Even Monarch's death passed like a ripple in a sea of moments, one equation in an algorithm of sacrifice. His people wanted to mourn, evidenced by their gaunt faces, but there was no time to while the rest of the world beckoned. It was Beelz who gave the order to keep going, and Jessica agreed, trudging over the fallen of the 86th floor. One functional elevator carried the last operatives to the next level. And as the number blinked from 86 to 87, Jessica felt a hand squeeze her arm. She was met by the evergreen death stare.

"Make this count or else..." said Beelz.

Jessica pulled away. "I've been counting just to keep my head. Monarch died on the 1,687th second since the start of this mission."

The elevator opened to a white antechamber. Dim lights, a single wall, and several doors reminded Jessica of the Tantive IV blockade runner from A New Hope, where Darth Vader apprehended Princess Leia. They were in a security checkpoint, which meant the other side held something important. There was no time to speculate.

Each entryway was marked by a pedestal with a round orb, like the one used to access the Azarean armory. Jess approached the closest device then activated her Vambrace.

"Where'd you get that?" David asked, ogling the violet.

"Developed it with some help," she answered.

Beelz eyed Jessica's arm with similar curiosity. A single ding confirmed a successful hack, as did a single rod that extended from the ceiling in front of the door. Here, Beelz unveiled Malvis' replica eyeball.

"The final verdict," she said and pressed the iris against the scanner. A foreign voiceover spoke through invisible speakers. Almost none of them really understood the language, but the door opened.

Jessica advanced, Beelz smothering her personal space to inspect her arm. "Care to explain where you found that holo-brace?" said the redhead.

"Call it an heirloom."

Beelz stopped, compelling Jess to stop along with her. "You're not going to stand there and tell me someone just gave that to you. You know what that is..."

"Guys..." Raptor muttered.

Everyone stopped to observe the latest in a series of odd locations. The area beyond the white doors was dark, ornate, and circuitous as if the interior decorator came from a murky otherworld. On all sides, to the non-discerning eye, the surface pattern of the walls was like flowing metal and swooning flora, architecture inspired by nothing on this earth. And environed by something so alien, Jessica felt like an astronaut.

Her mind's eye brought a house of strange alloys and organic material that coalesced into a symmetrical sanctum. Most prominent about the interior, its rows upon rows of seats circled like the rings within a tree stump... or Saturn. From the outermost to the innermost, they shrunk, enveloping a spherical device directly in the center of everything. Around the room, against the walls and equidistant from another stood four architectural pillars – Energy shone from incandescent lines inscribed along the contours, their bright green like the inconsistent texture of flowing water, and they extended and bent high overhead, unifying directly at the zenith.

Beelz veered from the room's macabre majesty, distracted by the flashing blue light on her watch. "Secure the door," she ordered. "Guard this room! Make sure no one else—Azarean or otherwise—follows us." The last three members of Gemini did as told and sentried the long series of doors.

Jessica ran her fingers across the seats. "If I were a fly on the wall..." She shifted to the round instrument at the center of everything. Like an orb on a pedestal, it reminded her of the nexus back at Sub Terra HQ. What secrets did it hold? The question burned the tip of her tongue. They use this place to commune.

At the same time, Raptor ambled closer, gawking at the mysterious device.

"Capture," Jessica whispered.

"I'm picking up additional energy readings above us," said Babel.

"Then it's safe to say these pillars are channeling power into the floor above this one?"

"Indeed."

Mired by curiosity, Raptor inched his hand closer to the center sphere. Jessica jumped and slapped his hand away, shaking her head. "I wouldn't pull on that thread," she told him. "You don't know who or what is waiting on the other side."

Raptor stared back and forth between her and the enticing orb, then silently nodded.

David, meanwhile, spun around the room like a curious child. "There was a reason we never saw the executives," he said, "why there was always a meeting room but never a meeting, and why they never showed their faces downstairs."

The hiss of sliding metal carried Jessica's attention to one end of the room. She saw Beelz step into an open capsule elevator. The door then enclosed and lifted her to the top.

We're out of time.

Jessica hustled to the closest elevator. Raptor and David followed, and, side by side by side, the three of them entered coffin-sized capsules before ascending.

They were ascending Goliath, to a realm none but Azarean gods had laid eyes on. At the corner of claustrophobia, everything stopped. The sliding door revealed an area as mysterious and subdued as the last. Distant city lights shined beyond the windows on all sides, reminding Jessica that life continued below. She advanced in cautionary steps before she could get lost, the walls on her path draped by a symbol she hadn't seen before. A banner bedecked each vertice of the room, with a circular insignia whose three distinct sides appeared as Yin and Yang with a third sibling.

Railing underneath the windows, an entire network of terminals. Lights for every button, colors for every function, functions for every secret Goliath solicited in its hive of lies. Jess only needed one, one access point to the giant. And one materialized directly before Beelz, risen from the epicenter of the room like a candlewax mold; a single, round node with a characteristically smooth surface. 

Now or never. 

Without a doubt, this was the kernel from which to dive headfirst into Goliath's network: transportation, net applications, space installations, Asgard. Assuming position around the mechanism alongside Beelz and David, Jessica studied its components obsessively

"There's no stopping now," she said, betraying a note of excitement.

Raptor stood vigil by the elevators, gun snug in his arms. "Now or never. Make your mark, Lynx!"

In the blink of an eye, the node fired neon green holograms that strobed across the room. Jessica tested a theory by placing her fingers on the interface, and it inexplicably held the texture of creamy plastic. She felt at home, an otherworld home but home nonetheless, the accessible controls like riding a bike.

"I have access!" she said.

"Then you're going to hack their infrastructure?" asked David. "Go public with their clandestine projects?"

"It starts with this," she said, brandishing her R2-D2 flash drive. "This recording will be the tip of their Seppuku."

David placed his hands on the holograms. "I can help. I'll make sure the data circulates corporate channels and public domains for good measure. It won't be much, but it will go a long way in discrediting Goliath and Spearhead."

Beelz's fingers were already navigating the holograms opposite of Jessica. "Goliath probably has contingencies and allies in high places for mitigating disaster," she said. "So, I'm going to flood WON's Cyber Command with a DDoS they'll never see coming. When—if they find the source, it won't matter. They'll be in a bottomless hole by then." 

Breathing into her mic, Beelz coordinated with Boros and Amon who, judging by the holograms, were helping transmit Beelz's virus across the intercontinental map. Meanwhile, Jessica and David undermined the Azarean cyber network like a fire at the center of a web. Together, their computer savvy gambit filled the room with nothing but the sound of typing and high-pitched dings. It was a quiet contrast to the loud start of Curtain Fire.

"Isn't it strange that Malvis always had unrestricted access to Goliath?" started David. "You'd think he was the—"

"Just have to broadcast!" Jessica said.

"Looks like the major networks are active," Beelz replied. "You can deliver a simulcast over the Transnational Eden Network. Everyone will hear Malvis and the terrorist while we proliferate the contents of that chip."

Jessica grinned feverishly. Setting the stage, as it were, had almost concluded, the show near ready to commence. David made his next distraction obvious, however, eagerly toggling the holograms as he did. "I think I've found a hidden cache in this room."

"Worry about that later," Jessica muttered.

Killed by curiosity, David tapped the node. His touch invited a mechanical grate from an instrument rising between the trio. At the corner of her eye, Jessica noticed two crisscrossing pistols.

"Jessica," David called.

"Not now."

"Lynx!" Raptor yelled.

The wall collapsed inward.

Jessica slammed against the floor, splashed by dust and rubble, sight wavering between blurs and blankness while the open air enveloped her. Despite the temporary deafness, she could discern the terrible noise of gunfire.

"Jessica!" Babel called.

A droning ring tore through her blurred vision as she pressed the ground. Despair and the boom of an engine were one. Despair had an agent. Despair's white hero entered the top floor from an incinerated entry point. Malvis advanced by leaps and bounds.

David anxiously crawled out of the mad Azarean's path. But the red glare in the alien's embattled and scarred mug vied for Jessica. 

She looked down, noticed a piece of glass wedged beneath her abdomen, and felt her energy waiver. Malvis nearly reached her when Raptor interfered. The operative paved his approach with rapid shots from his handgun. Jess used that time to pull the glass out, biting her lip and inwardly screeching for the sharp pain. It took everything to remove the edge from her flesh. 

Effectively stalled, Malvis slammed the pistol out of Raptor's grip and lunged. Raptor accepted the blow to his cheek and reprised the strike with a furious jab. Malvis parried, and the ensuing blow-for-blow exchange passed in a cruel instant.

Sheer determination kept Raptor in the fight and Malvis at bay as they traded brutal fists to the chorus of the city breeze, but Malvis had a defined knowledge of martial arts. He was quick, agile, and automatic. In the middle of his maneuvers, Raptor still managed one good punch. Jessica heard but failed to notice the fight until Malvis knocked Raptor out of his path. He hit the ground, unconscious, while Malvis held his abdomen. The agent panted, revealing blood.

Denied reprieve, Malvis dodged a flying knife. The knife heralded Beelz, who advanced with a kick to his wound. With a groan, he shoved her back. Beelz closed her fists and assumed a fighting stance almost as tense as her glare. Hatred festered in those green eyes, dedicated to the alien before them.

Malvis seemed familiar with that look, slumping into a similar stance as the commander of Dissent spoke.

"I would kill you again and again for all the days of hell Amon and I suffered."

"You deny the hand of your maker over pettiness," spat Malvis. "The trait of a devolved species. A shame we could not remove certain faculties."

"I'll remove you before I burn this place to the ground." She lunged.

Jessica was on auto-pilot, crawling. Crawling her way to the terminal, past the pain in her fresh cut, she struggled for focus over the chaos. Reaching out, her fingers on the cusp of the Goliath node, the overbearing weight of her fatigue—the disorientation and the fear—at long last toppled. She collapsed.

"Come on, Jess," Babel urged.

Her eyes closed to a slit, and the world went dark.

"Jessica..."

...

"Yessica..."

Why do I hear dad's voice?

"Yess."

It's all flashes, like a dream at the speed of light. I see him.

I'm sitting on his lap, in his office. He's reading Nietzsche out loud. I can see the Rubik's cube, an R2-D2 bin, a vase of violets, and the brace he's been working on. Babel... I turn around. Dad's smiling.

"Jessica..."

I can hear mom. See her reading on the patio. Black hair falls, a vanilla scent surrounds her sundress. I used to think she couldn't see me, understand why I substituted tees for everything sequined. Yet, like now, her smile accepted me.

In the end, I'm in their arms, happy they're still alive.

Jessica's hand shot up, flowered energy crutching her to the final goal. She reached for the nexus node and found the giant Azarean gunship above the broken ceiling. The beak and the arsenal of its wings opposed her direct line of sight. She grabbed the ornate pistol in stasis above the node, David's discovery. She gripped, aimed at the flying behemoth, and pulled the trigger.

Silence. 

Light evaporated above the ship's cockpit. It was instantaneous, visceral, and devastating. Time and space warped around a focal point and the light of the world twisted indescribably. That point of time-space manipulation—in a split second—bent the top of the gunship and imploded. The engines squealed, it lost control, and the mechanical dragon nosedived under the ledge a smoking husk.

Pure awe boiled every theory in Jessica's head as she stared at the sleek pistol in her hand. Before hearing the ship crash, she mustered the energy in her legs. On the other side of the node, surprisingly, Beelz had managed to keep Malvis at bay. Their brutal dance of martial prowess would have staggered anyone else, but, holding her hip, Jessica crept to where she left off. Over the hologram interface, however, hope collapsed.

"I'm locked out..." Her panging heart nearly wrenched out of her chest, while her hands hysterically trembled over the controls. "I'm locked out! I'm locked out!" She slammed her fists on the hologram. "Dammit!" Again, her fingernails hyper-actively ticked the keys before the large neon words mocked her. ACCESS DENIED. She tried again and again then again, persisting until the fight on the other side stopped.

Beelz had lost, stricken, face bleeding on the ground. 

Nothing stood between Goliath's agent and Jessica, except for pain and fatigue. When the stubborn Azarean set his red eyes on her, he brandished a small syrette in the palm of his hand then crushed it into pieces. His bruised jaw malignantly aligned into a seething, toothy grin. He was unhinged.

"Options, Babel?

Malvis advanced.

"Unshackle me!" Babel said.

"Never!" She kicked off the ground and flew. Too late, Malvis caught her pants mid-air. "Reverse polarity." She shot back down, and her boots stomped the alien into the floor. Strewn on his back and staring daggers, Malvis extended his blade, and the yellow heat highlighted his teeth. He sliced as soon as Jessica pushed off his chest and into the air. The searing edge cut across her protective vest and snapped it off altogether.

Malvis jumped to his feet, waving the blade. Staring him down, Jessica put on her earbuds. The alien was visibly puzzled until a loud wail made him fiercely and clasp his ears. The sharp screech drowned out every other noise. Not until he looked back, the agent noticed a grenade bouncing wall to wall. Thus, he painstakingly inched toward Beelz, who was watching him from the ground.

Jessica dropped to the floor and triggered her Vambrace. "Come on, come on, come on!"

The screech ended when Malvis split the mid-air grenade in two, freeing himself from the audio plague. Beelz had fainted by then, so Malvis returned his dreaded gaze to Jessica, who remained glued to her brace. She couldn't type any faster.

Slammed against the node, she felt cold, sweaty hands wrap around her neck and shoulder. Her opponent's teeth, scars, and bitterness lay an inch's length from her pupils. The next words spilled corrosively from his pasty mouth.

"Goliath will remedy itself, but you are a threat to Azarea, that I will end here and now. I will save your brain for study, to fulfill a role beyond a rebel pawn."

Jessica peered directly into his eyes. "I'm the Queen," she corrected.

Malvis shut his eyes, arched his back, yelped and writhed. Dropping Jessica on her feet, he reached around. Behind stood David with a stupefied look on his face and Beelz's knife in his back.

"David!" Jessica jumped on Malvis, unbalancing the agent. Her enemy forcibly reached around, desperate to pull her off, but Jessica clung with all her strength. Boldly, unthinking, she went so far as to gnaw on his pointed ear.

"Aahhhhh!"

She couldn't explain that feeling or that soppy taste. She simply bit down. Hard.

The alien retracted his blade, quivering but with the leverage to pull her off. He grabbed Jessica with both hands and flung her on her back. The slam expelled a heavy breath from her lungs, leaving her helpless as Malvis stomped above, blade at the ready. One glance. Fear became her.

Bang.

Jessica lay on her elbows, stomach quaking from the inside out, and stared with bated breath as the alien felt the bullet hole in his chest. Malvis towered above, the white of his coat blocking her field of view. Pink blood dripped onto the tip of his finger, and he lifted a single drop to his eyes. Then he twisted, allowing Jessica to see David with Raptor's pistol several meters away.

David's stiff lip and glistening eyes shot concentrated cold. In return, at long last, Malvis betrayed an awful look of emotional shock. That shock inconspicuously and quietly submitted to fury. The alien closed his fist.

"XYNOCEPHLES!"

Jessica recalled her Vambrace.

1,001...

The alien charged David, screaming.

1,002...

David discharged one, two, three shots.

1,003...

Malvis collapsed forward, the soles of his feet on the ground as he awkwardly landed facefirst.

Jessica rose to her feet, stifled by a weak pulse, but she still made it to David's side. When she crouched beside him, helplessness defined his fading eyes. He was sitting stiffly against the node, a bead of blood escaping his lower lip. Hise was tired, body convulsing from the pain. And Malvis, though he lay still, the tip of his blade resided in David's chest.

I fucked up.

"I'm gonna get you out of here, David. I'm gonna—I'm gonna—"

He coughed, struggling to breathe.

"This is gonna hurt!" As straightly, as carefully as her unsteady hands could manage, she pushed Malvis aside and allowed the stained blade to slide out.

David spasmed and moaned loudly. "No!" he whimpered. "Finish what you started."

"You need my help!"

"I'll be alright. The blade missed my heart. I can feel it. I have time..."

Jessica bobbed the tip of her foot non-stop, biting her finger at the sight. He wasn't going anywhere, which was a bitter pill to swallow. Death became an intrusive acquaintance long ago, interfering in her life wherever she went. His impending arrival froze every trepidation in her throat as she examined David's burnt wound. She felt almost as sorry as he looked, and her body tensed with enough regret to make her realize she was on the fringe of her resolve.

"Three more keys... Just three more keys and I would