Final Apocalypse: Rise of Tamara

The Twist

Stonevas reverted to base form, breathing heavily. He forgot how tired he was after using that form. Tamara's eyes were fluttering. Then they snapped open. Her face became expressionless, her eyes colder and darker than before, the maniacal smile was gone. She whispered something, but Stonevas didn't hear it. He leaned in closer. Tamara repeated it. "Close." She said.

Stonevas raised an eyebrow. What was she talking about? "Tamara, why? Why did you do all of this?"

Tamara pushed him off and stood. "My name isn't Tamara, so why do you keep calling me that?" her voice was different, a slight accent to it. "My name is Elizabeth."

Stonevas removed his mask. "Elizabeth? What the hell are you trying to pull, Tamara?"

Elizabeth spun around and drove the dagger into Daniel's chest. "My name is Elizabeth!" She twisted it and drove it deeper until she felt it pierce his heart. He shuddered for a moment, then fell on his side, dead. She grabbed Rapture's skull and laid it at her feet. "Rise, my king. Rise and meet your queen."

The skull's eyes lit up, then Rapture began to form. She stared in horror at the demon before her.

Rapture cackled as he stood. "Well, that took a while. Why did you hold back?"

Elizabeth didn't answer. Rapture looked into her eyes. "Is there something wrong, my queen?"

Elizabeth smiled slightly. "Yes. You made a mistake, my king."

Rapture scowled. "And what was that?" He asked as he placed a hand on her stomach, her body momentarily glowing with orange light.

Elizabeth had her tendrils snaked out behind Rapture. In one, she still held the dagger she'd used to kill Daniel. "You shouldn't have created something that you can't destroy."

Rapture went to strike her but stopped as she plunged the dagger into his back. He looked into her cold, merciless eyes. "What are you doing, my queen? I thought we were supposed to rule the world together. What you're doing is madness."

Elizabeth didn't seem to hear him. "I'm not a big fan of liars. And you are the biggest deceiver of them all. You made me kill all of these people, and for what?"

Rapture coughed and tried to stand, only to stumble and fall. "They would have been in our way."

Elizabeth drove the dagger deeper. "I want you to suffer. To feel all the pain that I was forced to inflict upon others. You made me kill my par-" she stopped and fell to her knees holding her head, screaming in agony. Rapture pulled himself against the wall. "You're making a mistake. I didn't force you to do anything. I gave you the power to, but everything you did was of your own accord."

Elizabeth darted toward Rapture and ran him through with all six of her tendrils. "Die, you monster!" She ripped out his burning heart and crushed it in her tendril. Rapture's eyes went dark and his body crumbled to dust.

She shook her head as she felt Tamara take over.

Marriko ran into the building as Rapture disintegrated. "Tamara?" She asked.

Tamara spun around. "Have you ever been at the edge of a long fall and thought about jumping, Marriko?"

"Yes, my queen. A few times."

Tamara retracted her tendrils. "Don't call me your queen. It's over. We need to get out of here. With him out of the picture, we may be able to use our powers for non-murderous purposes. Would you like that, Marriko?"

"We can stop killing?"

Tamara nodded. "Yes. We can leave all of this behind. Go anywhere, do anything. What do you think of that?" She was smiling as she did when she was a child. Something Marriko hadn't seen in years.

"Yes, I would like that. There's only one problem."

"And what is that?"

Marriko brandished her tendrils. "YOU KILLED MY PARENTS!" She lashed them at Tamara, who used her own to counter. "You're outmatched. Please just stop fighting. We can leave this all behind. Nobody else needs to get hurt." She flung Marriko against the wall and wrapped a tendril around her throat. "Please don't make me hurt you." She shed a few tears as the thought crossed her mind. Then pain flashed through her as Marriko stabbed her with two tendrils.

She gasped and released her. Marriko raised another tendril to finish her off. "I'm sorry. But I can't trust that you won't hurt anyone else."

Tamara coughed blood onto Marriko's dress. "You're right. You can't trust me to spare people. But the same applies to you." She ran a tendril through Marriko's stomach. The two collapsed next to each other. Tamara grasped Marriko's hand as she felt herself slipping away

"I'm sorry, my friend. All of this is my fault. The blame is mine alone."

Marriko tried to say something but only succeeded in choking on her own blood. Tamara pulled her closer and smiled one final time. "Goodbye, my friend."