“Do you really think you’ve accomplished something here?” the Magus asked in a voice still partly Stendeval’s. He motioned to the window and the battle raging outside. “That’s nothing. Less than nothing. The losses out there don’t concern me. The only thing that concerns me is my son.” The Magus waved a hand, and Stendeval’s trademark red energy particles spiraled out of his fingers. A chill ran down Jack’s spine. The Magus wielding Stendeval’s power was a nightmare made real. He could do almost anything now. The Rüstov emperor rubbed his fingers together and smiled. “This host body is truly something. So much potential.”
The Magus pointed at Jack, and jagged, deep-crimson versions of Stendeval’s superpowered energies shot down from the sky like lightning. The bolts blew a hole in the roof of the throne room and struck Jack down. He felt pain like he’d never felt before. Electric fireballs lodged in his body, bouncing around inside of him like trapped animals trying to claw their way out. Jack screamed as the red lightning burst from his chest and shot out in twelve different directions. The second it was gone, another bolt dropped out of the sky and hit him again. His body was burning and his teeth crackled with bloodred electricity. Jack was on the verge of passing out when the Magus halted his attack.
“Now. I’m going to give you one last chance to let me speak to my son.”
Jack propped himself up on all fours and spit on the ground. His saliva tasted like motor oil in his mouth. He wiped his lip and gave the Magus a defiant stare. “I told you. Khalix is gone. He’s not coming back.” It was a blatant lie. Khalix was pounding on the door of his subconscious at that very moment, but the Magus didn’t need to know that.
The Magus’s eyes narrowed into thin slits. Jack could tell he was seething, but he didn’t act on his anger just yet. Instead, he put his hand on the back of Jack’s head and spoke softly. “Khalix. I know you’re in there. If you can hear me, say something.”
The Magus’s hands glowed with red energy, and once again, Jack spoke in Khalix’s voice. “Father . . . is that you?”
The Magus’s eyes widened, eager for more. “I’m here, Khalix. Talk to me.”
Jack’s eyes were shut tight. “Father, I need . . .” Jack trailed off, straining to keep the words in. “I need you to—”
“Yes? Tell me!”
Jack stood up. “I need you to get this through your thick skull . . . Khalix doesn’t live here anymore.” The muscles in his face relaxed into a cocky grin. “You blew it, Magus. Khalix is over. He’s done.”
The Magus pulled back his hand and straightened up with a jolt. Jack heard him let out a low, guttural growl as he took a step back. He didn’t like being made a fool of, and he liked the idea of losing his son to Jack even less. The Magus reached out his hand again. Jack could feel him scanning his systems. He held his breath as the Rüstov emperor looked for traces of Khalix inside him.
“There’s nothing there,” the Magus said after what felt like an eternity to Jack but was really just a few seconds. “It’s just static.” He was devastated. Jack exhaled, safe in the knowledge that Khalix’s voice was still being drowned out by the nullifier. His relief would be short-lived. The Magus’s face filled up with enough rage to form an expression that Jack was certain Stendeval had never made once in all his years.
This is gonna hurt . . . , Jack thought.
The Rüstov emperor cried out with every ounce of wrath and fury in his body, and crimson spears of pure energy impaled Jack’s arms, legs, torso, and neck. Jack staggered about in agony as they wrenched him apart like levers. His body attempted to heal itself, but the spears lit up again, crackling with the full measure of the Magus’s wrath. The pain was incredible, but Jack had to endure it. The only way to hide Khalix from the Magus was to distract him with rage. To keep him angry and unfocused. Being drawn in by Jack’s deception had unleashed new levels of anger within the Rüstov emperor. “Insolent meat-bag,” the Magus grunted as he picked Jack up. “I’ll kill you for this. Kill you!”
The Magus threw Jack across the room. He crashed into a steel girder hard enough to leave an impression of his body on its face and fell on the floor. Jack got up, beginning to question the wisdom of his plan. He tried to keep thinking about unraveling his bond with Khalix, but he couldn’t focus. The energy spears lodged in his body had dissipated, but the Magus had more where they came from. He materialized above Jack using Stendeval’s teleportation technique and raised a fist that was crackling with power. The Magus punched Jack so hard he drove him halfway through the floor. He lowered himself down and hit Jack again. Jack went flying out of the room as if pulled by an invisible cable. He crashed through the throne room doors, heading toward his friends in the hall.
He fell into the pile of Rüstov guards he had fought on the way in. Jack scrambled to his feet, looking for something—anything—he could use to buy himself more time. Jack used his powers to reanimate the fallen imperial guards and march them at the Magus. The Rüstov emperor threw his arms out in a wide sweeping motion and shredded them before they got anywhere near him. He turned them into confetti without so much as a second thought. His effortless command of Stendeval’s powers was frightening. Jack backpedaled, looking for a way out. There was nowhere to go. What was he going to do? He couldn’t fight the Magus while Stendeval was fully charged with power, even if he could bring himself to attack him.
Next to Jack, Jazen was fighting Glave. Conscience had tied his hands as well. As a Mecha, Jazen’s metal body was far stronger than Roka’s human form, but Jazen didn’t want to hurt him. Jack could see him trying to keep Glave at a distance while the Rüstov general went at him with his energy blades going full tilt. Across the hall, the Rüstov Allegra swung machete-shaped arms at Skerren with reckless abandon. Skerren was totally on defense, ducking, dodging, blocking, and flipping around every attack he could. He cried out as the edge of a silvery blade sliced across his back. He quickly turned to block the next attack and fell back to regroup. He did a double take when he saw Jack, clearly not encouraged by the state he was in. The Magus was coming out into the hall. “We can’t keep on like this, Jack,” Skerren shouted. “Can you beat him or not?”
Jack didn’t answer Skerren. He was staring at the Magus, frozen to the spot.
Jazen tackled Glave to the ground and tried to hold him down. “Jack, if you’re going to make a move, you better do it soon.”
Jack didn’t need to be told that but had no move to make. He couldn’t think. He could barely stand. The Magus was pounding the life out of him inch by inch. The Rüstov emperor reached over and picked Jack up by the throat. Waves of power flowed out of his hands and into Jack’s body. Jack shook with such force that the scrap-metal outer layer of his body flew off. As the Magus increased the volume and intensity of his assault, several mechanical components in Jack’s neck and chest short-circuited. Jack struggled against the Magus’s grip. He had to get free before the nullifier blew out right then and there.
Luckily, Skerren rolled away from the Rüstov Allegra and came up behind the Magus. He lunged at the Rüstov emperor with his swords. The Magus drew his head back just in time to keep it attached to his neck, but he screamed as Skerren’s blade cut off the iron horn growing out from his temple. The Magus dropped Jack and staggered, clutching his head. Oil and coolant dripped down the side of his face. He wiped it away using his hand and the cuff of his sleeve. “You dare?” he said to Skerren.
Skerren spun his swords. “All that and more.”
Jack propped himself up on all fours. He could only watch as jagged crimson energy particles flew from the Magus’s fingers and stabbed at Skerren like broken glass fired from a cannon. The blow drove Skerren back to the wall, but he didn’t fall. He propped himself up against it and crossed his swords. “I think it’s time the gloves came off.”
As Skerren took on the Magus and the Rüstov Allegra at the same time, Jack crawled back into the throne room and collapsed. His body armor was glowing bright red like a sword pulled from a blacksm
ith’s fire, and everything hurt. One of the throne room doors was hanging on its hinge. Through the opening Jack saw Jazen nail Glave with a hard punch to the jaw and run in after him.
“Jack, talk to me. How bad are you hurt?”
Jack coughed painfully. He couldn’t move. The nullifier was about to go; he could feel it dying. Once Smart’s device burned out, it was over. Jack shook his head. “I’m done, Jazen. This is it.”
Before Jazen could say anything, Glave kicked in the broken door with a giant machine gun in his hand. Exploding shells ripped through Jazen’s back, and he fell forward, hitting the ground next to Jack.
“Jazen!” Jack shouted. Before Jack could even process what had happened, his friend was hunched over with his cheek smooshed up against the floor and his mouth wide open. Jazen could take a lot of punishment, but Glave had brought heavy artillery to bear on him. He looked dead.
Glave strolled in grinning from ear to ear. “I’m sorry to bring a gun into this. It’s impersonal, I know, but this is dragging on far too long.”
Jack stared at Jazen’s lifeless, unblinking eye a moment, and then looked up at Glave. “You ice-blooded, murdering bucket of—”
“Now, now,” Glave said. “Wait your turn. This will all be over soon enough.”
Glave slid a toe under Jazen’s arm and went to flip him over with his foot. As Jazen’s body turned, he shot upward and shocked Glave with an exposed power wire protruding out of his damaged right arm. Glave froze up in an awkward stance and dropped to the ground as if his bones had turned to jelly. Jazen grabbed the gun out of his hand and pointed the barrel under Glave’s chin.
As soon as he was able, Glave smiled a blood-toothed grin. “Go ahead. Take your best shot.” Jazen’s finger pulled halfway back on the trigger and stopped. Glave laughed in his face. “This is why you lose . . . why you all lose! You don’t have the stomach to fight yourselves.”
Out in the hall, Jack could hear the Magus fighting Skerren. He heard swords clashing and angry shouts. Smoke drifted into the throne room lit up by bright red flashes of light coming from just beyond the door.
“Jack, get out of here,” Jazen said. “Run.”
Glave laughed even harder. “What for? There’s nowhere for him to go. He’s going to turn into Revile, and together with his father, he’s going to bleed this world dry. You’ll see. You’ll all see.”
Jack got a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. The hard truth was that Glave was right. Once the nullifier was gone, he wouldn’t be able to stop Khalix from taking over, but the Magus didn’t know that. He thought his son was already gone. Jack looked up at the throne room’s broken doorway. It was only a matter of time before the Rüstov emperor walked through it. “Glave’s right, Jazen. There’s nowhere else to go. I’m staying.”
“Jack, no!”
“I said I would do whatever it takes, didn’t I?” Jack shook his head. “This is the only move I’ve got left.” The good news was that Skerren wouldn’t have to kill him to keep him from turning into Revile. The bad news was that the Magus was going to take care of that for him. Jack had failed. His friends were lost. Everybody the Rüstov had ever infected was lost, but at least he was taking Revile out of the equation. The Rüstov were going to lose their ultimate weapon. The Imagine Nation still had a chance, even if he wouldn’t live to see it.
Jack got up onto a knee. He was going to face the Magus. He was going to make the ultimate sacrifice, just like Legend had done fourteen years ago. Then he heard a crash behind him, and a hand on his shoulder pushed him back down. He hit the floor once again and looked up in time to see Revile flying out to meet the Magus in his place.
“What the . . .?”
Jack’s other self crashed out through the doors and disappeared into the smoke. Jack, Jazen, and Glave all looked at each other in confusion. Jack struggled to get up and limped toward the door. He had made it only a few steps when hurricane-force winds sucked all the air out of the room and into the hallway. A blinding flash of light lit up the throne room, and for a half second, everything was quiet. Then a sonic boom sounded that left Jack’s ears ringing. The shock wave knocked him over, and Revile came flying back in. At least part of him did.
Revile’s upper body landed right front of Jack. One arm was missing, along with the rest of him. His red power core dangled out of his chest, barely hanging on with the help of a few loose wires and cables. A spiderweb crack covered the face of the crystal core. Energy leaked out of it like steam rising up off a boiling pot of water.
“Revile?” Jack asked, still trying to comprehend what had just happened. “Is that you?”
Revile pulled off his broken mask, and Jack’s own face stared back at him. “Who else?”
Glave looked out into the hall with wide eyes. “Sire! That’s not him! That’s not your son’s—”
Jazen put his hand over Glave’s mouth, shutting him up. Outside, Jack could hear Skerren was alive and kicking. He was still fighting. Jack held Revile’s head in his hands. “Where did you come from?”
Revile gasped for air and looked up at Jack. “You were looking through my eyes this whole time. Does it really surprise you that I was looking through yours as well?”
Jack looked at Revile’s broken body. He could feel him dying. “What did you do? I was going to end this.”
Revile did his best to shrug. “I had to give you . . . every chance. Every possible chance. It’s not over, Jack. Keep fighting. End it your way.”
Jack shook his head. He was tearing up. “It’s too late. I can’t.”
“You can,” Revile grunted. “You’re the only one who can. It’s what you do, Jack. You’re the hero, not me. You’re the one.”
Jack gripped Revile’s hand. “But I don’t know how. I don’t know what to . . .” Jack trailed off as the light faded from Revile’s eyes. His power core cracked inward, like an invisible foot had just stepped on it. He was gone. Jack was at a complete loss until the core fell out of Revile’s chest, exposing his heart. That was when Jack saw it. The answer he was looking for. The exact thing he had been searching for ever since he gave in to the transformation in the first place—the root of his infection.
Jack picked up the heart and cradled it in his hands as if it were a baby bird. Finally he could see it with his own eyes. Khalix couldn’t hide it from him if it was right there in front of his face. Suddenly everything was clear. The alpha and omega of Rüstov life. The bond between parasite and host. Jack understood at last.
Across the room, Skerren crashed through the doorway, knocking the other throne room door off its hinges as he ran. His shirt was cut up and his face was smeared with blood. He wasn’t quite limping, but he was definitely moving slower as a result of his battle with the Magus. He was falling back when a red lightning bolt zigzagged through the doorway and struck him from behind. Both Skerren and his two swords went flying across the floor. He groaned and crawled toward the closest of the two, stopping only when he saw Jack.
Skerren’s eyebrows tied themselves into knots. “You’re alive? What’s going on?” He looked at Jazen, but the Mecha said nothing. Jazen was just staring at Jack, whose eyes had lit up with wonder as he processed the information inside Revile’s heart.
The Magus reentered the throne room with the infected Allegra trailing a respectful half step behind him. He stopped short when he saw Jack, the fragments of Revile’s body, and Glave held fast by Jazen.
“Impossible! How can you still be . . .” The Magus cut himself off and leaned in toward Jack. “Alive?” He put his hand to his ear. A moment later, his face lit up with delight. “You’re alive!” The Magus pointed at Jack’s chest. “My son lives!”
Skerren looked back at Jack, the Magus, and then at his sword. Jack was still staring at Revile’s heart in silence. “I’m sorry, Jack. I promised you I wouldn’t hesitate.”
Skerren grabbed his sword and lunged at Jack. The tip of the blade was poised to stab through his power core.
“N
o!” shouted the Magus. He reached out a hand, but it was Jazen who tackled Skerren in midair. They fell in a tangled heap in front of Jack. Us usual, Skerren wasn’t easily discouraged. He wrestled against Jazen’s grip, trying to get at Jack, until the Magus locked them both up with one of Stendeval’s energy fields.
“You fool!” Skerren shouted at Jazen. “Look what you’ve done. You’ve doomed us all!”
“Silence!” The Magus shouted. “I want to talk to my son.”
Everyone turned to look at Jack. He stood up and dusted himself off. He was still in pain, but it would have been impossible to tell from the look on his face. “You want Khalix?” he asked the Magus. “Fine. You can have him, but it’s going to cost you.”
CHAPTER
25
The End of Infinity
Now that the Magus knew that his son was still alive, he seemed almost amused by Jack’s defiant attitude. “You just don’t know when to quit, do you, boy?”
Jack looked the Magus square in the eyes. “Nope. Came pretty close, but no. Your son knows that better than anyone. You could ask him, but you don’t get to talk to Khalix until I say so.”
The Magus snorted. “You’re in no position to dictate terms. I see what you did now. You didn’t defeat Khalix. You just tried to hide him from me.” The Magus poked Jack in the chest. “You put something in there . . . something to silence him. It won’t last, will it? He’s too strong.” The Magus smiled. “I can feel him coming back. He’s practically here.”
Watching the Magus smile with Stendeval’s lips made Jack’s skin crawl. It was Stendeval there talking to him, only it wasn’t. The lights were on, but somebody else was home.
“Khalix isn’t coming,” Jack said. “And he’s not strong. The only real strength he ever had came from you.”
The Magus tilted his head to one side. “Taking care of his children is a father’s duty. He’s going to be stronger than any of us. He’s going to be Revile—you’re going to be Revile. Be grateful for that. It’s the only reason I haven’t ripped him out of your chest.”
The End of Infinity Page 21