Author's note:
I am infinitely grateful to the audience for positive reception of the first two parts, and willingness to forgive the mistakes I inevitably made. You are the best, you deserve the best, but instead all I have to offer is my best effort; thank you sincerely for your time and kindness.
All the characters, locations, events, phenomena, and technologies are fictional and made up for the sake of escapist entertainment.
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"You should not play with these things, they are not anywhere as well-collimated as you expect. Let's say, I dealt with exactly these models before, and they have since been banned on ecological grounds. They were never designed to be used by civilians. Or women. Just by standing next to them, let alone holding one, you are hurting yourself more than me."
"How about now?" Miranda took a token capsule and stuffed it right into the wave gun's barrel. And it was not Kara's. Because of course it wasn't. Kara tried to look at the device's magnetron, deduce its approximate power, and estimate how much time she would have if Miranda pulls the trigger. By any metric, it would not be much.
Kara did not exactly tell the truth. When Miranda came in with a key duplicate that she has not told Dan about, and wave-gunned still cloudy, barely manifesting Kara into emitter trap, it hurt like Hell; a pain that she has not felt since the war. Kara could not call Dan in time, before Miranda sabotaged the communicator, and thanked her lucky stars that it was already dark enough. Now, she had a chance to make a difference.
"So, what I was told is true," Miranda was laughing neurotically, "you are not a toy, not some weird hard light holographic inflatable or whatever. You are a person. It makes sense! Knowing Dan... it makes. So. Much. Sense."
"I refuse to cooperate." Kara did not try to break out of barrier emitted from the chain of devices on the floor around her, knowing, on her own skin, that it would be pointless.
"Good for you? I have not demanded anything yet."
"This is how I was taught. Upon getting captured, refuse to cooperate. Or it will make everything progressively worse. If captors have the intent to kill, they either will anyway, or would have already."
"Are you even alive, have you ever been, to deserve the word 'killed'? Or are you some demon or, I don't know, an alien invader in a fluffy skin?"
"I don't know. I have no memories of ever being anything but what I am now. And if I had them, I could never confirm if they're genuine or reliable. And as I'm telling you this, you have no reason to believe me or assume I'm lying, nor any means to verify my words. The sense of self is very much based on trust. You could really try it some time."
"Tell me what I want to know. Or don't." she raised the waveguide horn, and the token capsule clanked inside, "I'll scorch your ectoplasmic ass out of existence anyway."
"You should really not bring that thing so close to your head. Or waistline. If you truly just had a question, you could have called; I don't know why I should be impressed by your threats. I had a great, long life. I found love, several times, and learned to cherish it while it lasts, and let go. I was taught by the best. To value and defend life, and I did. To fight evil. And I did. And when I couldn't, I dug graves, probably more than you ever had cups of coffee, one thing I excelled at while humans were too busy healing and rebuilding. I really wish that half of this you can one day also say about yourself. And the other half, that you never have to."
Kara knew that angering the captor in this situation was not likely to buy her time or lull Miranda's guard.
Still no response. I eyeballed my surroundings and phone, and did rapid math of running versus calling a cab. Running won.
"I just want to know why this town has gone insane." Miranda's eyes got wet. "When two of my college buddies lost their loved ones to Rent-a-Nite, I thought it an unfortunate coincidence. When two more after graduation got left with toddlers on their hands, I saw a pattern. When my own aunt's husband kicked her out, I was determined to never tolerate it happening to me. Is this how you were 'taught to fight evil'? By army men who carried you around like a top secret pocket blowjob dispenser, after it turned out you were too weak to hold a gun?"
"Guilty as charged. We indeed, down to the margin of error, failed to make a dent on the front. Because of these things you dug out of somewhere and brought here to threaten and cage me, among other reasons. Many of my kin were indeed the last to share beds with rookies who often got killed the next morning. Many were also their first the very same night. I will sooner perish to entropy, however long it takes, than feel ashamed of having done it."
"Mister Daniel, sorry to interrupt your jogging, but you look like you'd appreciate a ride."
"INDIGO!"
"Yeah, the corporate attire really gives it away, not sporty. Mister Dan, your belt, please."
"I'll petition mister Azur to give you a raise. Thanks. I need to get to..."
"Let me guess," Indigo tapped the tablet screen. "To this suspicious solar radio burst that, instead of the sun, seems to be coming, I believe, from your house?"
"...shit. I mean, yes."
"I will sooner perish to entropy, however long it takes, than feel ashamed of having done it. But no. I - was not a failure." Kara raised her hand to her chest, as if pointing at herself... "I was the margin of error."...and clenched it into a fist.
Every capacitor in Miranda's wave-gun exploded at the same time, in a cloud of bits of plastic, foil, and ceramics that burst out of ventilation holes. She tried to pull the trigger, but it did nothing. Miranda saw blue ethereal claws squeezing around the battery pack on her belt, until it cracked, popped, and covered her hip in jets of hot, shard-filled corrosive liquid.
Kara's second body manifested fully, took remnants of Miranda's gun away, and shook Leda's token out of its barrel.
Miranda tried to flee; Kara intercepted her, face a fanged mask of black obsidian broken into crude pieces, backlit by blue flame.
"))SIT DOWN.(("
Miranda squealed in fear, and lowered herself on the floor, breathing through teeth from the pain at her hip. Kara took away her key, went to emitter trap and tore its power wires from the battery, releasing her captured self.
"Creepy Kara" helped Miranda stand up and with a booming "))MOVE((" forced her to the kitchen; "released Kara" took Leda's token and checked if it was fine. Leda was scared, but unharmed.
Miranda came to her senses and tried fighting back. Kara simply slammed her fist into Miranda's face, which melted on impact and stayed there, leaving Miranda blindfolded with ethereal splotch. Miranda tried to leap away by memory and touch, but bumped into a wall, stumbled, and fell on the floor.
"))I SAID. SIT YOUR ASS. DOWN.(("
Miranda obeyed, Kara guiding her to the kitchen chair. As the ethereal blindfold evaporated, Miranda first saw her former captive hugging and stroking the head of another sympathetic spirit, trying to calm her down and assure that everything is fine, and over, and Dan will soon be here. Miranda understood that she took the wrong token, and focused on the third figure in front of her.
Instead of creepy flaming mask-faced monster, Miranda saw yellow-eyed, blue-tinted, glowing, slightly translucent, and just a little bit blurred, but otherwise perfect copy of herself, down to height, scars, jewelry, and clothes, holding her by shoulders and gently stroking them. One difference was the ocean of serenity in her ghostly doppelganger's eyes.
