Return to Zero

by Pittacus Lore

  It was Ran who finally said it out loud. “When we get to Lucas, what do we do with him?”

  “He needs to be stopped,” Isabela said.

  “And how do we accomplish that?” Ran asked. “Specifically?”

  Five grunted. “Fine. I’ll be the one that say it. We kill him.”

  Ran peered down at Five, keeping her expression neutral. “He is confused. Damaged. Does that make him a monster? Should we be the ones who decide that there’s no saving him?”

  Five met her gaze for a moment, then looked away. Ran honestly wasn’t sure about the answers to her own questions. She hadn’t made up her own mind about what to do with the deranged son of the Harvesters.

  Isabela didn’t waffle. “Piss on that. I’ve seen his mind, Ran. There’s no saving this one.”

  “I agree with Isabela,” Duanphen said weakly.

  “He’s got an Inhibitor inside him and he can’t jump into my duplicates,” Caleb said. “We could contain him. Take him prisoner.”

  Isabela leaned away from Caleb. “And what if he escapes? Then whoever he hurts next will be on us.”

  Einar pinched the bridge of his nose. “I made a pledge not to hurt any of our kind. But Lucas . . . I don’t know.”

  “Where does it stop?” Ran asked. “When do we become no better than those we’re fighting against?”

  Another strong gust of wind caused the skimmer to sway back and forth. Five stood up and went to the controls, not looking in Ran’s direction. Isabela came to sit next to Duanphen to make sure she didn’t fall asleep. Einar took his tablet back from Ran and left the cockpit. Caleb leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, his legs bouncing restlessly. Ran stood there, waiting.

  No one had an answer for her.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  ON THE EVE OF BATTLE

  THE HUMAN GARDE ACADEMY—POINT REYES, CALIFORNIA

  “I’M SORRY,” TAYLOR SAID. “MY OLD ROOMMATE would’ve been much better at this.”

  Taylor held up a mirror so that Vontezza could examine her handiwork. It had taken no small amount of concealer and blush to put some color into Vontezza’s face, the makeup not easy to apply by candlelight and with Vontezza constantly flinching away from her brush. Now, the Mogadorian sneered at her own reflection and swatted the mirror away.

  “Disgusting,” Vontezza said. “I look like a clown.”

  From the couch on the opposite side of the pod, Kopano laughed. Taylor turned away from Vontezza to glare at him. This whole ordeal was his fault, volunteering Taylor to teach a Mogadorian to put on makeup. Like she didn’t have enough problems.

  Catching Taylor’s glare, Kopano raised his hands. “I’m sorry. I should’ve known you wouldn’t be good at makeup, being such a natural beauty yourself.”

  Taylor groaned at his clumsy attempt at a save. So did Rabiya, who’d been observing the whole makeup demonstration from the doorway of her room.

  Vontezza rubbed both her hands across her face, which only made matters worse. Taylor cringed and Rabiya stifled a laugh. Sensing them watching her, Vontezza stood up abruptly and marched to the bathroom.

  “This is idiotic,” she growled. She grabbed the front of the flannel shirt she’d donned instead of her armor and twisted it. “These clothes are useless, too. I hate this planet.”

  Maybe she was exhausted from the last few days. Maybe it was being in her dorm room where she’d shared so many memories with Ran and Isabela. But the more agitated Vontezza got, the funnier the situation became. Taylor found herself loosening up for the first time in a while.

  “I hate this planet,” Taylor repeated, hiding a laugh as she flopped down on the couch next to Kopano.

  “Be careful,” Kopano said in a stage whisper. “If you make her really angry, she’ll make you hit her with a mace.”

  Vontezza didn’t hear them. She was too busy savagely scrubbing at her face with soap and water.

  At first, Taylor had been annoyed that Kopano volunteered her untrained makeover services to Vontezza. But now, she felt grateful for the distraction. She leaned against Kopano and he put his arm around her.

  “You’ve got a big heart,” she said, feeling suddenly sincere in her loopy state. “You’re like pathologically determined to help everyone you come in contact with. Even Mogadorians.”

  “Isn’t that why we’re here?” Kopano asked. “But yes, you’re right. I am great.”

  Taylor laughed softly and leaned up to kiss his cheek. She sensed Rabiya disappear back into her room at that point and felt kind of bad for the PDA. But oh well. This might be their last night on campus and this was her room. She’d grab any moment of happiness she could.

  Vontezza emerged from the bathroom with her hair down, the massive braid unraveled into a wavy curtain of black that fell to her hips. She pushed it to one side so that it covered her tattoos.

  “My people lived among Earth’s population for years,” she said. “It should not be so difficult to blend in.”

  “That was when no one knew that Mogadorians existed,” Kopano replied.

  “There was a teacher at my school with dark hair and a pale complexion,” Taylor said, remembering. “Someone keyed his car after the invasion.”

  “Because he was Mogadorian?” Vontezza asked.

  “No, obviously not,” Taylor replied. “Just because he looked like one of you.”

  Vontezza stared at her blankly. “I don’t understand the point of your story, blond one. I am a trueborn, not some weak teacher. And I don’t own a car.”

  Taylor sighed, leaning against Kopano. “You’re fun to have around.”

  “No,” Vontezza replied. “I am not.”

  Rabiya emerged from her room and tossed a bundle of clothes to Vontezza. The Mogadorian snapped them out of the air like a knife had been thrown at her.

  “Try that on,” Rabiya said.

  Vontezza untangled the clothes and held them out in front of her. A dark blue hijab and matching scarf.

  “Not that wearing a hijab is inconspicuous in this country,” Rabiya said. “But at least they won’t be able to tell you’re Mogadorian.”

  “Yes,” Vontezza replied as she pulled her head into the garment and then carefully began stuffing her hair inside. “This is acceptable.”

  “Good idea,” Taylor said to Rabiya.

  “Yeah,” Rabiya replied, looking away from her and Kopano. “Thanks.”

  The door to the pod cracked open and Nigel poked his head inside. He did a double take when he first spotted Rabiya standing in the doorway to Ran’s old room, then scowled and looked at Taylor.

  “Right,” Nigel said by way of greeting. “Everyone’s meeting at the student union. You ready?”

  Taylor eased herself out from under Kopano’s arm. It was nice while it lasted.

  “I’m ready.”

  When they ran out of candles and battery-powered flashlights, the Academy students made torches. They cut green branches from the trees, wrapped cotton gym shirts around their ends, dipped them in kerosene and let Omar breathe on them. The pathway from the dorms to the student union was lit by a row of these and Kopano couldn’t help but smile at his classmates’ ingenuity. He pulled one of the torches out of the ground and carried it, waving the flame back and forth in front of him.

  “Careful with that,” Nigel said.

  “This is very cool, don’t you think?” Kopano asked. “Like a movie.”

  “We’re under siege, mate. But I’m glad you’re having fun.”

  Kopano squinted towards the student union. He could see shadows milling around in there, all the remaining students and instructors left on campus—except for the handful that had drawn guard duty at the barricade. He smelled hamburgers and hot dogs.

  “Yeah, maybe we’re in trouble,” Kopano replied to Nigel, patting his smaller friend’s bony shoulder. “But don’t you feel it? We are together. We’re going to win.”

  Taylor glanced over her shoulder at them. “Is he being irrationally positiv
e again?”

  “You know it,” Nigel replied. “Kopano, when they drilled that Inhibitor into your head were you like ‘Oi, this is great, it don’t hurt near as much as I thought it would!’”

  Kopano grinned. “That does sound like me!”

  They were making fun of him, but Kopano could sense that his positivity was working. He saw how Nigel’s posture straightened and how Taylor walked a little taller. They knew he was right.

  As they neared the student union, they bumped into John and Nine heading in the same direction.

  “You ready to inspire everyone?” Nine asked Taylor.

  “You sure you don’t want to do the talking?” she replied.

  “Better coming from you, I think,” Nine answered. “I’d probably just curse a bunch.”

  “I could say something, if you want,” John put in.

  Taylor hesitated. “Honestly, it’s probably better if you just stand there and look, uh—”

  “Silently handsome,” Nigel supplied.

  “Sure,” Taylor continued. “That. People are comfortable knowing you’re here. It makes them feel safe. But when it comes to talking about our situation, I think that should come from one of us. Maybe once I get them used to the idea, you can jump in.”

  “Makes sense,” John replied, holding the student union door open for them. As Taylor entered, Kopano noticed how John looked at her. He wasn’t leering or checking her out—it was worse than that. John looked at Taylor the same way that Kopano often felt himself looking at Taylor. With a mixture of admiration and longing. Kopano’s smile faltered just a bit.

  As he was last through the door, Kopano put a hand on John’s shoulder. “Do you have a girlfriend back in India, John Smith?”

  “No. Not exactly,” John said, giving Kopano a weird look. “I had a—well, I had something for a while, but it didn’t work out. It’s, uh . . . it’s complicated.”

  “Compli—oof—”

  Before Kopano could get out his follow-up question, Nicolas Lambert bumped shoulders with him. The student union was packed, so Nic had an excuse, but Kopano could tell he’d done it on purpose. John didn’t notice and was actually probably relieved to get away from Kopano anyway. Nic shot Kopano a look, then went to stand with Anika and Maiken.

  Nigel sidled up next to Kopano, staring down Nic. “Prick’s got it out for you because you stood up for the Mog girl,” he said. Kopano had told Nigel about the incident earlier and seen the anger flare in his roommate’s eyes. No one hated bullies more than his British friend.

  Kopano shook his head, grateful at the moment that Vontezza had volunteered to prowl the woods on the Academy’s perimeter rather than attend the torchlit assembly.

  “He’ll get over it,” Kopano said. “What’s he going to do? Bump my shoulder and mean-mug me? I can handle that.”

  “That’s just how shitheads like that get started,” Nigel responded grimly. “Might need to nip it in the bud if we want a proper unified front.”

  “It’s okay,” Kopano said with a wave of his hand. “Let it go.”

  Nigel’s eyes narrowed and continued to track Nicolas. Kopano took a deep breath and turned his attention elsewhere. Miki stood with his old friends in the tweebs, nodding encouragingly as one of them demonstrated a tiny spark jumping from his fingernail—a newly discovered Legacy. The remaining faculty, including Malcolm and Dr. Chen, were gathered on the second level, watching the students from above. Kopano did a quick head count. There were about a dozen teachers up there, less than a quarter of their original number. Still, not bad. He respected them for sticking it out.

  Everyone was together. Unified. Kopano thought that was awesome. He spread his arms out, put one around Nigel and the other around Simon who happened to be standing next to him, and squeezed.

  “This is what we’ve been training for,” Kopano declared. “It might feel like we’re in trouble, like this is an end—but it’s not. This is the start.”

  “Okay, mate,” Nigel replied, patting his back. “Calm down.”

  The room fell respectfully quiet when Taylor climbed onto a table in the center. The torches cast dramatic shadows across her face as she looked around at the assembled students, trying to make eye contact with as many of them as possible. Kopano had told her to do that. Eye contact and good posture, he’d told her. She’d rolled her eyes, of course, but he was used to that.

  “Today, I told representatives from the UN what we expect from them,” Taylor said. She spoke normally, but her voice carried well. That was Nigel’s doing. “I told them that we refuse to let them put Inhibitors in us. I told them that we want a bigger say in what kind of missions we’re assigned to once we graduate from the Academy.” She glanced up at the balcony and nodded at Professor Nine. “I told them that we want to be represented by people we trust, who have our best interests at heart.”

  “And then they turned our power off,” Maiken said. Some students grumbled in response.

  “Yeah, they told me this isn’t a negotiation,” Taylor replied. “They don’t care about what we want. We pissed them off by ignoring them today. I’ve got it on pretty good authority that tomorrow, they’re going to try to remove us by force.”

  An anxious murmur went through the crowd. Kopano noted a lot of nervous glances between students. However, just as many of his classmates appeared to steel themselves at the news.

  “I know it feels like us against the world right now,” Taylor continued. “But that’s not true. Not everyone at the UN is bad. Look up at the gallery—” She gestured to where Dr. Chen and the remaining instructors stood. “There are people within these walls that agree with us and believe in the Garde. Before they turned off our power, I saw people on the news arguing on our behalf.”

  “There were just as many saying we should be locked up,” Simon murmured. Kopano frowned at him.

  “I want to believe that people are good,” Taylor said. “I want to believe that the UN will come to their senses. But until that happens . . . we fight.”

  Another ripple went through the room. Kopano felt his classmates squeeze in a little closer.

  “We don’t want to hurt any of the Peacekeepers. But we’re going to defend ourselves,” Taylor’s voice got a little louder, a little harder. “We’re going to show them that we won’t be pushed around.”

  “Hell yeah!” someone yelled, Kopano wasn’t sure who. He was more focused on a couple of tweebs at the back of the room, neither of them older than thirteen, the two of them huddled together and looking near tears.

  “I know this is asking a lot,” Taylor went on, softening her tone now. “Some of you are a million miles from home. You already miss your families and your old lives. And now I’m up here asking you to basically become outlaws.” She shook her head. “It’s crazy, I know. If you told me when I first came to this Academy that one day I’d be giving a speech like this, I probably would’ve peed my pants a little.”

  Some light laughter from the crowd. Taylor let that subside before going on.

  “Maybe, you’re thinking, the deal the UN is offering doesn’t sound so bad. They say they’ll only use the Inhibitors as a last resort. You’re a good person. They won’t ever need to shock you or control you.” She pointed towards the doors of the student union and the dark night beyond. “We aren’t going to stop anyone from leaving and joining them. I wouldn’t hold it against anyone that wants to play it safe, that doesn’t want to take the risk.”

  Taylor paused, as if she was waiting for someone to make a break for the door. Everyone looked around, eyeing each other, waiting for the same thing. No one walked out.

  “But if you are considering that, let me tell you about a healer that I met when the Foundation first kidnapped me,” Taylor said. “His name was Bunji, although he couldn’t tell me that himself because Bunji couldn’t speak. He’d been shocked so many times by an early version of the Inhibitor that he was basically a vegetable. His Legacies still worked, though. There was a woman with him—a n
urse, maybe, or one of these people they’re trying to pass off as a Cêpan—and she could get Bunji to use his healing Legacy. They had him trained for that. He wasn’t a person anymore. He was a means to an end.”

  Kopano had heard that story before and still his stomach turned at the thought. Looking around, he could tell the story had a similar effect on many of his classmates.

  “They did that to a healer,” Taylor continued, her voice low. The flickering torchlight made Kopano think of telling ghost stories. “Not someone with a dangerous Legacy. Just someone that didn’t listen. Someone that wouldn’t do what they asked. Can we really trust that won’t happen to us? Shouldn’t we have a say in how we live our lives and use our Legacies?”

  The murmurs of agreement were stronger now. Kopano smiled fiercely. No one was looking at the door anymore.

  “Maybe you’ve noticed I keep saying the UN instead of Earth Garde,” Taylor said, her voice rising again. She was good at this. “They make Earth Garde sound so great, right? Try really hard at the Academy and one day you’ll get to wear a cool uniform and hang out with Melanie Jackson.” Taylor snorted. “There’s three Garde out there with the Peacekeepers that claim to represent Earth Garde. One of them is Melanie. One of them is a girl who used to work for the Foundation. The other’s a total dunce. Just three. How many of us are there?” Taylor looked pointedly around the room. Then, she pointed up to Nine and John. “How many of the Loric are out there? None. And how many are in here?”

  Taylor paused, her lips compressed, her eyes narrowed. Her angry face. Her determined face.

  “Earth Garde isn’t out there,” Taylor said. “They don’t get to call themselves that. Earth Garde is right here. It’s us. We are Earth Garde.”

  “Damn right,” Nigel yelled. “We are Earth Garde!”

  Kopano joined in. “We are Earth Garde!”

  Maiken. Simon. Miki. “We are Earth Garde!”