by L. C. Mawson
Perception frowned. “Leader. Alpha. Commander. They have no Human concept to judge it by. He tells them where to go and they cannot disobey. It’s coded into their very being.”
“Coded into their being?” Claire mused. “Does that mean a Rena is giving them orders? It would have to be, right? They were designed as weapons for the Rena to control.”
“You are most likely correct,” Perception told her, “though I cannot confirm it.”
“What would a Rena be doing on Earth?” Serenity asked. “We haven’t heard from them since our ancestors arrived on Earth.”
“The monsters were their experiment,” Claire reasoned. “Maybe they’re checking up.”
“Then why send the monsters to murder people?”
“To test that they’re capable assassins?”
“Speculation will get us nowhere,” Perception said. “Claire, do you think your power can override their orders?”
She shrugged. “I did it once, but that was under different circumstances. What about your powers? If these monsters are working for the same Rena who is hunting us, then can you not sense where they came from?”
He frowned. “I can try.” After several moments, he took out a tablet from his pocket and placed a dot on the map on the screen. “There,” he said. “All of them came from that point.”
“So, no fighting?” Serenity asked.
“No fighting,” Perception confirmed and Claire let out a sigh of relief as they made their way back to the dropship.
There was no way she could override the commands alone.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Claire didn’t see Empathy the next day. She locked herself up in the control room, monitoring the tracking device, and Claire wasn’t ready to push. Not yet.
The day after, however, she wasn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer. Em needed to talk about this, and, in all honesty, she did too. Everything was just a little harder for her, her mind working just a little bit slower, and she'd realised that she probably was affected by the news that their father was dead. It was just affecting her in the background instead of the foreground.
“Lita, tell Em to let me in,” Claire said, standing in the lift that refused to take her to the top floor.
“Empathy has requested not to be disturbed.”
“I promise to be nice.”
It took a few moments before the lift fired up, taking her to the top floor.
“Em?” Claire asked as she got out.
Empathy was sitting at the same place as usual, spinning around to face Claire and revealing that they once again looked identical.
“So, are we going to talk about this?”
“About what?”
“About Perception,” Claire said, folding her arms. “About you beating yourself up over leaving.”
Em shrugged. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Yeah, there is. Em, I need you to know that I’m not mad at you for leaving.”
“I know. You’ve said that.”
“But you still think I am. Or you’re mad at yourself. That’s why you got so worked up about Perception. You were mad at our father, and you can’t forgive him, but now you’ve done the same thing, so, following that logic, you can’t forgive yourself.”
Em looked away silently at that, her hands clutching the edge of her chair so that her knuckles went white.
“I did forgive him,” she eventually whispered. “I was never angry. You were and Maman tried to pretend that she wasn’t but... I didn’t remember.” She let out a hollow laugh. “How funny is that? I was never mad because I didn’t remember, and now you can’t remember and you’re not mad either, but...”
“What happened?” Claire asked. “When you became an Aspect, I mean. Were you two close?”
Em shook her head. “I... I had lost you and Maman. I thought... I tried to be mad at him, like you had been. I thought your anger needed to preserved, even if I had taken everything else from you.”
Claire messed with her hair as she realised what had happened. “You let him believe that you hated him, and then he died?”
She nodded.
“And now I’m here, and I’m not even mad.”
“Yeah...”
“I’m sorry.”
Em shrugged. “You don’t have to apologise. It was my mistake. My failure to live with. It’s just one of many.”
“Em... Don’t torture yourself over the past. Please? I... I hate seeing you like this. I’m sure Maman and Papa would have hated it too.”
Em just blinked at her for a few moments before speaking again. “You never called him Papa...”
Before Claire could say anything else, the console beeped, drawing Em’s attention away.
“What’s that for?” Claire asked, noting the frown of concentration her sister developed.
“The mapping software,” Em told her. “It’s finished extrapolating what the area Perception marked down probably now looks like. And where exactly the Rena behind this is hiding.”
“So now we know where to go.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s been two days... If it’s a Rena controlling them, what are the odds that they haven’t figured out that we’re coming?”
“They found the tracking device and tried to shake us with the false signal. You weren’t seen, so they have no way of knowing that Perception figured out the truth.”
“We think we weren’t seen. There’s no way to know for sure.”
Em frowned before catching her sister’s meaning. “You think it’s a trap?”
Claire now had her own frown of concentration as she examined the screen in front of her. “I think that there was no reason to have the other creatures so thoroughly destroy the first unless they anticipated Perception. They noticed the tracking device to start with, so I doubt they’re sloppy.”
“So we send in a small scout team,” Em reasoned. “If it doesn’t smell right, you can retreat. No harm done. That was the plan anyway.”
“Who were you going to send?”
“For a scout mission, Jealousy is the team leader. She asked for you and Hate to accompany her.”
“Hate’s combat ready?” Claire knew that the Aspects had access to Rena technology that hadn’t quite been reverse engineered for the rest of the population yet.
“Yeah. I thought you would be the first to know that.”
Claire tried to look nonchalant but she wasn’t sure if she succeeded. She hadn’t been back to see Hate. That would just be courting heartache. They couldn’t be together. No amount of kicking or screaming would change that. Making herself feel worse about it wasn’t going to help anyone. She would get over it eventually, she reasoned, but that required distance.
“In all honesty,” Em continued, smartly not commenting on how things were between Claire and Hate, “I thought you’d be arguing over the fact that she wanted you to go along. Or do you think you’ve got the hang of your powers now?”
Claire recognised her own tone of worry in Em’s voice, and briefly wondered if it always sounded so mild. If she hadn’t been so familiar with her own voice, she might have missed it.
Claire thought for a moment before responding.
What was that Serenity said? That loving Hate from a distance would have to do?
“Hate will be there too,” she said simply. There was no point in hiding things from Empathy. She would know anyway. And even if that wasn’t the case, she didn’t want any more lies between them. They’d had enough for one lifetime.
“Okay,” Em replied, turning back to the terminal in front of her. “I think Jealousy wanted to head out soon. She should be on the next level down. Lita?”
“You are correct.”
Claire nodded before getting in the lift and heading to the floor below.
As she left the lift, Claire found Jealousy and Hate pretty much ready to go. Jealousy had two weapons strapped to her hips, over the top of her ratty, faded pink tracksuit, a shortsword and an old Rena
blaster pistol. The Rena pistol seemed a little worn, but was clearly well looked after to have survived the last two centuries.
Hate had her unggeom on her side, complementing her usual get-up, and her hair was once again tied back with barrettes.
“Em said you wanted me to come along,” Claire said, walking over to the other two.
Jealousy nodded, indicating over to the weapon rack. “Equip yourself. I want to move out soon. The key is being swift. Don’t grab more than you can run with.”
Claire took a retractable staff and a light, black waterproof. They were headed to a section of the wastelands known for heavy rainfall.
“We taking the dropship?” Claire asked.
“Oh crap,” Jealousy cursed, her ginger ponytail slapping the side of her face with the force of her shaking her head. “You’ve never ridden a Rena bike before, have you?”
“No,” Claire said, unsure what a ‘Rena bike’ even was.
“She can ride behind me,” Hate said simply before turning to Claire. “Can you shoot?”
Claire nodded. She’d had plenty of time to train with Vengeance and he'd quickly moved onto weapons she was unfamiliar with. She wasn’t necessarily good but she was capable of getting the weapon to fire in at least vaguely the right direction.
“Then I’ll drive and you make sure no one follows.”
Jealousy nodded, seemingly happy with that arrangement.
“How long will it take us to get there?” Claire asked, curious. She’d never travelled out of the city before.
“Not long,” Jealousy told her. “A few hours at most.”
She led the other two over to the garage, a section of the floor where the vehicles capable of flight were stored, with a force-field instead of a northern wall to allow passage.
The vehicles Jealousy moved over to looked almost like traditional Human motorcycles, except they didn’t have any wheels. Jealousy got on one of the bikes, putting on a plain black helmet and starting up the vehicle. The bike began to hover with a faint, almost inaudible hum, a light blue light underneath that was faint enough to probably be outshone by a small amount of sunlight.
Hate got on the second bike before passing a third helmet to Claire.
“You fall off this, you will die. The helmet is only to keep your face from tearing off,” Hate told her and Claire nodded, more than a little nervous. She’d never been great with heights. The dropship was fine, because she could stand in the middle of the doors, which would stop her from being able to look down. These bikes on the other hand...
Hate indicated to the seat behind her and Claire felt her mouth go dry at the realisation that they would be constantly touching during the ride.
“Hold onto me,” Hate told her and Claire did as she was told, though her touch was tentative.
“I’m not going to break,” Hate snapped, a little sharper than the situation warranted.
Claire held on a little tighter, trying not to be distracted by the way she could feel Hate move beneath her jacket as she breathed.
Not that she had much time to be distracted, as Hate and Jealousy quickly kicked their bikes into gear, lurching forward in a way that made Claire feel as if she left her stomach behind.
CLAIRE WAS RIGHT THAT the height bothered her. She tried to focus on something - anything - other than the way her hands and feet were going numb and her stomach flipped at the sight of the ground below. At first, she tried to examine the plant-life as it whizzed past. It was a fascinating mix of green, yellow and brown, though she could barely make out anything but the blur of colour as she sped by.
She’d always thought that the Wastelands would be barren of any life. Nothing but the monsters. She imagined that they would decimate any and all life they encountered, just like they did to the Humans. But out here life thrived. She knew, intellectually, that the old ruins of what had once been Human civilisation, before the Fall, had been reclaimed by nature. They had told them as much in school. And yet, she could never quite devoid the word Wastelands from the idea of a flat, barren land, as far as the eye could see, covered in monsters, like an infestation of insects.
Her thoughts didn’t keep her distracted from the height for long and eventually she focused on the movement of Hate’s torso beneath her hands. The soft, steady rhythm of her breath, controlled and predictable, despite the wind assaulting them and the speed at which they were riding through the wilderness.
She felt guilty as Hate’s body heat warmed her and made her heady. She wanted to hold her close and not let her go. To spin her around and kiss her breathlessly, their hands mapping each other’s skin...
They were headed to the lair of the monsters that hunted them, possibly to face the person who was determined to see Claire and her sister dead, and she couldn’t get her mind out of the gutter.
She was the worst kind of person, she decided, not cutting herself any slack for normal teenage hormones.
She wasn’t a normal teenager. She was a living weapon. She wasn’t allowed normal teenage lapses.
Not if she wanted to live.
“How was Em?” Jealousy asked over the helmet comms, cutting through Claire’s dark fog of thoughts.
“What do you mean?”
She made the noise equivalent of a shrug. “She’s just been keeping to herself since Hate got hurt. I know Justice usually plays the team leader part and Serenity and the old Love would act as emotional support for everyone but... I don’t know. I guess I’ve always looked out for Em. She reminds me of my little sister.”
“You have a sister?”
“Yeah,” Jealousy replied. “Before I became an Aspect. When I arrived, Em was really what made the Tower feel like home, even if she usually likes to keep to herself.”
“Sounds like you had a hard time leaving,” Claire said, more than a little curious. None of the other Aspects seemed to have had as hard a time adjusting as she'd been having. Or, at least, they were far enough removed from when they had left to no longer be bothered by the fact that they had been ripped from their lives to fight somebody else’s war. In all honesty, she wasn’t sure why she was still so mad about it. She wasn’t being asked to forget her family. Em was her family. She wasn’t really being asked to leave behind anyone she'd been irrevocably attached to. She’d liked ballet, sure, but she wasn’t especially passionate about it. Just good at it. So why was this still bothering her, she wondered. Was it simply her dislike of change? Her objection to feeling as if she had no choice? The fact that it had ruined her relationship with Hate?
“Yeah, I guess I did,” Jealousy admitted. “Not that everyone else didn’t have the same problem. I just... I missed home.”
“Sounds familiar...”
“You’ve been having it rough here?” The surprise in her question was evident, even over the helmet speakers.
“Well, yeah. Of course. I mean...”
“Is it the lifespan thing?” Jealousy asked softly, cutting through Claire’s own confusion. Of course it was. It had always been the lifespan thing, really.
She might have imagined it, but she swore she felt Hate’s muscles clench beneath her in a way that had nothing to do with riding the bike.
“Yeah... I guess it is,” Claire admitted.
“Look, I can’t say this job isn’t dangerous but... You’re not alone in this. Plus, I mean, come on. If I’ve managed to survive this long, you’re golden.”
Claire gave a weak smile at Jealousy’s joking tone, though she didn’t reply. She wanted to hold tighter to Hate, to give her some measure of comfort, but she resisted the urge.
AS THEY APPROACHED the coordinates, they realised that they were for a series of catacombs, the entrance made up of a variety of caves on the front of a cliff face.
They parked their bikes in a group of closely packed trees, where they would be hidden by the overgrown foliage, as they watched the cliff face carefully. Monsters were crawling in and out of the cave entrances, making entering without a fuss look impossible.
>
“This looks like a nest,” Hate said, her voice low and urgent. This was bad news.
“That it does,” Jealousy agreed. “But see that over there? Far from the monsters? Is it just me, or does that look like a door?”
Claire looked over and saw a smooth, perfectly rectangular section of the cliff face.
“Think you can get us in?” Hate asked her.
“If you two can keep the monsters off my back? Sure.”
“How much time do you need?”
Jealousy huffed, frowning a little. “I mean, it’s probably Rena tech, right? We weren’t this advanced before the Fall, were we?”
Hate shrugged. “Not my speciality.”
“Love?”
“I barely passed history. And IT class didn’t exactly go into high security doors.”
Jealousy sighed. “Of course they didn’t. Right, well then I have no idea. It’ll take as long as it takes.”
“Then we’ll protect you as long as we can,” Hate assured her before turning to Claire.
It took her a moment to realise that she was looking for affirmation from her. She nodded as soon as she twigged, and that seemed to be enough for the other two.
“Follow me,” Jealousy said before soundlessly leaping out of the foliage they were using as cover and flowing over to the door like mist.
Claire and Hate followed close behind, though without nearly as much grace, their backs to Jealousy as they watched wearily for the monsters.
“New time estimate?” Hate hissed once Jealousy had a chance to examine the door more closely.
“Five minutes,” Jealousy told them.
They were possibly the longest five minutes of Claire’s life as she watched vigilantly for any indication that the monsters had spotted them. The monsters, however, seemed almost docile as they wandered around, not leaving the immediate area surrounding the caves.
“In,” Jealousy said, prompting the other two to hurry inside before she shut the door.
The cold, metal corridor they entered was pitch black, with the exception of the glow of their Bands. Jealousy brought out a torch and used it to illuminate the path ahead.