Water on the Gambler's Floor

“Leave him,” Plisken said as he pushed the door to the small hall-like room that led to the various bathrooms available, and there was various since this was not a standard 2-star-resort-affair here.
“What?!” cried Evelina angrily as she flung herself from Jaxx’s side, forcing herself to rip away.
“Pl-isk-en?” came Jaxx’s pained voice from the watery floor, “What have I done, dude?”
“Out of the way, Mrs. Stone,” warned Plisken as his cybernetic hand reach down to the low slung holster on his leg.
“You killed Tara!” cried Jay angrily, nearly running over to finish exacting revenge.
“No, he didn’t,” pleaded Evelina, “You’ve made a mistake!”
“I watched her die, damnit!” spat Jay as his water soaked face began to burn with anger.
“It doesn’t matter either way,” said Plisken, his stormy eyes clouding over as he narrowed his gave at the wheezing form of Jaxx on the floor, blood-stained water splashing at his sides. “Oh, stand up, it’s only a graze. And Jay would never actually kill you. He’s… he’s a good man.”
Jaxx began to push himself up, a stream of blood running his temple and from under the turban that was wrapped around his head, a small-ish gash from where Jay’s bullet had struck him.
The beast snapped into existence, if only for a moment. The harsh metallic scent of blood, mixed with his own nervous system alerting him that he was wounded, itched at Jaxx. He made a movement, a shake of his head, a shuffle of his feet, but everyone knew what it was, and it didn’t take them long to react. Cass and Jade untangled themselves from their bundle and Jay and Plisken both raised their weapons like a machine standing to attention.
“Do I need to explain why?” Plisken asked, reminding everyone of how dangerous an animal Jaxx truly was, how far and low he could fall into pure and simple madness.
“I thought we were friends?” Jaxx asked, using Evelina’s shoulder for support.
Plisken laughed a single, hollow syllable. “Friends? I kept my eye on you, Jaxx. Because do you not what you are? You’re a killer. That’s all you can do. And that’s all you will do.”
“NO!” Evelina screeched, “He can change! He has changed!”
“This isn’t a cute story about not being accepted by mainstream society, Mrs. Stone. This isn’t a soppy romantic story about a lost soul. This isn’t someone you can integrate into normal life. He is a killer and that’s all.”
“Who are you to choose that? Who made you a judge?”
“I’m very old, and my home is long since gone. I’ve witnessed the birth of the universe, and I’ve watched it end countless times over and over again. I’ve danced and battled with gods and demons across the stars, toppled empires like they were glass. I’ve seen things that would addle your mind to the point of insanity, lost things that would force people into the deepest reaches of the galaxies, and I have secrets that if spoken could end the universe in the blink of an eye. I led armies and armadas into countless battles to ignite the darkest regions of space on fire and to snuff them out in the same breath. I’ve brought an end to countless civilisations. The Chronos? The Lanrings? The Great Snakes of the Tantalus Eyes of Sector 7? Have you heard of them? Time re-wrote itself before my eyes, and I’ve seen it infinite complexity. Nothing remains of them, and that is the judgement I have passed. It is what I was created for, in the looming vats of Trenzelore, the jewel of the Golden Storm. Do I have your attention? Because this is what I am. The judge.”
“Oh,” was all Jay could manage.
“Then we are the same, Plisken,” Jaxx smirked, clarity descending over him as he regained his balance of serenity.
“What? Because we’ve both been bred for a single purpose?”
Jaxx grunted with a pain grin, “Because we are both killers, Plisken. How many people have you killed? And how many have I?”
“Oh, that’s good. You see, you’re using the brains now, aren’t you?”
“So I’m right?”
“Ha! Far from it. You see, I killed for a purpose. I killed because there was a reason. Everything I did, I can explain. Everything I did, I can justify. But you?”
“What if I never had the choice, dude? You think I can control this?”
“In all my years of living, there was never not been a choice. Everyone has a choice: mothers, fathers, milkmen, rabbit farmers, dinner ladies… soldiers. Because that’s what you are, isn’t it? A soldier without commands.”
“I am no soldier.”
“You are. I remember your creation, how you came about. Or your general genome, at least. Bred for war on the Aquatic Realms of the Nebulous Regions.”
“People change, you of all people should know this,” Cass said, trying to keep some balance to the situation, “You’ve changed from whatever you were before, whatever you claim to be, and become something that most, no, that all of us treat as a symbol of guidance.”
“Then I’ve lead you astray. Because sometimes people have to die, no matter how hard you try. You, of all people, should know that Cass.”
“But you can’t kill him!” cried Evelina, her love burning strong.
“Why? His life is a mere pinprick on the timeline of the universe, the tiniest of tiny ripples in the fabric of time. Everyone is. The universe itself ends without a single tear shed. No-one really matters, we just pretend they do. You die, and some new person will come sauntering in and take your place. And that is the truth of the universe.”
Before any one could say anything more that could be added, a thunderous crash echoed in the room. Glass shards, seemingly out of no-where, erupted from thin air, forming an eerie blue portal, from which inexplicable sounds of screeching and wailing ricocheted. An object, around the height of a man and a half, hurtled through, crash landed on the floor with wheeze and groan, smoke leaking from the tiny crack between the door and the object’s floor. It silenced the room.
Tara seized her chance. Leaping from whatever undetectable hidey-hole she had secreted herself in during the recent events, her hard light body collided with that of Plisken. The portal, already closing rapidly, shrinking and shrinking as the glass seemed to repair itself, consumed Plisken as he was pushed through by Tara. Plisken landed on his back, lying against an uneven blue surface. Tara grinned manically at Plisken as the portal began to close. Behind her Jaxx and Evelina looked on, clearly with little to no intention of offering any help. Plisken, in his last act of desperation of trying to save his comrades, fired 5 rounds rapidly and then tossed the empty gun through, hoping to his something. The portal closed, and Plisken was trapped forever.
The door of the strange object slid open. It was a clean and futuristic slide too, a machine of standards, and not the more familiar grinding against floors that the Dwarfers had come to know as a slide. From the smoke sauntered a tall, thin man.
“I’m not interrupting anything am I?” asked Dr. Ransom MacIntyre, a casual smile on his face.
Three bullets struck the side of his strange spacecraft, and one flew right past him. The other, though, grazed his left shoulder, slicing through the fabric of his clothes and leaving a red stain in its wake.
“Well, that’s a good start.”