FIRESTORM:

  Can sworn enemies work together? I paced in front of Beatrice’s cage, strategizing my next move.

  Beatrice yawned. “You’re making me dizzy. Can we get on with it already?”

  “Shut up and show me the portal again.” I shuffled to the cage to inspect every detail of her vortex of illusions to spot the flaws in her magic.

  Beatrice rubbed her hands together. She bit her tongue, focusing her energy.

  When she re-opened her hands, a portal appeared. It started as a spark that spread into a swirling eddy of fire.

  “How are you doing that?” A gasp escaped my mangled lungs. Her technique was extraordinary.

  “I told you, I’ve evolved. Transcended.”

  The surface of the portal showcased a stream where Grace and Zayne hugged on the balcony overlooking the volcano, maybe about forty-years-old. Based on the chemistry of their embrace, they were ready to grow even older together.

  That’s all I’ve ever wanted…

  But it didn’t feel authentic to who, or what, I am now. And this sorceress couldn’t be trusted.

  “It may delight you to know that I am no longer alive in this probability.” Beatrice sensed my hesitation and tried to sweeten the pot. “Mark also meets a tragic end.”

  “Is that so? What about Jackie? Where is she?”

  Beatrice closed the portal in her hands, sending sparks into the foul air. “Jackie heroically jumped into the volcano to stop Alpha’s Redistribution Program.”

  “What? Not on my watch.” The possibility of Jackie getting hurt made my heart ache. “I can’t lose her.”

  “Hadn’t you already lost her? Do you know how much time she spent looking for you in the Slipstream? It drove her mad.”

  Guilt pressed down on me as my eyes drifted to the floor. I couldn’t lift my gaze and risk seeing judgment in Beatrice’s eyes. The memory of leaving Jackie replayed behind my eyelids until they fell heavy with the proof of what I’d done.

  “Look on the bright side,” Beatrice said. “You have a second chance at love. Grace and Zayne are together. So release me, and enter this portal to live happily ever after.”

  I shook away Beatrice’s plan. “I won’t let Jackie die in that volcano. Besides, what about me?”

  “What about you?” She squinted her eyes, examining my mangled and mutilated form.

  I chose my words with care. “What about… Firestorm? I’m not Zayne anymore. I can’t live in that reality. Being Zayne, that isn’t meant for me.”

  Beatrice cleared her throat. “I’m glad you came to that conclusion on your own. Nothing comes out of the fire unchanged.”

  I swallowed. “So, what’s next for me, Firestorm?

  “You’re an integral part of this place. Think of me as the creator of this corner of the Slipstream, and you are its protector.”

  “Protector?”

  She smirked. “I need you to defend all that’s right in our world.”

  Instinctively, I felt the truth in her words, but she was my adversary. I was there to enact revenge. How did she masterfully flip the script for me to even consider working with her?

  I blew flames out of my nose. “I can’t work with you, Beatrice.”

  She shuffled in her caged wheelchair. “I know you don’t trust me. That’s fair after all we’ve been through. But I’ve chosen alternate paths and explored the depths of the Slipstream. This revenge plan of yours is a dead end. Unfulfilling for everyone, especially you.”

  “I won’t let you get away with what you did to me and my people.”

  “I’ve gotten away with nothing.” Beatrice put her hands in surrender. “It hurt every fiber of my being to go back into my fleshy cage to reset the timeline, but now that I’ve done it, it’s no longer a source of pain.”

  Beatrice spoke with unshakeable confidence. “My physical life has been fulfilled. Are you going to spend the rest of yours enslaving and torturing, like your captors? The roles reverse, but nothing’s gained.”

  Maybe Jackie was right. Does revenge bring sorrow to both parties?

  “What other options do I have?” I asked, ribs heaving.

  Beatrice explained, “There are bigger powers at play in the Slipstream, forces of evil, layers of complexity that need to be reconciled. Thanks to Jackie, I’ve changed. I truly have. Now it’s time to go deeper.”

  She stood and gripped the cage bars. “You’re a force to be reckoned with, Firestorm. I need you to help make things right in every portal in every probability across the entire Slipstream.”

  Her call to action struck a chord, awakening a profound purpose within me. My chest puffed at the importance of such a role.

  Still, I had doubts. She was my arch nemesis.

  “Are you with me, Firestorm?”

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  I looked around at the dingy warehouse; the torture devices collecting dust, the stinking rotting carcasses of dead mutants, manuals filled with photographic evidence, remnants of the struggle I’d endured at the hands of villians.

  “You’re a monster,” I whispered.

  “I was a monster,” she replied. “People can change. It’s really, really hard to change the probabilities. But it can be done.”

  I groaned. “The suffering has to stop one way or another.”

  Beatrice reached out from behind bars and nudged my chin, forcing me to look her in the eyes.

  “I agree,” she said. “The suffering must stop. We can heal the Slipstream together.”

  I nodded. “My ancestors vowed to protect the Bennu eggs. The Slipstream was born of its bounty. So this duty lies with me.”

  I stood a little taller and swore an oath. “I, Firestorm, will forever protect the Slipstream, and my family, in all probabilities.”

  Beatrice clapped.

  “But that doesn’t mean I am going to free you from this cage. Revenge will still be mine.” I growled.

  She shrugged, settling back into her wheelchair. “Leave me here to rot. I don’t care. I’m unattached to any one probability.”

  I raised my eyebrows. I envied her cavalier attitude.

  “Don’t you see? There are more important roles to play in the Slipstream. There are far worse monsters to contend with. So will you help me, Firestorm?”

  “Help you do what exactly?”

  “Destroy Alpha across all probabilities. Unlock deeper secrets about the Grid and the Slipstream. Fight for change across space and time.” She counted each mission on her hand as she spoke.

  “My specialty,” I huffed.

  “Excellent. Start by releasing me.”

  I shook my head. “No can do.”

  She laughed. “Do you really think that’s the best way forward? Think about it. I created a portal on demand. I can leave on my own volition any time I want. It seemed better to let you decide though. I need to know we’re on the same team.”

  “We’re not on the same team.” I blew chunks of fire into the air to remind her who’s boss.

  She looked at me deadpan, unimpressed.

  Her confidence boiled my blood, but she was right. If she conjured a portal, she could easily escape.

  But I couldn’t let go of the hurt. Thinking of the day I was kidnapped gave me heart palpitations. Nightmares of my torture haunted me nightly. Seeing even a glimpse of my reflection made me nauseous. I trembled, the trauma engrained in every cell of my hideous body.

  I flinched when Beatrice reached out and touched my shoulder.

  “I know,” she said. “I know.”

  I stopped shaking, but fought the tears, refusing to let her see my weakness.

  “You’re so strong,” she said, as if reading my mind.

  “Indestructible.” I sighed, turning away. My wings dragging behind me, I paced until the floor was clean. This moment of decision would be forever etched into the Slipstream, creating a new branch in the timeline.

  Can I live with that? Could I live with myself if I didn’t try it?

  The paths not taken were the most haunting of all.

  The pain will never disappear, but I can turn it into my biggest weapon.

  “Fine. I’ll work with you, but you need to earn my trust.”

  Beatrice smiled. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  With my beak, I picked up a ring of keys from a shelf and threw them at her.

  She looked at the keys, knowing it would take forever to find the right one to release her.

  “You’re cute.” Beatrice winked. She cupped her hands and blew into them.

  As if by magic, she conjured another portal in her hands. She stood and stretched the ring of fire until it bloomed full size.

  “What sorcery do you possess?” I asked.

  She stepped into the vortex, disappearing from the cage.

  Her gateway closed, leaving me alone in the putrid warehouse. A frantic rhythm pulsed through me, wrapped in uncertainty.

  Embers from Beatrice’s Slipstream portal floated through the metal bars, tickling my beak.

  I sneezed as they doubled, tripled, quadrupled, forming another portal that appeared outside the cage. The swirling circle of orange and red crackled as it grew, glowing bright and wild.

  Beatrice exited the portal, freeing herself from the illusion of my trap.

  “How do you do it?” A jolt of electricity ran through me, making my skin prickle.

  “Perhaps someday I’ll share my secrets. After you prove we’re on the same team. Partners?” She extended her hand to me.

  “No, I can’t.” I staggered back, eyes locked on the impossible.

  “Time is of the essence, Firestorm.” She left her hand out, awaiting my response.

  My wing refused to move, unable to accept this twisted turn of events.

  “Instead of resisting the currents of time, learn to navigate its flow with grace,” she said. “Will you be my partner in protecting our loved ones from the grinding wheels of fate?”

  I groaned, fighting that sinking feeling. Lifting my wing slowly, I reached out and grabbed her hand with my talon.

  “Partners.”

  A wide smile spread across her youthful face while the scaly skin around my mouth contorted into a crooked frown.

  “Excellent. First order of business. Char it.” She pointed at her wheelchair inside the cage.

  “You’ve got to be joking.”

  “Char it to a crisp.”

  “Why?”

  She shrugged. “It’s symbolic. We’re no longer constrained to those old versions of ourselves. The scars of the past no longer define us. Let’s break the chains that have long bound our family’s story.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Fine.”

  Pumping my stomach, I churned my inner fire. Heat surged from my mangled intestines into my throat, and I blasted her wheelchair with flames.

  Metal blackened, and the rubber tires melted under the intense heat. Thick smoke billowed upward, carrying the sharp scent of burning plastic. As the fire consumed it, the wheelchair cracked, collapsing in on itself like a dying beast surrendering to the blaze.

  The inferno danced with delight in Beatrice’s brown eyes. “I’m finally free on every level, but I haven’t gotten to the best part.”

  “There’s more?” I asked, on edge about the tricks she no doubt had up her sleeve.

  Beatrice rubbed her hands together, creating another Slipstream portal out of thin air.

  A stream of energy coiled into a circle like a snake, creating outer edges that fanned into a whirlpool of potential. Her fire portal’s heat radiated outward, making the air shimmer and dance.

  An image appeared on its surface, displaying Grace and Zayne hugging on the balcony overlooking the volcano.

  Proud of Jackie for creating this new probability despite my objections to her risky plan, I longed to reunite with her.

  The fact that I left Jackie alone to fend for herself made me sweat. I vowed to protect her, but bailed the first time she challenged me. That’s the biggest mistake I’d never forgive myself for.

  The Slipstream portal glistened in Beatrice’s hands. “Firestorm, you asked about Jackie, but you didn’t ask the right question.”

  “You said she died in the volcano.” I held my breath. “Can we save her?”

  As always, Beatrice had me right where she wanted me.

  She opened the stream wider, its edges rippling like liquid glass, expanding until it formed a glowing doorway large enough to fly through.

  My disfigured heart skipped a beat. “Beatrice, please tell me. What’s Jackie’s destiny?”

  Beatrice says, "Negotiating is far more interesting than violence." Do you agree?