Suzi felt incredible.

She felt invincible.

Suzi’s whole body hummed with power. She felt unstoppable, as if time itself was a sluggish medium she could move through at triple speed. Energy coursed under her skin, stoking the fires of her will.

“Suzi,” a voice in her head urged softly. “You have to let me go. This power will corrode you. You aren’t ready.”

Even as that voice reverberated, Suzi had a lifetime’s worth of clarity in a single second. She saw Bear, back in human form, lying twisted and broken, bones likely shattered; Kyle sprawled, unconscious, an innocent bystander caught in her war; Everett staggering, battered by a massive head wound, barely coherent; and Darcy…

Darcy stared up at her with petrified, bloodshot eyes, pinned to the wall by a sword, blood pouring from her chest and mouth.

In an instant, Suzi was kneeling next to her friend.

Between coughs, Darcy slurred, “Is Jo…safe?” Her trembling hand tried to press onto the gash, failing to stop the bleeding.

“THE MORTAL IS FINE,” boomed a voice from Suzi’s lips that did not sound like her own.

“Mortal?” Darcy repeated, eyes going hazy. “Suzi…save her.” With a trembling gesture, she pressed the Dagger of Roanove into Suzi’s palm.

Suzi felt no pain, no regret.

No sadness.

No remorse.

No humanity.

Just chilling invulnerability.

“This isn’t right,” she told herself.

She closed her eyes and tore herself from the collective cosmic force swirling inside her, and found the Miracle Globe clutched in Guillermo, the mental space where Ellie’s essence waited.

From inside that bubble of consciousness, Ellie’s voice murmured: “This is the danger I pose to you and your world, Suzi. Destroy the globe. Destroy me. In the wrong hands, my power would be catastrophic.”

Suzi could feel the others bearing down on her—United, powerful, untethered.

“Not like this,” Suzi whispered. She hurled the globe away mentally.

Suddenly, a choking retch tore out of her in the real world. She felt her body revert to something mortal, her muscles trembling with fatigue. No more unstoppable juggernaut. Her mind realigned, hearing the various identities within Guillermo as distinct voices again.

She looked down at Darcy, whose breathing grew ragged. Blood gurgled at her lips, but she gave Suzi a faint, reassuring look.

Grasping Darcy’s hand, her own eyes brimming, Suzi assured, “We love you, Darcy. I’ll always remem—”

Everything went dark for an instant. Then Suzi stood in Darcy’s vessel—a void with a singular spotlight upon a trembling Darcy.

“Suzi?” Darcy’s voice quavered. “What’s happening?”

Suzi’s heart lurched. She died.

“Hello, Suzi. We meet again,” a symphonic choir thundered.

A dazzling golden light flooded the place, embracing Darcy. Azrael, Suzi realized with a start. The golden radiance shaped itself into a man with perfect musculature, golden skin, and hair like black holes absorbing all light—Azrael, the angel of death.

Suzi had forgotten the eternal remorse that his face carried.

Suzi bowed her head. “Hello again, Azrael. Thank you for not calling me that other name.”

The angel laughed, a noise accompanied by chimes and low drums. “’Reaper’ is a loaded title. You showed me courtesy once, sister, so I grant it to you in return.”

Fear seized Suzi. “Azrael…will Darcy go to Heaven?”

His eyes softened. “I cannot say. I don’t judge. I merely ferry souls across planes as I have since time began. The rest depends on them.”

Tears stung Suzi’s eyes. “Azrael, please. I’m not ready to lose her.”

He sighed, that cosmic sorrow in his ancient face. “Every day, mortals beg me not to take their loved ones, but I must. This is my purpose, unstoppable, unchanging. I’m among the mightiest in creation, yet powerless to ignore my duty.”

“But my vision! I saw Darcy—she is supposed to kill the Abhorrence Demon in Gracie Jo’s body.” Suzi insisted. “I saw that happen, so she can’t die yet!”

“Truly?” Azrael studied her, perplexed. ““Would you permit me?” he held his golden hand to the edge of Suzi’s consciousness.

Suzi nodded, swallowing her dread. “Yes.”

He placed a hand to her brow, and a tsunami of knowledge flooded into her. She felt Azrael’s eternal scope—time, space, infinite realms. Then he pulled back.

“How peculiar,” Azrael murmured, genuine perplexity shining through. “Jehanne’s task isn’t complete, but her mortal body can’t sustain life anymore.”

“Please, Azrael,” Suzi pleaded, voice cracking. “I’ll do anything. I can’t lose her.”

“We all pay with our lives eventually, Suzi. Even I will fall one day. But you have a plan—though you may not realize it. Perhaps I planted it. The burden is now yours to guide Jehanne to her next life. Are you willing, my reaper-kin?”

Her resolve hardened. “I’d bear it. For the rest of my life, if I must.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

He exhaled softly. “Luckily, it won’t be that long.”

A thick band of crackling black energy wreathed in golden sparks appeared around Darcy’s ring finger.

“You two are bound now,” Azrael said. “A bond only death severs.”

Suzi’s heart fluttered. “What do you mean, ‘It won’t be that long’—”

But he vanished, leaving her alone in Darcy’s empty vessel.

“C’est quoi ce bordel?” came Darcy’s distant voice, echoing in Suzi’s mind. She felt a small surge of relief—Darcy might still exist in some form.

Outside, Suzi’s eyes snapped open in the real world. Darcy’s lifeless body slumped. Unseeing eyes staring into nothingness. Suzi took a moment to breath, closing Darcy’s eye, resting her hand on her friends head.

“I’m not dead, salope. Go help Bear!” her friend’s voice beckoned from Guillermo.

She scrambled across the debris-strewn floor to find Kyle bent over Bear’s twisted body. Kyle’s eyes were full of tears as he cradled Bear’s face.

“Kyle, call 911—he needs a hospital,” Suzi barked. “Don’t move him; his back is broken, but he can still recover.”

Bear groaned, face a mask of agony. “Kyle… not your fault.”

At that, Dr. Everett staggered upright, clutching the Miracle Globe. Blood poured down the side of his head.

“You controlled its power,” he marveled, staring at Suzi. “You… you manifested your full form, then relinquished it. Why?”

She frowned, stepping closer. “No one should have that much power. Give me the orb—I’ll free her.”

He took a step back, eyes dark with purpose. “Those I serve need this. I must bring it to him. It’s the last piece he wants.”

Suzi’s heart lurched. “The ones you serve? I thought this was your operation.”

Everett shook his head. “We all answer to someone, Suzi. I’m ready to end this war.”

“Can’t let you do that.” She took a stance, hand outstretched, the other hidden behind her back, quietly summoning Miraleth’s Pellet. “Give me Ellie’s globe. She’s my family, and you know you can’t keep her locked up.”

A bitter heaviness clung to his words. “I’m sorry. It’s too late. I have to do this.”

“He’s skipping!” Darcy’s frantic voice exploded in Suzi’s mind.

Without pause, Suzi locked onto the orb in his hand, hurling Miraleth’s Pellet mentally as hard as she could. Everett threw a small brown pouch at the floor near his feet, chanting, “Tao metananius porctucana de Roma!”

“Kyle, shoot the globe!” Suzi shouted, lunging forward.

Kyle’s .50 Eagle roared a shot, but the brown pouch popped, releasing a thick plume of foul smoke. It swirled, filling the space, and by the time Suzi slammed into the empty air, Everett was gone—vanished with the Miracle Globe and Miraleth’s Pellet.

Suzi landed on her knees in a cloud of stinking powder, rage and despair choking her more than the smoke. Ellie was gone—again.

* * * * *

Before paramedics arrived. Suzi worked quickly, dragging Darcy’s body away from the debris and cleaning the shattered android parts, rice, and stinging powder. She and Kyle fed them a story about Bear taking a tumble down the stairs while naked—no one pried further. They loaded Bear onto a backboard and whisked him to the ER with Kyle in tow.

In the empty shell of a warzone they’d left behind, Suzi clutched her battered left arm. That’s when she heard glass shatter overhead, and Miraleth’s Pellet careened over the balcony. She caught it in midair.

“Demon Reaper,” Miraleth’s voice echoed, “I have located the girl.”

Relief flickered through Suzi. “Great, show me—” she began, but a rasp sounded at her shoulder.

“I’m right here,” came a harsh voice. Suzi recognized it: the demon in Jo’s body. Before Suzi could react, a firm hand seized her.

“Suzi! Drag your feet!” Darcy’s mental scream urged, but it was too late. Her surroundings twisted into Limbo.

Everything went horribly wrong—the swirl of thin limbo spat them out thousands of feet above Earth, wind shredding her hair, the planet curving below in a dizzying panorama. She caught a glimpse of Jo’s unconscious body plummeting past her.

“Why the fuck—” she started, confusion ripping her thoughts apart as the wind battered her ears, the air so hard to breathe it felt like drowning. She realized, with utter dread, that Jo’s stolen vessel was tumbling uncontrollably at terminal velocity with no plan of escape.

“Idiot stupide!” Darcy spat from Guillermo, “He was not ready. He’s drained. He’s out.”

The ground surged toward her with merciless speed, gravity yanking her down at thirty-two-feet per second squared. Panic erupted like wildfire in her chest, burning away rational thought. The air roared past her, a relentless torrent that tore into her lungs with every failed attempt to breathe. It wasn’t relief—it was suffocation, the sheer force of oxygen and nitrogen invading her chest and pressing her ribs from the inside out.

Her heart thundered in her ears, a frantic drumbeat driving blood and adrenaline to every corner of her body, yet it all felt useless. Her limbs were weightless and wild, flailing against the onslaught of wind, offering no control, no salvation.

The air ripped at her pink and blonde hair, whipping it into a chaotic frenzy that stung her cheeks and blurred her vision. Strands lashed against her face, a maddening veil that combined with the deafening roar to muffle the world around her. Even her screams—raw, desperate—were swallowed by the cacophony, reduced to nothing more than vibrations in her throat.

Every second stretched into eternity, the ground below rushing closer, its texture sharpening into terrifying clarity.

She forced her body into an aerodynamic shape, streaming downward. She managed to catch Jo’s body after several attempts, but they were falling far too fast to plan anything.

Below, the patchwork of farmland, cities, and Lake Michigan loomed huge. I’ll survive, she thought grimly, but Jo’s body sure as hell won’t.

“Kiss her,” Darcy’s voice piped from Guillermo, “like at the church. Then forcibly take the demon and pocket Jo.”

Suzi felt Judas’s nod of agreement.

Suzi clamped an arm around Jo’s limp form, pressing her mouth to the girl’s, whispering her name. Her internal personas seized that opening, battling the demon in Jo’s battered mind.

With a connection established, Suzi felt her counters go to action, but unable to concentrate and enter Guillermo herself, she had no idea who was doing what.

She felt the push and pull of wills and personas.

Panic began to fill her as the ground was approaching very quickly.

A surge of energy came over Suzi.

“We have the demon and Judy. Pocket Jo, and let’s do this,” several voices, including Darcy’s, yelled.

Suzi pulled away from Jo’s mouth and followed Darcy’s instructions on performing the ‘touch pocket’ technique, and Jo’s body promptly disappeared.

“Too bad we can’t do that to ourselves,” Suzi thought in her head, to no one in particular.

“Perhaps I can assist, my Reaper? I am almost depleted, but if I may offer some guidance as my final act,” Miraleth’s voice appeared beside her as the pellet maintained it’s speed next to her.

“Tell me you can turn into a huge, soft mattress,” Ralph joked from within.

“I cannot, but I retest you for self-worth,” Miraleth insisted calmly.

“What good is that going to do?” Suzi yelled

“Do you not recall your test? You transformed yourself into a taller counterpart to make a jump that your 5-foot 3-inch frame could not make.”

“I’m five-four,” Suzi argued.

“No, you are five-three-and-one-eighth, but the suggestion here is that your self-image affects your physical self.”

Suzi’s heart thundered. Fifteen seconds to impact. She screamed. “Get to the point!”

“Judas has wings, Demon Reaper” Miraleth said.

“They’re just figurative,” Suzi retorted.

“When your personas switch control, they still use your physical body. But if you can adopt thier self-image fully—”

“We have our own bodies?” Judith asked.

“Yes. While many of you have a self-image based on Suzi’s primary visage, each of you has unique qualities and unique abilities. Judy, for example, possesses the ability to Limbo Skip, which was impossible without her,” he explained.

“Judas? Take over and do your thing,” Suzi commanded as she could make out people in the windows of the taller buildings.

“I’m afraid it’s more than that,” Miraleth continued, “Like your test, you surrendered to James and melded his self-image with your consciousness. Even though you have others take over, you are still conscious and in control, even with Judas. Absorb me, and I will assist, I fear as my last act.”

Suzi held out her hand, spoke the name, and felt the pellet become part of her again. “Thank you, Miraleth. I will never forget you.”

“Of course, Suzi. You were my most incredible creation.”

She felt the orb absorb into her palm, and instantly her consciousness faded into that silver maze. The same eardrum-shattering ringing as before hammered her skull. She tried not to think about the fact that her physical body was still in freefall—just seconds from impact.