by Toby Minton
“Michael?”
Nikki? I…Nikki…I'm scared.
Those words that she never thought she'd hear from her brother turned the last of her anger to despair. “No, wait! Just wait. I'm coming.” But part of her knew she wasn't going to make it. Through the link, she could feel what he felt, more clearly than ever. She could feel him separating from himself.
“MICHAEL!” She leaned left and pulled with all the strength that was still swelling inside her. “GOD-” With a squeal of stretching metal, the restraint on her right arm ripped free from the tank. “-DAMMIT!” She swung the thick cuff into the one on her left hand, and both cracked at the impact. She swung again, and they shattered.
Nikki?
“I'm here! I'm right here,” she choked, more sob than shout. “Don't go.” She could barely hear him, barely feel him now. He was fading. She dug her fingers into the restraint on her left leg and ripped it apart. “I'm coming.”
Nikki...the Gateway— His voice was more urgent than before, if no stronger. Don't let this be for noth…
Nikki froze, her fingers dug several centimeters into the metal of the last restraint. She wanted to call out for him again, to scream for him to wait just a minute more, but she couldn't. Her voice wouldn’t respond. Through the link, she felt Michael let go.
For a second she felt absolutely nothing. Cold, shocked nothingness.
Then a surge unlike anything she'd ever felt roared into her. It seared every cell of her from the inside out. She wasn't just filled with power. She was power. She didn't think there could be room inside her for all that power, much less for anything else.
She was wrong. Her anguish came rushing back in a torrent, and the rage came with it.
She looked up at Price, who was emptying his weapon into her through the glass, to no effect that she could feel. The sound that ripped from her throat was inhuman, a pure, primal roar of pain, of fury.
Then she let that fury take over.
Chapter 42
Elias
Elias approached the southwest corner of the hangar in a crouching walk, both eyes scanning in front of him down his rifle, the sound of rounds ricocheting off metal somewhere ahead drawing him on.
He'd left Ace in command of Alpha quadrant, had Coop take over his fire zone, and he'd made for Bravo seconds after he'd sent Padre that way. It made sense, tactically. Savior's forces were in full rout, with only a few isolated soldiers holding their ground, and those pinned down by overlapping fields of fire. The engagement was under control. There was no reason he couldn't relocate.
That's what he tried to tell himself, at least, but it was hard to hear his own thoughts with Sergeant Tully's words repeating in his head. “You're off the reservation...” He was. Again. Fifteen years later, he was once again disobeying orders. He was once again betraying his oath. And just like before, it was over the children.
He rounded the corner and turned toward the main building, and stopped in his tracks while he processed what he was seeing.
The Hunter was crouched defensively on the plain in front of him, roughly a hundred meters away. It was facing away from him toward the building, where Padre was keeping it locked down with regular fire from the roof. Not even Padre's rifle could penetrate the Hunter's armor when it was locked down like that, but he wasn't letting up, like he was trying to keep its attention, like he was providing cover fire for someone.
Elias scanned the area until his gaze came to rest on what he'd taken for a low mound of rocks at first glance. The wind lifted a piece of blood-soaked fabric.
No. God, no.
He was moving before he realized he'd made the decision, running toward Michael, the danger forgotten until Padre's voice came through.
“Move up. I'll keep it on me.”
The Hunter. He couldn't get to Michael with that thing kneeling practically on top of him. But to take the Hunter down, he needed heavier firepower. He slowed and moved his hand to his com to call in Mos, but no sooner had he pressed the button, than the wall under Padre exploded outward.
Elias dropped to one knee and brought up his rifle, but as he focused through the rain of metal and concrete flying out from the fourth floor, his muzzle dropped.
Nikki launched through the wall in one powerful leap, arcing through the air, her eyes blazing with crackling white energy. She landed, flinging the twisted halves of the broken Gateway in opposite directions, and immediately charged toward the Hunter at a full sprint.
“GET AWAY FROM HIM!” Her tearing scream rang across the hard plain and echoed back from the buildings to the ridge.
The Hunter uncoiled, and for the first time Elias saw the damage. Both knee joints blown, one arm ending in a blood-tipped jagged stump below the elbow, the Hunter still towered over the girl rushing toward it. Its intact arm, outstretched to the side with sunlight glinting off the lethal talons, was longer than Nikki was tall. She was unarmed, barefoot, barely clothed...yet Elias didn't doubt the outcome for a second.
With a shout she covered the last ten meters in a dive. She crashed into the Hunter's chest and carried it back and over Michael. A dozen meters later it crashed back-first into the ground, its backplates digging down into the hard earth as Nikki rode it to a stop. She jerked it off the ground toward her and punched through its head with a scream.
Its good arm flailed blindly toward her, but Nikki caught it and ripped it off with a snarl. She tossed the twitching arm aside and grabbed the other, the one still covered in what had to be Michael's blood. She tore that one off too, almost effortlessly, and stopped. She stared at the broken tip, at the blood.
The scream that came out of her tiny frame chilled Elias to his core. She planted a bare foot on the Hunter's chest and stomped it back into the ground. Then she raised the arm over her head with both hands and drove it down through the armored chest. Again, and again. When the arm fell apart, she dropped to her knees atop the broken machine and started tearing at it with her bare hands, ripping aside plating, tearing out cable and wiring, smashing and shredding whatever didn't come out quickly enough.
Elias looked over to see Padre rappelling down the fractured wall, slowly, carefully, which was further confirmation, as if Nikki's rage wasn't enough, that it was too late to help Michael.
He's gone, he told himself. Just like all the other soldiers you've buried. He knew what he was doing. He made his choices. Make your peace with it and do what needs doing. This is no different.
He couldn't fool himself, no matter how convincing the lie or how firm the tone in his head. This was different. Michael was not just another soldier. Not to him.
He should have gone to the body, put it to right before Nikki had to see it, but inside he was bubbling with his own anger and frustration. He wanted to join Nikki. He wanted to tear at that machine until there was nothing left.
Instead, he lowered his head, closed his eyes, and breathed through the pain.
He touched his com. “All teams, secure areas and rendezvous at Bravo. Corso, you're clear. Move in for evac.”
Elias opened his eyes as the confirmations starting coming in. Nikki had abandoned the scattered machine and was walking to Michael, each step a little slower than the last.
Elias grunted a curse at himself and stood. Damn it, old man. You should have gotten there first. She shouldn't have to see him like that. He didn't move though. The same inner voice that cursed him wouldn't let him budge. It's too late now. Leave her be. You have no place there.
The voice was right. Michael was her brother. Her family. Elias didn't belong in the middle of what she had to do. He was nothing to her. He'd been nothing but a stranger to either of them for years. He'd made that choice fifteen years ago. It was too late to change it now.
He heard the hum of the arriving transport, but he was so fixated on Nikki and his own thoughts he didn't notice Padre's reaction across the way. By the time he glanced up and realized it wasn't their transport, Savior was already dropping to the ground behind an oblivi
ous Nikki, the air around him warping and wavering with the energy coming off him.
Elias jerked his rifle up, but Nikki was between him and Savior. He didn't have a clear shot. He was an expert marksman, and Nikki was probably still charged up enough to take the hit if he missed, but if not… He couldn't take the risk.
Padre had no such issues. He was advancing on Savior from the other side in a smooth walk, firing a shot from his pistol after each rolling footfall. Every round sizzled to powder on Savior's shield. Even though every shot was on target within a five-centimeter spread centered on Savior's head, none of them were getting through.
Nikki noticed nothing. She dropped to her knees next to Michael, her face slack. She was spent.
Elias took aim, even though he knew it was futile.
Savior glanced between Padre and Elias, a dismissing half smile on his face. Then he clenched his fists and curled his arms up, and the air around him bent, like the world around him was drawing in toward him. Then he spread his hands. Elias felt more than heard a deep thrum before the world turned upside down.
When he came to, he was on his back a half dozen paces from his weapon, the transport was drifting away low over the trees to the west, and there was no sign of Savior, or Nikki.
Across the way, Padre pushed up from the ground looking as dazed as Elias felt. Behind him, from a man-sized hole in the first floor wall, Impact stepped out looking no more stable, one hand pressed to his temple. He took in the scene, from Elias to Michael to Padre, and then followed Padre's gaze to the departing transport.
His expression said exactly what Elias was thinking: How had this gone so wrong?
Doesn't matter, the drill sergeant in his head barked. Dwelling ain't doing. Take action or step aside for them that will. Elias fumbled for his com collar as he stood. “Corso, transport bearing west southwest.”
“I see it,” the thief's voice came back. “No threat there. He's bugging out.”
“Go after him. Don't lose him, no matter what.”
“I'm dropping in on you in two. He'll be out of sight before we get airborne.”
“Leave us. Go. Stay on him.” He took a breath. “Nikki's on that thing.”
Impact's head snapped toward Elias then back toward the departing transport. Then he took off running. Before Elias could call him back, Impact had crossed the plain, each stride faster than the last, and disappeared past the security bunker.
Elias tapped his com. “Corso, desert floor, twelve o'clock.”
“I see him. If you can hear me, cue ball, head for that rise at your two o'clock, and try not to miss your jump. I’m not turning around.”
The familiar transport roared overhead from the east just above tree level, the rear hatch swinging down as it passed.
Nikki
It was gone. Everything.
All that power, all that strength—gone. She'd never felt anything even close to that high. It was unreal, and unforgettable, which would be a good thing if she hadn't burned through the whole high in a blind, aching rage. She remembered it all, but it hurt as much to remember as it had to experience the first time around. She didn't want to remember. She wanted to blank everything that had happened from her mind, forever.
Forever. Worst word she could imagine.
Her power was gone, forever. Not that she cared about the power. Not anymore. It was gone because he was gone. Forever.
She should feel something when she thought that, she knew, but she didn't. Inside was a big empty nothing. No emotion, no energy, and no sense of him. She should be crying right now. She should be somewhere receiving handfuls of flowers or extra soup tokens. That's how it went in the free zones when somebody lost a loved one. Everybody who knew the family gave a little of what they had, even though not a one of them had anything to spare.
That's where she should be, in the free zone getting free stuff. And feeling sorry for herself. But she wasn't. Feeling sorry, that is. She felt nothing at all.
She wasn't in the free zone, either. She was in a transport, she thought. She sort of remembered somebody carrying her onto one, and she could feel the rumble through the soft padding of the smooth seat under her face. Only, the rust-buckets Sam and the crew flew around in didn't have soft, expensive-smelling seats.
She opened her eyes to unfamiliar surroundings, and saw a man who was becoming all too familiar.
Savior was talking, maybe to her, maybe to someone else. Nikki didn't care. She wasn't listening.
He was in a padded, swiveling chair in a sleek, fancy passenger area of what had to be his private transport. The walls were all paneled in shiny black composite instead of the bare metal she was used to. There were windows too. Small, rounded viewports with gesture-activated shades. He closed one now as the transport turned and the sun hit her in her eyes where she was lying curled up in the seat across from him.
“—mean for that to happen.” His words finally reached her. “If I could take that pain away from you, I would. I can't imagine what you're feeling.”
Nothing. But she didn't say that. She didn't say anything. She just closed her eyes again.
“I would do anything you ask, Nikki. I owe you that much, and more. I owe you my life.”
She had no idea what he meant. In fact, she wished she could go back to not hearing him.
“You gave it back to me when you restored my power. In fact, you gave me more than I calculated. I would have settled for having the power I did twenty years ago. What you gave me is far more.”
Nikki squeezed her eyes tighter, hoping that would somehow stop her from hearing again. No such luck.
“I'm more powerful than ever, thanks to my finest creation.” His hand brushed her hair back from her forehead, and Nikki jerked back.
She sat up and squeezed as far back into the seat as she could get and hugged her legs to her chest.
“I…I broke your Gateway.” She meant it as a way to shut him up, to end this friendly farce.
He was on one knee in front of her though, smiling like they were friends. “Yes, you did. But that's alright. That Gateway never would have worked anyway. It was a…means to an end. It was bait to lure investors, and their resources.”
Why would you need resources? You're loaded, she thought. But she kept it to herself this time. She didn't want to talk. She just wanted to be alone. She wanted to go home, only she didn't have a home. She'd never had one, not really. But that's how she felt, like she just wanted to go home.
The pilot called something back and Savior stood and walked to the slanted back wall. “It seems we have some company.” He tapped a control pad, and a shimmer of energy crackled across in front of the wall. Another tap, and the wall split and retracted, and Nikki was staring at open sky, the ground far below, and another transport flying behind them.
“Friends of yours, I believe,” Savior said, staring out at the transport. Then he glanced at Nikki and though his mouth was still somewhat pleasant, his eyes had a sudden hardness to them.
“I can crush them, Nikki.” His voice held none of the malice she'd expect at such a statement. It was just matter of fact. “I could destroy them right now, with the power you gave me. If I don't, they'll keep looking for you. They'll keep searching until they find you. They'll try to take you back, if Elias has any say in the matter. If they think I'm holding you against your will, that is.”
Nikki looked out at the transport. She could almost make out who was in the cockpit. They turned slightly, the light hit it just right, and for a second she saw a flash of what looked like wavy, reddish hair.
A spike of pain stabbed through Nikki's core, and she slid forward out of the chair onto the floor. NO. She didn't want to feel again. She wanted to stay in the land of nothing. She couldn't feel. She wouldn't. She squeezed her eyes shut and balled her fists against the floor.
“I don't want to hold you against your will, Nikki,” Savior went on. “I want you with me by your own choice, by my side, where you belong.”
; She glanced up to see him smiling down at her with his perfect eyes, his perfect hand stretched out toward her. “You've made me more powerful than ever, Nikki. With you by my side, there is no limit to what I will accomplish. This is your destiny. But no one can make you embrace your destiny. You must do that yourself, Nikki.”
She looked away from his perfect smile, his perfect ship, his talk of destiny. She didn't want his perfect life. Her gaze swung to the open door, but she couldn't look at the transport again. That way just led to pain. She didn't want that either. So she held her stare on the ground far below.
She just wanted to go back to the way things were, but she couldn't. She wanted to go home, but she didn't know where that was.
“Choose, Nikki. It's your destiny. It's your life.”
Most of all, she just wanted to make sure she never felt the pain she knew was looming outside her emptiness. So she chose the only option that made sense.
Chapter 43
Impact
“Get closer,” Impact snapped.
“And do what, kid?” Corso's sarcastic tone, which was annoying on a good day, had Impact clenching his jaw and putting a death grip on the two seatbacks in front of him. He could have taken the empty copilot seat, as Corso had recommended twice already, but Impact was too tense to sit. He preferred to stand behind the infuriating man and throttle his chair. “This is a following game, mate, not a ramming game.”
Corso was right, Impact knew, but that only made him more frustrating, and the situation more unbearable. Nikki was so close, just a few hundred meters of empty sky away, yet she might as well be on another planet. He couldn't get to her, even though every instinct was telling him he had to try.
“Relax, kid.” Corso actually turned down the sarcasm for once. “She's safe in there, as long as we don't do anything stupid, like try to ram them.” He turned it down, not off. “If Savior wanted to hurt her, he would have done so long before we showed up.”