For a moment we all just stared at each other incredulously, waiting for the other to make a move. Though, my eyes were firmly locked onto Babel as she barely made an effort to struggle against Yasna’s grip. I didn’t remember it too well, but I did remember when I had been in the exact same situation. The same senseless helplessness, the assuredness of your own death…

“She’s right, we don’t care. But right now you’re putting me in a very difficult position, about to make me make a decision I don’t know if I’m ready to make. In your hand you hold the dwindling life of someone who still has a lot to answer for to me. But…” I curled my hands into tight fists, trying to keep them from shaking any more than they already were. I wasn’t sure I could beat him, I wasn’t sure if Jericha would be able to get away unscathed for helping me, I wasn’t sure I would be able to protect Arianna. What I was sure of though…

“If you hurt her again, I swear to God, I will find everything and everyone you hold dear and I will tear it all apart. I will kill them all one by one--” I was breathing deeply but rapidly, a strange tension seizing me by my neck.

“I will decorate their homes with their entrails--” I took a step closer to him, my eyes wide and unblinking. I could feel something like a strange static in the back of mind, threatening to overtake me.

“I will burn down their homes, the temples you built to Aeshma! I will hunt down each being that has ever done business with you and pull out their eyes, leaving them alive to spread the word that you are DISEASED, CURSED.” I wasn’t smiling, or at the very least I wasn’t meaning to. This was more like a feral response, something I’d never contended with in my life. Was this hate? No… I didn’t hate him, I knew what I’d seen in his mind and what he’d done to me, but I didn’t know him well enough to hate him.

“And then, once the world knows who you are and has abandoned you, then I will come to take you. One piece at a time.” The strange tension in my neck became a jerking, my vision beginning to blur with white. “And then, maybe when I have you at your last, maybe then I will kill you.”

As his eyes pierced into mine, searching for truth or ability to follow through on what I’d just threatened, I knew why I was reacting like this. I was afraid… because I could sense Babel’s fear for my own well being. Her fear was pure of intent, so direct and pleading, I hadn’t even noticed as it wore down the walls I’d been building around my heart to keep her out. Or was it less that she wore them down, and I just couldn’t keep the door closed anymore?

Babel looked at me as my gaze darted between Yasna and her, and my heart stopped.

“No, you won’t.” Babel said, her smile slightly faded from exhaustion. “You are better than that, you are better than him. You must be better than me.” Yasna grabbed her by the neck but didn’t yet squeeze.

“I won’t be if he hurts you, and I’ll never stop if he kills you.” Don’t do this to me.
“I will hunt everyone close to him.” I only just found you.
“I will hurt everyone he has ever been close to.” You only just came back to me.
“I will end this all by burning it all to the ground.” Please…
“I swear to God I will do it.”

“She’s too good for our nonsense,” Babel said, smiling at Yasna. “Let it be over with me.”

“MOTHER!” He had stabbed his hand into her chest before I had even a chance to react. She barely flinched as he retrieved his hand, tossing her back towards me like a broken toy. The world fell silent to me. I was aware Jericha said something, I was aware Yasna had said something in return, but I hadn’t heard what either had said.

My world faded into a void-like calm, where everything moved slowly as if through molasis and my body nearly weightless was unable to gain enough strength to do much more than fall to my knees. I pulled the unmoving form of Babel to me, leaning her head against my chest. She wasn’t dead yet… but this was her end. She was going to die bloody, in some dirty back alley far away from anywhere she’d ever called home.

**

“It will never be over, so long as any child of theirs survives. Never.” Yasna said, his voice indignant. Jericha watched as Danny pulled Babel into her arms, rocking her gently, her eyes vacant and disturbed.

“Today, it is going to end. I’m not some simple Human you can push around. My name is Jericha, my family name is Seorsus.” Jericha took a few steps forward, getting between Danny and Yasna. She slammed her guitar down on its side by the jack plate, and then scraped it along the concrete, sending sparks and drawing a rather solid white line between them.

“And if you attempt to cross this line, I will turn you inside out.”

**

“Seorsus..? I thought her last name was Campbell?” Skylar thought out loud, but Arianna was silently rolling the name around. It sounded so familiar.

“Seorsus… Seorsus… wait. Skylar, Seorsus was one of the first Fae families to come through, weren’t they?” Arianna squinted as she tried recalling the vague memory.

Skylar slammed a fist into her hand. “Oh shit, yeah! They were famous for like, six months before a more powerful Fae showed up then they just dropped off the face of the earth.” Skylar tilted her head, looking at Jericha. “I guess they just went native.”

“Skylar,” Arianna asked looking back up at Skylar. “Is a Half-Demon or a Fae more powerful?”

“Like… A Fae, fae? Or like Lesser Fae?”

“Does it matter?”

“Does God control the universe, or does he just let things be random and chaotic?” Skylar asked in retort.

“I don’t know.”

“Neither do I.”

Arianna tried swallowing the lump that had grown in her throat, unsure if she should be more worried than she was previously.

**

I brushed some of Babel’s hair from her face as I cradled her. All my anger, all my grudges against her, every mean thing I wanted to yell and shriek at her seemed so distant. All of it so pointless. If the knowledge that slowly melded into my mind from the Eidolon had shown me anything, it’s that Babel had meant well, but was too sick to understand anymore. Now here she was, the tormentor over the last few weeks, the humiliator and terrifier, dying in my arms.

My heart could not have been more broken.

She opened her eyes, at first she looked at me quizzically, as if not remembering the last few minutes. As soon as the pain caught up to her she reached up and grabbed me by my shirt and balled it in her fist, her breaths coming in gasping wheezes.

“I-I’m… sor--”

“Don’t say that, not right now. Stay here, focus hard, heal yourself… it won’t buy you much time but…” I pleaded with her. She took a deep breath as she let go of my shirt, her hand slowly reaching up before tapping me on the forehead--

*

I was back in that strange city, Babylon? Did she-

“Yes, I brought you here. The mind is capable of many things, including giving us enough time to talk… before the end.” Babel said to me. She looked different than usual, more regal, less wild. The clothing she wore was sheer and did nothing to hide her curves and features, both the humanoid and the Demon. She was a cold sort of beauty.

“Why do I keep being brought here? To this city and time?” I asked her, trying to not be as huffy as I felt.

“Maybe because I just want you to see me, see who I used to be, perhaps. Or maybe its just a scar that never really healed.” She said, looking around at the architecture. “This always was the last place I called home.”

“You don’t know why either?” I tried not to sound exasperated, but I could hear it come out in my own tone, and I saw Babel smile at me in that sort of way that a parent does when a child has just realized their parent is just as fallible as they are. “Alright then, I guess I can accept that.”

“Thank you, Danny. I really do wish I had eternity to try and explain everything to you, but as you know our time is very limited, even here.” Her tone was apologetic as she struggled to maintain eye contact with me. She really did seem ashamed.

“Why did you do it? Why did you have to step in and get yourself hurt?”

“Because if I didn’t, then you would have. Your strength is currently more than my own, and it is still growing, but you will lose if you try to fight him alone. Even when I was at my apex, fighting his kind was a chore. And that was when I had people who willingly fed me, kept me strong.” She chuckled, running a hand over her forearm. “Then again, I was never the strongest of our kind. Not the bravest, nor the most intelligent.”

“Oh come on, they named an entire tower after you.” I said, pointing to the spire in the distance.

“Nimrod named it after me because he was in love with me. He wasn’t the first mortal to be so, but… he was the only mortal to defy ‘God’ for me.” She folded her hands over her stomach as she looked away from me. “I gave Nimrod the one thing I had never given another mortal, my body. I became pregnant with his child, and ‘God’ whisked me away towards the heavens.”

“Why would he do that?” I asked, truly curious what a God could want with an unborn child.

“Because our kind, the Tutelaries, were considered something as guardians, family patrons, defenders against outside interference, teachers of the truth. Some went as far as believing we were akin to the Gods, but we denied that fact at every turn, we would not allow any one of us to spark a singular religion. We each represented a truth, a simple fact of existence, and to worship one above the others would mean to believe one truth meant more than the others. Even so, it didn’t stop some of us from becoming more… beloved.” She said, her face tight from thought.

“What did you represent?” I asked.

“Freedom. Always and forever, everything is born with the right to freedom, and the right to defend that freedom at any and all costs against man, Demon, and God. As such, Nimrod, who was only one of many leaders in the city, was taken in by my teachings. First, he was my student, and then a devoted friend, and later my lover. When he began to build the tower, he proclaimed that it was to represent that freedom stretched as far as your eye could see, and it inevitably attracted many to worship me. Our God is a jealous God.” She sighed, biting her lip before continuing. “He took my baby from me.”

“Shit…” I didn’t know what to say. I mean, what was there I could say? I doubt someone just gets over their child being stolen.

“Nimrod discovered I was missing, and was informed of what had happened. In his rage, he used some of what I had taught him of Legerdemain to attack God. It angered him, and so he cast me down and sent me down towards the tower. I was cast down with such force that the impact destroyed the tower. After that, God destroyed Babylon. In a matter of hours… freedom of thought and religion was crushed.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?” I was annoyed, but not for the reasons she may have thought. It just felt wrong that she spend her last minutes explaining herself to me.

“Because ever since then I’ve been hunted. There were thousands more Tutelaries than just me, and they all began to take sides. Most sided with already established Gods to save their own hides, a lot of them becoming known as Demigods or the lesser Gods like Koalemos… the God of Stupidity to the Ancient Greeks. Who we were and what we were was being destroyed, and those of us who wanted to live had to abandon everything that made us what we were. I never did.”

“Was it really you who betrayed Aeshma? Is that what Yasna is so full of hate towards us?” I asked, folding my arms as I contemplated.

“Yes.”

“Are you going to explain why or how?”

“Suffice to know, I was trying to find out if it was possible to kill a God.”

“And… did you manage to kill him?” She clicked her tongue as she thought, tapping a finger on her forearm.

“I don’t remember. Truthfully I don’t think it matters anymore. Even if I did, I don’t remember how I did it. All that matters is that you understand that the Gods don’t care. They are malevolent beings, some less so than others, but they’ve been known to punish those they deem as lesser than them. And their punishments… are forever.”

“Stop it.” I said, shaking my head. “No more about punishments, violence, sadness, loss…” I took an unsteady breath. “I get it, a lot of shit has happened in the past, and there’s things I don’t know. They’re not what I’m concerned about right now, they’re not what I want to focus on right now.”

“What would you like to focus on right now?” Babel asked, tilting her head as she asked.

“You! Me!” I said, throwing my hands up. “This whole situation is infuriating! You came into my life, and made things easier. Then you interrupted my life and made things SO much harder, and of course I get to learn the truth about you… and now you’re dying! You have complicated my feelings for you so much that I don’t know what to think about you. I want to hate you for what you’ve done, but knowing what I do about what you’ve done for me…” I reached up, cupping my hands over my face. “FUCK YOU!” I yelled as I stomped and dropped my hands. I glared at her as angrily as I could, breathing heavily. I felt like a toddler throwing a tantrum, but I didn’t know what else to do.

I stalked over to her, balling up my fists. I wanted to hit her. I wanted to explode from my fury and shower her in my emotions. Though, I only managed to get within reach of her and she’d intercepted my wrists and held me. “Fuck you, it isn’t fair! You don’t get to do this to me! You don’t get to make my life a living hell for a few weeks after having secretly and selflessly been my mother for twelve fucking years! You don’t get to leave me like this!”

“Danny… I was dying before we met. My condition was and still is terminal. I’m positive that the only reason I lasted twelve years was because of you. I shouldn’t have lived more than one after being freed.” She released my wrists, wrapping her arms around me. I couldn’t remember perfectly, but I did remember this feeling, I had been in her embrace before. It was disarming. I could feel the floor of my anger giving out as my stomach dropped, despair creeping in.

“Is there any way I can save you?” I asked, curling into her. “Something… anything? I don’t care if it’s just life support… I want to keep you.”

Babel laughed in a way that sounded like she was about to cry, gently running her fingers through my hair. “That’s… the nicest thing I’ve heard someone say to me since Babylonian times. You really are such a sweet soul.” She let out a light whimper as she recomposed herself. “As you know, I’m unraveling. I’m almost at my end, and there’s no way to reverse or undo the damage that’s been done. If I don’t die from the injury the Cambion has given me, I won’t be able to hold myself together anyways.”

“But… What about a body? What if we put you inside of a body, like possessing it?” I asked, desperate.

“Tutelaries cannot possess bodies. Our design doesn’t allow for that. Besides… I’m the Tutelary of Freedom, I cannot take free will from another being like that.”

“Oh, that’s bullshit! You did that to me in the beginning.” I said grudgingly.

“Danny… I did something you wanted to be done to you, only you were at war with yourself and convinced yourself of a lie. Had you not wanted it, I could not have done it. Though, you did make it difficult in the beginning, before you took control away from me.” I grit my teeth at her answer. I hated the way she said it, or was it just that I hated that she had said it? I didn’t have time to process that either.

“What if…” I began, feeling embarrassment begin to fill me. “I’m changing right now. Can I house you long enough to… give you a body?”

“I told you, I can’t possess anyone, even if they’re--”

“No, not possess me. Bab-... Mother… What if I GIVE you a body? Could I save you?” My voice shook as I asked her, I was scared to even bring it up. I’m not even done changing and I’m already entertaining the idea of pregnancy.

She held me out a short distance, looking down directly into my eyes. “I… perhaps. You would not save me as I am… Babel would still die. I would be born as someone new, perhaps having retained some of my memories, but there’s no telling how much I would lose.”

“Where would you go if you died… for good? Would your soul go back to hell? Or… to it?”

“If I die, in the way you’re talking, I’d go nowhere. I just would no longer be anything, except a memory.” I swallowed hard, wrapping my arms around her waist tightly.

“Then, if all I can do is save your soul and not you… I choose to save your soul. Even if your new self won’t remember this, you deserve to continue.”

“Whoever she will be, will be lucky to have you in her life, Danny. My only true regret in this entire existence of mine, is not having a long-term relationship with you like you deserve. You deserved to know what it was to be loved and supported unconditionally… and I failed to do so with you entirely because I was afraid that my presence in your life would only hurt you.” Babel put a hand on my cheek, kissing my forehead. “You’re so much stronger than I could ever have been. You are, and will be, such a blessing to everyone in your life.”

“So… do I just… will you into my body while I… wait for the changes to finish?”

“Yes, but before you do there is one important thing that you have to know first. You must kill Ouroboros. End the cycle, or you will never know peace.” She said this very sternly, as she did it burned itself into my mind. I didn’t understand what she meant at the time, I thought it was a person or a concept… perhaps a God I hadn’t seen or heard of before. I merely nodded, steeling myself internally. “Good girl.”

“I love you.”

She smiled at me, cupping my face in her hands. “I love you too.”

*

I was starting to get used to the jarring feeling of being dragged into and out of my own headspace. Even so… I did hope it wasn’t going to happen very often. When I came to I wasn’t holding Babel, or rather I was, but not Babel in the flesh. She had compressed herself into what seemed to be a tiny, glinting, grain of silverish sand. I couldn’t sense any conscious thoughts from it, and the emotions were just as quiet, but I felt the vestiges of life pulsing away in my hands. It was not Babel, but it was what was left.

I looked up to glare at Yasna who glared back, Jericha still standing between us. I had not been gone long, a few seconds at most. I tucked the soul-grain into a pocket, zipping it up for safety, then I stood as tall as I could.

‘You must kill Ouroboros’ kept playing out in my head. ‘End the cycle’. Yasna was not a part of my cycle, but once I killed him… he would be.

**

There was a strange sort of crickling and crackling behind Jericha, accompanied by the sound of a wet splashing onto the ground that sizzled. As Jericha turned to look, she felt the heat Danny had been giving off only increased easily ten times or so. Danny was dripping with sweat, and even as the sweat hit the pavement it boiled on the concrete. The look in Danny’s eyes was intense, wide and unwavering. Jericha had seen this look several times in her life… but not here on Earth.

Maybe it was because of the heat, or maybe because she was tired of it sticking to her? Jericha didn’t ask, but she did watch as Danny tore through her shirt, throwing the pieces onto the concrete. Her breasts were completely exposed, showing off how round and firm they looked. Jericha had to admit, Danny’s body was fit, probably perks of Demonic magic. Although, in the seconds following the removal of her top, Jericha saw Danny’s body go from a slim, athletic build, to watching her muscles define themselves. Her small stature seemed to be between someone well toned, and someone who trained their body.

Danny flexed as her breathing quickened, her tail whipping in a frenzy behind her. “The change is still under my control, and I will change to be someone who can protect the ones she loves! I will lose no one else!” Jericha moved back a few paces, having a hard time dealing with the heat Danny was letting off. “Someone I met a little while ago told me that I could use my power to be strong, to find where and who I’m meant to be… find it, and plant my feet on that path!”

Danny let out a groan as something in her head seemed to crack, distort. Danny slapped her hands to her face, throwing her head back and yelled, then let out a howl of disapproval and dropped her hands, showing trails of blood on her forehead as the beginnings of horns tore through.

“And my path goes right through you!” Danny bolted past Jericha at a dizzying speed, having closed the distance between her and the Cambion in a matter of a few seconds. Jericha tried to advance on the Cambion as well, only to be forced to stop thirty or so feet away from the heat. It wasn’t just uncomfortable, it was dangerous levels of heat. Her last attempts left Jericha with burns to her arms as she used them to shield her face from the heat. It seemed the heat was tied to Danny’s changes. The hotter she was, the faster and more things seemed to change.

It seemed as if every time she looked away for even a few moments and then looked back, Danny’s horns had grown, or her claws had, or some other part of her. Jericha could see the blending of Babel in Danny making itself known. Danny seemed to embrace it all. She had finally accepted who she was, and who she wanted to be. Jericha, though now unable to help, smiled.

***

It was dizzying, watching all the changes happening to his quarry while trying to keep up with her. The girl’s strength was not on par with his, but she had the advantage of speed, number of limbs, and persistent outrage. He’d manage to block or outright parry four attacks, only to take her claws on the fifth. This could not have been the same girl he’d tried to kill only weeks ago. She was a coward, running away from a fight, and allowing herself to be mangled in the streets instead of keeping a look out. This girl… was everything the other was not.

Yasna’s ear hadn’t even fully healed at this point from his tangle with the Demon Hunter, and yet it seemed like nothing he did to her put her down for longer than a second or two. This… child of the Tutelaries… had somehow increased exponentially in power in that time. In fact, as they fought, he could feel her becoming stronger still.

Outrageous was a word he’d like to use to describe this.

Impossible is what he would have thought yesterday.

Dangerous is what he knew right now.

Stretching his mind out to assault her while she was open resulted in her flowing around his thoughts like water, clawing and prodding at everything, searching for a weakness. She’d found a few, slicing back with her own mental attacks. He knew her like she knew him from their various connections in their mind war, and she had no idea that she was even doing it. It was all on instinct, reaction. He cursed himself for not having pursued her harder in the following days of their first encounter, because he had found her in the single moment where it seemed he was just too late.

He shook his head as her fist connected with his brow, temporarily dizzying his vision. He couldn’t let himself think like that. Not after what had happened to Aeshma, his father was owed better than that. This was not a moment where good faith efforts count, it was win or lose, and Aeshma deserved a win. He would not, could not, fail him again.

A searing pain flared through his abdomen, reactively he reach forward and grabbed hold. He’d grabbed her by the tail, his eyes looking down to see she had stabbed him just below the ribs. He was lucky though, she hadn’t managed to get it very deep, but the fact that she’d managed to finally make a serious blow to him was…

“Yasna,” the girl said his name so casually, did she not know names were powerful? “What you have done to me and mine is unforgivable, but it doesn’t need to be a death sentence.”

“What are you talking about?” Yasna growled back at her, holding her tail in place so it did not pierce deeper.

“I do not want to kill you. I don’t want to kill anyone. Admit defeat here, now, swear to leave my home and never return, and you can live beyond today… and I can keep on saying I’ve never killed anyone.” She said it so coldly, as if it was already fact, that somehow she had decided how fate was going to play out. He had heard her kind talk this way before, usually before he killed them. Centuries of killing and vengeance, waging silent wars against a forgotten race. He was not afraid of Tutelaries, but the unmistakable chill that sapped the fervor from his bones told him she was something else. A new sort of Tutelary. A new Truth. Something he could neither fathom nor understand if explained…

And he’d allowed her birth. Aided it.

**

I struggled, both in my attempt to finish Yasna off as well as convince him to just be over. At this point, I didn’t care which came. I couldn’t help but hear Babel’s words in my mind on repeat, and I’d come to the stark realization that even if I wanted to, killing Yasna was not ending a cycle, but participating in it. It felt, to me, that in the moment that I realized everything was grinding towards a singular fact, the stronger I felt. Babel’s… Mother’s… explanation that she was the Tutelary of Freedom, brought to mind that I was becoming one as well. What was I? Wrath? Vengeance? Indignation?

No, those all existed long before me. They would’ve had to. But… what could’ve led up to me?

“You… insolent tart!” Yasna yelled as he kicked my leg out from under me, causing me to stumble a few steps back. “How dare you try to withhold my birthright? Your mother killed my father, and I killed your mother, which leaves US.” He slapped his hands on his chest in emphasis. “The only way it all ends is when one or both of us is dead! Don’t you understand? That’s the only way this all ends!!!”

He charged me, and even though I braced as much as I could, he he knocked me off my feet and carried me a ways before I stumbled him with my tail. We both fell, and rolled down a long flight of stairs towards the subway. He landed a short distance away from me, but he was up on his feet much faster than I was. I really was running out of steam. It didn’t matter how strong I was if his endurance just outlasted mine.

With a running start he kicked me in the abdomen, throwing me into a pillar by the tracks. I tried to stand, but he’d grabbed me and began slamming me into the pillar repeatedly, all the while spitting incoherent insults and threats. He had grown wise to the use of my tail, and each time I tried something, he’d knock it aside, or even nearly pull it off. That was a whole new kind of pain.

After what felt like minutes of nothing but a barrage of pain and breathlessness, he held me up to his face, glaring down at me. “The difference between you and me is that you’re still mortal… for now. You can die from mundane wounds. I am a Half-Demon, it will take a lot more than just a poke in my ribs to put me down.”

Not that I really had anything to retort, but before I could react he’d thrown me into the tracks. For a moment the whole world was quiet and slow again, the only sound was the rhythmic tapping of his shoes as he made his way to me. I wasn’t able to offer any resistance as he grabbed me and began to choke me against the wall. I gasped, clawing futilely at his hands to let go, but nothing I did could gain me any purchase.

“If it makes you feel any better, child, for a moment… I thought you had a chance.” Yasna said. It legitimately didn’t sound like he was mocking me, but that he was relieved. Even so, while he talked I was thinking. As things started going dark, the memory of being told about fine matter popped into my head.

Fine matter. ‘It’s a part of you, but you can relax and let it pass through you, too’. Fine matter. Subway. Electricity.

The third rail.

I didn’t have time to do more than hope without a thought. I jammed my tail into the third rail as hard as I could, placing my hands on either side of Yasna’s head. I did my best to let it pass through me, as Micki had told me, but there was a lot of it. Yasna screamed in pain as the electricity went from me to him, and my scream joined his. It only took a few seconds for us both to have had our fill, and we both let go and stumbled.

Yasna caught himself on the ledge to the tracks, holding himself up. “F… fuck… fucking bitch!” He wheezed out. His eyes were nothing more than charred pits, his head sporting burns in the shape of my hands from the electricity. He held his hands out to search for me, grasping and swiping at the air. My tail was numb, if not fairly fried from the rail, so I couldn’t stab him.

My fist connected with his face, and he stumbled, and swiped to retaliate. He missed.

My fist connected with his face again, and again he stumbled, and again he retaliated. Missing.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Around and around this went until both sets of my knuckles were broken and bloody, and he looked more like walking ground beef. We were both wore out, but as I heard the subway coming I knew I had to get out of the tracks. With what I could muster, I hoisted myself back onto the ramp, kneeling down and breathing heavily.

I hadn’t noticed he had also managed to crawl back up without assistance. “BITCH.” He screamed at me and charged in my direction. I got the distinct feeling he was going to drag us both down and kill us both. But… I had a promise to keep.

Managing to keep my footing, I pushed back, holding him in place. The train began to roar past us, one car after another. This needed to end. So, I pushed him towards the train, kicking his locked-knee and breaking it and bending it backwards… and held the top of his head against the wailing train.

I’ve seen what it looks like to use sandpaper on wood before. I’ve seen what a powersander can do to wood. I’ve even watched a grinder shape metal. As his skull shaved down from the friction of the train, I noted in a sort of macabre way, that flesh doesn’t shave down as well as wood or metal does. It burns and scrapes, peeling away, flaking bits of skull and scalp until it’s weakened enough for it to crack and whole chunks come free. I even watched as bits of brain matter sprayed out from the egregious wound, and then the train passed, leaving me holding Yasna in his broken state.

I would have thought he was dead, as any normal person would, but he still breathed. It was shallow and haggard. I didn’t know what else to do to him. What would I have to do to kill him? I dropped him to the ground, staring down at him as blood and sweat poured down my face and into my eyes, making it hard to see.

“I… get it now. I know who you are.” Yasna said, his voice barely above a whisper, his lips barely moving to utter a sound. “You are… the culmination of our choices. You are the impasse we have reached, the dead end from which we cannot return. You are the death of the old world… and the mother of the new.”

As he spoke I moved to stand over him, readying myself.

“You are… the Apogee.”

I brought my foot down decisively on what remained of his head.

**

Skylar, Jericha, and Arianna waited at the top of the subway entrance. Arianna paced, biting her thumbnail, little clicks escaping her mouths she chewed down. Skylar and Jericha had more or less been silent towards each other, seemingly mildly awkward. Or at least, Skylar was awkward, Jericha seemed pissed. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the Jericha was fuming about being ghosted.

“Listen… it wasn’t on purpose. I had--” Skylar began explaining when Jericha raised a finger to shush her.

“I don’t want to hear it right now. We can talk about how you ghosted me after we resolve this. Until then… let me stew.” Jericha said, her voice even. Skylar chuckled, and bounced ever so slightly on her heels.

“You are sexy when you’re taking control.” Skylar said, a huge smile on her face.

Jericha rolled her eyes. “Thanks.”

Arianna was trying to keep her focus elsewhere, terrified of what had happened to Danny. The screaming had abruptly ended when the train went by, leaving her with all sorts of mental images of Danny’s body being in pieces… or worse. She didn’t know what could be worse than in pieces… but she had been told that everything could always get worse. She could hear one set of footsteps echoing up the stairs, they were slow, light.

All three of them tensed, waiting to see which one had won. Danny appeared from the landing on the stairs, covered in blood and bits of viscera. They all backed away from the entrance to the subway, giving Danny room to exit. Arianna was struck by Danny, her body was lovely, her face looked so different than it had earlier that day… and the addition of a tail and horns gave her an otherworldly feel. Arianna raised a hand, but kept her distance still.

“Are you… you?” Arianna asked, getting an exhausted smile from Danny.

“Almost. There’s just… a little bit… left.” Danny managed to say before fainting into the sidewalk. It didn’t take long for the ambient heat to begin dissipating, but as Skylar reached down to turn her over, she yelled out and let her go.

“Fuck it, she’s too hot. I’m going to see if Richard has an ETA on a ride, then I’m going to make sure the bastard is really dead. With her winding down everything else should be winding down as well.”

***

In Bushwick, Brooklyn, a man seemingly appeared from thin air. He looked human-ish, exempting that his features were all wrong. The angles of his face too unnaturally sharp. The blue of his eyes too reflective. The deep crease that makes his lips almost too wide. His skin a waxy smooth. The proportions too symmetrical. The people surrounding him looked at him with confusion and light horror, unsure how to react to something that existed so far in the uncanny valley.

He cracked his lips open as if to smile, revealing perfectly white teeth, a mouthful of incisors to replace every tooth. As he spoke, his voice came out in a bland sort of monotone that was pitched to sound polite, but never seemed to change inflections, nor did anything except his tongue move when he spoke, all the while his face retaining a rigid hold on the strange smile.

“Don’t worry, citizens, I am here to help.”

When he stopped speaking he clamped his jaw shut so hard the people around him could hear the teeth grind. His dead eyes scanned the crowd, all the while he retained that unnatural smile.