BETH

Saif’s body was tough and sparkling.

She grabbed him by his torso and slammed him down against the hull once more. And again. And again. The man smiled, as if there was something funny about all this.

“You cannot harm me,” Saif said. “Stupid, brainwashed Elizabeth. This all you have ever been. Strong and stupid.”

She threw him down, through the floor and the floor beneath that floor, until he finally halted three levels down, stuck into a man-shaped dent in the hull. Cracks shot out on the sides of his impact, growing up along the walls. The ship was made into a corpse before Saif.

Saif hovered off the floor, extended two palms at her.

Something touched her. Something without shape, but a weight pressed against her metal body. Impressions were made on the outer surface of her metal skin. It pushed at her, but she didn’t move.

Saif cursed.

Beth leaped down the tree floors and landed on top of him. “Die!” she screamed and pounded him down into the man-shaped dent again. The anger boiled inside her, fueling her to strike harder and harder. Her fists tensed tighter and tighter. The anger wanted him dead, wanted him turned into a corpse.

“Who do you think will be drained first? You or me?” Saif said, between her striking fists.

“Stop talking,” Beth mumbled.

Saif waved his hands in unison.

The wall on the left slammed against her and shoved her against the right wall, which shattered, sending her tumbling through the corridor.

She got up on her feet again and tried her fingers, cracking the joints as she tightened them into fists again. They felt good, they felt strong. But they were not delivering the death that was promised.

Saif hovered off the floor again. “I will take your power away from you. But first, I will kill you.” He waved his hands again.

Another wall came crashing down on her. She punched and it shattered. She roared and leaped back at Saif. Grabbing at his head, trying to pop it between her fingers. But it was too tough. She roared and slammed him down on the floor again.

The starship cracked open.

The darkness and emptiness of space revealed itself.

Both of them were sucked out of the ship.

She waved her arms, but space had no purchase, she was on the float. The darkness stung inside her, but the pain was nothing compared to the anger.

Something tickled behind her neck.

Saif flew over to her, but he kept his distance. “I saved mankind. I really did. I am God, in the flesh. Your mind is pure anger, pure power. I cannot control you, if I cannot alter any of your emotions. But I can set up a mental channel, dropping my voice and picking it up. You know this about space and vacuum? No sounds can travel through it. It is so empty.”

“You deserve death. Tom deserved life,” Beth said, waving her arms, but it was useless. Being this useless and unable to do anything about it lit another fire of anger within her.

“God doesn’t die, or lose. Not even the vacuum of space has an effect on me, it is barely affecting you. But the thing is, Elizabeth, the two of us cannot co-exist,” Saif said. “If I were to die or fail, then I wouldn’t have become God. Does that not sound reasonable? See, I cannot fail. SHUT UP, RACHEL! I cannot fail, even with all that anger, with all that adrenaline fueling this form of you. It is not enough. You were never meant to destroy me, only to challenge me and give me the opportunity to rise above myself. To improve upon myself. I am God.”

She roared.

“You are just this angry beast now,” Saif said. “You see that planet underneath your feet?”

She looked down. Yes, there was a planet. Round. Big.

The invisible force grabbed her and pushed her into the planet’s direction.

“Thank you for challenging me. But this is where it ends, Elizabeth,” Saif said.

She fell towards the planet, waving her useless arms.

A shadow towered over her, and it grew. She turned. Half a starship was falling behind her, accelerating towards her. He was going to slam her into the planet with a ship.

The planet grew larger, the starship grew larger.

The starship came closer.

She looked at her hands, a giant’s hands and made out of metal, then she looked at the incoming starship.

Even Gods made mistakes.

The starship came close enough.

She reached for it, her fingers digging into the very metal of the hull and she pulled. The hulls cracked and bent as she dug her way into the ship.

A corridor.

She climbed and leaped along the inside of the ship. Up, and only upwards. Every time something came in her way, she plowed through it. She had to be quick about it, or else this second chance would be wasted and she would be squashed between a planet and a starship.

The last hull. She plowed through it, it shattered as she launched herself through it. This time she flew through space with an incredible speed. With purpose. Saif’s small body was in the distance, but it grew as she came closer.

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Saif turned.

She reached and grabbed his torso again, there was no idea to try and twist him. It wouldn’t work. They continued along the trajectory she had been traveling in.

The other half of the starship.

Saif struggled in her grip, but her hands were big and strong.

She turned and bent her legs. Her feet made contact with the hull of the starship and her momentum was canceled. She pushed, the metal underneath her feet bent and strained, risking to crack. She launched them back towards the planet.

“Where are you taking us?” Saif said.

She turned him around in her arms, angling him towards her target. The planet.

“Do you think this will hurt me?” Saif said. “I am God. RACHEL, SHUT IT!”

The planet grew larger. Terrain and continents became distinct. They plowed through the cloud coverage.

Mountain ranges stretched across the entire planet, reaching high into the sky.

They crashed into the mountain. Cracking apart the very top of it.

She grabbed his body with her legs and pinned him down against the mountain. She tensed her giant hands into fists and slammed them down on Saif. Again. And again. Snow started hurling down from the sky, but she barely noticed it. Anger narrowed her focus, fueled her strength.

Saif raised his palms.

She slammed down on him even faster and harder, roaring in anger. “You destroyed everything. You killed dad. You made me kill mom. You made me kill Milo’s adoptive father. You took Tom!”

“I am God,” Saif mumbled.

“DIE!” She slammed down her fist three more times.

The mountain came apart and they fell.

Shuttle sized boulders fell with them as the mountain collapsed around them. The noise was terrible. Saif started to look tired, but he was still alive and still in one piece. Still unharmed.

She grabbed a falling boulder with one hand and Saif with the other and slammed them together. The boulder shattered into thousands of pieces, but Saif stayed whole.

Saif waved his arms.

A series of boulders crashed at her and she lost her grip on him as she went tumbling to the side, impacting the collapsing side of the mountain.

Saif tried to fly off, but rubble struck him, sending him downwards. There was so much rubble and everything was coming down with them.

She punched the boulders that came at her, either from Saif’s direction or from the mountain itself. They shattered with ease, sending their fragments everywhere. She snatched a fist size stone and hurled it towards Saif, hoping the chaos would be enough to distract him.

Saif yelled out in pain. The stone had connected. She squinted her eyes and thought she was able to see him, there was blood trickling down his forehead. She looked at his injury intently, watching for it to heal, but as the moments passed, it stayed damaged.

“RACHEL!” Saif yelled. “Give me back my access! Heal me!”

Was Rachel inside his head? But she was dead. Saif had absorbed Rachel’s power, had her soul been part of that package?

“Rachel! I am bleeding,” Saif said.

Gods didn’t bleed, but mortals did, just before they turned into corpses. She laughed, her voice echoing through the noisy collapse.

Saif turned to her, but he was not afraid. “Rachel, I am in control.” The cut on his forehead knitted shut and the trickle of blood stopped.

They fell, fighting the collapsing rubble as much as against each other.

It felt like an eternity.

Boulders were hurled between them, as were curse words.

But the bottom arrived. The base of a giant hall grew distinct underneath their feet, living lights illuminated the world beneath them. Pillars, decorative pillars. She thought she recognized them, but she was not sure. Maybe in another life, in a life when anger had not consumed her.

The floor came fast.

She landed on her side, and whimpered in pain as she struggled to her feet. Her anger was dissipating and with it her strength, focus and purpose. But it gave way to another kind of clarity as well. The adrenaline deposit was not empty, but it was starting to deplete.

The shadow of a pillar grew across her. She turned and punched, shattering the falling pillar.

Saif stood in front of her and was waving his arms. Sending more of the pillars at her.

The collapse had calmed, but the motion of all that rock and stone had put motion into giant clouds of dust. Only because of the sharp lights that hung on the collapsed ceiling made it possible for them to see each other.

“You,” Saif said. “You are risking everything I have built. The sacrifices I have made,” Saif’s face turned sour. “You have no idea!”

The anger came back. Boiling over the brim. The taste of iron rushed into her mouth, mingling with the adrenaline and a surge went through her, burning away all exhaustion and narrowing her focus again. Putting the strength back into her.

“Tom is dead because of you!” She roared and leaped at Saif.

“Tom was noth…,” Saif started.

She was on top of him again, pinning him down with her powerful legs and slammed her fists at his face. Again and again, she roared and her fists connected. The hall shook because of her anger and power.

The whole planet trembled.

“Tom was innocent! Tom should have lived!” Beth roared.

The remaining parts of the ceiling started collapsing and the floor cracked. And the planet trembled.

Her anger unmatched, her strength impossible.

The planet shuddered as it started cracking apart.

“DIE!” She yelled.

The cuts on Saif’s face knitted together slower and slower.

They fell again.

Darkness grabbed hold again. And the mountain collapsed with them down the new crevasse, down into the planet.

She relaxed and fell asleep.

-

A giant light woke her. A core made out of magma. Hot. It was so hot. She was falling towards the ball of molten rock. Saif was lying on a falling boulder and was stirring awake too, starting to notice the core of the planet. Some of the cuts in his face had not healed.

She managed to grab onto a falling boulder and pushed away from it. She landed beside him.

“It is over,” Beth mumbled between her breaths.

Saif struggled to his feet. “I am right in what I am doing. I am saving mankind from certain destruction. I am in control! I am God.”

“By going around the Universe slaughtering civilizations? You are wrong,” Beth said.

“No. RACHEL, SHUT UP! Elizabeth, I am in the right. I am vaulting this hurdle like all the others that have been presented in my path. I am God, I am in control and I cannot lose,” Saif said. “But you are correct about one thing. It is over.” He waved his hands.

An invisible force pushed her down, her knees landed on the stone. And she was pinned down.

When she had fallen asleep, she had transformed back into her human form.

She dove into her mind with her anger coming to a boil again, the adrenaline deposit snapped into distinction. It contained maybe a fifth of its original content. It would have to be enough. She tore into it and the bitterness rushed into her mouth. Her body transformed, becoming power and metal. The invisible force was crushed.

Saif launched up, trying to fly away.

She grabbed him and held tightly, but he continued to fly upwards and pulled her with him.

The ascent was a lot faster than their descent.

Saif tried shaking her loose, crashing her into falling boulders, but once her grip was tightened around something, that grip never let go.

They arrived at the surface and Saif pulled her into space.

The adrenaline deposit was nearing its bottom, she felt how the fuel trickled slower and slower into her mouth. Her anger was not enough, her strength was not enough. It was never going to be enough.