Stendeval surprised Jack by laughing. “This isn’t fate. It’s chance. You came into Jack’s life by accident. You may be partly responsible for making him what he is, but you’re not ready for what he’s going to become. And it isn’t just Jack you’ve underestimated . . . you’ve misjudged the strength of all my people. We’re not going to make it easy for you. If you want to win this war, you’re going to have to come down to our level. You’re going to have to get your hands dirty.”
The Magus leaned into Stendeval’s face with a look of death. “That sounds like an invitation. Consider it accepted.” The Magus raised up his arms and dropped to the floor in a heap. The guards thrust Stendeval forward at him.
“Stendeval!” Jack shouted. He knew what was coming next. The Magus’s hostless form crawled out from beneath his robes and snapped its claws. The rusty metal scorpion shot up Stendeval’s leg, climbed onto his back, and latched on. Just like the last time Jack saw this happen, there was nothing he could do to stop it. He could barely move. He was still in agony, still fighting off Khalix’s assault on his system.
“Your turn,” Glave said to Roka, and followed his emperor’s example.
Roka turned to Jack. He knew what was coming. “Fight them, Jack. Don’t ever stop, you hear me?”
Glave relinquished his hold on Obscuro’s body and traded up to Solomon Roka’s.
“No!” Jack shouted as Glave pounced. It was absolute torture. His friends were dying right in front of him and he couldn’t do anything but watch.
Roka was turned almost instantly, but as the Magus dug his way into Stendeval’s back, he was met with considerable resistance. Stendeval lit up with superpowered energies, fighting back against the Magus’s infection with everything he had. Red energy particles swirled around him, and he rose up into the air with his arms spread out. It took Jack a second to realize what was happening, but it soon became clear that the more the Magus labored to overcome Stendeval’s will, the less physical pain he felt. Jack heard a voice in his head, and for the first time in a long time, it wasn’t Khalix. It was Stendeval.
“I can’t keep this up forever,” Stendeval said to him. “I’ll buy you as much time as I can, but you have to run. There’s no time to argue.”
“Run where? I can’t leave you here like this.”
“There’s no time to argue!” Stendeval said again, shouting inside Jack’s head. “Your job is not to save me. You’re here to save the Imagine Nation. You can’t do that on board this ship. We need you, Jack. You have to make the difference in this war.”
“Stendeval, no! I can’t do this alone. The Magus was right. I can’t stop what’s happening to me. I don’t know what I’m going to become. I don’t even know what I am right now.”
“I do. You are what you are when you don’t have time to stop and think about it. When you simply act. That’s you, Jack, and you’re not alone! There are people down there who believe in you. Forget the future and believe in yourself! The only future that matters is the one you decide on. The one you create. You decide your future, Jack. You decide—”
Stendeval winced in pain and broke off his connection with Jack. Speaking telepathically required superpowered energy, and Stendeval clearly needed every ounce he had to fight the Magus. A dark line was forming around his eye. He was losing the battle. Jack had gotten used to Khalix speaking up at times like this, but with Stendeval currently demanding the Magus’s complete attention, the Rüstov prince was silent. Jack’s head cleared. Khalix was drawing zero strength from his father, and that meant Jack could use his powers again—even on the Magus’s ship.
“Go, Jack! Go now!” Stendeval yelled out loud.
Jack got up onto his feet and backed away from Stendeval. He didn’t think. He just acted, going for the first exit he saw. Jack reached out with his powers and opened the window behind the Magus’s throne. The sudden change in air pressure created a powerful vacuum, pulling everything toward the window. Everyone grabbed hold of whatever they could to try and keep from getting sucked out. Everyone except Jack, who ran for the open window. Leaving his friends behind, he went flying out into the sky, running for his life and falling to his death at the exact same time.
CHAPTER
17
The Eve of Destruction
For the second time in as many days, Jack found himself plummeting through the sky without a parachute. The wind roared in his ears, and air whipped into his face as he fell. With the Magus otherwise engaged trying to take over Stendeval’s body, Jack had his powers all the way back. He had to act fast because there was no telling how long that was going to last.
Jack commandeered a Shardwing from the Rüstov blockade surrounding the Imagine Nation and pulled it up toward him. Jack squinted, trying to make out the ship as it approached from below. He had reached terminal velocity and he couldn’t just bring the ship up underneath him. He had to time things just right, or hitting the Shardwing would have been no better than hitting the ground. He made the ship fly up past him and then loop back around into a nosedive. Jack flattened out, spreading his arms and legs to control his descent as the ship came up behind him. He waited until the Shardwing had caught up and matched his speed before reaching out. The irregular shape of the ship’s exterior came in handy as Jack found two good handles to grab hold of. He climbed on board the Shardwing’s back and slowed it down, ready to ride the ship home.
The Shardwing pilot banged on the canopy from the inside, but Jack shut him up in the cockpit and cut off his radio. Jack still had to go through the Rüstov blockade, but it was set up to keep ships from getting out, not from getting in. Also, he was riding a Rüstov ship. Jack blew out one of the Shardwing’s twin engines and steered the damaged ship toward Empire City, leaving a trail of black smoke in its wake. Jack got through the blockade looking like a malfunctioning ship that was crashing to the Earth. He flew past the city limits and brought the Shardwing down in the Outlands. He didn’t land so much as slow down, fly over an open field, and jump. Once he was finally back on the ground, Jack sent the ship high into the sky and then forced it to dive down and crash. It was the super-powered equivalent of slamming a door. A massive fireball shot out from the point of impact. Jack watched the ship burn, momentarily hypnotized by the dancing flames. Just like the Rüstov, the fire consumed everything.
Jack thought about what his enemies had taken from him. It was too much. Allegra, Stendeval, and Roka were all infected. Blue had been captured by the Rüstov, and Jazen was Jonas Smart’s prisoner. They would both soon be dead, if they weren’t already. Everyone close to Jack was gone. Skerren hated him and wanted him dead. So did his own father. Jack looked at the hunk of machinery in the center of his chest. He wanted to rip it out with his bare hands. His lungs felt tight and he couldn’t draw a full breath. Jack knew he didn’t have much time left. He had lost so much more than a year of his life. The Rüstov had taken everything that made today matter, all his tomorrows as well.
“Your friend Stendeval has fallen,” Khalix said, piping up for the first time since he had shocked Jack by speaking through him. “He fought hard, but in the end he succumbed to my father’s will. You all do, eventually. I just thought you’d like to know.”
Jack coughed a painful cough. With Stendeval gone, Khalix was getting his power boost from the Magus again. His short vacation from the Rüstov prince was over.
Jack ignored Khalix and turned toward Empire City. He had a long walk ahead of him, made even longer by thoughts of Stendeval and Allegra. Their blood was on his hands. The same was true of Roka, who could have just left and saved himself if he’d wanted to. None of them had ever doubted Jack. The memory of each person was like a hundred-pound weight on Jack’s back. He started walking and stumbled immediately. He was getting weaker by the minute, but it wasn’t guilt that was sapping his strength. It was Khalix.
“Are you really still trying to keep going? Why do you do this to yourself?” Jack didn’t waste energy responding to Khalix’s taun
ts. It took all his concentration just to keep putting one foot in front of the other. “What could you possibly hope to accomplish at this point? Do you really think you’re going to save the Imagine Nation like that fool Stendeval said? He’s gone, Jack. He’s my father’s host now, nothing more. What do you think you’re going to do, get your powers back? Crush our ships? Expel us from your bodies? Please.”
“Nothing’s impossible,” Jack grunted.
“It is for you. The only way for you to get rid of me is death, and you’re too scared . . . too selfish to fall on your sword. You’re mine, Jack, now and forever. I can let you go, but you can’t push me out. You don’t understand our connection well enough for that. You will when your transformation is complete, but by then it’s going to be too late. You’ve fought well, but enough is enough. Just give up and find yourself a quiet place to die. I’ll handle the rest.”
Jack winced as a sharp pain stabbed through his chest. He breathed out slowly and thought about everything Khalix was saying. Jack understood where Khalix was coming from. He understood the Rüstov prince’s point of view better and better with every step he took. But Jack didn’t lie down and die. He hiked for hours until he reached the city and the one place in it that he knew he’d always have a home.
Jack used his powers to open up the walls of Machina from the outside. Once he was in the city, it was just a short walk to Virtua’s data center. Jack was on his last legs. He could barely stand by the time he reached the door. Virtua’s guards brought him in and took him straight to her war room. It was a hotbed of activity. Inside, Jack saw several images of Virtua projected around the room as she marshaled her troops. Midknight, Lorem Ipsum, and Trea were on hand, strategizing with one of her projections. At first Jack thought Virtua was getting her forces ready to face the Rüstov. Then he saw her talking to Jonas Smart on the room’s main holo-screen.
“This is your last warning,” Virtua told Smart as her soldiers reported in from checkpoints along the Hightown-Machina border. “Release Commander Knight or my men are coming in there to get him.”
Smart squinted at Virtua in disbelief. “You must be malfunctioning. The fact that you would even suggest invading Hightown while our city is surrounded by the Rüstov . . .” Smart shook his head. “You’re clearly still corrupted by that Rüstov spyware virus. Do your worst, collaborator. My war machines are prepared to fight you and your Rüstov masters.”
Jack felt Smart terminate the connection. Virtua cursed Smart as his screen blinked out. Jack couldn’t believe Virtua was really going to march on Hightown in the middle of a war with the Rüstov. Apparently, Chi, Prime, and Noteworthy couldn’t, either. Jack felt them dialing back in from their respective war rooms, where they had been monitoring her call with Smart. Jack used his powers to answer the calls and put them on-screen.
“Virtua, please. You can’t do this,” Chi pleaded. “We can’t waste time fighting each other. Not now.”
“We can’t spare the men,” Prime agreed. “We’re already outnumbered as it is.”
“Don’t tell me,” Virtua said. “Tell the Circleman of Hightown to make Smart let Jazen go.” Noteworthy just tugged at his collar and stammered.
“You know Noteworthy can’t control Smart,” Midknight told Virtua. “Be reasonable. We have to think of the—” Midknight stopped short when he noticed Jack standing in the entryway. “Jack?”
Lorem Ipsum and Trea dropped what they were doing and ran to him the moment they saw him. “How did you get here?” Lorem asked.
“Thank goodness you’re all right,” Trea said.
Jack slid into a chair to keep from falling over. “Let’s not get carried away. Sounds to me like we’re all pretty far from all right.”
Virtua’s image shot out of a projector that was concealed in the data center floor by Jack’s feet. Her guards informed her that Jack had come alone. “Where are the others? Are you the only one who got out? Where’s Stendeval?”
“We could sure use him right now,” Lorem mumbled to Trea.
Jack took a deep breath. He couldn’t have agreed more, but Stendeval was gone. He looked up at everyone and shook his head. Virtua’s image turned a pale white. “That can’t be. Are they all . . .?”
“I don’t know,” Jack said. “Blue, Zhi, and the others . . . they all got put into holding pens. Stendeval, Roka, and I were separated from the pack. They took us up to see the Magus. I only got away because I . . . Stendeval, he . . .”
Jack was still struggling to find the words when terrified outbursts filled the data center. Along with everyone else, Jack looked up to see what all the commotion was.
“What’s going on?” Midknight asked.
“Look out your window,” Prime called out over the holo-screen. “You need to see this.”
Outside, several giant holo-screens were blinking on, projected out from the sea of Rüstov ships that filled the air. The Magus was getting ready to broadcast a message to Empire City. Everyone but Jack gasped when they realized he was using Stendeval’s body as his host. Jack’s eye burned as the Magus looked out from the screens. It was as if the Magus was looking right at him. Glaring lights flared up before Jack’s eyes. He saw spots, like he’d spent too much time staring at the sun.
“People of Empire City,” the Magus announced. “I am the Magus, supreme ruler of the Rüstov Empire. I am your new lord and master. Let it be known that I hereby declare the Imagine Nation, this planet, and everyone on it to be the rightful property of the Rüstov. You belong to us. From this moment on, your world will be known as Rüst. Your city is now the capital of the Rüstov throneworld. This is an honor. Those of you living here will serve as hosts to the upper echelon of Rüstov society, provided you do not waste your lives in foolish and pointless efforts to resist our rule. I believe you recognize my host, Stendeval the Wise. He was not wise enough to accept the inevitable. For all our sakes, I hope you will choose a different path. Stendeval’s loss is proof that even your strongest heroes cannot withstand our might. Embrace your future as my willing subjects, for it is unavoidable. We have released the boy you know as Jack Blank into your city. To me, he is Khalix . . . my son. He will soon become Revile, the engine of your destruction, but only if you choose that fate. We have no desire to destroy this city or its citizens. You are valuable resources. There is no need for us to be at war with one another, but if you force our hands, you will die by them. I await your formal surrender. You have until dawn.”
The screens blinked out of the sky, and a hush fell over the room. It lasted only a few seconds before everyone started talking at once. The twin currents of fear and alarm overtook the data center and drowned out everything else. Jack remained quiet. He sat in his chair thinking about how Stendeval looked with the Magus’s iron horn grafted onto his head. It was the kind of sight that could make a person abandon all hope. Jack knew the Rüstov well enough now to know that was exactly what they were going for.
“The Magus using Stendeval’s body . . . ,” Midknight said. “This is going to scare people to death.”
“He’s right,” Khalix told Jack. “They’re all scared, and not just because of my father. They’re scared of you. Scared of us.”
Jack cast his eyes around the data center. He didn’t need to scan the Mechas there with his powers to recognize the truth of Khalix’s words.
“We still have a chance,” Noteworthy said via holo-screen. “We have Jack.”
Everyone spun around to look at Noteworthy. Jack’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Was it possible that Noteworthy was starting to believe in him? Was his father finally coming around?
“We can turn him over to Smart!” Noteworthy explained. Jack slumped in his seat. “Jonas will see to it that Jack doesn’t live to become Revile. He’ll release Commander Knight and we can call a truce between Hightown and Machina. We can fight the Rüstov together! The only thing keeping us apart is sitting in that chair.”
“You mean your son?” Midknight asked.
Noteworthy pounded his desk. “He’s not my son! Stop saying that!”
The adults in the data center argued, and Jack put his head in his hands. “We’re doing exactly what they want us to do,” he said to himself. “This is the way it always goes.”
“What do you mean?” Trea asked Jack.
Jack looked up. He hadn’t realized he was talking loud enough for anyone to hear. “The infinite war. I know the Rüstov’s history. They crammed it into my brain. They break their enemies apart before they invade, that’s their playbook. They infiltrate their targets, psyche out their enemies, and get them to fight each other. The details change, but the story’s the same. It always ends the same way.”
“Then we have to break the cycle,” Trea said. “We can’t just do the same things everyone else has done and expect to fare any better. If you know their history, think. What’s different about this invasion? Anything we can use?”
Jack ran through all the battles the Rüstov had shown him. Every war the Rüstov had ever fought. All the reasons they gave him for giving up. In all that carnage, there was only one thing that made this invasion different from any other. “There is one thing that’s different. Me.” Jack looked up at the holo-screens where the Circlemen were fighting about what was to be done with him, and something clicked. They didn’t stand a chance against the Rüstov if things went on like this. He was the wedge driving everyone apart. Something had to be done. “I hate to say it, Trea, but Noteworthy’s right. I just wish he felt the tiniest bit bad about it.” Jack touched Lorem’s elbow. “Hey. How’d you get over having a father that didn’t want you?”
Lorem turned toward Jack with a look that was one part pity and one part amusement. “What makes you think I got over it?” She shook her head. “I didn’t get over anything, Jack, but I do know this. Family . . . real family is about more than blood. A lot more.”
The End of Infinity Page 15