Asia Vieira defeated by Sartorius

I tried to pull myself together and not show how shocked I was by his words, but deep down I knew that I would never be the same again.

We both turned around just as the green light on the videophone screen began to blink. A squeak, like that of some mad rat, cut through the silence of the lab, and the image gradually cleared. The face of the Stainless Steel Rat appeared before us, his eyes glittering with reserved interest, his lips slightly curved into a smile, like someone who knows everything is under control.

"Ready?" His voice sounded on the other side of the screen, muffled and confident. "Is the special destabilizer working? Small, compact, no more than a few meters in range. Is everything ready?"

Sartorius, who had been silent until now, narrowed his eyes slightly, obviously checking the data on the screen before answering. He nodded slowly, and his tone was so calm that even I, who had lived through all these terrible events, felt the tension brewing inside.

"Yes, he's ready," Sartorius said. "Everything is in order. He's fully functional."

Stainless Steel Rat seemed to appreciate his answer. His eyes narrowed and the smile on his face grew wider.

"Excellent," he said, almost pleased with himself. "Let's hope that this little device will finally rid us of all these damned phenomena. However, for now, you seem to be coping. But don't forget: if something suddenly gets out of control, it's better to turn it on right away."

On screen, the Stainless Steel Rat waved his hand and immediately disappeared, leaving us in the room with an even greater sense of uncertainty.

Sartorius reached over to the table where the instrument was mounted on a panel. He slowly pressed a few buttons, and a map of the station appeared on the wall screen, showing the same familiar areas. In the center of this map, a blinking dot indicated where I was now.

"It's not a solution," Sartorius said, staring at the screen. "It's just... a stopgap. But if you want to see what happens next, you should be ready by now."

I wanted to say something, but his words swallowed me up. All this - "temporary measure," "little destabilizer" - sounded too ironic to be perceived as a way out. But what if the return of the dead is not an illusion, but a reality that we will have to face?

Suddenly the laboratory was filled with vibrations, and I felt the walls closing in around me. The door seemed about to explode. I turned around, and Sartorius was already standing in front of me, clutching a small box - a destabilizer. His face was cold, almost imperturbable, but there was fear in his eyes, not hidden even by his scientific composure.

The sound grew louder. As if not a man, but a monster with iron paws was trying to break through the door, from which metal parts began to bounce off. First slowly, then faster and faster, with each blow more and more powerfully. And then, with a deafening crack, the door began to bend, and then - completely inhumanly - it began to tear away, as if a giant mouth was tearing it.

I pressed myself into the corner, barely hearing my own thoughts. Fear squeezed me so tightly that I could barely breathe. I remembered how I had once been afraid that Asia would find out about me and my secret affairs, my hurt feelings, my passions that were in the past. Strangely, this fear was completely disproportionate to the situation. The thought flashed through my head as if I were standing before her, before her wrath, and not before something terrible and alien, not before a monster. As if she was about to expose me for all my crimes, for all my deceptions. I know that this is stupid, but under the pressure of fear the mind is capable of distorting reality.

But then I realized that I was not standing before love or forgiveness. I was standing before destruction, before something that perhaps did not even want to kill me, but simply to devour me.

I tried to come to my senses, looking at Sartorius, who now held the device in his hands, pressing the button of which seemed to be the only chance. But his hand gripped the destabilizer button uncertainly, as if he himself was not sure that it would work.

There was now a mass crashing into the door, as if a huge steel creature was breaking it with inhuman strength. And at that moment, when it seemed that everything was doomed, I heard a sound. A voice.

"You… you don't understand," Sartorius whispered, barely moving, and there was such longing in his voice that I almost didn't recognize him. "You don't understand that this isn't just Asia. This is something else. The one who came back isn't the one you loved."

Before I could answer, a powerful blow split the door in two, and out of the chaos she burst forth-Asia, but not the one I knew. This was not a human being, not a woman, not a man. This was something else. Huge, ugly, with eyes full of emptiness, with skin covered in cracks, as if reality itself was trying to hold this creature captive.

Sartorius stood still, his hands shaking, but there was a clear look in his eyes: he was waiting. He knew that this moment, this explosion, was what had to happen. His hand quickly reached for the button on the destabilizer. There was something like relief in his eyes. He didn't know what would become of this creature, but he was ready. He was ready to destroy everything that had been created.

When Asia took her first step into the lab, she didn't just walk in - she ran in, her movements were sharp, uncontrollable, as if each step was a step of destruction. But Sartorius didn't lose his head. He pressed the button.

A moment. No more.

In that moment, the space around us changed. I felt the air compress, as if it were being squeezed by an invisible hand. Everything around me became blurry, like a bad dream, where every detail was losing its clarity, as if the world was suddenly falling apart. There was a faint, almost imperceptible whistle that soon died away. The wind died down and the light went out, as if reality itself had compressed and something had disappeared. As if Asia itself had dissolved, vanished in this mysterious light.