Begin Again

by K. A. Applegate

  Please. 2Face had never sensed any dead person’s presence.

  Still, 2Face couldn’t help but make sure Tate’s skeleton was still where they’d found it, falling out of that old Shipwright’s chair. Yeah. It was there. Gross as ever.

  With one final sneer at Tate, 2Face headed toward the alcove and was genuinely surprised to find Billy still suspended in the humming golden glow. His eyes were open and unblinking; his chin rested on his chest; his hands and feet hung limp.

  The sight of him made 2Face sick.

  “Come on, you freak, say something!” she taunted. Images of when she and Billy had been close stabbed at her mind’s eye and made her wince.

  In the next second, full of revulsion, 2Face lunged at Billy, fists flying — but her flesh never touched his. The golden aura was alive with power and repelled her assault. 2Face was thrown back several feet and came to a crash landing, flat out on her back.

  It took a few minutes for her head to clear. Finally 2Face struggled up onto her elbows and tried to quell the whirring of her stomach. And then she saw it. The smirk on Billy’s face.

  Yeah, no doubt about it. He was laughing at her.

  “It’s not over between us,” she swore, climbing awkwardly to her feet.

  But even as she swore final vengeance, 2Face’s spirit sagged. She slunk from the ship, determined to destroy Billy — and despairing of ever being able to do so.

  Violet looked closely at the group gathered around her behind the ruined ship. Her adrenaline was high.

  “Sanchez is making progress,” she said. “We’re getting closer to knowing what Billy needs from us. The stakes are higher now than ever.”

  “We should be on constant alert,” Olga said.

  Noyze nodded. “We can’t afford to let anyone screw up Billy’s plan. Or to hurt Sanchez.”

  Violet felt a rush of anger at the thought of anyone harming the storyteller. “We need to enlist you, Edward,” she said, nodding at the little boy.

  “I’m on it,” he answered solemnly. “I’m the Chameleon.”

  “I’ll help, too,” Roger Dodger said eagerly.

  Violet nodded. “Good. You boys keep an eye on the main suspects and report back.”

  “Right.” Noyze frowned. “And the main suspects are? Newton, for sure.”

  “Yeah,” Olga said. “He’s prime. But that doesn’t mean we should let anyone off the hook. I don’t mean to sound so suspicious, but… I think there’s a possibility of any one of the Alphas or Marauders panicking and ruining our future.”

  “I agree,” Violet said. “Okay, from this moment on. Operation Look Alert is in effect.”

  CHAPTER 14

  “IT MAKES NO SENSE UNLESS YOU BELIEVE IT DOES.”

  “Edward and Roger Dodger are out scouting,” Violet reported to the group gathered at the base of a petrified staircase to nowhere. “Edward’s gone Chameleon and Roger Dodger’s hanging with the Marauder children. One of them might have overheard an adult say something incriminating. And you know how kids talk.”

  “And the Alphas?” D-Caf asked.

  “Echo and Lumina are with Aga,” Olga said, “With Aga’s care, the baby is really beginning to grow strong.”

  “I put Mattock and Badger on guard outside the ship.” Mo’Steel winced and shifted his bad leg into a more comfortable position. “I’d bet my last ounce of water we can trust both of them completely.”

  “Maybe,” Violet said. “I saw Lyric with Yorka. And Sanchez is with Billy, of course. Have we accounted for everyone else?”

  Jobs sighed. “Let’s stop roll call and get down to business. We’ve got to figure out the final element of the regreening ritual! We’re supposed to be smart, right?”

  Mo’Steel laughed. “Well, at least our parents were. We were just along for the ride on the Mayflower.”

  Violet smirked. “Speak for yourself. Come on, everyone. We can solve this mystery. We have to!”

  “Yes, Nancy Drew,” Noyze said primly.

  “First question,” Olga said. “What does Billy mean by the Five embodied in him? Maybe if we understood that…”

  Jobs’s brain began to fire. What ever happened to the Missing Five? The five people from the Mayflower who were never accounted for in the end. Chances were they were long dead.

  Dead and buried in the ruins of Mother somewhere. Where else could they be?

  Unless…

  Tate’s recorded message. She said that she’d incorporated — literally — Yago, Amelia, and Charlie. That made Tate an “aggregate person,” of sorts.

  “The Troika,” Jobs mumbled, thinking aloud.

  Mo’Steel nodded. “The Trinity. Three people in one. It makes no sense unless you believe it does.”

  “I think,” Jobs said slowly, “that the Missing Five from the Mayflower were incorporated in Billy.”

  “How?” Noyze wondered.

  “Maybe Mother did it,” Jobs said. “We’ll never know. Remember how Billy was sort of in everybody’s head during the five hundred years on the Mayflower. It was part of what drove him crazy. Maybe the five — got in then — somehow. And never got out.”

  “Having only five strangers in his head can’t be as bad as having eighty,” D-Caf quipped. “I hope.”

  “Maybe they’re not even separate people anymore. Maybe they’ve all merged and Billy is one in many, and many in one.”

  “This is all very philosophical, but what’s the point?” Violet said suddenly. “We already assumed Billy was an essential element of the regreening ritual, right? So now it’s Billy and friends, big deal. And he told us straight out that the Source — whatever that is, exactly — is another essential part. What we still haven’t figured out is the third element.”

  The depressing silence that followed Violet’s words was broken by the sudden appearance of Sanchez. His eyes shone and his breathing was heavy.

  “What’s wrong?” Violet cried, reaching for his arm.

  Sanchez shook his head. “Nothing. At least —”

  “Sit down,” Olga urged. “Catch your breath.”

  Sanchez sank to the ground. After a moment, he looked up and spoke. “Billy said the word

  ‘love,’ again, just as I felt —”

  “What?” Jobs urged.

  “I have no word for it,” Sanchez admitted. “But I have felt it before, from the Source. It reminds me of what I sense between Echo and the child. Between the other mothers and their children. Between j’ou, Olga, and Mo’Steel. Something very powerful. Something — inviolable.”

  “Go on,” Mo’Steel said, kneeling awkwardly by Sanchez.

  The storyteller’s voice trembled. “So I asked Billy a simple question. And he gave me a simple answer. So simple I am ashamed I didn’t understand before now.”

  “What? Don’t keep us in suspense,” D-Caf cried.

  Sanchez closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “The third element essential for the regreening ritual is the baby. Lumina.”

  Violet grabbed Olga’s arm. Mo’Steel sucked in his breath, and D-Caf slapped his forehead.

  “Then it’s solved!” Noyze cried.

  Jobs looked at Sanchez’s bowed head and knew there was more.

  “Not quite,” the storyteller admitted. “We must bring the baby to Billy. What I don’t understand is when. Billy spoke of a critical moment. When I asked him to tell me when that is, he said. The moment from which the voice was heard.’”

  “Oh, great, another riddle!” Violet moaned. “What now, Billy?”

  Olga rubbed her eyes. “Okay. We’ll figure it out. We can’t lose heart.”

  “And we can’t miss Billy’s critical moment, either!”

  Jobs looked at his companions and hesitated to speak. But he had to. “There’s something else,” he said calmly. “We have to ask Echo’s permission.”

  Mo’Steel had called a general meeting. He said they had something critical to discuss.

  Something about his tone made Echo concerned. She didn’t
want to go to the meeting but there wasn’t exactly a way out of it Echo walked toward the gathering group. She held Lumina against her shoulder. The baby was still weak but with the advice and ministrations of the older women in the group, she was growing healthier. Echo smiled as Lumina lifted her head ever so slightly from her mother’s shoulder and gurgled. Lumina would never see her mother’s face and that broke Echo’s heart. But Lumina would know unending love.

  Echo mingled with some of the women — Curia, the silent Yorka, dark-skinned Noyze —

  and watched as the men and boys joined them.

  A loud voice silenced the small talk around her. Mo’Steel and Sanchez stepped to the center of the rough circle.

  “Sanchez has heard again from the Source,” Mo’Steel announced. Echo thought his expression was troubled, and her stomach went all funny.

  Mo’Steel stepped away, and Sanchez looked slowly around the group. His head looked freshly shaved and his cheekbones were more prominent than usual, as if he’d been fasting,

  “The Source has revealed to me,” he said with a hoarse voice, “the final element necessary for the regreening ritual. For the rebirth of our world.”

  The holy man paused and Echo felt the combined anxiety of every Marauder, Alpha, and Remnant. She looked to Jobs and found that his eyes were downcast. She willed him to look up at her but —

  “The three elements,” Sanchez went on. “The Source. The Five embodied in Billy. And —

  the child called Lumina.”

  There was dead silence for a second and then Echo sensed voices, movement, saw faces….

  “No,” she said to no one. “No.”

  Suddenly Echo realized she stood at the center of the group. She didn’t know how she happened to have gotten there.

  Alone, at the center, with all eyes trained upon her and Lumina, expectant. Alphas, Marauders, Remnants.

  Echo was afraid. Once again, she was the special one chosen for an important task. She hadn’t asked for this distinction. Nor had she asked to be chosen by the Alphas to bear a child for the colony. But she had accepted their decision and when, in their estimation, she had failed to do the job right, she’d been marked for murder.

  Enforced starvation was murder.

  And now?

  “I… I don’t understand,” she blurted.

  “None of us do,” Jobs admitted, finally looking at her “Not really.”

  “What will happen to my baby?” she demanded of him.

  There was more silence for her answer.

  Involuntarily, Echo glanced at Newton. His eyes were dark with — with what? Hate?

  Echo’s stomach clenched.

  Olga took a step into the circle, smiling, one hand held out as if in peace. But Echo wanted nothing from any of them.

  “J’ou stay back!” she cried, dashing to her right. D-Caf stepped back, startled, opening the circle, and Echo ran through.

  “Echo! Please! Where are you going?”

  It was Jobs, his tone concerned, pleading.

  Echo halted. Breathing heavily, she turned to face the group. Alpha, Marauder, Remnant.

  But her eyes held Jobs’s and his alone.

  “I need time to think,” she called out. Her voice was surprisingly strong.

  No, Echo thought, not surprisingly. Have I come this far to protect my child, only to hand her over to these — strangers — now? No.

  Jobs’s frustration was clear but finally, he nodded. Echo turned and walked off.

  CHAPTER 15

  “YOU’VE JUST MADE ME AN ACCESSORY TO YOUR CRIME.”

  There was something he hadn’t told them.

  Something Billy had communicated that last time, something Sanchez had kept to himself.

  It was killing him to keep it a secret any longer. Even though the message had been enigmatic —

  Billy’s energy had been draining badly — Sanchez knew he had to unburden himself or go insane.

  He sought out Violet. He found her sitting alone, staring off into nothing.

  “What are j’ou doing?” he asked.

  “Don’t you even say hello?” Violet looked up at him and smiled. “If you must know, I’m thinking about when I was little. I pick a year of my childhood and I try to remember as much as I can about it.

  Good and bad. Memories are all I have of — before. All any of us have.”

  Sanchez hesitated. Maybe now was not the time …

  “We must talk,” he blurted.

  “About what?”

  Violet got to her feet. Sanchez noted how thin the girl had gotten.

  “About something I know.”

  Violet rolled her eyes. “You know, it’s like pulling teeth with you, Sanchez. Don’t you ever just get to the point?”

  Sanchez frowned. “Pulling teeth?”

  “Forget it. It’s an expression. Just tell me what you have to tell me.”

  Sanchez closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and looked steadily at Violet.

  “When Billy told me that Lumina was the third essential element for the regreening ritual, he also told me something else. Something — disturbing.”

  Violet’s blue eyes grew dark. “What?”

  “Billy told me there is a possibility the ritual won’t work.”

  Violet smiled and looked massively relieved. “Is that all?” she said. “I’ve always considered that possibility. So, what happens? We live out the rest of our lives in the desert?”

  Suddenly, Sanchez wished he could hold Violet’s hands as he told her the ugly truth. But he resisted the temptation. “We don’t live at all,” he said. “Earth is destroyed. As are we.”

  Violet took a step away from him and folded her arms across her chest. “Okay, now you’re scaring me.”

  “I have kept this information to myself for a reason,” Sanchez explained calmly, though inside, he was flooded again with self-doubt. “What if I am wrong? What if I misunderstood Billy’s warning?

  What if there is no possibility of failure? If I tell, I might be creating panic for no reason. I will be adding a terrible complication to an already confusing situation. My words might frighten the people into refusing to trust and act with Billy.”

  “Then why tell me now?” Violet cried. “Sanchez…”

  The strength of Violet’s reaction did not bother Sanchez as much as it once might have. He was learning. He was changing all the time.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted.

  Violet sighed and ran her hands over her wild hair “You’ve just made me an accessory to your crime.

  Do you realize that? Even if it was a crime of omission. Now I share your burden. Thanks.”

  She shared his burden …. Yes, Sanchez thought. That’s why I told her. I wanted — needed? — her to share my burden.

  “We have to tell Mo’Steel NOW,” Violet said, grabbing Sanchez’s arm, Sanchez felt the strength of Violet’s fingers through his dirty clothing. They were slim but powerful.

  “Does he need to know?” he said.

  Sanchez watched as several emotions registered in Violet’s blue eyes.

  Finally her grip lessened and she stepped back from him again. “Are you going to try to stop me from telling?” she asked, her tone challenging.

  “No,” Sanchez admitted. “I’m asking j’ou a question for which I have no answer.”

  Violet was silent for a moment. Then, she began to pace. To talk to herself, not to him.

  “How realistic is it,” she said, “to expect uneducated, barely civilized people …”

  Sanchez winced. Violet meant the Marauders, of course. Maybe not Sanchez specifically, but still, hearing her opinion of his people stung.

  “How can they make a rational decision about their future?” Violet went on. “Isn’t it really up to us, to me and Jobs and the others, isn’t it really up to us to make that decision for them? Maybe it’s for the best that we don’t tell anyone else about the possibility of failure….”

  Violet came to a
n abrupt halt and looked back at Sanchez. Did she see the pain in his eyes, he wondered.

  Her voice now was strained. “Sanchez, do you hear what I’m saying? It’s horrible! I don’t want to play. I can’t! Who am I that I should even be considering shouldering the responsibility of…”

  Violet clutched her head.

  “I’m sorry I told j’ou,” Sanchez said.

  Violet laughed. “No you’re not. But it’s okay It’s okay. If it were the other way around, I wouldn’t have been able to keep it to myself,” she admitted. “Just — what now?”

  Sanchez hesitated. He hoped he was doing the right thing but he had no way of knowing.

  “I think we should continue to keep this to ourselves.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes.”

  Sanchez waited for Violet’s opinion. His heart slammed in his chest.

  Finally she sighed and said, “Okay. We’re agreed. We keep this information to ourselves. At least for now.”

  Sanchez nodded, knowing all too well that nothing had been solved. That he — and now Violet —

  was still guilty in some way. “Yes,” he said. “At least for now.”

  Jobs looked around at his companions and wondered why they didn’t just all shut up. What was the use of talking anyway? Okay, maybe he was just in a bad mood, but it looked pretty likely that the regreening ritual wasn’t going to happen.

  Still, he listened as he chewed a tasteless leaf of some sort. What else did he have to do?

  “Billy must tell Echo nothing bad will happen to the child,” Aga was insisting.

  “I don’t think he can do that,” Olga replied. “I don’t think he knows exactly what will happen during the ritual.”

  “That’s right. He only tells us what he knows for certain. I think.” Noyze groaned. “It’s so frustrating that he communicates only through Sanchez! And even Sanchez isn’t sure he’s getting the messages right.”

  “Revelation isn’t supposed to be as easy as reading the back of a cereal box,” Violet said, sarcasm heavy in her tone.

  Hey, Jobs thought, shooting her an amused glance. Violet sounds just like I feel.