Firestorm:

  I threw Beatrice into a cage with my talons.

  Jackie stabbed me in the back by working with my enemy, so I created a far-flung probability in the Slipstream to enact my revenge. After all I’d endured, I had to forge my own fate.

  “Ah!” Beatrice fell into a rusty wheelchair like a rag doll.

  I slammed the cage shut and tried to stay calm, but my adrenaline spiked from the pleasure twisting in my gut. Vengeance was finally mine.

  “It’s your turn to rot in a cage forever inside this damned warehouse.” My heart beat like a war drum.

  “What are you going to do? Torture me? Kill me over and over?” Beatrice scoffed underneath her tousled hair.

  “Maybe just for fun.” My wings trembled with delight at the pain I planned to inflict upon her.

  Her nostrils curled. “The stench alone will kill me. What died in here?”

  “People you mutated and murdered. Now you can taste their torment for all of eternity.”

  “Touche.” Beatrice looked at the cages surrounding her, filled with rotting corpses; half-man and half-beast. Flies fed on the rotten flesh dripping from their brittle bones.

  “It’s your turn to suffer.” Heat burned behind my eyes, the very sight of her boiling my blood. My deformed muscles hummed with tension as I towered over her with bloodlust.

  Beatrice stiffened, realizing the gravity of her current reality, trapped inside a cage next to the maggot-ridden remains of her victims.

  She let her mask slip. “You’re a disgusting animal, you know that?”

  “A beast of your creation.” I unleashed a roar that shook my chest, hot spit striking her cheek.

  She gasped, covered in my saliva. “Listen, I see what you’re trying to do here, but…”

  “Silence!” I bellowed.

  She flinched, then relaxed, pretending my power had no effect on her. “Fine, torture me for all of time.”

  “With pleasure,” I barked.

  Fire churned within me, making its way from my belly to my lips in seconds. I towered over Beatrice in her wheelchair, pummeling her with my fiery breath.

  Her screams reverberated in the abandoned building, rattling the long-dead skeletons. Her agony was music to my ears.

  The smell of burnt hair filled my nostrils, followed by the pungent aroma of my enemy’s seared skin melting off her face.

  I unleashed my fury long after she died, not stopping until my energy was fully drained. Even then, hatred remained.

  I sat back to witness my handiwork, my insides burning, muscles heavy with fatigue.

  I charred her expensive clothes. Her flesh was incinerated, blistered and raw.

  “You disgust me,” I told her dead corpse.

  Beatrice’s rebirthing process soon began with bursts of energy rising from the ashes of her remains.

  I closed my eyes and sighed, replenishing my spirit for the next round.

  The satisfaction I’d imagined never came. Instead, a cold weight pressed against my chest, heavier than the anger that motivated me.

  Killing Beatrice didn’t erase my scars.

  Will any amount of payback fill the emptiness inside?

  As fast as she burned, she rejuvenated. Her crispy remains transformed into a baby bird, shifting into human form as it grew. Beatrice’s skin tightened, revealing a fresh layer. Eventually, her hair grew back too, and the rebirthing creature resembled my nemesis once more.

  She was asleep for a while, giving me time to plan my next move. Unfortunately, killing Beatrice gave her access to the Slipstream. Would she come back stronger than ever?

  I don’t care. I can do this all day. She’ll pay for what she’s done. Next time, I’ll torture her to the brink of death without sending her over the threshold.

  With her youthful appearance restored, Beatrice gasped when she finally regained consciousness.

  Eyes wide, she soaked in her surroundings like a newborn seeing the world for the first time.

  “Welcome back to hell,” I said.

  Her gaze settled on my ugly mug. “Firestorm, you’ll never believe what happened.”

  “I know exactly what happened. I murdered you once, and I’ll do it again.”

  She sighed, covering her body with her burned clothes. “I probably deserved that, but you’re missing the bigger picture. Something’s happened. Something big.”

  “On second thought, I won’t kill you again. That’s too kind. That gives you access to the Slipstream. No, the psychological torture of being stuck in that wheelchair is the best punishment. In this probability, you’ll spend forever here, caged in your wheelchair, as if you never got the Life Rite serum.”

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  She took a deep breath. “I’ve made a lot of poor decisions, but how does this solve anything? This little scheme of yours doesn’t give you what you want…”

  I craned my drooping neck.

  Damn it. The slippery snake piqued my interest.

  Sensing my hesitation, Beatrice doubled down. “Zayne…”

  “Call me Firestorm.” Fury bubbled in my stomach.

  A teasing smile tugged at her lips. “Firestorm, there’s a better way to get what you want. Let’s make a deal…”

  The smug look on her unaging face sent me into a blind rage.

  I spewed flames onto a nearby shelf. Torture devices glowed red before warping, their handles blistering and curling under the heat of my hatred.

  “Enough with your wheeling and dealing. That may have worked on Jackie, but this is my probability to create. My revenge. You can’t talk your way out of this.”

  “Negotiating is far more interesting than violence. If you’re capable, of course… Tell me, Zayne, Firestorm… Are you still an intelligent man or are you an animal relying on instincts?”

  I roared, spitting on her blackened cashmere.

  The strength of my battle cry shook her bones, the perfect reminder of my strength and conviction.

  Beatrice recoiled with disgust. “Are you done?”

  “Just getting started.”

  She wiped spit off her forehead. “Well, get it out of your system so I can show you how to solve Life Rite’s issues while giving you what you desire.”

  “This is what I want. You’ll rot in this cage for eternity.”

  Beatrice shook her head. “Is this really that satisfying?”

  My heart pounded through my heaving chest. “I want to kill you again, but you’ll rebirth through the Slipstream, so this is the next best thing.”

  She clicked her tongue. “No, dear. Think bigger.”

  “Is that what you were doing when you kidnapped children and experimented on them? That's what it means to think bigger?” I turned away, too disgusted to look at her.

  “You’re right. My actions were inexcusable. I’m sorry for what Mark did to you on my behalf.”

  The tight knot in my stomach loosened, but the ache didn't vanish.

  “Your apology means nothing. Look at what I’ve become because of you!”

  “I understand,” she sighed, “but Firestorm, you can finally have what you’ve been searching for all these years in the Slipstream. Everything is clear to me now.”

  She struck a nerve. “What do you think I want?” Tension gathered under my scaly skin.

  “Grace, of course.”

  I sneered. “Stop playing games.” She easily found the deepest wound I tried to hide.

  “There is a future where you, as Zayne, are with her.” Her shoulders loosened as she leaned back in her wheelchair, smiling.

  “Nonsense. I’ve searched the Slipstream for ways to save Grace. If it existed, I would have found it.”

  The weight of my failure pressed on my chest until I thought my ribs would crack.

  Heat rose from my throat, and I blasted the cage with more flames.

  Beatrice covered her head with her hands.

  I blew my blazing breath high enough not to fry her, just to warn her. “Stop spewing lies.”

  When my flames subsided, she checked herself for damage. A burn mark kissed her flawless cheek. She touched it, wincing from the pain.

  “Everything has changed, and here you are, chasing your own tail.” Beatrice healed the burn in no time. Her skin glossed over as if never touched.

  “Hold your tongue or I’ll blast you to bits.” I turned to leave, needing to clear my head, but she called me back.

  “You might not have been able to save her, Firestorm, but Jackie has done it. Jackie saved Grace for you.”

  I turned around to face my prisoner. “I don’t believe anything you say. You’d do anything to save yourself.”

  She shrugged. “Here, let me show you.”

  Beatrice cupped her palms together and concentrated, eyes narrowing.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Shhh, watch.” She closed her eyes, furrowed her brows, pursed her lips, and… “Voila.”

  A flicker sparked between her palms. The flames grew, swirling into a blazing ring of fire that hovered above her open hands. Energy snapped and danced at the edges, casting a shadow on her wicked face.

  That witch commanded a Slipstream portal to do her bidding. A mini-stream manifested in her hands.

  My lungs seized with shock. “How did you do that without dying or using fire? What is this sorcery?”

  “I’m not the Beatrice you threw in this cage. I’ve evolved, and I’m showing you a better way forward. Jackie’s way.”

  Her conjured portal played a stream on its pulsing surface. Grace and Zayne hugged on the balcony overlooking the volcano on Bennu. They were older, which meant Grace didn’t get sick and die.

  My dream came true, but was it all smoke and mirrors?

  “Explain yourself.”

  Beatrice snuffed out the portal by clasping her hands together. Leftover embers floated up and away.

  “Are you sure you’re ready to learn more? You seem pretty close-minded, Firestorm.”

  She raised an eyebrow. Despite being locked in the cage, she had me right where she wanted me.

  Smoke fumed from my nostrils. “Tell me everything.”

  Beatrice crossed her arms. “Jackie chose to work with me, which is a possibility you never thought to explore. That set off a chain reaction leading to my… transcendence.”

  “You expect me to believe that?” I rolled my hooded eyes.

  “Jackie showed me the error of my ways. She changed me for the better.”

  “You’ll say anything to get what you want, witch.”

  “But it’s true. I returned to the past, of my own volition, to reset the timeline. All thanks to Jackie. Because of that choice, I’ve reached a level of… singularity. Now, I see the bigger picture across multiple timelines.”

  “I don’t believe you.” My jaw clenched.

  “You can see for yourself in the Slipstream.”

  “What game are you playing?”

  “This isn’t a game,” Beatrice assured. “I sacrificed myself for the greater good, and because of that, I understand so much more now.”

  A bitter laugh escaped me, thick with disbelief.

  Beatrice said, “The probability I showed you is real. It appeared when Jackie decided to work with me. She made it a lot farther than this silly revenge plot of yours. She came into my life and convinced me to go back and reset the timeline. When I refused to take the serum, countless new probabilities emerged.”

  “Lies! Stop talking.”

  Puffing out my chest, I roared between the cage’s soot-covered bars.

  Despite my immense size, she held her ground. “If you release me, I’ll take you to the reality where Zayne and Grace are together forever.”

  “Shut up. You’re a master manipulator, Beatrice. You’d do anything to get out of this cage, but your desperate attempt won’t work on me.”

  “Suit yourself. Go on, torture me. But to what end? How does this help you reconnect with Grace?”

  I contemplated, grinding my fang-like teeth.

  The desire to save Grace rattled in my mutated bones, leaving me with that familiar, hollow ache.

  Beatrice wasn’t to be trusted, but could it be true? When Jackie worked with her, did the timeline reset? Could Grace and Zayne be together as I’d hoped?

  My stomach twisted at the thought of my adversary holding hostage the one thing I couldn’t live without.