Ghost Rider Shattered Alliance #4
By: Luca Baldassarra
[From the perspective of Johnny Blaze]
Alejandra’s Blade deflects Johnny’s savage chain strikes. She is slowly losing ground.
Johnny (Thought): I feel the heat. I can feel it washing over me. That familiar feeling takes over, and once again I let it take control.
Johnny’s chain wraps around her blade and he pulls it back, wrenching it from her hand.
Johnny (Thought): I stare into a twisted reflection. A young girl who thought she had inherited great power. She was wrong. Dead wrong. There’s nothing great about this power….but it’s mine all the same. Zarathos calls to me.
[From the perspective of Alejandra]
Alejandra is cornered and unarmed. Before her stands Johnny Blaze in Rider Form, and an unfamiliar feeling boils from within her. She is afraid.
Alejandra (Thought): This can’t be happening. It’s not possible. I am the Ghost Rider! Not him! How could this happen?!
She remembers the words of Sin. They echo in her thoughts. “When you touched my hammer, you touched fear itself. You lay there, in human form, because no matter how powerful the Spirit of Vengeance is in the end you are still human. Mortal. Afraid. Unworthy.”
Alejandra (Thought): The rider has chosen another. I have not proven myself to Zarathos. I am unworthy.
Alejandra stares at Thing lying in the distance, he is breathing in slow ragged breaths.
Johnny: It’s over Alejandra. Submit and we can get out of here together. I know a way to get you back to normal. Get your life back, the life you should have.
Alejandra looks at Johnny in Rider Form. He is swinging his chain at his side, ready to strike at a moment’s notice.
Johnny: Don’t make me end this Alejandra. I want to help you.
Alejandra (Thought): [Looking at Thing again] Ben Grimm breathes. He has survived. He has purged Angir from his soul and will live another day. He has faced fear and returned. Reborn. Worthy in the eyes of Zarathos, and the Lord.
Alejandra: No, Johnny. You are not here to help me. You are here to test me.
-Alejandra reaches out her hand and the blade laying behind Johnny rushes towards her. She grasps it in her hand.-
Alejandra: I do not know how you regained your powers Blaze, but know this, only one of us is worthy of the blessing of Zarathos. Only one of us can be the avatar for the Spirit of Vengeance. My whole life I has been spent preparing for that honour. When I defeat you here, Zarathos will know my worth again.
Johnny: Don’t do this Alejandra. Don’t make me do this.
Alejandra: (Rushing towards Johnny with her blade held out) HAAAAAAA!!!!
[From the perspective of Johnny]
Johnny (thought): Every strike sends a wave of pain through my arm. Where did this strength come from?
Johnny looks around and notices the bodies of Reed, Spider-Man, and Thing lying unconscious.
Johnny (Thought): I need to get her away from them, get her outside. There’s only one way…..this is going to hurt.
Johnny lowers his guard as Alejandra swing arcs downwards, the sword bites deep into his shoulder.
Johnny: GAHHHH!
Johnny’s fist clenches around her wrist, his other fist slams into her chest.
Alejandra: Ugh!
Johnny’s chain wraps around her and he slams her through the far wall, into the street outside.
Johnny steps out though the debris into the street, clutching his shoulder he rips the sword from his body and tosses it to the ground. Alejandra is brushing herself off.
Sirens can be heard in the distance. People fleeing away from the scene of a battle between the two.
Alejandra: One cut Blaze. One cut and I have learned all I need to know. You have not earned those powers, you stole them. Stole them from me, with the aid of dark magic. All this time you sought the soul that was stolen from you by that demon…but in the end, when you finally reclaimed it, you sold it off again to the same monster. Why? Why do you taint the righteous power of Zarathos? WHY?!
Johnny stands in silence, absorbing all that was just said. In his mind flashes images of friends and family lost through his life, of his time as the Ghost Rider, and finally of Mephisto smiling his smile of dagger teeth as he presented him with the amulet that gave him his powers back.
---Memory---
Mephisto: Go ahead Blaze. Do the right thing. Save the girl, become the Rider again. I’ll help you…just take this amulet and speak the words after you defeat her. Seal the contract and I’ll give that girl her life back, her soul, the soul of that village, all of it.
Johnny: Why? Why me? Why do all this just to make me a rider again? What do you have to gain from all this Mephisto?
Mephisto: Johnny, Johnny, Johnny. You just don’t get it. You never got it. After all these years you never realized how much fun we had together. All the fights, all the demons, all the monsters, all the friends you lost. You never wanted this. Ever. This girl, she’s different, this is her reason for living. This is something she takes gladly. She doesn’t SUFFER quite the same as you, she‘s too stupid to see how bad she has it. In the end Johnny, if she isn’t suffering then she isn’t worth my time. I trust you’ll make the right decision.
-Places the amulet in his hand and fades into the shadows with his dagger toothed smile-
You always make the right decision.
---Memory---
Johnny: Alejandra. I couldn’t let you make the same mistake I did. I couldn’t let that bastard use and abuse someone else. So I took his offer. I made the deal. To take you down, in exchange for my soul and you to live a normal life again. The chance you never got, that’s my gift to you. I’m sorry but this ends now.
-Johnny stands straight, flaming blood oozing from the wound in his shoulder, swinging his chain-
[Alejandra’s perspective]
Alejandra: You’re right Johnny. This is over, that cut you took at my blade will make sure of that. My blade is filled with the righteous power of Zarathos, the Spirit of Vengeance!
Alejandra holds her hand out, and a flaming chain shoots out of the wound on Johnny’s shoulder.
Johnny: GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! What…….is……this?! AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Alejandra: You never accepted him Johnny. You never learned of all the powers a Rider has. This flaming chain is your guilt. Your pain. Your sorrow. The grief of a man who has willingly turned to the hand of evil in his darkest hour. A desperate man.
Alejandra walking towards Johnny.
Johnny: The…..pain……how?…..how are you doing this?
Johnny is on his knees, convulsing in agony. The fiery chain slowly enveloping him, constricting him.
Alejandra standing above Johnny, she jerks him upright and slams him into the nearby wall. In the distance she notices Thing, slowly sitting upright. Dazed. She calls the blade from the ground nearby into her outstretched hand.
Alejandra: This blade has cleansed one soul today Johnny Blaze. Cleansed him of an evil taint through a trial of pain and purification. Though your actions are sinful, your motivations are pure. This blade will offer you judgement…..and I will pray that you survive it’s trial. For all you have done for me…for Alejandra….Johnny Blaze I offer you Divine Judgement. Feel my pain and the pain of others you have sacrificed yourself for, a thousand fold.
Alejandra stabs her blade through Johnny’s heart. A pillar of fire engulfs both of them.
Johnny: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Alejandra stands over Johnny’s body in human form. Her clothes are smoking, and there is black stains along the side of the building and the pavement around them.
Alejandra: If you survive Johnny Blaze, I hope we someday meet again. Whatever happens, I won’t forget you and what you’ve shown me. Goodbye.
Alejandra walks away from Johnny as the siren sounds grow louder and louder.
A black shadow forms under Johnny’s body, and he sinks into the ground. Disappearing.
In an office building, Nat Moro sits in an office chair with the outline of another figure sitting at the desk in front of him. A man stands in the corner of the room, shrouded by the shade.
Nat Moro: I did as you asked. I set the trap. I brought the demon girl here.
Mephisto: That you did. You did a good job, I can’t argue that. You fulfilled your end of the bargain to the letter. Quite impressive from a man who once lived in a gutter before the Asgardian invasion.
Nat Moro: That doesn’t matter anymore. I’m never going back to living that low. You told me you would make me rich beyond my wildest dreams if I brought you the girl and the other guy. Now it’s my time! Now I live like a king, and screw everyone who looked down on me like a pathetic beggar. Now I get the respect I deserve.
Mephisto: There is one thing you haven’t given me yet. A little something my friend here will collect from you before we send you on your way to caviar, country clubs, and fine European sports cars.
Nat Moro: What would that be?
-Johnny Blaze steps from the shadows, his eyes black and empty.-
Mephisto: Nat. I’m Mephisto. Lord of Hell. What do you think I mean?
-Johnny Blaze ignites, into the form of the rider-
Johnny: Nat Moro. Your soul belongs to Mephisto. I am his Spirit of Vengeance, and I have come to collect it.
Nat Moro: NO! NO THIS WASN’T THE DEAL! YOU TRICKED ME! NOOOOO!
-Mephisto looks on, his dagger teeth showing through his smile-
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