by Scott Wilson
“Everything you told us … was a lie?”
“Sorry, Blondie. Like I said, I’m not good at lying. The Iltech Apocalypse, the Apostles, everything out of my mouth was the honest truth. Aside from a few things, of course.”
“But … why?” Caden asked.
Jadice groaned. “I don’t have to tell you anything. Now excuse me, I have work to do.”
Jadice turned to walk away. Caden knew his only chance to stop her was to stall as long as possible and prevent her from doing whatever she had planned.
“I’ll bet you … don’t even have a reason,” he yelled as loud as he could. “Or you’re just doing it because you want to open me up … and use me in experiments, like the Nobodies’ parents.”
Jadice stopped. She stomped back to Caden, slammed her foot onto his back, and blasted him with another jolt of electricity. Sharp heat seared through Caden, inside and out, tossing him around like a helpless doll as he screamed.
Finally, when it seemed Jadice had her fill, she stopped. Smoke poured off Caden. His vision was blurry. He felt like he was smoldering over a pit of embers. Jadice gave him a kick and he rolled over onto his back, looking up at her.
“I’ll tell you why I need to destroy you,” she said. “It’s simple, really. Remember the whole ‘meaning of life’ thing I told you and your brat friend? I lied about something. I do know what the meaning of life is. I do know what humanity discovered two hundred years ago. And it’s horrible.”
Even in his barely-conscious state, Caden could sense the fear in Jadice’s voice. She was telling the truth.
“I devoted my life to rebelling against the meaning of life that humanity had discovered. But when I saw what the Apostles were doing, trying to find you so they could make the same mistake humanity had made in the past, I was disgusted.”
“They just want … to talk to Metl,” Caden said through pained breaths. “They just want … me to help them.”
Jadice laughed. “Is that what Father Yohan told you? All the Church wants is power, Blondie. They want to know how to create their own Iltech Apocalypse whenever they want, so no one would ever be able to disobey them. And the blueprints are inside of you.”
“You’re lying,” Caden eked out.
Jadice shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Metl is headed toward Earth because of you. The Church wants to control that power; I want you destroyed so no one can have it. Therefore, you and anyone who gets in my way needs to die.”
Caden expected Jadice to walk toward him and deliver the final blow, but her footsteps receded. She leaped off the stage and unleashed a burst of electricity onto Father Yohan, sending him flying up onto the stage, slamming down with a thud next to Caden. Burns covered his skin, and his head rolled over to look at Caden.
“Run …” he gasped. Before another word escaped out of his mouth, Jadice propelled herself into the air using her water jets and landed on his back, discharging another barrage of lightning through him. This time, his eyes stopped moving and his body went limp.
“You killed him,” Caden gasped.
“It seems I did, yes. I need his angel weapon if I’m going to destroy you before Metl hits us, and I don’t think he’d let me borrow it otherwise.”
“But why …?” Caden asked. “If you wanted to destroy me, all this time, why didn’t you just do it?”
“Because I couldn’t!” Jadice snapped. “What could I do? Drown you with water? Electrify you? Please. I know you better than that. It might hurt your human parts, sure, but it would do nothing to your Iltech parts, the part that truly matters.”
“To destroy you, I needed something more powerful. I thought I could just get something from Clops to do the job, but then I saw the other Apostles there after you. I had to do something quick, so I promised Clops some angel weapon blueprints for the self-destruct codes. As soon as I got them, I drowned him and set the timer, barely escaping before it went off.
“I didn’t want to kill Clops and destroy the Basement, but it’d be worth it to take care of you. But when I saw Metl still up there, still getting closer, I knew you were still alive. And with the Basement gone, there was only one other way in this Gotama-forsaken town that I could destroy you—turning you to dust with Two’s power.”
Fear spread through Caden as he realized what Jadice meant. “You’re going to steal Father Yohan’s angel weapon?”
“Exactly,” she said. “Just like I stole the angel weapon from my old partner, Eleven. I knew he wouldn’t be too keen on me rebelling against the Apostles, so I drowned him in his sleep. He gave me these scars, but I’d say I got an even trade, wouldn’t you?” She stood on her heels and showed the ripped bottoms of her boots to Caden. Bright yellow Xs glowed inside the soles. “And once I have Two’s time angel weapon inside me, I’ll finally have something that can destroy you.”
“This whole time,” Caden said, “it wasn’t Eleven chasing us? It was you?”
“Yes, yes,” Jadice said distractedly. She crouched down and picked up Father Yohan’s hand, revealing his palm. The X that had been glowing white before was now transparent like foggy glass. “But enough talking. Metl’s getting too close for comfort. I’ll rip the weapon out of this old man, take care of you and your stupid friend, and send Metl back into the sky where it belongs.”
Jadice gripped the colorless X on Father Yohan’s palm, ready to pull it off. Caden knew he had to do something. If Jadice was right and destroying him would stop Metl, then so be it, but he had to stop her from hurting anyone else first. He could sense a little of his energy coming back. If he could just use his angel weapon one last time.
There was a crash from across the hall. One of the stained-glass ant windows shattered, and standing silhouetted against the red and orange sunrise sky were two figures in white masks and black cloaks—Five and Six.
“The Betrayer!” Five yelled. He brandished the gray Xs on his palms at Jadice. She jumped to her feet and kicked a fury of lightning toward the window. Thunder erupted in the hall, but Five grabbed hold of Six and jumped to the floor just in time.
“Well if it isn’t Smiley and his little pet Frowny,” Jadice cackled. “Come to try and stop me? I’d like to see you try.”
Even from far away, Caden could see that Five was still hurting from the magnetizer wound earlier. He limped as he ran along the wall, pressing one of his hands against his leg and holding out the other toward Jadice, exposing the gray X.
The pews on Five’s side of the church shook and cracked out of their fastenings on the wooden floor. They careened through the air right toward Jadice, but she was ready. She held up her hands and summoned a wave of water out of her palms that pushed the pews back where they came from, landing on the floor with a deafening crash.
“How can you use two angel weapons?” Five yelled from across the room. “No human is capable of holding more than one!”
“If you’re going to try and distract me from your pet,” Jadice shouted, “then you’re going to have to try harder than that.”
She thrust out her palm to the side and let out a blast of water that reached the front pew, where Six had been hiding with her purple Xs out. The water jet smacked her in the face, knocking her backward over the rows of seats.
“Six!” Five called. Jadice laughed.
“Trying to poison me, eh? Nice try. I’m looking forward to adding both of your angel weapons to my collection when I’m done with you.”
As Jadice hurled another wave of water across the room, Caden found the strength to push himself up. It was like he was fighting against ropes tying him to the floor. When he finally stood, he looked at his arms for the first time. His skin was red with black scars running down. It burned like hot sandpaper all over.
Jadice let loose another blast of water at Five. He was already drenched and breathless from the previous wave, but he held out his palms and somehow managed to stop the torrent of water midair. It hovered there for a moment and then
surged back toward Jadice. She tried to stop it, but she was too late. The wall of water crashed into her, knocked her off the stage, and soaked the entire front of the hall.
“Caden!” Five yelled. He hobbled over with his one good leg and hoisted himself onto the stage. “We need to leave. Come, there’s an exit in the back, through the staircase.”
He gripped Caden’s arm and started off to the door, but Caden didn’t move.
“I can’t leave … without my friends.”
“We don’t have any choice,” Five said. “You’re too important to risk losing. You’re the only one who can save the world.”
Save the world. Destroy the world. Caden was sick of hearing it. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know what or who to believe anymore. Was Five telling the truth? Was Jadice telling the truth? Was Father Yohan telling the truth? Who could he believe? Caden looked over to Deber, still unconscious on the ground. The satchel with his father’s photo inside hung around her neck. The words written on the back of it hit Caden.
“I’ll always love you.”
There was only one person Caden could trust, and he had no idea where he was.
“I just want … to find my dad,” Caden said.
Five stopped and looked at Caden with the hollow eyes in his smiling mask. “Your father, Caden,” he said. “He’s—”
A single bolt of lightning cracked into Five’s stomach. It ripped through his soaking wet cloak and brought him to the ground, trembling. Jadice water-jetted her way back onto the stage.
“You want to know about your father, Blondie?” she snarled. “I’ll tell you about your father. He’s dead.”
Caden’s heart stopped. “No … that’s not true.”
“Oh, yes it is, and believe me, there’s no one happier about it than me. I knew your father back when we were kids, living here in Salem. He thought he was so great, even back then, always tinkering with Iltech and inventing things … things that should never be invented. Everyone in the Basement loved him, but I was the only one who saw him for what he really was: a mad scientist, one who didn’t care who or what got hurt so long as he got what he wanted.
“He showed his true colors when we accidentally learned the meaning of life. Instead of being shocked and horrified like I was, like any decent human being should be, he was in awe. He wanted nothing more than to try and achieve humanity’s purpose, just like they’d failed at two-hundred years ago. He couldn’t see past his own arrogance to the danger right in front of him.
“And then he created you. You were the creation he was most proud of. All these years, I thought he’d just created a weapon, but no, he created a little version of himself. The narcissist. When I first saw you yesterday, all I could see was him—the blond hair, the gangly body. He even gave you his own stupid name. I couldn’t bring myself to spit it out. It was like he was there in front of me again. Your dad was nothing more than a power-hungry psychopath who died to create you. And now, once I destroy you, I’ll erase any evidence that he ever existed.”
Caden gripped his fists so hard he was shaking. He couldn’t feel the burns on his skin anymore, only the anger pumping through his veins.
“You’re lying!” he shouted.
Jadice grinned. “Like I said, Blondie, I’m terrible at lying. Now, let me show you what happens when an angel weapon is removed from a living human.”
She pounced on top of Five and yanked his arm up. He groaned as she gripped the glowing gray X on his palm, ready to pull it out.
bzzt!
A blast rang through the hall. Jadice let go of Five’s hand and fell to the floor, like she’d suddenly lost balance. Caden immediately saw the reason why: one of her legs was missing.
Dom stood right outside the door they’d entered the stage from, dressed in his Holy Police outfit, pointing his brother’s magnet-bow at Jadice. Attached to the silver tip was one of her legs, as if it had been sucked right off her. But there was no blood. The only thing sticking out of the thigh was wires. Jadice lay on the stage, groaning in pain. More wires hung out of her right leg stump, and little sparks of electricity popped off the frayed ends.
Dom ripped Jadice’s leg off his magnet-bow and pointed it at Caden. “What the steel is going on here?”
Caden tried to speak, but he couldn’t. Jadice was part robot … is that how she had two angel weapons? It didn’t even matter. She may have been defeated, but the world was still going to end. He’d tried every way to stop it and failed. He’d tried to find his dad and failed. He’d tried to join the Apostles and failed. There was only one way left to stop Metl.
“Dom!” Caden shouted. “I need you to destroy me.”
Dom looked taken aback. He lowered the magnet-bow. “What are you talking about?”
“Please! Destroying me is the only way to stop Metl and—”
Lightning jolted out of Jadice’s fallen leg, knocking Dom to the ground. Tendrils of electricity flew through the air, connecting Jadice’s stump to her leg, summoning it back to her body. She stood up, and the leg reassembled with her torso, still sparking where the two were connected.
“What are you?” Caden demanded.
Jadice gave him a disgusted look. “Don’t you dare say that to me! I’m a human, unlike whatever freak you are. I just needed to make some … adjustments to my body to accomplish what I needed. I’m glad to hear you’ve accepted your fate though. Now stay put while I destroy you and your annoying friends.”
Caden couldn’t let that happen. He wasn’t going to let anyone else get hurt because of him. Summoning what little energy he had left, he marched toward Jadice.
“Still got some fight left in you?” she snickered. “Here, this should put an end to that.”
She kicked toward Caden and stuck out her palm, unleashing a torrent of water and lightning together. The power of both knocked him to the ground, sucking the life out of him, drowning and burning him at the same time. Caden lay there, wet and sizzling, unable to move. Unable to breathe. He couldn’t think. His vision went dim, then dark, then black.
A metallic voice went off in the back of his head.
“devil mode activated.”
Suddenly Caden was no longer lying on the ground. Just as when he’d drowned, it was as if strings pulled him up, standing to face Jadice. When she saw him, her eyes widened in shock.
“That should’ve rendered you unconscious,” she grumbled. “Here, have a taste of Nephilia!”
She let loose with a waterspout as thick as a house. The head was shaped like a sea serpent laced with lightning, thunder booming as it roared. Caden merely extended his arm, sending the electric-water serpent crashing against the church wall. Jadice gaped at him in horror.
“Impossible …” she gasped. She took another deep breath and a shield of electricity surrounded her, growing larger every second. It engulfed Caden, but he felt nothing. The electricity was like air flowing past him. Without thinking, without feeling anything, he walked up to her, held out his palm, and raised her into the air, immobilizing and choking her. The electricity shield disappeared as she struggled to breathe.
“Is that all you’ve got?” Caden heard himself say.
With the flick of his other hand, Caden sent Jadice’s right leg flying through a stained-glass window. Another flick and her left leg was out another. All that was left was her upper body, hovering in the air, sparks flying from her metallic thigh stubs.
“Caden …” she panted. “Please …”
Caden tossed her toward the biggest glass window in the church, right at the front of the hall. She crashed through it, shattering the rainbow-colored ant into a million pieces, and disappeared into the bright outside.
As soon as she was gone, Caden fell to the floor on his knees. Suddenly all of the pain he should’ve been feeling was back, rippling through him like he was being crushed from the inside-out.
“devil mode deactivated.”
With that voice, Caden
collapsed. He couldn’t move, only shudder uncontrollably as the pain worked through him. At the front of the hall there were bangs against the giant entrance doors. A mob outside in the square was trying to get in. The door was barricaded with a long wooden plank, but that wouldn’t last long against the entire population of Salem.
“Caden!”
It was Annika. Caden could just barely make her out through his blurry, shaking vision. She crouched over him, one hand pressing against her side in pain, the other clutching her magnetizer.
“Caden, we have to hurry!” she said. “We need to get Father Yohan back upstairs to heal you and my mom and everyone else!”
Caden could only barely process her words. Father Yohan. Heal. Mom.
“H-he’s … d-dead …” Caden spluttered. Annika looked over and saw for herself. Father Yohan lay still on the stage, the color drained from his skin and angel Xs.
“Annika … p-please,” Caden begged. “I need you … to d-do what you … p-promised.”
Caden knew they didn’t have long. Metl was almost here. While he was still in control of himself, while there was still time, he needed Annika to destroy him.
Annika understood immediately. She looked at her magnetizer, for the first time not with excitement, but horror.
Up to this point she’d used it to protect herself and Caden. Now, she had to use it to destroy him.
Slowly, Annika stood and aimed the magnetizer at Caden. Her trembling finger powered it on, then pressed “nine.”
Caden closed his eyes. So, this is how it ends, he thought to himself. He got to save the world, though not quite how he’d planned. At least no one else will get hurt, he reassured himself. Maybe it won’t even hurt him either.
But nothing happened. Caden waited. And waited. He finally opened his quivering eyes and saw Annika standing over him, crying. She was still pointing the magnetizer’s green light at his chest, her finger shaking over “enter.”
“I … I can’t do it!” she said through tears. “I’m sorry, Caden. I just … I can’t!”
Caden wanted to rip the magnetizer out of her hands and do it himself, but he was too weak. Behind them was a crunching sound—cracks in the front doors. There was another crash and a log the size of a tree rammed through the doors, punching a hole big enough for the townspeople outside to start rushing into the church.