STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 94

Isis was pissed.

She was positively sure that blast would’ve taken her out for good measure–weaken her substantially–but apparently, she was wrong on all accounts.

Now she saw Isis attacking Nemesis with everything she had at her disposal: A combination of cosmic blasts mingled with martial arts-style fighting that didn’t seem to have any effect whatsoever.

The young woman couldn’t believe that. It was impossible. When she was fighting Cara, she knew that her childhood friend felt it, she saw the hurt and pain she inflicted.

Apparently with this version of Keron, it was different.

The woman was practically an immortal dynamo capable of withstanding even the most brutal of assaults with a smile.

Mmm...Isis thought, watching the battle from where she was. There comes a time when you must put all of what you know into one basket and hope that it is enough, she recalled Calis telling her seventeen months after the prison break incident. No matter what the cost is to you.

The surface dweller nodded to the past memory and to herself.

It is what it must be then. She decided, then teleported.


Keron was laughing at the Starchild’s pitiful attempts to overwhelm her with brute force. She laughed at her anger and her pain. She laughed at her loss of her lover, Bayen Yelou, a former sky dancer partially transformed through the power of her love.

Isis McGowan wouldn’t give up, no matter what the cost. She was damned determined to bring down the horror that had plagued her since she could remember. She fought like a woman possessed with nothing more to lose.

It was quite a simple aspect in life, knowing that everything you had, everything you put faith into, had hopes of, dreamed about even, was concentrated into this one fateful moment in time.

And it was Isis who decided that in order to kill, she would have to forget everything she was trained not to do. She would have to be as brutal and unforgiving as Nemesis was. And more.

Keron dodged the thrown punches at her, acting like they were insignificant as their wielder.

The speed at which she was going–at they were both going–was too fast for the human eye to follow.

They were here on the desert floor, they were there, up in the sky, they were everywhere.

The earth shook under their powerful blows. The skies reverberated. Two god-like beings battling for one goal or another, neither of them giving ground.

Which was admirable to say the least.

Then Isis faltered for one nano second, giving Keron the opportunity to take the upper hand–which she did–and slammed the Starchild into the ground hard: Punching through the first two layers easily.

The woman laughed at her pained expression, as she struggled to get back up, tried to get back into the fight. But the woman’s planted foot on her chest prevented any possible movement, any slim avenue of escape.

“Pathetic.” She said at last, even though she was showing obvious signs of the battle, through heavy breathing and mass perspiring. “Is this the best you can do? Because if it is, you don’t deserve to be called the Starchild.”

Without warning, the other Starchild appeared, poised and ready, before bringing down both fists right across the back of the woman’s head, sending her flying.

Isis touched down afterwards. “You don’t deserve to do jack shit, Nemesis.” She said tightly, eyes glowing brightly. Glancing down at her counterpart, Isis whistled in surprise. “Geez! You look like hell, Isis!” Bending down, she placed a hand on the injured woman’s shoulder. “Here. Maybe this should help.”

Concentrating, Isis brought her own healing factor into play, giving what relief she could to the other Isis McGowan, before Keron appeared, extremely unhappy that she had been interrupted in a critical moment. Like Isis before, she was already in the motions of decking her a good one, but when her cocked fists tried to connect, the other Starchild wasn’t there.

The sound of something unfolding grabbed Keron’s attention and she searched for it and saw the other woman a fair distance away, holding a quarterstaff in an attack stance after she had unfolded it. Then she came at her in a flash, vanishing before she even got within range of the deranged woman and then appearing behind her and bringing all of her enhanced strength into play through the weapon, clipping the other woman across the back of the head again, before reversing it and catching her in the side, then sidestepped expertly, wielding the quarterstaff like an old-fashioned baseball bat and clubbed her right in the face.

Keron went down like a ton of bricks, holding her face in both hands, trying to staunch the flow of blood that gushed through her tightly woven fingers.

Isis spun the weapon casually in her hands, privately relieved to see that their most hated enemy could be injured after all.

Maybe it was just wistful thinking of mine after all...She thought, seeing the woman’s life force drip uncontrollably onto the golden desert ground.

Then it stopped. The flow immediately reversed itself. The wound healing in the blink of an eye.

Isis paled.

Shit! She thought, before taking the sudden initiative and leaped into the air, bringing the bladed implement downwards to skewer the other woman like a trout.

But Nemesis vanished as well, her body blurring like a fast-moving afterimage, before the staff’s sharp point buried itself up to the hilt.

Isis ripped the staff out of the ground, throwing up chunks of hard sand in the process, before an intense burst of cosmic energy came bearing down upon her position.

In less than two seconds, Isis had the staff folded and slaved onto her weapons belt in the rear, before she raised her hands up and met the incandescent wave head-on. The force of impact pushed her backwards, but she stood her ground, even though her feet were digging furrows into the earth as she tried to force the thing back.

“Uggh!” She gritted her teeth in protest. “This thing’s more stronger than it looks!”

The heat, the light, it was as if she had stood naked inside the nuclear core of the sun itself with her bare hands.

The ground beneath continued to crumble under the intense strain, but Isis wouldn’t budge. Only a few feet away, was her injured counterpart and she needed more time to recover, even though she gave her a much needed boost in the healing department.

Six minutes...She gauged silently, as another shockwave of energy drove her back even further. Her body was now discharging huge amounts of energy as she fought the attack itself, as she tried to do what appeared to be an impossible task, but in reality it was just a test in strength and skill.

Isis had both.

Now, she needed for the right moment in which to show Nemesis that she was all teeth and not shell. Then she remembered something Tarnek was trying to teach her in the junkyard one day, when she tried to max out her power signature, but failed, only because she not only didn’t have the proper training, but also because she was grossly inexperienced as well.

The price for absolute power can be costly, Isis. The spirit deity said, after the first attempt was made, leaving the surface dweller temporarily incapacitated. As you now well know. Your powers and abilities will grow over time, but it isn’t important right now to push yourself over your own limits, even if you think that you don’t have them.

Time is an important ally, Isis McGowen. You must give yourself that time and allow your abilities to flourish on their own. Some elements will influence them, but it is important to remember that in a crisis situation, you do not overdo it. The results of which can deadly as well as fatal.

Isis understood now what the ex-Watcher was trying to tell her. But right now, survival was key, not power. Risking a full power burn out– even at this stage in her development– wouldn’t do either of them any good.

Nemesis would still win either way.

The ground cracked sharply, reminding her that she was still under attack and now only inches away from the other Starchild.

Isis took a deep breath, steeling herself against the onslaught, while searching the whole attack for any weaknesses. There where none. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t create one on her own.

Isis concentrated heavily, more than she ever did, trying now to deflect the energy salvo that burned hot on her hands.

Shields. She thought. They came up, a cocoon of purple and gold, surrounding her and protecting her.

The blast intensified, pushing her back even still.

Uhnnh! She grimaced. That’s it! I’ve had it with this crazy shit!

Isis started pushing back, little by little, straining against the incredible power being wrought against her.

The power responded by intensifying, pushing her back even more.

Isis felt the ground buckle beneath her feet, and she knew that it would be seconds at best before she was overwhelmed. But the young woman continued to push the wave back, even though she couldn’t see straight into the blazing corona itself. She sensed that Keron was trying desperately to atomize her and the other Starchild.

What good would I be if I’m dead? She thought, urging every part of her body to resist the awesome strain of the blast pushing against her.

It worked and she felt herself pushing back steadily. Isis then relaxed for an instant and hauled back and struck the energy behemoth with everything she had.

She watched it sail upwards–probably back to a stunned Nemesis was her guess–then launched one of her own blasts directly up at the tail end of the blast wave, pushing it up even faster until they both connected...canceling out even the sun’s natural light.

The Starchild was blown backwards by the massive explosion that followed, but she steeled herself against the remainder at the last second, even as shockwaves of incredible power rocked the surrounding landscape, creating windstorms on a magnitude that easily defied human imagination.

When everything died down and the young woman’s hair stopped whipping wildly in the wind born inferno created by the awesome power of two cosmic beings, did Isis dare to look.

In the second she did, Keron was right in her face, giving Isis only enough time to block her attack, sweeping the woman’s hand aside like it was nothing, only to have to do it again two seconds later, and so on. She raised her forearm to block another savagely thrust fist, dodged another, swept once more, before she sidestepped the next attack, only to be left open to an uppercut that snapped the young woman’s head back, sending her backwards in a state of disarray. Keron swept her legs out from underneath her and then came back and kicked her savagely into the stomach, which left her without breath, despite the noticeable augmentation of her shields.

Isis McGowen flopped uselessly to the ground once, then bounced up before Keron tried to neatly spin-kick her.

The young woman had the common sense to plant one hand firmly into the ground, then cartwheel sideways, causing Keron to miss completely.

Isis sprang back onto her feet, hunched down for a second, before rising.

“I must admit,” she complimented. “You’re a great deal stronger than I originally gave you credit for.”

Keron was in no mood for small talk. All she wanted to do was end this farce here and now and get back to destroying the world once and for all.

“Nice of you to notice.” She responded tartly, before she charged her again.

Isis stumbled backwards gracefully, before launching a bicycle-kick that caught the other woman right in the chest and sent her flying upwards with a look of astonishment in her eyes.

Isis flipped back up onto her feet and then launched herself directly up into the sky right after her, both hands cupped together as she concentrated all of her power into one spot, then let her have it.

Nemesis was creamed right then and there, not even in a position to properly defend herself from the savage attack.

The surface dweller watched as she sailed far into the sky and out of sight, before seeing a far distant plume of dust and smoke erupt on the horizon.

Isis figured then that it would be awhile before she came back. Glancing down, she saw her counterpart finally rise from the small cratered indentation, no worse for wear. She knew then, that it would give them both time to properly perform the fusion technique and allow them to conquer Nemesis once and for all.

Isis looked up and smiled, before giving her doppelganger the thumbs up. But there was no celebration this time around–the damage had already been done.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 93

Keron laughed as the last spark of life flickered and died out in the sky dancer’s eyes, the quarterstaff dangling in his lifeless fingers. It was a simple matter to extract the life force and power of the dead sky dancer, wishing that it was the Starchild’s instead.

Just as she was about to absorb the power and life force into herself, one pinprick of starlight winked into existence, followed by tremendous waves of power that buffeted both Keron and Bayen’s lifeless body.

The woman let the dead man go, watching him as he drifted rapidly earthward, before she extended a hand downwards and launched a concentrated salvo at the dead body.

But Isis was there, batting it away from the corpse, before the body too, was taken away in a spectacular flash of light.

A second wink of starlight followed, making the woman wonder from which direction the attack would come from.

But then there was another. And another. And another and so one.

Three dozen points of light filled the lower half of the sky, before they arced upwards at near superluminal velocities, carried forth by the power of one individual’s mind: The Starchild’s.

Keron screamed as the first wave hit her, making her lose both the precious power and life force of one extinguished innocent human being.

Both entities drifted slowly downwards, even as the second wave slammed into the insane woman, causing her to go completely blind from the lethal assault.

The third was even more intense, causing the woman to lose all touch with her surroundings, making her feel weak and vulnerable to whatever lay ahead for her.

A brief blur of motion and a jump-kick was all that she could remember sensing as the other woman’s foot was firmly planted into the side of her skull, sending her flying out of control.

Isis stopped for a second, powering up, calling forth everything she ever had at her disposal.

“One!” She yelled. Then she threw her hands up, willing the power to become hers and hers alone.

“Two!” She commanded, feeling the largest, destructive energy construct ever devised come into play.

“Three!” She yelled at the top of her lungs, pirouetting gracefully, before pointing a finger at the receding form of the woman that she knew as being a part of her but had begun to hate with an adult passion born from too many scraps and close calls.

The concentrated energy at the tip of her finger blossomed majestically outwards like a spring flower, engulfing her hand, then the lower part of her arm.

The air churned around her violently, even the skies above her trembled and shook, while the ground beneath, vibrated from the impending release of the awe inspiring display of raw energy and anger.

Isis didn’t disappoint anything or anyone. She had had it as far as anybody was concerned.

Go. She commanded silently, eyes bright with untold power.

Like a cannon shot, the energy construct leaped from the tip of her finger, engulfing the space between her and the impending target up in seconds, while quite literally setting the air on fire from its passing.

“Choke on that, you cosmic bitch.” The young woman seethed with blind hatred. “And if you somehow manage to survive this one, I swear, our next meeting will be our last.”

The energy wave that was released vanished as quickly as it had been born, but that didn’t mean it was over.

In the next ten seconds, Keron was hit head on by what she would think of as an out of control freight train straight from hell.

There was no way she could avoid this. It was much more powerful than anything she had yet to experience.

Almost.

Laughing, she powered up to meet the challenge head on and when it came to her, she embraced it like a long-lost sibling and crushed the gigantic energy behemoth with her bare hands; plunging herself deep into it and blowing the whole thing apart with a directed charge of energy herself.

One down and two to go...She thought with a certain amount of abrasive humor within her dark soul. Soon, Isis McGowen, very soon. And your life will be mine once again.

* * *

Isis McGowen tried to choke back the tears as she lowered the broken body of her lover to ground, but she couldn’t control herself.

Why...? She whispered silently. Plaintively. Whyyyyyeee–??

The young woman slammed a coiled fist into the ground, feeling its hard, sandy texture give way under her brutal assault.

Jalena’s ghostly form appeared before her.

“It is the nature of death, Isis. Surely, you must know that by now. There is no sense in avoiding it.”

Isis turned on her intangible partner.

“You don’t know a damned thing about what is life and what is death!” She screamed at her. “You don’t! know! a damned! THING!!!”

Jalena blinked at her in muted surprise.

“Actually I do, Isis.” She answered carefully. “I know all about the embrace of death all too well, I’m afraid. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be dead right now.”

Isis felt like killing something, anything, just to make the pain go away. The pain of loss, the pain of ruined chances.

Her temper, along with the bright glow in her eyes intensified greatly, along with the tears.

“Why...?” She choked out pitifully. “Why? Why? Why?!”

“Why Nemesis has chosen this path for you, or why you were powerless to stop her in the beginning? Or is it because you chose to save a life while your mate chose to sacrifice his in the last second to buy you the precious time that was needed?”

Isis trembled violently.

“All...of...them...”

Jalena felt sorry for her. Truly sorry. It had been rough on her, as much as it had been on all of them.

“Because that’s just the way it is, Isis. There is no easy way out when you are dully confronted with the horrors of life in general. You must make the decision on whether to go on with your life, or...” She trailed off unexpectedly.

“Or what?” Isis bit out harshly.

“Or end it right here, right now in a glorious blaze of honor and sacrifice, just like Bayen did.”

“Bayen wasn’t trained for this! I was!” Isis countered loudly. “He had no right to do this to me! We were supposed to be together forever!”

Jalena nodded compassionately.

“And you will. In death at any rate. But you must first overcome your fears of the unknown and follow your heart’s desire. What is more important than life itself? What is more important than your own life? These are the questions that you must find the answers to on your own.”

Then another voice cut in unexpectedly into the conversation, turning the young woman completely around in the process.

“Then let me answer that question with another: What will it take to kill you, Isis? I am most eager to find out.”

The Starchild stared into the eyes of her most feared enemy. But hate, anger, and the cool wash of revenge overrode all of the terrifying feelings that she had held out to her in the past.

This time, it would be personal. This time, she would pay for her fatal mistake in killing the one man whom she was destined to be with for an eternity. Simply for the sake of love. Something that even Keron lacked after all these centuries of hate and anger. Pain and resentment.

Isis stood there, fully fueled by her emotional drive of revenge, while Jalena stood on the sidelines, waiting quietly for the bell to ring.

“A lot more than you ever had in store for me, Nemesis. Prepare for your end. Because by all that’s sacred, I will kill you with my bare hands.”

Nemesis smiled repugnantly.

“Come then, little one. Let’s see what your bark has, or what power your bite harbors. I am most interested in seeing this, yes...very much interested indeed.”

Jalena vanished just as Isis launched herself at Earth’s most dangerous enemy. One that was quite capable of rearranging the very cosmos itself.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 92

“Name?” The registration official asked pleasantly, when it came to Calis’s turn to register for the Desert Storm.

“Isis McGowen.” The old man said, silently adding, I hope.

The man looked around in question.

“So where is she?”

“Ah...she’s sleeping right now.” The auto-frame mechanic said quickly, thinking once again, I seriously doubt that saying she’s sick would get me anywhere.

The official accepted that explanation with a knowing smile.

“Rough night, eh?”

Calis forced a chuckle out of himself in order to play along.

“Yeah.” He answered. “We were working on her Viper X-1.”

“How’s she running?” The man asked, typing in some information.

“Good.” Calis said without missing a beat. “Diagnostics came back green.”

“Excellent.” The official murmured in approval. “I’ve some money riding on her to win this race, or at least place a good second position finish.”

“She’ll win.” Calis offered confidently, while inside, he was wondering if he could hold up to that promise. With Isis gone, there was nobody qualified to run the auto-frame.

Maybe I could, but I doubt the Racing Committee will find that the least bit funny. God, where can she be? He asked himself.

After completing the final registration with the racing official, he thanked him and left. But while he was mainly concerned with Isis’s disappearance, his recent brush with Cara Hastings left him with a chunk of fear in his stomach.

The young woman was a loose cannon all right. After this race, there was no telling what she would do.

Get bored, blow up the world? He thought morbidly, then shuddered. That thought left him with no amount of comfort. He–and not just the world–desperately needed the Starchild right now, to keep things in check. The threat against Stratos City was an all too real possibility. But what he heard over the E-Net comm channels early this morning, after his discussion with Tarnek, made him think that the danger was still real.

Praetorial Guard has called for a voluntary evacuation of the space complex to minimize casualties in the event of this young woman’s return. This is not a drill.

The message repeated itself inside his mind, giving the old man more reason to be concerned.

With more people on the surface, Cara could consider this an opportunity of chance and start target practicing just for the sheer hell of it.

Calis started back to his hover transport, fueled by determination than anything. There was no way in hell he was going to let this continue. Not if he had anything to say about it.

But where was Talia?

* * *

Isis McGowen stirred, feeling like someone had been using her head for drum practice.

Leona saw this as an encouraging sign and tried her best to cajole her friend into waking up.

“Come on...Isis!” She pleaded, shaking her friend none to gently. “Wake up! Your double out there is getting creamed!”

The young woman’s eyes snapped open and she bolted upright, before vertigo took over and she suddenly had the unbelievable urge to chuck her breakfast in quick order, but taking a deep breath appeared to help her stomach considerably.

“Ohhhh...man....what’d you use to hit me with, Leona?”

Leona didn’t have time for sympathies. Bayen’s last eye witness report indicated they didn’t have much time, right after Nemesis plowed the Starchild a good one and all. It was only minutes at best before the camp would be attacked and a full scale evacuation would be a pointless exercise at most.

“No time, Isis! There is no time! Isis is getting pulverized!”

Isis didn’t see that as a surprise.

“We haven’t performed the actual fusion technique, Leona. Of course Nemesis is going to hurt us badly.” The young woman explained tiredly, wondering if she had the energy to do anything.

Her reserves were depleted and she knew that she didn’t have much left.

At best, I would be shooting blanks. She thought. My power is nothing compared to Nemesis’s. Even my counterpart is easily swayed by that.

But something about her told the young woman differently. There was something about the other Isis that told her a great deal more than she cared to admit.

Our lives are so similar and yet so different, much like our power structures. She thought, as she got up. But that doesn’t mean that I’m a complete failure at what I do. There has to be a way to beat Nemesis. All I have to do is find it.

“I’m going.” She announced to her friend. “But I’ll need Bayen’s help in this.”

“But after the last fight?” Leona questioned in grave concern. “Are you sure about that?”

Isis nodded. “He fought Nemesis on his own, without any help from me. Commendable to say the least, but with the two of us combined, we might have a chance.”

Leona didn’t like this idea one bit. But what choice did they have?

“Fine. But don’t go getting killed on my account.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.”


Keron howled in triumph and anticipation as the Starchild’s seemingly lifeless body plummeted earthward and out of control.

“Yes!” She roared. “Her power is now mine!” But when she looked down, her body was nowhere to be seen.

“What the–?” She began, perplexed by this unexpected development.

Then a hail of finely tuned energy bolts flew up to greet her and she took the assault right in the bread basket of all places, the sting of their bite surprising even her.

“Wait!” Keron screamed out. “I know this attack! But it can’t be! I killed him!”

Then a human figure appeared below her, surging upwards with intent and determination.

Keron’s stunned expression changed to disbelief and fear when she saw who it was.

“No! It cannot be! You’re dead! I killed you!”

But the person in question dismissed that notion when he attacked her at close range, using his weapon of choice against her.

“You should know better than to believe that, you cosmic bitch.” The man’s voice thundered gravely. “I live. And in a few seconds, so will she. Now you will have not one Starchild, but three to contend with.”

Keron didn’t believe the changed sky dancer one bit. But she knew something that he didn’t, even as she successfully parried his attacks.

“Our last fight didn’t make you think, did it? Do you truly believe that you have the power to stop me?”

Bayen didn’t bat an eye at her as he drew himself up and started laying into her with a series of short jabs and strikes with his quarterstaff. His trench coat flapped in the wind, but that didn’t sway him enough to falter in his assault against her.

“We shall soon find out, won’t we?” He questioned directly, before he tried a different tactic all together, his mind and body completely focused on the danger at hand.


Isis carried her counterpart down to almost the hard deck, slowly, carefully, gently, seeing the massive bruising and swelling on her face, on her body and felt a sting of agony for her, wishing that she hadn’t come at all.

You don’t deserve this, Isis. You don’t deserve this at all. This isn’t your fight!

Isis could tell that she was in bad shape, probably closer to death than she had ever been.

Anger surged through her like a tidal wave and she promised that Nemesis would be dearly for all the pain she had caused her.

But first, she needed to heal the other Starchild, like she had healed Bayen.

But it was with her help. Jalena’s voice calmly reminded her. Without her, Bayen wouldn’t be up there right now fighting Nemesis.

Isis only saw one other option.

No! Jalena screamed uncharacteristically. Your attempt to use your life force ability will only kill her, not heal her!

It is the only way, Isis thought back. The only way that I know.

Please! Jalena pleaded. Don’t do this...

But Isis’s mind was already made up.

The only way, she thought, before she clamped one hand over the other woman’s heart and sent an incredible surge of power through her entire body.

Isis McGowan’s eyes on the other hand, flew up and so did her mouth; emitting a single, strangled scream of shock and surprise.

* * *

Bayen was the first to draw blood in this suddenly intensive battle, scoring a line right across the other woman’s cheek, after the quarterstaff’s weapon implement changed to that of a long, curving blade.

Keron briefly touched her lacerated cheek, feeling the inescapable warmth of blood on her fingers.

“You hurt me! You fucking hurt me, you heartless bastard!”

Bayen drew back for an instant, contemplating the woman’s words.

“It’s just going to get worse, Nemesis, because this battle is far from over.” He promised.

The woman’s hand glowed, allowing the wound to be properly healed, but unfortunately, it left a thin scar that was only visible close up.

“Melodramatics.” The woman complained bitterly. “That’s all it is. Melodramatics.”

“Then end this, Keron. Return to the stasis chamber from which you came from. Sleep the eternal sleep.” Bayen gently urged.

Keron hesitated, placing a halt to the fight which was only minutes old.

“Sleep–?” She murmured with a heavy sigh, pain and loss burning deep in her glowing blue eyes. “To sleep for another eternity, without knowing what is to come, or to feel love again...”

Bayen felt that he had her there. All he needed was just another minute. His power wasn’t as great as his lover’s, but it was what they both wanted to share as future husband and wife.

Explorers of the cosmos and deliverers of untold dreams.

But then all that changed when Keron’s face hardened and her eyes blazed brightly.

“No!” She screamed. “I will not fall victim to that again. Freedom is all I crave now. Freedom of choice and living. No more captivity for me!”

The sky dancer’s heart shrank, sensing that he was too late. There was no turning back now. It was an all or nothing stand. But that wouldn’t mean he would be remiss in his final duty.

I am sorry, Isis. I had failed to stop her. I have failed you. He thought out loud, praying that she would hear him.

Keron chuckled, startling the man out of his reverie, discovering that he was too close to her.

Bayen started backing away.

“Always the strategist eh, sky dancer?” She purred seductively. “By now you must know that I can never be stopped. I go on forever!”

Bayen adopted a classic ti-ryu stance of his own design, hoping that he could buy the other two Starchilds a moment...of something that he had hoped would be a victory of some kind.

Quarterstaff out and at an angle, the sky dancer prepared to die.


Isis’s scream died in the depths of her throat, before she realized that she was alive.

Alive!

Isis looked up into the eyes of her counterpart, shocked that she was the one that had rescued her again from certain oblivion.

It was some time before she found her voice.

“I thought I was dead!” She whispered, astonished by what she had just been through.

Her counterpart agreed solemnly.

“For the most part...you were. If not barely. I had to use my life force ability to bring you back.”

Isis tried to think back to the battle with Keron, but she found that her mind was scattered images and sensations of pain.

A certain stiffness in her neck grabbed her attention and the surface dweller reached back to rub it gently.

“Feels like my neck was busted.” She muttered half to herself, half to the other Isis.

The young woman nodded.

“It was. Hair-line fracture in two of your three neck vertebrae. The third was crushed.”

“A broken neck then?” Isis pondered, wondering why it didn’t hurt worse than it actually did. All she could remember was a soft snapping sensation and that was that.

“Something like that.” Isis said evasively, uncomfortable with the fact that she had to stare death down in the face once again. The next time, she wouldn’t be so lucky. But at least she would go down fighting. Protecting the planet like she was meant to do.

A horrific scream tore through the air, before it died down. But it grabbed both women’s attention with its vise-grip nonetheless.

“Bayen!” Isis cried out, letting go of the other Starchild and tearing forth towards the heavens themselves.

Isis had no choice but to follow.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 91

The problem with being unconscious was the fact that sometimes even the reality you swore you grew up in can turn out to be a real nightmare.

At least that’s what Bayen was thinking as his perceptions swam in and out of focus, while another part of him continued to fight for life and the enduring love of a woman.

He had been a fool thinking that he could take Nemesis on her own turf. But with the lives of a few hundred riding on what was going to happen next if he didn’t take that chance and risk it all.

And risk it is what he did.

Memories of the battle kept floating through the unscarred part of his mind–the one place where Nemesis could never have touched–scenes and images of hand to hand combat, sometimes brutal, sometimes not, others...they were just an ancient game of cat and mouse, Keep Away, and so many other childish games that the former sky dancer couldn’t name, but somehow, they were all pleasantly familiar to him.

Then he remembered the pain of the first near fatal blow, then the second, then the third...and so on and so on, until there came a point when living was just as precious as dying.

Flashes of consciousness overlapping the humorous side of the whole thing.

Despite the obvious edge that Nemesis had over him, he wouldn’t give in. He continued to fight hopelessly, countering every move that the woman made in an effort to overwhelm him, until there came a point when she was tired of this newly devised game and ended it for real–something the former sky dancer had come to expect from such a worthy opponent.

And as the pain finally overwhelmed him, he remembered that dying wasn’t going to be so bad, that at least he saved those few hundred people from outright extinction.

Then as before, the sky dancer couldn’t remember anything, only that someone–at some point–had taken the liberty in rescuing him from the brink of oblivion and here he lay, unconscious to the rest of the world.

How long he remained that way, he couldn’t remember. Time was a fleeting mistress, one that he gladly embraced on occasion.

Then he was confronted with some other mystery. One that he couldn’t fully explain and maybe he shouldn’t have. He sensed not only his lover’s presence in the white fog of his consciousness, but he sensed someone else that was also his lover as well.

Confusion immediately set in and he was at a profound loss on how to explain this occurrence.

Maybe I shouldn’t. A part of him decided. Maybe you should look upon this as some unforeseen miracle and leave it at that.

So the consciousness that was made up of Bayen Yelou waited and watched to see what was going to happen, even though ‘seeing’ was a moot point, considering he was now blind in one eye from a past battle at the Arena.

A blanket of warmth filled him from head to toe and instead of decreasing, it intensified...intensified...and intensified–overwhelming him completely.

* * *

Alarmed, Leona caught Isis McGowen as she collapsed, watching as the other one sagged against the bed, semi-conscious from the experience that they both had.

“Isis?” She asked tentatively, unsure on how to speak what was on her mind.

The Starchild looked dazed, but she was quickly recovering, far faster than her counterpart ever could. In less than a minute, she was back on her feet, checking Bayen, before coming over to where Leona was presently standing; her hair matted with sweat and her face shining with perspiration.

“I’m fine. The time it takes to heal someone still takes a lot out of me, even after all the advanced training I’ve gotten.” Looking at her counterpart, Isis brushed a couple of stray brown hairs from her face, seeing the same sheen of sweat dotting her own face. But she was also breathing heavily and Isis could understand why: Her power levels were different from hers.

Her healing factor was oddly diminished, though she knew not why. It still didn’t make much sense, even after all the time she’s spent here. But a more permanent fusion could reveal the truth about the both of them in the coming day and spell a final end to not only one nightmare, but two.

“So she’ll be okay?” Leona asked, after taking a momentary glance at the other Isis McGowen.

Isis nodded. “She’ll be fine. Just needs a little rest.”

Then there was some movement behind them as Bayen bolted up in surprise, before looking left and right quickly, seeing if anyone was here.

“God!” He blurted. “W-where am I?”

“Tent #23, in Camp #51.” Leona answered smoothly, coming to the former sky dancer’s aid.
Bayen glanced around once more, seeing the familiar white walls of the large, geodesic tent.

“Dead Man’s Bluff?” He ventured, after swinging his legs out, allowing his feet to hit the floor. A wave of vertigo hit him and he was forced to keep still until it passed.

Leona nodded sadly. “What’s left of it.”

Bayen seemed to know what happened, like it happened with all the smattering of camps that decorated the Western Desert and beyond.

“I take it Nemesis was here?”

“No.” Leona said with a shake of her head. “And I thank God for that.”

Bayen’s tired expression faltered when his gaze fell upon his unconscious lover.

“Isis!” He croaked, vaulting off the bed, only to be stopped by the Starchild.

The former sky dancer’s face went slack when he befell her familiar form and he reached out to her in confusion.

“I...Isis?” He ventured.

The Starchild nodded, before taking Bayen’s hand.

“It’s okay, Bayen. She’s just asleep.”

Bayen looked at the other Starchild and then at the one who was also the...Starchild?

The man’s head swam as he tried to figure out what was going on.

“H-h-how?” He stammered, then cleared his throat. “How can you be her and her be you?”

“Alternate universe.” The Starchild responded lightly, before touching the man on the face, tilting his head up so that he could see her face. “See?” She instructed, holding out a thick strand of her fiery red hair for him to see.

Bayen did so, feeling the soft strands of her hair before he impulsively lunged forward and kissed the surface dweller on the mouth.

Isis didn’t respond at first, too surprised by the man’s reaction. But she didn’t stop him from kissing her, only because he was essentially the same man she loved as well.

She kissed him back.

An explosion ripped right through the whole encampment, throwing Isis into Bayen’s arms by reflex, entangling them with the makeshift cot.

Leona had fallen back as well, still having a hold of the other Starchild.

Bayen shook his head in surprise, while trying to get rid of the ringing that resonated between his ears.

“Nemesis?” He questioned dryly.

Isis looked down at him and nodded.

“Either that or you’re still one hell of a kisser in any universe.”

Bayen blushed a little from her compliment.

“So are you.”

Another explosion ripped right through the tent fabric, causing the whole ground to vibrate like an out-of-control tuning fork.

“Geez!” Leona gasped, before rubbing some feeling back into her jaw. Isis felt it to, it was like someone had deadened all the nerves in her lower jaw, making it feel like she didn’t have one.

“Sssss...” She forced out experimentally.

Then she tried again. “Supersonics...?” She threw out. Shaking her head, she muttered, “Nope. Just something to get our attention. Or just mine.”

Isis sighed, feeling just out of touch with herself. Whatever Nemesis was using, it was causing her speech impediments on top of the apparent neural scrambler.

It was evident in Leona and Bayen as they both tried to either speak or rise, only to fall back down in a disorganized heap.

The surface dweller tried to get up as well, but her legs wouldn’t respond and she just managed to flop sideways into the hard sandy floor.

Great. She thought, mildly annoyed with herself. Almost two days here and I’m reduced to a sniveling invalid by someone that I know but in retrospect, I really don’t. I have never fought Keron before on this level...never.

Glancing at her unconsciousness counterpart, she knew that she had to get up. Buy her some time at least.

“I’ve...got to go.” She whispered.

Leona was still struggling to get up as well, even with Isis laying against her. But when she heard what the Starchild had in mind, she adamantly told her not to do it.

“You...ve...” she responded slowly, each word a fight for ultimate recognition. “You can’t...”

Isis staggered to her feet, finding the effects of the neural paralyzer wear off. She walked over to where Leona lay, half-propped up against the overturned cot and helped her up effortlessly, while taking a hold of her counterpart.

“I have to.” She said. “There’s no other way.”

“But you haven’t performed this ‘fusion’ technique yet!” Leona blurted out fearfully. “How can you possibly hold your own against Nemesis, when Isis here couldn’t?”

Isis looked at her other self and shook her head.

“No. Isis did. She was just overwhelmed by all the things that had been happening. I, on the other hand, are not. I only have one purpose in mind. And that’s to stop Nemesis.”

“But Nemesis is too strong!” Leona exclaimed. “Even you couldn’t stop her!”

Isis disagreed, before walking back to the lip of the tent, pulling aside the flap in the process.

“But I am strong enough, Leona. I just have to come up with a better strategy, that’s all.”

Then she disappeared out into the open.



Keron was ecstatic.

The plan was working and the prey already afoot, ripe for the killing.

That soon changed a second later when she realized that only one of her intended targets came out to greet her with pre-set determination, not two.

“Oh well,” she muttered without an ounce of regret. Death would come shortly to them both anyway. It was just a matter of time.


Isis rocketed upwards, born aloft by the wind and the power of her will alone, seeking the monster that had caused so much pain and grief for not only the people, but the planet they lived on.

Even though she wasn’t the Starchild of this Earth, she was determined to protect it just like it was her own. But she would try and not make the same mistake like she made with Cara. She had assumed that by reaching out to her, she could eliminate Nemesis’s hold on her and bring her back.

But what I didn’t realize is that Cara was just like her mother. Easily corruptible by greed and the prospects of power. She wanted what Nemesis was offering her and she used it to her advantage. By eliminating me from the playing field, she has effectively sealed my own world’s fate. Those that are still alive to oppose her will perish and those who are the innocent will suffer at her hands.

Isis continued upwards until she had reached a sufficient altitude and then slowed to a stop.

The skies were unusually quiet.

Too quiet. The Starchild sensed, wondering if she had fallen unawares into another deadly trap.

“Quite right, Starchild of Earth. But that is your faltering mistake. Not mine. Prepare to pay for the folly of your ways.”

Prepare for–She started to think, before she vanished in a split-second, just as the killing blow came.

Keron’s fist tagged empty air. Then she spun around and launched a high-powered shot that the Starchild intercepted quite easily and deflected it by batting it away effortlessly.

“‘Prepare to pay for the folly of your ways?’” Isis echoed mockingly. “Gee, I didn’t know that such a debt had to be collected, Keron. It’s beginning to sound a bit old from where I’m standing.”

Keron stopped, baffled by the young woman’s lack of authority.

“You have to die!” She exploded hotly. “Die! Die! Die!”

Isis sighed. Why bother? She thought to herself. Insanity must love company in her case.

The young woman stood her ground.

“You must be stopped, Nemesis. You have to be stopped, for the sake of this world, I have to stop you.”

Keron stared at her before breaking out in laughter.

“What makes you so capable of stopping me?” She demanded, her voice changing quickly from amusement to naked fury. “What?!”

The surface dweller smiled.

“I’m glad you asked.”

Before Keron could respond to that, Isis McGowen was right on top of her, throwing all of her might into one single right hook that almost took the other woman’s head off.

The woman staggered under the blow before bringing her left arm up to block the next one, but she also folded under the next assault, barely conscious, but fully aware of the pain she was feeling in her mouth. A brief exploration of her tongue revealed that she had somehow cut her inner cheek.

Ipmossible! She quaked in fear, her thoughts and actions temporarily disjointed by the rush of pain that she was feeling. I’m not supposed to fail!

However, the Starchild had other thoughts about how she was feeling and turned it up a notch, throwing punches at her that were lightning fast and just as deadly.

Keron managed to erect some kind of defense by the time the second and third set of punches started, allowing her a second to react and return the young woman’s assault almost three-fold.

Isis suddenly found herself on the defensive, fighting for her very life like it had depended on it. One thrown punch after the next, one fluidic fist slicing through the air, each trying to connect, trying to inflict harm on one opponent or the other.

But the two were evenly matched for the next minute, until the surface dweller spied an opening and launched herself at her with a roundhouse kick that whizzed past her adversary’s head, then performed a somersault snap-kick which was automatically followed up by a close-ranged salvo that struck the woman dead-on. Keron was dazed by this maneuver, even after the smoke had cleared. But Isis nailed her again, just as she was recovering from her attacks, throwing her clear.

The Starchild jumped her again, this time by instantly teleporting to the next location and nailing her when she came into range.

This sent her spiraling out of control in the opposite direction, which the young woman used this to her advantage and instantly reappeared in the next spot, but this time, snatching her just as she passed within reach of her, grabbed an outstretched hand, swung her completely around in one tight arc, and flung her earthwards with all of her might.

“Rrrrrrrah!!” The Starchild screamed in hatred, flinging her hands down and bringing all of her power to bear in this one shot–

And a torrent of released energy was the result. One giant yellow beam of brilliantly pure energy filled the sky, charging downwards like a bull elephant.

Five seconds later and the biggest light show this planet had ever witnessed was born, followed by an earth-shattering explosion.

The backlash from such a release was intense to say the least, but Isis was beginning to get used to what she was putting out. Even so, the crater that evolved from the billowing cloud of smoke, debris, and stray energy remnants told her what she already knew: She had completely missed her target.

Upon a closer inspection, she saw that it wasn’t the case after all.

Keron was there, although a bit wobbly from the attack, even though she was below her but not quite at ground level from the Starchild’s current position.

Damn! The Starchild cursed silently. She must’ve been able to either dodge that blast or deflect it enough to avoid a direct hit!

A momentary surge in fear collided against the running surge of adrenaline, leaving the young woman jumpy and a bit unsure on how to proceed.

Then that decision was taken from her when Keron looked up directly at her, eyes filled with loathing and hate, before she vanished.

Isis stood there for a second, before she took that opportunity to check her surroundings, but again, it was too late. Keron reappeared behind her and got her in an inescapable full headlock, with her knee jammed solidly into the small of her back.

Isis struggled, realizing too late that this was the same trick that Cara had pulled on her.

Her fears were confirmed when Keron whispered, “Now you know why you can never beat me, Isis McGowen. I am power, I am fear. You...you are nothing.”

The surface dweller struggled for one last second, as she tried to breathe, tried to gain one last foot hold on life itself, before all hope was officially lost.

Then her body sagged in defeat as the young woman was so very close to losing touch with the rest of the world.

Seconds left...something inside her warned. Do something!

The young woman laughed inwardly, finding this situation to be a bit ironic. In all the test cases she had been through, there was no telling what kind of miracle or stroke of luck might present itself to her at the last moment of indecision and desperation.

No. She thought mildly. Not this time. This time, I think I really overreached myself and allowed Nemesis to win once more.

Her brain lost focus and she felt each part of herself shut down little by little.

Too many damned times–! She howled one final time, as something snapped softly in her ears before darkness claimed her spirit.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 90

The second both women touched down in the area designated Camp #51, Isis was completely overcome by the wave of despair and hopeless that emanated from this place.

She sagged with a moan, only to have her counterpart hoist her back up and ask her what was wrong.

“This place is full of sadness and pain!” She gasped in her Changed Voice. “Too much for me to bear!”

The other Isis shook her head. “You must!” She urged strongly. “It is the only way to beat Nemesis!”

The young woman stood there and nodded weakly, before gathering the necessary strength to block out what she was sensing. The feelings and emotions diminished a great deal, but she was left with that nagging feeling of despair and hopelessness.

“This way.” She urged quietly, leading her through a disarray of tents and scattered equipment crates that were haphazardly transformed for means of storing things or stacking other items of interests, some of which Isis recognized as clothes, others, weapons, and all the other day to day essentials that she found common in her life (e.g. dishes and gardening implements.)

But what she also found was the disparity that she read on those that she passed and discovered the horrible truth of their suddenly turned inside out existence: No hope.

It was as if every dreg of humanity had simply given up because there was no way to fight, no point in putting up even a hint of resistance to the force that had destroyed their way of life, even though it was now just a dead metal husk floating in space now.

There was no point in doing anything but simply wait for the end.

The Starchild could see this in their faces, horrifying as it seemed to her.

The other Isis led her to one tent in particular and they both went inside.

A woman was there tending to someone that neither surface dweller could see from their angle, but it was made apparent when the woman turned and looked at Isis McGowan.

“Hi!...uh...” She started to say, before her eyes drifted from the first Starchild to the...second?

Her jaw dropped and she didn’t say anything.

“Isis?” She ventured after they had come in and taken station around her.

“Yes.” Isis replied distractedly, seeing the one person that she had come to heal initially the night before, had she not become distracted by Nemesis.

The woman swallowed audibly, before she found the courage to speak again.

“I didn’t...I just didn’t know...” She trailed off.

The other Isis looked at her friend in question. “Leona, she’s not my long lost twin. She’s a duplicate from another universe.”

Leona glanced at the other Isis, seeing the red hair for the first time. Then she looked at her friend and saw the luxurious brown hair that she sported.

“I see. So what brings her here?” Leona wanted to know.

The other Isis looked at Leona, mildly surprised by the fact that she resembled the same Leona she knew in her universe.

“Long story, Leona.” She answered crisply, before pulling back the sheet the concealed the person’s identity.

The young woman gasped at the sight that lay before her.

“I tried to do what I could.” The other Isis explained sorrowfully, reaching out to touch the face of her lover.

Bayen Yelou’s face bore the marks and bruises of his recent encounter with Nemesis, in the form of dark discolorations and painful bruising that marred his face and made the left side puff out to twice its normal size. His right eye was splotched a deep angry red, as it was swollen shut and his left arm was in a sling and makeshift cast.

The rest of his body was covered in a light sand splotched-green blanket, leaving Isis with no clear cut idea on how bad the rest of him was hurt.

“Your sister said that you healed him. Was that a lie?” Isis inquired gently.

The other Isis nodded.

“My healing powers are a joke, Isis. They are simply not strong enough to cope with the magnitude of his injuries. The best that I could do was induce a coma so that his body might heal naturally on its own in time. But Leona says that he may be laid up for months, even a year at most. And I couldn’t live with the fact that he would recover by then only to face certain suffocation when the planet’s oxygen envelope finally dissipated into space.”

Isis nodded her head slowly, while another part of her grasped the magnitude of the situation.

“Boy, that is harsh.” She sympathized greatly. “It would seem that coming from what I’ve witnessed and experienced that we need to deal with one problem at a time.”

The other Isis agreed on her double’s assumption.

“But we can’t take out Nemesis single-handedly, knowing what’s happened the last couple of times.”

The young woman agreed. “So that means we both have to approach this problem from another angle.” She took a seat next to Bayen’s bed and looked at her counterpart.

“A fusion is what we both need to do, Isis. From what I’ve been schooled about the various histories of the Starchild legacy, a fusion has never been done either, because there was no real need to. The power of the Starchild is supposed to be absolute–meaning that nothing can challenge it. But in both our cases, it looks like we’re both going to have to do something that neither of us has deeply considered doing. And it would mean a great sacrifice on both our parts.”

“I’m willing.” Isis said automatically. “You know I would do this. We’ve discussed it between ourselves and with Rinia and Calis too.”

Isis nodded. “I know, I know.” She gestured at the same time. “But the time frame is something that I’m not entirely comfortable with. Being out of action for one day would put this planet and its inhabitants at a serious risk without any form of protection from either of us.”

“It sounds risky,” Leona was saying, before Isis’s counterpart could respond. “But it’s one that we would gladly accept, if it meant a one chance in hell of beating Nemesis.”

Isis wasn’t about to disagree with her on that one. The sooner they performed the fusion, the better.

“Has Nemesis been around lately?” Isis asked.

Leona shook her head.

“No. Things have been pretty quiet lately, since yesterday anyway. We heard what happened up in Stratos City, or what still remains of it at the very least.”

“It can be rebuilt.” The other Isis said. “I’m sure of that.” Then she looked at Bayen’s sleeping form and added, “I think it’s time we got ready, don’t you, Isis?”

“Get ready?” Leona questioned, a little baffled.

The other Isis nodded, seeing that she had no other choice. Maybe it was the fear of failure that was holding her back, or maybe it was something else entirely. But with her counterpart here with her, maybe she could do the impossible once more and save the life of the man that she loved.

“Yes. Let’s do it.” She answered softly, before she placed her hands on Bayen, while her other self followed suit. “But remember: This is only a temporary fusion of our powers at best–not our bodies. We‘ll need the hyperbolic time chamber to do the actual fusion in retrospect.”

Isis nodded and then began calming herself, allowing her own power to flow her being, willing what she had left to dole out one last miracle. One last chance at life.

Closing her eyes, she visualized her lover, his whole body and the injuries that graced it.

Isis McGowan on the other hand sensed that her counterpart had done the job of being calm and relaxed and allowed herself the luxury of searching out her own feelings, ones that bordered on compassion and love.

She found that being here had allowed her some insights on what her life would’ve been like had things changed. But seeing what her other self was willing to do just be able to lead a normal life made her feel like she had been giving a chance to make sure that what happened her wouldn’t occur in her own world.

Like some doorway had been deliberately opened for me and I have stepped through a looking glass full of horrifying prospects. Things that would make me pause and consider what I should really do with my life. She pondered, feeling the power course through her hands as she realized that a part of her had drifted while the rest of her remained locked into a kind of healing mode, as that aspect of her personality directed more and more of her healing factor into someone that looked so much like her own lover and was in some respect.

The young woman could feel her counterpart’s power merge with hers, but feeling it wan a bit as time went by.

Come on, she directed. It’s okay. I will guide you to where you’re supposed to begin.

The power seemed to brighten and then follow her lead as the two merged again–this time on a temporary scale–allowing the two women to perform what Isis sensed was indeed the miracle that her counterpart was searching for.

Together, we can do this. An unspoken mantra rang between them, giving each a renewed sense of strength and a renewed sense of conviction. Both Starchilds discovered that their source of strength came not from their combined powers, but from each other.

That’s it. Isis encouraged. Bring forth what comes natural to you. Let it all come pouring forth...now...now...now–

Now.

A bright light permeated the Starchild’s intangible surroundings, causing her to lose sense of everything. Curiously, though, the last thing she swore she heard was, It worked! It worked! It–

Then nothing.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 89

Cara dreamed of ruling the cosmos underneath her iron fist. Taste the fear that emanated from the various star systems that would quake with terror at the mention of her name. And take great pleasure in killing innocents just for the sheer sport of it, if they didn’t accede to her every whim and desire...

A slight bump jarred her from her sleep, as her powerful Skyhawk S-3 hit some minor air turbulence, before the auto-pilot immediately corrected for the deviance.

Cara’s head felt like Jell-O from the insane dreams and nightmares that she had over the past week, not to mention the fact that she was being manipulated by a higher force to carry out a waging war of death and destruction all in the name of desire.

She had realized that a part of her relished the unique opportunities to get what she wanted with this kind of power and what she could do to those who tried to intimidate her through the use of force.

And killing...?

The young woman was used to it. She had killed for the sake of her own survival when she left her aunt’s place and she felt no compassion for what she had done. In her mind, it was a simple necessity.

Now it was a game.

A brutally delicious game of pain and suffering that could not be equaled by anything she had done in the past.

And she felt alive and powerful when she had taken a life, or lives–depending on how one would view it. Acts of contrition and simple violence wasn’t her cup of tea.

Cara enjoyed what she was doing, part of her vengeance stemmed from her interaction with her mother on a couple of occasions long before she was institutionalized, seeing what the Praetorial Guard was really like, before regulations were put into play for ethical treatment of sky dancers and surface dwellers alike.

The other part was because of who she was. She was a product of two worlds like those who were also like her and suffered persecution and discrimination because of the parentage they had been birthed from. She was a hybrid because her father was a surface dweller and her mother was a sky dancer.

And she hated herself for it, believing that she was–and always would be–weak because of what she was. Because of that ideal, she reasoned that she would never be able to live up to her full potential.

Taking the power from someone who offered it to her was by no means an easy way out in order to take care of personal problems. Strength and power–she thought–was the only way to survive in a world as harsh and unforgiving as this one.

Once Isis was out of the way, she planned on doing what she had always dreamed of: Revenge.

Pay back those who had caused her pain.

Including those who resided in Shark’s Bay.

Cara increased speed.


Shielding his eyes from the wind-blown sand the best he could, Calis leaped out of his hover transport with the best intentions in mind, only to have the forces of Mother Nature make that decision for him by slapping the old man broadside into the left side of his own vehicle.

“Whuff!” Calis wheezed, holding his poor stomach, after feeling the shock of impact. “Boy the winds are certainly gusting out of control today!”

A passerby agreed as he was trying to make his way down to the lower section of the race track, even though Calis knew that going through the short corridor was like being stuck in a high-powered wind tunnel. But the old man endured this, partly because he was used to it, but also because a part of him enjoyed the feeling of the wind trying to overwhelm him once he emerged on the other end.

Today was no different. True, the winds were stronger this time, but it didn’t mean that he couldn’t take it.

Forty, maybe fifty, tops. He gauged silently. A little stronger than usual, but this is just here at Shark’s Bay. Out in Hurricane Flats, the winds will be pushing one-fifty at the very least.

The racing pit was crowded with pilots, each waiting to register for the Desert Storm. A lot of excitement flowed through the crowd of expectant hopefuls, many expressing wistful thoughts with one another, while veterans of the sport just smiled and shook their heads in amusement.

Calis waited patiently for an hour for his turn to register, not even aware of the person that was standing three feet from him.

The old man looked to his immediate left, at first puzzled by the scowl that was planted on her lovely face, then his puzzlement turned to dread, then finally fear.

As if a light bulb had gone off in her head, the young woman turned and looked directly at him.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry, old man. I don’t plan on doing anything destructive right now. I have to register for a race. But mark my words, you will be feeling my wrath quite soon and you won’t have your pathetic excuse of a Starchild to stop me.” She said in a belligerent tone of voice.

For one second, Calis felt deep sadness, then anger overwhelm him at the loss of someone that he cared deeply about.

Brushing past the man that was next to him, the old man reached out and grabbed the young woman by the front of her jacket and drew her close to him, nostrils flaring.

“What did you do to her?” He yelled at the top of his lungs. “What did you do to Isis McGowan?!?”

Cara’s eyes burned bright green for a second and the auto-frame mechanic felt an intense pressure on his whole body, before he felt something tear his hands away from her and forced him unwillingly to his knees. The pressure increased slowly, gradually, until Calis was certain that his whole body would break from the strain that being placed upon it.

It took a great amount of effort for the old man to speak through clenched teeth.

“Go ahead...” He hissed through the pain that he felt. “Kill me if you must. But at least I’ll die knowing that I’ll never be a slave to your ever whim and desire.”

The glow from the young woman’s eyes faded, but the contempt that was left however, did not go away.

“Bravado mustered from the pathetic excuse for an old fool like yourself.” Cara blasted insultingly. “Dying wouldn’t save you from my clutches, Calis. In fact, it would make it a much more pleasurable experience for me.”

Cold realization hit the old man like a ton of bricks.

“A-are you saying that you have the capability to raise the dead?”

Cara nodded. “On a limited basis, I must admit. But only those who are deemed worthy of my attention.”

Calis felt utterly sick. There was absolutely no ends to Nemesis’s madness. But the question of who she would favor remained quite unclear to him.

Maybe she would raise someone she hated and then killed him/her over and over again just for the sheer pleasure of it. He thought, before shuddering violently.

Cara seemed to pity him. “Oh, please tell me that what I have said hasn’t distressed you too much,” she crooned seductively.

Calis remained silent, still on his knees. But once he realized that whatever was holding him down was gone, he rose unsteadily to his feet, taking a couple of ungainly steps back, before someone reached out and steadied him.

“You okay mister?” The pilot asked.

The old man nodded.

“Y-yes...” He stammered, before thanking the man for his assistance. The pilot stared at the young woman across from him in suspicion.

“Is she causing you trouble?” He asked, before taking a step towards her. If it wasn’t for Calis’s quick reflexes, the pilot would’ve died.

“No!” He exploded outright, holding the man back at arm’s length from Cara Hastings. “It’s just a disagreement,” he said, while glancing imploringly at the young woman, silently pleading with her not to cause any more unnecessary pain.

Cara said nothing, but watched the escalation between the two with idle interest.

The pilot looked at the auto-frame mechanic, seeing the naked fear in his eyes, reading the unspoken message behind it. He backed down without further protest and left the pair alone, walking down a ways to join the companions that he had left behind.

Calis couldn’t help but look at Cara once more, not sure if he should be relieved or be left quaking in his boots.

“Very good, old man. You saved me the trouble of exterminating him through your selfless act. I applaud your actions, if not your motives.”

Calis didn’t buy into that. Not when he knew what she was capable of.

“There is no further need for this continued path of senseless death and destruction, Cara. Your mother wouldn’t have approved of it, nor would your father, Jonas Hastings.”

Cara chuckled softly. “You know what? You’re absolutely right. They probably wouldn’t have. But I took steps to make sure that they would never bother me again.”

The hairs on the back of the old man’s neck rose.

“What do you mean? What did you do to Rayna and Jonas?” He demanded.

Cara blinked. Then she smiled coldly.

“You know the old adage of sacrifice and survival, don’t you? The best and the brightest? The survival of the fittest and all that? Well, I just made sure that they both knew who was the stronger.”

Calis felt his blood go cold inside of him.

“Dear god...” He whispered, horrified. “You didn’t–!”

The young woman nodded.

“Of course I did! How else are people going to learn from their mistakes?” Then her eyes zeroed in on him intently. “How are you ever going to learn from yours?”

The auto-frame mechanic felt crushed by what she was implying.

“You bitch!” He cried out. “Rayna wasn’t in any condition to mount a defense! And why kill your father?! He didn’t do anything to you!”

Cara shook her head. “Don’t give me a lecture old man. I am much more than I ever was before. I can do anything I want because nobody here can stop me. Certainly not you and that poor excuse for a guardian that you have locked inside your mind.”

Calis backed up.

“It doesn’t matter, Cara. We will find a way to stop you, just like we did before, many years ago. Don’t think that we cannot do it.”

Cara laughed. When she was finished, she said, “You believe that you have the power to stop me? I think not. Now leave before I change my mind about having you killed right here and right now.”

The auto-frame mechanic was utterly helpless. He knew that he had no way of stopping her now. Not when Nemesis was in full control of her. But maybe later, when the time was right, he would. But he also realized that the Earth would never stand under the weight of Nemesis’s mighty influence. Not to mention that the God of Insanity would be showing up sooner or later.

So he acceded to her open demand by leaving her and going some where’s far from her sphere of influence, hoping that until he could initiate the newly hatched idea born from desperation, Isis would be able to find her way back and take care of this messy business from her end and bring a sense of peace and quiet to this suddenly tortured world of his.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 88

It may have been undignified, but the sky dancer saw that he didn’t have a choice in the matter. There was no way that he would be able to get around limping, without the aide of an old-fashioned wooden cane that he had purchased from a street vendor, mightily relieved that the weight of his bad leg was finally gone.

As much as technology was a major player in his life, the sky dancer still felt that he could live without its wondrous and marvelous aides. The man considered himself to be part of a unique breed of human beings that relied more on instinct rather than what most sky dancers would consider an obsolete crutch when, the whole universe that lay before them, beckoned to their inner consciousness, revealing to them the new wonders of the future, while encouraging them to discard old relics of the past.

Probably why we have a Museum of Ancient Artifacts. He mused thoughtfully, seeing an ironic connection there. He had been witness to many of the slogans of the E- Net, the bulk of them telling him to cast of the glories of old and rush to embrace the new.

The sky dancer huffed a bit, climbing up a staircase, knowing that soon, he would be able to walk normally, once his leg had properly healed. But right now, he would have to contend with the infirmity until later.

Thankfully, he was glad that he didn’t have to deal with Cara again. One broken leg was enough for his taste.

* * *

For a time no one said anything.

The other Isis just stood there–balking at her mentor and teacher in plain astonishment.

The second Isis wasn’t too far behind her own counterpart.

“You’ve gotta be kidding, Calis! This isn’t just a game we’re playing here! I’m dead serious! If we don’t combine our abilities here and now, Nemesis will walk all over the both of us and trash the planet!” The first Isis exploded angrily.

The old woman sighed, before taking something from the workbench pressed against the wall.

“We both know what is at stake here, young lady.” She said unmovingly. “Don’t we?”

Isis nodded. “Yes.” She ground out, unwilling to budge an inch. “If I do anything rash–other than my sworn duties as the Starchild–I’ll be sealing the fate of this planet forever.”

“So what would you call this stunt with using the time chamber?” The old woman asked.

“Hope. And a way out of this hellish mess.” She answered with solid conviction.

Rinia made a sound of disgusted disbelief.

“More like an act of desperation the way I hear it.” The spirit deity remarked acidly. “The hyperbolic time chamber isn’t something you can simply use and expect to wave away every problem which comes across your path.”

The other Isis McGowan glared daggers at her, forgetting her fear of the spirit deity. She was quickly being reminded of who she sounds like: Either her Calis, or while confronting Nemesis on the battlefield.

“Up yours, you selfish bitch!” She snarled.

Both women looked at her.

“What did you say?” Calis asked with a dangerous air about her. Rinia’s eyes glowed in response to her own emotional state.

The young woman sensed that they weren’t all too happy with her lack of respect for the situation and of them. But she didn’t care.

For their information, they can all take a long jump off a very short pier. She thought angrily. This is no time to start becoming chicken now!

Isis drew herself up.

“You heard me. So clean the wax out of both your ears.”

“Impertinent child!” Rinia growled. “You dare challenge me...here?!”

Isis balanced herself on the balls of her heels, rocking back and forth slowly, repeatedly flexing her hands into fists to drive out any strain she would feel, knowing that Rinia was in spirit form and could not be touched.

But that didn’t matter to her the least bit. Someone had to knock some sense into the both of them, if they believed that a suicide mission was the way to go.

There are always other ways to deal with an impossible situation. Keron reminded her quietly. The trick is not to look for the most easiest way out.

I know this. The surface dweller commented back. But these two don’t.

Force of wills may not be so feasible as you believe Isis. The Source of Chaos added as well. Listen to what we are trying to say. It may end up saving your life someday.

The young woman appreciated their input.

I know this as well, Source. She answered. But there are times when that may be the only thing left to fight with. But you’re all going to have to trust me on this one. I know precisely what I’m doing.

But it may not be the right thing, Isis. Keron pointed out. Have you considered that?

Isis broke contact momentarily, reading the fire in the other woman’s eyes.

She wasn’t stupid, but she meant business.

Much like the other Rinia in my universe. She thought. Then she answered Keron’s question.

Yes. She said silently. I have. And believe me when I say this: It’s the only way.

No further words of incalculable wisdom greeted the young woman at the subconscious level and she knew that her statement had been met with utter silence.

Isis had no wish to alienate them by any means whatsoever, but she felt that she had a chance to change things even in the face of hopelessness.

Please...she half-pleaded. Trust me just this once.

Still nothing. Not a whisper of compliance or anything.

The surface dweller didn’t attempt to change their stances any further. All she realized is that she had a job to do and she was duty-sworn to carry it out.

“Well?” Rinia’s tone sharp voice cut through her reverie. “Are you going to answer me?”

The young woman just looked at her before relaxing, then said, “I have. You just weren’t paying attention. I know the two of you are scared of what’s been going on, but I’m not.”

“I sensed fear in only a few minutes ago, surface dweller. Tell me if that wasn’t true.”

Isis nodded in acquiescence. “It was. But only because of what you–Rinia–represent to me.” She said.

The spirit deity’s emotional rollercoaster slowed down just a bit as she registered what she perceived as a temporary cease-fire.

“What do I represent?” She wanted to know, simply out of blind curiosity. She wasn’t so tight-assed about showing others how she felt, not like her old colleague, Tarnek, had in the past. But that was before he was killed in the War of the Ancients. She went on to live with the knowledge that his death–however heroic it was meant to portray–was a senseless loss to everyone who had fought and eventually won.

But this confrontation with something that she thought was frankly impossible, was greatly disturbing, faced with the knowledge that everything could’ve been avoided had things gone differently. However a great philosopher she might’ve been, Rinia was powerless to do anything about the current situation. All she could do was standby and watch.

“Everything that has been terrifying me for the last two years. Everything that screams of pain, suffering, and blind hatred. Everything that tells me that you have to be stopped no matter what the cost. That’s what you represent.” Isis finished, before taking a deep breath and waiting to see what her response would be.

So far, the ex-Watcher and herself hadn’t gotten off on the best of terms that she understood them. Always head-butting each other since they met, all for the sake of one idea.

Rinia smiled, her face momentarily animated with wry humor.

“I’m a real bitch, huh?” She guessed off-handedly.

Isis blew her breath out in a sudden rush before nodding in stark agreement.

“I’ve been finding that out real quick as of late.” She commented wryly.

Rinia agreed silently, walking up to the young woman.

Isis held her breath as she circled her slowly. Then she stopped to her immediate right before turning and facing her directly.

“So how powerful am I in your universe?” She asked.

Isis felt a sharp jab of pain in her stomach, reminding her of all the beatings she had taken in her fight against Nemesis. She grimaced slightly, but that was all.

Just a reminder of that and the things to come.

“Enough so that my best friend is now possessed by you.” She stated simply.

“Possession of another kindred soul. Is she the innocent in this fight?”

“She is. But as for the ‘innocent’ part–?” Isis shook her head. “I don’t really know.”

“Then your fight with me has become even more difficult.” The spirit deity said.

“How?” The other Isis wanted to know, a little confused by the ongoing discussion. “You mean to tell me that there is a another you out there?” She illustrated by pointing a finger out towards the door.

Isis glanced at her counterpart in slight irritation.

“Yes. And I’m afraid that I’ll end up losing the battle just like you are on the verge of.”

Rinia walked back to where Calis was standing, seeing the relenting nod of ascent. Turning back to the two women, she said, “Then we agree.”

Isis stared at the ex-Watcher, dumbfounded by her statement.

“What do you mean, you agree?” She demanded. When she realized that she had raised her voice, she stamped it back down by asking, “What do you mean by that?”

“The plan that I objected to earlier, Isis.” Calis jumped back. “The one that you wanted to carry out.”

“You must carry it out.” Rinia said. “It’s the only way.”

Isis looked at the two of them and then at her counterpart in utter bafflement. This was getting to be too much. First a strong objection and then this?

Whatever happened to the ancient principal of democracy and unilateral consolidation anyway? She wondered. Two sides vying for one long-term goal, but having no clear cut plan on how about to best get there...

The thought brought little comfort to her as she asked, “But you two were so adamant before. What changed your mind this time?”

“The fact that Isis is going to need your help in taking care of Nemesis in her own universe.” Calis argued lightly. “Her plight is no different than yours.”

“But what about this dying thing if we even attempt it?” She questioned astutely. “Weren’t you just saying that it would be dangerous for us to even do the merging process?”

“Only if it isn’t done properly.” The old woman revealed. “You would know this if you hadn’t skimmed through my texts like you had that one time.”

“But I was in a hurry!” The young woman protested. “You can’t stand there and fault me for that!”

The auto-frame mechanic made a dismissive gesture of sorts.

“That’s not for me to decide. That’s up to you and you alone. You have to make the decision whether or not to go through with the fusion. But if you do, I must caution the both of you: Once you’ve merged together, there may not be a way to separate the two of you after the job is done. Any attempt to do so, might end up killing you.”

Isis understood what the old woman was saying. It made perfect sense coming from her.

“We know. And that’s why we are willing to take the chance.” She said. “But first we need to go check something out–before entering the hyperbolic time chamber.”

Calis nodded. “Go. But hurry back. Time’s a’ wasting.” She urged.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 87

With the bath and breakfast out of the way, both Isis McGowen and her counterpart reached Shark’s Bay without incident, as the morning sun rose higher into the sky, signifying that the afternoon was about to begin.

The two young women entered Calis’s workshop, finding the inside to be a bit brighter with the sunlight streaming through some overhead windows. There were very few lights on from what they could tell, which made the place a bit more homey than usual.

“I can see why you chose to sleep at my mom’s house,” Isis’s counterpart quipped jokingly, after they had both transformed back to their civilian guises. Isis McGowan was dressed in a blood-red shirt, blue vest and a green pair of pants that she had borrowed from the other Isis, with the leg cuffs hanging over her the lip of her black boots.

Her counterpart was dressed in similar attire, with a navy blue shirt, a light green utility vest and brown pants that fit snugly over her own pair of black boots.

“The both of you would easily pass for twins, if it wasn’t for your hair colors.” A woman’s voice piped up, before coming around the corner, carrying a pair of thick-grip tools and a box-like device that was silver in nature.

“Good morning to you too, old woman.” Isis returned affectionately. “Where’s Rinia at?”

“Here and there.” She answered distractedly, while brushing past them.

The other Isis stared at her, anger quickly rising deep inside her.

“This is important, old woman!” She snapped. “We don’t have time for mind games this morning!”

The other Calis took a moment to glance back at her, before she shook her head in mild annoyance.

“With that kind of attitude, no wonder you weren’t able to beat Nemesis yesterday.”

“Be it for me not to act perfect all the time!” Isis retaliated hotly. “At least I kicked her ass!”

Calis laughed. “Power and might do not win battles, Isis McGowan. Surely, you’ve figured that out by now.”

Isis felt her cheeks burn in embarrassment.

“And how would you know, old woman?”

“Rinia told me. She had been monitoring the battle.” The auto-frame mechanic said, before putting her tools away and wiping her grimy hands with a nearby rag before turning around and looking at the other Isis McGowan. “I know that even with the two of you, Keron still managed to gain the upper hand.”

Isis McGowan stepped forward. “I have a plan, old woman. One that could spell success.”

Calis’s brown eyes narrowed. “No.” She stated flatly.

Both women looked at her in surprise.

“What do you mean, no?” The surface dweller asked. “My counterpart hadn’t even outlined what she was going to say.”

“Yeah!” The second Isis answered stiffly. “What she said!”

Calis shook her head and then sighed heavily.

“Again, Rinia informed me what you two are planning. Jalena was kind enough to fill us in after you guys finished your morning routines.”

“Jalena!” Isis exclaimed. “That conniving bitch!”

The other Isis appeared crestfallen since their plan had been prematurely exposed by the old woman.

“There is no need to go off the handle, Isis!” She corrected sharply. “What you’re planning is inconceivably dangerous! You don’t know what the end results might be! Either of you could die!”

Isis shook her head, shaking a fist at the old woman in a dramatic fashion.

“I’m already prepared to do that!” She shouted. “It’s my damned decision, not yours!”

“Even if you had a day–free of interference in the hyperbolic time chamber–” Calis began, but was interrupted when a shadowy figure appeared behind the old woman–taking the form of a young woman with a long, flowing white robe. In her left hand was a staff with a glowing emerald crystal on the end.

Isis McGowan took a step back, deeply rooted in shock at facing a terror that she had already confronted once in the cave out in the Western Desert. It was a numbing experience to say the least, even though her counterpart had mentioned her once or twice, she never gave it much thought up till now.

“R-Rinia...” She whispered shakily, taking another step back. The next couple of seconds would determine whether or not she would stand her ground or turn and run.

The spirit deity’s long raven-black hair billowed gracefully as she walked past Calis, her feet barely touching the ground; though the bottom of her staff clacked woodenly on the permacrete as she went.

She didn’t seem to notice the other woman’s state of distress as she was focused completely on Isis McGowan.

“Are you prepared to leave this planet defenseless in the wake of the God of Insanity?” She challenged evenly.

“If I don’t do something,” the young woman grated, “there won’t be a planet left to defend...period!”

“What you are proposing is exceedingly dangerous, Isis. Have you given careful thought to what you have laid out? No one in known memory has even done what you two wish to do. Mainly because it is too dangerous to attempt. Secondly...secondly...” Rinia paused for a second, before looking at one cold Isis McGowan and the other, who was visibly trembling for a moment, before she got a hold of herself.

The ex-Watcher continued. “One of you might die in the process.” Turning her attention to the other Isis McGowan, she asked, “What is wrong, child? You were positively shaking there for a moment.”

Isis shivered, but stood her ground, her fear gradually diminishing as time passed.

“I...I am fine.” She managed with a heaving sigh. “You just look like someone whom I’ve had too many confrontations in the past.”

Rinia stared at her for a moment, before nodding in clear understanding.

“Ah. I see. I’ve been told by Jalena that you carry the spirit of our worst enemy inside you, is that correct?”

“Keron isn’t your enemy. She is a lost ex-Starchild whom resides inside my subconsciousness.” Isis informed the woman on no uncertain terms. She suddenly found herself in no mood to be trifled with, not when she had a heavy burden thrust upon herself.

“I know. I know.” The ex-Watcher said disarmingly. “She doesn’t pose any danger to us. But I am curious about one thing though: How can you exist here on the same dimensional plane as our Isis does? I thought that such co-existences between the original and its counterpart was strictly unattainable by our understanding of the known universe?”

Isis didn’t know the full answer to that one. But at least she could take a wild guess. “Maybe it’s because of some unique properties that somehow binds our two universes together, allowing for such a meeting to take place. But that’s just my personal opinion.” She said.

Rinia was quiet for a minute or so before she said, “Then you must return to your universe right now, as soon as possible.”

That announcement stunned both women.

“–but she–” The first Isis jumped in.

“–I–” The second woman’s voice overlapped majestically.

They both finished with, “–can’t do that!”

Then both of them glanced at each other and nodded, before turning their attention back to Calis and Rinia.

“What you propose is sheer lunacy!” The Isis McGowan of this Earth pointed out.

The other agreed wholeheartedly. “I swore I would help my counterpart defeat Nemesis before I returned to my universe to face mine.” She emphasized, stamping her foot. “And I will do precisely that.”

Rinia sighed, sensing the stubbornness from the both of them.

“Are you that determined to die, Isis? I seriously doubt that, not when you don’t have the faintest idea on how to get back to your own dimension.” She broadened quietly.

Isis didn’t give a rat’s ass at this point in time.

“I don’t care at this moment. What concerns me the most is how to take out Nemesis on this Earth of yours, before going back to take out my version of Nemesis. Now Isis here, has a plan and I’m more than willing to go through with it.”

“Even when one of you might die as a result?” Calis interjected, eyebrows raised.

Isis nodded. “Death is not a concern, when the safety of the planet is at stake, old woman. You should know that about me by now, since me and her are so alike.” She said.

“Then you’re sealing your own fate, Isis McGowan. I won’t put her through it.” Calis reaffirmed in a firm and unwavering voice. “I won’t.”

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 86

Acts of Desperation


Calis woke up right where he had left off the night before–sprawled right acrossed the bed like a bent piece of driftwood. He had spent most of the night and some early morning hours trying to get the hover tank working. By himself, he knew the task that lay ahead was going to be a difficult one, both in form and in function.

But once his mental facilities had reverted back to what he considered normal, he thought more about last night and more of what Tarnek was telling him last night, about the path that the human race had once took and what its destiny might be.

However, the earlier conversation with the ex-Watcher had disturbed the old man greatly.

The human race had been manipulated once again by a higher power for the plain sake of survival.

Even after he had cut communications with Bayen an hour later, he had more questions than answers and even though he had accepted what Tarnek had told him earlier, this new bit of information threw him for a loop.

“The future is a corundum of change and instability.” The ex-Watcher said, before stepping back and tapping the floor with his staff. “Do you think that everything would remain static for that duration? You saw it yourself, five thousand years ago, when humanity finally returned and started rebuilding their shattered planet. That in itself was change. When a shard from the Source of Chaos came back, it selected where it would do the most good and thus influence the station’s future development. It was no coincidence that a human would find it, because it sensed someone with stalwart integrity and a good heart. It knew that if it would unite with this individual, the Starchild would be reborn. Not just because of the other factors that had been initially discovered or discussed in the past, but because it also needed to become whole once more in order to fight against the God of Insanity.”

Calis stared at his old friend, sensing truth in his words. It didn’t occur to him that some things had been pre-planned as a contingency just in case. But neither of them knew when exactly the human race would return.

Memories of another time resurfaced like so many others had and he was momentarily caught up in the past.


The auto-frame mechanic didn’t know on the day he was tending to his garden so long ago, that the human race would return. He had just recently installed guardian sensor paks all over the junkyard and around his makeshift workshop to alert him to the presence of any intruder. But he wasn’t expecting company either. When the first alert sounded, he came out only to be confronted by a low-flying shuttle of an unknown design.

Awed by the sight, he waited for the craft to touch down and when it did, the first human being he had seen in untold millennia stepped out of the sleek and graceful beast of burden and onto the hard golden sand and looked around before he set first sight on the old man, holding an old particle gun in his sun-kissed hands.

An equal amount of surprise passed between them before the person in question removed his helmet and introduced himself, then asked how long he had been here.

A long time. Was his reply. Where did you come from?

The man told him he had come from one of eight interstellar transport ships, the biggest ever conceived and built by humanity. He informed them that they were descendants of those that had left so many centuries ago and now had come back to rebuild the Earth.

The thought had overwhelmed him and the old man had sunk to his knees, wholly convinced at this point that he would forever remain marooned on this desolate world.

Then he did something he hadn’t done in a very long time.

Calis McGraff wept.


The old man shook his head at the memory of himself weeping openly in relief and happiness that his eternal tenure finally ended. But he remembered that even after that, he would still live through the years watching as the human race once again threw itself into another series of wars, before finally achieving a peace by splitting itself into two castes. One that resided in the mega-space complex called Stratos City and those that chose to face the hard challenges of living on the surface.

Himself being one of them.

Now...? He asked himself, getting a cup of tea ready. It has always been the same. But this time, the rules have changed and we have changed. The future is unpredictable, not unstable as it once was.

Tarnek appeared.

“Hello, old friend. How are you this morning?” He inquired pleasantly.

The auto-frame mechanic paused in midst of what he was doing and turned around.

“Aside from the circus of questions and answers that was flying around last night? It could’ve been worse.” He replied, before glancing at his bedside clock. The thing read exactly fifteen minutes before noon.

“Great.” He complained. “I’m late again, just like the last time.”

“Late?” Tarnek repeated, puzzled by the old man’s statement.

Calis nodded.

“Today’s registration for the Desert Storm. Vid-scans revealed the biggest weather system in a hundred years ever to come our way. It’s theoretically possible, but the race might be cancelled due to its severity.”

“Has this happened before?”

“No. Not since I can remember.” The old man said.

“You know that since Isis isn’t here, it would be a pointless gesture to sign her up, Calis.”

Calis paused for a second. “I know that, Tarnek. But I have a feeling she’ll return to us before then.”

“I don’t know about that,” the spirit deity murmured out loud, unconvinced. “Isis hasn’t reached the level where she can start experimenting with hyperspace travel just yet.”

“If Cara’s sent her away, she’ll find some way of coming back. I’m sure of it.” The old man returned unmovingly, before going back to his tea. “Hyperspace or no.”

“It’s the only way to travel these days.” The ex-Watcher pointed out, getting a little defensive, feeling like he was being challenged on his once great authority.

“So was warp drive two thousand years ago, from what I garnered from the ancient records. Now its some sort of polarized-conversion drive that makes warp travel meaningless.”

“Hyperspace is still plenty fast.” Tarnek said. “But let’s not argue semantics, okay? We still have to find a way to stop Cara from destroying the world.”

The old man grinned while making his first cup of tea, stirring in hot water with the tea bag of his own creation and watched the steam rise from his cup.

“I was just messing with you, Tarnek. No need to get upset.”

Tarnek stood there, confused, before it took him a second to figure it out.

“By the Ancients!” He swore. “Being linked to you is unraveling me by the day!”

Calis took hold of his cup and turned around, before taking a cautionary sip.

“I don’t think it’s that bad, old friend. It took you ten thousand years to get to this point. Personally, I think it is a grand improvement over the stone-faced expressions you wore while we conversed over time. It’s nothing to get wound up about.”

Tarnek sighed. “I fear that more than my emotions that has become unhinged, old friend. I believe that sooner or later, what passes for reality around here will soon come apart, threatening the very fabric of existence itself.”

“A rip in the space/time continuum?” Calis asked, nonplussed. This hadn’t come up before in their conversations. Or maybe its just something that the ex-Watcher had neglected to mention.

“Yes.” The ex-Watcher answered solidly, his severe emotional facade falling back into place once more.

“How?”

“The fact that Cara sent Isis away indicates that she had to open a hole in the space/time continuum in order to do it. Which means that hole is still there, but not visible to the naked eye.”

Calis drank some more from his generously large cup.

“Would you be able to locate it if I took you there after registration?”

“I would, but once there, I won’t be able to do anything about it, except maybe mark its position.”

“That’s right. In your spirit form, there isn’t much that you can do, is there?”

Tarnek nodded. “Correct. But it might be possible to utilize the hole as a makeshift comm unit.”

Calis’s curiosity was piqued.

“How? You said you couldn’t do anything–?” He trailed off.

“True. But it doesn’t mean that I don’t have a trick or two up my sleeve. Everything in space and time uses waveguides of varying sounds and energy. It’s like plucking the strings of a harp to find the right note. In this case, we would be ‘tuning in’ by modulating both with the help of my staff. If we can get through to her, maybe she can do something from where ever she is.”

“And that’s only if it works. Like you’ve said, Isis has no hyperspace training to rely on, even if she manages to make it back to the rip, so she has to find something that will work to her advantage.”

Tarnek agreed. “And she better do it soon before Cara decides that she’s wasted enough time waiting and decides to attack Stratos City head on.”

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 85

Isis couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten–it was probably a couple of days ago in her mind. But the feeling of being full again, after having enjoyed such a delicious meal, energized her once again, leaving the woman with a full head of confidence in which she could take on the world in more than way.

Maye noticed the warm glow in the surface dweller’s cheeks and she made a comment on that.

“I see that my cooking agrees with you, does it?”

Isis nodded. “Yes. Yes it does.” She murmured, patting the slight bulge that represented her tummy. “I haven’t eaten like this in awhile. It feels good to have something in your stomach before taking on the day’s challenges.”

“Isis loves those pancakes. The woman said, pointing to her daughter with the spatula. “Why don’t you take the opportunity and shower while you’re here? Afterwards, we can get you a fresh set of clothes to wear.”

“Oh, I don’t think I–” Isis began, but Maye was insistent.

“No arguments, young lady. You may not be the daughter I know, but you still share some of her quirks. I will not take no for an answer in this household. You understand?”

Isis chuckled, seeing her point.

“You’re just like my mom. She is very firm and direct too, when it comes to dealing with the both of us.”

“She better be.” Maye said. “Otherwise, she’ll have to answer to me.”

Isis wondered how her mother would react if she ever knew she had a counterpart in another universe.

Probably the way I reacted when I first met my other self.

“I shall take you up on your offer, Maye.” She said, before getting up and excusing herself from the table. Trell was eating what was left of his pancakes–while her counterpart excused herself from the table for a moment to disappear.

“Towels are in the rear, dear.” Maye’s voice echoed from the kitchen as she exited into the living room. “Just left of my bedroom.”

The young woman nodded, going down the small hallway with three doors and found a large rack with towels. She found this a bit disorienting, because in her universe, this rack was filled with her brother’s tools and parts that he had already experimented with.

Grabbing a couple of green ones, she went back to first door on her left and opened it, discovering that it was choked with wafting steam, making it impossible to see anything.

Bathroom. Something inside her pointed out helpfully. But in her universe, this room was a miniature solar generator room.

Her visibility was down to only a few feet in either direction, so she figured that she’d take a much needed bath, second only to her other priorities at the moment.

Transforming back into her civilian clothes, Isis began peeling off one article of clothing at a time–seeing that there was no way for anybody to see her anyways, so she didn’t need to worry about being caught in the nude. But she did notice the deep bruising on her body, particularly her torso, her right thigh and her left arm.

Why she didn’t see this early on, or the fact that no one else caught on to her injuries, totally baffled her.

Perhaps its just all the excitement. She debated silently, before padding around the room, finding that it was a lot larger than she was used to.

Her ears picked up the sounds of water running and so she walked towards it before she discovered that part of the floor sloped downwards gently, before ending sharply.

The young woman sensed water before her and the steam chose that moment to part momentarily to reveal a sunken pool about eighty feet all around, with its width measuring thirty feet across.

Isis dipped a toe in and found it a little hotter than she preferred, but realized that her body would adapt to the scalding temperatures. So she gradually submerged a foot, then her leg and eventually, her whole body, sitting down on a seat-like ledge that was comfortable to her liking and she settled in and sighed contently.

“Man, this feels great.” She purred contently. “Hot and nice...”

A sudden splash of water grabbed her attention and the surface dweller tensed, her whole body stiffening to the consistency of a piano wire.

“Who’s there?” She asked in no uncertain terms, right fist clenched–and then remembered that she was no longer the Starchild of Ancient Lore.

Still doesn’t mean I can’t deal whomever decided to intrude in on my personal privacy–a serious ass-kicking!

Another splash of and the surface dweller could see a figure move nearer her, slowly, cautiously.
Isis lowered her hand once the person in question was close enough to be seen.

“It’s just me, Isis.” Her counterpart apologized. “Sorry about scaring you like that. I‘m just not used to this change.”

Isis accepted her other self’s sincerity with a small nod.

“Me neither. Your mother suggested that I take the opportunity and bathe first before heading out. I can leave and–” but her other self wouldn’t hear of it.

“No. I would like it if you stayed here for a bit. There’s something that I need to talk with you about.”

Hesitation and a sense of modesty tugged at her perceptions, but in the end, curiosity won out.

There wasn’t anything different about the two of us. We are practically alike in the physical sense, even if our hair color is the only thing that isn’t. She reasoned inwardly.

“Okay.” She decided. “I’m game. By the way, where’s the soap?”

The other Isis McGowan moved over to the side of the sunken tub to retrieve something, and then came over–handing her a yellow washcloth and a fragrant bar of soap. It smelled like berries to her when she dipped both into the water briefly and scrubbed furiously for a moment to work up a lather between the two before applying it to her right arm first and then her left, finally ending with her face and neck and upper chest, ending just above her submerged breasts.

“Shoot.” She offered, before Isis wanted both items back, so she could wash herself properly.

The other woman looked up for a moment, then said, “What I wanted to do all this time was to make a difference for myself and the world I lived in. But I’m finding that chore to be a bit more daunting then I ever imagined. However, I think I’ve come up with a plan to help overcome Keron, maybe enough of one that will allow the both of us to live.”

“Okay. So what will this plan entail?”

Isis reached up and washed between her ears, before she dipped the cloth back into the water. There was no real concern about passing germs or anything of that nature. The water was constantly sterilizing itself through a special filter system every four seconds.

Two people could bathe or relax in the pool without worry.

“I haven’t had the time to run this past Calis, or Rinia, but it will require that both of us fuse together–both on a physical level as well as a spiritual level, allowing our consciousness’s to co-exist at the same time.”

Isis stared at her counterpart in shocked amazement.

“I-is that possible? I mean, can that be done?” She said.

The other Isis hesitated for a second. Then she shook her head.

“I don’t know. It’s never been attempted by any Starchild that I had studied while under Jalena’s tutelage. Some of the texts that Calis had been keeping mentioned something about a possible fusion between two cosmically enhanced beings, much like two stars joining to become one giant star. The entries suggested that the process would take about a full day to complete before it was successful. However, there was no mention of it ever being tried on a test basis, or whether it was entirely successful. From what I understand of the whole procedure, it sounds simple to me.”

Isis was astounded by this new information.

“What’s the catch?” She asked.

“Catch?” Her double echoed with mild puzzlement. “What do you mean?”

Isis’s hand drifted around, seemingly riding in contest with the underwater jets that were shooting out from the pool walls. Then it bumped into something metal and the young woman looked over to see what it was. The contraption was an interwoven basket with a lid on top and there were plastics implements in there that Isis saw easily as a brush and comb among other things.

She opened it and quickly took out the comb first and started brushing the tangles out of her flowing red hair.

Her counterpart had finished with her washing routine by then and switched to combing as well, making the two appear as they were twins, with the way they were going about untangling their respective hair.

“What I mean, is that there is always some price attached to a lucrative deal such as this. Nothing I’ve gotten in my life came for free and a lot of times I had to pay for it with the blood of either myself or others.”

Her double understood what she was driving at.

“There are three ‘catches’ as you say. And even though the entries made no mention as to what they were in that regard, I think you should know there‘s some problems we may end up having while attempting this.”

“Okay.” The surface dweller prodded. “So what are they?”

“One being that the fusion process–as I believe it to be–will not only unite us body and soul, but will increase our powers to the breaking point and beyond. There is no telling what will happen then. But because of this unique fusion, there is a good chance that one of us might die as a result.”

Eyebrows raised, the young woman inquired, “In the beginning or the end?”

Isis shook her head, feeling a little exasperated by what she was trying to drill into her counterpart’s head. It felt like she was talking to a brick wall.

“I’m...not sure.” She admitted. “It all depends on what Keron will do next. But if we don’t do this, Isis, my planet will die. Isn’t that worth a life?”

“Not if it’s at the expense of one of us, Isis, it isn’t.” Isis returned evenly. “Sure, I want to help you, but I also have my own world to consider as well, with my Nemesis wrecking havoc all over the place. If I don’t back, my Earth will be destroyed as a result.”

The other young woman understood what she was driving at.

“So what you’re saying is that you would go through with this if your world wasn’t being threatened, is that right?”

Isis shook head. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t. I am only saying that for the sake of both our worlds, neither of us should have to die after trying this fusion technique. I am pretty sure that we will be all right.”

“How can you be so sure?” The other Isis asked. “You face the same threat as I. It should be no different than what I’m facing.”

Isis disagreed with her.

“But I am. I am having to chose between my own fate and that of my closest childhood friend, Cara Hastings. If I fail, I lose her forever to the throes of Nemesis and my planet–my Earth–will bear the brunt of her vengeance.” Then she leaned back and sighed. “Possibly forever. I can’t allow that to happen.”

The other Isis dropped the brush on the side of the pool and swam up to her with clean, swift, strokes. Then she sat down next to her, reaching out to her and grabbing a hold of her hands.

“That’s where you are wrong. With our combined might, we will most assuredly beat Keron and then go save your friend from Nemesis’s grasp.”

Isis looked into her double’s blue eyes suspiciously.

“How come your confident all of a sudden? Just a second ago, you were worried about dying.”

“Maybe because having you here has giving me new hope, Isis. And for that, I would gladly trade any future consequence for a chance at victory. Can you say that about yourself?”

Isis sat there, staring at the bubbling water, thinking about the road that lay ahead and the possibilities that would exist once they were successfully joined.

“All I can think of right now is beating Nemesis at her own game. Giving her a full taste of humiliation after I pound her mercilessly into the ground once more and forcing her to relinquish Cara Hastings once and for all.”

Isis squeezed her counterpart’s hands in budding excitement.

“Then let’s do it, Isis. Let’s become a force to be reckoned with in both universes and restore peace once and for all for our beleaguered worlds.”

Isis’s eyes glowed brightly.

“Okay. Let’s do it. I just can’t wait to see the look on Cara’s face when she sees what she’s up against, once I return to my own universe that is.”

The other young woman nodded, feeling relieved and grateful at the same time.

“Count on it.” She said supportively.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 84

It took only thirty-five minutes for Talia to arrive at Jonas’s old homestead–just ten minutes behind the man himself, before she lightly touched down right next to the deserted house itself. After scouting out the place, she quickly came upon the shed, and the empty elevator shaft. It didn’t take her long to figure out what had happened next.

Jonas went to confront whomever was here.

And Talia McGowan went down the shaft to see what went on. But she spent the first hour witnessing Jonas and Cara hash it out, and then waited another thirty minutes before using the emergency hatch in the elevator’s cage to gain access to the lower levels of the underground work bay.

She had hesitated next to Jonas’s unconscious body when she spotted him, but decided that any premature tampering would alert Cara to the notion that someone else was down here and not just her and Jonas.

Like it or not, Talia had to play possum for the time being–choosing her own moment when she would confront the insane woman and rescue Jonas from any further harm.

So she chose the darkened work bay as her perfect hiding place, and hid behind the Skyhawk S-3’s starboard engine nacelle for good measure.

Talia then paid witness to Jonas’s awakening and the questioning by the AI’s holo tank, before watching him vanish down the hallway leading to the back areas–and presumably a room of some kind.

Talia wondered if she should follow or remain in seclusion.

No. A part of her answered. Jonas had shown her too much compassion and understanding of her plight–to allow him to march off into the unknown willingly.

Rising, the girl sprinted after him–reaching the door just in time to hear a heated exchange between him and another girl–one whom she sensed had been somehow corrupted by evil.

But deep down, Talia suddenly had a sense that something else was eating into the other’s psyche. It was a core of pain. A sense of loss and regret, coupled with anguish, anger, and…

The stranded Starchild paused.

No. That can’t be right! She thought. No matter what, this feeling shouldn’t be here at all!

It was love.

Love for her father–even despite all of this.

Talia debated on whether or not she should just march in and interrupt this meeting. But she instantly saw that would be a dangerous–and perhaps fatal–folly.

No. This event had to play itself out.

And it did.

But not the way that Talia had expected it to.

A bright flash of light and heat encompassed the door–enveloping Talia in a nimbus.

She backed up fearfully, wondering if at long last she had been discovered.

Then the door blew apart–sending both her and the remains flying outwards.

* * *

The fight between life and death had been a bitter struggle, even after she had assumed the mantle of the Starchild. People that she had known–childhood friends–or complete strangers had perished in the brief struggle that had erupted with the Praetorial Guard. The seven day war had cost the lives of hundreds, only ending in an uneasy truce, simply because of the fact that human error and localized fear of the unknown had been contributing factors to the cause. But whatever happened, Isis found herself in the aftermath of long battle and she herself was blamed for the death of 518 innocent souls, some sky dancers, but mostly surface dwellers.

That was two years ago, one year after she had assumed the mantle.

But she had also lied to her counterpart. The seven day struggle had fallen on the exact day that the other Starchild had gone through with her prison break. But the only difference was that there were no Nemesis to confront her then, and the second was the conflict lasted six days longer than the prison break had.

Then about three months ago in her time, strange things started to happen. Unexplainable things. Things that had no right exist, or had plainly existed for the sake of argument. Events passed that were foretold unfolded before her eyes, and before she knew it, Isis was facing down one of the worst threats her planet had ever seen.

Even with her advanced training, she could barely hold her own against this version of Nemesis. To make matters worse, she didn’t believe in cat and mouse games to draw her out like the other version had over the past couple of years, or even now, prior to the other Starchild’s arrival.

This version of Nemesis–named Keron–exacted her revenge in the only way she knew how–through unadulterated brute force on a scale that couldn’t possibly be imagined.

The planet had suffered badly on the day that was known as the Fall, and it couldn’t sustain such a conflict now, ten thousand years later. It was simply impossible, not when it was still in the midst of healing itself.

Isis knew this from talking with the spirit entity known as Gaia, only two weeks ago. Instead of offering reassurances, it only revealed pain and regret, loss and confusion. It could not help her, even when she had asked it to, only telling her that someone would be coming soon to assist her in her struggles against Nemesis. But in the end–Gaia revealed–someone close to her would perish as a result. Which person, it could not say, only because the future was in motion and there was no way to counter that.

It was just the way the universal constants worked. No favorites were chosen in fights or sidelined any potential losers.

Isis was scared as well as terrified, knowing that it could be her whom would perish, because she saw no other way of defeating Keron–who had become Nemesis through loss and eventual betrayal. She saw Isis as just another obstacle in her quest to rule this planet and make its inhabitants bow down to her every whimsical desire, so she set about making sure that the current Starchild paid the full price of her choice in becoming the universe’s newest protector and guardian, by destroying everything she held dear.

Starting with Stratos City, Keron crippled the space complex with her might and power, killing thousands of people and forcing the population of sky dancers to become refugees.

But the woman wasn’t satisfied with that, she turned her attention onto the planet itself and created an irreparable breach in the planet’s atmosphere, guaranteeing what was left of the planet’s orphaned human and animal life populations would die within a relatively short time frame.

Keron felt that this–coupled with the battles and attacks on the planet’s population centers–would surely do the young surface dweller in.

But she hadn’t counted on the fact that Isis McGowan’s powers were a clear match for her own, despite centuries of maturity on her part. However, she knew that she could outlast the surface dweller in every fight thrust between the two eventually. It would only be a matter of time.

It took her two months of constant fighting to wear her down.

Desperation and despair linked with bouts of depression nearly cost her her own life three days before the other Isis McGowan arrived.

When she did, Isis felt like she had a chance once more to finally overcome her most hated enemy, even if it meant sacrificing herself to the cause. Her planet would be forever freed of Nemesis’s evil influence.

What she hadn’t expected was her counterpart’s awesome power. Despite her own advanced training, she saw more than potential in the other Starchild. She saw a way to end this madness once and for all.

But before she could implement her hastily construed plan, Keron attacked the other Starchild and forced her into another conflict which eventually led to...

This. Jalena finished, standing before the quiet and solitary Starchild. Her pensive behavior told the ex-Starchild everything she needed to know.

Even with the arrival of the other Isis McGowan, you are still determined to give your life for the sake of the others that live here, including your family, aren’t you?

The Starchild didn’t say anything.

Your injuries will be healed in time, Isis. Do not worry about what will happen next after that.

The young woman’s face became animated, as if she had suddenly turned on by some magic trick.

“Worry isn’t what I’m primarily concerned about.”

Dying then? Jalena asked.

“Dying would be a blessing to this hellish life I have led so far. My failures will surely speak for themselves.” Isis said.

The spirit deity looked surprised.

Failures? No, more like minor setbacks.

Isis turned on Jalena suddenly without warning, startling the woman.

“You don’t understand! I have failed! I am no longer capable of keeping the Starchild legacy alive! Don’t you see the bruises and the lacerations on me? Keron’s using me to wipe the walls with and she’s almost finished!”

Anger isn’t the way to go, Isis. You must allow yourself some measure of flexibility if you are to survive this crisis. Jalena soothed. Now tell me–

Then Isis woke up.

Intense pain hit her from all around and she cried out, before she realized that she was still lying on her bed–but at an angle that her body didn’t readily agree with.

Straightening seemed to be the only option left to her and when she did, the surface dweller allowed herself a moment to take a much needed breath that her battered body permitted, before it warned her in ways of sharp pain and lingering discomfort.

Ohhhh...she moaned silently. That wasn’t one of my better night’s sleep.

Flashes of it, more like snippets came back to her and all she could do was bask in its depressing melancholy and wonder if she had the strength and will to keep going.

To...to...to live.

Man...this is not good. She thought, before making the attempt to get up on her own. It was a tough task, in light of how bad she was hurting, but Isis wasn’t about to give up so soon.

There was just too much at stake.

Before she got to the door, she grabbed a spare change of clothes and threw them over her shoulder before finally heading out–the old LED clock on her dresser reading 10:15 in the morning.

* * *

Isis walked into the living room looking the worse for wear, and found the other Isis McGowan passed out on the couch, her legs splayed out at awkward angles.

Trell ran past her without a second thought, an impish grin on his young face and a bulge under his shirt.

“What are you planning on doing, worm?” The girl asked insultingly.

The boy instinctively showed her a water balloon that he had hidden from her view.

“I’m gonna wake Talia up. That’s what.” He said with a mischievous grin.

Isis didn’t think that was such a good idea, considering–

“That’s not–” Isis began to point out, but sensed that he was more adamant and not a very good listener.

Case in point, the boy was insistent and went ahead anyway.

Just as he clambered up on top of the hideaway, Maye appeared with a caked spatula and saw Isis and what Trell was about to do at the same time.

“Trell! Wait! That’s not–” She didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence at all as Trell let go of the water balloon, then jumped off the hideaway in a hurry–not wanting to be around his sister when she woke up drenched.

But to everyone’s surprise, the balloon never reached its intended target. The water-filled missile hovered there over her head, then spun slowly in place, before diving straight towards the 12-year-old boy.

Trell’s astonished face was instantly smothered by the bursting balloon and the cold water that followed suit.

Sputtering, he screamed, “That’s not fair, sis!”

Isis shrugged innocently. “Wasn’t my doing, baby bro.”

Trell stared at her incomprehensively, the said, “You’re putting me on!”

Isis shook her head. “No, I’m not. That wasn’t me.”

The boy looked over at the huddled mass–shock setting in. “That’s not Talia?”

Isis rolled over with a smile.

“Nope. I’m not. Your sister‘s still gone.”

Trell rubbed the water from his eyes before he got a good look at the young woman lying on the hideaway.

“Y-your not my sister?” He asked.

Isis shook her head. “Sorry.”

Trell was puzzled by this sudden turn of events. He had been half-expecting to douse his sister by catching her unawares, but only to come across a woman who resembled his other one.

Indeed, it was a very confusing moment for the bright, young lad.

Casting off his confusion, he asked, “So where do you come from?”

“Here.” The surface dweller said, pointing up towards the ceiling. “I live here.”

“But Isis lives here. My Isis anyway.” Maye corrected knowingly.

Isis put a comforting on her mother’s arm.

“Mom, this version of Isis is from another universe. An alternate one, if I understand it correctly.”

Isis McGowan agreed as she rose from the hideaway, the blanket falling off of her in the process.

“That’s right. But my perspective, so is this place.” She commented, before stretching her arms out and tensed her whole body at the same time to cast the remnants of sleep from it. “It isn’t so different from my own home.”

“No, it isn’t.” Maye agreed. The rich and pungent smells of something baking twisted the woman’s attention around quite suddenly. “Damn! I’m burning the pancakes!”

“Pancakes!” Trell squealed in delight. “Sandberry ones?” He inquired hopefully.

Maye nodded before disappearing back into the kitchen to save breakfast before it burned on its own.

Trell followed her as fast as his feet could carry him.

“Great!” Isis whooped happily, before following him, leaving the other Isis alone for a second.

Pancakes? She wondered in fraught curiosity. Then she remembered those fluffy round things that Fran had served her once on her last extended vacation up in Stratos City–the time that Bayen and her went swimming in a place called Balona Creek.

Isis’s head hung around the corner.

“You coming?” She invited. “It wouldn’t be fair to uninvited company–not to share–such as you are.”

“Sure.” The surface dweller brightened, before jumping off the bed in a haste.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 83

Isis and her double reappeared in a room that was instantly familiar and gratifying to the both of them.

“Home sweet home...” The injured Starchild whispered, before letting go of her other counterpart and staggering over to the bed and collapsing onto it with a sigh.

Isis sat down onto the dusty floor, amazed that despite a few changes in the room’s appearance, it was still very much like...hers.

“Yes.” She agreed with a much needed break, as she relaxed her whole body, one bit at a time, but finding that she still hurt herself, with the occasional muscle spasm that grabbed her undivided attention for a few moments, before finally letting go. “For you anyway.”

The other Starchild didn’t answer her.

“Isis?” She queried tentatively.

Still no answer.

Alarmed, Isis McGowan got to her feet quickly and went over to check on her. Placing a couple of fingers on the side of her neck, she checked the other woman’s pulse.

Still going. She thought with great relief. She wasn’t dead yet. But that thought brought the first surface dweller no comfort whatsoever.

Grabbing the light green blanket on the end, she covered up her counterpart gently and quietly left the room, in search of the roll-away couch that she knew was to be in the living room area.

The place was dark and quiet, giving the whole thing a serene and peaceful setting.

One that Isis found pleasantly comforting.

A tall and slender shadow fell across her path, momentarily startling the surface dweller.

“Honey?” A soft, feminine voice called out softly. “Is that you?”

Isis turned around, startled.

“Um...she’s sleeping, Maye.” She said. “I was going to crash on the roll-away.”

The shadow moved closed in slowly, before snapping on a mini-light. The pencil thin light beam shone on the surface dweller’s exposed mid-section, before riding up to her face.

The woman’s hand wavered, causing the light to shift a few times, before it disappeared and then a lamp flicked on with an audible click!

Isis got a good look at the woman who looked so much like her own mother. It was hard to believe that so many familiars she had already encountered remained constant in this universe, even though there were an equal number of unknown variables.

After a second of staring at each other, Maye said, “You look so much like my daughter.”

“Yes. I am. That’s what had me shocked when we met yesterday.” Isis replied, before going over to the sofa and began pulling out the hideaway. Once she had it unfolded, she sat down. “She’s a little different than me. Both in appearance and in power structure.”

“She’s losing the battle, Isis. You can see that already, can’t you?”

The young woman sighed. “Yes, I can. And I’ve done all I can for her right now.”

Maye’s eyebrows shot up a little.

“Really? Are you sure?”

The Starchild hesitated for a moment.

“I don’t really know, Maye. All I know is that now, here, I’ve done all I can do. Maybe later, something will pop up.”

“I don’t want to lose her, Isis.” Maye said unconditionally.

The young woman shook her head.

“It’s just like before. Everyone thinks that I can do the impossible. But you know that I cannot prevent someone from dying, Maye. I couldn’t do it before I came here and I couldn’t do it while I was here either. Death is something that we must all accept. Otherwise we’ll all be diminished in ways that can never be fully imagined.”

Maye stared at her for a moment.

“But you...you have the same powers as my daughter has! You should be able to bring back the dead!”

Isis was startled by the woman’s unexpected revelation.

Was it possible? Here? In this universe?

“Are you saying that Isis had brought people back from the dead...here?”

Maye nodded.

“Once or twice in the past couple of years. It surprised her to no ends, I can tell you that much.”

Isis looked downwards.

The power to resurrect the dead is indeed a useful ability. To what ends I cannot imagine. The Source postulated quietly.

I know. Isis said silently. But I lack the ability to do so, only to heal instead.

Could it be that your cases had been reversed? That instead of a healing factor, that this version of you possessed the ability to raise the dead? Keron interjected.

Wait a minute you two. Isis cautioned. Isis said her sister used her healing power to make her Bayen well after he got hurt. That negates the possibility of her having the capability to raise the dead.

But what if she has it on a limited capacity? Aside from her healing factor? The Source proposed.

Isis thought about that, then shook her head.

Then she could only use it sparingly. It probably saps her more than anything else she has at her disposal.

Glancing up at Maye, she said, “I can’t do that, Maye. That is not within my power. What your daughter has is a priceless gift.”

Crushed by this, the woman nodded somberly. “But she won’t be able to use it on herself if she dies.”

“Death is a part of life, Maye. A part of living. There cannot be a rift between the two. It has to be natural. Therefore, I cannot raise the dead. But if your Isis can on a limited basis, she has not yet caused that rift. But if she dies, she dies.”

“And if she does?” Maye asked, fighting back tears. “What will happen to us? Nemesis will surely kill us all!”

“She won’t get that chance, Maye. If it costs me my own life, I will gladly exchange it for a change to give you all some peace of mind.”

“But if you sacrifice yourself, what will happen to your world? Isn’t Nemesis loose on your planet?”

“Yes.” Isis admitted. “But I cannot leave here knowing what your Nemesis has cost you. It wouldn’t make me feel any better.”

Maye nodded. “You are a lot like her, you know that? Willing to accept death even in the face of great uncertainty.”

“But only if nothing new presents itself, Maye.” Then she laid back on the bed, pulling the soft covers over her tired body. “Only if nothing else presents itself...” Closing her eyes, she soon fell fast asleep.

Maye stood there watching the young woman sleep for awhile, seeing the likeness in her own daughter, but that was all.

She spoke the truth after all. She thought worriedly. That means our lives are forfeit if nothing is done soon. Her thoughts soon drifted to her husband, the day before he went to work in Hallis.

She recalled the smile that was on his face when she told him to be careful while at work, because she worried about him sometimes.

She remembered him kissing her on the cheek affectionately and told her not to worry, he would be all right and be back before she knew it.

But Kelin died the day after and she wished then that she had done something to prevent him from going, knowing what she knew now. But fate was a cruel mistress in some ways than others. She didn’t pick things and events at random. It wasn’t her style.

Maye bit down on her knuckles worriedly. It was all going to happen again and this time, there was nothing she could do.

Except hope and pray.

* * *

Bayen felt awful when he woke up. His back hurt, not to mention the soft pounding of a headache in his skull and the dull throbbing his leg was giving out.

The sky dancer wondered if he could get up.

After yesterday, I’m just lucky to be alive. He mused in relief, before he made the first attempt in getting out of bed since coming home in the early morning hours of the night.

Slowly, he shifted his weight, making sure not to apply any pressure to his injured leg. But even that much–no matter how unintentional–caused the limb to shoot warnings of pain up and down, letting him know in no uncertain terms, that it wasn’t such a good idea.

But the man ignored the sensations his leg was giving him and once he got himself into a sitting position, he dug into his trench coat and fished out his quarterstaff. Unfolding it, he used it to prop himself up even further, then used it as a makeshift crutch.

Oh boy. He thought, grimacing just a little. He started off, slowly, making sure that he could walk first. The leg still bothered him, but not so that he couldn’t continue.

When he reached the entrance, he opened it and found himself confronted by his mother, holding a small breakfast tray.

“Morning. How are you feeling?” She inquired, before stepping off to the side to allow Bayen free access to the living room. Once he reached the sofa, he sat down gingerly, but found that the soft cushions gave a bit too much and he sank down; placing pressure on his leg.

“Ahhh!” He cried out reflexively, before spinning around sideways to elevate the pressure and the subsequent pain he was feeling. Then he lowered gingerly on the cushion, partially propped up by the arm rest on the end.

It took him a couple of minutes to get situated properly on the sofa before Maye came over and placed the tray next to him.

“I see you got some battle scars, honey.” Maye observed.

Bayen chuckled, then picked up the tray carefully, but with a steel-like grip and set it on his lap.

“Courtesy of Cara, mother. She wasn’t very forgiving.”

“I’ll bet Isis will teach her a thing or two–” then she stopped, once she saw the crestfallen look on her son’s face. “What is it?”

“Isis is gone.” He said. “Cara mentioned something about taking care of her in a more permanent fashion.”

The color literally drained from the shopkeeper’s face upon hearing that.

“No!” She gasped. “That can’t be!”

Bayen nodded. “I’m afraid so.”

Maye stood there, pondering over what might happen in the future.

“But who will stand against her now that Isis is gone?”

Bayen gave his mother a wry grin.

“I think I did pretty good, considering the odds I was facing.”

Maye was adamant.

“I’m serious. With Isis gone, who will stand up to her?”

The sky dancer gave that some thought while he ate his breakfast.

Swallowing, he said, “I know that the Praetorial Guard won’t stand a chance. Their weaponry didn’t have much effect when they first encountered, or in any of the last one either.”

Maye sat down next to him and sighed.

“Which means that we might all be staring death in the face.”

“Could.” Bayen admitted. “But that hasn’t stopped us before.”

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 82

Jonas opened the door quietly, not sure of what to expect the second he stepped through the door. The lights in the hallway where off and only the dim glow of the two emergency lights to keep him company.

Hesitation would do him no good. He would have to face not only his past, but an unlikely future.

A daughter who possesses unimaginable power and wants to destroy the world, and a wife that I haven’t seen in over eight years.

And he was on the verge of losing them both.

Going inside was easy, he knew that much. But what would he see? What would he see?

The man stepped inside.

A lit, old-fashioned brass lamp sat on the bed stand next to a bed that was fully occupied by a woman that Jonas barely recognized.

Her face was sunken and shallow and her complexion waxen from where he was standing. Even with the blanket covering her, it did nothing to diminish the lustrous raven-black hair that billowed slightly out from around her.

“Rayna...” He whispered softly, before reaching out to caress her cheek. The woman didn’t stir from his touch, but someone else did.

Rising from the other side of the bed, Cara gazed at her father.

“I see that pain just simply wasn’t enough for you, was it?” She questioned, even though she was still dressed in her own sky-blue variation of the Starchild’s black and gold costume. However, she had thrown over a skimpy robe to cover it, but it didn’t obscure the anger or hatred she felt towards her father.

“Is death more preferable?”

Jonas backed up.

“No. Death is never preferable. But nor is the pain that you’ve inflicted on a great deal of people either. Or on me.” He answered tightly. “Why don’t you give up this path of destruction...this vendetta?”

Cara’s reply was just as explosive as it was very plain and direct.

“Never!” She quaked. “Never again will I suffer such defeats and humiliations at the hands of those who should be slaves to my every whim and desires!”

“This is nuts!” Jonas shot back. “What gives you the right to subjugate every person, every living creature to total slavery?”

The young woman’s eyes flared brightly, as she was more than ready and willing to prove her point.

Jonas was already made aware of this earlier, but he stood his ground.

“Every right.” She said heavily. “All the power at my command gives me the sole opportunity to once again plunge your race into darkness.”

A light bulb clicked on inside the man’s head.

“You are my daughter, but I get the feeling that you are also someone else. Who are you? Really?”

“Rayna knows who I am.” The woman said, pointing to the ex-captain’s sleeping form. “But she didn’t utilize the power I gave her. She failed against someone who’s power was insignificant next to mine. She could’ve won you know. But she didn’t take the risk to find out. Now her daughter wields what I’ve given her and so far, she’s done a remarkable job. The Starchild has been removed from the picture and there is nothing left that can stand in my way of complete domination of this planet.” Glancing back at Jonas, she added, “So get used to it. Because the name Nemesis is all that you will be hearing from now on, once I’ve struck some fear into the hearts of these pitiful mortals in the next couple of days.”

“They’ll be ready for you.” Jonas said unmovingly. “Why don’t you just release my daughter, Nemesis? She doesn’t deserve this kind of life. Not one that is bent on revenge and the capitulation of others.”

Cara smiled.

“And what would you do to gain her back, mortal? Would you freely give your life in exchange for hers?”

Jonas nodded. “If it meant dying, then yes, I would.”

The young woman fell silent. Then she remarked, “I don’t know what it is with you mortals these days. Such grandiose heroics. All willing to die for a belief that you don’t even fully understand. I cannot fathom why the God of Insanity didn’t just blow your world out from underneath your feet.”

“So why didn’t he?” The man asked.

“Because something made Him pause!” The woman shouted. “Something made Him pause and He left! Even I don’t know what happened then! I was too busy eluding that damned Watcher Tarnek!”

“From what I’ve been told, it looks like you failed miserably, Nemesis.”

“I failed because I didn’t take into account of what lay before me. I had no idea what Tarnek had in store for me. By that time, I was too late!” She rose to her feet and walked over to Jonas, who flinched.

“Do you know what it is like to be a prisoner for ten thousand years? You have no conception of time itself. So the years...they pass you by. Slowly at first, then more rapidly with each fleeting moment. Then there comes the creeping madness of not being able to move, then the sensation of loneliness that you can never get rid of, because you are the last person to virtually exist on this planet. But you can’t do anything, because something is holding you fast, making any kind of attempt at freedom a pointless gesture of futility. That’s what I’ve had to go through and I am not going back to that accursed chamber. Not until my body re-energizes and my powers have grown again.”

“So by using my daughter’s body and mind as a receptacle, you hope to be free for the duration, is that it?”

“Yes.”

“Does she know the truth about her own origins?”

The woman’s face went blank.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“Her origins. Her birthright. What makes her who she really is.”

The woman fell silent for a moment, before she answered, “Yes. She thinks she is like her mother. A vengeful spirit trying to survive in this harsh world of hers.”

“That’s her competitiveness. She got that from me, simply because I’m a pilot.” Jonas looked into her eyes, still seeing the hate and also the pain.

“Let me talk to her, Nemesis. Allow me to converse with my only child.”

Cara’s face went slack, before they resolved into the familiar features that the man knew all too well.

“I’m listening, father. Say what you have to say. I’m a little busy at this point.”

“Is this what you want, Cara. To be led around with a leash tied to your neck?”

“Of course. It is an agreement that both Nemesis and I made together–a pact if you will.”

“You are willing to throw away your life just for the sake of someone else’s vengeance?”

“I had reasons to hate Isis, father. I made those perfectly clear to you awhile back.”

“Your mother failed because she overstepped her boundaries as a captain of the Praetorial Guard. So in an act of desperation, she embraced what Nemesis was probably offering her at the time and that too failed as a result, simply because Isis was too strong.”

“But this time, I didn’t fail. I won! Isis is no more! She’s out of the picture!”

“Can you be sure?” Jonas asked reasonably. “Can you actually stand there and tell me that she is no more?”

A cloud of doubt spread across the young woman’s face. Then–like magic–it evaporated, leaving only supreme confidence.

“Yes. She is gone. And she won’t be coming back.” Cara stated unerringly.

Jonas shook his head.

“Then you got what you wanted, didn’t you? Why don’t you come back to me, honey? Come back to the life you once had?”

Cara’s eyes burned for several seconds. Then she replied, “No.”

“No? Why not? You are a good pilot. Surely you don’t want to give that up, do you?”

“I have a higher calling now, father. Piloting an auto-frame no longer holds any interest for me.”

“Isis still does it, even though she is the Starchild.”

“Was, father. Was. I’d choose your words more carefully from now on. They could be considered slander in the future.”

Jonas didn’t see it that way. Faith was hope and hope was faith. There was still plenty of time to try. And if not now, then in the future, they would both try again.

“Unless you have absolute proof of her disappearance, I wouldn’t write Isis off yet.”

Cara’s hand tightened, forming a fist.

“She’s gone! Dead! Destroyed! Out of the picture! No more! What will it take to convince you to see that I’m right?!”

“What will it take for you to see what you are doing? To see what kind of pain and agony that you’ve caused? A hundred people dead, a thousand people dead? How many?!” He yelled. Then he pointed at Rayna’s sleeping form.

“Your mother’s? Will it take killing her just to open your damned eyes, Cara? Or how about mine?” He asked, getting down on his hands and knees in front of her and taking her hand and placing on the top of his head.

“Will killing me make you see what you are doing is wrong?”

Cara’s hard expression wavered for just a moment. In that time, the man could see indecision and regret in her face and in her beautiful emerald eyes.

But only for a moment.

“Sacrifices must be made for the greater good father. That’s how it’s been done for centuries.”

Jonas knew, that in the split-second that he figured he existed, he had failed to convince his only child the error of her ways.

In ticks between the time a part of him registered the bright flash of light and heat that would end his existence, his only thought was, I love you Cara.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 81

Both Bayen and Calis were startled by the ex-Watcher’s admission.

“Say what?!” The old man said. “What do you mean, ‘you do’?”

Tarnek sat back, wishing that there had been a better time to reveal this. But the spirit deity felt he had no choice. The chances of this planet surviving a conflict with just Nemesis alone was remote. With the God of Insanity, the odds were practically non-existent.

If there was a way, it had to be now.

“Ten thousand years ago was such a long time, to be kept in stasis for so long, waiting for the right soul to come along and rescue it. So the Source of Chaos managed to influence some humans into building the perfect weapon system utilizing collapsed star matter and gravitational anomalies. Coupled with a regenerative shield matrix, this was to be the ultimate deterrent against the God of Insanity. Construction of this ‘Phoenix Project’, as it was designated by the humans at the time, took thirty years to come to fruition. However, the Source added a DNA code sequencer to activate it, while also making the humans that worked on it believe that the system was pre-programmed for a particular set of variables set to go off at a certain time.”

Calis shook his head, trying to make sense of what the ex-Watcher was trying to tell him. It shouldn’t be confusing to him, but it was.

Of course, Tarnek didn’t reveal everything to me the day we first met either. He thought.
But one thing in Tarnek’s conversation did stick out like a sore thumb.

“I thought that the Source was embedded in the lower levels of the space complex, completely dormant at the time?”

Tarnek shook his head.

“Being even a piece of its former self, the Source of Chaos still has the power to influence the minds of others, even if it is on a limited basis.”

“Geez...” Bayen said, astounded by what he was hearing. “Are you saying that the Source of Chaos manipulated events just to make sure that the human race would survive?”

“It did. Only because we knew that someday, a new Starchild would emerge.”

Calis stared at Tarnek.

“Are you saying that it’s Isis?” He said, awestruck. The coincidences that she is somehow connected to what happened ten thousand years was too incredible to be held as the possible truth, but there was no ignoring the one obvious clue: The photograph he had given her as a reminder.

But this?

“There is no way of knowing until we find out. It is coincidental that what happened ten thousand years ago and what I have revealed are connected somehow, but we still don’t know the full facts of the matter. Not until time has passed and events have run their course.”

“When will that be?” Bayen questioned.

“When enough time has passed. Even I don’t know when that will be.” Tarnek answered.

* * *

If she were anyone else, Isis would’ve turned tail and ran.

But she wasn’t like anyone else, so she didn’t. However, she also had her counterpart to consider.

This definitely wasn’t in the manual...she mused, before pivoting slightly, preparing herself for the worst.

The energy entity came at her and she ducked out of the way briefly to get a better angle, but the thing double-backed and grabbed her unexpectedly, reeling her in with such a tight-assed grip!

The Starchild struggled vainly, sensing that she was clearly overmatched. But by no means was she about to give up. She still had her hand to play and maybe a couple of wildcards to boot.

There is still time, she reflected. Nemesis can only do so much to my double.


Keron laughed, sensuously fondling the power and life force that she was draining from her adversary, laughing at the way the young woman was kicking her legs, all in a feeble effort to get away.

“Your so close to death...” The woman whispered. “I can feel your life force and your power entering me. It won’t be long now...”


Isis struggled, thrashing around in the energetic cloud, which had now become–unbelievingly–gelatinous, and was beginning to harden all around her, making even the most jerky movements, nearly impossible.

The young woman grunted as the pressure started to build, threatening to break every bone in her body, but she didn’t buckle.

Using every ounce of available willpower, she brought her hands together and focused. Focused
on the task at hand, focused on what she had to do.

However, no power came forth, giving her a momentary surge of fear and adrenaline.

No! She cried out suddenly. It couldn’t have drained me that quickly! I still have a chance! One chance!

Isis sensed that her predicament wasn’t as dire as she first believed, and this gave her the necessary courage to try again.

This time, she dropped her arms to her sides and closed her eyes, feeling the energy cloud’s transmutation nearing its own completion. A minute remained, two at most. Already, she couldn’t feel her feet, or her legs. But that didn’t matter. She still had something new to try.

A ploy that hadn’t been tried to its fullest, only tested in a few exercises in the past. But she never had the chance to see the trick to its final conclusion.

Time to break this egg. She thought, determined not to die here and now.

Slowly at first, the young woman concentrated all of her available power inwards, then she gathered more, building it up and up, making sure that everything was going to work by holding the level for a few seconds; finding no decrease, before continuing.

Interesting little trick. The Source commented, as it watched on the sidelines on a subconscious level, seeing what she had in mind. Don’t know if it will work.

I don’t care. I’m willing to entertain anything as long as I can break free. The surface dweller countered silently, cutting the machine sentience off before it could speak again. Isis needed no more distractions, not here and certainly not now.

Looking inwards, she saw the power coming along nicely.

Won’t be long now. She realized, even though her timetable for the both of them was running out.

* * *

Jonas moaned softly, waking up with such a painful throbbing sensation in his head, it resonated down to his mid-section, making the pain he had experienced earlier, hurt even worse.

The man rolled over, feeling the cold floor beneath him, warm in the only spot he had been laying in.

“Jonas A-1. What time is?”

“Three in the morning, Jonas. Why in the world are you on the floor?” The holo tank asked, a little perplexed.

“Cara decided that some pain was an absolute necessity in making her point about people resisting her in her quest for total world domination.” He replied, before making the attempt to get up.

“Has someone tried to stop her?” The machine asked.

Some pain remained in his belly, but the man figured that it was nothing that he couldn’t handle.

“Isis tried, but I think she failed. Cara prevailed and all hell probably broke loose afterwards. I don’t know what happened since Calis dropped me off two hours before I was knocked out.”

“Sensors have detected two life forms in the spare bedroom. You might find your answers there.”

Jonas nodded and made his way there, holding onto his side.

* * *

Isis’s body was glowing at this point, radiating a huge amount of energy which didn’t seem to faze what had her trapped.

The young woman continued to energize, building her power and strength in a mutual struggle of tug-of-war. The Starchild sensed the thing was trying to hold her back as she was gaining more power, more strength, trying its best to suffocate her completely.

At this point, it was winning. It had solidified into an unmovable gel-like substance, its energy signature dissipating gradually as it assumed its new form: A giant amber colored ball.

It hovered there, seemingly content in what it had done.

The surface dweller felt her power peak and...

A bright explosion ripped it apart from the inside out a moment later, showering the surrounding area with giant chunks of itself.

The Starchild stood there, breathing a little heavily, energy contrails snaking around her body, as power fluctuations came and went on their own accord.

Whew! She thought excitedly, feeling ever ache and pain in her body, but knowing that her strength would soon recover and she would be able to continue shortly.

When she did, she would pay Nemesis back for making her wait.


Nemesis was in pure ecstasy. The Starchild was almost dead and her power and life energies were hers.

Without warning, a force beam of great intensity struck the woman dead on, blasting her clear of the other Starchild and causing the young woman’s body to start falling. Isis McGowan zipped down in the blink of an eye, snagging her seemingly lifeless body and then whisking her to safety.

“Isis? Isis!” She said, shaking her gently, before looking into her face.

The young woman gasped.

Her normally exotic features had become sunken and pasty. Indeed, there didn’t appear to be any signs of life in her, even her normally sky blue eyes were dull and glassy.

Then she coughed a couple of times before wheezing in pain.

Isis breathed a great big sigh of relief.

“Thank god your alive! I thought that you were–”

“...almost....dead?” Her counterpart managed with noticeable difficulty.

The Starchild nodded.

“Yes.” She answered softly.

The other Starchild sat up with her double’s help, holding her side gingerly.

After a minute, she said, “Man, whoever thought that Keron could pack a punch, wasn’t kidding.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “There isn’t much left that I can give, Isis. I’m...finished.”

The surface dweller shook her head in wild disbelief.

“No! You can’t mean that! There must be some other way!”

Isis stared at her, her complexion still a bit pasty, but the color at the very least was coming back, even if it was slow.

“There is no other way!” The woman rasped angrily. “I have failed!” Tears welled in her eyes and she began to cry, startling her other self. “I’m going to die and Nemesis is still going to be out there! Even with your increased power and strength, you couldn’t even stop her!”

The young woman nodded meekly.

“It must be different here, Isis. I am able to do a few things, but your right, I can’t stop her. But maybe together, we can.”

A trickle of hope entered the other woman’s mind.

“H-how?”

Isis felt immensely tired all of a sudden. She had come to do one thing and she was distracted by another. And to top if off, she was no closer to finding a way home.

“Later.” She promised, looking down to where Keron had hit, close to what remained of the lower levels. All there was left was a great big cloud of dust and shattered debris.

“Right now, we both need our sleep and it’s getting late.” She said, before teleporting them both out of here in a bang of cold-white light.


Down below, a pile of debris moved on its own accord, before falling away rapidly, allowing one lone figure to rise.

Keron brushed herself off, feeling more surprised than pissed.

Thirty more seconds and the Starchild would’ve died. Thirty more seconds...

Then she smiled.

“Very good, Isis McGowan. Very good. But the next time we meet, you won’t be so lucky. I can promise you that.”

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 80

Isis McGowan ducked just as a high-energy blast zipped past her head, missing her by inches.

The other Starchild took up station in front of her and threw out a similar blast of cosmic energy to counter the attack. But Keron–Nemesis–wasn’t stupid. She blocked the beam with little or no effort on her own, before diving down on her, intent on a fresh kill.

Isis McGowan yanked her counterpart aside, surprising both her other self and Keron at the same time and then sidestepped the charging woman and grabbed her by the throat and spun her around with such force that the air cracked violently.

Letting go only for an instant, the young woman teleported in a bang of cold-white light, before nailing her from the other side.

Her counterpart jumped in at the last second, getting her from the front with a straight punch that rocked her world. Isis snap-kicked her hard in the face when she came around, spinning her another one-hundred and eighty degrees.

Keron snarled through gritted teeth, before attacking the Starchild directly, bringing her tapered nails into play and raking them across the young woman’s face in an attempt to slow her down, to blind her, to do something.

Isis evaded the strike with relative ease, but she knew that this was only a simple ploy and the rest of the fight was going to be just as hard, if not difficult. But then Keron reached out and grabbed her front and pulled her close to her and the surface dweller could feel her warm breath on her face, never mind the icy-cold glare that emanated from her eyes.

“Silly girl. You think you’ll win this, don’t you?” She asked seductively.

Isis squirmed, nearly breaking free of her iron-handed grip. But Keron held onto her tightly.

“Whatever it takes, Nemesis.”

Keron laughed. “Don’t be sure. I wield enough power to take you and your counterpart there out without batting an eye. Do try to remember that, okay?”

The surface dweller’s eyes glowed brightly in anger. “Remember this.” Without warning, she reached up with a free hand and ripped Nemesis’s away from her chest, twisted her wrist around sharply, then with her right, discharged a point-blank salvo right into her face.

The woman screamed.

Both Isis McGowans fell back and as one, cut loose with twin beams of untamed power directly at their tormentor.

Keron’s raging voice didn’t die, but instead, intensified, before she swept aside both incoming waves of destruction and unexpectedly vanished in a cold flash of white light, the exact opposite of what Isis had been able to do.

Before either of them could do anything, she was here and there and everywhere all at once, striking at them with impunity, showering them both with painful globes of energized starfire.

Isis McGowan took three in the breadbasket, folding her over, while her counterpart was hit with the same number. But she didn’t cave in unlike her counterpart. The shots just didn’t seem to have any affect on her.

“Paralyze...ing...” The other Starchild whispered, as Isis took her injured counterpart under her wing; supporting her the best she could.

“Shields enhance.” She said calmly, watching as the purple and gold energy barrier solidify over them both.

Keron dropped in unannounced and unexpectedly tore through the Starchild’s defensive grid and ripped the other Starchild from her care.

“Die screaming.” Keron chirped lovingly, before a surge of incredible power arced through the other woman’s body, causing her to scream.

Isis didn’t stand by and allow this to happen. Not while she drew breath anyway.

She came at with every clear intention of putting her lights out permanently, but Keron–as usual–appeared to have the upper hand.

She reached out with one hand and a blowtorch of energy erupted, charging straight for her.
Isis dodged as before, but the energy construct followed her wherever she went.

Damn thing’s dogging me! Isis grated, trying to ditch the persistent whatever-it-was. There was no sufficient words that she could use that could adequately describe what was after her. She could see that it was semi-translucent at times, wavering and changing substance from the previously described state of being to one of complete solidity.

It was this part which reached out like a tentacle and slammed her sideways, crushing the wind out of her.

The Starchild backed up and away from the thing, always trying to remain one step ahead of the thing, but for some reason, it was a great deal faster than she was; nearly tagging her again.

The near miss rattled the young woman’s body, making her teeth ache from her brush with death, but all the while, she was only able to look on helplessly as her counterpart’s life was being steadily drained away.

Damn! She complained with clear irritation. I’m not going to get to her in time!

The construct lunged at her again, this time billowing out like a sentient cloud and using parts of itself to attack the fleeing surface dweller simultaneously.

Isis did what she could, getting more scared than pissed with each passing second. Only because if too much time elapsed, the other Isis McGowan would die.

All she could hear from her was the screaming. The pain. The agony. Even the humiliation.

Failure is not an option! She declared rigidly. There has to be another way!

Then she saw it.

Speed.

The young woman realized that this thing had been dogging her, but not quite overpowering her each time it came within range.

Does this thing even have one?

There was only one way to find out.

Punch it as hard as I can and double back, she realized. Fast as I can, even faster than ever thought possible...

So she fled the scene, flying hard and fast.

Isis turned slightly, knowing that this thing would be hot on her tail, but she wondered just how fast it could go.

She turned it on, flying past Mach 1, accelerating even faster with each passing second. Her own body becoming more streamlined as she raced for the open expanse of the simulated sky that was above her, which was surprisingly intact in this section of the ruined city.

The entity was still behind her, keeping pace.

The Starchild pushed it further, knowing that she had a comfortable safety margin, straining for the impossible.

Mach 2.

Still the energy thing kept with her.

Isis kept going until she approached Mach 3.

The entity kept pace. Isis didn’t feel the least bit winded, but more excited. She hadn’t done any speed trials in a long time. She had forgotten what it was like to be one with everything around her, while still being able to keep control of who and what she was.

Two halves have to work together, Isis. She remembered Keron telling her. It cannot be one over the other. The definition of being the Starchild is much more than one person can so easily define.

The entity had formed itself into a missile at this point while still keeping pace with the Starchild.

Mach 5.

The surface dweller felt incredibly energized by this thought, thinking that she could even go faster, knowing that she could accomplish anything if she put her mind to it.

Mach 6.

Five seconds was all it took to reach that speed. At this point, she was seeing everything in slow motion as she was speeding up, even though the scenery around her was now just one big monumental blur.

Mach...7.

Isis hesitated, sensing something behind her.

It was the missile. And it was dropping off, falling behind the faster she went. Right now, one hundred yards separated the two, instead of the thirty that had become rather problematic as of late.

Bingo! She crowed exhaltingly, before coming about like some ancient sea-going vessel and brought all of her power to bear on this rather annoying pain in her ass.

Her hands exploded with a surge of yellow cosmic energy and everything she had left her like a string of taffy being stretched out–hitting the missile dead-on.

The construct detonated with unexpected force, sending the Starchild backwards and out of control for a few seconds, while the grossly huge display went on for several seconds more before fading away.

Isis came to a complete stop and was treated to the most unexpected shock of her life. The thing had grown two-fold. It was now almost as big as she was.

“Shit!” She howled in mild frustration. “What’s it going to take to get rid of this thing?”

The missile construct changed form once again, becoming an immense globe. Then it turned and bore down on top of her.

The Starchild was sunk.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 79

Chaos and a state of unimaginable disarray greeted the displaced surface dweller, as the pair walked unchallenged through what remained of the shopping district.

“As you can see, there is nothing left of this once proud and bustling metropolis. Just empty shells and destroyed lives, nothing more.” Isis McGowan’s counterpart said.

Isis could sense the deep sadness and regret in her double. She wished there was something that she could do to help make that go away.

I am doing all that I can just by helping her, she thought. What more is there to do?

You have done what no other Starchild has done, Isis. You have given her hope. The Source of Chaos informed her quietly.

But she seems on the verge of giving up! Isis retorted sharply. How can I be giving her hope?

By being here, Isis. Just by being here.

The Starchild navigated the broken staircase with great agility, leaping over giant slab of rock that had imbedded itself into the middle.

Then she started floating away.

Startled by this unexpected change, the young woman brought herself to a complete halt.

“Let me guess: No gravity?” Isis commented wryly.

Her double nodded, before joining her, leaping up gracefully, before coming up next to her.

“Not in this section of the space complex. The Praetorial Guard has managed to restore some gravity in the lower levels.”

This caught the surface dweller off guard.

“Praetorial Guard? What happened to Stratos City’s maintenance personnel?” She asked.

“Killed.” The other Starchild replied. “The first attack wiped out the section they were normally stationed. The second crippled the gravity generators. The last two wiped out the space complex’s defensive systems–including the ancient weapon arrays that were supposed to protect us against the God of Insanity.”

Isis couldn’t believe the awesome destructive forces that had been used against the space complex and against this Earth itself.

The will and the master have to be as one in order to carry out such acts of cruelty, she recalled Tarnek telling her, three months after the prison break incident. Nemesis is one of the few rarest of people that have managed to accomplish both. In all of my travels, I haven’t had the opportunity of encountering a mortal that could equal to whom she had already become.

The young woman hovered there, thinking that there had to be a line drawn somewhere, some place, where everything came together.

It is there that this madness will end and one of us will be victorious. But I swear that it won’t be Nemesis! Isis reaffirmed, keeping light with what she had to do in her own universe.

“This could’ve been either one of us...” She finally chimed in, before shuddering, the thoughts–once again–unpleasant.

“True,” her other self agreed. “But because of our upbringing, we were spared the temptation to be solely destructive.”

Isis wondered if that was it. If that was the only thing that spared them this kind of fate.

“That can’t be right.” She said. “There has to be other reasons why.”

Isis McGowan looked around her, before picking up a couple of broken pieces of shattered rock, each with a considerable thickness of about two inches on one end and an inch an a half on the other. But in relative terms, the chunks were thick and very hard–unbreakable.

She tossed one of them to her counterpart.

Isis looked at her doppelganger with relative confusion.

“What am I supposed to be doing with this?”

The Starchild from this universe squeezed her sample, causing it to explode in a cloud of dust.

Isis held onto hers.

“Go ahead.” She prompted.

The surface dweller squeezed as well, creating a similar cloud of dust.

“See?” The other Starchild motioned with a dusty hand. “Nothing to it.”

Isis didn’t fully understand.

“I don’t get it.” She said. “Does this have something to do with what I said?”

The other Isis nodded, then reached and took her hand into hers, holding it up between them.

“Most people would only see the untamed strength and power before us. They would use that to their advantage and destroy everything that they once held dear, thus becoming their own worst enemy. But you...all you see in front of you is the possibilities that don’t exist yet. As do I.”

“But what makes us any different than either my Nemesis or yours? We all wield the same fantastic power–!” She broke off suddenly, feeling another presence.

Her double felt it too. “Uh-oh.” She whispered, not sure if she was going to like what she was sensing.

It was too familiar, to obvious. Too...

A part of the upper section of the space complex caved in with a fiery display of pyrotechnics, showering most of the surrounding area with large chunks and other pieces of space debris.

Both of them sighed simultaneously.

“Isn’t this where I left off?” The first Starchild remarked to the second.

Isis disagreed. “Where we both left off, I’m afraid.”

Nemesis had returned–at least the one from this universe anyway. And she didn’t look all that happy either.

* * *

Calis’s comm link beeped for his attention and he reached up from what he was doing in the large work bay and answered it.

The portable vid-screen glowed to life, giving the old man a good look at the scenery around him, which wasn’t much from what he could garner. Just a couple of empty terminals behind him and a large white inlaid-white bricked pathway.

“Hello, Bayen. How are things going with you?”

“Not good, Calis. We kind’ve had a run in with Cara, as you probably already know and let’s just say that we didn’t fare any better.”

Calis nodded, recalling the conversations that he had with Tarnek since dropping Jonas off at his old homestead two hours ago. It had just taken him two hours to get back.

“How did it turn out, Bayen?”

“A lot of guards were killed when the east wing of the prison was destroyed. I’ve got a broken leg that’s on the mend still after my run-in with Cara.” He paused for a moment. “And she’s taken her mother.”

The auto-frame mechanic’s heart drastically sank. The repercussions of this kidnapping could be disastrous to the extreme. He was beginning to think of what Tarnek might be saying at this moment.

“That’s not good,” he muttered softly, wishing that Isis was here instead of God-knows-where-else.

The sky dancer nodded. “And here’s the kicker: Cara plans on turning her full power onto the space complex itself. I’ve already alerted Pulver to the fact and he’s promising that he’s putting the space complex on full tactical alert.”

“First time that’s happened.” Calis mused, wondering if that would be enough.

As if reading the old man’s mind, Bayen added, “We hope that will be enough, but so far, no one’s figured out how to access the ancient weapon systems that were added so long ago. The thing–as far as I can tell anyway–is bio-locked with a specific DNA code in mind. Once the person of that kind of DNA sequence enters the code, the door opens into a room. But beyond that, it’s just a wild guess as to what will happen next.”

Calis was curious. “I was told that the whole thing was computer-controlled, specifically programmed in the event the God of Insanity returned.”

Bayen nodded on the vid-screen.

“That’s what everyone else thought, too. But according to the automated system, the entry code requires a sample of a specific person’s DNA.”

“That’s odd.” He said, before adjusting the thin-probed tool that he carried in his hand. “I wonder how a state-of-the-art computer system such as the one helping govern Stratos City would require a DNA decoder to unlock the ancient defense systems?”

Bayen didn’t know the answer to that one. He even said so.

Tarnek appeared next to him, saying, “I do.”

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 78

Alcoix Creek.
Seven hours later.

Jonas thanked Calis for the ride on his hover transport, and watched as the lumbering vehicle shot off into the darkness.

And sighed.

Things were finally starting to calm down, but in his mind, that was only a fantasy. Talia’s disappearance worried him, and neither Calis nor Tarnek himself could figure out where she’d disappeared to five hours ago.

So–after inspecting the breach and finding nothing of consequence–Calis volunteered to take Jonas home until Talia returned. From wherever she had gone to. Jonas thought as he crossed the dirt way to his house, and opened the gate.

The first thing he saw was that the lights were on and his girlfriend talking to someone out of earshot. Jonas’s hand moved towards his blaster, but everything looked normal from his point of view, so he released his grip on it.

No need to go overboard. He silently counseled himself. Things may be nuts as it is, but–and stopped at that point: Once he finished crossing the short walkway, he opened the door and looked inside.

“Sara?” He called out. “Honey?”

“In here.” A familiar voice returned warmly from the small dining area. “I’m in here.”

Jonas breathed a small sigh of relief and closed the door behind him. So his worst fears hadn’t been realized after all. Everything was as normal as they should be.

Normal–that is–until he walked into the dining area and got a surprise.

“Talia?!?” He croaked–seeing the younger teen sitting cross-legged at the table and quietly munching on a piece of buttered bread. The remains of her soup sat at the bottom of the now pushed aside bowl, leaving the man no reason to further guess at what she had been doing earlier.

“B-but how?”

“How?” The girl reasonably questioned back with curiosity. “Oh! You mean how I got here?”

“Yes!” Jonas returned with a mix of relief and excitement, before taking a seat across from her.

“Soup?” Sara smoothly interjected, before her lover looked up at her distractedly and nodded. The woman silently departed for the kitchen, while Jonas pressed on.

“We didn’t know where you vanished after we got to the interdimensional fissure.”

Talia shrugged nonchalantly. “Didn’t see the need to stick around.”

“We all thought that you were going starside to tangle with Nemesis…?” Jonas threw out with sheer uncertainty.

Talia swallowed the hunk of bread she had been eating and said, “Not likely. It would suicide at that point. But she definitely has a few surprises left in her. That‘s for sure.”

“Like what?”

“Trans-dimensional travel. I didn’t think this Nemesis had it. I was under the assumption that only my sister had that capability. And then we found out later that our Nemesis did to. I never took into account that it would be the same in this universe.” The girl explained over the last piece of bread, before popping the remnant into her mouth, before licking her fingers calmly, and then finally using a nearby napkin to wipe both her hands.

Placing the used wad in the bowl, she added, “I didn’t think a confrontation then would be wholly productive–seeing that I would be stepping into a world that is just as alien to me as this one is right now.”

“But you’ve grown accustomed to it!” Jonas breathed. “How can you still say that?”

Talia paused only long enough when Sara appeared with a bowl and a fresh side of baked bread.

“Thought you could use another round.” She offered with an impish smile. The moment of tenderness and intimacy broke the somewhat tense atmosphere, and Jonas had reason to forget about the question at hand as he encircled a loving hand around his girlfriend’s waist–pulling her close to him.

“Thanks babe. You’re the greatest.” He whispered, face buried into her hip. Sara ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

Talia watched the tender moment with breathless abandon and a bit of pain in her chest.

There was so much about this world that she had longed to see in hers, and this was one of them.

Even despite how bad things were around here, people still found time for the most important things in life, and in each other.

Not like mine. She thought with heavy regret, before reaching over and selecting a good-sized piece of sliced bread, and taking a bite out of its flaky hide.

She watched as Sara bent to collect a kiss from her man, before reaching over to retrieve Talia’s empty bowl.

“More soup?” She offered.

The girl nodded. “Yes, please.” I’m probably going to need the extra energy when I tangle with Nemesis the next time we meet. She silently added, watching her go, before answering Jonas's earlier question.

“Because no matter what, Jonas, this place will always remain a stranger to me–even in the short time I’ve been here.” She said.

Jonas paused in the middle of his soup–spoon suspended in mid-transit to his mouth–before he quickly finished the motion, and dipped his spoon back into the bowl.

“I see.”

“You can’t expect me to transition here so easily, can you?”

“I wasn’t expecting you to.”

“But it sounds like you wanted me to.” Talia pointed out dryly.

“I just wanted…” he began, but fell silent for a second, before starting again. “I just want you to feel at home.”

“Home…” Talia whispered, thinking about how much she missed her sister already. And her mother, and her brother, and everyone else that she knew and accepted in her circle of life. She sighed and shook her head.

“Not here. This place–no matter what its wonders or treasures–cannot replace what I feel inside of me. Inside of my heart.”

Jonas nodded. “I know that. I was never asking you to forget where you came from to start another life anew.”

Talia ate out the middle part in her bread. “And I know that you weren’t trying to. You just wanted me to have a place of security, safety, and love.”

“Huh?”

“You’re girlfriend is a remarkable woman. I can see why she cares for you so much.”

Jonas blushed a little. “I guess I’m just lucky that’s all,” he mumbled.

“And from that translate into so much love and respect.”

Sara came back with the soup and told the teen to dig in.

“It’s a bit hot.” She warned. “So no burning your tongue, okay?”

Talia nodded back, taking in her bowl of steaming broth and chili. A few pasta noodles surfaced inherently, floating about in a lazy manner.

Talia dipped her spoon into the soup, playing with them in turn, but not really doing much until it cooled to some degree.

“Yes. It does.” Jonas wholeheartedly agreed. “What about your family?”

“We…have our moments, but they are such a rarity these days.” The girl openly admitted. “Not with all the problems we’ve been having as of late.”

“Is living amidst a threat that difficult?”

“Yes.”

“How often does your Nemesis attack you?”

“Every other day or so–or so as it seems to me. My sister has been running ragged nonstop since Nemesis returned.”

“How did she return?” Jonas asked curiously. “From what Calis told me, this version was locked away in a stasis chamber and buried by both the earth and time itself.”

“From what I know from Calis–my Calis–someone stole the stasis chamber and she somehow got loose on her own. About eight or nine thousand years ago.” Talia recalled, before dipping her spoon into the cool soup, and then began to eat a little vigorously.

“But who would do such a thing? And why?” Jonas asked.

“No one really knows. The ancient records never spoke of such an instance. But Calis has every reason to believe that someone visited our world in the past and did it.”

“Strange.” The man noted in puzzlement. “How very strange.”

“How did yours escape?”

“She didn’t.” Jonas told her. “From what Calis filled me on, she’s been trapped ever since the Fall–according to the scant info found in the space complex’s ancient records.”

It was then that Sara came back–with a concerned look on her lovely face.

“Jonas? You’re computer system is on the fritz again. It says that someone has entered the underground repair bay at your old place.”

The man sighed. “It’s not a fritz. It’s a pre-set signal to me if something were to go wrong.”

“Has it?”

Jonas thought back to his first encounter with his estranged daughter, and wondered if something else hadn’t turned up again.

With her, you never know. He told himself.

“No. I’ll take care of it.”

“Would you like some help?” Talia volunteered.

“Mmm…” Jonas mulled. “Probably not.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yes. Finish eating and get ready for bed, if you please.” He said, before getting up. “I shant be long.”

Both Sara and Talia watched him go.

“Somehow, I don’t think so.” The girl muttered out loud.

Sara looked at her. “Why?”

“I think it’s best if I tag along–but at a distance.” She said, before getting up as well, lingering at the table for five full minutes, and then added: “Because with Nemesis in mind, things like this usually end up being a total disaster.”

Alarmed, Sara asked, “Will he be all right by himself?”

Talia couldn’t help but grin. “With me around, he should be fine.”

* * *

2 hours later.



Cara put her mother to bed in her spare bedroom and retired to the main work area close by to the Skyhawk S-3, not bothering to change her attire.

A shadow stepped out into the light, illuminating his drawn face, smudged with trans-axel grease.

“I see that you’ve been busy.” Jonas jumped in suddenly, watching as her only daughter spun around and faced him with a tight scowl, eyes blazing with cold fury.

“Don’t ever attempt to sneak up on me again, do you hear me?” She shouted.

Her father wasn’t fazed by her obstinate behavior.

“That wasn’t my intention. I was merely implying that–” He started to say, but Cara cut him off rather abruptly.

“Imply no more! I have other things to attend to and I will no longer brook any interference from no one!”

Jonas’s eyebrows raised just a bit from the young woman’s outburst.

“Really? And how do you explain what you were doing earlier? Fighting in Stratos City and here on the surface, with Isis McGowan no less?”

Cara was silent, as she adjusted something in the tool chest that was sitting next to the auto-frame, before taking it out.

Waving it in her father’s general direction, she said proudly, “My fight with the accursed Starchild is no longer relevant. I have completed what I had strived to attain for.”

“By making her go away? What would that accomplish?” Jonas asked, thinking back to what they found at the interdimensional fissure.

Cara stepped over the port wing assembly and made a slight adjustment to one of its panels, before popping it open.

“Everything.” The woman said. “In order to rule this planet, I can’t very well have countering resistance every step of the way, can I?”

“Rule this planet?!” Jonas squawked sharply in astonishment. “What are you talking about?”

Cara paused with what she was doing, one hand extended inside the panel sideways, while she twisted herself around to look up at her father.

“Always have been the inquisitive sort, weren’t you, father? My own dealings, my own plans and goals are my own business and not of yours. Unless, of course, you would like a taste of what pain feels like?”

The man paled, seeing how serious she was.

“You wouldn’t–!”

Cara shrugged, before turning around, lying flat on her stomach, legs raised up a bit, while she studied the inner workings of the port wing assembly, seeing a possible problem with the third fuel calibrator.

“I have no time nor the patience for significant delays. I have done what needed to be done and now I am carrying out the wishes of someone else, so that she might walk on this planet once again, for the first time in ten thousand years. Then–and only then–will you be answering to her and not me.” She said, before taking the thin-probed tool and touching the point here and there, causing small sparks to fly.

“What will happen to you?”

“This power transfer was only meant to be temporary, until Nemesis’s body has fully energized. But I am currently having second thoughts about that. You don’t know what it’s like to have power such as this. The sheer strength, the sheer control over such an entity that could devastate an entire planet...” The young woman licked her lips seductively, before tightening her control on the wavering instrument. “It’s intoxicating.”

“It’s insane.” Jonas verbally dared.

Cara looked over her shoulder.

“What did you say?”

The man knew he was treading water dangerously. But he wanted to see how far he could push it, even if it meant losing his life while trying to bring back his little girl.

“It’s insane.”

Cara stared at him through luminous eyes, a hint of anger in them. Then they glowed.

“Pain.” She spoke softly.

Instantaneously, the man felt something sharp rip into the depth of his guts, twisting them this way and that, knotting and squeezing mercilessly.

Jonas Hastings collapsed to his knees, grunting in surprise, while squeezing his eyes shut in an effort to hold back the flood of tears. By this time, he had wrapped his hand around his middle to try and stifle the pain on his own accord, but he was unsuccessful. The agony kept mounting and mounting, threatening to tear him apart at the cellular level.

The man didn’t fight the urge to cough either and when he finally did, dark red blood hit the cold floor of the large work bay.

Jonas gagged loudly, before falling sideways, supporting himself by one hand, then one arm, before laying on his back suddenly, moaning.

“W–why...?” He choked out.

Cara’s eyes narrowed with contempt.

“Because of your flagrant disregard for my position and for your continuing disobedience.” The young woman stated before rising, walking over him. Looking down, she kicked him hard in the stomach, driving what little air remained in his lungs and forcing the man–who was her father–to pass out from the torturous pain.

Shaking her head, Cara muttered with great dissatisfaction, “Pathetically weak. I can’t believe that I came from a part of your gene pool, foolish mortal. Let this be a reminder of things to come, the next time you try and thwart me from my goals.”

Then she walked away, leaving Jonas behind.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 77

Isis was in shock from the close-ranged explosion of heat and light.

Her senses swam, her own consciousness dipped dramatically, making her believe that she was just lying in the desert on a hot, sunny day with gusty winds blowing over her.

Isis! Keron and the Source of Chaos urged. Wake up!

Screaming filled her ears and she wondered who was doing the screaming.

It was Keron.

But not the one she was familiar with.

The woman’s face was burned on one side, her hair scorched and trailing fire on a few strands before being snuffed out by the sudden changes in air pressure and extreme velocity. Only then, did the Starchild realize that she was spinning out of control, with nothing to hold onto, nothing to arrest her momentum.

But at the very least–she saw–she was free from Keron’s clutches and was able to move around; albeit weakly.

Then a hand–a gentle one–grabbed her and pulled her close.

“Got you, Isis. Sorry about cutting it so close. But I was asleep at the time. Calis commed my mother and woke me up in order to tell me you were going after Keron–even after I said no.” The other Starchild said with some disappointment in her voice.

The surface dweller nodded weakly.

“Y-yes...” She whispered through cracked and bleeding lips. The taste left in her mouth was funny, all metallic and bitter. Isis spat, but didn’t see any blood, but she could imagine that’s what it was.

“I’m amazed that you lasted this long against her. I’m impressed.” The second Isis commented dryly.

The other woman laughed and gazed at her counterpart, seeing worry in the long and haggard look she sported.

The battle against Nemesis really must be a drain on all fronts. I’m amazed she’s kept it going this long.

Both Starchilds hovered there, one supporting the other. Her counterpart kept watch against Keron’s possible return, while Isis recovered sufficiently in order to speak.

“Thanks.” She said in gratitude. “I needed that break.”

Isis accepted it with a smile.

“Considering what you probably did, I’m eternally thankful. The battle with Nemesis has been brutal, as you can probably guess.”

Isis nodded, having pieced some things together since she had arrived.

“I know. And I’m sorry.”

Her counterpart accepted her condolences gratefully.

“I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to last against her, Isis. In less than a year, this planet dies and with it, every hope for a lasting civilization.”

Isis was quiet for a moment.

“I recall Keron saying something about Stratos City. What happened up there?”

Her counterpart said, “Let me show you, Isis McGowan. Show you the carnage that was left behind in Nemesis’s wake.”

* * *

The space complex that was once a teeming city, fraught with endless possibilities and crystal dreams.

Now, it was a derelict hulk, gaping holes in the center of the main body, some of the appendages that ringed the complex were either partially destroyed, or in the cases of two, completely destroyed.

The chaos that centered around it seemed to linger, a never ending story of human suffering and all consuming hatred.

Both Isis and her namesake counterpart stared at it, one filled with astonishment, while the other was full of deep pangs of sadness.

“This is what is left.” Isis heard her double say miserably. “The complex barely functions nowadays, but there are some people left...forty thousand at the least. But the majority of the sky dancers have already gone and what technology they’ve managed to salvage is now on the planet’s surface.”

“In camps.” Isis figured out. “Is that why Keron keeps attacking them, is because of what they brought back with them?”

Her counterpart shook her head, while drawing herself and her double closer to the space complex, feeling like she had failed once more. But in reality, it was just another cog in the universe’s great wheel of risk and chance.

There was no reason for her to feel this way, but Isis couldn’t help it. She felt responsible for allowing Nemesis to slip by her and attack the complex directly, resulting in thousands of deaths.

“No,” she finally answered in a shaky voice. “Keron is determined to destroy what is left of humanity. With everything going on these days, she might as well be succeeding. I have no real power left to give Isis. I am on my last leg here. One of these days, she will catch me off guard.”

“What about tonight? You seemed to be handling yourself quite well in my opinion.”

“That’s because you are here, Isis. You have served to give me hope again. I promise you I won’t fail next time. Next time, Keron will go down and thus ending the threat that she poses.”

The two drifted closer to the complex, allowing Isis McGowan a good look at the still enormous space complex, astonished by the amount of destruction one being could cause.

Now she understood why fighting Cara was so dangerous.

Paired together, we could tear this planet apart as a whole and not break so much as a sweat doing it. I can see that now.

“I know that, Isis. But what I don’t understand is how did Keron become Nemesis? What drove her over the edge?”

As if in answer, a ghost-like entity shimmered off to the side.

“Jalena!” Isis said in shock. “Y-you‘re here?! But how? I thought you were with my sister–?”

The woman shrugged, her long blond hair waving to and fro, weightless in a vacuum, zero-gee environment. She was costumed in a two-pieced version of the other Starchilds, sporting a stunning purple and silver variation with its sole white emblazoned star instead of the yellow that both Starchilds wore or the red that both Keron and Cara Hastings wore.

“Nope.” She said. But before she could further explain, Keron appeared next to her–hair shimmering–a look of shock and disbelief planted firmly on her ghostly face.

“Jalena! You live?!?” She barked uncharacteristically. “But I was there at Pasik III after that horrific battle! I held your lifeless body in my arms! How can you still be alive?”

The Isis of this universe and Jalena were equally stunned by Keron’s appearance.

“But you’re Nemesis!” They chorused together as one unified voice. “How can you be here?”

“I am linked to this Isis McGowan, Jalena.” The woman explained. “As it appears that you are linked to her.”

“Yes. Once the young one fell into the interdimensional rift, I silently re-linked myself back to her sister.” The woman finally revealed. “As I did when I managed to save myself by linking my spiritual essence to the last shard of the Source of Chaos, before it disappeared into the time stream so many years ago.”

“Same here.” Keron echoed.

Eyebrows raised in curiosity, Jalena asked, “So it is the same in your universe?”

Keron shook her head. “No.”

“You didn’t become Nemesis in your universe, did you?”

“No. How did I become Nemesis in this universe anyway?”

Jalena looked into space, as she pulled back everything from the past, back into the present, all the memories that she had at her disposal.

“You–at least the one we’re talking about subjectively–lost your mate to the Devourer.”

“I know.” Keron said softly, recalling that horrible day, centuries ago. “I once shared that experience with Isis not too long ago.”

“But you also lost your only son, Jared to it as well. You were unable to cope with the loss and your mind snapped as a result. When the Ancient Ones tried to intervene later on, you sealed off the Realm of Dreams, cutting me and a few others off.”

“What happened to Rahalay at the time? The last Starchild from Ober IV? Did she kill him in order to possess his powers?” Keron asked.

“Rahalay was the one that died at Pasik III, instead of me, Keron. I arrived there too late to help stop the invasion of Devourers. The Pasik, Oglamar, and Shina star systems were wiped out as a result. The Ancient Ones decreed that no more Starchilds in the future would be asked to make such a sacrifice if it didn’t bring great honor to the Realm of Dreams.”

Keron was stunned by this.

“The Ancient Ones in my universe ordered two Starchilds and a Watcher to the scene where the invasion was finally halted, but at the cost of their lives. I got there just in time to retrieve your lifeless body along with the other three.”

Jalena was silent.

“Was my death an honorable one?”

Keron nodded. “If it wasn’t for you, the star systems you named would’ve perished, along with the billions of inhabitants that lived in them. Is that honorable enough?”

Jalena’s eyes glistened with tears and she took a moment to wipe her face, even though everything was insubstantial.

“Yes, thank you.”


Bayen stepped lightly over one of the decimated bodies that had been crushed by the huge iron-plated door, which had been reinforced according to the guard that limped beside him.

“I was lucky to get away, though not from here,” the man was saying, before he made a face. “Ugh! There’s not much left of this bunch. Won’t be enough for a proper DNA scan.”

The sky dancer saw that the door itself had be perforated in several places, but it hadn’t completely sat evenly on the floor. It was still being held up by something and the man could only guess at to what that was.

Bayen shivered.

“Sick.” He said. “And it’s probably going to get worse before it gets any better.”

“Seventeen levels in this section of the east wing alone are either totaled or completely destroyed.” The medic recalled, going over the initial damage report from the prison’s main computer system. “And that’s not including the wreckage of a three hover tanks out in the main court yard, or the guards that were killed standing outside the main entrance to the lobby area.”

“Definitely fits her pattern.” The sky dancer said. “Destruction border lining on chaos, or the other way around, depending on her state of mind.”

“Such power...” The other man commented, before stepping through the ruined doorway and found what they were all expecting.

The torn wires and tubes were draped across the bed in every manner possible, with the blanket piled in one spot on the floor.

But the bed itself was empty.

The guards all went around checking the room out for anything that might’ve been left behind as a potential clue. However, nothing was left behind. The room was clean as a whistle.

Bayen picked up the padd that was pinned to the end of the bed and tapped the green screen once to access the patient’s history.

Lines of information flowed down like a waterfall before stopping, highlighting most of the data in electric blue, before the sky dancer used his forefinger to scroll up; changing it to white highlights instead.

Bayen changed the interface to the HUD option, allowing the information to change into the 3-D format. The information went from two dimensional flat screen to a perfect cube.

The sky dancer read what was on there.

“Transferred to the east wing after the trial. Sedated for the last two years on 300 milligrams of Tiopsolene.”

“300?!” The medic exclaimed, awestruck. “Are you sure?”

“That’s powerful stuff,” the third man commented off to the side. “I’ve heard that drug makes a normal person go zero gee after awhile even on twenty milligrams.”

Bayen nodded before showing the padd to the medic. The man scanned the information and whistled.

“Holy shit!” He breathed. “Someone really must have it out for Rayna to knock her out with that dosage. But why two years? Why that long?”

“She was suffering from what I was told was complete insanity.” The sky dancer told the man. “Maybe that was the reason for the high dosage.”

“But two years at that level...” the man muttered, shaking her head. “She’d be a human vegetable, totally devoid of everything that she once was.”

Bayen felt incredible sympathy towards the former captain of the Praetorial Guard, even though she tried to have him killed once.

“That’s terrible.” He said, trying to imagine what it might be like to lose everything that made a person a person and just be left with an empty shell of a human being.

“Nah.” The second guard commented from behind him. “That’s nothing. You should see some of the whackos we’ve got locked away here. It would make Rayna’s present situation a walk in the park, sort to speak.”

“But those whackos are runnin’ loose–at least some of them are.” The injured guard pointed out.

“Not to worry, we have guards on call looking for them. They’ll be taken care of.” The medic reassured him.

Bayen gazed at the information once more, only half-listening to what the other men were carrying on about. So far, the information only displayed her vitals and what she was currently on. But the information also carried a warning as well.

Patient must be administered every four hours or...

The HUD died on him unexpectedly, then the padd itself croaked with an audible snapping sound.

A wispy curl of smoke rose up, wafting past the sky dancer’s nose.

Bayen smacked the thing a couple of times, but the device was truly dead.

Great. Now we don’t know what will happen in the next four hours. He thought.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 76

Bayen stirred, coming to with one monster headache pounding out repetitions inside his skull.

As soon as it stopped, he was greeted to a world of destruction and a few Praetorial Guardsmen that had somehow escaped the carnage. One of them was obviously injured, by the way he was using his own pulse rifle as a makeshift crutch.

The other one was limping, but able to make his way around under his own power. The third one was currently surveying the carnage and death lying around with his own eyes.

“Man,” he was saying in a low voice. “I can’t believe that bitch would do something like this! And for what? A drugged patient?”

Drugged...? Questioned a part of his mind. Something came to life in his memories and he thought that he had a definite idea as to who it was that Cara had taken.

Rayna Hastings.

Bayen grunted as he struggled to get up, feeling like his left leg was busted.

Looking down, he saw a piece of bone sticking out the flesh, the point glistening with his own blood.

“Ugh.” He complained, feeling stabs of pain arc through his lower body like hot picks. “That’s just great.” Not that it was--in his opinion--but there was nothing that he could do. Looking around him, he found that his quarterstaff was lying fifteen feet in front of him, skewed off to the side.

Out of reach.

The injured Praetorial Guardsman looked down the wrecked corridor and found Bayen just lying there, half propped up, his leg clearly broken.

“We’ve got a live one here.” He said humorously. The other two guards perked up and saw where he was pointing.

The second, uninjured man ran over to the sky dancer, looked him and over and then took a portable bone/skin regenerator from his utility belt and ran the device over his leg once, before the device beeped at him, indicating something of some significant importance.

“I’m no expert, but it looks to me that you’ve broke your leg,” he said with a grin, before applying it to his leg, then turned it on. “Luckily for you, I’m your basic field medic.”

“Joy.” Bayen answered somewhat cryptically, feeling a dull warmth run down his injured limb. “I’m feeling just better now.”

“Mmm...” The man droned for a moment, before getting up before giving his partner a wry look. “That’s gratitude for you, these days.” He said.

After a few minutes of sitting still, the uninjured guard helped the sky dancer up carefully and went and retrieved his quarterstaff.

“Here.” He offered it back to the older man. “You might need this.”

Bayen folded it back into its original book-sized format and slipped it into a hidden fold within his long trench coat.

“Some good it did me.” He answered tightly. “Cara still kicked my ass.”

The guard didn’t smile at that bit of news. He was still shaken up over the deaths of his fellow Praetorial Guardsmen.

Bayen took a deep breath. “How many guards died?”

The medic’s injured comrade shook his head and said, “Somewhere in the 350 range. But we haven’t finished counting the bodies and that’s not including the various body parts that we’ve been finding off and on.”

Bayen felt oddly sick to his stomach. Maybe it was because of now drifting odors of burnt flesh and metal, mixed with the latent scent of ozone in the air.

“Cara’s been busy, that’s for sure. No definite pattern in her case. What she wants, she definitely gets.”

“But why would she want a drugged patient?” The medic asked.

The older man paused for a moment, wondering if it was the right time to tell him the cold truth of the matter.

They’ll find out sooner or later. He decided quietly, then replied, “Because that drugged patient is her mother.”

The three guards looked at the mess that surrounded them from all sides.

“Man,” the third man in the party of now four commented sourly. “No wonder she’s pissed.” The other two agreed, but the sky dancer wondered if that was the actual truth to the whole thing.

* * *

Isis sighed then. “So what if I‘m not from this Earth? What’s it to you?” She challenged contritely.

Nemesis shrugged nonchalantly.

“Oh, just because. Quite simply, I’m amazed. I didn’t realize that you had developed interdimensional travel. There were very few Starchilds in the past that have. I must say, I am impressed. You are more versatile then ever.” She complimented rashly.

Isis McGowan paused, seeing some vital clue that wasn’t there before.

She doesn’t realize that I didn’t come here willingly! My world is safe because of that flaw! With that in mind, she pressed on.

“Unfortunate for you, huh?” She nagged.

Nemesis either didn’t care, or she was completely blind to the fact.

“No matter, I still intend on ending your life before these pathetic imitations end theirs.”

“Over my dead body,” Isis countered rigidly.

Nemesis smiled at her coldly.

“That’s the general idea here. Are you availing yourself to me for that distinct honor?”

The Starchild of Ancient Lore shook her head.

“No. I mean to kick your ass up around your ears first, so you can listen to me beating the unholy snot out of you.”

Nemesis stared at her for a second, not comprehending what had been said.

Glancing back up at the breach in the atmosphere, the Starchild then asked, “So why did you go ahead and breach this planet’s atmosphere? You think that taking out this world’s Starchild wasn’t enough of a challenge?”

Nemesis gazed at her. “She isn’t worth my time, Isis McGowan. But you are. I’m actually most eager to pit my skills against yours.”

Isis chuckled. “From what I’ve seen already, it wouldn’t be a fair fight, Nemesis. So if you aren’t Cara and you are not Rinia, who the hell are you...really?”

The woman stepped forward and for the first time, shock and astonishment registered on not only Isis’s mind, but that of Keron’s and the Source of Chaos.

“No...” Isis whispered, horrified beyond words.

“What’s the matter? You act like you’ve seen me before.” The woman asked, eyes glowing dangerously.

“Y-your not who you are supposed to be! It’s not possible! How could you be here and still be inside my mind?”

Nemesis didn’t understand what she was driving at.

“Inside your mind? Why would I want to debase myself in that manner?”

Isis backed up, prepared herself for a new confrontation, one that she didn’t want to face, only because the truth was to terrible to grasp.

Pointing a trembling finger at her, she cried, “Because you are Keron! Keron!!”

“So?” Keron said with little emotion on her part.

Isis stared at her.

“So? Is that all you can say is ‘so’? When did you decide to become Nemesis? When?!”

Keron was starting to get really tired of this endless questioning, so she decided that she was going to end it right here, right now.

“I have a proposition for you.” She offered suddenly.

Isis went tense, while a part of her brain still grappled with the concept of mutual duality.

“What might that be?”

Keron looked at her right hand and then the other speculatively.

“I will tell you why I became Nemesis, but only if–if!–you can beat me, Isis McGowan. If you can accomplish that much, then I will divulge my past to you. How does that sound?”

Great. She thought. I knew there had to be a catch somewhere...

You can’t fight her! Keron pleaded desperately. There’s no telling what she will do!

Keron! That’s enough! I don’t need your fear of her overwhelming me, okay?

But–

Listen to me and listen well. This version of you is just as crazy as Nemesis is in my universe. It’s plainly obvious. But I’ve got to try and stop her at any rate.

And if you can’t? What then?

Isis didn’t want to think about that outcome. She had enough to deal with as it is.

Later. Right now–

Keron punched her in the mouth as hard as she could, sending the young woman flying backwards. Isis saw stars at that point and the front of her mouth was numb from the pain.

Guess...guess that answers my question. She mused groggily, sensing that she was close by and coming into range.

Shaking her head, she glared at the other woman.

“I didn’t give you my answer yet! I wasn’t ready!”

Keron didn’t show any signs of slowing down as she came at her at full speed.

“Too bad. I only give my victims five seconds to reply before I decide to kill them. You took too long. So I made the decision for you. Are you ready?”

Isis didn’t see that she had a choice. It was either do or die. Put up or shut up.

The only problem was, she didn’t know how deep she would get before this whole thing was over.

Man, and I thought my counterpart had bad days! She thought, before Keron struck her again.

But Isis was faster and she intercepted the blow with very little anguish on her part and pulled the other woman around and then pulled her down before letting go, watching her uncontrolled freefall towards the desert floor.

Deja vu wasn’t a pleasant feeling for her, since she had done this once before, but Isis saw that she had no other choice. Pulling every bit of power that she had at her disposal, Isis used that against someone whom she knew intimately.

The skies lit up at her awesome show of force as it traveled and connected to its target just short of the ground.

A giant flare of heat and light snapped into existence, briefly snuffing out the pale moonlight for a time, buffeting the entire area with gusts of wind and heavier than normal G-shock. Isis was tossed around for a few seconds before she was able to ride out the effects.

But she wasn’t done. The first time this happened, she got careless. Never again.

Not two hours here and I’m already starting trouble. She thought, before throwing her right hand back smartly, drew everything into one spot–all of her anger, hate, loathing, and fear, and uncorked a giant force beam at her target–letting it go with delicate, but deliberate grace.

The thing carved night into glorious day–pounding out heavy amounts of energy trails along the way–before slamming the ground again. It struck with so much force, it cracked open the desert floor for six miles long–while causing 1,300-foot fissures to form in the process.

The explosion cracked like an earthquake had gone off, but the Starchild didn’t wait for Keron to show up.

She came charging up at her like a bull, while Isis was on the verge of coming down to see what remained of a hated foe from a completely different perspective. Keron halted her flight and discharged something red and huge in her path, striking the young woman dead center and sending her flying off like a rag doll.

The Starchild couldn’t believe her mistake and she sensed that she had made a fatal one, before Earth’s gentle gravity tugged at her and started to pull her back down.

Sensing her opponent, the surface dweller twisted her body in mid-air, bringing both hands to bear on her target and fired.

The large power beam did two things: First, it traveled upwards towards the intended target. Second, it only succeeded in pushing the Starchild down even further and faster than before, causing her to belly flop onto the hard desert floor like a dead fish, before she bounced a couple of times.

Still, her momentum was still in play. Reaching down, she dug her hands into the ground and flipped up in an effort to get herself stabilized. Then she somersaulted once and landed nimbly on her feet. However, she was still moving, so she applied the brakes briefly, digging hard into the sandy ground, chewing up huge chunks of pulverized rock that lay beneath it.

Just as she launched herself skyward, a bright beam from the heavens homed in on her, but she swung left in order to avoid it and kept coming.

The cosmic mechanism devastated the ground beneath her, foreshadowing the Starchild’s flying form.

At this time, however, Keron was already in motion, having dealt with the power beam in a manner befitting her skills and bore down on the seemingly determined young woman–having discovered that she didn’t even come close to hitting the young woman.

They came abreast of each just within mere inches, before Keron lashed out with her left foot, but Isis vanished again–her blurring afterimage the only thing left for her to deal with. Isis reappeared in back of her and punched her solidly in the back, forcing all the air out of Keron’s body and causing her cry out in surprise. But then Isis grabbed the woman in a standard headlock and back-flipped her neatly, before ramming her knee into the other woman’s stomach.

Nemesis cried out sharply, gasping and wheezing like a fish out of water, before the Starchild took one of her discus-shaped charges and utilizing her own energy, slapped the thing onto the upper part of the woman’s back and pushed her away like a drunken sailor.

Keron clawed for the innate device, but Isis wouldn’t let her have the opportunity to remove it.

Closing her fist tightly, the device exploded, taking Keron with it. A thunderous eruption filled the night sky, filling it with a billowing cloud of smoke. But when it cleared, there was no sign of the woman anywhere.

Puzzled, Isis started looking around for her.

That explosion wasn’t powerful enough to take her out completely! So where–? Isis evaluated, before a figure slammed into her from the six o’clock position, wrapping powerful arms around her and carrying her up and away.

“You little bitch! That hurt like hell!” The voice screamed in her ears. “What did you do that for?”

Isis reached up to extricate herself from the woman, but Keron kicked her savagely in the side, causing a massive amount of pain to flare up, before the woman kicked her again.

Isis felt extremely nauseated and weak from the assault, but that didn’t stop Nemesis from performing an excruciating choke hold on the surface dweller.

Isis thrashed around feebly, knowing that if she didn’t do something soon, she would die.

It was then that Keron got tapped on the shoulder by someone else.

“Excuse me.” The voice directed in a pleasant voice.

The woman turned around briefly, bearing her load at the same time.

The other Starchild stood there with a tight smile plastered on her face.

“Your in so much shit right now, do you know that?” She stated infallibly, before she blasted the woman and her would-be victim from close range.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 75

The psychiatric ward was probably one of the most heavily guarded areas in the entire prison, mainly because most of the prisoners there were considered extremely dangerous and therefore unfit for rehabilitation. There, these unfortunate souls would live out the remainder of their lives under heavy isolation and under constant sedation--depending on the patient and the circumstances.

Cara simply made short work of the guards that stood in her way, followed by any medical personnel that happened to stray into her path.

The screams of the dying rang in her ears, adding to the sweet melody of chaos she was going to soon create. Just as soon as she took care of some long, unfinished business.

She strode down the, white, desolate, corridor, seeing each door as a barrier to something long since forgotten. The woman wasn’t interested in these decrepit individuals.

Only one.

A minute later, she found the name of the person she was looking for: Rayna Hastings.

“Mother...” The young woman whispered, before taking a hold of the door handle and twisted.
Because of her immense strength, the thing came off unexpectedly, leaving the door itself intact.

Cara didn’t have time for the usual niceties.

Stepping back just a bit, she gut-checked the door sharply, causing the whole thing to implode inward. Stepping through the ruined doorway, the young woman came under fire from down the other end of the hallway, hosing down the entire area with concentrated photon and pulse rifle salvos. Explosions ricocheted all around her, some hitting her, but not causing any significant damage or injury.

All it did was piss her off.

Picking the door up by hand, she rotated herself around, as most of the hits started slamming into the door with compounding intensity. But that didn’t seem to faze the woman.

She simply heaved the door in the direction of the fire, watching it bounce a couple of time, throwing a plethora of sparks up along the way before landing on top of the large squad of Praetorial Guardsmen that had come in response to the growing problem at hand.

The shooting stopped abruptly, as many of them died from the sudden impact of metal meeting human flesh. The few remaining survivors moaned and flopped around weakly, trying to escape from the dead weight that had been dropped right on top of them.

Cara threw her hand out and ended their suffering with one quick blast of red cosmic energy. The resulting explosion ripped through the corridors, puncturing or collapsing some of the walls and other doors that held back the dregs of society.

Turning her attention back to the task at hand, Cara Hastings ventured inside the bare, white-walled room, devoid of every necessity usually found in a room. There were no paintings, no trappings, not even a window or two to help dispel the illusion between night and day.

The only thing that was there, was a beige and yellow tiled floor, and a small island of instruments sitting next a bed; with small tubes and wires snaking over a body that was as sullen and decrepit as any of the other patients that were in the ward.

Cara wasn’t pleased at all with the result.

Her mother looked pathetic. Just like the rest of them.

Her mother’s normally exotic features--much like her daughter’s--was now a pale imitation. A shell.

A ghost.

Cara’s face tightened and a scowl formed.

“Drugs.” The young woman muttered, not happy with what she was seeing on the surface. “Nothing but drugs to sap the greatest conniving mind ever conceived by a mortal. Even one that has failed to impress me.” On some level, Cara knew it was Nemesis talking through her lips, but somehow, she felt it was herself.

And she hated it.

“Stay out of my mind!” She screamed. “This is my show now, not yours!”

The presence of Nemesis retreated for the moment, allowing her the luxury of being herself.

Cara looked at her mother, both happy and sad that she had to see her like this.

Strange that she never got the chance to know her mother any better.

But first things first.

Ripping away wires and the tubes, Cara scooped her mother up, trailing the light blue blanket behind her, before yanking it aside and throwing it onto the floor.

“Come on. This is going to be the last trip you’ll ever take.” She promised lightly, wishing that she hadn’t gotten rid of Isis McGowan so easily.

Giving her pain would’ve been more enlightening after what I’ve just seen. She thought, before vanishing in a bang of cold-white light.

* * *

Isis flew towards Dead Man’s Bluff, high up and able to see what this alternate Earth had to offer her.

Nothing but destruction. She saw with the moonlight playing softly across the desert, seeing craters large and one small neatly carved one into the ground like a stone cutter chiseling his greatest masterpiece. Just like mine in the back of Calis’s junkyard, the surface dweller recalled, thinking about the stunt she had pulled that had temporarily cost her the use of her hands.

But these look fresh...recent too. Man, I can’t imagine who would pull off something like this.

I would. Keron said softly from inside her consciousness.

Isis slowed down just a bit, but didn’t stop.

Who? She asked.

Before Keron could answer, a bright light punctuated the darkness for a brief moment, before something white-hot burned past her face, missing her by inches.

“Holy crap!” She blurted out in pure astonishment, seized by the strong rush of adrenaline. Pulling up short, she hovered and looked around rapidly, trying to find out who was doing the shooting.

Three more points of light illuminated the desert floor just above and to the left her. The Starchild looked up just in time to see a vanishing figure disappear just as the trio of lethal energy bolts rained down on top of her position.

Isis dodged the attack with relative ease, finding the exact spot between the three, before emerging into the clear and accelerated upwards in a desperate bid for more space, while down below, the ground blossomed into three separate conflagrations.

The surface dweller spun around, not knowing where the attack was going to come from.

But whoever was trying to nail her made that decision for her.

“I cannot believe my luck! And I thought I would never see you flying again, not after what I had done before and sent you scurrying away like the scared mouse you are.” The person spoke in a chiding tone, one meant to convey fear and terror.

Isis turned around again, seeing the person in question, hovering no more than fifty feet away.

From this angle, the Starchild couldn’t see who her opponent was, but she could already hazard a guess.

“Nemesis.” She answered tightly, changing combat stances. There was no way she would be caught off guard again. Not like the last time.

But unfortunately for her, she hadn’t had the time to be completely healed. She still was hurting from their last encounter. But she felt that she had sufficient strength and power for this one.

“Ah, so you do remember who I am. Good. Then that means killing you will be so much sweeter.” Then she paused dramatically for a second, before plunging on. “You know, you should’ve just given up on our first meeting. I’m much more powerful than you are. I can even sense that your injured.”

Uh-oh. Isis groaned silently.

“Prepare to die.” Nemesis declared in a stiff voice, before she launched herself at her, intent on landing the first of many blows--all designed to either cripple or kill. It mattered not, just as long as the job was done and she can get on with what she really wanted to do.

A split-second before the killing blow landed, Isis vanished, her form an invisible blur in the darkened background.

Nemesis stumbled forward for a few seconds, before she arrested her own momentum. “What the–?” She began, startled by the young woman’s tactics. She hadn’t expected that–let alone seen it!

The surface dweller appeared sixty feet down, none worse for wear.

Isis looked up at her opponent.

“What’s the matter, Nemesis? Having problems already?” She fairly taunted, still not realizing who she was fighting.

Nemesis spun around in shock, staring directly at her.

“You’ve never done that before! Never!”

Isis McGowan hovered for a long moment, thinking that one over.

Never? What does she mean by that?

“Come one, Nemesis. You and I have done the disappearing trick many times over. This stalling trick of yours won’t work with me, not like the last time. Last time, I was foolish enough to fall for it. This time...never again.”

The other woman shook her head with vivid desperation.

This could be bad...Came a brief thought inside the other woman’s head, before it dissipated all together.

“I have never done the disappearing trick before! I can’t!” She shouted, then turned her palm out and ignited a large ball of brightly lit cosmic energy that burned an intense red.

The thing was like a sore thumb to the Starchild and her eyes momentarily hurt from staring at it. She turned away for a brief moment to rub her eyes and then look back, squinting them the best she could.

“That’s a load of shit, Nemesis. And you know this! You can pull off the same stunts as I, or better yet, you can one-up me even better!”

The woman threw her hand down suddenly, releasing the charged salvo, watching it sail straight and true at the surface dweller.

Isis was surprised by this maneuver, but rose up and knocked it aside as soon as it entered range, watching as it skewed sharply to the right and away, exploding in the far distance.

Her left hand burned a little and she shook it to get rid of the pain that plagued it.

“Ouch!” She complained, shaking it some more. “That one hurt!”

Nemesis was stunned. “There is no way that you could avoid that! It is specifically designed to kill you!”

The Starchild shrugged. “Guess it failed, Nemesis. Too bad for you, huh?”

Nemesis fumed. “This isn’t right! You’re different than before. You should be weak and depressed from your fights with me!”

Isis agreed with her on that. “You know what? You’re right about one thing: I am a little weakened, but not too terribly. As for the depressed parts…? Nah. I have to kick your ass first before I even get that depressed.”

Nemesis didn’t approve of the other woman’s sense of humor. She felt like she was being cheat of her long time prey.

“When did you find the time to become such a comedian, huh?”

Isis shrugged. “My mother always said to make the time, so I suppose that now is a better time then ever.”

“Very funny. You know, I haven’t had time to exterminate all of you vermin. I thought that I did so when I nearly destroyed Stratos City, but thanks to the breach in this planet’s atmosphere, I won’t have to wait for very long.”

Isis’s heart practically dropped to the bottom of her red boots.

“B-breach? What do you mean? What did you do to this planet?” She demanded.

Nemesis extended a casual finger upwards. “Take a look, Starchild of Earth.”

Isis did and found to her horror the devastation and the utter, senseless cruelty that one being could bring onto so many others.

Holy god–! She thought, completely stunned by what she was seeing.

The breach in the atmosphere was clearly visible as a large dark hole devoid of stars, visible by the pale moonlight. It was like someone had cut it out using a pair of scissors. But she could see clouds being slowly sucked into the breach and into outer space.

“The breach is actually a tunnel that extends from space to the very lower depths of this planet’s oxygen envelope. I’d say five, maybe six miles.” Nemesis bubbled proudly. “So what do you think of my handiwork?”

Isis was at a loss for words. This type of brutality was inconceivable, even by Cara’s standards. Sure, she probably killed people, but why go to these great lengths?

“You cold-hearted bitch!” She cried out. “These people don’t deserve to die like that!”

Nemesis was pleased, but at the same time, she was a little puzzled by the woman’s strange behavior.

“But you should know already what I’m capable of, Isis McGowan. You’ve seen it with your very own eyes. Of that I’m pretty sure.”

I have. She silently admitted. But you are not the Nemesis I know. You are someone completely different.

So she decided to test her by asking a very obvious question.

“You’re not Cara Hastings, are you? Rinia perhaps?”

The woman froze and Isis felt dread freeze her soul, realizing that she might be up against someone who she thought had been buried in the stasis chamber.

Then she smiled.

“Wrong on both counts. Why would I avail myself to become the lowest mortal female on the chain of humanity anyway? As for Rinia, she’s...let’s just say that being dead hasn’t improved her attitude as of late.”

Isis felt like someone had kicked her in the stomach.

“What?” She whispered.

Nemesis nodded while staring at her. Then she inquired, “Tell me, Isis McGowan. You’re not from around here are you?”

The surface dweller didn’t know what to do. She was quite astonished by the information that had been fed to her directly.

“What do you mean? Of course I’m from here!”

Nemesis chuckled. “Always the mistress of deceit. Your tactics may have changed, but the underlying principle of who you are hasn’t. You are the Starchild of Earth, but not from this one. This Earth anyways.”

Isis felt sunk. If Nemesis had discovered the truth about how she arrived, there would be two of them to contend with on her Earth.

And she didn’t think she could handle that. Not after what had just happened.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 74

Isis McGowan couldn’t sleep. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t sleep. Too much was going through her mind to allow for that simple luxury.

Must be nearing eleven o’clock at night. She guessed off-hand, staring up into the black, featureless ceiling, even though from here, she could pick out a couple rafters and maybe a crossbeam or two.

Turning over onto her side, the Starchild stared into nothingness, until her eyes grew heavy and she finally did fall asleep.

* * *

Bayen slipped past the carnage that had afflicted almost three-quarters of the east wing, wondering time and time again what exactly Cara was after.

Bodies of the deceased littered the area like bits of trash, giving the sky dancer the chills.

There had to be something that she was after, but what? He kept going over again, as he past the wrecked shaft of a turbo lift. One of the doors was ripped clean off, while another hung ajar. The cage itself was blown to smithereens and Bayen only caught a glimpse of a partially charred human torso.

The sight sickened him, but it also gave him more reason to keep going.

And quickly.

Thirty minutes of jumping over things and dodging fallen partitions, wall enclosures and even more mangled bodies, the sky dancer came across an undamaged lift.

The doors were closed and the light indicators on the access pad were still active.

Doesn’t mean crap. Bayen thought, before taking out his quarterstaff and extending it, twirling it slowly, before stopping, using the point of the multi-purpose weapon as an extension of himself and tapped the access pad randomly until he heard a buzz.

Leaning closer, he found that it required a card that he didn’t have.

Nuts to that! He complained morbidly, before looking around for a dead guard in hopes that he might be carrying a card.

The only problem was that there were none where he was. He would have to go further until he found one; not that he was wishing ill-fortune on the unfortunate slob that happened to stray into Cara’s path.

So he had no choice but to continue on.

Sprinting down the next corridor, he turned the corner and came to a skidding stop.

“Shit!” He yelped reflexively, but it was too late.

Cara dropped the guard she had just killed and turned around, surprised but not totally.

“You know, the problem with a place like this, is that it not only takes forever to case it, but you have to deal with people along the way.” Pointing at the poor soul whom she had just murdered maliciously, she said, “Just like this one.”

Bayen backed up, holding his weapon out in the guard position, while the rest of his body tensed for the unexpected.

“What do you want, Cara? What’s the deal with killing all these people? You realize that you won’t be able to get away from here in one piece.”

The young woman stared up at the untouched ceiling for a moment, before dropping her gaze back down onto him.

“What I want is none of your damned business. My reasons for killing is not for the timid or the meek. And yes, I will get out of here. Why do you ask? Because I can. Because none of these simpletons can hold a candle to me.” Then she added, “But you shouldn’t worry about what I’m going to do. You should worry about whether or not you’re going to either live...” She held out her hand towards him, relaxed, but firm at the same time. “...or die. It’s your choice.”

“Not by you.” Bayen debated, swinging his staff around. “Living or dying isn’t a lottery that can be made by one individual. It is a biological function that has spanned time itself. You should be fully aware of that by now, Nemesis.”

Cara had an annoyed look on her face.

“How many times do I have to say it?! I’m Cara! Not Nemesis!”

“Not until you relinquish your hold on Cara, Nemesis. Not until then.” Bayen said unmovingly.

The young woman’s face went slack, before she smiled cruelly.

“You know? That’s what your girlfriend said. She was a real pushover come to think of it. Always so naive and gullible. Not to mention pathetic.”

Bayen didn’t buy into that load of crap.

“You always do get a kick out of picking on the weaker sex, don’t you, Nemesis? Choosing those who willingly do your dirty work. But you don’t dare get your hands dirty, do you? You’re too busy hiding in that damned stasis chamber of yours.” Antagonism was such a wonderful tool these days...the older man mused. Too bad that it is lost on some people.

“I don’t need to hide from the likes of you, Bayen Yelou. I know your disposition towards dying, so killing you right now would bring me no great amount of satisfaction. I suggest that you leave before I change my mind.”

Bayen wasn’t about to take off just yet, not when he had to go and find Barc, Leona, Lara and the rest of their gangs. But the sky dancer realized that in order to do that, he would literally have to go through Cara just to get there.

The two would-be combatants stared at each other for a long time, one waiting for a reply from the other.

“I cannot.” Bayen voted at last. “But nor can I allow you to continue either, Nemesis.”

Cara looked at him in utter disbelief.

“What is it with you mortals, anyway? Are you that eager to die? Why can’t you just accept the way things are and live with it?”

“What you propose is pure and simple slavery. And I’d rather die stopping you then to be a slave to your every whim and desire, Nemesis.”

“Both you and the Starchild have expressed the same notion. Interesting. Perhaps I’ll get a chance to test this theory once I put a stop to all this pathetic squabbling and resistance.”

Bayen froze. “What do you mean?”

The young woman smiled.

“Why the destruction of this space complex, of course. What do you think?”

“I think your fucking crazy, believing that you can go to great lengths as to wipe out the planet’s only source of defense against the God of Insanity.”

“This ‘source of defense’–as you call it–is a cosmic joke. The God of Insanity–the being that I had fallen in love so many a eons ago, will obliterate it without a second thought. I’ve decided to give Him a helping hand instead. Hope you don’t mind your home being destroyed and all.”

Bayen raised his quarterstaff at her in a threatening manner.

“As a matter of fact–I do mind.”

Cara looked at him askance, then shook her head.

“Still that eager to die?” Sighing heavily, she put a hand to her forehead, then glanced up at the older man. “I guess I can’t deny you that. I just hope it was worth your meager existence, sky dancer. Isis knows. I sent her away...permanently, I might add.”

“What do you mean?” Bayen asked.

“She’s gone away...even I don’t know where. But the important thing is, she is no longer here to give me trouble.”

The sky dancer’s heart fell to the pits of his stomach, as a part of him digested what the other woman was trying to tell him.

A flood of anger and loss hit him like an intense tidal wave. But he had to remind himself that he had to remain cool throughout the whole ordeal. It was absolutely imperative.

If I can keep her pinned here...he propositioned quietly, trying to come up with an exact plan of action. A new one and not the one that he was already trying to carry out.

Then he hit upon an idea.

“What do you think you’re mother would say, Cara? To everything that you’ve done and what you’ve become?”

Cara grinned, then chuckled.

“I’ll be sure to ask her when I see her.” Then she started to walk away.

Like an open book, Bayen quickly put two and two together and swore.

“No! You can’t–!” He shouted desperately, reaching out to her, bringing his quarterstaff around for a quick strike, one swift attack.

Cara spun around, eyes blazing bright emerald green with cold fury.

She held out her hand and before the sky dancer knew what hit him, he was thrown bodily down the hallway and slid another couple of lengths down, before coming to a complete stop by ways of the corner wall partition.

The sky dancer’s limp form slumped over–in the possessed woman’s satisfaction–and did not move for the moment.

Cara waited for a second, strode down the hallway and stopped well short of the reasonably unconscious sky dancer.

“So now you know what it is like to deal with the likes of me.” Bending down and patting the older man’s cheek, she whispered into his ear, “But don’t worry, you won’t suffer for very long. I can promise you that.”

Then she walked away.

* * *

Calis shook Isis. “Hey!” She whispered urgently. “Wake up! I gotta tell you something!”

The surface dweller groaned and tried to roll over, but the old woman stopped her from doing so and shook her some more.

“Wake...up!!” She pleaded. “You have to wake up! Now!”

Isis didn’t want to. She made it plain in her own way that she wanted to sleep.

“Leave me alone...” She complained softly.

“Can’t.” Calis insisted. “It’s urgent.”

Isis opened her eyes, seeing only a formless shape in front of her. A momentary freeze in fear was alleviated by the white wash of a miniature pen light, illuminating the now familiar features to the Starchild.

“Calis...? What’s wrong? Why are you here?” She fired off successfully in growing puzzlement, even as the woman in question moved out of the surface dweller’s way–so she could slide off the bed and get up on her own.

“Camp #51 is under attack,” the old woman told her in a rush; as she drifted by.

The words didn’t register on her one bit.

“Camp #51...?” Isis echoed in confusion. “What’s that?”

“A place sixteen miles west from here. In an area known as Dead Man’s Bluff.” Calis answered.

“I know that place. It’s where a friend of mine–Pauline Anderson–lives at the Twenty-Four/Seven bar–”

“–destroyed...” The woman cut in.

Isis went white with shock.

“What?”

Calis nodded. “The whole settlement was destroyed last week by Nemesis. There were no survivors.”

The surface dweller felt sick to her stomach.

“Gods...” She croaked. Memories of her past childhood surged forth, playing games with both Pauline, Cara, and herself. Watching the races on the old vid-screens and drinking sparkling soda till it came out of their noses; giggles, snorting and high-pitched laughter filling her ears as the young woman remembered each of those special moments.

Calis on the other hand, could sense the other woman’s pain even from where she was kneeling next to the bed.

“But it’s nothing that you could’ve done–I mean my young charge, that is.” She corrected.
Isis knew she was trying to deflect the severity of the incident the best she could, in the only way she can.

With the blind truth.

“I know it’s not my fault.” The Starchild said, before stepping up to the exit and opening the door. Pale moonlight filtered through, illuminating her graceful form and the emblazoned yellow star on her chest.

A symbol of power. A symbol of hope.

“But I can’t stand idle here and let your world be destroyed. I will help my counterpart, even if it means my own destruction towards the end.”

Then she stepped through and was gone.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 73

Isis McGowan ate in silence, trying to come up with a way to explain to her mother and her younger brother Trell what had happened. What had happened to her sister. But so far, she had struck out on all fronts and frustration had mounted within her, threatening to explode at a moment’s notice.

“Honey?” Maye asked, while getting her a glass of water from the fridge.

Isis accepted what her mother was giving her and drank it down slowly.

“I’m sorry, mother. But there’s something I need to tell you.”

“What?”

“While I was on patrol, looking for signs of Nemesis, I came across someone.”

“Another survivor?” The woman blurted out unexpectedly, knowing what her daughter was going through. After the near destruction of Stratos City, sky dancers from the crippled space complex started to shuttle down and make camps all over the place in an effort to escape the carnage that had happened in the last week. But then the unthinkable started to happen: Nemesis started attacking the city camps ruthlessly, killing a great deal of the people that were both helpless and innocent.

For the last couple of days, survivors from those camps started showing up in the Western Desert, or in Shark’s Bay, with the slim chance of survival.

If that wasn’t bad enough, in of the surface dweller’s battles with Nemesis, the insane woman created a catastrophic breach in the Earth’s atmosphere, allowing the life giving air to slowly escape little by little, disrupting the planet’s fragile ecosystem even more.

It was the only way she knew of to force the young woman into an impossible stalemate.

Maye was proud of her daughter, for the way she had been handling these many crises to date, not showing the insurmountable strain and stress that she must be feeling right now.

“No, not a survivor.” She said after awhile, toying with her food in the process. “Someone that I had been in contact with over the last five years. I had hoped and prayed that she would somehow find a way here, but knowing how fragile the universe is, I knew it to be an impossible dream. Until today.”

“You mean that girl who you told us looked like you, but was different?” Talia asked, brushing her auburn red hair out with the brush she was carrying. Her sky blue eyes matched her sister’s and despite their slight differences in hair color, both Talia and Isis could easily have passed for twin sisters. However, Talia was three years younger than her sister, but she was an exceptional pilot, much like her sister and adored her deeply.

Trell was younger than both of his sisters, sporting a mop of blonde hair and blue eyes. He had just had his twelve birthday recently and was heavily into tinkering with electronics and other gadgetry.

“There’s another one of you?” He antagonized with clear mischief in his face. “I don’t know how the world could begin to cope with two Isis McGowan’s, let alone just one.”

Talia punched her brother in the shoulder before Isis could retaliate.

“Quiet.” Her mother scolded the boy firmly. “Let your sister finish.”

Trell lapsed into an awkward silence, but didn’t try to push the envelope any further.

“Yes,” the young woman answered both her sister and her mother respectively. “The other me.”

“She’s here?” Maye asked.

Isis nodded.

“Right now, she’s sleeping at Calis’s workshop. I didn’t think it would be right to bring her here right off. The shock of just being here has upset her enough. To see the rest of you would probably cause deep-rooted panic or something.”

“Well, you did the right thing, honey.” Maye murmured approvingly.

Isis sat back and stretched, then got up. “Well, I think I should get to bed. It’s been one hell of a long day.”

Maye didn’t object, but acknowledged her daughter’s request with a discernable nod.

Isis went back to her room, thinking of what she said, but also thinking about how much she missed her younger sibling.

And she would imagine what she would say–that is if she were here right now. So in the tradition of make-believe, Isis imagined that her sister was her right here with her at this moment–having gotten up from the table and followed her into her bedroom.

The ghost of Talia followed her sister while Trell stayed behind to be with his mom.

Sis! She called out, before the young woman stopped just shy of her bedroom door. The other girl came abreast of her and quietly asked: How powerful is your double?

The surface dweller blinked her eyes at the door, not expecting that kind of question from a ghost.

“I don’t know.” She answered stonily. “Why?”

Well, maybe you ask her in your struggle against Nemesis. Maybe she could lend a hand.

“It’s not a struggle.” Isis said emptily. “Just a few setbacks, that’s all.”

The ghostly image of her sister just rolled her eyes in the semi-permeable darkness of the hallway.

Sis, don’t kid me. I know how bad things are going. You are close to losing, aren’t you?

Isis was silent. Then she said, “Yes. Some Starchild I turned out to be, huh? Boy, I wonder if Rinia knows this revelation.”

Rinia and Calis do know, her ghostly sister revealed to her. But they are afraid to come out and say it. They still believe that you can defeat Nemesis, if you find a way. Well, I believe that the other Isis McGowan is that way. She could help you, you know. All you have to do is ask.

Isis shook her head, not wanting to believe it “But she doesn’t belong here, Talia. She belongs in that other universe. There is no way I’m endangering her just for the sake of what’s happening here.”

Isis imagined her sister smacking her on the shoulder sharply, not so much as to hurt her, but make her come to her senses.

Have you been stuck on stupid again? You just can’t stand here and ignore the perfect opportunity to get yourself out of this major pickle! The other Isis wouldn’t either, I’ll bet. But you can’t seriously believe that you’ll be able to undo all the damage that Nemesis has done and beat her to death afterwards! It’s suicide!

“It’s my choice.” Isis said unswervingly. “Not yours.”

Talia stood there, not believing the absolute stubbornness her sister was exhibiting. She loved her deeply, but she wasn’t going to stand around and let her get herself killed.

Fine. Be that way. She finally acquiesced, before walking away and vanishing.

Isis reached out for her then, but then dropped her hand, realizing just how futile the discussion had been–even if it was just a fantasy.

In all of her years as a surface dweller, there always had been openings and paths to chose from. Some of them weren’t easy, but she knew that with persistence and determination, she could accomplish anything.

But within a year’s time, nothing will matter, will it? She thought sourly, thinking back to what Rinia said after Nemesis created a breach in the planet’s delicate atmosphere.

In one year, no life will exist on Earth.

None.

* * *

Cara meted out death and destruction wherever she went, not really caring who got in her way, just as long as she reached her intended destination.

This is too easy, she thought, as she watched another innocent human being vaporize into nothingness. It could’ve been a doctor, it could’ve been a secretary, guard, or someone who worked at the main prison.

It could’ve been anybody.

Not that she cared anyway. With the Starchild permanently removed–in her mind at any rate–there was really nothing that could stop her from accomplishing everything that she had set out to do. Not even the most powerful weapons that had been developed with the Starchild in mind could stop her.

All they did was make Cara Hastings mad.

The hallway she was strolling through was a scorched mess of human remains and senseless destruction. Walls with holes in them, or ceiling partitions that sagged down from intense heat and various interfaces with chunks of wiring hanging down like vines.

A jungle of agony and pain. Just the way she liked it.

Another guard–hidden in the shadows–jumped out to confront her in the flickering light, both fear and blind determination masking his face. He was too scared to do anything else but try and put a stop to this madness.

Raising his rifle at her, he fired, shooting out a blue paralyzing beam that encased her, freezing the young woman in her tracks.

Lowering his weapon in victory, he grinned through a soot-caked smile.

“Gotcha.” He gloated openly.

Then, without so much as a warning, the woman’s form vanished and so did the blue paralysis field that had trapped her.

The guard looked at the spot where the woman had been before and was mortified beyond words.

“What the–?” He murmured in astonishment, before an intense force ripped into his back, crushing his spinal column in two places, killing him instantly.

Cara pulled her hand out from the dead man’s body, covered in blood and gore, but none worse for wear.

The guard’s dead body crumpled softly to the floor, a hole visible in the man’s armor where she had punched through.

“Animal.” She spat.

Stepping over him, she continued on.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 72

Talia continued ahead for another 10 miles, homing in on what she thought was an interdimensional breach. The radiating purplish-black blob in the distance couldn’t have been a complete coincidence in her book.

This was the same method upon which my sister had used to bring me here! But who else besides her had this arcane ability? She thought to herself, as she dipped lower to just skim above the desert surface–approaching Mach 1 quickly–and was upon the source of the disturbance in seconds.

Talia did a velocity dump–hovering over the newborn fissure all at the same time–while studying the thing.

There was nothing out of the ordinary that she could see, but nor could she detect a true opening from it either.

“Whatever it’s purposes where for…it’s completed its primary objective.” She murmured to herself–sensing something else about it as well.

So she was here as well, huh? Oddly enough, that this version of Nemesis has the ability for interdimensional travel as well like our version…the girl continued to contemplate, turning her head and facing starside. I guess there is some differences between our universes after all.

No matter.

It would only be a matter of time before the two paired off again–and this time, the stranded surface dweller would have a surprise or two waiting for her.

Looking down at the fissure, she felt a pang of sadness wash through her. It was just too bad that this version of her sister would be missing out on the fun that lay ahead.

Then she vanished in a bang of cold white light.

* * *

Tarnek appeared to Calis a half hour after the two had concluded their own separate affairs.

“Calis.” The ex-Watcher intoned calmly, causing the old man to reflexively bang his head on one of the underlying consoles that he was presently working on.

“God Tarnek!” He growled. “Haven’t I told you never to do that to me?”

The spirit deity apologized.

“I am sorry. But this is most urgent.”

“So is getting this hulk moving again.” The old man said.

Tarnek glanced around for a second from where he was standing.

“I’m serious, Calis. Talia McGowan is gone.”

The old man stopped what he was doing. “Define ‘gone’. She told me that would be scouting ahead for the fissure.”

“She was.” Tarnek answered cryptically. “Now she’s finished. Now she’s gone.”

Calis’s eyebrows went up with a bit of surprise, before his face colored with dismay.

“No! She couldn‘t possibly think about tangling with Nemesis again!” He inquired. “She doesn’t have the power!”

Tarnek sighed, then shook his head.

“She doesn‘t seem to believe that.” The ex-Watcher countered. Then said quietly, “She’s convinced that she has a few tricks which could turn the tables on Nemesis once again.”

Calis thought over that one.

“It didn’t help her the last time.” The old man pondered. “She could very well get herself killed without even trying Cara’s patience.”

“Talia doesn’t see it that way. I think we’re underestimating her resilience in this crisis.”

“As have we all.” Calis muttered, wiping his hands down the sides of his pants. The repairs were going well, but he’d soon just get back to the workshop as soon as possible.

“I still don’t understand how Isis could vanish like this. How’d it happen, old friend? I thought Isis–” but was stopped when Tarnek gave him a strange look. “What?”

“Cara got the best of her at the last second and shoved her into what appeared to be some kind of transdimensional portal. Where she’s gone, I couldn’t even begin to guess.”

“Transdimensional? I wasn’t aware that Cara possessed that ability!” The old man pondered with amazement in his voice.

“It is how Nemesis got here, old friend.” Tarnek explained. “In her twisted quest to find the God of Insanity.”

“It looks like Cara has it now.” Calis sighed heavily.

“She does,” the spirit deity agreed. “But it didn’t stop her from using it to get Isis out of the way.”

That notion didn’t sit well with the old man. Not one bit.

“So what is she going to do? Wipe us out?”

“She intends to rule this planet. And the first thing she’ll probably do is make sure there is no one around to resist her.” Tarnek guessed off hand.

Calis snorted. “From the way things have gone, she wouldn’t have much of that either. We’re just toys to her now. And without Isis, we’re good as dead.”

* * *

Bayen left the Arts and Crafts shop around ten, feeling wary, due to an increase in Praetorial Guard patrols. From what he could see walking down the plaza close by, there were six times the usual amount.

That’s when he was caught.

Three guards came upon him, just as he was about to head east, along another plaza.

“Stop!” The first one commanded, before the other two trained their rifles on him.

Bayen raised his hands as he was surrounded on all sides, before the group leader approached him, pulse rifle still leveled at him.

The sky dancer gazed at the man’s weapon of choice and discovered with cold dread that they weren’t the standard T-37’s.

More like a P-3. He ventured. A kinetic energy discharge cannon. Very lethal, no stun settings. How can these people be so cruel?

The man looked him over with a cold steel expression. There was no real point in making an excuse, since he wasn’t in the mood for the usual turtlehead games.

“Explain your reasons for violating curfew regulations.” He demanded.

“I’m just out for a walk. Couldn’t sleep.” He answered, trying a play on the old innocent routine.

The man’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“After ten o’clock?”

“Yes,” the sky dancer responded with a nod. “It has been a rough day to say the least. How about you?”

“Sky dancer citizens are not allowed to venture out after a set time under martial law status.” He jabbed a finger at him. “You will return to your place of residence.”

Shit. The sky dancer swore silently, feeling beaten. There was no way he could get to the prison now.


The hover tank commander on the prison grounds sighed, before tossing the dredged contents of his Styrofoam cup over the side, feeling bored and restless.

Orders. Orders. Orders. He repeated over and over inside his mind, like a never ending cog wheel. Always orders. How come we can never do what we want, but have to abide by what the Praetorial Senate wants?

By no means was the man subverting. He was just questioning the legitimacy of imposing martial law.

Well, let’s see. There’s two beings with incredible powers. No one’s ever seen them or heard of them, but apparently whatever happened today’s got everyone spooked.

The man only got second-hand reports of the action, disbelieving what he had heard. After all, he was a tank commander, not a spectator.

“How are things going, Sergeant?” He asked for the fourth time in under an hour. Repetitive as it may be, but he believed in precision and accuracy. Like a fifteen minute check. There was no telling what might happen given the recent play of events.

Even if they were just rumors, stories, or whatever it is that passed for entertainment for bored Praetorial Guards like himself.

“Same as before, sir.” He said, checking the readouts on the holographic displays that surrounded him. “No change–” he stopped, when one of the displays beeped in alarm, snapping the doldrums of a long and tedious duty to one of alert status.

“Geezus!” The man bellowed, making rapid-fire adjustments to his targeting sensors, trying to make sense of what he was reading. The displays registered a huge energy spike of unknown origin and the spike was bearing right down on their position!

Turning around in fear, he said, “We’re being fired upon!”

“Shields!” The commander ordered without preamble. “Shi–”

The tank took a direct hit, metal, circuits...human flesh, all vaporized in a split second, according to the fireball on the prison grounds. It exploded outright, expanding up and out like a helium balloon.

The two guards that were on ready status to the rear entrance of east wing of the prison were smashed bodily through the glass-paned doors, beaten and bloodied from their horrifying ideal.

A figure emerged from the smoke and walked past the moaning guards.

“Honey! I’m home...” The woman announced to no one in particular.

* * *
Bayen was about to do what he was told, when the guard’s comm link came alive.

“This is an emergency alert from the main prison. A woman has broken through the complex’s defenses and is now wreaking havoc! We need help! We need–” The link cut out in a horrendous squeal, then static. Then nothing.

Bayen tensed.

Damn! She’s here! He thought, watching the three guards from the corner of his eye, hoping they would do what he thought they would do.

The guards ran down the steps from which they had come up earlier and started barking orders to others that were still on patrol and they all left in a dead run.

Bayen smiled. Now there would be no one to interfere with his plan.

The sky dancer jumped down the stairs and ran for the nearest lift, one that would take him straight to the prison.

* * *

Tarnek looked up, sensing something.

“It has begun.” He announced suddenly–breaking Calis‘s concentration.

“Begun?” Jonas queried from the other side of the tank–finished with his delegated task at hand in helping Calis install a spare component for the engines. “What has begun?”

“The pain, the terror, the hopelessness that Nemesis invokes and thrives on. It is all starting all over again.” The ex-Watcher said.

“Fine time for Isis to take a vacation.” The old man commented bitterly, knowing that there was nothing that they could do for the moment.

Except pray. But even then, he knew it would be a useless gesture at best. Gods did not care for those who didn’t abide by their set of rules. Not when a vengeful one was tearing apart the planet in spiteful droves.

Especially one whom inhabited the youthful body of a 20-year-old woman. He thought to himself. Not that Nemesis didn’t care one whit.

* * *

The old woman sat there in her semi-dark alcove, contemplating on what she had seen a little while ago with her very own eyes.

Rinia appeared then–unexpectedly as usual–wearing her customary long white robe, while carrying a wooden staff with a crystal embedded at the top as an implement.

“So, I hear that we had an unexpected visitor today.” She said airily.

Calis nodded. “Yes. It was the other Isis McGowan from that other universe. The one that Isis had spoken of in cryptic riddles over the years. And here I thought, she was messing with an old woman‘s head.”

The woman’s ghostly complexion didn’t waver.

“Interesting. I wasn’t aware that two people from two different universes could actually co-exist together. It’s like playing with matter and anti-matter all over again. They shouldn’t be here together at all.” She analyzed.

Calis looked up at her old friend. She was still young and so full of life, even though her body remained trapped in the Realm of Dreams after the disastrous stand many millions of years ago during the War of the Ancients. The same war where many Watchers and many Starchilds’ from so many worlds, past, present, and future, met and died, while trying to stop the God of Insanity.

“I don’t think that is a decision that we can so readily make, Rinia. She is here and that’s that. Why not take advantage of the situation and utilize her against the ongoing battle with Nemesis?”

“Two Isis McGowan’s against one implacable foe?” Rinia pondered thoughtfully. “I’m not sure if that’s feasible.”

“Why?”

“Because Nemesis knows our Isis McGowan. She wouldn’t know the other one. And that could spell trouble.”

“But it could also be our salvation!” Calis chattered in excitement. “With her added power, our Isis could stop Nemesis cold!”

Rinia was troubled by this.

“Or Nemesis could still manage to somehow win. Remember, she’s almost destroyed Stratos City once already, there’s no telling what she’ll be able to do now.”

Calis understood what the spirit deity was trying to say.

“There’s no reason to give up hope now. Not when there is a chance that Isis could still win.”

“But what if that chance stood to be our downfall? Would you still be willing to bank everything that your world and race existed on?”

Calis didn’t know. But what she did know was that one small chance in hell was better than none.

“What choice do we have?” she asked aloud. “We either do or we don’t. But if we don’t try at all, then Nemesis will win either way.”

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 71

No sooner had the tank moved 100 yards from where it had been teleported, did the machine finally give out with a terrible grinding noise–coming to a grinding halt–before settling swiftly into the desert sand as a result.

The Goliath’s top hatch popped open and Jonas climbed out, followed by Calis, who sat there with a dumbfounded look on his face.

“You would think that after a couple of hours of pre-start would give you enough time to work out the bugs in this thing. But I guess we must’ve missed something somewhere.”

Jonas looked out at the setting sun, the rays of dusk casting its golden splendor across the quiet desert. There was no one in sight. But to be on the safe side, Talia had told them earlier that she would recon the area and then come back.

“How long before we can fix it?”

Calis wasn’t sure. But a guess couldn’t hurt.

“Two, maybe three hours at most.”

Jonas hopped off the hover tank with one easy push.

Calis stared at him in confusion.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Jonas glanced up at him.

“I got to find some where to take a leak. It’s been awhile since I’ve used the bathroom you know.”

The siren call of Mother Nature also pulled at the old man and he felt the inexplicable urge to go as well.

“Hey! Wait up! There’s some rocks close by...” Then he hopped off as well, leaving the crippled hover tank behind him.

* * *

Isis McGowan touched down in front of the workshop, her newfound burden a few moments away. But that distance gap was quickly closed up in a short hurry.

“Calis? I’m back.” The Starchild called out, but receiving no answer.

The other Isis looked around, seeing so many things that were familiar, but at the same time, still feeling out of place of sorts.

“Still looks like home. Shark’s Bay hasn’t changed that much.”

Her doppelganger nodded, before opening the door–the same one that was familiar to her.

“No it hasn’t. But there are some differences that you will eventually discover, while you are here.”

A consuming sense of urgency gripped the young woman and she panicked.

“But I can’t–!” She pleaded. “I have to get back home! To my real home!”

The other Isis McGowan regarded her with measured patience.

“But you are home. In a sense anyway. Like I said, things have changed around here. You will recognize some differences in the long run. But not many.”

Isis felt lost and afraid.

“I need to stop Nemesis from ruling Earth! She’s liable to start destroying things before I get back!” She demanded explosively.

Her counterpart expressed a deep amount of sympathy for the stranded surface dweller.

“I am sorry, Isis. But there is nothing that I can do at this point. You will have to live with my decision for awhile longer.” Then she stepped through the door and disappeared inside. “As did I.”

Isis stood there for a moment, not wanting to accept her present situation.

I don’t want to! She protested silently, before following her inside.

The workshop had changed little from her perspective, everything was right where she expected them to be.

“Calis?” Her counterpart called out, giving Isis the option to retrace some familiar steps, going down the hallway where she found Calis’s alcove, but nobody was there.

Just like the old man to be working on his hover tank. Doesn’t he ever sleep? She asked herself, glancing at the old clock that sat on the bed stand, next to the bed.

“The bed...” She whispered in astonishment.

It wasn’t like the one that she was used to seeing.

The covers were made of a soft linen-like material, splayed out in colors of red and blue, not the coarseness that the young woman had gotten used to over the years of being at the workshop.

Since when did the old man decide on decorating this place? She wondered.

Then she left the alcove and went into one of the work bays, where she was half-expecting to find the hover tank.

It was there, but it was on a scale that she had never seen.

The hover tank filled up nearly the entire work bay, the top almost touching the ceiling while the bottom was set on an ancient hydraulic lift, capable of supporting anything, once it had been sufficiently reinforced.

Sparks were seen flying on one area of the massive behemoth and the jumping shadows behind it filled behind it.

“Calis?” Isis ventured. “Why in the world did you change the bed?”

The sparks stopped for a second and a thin, frail-looking figure stepped from behind the machine.

Isis didn’t recognize the person immediately and thought that Calis might’ve invited someone over like he had many times over the past.

“Young lady,” the firm, authorative voice of the woman began sincerely. “I have always kept the bed the way I like it for centuries now. You know that as well as I.”

“Centuries...?” The surface dweller muttered in abject puzzlement. “What do you mean?”

The woman didn’t play the surface dweller’s game for very long. She was apparently tired and needed to rest, but she gave the Starchild the information that she didn’t want to hear.

“I take it the recent battle with Nemesis has made you forget even the simplest things in life, huh?”

Isis scratched her head, trying to figure out what she meant by that remark.

“Where’s the old man? Where’s Calis?”

The woman walked over and flipped a light switch on the wall, illuminating the entire work bay with bright light.

The Starchild blinked rapidly a couple of times, before she rubbed them. Then she looked at the woman, who was dressed in similar attire that she had seen the auto-frame mechanic wear on many occasions–a pale blue shirt with a black utility vest–with its many pockets–a green pair of pants with black smudges on them, and finally, a pair of soft brown boots.

There had to be a connection somewhere, right? She questioned reasonably. If not, this is a real bad joke!

The woman studied the Starchild with equal curiosity.

“I have a question of my own, if I may?”

“Shoot.”

“Why is your costume and hair different?” She asked. “Are you trying to confuse me or Nemesis?”

Isis ran a hand through her hair self-consciously.

“No. Is there something wrong with the way I look?” She questioned mildly.

The woman nodded. “It’s not you.”

At that point, the other Isis McGowan came in–sans her costume–looking no worse for wear, sporting a tight pair of blue jeans, a brown-colored desert vest and a tan shirt. The sound of her black boots clapping sharply on the hard pavement echoed through the work bay.

“Hello, old woman.” She said with great affection. “I see you’ve met the other me.”

The woman stumbled back, almost falling over, before she recovered quickly.

“That’s...that’s impossible!” She exclaimed in a anxious tone of voice. “There shouldn’t be two of you here! That violates all known laws of reality and interdimensional travel!”

Isis glanced at her other self, who joined her.

“Interdimensional travel?”

“Alternate realities,” her counterpart replied. Then she glanced at the distraught old woman. “Calis, I didn’t use my powers to bring her here. She came by herself.”

Isis was stunned by this unexpected revelation.

“Calis?” She said. “That’s Calis? But that can’t be the Calis I know!”

The other Isis McGowan shook her head.

“Like I said, there were bound to be some noticeable differences around here. My Calis being one of them.”

“Along with your hair and costume?” The Starchild ventured.

“Mmm-hmm. And a few others. But I wouldn’t let that worry you right now. You must be tired, Isis. I can show you to the spare sleeping area and you can rest there.”

“You mean the alcove?” Isis guessed.

“Nope. The sleeping area that Calis and I helped convert years ago for guests.”

“Why not the alcove?”

Calis interjected, “I don’t like people sleeping in my alcove. I’m pretty picky about that sort of thing.”

“What’s your name?” Isis wanted to know.

“Calis.” The woman said. “Why?”

“Full name.” She elaborated.

“Callista McGraff. Or Calis for short.”

Isis stood there, comparing what she knew, what she had been told, to her current predicament.

“There’s too many variables, too many questions...” She muttered, trying to make sense of everything that’s happened so far.

“Later.” The old woman decided. “Right now, Isis is right. You need some sleep. Don’t worry. All your questions will be answered in due time.” Then she walked away, leaving the two identical women by themselves.

“Isis–?” The Starchild ventured carefully, but her doppelganger just shook her head, abiding by her mentor and teacher’s decision.

“Sleep, Isis. You need to sleep.” She urged. “You are in no danger here for the moment, but you shouldn’t spend the time worrying, okay? You just got here. You don‘t have the extra energy to putt around.”

The young woman nodded. “I guess your right.”

Her counterpart took her by the hand. “Come. Let me show you the sleeping area. There, you can sleep. In the morning, you can shower and eat breakfast, okay?”

“Sounds good.” She said, thinking it was a sensible idea for now. However, deep down, she wondered if she would ever escape this insane nightmare.

Tomorrow morning would only tell.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 70

Falling Away


Voices, sounds, colors, even realities clashed all around her as she was tossed around like a boat in a full blown hurricane, or being apart little by little, stretched this way and that, her expanded senses in a jumbled disarray, her mind, body, and soul screaming for it to stop. For everything to stop.

But it wouldn’t.

Energies unfathomable pummeled her, striking at her with relentless fury, tearing at the remainder of her costume, ripping the core of who she was from her and just tossing it aside.

Isis heard herself scream, crying out at the world, the universe in general, constantly apologizing for her failures, as she teetered on the brink of madness herself, while the vortex that had drawn her in, sucked her down into oblivion.

* * *

Despite the beauty of a blood-red sunset, a lone figure calmly stood alone on the edge of a precipice–listening to the wind blow through the valley below her. Listening to the cries of a severely tortured planet.

Isis McGowan’s heart sank at the listless sounds.

This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. She thought to herself, even as the wind rose up to playfully tug at some loose strands of her chocolate brown hair.

And sighed heavily.

The battle with Nemesis had taken an awful toll on her both emotionally and physically. When her sister all but vanished like a ghost into the interdimensional breach, the young woman somehow believed that her sister was dead to the world in general.

At that time, Isis vowed that she would make Nemesis pay for her act of contrition, and pay she did. But even despite her recharged energy stores and surges of adrenaline, the Starchild of Earth still could not beat her foe into the ground mercilessly.

Instead, she watched with livid rage as Nemesis somehow escaped her by blinding her with some kind of modified solar flare attack–launched directly from her Starfire Gem.

The same one that her dear sister used with her vast array of imaginary weapons!

The stunt cost her the only chance to end this charade once and for all–giving Nemesis time to escape and lick away at her wounds.

“And here I am…four days later…none worse for wear, but no better off than I was before,” she muttered to both herself and the empty air.

Four days of nothing. No attacks. No surprise ambushes. Nothing.

Isis spent yesterday encircling the globe–looking for her arch enemy. But she was nowhere to be found.

Tomorrow, the young woman vowed to scope out the partially derelict space complex–which was still in a surprisingly weak, but stable orbit–and check and see if Nemesis had somehow managed to take refuge somewhere in the space station.

That would be tomorrow. She silently promised herself, still trying to come to grips with her own personal failures, while worrying about the final fate of her little sister.

Then a bright flash of light on the distant horizon–just beyond the valley walls–greeted her attention, before ending all too abruptly.

Mmm...seems like we have an unexpected visitor. She thought. Could it finally be my sister returning to me with my counterpart in tow?

It was all too much to hope for, but for the destitute and beaten woman, it was the only thing keeping her going these past few days.

* * *

The trip took longer than she’d first thought, but when she landed, the Starchild felt eternally grateful that she had landed on solid ground instead of some where’s else.

But she had little strength left to do anything, but roll over, which made her stomach roil, threatening to rebel if she did anything more than that.

Oh...she moaned silently. I don’t think that I will.

Time passed for her, as she watched puffy white clouds dance across the early evening sky, wrapping themselves on occasion, dispersing slowly but gracefully, before continuing on their merry way.

A few stars peeked out from the velvet blue suave heavens–twinkling softly down at her.

So peaceful. She pondered, before someone suddenly blocked her view and looked up as the person in question looked down.

Isis’s eyes widened in shock and astonishment.

“So you’ve finally come, have you?” The other woman said in her Changed Voice, before brushing a strand of chocolate brown hair out of the way. “I gotta tell you, you picked a hell of a time to come here.”

Isis moaned softly, before closing her eyes.

“Wasn’t my choice.” She breathed. “I got my ass handed to me the hard way.”

“I can see that.” Her other self commented airily, the worry and tension melting from her body and face.

Isis opened her eyes, registering her counterpart’s presence for the first time.

“It...it is you, isn’t it?”

The other Isis nodded. “Well of course it’s me. How else can I be here?...oh, that’s right, you’re still a bit topsy-turvy from the trip, huh? Reality got screwed around again, didn’t it?” She poked and prodded.

“Considering the hell I’ve been in…? Yeah. You might say that.” Isis commented.

“Any word on my sister? Did she make it back in one piece?”

Isis didn’t know. She even told her counterpart this.

“I never had a chance to run into her,” the young woman began straight out, then scratched her head. “I was….ah…busy with my own problems.”

“So you don’t know?” The other woman asked with worry in her voice.

Isis shook her head to indicate otherwise.

“No,” she said adjectively. “I don’t.”

The other Isis McGowan shook her head in abject misery–as cold reality crashed up against her exhausted defenses–suddenly realizing that bringing this whole mission to task had been one palpable failure after another.

There was no way in hell she was going to win against Nemesis at the rate she was going.

Her carefully laid plans…

All dust now.

The woman sighed heavily.

“Back to the drawing board for me, I guess.”

Her comment only served to pique the other Starchild’s curiosity.

“Why do you say that, Isis?”

It was a strange feeling: Listening to yourself and hearing your own voice, but on another level, compelled to respond simply out of ingrained habit.

However strong the instinct, the woman resisted. Instead, Isis just shook her head again–not wanting to get into the particulars at the moment.

“Nothing! It’s just nothing! All right?!” She snapped at her other self.

Isis shrank back a bit.

“Hey–it’s okay. I understand: You don’t want to talk.” She countered in what she hoped would be a soothing tone of voice.

But it turned all butter-like in her counterpart’s ears.

“It’s not that,” she said in a somewhat peevish tone. “It’s just that things haven’t gone the way I liked them to go. What I had planned them as.”

Isis digested this comment in silence. “So I take things are worse than they appear then?” She guessed off hand.

“More than you know,” The other Starchild responded dully, then pointed a finger up at the skies.

Isis followed it, but found nothing of consequence.

“What? What is it?”

Isis looked up as well, seeing that her double didn’t catch on. How stupid is she anyways?! She thought crossly.

Then sighed.

“Never mind,” she bit out angrily. “You’ll find out sooner or later.”

Isis lay there on the ground for a moment longer, before trying to sit up on her own accord. But her body was still bruised and battered from the previous battle (with the bruises to prove it), and jolts of pain and agony crackled throughout every fiber of her being.

She hissed in pain, but that didn’t stop the other Isis from reaching down and grabbing her by her outstretched left arm, and pulled her up.

The crackling agony and pain–now concentrated in her lower back–roared to life like a volcano; causing Isis to cry out.

For her counterpart, there came no sympathy.

“Sheesh!” she said blithely. “What a baby!”

“How do you think I feel?” Isis snarled under her breath, wishing that it didn’t have to hurt so much. “You think I enjoy being hammered on a daily basis?”

The other Isis smirked. “Given our line of work? Sometimes.”

Isis gave her other self a cold look. “Maybe you do. But I don’t.”

“Get used to it.” Was the chilling reply. “Because what’s coming on the horizon would be tame compared to what the two of us are going through presently. And in the shape we’re both in…?”

Isis stared at her double for the longest moment–suddenly sensing something she hadn’t before.

“In all the times we’ve crossed paths, not once did you ever mention to me that your power structure has diminished. Why is that?” She challenged.

The other Isis looked away from her–momentarily troubled.

“Not everything is the same in both universes, Isis McGowan.” The other Isis said softly. “In many ways, we are one and the same person. But in others?” She shook her head solemnly, her brown hair dancing back and fourth vibrantly.

The pain left the stranded Starchild of Ancient Lore as quickly as it had come–once she got a good look around and saw the destruction and devastation wrought upon the tortured landscape.

The craters, the giant caverns, the holes ripped into the very Earth itself!

This side of the Golan Desert was not what it used to be. At least not here.

“By the Ancients–!” She breathed. “How can this be?! This is my home!” Then reaching out to her, Isis grabbed her duplicate by the shoulders and squeezed mercilessly. “How could you have allowed this to happen?!?”

The other Isis stared straight ahead for the moment, not saying anything. When she did, her voice revealed the tremendous strain and exhaustion she was currently under.

“Like I said, not everything is the same here–as it is in your universe, Isis McGowan.”

Isis didn’t buy that line of bullshit.

“Tell me!” She practically flailed back at her verbally. “Tell me why this world is destroyed and why you were powerless to stop it from happening!”

Isis stared back at her, the weariness stretching back into her bloodshot eyes.

For the first time since she could recall, Isis never saw her counterpart look so beaten. So old.

“Long story. But one that can’t be told here.” She said cryptically, before gently taking flight. She rose about twenty feet before looking down at her other self–seeing the steely defiance she wished she still possessed.

But that had been so long ago…she reminded herself. Then she said, “You coming? It wouldn’t be a good idea if Nemesis caught you out here by your little lonesome self.”

Isis stood her ground. “Why wouldn’t it be? I could whip her ass easily if she were here right now.”

The other Isis shook her head and chuckled softly. “After getting your butt handed to you in the other universe–? Highly doubtful you could hold a candle against her here in your present condition.”

Isis’s eyes blazed with cold fury.

“You’re a cowardly…bitch!” She spat.

“And you’re getting way over your head.” Her double calmly pointed out. Then she started to take off–angling her body profile for streamlined flight. Pausing only for a second, she forwarded a straightforward question to her: “You coming?”

Fuck off and die! Isis thought darkly for a second–slipping back towards her old behavioral pattern. She stood there for more than a few seconds, but in that time, her counterpart simply shrugged her shoulders and lit off gracefully.

In the space of a moment, she was gone.

“Gods…” she whispered with seething rage and shaking frustration. “Tell me how I can handle myself against Nemesis–or any version of her…!?”

But underlying all of her embroiled emotions, was the cold hard truth: She wasn’t as powerful as she’d thought she would be.

“Fine time to tell me that now.” Isis said to herself, before an equally cold wind blew across the empty desert–now more alien to her than anything else she could easily name in all her days as a simple surface dweller.

She took off too–not wanting to press her already shattered luck against an enemy she thought she knew.