” Jared replies, grimacing every few sentences as his own headache worsens, the spotlight aimed at his front profile, “wait- do you?” In a moment of worry, Jared’s carving ceases, his ear kept out for Rachel’s answer. “Yeah, I remember” Rachel replies, her breaths kept steady as the man across from her resumes his quest for freedom, “-I remember everything.” Continuing to scrape against the binds, Jared nods his head, letting free a breath of relief, “phew. Good” he replies, maintaining his steady progress as his mind reassesses the woman’s response, a sudden curiosity dawning upon him. “Wait, what did you just say?” Jared queries, turning his head as far back as he can manage, the same gesture reciprocated by his other half, Rachel’s eyes barely able to catch a glimpse of his own. “They all came back when Lincoln brought me into the realm. I don’t know how it happened, but all of the thoughts just- they just came back” Rachel replies, her voice wielding a great disappointment. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Jared quickly wonders aloud, hearing the conflict in Rachel’s voice as she looks for the right words. “Because I didn’t want you to be mad!” Rachel replies, her dispirited face glistening as her sweat only worsens, “you were just so fucking great to me throughout all of this and, I guess in a selfish way, I thought it’d be easier to put the past behind us if it just didn’t exist at all.” His face falling, Jared continues to sit idle, unsure of how to respond. “The way I hated you doesn’t make sense now” Rachel continues, taking Jared’s pause as an opportunity to speak with more coherence, “I didn’t know I’d like you this much.” Their eyes connecting as best they can, Jared and Rachel sit in silence for a brief moment, their faces holding a smile until a sudden snap rings through their shelter residency. His arms dropping, Jared’s hands pull away from the chair’s back, a slight propulsion forward having freed him from his captor’s imprisonment. “Ha! I’m free!” Jared huffs, his voice kept to a minimum as his attention turns to Rachel’s chair, their backs having spent the length of their captivity facing each other. Given a more favourable advantage, Jared drops to his knee, looking Rachel in the eyes as the blunt scalpel he brandishes is taken to her tethers. “Listen, nothing that’s happened before right now has to matter- at all” Jared explains, finally plunging his blade through the final shreds as Rachel’s hands fall, relieved of their constraints as her face falls into the man’s reach. Reciprocating the woman’s gesture from nights prior, Jared presses his lips into Rachel’s own, offering the woman the confession that her feelings aren’t unrequited. “Everything from here on out- that’s what matters” Jared pledges, his face kept close to the woman’s, their eyes held on each other’s, “we’ll get back home, rebuild what we’ve lost, and see that future we’ve been talking about.” The life in her eyes replenished, Rachel responds with an approving nod as their interaction is cut off. “The two of you confuse me” Suzie remarks, stood near the room’s front in the company of her brutes, Jared and Rachel’s eyes immediately drifting toward her, “at one moment, you’re dumber than rocks. In the next, it’s like you’re the reason ‘bravery’ was coined as a term.” Pulling away from the man on instinct, Rachel finds her shoulder taken into Jared’s pull, her body returned to him as he steps forward, a protective stance taken. “How did you find us?” Jared questions, aiming the scalpel’s point toward Suzie as the woman approaches. “Because your girlfriend here decided to give her parents a ring” Suzie replies, stopping her advancement upon Jared’s confrontational gesture, “I guess she didn’t realise that area codes and country-specific banks were a thing.” Ashamed in herself, Rachel feels the gentle rub of Jared’s hand on her shoulder, given a slight reassurance from his act of good faith. “Move out of the way and let us leave” Jared demands, the scalpel continuing to be extended toward Suzie’s face, which now turns with glee, amused at the man’s orders. “Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s any way you get out of here without me” Suzie responds, her head rolling from one side to the next as she approaches a door on the opposite side of the room. “In case you haven’t noticed, you’re not on solid ground. Hell, you’re not even on ground level!” Suzie exclaims, her telekinetic powers used to gradually spin the wheel on a nearby bulkhead door. “Back when Chris and I were just starting to fall out, I figured I would need somewhere to stay where he couldn’t stab me in the middle of the night” Suzie explains, “I’d already realised I was compromised by then, so being a decent person wasn’t high on my priority list.” Watching Suzie wander through their compartment, Jared and Rachel stand quietly, their sides pressing together as they step away from the woman’s reach. “So I located an American submarine on patrol, slaughtered its crew and fried its communications,” Suzie explains, her nonchalant tone suggestion a lack of care over the merciless actions she’d taken part in, “and that, lady and gentleman, is where you find yourselves today- two hundred metres below the Arctic Ocean.” Presenting worry for the first time since waking, Jared’s hand begins to tremble, his weapon of choice lowering to his side as realisation begins to set in. “What do you want from us?” Rachel quickly interrupts, taking Jared’s hand into her own as she steps forward, her face millimetres away from Suzie’s own in a moment of courage. Impressed, Suzie takes a step back, a smirk held in one corner of her face as Rachel’s inquiry settles with her. “Unlike Chris, I don’t need two teenagers to do my bidding for me. So, from a tactical standpoint, I don’t really need the two of you for anything” Suzie explains, returning to Razul and Kazro’s side, “but from an informational standpoint, you have some value.” His eyes boldening, Jared returns to Rachel’s side, the obvious question raised. “What does ‘informational standpoint’ mean?” Jared responds, “vague questions are only gonna net you vague answers.” “I’m a bit mad to admit that these are the moments where the two of you really grow on me” Rachel quips, again stepping from her mercenaries’ side to approach the compartment’s opposite end. “I’d be willing to carry you back home- wherever the two of you consider ‘home’ to be- in exchange for some intel” Suzie replies, retrieving a leather bag from beneath a nearby desk and sitting it atop the accompanying chair, “tell me where the girls are and you’ll be on your way.” Squinting, Rachel shares Jared’s confusion, a surprise having come over them. “You don’t know where they are?” Finally displaying a look of disappointment, Suzie unzips the large bag, refusing to reach inside until the couple have made their decision. “Their flight connected in Sri Lanka, I have no idea where they would have gone from there” Suzie replies, leaning over the bag’s top with her arms crossed, “tell me where they are and I’ll have the two of you on your way.” “Why should we believe you?” Jared quickly interjects, his suspicions unwavering, “even if we did tell you, you’ll keep us down here until you can verify it. If you’ve massacred a naval crew to get this sub, what’s stopping you from just giving us a half-hearted ‘thank you’ and leave us to die?” “That’s a very fair point. As a matter of fact, it’s very accurate to the complexity of my character, is it not?” Suzie responds, refusing to instil any confidence the pair have yet to build. “With that said, however, it’s important to point out that you don’t have much of a choice” Suzie replies, her shoulders shrugging as her hands slowly wrap around the bag’s handles, “I’ll get to them through you one way or another. That could be you giving them up, or me using you to lure them out.” “Lincoln already tried that. Not only is that plan unoriginal, but it’s got some holes in it” Rachel remarks, a truth Suzie refuses to argue. “Correct. Lincoln left some holes in it, but I’m not my brother” Suzie responds, getting comfortable with her brother’s smirk in her facial expression, “and originality doesn’t matter if it works.” “What makes you think-?” Jared begins to interrupt, voicing the question allowed to linger with no answer before stopping himself, the sight of Suzie retrieving a pistol from the bag halting his inquiries’ progress. “Because you’ll either give the girls up, or I’ll take one of you as bait” Suzie replies, aimlessly the weapon to the pair’s feet, leaving the option to them, “the one I don’t choose will be left down here with a painful death and a bullet wound for your troubles.” Nothing left to add, Suzie returns the bag to where it was kept, watching the gears shift in the mind of those stood before her. “Take a shot at me, and I’ll stop time and drag whichever one of you lacks that trigger finger in front of the shot” Suzie warns, her arms crossing as she returns to the company of her brutes, “take a shot at yourselves, and the other will be left wondering just what would have happened if you’d taken me up on my offer.” In silence, Jared and Rachel’s sights pull away from the weapon, their faces turning to the other’s as doubt sinks in, a fear that none of what’s been offered will allow them to escape as one. “What’s the call here, Jared?” Rachel quietly asks, her eyebrows furrowed in worry, looking to the man beside her for guidance once more, his composure needed in this moment more than any that have come before it. = 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 = \ Realm of Reality / Stood upon the villa’s terrace whilst sopping wet, Scarlett discards of a common shovel over the bannister’s top, watching it sink beneath the waves and onto the sea floor. “So...” Vic murmurs, her hands coupled behind her back as she watches Scarlett discard her soaked top, “am I supposed to ask why West is dead, how it happened, or drop it entirely?” Squeezing the excess water from her hair whilst dampening the wooden platform beneath her, Scarlett returns to the home, stepping past Vic as she does. “Drop it” Scarlett grumbles, brushing shoulders with the woman as she makes for the house’s depths, able to hear Vic’s footsteps behind her without the woman’s voice to accompany it. Halfway through the hall, Scarlett stops her walk, eyes rolling as her head tilts to the sky, the rest of her body turning toward the woman in her wake. “What?” Scarlett annoyedly asks, wearing a scowl as she eyes Vic, the woman’s arms crossed as she, too, stops walking. “You told me to drop it, so I’m dropping it” Vic replies, purposefully dancing around the question inquired over. “Then why are you following me?” Scarlett wonders aloud, watching Vic’s eyes lift as she visibly considers the answers available. “Because I can” the brunette pompously replies, smiling at her friend as she does to further spike Scarlett’s irritation. “Why can’t you just accept that I want us to stay away from each other for a little while?” Scarlett queries, shaking her head as she resumes her departure, making for the room at the hall’s end. “Because I saw how that ended. It may not have been us, but I know how this ‘distance’ ends” Vic replies, matching Scarlett’s pace as she follows, “do you think Lincoln and Suzie were all that close by the time he kicked the bucket?” Her sigh noticeable, Scarlett steps into her room and makes for the dresser, a simple objective of retrieving a fresh pair of clothes taking her mind. “Vic, I have no clue if distance is the best choice- I don’t even know what is!” Scarlett exclaims, looking to Vic as she reaches for the first shirt her hand touches, “but you trying to force a conversation- or whatever you’re looking for- it’s not making me like you any more than I already did!” “Then stop pulling away” Vic replies, her feet planted just ahead of Scarlett’s door as she leans against its frame, head resting against her left arm. “Vic, there are some things I’m trying to do that I do not need your help with” Scarlett responds, forcing the drawer shut as she quickly throws the orange t-shirt over her head, “we don’t need to be together twenty four-seven in order to not be distant.” “What happened yesterday morning, then?” Vic quickly qualms, putting Scarlett’s reply to the test, “you came home like you’d just started the third world war. Why?” Shaking her head, Scarlett extends her hand through the air, a half-heartened tone carried in her voice as she replies. “I’ll see you later, Vic” Scarlett replies, deliberately refusing to answer as she teleports herself to her first thought, leaving Vic with an expression of scorn. Running her hands through her hair, Vic paces around the room in frustration for a few moments, her composure loosening as the anger builds within her. Before long, Vic’s eyes wander toward Scarlett’s door just as her legs do, carrying her through the opening and back toward the parlour, the absence of a destination proving the effort to be largely pointless. Her hand balled into a fist, Vic steps into the front room, the Arabian Sea’s calm, warm waters somehow only elevating her aggravation. “God-fucking-damnit!” Vic exclaims, her fist unclenching as she swipes at the air, her punch thrown with the intent of alleviating her aggravation, only for its results to be even less explainable. With little pre-emption, Vic’s multi-million dollar villa vanishes, the spot on the floor she’d stood now turned into a mound of sand, the clear air she’d been surrounded by now dark and absent of light. The change noticed instantly, Vic takes a step back, losing her balance as she falls to the ground, its makeup composed of more, loosely-packed sand. Her first instinct being to glance at her hand, Vic starts to worry, fearful that she’d, without being aware of it, inflicted the realm above with a reality-altering wound. Trembling, Vic pushes herself back to her feet, eyes panning around each direction of the strange, dimension-crushing environment she’s stepped through, unsure of how to depart. Shone upon by a single spotlight, Vic’s eyes take to the patterned tent surrounding her, their circus-like appearance bringing a horrible ambience with it. The air fogged and misty, the tent’s spacious ground remains largely unoccupied, the small hill Vic had begun atop all that stands out of place, the rest of the ground level and untouched. With a deep breath, Vic’s mind shifts itself into auto-pilot, retracing her steps in hopes of uncovering a secret escape hatch from her hallucinatinatory predicament. Her fist easing into a straight hand once more, Vic swipes her hand through the air once more, the carnival veil disappearing as suddenly as it had arrived, replaced with the original villa as hoped for. Struggling to comprehend what’d just occurred, Vic steps back, inevitably colliding with the nearest slate of drywall. Mumbling unintelligible remarks beneath her breath, Vic steps away from the parlour, her hands pressing against anything solid, trying to convince her subconscious that reality had been restored. | \ Realm Beyond - Eternal Office / Slowly growing used to the aftermath of her transportation, Scarlett lands with her feet flat in the realm beyond, her immediate intentions disregarded upon her first glance at the room she arrives into. With little interest in her presence, blank faces pass her with other goals in mind, stepping around her in an effort to complete their work as if she were any other obstruction. “This isn’t wh-” the woman begins to speak, her sentence finished by a second voice, its presence more angelic and boisterous than her own. “This isn’t where you intended to arrive” Mother replies, holding the same posture as she had in each of her prior occurrences, hands pressed together as she steps forward, her face as empty as Scarlett had always known it to be. “Y’know, if you’re gonna give me the power to freely teleport to the first place that comes to mind, you really shouldn’t fuck with it” Scarlett replies, her shoulders shrugging as Mother steps forward, “-it could really throw a girl off.” “You say that as if you don’t already know what you’re here for” Mother responds, her progression halting just a few metres away from the intrigued blonde. “I don’t” Scarlett replies, her left eyebrow raised as she summons her service weapon, glancing into its blue strobe just for certainty before relinquishing it, “is that a problem?” “It is” Mother answers, her head slowly lowering to one side, Scarlett’s silence offering her plenty of time to craft elaboration, “you’ve already been told what awaits you on the other end. Expecting anything less is just foolish and disingenuous.” Having stood with one foot further outward, Scarlett’s stance adjusts, her legs resting beside each other as her body turns fully to the immortal spirit. “Maybe it’s more hopeful than you have the ability to realise” Scarlett corrects, gradually stepping closer to the woman as she speaks, “maybe you’ve spent too long here to know what the difference between foolish and optimism is.” With a shrug, Mother’s head veers off, eying the corner Scarlett and Vic’s elusive set of double doors usually appears through. “I am the physical manifestation of this realm. There is not a life, nor a concept specific to your world that I don’t understand or have a role in” Mother responds, her face continuing to direct itself away from Scarlett’s as she paces around, the floor open for her voice to occupy. “There’s a reason weaknesses are so difficult for regular mortals to overcome. It can’t be a weakness if people actively strive to avoid it” Mother explains, listing examples at will. “It feels rewarding to save a pig from the slaughter, it’s pure euphoria- for a short time, at least- when medicines and influence course through your veins” the apparition persists, “just as it’s easy to be delusional. You refuse to accept what you know lies ahead because it lets you avoid the end.” “I’m not letting Suzie live to keep myself from killing Vic” Scarlett replies, her statement quickly agreed to, “oh, I know you’re not” Mother replies with sincerity. Her hands still folded, Mother inevitably circles around Scarlett entirely, returning to the place she’d initially begun the rotation before stopping. “I’m saying weaknesses were created purposefully” Mother explains, “it’s not something you could talk your way out of. You were either mentally and morally strong- or you weren’t.” “And now you’re testing our strength?” Scarlet concludes, an implication Mother allows to sit silently for a moment, matching the woman’s gesture of keeping silent. “Neither of us asked for this to happen, alright? You chose for it to” Scarlett corrects, another few steps taken forward as she draws nearer to Mother, the figure remaining quiet, “what happened to free will? What happened to choosing how we live our lives?” “Free will is a concept made up by mortals to better understand what they can’t- that they’ve already died before they reach the grave, but they just haven’t gotten there yet” Mother corrects, her tone slightly less frail, more command and hurry within her speech. “It’s just the same as when you’d reshape the realm- fitting it to a one-by-one recreation of your world” Mother continues, a gesture Scarlett finds difficulty in refuting, “haven’t you noticed that- since you passed the tragedies- you haven’t seen much of it?” Pulling her head back, Scarlett stops stepping forward, allowing Mother to continue speaking as she now proceeds closer, approaching Scarlett with her soft tone returning. “I needed mortals to have weaknesses because there can be no such thing as a ‘perfect person’” Mother explains, her face lifting toward Scarlett’s the closer she steps, “why would the realm beyond be needed if the realm above were in good hands to begin with?” Letting free the deep inhale she’d amassed, Scarlett’s mind wraps around the statements made, attempting to piece together the claims. “So, you need a guardian for the realm for what reason?” Scarlett inquires, that question yet to be given a finite conclusion, “you’ve given yourself a body- sort of- what’s keeping you from doing the damn job yourself?” The corners of her mouth reaching into a smile, Mother parts her hands as she closes into Scarlett, her hand resting on the woman’s shoulder. “It’s like you said” Mother responds, face again held toward Scarlett’s own, “I’m too far removed from your world to understand it.” Her eyes narrowing, Scarlett stares into the figure’s empty, featureless expression, “I guess what they say is true” Scarlett replies, her shoulders lowering, “no one- at all- is perfect.” | \ Realm of Reality / “I know I may technically be dead, but there are still places I’d like to be” Suzie remarks, her hands folded atop her lap as she occupies the seat her bag once had, the gun still laying on the ground between the pair. “Scarlett and Vic are gonna wipe the floor with you, so we want a goddamn guarantee” Jared replies, his left leg protruding forward as his finger points toward the ground. “It may only slightly amuse me, but I’ve got no reason to leave you down here” Suzie replies, keeping Jared from finishing his demands, “the only reason you have not to take the offer is because you don’t trust me.” “And we have every right to!” Rachel declares, taking Jared’s posture a literal step forward, pulling away from the man to further confront their captor. “I never said you didn’t. I’m a realist- of course you do!” Suzie chuckles, resting her right arm against the nearest desk, her chin propped up with the base of her hand, “that said, it’s the only ticket- reliable or not- that two of you have at getting out of here alive.” “Not necessarily” Jared interrupts, retrieving the weapon from the ground before stepping forward, its barrel aimed at the ground as he extends his arm. “You could hold us for answers from somewhere else” Jared remarks, his eyes switching between Suzie and her legionnaires, “face it, you statistically stand a better chance at taking them out if you caught them by surprise. Take us somewhere we stand a better chance of making it out alive from and we’ll give you what you want.” Her eyes pressing closer together, Suzie considers the suggestion, a glance toward Razul and Kazro taken as she contemplates the offer. “You’ve got no good reason to decline that” Jared clarifies, earning Suzie’s attention once more, the look on her face suggesting his remarks may be getting him somewhere, “you get what you want just as we do. The only reason- not even a good reason, just a reason- not to accept it is if you truly don’t have any intention of letting us out of here.” Her eyes narrowing, Suzie continues her silent observation, the man’s point having been voiced to completion, only left to wait for the answer. “I don’t trust you” Suzie replies, pushing her chair out before her hands press against its back, its wheels locked into place. “You’re full of shit” Jared responds, retaining her attention as his retort concludes, “you wanted the element of surprise, so you dangle the illusion of freedom in front of our faces hoping we’d give them up!” Crossing her arms, Suzie shakes her head as Jared continues, breaking her motives down brick by brick. “You’d kill one of us and take the other if you could, but you held out the hope for the easier choice- that’s why we’re here” Jared remarks, “it’s all a ploy.” “And you expected there to be blood. We’d either both die down here and you’d settle things the easy way, or we’d both die and things would get messy” Rachel finishes Jared’s point, “the amount of blood spilled would depend on whether or not you got your way.” With a sigh, Suzie’s head shake continues with a smile, her chin beginning to nod as the truth comes to light. “You have no clue how much I hate having to see either of you die right now” Suzie replies, nearly amused to the point of laughter, “that was such good-fucking-detective work!” Extending the gun toward their watchdog, Jared holds his aim on Suzie, the woman’s amusement slowly beginning to settle as confrontation begins. “Have I not already told you how this ends, kid?” Suzie inquires, stepping away from the desk whilst approaching the pair, the gun still held firmly in the air, ready to fire at any moment. “You sure did. Now the easy way is off the table- you’ve gotta get your hands dirty” Jared responds, pulling away from Rachel as he turns the barrel on himself, his eyes meeting the woman’s as the tide turns. “Oh! I didn’t see that one coming!” Suzie exclaims, amused with the selfless display of heroics, her crossed arms stiffening as the couple look to each other. “Jared, you don’t need to do this!” Rachel pleads, the man’s head shake implying he has no intentions of being talked off the ledge he stands on the brink of. “Rach’, she can use you as bait, but at the very least- you’ll make it out of here alive” Jared responds, his breaths heavy, a nervousness concealed deep within him. Pausing for a moment, Rachel holds her hands outward, trying to keep Jared from following through with his presentation. “Jared, would you believe me if I said there was another way?” Rachel wonders aloud, able to spot the shift in the man’s expression with ease as her eyes take toward Suzie. “There’s as much of a chance she’d let me live after all of this as there was of her letting us both out- everything that comes from her mouth is a lie” Rachel explains, gently taking Jared by the hand before pulling him close, their faces drawing near as she finishes her thought. “She’ll kill me when we get back to land- I know it. So, if I’m gonna die, I want it to be quick- like a bullet” Rachel explains, repositioning herself beside Jared, her head lined up with the bullet’s point of exit, “we might as well not leave her the hard way either.” Her pleased expression quickly fading, Suzie watches Rachel threaten double suicide with a look of irritation, her initial plan rapidly falling out of reach. “Alright, I’ll admit it- I did not see this coming” Suzie explains, allowing her arms to unfold as the pair look her in the eye, the only chance she has at the plan’s redemption being that of Jared’s hesitation. Without a word, the sides keep their eyes upon each other, Jared’s finger resting on the trigger whilst Suzie’s hang by her side. Steadying his breaths, Jared watches Suzie’s hand carefully, readying to launch the first strike at a moment’s notice. “You’ve really-” Suzie proclaims, cutting herself short as her hands thrust forward, failing to catch Jared by surprise as his barrel is redirected, the trigger pulled before Suzie can leap through time. As quickly as he’d fired the weapon, Jared’s hand sits empty, Suzie having not only disarmed him of the weapon during a time freeze, but having thrown Rachel and himself across the room from each other. Crashing into the ground, Jared watches Razul collapse from the corner of his eye, killed via the stray bullet he’d fired whilst Rachel tumbles to the ground, Suzie stood directly between them. “-fucked up” Suzie concludes, directing her aim toward Rachel’s head as she stares into Jared’s eyes, wanting to see his reaction as the woman he’d sworn to protect falls victim to her hand. “Terrific choice, good s-” Suzie mocks, unable to finish her thought before Rachel’s counterattack strikes her first. “Aaahhh!” Rachel howls, plunging the garden dibber she’d barely managed to sneak into her waistband the night prior into Suzie’s chest cavity, immediately destabilising her shot. Finger kept to the trigger, Suzie’s hand veers toward the vessel’s rear, the bullet she unintentionally fires off proving costly. Struck in the right eye, Kazro drops to his knees, his face bloodied as he collapses, Suzie’s second mercenary dropping dead. In shock, Suzie stammers back, keeping the dibber lodged where it last stood, using it to stop the bleeding from worsening. Retaining the wherewithal to understand what’s unfolding, Suzie reassesses her aim, the barrel returning toward Rachel just as Jared gets involved. Still armed himself, Jared plunges the rusty scalpel into Suzie’s arm, earning another horrified yelp as the gun falls from her hand, the wounds she’s accumulated requiring attention as she loses her balance, the advantage held in the teen’s favour. Noticing his opportunity, Jared scrambles across the floor, his hand barely able to wrap around the firearm’s grip as he takes to his feet, preparing to deliver Suzie a final, fatal attack. “Get down!” Rachel screams, trying to guide Jared back toward the ground as Suzie lunges forward, her service dagger summoned. Unable to process the warning sooner, Jared’s aim settles, falling from Suzie as she marches forward, the red glow of her dagger’s composition driving into him out of desperation. Covering her mouth, Rachel falls silent, watching Suzie fall back as Jared hunches over, his blood spilling onto the ground as he tends to the wound, his hands pressing into his abdomen. Struggling for breath, Jared convulses, struggling to speak as blood trickles from his mouth. “Jared! Jared, please get up!” Rachel exclaims, horrified by how the conflict had unfolded, their abductor struggling to regain her balance as the realisation of her deed sinks in. “Jared, please- please get up!” Rachel pleads, his arm taken into her hand as her face rests close to his. “You need to go!” Jared groans, mustering the strength to take her hand into his own, the blood from his wound gracing her palm. “No, I need you to get up!” Rachel shouts, periodically glancing back as Suzie struggles to her feet, stumbling closer with her hand extended. “Let her take you- then take her out” Jared grunts, his forehead pressing into Rachel’s as Suzie closes in, her non-dominant hand falling upon the woman’s shoulder. “Don’t let her win!” Jared shouts, his hand pulling away from Rachel’s at the last second, all physical contact broken as Suzie’s finger snaps, returning to solid ground with Rachel by her side, Jared’s refusal to return with her done in the name of self-sacrifice. Gasping for air, Jared rolls onto his back, his mouth quickly filling with blood as he lays alone, the hand he’d held Rachel’s with kept in a fist as he passes on. “I love you” he mutters beneath his breath, not a sole around him to hear it, the frigid waters of the Arctic above ensuring the words die with him, forever buried deep within depths unattended to. == Dream Sequence == |
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