A strangled gasp escape her throat as she beheld her companion on the ground, still and lifeless. Alice was paralyzed; she knew it would have to happen soon, but nothing could have prepared her for seeing Susan laying dead on the ground, still clutching the knife in her hand with a permanent grin as the blood oozed from her chest. There was a loud crash as an apartment building collapsed across the street, but all Alice could hear was the beating of her heart in her ears. She became all too aware of the device around her wrist now. It pulsed, matching her heart rate, as if there was a beating heart trapped inside it. There may as well have been one, though; it was connected to her very soul. Hers blinked orange, Susan's glowed green. Success. She fought back the tears as they filled her eyes. The memory of their first meeting in that café a week ago came back to her. It felt like a lifetime ago after everything that happened, but it rang clear as day to her. 

"Oh, they work," explained Susan after taking a sip of her black coffee. "Well, that's the theory, anyway. Takes all the fun out of it if you know everything's going to be okay, am I right?" She smiled wickedly at Alice, who was holding her Americano with both hands, not sure how she ended up sitting across from this lunatic. Susan gazed longingly at the orange light on the device. "I just can't wait to try it!" she exclaimed as she strapped it to her wrist. Alice spluttered, almost choking on her coffee as the weight of this woman's words ran through her head. "You… Can't wait to die? You said it would k—" she stopped herself short before continuing in a harsh whisper, "You said the thing would kill you if it worked right!" Alice assumed Susan hadn't heard her, as she seemed entranced by the primer switch on the side of the dark device on her wrist, but Susan laughed in response. "I just told you how these work, dummy! Using it won't kill you. That's not its job…" She slid an identical device across the table so forcefully, it startled Alice. "Do it," Susan said excitedly, "put it on! We'll be matching!" It took Alice a minute to come to her decision, but she eventually gave in and tightened it around her wrist as well. She winced, expecting something horrible to happen, but nothing did. The only change was in the orange light, which was now blinking instead of glowing. They sat there quietly for a moment, sipping their drinks. At last, Alice timidly asked, "So… all that's left is to prime it?" Her hand reached for the switch, but Susan grabbed it and pinned it to the table. "Are you crazy?" she asked in a low voice, which Alice found ironic. "We can't do it here, in public." Alice cocked her head to the side in confusion. "Isn't it just readying the thing? We can just do that, then we'll be ready when, uh, the time comes, right?" Susan gripped her hand hard, and Alice attempted to wrestle free to no avail. "You wouldn't just, say, stand up right here and now and just strip down in front of the unfortunate patrons of this café, would you?" Alice was taken aback, and made a strange face. Susan nodded, smiling in that sly way she always did. "Priming the device links it to your soul; it's very… intimate. We'll have to do it when we get to my place." She quickly got up and pulled Alice along with her as she rushed out of the door, Alice protesting the entire time. 

To think she'd be crying over her dead body now. Alice wrenched the knife from Susan's hand, her body. Her hands shaking, she slowly lifted it, and pointed the tip toward her chest. She felt frozen in place; her mind knew what she had to do, but she knew there was no way she could do it. Tears blurred her vision, and she wiped them away only to now notice the true scene around her. Buildings decimated to rubble, a crack through the street so deep, it could only be described as a chasm, and, most prominently, the sky was red. As similarly coloured lightning flashed across the crimson canopy, several large objects broke through the clouds, hurtling toward the earth. She knew what she had to do. Alice dropped the knife and forced her legs to carry her to the edge of the drop in the pavement. Her whole body shook now, but no longer because of her accomplice's suicide. As she looked into the blackness, her thoughts went to the root of her fear; she thought of her friend since elementary school, her father, her older brother. The thought of jumping sickened her, and planted her feet solidly to the ground. But one look around, and she made her choice. The objects had almost reached the earth. "It won't be so bad," she murmured, "it'll be quick…" She decided that today she would put herself aside; the fate of humanity outweighed her fears. Alice closed her eyes, leaned forward, and with a shaky exhale, let gravity take her into the chasm. 

It was an inky black, a sharp pain in her neck, then nothing. Not a sound, not a breath, an absence of being. However, a small, bright light up ahead, getting closer by the second… if there were seconds to count that is. Closer, closer. And suddenly, it disappeared. She was sucked back, hurtling in reverse, though she felt nothing. Then a prickling feeling on her skin, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She blinked into existence, and her whole body jolted, and her eyes shot open. She gripped her Americano so hard it spilled all over her blouse. Alice blinked her eyes, adjusting her vision. The first thing she smelled was croissants. Then the coffee. Pain. Ouch. She looked down at her mess, then up. Café. She was at that café again. A café at the bottom of a cliff? And there, sitting in front of her, was a smug Susan, casually sipping her black coffee like last time, two devices sitting on the table in front of them. She checked her wrist; it was gone. Susan grinned. "Took you long enough. Ready to save the world?" She held out her hand, and this time she didn't have to drag Alice out of the building. Their time had come.