by David Petrie
“You’re it!” she shouted, imbuing him with a glowing red streak across his ass. Farn spun on her heel and raced for the back of the bus. Come on, chase me, you idiot! Farn thought as she did her best to piss the guy off.
A furious scream flooded the vehicle behind her. She cringed. Okay, that might have worked a little too well.
A blast of stolen life energy exploded from the space, hitting her from behind and firing her out of the bus like a cannon. She braced as she soared through the air, coming down on the windshield of a taxi cab with a crash. Several cars behind slammed into each other.
Farn rolled off the hood, landing on the pavement as the sound of traffic accidents engulfed her. She checked her health and sighed in relief. Still two-thirds remained. Deactivating her sword’s contract was the right choice. She needed all the defense she could get.
“Farnsworth!” Ripper screamed in a wild, unhinged tone.
She ducked, keeping her head down to stay out of sight behind the cars that now littered the street. That was when heard it.
A small pigeon cooed by her hand.
“Shoo shoo.” She swatted at the bird, trying to get it away before it gave away her position. The little thing hopped away but returned a second later, pecking at her gauntlet. “Stop that.” Farn pulled her hand away.
That was when the bird held out both wings and hopped around in a circle as if frustrated. It was a strangely human act. Farn froze, debating on if she had lost her mind. Then she remembered that the bird wasn’t real. Which meant it could only have been controlled by one person.
“Kira?”
The bird nodded in a way that almost seemed annoyed that it had taken her so long. Then it hopped to her side and pointed under a car with its beak.
Farn dropped to the pavement and peered under to find an item, shiny and gold, glinting in the shadow beneath the car. Her heart skipped a beat as she snatched it off the ground and shoved it in her item bag, hoping to find a use for it later.
Ripper’s boots came down on the hood of a sedan as he emerged from the bus and stalked toward her, using the cars as stepping stones. Farn’s new pigeon friend flew at his head, exploding in a burst of pixels as his sword cut it in half.
Farn skittered away on her back, trying to get some distance. “How’s that new butt crack I gave you treating you.”
“Just for that,” he glared down at her, “I’m going to take my time with that fairy once I’m done with you. Gonna drain her slow.”
“Don’t you touch her!” Rage rumbled through Farn’s chest at his words.
“Oh, I won’t have to.” Ripper flexed his claws. “I only have to get in range,” he added, flicking his eyes up at Kira then across to the building closest to her. “Actually, I might be able to walk right up there.”
“Not if I kill you first,” Farn growled, trying not to give in to the anger that spiked through her heart. It was what he wanted. He was taunting her just like she had taunted him a moment before.
“You know,” Ripper crouched down, scraping his claws against the car beneath him, “I might just skip dinner and go straight to dessert.” Then he leaped away and ran toward the building, Kira floating helplessly nearby.
“No!“ Farn stood in a panic, realizing that killing Berwyn wasn’t the only way to break the connection. Killing Kira would work just as well.
Ripper slammed his gauntlet into his chest and hurled himself on to the wall, climbing straight for the fairy. Farn pushed off with everything she had, racing forward until her feet hit the wall behind him. Gravity shifted around her to reorient to the new angle as she continued her pursuit.
“Don’t you dare hurt her!” Farn ran, being careful to keep at least one foot in contact with the plate glass windows of the high-rise. One wrong move would cancel the skill and send her crashing to the pavement. It hadn’t been created to be used like that to begin with. Ripper ignored her, sprinting into the sky toward Kira, toward the woman Farn loved.
“Fight me, you coward,” Farn cried, in desperation.
With that, he spun, slashing back at her with his sword. It came at her fast. Too fast to block properly. She raised her arm, feeling his weapon bite into her wrist before the system dulled the pain. Farn ignored it and struck forward, just missing his shoulder. She followed with a solid punch to his face. The blow didn’t cause much damage, but it did surprise him. Not to mention, it made her feel better.
He struck back, his sword raging against hers as their reflections clashed across the vertical surface, the sun silhouetting their battle from above. The glass squeaked with every step, threatening to crack under the strain of the fight. Farn didn’t stop, forcing herself between him and Kira until she stood face to face with the monster of a man. Farn held him back, their blades creaking in protest as her arms trembled.
“Looks like you can’t charge your Death Grip’s attack up here.” Farn smiled. “Another attack like that would shatter the glass you’re standing on. Wouldn’t it? I guess it’s going to be a fair fight from here.”
“I don’t need a contract to kill someone weaker.” Ripper pushed against her.
Farn spat out a mirthless laugh. “You have no idea what strength is.”
“And you do?”
“You don’t understand your class. We’re both Shields. We’re only strong when we have something to protect.” She pushed back.
“That just means you have more to lose.” He flicked his eyes over Farn’s shoulder at Kira.
“I won’t lose her,” Farn ground the sentence through her teeth.
He gave a disdainful laugh in response.
“I love her.” Farn’s mouth fell open, realizing she had actually said the words out loud. They felt right on her lips. Soft and warm. The corner of her mouth tugged up, unable to suppress a dopey smile, even in the middle of the fight.
“And I thought your house couldn’t irritate me more,” Ripper groaned.
“Sorry,” Farn laughed, “but you don’t know how long those words have been on the tip of my tongue. So thank you for making me say them.” Farn glanced back at the shining fairy. “I guess I should probably tell her.”
“Heh, not if I kill her first. Something tells me that taking her out right now might do more than just disconnect her.” He shoved forward against her, almost forcing Farn’s her feet off the glass. Her smile contorted into a snarl as she back-stepped and reactivated her Feral Edge. She’d had enough of him.
“I will keep her safe.” She swiped through the air in a figure eight, her blade blurring around her into a wave of crimson light. Then in single, fluid motion, she spun and struck the glass by her feet, sending a cascade of sparks up from its surface. An instant later, she cut off the contract’s power and slipped her sword back into her sheath.
Ripper froze as the reality of what she had done reached him. He glanced at the window as if to check that he was standing on the same pane of glass. Tiny cracks spiderwebbed from her feet to his. His eyes bulged as she crouched down and prepared to jump.
“Wait, don’t–”
She cut off his words with her fist as she leaped toward him, the glass shattering beneath them. Gravity reclaimed its dominance, and the world righted itself.
Farn fell, the wind whipping through her hair as she plummeted toward death in a cloud of broken glass. She thrust her hand into her pouch and grabbed the golden item that Kira’s pigeon had pointed out earlier on the street below. She just hoped it wasn’t bound to its previous owner.
“You’re insane!” Ripper screamed with all the anger of a man who had never lost before.
“I will keep her safe,” Farn yelled, ending with a roar that tore through the air. Her heart pounded in her chest as every emotion poured out. The ground reached up to claim her. She raised the golden item in her hand and slipped it on her head.
Glass and metal erupted in all directions, and sounds blurring together with Farn’s battle cry as she and Ripper exploded through the roof of a parked van. Her fist made sure every poin
t of fall damage counted.
“How?” Ripper wheezed as the dust settled, the spark in his eyes fading to a dull, lifeless gloss.
Farn pushed herself up, her arms shaking. Fragments of glass trickled off her back as she removed her gauntlet from Ripper's face. She checked her health.
Still two-thirds left.
She reached up and adjusted Berwyn’s golden crown so that it sat straight on her head. Its rules were simple; as long as she didn’t draw a weapon, she couldn’t take damage. Apparently, not even fall damage. Releasing a heavy breath, she clasped a hand over her heart and gave thanks to Kira for getting the contract item to her during the fight.
“You were always there for me.”
That was when Ripper’s body began to change.
The black coloring of his armor seemed to drip from him like ink, leaving his gear a dull, metallic gray. The Death Grip on his hand shifted, its claws retracting as glowing embers escaped from the overpowered item. The light grew until a torrent of bright red energy flowed from the contract. It was like every life that Ripper had hoarded within it had been set free. Then his body crumbled to ash, Death Grip and all.
Farn smiled, letting the embers dance through the white fingertips of her gauntlet as they drifted around her. It felt warm.
Then it began to burn.
Panic flooded through Farn’s mind as she flailed her hand back and forth, her gauntlet’s fingertips twisting into claws. Darkness climbed up her arm, staining her white armor black, the color of graveyard dirt.
Finally, the burning subsided as a low system chime sounded on her ear. She didn’t need to check her journal to understand what it meant. The Death Grip hadn’t been bound to its owner either. Of course it wasn’t. Something that overpowered had to have a weakness. No, not a weakness, a purpose. The Death Grip was meant to be passed on. It was meant to be wielded by the strong, and now, it was hers.
Farn shivered, hating how the contract felt. The idea that she would ever use it made her skin crawl. She reached for the crown on her head, wondering how it would react to the second contract item. Any way she thought about it, the Death Grip was a weapon, one that couldn’t be sheathed. She removed the crown and watched as the inky darkness attempted to crawl across its surface. Then it crumbled in her hand. Apparently, the two couldn’t coexist.
It was just as well. Immortality didn’t suit her anyway.
That was when a sound drew her attention. Actually, it wasn’t a sound but rather the absence of one. The street had gone silent.
Every car on the road stopped moving.
Farn shoved herself out of the wreckage of the van, stumbling as she hit the ground. The fall from before was still throwing off her balance. Her claws scrapped against a nearby car when she tried to steady herself. The sound sent a chill down her spine, and she caught her reflection in a window. A dark figure stared back at her. She ignored it, realizing that the people in the street had vanished including the ones that were holding Berwyn back.
That was when a loud bang came from the wall of the space where the main entrance had been before Kira had rebuilt it. The banging repeated, causing the image projected on the wall to ripple like water. Now that the street had gone silent, Farn could make out a voice shouting commands from the other side. It was muffled through the thick crystal of the wall, but the words ‘battering ram’ were in there somewhere.
Berwyn slumped against a wall. “I assume that’s Amelia, here to take my head.” He let out a sigh. “And from all of this,” he gestured at the street around him, “I can assume that the Feds are on their way for me out there in the real.” He shook his head. “I never thought this was how things would end for me. How does one fairy have this kind of power?”
Farn looked up as Kira floated back down to the pavement; the circle of black glass behind her drifted away as if she had discarded it. She wobbled as her bare feet touched the ground.
Farn rushed to catch her, throwing her arms around the girl before she toppled over, holding her tight. The fairy felt frail like she might break at any moment. Kira returned her embrace as Farn’s eyes welled up.
“Thank god you’re alright.”
Kira raised up on her toes, pressing her cheek against Farn’s neck. “So, what was all that about being in love?”
Farn froze, her nose buried in Kira’s hair. “You, ah, heard that?”
Kira let out a quiet but beautiful laugh. “I’m everywhere right now. There isn’t much I don’t hear.”
“Sorry…” Farn stopped herself, then held the girl tighter. “Actually, I’m not sorry.” She inhaled, taking in Kira’s scent. “I love you. I should have told you months ago.”
“I wish you had.”
Suddenly, a warm tear fell against Farn’s neck.
Her heart nearly stopped as she tried to pull away.
Kira’s small hands held tighter as she hid her face against Farn’s shoulder. Her entire body trembled. “Damn it, Farn. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
The obsidian pane of glass that had floated behind Kira drifted through Farn’s version. Its surface was blank, save for one word that kept repeating itself over and over.
Error.
Error.
Error.
Error.
Error.
The battering ram continued to slam against the outside of the space as the projection on the walls distorted and failed. Blank, crystal walls surrounded the pyramid again.
Farn tore herself away from the fairy so she could see her face.
“I’m sorry.” Kira wiped at her eyes with both hands, unable to stop herself from crying until finally giving up. She sniffed and looked up. “I’m so sorry.”
An ache swelled in Farn’s throat as soon as she saw her. “No.”
Kira’s eye sparkled through her tears. A bright crimson stared back up at Farn, replacing the purple that had been there before. As if answering the question on Farn’s mind, Kira spoke, “You heard Max on the house line. People could die. Someone had to do something.”
“Why did that someone have to be you?” Farn clutched her chest.
Kira lowered her eyes to the ground. “Because I could. I was the only one with access to enough power to help.”
“But at what price?” Farn didn’t want to know the answer.
“I’m sorry.” Kira fidgeted with the hem of her dress. “I never wanted you to be sad. I know I wasn’t ready to face a lot of things about myself. I didn’t even understand how I felt until you said something.” Her tears fell to the ground. “Of course I love you. How could I not? I just wish I had more time…” Her voice trailed off, and she stopped crying, her hands falling to her sides.
“No! Stay with me!” Farn grabbed the fairy by the shoulders as the crimson in her eyes faded back to purple. The color continued to change until they returned to the clear blue that Kira originally had back when they’d met a year ago. Back before Carver had altered her.
That was when Farn realize the truth.
Kira’s eyes had never been purple, to begin with. No, the crimson had always been there, just hiding behind the blue, the two colors blending together as one. The pendant around her neck also changed, returning to a dull sapphire. Then it cracked.
“No!” Farn’s heart shattered as the spark in Kira’s eyes faded into the same lifeless gloss that Ripper’s had a few moments before. Everything that she was seemed to vanish along with the red spark that no longer brought her to life.
The battering ram outside slammed into the wall again, sending a crack up the crystal barrier.
Kira’s voice faded, her mouth still moving without making a sound. Her lips formed the words, “I’m sorry,” over and over.
Farn collapsed to her knees and threw her arms around the fairy just as the wall of the chamber gave way. Members of House Winter Moon poured in with Lady Amelia leading the charge. They stopped dead in their tracks at the scene before them.
Silence filled the city street as the buildings to
wered in the space, the sun above blacking out in sections of triangular darkness. Eventually, the light vanished altogether.
Farn filled the silence, her chest heaving as sobs wracked her body. Her tears soaked the front of Kira’s dress. She was gone. All that remained was an avatar.
A lifeless echo.
Back in Checkpoint headquarters. The last server running Kira’s program melted.
Chapter Sixty-Two
Wyatt fell out of bed, still feeling a lingering stiffness from whatever Nix had done to his brain to disrupt the control he had over his body. He ripped off his Somno unit and threw it to the side, not caring where it landed. It wasn’t important.
He scrambled over to the glass door where his best friend had greeted him every morning for the last year. He hoped he would make it to Seth before he did something stupid online as Kira. Wyatt had no idea what he could do for his friend, but for now, he just had to get to him.
Sliding the glass door open, Wyatt carefully hoisted himself up on to the railing and stepped across the gap between their balconies. He prayed that Seth had forgotten to lock his door and blew out a sigh of relief a moment later, finding it open a crack. Suddenly, the wood railing beneath his foot creaked, echoing into the night as he straddled the gap between their homes.
That was when he heard voices coming from inside Seth’s room.
“You hear that?” asked a man in a gruff but casual tone.
“Yeah, it came from the balcony,” answered another voice, this one sounding softer. “Check it out while I pack up this guy’s Somno.”
Footsteps came toward the door, sending a jolt of panic through Wyatt’s body. He pushed back to his balcony and ducked back into his room as quiet as he could. Dropping low, he peeked out just as a large man stepped out of Seth’s room.
He was huge.
Not so much tall, but thick, like every inch of him was covered with slabs of solid muscle. A strange mask covered his eyes. All black, save for a diamond over one eye like some kind of court jester. It struck Wyatt as odd when a simple ski-mask would have made more sense.