Oh man. He was about to fight a full-fledged Loric.
Why were they fighting? What the hell had gone down here?
Kopano didn’t know. He didn’t care. Five was going after Nigel. That made him an enemy.
With an unhinged scream, Five charged at them—flying, not on foot. Kopano and Ran spread out, trying to flank him. Ran launched two charged projectiles in Five’s direction, but he grabbed them with his telekinesis and redirected them at Kopano.
The two stones exploded right in front of Kopano’s face. He tightened his molecules so there wasn’t any pain, but the flash of light momentarily disoriented him.
“Kopano!” Ran shouted. “Ghost!”
Just as his vision cleared, Kopano saw Five flying right for him. Thanks to Ran, he was able to go transparent and avoid catching two of Five’s metal-plated fists to his chest. Hopefully, that would put Five off balance enough for them to counterattack.
Except Five kept going. Kopano wasn’t even his target.
It was the woman behind him. Kopano had barely registered her. Middle-aged, blond, a bloody nose. She’d just gotten back to her feet when Five loomed over her.
“Mom!” Nigel shouted.
Mom? Oh, damn.
“I brought this back for you!” Five snarled down at Nigel’s mom.
Then, he smashed a vial of black ooze across her face.
The trampled snow was cold against Taylor’s cheek. What had she been doing? Running towards something. But then she’d flipped up in the air, landed on her head, and . . .
It felt so, so good to rest after these last few days.
“Taylor! Taylor! Oh, you lazy shit, get up! Get up!”
Hands on her shoulders, shaking her. She blinked her eyes open and dazedly looked up.
“Isabela . . . ,” she said. “Hey.”
Her roommate slapped Taylor sharply on the cheek and the sting was enough to wake her up. She could still hear fighting, shouting, screaming.
So the battle hadn’t ended without her.
“He’ll kill them,” Isabela said quickly. “He’s crazy!”
Taylor scrambled to sit up. She looked across the field, saw Five soaring down to punch someone across the face.
Not someone. Kopano. Oh my God. Kopano and Ran.
“I have to help . . . ,” Taylor said, getting to her feet, intent to do whatever she could against the mad Loric.
“You have to heal him!” Isabela said, pointing towards where the snow was dark from an expanding pool of blood. “He can calm Five down!”
Taylor swallowed hard when she saw who Isabela was pointing at.
Einar.
Bea screamed and collapsed, clutching at her face. The black ooze seemed to be writhing of its own volition, worming its way into the tiny cuts caused when Five smashed the vial.
Ran grabbed Five with her telekinesis and yanked him away from Bea. He spun to face her, breathing hard, eyes wide. She recognized the look in his eyes.
Bloodlust.
He flew towards her, but she pushed at him with her telekinesis. Ran put up a wall of pure force. Five had to struggle to gain even an inch in her direction. She watched veins pop to life on his forehead, sweat beading on his face. He was coming.
Ran couldn’t hold him alone.
She didn’t have to.
A few yards away, Kopano pressed on Five with his own telekinesis. Nigel joined in, too. Together, the three of them had Five trapped in a box of telekinetic pressure. His every muscle was flexed and straining as he tried to move, flares of his own telekinesis causing the dirt and snow around his feet to churn.
Nigel took his eyes off Five for a moment, glancing at his mom, who was sitting on the ground, wiping that muck off her face and trembling. Gritting his teeth, he put a little extra force behind his telekinesis, hoping to break a few ribs.
Five still fought. Ran felt him pushing back against all of them, straining to be free. Out of the corner of her eye, she sensed movement. Taylor and Isabela. Doing something.
“What . . . ?” Kopano panted. “What do we do with him?”
“Hold him,” Ran said, through gritted teeth. “Until—”
An arm looped around Ran’s neck from behind, snuck under her chin, and cut off her air.
“Hell!” Nigel shouted, seeing Duanphen too late. “Ran! Watch out!”
Ran’s whole body arched as Duanphen sent electricity coursing through her.
Without Ran, Nigel and Kopano couldn’t maintain their grip on Five. He burst free and launched himself towards Nigel.
Taylor knelt over Einar. There was so much blood. The hole in the side of his neck was dark, the bullet having gone straight through. Einar’s eyes were glassy and empty. He stared up at the sky, unseeing.
She hesitated. Would it be so bad if he were dead? He was so pale. Taylor wasn’t sure there was even a spark left in him to rekindle.
Isabela touched Taylor’s shoulder. “Try,” she said. “We’ll need him.”
“Can’t believe I’m doing this,” Taylor muttered.
She placed her hand on Einar’s neck. His skin was deathly cold already.
Still, Taylor let her healing energy flow.
A strange memory returned to Ran as Duanphen’s electricity crackled through her.
She’d lost control of her Legacy once in Dr. Chen’s seminar. Accidentally, she had charged her desk to explode and then been forced to suck the concussive energy back in. That was the same technique she’d used to shock Nigel back to life in Iceland. Moving volatile energy from place to place, sparking molecules to life. Absorption, release, destruction.
She felt pain as Duanphen’s voltage streamed into her—pins and needles in her every nerve, spasms, blood in her mouth.
But she could take it, Ran realized. She could let the energy fill her.
“What . . . ?” Duanphen murmured in Ran’s ear, her grip loosening. “What are you doing?”
Ran didn’t exactly know. It was instinct. Duanphen’s shocking touch no longer hurt. Ran was feeding off it, soaking up the energy, letting it gather inside her.
Duanphen broke away from Ran and stumbled backwards. Ripples of currents still frolicked across Duanphen’s skin, but she wasn’t nearly as charged as she was a second ago. Ran had taken that from her.
Ran turned to face Duanphen, her fist crackling with electricity.
“This is yours,” Ran said.
She opened her palm and a bolt of lightning shot forth, all that electricity Duanphen had pumped into her let loose at once. The jagged streak hit Duanphen in the chest and left her a smoking heap, breathing but unconscious.
Ran had little time to celebrate her discovery. There was a sharp, sizzling pain in her temple. She went down to one knee and grabbed her head. The pain was coming from beneath the little scar where Walker’s people had inserted their Inhibitor chip.
It felt like something inside Ran had just burst.
Five’s hand wrapped tight around Nigel’s throat. Nigel looked up at the Loric boy, at his one eye and blemished face, and saw nothing but unfettered rage. He’d snapped. There was no reason in there.
With a mighty bellow, Kopano shoulder-blocked Five away from Nigel. The two of them got tangled up and rolled to the ground, punching each other, steel fists hitting unbreakable skin.
Kopano. God bless ’im. Always saving Nigel’s ass.
As they fought on the ground, Kopano snaked one of his hands up to press against the side of Five’s head. For the briefest of moments, it went transparent, Kopano’s fingers disappearing beneath Five’s steel carapace.
Five reeled backwards with a howl of pain, clutching at his face. “What did you do to me?”
Kopano, still on the ground, turned his head to yell towards the road. “Walker! Use my Inhibitor! WALKER! USE MY INHIBITOR!”
The second time Kopano screamed out his nonsense order to his mysterious ally, Nigel used his Legacy to augment the sound, make it carry. He couldn’t do much—beaten up and breath
less—but he could do that.
Suddenly, Five’s whole body jerked. He lost control of his Legacy, the steel skin turning back to soft, pink flesh. He fell to his hands and knees.
Kopano scrambled to his feet with a triumphant cheer. “It worked! I—”
Five stood back up. His head twitched back and forth, shaking off the debilitating shock from the Inhibitor that Kopano had snuck inside of him. Smoke rolled out of his mouth when he spoke, but the Beast was still standing.
“Always against me . . . always . . . even when I’m on the right side . . . ,” Five murmured, his words slurred. “Let me show you . . . show you what they . . . what they did to me.”
Kopano took a frightened step away. Nigel crab-walked backwards to put some distance between him and Five.
His skin changed. Not back to metal like before. The dark blemishes that covered his skin grew wet and expanded, spreading out to cover Five’s entire body, every inch of him now the same writhing black oil that he had smashed into Bea’s face.
Five held out one of his arms and tendrils snaked forth, writhing and snapping, towards Kopano’s face.
“ENOUGH!”
The needle-sharp tentacles stopped just in front of Kopano’s eye. Five froze.
Einar stood at the edge of the fray, pale as a ghost, his shirt soaked through with blood. Taylor and Isabela watched from a few steps behind him.
“Not that, Five,” Einar said, his voice hoarse, exhausted, like that yell had drained his last bit of energy. “Never that.”
Slowly, Five pulled back the oozing mass that was his arm. With an agonized groan, he changed his skin back to normal. Five looked as if he had to fight to do it, like his Legacy wasn’t working properly, like he needed to physically contract the dark patches back to their former size.
Einar focused on Five until his breathing slowed, until he unclenched his fists, until he fell to his knees.
“Calm . . . ,” Einar said. “You’re calm. It’s okay.”
“I’m sorry,” Five said, looking first at Kopano and then at Nigel. A tear streaked down his blood-crusted cheek. “I’m so sorry.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
THE AFTERMATH
ENGELBERG, SWITZERLAND
“I DID THIS TO BRING US TOGETHER,” EINAR said. “I never wanted us to fight.”
“Jesus, Einar,” Taylor replied. “Do you ever shut up?”
The small field at the foot of the Alps suddenly felt so peaceful. The sun had just dipped below the horizon, tinting the mountains a deep purple. The abandoned town with all its warm kitchens and empty beds seemed so inviting. Taylor just wanted to pop into one of those houses for a quick nap.
But then she heard the moans. She smelled the acrid smoke of Sydal’s burning aircraft.
No time to rest.
Isabela pulled on her arm. “Caleb’s hurt bad,” she said. “Those Earth Garde girls, too.”
Taylor’s whole body ached. She didn’t know how much energy she had left in her. Healing Einar had taken a lot out of her. She looked at him now, pale and shaky, like a strong breeze would knock him over. He’d need time to recover from the blood loss. They could take him down now, if they wanted.
She looked around. It seemed the fight had gone out of everyone.
“Show me,” Taylor said to Isabela, turning her back on Einar.
“You know I’m right, though,” Einar rasped at her back, a note of desperation in his voice. “They don’t care about us. The Academy can’t protect you from what’s coming.”
“Take your people and go,” Taylor said over her shoulder. “But don’t even think about touching Bea Barnaby. She’s our prisoner.”
Bea looked down at her hands. There were black worms writhing beneath her skin, digging their way towards her veins. The same thing was happening to her face, where Five had smashed her with the vial. It was truly disgusting.
Strange, then, that she didn’t feel ill. In fact, she felt more vibrant and healthy than she had in ages, even with the broken nose and assorted bumps and bruises.
“Hello.”
Bea looked up to find Kopano standing over her.
“I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Kopano,” he said. “I’ve gathered that you’re a bad person and part of the Foundation. But I wanted to tell you that your son, Nigel, is one of the best people I know. No thanks to you.”
Bea snorted but had no response. She looked back down at her hands.
“Also,” Kopano continued with a puffed-out chest, “by the power vested in me as a future member of Earth Garde, I hereby place you under arrest. If you tell us everything you know about your Foundation allies, maybe we’ll go easy on you.”
“Hello, mabudachi,” Ran said, plopping down in the mud and snow next to Nigel.
He smiled faintly at her arrival, but didn’t take his eyes off his mother. Nigel felt disgust just looking at her. He watched her over there, Kopano standing guard on her, and waited for Bea to pull one last trick.
Bea’s shoulders were slumped. Kopano helped her to her feet and then walked her over to where Walker kept watch on the Blackstone mercenaries. She didn’t even glance over her shoulder to look for Nigel.
Bea was done. They’d gotten her.
Nigel let out a shaky sigh and rested his head on Ran’s shoulder.
“Getting bloody embarrassing,” Nigel said. “Needing you and Kopano to save me on every mission.”
She rubbed his back. “Your moment will come.”
Nigel hiccupped. He pressed his eyes against Ran’s arm so no one would see the tears. Especially not Bea.
“I always said I hated both of ’em, you know? But I didn’t hate them, not really,” Nigel said, the words pouring out of him after days, maybe weeks, maybe years of bottling it up. “I just wanted them to be better parents. I wanted them not to hate me. And now . . . now I find out they’re monsters. They’re the actual monsters I always pretended they were and I still . . . I still can’t hate her. What am I supposed to do with that, Ran?”
Ran wiped his cheeks. “We must be better than them,” she said. “That is all you can do.”
Nigel sniffed and looked up at her. “Anyway, that’s what’s new with me. The hell happened with you?”
She touched her temple. “Too much to say, but, Nigel . . .”
There was movement over at the road. Walker and Kopano having words. That ended with Kopano turning his back on Walker and jogging over to where Taylor was healing the Earth Garde members. As Ran watched, Walker waved in Ran’s direction, sending Rabiya over towards her and Nigel.
“Holy shit,” Nigel said, noticing the teleporter for the first time. “Where’d she come from?”
“Listen to me, Nigel,” Ran said hurriedly, ignoring his question. “You are my best friend. I care about you deeply. Please remember that.”
“Ran, what’re you on about?”
Before she could answer, Rabiya was in front of them. In her hijab and dress, without even the least bit of blood on her, the girl seemed too clean for this mess.
“Walker wants to talk to you,” Rabiya said dryly, clearly letting Ran know she was just the messenger.
Ran tossed her arm around Nigel’s neck and squeezed him in a hug. Then, she stood up.
“Right,” Nigel said, rubbing his hands across his face. “I’m just going to rest here a bit and contemplate my messed-up origin, if that’s bloody okay with everyone.”
Ran allowed herself a brief smile before narrowing her eyes at Rabiya. “Let’s go.”
Moments later, she stood in front of Walker. The agent nodded across the field, where Einar was walking slowly back towards the Skimmer, rubbing his neck like he could still feel the bullet hole. Five was at his side, carrying the unconscious but alive Duanphen.
“There goes our target,” Walker said.
“You expect me to go after him?” Ran asked. “Take on Number Five again?”
“I don’t want you to get yourself killed,” Walker replied. “But I w
as hoping you’d have an idea.”
“Kopano put his Inhibitor inside Five,” Ran said. “Why don’t you try shocking him? You’re fond of that.”
Walker took her cell phone out of her pocket and opened the program that controlled the Inhibitors. “The thing’s gone offline. They don’t exactly work right when you just jam them in someone’s head.”
Ran nodded, watching Walker closely. “What about mine?” she asked. “I felt something during the fight when that girl shocked me. It felt like an explosion in my head.”
Walker glanced down at her phone again. Ran saw it then—a shadow across the agent’s face, a flicker of fear. She made a point of looking Ran right in the eyes.
“Nothing has changed with yours,” Walker said. “It’s fine.”
She was lying. Ran could tell.
It was just like she thought. Duanphen had short-circuited her Inhibitor.
Ran turned to gaze across the battlefield, watching Einar and Five as they neared their ship.
“Perhaps,” Ran said, “we should live to fight another day.”
Taylor held Caleb’s face in her hands. She was pretty sure she’d fixed his broken jaw, but he was just staring up at her, giving no indication that she should take her hands away and stop pumping healing energy into him.
“Caleb?” she asked, finally. “Can you talk?”
“Oh,” he said, working his mouth around, testing. “Yeah, guess I can. You done?”
Taylor smirked. “Been done for like a minute.” She let her hands drop away and Caleb sat up. “I thought what you did was pretty brave, by the way.”
“You did?”
“You stood up to Einar and Five, tried to save lives,” Taylor replied. “I think that’s what we’re supposed to be all about.”
“I thought it was stupid,” Isabela put in, peering at Caleb over Taylor’s shoulder.
Taylor turned around to reply sharply, but instead her face split into a grin.
Kopano bounded towards her.
He scooped her up in a bear hug and spun her around, her legs flailing. Despite the chaos of the last hour and the exhaustion she felt, Taylor found herself laughing. She grabbed Kopano’s face and kissed him.
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