It doesn’t take too much coaxing from the others before they’re walking hand in hand through the gardens, flirting and stopping to kiss by every statue they come across. My companion follows them, and it’s almost dark when they join us near the model of the Statue of Liberty.
Guards come up and tell them they must leave, but Sabrina is able to send them on their way. “They won’t remember us,” she assures the others.
“We should be near the pond,” Coalton says.
“There are too many guards there,” Lauren tells him. “It would be impossible for Sabrina to control them all while we’re fighting.”
“I don’t like it here. It’s open, but there are also too many places to hide. We need somewhere with less bushes.”
“It’s too late,” I tell them, stepping into the open as I sense her. “Abigail is here.”
I jump back into the bushes as they all take defensive stances, forming a circle with their backs to each other. We won’t interfere, because this isn’t our fight, and as we may need to fight for our lives later, we need to save up our energy. Years of being on this planet, have made us weak. Our mutant “children” don’t have this problem because they’re part human, but it takes most of our energy just to keep ourselves looking human, which is why we stay hidden most of the time.
It’s not long before Abigail makes her appearance, bringing a group of military men with her. I know the Creators are nearby, but like us, they’ll hide for as long as necessary.
“You can still choose to give up and die gracefully. All you have to do is tell us where the Muses are, and I’ll take care of them,” she tells them.
“If you’re so sure we’re going to die anyway, why should we tell you anything?” Hinton asks her.
“We can make your death humane…comfortable.”
“She’s lying,” Sabrina yells out. “There’s too much hate in her to allow for humanity.”
Abigail attacks then, swinging a sword out from under her coat. Sabrina’s ready for her, their blades clanging as they meet. It’s almost beautiful, seeing the sparks fly off the blades as they crash into each other. Almost. This is a fight to the death, after all, and while there can be beauty in death, more often than not, it’s too devastating to notice.
No one else is moving as the two girls battle. It’s like both sides are waiting to see what will happen…who will win...before they make their own moves. Levi watches closely, but he doesn’t move, and I know he’s holding himself back because he wants Sabrina to know she can do this on her own.
It’s a lesson she’ll need if she survives this, because though Abigail may be the only one wanting to kill her right now, that may not be the case soon enough. The lines are going to blur, and right may become wrong. Knowing she can fight might just save her.
Both girls are showing no signs of tiring, despite the small scratches and gashes they’ve given each other. I send Hinton a message to step in and end it, but he shakes his head in response. I practically growl in frustration because this could go on for hours; they are just too evenly matched.
My companion lets me know he has the same views on the matter, and we are trying to figure out what to do when Michaela comes out of nowhere and jumps into the fray. She pushes Sabrina behind her, and takes control of the fight. Sabrina tries to move
forward again, but Alejandra pulls her back, whispering in her ear that Abigail needs to be taken care of, and Michaela is more capable of making that happen.
Sabrina concedes and takes her place next to Levi once again. He gives her a small smile before scowling at the man in front of him again. The man smirks back at him, and fires off a shot from his gun, which Levi quickly deflects with his blade, sending it back to lodge in the man’s forehead, killing him instantly.
The other military men stare at their fallen comrade in shock, before slowly backing up. The seven allow them to walk away, because their humanity does not allow for killing those who mean them no harm. I disagree with this decision, because I know the men would kill them without a second thought.
“Stop being so stubborn and join us,” Michaela says, trying to reason with Abigail one last time.
“We need to die, all of us. It is the only way to keep the humans safe.”
“Lies, Abigail, those are lies. We are part human, and therefore, we will not try to destroy this race of people. You must know that.”
“What about the Muses?”
“I don’t know about them, but they’ve lived here all this time without trying to overthrow the country, so I’d say the people are safe from them.”
The people are not safe from us once we are able to fully rest and regain the power we’ve lost, but I will not speak the truth right now. It’s not time—they aren’t ready yet.
“I cannot let you live.”
“Then you must die,” Michaela says, running to the Statue of Liberty and using it as a jumping off point.
Abigail is not expecting an aerial assault, and as Michaela arcs her body into a flip, she tries to hold up her blade in defense. It’s no use. The momentum Michaela has allows her to slam her blade right through Abigail’s human heart as she knocks her weapon aside with her shoulder. Both girls are on the ground when it’s all over, but only one of them is still alive.
Abigail’s siblings—Michaela included—flinch in a moment of pain as they feel the loss of her life. “I had to do it,” she tells them.
“We know,” Levi says, leading the others in gathering around her.
“What have you done?” Abigail’s Creator yells as he stumbles onto the scene. “You idiots. You’ve played right into their hands. Your Muses will take over the world now.”
“Don’t you think you’re being a little melodramatic? There are only two of them, so even if that was their plan, it would be a little hard to make it work,” Coalton tells him.
The other Creator steps into view now as well. “They have a plan. We don’t know what it is, but we know there is one. Please, I beg of you, kill yourselves and save this planet that so graciously welcomed you. Without you their plan cannot be fulfilled.”
“Welcomed us?” Jennifer bellows, making the birds in the nearby trees fly away. “You created us. We are here because of you, not because we crashed our spaceship on your planet. This isn’t Superman or Supergirl, or whatever other hero you want to look to for that kind of thing.”
“Thor,” Coalton says.
“I’ve always like Batman the best,” Levi says. “I guess I’m more human than alien, huh?”
“Deadpool’s it for me,” Sabrina tells him.
“Shouldn’t we love the X-Men the most since we’re mutants, too?” Hinton asks them with a smirk.
“This is not a joke! You have put us in danger, and now you must work with us to control the threat,” his Creator yells at him.
“You cannot control us,” I tell him as we make ourselves known. “You couldn’t hold us, and you can’t remove us. Don’t you realize that by now?”
The Truth is Relative
“You cannot have our world,” the Creator from America says to us.
“We do not want your world, only a small piece of it,” my companion tells him. “We cannot allow our race to die out, but we mean you no harm.”
“You were trying to eradicate the population of Australia when we found you all those years ago. You cannot have my continent!” the other one yells.
“Whoa! Hold up,” Coalton says. “You were going to kill people just to have their space? There are lots of uninhabited islands and mountains you could choose from. Why would you go after someplace that’s populated?”
“A power play,” America explains, and he’s not wrong. “To show us they could do it.”
“We aren’t going to let them kill us all, but we won’t let you kill humans as part of your game, either,” Levi says, glancing between my companion, and myself.
“You will have to choose a side,” I tell him.
“I choose me, and my frie
nds. We’re on our side, and no one else’s.”
“One side will win, Son,” his Creator tells him. “He’s right about choosing a side.”
“On this we agree,” I say.
“I think you agree on many things—just on opposite sides. I don’t like either choice, so like Levi, I say we choose ourselves,” Hinton says.
I go into his mind then, urging him to side with us.
“No. I will not destroy people for you.”
You cannot let your humanity be more dominant. It will hurt you in the long run.
“I’ll take my chances.”
Foolish boy.
“I’d rather be foolish any day of the week than be a sheep who follows blindly behind a false prophet.”
I look to my companion, and he tells me that Levi is not going to budge, either. I did not want to have to fight them, because they are indeed strong, but it has come to that. We have one more ace up our sleeve, so to speak, and now it’s time to use it.
We walk quickly over to Sabrina, each placing a hand on her shoulder before anyone can stop us. Her eyes close, and she staggers back, as Levi rushes to her side.
“What did you do to her?” he demands, holding her up.
“We made her whole,” I tell him.
“What are you talking about?”
“Let go of me, Levi,” she says, opening her eyes to glare at him.
“Sabrina?”
“I’ll give you one more warning, and then I’ll have to hurt you.”
“What?”
“Silly boy,” she says, throwing him across the walkway. The bushes crunch beneath him as he crashes into them. He’s not moving when he hits the ground, but he’s not dead. Yet.
“What the hell?” her Creator asks, backing up.
“You had your tricks, and we had ours. Your best are all dead, but Sabrina is our best, and she’s going to kill you—and anyone who stands in our way.”
“Sabrina, dear, let’s be reasonable. There’s no need for any more violence.”
“Reasonable? You created me in a lab, intending to have me kill myself one day, and you think it’s reasonable for me to spare you?”
“Well, when you put it that way, it does sound harsh, but I was only trying to save my country.”
“No, I don’t think you were. I don’t know what your endgame is, but it’s definitely not altruistic. I guess I should give you some kind of thanks for making me…well, me. So, tell me how you want to die, and I’ll do it that way.”
She swings the sword in hand like the true warrior princess she is. She is the best of us, even if she herself didn’t know it until now. When her Creator doesn’t answer, she walks slowly towards him, one eyebrow raised. The others don’t try to stop her, because they inherently know they can’t. Sabrina holds the power—her own, and all of ours as well. We helped make her the perfect conduit for it, and she’s living up to our expectations at the moment.
“Just do it cleanly,” she’s told, and she does just that, slicing the woman’s head clean off her body.
Turning to the man next to her, she asks him, “and you?”
“You are making the wrong choices young lady.”
“I never had a choice, and neither did they,” she says, motioning to the others. “You created us, manipulated us, and waited for us to be killed. That’s not going to happen. We will live, and help those you call Muses build their race back up again.”
“Do your worst, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
“I don’t have one,” she tells him, slicing him clean in half.
The military men have scattered, leaving us alone. It’s time to finish what we’ve had her start.
“They’re against us, too,” I tell her. “These are not friends.”
“We are, Sabrina. You know we’re your friends.”
“I don’t know,” she says, tilting her head sideways.
What? This should not be happening. “You do know. We tell you the truth. It is only us you listen to.”
“No. Listen to me,” Alejandra tells her. “We share the same ability, so you know I’m not lying. We are not your enemies.”
“I don’t know,” she says again, making me feel what I think is fear for the first time since I landed on this planet.
Mind Controls It All
“It’s us, Sabrina,” Michaela tells her, looking into her eyes and trying to reason with her.
“I know who you are. You’re my friends. My enemies. My…I have to kill you. I don’t want to kill you.”
“You do want to kill them,” I tell her, stepping closer to her.
The others step in between us, blocking me from touching her again. They’ve wisely figured out that having physical contact with her will help sway her to the way she needs to go.
“Stay away from her,” Jennifer tells me, taking an offensive stance with me, the blade of the knife she’s holding glowing in the setting sun.
“And shut up! She doesn’t need you confusing her,” Lauren says.
She’s on the ground next to Levi, trying to revive him, but so far it isn’t working. His human heartbeat is strong, but it won’t save him once I convince Sabrina to listen to me. My companion touches my arm, and when I look at him, he speaks into my mind, reminding me we can do the same with Sabrina now that we’ve claimed her.
I block out Hinton, and speak so only she can hear. “Ours is the right choice, Sabrina. You know this. They are just trying to spare themselves because they know they must die.”
“I don’t want them to die.”
“You do,” my companion tells her. “Remember the knowledge we gave you. The vision of what we can accomplish once we are free.”
“Why must they die? What if they promise to leave you alone?”
“There is no guarantee, and we must be guaranteed a future for our species,” I remind her.
“There is no other way.”
She is resolved when she thinks this, and I watch as she moves her body, preparing to attack. Coalton sees her coming, and raises his blade, blocking her
strike. She keeps attacking, backing him down one of the paths, as he moves from side to side, not letting her back him into a wall.
They continue parrying and jabbing for several minutes, and if we hadn’t given her our power, I’d be worried. Sabrina’s already had a long fight with Abigail, and normally she’d need a re-charge by now. She’s no longer normal, which is evident by the force of her attack, and her willingness to keep fighting, even when it doesn’t look like a win will be easy.
She surprises us all by dropping her sword, diving for his feet, and bringing him to the ground with a loud crash as his body hits the pavement. His head rolls sideways, and no one can miss the blood coming out from under him. He is still alive, but his heartbeat is slow and unsteady. It’s only a matter of time until he dies. One down, seven to go—although there’s no sign that Levi’s getting up anytime soon, either.
“Who’s next?” Sabrina asks, wiping the blood from her mouth.
I didn’t see Coalton get in a good hit, so she must have injured herself when she took him down. It’s not bleeding hard enough for it to stop her, or even slow her down, so I have no cause for concern. Especially when she picks her sword back up and moves on to her next victim.
They all wait and watch as she looks from one to the other. Despite what they’ve seen, we can sense their reluctance to hurt her. She senses it, too, and uses it to her advantage, choosing Alejandra next.
She fights valiantly, but fighting is only a part of her, and not what she was specifically created for, leaving her woefully unprepared. She’s bruised and bloody within minutes, and as she tries to hold up her blade, Sabrina goes in for the kill.
My smile turns to a frown when Hinton places his own weapon in the path of hers, stopping her from doing what needs to be done. He’s not much more of a match for her than Alejandra was. He begins running and jumping all over the place, laughing while he plays with her, and
It’s not a bad plan, because no one can go on forever, including her, but she’s nowhere near her end point yet. If he could hold her off for hours, she’d wear down, but Sabrina won’t let it come to that. Oh no. This girl is set in her mission now. That doesn’t mean we want to stand around while she’s forced to play along.
“Get in his head,” I tell my companion. “Distract him so she can take the kill shot.”
I can go into Hinton’s head, but he would probably just ignore me, and I don’t know him like my companion does. He’ll play on his greatest fears and bring him to his knees. I see it start to happen as he stumbles and squeezes his eyes shut for a moment.
It’s long enough for Sabrina to stab him in the arm. She was aiming for his heart, but he turned at the last moment; he’s still alive. Bleeding, and in both physical and emotional pain, but still alive.
“Stop,” Lauren pleads with her, running up to grab Sabrina’s arm.
She turns, and slams her to the ground with the hilt on her sword. Michaela and Jennifer fan out, and this is when I wish we’d given them all telepathy. These two will be formidable together, and being able to get inside their heads would be useful. That’s not an option, so all we can do is stand back and watch as they circle her.
She keeps her eyes up as she crouches down and picks up Lauren’s blade from the ground. As she stands, she swings them both in large arcs, testing the new weight in her less dominant left hand. She can use both, but she’s never had to before, and it takes her a few swings to be comfortable with it.
“Let go of the hold they have on you,” Michaela tells her. “You know this is wrong.”
“I don’t know that.”
“You do know. Find the strength to fight their hold on you,” Jennifer implores her.
“It’s so hard,” she tells them honestly.
“And killing us is easy?” Michaela asks.
“We all knew we’d probably have to kill. You of all people should be prepared for death.”
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