“Free so long as they submit to Isis.” Akako shook her head. “She doesn’t see you or anyone else as friends. She sees everyone as pawns, toys for her to play with. The second you do something she doesn’t like or she gets bored of you, you’ll end up here.”
“Isis wouldn’t do that to me. She loves me.”
“I love you!” Akako said this loud enough that Agnes stirred. Her face gradually turned red until she began to cry.
“Oh, now look what you’ve done. You’ve upset the baby.” Renee cooed to Agnes and rubbed her back gently—just as Akako had done for her. Agnes hiccupped a few times and then sniffled. Renee set her on the floor and smiled. “Go play with your sister, sweetie.”
“Yes, Miss Renee.” Aggie sniffled again but then toddled over to Sophie.
“Renee, please, I’m asking as your mother—”
“You’re not my mother!” Renee hissed. With her free hand she held up the necklace around her neck. “You gave birth to me, but Isis is my real mother.”
“I love you, Renee. Come back to me. Please.”
“You don’t love me. You think I’m an abomination, just like they all did.”
“That’s not true. I’ve always loved you, Renee. For ten years I’ve been without you and it nearly killed me every day. Please, change things back to normal.”
“Normal? So these brats can shun me again? So they can treat me like a freak? Is that what you want for your little girl, Mother?”
“No, but we can make them understand. We can make them see you how I see you.”
“And how is that?”
“You’re my special little girl. My miracle.”
Renee glared at her. She shook her head. “You’re lying. I can see your fear. You’re scared of me, just like they all were. So maybe you should join them.”
“You know your magic can’t work on me, Renee.”
“I am aware of that, but it can work on her.” Renee turned and gestured to where little Aggie played with Sophie in the pink castle. Renee waved her hand and a moment later Akako heard a scream. She turned to see Aggie on the floor by the pink castle. She flailed around with her arms as she wailed.
“I can’t see!” Aggie screamed. “I can’t see!”
“Renee, change her back,” Akako said.
“Why should I?”
“Because she’s your father. She loves you.”
“She didn’t love me. She was like all the others. She thought I was an abomination, a freak.”
“She never thought that about you. She loved you as much as I did.” Akako reached across the table to put a hand on her daughter’s arm. “She’s twisting your mind, sweetheart. Isis is making you think these awful things, but they’re not true. Aggie and I love you. We’ve always loved you. You’re our daughter. Don’t you understand?”
“No! You don’t love me. Only Isis loves me. She’s the only one who understands me.”
“Renee—”
“You can either submit to Isis or Aggie will continue to suffer. It’s your choice.”
“Renee, please—”
Renee waved her hand again. From the pink castle came another wail. Aggie’s hands pressed against the side of her head. “Hello?” she said. “Miss Renee? Miss Renee, help me. I’m scared.” The other girls stared at her, except for Megan, who continued to build with her blocks as if nothing were wrong.
Akako’s stomach clenched as she watched Aggie curl into a ball on the floor to sob. Even worse was the smug grin on Renee’s face. Isis had turned her daughter into a monster. The smart thing to do would be to go upstairs, fetch her machine gun, and put a bullet in her daughter’s brain. But then not only would her child be dead, Aggie would be stuck as she was, blind and deaf. Akako looked down at her feet, tears in her eyes. “You win.”
“Good. Now you can take your place with the other traitors.” A golden mirror appeared in Renee’s hand. She held it up to Akako. In the glass she saw not herself but Renee Kim with her bright red pigtails, only the girl was smaller, a toddler like the other girls in the basement nursery. “All you have to do is open your mind to Isis.”
“What about Agnes?”
“Oh, yes, how rude of me.” Renee waved her hand.
Across the nursery, Aggie sat up. She took her hands from her ears to hold them up to her face. “Hello?” she said. Then she smiled.
“Don’t worry, kids are resilient,” Renee said. “You’ll see that for yourself soon enough, when you open your mind to Isis.”
“Renee, please, you don’t have to do this.”
“This is what Isis wills. Now, close your eyes.”
“I love you, Renee,” Akako said. Then she closed her eyes. She took a few deep breaths to clear her mind.
“You belong to Isis now,” Renee whispered.
“I belong to Isis,” Akako repeated. She could already feel her body begin to shift; the ends of her sleeves drooped over her hands. She became smaller and smaller. At last she felt pigtails brush against her ears and bangs tickle her forehead.
She opened her eyes. She blinked a few times and then looked up at the woman who sat across from her. “Mama?”
The woman smiled at her. “That’s right, sweetie. I’m your mama. Come here.”
Akako hopped down to the floor. The hem of her pink nightgown dragged on the floor. She looked around the strange nursery for a moment, at all the other little girls. Then she scurried over to Mama’s outstretched arms. Mama swung Akako up into her lap. “There’s my girl.” Mama held up a mirror, in which Akako saw her face with her cute red pigtails. She smiled and the little girl in the mirror did the same. “Such a pretty little girl.”
“Mama, where are we?”
“We’re home, sweetie. This is where you live, with your friends.”
“They’re my friends?”
“That’s right, sweetie. They’re your friends. None of them will hurt you.”
“OK.” Despite this, Akako snuggled closer to Mama. She felt so warm and safe here.
She stroked one of Akako’s pretty red pigtails and then said, “We should get you dressed. Tell me sweetie: what do you want to be when you grow up?”
Akako didn’t need long to think about this. “I wanna be a mommy!”
“Oh, sweetheart, wouldn’t you rather be a pretty princess or something exciting like an astronaut or cowgirl?”
“But you’re a mommy.”
Mama smiled at her. “Yes, I suppose you’re right.” Mama waved her hand and the pink nightgown turned into a black dress just like Mama’s. There was even a pretty silver necklace like Mama wore; Akako batted the end of the necklace and giggled. Mama sighed and said, “You look so beautiful.”
“Thanks, Mama.”
Mama scooped her up from the floor. “Come on, sweetie, there’s someone I want you to meet."
***
Since she had already faced off against her first boss, Ian MacGregor, and later Becky in the Black Dragoon armor, Emma wasn’t surprised Isis would choose Sylvia, the woman Tim loved more than anything. Emma put a hand to the Sword of Justice’s hilt. She had to admit Sylvia—the Dragoon—had picked a good spot in the fountain. While the cape would make Emma invisible, to engage the Dragoon she would have to step into the water, where her footsteps would be visible.
“I can’t get in close to her,” Emma whispered. “Not in that water.”
“I don’t think my darts are going to be much good either.”
Even as Tim said this, the Dragoon raised her right hand to launch a pair of claws at them. Emma dove to the left while Tim dove to the right; the claws passed between them. Tim rolled until he was behind a planter made of black marble. The planter disappeared seconds later to leave him exposed as the Dragoon fired two more claws. He flattened himself just in time to avoid being hit.
While Tim did this, Emma took the Sword of Justice from its sheath and hurled it towards the Dragoon. At the last moment, the Dragoon ducked; the sword whizzed over her head. Emma brought it back around and tr
ied to go lower, to slice into the Dragoon’s legs to knock her down. This proved ineffective, as the Dragoon batted the sword away; the silver blade clattered to the floor. Before Emma could call the sword back, the floor turned to liquid tar, to suck the Sword of Justice into it.
Emma jumped into the air a moment before the tile beneath her feet similarly turned to tar. She landed for a split second before she leaped onto the front desk. It vanished beneath her feet, but by then she was jumping towards the wall. She clung to the wall with one hand while she reached out with the other to call back the Sword of Justice. She worked the blade back-and-forth and up-and-down a little at a time, until it finally came free from the tar.
As she worked at this, Tim distracted the Dragoon by foolishly bull-rushing her. From experience Emma knew this was a bad idea, as the Dragoon’s claws gave her an edge up close. She should have known Tim wasn’t that stupid. At the last moment, as the Dragoon began to swipe at him, he hit the boosters to leap over her.
With Emma’s armor he might have been able to come down behind the Dragoon and get in a good lick, but with the boosters he wasn’t fast enough. As he landed, the Dragoon spun around to rake her claws across the front of his armor. The claws didn’t do as much damage as they could have since Tim’s armor from the parallel universe was resistant to Isis’s magic. To follow this up, the Dragoon hit him in the face with the palm of one hand. Tim stumbled backwards to tumble out of the fountain.
The Dragoon remained where she was, still too worried Emma might get in close to leave the safety of the water. Instead, she launched a claw into Tim’s left bicep; the claw had enough force to drive through the armor. Tim shouted in pain but got to his feet to stagger away from the fountain.
“If you got any ideas, now would be a good time,” Tim shouted to Emma.
All she could think of was that if they both got in close they might be able to overpower the Dragoon. Even then they would still have to worry Isis might turn the floors into tar or something worse. While Joanna’s plan might have helped dilute Isis’s attention, it was bound to be focused on them now that she knew they were here. Most of Isis’s attention would have to be focused on her, not only because her armor was superior to Tim’s, but because of Isis’s hatred of her as well. “Think you can keep her busy for a little while?”
“Yeah, sure,” Tim said. He plucked the Dragoon’s claw out of his arm. “You go stop her.”
“Good luck,” Emma said. She tossed Tim a salute before she bolted out of the lobby.
Of course Isis had already made the elevators and stairs disappear. There was no way up except to climb up more than a hundred and thirty stories. She cut a hole through a wall so she could reach the outside of the building, where she began the climb.
Not long after Emma began, Isis changed the windows into water to drop her back to the ground. There was no way up, at least not by any traditional means. As she remembered what Merlin had said about Isis’s vanity, which she had already seen for herself often enough, she knew there was another way up.
Emma stared up towards the top of Robinson Tower, which at the moment was obscured by dark clouds. “So is that how it is? After all these years, with all this supposed power of yours, you’re still too afraid to face me yourself?” she shouted into the air. “You’re that afraid I’ll defeat you again?”
Lightning flashed from the clouds; a bolt just missed Emma. This she took as the proverbial warning shot across the bow. The goddess was angry. “You were always a second-rate goddess, that’s why Merlin imprisoned you for four thousand years and why a mortal woman could beat you and why you spent the last four years trapped as a little girl. That’s why you won’t face me now. You’re still a scared little girl inside.”
“Enough!” Isis’s voice rumbled from the clouds. “I fear nothing!”
The ground beneath Emma’s feet shook as if from an earthquake. The sidewalk cracked; the piece Emma stood on rose into the air like an elevator. The chunk of concrete rose into the black clouds, where Emma could see that Isis had modified the top of the tower to mimic her temple in Egypt. A pair of giant black-and-gold statues of the goddess guarded the temple’s entrance; the eyes glowed red at her approach.
Inside, Emma saw it was exactly the same as the Temple of Isis she remembered, the interior dominated by the hundred-foot-tall statue of Isis along the back wall. In front of this was the altar where Emma had sacrificed herself some twenty years in the future. She hoped she wouldn’t need to resort to that this time.
“Well, that’s certainly a pretty new suit he made for you,” Isis hissed. She appeared in front of Emma as a beautiful Egyptian woman clad in only a loose white gown. Isis’s black eyes still had the same haughty glare that Emma remembered from her nightmares, only this time at least she wasn’t a baby or a vampire; she was herself this time around. “Though I have to say I preferred your old one.”
Isis stepped back and a hole opened where she had been. Through this came another nightmare, the one Emma had dreaded since that visit to the nursery. In front of her was another Scarlet Knight, this one dressed in her old armor. Emma had seen this Scarlet Knight in her vision of the future; the shorter frame, the heavier breasts, and the tangled red hair were all dead giveaways as to who wore the armor now.
It was Louise.
Chapter 36
Akako had been down in the basement for too long. Dr. Reed tightened the grip on her weapon and debated whether it was time to go down there and see what had happened. She wasn’t sure she wanted to see what she would find. That Renee woman—the one Akako claimed was her daughter—gave her the creeps.
Since she’d raised Joanna she had seen her fair share of strange things. Yet despite what happened, Joanna was always still her little girl. This Renee on the other hand, when Dr. Reed looked into her eyes she saw a bottomless pit of horrors. She was Satan personified, a demon in the flesh. How could something like that come from someone like Akako?
Dr. Reed took a deep breath to calm down. As Akako had said, Renee couldn’t harm her unless Dr. Reed let her. If she just kept her wits about her, then Renee wouldn’t have any power. She took another deep breath and decided it was time to go downstairs and see if Akako needed help.
She made her way slowly over to the stairs. She took them one at a time, careful not to make any noise. When she was about halfway, she heard sounds. They weren’t screams but giggles. She recognized the sound of girls at play from all the times she had taken Joanna to the park.
When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she saw an ordinary nursery. It was populated by little girls, none who seemed older than three or four. Some of them finger-painted while others played with toys. She saw an adorable girl with golden curls in a pink castle. It was the same little girl Renee had held when they first came to this place.
The little girl looked up at Dr. Reed and chirped, “Hi!”
“Hi. Have you seen the grown-up who was taking care of you?”
“Miss Renee? She’s over there, with Akako.”
Dr. Reed turned the direction the little girl pointed. She saw that demon Renee, who held an Asian toddler with bright red pigtails in her arms. “Akako?”
The little girl stared at her for a moment and then with a whimper pressed her face against Renee's chest. Renee patted the girl's back and cooed, “It's all right, sweetheart. This is your friend, Emma. Do you remember her?” The girl shook her head. “Try not to be offended, Dr. Reed. Akako is just a little shy.”
“What did you do to her?”
“No one can resist the power of Isis. You must have realized that by now.”
“That's not true. Isis couldn't do that to Akako. Her magic wouldn't work—”
“Isis is not limited by such trivialities. She is a goddess after all. Soon everyone will worship her, even little Joanna.”
“No! She can't hurt Joanna. I won't let her.” To emphasize this, Dr. Reed leveled the machine gun at Renee.
“Don't be a fool, Emma. If you tr
y to shoot me, you'll kill Akako. Are you willing to risk that?”
“Yes.”
Renee smiled and then set Akako on the floor. “Run along and play, sweetheart.”
“I don't wanna,” Akako whined. “I wanna stay with you, Mama.” The little girl clung to the witch's leg the way Joanna had used to do to Dr. Reed.
Renee patted the girl's head and then held her arms out wide. “Go ahead, Emma. Shoot me.”
Dr. Reed hefted the rifle slightly higher, to aim it at Renee's heart. She only needed to pull the trigger and this evil woman would be dead. Her hands began to tremble; sweat dribbled into her eyes.
The witch's grin broadened. “What's the matter, Emma? Don't you have a clear enough shot?” She took a step closer, until the barrel of the weapon was only centimeters from the woman's chest. “Go on, Emma. Kill me. That's what you came here to do, isn't it? Don't you want to protect your daughter?”
“I don't want to kill anyone,” Dr. Reed said. “Change Akako and the others back and I'll let you go.”
“What if I don't? Then you'll shoot me?”
“I might.”
“We both know you couldn't do that. You're too weak. You've always been weak.”
Even as Renee said this, Dr. Reed's head swum. The machine gun became heavier in her arms; it trembled even more in her grip. “I'll do it,” Dr. Reed whispered.
“You won't. You're not a hero. Not like Emma Earl. Not like Tim Cooper. Not even like your own daughter. You're just a spoiled brat from the suburbs.”
Dr. Reed's head spun again. The machine gun fell from her arms. Renee caught it before it could hit the floor. Emma reached out for it, but the whole room seemed to grow larger around her. When her vision finally settled, everything looked bigger. Then she noticed that instead of the coverall she wore the white floral print dress she'd worn the day she'd first gone to Harvard. A tress of long hair dipped over her right eye. She had to look up at Renee now as she said, “You can't do this! It's a trick!”
“I told you Isis isn't bound by any limitations. Open your heart to her, Emma, and you'll see how wonderful it is.”
Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection: The Wrath of Isis Page 178