Universal Collision

Dilemma

Sako slammed the cell door shut as Alex laid Garna's unconscious body on the floor. "Something about this feels eerily familiar."

Isabelle shivered as she remembered Tamara stabbing her through the feeding trap on the door. "Yeah. All too familiar."

Alex and Old Alex stood by the door. "What happened to meeting again on the bridge?" Old Alex asked.

Alex shrugged. "I wasn't expecting to see you here. Just dumb luck, I guess."

Sako turned to them and her eyes looked them up and down. "This is weird. Seeing two of my nephew makes me think of a funhouse mirror."

Old Alex handed her his shotgun.

"That gun was given to me by you. It used to belong to Charlotte."

Sako traced her thumb along the stock, feeling the familiar pattern that was etched into it. "I remember when she bought this. We were looking for a necromancer, and she needed something that would do devastating damage. We looked on the black market and found a gun that was made to kill demons. That shotgun. She loaded it with holy water-soaked slugs and enchanted them to kill gods." She handed the gun back to him.

Alex stared at his guns, then at Old Alex's shotgun. Devastating weapons of mass destruction. Something created to kill a specific target. Alex had bullets created to kill a vampire. Charlotte had shells designed to kill immortal monsters. A strange similarity.

Isabelle stared at Garna through the cell window. "Rhia. What have they done to you?"

Old Alex placed his hand on her shoulder. "I know how you feel about this. To see someone you care about corrupted and twisted into the very thing they fight to prevent. Good people made into monsters. It's depressing."

Isabelle pushed his hand away. "The Rhia from our world is a close friend of mine. I couldn't bear to see her like this."

Old Alex transformed. "I'm putting together a team. I could use the help of the sorceress queen."

Isabelle clenched her fists as she thought about her deceased friend, Rone. About how Rapture's schemes ended up killing him and several others.

"I'll do whatever it takes to put that sonuvabitch in his grave for good. There's only one problem. What are we going to do about Emma?"

Old Alex cocked his shotgun. "She'll be headed to Red's house in the morning. She should be safe there until we can find Rapture and Armageddon."

Isabelle's eyes glowed green as she looked into Blackcaster's glowing Red. "Count me in."

They turned to ask Alex, but he and Sako were already gone. Blackcaster shivered as Garna woke up and pounded on the cell door. "I thought you loved me, Alex." She said in Rhia's voice.

Blackcaster scowled and punched the bulletproof glass. "Why must you continue to torment me, demon? Why serve that deceiving coward? You know as well as I do that he's just going to turn on you."

Garna tapped the glass with her claw-like nails. "I do as my husband commands. At the end of the day, it adds up to me loving him. That's all you need to know."

He punched the glass again.

"I should kill you for what you've done."

A maniacal grin spread across Garna's face. "You know you wouldn't. After all, if you kill me, then you kill Rhia too."

She pressed her lips against the glass, mock kissing him.

Blackcaster aimed his gun between her eyes. "I'll find a way to exorcise you one day. Until then, you can rot in this cell until your husband comes looking for you."

He turned away and stormed out the door. Isabelle looked into her eyes. "Don't do anything stupid. Unlike him, I will kill you."

She followed Blackcaster out the door.