This is the continuation of a story begun in All Comes Together Part One.
Isaac found himself staring at where the women had been standing. The others in the kitchen -- Hanna, Jol, Stasya, and Eela -- watched him. In the span of a few moments, he'd gone from a man with hallucinations to the very center of a cosmic event.
"Isaac?" Hanna said. She stood next to him. "Are you all right?"
Isaac didn't say anything. He smoothed the fabric of his gold sweatshirt. Its normally comforting presence did nothing.
"The two women, Isaac," Jol said. "Can you tell us who they were?"
The events of his stay in the 'hospital' rushed through Isaac's mind. "They were hallucinations that were in the hospital with me," he began. "I thought Missy . . . the dark-haired one . . . I thought she was my friend. Alena was just a nurse. I could always trust they were fake whenever I'd see them. But now . . ."
"What they said," Eela cut in. "We were hallucinations, but you're making us real. Making them real."
Isaac nodded.
"And making Casai real," Stasya finished. "Somehow, he used you to do everything. To destroy our worlds. You brought it to happen."
"It isn't his fault," Hanna said.
"He's a weapon," Stasya said. "Casai is the one pulling his trigger."
"It was all Casai from the very beginning," Isaac said. "My hallucinations. Everything."
Suddenly Hanna hugged him. It was a long hug. He smelled her hair, full of the sweat of a real person. "Do you finally believe we're real now?" Hanna said when she disconnected.
"What the one said about you doing something else?" Tetra, from behind Stasya, said. "Do you know what she meant?"
Isaac shook his head. "I have no idea."
"Isaac," Eela said. "Come, sit down. You need to rest. You're pale. Hanna, you and I will take over cooking the food. Stasya, please get Isaac a glass of water."
Isaac was led to the couch next to Zoolk, whose leg was expertly wrapped. The towering man gave Isaac the first look Isaac had seen from him that wasn't anger, and Isaac thought it could have been sympathy. Lightning and thunder pulsed from the fire escape window behind Isaac. He heard low muttering from the two in the kitchen as Stasya brought him water. He thanked her and sipped it.
The people around him -- the things that were becoming people or had been people once, in Eela's case -- their presence sent him spiraling. His three-dimensional mind refused to let him grasp the full ramifications of what was happening: that the things that had once existed only in his mind were becoming as real as his glass of water.
Hanna watched tiny bubbles rise from the bottom of the sauce pan. Eela stood at the other end of the kitchen, green eyes tainting the light from overhead. Stasya stood in the entrance.
"You had brothers, right?" Hanna asked Eela. "I mean, sort of."
"I was once human. I don't remember it. I had siblings then, I think. The brothers that my creator made may count."
"Did you love them?" Hanna asked.
"I cared for them, and didn't want them harmed. I loved my creator-"
"His name was Isaac?"
Eela nodded. "That's right. Isaac the creator." She paused. "The words' meanings have changed. I loved him, as much as my false body would allow. I had loved him before I was put in this. I know that . . . but I don't remember."
"I don't have any siblings. My mother wasn't strong enough," Hanna said. "I only had a few friends my age, and they were all children of servants. I loved my parents, but . . ."
Eela waited a moment. "You love Isaac." Hanna didn't move. She continued watching the bubbles. Stasya leaned against the kitchen door frame.
"I think so," Hanna said finally.
"He is your age. He has endured much and survived. And now you know he is even more special than he seems. I don't find it surprising."
"But I'm not real."
"You will be soon," Stasya said. "You heard those women. We might have started as hallucinations, but now we're just as real as everything else here. We have our stories, just like everyone else. They might have come from somewhere -- something -- else, but . . . we're real."
Eela nodded silently.
"But Casai is too. How can we stop something like that?" Hanna said. "He's going to make us unreal again." She gripped the sides of her arms, wrapping herself. "He's going to destroy everything."
Neither of the other women responded.
"We must remember what we know about Casai," Tetra said in the living room. "We will be able to find something to defeat him."
Zoolk and Isaac, on the couch, did nothing. Jol, standing, nodded. "The dark-haired girl said that Casai used Isaac to give him power," Tetra continued. "He also seemed to gain power from the strange purple engine that was present in my world. It is likely that many of the worlds were powering him in some manner, and he has just now become strong enough." Tetra looked at the other three. Nobody moved. "Anyone else?"
"If he wants to destroy the world," Zoolk said. "We just need to find how. There are many of us. We could tell everyone; they wouldn't dare deny us after seeing what we are. We would have enough power."
Isaac shook his head but didn't say anything. He stared at his glass of water.
"We have to keep Isaac safe," Jol said. "He's too important to lose. No matter what happens."
"If only we could discover what sort of qualities Casai possessed," Tetra said. "Then we could exploit them or learn to combat them."
"We don't know anything about him," Jol said.
"We do; I swear," Tetra said. "We know he is a meta-physical consciousness that is able to exist in different states, affect those around him, speak to us, and make appear items of any nature he chooses."
The other three in the room stared. "Not helpful," Zoolk rumbled. Isaac looked back to his empty glass.
"But we've fought him. We've beaten him!" Jol said. "I fought one of his forms, and pushed him back. Stasya got away from another. Zoolk, you fought an army. We all fought against him, and we all won."
"We did, yet his plan came to fruition anyway," Tetra said. "Zoolk fought an army, but nearly died in the process and had to escape to this world. Stasya escaped from the cold two, but her world was being ravaged by other creatures. The world Eela was from had already fallen, and she had to run from her brothers."
"Aren't you just a ray of sunshine," Isaac said. His voice sounded weak and shaking. He took a drink.
"I'm a scientist; I look at the facts."
"Facts!" Zoolk shouted. "Casai has more power than any of us could dare to imagine, and you try to build yourself up to him with facts! Your books cannot reach that high, scientist."
"Well . . ." Tetra rubbed his throat. "P-perhaps. But we must try something." He shivered.
Isaac listened to the rain run down the window behind him. The lightning seemed to be getting closer. He kept his eyes on his full glass. His heart pounded. He had simply still been thirsty. The charge in the air ran through his body.
"Has it gotten cold in here?" Jol asked.
Isaac looked up and shrugged. "I didn't notice. I can turn on the heat if you like."
In the quiet kitchen, as the water began to boil in earnest, Stasya's ears picked up Jol's words. Goosebumps jumped on her skin as she realized the temperature had decreased -- too fast. She ran to the entrance hall and locked the door. "Isaac!" She said as the four in the living room gave her strange looks. "Do you have another way out of here?"
"Well, the fire escape. Why?"
"Go. We need to get out of here."
"Stasya, why?" Jol asked.
"I know!" Tetra said, getting to this feet. "The cold two!"
The cool temperature in the apartment sank. Ice crystals appeared in Isaac's glass, their breath turned to steam, and Hanna in the kitchen yelped.
"The fire escape!" Eela said. "I can hold them off while you get away. The cold doesn't bother me. Now, quickly!"
Isaac jumped up and wrenched open the window, letting in the storm's spray. Thunder crashed as he stepped onto the rusted fire escape, followed by Zoolk, limping slightly.
The cold got worse. Eela positioned herself in front of the entrance, then went into the kitchen. Hanna and Stasya went onto the fire escape, followed by Tetra and Jol, who held a pistol in his hand. The cold deepened to a shocking level, and freezing air blew out the window. The already wet metal froze as Isaac climbed down the ladder at the bottom, making him slip. Zoolk caught him in his huge mitt, moments before Isaac fell thirty feet to the ground.
The door to Isaac's apartment cracked open, and the two figures that had once been Lucya and David entered, spreading a fierce chill. They found Eela alone, holding a saucepan full of boiling water. With a snap she threw it, dousing both in the burning liquid.
They released deafening, discordant screeches, and Eela pushed forward, she clubbed the first over the head with the saucepan, denting it and knocking the figure down. The second she grabbed and swung over her head, bringing it down on top of the other. The two tumbled together, steam boiling out of them. Eela stepped up and pushed her advantage.
"Where do we go?" Hanna asked. The rain soaked her. Isaac removed his gold sweatshirt and handed it to her, which she took gratefully.
"Pick a direction and start running!" Jol said, stepping down from the ladder. "There are a lot more things that could come after us than those two!"
"Jol!" Stasya shouted, pointing down the alley. Five sets of purple eyes, low to the ground, could be seen in the rain. Jol leveled his pistol and it began to charge.
"No!" Zoolk shouted, knocking Jol's wrist from below and sending his arm high. The bolt from his pistol catapulted out and smashed into a window, adding glass to the rain in between them and Zoolk's pack. "Hurt them and I'll kill you myself!" Jol scowled. "Run!" Zoolk shouted, pointing away from the wolves. As the wolves snarled and charged, the six of them turned and ran, pounding through the rain. Lightning flashed over them.
"Too fast!" Tetra gasped. His rolls jiggled as he struggled to keep up. "Leave me!"
Isaac turned and found him panting, falling behind with the wolves catching up. He swallowed.
He imagined a tall brick wall in between them and the wolves, gray bricks with lighter gray mortar binding it together into a barrier.
Tetra, who had foreseen sharp teeth digging into his leg, instead heard thuds and surprised yowls behind him. He saw a wall, as Isaac had imagined it, and looked ahead at the young man. Isaac stood in the rain, drenched without his sweatshirt, and gaped in wonder.
"Isaac . . . you-"
"No time. Come on," Isaac said, helping Tetra along until they caught up with the rest. They turned onto a main street alongside his apartment and kept moving, keeping their pace up. The city, dark and stormy, had empty streets, and they moved quickly.
They heard a crash behind them, and found five bodies. Eela fought among the other four. They seemed like her, though they wore no clothes and had purple globes on their bodies instead of her green. "Run!" Eela shouted.
"Another fight, Five!" The biggest of her brothers shouted. "And this time there's no getting away!" He smiled, and his purple eyes gleamed in the rain.
"That's-" Eela stepped up, grabbing Two's head in her hand. "Not-" She grabbed his crotch with her other hand. "My-" she hoisted him over her head easily. "Name!" She threw him into her other brothers. They came together and crashed to the ground, driven by Two's size.
Three, the fastest, got to his feet and surged at her, purple globes on his skin shredding through the darkness. She stepped out of his way, even faster than he. She dug her hand into his side and ripped out a wriggling slice of false muscle, oil spraying from the gap. One was on her next, and she swung at him. He tried to block her but she was too fast.
Before she could remove him from the fight, Four and Two came up behind her. They batted her down, striking her body everywhere they could reach. She fell under their onslaught.
Then, somehow, Two and One were swept away by something. Eela heard a hissing blast and Four was knocked away from her.
She tried getting up. Her leg wasn't moving properly. The joint in her knee was broken, and the leg stuck under her at a strange angle. The fake gray skin had been ripped off her arm, revealing the blood-and-oil mix that she alone possessed among her siblings. Tough metallic fibers squeezed as she hauled herself to her good foot.
Three was lying against the ground, trying to keep the oil in. Four was recovering from a projectile that had done little more than push him away. One and Two, however, had been hit by a huge green shipping crate, ripping them off their feet. The crate had landed on them, pining them to the ground. Jol, Zoolk, and Isaac were next to her.
Jol tried to pull her away. "Gah! You're heavier than you look! Let's go, before they recover!"
"How-" But the three already pulled her away, back toward Hanna, Tetra, and Stasya. They heard howls on their right. Eela was pulled along faster. She looked with distaste at the twisted limb under her.
The heard a crash as the shipping crate was hauled off her brothers. She stopped and bent down. With a snapping, grinding sound, she bent her leg back into the correct place. Jol and Isaac both gasped. She bent the knee a few times and nodded. "Go."
"Where now?" Tetra asked when they met up. "Zoolk's wolves are coming back!"
"We need more help!" Isaac said. "The police!" He looked at Zoolk. "We can't survive if we can't defend ourselves from your pack. We have to be able to fight them! Out of everything, they're the only things we can kill, unless Eela destroyed the cold two!"
Eela shook her head. "Incapacitated, maybe. I agree, Zoolk. I know it hurts you, but we don't have a choice."
Zoolk heaved breath in and out, leaning on his stick. "I won't allow it."
"Listen to reason, man!" Jol shouted. He glanced over his shoulder at Eela's brothers. "There are other wolves!"
"And I suppose if I were to kill your daughter and say there were more girls in the world, that would be all right?!" Zoolk roared back. "I told you before: hurt them and I will hurt you!"
"Trouble among the seven?" A voice from their midst said.
Stasya and Hanna jumped aside. They found Alena standing their, blonde hair stringy from the rain. She tilted her head and smiled a thin and cruel smile. "It will get worse."
Zoolk grasped his stick in both hands and brought it down on the woman's shoulder, snapping the stick and driving her to the cement. She screamed. "That's the price for being real, witch!" Zoolk raged. He kicked her in the face, and blood flew.
"Point made, Zoolk!" Jol said. He grabbed the man's arm and recoiled from Zoolk's expression. "Your wolves are getting closer! It's either fight them or run!"
Zoolk took off, leaving Jol and the others. They chased him through the mostly-deserted streets. He paid no attention to other pedestrians or vehicles, simply ran on his long legs. The others struggled to keep up.
"Zoolk!" Hanna cried. "Stop! Wait!" He disappeared from view. Isaac heard heavy footsteps behind them, and pictured another wall, this one between them and Eela's brothers. A wall appeared, but the biggest of them smashed right through it. In the middle of the street, as rivers ran over his shoes, he began to picture a steel wall when a hand landed on his shoulder. He looked and saw Missy.
Stasya punched her across the face. "Go!" She yelled at Isaac. "Do whatever it is you do!"
Isaac refocused and brought the steel wall to being. Two collided with it as a wide beam of lightning cracked the sky in half. Two's brothers joined him.
Jol felt the rain drop in temperature and looked across the street. The two thin, blue figures stood, approaching quickly. He charged his pistol and fired, hitting one in the chest. It staggered back and then resumed. He charged his pistol again.
Stasya had stepped forward to keep Missy away when Alena appeared and struck her stomach. The blonde woman curled her leg up and kicked Stasya over, pushing her into a deep puddle. Stasya groaned. She saw Hanna standing over her in the low light. Another huge bolt of lightning illuminated the girl's silver hair, and it flashed like a beacon. Alena and Missy grinned and got closer. Alena's earlier injuries had disappeared.
From the darkness on their left Zoolk leapt out, brandishing his staff like a spear, gutting Alena and turning his attention to Missy, whom he grabbed around the throat and threw. The woman tumbled to the metal wall that Eela's brothers had just punctured. They stepped through, providing sick purple light with the globes that dotted their skin.
"Zoolk!" Isaac shouted. "Your pack?"
"Lost them in the buildings," Zoolk shouted over the pounding rain. "They'll be back!"
"We have more to worry about right now," Isaac said, and lightning cracked the sky, shining down a split-second look at the creatures that stood against them.
"I've killed a bear with my two hands," Zoolk said. "These things will be no worry."
"Tell me that again when we've won, and I'll believe you," Jol said, keeping his pistol trained on the closest enemy, one of Eela's brothers. None of them moved.
"What are they waiting for?" Stasya said just over the rain.
"We're waiting for Isaac," Missy yelled. "He's almost there."
Hanna glanced at Isaac. "What do you mean?"
"You'll see," Missy responded, and then, after a moment when the only sound was the rain pounding the ground, she pointed a finger at the seven of them.
Jol fired as Eela's brothers attacked. Eela moved in front of the group and met Three head on, knocking him to the ground. The cold two come in from the side, and Stasya found herself the first line of defense. Zoolk came and stood next to her, handing her half of his staff. He met the first of the freezing forms and bludgeoned it over the head, not slowing as he kicked it back. Stasya swung as hard as she could on the second, striking it in the chest. The hit barely registered and it continued approaching, pushing her backward, and reaching out a skeletal hand for her throat.
Isaac saw and imagined a steam engine grinding its way down the street, smashing the monster away before it could reach her.
Stasya heard wheels digging up asphalt moments before her hair was torn to the side and the monster dragged under a blurring rush of metal and sound. She fell back, pushing herself away with her feet as the train charged through the rain, pulling the cold one to bits under its mighty wheels.
On the other side of the train, Zoolk battled the other, knocking away its blows and shrugging off its attacks. He thought to the battle against the animals, and his explosive rage. It started to come back. The cold one advanced, and Zoolk dropped his staff.
He took the thing's head in his hands, turned, lifted it off its feet, and slammed its body onto the sidewalk. He heard sick cracking sounds, and the monster's neck spun around so its eyes glared at Zoolk. He grinned in triumph, until the monster started to rise.
Isaac tried to come up with something to help Eela and Jol, who were being forced back by her brothers, when a hand grabbed the back of his collar and yanked. He fell into a puddle and found Alena and Missy standing over him. Again their previous injuries were gone.
Standing away from the fighting, Tetra pulled out a gold feather and whispered something to it. He flung it down to the wet road, where it quivered upright. Hanna, next to him, watched as a thin gold bubble grew around them. It didn't stop the rain, but Hanna felt better, for some reason.
As the bubble disappeared, Isaac tried to kick away from the two women. Missy stepped forward, once-kind eyes now cruel, and aimed a kick at his head. In the puddle, she slipped, and her neck came down on Isaac's sneaker. She gagged and lay still as he struggled to get up. Alena looked at her sister with a shocked expression, then turned back to Isaac.
Isaac concentrated and stepped out of the way.
From behind him a wrecking ball swung in an arc and struck Alena at the bottom, carrying her up and away from him.
She landed away from the fight, bruises and cuts healing. She smiled. The lightning crashed faster.
Two swung Eela around, sending her flying. She landed and rolled across the ground. One of her eyes was dead, and some of her hair had been ripped out, leaving sparking green strands. No matter; she could be fixed. She got up and ran at her brothers as they advanced on Jol, whose pistol was charging up once more.
She stopped suddenly, finding a weapon at her feet. It had a green bow around it. She looked at Isaac, twenty feet away. He smiled and nodded at her brothers. She picked the weapon up and ripped off the bow, aiming at One, in the lead. Pulling the trigger, she heard an electric whir. Gold energy blasted from the muzzle, washing over all four of her brothers and Jol. Jol covered his face but felt nothing. He looked again, and found them all lying on the ground motionless. Eela glanced at the weapon again, then tossed it away.
Zoolk's side ached. He knew he was losing blood. The cold one pressed on, forcing him up against the side of a building. He could smell the stench of death on it. Just before he knew it would strike, it tilted over; the ground under it had just shifted like a slide. It come down hard on the resulting corner of cement, and Zoolk took the chance to escape.
He found Isaac. "I think I'm getting the hang of this," Isaac said. "If I imagine it, I can make it real. I can weaponize my hallucinations."
Zoolk put his hand to his side and came away with blood. "Oh!" Isaac said. "Don't worry, I can handle it."
"No! Later!" Zoolk grunted. "Help the others first, they-" He stopped and lifted his head. A moment later Isaac heard howls. "Not know!"
"I can get them in a hole," Isaac said. "Trap them. So they can't get out." Zoolk watched him as lightning flashed, then nodded. Isaac glanced over his shoulder. "Missy's getting up. Keep her down." Zoolk nodded, showing his fangs.
Isaac listened to the approaching howls and found what direction they came from. He saw purple eyes low to the ground, approaching like he was a deer in the forest.
Isaac waited, watching the eyes get closer. They slid forward, peering at him from a distance. At once, they charged forward, snarling. "Isaac!" Someone yelled behind him. He looked and saw Hanna pointing at Eela's brothers, who were slowly getting to their feet.
"Stasya's friends are coming back too!" Tetra shouted. Isaac returned to the approaching wolves, and imagined a circular hole appearing under them, trapping them with sheer walls, too high to jump. In a blink it was there, and the wolves tumbled into it, yelping as they crashed at the bottom.
"Eela!" He shouted over his shoulder at her. "The gun! It's an EMP cannon! It shuts down electronics!" Eela nodded and ran for where she'd discarded it, but was met by Three. He caught her in the head with a punch that knocked her over and down. Isaac heard a scream to his left and saw Stasya backing away from the cold two.
"You're almost there, Isaac," he heard behind him. "Just a little more . . ."
He imagined a saber in his hand, long and sharp and curved just so. He swung his arm around and whistled the weapon through the air at Alena, aiming to separate her head from her body and kill her once and for all.
The blonde woman dissolved. The rain stopped. The lightning grew to a pounding crescendo, lighting the entire sky with criss-crossing beams of energy, and then fell silent. Isaac felt the ground under his feet disappear. The meager light of the city was blacked out.
He, and the other six, hurtled through a dark void. Isaac saw Hanna to his right and was able to direct himself to her, catching her flailing arm. Her face as she looked up at him was just as lost and afraid as he imagined his.
Earth had disappeared; they fell through space. There were no stars, nor sun, nor any remnant of their domain. They continued falling, gaining speed in the nothing.
Isaac squeezed his eyes shut and pictured a massive landscape, centered on them, and a hole in the center that contained a material that would slow their fall.
In the next moment he plunged into a wet, squishy, yielding substance. It slowed his fall until he hung suspended, and he struggled to find the way out. Eventually his hand broke the surface and he half-swam, half-climbed out. There was a lip next to him, and he hauled himself onto the land. It was dark, and he pictured a light above them.
The land was long, and wide, stretching so the horizon in every direction was filled with it. Grass and hills were around them.
He looked back at the sludge he'd landed in. It looked like green jello. He saw the forms of the others breaking the surface. He helped Hanna pull herself out, and they looked around.
The sky, which held the light, had planets and structures constructed high in it, like they were watching the slow dance of planets from an observatory. Countless orbs were illuminated by the light Isaac had created, showing signs of living, and humanity. Isaac thought he could see the Earth, but it was different. He found Stasya, brushing green goop off her clothes.
"Does that look like earth to you?" He asked, pointing. She glanced up, and was momentarily struck mute by the sight.
"Yes."
"I think it's your Earth," he said. "Those are all your worlds."
All seven of them gazed up in awe. The planets didn't seem to be moving -- not spinning, or orbiting.
"What happened?" Jol asked. "Where are we? How did we get here?"
"I played right into their hands," Isaac said. "I used my hallucinations to create things. It was what they wanted."
"You had to," Tetra said. "They would have killed us." He looked up at the planets. All their eyes were drawn to them. "You had no choice."
"Perhaps I didn't." Isaac brought his eyes to the ground around them. "This place . . . I made it. I made a world." He paused, then looked at a hill. Pine trees sprang up on it. "I can make anything."
"Anything?" Eela asked. "Life?"
Isaac kept his eyes on the pine tree hill. "I created all of you, didn't I?" He turned and looked at them. "You're real now, yes . . . but you came from out of my head. I'm your father."
Zoolk snorted.
"This . . . may be a good time to bring something up that I've been thinking," Tetra said. "It may be possible . . . that if Isaac were to die, we would disappear. I cannot be certain," he said. "But . . . somehow you have torn your world apart and landed us in some sort of limbo, Isaac. We don't know the full effects of your skills."
"Maybe," Isaac said. "But I don't really think Casai wants me dead. It seemed like it when we were fighting, but I think that was just a trick to get me to use my hallucinations."
"What a smart boy," the seven heard. They looked around, expecting any of their enemies, but saw no one. It was a deep, and sliding voice that spoke to them, with a patronizing feeling. "Yes, you're right. I don't want you dead."
They exchanged looks. There was no one around them yet they could hear it clearly. "Don't bother trying to find me, you won't see me." A purple glow spread around them, bathing Isaac's land in sick hues. "You all know my name. You all know my desire. What you don't know is my method. I'm sorry to say your story ends here, you seven. After every one of you fought me until what could have been your last breath, and made it to Isaac, and to this place, you won't be able to run anymore."
"It's over," Missy and Alena said together, at the edge of the purple light.
"Jol," Hanna said suddenly, pointing away from Missy and Alena. A huge, bubbling, flowing monster, constructed out of lava and stone, stood, burning the ground. A distance away from it, Eela's four brothers stood in a line. Stasya saw the cold two on the other side of the group, and Zoolk heard the howls of his wolves. Even more creatures appeared: A giant bug with blade-like claws and spikes on its hide, a hulking man that rested on his knuckles like an ape, and a floating being cloaked in -- perhaps made of -- shadow.
"I am all around you," Casai said to them. "Fight if you wish, but there will be no escape. The worlds you see are just a fraction; the pieces of me here are but soldiers in an army."
Isaac felt a darkening presence on his head. His vision blurred, turning the people around him into purple blurs. He heard commotion around him, sudden shouts, and then he was bashed to the ground. Before he could do anything he was taken up in two pairs of arms and held over the ground. "Isaac is the vessel I have chosen. His power will be mine. I wonder if the rest of you will survive?"
With sudden horror Isaac realized he had said the words. "Kill me!"
"Don't do it!" Tetra shouted. "We could all be in danger!"
"You're in danger now!" Isaac said, but he couldn't be sure it was actually him. "He's taking over my body! You're real! I know you are! Your worlds are real, just as real as mine!"
Jol raised his pistol at Isaac, held between Alena and Missy. Tetra grabbed his wrist. "No!"
"The boy's right!" Jol shouted, pushing Tetra away. He sighted down the barrel and fired.
Isaac's head snapped back on his neck. Missy and Alena, each holding an arm, smiled at each other.
After a moment, Isaac's head came forward. A bleeding hole sat in his forehead, dripping fluid. It sealed up, leaving no trace but the blood. His eyes opened.
Purple light blasted out, blinding the six of them. The ground started to shake. Isaac smiled. The two women released his arms, and he placed his hands on their hips, smile growing obscene.
The sky shuttered, hiding the planets. The ground and air swelled, growing thicker and melting all at once, stretching and shrinking in places: hills, cliffs, streams, plains. Plants and animals sprang up as Isaac's body laughed.
Hanna's gut twisted as the purple light washed over her. One hand twisted the gold cloth of the sweatshirt Isaac had given her. She felt Jol take her hand and pull her away, running behind the other four, and she went blankly. They ran by the fire monster that had cursed her world for over a hundred years. It didn't move, not even to watch them go. Purple light glinted off of gold fabric in the light of the new world.
This story is concluded in All Comes Together Part Three.
Isaac found himself staring at where the women had been standing. The others in the kitchen -- Hanna, Jol, Stasya, and Eela -- watched him. In the span of a few moments, he'd gone from a man with hallucinations to the very center of a cosmic event.
"Isaac?" Hanna said. She stood next to him. "Are you all right?"
Isaac didn't say anything. He smoothed the fabric of his gold sweatshirt. Its normally comforting presence did nothing.
"The two women, Isaac," Jol said. "Can you tell us who they were?"
The events of his stay in the 'hospital' rushed through Isaac's mind. "They were hallucinations that were in the hospital with me," he began. "I thought Missy . . . the dark-haired one . . . I thought she was my friend. Alena was just a nurse. I could always trust they were fake whenever I'd see them. But now . . ."
"What they said," Eela cut in. "We were hallucinations, but you're making us real. Making them real."
Isaac nodded.
"And making Casai real," Stasya finished. "Somehow, he used you to do everything. To destroy our worlds. You brought it to happen."
"It isn't his fault," Hanna said.
"He's a weapon," Stasya said. "Casai is the one pulling his trigger."
"It was all Casai from the very beginning," Isaac said. "My hallucinations. Everything."
Suddenly Hanna hugged him. It was a long hug. He smelled her hair, full of the sweat of a real person. "Do you finally believe we're real now?" Hanna said when she disconnected.
"What the one said about you doing something else?" Tetra, from behind Stasya, said. "Do you know what she meant?"
Isaac shook his head. "I have no idea."
"Isaac," Eela said. "Come, sit down. You need to rest. You're pale. Hanna, you and I will take over cooking the food. Stasya, please get Isaac a glass of water."
Isaac was led to the couch next to Zoolk, whose leg was expertly wrapped. The towering man gave Isaac the first look Isaac had seen from him that wasn't anger, and Isaac thought it could have been sympathy. Lightning and thunder pulsed from the fire escape window behind Isaac. He heard low muttering from the two in the kitchen as Stasya brought him water. He thanked her and sipped it.
The people around him -- the things that were becoming people or had been people once, in Eela's case -- their presence sent him spiraling. His three-dimensional mind refused to let him grasp the full ramifications of what was happening: that the things that had once existed only in his mind were becoming as real as his glass of water.
Hanna watched tiny bubbles rise from the bottom of the sauce pan. Eela stood at the other end of the kitchen, green eyes tainting the light from overhead. Stasya stood in the entrance.
"You had brothers, right?" Hanna asked Eela. "I mean, sort of."
"I was once human. I don't remember it. I had siblings then, I think. The brothers that my creator made may count."
"Did you love them?" Hanna asked.
"I cared for them, and didn't want them harmed. I loved my creator-"
"His name was Isaac?"
Eela nodded. "That's right. Isaac the creator." She paused. "The words' meanings have changed. I loved him, as much as my false body would allow. I had loved him before I was put in this. I know that . . . but I don't remember."
"I don't have any siblings. My mother wasn't strong enough," Hanna said. "I only had a few friends my age, and they were all children of servants. I loved my parents, but . . ."
Eela waited a moment. "You love Isaac." Hanna didn't move. She continued watching the bubbles. Stasya leaned against the kitchen door frame.
"I think so," Hanna said finally.
"He is your age. He has endured much and survived. And now you know he is even more special than he seems. I don't find it surprising."
"But I'm not real."
"You will be soon," Stasya said. "You heard those women. We might have started as hallucinations, but now we're just as real as everything else here. We have our stories, just like everyone else. They might have come from somewhere -- something -- else, but . . . we're real."
Eela nodded silently.
"But Casai is too. How can we stop something like that?" Hanna said. "He's going to make us unreal again." She gripped the sides of her arms, wrapping herself. "He's going to destroy everything."
Neither of the other women responded.
"We must remember what we know about Casai," Tetra said in the living room. "We will be able to find something to defeat him."
Zoolk and Isaac, on the couch, did nothing. Jol, standing, nodded. "The dark-haired girl said that Casai used Isaac to give him power," Tetra continued. "He also seemed to gain power from the strange purple engine that was present in my world. It is likely that many of the worlds were powering him in some manner, and he has just now become strong enough." Tetra looked at the other three. Nobody moved. "Anyone else?"
"If he wants to destroy the world," Zoolk said. "We just need to find how. There are many of us. We could tell everyone; they wouldn't dare deny us after seeing what we are. We would have enough power."
Isaac shook his head but didn't say anything. He stared at his glass of water.
"We have to keep Isaac safe," Jol said. "He's too important to lose. No matter what happens."
"If only we could discover what sort of qualities Casai possessed," Tetra said. "Then we could exploit them or learn to combat them."
"We don't know anything about him," Jol said.
"We do; I swear," Tetra said. "We know he is a meta-physical consciousness that is able to exist in different states, affect those around him, speak to us, and make appear items of any nature he chooses."
The other three in the room stared. "Not helpful," Zoolk rumbled. Isaac looked back to his empty glass.
"But we've fought him. We've beaten him!" Jol said. "I fought one of his forms, and pushed him back. Stasya got away from another. Zoolk, you fought an army. We all fought against him, and we all won."
"We did, yet his plan came to fruition anyway," Tetra said. "Zoolk fought an army, but nearly died in the process and had to escape to this world. Stasya escaped from the cold two, but her world was being ravaged by other creatures. The world Eela was from had already fallen, and she had to run from her brothers."
"Aren't you just a ray of sunshine," Isaac said. His voice sounded weak and shaking. He took a drink.
"I'm a scientist; I look at the facts."
"Facts!" Zoolk shouted. "Casai has more power than any of us could dare to imagine, and you try to build yourself up to him with facts! Your books cannot reach that high, scientist."
"Well . . ." Tetra rubbed his throat. "P-perhaps. But we must try something." He shivered.
Isaac listened to the rain run down the window behind him. The lightning seemed to be getting closer. He kept his eyes on his full glass. His heart pounded. He had simply still been thirsty. The charge in the air ran through his body.
"Has it gotten cold in here?" Jol asked.
Isaac looked up and shrugged. "I didn't notice. I can turn on the heat if you like."
In the quiet kitchen, as the water began to boil in earnest, Stasya's ears picked up Jol's words. Goosebumps jumped on her skin as she realized the temperature had decreased -- too fast. She ran to the entrance hall and locked the door. "Isaac!" She said as the four in the living room gave her strange looks. "Do you have another way out of here?"
"Well, the fire escape. Why?"
"Go. We need to get out of here."
"Stasya, why?" Jol asked.
"I know!" Tetra said, getting to this feet. "The cold two!"
The cool temperature in the apartment sank. Ice crystals appeared in Isaac's glass, their breath turned to steam, and Hanna in the kitchen yelped.
"The fire escape!" Eela said. "I can hold them off while you get away. The cold doesn't bother me. Now, quickly!"
Isaac jumped up and wrenched open the window, letting in the storm's spray. Thunder crashed as he stepped onto the rusted fire escape, followed by Zoolk, limping slightly.
The cold got worse. Eela positioned herself in front of the entrance, then went into the kitchen. Hanna and Stasya went onto the fire escape, followed by Tetra and Jol, who held a pistol in his hand. The cold deepened to a shocking level, and freezing air blew out the window. The already wet metal froze as Isaac climbed down the ladder at the bottom, making him slip. Zoolk caught him in his huge mitt, moments before Isaac fell thirty feet to the ground.
The door to Isaac's apartment cracked open, and the two figures that had once been Lucya and David entered, spreading a fierce chill. They found Eela alone, holding a saucepan full of boiling water. With a snap she threw it, dousing both in the burning liquid.
They released deafening, discordant screeches, and Eela pushed forward, she clubbed the first over the head with the saucepan, denting it and knocking the figure down. The second she grabbed and swung over her head, bringing it down on top of the other. The two tumbled together, steam boiling out of them. Eela stepped up and pushed her advantage.
"Where do we go?" Hanna asked. The rain soaked her. Isaac removed his gold sweatshirt and handed it to her, which she took gratefully.
"Pick a direction and start running!" Jol said, stepping down from the ladder. "There are a lot more things that could come after us than those two!"
"Jol!" Stasya shouted, pointing down the alley. Five sets of purple eyes, low to the ground, could be seen in the rain. Jol leveled his pistol and it began to charge.
"No!" Zoolk shouted, knocking Jol's wrist from below and sending his arm high. The bolt from his pistol catapulted out and smashed into a window, adding glass to the rain in between them and Zoolk's pack. "Hurt them and I'll kill you myself!" Jol scowled. "Run!" Zoolk shouted, pointing away from the wolves. As the wolves snarled and charged, the six of them turned and ran, pounding through the rain. Lightning flashed over them.
"Too fast!" Tetra gasped. His rolls jiggled as he struggled to keep up. "Leave me!"
Isaac turned and found him panting, falling behind with the wolves catching up. He swallowed.
He imagined a tall brick wall in between them and the wolves, gray bricks with lighter gray mortar binding it together into a barrier.
Tetra, who had foreseen sharp teeth digging into his leg, instead heard thuds and surprised yowls behind him. He saw a wall, as Isaac had imagined it, and looked ahead at the young man. Isaac stood in the rain, drenched without his sweatshirt, and gaped in wonder.
"Isaac . . . you-"
"No time. Come on," Isaac said, helping Tetra along until they caught up with the rest. They turned onto a main street alongside his apartment and kept moving, keeping their pace up. The city, dark and stormy, had empty streets, and they moved quickly.
They heard a crash behind them, and found five bodies. Eela fought among the other four. They seemed like her, though they wore no clothes and had purple globes on their bodies instead of her green. "Run!" Eela shouted.
"Another fight, Five!" The biggest of her brothers shouted. "And this time there's no getting away!" He smiled, and his purple eyes gleamed in the rain.
"That's-" Eela stepped up, grabbing Two's head in her hand. "Not-" She grabbed his crotch with her other hand. "My-" she hoisted him over her head easily. "Name!" She threw him into her other brothers. They came together and crashed to the ground, driven by Two's size.
Three, the fastest, got to his feet and surged at her, purple globes on his skin shredding through the darkness. She stepped out of his way, even faster than he. She dug her hand into his side and ripped out a wriggling slice of false muscle, oil spraying from the gap. One was on her next, and she swung at him. He tried to block her but she was too fast.
Before she could remove him from the fight, Four and Two came up behind her. They batted her down, striking her body everywhere they could reach. She fell under their onslaught.
Then, somehow, Two and One were swept away by something. Eela heard a hissing blast and Four was knocked away from her.
She tried getting up. Her leg wasn't moving properly. The joint in her knee was broken, and the leg stuck under her at a strange angle. The fake gray skin had been ripped off her arm, revealing the blood-and-oil mix that she alone possessed among her siblings. Tough metallic fibers squeezed as she hauled herself to her good foot.
Three was lying against the ground, trying to keep the oil in. Four was recovering from a projectile that had done little more than push him away. One and Two, however, had been hit by a huge green shipping crate, ripping them off their feet. The crate had landed on them, pining them to the ground. Jol, Zoolk, and Isaac were next to her.
Jol tried to pull her away. "Gah! You're heavier than you look! Let's go, before they recover!"
"How-" But the three already pulled her away, back toward Hanna, Tetra, and Stasya. They heard howls on their right. Eela was pulled along faster. She looked with distaste at the twisted limb under her.
The heard a crash as the shipping crate was hauled off her brothers. She stopped and bent down. With a snapping, grinding sound, she bent her leg back into the correct place. Jol and Isaac both gasped. She bent the knee a few times and nodded. "Go."
"Where now?" Tetra asked when they met up. "Zoolk's wolves are coming back!"
"We need more help!" Isaac said. "The police!" He looked at Zoolk. "We can't survive if we can't defend ourselves from your pack. We have to be able to fight them! Out of everything, they're the only things we can kill, unless Eela destroyed the cold two!"
Eela shook her head. "Incapacitated, maybe. I agree, Zoolk. I know it hurts you, but we don't have a choice."
Zoolk heaved breath in and out, leaning on his stick. "I won't allow it."
"Listen to reason, man!" Jol shouted. He glanced over his shoulder at Eela's brothers. "There are other wolves!"
"And I suppose if I were to kill your daughter and say there were more girls in the world, that would be all right?!" Zoolk roared back. "I told you before: hurt them and I will hurt you!"
"Trouble among the seven?" A voice from their midst said.
Stasya and Hanna jumped aside. They found Alena standing their, blonde hair stringy from the rain. She tilted her head and smiled a thin and cruel smile. "It will get worse."
Zoolk grasped his stick in both hands and brought it down on the woman's shoulder, snapping the stick and driving her to the cement. She screamed. "That's the price for being real, witch!" Zoolk raged. He kicked her in the face, and blood flew.
"Point made, Zoolk!" Jol said. He grabbed the man's arm and recoiled from Zoolk's expression. "Your wolves are getting closer! It's either fight them or run!"
Zoolk took off, leaving Jol and the others. They chased him through the mostly-deserted streets. He paid no attention to other pedestrians or vehicles, simply ran on his long legs. The others struggled to keep up.
"Zoolk!" Hanna cried. "Stop! Wait!" He disappeared from view. Isaac heard heavy footsteps behind them, and pictured another wall, this one between them and Eela's brothers. A wall appeared, but the biggest of them smashed right through it. In the middle of the street, as rivers ran over his shoes, he began to picture a steel wall when a hand landed on his shoulder. He looked and saw Missy.
Stasya punched her across the face. "Go!" She yelled at Isaac. "Do whatever it is you do!"
Isaac refocused and brought the steel wall to being. Two collided with it as a wide beam of lightning cracked the sky in half. Two's brothers joined him.
Jol felt the rain drop in temperature and looked across the street. The two thin, blue figures stood, approaching quickly. He charged his pistol and fired, hitting one in the chest. It staggered back and then resumed. He charged his pistol again.
Stasya had stepped forward to keep Missy away when Alena appeared and struck her stomach. The blonde woman curled her leg up and kicked Stasya over, pushing her into a deep puddle. Stasya groaned. She saw Hanna standing over her in the low light. Another huge bolt of lightning illuminated the girl's silver hair, and it flashed like a beacon. Alena and Missy grinned and got closer. Alena's earlier injuries had disappeared.
From the darkness on their left Zoolk leapt out, brandishing his staff like a spear, gutting Alena and turning his attention to Missy, whom he grabbed around the throat and threw. The woman tumbled to the metal wall that Eela's brothers had just punctured. They stepped through, providing sick purple light with the globes that dotted their skin.
"Zoolk!" Isaac shouted. "Your pack?"
"Lost them in the buildings," Zoolk shouted over the pounding rain. "They'll be back!"
"We have more to worry about right now," Isaac said, and lightning cracked the sky, shining down a split-second look at the creatures that stood against them.
"I've killed a bear with my two hands," Zoolk said. "These things will be no worry."
"Tell me that again when we've won, and I'll believe you," Jol said, keeping his pistol trained on the closest enemy, one of Eela's brothers. None of them moved.
"What are they waiting for?" Stasya said just over the rain.
"We're waiting for Isaac," Missy yelled. "He's almost there."
Hanna glanced at Isaac. "What do you mean?"
"You'll see," Missy responded, and then, after a moment when the only sound was the rain pounding the ground, she pointed a finger at the seven of them.
Jol fired as Eela's brothers attacked. Eela moved in front of the group and met Three head on, knocking him to the ground. The cold two come in from the side, and Stasya found herself the first line of defense. Zoolk came and stood next to her, handing her half of his staff. He met the first of the freezing forms and bludgeoned it over the head, not slowing as he kicked it back. Stasya swung as hard as she could on the second, striking it in the chest. The hit barely registered and it continued approaching, pushing her backward, and reaching out a skeletal hand for her throat.
Isaac saw and imagined a steam engine grinding its way down the street, smashing the monster away before it could reach her.
Stasya heard wheels digging up asphalt moments before her hair was torn to the side and the monster dragged under a blurring rush of metal and sound. She fell back, pushing herself away with her feet as the train charged through the rain, pulling the cold one to bits under its mighty wheels.
On the other side of the train, Zoolk battled the other, knocking away its blows and shrugging off its attacks. He thought to the battle against the animals, and his explosive rage. It started to come back. The cold one advanced, and Zoolk dropped his staff.
He took the thing's head in his hands, turned, lifted it off its feet, and slammed its body onto the sidewalk. He heard sick cracking sounds, and the monster's neck spun around so its eyes glared at Zoolk. He grinned in triumph, until the monster started to rise.
Isaac tried to come up with something to help Eela and Jol, who were being forced back by her brothers, when a hand grabbed the back of his collar and yanked. He fell into a puddle and found Alena and Missy standing over him. Again their previous injuries were gone.
Standing away from the fighting, Tetra pulled out a gold feather and whispered something to it. He flung it down to the wet road, where it quivered upright. Hanna, next to him, watched as a thin gold bubble grew around them. It didn't stop the rain, but Hanna felt better, for some reason.
As the bubble disappeared, Isaac tried to kick away from the two women. Missy stepped forward, once-kind eyes now cruel, and aimed a kick at his head. In the puddle, she slipped, and her neck came down on Isaac's sneaker. She gagged and lay still as he struggled to get up. Alena looked at her sister with a shocked expression, then turned back to Isaac.
Isaac concentrated and stepped out of the way.
From behind him a wrecking ball swung in an arc and struck Alena at the bottom, carrying her up and away from him.
She landed away from the fight, bruises and cuts healing. She smiled. The lightning crashed faster.
Two swung Eela around, sending her flying. She landed and rolled across the ground. One of her eyes was dead, and some of her hair had been ripped out, leaving sparking green strands. No matter; she could be fixed. She got up and ran at her brothers as they advanced on Jol, whose pistol was charging up once more.
She stopped suddenly, finding a weapon at her feet. It had a green bow around it. She looked at Isaac, twenty feet away. He smiled and nodded at her brothers. She picked the weapon up and ripped off the bow, aiming at One, in the lead. Pulling the trigger, she heard an electric whir. Gold energy blasted from the muzzle, washing over all four of her brothers and Jol. Jol covered his face but felt nothing. He looked again, and found them all lying on the ground motionless. Eela glanced at the weapon again, then tossed it away.
Zoolk's side ached. He knew he was losing blood. The cold one pressed on, forcing him up against the side of a building. He could smell the stench of death on it. Just before he knew it would strike, it tilted over; the ground under it had just shifted like a slide. It come down hard on the resulting corner of cement, and Zoolk took the chance to escape.
He found Isaac. "I think I'm getting the hang of this," Isaac said. "If I imagine it, I can make it real. I can weaponize my hallucinations."
Zoolk put his hand to his side and came away with blood. "Oh!" Isaac said. "Don't worry, I can handle it."
"No! Later!" Zoolk grunted. "Help the others first, they-" He stopped and lifted his head. A moment later Isaac heard howls. "Not know!"
"I can get them in a hole," Isaac said. "Trap them. So they can't get out." Zoolk watched him as lightning flashed, then nodded. Isaac glanced over his shoulder. "Missy's getting up. Keep her down." Zoolk nodded, showing his fangs.
Isaac listened to the approaching howls and found what direction they came from. He saw purple eyes low to the ground, approaching like he was a deer in the forest.
Isaac waited, watching the eyes get closer. They slid forward, peering at him from a distance. At once, they charged forward, snarling. "Isaac!" Someone yelled behind him. He looked and saw Hanna pointing at Eela's brothers, who were slowly getting to their feet.
"Stasya's friends are coming back too!" Tetra shouted. Isaac returned to the approaching wolves, and imagined a circular hole appearing under them, trapping them with sheer walls, too high to jump. In a blink it was there, and the wolves tumbled into it, yelping as they crashed at the bottom.
"Eela!" He shouted over his shoulder at her. "The gun! It's an EMP cannon! It shuts down electronics!" Eela nodded and ran for where she'd discarded it, but was met by Three. He caught her in the head with a punch that knocked her over and down. Isaac heard a scream to his left and saw Stasya backing away from the cold two.
"You're almost there, Isaac," he heard behind him. "Just a little more . . ."
He imagined a saber in his hand, long and sharp and curved just so. He swung his arm around and whistled the weapon through the air at Alena, aiming to separate her head from her body and kill her once and for all.
The blonde woman dissolved. The rain stopped. The lightning grew to a pounding crescendo, lighting the entire sky with criss-crossing beams of energy, and then fell silent. Isaac felt the ground under his feet disappear. The meager light of the city was blacked out.
He, and the other six, hurtled through a dark void. Isaac saw Hanna to his right and was able to direct himself to her, catching her flailing arm. Her face as she looked up at him was just as lost and afraid as he imagined his.
Earth had disappeared; they fell through space. There were no stars, nor sun, nor any remnant of their domain. They continued falling, gaining speed in the nothing.
Isaac squeezed his eyes shut and pictured a massive landscape, centered on them, and a hole in the center that contained a material that would slow their fall.
In the next moment he plunged into a wet, squishy, yielding substance. It slowed his fall until he hung suspended, and he struggled to find the way out. Eventually his hand broke the surface and he half-swam, half-climbed out. There was a lip next to him, and he hauled himself onto the land. It was dark, and he pictured a light above them.
The land was long, and wide, stretching so the horizon in every direction was filled with it. Grass and hills were around them.
He looked back at the sludge he'd landed in. It looked like green jello. He saw the forms of the others breaking the surface. He helped Hanna pull herself out, and they looked around.
The sky, which held the light, had planets and structures constructed high in it, like they were watching the slow dance of planets from an observatory. Countless orbs were illuminated by the light Isaac had created, showing signs of living, and humanity. Isaac thought he could see the Earth, but it was different. He found Stasya, brushing green goop off her clothes.
"Does that look like earth to you?" He asked, pointing. She glanced up, and was momentarily struck mute by the sight.
"Yes."
"I think it's your Earth," he said. "Those are all your worlds."
All seven of them gazed up in awe. The planets didn't seem to be moving -- not spinning, or orbiting.
"What happened?" Jol asked. "Where are we? How did we get here?"
"I played right into their hands," Isaac said. "I used my hallucinations to create things. It was what they wanted."
"You had to," Tetra said. "They would have killed us." He looked up at the planets. All their eyes were drawn to them. "You had no choice."
"Perhaps I didn't." Isaac brought his eyes to the ground around them. "This place . . . I made it. I made a world." He paused, then looked at a hill. Pine trees sprang up on it. "I can make anything."
"Anything?" Eela asked. "Life?"
Isaac kept his eyes on the pine tree hill. "I created all of you, didn't I?" He turned and looked at them. "You're real now, yes . . . but you came from out of my head. I'm your father."
Zoolk snorted.
"This . . . may be a good time to bring something up that I've been thinking," Tetra said. "It may be possible . . . that if Isaac were to die, we would disappear. I cannot be certain," he said. "But . . . somehow you have torn your world apart and landed us in some sort of limbo, Isaac. We don't know the full effects of your skills."
"Maybe," Isaac said. "But I don't really think Casai wants me dead. It seemed like it when we were fighting, but I think that was just a trick to get me to use my hallucinations."
"What a smart boy," the seven heard. They looked around, expecting any of their enemies, but saw no one. It was a deep, and sliding voice that spoke to them, with a patronizing feeling. "Yes, you're right. I don't want you dead."
They exchanged looks. There was no one around them yet they could hear it clearly. "Don't bother trying to find me, you won't see me." A purple glow spread around them, bathing Isaac's land in sick hues. "You all know my name. You all know my desire. What you don't know is my method. I'm sorry to say your story ends here, you seven. After every one of you fought me until what could have been your last breath, and made it to Isaac, and to this place, you won't be able to run anymore."
"It's over," Missy and Alena said together, at the edge of the purple light.
"Jol," Hanna said suddenly, pointing away from Missy and Alena. A huge, bubbling, flowing monster, constructed out of lava and stone, stood, burning the ground. A distance away from it, Eela's four brothers stood in a line. Stasya saw the cold two on the other side of the group, and Zoolk heard the howls of his wolves. Even more creatures appeared: A giant bug with blade-like claws and spikes on its hide, a hulking man that rested on his knuckles like an ape, and a floating being cloaked in -- perhaps made of -- shadow.
"I am all around you," Casai said to them. "Fight if you wish, but there will be no escape. The worlds you see are just a fraction; the pieces of me here are but soldiers in an army."
Isaac felt a darkening presence on his head. His vision blurred, turning the people around him into purple blurs. He heard commotion around him, sudden shouts, and then he was bashed to the ground. Before he could do anything he was taken up in two pairs of arms and held over the ground. "Isaac is the vessel I have chosen. His power will be mine. I wonder if the rest of you will survive?"
With sudden horror Isaac realized he had said the words. "Kill me!"
"Don't do it!" Tetra shouted. "We could all be in danger!"
"You're in danger now!" Isaac said, but he couldn't be sure it was actually him. "He's taking over my body! You're real! I know you are! Your worlds are real, just as real as mine!"
Jol raised his pistol at Isaac, held between Alena and Missy. Tetra grabbed his wrist. "No!"
"The boy's right!" Jol shouted, pushing Tetra away. He sighted down the barrel and fired.
Isaac's head snapped back on his neck. Missy and Alena, each holding an arm, smiled at each other.
After a moment, Isaac's head came forward. A bleeding hole sat in his forehead, dripping fluid. It sealed up, leaving no trace but the blood. His eyes opened.
Purple light blasted out, blinding the six of them. The ground started to shake. Isaac smiled. The two women released his arms, and he placed his hands on their hips, smile growing obscene.
The sky shuttered, hiding the planets. The ground and air swelled, growing thicker and melting all at once, stretching and shrinking in places: hills, cliffs, streams, plains. Plants and animals sprang up as Isaac's body laughed.
Hanna's gut twisted as the purple light washed over her. One hand twisted the gold cloth of the sweatshirt Isaac had given her. She felt Jol take her hand and pull her away, running behind the other four, and she went blankly. They ran by the fire monster that had cursed her world for over a hundred years. It didn't move, not even to watch them go. Purple light glinted off of gold fabric in the light of the new world.
This story is concluded in All Comes Together Part Three.