by Francis Tint
However, Ellen was not in any mood for reasoning or a dialogue. She seemed to have lost touch of humanity. She continued to charge at Blake, who repeatedly avoided Ellen’s strikes as her shield took hits from the relentless assaults.
Blake dodged another attack from her left. She noticed the shield’s integrity was starting to come apart. Ellen charged directly toward her, shattering her shield and sending her to the floor. She dropped her necklace as she propelled backward toward a boulder.
Ellen made yet another assault. Blake shut her eyes defenselessly. She needed to react fast or she would face the same fate as her friends. There was no time to waste. There must be something she could do!
Or maybe she should just give up, and join her friends wherever they were. Why was she still fighting? Her whole life had been a lie. She had just lost two of her closest friends. Her dad had been nothing but a faint memory she had struggled to hold on. Her powers were no match against all the evils in the world.
“Don’t give up now. You’re close.” A voice emerged in her head. It carried a familiar and comforting timbre. She opened her eyes. She must fight. There must be a way to stop her.
With her eyes glowing bright blue, she focused all her power in her palm and struck down hard at the center of the island. She sent a wave of crystallizing energy across the cavern, ceasing all molecular motion at the subatomic level.
The cave glistened motionlessly in her glowing power. She had done it. She had stopped it.
But it was too late. She looked around, standing weakly as the only victor in a battle that didn’t even get her closer to stopping Ashlea. Her friends had been sacrificed, but she still didn’t have the power source.
She was all alone. The lonesome solitude she had felt since the betrayal from Ashlea and her adopted parents pierced right through her soul with the loss of Tylor and Corey. What was she fighting for? Who was she fighting for?
She sat down hopelessly. An object irked her from underneath. She looked down and saw the necklace she dropped. She slowly opened the pendant of her dad and a younger version of herself.
“Daddy,” she wept as she rubbed the surface of the pendant. She held tightly on it like the last beacon of hope. In the desolate cold cave, the picture of her dad was all she had left. “Where are you? I need you!” she pleaded hopelessly as tears uncontrollably drowned her vision.
Gradually, the memories of her father started to emerge, along with all the invaluable emotions. The joy when he had brought her favorite ice-cream. The thrill when he had pushed her higher on the swing. Her father was no longer a blur. She could see every little detail, every little interaction. Her brain was recharged with all the long-lost memories of her childhood. She smiled faintly as his clear form appeared crisply in her mind.
“Come here, Blake,” a soft, calm tone emerged behind her. She gasped and turned to the voice. She blinked to clear her vision. Could it be real? Or was she seeing another vision?
But it didn’t matter. In a heartbeat, she leaped to her father, hugging him tightly, who was holding in his hand an activated power source.
Dr. Po and Blake climbed out of the rubble of Beryl University. The sun felt exceptionally warm. The gentle wind kissed her delicate skin. She didn’t know where Tylor and Corey had gone, but at least she had successfully retrieved the power source and freed her dad. She was sure if she could free her dad, she would be able to reunite with her friends. It would be just a matter of time.
At the moment, she needed to focus on reinstating the energy balance of the multiverse. She reconnected with Zach through the communication device.
There was not much to celebrate. “They have her, Blake,” Zach wept. “They kidnapped her.”
They arrived at Ashlea’s elaborate executive boardroom. On the table was another copy of the Synchronizer. Ashlea had always had one. The only thing that had been missing was the power source.
Blake almost couldn’t recognize her without the horn-rimmed glasses. Blake took a second look at Ashlea. Her outline was punctuated with a gentle tremor.
Benjamin removed the bag covering the face of the kidnapped victim. Her wavy brunette hair fell softly on her shoulder. Tied to a chair, with a cloth stuffed into her mouth, was Julia.
“It’s really simple,” Benjamin said. “The power source for your friend.” Julia was struggling forcefully to free herself from the restraints. She shook her head aggressively, seeming to signal Blake not to trust them.
“Why are you doing this, Ash?” Edison asked. “You’ve already invaded Sue’s universe. Now you invade mine. Why do you need to dominate the multiverse? Is power that important?”
Ashlea smirked. “Invade? Is that what she told you? I came in peace at first! But she refused to help.”
“You destroyed her home. I would not call that coming in peace. Did you have something to do with her disappearance?”
Ashlea gave a faint smile but did not respond to the question. “It doesn’t matter anymore.” She took a breath. “Dr. Po, your plan was quite immaculate. You buried yourself with the power source, and you wiped Blake’s memories and powers so she would be useless to us. All these years, I’ve been trying to replicate your method. To find a workaround. But nothing worked. I had to bring Blake’s powers back. Good thing I kept a close tap on Blake all these years. She’s the only one who can get me the power source.”
Blake gasped at the revelations. Her dad had been the one who had wiped her memories to protect her. The whole time, she had just been a pawn in Ashlea’s plan. Even to this very moment.
But she saw the end of the world in her vision. Finding the power source was the only way to stop it.
She scratched the wound on her right arm. No, it wasn’t from the injection the Typhon had given her. Ashlea and Benjamin had given her the wound. They had planted the vision in her head. They wanted her to find the power source.
“We won’t give you the power source,” Blake insisted.
Benjamin pressed a knife at Julia’s neck. Blood started to seep out. “Can you really sacrifice her?”
Blake held tight to the power source. The fate of her universe. But could she really sentence her friend to death? Could she allow for more bloodshed?
“Give it to them,” her dad said. “It’ll be ok.”
Julia was screaming loudly, but her words were unintelligible. Blake looked at her dad. He gave her a nod. It was the right thing to do. She couldn’t just sacrifice her friend.
Blake gave them the power source. Benjamin returned Julia to them, after knocking her out cold.
“There’s no way you can activate it,” Edison said. “Only a person born with powers can do so.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Ashlea responded. “I know.”
As if on cue, Victor appeared out of thin air with Sam by his side. The last piece in Ashlea’s plan. A kid born out of a genetically modified fetus. They had tried so hard to keep Sam safe. But it had all been to no avail.
Ashlea handed the device over to Sam. Placing the Synchronizer with the power source in his palm, he focused his attention to draw power from the device. It started to spin gently, suspending in midair. A stream of energy was visibly extracted into his body.
Sam’s body started to radiate, eyes glowing blue. The toddler transformed into a bright white pillar of light, tearing through the fabrics between the universes.
THE END