by Tim Waggoner
I lowered my gaze to check on Jinx. The activation of the Incursion Engine seemed to have had no effect on him, or for that matter, on Quietus. Jinx had turned the tables on Quietus, and now the assassin lay facedown on the rooftop, while Jinx – with a dozen dark shards sticking out of his chest – straddled Quietus’ back. He was repeatedly slamming the assassin’s face onto the roof, making a sound like a bag of cement being slapped against concrete.
I then looked at the Fata Morgana, and drawing on whatever reserves of strength I had left, I fought to concentrate past my pain and speak. I did so, but haltingly, each word an effort of will.
“It won’t… work. Deacon said… so. An Incursion this… large will only… destroy both worlds.” My vision went gray for a moment, and I thought I would pass out. I almost did, but somehow I managed to hold onto consciousness, or at least some semblance of it.
“He’s wrong,” Neil said, without the slightest hint of uncertainty. “Thanks to Sanderson, this Incursion will be completely under our control. It will create an opening between dimensions that will become increasingly larger, until the barrier between Earth’s universe and the Maelstrom’s collapses once and for all. And then a new world will be born. A free world!”
The Fata Morgana looked at him. “Take it easy on the rhetoric, will you, Neil? It gets tiresome after a while.”
Ribbons of Maelstrom energy now filled the sky above the building, their multicolored light illuminating the area in a panoply of ever-shifting hues. If I hadn’t known it meant the end of all existence, I would’ve thought it was beautiful. I could still see some stars, but not many. Soon, the night sky would be blotted out completely. I knew we didn’t have much time left. I had to stop this, whatever the cost.
I struggled to my feet, nearly blacking out for real this time. My brain still felt as if it were being devoured by fire ants, and my weak legs shook and threatened to give out any moment, but I was standing, and that alone was a victory, if only a small one.
Jinx was still slamming Quietus’ face onto the rooftop, the assassin’s arms and legs flailing as he tried to get out from under Jinx. The dark shards in Jinx’s chest had faded away, leaving behind rapidly healing wounds. It looked like Jinx had things under control on his end. At least I didn’t have to worry about him.
Sanderson, however, was a different matter. His eyes still pulsed with white light, only more rapidly now, and his body seemed to be shrinking in upon itself. He’d lost weight, and his skin was drawn tighter to his frame. Neil’s collar was draining Sanderson’s power to fuel the Incursion Engine – and it was killing my boss.
The trancers lay on the rooftop, spent and useless. Russell was struggling to rise, but he was having a harder time of it than I had. Maybe the Incursion energies had hit him harder than they had me, or maybe he wasn’t as used to functioning when he felt like shit. He lay on the roof only a few feet from Neil – and not too far from Bloodshedder, either – his rapier still clutched in his hand. I considered trying to reach him and grab the sword, but even as transfixed as Neil and the Fata Morgana were by the spectacle taking place above us, I doubted I’d be able to get the rapier without at least one of them noticing. Still, I had to try.
I ran – actually, stumbled awkwardly is a better description – toward Russell. A strong wind had risen, maybe as a side effect of the Incursion, and weak as I was, it threatened to knock me over. The Fata Morgana and Neil remained mesmerized by the multicolored lightshow above us, and I realized I could no longer see any stars. I reached Russell, knelt down, and pulled the rapier from his grasp. He struggled to hold onto it for a second, but then he released it and gave me a weak smile before closing his eyes and falling still.
He just passed out, I told myself. That’s all. But I didn’t pause to check his pulse. There wasn’t time.
I straightened and, Russell’s sword in hand, started toward Sanderson.
I knew killing Neil wouldn’t do anything at this point, and neither would killing the Fata Morgana. But Sanderson was powering the Incursion Engine, and if I could sever his link to the machine, the Incursion would stop. I hoped. As I approached Sanderson, I couldn’t look him in the eyes – the white light blazing forth from them made that impossible.
I didn’t know if he was aware of what was happening, but I hoped the light worked both ways, and he didn’t see me coming toward him, gripping Russell’s sword. Its blade was fashioned from Maelstrom energy – and if a strike from a simple M-blade could kill an Incubus, how much more damage could a weapon like this do? Especially if the blade were thrust through the heart. If Sanderson had known what I was about to do and could speak to me, he might well have told me I was doing the right thing. But that thought didn’t make me feel any better about what I was about to do.
I don’t know what happened, whether I was clumsy in my approach and made too much noise, or if my luck simply ran out – but both the Fata Morgana and Neil lowered their eyes to look at me. I was within striking distance of Sanderson, and I thrust the rapier forward, point aimed at his heart. But the blade was stopped by a small flash of white light, no larger than the rapier’s tip. I tried thrusting the blade into Sanderson a couple more times, but with the same result.
Neil gave me a satisfied grin. “The collar has a built-in force field.”
The Fata Morgana gestured, and the sword flew out of my hand and into hers. She took hold of the blade with both hands and with a single – almost contemptuous – motion, she snapped it in two.
I’d known she was strong, but I couldn’t believe what I had just seen. Neil’s rapier had been made entirely of solidified M-energy. It should have been, for all intents and purposes, unbreakable. But the Fata Morgana had snapped it like a twig. Evidently, Neil was surprised, too, for he gaped at her as she dropped the pieces of the broken sword onto the roof.
The Fata Morgana looked at me, sadness in her eerie yellow eyes.
“I truly regret that I wasn’t able to bring you into my fold, Audra. But I think in time, you’ll come to appreciate the new reality we’re going to create. Who knows? You might even enjoy it.”
Jinx had been so busy fighting Quietus that I thought he hadn’t been paying attention to anything else. But at that moment, he stopped pounding Quietus’ face onto the rooftop.
“Sorry, Q, but I can’t play anymore,” he said. “I’ve got work to do.”
He still had hold of Quietus’ head, and he gritted his teeth, pulled, and twisted. Quietus’ head tore free from his body with a snapping sound. There was no blood, just a spray of black ichor that resembled thick ink. Quietus’ body spasmed once and then fell still. Holding onto the head, Jinx stood, turned to face the edge of the roof, and with one of his enormous red shoes, he punted Quietus’ head as if it were a football. The head flew through the air in a high arc until I lost sight of it in the swirls of Maelstrom energy.
Jinx’s hands were covered with black goo, and he rubbed them on his pants before bending down to pick up Cuthbert Junior. He moved easily, as if the battle with Quietus hadn’t taken anything out of him, but I could feel that it had. He’d been wounded – and healed – a hell of a lot tonight, and I knew that despite appearances, it had taken a toll on his system.
The sky was completely filled with Maelstrom energy now, and it blazed so brightly that it was difficult to see. How much longer until it was too late to prevent the dimensional barrier from collapsing? Was it already too late?
I didn’t have any weapons left, but I didn’t care. If I couldn’t stop the Maelstrom from flooding into Earth’s dimension and altering it forever, I was determined to make sure the kaleidoscope-faced cunt wouldn’t live long enough to enjoy the new world she created. I walked over to her, careful to avoid stepping on Russell and Bloodshedder, of course, and Jinx joined me.
“You might not believe this, Audra,” the Fata Morgana said. “But I’m glad you’re here. Out of all the Ideators-in-the-making that I’ve worked with over the years, you were the one who had the m
ost potential. The fact that you’ve gotten as far as you have in stopping me is a testament to–”
My hand snatched out, and I grabbed hold of her throat.
“Hey!” Neil said. “You can’t do that!”
He tried to grab my arm in an attempt to stop me from choking the living shit out of the Fata Morgana, who – curiously enough – was making no attempt to do so herself.
Jinx’s fist pistoned out in a blur of motion, and Neil’s nose exploded in a burst of blood. There was also a sickening cracking sound as his jaw broke in several places. He flew backward, hit the rooftop, and didn’t get back up.
I maintained my grip on the Fata Morgana’s throat until my hand and arm shook from the effort. But even though I could feel my fingers digging into her soft flesh, she didn’t react.
Jinx’s shoulders slumped slightly, and his head drooped a bit. I knew he was nearing the last of his energy and wouldn’t be able to go on much longer.
“The collar around Sanderson produces some kind of force field,” I said. “See if you can break through it!”
Jinx ran over to Sanderson and began pounding on him with Cuthbert Junior, but with no more success than I’d had before. The collar’s force field stopped the hammer a few inches from Sanderson’s body, white bursts of light flaring from the point where Jinx’s hammer made contact with the field. Jinx kept at it, slamming the hammer into the force field again and again. But with each strike, his blows became weaker.
I continued choking the Fata Morgana, but her yellow eyes locked onto mine, and her lips stretched into a cold smile. Then light blasted forth from her amber gaze, and I felt like I was falling…
I was sitting in my bed, the covers pulled up to my chin. It was dark, and I was ten years old. At least, my body was ten. My mind was still that of the adult Audra.
“Jinx?” I whispered. “Are you here?”
A few seconds of silence, and then, “Yes. I’m crouched at the footboard.”
My eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness, and I could make out the silhouette of a head and shoulders at the end of my bed. Despite myself, I felt a thrill of fear at seeing that shape. It brought back too many memories, none of them good.
“Is it you?” I asked. “The now you, I mean. The one that’s my partner.”
“Yes.”
The shape stood and came around to the side of my bed. I was physically smaller than my adult self, and Jinx’s silhouette looked so much larger than what I was used to. Like a giant sculpted from darkness. As if sensing my discomfort, he knelt down so he wouldn’t be looming over me. Was he wearing his old hobo outfit? Probably.
“What happened?” he asked. His voice was odd. It didn’t belong to either of his Aspects, but seemed rather to be a mixture of the two, as if both sides of his personality were speaking to me.
“I’m not sure.” I lowered the covers and sat up straighter. “I think the Fata Morgana did something to our minds.”
“Fata Morgana has two meanings,” Jinx said. “A sorceress in Arthurian legend, and also a type of mirage.”
Now I knew for certain that Day Jinx was present alongside Night Jinx. No way would the latter have known that tidbit of information.
“So she’s trapped us in some kind of mental illusion?”
“I believe so.”
“So are you really here or are you just part of one of my memories?” I asked.
“Funny. I was wondering the same thing.”
That took me aback. “You have memories of… scaring me?”
“Of course. They’re my earliest memories. I was only partly real then, but I was real enough. It was so confusing. I only existed when you dreamed about me, so for me, life consisted of perpetual darkness in a small enclosed space – your bedroom – with a little girl whose attention I was supposed to try and get. But for some reason, I was supposed to catch her attention in a certain way. I couldn’t just walk up to her and say, ‘Hi! My name is Jinx and you created me.’ I was supposed to be scary. It was almost like being an actor performing for an audience of one – the playwright herself.”
“So you didn’t enjoy scaring me?”
His voice took on the lighter, goofier tone of his Night Aspect. “I wouldn’t go that far! After all, I was damn good at it, wasn’t I?” He then let out one of his lunatic giggles.
In the darkness, I smiled. I reached up and touched his cheek. “Yes, you were. The best.”
We were quiet for a few moments after that. Jinx broke the silence first.
“So, what do we do? Stay in this memory until the Fata Morgana’s glorious new world is born?”
“Or we could force ourselves back to awareness. If we’re both here together, maybe we can combine our psychic strength and bust out of this joint.”
“But even if we manage to return to full consciousness, what can we do to stop the Fata Morgana?”
I reached out and touched Jinx’s wrist. Here in the memory, it was bare. But in the real world, he wore a bracelet around it.
“You can ask yourself a very important question,” I began.
“‘What Would Joker Do?’” he finished.
He started laughing then, softly at first, and then louder and louder, and I realized that I was laughing, too.
My eyes opened and I was on the roof again, only now I was lying on my side, looking up at the Fata Morgana, who once again was gazing at the blazing multicolored sky. I realized that when she mind-zapped me, I must have literally lost consciousness and fallen. But I was awake now, and Jinx was lying next to me. His eyes were open, too, but he put a finger to his lips in a signal for me to be quiet. He then slowly and silently moved into a crouching position, and I did the same.
Sanderson remained standing in the same position, his glowing eyes flickering rapidly. His body had lost much of its mass, and he was so very thin. He’d be dead soon, if he wasn’t already. Russell was still unconscious, as was Neil. Bloodshedder was still snoring. Quietus remained headless.
Jinx straightened to a standing position, and I followed. I had no idea what he had planned, but whatever it was, I wanted to be ready. He reached into the inner jacket pocket of his suit, digging deep, his arm disappearing all the way up to the elbow. His face scrunched up in concentration, but then his expression brightened. He leaned close to me and whispered, “I’ve been saving this for a special occasion.”
He withdrew his hand from his pocket and showed me what he held. It was a black sphere about the size of a grapefruit. A fuse extended from the top and sparks flew off as it burned. Did I mention it was a very short fuse?
Jinx turned to face the Fata Morgana.
“Hey, Doc! Catch!”
Startled, the Fata Morgana looked at Jinx as he lobbed the bomb toward her. She caught the cartoonish explosive and stared at it, as if she had no idea what the thing was.
Jinx then spun around, grabbed me, and – carrying me as if I weighed nothing – he ran toward the edge of the roof, his gigantic shoes slap-slap-slapping. Just as we reached the roof’s edge, Jinx’s shoe-springs activated and launched us into the air.
The world disappeared in an explosion of noise, light, and fire, but all I could hear was the sound of Jinx’s mad laughter.
FOURTEEN
“You haven’t touched your omelet.”
“I’m not hungry.”
Jinx – Day Jinx, that is – and I sat at a corner table in small greasy spoon downtown. We looked as if we’d fought our way here through a war zone, which was pretty much the truth, I suppose. Our clothes were dirty, torn, and stained with blood, asphalt, and who knew what else. The manager on duty at the diner hadn’t wanted to let us in, but Jinx had slipped him a couple twenties, and the man had been only too happy to change his mind. I think it helped that there were hardly any other customers in the place.
Jinx had ordered a fruit plate and a yogurt, and since I hadn’t been in the mood for anything, he’d taken the liberty of ordering me a ham-and-cheese omelet, OJ, and coffee. So
far, the coffee was all I’d had, and I’d only taken a few sips. Despite Jinx nagging me about not eating, he hadn’t done much more than move pieces of fruit around on his plate.
“I’m sorry, Audra.”
“I know.”
Night Jinx had succeeded. The explosion had destroyed the entire building, along with the Incursion Engine it had housed. For several moments afterward, the sky continued to be filled with Maelstrom energy, but then it slowly faded, and the night returned to normal, stars and all. I’d had wanted to search the rubble for Russell, Bloodshedder, and Sanderson, but we heard sirens approaching, and we departed. Mostly because I didn’t want Jinx to get in a fight with the cops and firefighters. I’d had enough violence to last me for a while.
We’d found Connie and the Deathmobile waiting for us on the street. The hearse had used its headlight beams to age the ground it was trapped in until it collapsed into dust, but it had taken a while. Connie had waited on the street, just in case we made it out alive. She didn’t know what had happened to Cancer Jack and Lizzie Longlegs, but I figured they’d turn up sooner or later. Incubi like them always do.
“You did what you had to do,” I told Jinx. I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince him or myself. “You saved the world. Two worlds, actually.”
“Perhaps.” He speared a pineapple chunk with his fork and lifted it up to examine it. “But we’re supposed to be the good guys. A good guy would’ve found a way to save our friends, too.” He looked at the pineapple chunk a moment longer, then dropped it and the fork to his plate with an expression of disgust.
I heard the door to the diner open and close, but I barely noticed. I was too focused on Jinx.
“They would’ve understood,” I said.
He looked at me, and I saw a mixture of doubt and hopefulness in his gaze.
“Do you really think so?” he asked.
“I do.”
“And you’d be right.”
These last words were spoken by someone who’d approached our table, and as we looked up, neither of us could believe what we saw: Sanderson, alive, collarless, restored to full health, and dressed in an undamaged and spotless blue suit, complete with his ever-swirling Maelstrom tie.
