S3, E6 | Metamorphose

\ 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 ==