THE FINAL OBELISK.

Amidst the endless sand of the Blight rested a former bastion. A fortress, with a set of stone steps that led up the way.

Cienn walked up the steps. The entrance to the fortress was already open, and in the center, an obelisk rested in a depression on the ground. The same tiling as the obelisk she had left Vibe and Britney in covered the walls, and the obelisk emitted an ethereal red light.

Her hand pressed against the side of the obelisk and piercing teal light broke the metal plating of the obelisk apart, separating into two halves. A doorway opened in front of her with the grinding of old stone on ancient metal.

The darkness before her didn’t scare her. It had been so long since she had seen darkness in any form as it truly appeared.

She walked down the steps in front of her with her hands out to either side to drag her fingertips along and give her a sense of control over her descent, even if it was an illusion.

When she stepped out of the darkness and into the light of an illuminated metal platform, rows and rows of floating silver pods stretched out in front of her.

A control panel emerged from the metal in front of her. A teal display lit up her face and she leaned over it to access the controls.

The strange language translated into English and she tapped the screen. The pod closest to her was brought forward on a floating rail line.

The pod illuminated the interior, and she looked at the figure within.

Shay. It was Shay Hendricks. With a flick of her wrist, the pod went to the side and the next pod slid forward.

Embriana Tiber.

Another flick.

Seth. She’d never learned his last name.

Another flick.

Kyra. Her last name escaped her… it might have been Johnson? The blonde looked so peaceful in the pod.

Another flick, and the next pod had a girl she had only met once or twice. A girl with dark hair and impossibly bright pink eyes.

The next pod held her. She looked at her own face on the other side of the glass and flicked the pod to the side.

Clarissa.

Seth.

They were all here. And there were hundreds of pods to go. Cienn took a step back and looked at the vast amount of pods. Everyone was… they were all here.

Cienn lit up the lights and turned around. She’d have work to do to save all of them.

If I leave them behind… it’ll haunt me forever. Clones. They have to be clones. They need the chance, the opportunity, to live our their own lives.

She opened a gateway and turned on the lights within her storage area, and went to work.

The pods opened. Groggy, naked clones stepped out, gathered together, and she forestalled their questions. There were so many.

Many she recognized. A blonde cop in Gotham. A father and his two children. Why had there been so many?

A detective with shoulder-length hair.

It took nearly an hour to empty all the pods. A walkway led to a lower area with a bland metal surface the size of a football field.

Convenient. She’d have to watch out for that later.

The weirdest one to look at was her clone. But of course Spim would clone… if killing things gave her aurum, then cloning a population over and over to kill them made sense. Especially if they had powers.

“There’s so many…” she and her clone said at the same time.

“Alright, I feel like I’m in a nudist colony.”

She raised her hands and formed a gateway to her storage facility. The lights turned on, and she extended the gateway to take up an entire wall.

“There are clothes, supplies, and camping gear for fifty tents… and I know just the place to put you all.”

Cienn closed the obelisk doors and turned. The obelisk sealed itself, a bright yellow pulse of light indicated it was locked.

The ground didn’t tremble. There was no earthquake to send it plunging back into the sands.

It remained.

She walked out of the temple and began the short walk to the temple Vibe and Britney remained within.