Landing on top of his brother, Gemini taunts, “Is there another remedy then? Will you cure me? Is it your desire to cleanse me of this insatiable need, or rather cleanse me from this world completely?”
The Egyptian twists and spins to switch positions with Gemini.
Looking down at Gemini, L’girra taunts back, “Yeah, G, a cleansing like an enema. How about that kind of cleansing, you smug little turd?!”
Amused by his brother’s passion, Gemini almost smiles.
From the corner of his eye, the Egyptian sees the wire sparking against the floor. Singly focused, however, he directs both his attention and his fury at Gemini.
The pain in Jean Luc’s leg prevents him from moving away from within the pool of water. As he anxiously watches the brothers fight, he too sees the livewire danger, as the water beneath him flows closer and closer to it. Now, he knows his life is in jeopardy. But if he calls out for his father to save him, he may put his own father in danger by having Gemini defeat him. In silent agony, he begins to weep, not for himself but for knowing the remaining time with his father may only be these tragic last moments.
The Egyptian is relentless. He pulls Gemini in and climbs on top of Gemini’s chest. Immediately, the Egyptian pounds his fists repeatedly into Gemini’s face. One rapid strike after another, the Egyptian does not stop. He is an unstoppable, unshakeable machine in human flesh. His blows fly unhindered, slamming into and shattering Gemini’s face.
Each strike devastates Gemini, and he quickly weakens. Once able to block the Egyptian’s fists, Gemini’s arms now falter and drop to the floor.
But then, behind them, the flowing water suddenly forks: one part continues its path to the wire and another part rapidly makes its way to the Egyptian’s feet.
As the wind whips more vigorously to drive heavy rain into the apartment, the sparks from the wire become vibrant, as though anticipating the oncoming water and awaiting the release of enormous energy.
Fear grips Jean Luc, as he sees the water touch his father.
With heavy fists ceaselessly landing on him, Gemini begins to lose consciousness.
The Egyptian is about to defeat his foe.
Seeing water now almost touch the jumping wire, Jean Luc has to warn his father. Suddenly, he cries out, “Papa! The wire! The water!”
Instantly, the Egyptian realizes it. Darting his eyes around and down the room, he sees the water approach the wire. Quickly following its source, his intensely focused eyes see Jean Luc at the center of the pooled liquid. Immediately, he looks down and sees it surround his feet and leg. With his thoughts precisely calculating, he decides that he must save Jean Luc, even if it means sacrificing his own life. But he knows that whatever he does, Gemini will attempt to stop him. Seeing the water start to enclose both he and Gemini, he strategizes a way to sacrifice himself and destroy Gemini.
Immediately, the Egyptian roles around and takes Gemini’s limp body with him closer to the sparking wire. As he does, he soaks both himself and Gemini in the pooling water. Rolling back up on top of Gemini, the Egyptian finds that his hands are unable to reach the wire. Just before the wire skip into the water, he sweeps his leg around and kicks it away.
In a circular motion, the wire is tossed, flying through the air, and coming down to glance off of the stove. As the gas above ignites, fire billows out. It singes the bodies of the brothers, and then immediately disperses.
Regaining his senses, Gemini fast learns that his brother is now attempting to electrocute both of them, but cannot do it before taking Jean Luc away to safety. Thus, Jean Luc is once again Gemini’s point of leverage. Hastily, Gemini uses all his might to pull his brother away from the old man.
The Egyptian tugs back. As he and Gemini slip over the water, he kicks the wire around a second time, and then tries to yank Gemini with him toward his son.
But pulling and wriggling, Gemini makes it difficult for his brother to gain ground.
While the wire once again ignites the gas above the stove, the Egyptian realizes that he may have to let Gemini go, in order to ultimately save Jean Luc, but doing so would give Gemini the advantage of his angelic powers.
Gemini, however, is now no longer focused on winning the battle over his brother. Instead, he delights in the excitement and tension he creates. Pulling and grasping his brother’s hands, his eyes open wide to take in and relish in the dramatic moment he crafts, while a smile forms around his bloodstained teeth. With the dark entity watching and his deception of it now in its throes, he has long known that his perverse heart would pleasure in this moment.
Swiftly, the wire swoops around, and then descends to the watery floor.
Once more, the Egyptian tries to buy time to reach Jean Luc by whipping his leg around and kicking the wire away. But, as the wire spins around, his grip on Gemini and Gemini’s grip on him suddenly slips, and the brothers separate.
For an instant, everything seems to stop.
The Egyptian hears a single solid thump from his heart. His mind is caught at a crossroads.
With glistening blue eyes, Gemini watches the golden translucent sphere around him waft away. He feels his powers return.
Then, with the sounds of blustering wind and the lashing of driving rain, everything starts to move once again.
The wire continues its circular motion, whipping over the stove, and then sparking as it strikes the metal. Flames from the exploding gas whoosh and begin to expand out toward the brothers.
Quickly, the Egyptian calculates that he can either act to save Jean Luc or leap to grasp Gemini. He decides to do both. As he lunges for Gemini, his mind simultaneously moves Jean Luc into the dry living room, across from the kitchen.
But Gemini has already formulated his plan. As he kicks himself far away from reach, he creates a dense layer of explosive gas around his brother.
When the expanding flames from the stove reach the Egyptian, they ignite the gas around him and light him up in a fiery blaze. In an agonizing instant, the flames wrap around him, burn away the clothes from his upper body, and consume every hair and every follicle from his head.
With red fire reflecting from Gemini’s blue eyes, he watches and marvels at his flawless timing.
When the flames retreat, Gemini loses no time. Propelling himself at his brother, Gemini knocks him down on his back and straddles above him. He pounds his fists over and over into his twin’s face. The damage he delivers is fast and severe, and each strike tears the skin away from his brother’s burnt face.
Stunned by the fire, the Egyptian cannot yet react. Even more, his body sinks into shock, as the raw nerves in his skin scream their anguish and pain. Finally, he tries to protect himself by raising his arms, but Gemini’s furiously beating fists cause him to quickly lose consciousness. His arms drop to his side.
Gemini’s knuckles come smashing down, unrelenting, breaking the bones of L’girra’s eye sockets, nose, and cheek. Gemini’s lungs are hot with adrenaline, and the symbol on his right wrist burns fiery and bright.
Thrashing and striking, Gemini is unyielding. With his blue eyes now raging blood-red, they see his brother’s beaten and mutilated face.
Then, unexpectedly, Gemini begins to pity his brother and feels a strong desire to stop. For a brief moment, it takes him off guard. Struggling in his thoughts, he halts his motion, with his fist fiercely brandished above him.
He feels his loathsome heart passionately and vehemently commanding him to go on, insatiable in its vile desires.
But, for an instant, he thinks and reasons.
However, he knows there is something more vital that he must accomplish. He realizes that his deception of the dark entity also demands him to continue. He needs to keep pounding. He needs to keep breaking.
Beginning to move, he swings again.
Resolved, he does not allow his fury to abate.
Then, as he reaches far back, with one, last, mighty blow, Gemini crashes his knuckles down, sending L’girra into oblivion.
L’girra eyes fade and close.
Gemini’s fists finally stop.
All is silent but the sound of Gemini’s heaving breaths.
Lying on the floor, across the way, Jean Luc tightly shuts his eyes. Witnessing the demise of his father, he begins to quietly weep. He has dreaded that his father’s attempt to save him could lead to his downfall, and now it has happened.
Gemini stands. Lowering his head, his hair falls to cover his face, as he watches for movement from his brother.
L’girra’s heart and mind have stopped.
Slowly, Gemini turns to face Jean Luc. Then, quickly, appearing like a blur, he dashes to the old man. Using one hand, he seizes Jean Luc by the neck and jerks him up from the ground. With smoldering, fiery eyes, but a icy, frozen heart, Gemini commands in a dreadful whisper, “Tell me. What do you know of this vial?”
Seeing his lifeless father on the floor, Jean Luc does not want his sacrifice to be in vain. In his heart and in his mind, he resolves to tell Gemini nothing. With terrified eyes, he faces the man who would be his killer and replies bravely, yet fearfully, “My life is full. Do with it as you wish.”
Staring through Jean Luc’s eyes and speaking directly to his soul, Gemini coldly says, “Then, I shall empty it before your passing.”
Gemini’s mind breaks Jean Luc’s upper arm, and the old man cries in agony.
Behind them, L’girra lies motionless. Nothing within him moves, no blood flows, and no brain synapse triggers.
Pressing Jean Luc’s neck harder up against the wall, Gemini breaks his other leg, making the man hang from his neck.
From the torment, Jean Luc howls in pain, as tears burst and fall down his face.
Gemini stops in order to hear the old man cry and allows the man’s pain to ooze through the sweat of his skin. He breathes in deep to smell it. Then, with no more use for him, Gemini says with steely eyes, “Now, nephew, your time on this earth has come to its last.” He cocks back his fist and readies it for his final strike, to smash Jean Luc’s face apart.
But behind him, although L’girra’s heart and mind have ceased, his soul has not yet departed. Though broken and disfigured, the Egyptian is unwilling to concede defeat and unwilling to allow his soul to leave. Now coming back to the fore, his powers fill him with a resurrecting breath, and he begins to heal himself.
Soon, there is a spark in L’girra’s mind and a solid beat in his heart.
It is the tenacious Egyptian. And he returns.
With eyes stained by warm blood, but with a heart eager for cold justice, the Egyptian stands.
From behind Gemini, the Egyptian, with lightning speed, dashes and positions himself between Gemini and Jean Luc. Simultaneously, he grabs the wrist of Gemini’s hand that clasps Jean Luc’s neck.
Unfazed and somehow expecting his brother’s return, Gemini swings his fist, with all his might, at his brother’s face.
But the Egyptian’s foresight is much too swift. Even before Gemini makes his move, the Egyptian’s opened palm is already speeding into Gemini’s jaw. With a clap of colliding teeth, the heel of the Egyptian’s palm strikes Gemini’s mouth.
Gemini releases Jean Luc, and he staggers back.
Wasting no time, the Egyptian takes Gemini by the neck and slams him into a wall. He then pounds Gemini down to the floor. The Egyptian positions himself behind Gemini and wraps his legs around Gemini’s waist. Then, he begins to choke Gemini from behind, pressing his forearm into Gemini’s throat.
Gemini gasps for air. His fingers try to reach back and gouge at the Egyptian’s eyes, but the Egyptian’s dodging head escapes them. Then, Gemini swings his elbows backward, into the Egyptian’s side, but they too are ineffective.
The Egyptian pulls his forearm in more tightly. He can feel Gemini’s windpipe about to snap.
Losing his final breaths, Gemini, with all his strength raises himself up. His back crouches down because the weight of the Egyptian is completely upon him. Striding backward, he crashes the Egyptian into a wall.
They bounce and stumble back.
With L’girra’s consciousness fully awakening, he sees the unshakable hold the Egyptian has on Gemini. Knowing what is soon to occur, he retreats to let the Egyptian’s dominance continue, while he waits for his moment with Gemini.
Gemini wheezes and gasps, struggling for air. He staggers backward once again. This time they ram into the front door, breaking it open.
They crash past the door and into the rails of the staircase.
No longer able to control his body, Gemini tumbles down the stairs, with the Egyptian still wrapped around him like a powerful clamp.
At the landing of the flight of stairs, they finish their tumble. Beside them is a large glass window overlooking the roof of a smaller apartment building next to them.
The Egyptian is on top of Gemini like a ferocious beast at his neck, eager for blood. He can feel Gemini’s life fade. Quickly and efficiently, he unwraps his legs from Gemini’s body. Kneeling, he raises Gemini up, pulling him by the neck.
This is the moment the Egyptian has strategized upon his first sight and measuring of Gemini, after coming to the fore of L’girra’s mind.
He presses his forearm harder against Gemini’s throat.
Gemini loses consciousness.
In the span of an instant, the Egyptian releases his grip, vanishes, and then reappears at the top of the flight of stairs. Hunching down, he lunges forward and dives into the air, down the stairs towards Gemini.
Suddenly, the Egyptian disappears in mid-flight.
But then, he reappears a short distance from Gemini, flying down the stairs with spectacularly immeasurable speed. As he reemerges, he ignites the air into blazing fire.
Gemini barely opens his eyes, too feeble and too dazed to think.
The Egyptian violently collides into Gemini, taking Gemini with him, as he blasts through the glass pane window.
They careen through the cold outside air, in a trajectory down to the roof of the adjacent building.
The rain has become tempestuous, and it whips and drenches their bodies.
As they reach the midpoint between the two buildings, Gemini opens his eyes and looks up to the sky. He sees directly above him the brightly shining perfect half-moon: one half forever enclosed in darkness, the other half forever reflecting the clear and brilliant light of the unseen sun. Beneath the moon, he sees the dark entity, hovering and hissing, watching him, its dying champion.
For an instant, the Egyptian releases Gemini, and he allows L’girra to come to the fore.
The twins’ abilities return.
This is L’girra’s moment.
L’girra cocks back his left arm. His hand opens. Gul’s knife materializes upon it.
The blade gleams, as it reflects the image of the brighter half of the moon, and the words of the inscription etched upon it burn red with magnificent heat.
L’girra coils back his shoulders and body, preparing for his strike.
With his life waning, Gemini sees the knife, and he knows his time will soon come to an end.
Approaching his final moments, Gemini needs to ask himself a question. It is a question similar to the one he gave his twin at the waterspout. Urgently, he says to himself, This is the question I need to answer and answer by raw spirit and raw action: When everything is stripped away from me, who am I then, and what is my true essence? After millennia of the destruction I’ve wrought, the lives I’ve destroyed, the civilizations I’ve razed to ashes, who am I deep within?
With very little strength left in his body, and with very little will left in his soul, Gemini’s fading mind decides, and he reveals his true essence. His actions speak his answer.
His mind scans the world and finds Samuel Ian Kessian atop a mountain with a white cross. A short distance away from Sik, he knows Paige is there in the trunk of Sik’s car, surrounded by explosives.
Sik, with tears in his eyes and anguish in his heart, punches into his phone the number
s that will trigger the explosives. He waits to make the call.
At that moment, Agents Etelson and Stevens arrive with their police escort, as their lights flash and sirens scream. They position their vehicles along the circular road at the perimeter of the cross, surrounding Sik. Immediately, they exit their cars and draw their weapons.
Guardedly approaching, Agent Etelson commands, “Samuel Kessian, stop and raise your hands!”
Sik obeys. Standing cautiously and slowly, he raises his hands.
Stevens urgently says, “Etti, he’s got something in his hand.” To Sik, Stevens commands, “Drop that! Drop what’s in your hand! Put it down!”
Sik does not move. Inside him, there is a furious and agonizing struggle between who he truly is deep within and who he is becoming.
Inside the trunk of Sik’s car, Paige is awakened by the sound of the sirens. As she realizes her hands and feet are bound, she also sees the explosives around her. Horrified, she tries to scream for help through the tape wrapped around her mouth.
Gemini’s thoughts focus on Paige. He performs his last act, as a wonderfully created, awe-inspiring, and majestic being. It is the answer to his question.
With painfully questioning eyes and profound regret in his words, Sik asks, in a whisper, “Oh God, who am I?” He touches a button on his phone.
His car explodes, with a thundering blast and a tremendous blaze.
Flying twisted metal and shards of glass are strewn in all directions.
Now, Gemini remains as the sole target of his twin’s fury.
While the brothers fall through the air, L’girra seizes Gemini’s arm.
With the touch, their sphere manifests to enclose them, flashing and humming electric.
The symbol on L’girra’s left wrist burns bright, glistening in his eyes.
In a rapid, powerful motion, uncoiling his body and shoulders, L’girra drives the knife into Gemini. L’girra feels the blade slice through tissue, cut through bone, and plunge into Gemini’s heart.
The inscription on Gul’s blade sizzles red-hot, burning the flesh of Gemini’s lungs, veins, and heart. The words glow brightly and cleanly, “Grapple with evil until it submits.”
RB 01 Through Flesh & Bone Page 70