A Return to Life?

"Don't be foolish, Friedrich," put in Vincent. "If her death was such a terrible mistake, what would be wrong with bringing her back?"

"You don't care about her at all," spat Fred Sicssor-Hands. "You just want to use her in one of your damned experiments."

"Perhaps I did not know her personally all that well," said Vincent, "but clearly you did. So why would you be opposed to returning her to life?"

Fred Scissor-Hands sighed. He seemed on the verge of tears. "Very well then. But restore her as she was, not as some kind of monster." Fred was shocked that his counterpart would go along with such a thing. Then, he remembered how much grief he had felt at Astra's death even after only having known her for a day and his own attempts to beseech her not to pass into death. An offer like this would have been a great temptation to him, especially had he gotten the chance to know Astra longer than he had.

Vincent picked up Astra's dead body and walked off into the hallway. Fred himself could barely bring himself to look at Astra's corpse. Fred Scissorhands's head was hung in grim resolution, while Vincent was almost skipping with excitement. All around them there were the sounds of strange, terrible experiments. In the end, after going down several stairways, Vincent led Fred Scissor-Hands to a large room across which snaked many wires. On opposite ends were two silver spires covered in arcane symbols. Exacly betwen these two was a stone slab. Vincent laid the body down on the slab. "Stand over by the door," said Vincent to Fred Scissor-Hands. "This is a delicate procedure and you must not obstruct any of the energies that will be unleashed. If you do, the consequences will be dire."

Fred walked into the room, unnoticed by Vincent. Vincent pulled levers on the wall, spun dials, and made arcane gestures. Fred could hear the builidng hum of arcane energies. He looked at the corpse of Astra lying on the slab. Astra had died so recently that her corpse still had a tantalizing blush of life about it, as if it would wake up if kissed. But this was an illusion--Fred had seen Astra's spirit pass on into the Otherworld. If life was put into the corpse, it would not be Astra's. It would become an entirely new person--or worse, something might enter from the Outer Darkness and take the body as its own.

Just then, Fred saw that something was slithering around the edge of the room. Although the spires were beginning to glow and fill the room with unbearably bright light, around the thing it faded into pitch darkness. Fred realized that the worst possiblity had come true. He wondered what to do--he still had his sword, but it would doubtless be no use against a spiritual enemy like this. He had nothing--except his timepiece.

Then he realized what he could do. The two spires were beginning to course with eldritch light. Soon the light would blast down on Astra and restore her body to life. Fred ran forward, leaping onto the stone slab, and held his timepiece above Astra. Fred closed his eyes but held fast as the blinding light streaked down--hitting the timepiece instead of Astra. He could hear the thing's spiritual scream as it slithered off. He could also hear gasps of shock from Fred Scissor-Hands and Vincent. Perhaps they had seen him now? Perhaps the energies had caused him to fully exist in this world-age when he had not before?

1. Fred Scissor-Hands and Vincent are too taken aback to do anything.
2. Fred Scissor-Hands instinctively attacks Fred.
3. Fred feels himself sinking, as if into quicksand. With horror, he realizes he's being drawn into Astra's body!

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