Jenna was about to headbutt Harry when a light appeared behind them.
She swore she didn't believe in angels, but just then, she might have changed her belief system.
It was Helena.
But Jenna was disappointed. She knew Helena was a powerful hybrid but still didn't think she could match Harry's strength.
Helena didn't take long to absorb the information in front of her. She made a circular motion with her hands attempting to zap Harry down.
Harry's pistol cracked like thunder in the enclosed space, the muzzle flash momentarily illuminating his snarling face. The bullet—a deadly silver slug meant to pierce Helena's heart—spiraled through the air only to dissolve into sparkling dust as it hit the shimmering barrier of her protective magic, the particles scattering like dying fireflies against the translucent blue shield.
Jenna smiled. Helena might just win this battle after all.
Harry fired more bullets until his clip became empty. Each bullet was absorbed by Helena's magic.
Helena put down her hands. "Harry, you should surrender, or I'll make this even worse for you."
She didn't see what would happen next. She did anticipate Harry attempting to reload his weapon, but did not foresee him throwing the gun straight at her temple.
**
In the real world.
Helena started shuddering and having a nosebleed.
She was slumped in a high-backed medical chair. A sleek obsidian helmet encased her head, its interior lined with hundreds of hair-thin electrodes pressing against her scalp.
A thick bundle of pulsing fiber-optic cables snaked from the helmet's crown to a humming quantum processor that filled half the sterile white room, its cooling fans whirring frantically as it processed her neural patterns.
"Helena!" Nicole was both scared and furious at the same time.
So was Damien. "I've got to help her."
"Guys, I found another helmet." Nina said holding one in her tiny hands.
Damien attempted to reach for it but Nicole got to it first.
**
Harry took out a dagger. "I'm going to kill this hybrid bitch."
Jenna lunged forward, ramming her skull into Harry's spine with every ounce of her strength. The impact sent them both crashing to the ground in a tangle of limbs and curses.
Harry had his dagger on Jenna's throat now. "Fine. You die first."
A blinding flash erupted from the doorway, casting long shadows across the room.
It was Nicole.
Harry hauled Jenna to her feet, one arm locked around her chest while the other pressed cold steel against the tender skin of her throat.
"Nicole?!" Jenna screamed.
"Quick, Jenna." Nicole had her hands up. "Use your Phoenix powers."
Jenna looked down at her own two feet. "I'm not the Phoenix anymore."
Nicole didn't have time to discuss anything further as a drop of blood trickled down from Jenna's throat onto the floor.
Nicole's eyes blazed with the Phoenix's amber light, transforming her irises into molten gold rings that pulsed with ancient power. Her feet left the ground as an invisible force lifted her six inches into the air, her dark hair billowing upward as though underwater.
The air crackled and split with deafening thunderclaps that seemed to originate from Nicole's very core, each boom reverberating through the walls without a single storm cloud in sight, making the floor beneath them vibrate and the lightbulbs flicker wildly in their sockets.
Harry dropped the knife. He was in awe of her power when Nicole raised her hands towards him.
Blinding white-hot electricity erupted from Nicole's splayed fingers, arcing across the room in jagged forks that scorched the air with the scent of ozone.
The lightning engulfed Harry's body in a crackling cocoon of raw power, his silhouette briefly visible through the brilliant blue-white light as his muscles convulsed and his skeleton flashed like an X-ray beneath his skin.
His scream died in his throat as the current surged through his heart, leaving only the sizzling echo of Nicole's deadly power and a smoking husk where her enemy once stood.
**
Back at the warehouse.
The night outside had turned bitter with an unexpected frost, sending icy fingers through every crack in the warehouse walls. Inside, their breath hung in pale clouds before their faces, and the metal surfaces gleamed with a thin sheen of condensation that felt like cold silk against Helena's fingertips when she steadied herself against a support beam.
One of her best friends was back with her. And who saved them all? No one but her own mother who she was seemingly estranged from all those weeks.
"So, these were what we were all tangled up in." Jenna said.
Ray was silent. He had just lost his boyfriend in the fake world. But he was surprised he didn't find him in the real world cuffed to a chair.
"Ray." Helena put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him, but he just pushed it off by standing up.
"I've got to find Harry." Ray said with a stone-faced look. "He's got some explaining to do."
**
Sicily, Italy.
Priya was on a video call with one of her subordinates.
She was sitting with her laptop in an outdoor café nestled between ancient stone buildings, the Sicilian sun warming her bare shoulders as it climbed over terracotta rooftops.
The morning air carried the aroma of fresh espresso and sea salt from the Mediterranean, while locals chatted in rapid Italian at nearby tables, their animated conversations punctuated by the occasional clink of ceramic cups against saucers.
"This is what's left of Harry, Ma'am." The lackey showed her the ashes arranged in a human-like form on a chair.
She closed the laptop and removed her expensive sunglasses.