Summon, or She Dies.

[Gildarts]

The sharp roof of the cave began to fall. Or so it had appeared. Behemoth and Katia both looked up ambivalently as they noticed Christa’s horror, she’d braced herself and her stance had gotten lower, ready to dodge the spears of destruction.

Katia and Behemoth stood idle while Christa dodged the rocks that were coming at her. God, why hadn’t she shot the bastard when she had the chance? Katia might be under his trance too. But it was hard to think about all the possibilities while the Prime was rolling on the ground like the kids were taught to do when there clothes were hot with fire. “Stop, drop, and roll,” seemed evident, Christa’s keen eyes saw another fall swiftly inches from her arm and end with a crumble. The entire cave was shaking… So why were those two doing nothing?

Katia sighed, her teenage attitude prevalent, “They’re not real,” she stated blandly and rolled her eyes.

Christa blinked and looked up at her sister, a sharpened column appeared to be inches from the girl’s head and the illusion glitched out and evaporated into nothing. Christa’s eyes widened. She thought she’d been freed of Behemoth’s illusions, it seemed that wasn’t the case.

“No.. You can’t trap me in that cage anymore… I know the way out.” Christa said helplessly. There was no proof that this was even real. Shit. Shit. Shit!

“Katia we have to go, I don’t care if he’s your mentor, I have half a mind to shoot him,” Christa wished she had before she’d found this out. Mentor, tutor, but what for?

“Katia, are you really willing to leave with a murderer who thinks people’s deaths are just another notch on her belt, rather than stay by my side and have infinite knowledge?” Behemoth tempted her.

“Tch, you bastard, you’re worse than I am,” Christa’s eyes narrowed while the room still appeared to be falling around her. The noise was loud and roaring in her ears as the rocks tumbled and crumbled as they grated with the ground. “Fucking hypocrite, what about Martha?!” she raised her sniper rifle and this time, she would not miss.

“Am I? She was in the way, just another life to swallow in the scheme of things. You’re just like me, Christa, you just are too blind to see it. You’ve killed, slain the innocent to get to the guilty. Well, look who I’m looking at and I ponder if you’ve just known the truth all along. Secondaries like us were created in this world to die. You know, you met Omni yourself. And you’ve killed us before.” Behemoth summarized. Little did she pick up on the truth that would be his words.

Tch. This bastard. “I don’t know what you did to my sister but I’m going to end you, and take her home.” Christa was dead serious.

Instinct, primal, maternal, desperate, and ruthless, all veiled over in Christa’s mind. She would end whatever Behemoth was doing to his sister’s mind with a single bullet. And there he was. The snout of her rifle tilted and her finger didn’t hesitate as she pulled the trigger.

Her aim had been perfect. The head-shot hit him square in the forehead, just as it had in the illusionist’s prison, however then, she heard Katia’s voice as she saw the image before her change.

“They’re not real…” her sister had said. Now, she was rolling her eyes. But upward, into the sockets of her eyes.

The scene glitched in the Prime’s eyes and as she blinked, she saw that instead of Behemoth’s face, framed with the black and crimson bullet wound in the forehead was her beloved sister Katia’s face. She was falling to the ground, Christa leapt, dropping the sniper rifle as the girl fell in her arms before hitting the ground.

She was still warm, full of life and blood, but her head… The spray from the bullet exiting the wound. It had gone straight through. There was no way anyone could have survived that. Christa’s palm tapped Katia’s cheek desperately, “Katia! Kat? Don’t do this to me. No… No.”

Meanwhile, “Katia’s” face had turned into Behemoth. He’d played the old switcheroo and she’d never seen it coming. His face turned into a twisted victorious smile, “See, you were a murderer all along. Now, will you try to summon her back somehow, or will you let her rest in peace?”

Christa’s body shivered with fear, with the shock of horror, with the heaviness of mourning and grieving that bound her to mortal, overwhelming emotion. She clutched her little sister close to her breast and couldn’t bear to release the dead memories from her arms. The body moved like a connected lump, “Katia, no…” she sobbed and kissed her lifeless sister’s forehead. This had been the second time she’d hit her square in the head. Nothing had changed. Nothing, not even her. The title of Prime hadn’t saved her. Nothing had saved Katia from her fate. She had been forever-bound, and Christa had too.