As they fell into the darkness, the girl was hit by one last force.

A wave of manufactured Shift, yet again. Flickering in and out, causing them to be pushed back one moment and the other stuck in stasis.

And yet, Billie was tumbling down, as if she wasn’t affected.

Struggled to reach her hand out in protest, Jackie’s screams were muffled against the power of this pseudo-Shift. She never even faced an actual one head-on yet, let alone experienced it.

No. They worked too hard, too far now, to give in now.

She used the connection, to reach out to the others. Hitting them with what she was feeling.

Sure enough, they were projecting it back to her.

All connected, by this one feeling.

Jackie began to shift. And from the corners of her eye, she saw the others do the same.

What was once push back, motionlessness, now was trudging through thick snow. They were moving slowly, but they were still moving.

Jackie outstretched her hand, just in time to see Billie fall into further darkness.

She turned that hand into a fist.

The CAST was warped away. She and the others were fighting against the false-Shift’s effects, as that would’ve been them had they not pushed through.

Broke through.

Everything cut from around her, and yet, everything in her body was not tempered anymore. A rush of power resulted in it.

Without warning, and without fail, the girls dove down against the false-Shift, cutting through the madness and racing down at record speeds.

Jackie saw Billie near the bottom and grabbed her up in her moving arms. Angling her feet down as the ground was fast approaching.

She landed, with a thud, but it didn’t matter. They all landed with precision and grace, raising up slowly as shifting wisps.

“Woah…” Billie genuinely in awe, in Jackie’s arms.

As Jackie lowered her to the ground, her shifting was cut off, along with everyone else’s. Jackie was panting, as sweat was pouring from her face.

“What happened, what’s going on--?” Billie asked, a hand on Jackie’s back.

“Too much…” Jackie shook her head. “Too much… Done too much… Past limit now…”

Billie looked at her and nodded.

“It’s fine, don’t worry… It’s all me, now.”

“It seems that it is…”

Everyone looked forward, realizing that they were at the start of a smaller tunnel.

A man, white hair that not only hit the floor, but curled up against it. In his hole.

“Though, I was hoping that we’d be alone, Ms. Bolton.”

“You fucker—” Billie was grabbed by Jackie at the last second.

“Wait…” Jackie heaved out. “Could be a trick…”

“Oh, I’m certainly out of those,” the broken man spoke. A youthful voice, but drenched in damage and filtered with lifelessness. “You managed to get through my very last one. Not bad, for later additions to my idea.”

“‘Later additions’…?” River asked.

“Oh yes. I let you all in on a whim. Since you were siVis users already, I thought I could break you too and well, add you to my reign of terror. But all you did was complicate things and made me exhaust my resources.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

He tossed something at them, causing them all to jump. Jackie looked down, noting that it was just a knife version of the Multi-Tool. Meaning an older version.

“…Don’t tell me…” Maddie huffed. “You did all of this shit… With just that.”

“I can’t take all of the credit. What we have here is the very thing that killed everyone sans me.”

He outreached his battered arms, causing their eyes to follow his calloused hands.

It was like a crystal vein. Glowing blue as if it was breathing as if blood was coursing through it. And as the girls could see, Damien only made a sizable dent in it.

“They’re like nodes to the universe, you see. It’s true that beyond our understanding of reality, there are simply more layers to peel back, but you often ran into these… There could be multiple, strewn across these layers. Even if we managed to break through, we’d all die horribly due to hitting this node. This mission, everything… It’s just madness. Madness and nothingness. Those Extant fools sent us to die.”

Billie jerked away from Jackie, her being too weak to follow after her. She and the others watched as the wild girl, twirled the broken man around.

“SHUT YOUR MOUTH! YOU NIHILIST-WORSHIPPING, DISGUSTING FILTH!”

Something slid against the ground, causing it to break into multiple pieces. River was the first to notice that it was an old music player from the 90s. Puffy headphones and all.

Damien was just a man of hair and warp. His human body became puzzle-lite, shriveled up. His eyes glazed over.

“Oh? You don’t want to hear my reasoning for doing all of this? For the record--?”

“No! You’re gonna sit here until I punch you until paste--!”

There were a series of sickening cracks. As if Billie holding Damien up caused his bones to break alone.

“As you can see… I’m just skin and bones. There’s no satisfaction here. No resolution. I might die within a few more moments here—so if you want to know now—”

“Billie,” Jackie eased her. “Let him say what he’s going to say. Then we’ll let you decide.”

Damien looked directly at her.

“There is no plan. Just an idea, a want. I just wanted to show everyone, how Extant will leave us to ruin as they continue to act like nothing is wrong. Extant are filled with fools and reckless men. Made from conspiracies, acting holy… They want to test the limitations of the Noumena rather than solve it. They had since the beginning… Your mother was a victim like me.”

Jackie looked to the others with wide eyes, them meeting back with their own sets.

Then Jackie looked to Billie.

Billie loosened her grip, her eyes turned doughy.

“W-what the fuck… Are you talking about?”

“I knew the information that they tried to keep classified. I believe—no, know that they sent me on this fool’s errand because I knew. She came to them, knowing that they could make her gain siVis… She wanted it because she was so tired of being human, being limited… So they helped her gain it. She didn’t want the ability, she just needed the enhanced movements, the enlightened mind. But they neglected to tell her that every aspect of siVis needs to be exercised, leading to the regrettable events that unfolded that day. They were the ones that took your mother away from you.”

Billie’s tears fell from her eyes at extreme speeds. She shook her head, she squeezed her eyes shut. She shook in place, before yelling at the old man.

“THEN WHY RUIN MY LIFE TOO?! WHY DO IT, DO THIS TO ME, YOU FUCKING EVIL BASTARD?!”

“I knew it was more likely for you to trigger siVis on your own. I knew that you were the most vulnerable. Again, there is no plan. There is no catharsis for me. I’m going to die. But at least I gave my hatred to someone else. At least I’ll know that I’ll ruin a life, like how they did me. Now you know. And you can never forget it.”

“Billie, please!” Jackie struggled to move further. “Don’t listen to him! We’ll help you—we—we’ll—you can join us! We’ll fight everything together! We can teach you ourselves, you wanted that right?! Please, Billie! Please!”

She wasn’t listening.

Billie’s eyes turned white.

Soon, her body was giving out multiple rays of white light as she screamed.

It was horrifying to see from the other side. Seeing someone gain siVis.

The light died down, as the shifting Billie remained.

“Get out of here,” the girl sounded distant despite being right there.

“We can’t leave you…!” Jackie outreached her hand. “Not right now…”

Billie turned around. Her face was obscured by moving pieces.

“I told you. He’s a loser. I’m a loser. You guys don’t want a murderer on your team.”

That floored Jackie, causing the other girls to grab onto her, backing away.

“NOW GO!”

With no choice left, the girls backed away.

They scrambled to the moving wall, looking for somewhere to get out of here.

Aiko found the boring device still buried into the floor. It reached up until out of the hole.

Each of them climbed on, crawling out of a dark place.

The last thing Jackie heard, was the echoing laughter of Damien Darrius.

***

It was hard to see the Extant Enforcers embarking into the Boundary. And it was just as hard to hear Mr. Davenport wax on poetically how they’ve saved the abductees and will be rehabilitated.

“I hope they don’t find her…” Tracy trailed off, looking from above on the building they were on. A rooftop sunset.

Jackie was just sitting down. Hugging her legs.

“We gain one thing… And yet still lose…”

Maddie was looking at her, arms crossed.

Aiko was pacing around, while River was on her laptop. The only thing that survived the mission.

Silence stretched on for minutes, which felt like hours.

“…Fucker said that she’ll never forget or whatever,” Maddie mumbled. “So, let’s not forget Billie. That it’s easy to let these assholes win.”

“…Yeah,” Jackie’s own face was cloaked in shadow, due to the setting sun.

She stood up, looking up at the sky.

“This world is more fucked than we could possibly have imagined. We have to work and fight a lot harder than we have right now. We have to get ready, and we have to get stronger.”

The girls looked towards the emerging night sky. Uncertain if they held much more than they did.