/ Irredeemable /

FACILITY POWER CRITICAL. PLEASE EVACUATE.

FACILITY POWER CRITICAL. PLEASE EVACUATE.

FACILITY POWER CRITICAL. PLEASE EVACUATE.

Arufa gasped and came to her senses, lying on the laboratory floor under blaring emergency sirens. She pressed against the cold tiles and scanned the room.

Marsia! Skyler! she thought, adjusting to the low light. She found her flashlight beside her and took it in her hand to get a better picture of her surroundings.

“Tch.”

Across the corridor, a low-lit Dr. White stood, clutching her head. A trail of blood dripped over her futuristic-looking goggles and down through her white hair. Ghiles, holding her firearm, laid unconscious to her side.

“Why’d it have to be you…?” the woman sputtered.

She leaned on the desk beside the Transversal for balance. The whole laboratory seemed to shudder beneath her feet, so badly that Arufa could barely stand on two legs herself.

“What do you mean? You did this!” Arufa snarled back. “You psycho!”

“Some things really are impossible, Arufa,” White replied, wiping the excess blood on her sleeve. “No one can rewrite history, no matter how hard they try.”

“This isn’t about throwing the whole lab into chaos, is it?”

“No.”

Dr. White walked away from the desk, on which Arufa spotted small specks of crimson. She hit her head on the corner when we shifted over. I hope the other two aren’t injured.

“Dr. White, I know you lost someone,” said the runaway. “That’s what Ghiles told me after he… after Locri died. Loss is hard, yeah! I get it! But you can’t let it ruin people’s lives like this!”

Steel flashed as White slipped her gun from Ghiles’s relaxed hand. She checked the barrel in one swift motion.

“Three bullets.”

“You know, I have a family, too. I have a mom, a dad, and a little sister who needs me to take care of her. Think about how much more grief you’re spreading by doing this. You don’t have to kill me.”

“That’s fantastic! That sister of yours will get to see your rotting corpse when I bring it to her on a platter,” White cackled.

“…”

“Don’t you know? Can’t you feel it? This parallel, the one the Transversal routed to… this is your world. The one we pulled you from.”

FACILITY POWER CRITICAL. PLEASE EVACUATE.

FACILITY POwER CrITiCal. PleaSe eVacuate.

FAcility power critical. P l e a s e   e v a c u a t e . . .

The sirens continued their endless screaming, but the intercom fell silent. The already faint lights began to dim just a little more, shrouding the scene in a terrible darkness.

Arufa gritted her teeth when she heard a crack in the wall beside her. “What’s… happening to this place?”

“Wherever we are in your world, we displaced a lot of dirt to get here. The rest of the soil is exerting pressure on our walls. I expect these lower levels to partially collapse pretty soon.”

“And what about all the other people inside?”

“When I first activated the Transversal, people started running. I only coded our five consciousnesses into the machine, so if there was anyone left, they’re dead now.”

“You want me dead,” Arufa said. “Why didn’t you just… not program me in?”

“Where’s the satisfaction in that?”

Behind the scientist, Ghiles began to stir. He glanced around and noticed the scene at hand—quietly, he stood up and accessed the Transversal’s flickering screen again, typing in each key slowly so it didn’t make a sound.

A dim red glow circled Arufa and her enemy. She tried her best not to look over White’s shoulder, lest she give Dr. Ghiles away. What is he doing? Why isn’t he helping me?!

“So, Arufa. I’ll give you a choice, since you love those so much,” she continued. “Option one—I smear your insides on the floor, right next to good ol’ Locri. But as reimbursement, I’ll use the emergency reserve power to send your friends back to their own worlds.”

White raised an eyebrow as if to confirm understanding; Arufa hesitantly nodded.

“Or, option two—I spare you, but you only get to pick one of your friends to save. The other dies in your place, and you have to live with that guilt for the rest of your life. Now imagine all the loss they’ll bring when they’re gone! All the little sisters and sad parents waiting without an answer! I would certainly pick one over two, but it’s your choice.”

Arufa stood in thought for a moment. The best thing to do for their sakes is to give up my life and let White kill me. That’s the noble thing to do. That’s the right choice.

But it’s also because I’m afraid to choose between Skyler and Marsia. I’m afraid to make a decision at all. X2 Arufa would have made up her mind by now! This is psychological torture! And Dr. White knows it, too. Look at that grin.

Ghiles, whatever you’re doing, make it fast! Get the others up! Get them out! Stop fiddling with the Transversal… unless you’re going to get my friends home. That’s what he’s doing, isn’t it? That’s what Ghiles would do! He’s got it all figured out!

“Dr. White, I’ve made my choice,” Arufa said. The wires on her body glowed with radiant determination.

“Faster than I expected. Let’s hear it.”

“Kill me. But let me say goodbye to Marsia and Skyler first.”

The mad scientist spread her arms wide. “I accept that proposition. Ghiles, wake them up.”

What?!

Ghiles froze in horror as Dr. White turned around to face him. She clicked her tongue and crossed her arms, her eyebrows low in discontent.

“You heard me. Wake them up.”

He didn’t make a sound! How did she… Arufa connected the dots. The air’s cold again. The cooling systems came on. That’s how she knew.

That means… I just gave up my life. I told Dr. White to kill me because I thought Ghiles was going to save me. But now…

Ghiles sulked in the flashing red lights and kneeled next to Marsia’s sleeping body. He gave her a nudge. “Marsia? Hey, c’mon, it’s okay. You’re fine.”

“Nngghh… Dr. Ghiles?”

“I’m right here.”

“I remembered a bit more…”

As Ghiles tended to Marsia, White caught Arufa’s line of sight. Arufa found hatred and fury in her eyes—but also, a stain of regret and grief. She knew this would likely be the last conversation she’d ever have.

“Arufa,” White said, “how far would you go to save someone you love?”

“…I would go to the grave and back.”

“Everyone says that until they’ve tried.”

“White… you’ve played with death. I saw those images. Marsia getting rebuilt, my head being sewed on. Did you… try to undo the death of someone you loved, too?”

The pained twitch in her bleeding eyebrow told Arufa everything.

“And you’ve gone crazy because all along, this whole experiment was just for them, right? It was never meant to end this way.”

“…You’re perceptive.”

“And… nothing you did ever worked. No matter how hard you tried to bring them back, it was never really them.”

The beaming sirens revealed the gloss of tears building in the mad scientist’s eyes. She was fuming.

Arufa looked down at the pistol in her hands. “And killing me isn’t going to change the fact that they’re gone.”

In a paroxysm of rage, White clicked the gun against Arufa’s forehead. “I hate you!” she cried, her eyes crazy.

She’s losing it. She’s insane, but only because she’s so broken at the death of someone she loved.

She just needs someone who’s there for her. Someone who’ll stay by her side and talk through her trauma. Ghiles could have been that person if she’d opened up to him, but after she failed over and over, she shut herself off from others.

Because what would happen if she admitted to her struggle? What would become of her if she told everyone the truth, that her revolutionary experiment was just a coping mechanism for the gaping hole in her heart?

She’s afraid of that. She’s afraid of accepting the truth that no one can ever really come back from the grave. And she’s afraid of letting down the person she loves.

That’s the real Dr. White. She’s afraid. Just like me.

As her finger tightened on the trigger, Ghiles brought Marsia and Skyler forward. Marsia was trembling—Skyler seemed hopeless. Even though Arufa was sacrificing herself for them, they were upset.

“Dr. White, put the gun down. Let Arufa say her goodbyes.”

“You don’t know anything!” White screeched. “She doesn’t deserve goodbyes! She deserves a bullet through her head!”

“White, stop it! You’re crazy!”

“I am crazy! I’m a fucking psycho! I’m irredeemable!”

Ghiles grimaced. “Don’t say that, Ari… please…”

Ari?

“Don’t call me that!”

…Ari White.

“Don’t kill her, then...!”

…Why do I…?

“I hate you! I hate every single one of you!” she shouted.

I remember sitting in the public library with a tall, brown-haired girl, a couple years younger than me. We were both reading on our own.

“Aru, do you wanna know what I learned at school today?” she said.

“Sure,” I replied.

“There’s a part of your brain called the hippocampus. It’s like a hippo! Cause it’s really big, but like, for your brain, not in size, but… Anyways, that’s a mnemonic I made up.”

White whipped her gun around. “I’ll kill you all!”

“I didn’t know you took psychology, Ari.”

“Yeah, they let me skip ahead! Um… so the hippocampus stores your memories, basically. I mean, they’re not all there or anything, but it’s really important for them.”

“So what would happen without it? Like, if you took it out or something?”

“I dunno. But… I wouldn’t wanna forget everything. ‘Cause then I wouldn’t know my big sis!”

…I get it now. The person Dr. White lost, the one whose death crushed her and drove her to insanity…

Was me.

Arufa, at a loss for words, watched her sister hold the pistol towards Ghiles, broken and anguished. “Starting with you! Any last words, Dr. Ghiles?” she spat.

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

She squinted. “For what?”

“For this!”

Suddenly, the gun came flying out of her hand. Skyler brought their leg back from behind White, having kicked it right out of her grasp. Ghiles dove and snatched it up before she could get at it.

Marsia helped restrain the woman’s arms, and Skyler kept her from kicking. “Get off of me!” she screamed.

“Remember to watch your back, Ari,” Ghiles said, leveling the pistol between her electric eyes. “Hell isn’t easy on terrorists.”

Dr. White craned her neck to see Arufa, frozen in shock. She saw the fear in her eyes, just like her own. Fear of the future, fear of the unknown. She let out one final blood-curdling screech:

“ARU, HELP ME!”

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And Ari White, the genius who had strung together the multiverse, was little more than another splatter of blood on the laboratory floor.