On an island in the middle of nowhere, six people gathered.
"May I know why you called this meeting, Sharon?" The man in the silver four-piece suit asked. His name was Mr. Stone, though most called him Greg.
Sharon stood opposite him. A woman in her mid-thirties, wild red hair falling around her shoulders. She wore a toga, and her eyes were pools of black that reflected everything around them, as if they could see beyond.
"Greg. How many times must I tell you to be patient? I see it being the death of you." Her voice carried with the wind and seemed to linger after it was spoken.
Mr. Stone's jaw tightened. A low growl left his throat and the water around the island rippled, pulled back in fear of his temper.
"Now, now. Let us be civil. Isn't that right, Toby?" The words came soft and measured from the third person present.
His face was bone white and without features. No eyes, no nose, no mouth, only the suggestion of where they should be. His name was Reid.
"Yes. What he said." The one called Toby answered. His own suit was plain, but his eyes glowed bright red, the air around them almost warping with the heat they carried.
The last two were sisters. Twins. They looked ordinary, forgettable even, but the quiet in their posture hinted at something no one else could claim. Secrets buried deep.
Sharon's gaze fell on them and then returned to Mr. Stone.
"The sisters have spoken again. Another shift in our world." There was weight in her tone this time.
Reid tilted his head, pale fingers pressing against where his chin should have been. "How so?"
One twin raised her head. "A dimensional gate unlike any before…" Her voice faded, and the other finished.
"They shall appear in four…"
"Destruction shall follow…"
"And our universe is left hollow."
The prophecy spilled from their mouths in turns, each word cold and precise.
Sharon's sigh broke the silence. Mr. Stone's expression hardened while Reid's head tilted the other way, restless.
Toby gave a strained laugh. "And why exactly are we here then?"
The twins glanced at each other. Their fingers interlocked. Without a word, they began to move. Slow steps, precise, like a dance rehearsed since birth. Their bodies blurred, skin and blood fusing, nerves weaving until one stood where two had been.
A grown woman.
"Natalie."
The four bowed their heads. None dared speak until she raised her arm and pointed to the sky.
They turned. A spark glimmered faintly in the air, small and red.
Muscles tensed. The spark grew. One became several. Each flash brighter, each pulse faster.
Sharon did not blink. "I see you being safe." Her words carried weight, and with them Natalie vanished, erased as if she had never been.
Mr. Stone adjusted his cufflinks. Metal surged from them and wrapped around him until he stood encased in armor. If Kale had been present, he would have recognized it as a battle suit.
The others followed. Armor formed around them, the last thin layer of calm stripped away.
Toby inhaled, sharp and deep, and his body ignited. He broke into a sprint and leapt. Mid-air, his shape burned away. Fire twisted, grew wings, talons, a beak. He soared into the storm as a phoenix, the same one the recruits had once seen.
The sparks cracked like lightning, splitting the sky and dragging storm clouds behind them.
The phoenix climbed higher, flames trailing in his wake, but as he drew close a crimson bolt struck him from the heart of the storm and hurled him aside.
The sparks collapsed, dragging the winds and clouds down into silence. For a breath, there was peace.
And then the world broke.
The sky split open in a crimson tear. The ocean tore with it, waves devoured into nothing. The rift rippled and a shadow moved inside.
A hoof forced itself through. The ground shook under its weight.
Mr. Stone's eyes narrowed. He would not allow it. His arms spread wide, and the air itself froze. Dust hung in the air. Waves halted mid-crash. The edges of the rift strained under his grip.
Sharon's voice trembled but did not falter. "I see the rift being closed."
The tear resisted less, pulled tighter by Stone's will.
Reid reached into his suit and withdrew a piece of flesh. A line opened under where his eyes would have been, and a mouth filled with endless teeth yawned wide. He dropped the flesh inside.
Stripes of light flared across his body, glowing like molten scars. Some tore free and bound themselves to Mr. Stone, to Sharon, to Toby.
Toby rose again, wings blazing, and hurled himself toward the hoof that pressed through the rift.
Embers gathered in his throat, swelling into a burning sphere. He twisted and became a beam of fire, striking the creature with enough heat to scar the air.
The beast growled, deep and low, and its hoof withdrew.
The rift shrank, edges folding on themselves. Almost closed. Almost.
A roar thundered from beyond. The island shook, the sea convulsed, and the rift ripped wider. Blood ran from Stone's nose. Sharon's eyes bled.
Toby fell from the sky, body smashing into the island. His fire sputtered out and left only a man in its place.
Two hooves came through this time. There would be no stopping it.
Sharon wiped the blood from her face and turned to Reid. Her voice broke but did not waver. "Augment me. As much as you can."
Reid gave her all the light his body carried. She shuddered as it coursed through her veins.
"Listen." They turned to her.
"This is only temporary. I do not know how long it will last. Make use of it."
They opened their mouths, but she did not give them time.
"I see you. Being. Sealed. Nothing will come through."
The world bent. The rift edges flared blue, spreading until they sealed the tear in a solid wall of light. The barrier cut the hooves clean. The beast howled, striking the wall again and again, to no effect.
The others stared, wide-eyed. They only realized what had been spent when they turned back to Sharon.
Her body lay on the ground. Her eyes were gone, nothing left but black sockets. Her chest did not rise.
Sharon was dead.