Rei's Impossible Choice

Yesterday, Rome was expanding her spirit, trying to corral the berserk MASAL's Sipre or shadow. How a single person's will could take on the accumulated power of an entire people seemed fairly aggressive. Merely touching the Sipre's spirit was toxic. Rome's red ethereal presence turned to black each time there was contact. Let's see if Rome can take the Sipre down:

     Rome retaliated with renewed vigor. In the real world, her body grunted with effort. She was able to drive it back some but not enough. She pushed with all of her spiritual might. The Sipre resisted. Almost immediately, her strength began to waver.
     Seeing this, Rei entered the fray. In the ethereal world, he reached out with his blue spirit and intertwined his tendrils with those of his wife. It was a supremely intimate act and Rei knew only two souls whose bond was as deep as theirs would be capable of such an action. For anyone else, it would have been treated as an assault. Where the blue and red met, the color changed to a rich violet shade. It was the color of their love. As his spirit comingled with hers, he could feel the Sipre trying to draw Rome in, to take over her mind. He realized her years of being in the Overmind had betrayed her. Her will was losing its grip. Her real world body screamed out in pain.
     “You leave her alone!” Rei shouted out loud. His anger extended to his ethereal self, growing it ever wider until it matched then exceeded the size of the Sipre. It wrapped around the evil one until it encased the Sipre as if Rei was using a net. Contact with the Sipre meant nothing to him. He was immune to its poisonous presence.
     Rei’s blue tendrils contracted and quickly compressed the spirit of the Sipre into the palm of his other-worldly self. In the real world, he could see his hands grasping Rome’s. In the ethereal world, the thrashing, twisting black spirit tried to escape but was unable to. It was slippery but Rei was up to the task.
     “Enough!” announced a real voice. Rei looked up and saw Sussen coming toward them, a plasma gun grasped in her hand. In the ethereal world, her spirit was emerald green, snaking toward them. It rippled and flashed with green sparkles.
     “No!” Reema shouted, moving forward. “Sussen, stay where you are. The Sipre must be stopped.”
     “I am sorry, Ombare. I follow orders. They need to be killed. Now!” Sussen raised her hand, taking dead aim at Rei’s chest.
     Rei was left in an impossible position. If he let go, the Sipre would escape and envelop his wife and take her away forever. If he did not, Sussen would shoot him. His spirit felt strong. Maybe it was tied into his soul. He thought to himself that if his body died, his spirit could still save Rome. He wrapped his physical arms around her to shield her and awaited the deadly blow.

This is not the first time that Rei knew he was going to die. But he had made up his mind that his spirit would conquer the Sipre even if his body could not.