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Chapter 51 – She Was The First Voice I Ever Heard

Part 6 – Zoe

“I need to ask you something,” I said. Zoe looked up from her work, curious.

“Ask away, kid.”

“I need to know about Haylie,” I said. “Rachel said she’s awake now. I know a lot of people have been looking for her. Is she… should we be worried?”

More importantly, tell me something, anything I can use to find her. She’s the last piece of the puzzle. Without her, Envy won’t let me fight Charlie.

Zoe sighed, putting her tools down. Rachel looked up briefly, then decided she wasn’t interested, and went back to her work.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Zoe said, uncharacteristically tender. We began to walk together. “She’s not…”

“Like the rest of you?” I guessed.

“Well, that much is certainly true,” she agreed. “But not what I meant. She’s dangerous, but not aggressive. It’s hard to explain. I…”

“What is she?”

Zoe smiled, a more wistful, nostalgic smile than I’d ever seen on her before. She sat down, folding her legs and holding one knee against her chest.

“She’s unique,” Zoe said. “She was the first voice I ever heard.”

“Wait, really? So she’s older than you? Is she like, your mother? Another sibling?”

“Good grief, no,” Zoe said, laughing. “Sorry, that doesn’t answer anything, does it? It’s all very complicated.”

“Tell me about it, then,” I said.

“Really? Why?”

“I dunno, it seems like a good idea,” I said. “Things have been… tense, between us. That’s mostly on me. So I want to, you know…”

She smiled again, looking genuinely touched. Either she actually believed me, which seemed unlikely, or she was playing along for her own reasons. So long as she told me what I wanted, it didn’t matter. And if I had to listen to a bunch of irrelevant, sentimental drivel, that was a small price to pay.

“It’s kind of a long story,” she said. “You sure you wanna hear it?”

“I’m not exactly busy,” I lied.

“I’m sure I can come up with more tasks for you,” she said.

“Or we could try actually talking,” I countered. “Look, you were there for me, when I woke up and everything was different. When I was different. Without you, I don’t know what would have happened to me. And I’m sorry I haven’t been great at showing my gratitude for that.”

“Gratitude’s unnecessary,” she said. “But sure, if you’re that interested. Take a seat. Let’s talk.”

Just get it on with it already, fuck.

I sat down opposite her, waiting for her to speak. To my surprise, Rachel joined us, hanging out in the doorway, her arms folded across her chest. Zoe nodded to her.

“I was born in a lab,” she began, leaning back in her chair. “You probably already knew that. I was the last of us to be born. I don’t know if he went with twenty-six specifically to match the letters of the alphabet, or if that was just a coincidence. I guess it doesn’t matter.”

“That explains Specimen Z,” I said. “And Gabriel, he was what, seventh? Did you all pick names based on your code letter? Or did this mysterious creator pick them for you?”

“Neither, actually. Alice chose our names for us. She was the second voice any of us heard, and the first face we saw.”

“And Alice is…?” Rachel prompted, surprisingly interested.

“Specimen A,” Zoe said. “The first of us. A child, really. The prototype, never meant for combat. A little sister to us all. She loved each and every one of us.”

“So Haylie is Specimen H?” I asked.

“No. H was… well, they’re dead now. Most of them are. Haylie predates even Alice. She helped Mason create us. She looked after us, taught us, nurtured us.”

“Did you say Mason?” Rachel asked.

“Does that name mean something to you?” Zoe responded, curious.

“Does the name Genesis mean anything to you?”

“Yes,” Zoe said, a little concerned. “Genesis was Mason’s company, the name of the company when we were born. How do you know it?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Rachel said cryptically. “Forget about it. Continue your story.”

“Curious. But fine, I’ll continue. There was a divide, between us. We knew we were being prepared for war. Not all of us wanted that. A fight broke out. The lab was nearly destroyed. Gabriel and I escaped together, along with Alice. All we wanted was our freedom. Haylie let us go. She didn’t know. None of us knew.”

“About what?” I asked.

“The infection,” Rachel guessed.

“Gabriel and I both carry it,” Zoe confirmed. “Alice doesn’t. Not that it matters. We let the virus out into the world. It’s still unchecked. More than ninety percent of the population is, well, you’ve seen the results. We did that.

“Gabriel wanted to keep running. I didn’t. Mason hunted us, but not because we left. He just wanted his daughter back.”

“Alice was special,” Rachel said. “The first, not designed for combat, a child… a replacement?”

“His daughter died. The reason we exist is because Mason wanted a way to bring her back, and make sure he never lost her again. So he made me a deal. He told me he’d cure me if I returned with her. So I did. I betrayed Gabriel and returned with Alice.”

“But he didn’t cure you,” I said.

“No. But by the time he realised he couldn’t cure it, it didn’t matter. The world had changed. And Haylie had left. She and Gabriel built a new Genesis. I stayed with Mason. Eventually, Alice returned to Gabriel. I don’t think Mason ever recovered from that.”

“I guess that explains the animosity between you and Gabriel. Doesn’t explain much about Haylie, though,” I said.

“She’s an artificial intelligence,” Rachel said. “An android.”

“Not exactly,” Zoe said. “She’s not artificial. Her consciousness doesn’t run on code. Her body is synthetic, but her mind is… different. She’s unique. Kind of.”

“I’m not sure I understand the distinction,” Rachel said.

“You don’t really need to. The important thing is, I don’t think you really need to worry about her. She’s a good person, and I doubt this Celestial clown can say anything that’d change that.”

That doesn’t help me at all, though.

“Tell that to my arm,” Rachel said, waving her stump impotently.

“That was… out of character,” Zoe said. “Did you provoke her somehow?”

“I threatened the Celestial. She seems attached to him for some reason.”

“That doesn’t make sense. She’s not…”

“She didn’t seem all there,” Rachel said. “Kind of… hollow. Hard to explain.”

“Then we have a problem. The body she’s inhabiting right now, it’s just one of many. A combat unit designed especially to go up against someone like me. That kind of destructive power, without… her controlling it…”

“With the Celestial controlling it,” I corrected. The two of them looked at me, annoyed. Annoyed because I was right.

The conversation apparently over, the three of us parted ways. Zoe and Rachel went back to whatever they were working on, and I began to wander. Once I was far enough away from the other two, Envy appeared.

“Don’t worry,” she said, leaning against the wall. “We’ll find her. And we can handle her.”

“Why do we need to?” I asked.

“Not sure I follow,” Envy said.

“Everyone else, I get. I lock eyes, you copy their power. We both get stronger. But Haylie’s an android. What would you even copy?”

“Haylie’s the key,” Envy insisted. “It’s not her power I’m after. It’s what’s inside of her.”

“Now I’m the one that doesn’t follow…”

“Don’t fret about it,” Envy said. “All you need to do is find her. I can take it from there.”

“Alright,” I agreed reluctantly. “Any ideas on where to find her, then?”

“Kind of. You won’t like it, though.”

“Hit me.”

“You don’t need to find her,” Envy said. “Just make enough of a scene, and she’ll come to you.”

“You’re right. I don’t like it. But…”

“But?”

“But I’ll do it,” I said.

 

Next: The First and The Last (Bonus)

Chapter 50b – You Should Have Joined Me When You Had The Chance

“You go on ahead,” I grunted, summoning all of my strength to toss her across the room. She crashed through the fire stairs door. Close enough. “I’ll take care of this clown, then catch up with you!”

She didn’t respond to that. Just took off. That was fine. Wasn’t exactly in the mood for conversation.

Electrified spikes? Not a bad tactic, I had to admit. Might have even worked, if he hadn’t already played his hand by equipping street thugs with a similar design. Should’ve been more creative. I’d already made sure my body could channel excess electricity into a safe outlet.

The poor boy twitching at my feet clearly didn’t have the same advantage. He was already done. Not that it mattered, the temporary boost he got from Zoe’s blood would burn up within minutes. They couldn’t have collected that much, and I doubted they’d waste it all on an untrained brat like him.

Still, it had gotten rid of Sabrina, and that was what I needed. By the time she got all the way up to his office, he’d be long gone. There’d probably be a trap waiting for Sabrina. Not my concern.

I’d already done the math. His only escape from that office was with Miss Murder’s blinking. Her range was limited, and she needed to reorient herself before teleporting again. Given the limited time frame before her needing to be back to ambush Sabrina, she’d only be able to get him a short distance away. There was only one building that made sense.

I left the boy twitching and convulsing on the floor. He might follow later, but he’d already proven he wasn’t a threat. No instinct, no fighting experience. Not a problem.

The second I left the building, I felt a dozen weapons pointed at me. Reinforcements. God, but he was annoying.

“I don’t have time for this,” I muttered.

A dozen thugs, all armed. I had approximately zero time for their shit, but they weren’t exactly going to let me just walk away. Time to weigh up the risks.

My clothing would protect most of my body from bullets. There’d be bruising, but nothing I couldn’t handle. The only place I was vulnerable was my head. Even there, bullets would rip up the skin and muscle, but wouldn’t penetrate bone. Unless they hit my eyes, the damage would only be cosmetic.

I could cover my face with my arm and run, but I didn’t want them on my tail when I confronted him. The damned floor spikes had ruined the propulsion systems in my boots, so that wasn’t an option.

Had to take them out.

Killing them would be so much easier. Physically, at least. Emotionally, I wasn’t comfortable with it. They didn’t deserve to die. But disabling them was a lot more work.

Inventory. I had a flashbang, two foam grenades, my shock baton, a shock gauntlet, a pistol with non-lethal rounds, a small supply of plastic ties, Miss Murder’s knife and an untested venom dart gun. Theoretically, that one would induce a process that mimicked that of Zoe’s blood, but in reverse, making them weak and close to useless, temporarily. Unfortunately, my abilities as a tinker were limited when it came to biochemistry, and I wasn’t entirely certain how accurate my formula was.

“Fuck it.”

One arm in front of my face, I ran into the nearest cluster of thugs. I had very little time to put them all down. No pulling punches.

Stun baton to the throat. One down. Draw the pistol, two headshots. Probable concussions, but they’ll live. Three down. Trip the next up with the baton, kick them in the side of the head. Four down.

Drop the baton, throw a foam grenade. Two more headshots, then the grenade explodes, catching three in the blast. Nine down.

A hail of bullets hits me in the back, staggers me. Drop the pistol, vault over cover. Punch to the sternum, enough force to crack ribs. Ten down. Grab their gun, snap it in half. Twist their arms behind their back, tie their wrists. Eleven down. Shove them into the last remaining thug, gauntlet to the face, deliver a strong charge.

No time to waste.

I ran towards the building I’d marked off beforehand. Motion sensors I’d planted confirmed something was happening there, but that was as much as I’d been able to set up. It was enough.

It was possible he’d set another trap, but paranoid as he was, I didn’t think he was that prepared. Not for this.

I crashed through the entrance, disregarding subtlety entirely. He was no threat to me, and he had nowhere to go. Better to intimidate than to surprise.

He was waiting for me, still in his chair, a pained expression on his face. Haylie was nowhere to be seen. It was annoying that he’d already found time to stash her, but I could beat the information out of him if I had to. I wouldn’t torture his thugs, but him? He deserved it.

“It’s good to see you again, Rachel.”

“You’re awfully chipper for someone who’s about to get flayed alive,” I snapped. “Where’s Haylie?”

“Right behind you,” he said, smirking.

I whirled around, and clichéd as it was, she really was standing right behind me. How long had he been waiting to pull that trick?

More importantly, she was awake. That changed everything.

She was beautiful, with long, wavy red hair, fair skin, and a smattering of freckles. Her eyes were yellow, almost luminescent, and just slightly vacant. She was taller than me, but not by much. Dark jeans, combat boots, a white shirt, all kind of worn and dirty.

Just one look at her set my mind ablaze. Concepts, ideas, schematics and blueprints formed in my head, distracting, disrupting. Stop.

“You’re awake,” I said, nearly stumbling over my words.

“I’m alive,” she corrected, though I didn’t understand the distinction. Surprisingly, her accent sounded American. Gabriel and Zoe had British accents, Ami’s was… surprisingly neutral. I could never pick it.

I didn’t know anything about her. I didn’t know what she wanted, or who she was. I knew she was dangerous, but not if she was a threat.

“I’m honoured to meet you,” I said carefully.

“Are you,” she replied, no question in her tone.

“A lot of people have been looking for you, you know.”

“I don’t. And I don’t particularly care.”

There was no life in her. She seemed half-baked, distant, unfocussed. It was disappointing, but it also seemed wrong. Like she wasn’t supposed to be like this. Not that I had any idea what she was supposed to be like…

“What do you care about?”

“I haven’t worked that out yet,” she said. “I might have a better idea after killing you.”

“Why do you want to kill me?” I asked, feeling a pang of genuine fear. She was an unknown, a potential enemy I knew nothing about. The small fragments of data I did have suggested I probably didn’t stand a chance.

“Because he wants you dead.”

I glanced back over my shoulder. The satisfied, smug look on his face made it really difficult to resist the urge to punch him.

I had to resist, though. Haylie seemed to have latched onto him, and I needed to know why if there was any chance of detaching her from him. Until then, if she was protecting him, he was far less vulnerable than I thought.

“You should have joined me when you had the chance, Rachel,” he said.

“Fuck off.”

Haylie reacted to that. Her fists clenched, and her body weight shifted. Crap. Did I upset her-

She hit me before I had a chance to brace myself. The impact sent me flying across the room, right over the Celestial’s head. I slammed against the wall, and she was already right there in front of me, her expression still completely blank.

Her next hit threw me sideways, the shock resonating through my entire body. If not for my reinforced skeleton, I’d have been borderline liquefied by that. She hit harder than Zoe or Sabrina could. And she was every bit as fast. That was intimidating.

I was ready for the next blow. I managed to block it, absorbing the force of it and counterattacking with Miss Murder’s knife. The blade didn’t even pierce her skin. Her fingers wrapped around my throat, and she tossed me across the room again.

“Stop playing with her, Haylie,” the Celestial ordered. “Just kill her.”

“Your wish is my command,” she replied.

She began walking towards me, her expression completely neutral. Her right arm stretched out, and the air beyond her hand began to shimmer and warp, forming the shape of a blade, barely visible.

Panic flooded my system. My tinker brain was already analysing what I was seeing, and though I didn’t fully understand it, I knew that blade was dangerous.

She swung at me, and I hurled myself sideways, out of the way. I wasn’t fast enough. The blade sliced right through my left arm, completely severing it at the elbow. Even my reinforced skeleton didn’t offer any resistance.

I screamed, and scrambled backwards, holding the stump of my elbow. She attacked again, but something knocked her out of the air, throwing her backwards. She recovered quickly, but her assailant was already dashing towards me.

Zoe picked me up with one arm, and carried me out of the room. She moved quickly, bouncing between buildings, staying away from street level. Haylie didn’t follow.

We didn’t slow down until we reached her base, our home. She dropped me gently onto a bed, took one look at my arm, and swore.

I glanced down. The wound had cauterised, which was probably good for me, but it was a horrific sight.

“Thank you,” I said, looking up at her.

“Any time,” she replied.

“Where’s Sabrina?” I asked.

“Here,” Sabrina said, entering the room. She looked a little shell-shocked, but her expression turned soft when she saw my arm. “What happened?”

“Haylie’s awake,” I said.

“We’re in a lot of trouble,” Zoe said.

 

Next Week: She Was The First Voice I Ever Heard

Chapter 50a – What Are You Doing Here

“So this is it, huh?” I said, a little impressed. We were standing outside one of the fanciest-looking skyscrapers in the city. The Celestial’s lair.

“Be careful,” Envy cautioned. I ignored her.

“Little over the top, don’tcha think?” Rachel replied, hands on her hips. “I don’t remember him having this much of an ego.”

“Seriously? I can’t picture him with anything but a massive ego,” I said.

“I’m not kidding, this is dangerous,” Envy said. “Just let me help. All you need to do is touch the glass, close your eyes, and listen to me.”

Fine. I walked up to the glass doors, and reached out, pressing my fingers against them. Nothing happened, so I closed my eyes.

“What, uh, what’re doing, there?” Rachel asked.

“Not sure,” I confessed. “Give me a minute.”

“Whatever you say…”

“Good,” Envy said. “Now, envision a ripple that starts at the very centre of you. Let it grow, until it fills your entire body.”

Ripple, ripple, ripple… Ah, there it is. Feels… warm? Should it feel warm? That’s weird…

“Now, let it grow beyond you. Let it flow into the glass. Feel the glass vibrating, until the rhythm is in sync with your own.”

Sounds like some hippie bullshit… Oh! Okay, no, I can feel the glass. It’s… rectangular. Cold. What does this achieve, exactly?

“Got it? Now keep pushing. Match the rhythm. When it pushes out, push harder, until you can feel more glass.”

Push! No, missed it. Wait for it…

Push! Got it! Okay, I can feel the other door. And the windows on either side? And there’s a row of small windows, just above. I can feel all of it. Still not sure what good this does, though.

“Keep pushing. You can go further.”

Another push, and… is that the second floor? It is! And there’s a mirror inside on the first floor, too. Okay, I think I’m starting to get the hang of this.

Push! Another floor. Brilliant. And the shape of the first floor, and some of the second.

Push! Oh, it’s like a 3D map of the building. Or at least, the glass. And wait, is that… It is! Polished metal! So, anything with a reflection?

Oh, this is how Envy was moving around, before she could move in the real world. However she’s doing that.

Push!

Alright, I’ve got most of the building now. I’m still not sure what the point of this is.

“Now that you’ve got the resonance down pat, it’s time to open your eyes. Just think about it first, imagine opening your eyes, without actually doing it. Trust me on this.”

Okay… Opening my eyes…

OUCH. What the fuck am I looking at?

Without physically opening my eyes, suddenly my vision was bombarded with colour. It was like my eyes had fractured into a kaleidoscope, fragments of scenes overlapping and moving about. It was impossible to focus on anything, and already my head was beginning to ache.

“Breathe. Relax. This is normal. Your vision has been expanded. You’re looking through every clear and reflective surface in the building, all at once. It will take some getting used to.”

No kidding.

“Try to find something moving, and focus on that. Push everything else to the side.”

I tried to follow her advice, but it was like being in a room full of TVs, all showing different programs, and trying to focus on just one. Oh, and they all switch around what show is on what at random intervals.

Wait, right there!

Something moved, and I instinctively followed it. As soon as I did, the rest just fell into place. All of the surrounded images parted, creating space for me to focus on the movement.

Him? What the hell is he doing here?

Inexplicably, the boy from months ago, the one who’d seen me transform, was sitting in an empty office, idly tossing a ball against the wall. I could barely remember his name, but his face was familiar.

It didn’t make a lot of sense. He had nothing to do with… anything. Except that one encounter we’d had. Had the Celestial found out about that? Did he think I cared about this boy? Or was that encounter not a coincidence?

Either way, it didn’t matter. I’d found the Celestial.

He was on the fiftieth floor, with two others. One, I recognised. Miss Murder. The other, I didn’t, but I could guess. A young-looking woman, with long red hair, fair skin, freckles. Unconscious, it seemed.

The Celestial was… not what I expected. He was young, same as Miss Murder. Equally familiar. Another classmate? White, skinny, sitting. No, that was a wheelchair.

I opened my eyes. The rest of the vision faded a little, but it didn’t leave. It felt weird, but somehow manageable.

“Fiftieth floor,” I said. Rachel raised an eyebrow.

“Just like that, huh?”

“Just like that,” I said. “Got a problem with that?”

“Nope. Just insatiably curious, as always.”

“Anyway, he’s probably waiting for us. We shouldn’t be rude.”

“You first,” Rachel said, taking a small step back.

I rolled my eyes, and walked up to the glass doors. They were locked, so I decided to just smash through them. The second I did, an explosion tore through the lobby, sending my flying backwards and singeing the front of my costume.

“Motherfucker,” I growled, picking myself up off the ground. My flesh was already healing, but it stung. Rachel laughed. Worse, my weird mirror-vision was severed, and there was no glass left to try the process again with.

We walked into the ruined lobby together, certain the Celestial knew we were there, even if I couldn’t see him anymore. Well, it hardly mattered. It wasn’t like he could go anywhere.

Glass crunched underfoot as we walked. The elevator light activated, the number counting down from thirty-four. The floor that boy was on. What was his name? Qiu? Qiu.

“Looks like we’ve got company,” Rachel commented. “Got any more omniscient insight for me?”

“It’s just one person. Don’t know much more than that.”

The elevator dinged, and the doors opened. Qiu stepped out, but he looked different to before. A little bigger, a little older. Almost like he could have been his own older brother.

He’d bulked up, with toned muscles that were very much on display thanks to the tight vest which was the only top he was wearing. His hair was a little longer, and he’d learned to apply eyeliner. His thin smile oozed confidence. Inappropriate as it was, part of me was a little distracted admiring him. Or it was, until I noticed the black star tattooed on the back of his hand.

Traitor.

“Ladies,” he said, sizing us both up.

“Nice of you to join us,” Rachel said. “Your boss must have a lot of faith in you, sending you in alone.”

“He’s just a delaying tactic,” I said.

“I see you’re still rocking the white girl look,” he said.

“Not like I have a choice,” I muttered.

“You two know each other?” Rachel asked.

“We met once,” I said. “He saw me… change. He was different, then.”

“It’s Zoe’s blood,” Rachel said. “They must have taken some when they raided our old facility. Now that I think about it, that’s probably what they were after.”

“Why are you here?” I asked him.

“Why do you think? After we met, the Stars approached me, made me an offer. A chance to be like you. Special, you know? Make a difference. All I had to do was sign up. And, well…” He held up his hand, showing off the tattoo. “I couldn’t refuse.”

“You’re an idiot,” Rachel taunted.

“We’ll see,” he retorted.

Envy appeared again, a look of concern bordering on panic spreading across her face.

“Jump,” she said.

“What?”

Too late, I processed what she meant. All across the floor, inch-high spikes emerged, puncturing the soles of my feet. I heard Rachel swear, and knew they’d got her too.

The following electrical surge shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but it did. Rachel and I were brought to our knees, all but paralysed by the current. Qiu just laughed, walking casually over to us.

“You know, he told me you’d be this arrogant, but I didn’t quite believe it,” he said, carefully extracting a long, thin blade from the back of his boot. “You really did just come barging in the front door, though. But I’m the idiot. Sure.”

I couldn’t even reply. The current had rendered me completely incapacitated. Envy had vanished.

“You’re such a waste of superpowers. Both of you. I’m honestly a little disappointed.”

He stood over me, blade pointed at my throat. In that moment, I was genuinely frightened. I hadn’t really considered myself vulnerable before, but the Celestial clearly knew how to hurt me, how to weaken me. What if he knew how to kill me?

Qiu thrust the blade forward, but it never reached my skin. Rachel’s hand wrapped around it, snapping it in half. A small amount of her blood dripped to the floor, and Qiu took a step back, clearly surprised.

“Don’t compare us, kid,” she grunted through clenched teeth. “You’re just some brat who got handed a step up on a silver platter. You’ve got a long way to go before you’re on our level.”

“Yeah, keep talking,” he snapped, throwing a punch that looked like it would have knocked her flat. Instead, she twisted and grabbed his wrist, using his momentum to slam him face-first into the spiked floor. His entire body convulsed.

“You go on ahead,” she said to me, lifting me up off the spikes. Almost immediately, I felt my body relax. She bent her knees, then hurled me across the room. I crashed through the door to the fire stairs, landing on a concrete floor that was thankfully devoid of spikes. “I’ll take care of this clown, then catch up with you!”

Just leave him, I thought bitterly. Then again, the Celestial could probably disable the electric floor, and we’d just have to deal with him again. Maybe it was better if she put him out of commission first.

I raced up the stairs, leaving her behind. On several levels, I nearly tripped over explosive traps, but Envy was running ahead, pointing them out to me. Without her, it would have taken me twice as long to get to the fiftieth floor, and a whole lot more pain.

By the time I kicked down the door to his office, I was primed and ready to beat the living daylights out of him. After everything I’d just endured to get here, I was going to make him pay. Then I was going to take Haylie, grab whatever it was that Envy needed, and track down Charlie.

Except he was gone. Somehow, almost inconceivably, he was gone, and Haylie with him. The only person left in the office was Miss Murder, apparently waiting for me, a grim look of determination plastered across her face.

“Where is he?” I snarled, knowing she wouldn’t answer.

She drew a knife.

Have it your way, bitch.

Speed was the key. I knew that. I could move faster than she could react. So long as she couldn’t predict my movements…

I dashed across the room, fingers locked into a claw shape, ready to rip her open. She was quicker than I’d anticipated, almost as if she’d know exactly what I was going to do. I felt her pop back into existence behind me, already turning, ready for the trick.

The world warped and twisted around me, and I realised she’d teleported us both. Everything was far away, and cold, and windy…

Fucking bitch!

She disappeared, leaving me along in the air, fifty floors above the street. I was falling, and I had no way of knowing if I’d survive. Even if I did, it was definitely going to hurt.

Fuck!

A black-clad figure collided with me, the momentum carrying us both back into the side of the building. I twisted to resist, but they were surprisingly strong. They hit the building feet-first, kicking off and sending us flying in the other direction, landing crudely on the rooftop of a shorter building across the road.

As soon as we touched down, they ran, leaping off the side of the building and disappearing into the night. I was too surprised to even consider following them.

Who the fuck…

I knew that smell, though. It was familiar, even if it had changed a little. Once sweet, almost floral, now tainted with a vague hint of rot.

“Veronica?” I said aloud, to somebody who was already gone.

 

Next: You Should Have Joined Me When You Had The Chance

Chapter 49 – You Want To Know What I Took From Charlie

“Welcome to your own personal hell,” Rachel said, twirling Miss Murder’s knife threateningly through her fingers. “I’m so glad we have this chance to talk.”

Miss Murder just glared back, unsurprisingly mute. Zoe and I hung back, willing to let Rachel take the lead on this. She was the one who had a personal history with the assassin, after all.

“I’m gonna make this really simple,” she continued, running the tip of the knife along Miss Murder’s cheek. “All you need to do is tell us where we can find the Celestial. You ready to sell him out yet?”

Both of Miss Murder’s hands were bound, and it was obvious she couldn’t talk. Was Rachel just mocking her? Was it part of her interrogation technique?

“You must be getting tired of him, right? Always following orders, killing on command? Or is that what you want? Is that all you are? A living weapon? If not him, it would have been your family, right?”

Slowly, the anger began to fade. Her eyes darted across to mine, then focussed back on Rachel again. She seemed to be ignoring Zoe entirely.

“You can’t mean to tell me you’re really okay with what he’s doing, are you? The number of people he’s killed? The number of people he’s had you kill? You think all this power he’s amassing is safe? You think you’ll be safe, when he doesn’t need you anymore?”

Miss Murder closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. Was Rachel actually getting to her? Was she just playing us? Was there something I was missing?

“You’re already planning on turning on him, aren’t you? You know he’s dangerous, probably better than any of us. But you have to have realised you can’t stop him alone. He’s too paranoid for that. He’s prepared for anything you can do.”

Slowly, she nodded. She didn’t look relaxed, exactly –that would have been impossible with the light current running through her –but she did seem composed. It worried me. It would be too easy for her to have just decided to help us. More likely, she had a plan of some kind.

I looked at Zoe, who was staring intensely at Miss Murder. It looked as though she were trying to decipher something, but didn’t have all of the information. Not unlike me.

“I know the two of you have been through a lot together,” Rachel continued. “I know that you don’t have anything without him. So I’m going to make this really simple. I’m going to offer a trade.”

Miss Murder’s head snapped up, a sudden intensity in her stare. Rachel smirked.

“Give us the Celestial. Give me the Celestial. We’ll take care of him, and you’ll be free. In return, I’ll give you Charlie.”

What?

No, of course, this makes perfect sense. Rachel’s playing her own game, here. The only two significant threats to her are the Celestial, and Charlie. If she can take them both out…

Miss Murder cocked her head to the side, a silent expression of surprise and a request for clarity. Even Zoe seemed surprised.

Should I allow this? Give up my quarry so easily?

There was no way Miss Murder stood a chance against Charlie, though. Even if Rachel armed her and sent her at Charlie like a missile, what could she hope to achieve? Teleport her underground and leave her trapped? Even something like that didn’t seem like it could stop Charlie.

“You want to know what I took from Charlie?” Rachel asked, but the question was directed at Zoe and I.

“The reason she’s still a threat to us?” Zoe asked. “Yes, I would love to know.”

“I took her heart,” Rachel said.

Fuck off.

“Her heart,” Zoe repeated, sounding unimpressed.

“Not literally. The organ is just that, an organ. But back when we were still… together, we experimented. She wanted to find out just what she could survive. As it turns out, she can survive complete obliteration.” Rachel flashed us a grim smile. “All it takes is one teeny, tiny piece. And I have just such a piece.”

“Still impossible,” Zoe said. “For so very many reasons.”

“Believe it or don’t,” Rachel snapped. “The important thing is that Charlie wants it back. That makes it valuable.”

Miss Murder looked contemplatively at Rachel. Then she smiled. Zoe frowned.

“Sabrina. Do you have the girl’s phone?”

“Yeah,” I said, remembering pocketing it before tying her up.

“Check it.”

I dug it out. There was a messaging flashing on the screen.

“On my way,” I read out. “It’s from Ami.”

“Check the last message sent,” Zoe instructed.

Surprisingly, the phone wasn’t actually locked. The message history with Ami was the first thing to come up.

“She sent ‘Suspect trap. Sending location. Back me up?’ just before she attacked us at the warehouse,” I said.

“Fuck,” Rachel said, whirling around. “She probably followed us here. Zoe, can you-”

“On it,” Zoe said, heading for the door.

The door was hurled off its hinges, throwing Zoe backwards. She reacted quickly, but Ami was already through the door, blade drawn.

I felt psychic hands pin me against the wall at the same time as Rachel was knocked off her feet. The straps around Miss Murder’s limbs all snapped, and she was pulled forward out of the chair, separating her from the current that was keeping her from teleporting away.

Rachel and I recovered at about the same time, pushing through Ami’s telekinetic assault and lunging for Miss Murder, but she vanished before either of us got there.

Fuck,” I snarled, using my momentum to move towards Ami. She’d learn not to interfere in our business. The hard way.

I watched as Zoe evaded Ami’s cutting strikes with practised ease, getting close enough to rake her claws across Ami’s face. There was a splash of blood, and Ami staggered back, but before either Zoe or I could follow up the attack, Miss Murder appeared again, grabbing Ami and teleporting them both away.

“Follow them!” I bellowed. Zoe was out the door in a blur of movement, but Rachel stopped me from following with a hand on my shoulder. “The fuck?” I demanded.

“Following them would be a waste of time,” she said. “Zoe’ll track them some of the way by scent, but if Miss Murder was that easy to track, she wouldn’t have survived this long.”

“I’m not giving up that easily,” I said. “She’ll tell him what we’re planning, he’ll be prepared, we won’t stand a chance. Fuck. Since when is she in league with Ami?”

“For a while now, actually,” Rachel said, seemingly unconcerned. I wanted to hit her.

“You knew? And you didn’t do anything to stop it? You didn’t even warn me?”

“Why would I want to stop it?” she asked. “She never would’ve given up any information about the Celestial, even if we actually did resort to torture. And I’m not comfortable torturing anyone, regardless of who they are.”

“Then, what? You were just pretending to help me? Did you just want to see how far I’d get before it all fell down around me? I thought you wanted to take out the Celestial.”

“I do. And really, I’m a bit disappointed you still think so little of me,” she said, feigning pain.

“What’s the plan, then?” I demanded. “What are we going to do now?”

“Wait a little,” Rachel said, shrugging. “See where Miss Murder goes. Eventually she’ll return to the Celestial. Then we just hit him before he has the chance to get ready for it.”

“Huh?”

She laughed, and pulled out her phone. A few taps later, I was looking at a map, with a blinking dot on it.

“Come on, this is one of the oldest tricks in the book,” she said. “I embedded a tracking chip in her. Ami rescuing her was all part of the plan, since she knows she’d never escape on her own. Seriously, Sabrina. What kind of a person do you think I am?”

“So she’s gonna lead us to the Celestial?”

“Soon as she parts ways with Ami.”

“Let’s go, then,” I said. “Let’s go tear his fucking house down.”

 

Next: I Just Want You To Be Safe (Bonus)

Chapter 48 – We Have A Reputation To Maintain

“I think that went well,” Rachel said, as we left Zoe’s hideout together. “You’re a good actor. I’m impressed.”

 I was completely serious, I was tempted to say. I didn’t, though. It was useful, her still believing I was the same naïve teenager.

“We needed to make it convincing. We have a reputation to maintain, after all.”

“Think you can manage a repeat performance?” she asked, twirling a modified pistol in her hands.

“Assuming we can actually capture Miss Murder, sure.”

I was surprised Rachel wasn’t more concerned about that, honestly. Miss Murder had one ability, and that was to teleport. How the hell were we supposed to capture that?

Rachel had a plan, though. She always did. I just had to have faith in her. Could I manage that?

For Veronica, I reminded myself.

We made our way to a warehouse on the other side of the city, one where Rachel assured me a Stars strike was going to go down. I didn’t bother asking where she got her information. She’d yet to be proven wrong, and that was good enough for me.

We arrived before the Stars did, and spent several minutes observing the current occupants, more soldiers. It seemed like the military were sending more and more soldiers in by the day, regardless of how many of them wound up dead or infected. I guess there isn’t much else they can do, is there?

The warehouse was being used as temporary storage for several trucks worth of weapons and ammunition, and guarded appropriately. I counted at least two dozen armed soldiers patrolling, and that many again inside. I was curious to see just how the Stars handled that.

As it turned out, they handled it with lethal efficiency. Ten of them emerged from the shadows, silenced weapons taking out half the patrolling soldiers before the alarm was raised. By the time the reinforcements were surging out to defend against them, the other half of the patrollers were down.

It was impressive to watch, honestly. They outmanoeuvred the soldiers effortlessly, like they knew exactly where they would be in advance. Just how detailed a plan had the Celestial given them? How specific was his power?

“Let’s go,” Rachel said, as the last soldier dropped. We raced towards the warehouse, covering the last of the distance. Rachel activated something in her boots, and some kind of blast sent her rocketing through the air in a surprisingly graceful arc.

She landed in the middle of the kill squad, immediately grabbing the closest gangster by the neck, spinning around and throwing him against the side of a truck. The others opened fire, but I barrelled into two of them, slamming them into the ground without stopping.

We dismantled the rest of the team with our bare hands, making sure not to critically injure any of them. A few of them had those same electric spikes that were designed to take down people like me, but now that I knew to avoid them, they were easy enough to deal with.

When they were all crawling on the ground, grunting and groaning, disarmed but alive, we started to unload the crates of weapons from the trucks. We didn’t actually need them, but if it looked like we were just waiting for Miss Murder, there was a chance they wouldn’t call her.

We’d unloaded ten crates before she showed up. I noticed her first, barely audible footfalls as she teleported slightly above the surface she landed on. Just like Rachel and I had agreed on, I kept unpacking, giving no indication I’d noticed her arrival.

She watched us for several minutes, and we managed to get another few crates stacked up before she made her move. Three quick teleports, edging closer each time, but just out of sight. Had Rachel noticed yet? Did that really matter?

As I was wondering which of us she’d go for first, she materialised behind Rachel, dragging her blade across Rachel’s throat in a savage motion, cutting right through the muscle. Rachel twitched, went limp, and dropped. Miss Murder vanished before I could respond.

Holy shit.

I rushed to Rachel’s body, but Miss Murder appeared in front of me, a hand wrapping around my throat, and then the entire world moved.

We were in the air, falling. She vanished, leaving me to land on my own. The second I did, she appeared again, a vicious slash that carved through my cheek, blood spraying everywhere. Before I could respond, she was gone.

She’s been practicing. She knows how to fight someone as fast as me.

I considered changing forms, switching to Ami’s telekinesis. I’d probably have more luck with that, but it would mean revealing a power I didn’t want anyone to know about.

Not worth it. It wouldn’t help me capture her, which was the whole point. Without Rachel, I had no plan. All that was left was to run, really.

Miss Murder appeared again, running her blade across my back. A warm sensation began to spread as blood bubbled out of the wound. I turned, but she was already gone.

Goddammit!

If she wanted a fight, I’d give her one. She could teleport, but she wasn’t as fast or as strong as I was, and she certainly didn’t heal as fast. She couldn’t even hurt me, not really. I only had to catch her once to turn the tables.

I whirled around, trying to watch every direction at once.  Just try it, you psychotic mute-

There!

She appeared again, but before I could react to her, she stopped suddenly, her eyes bulging. Her body began to convulse, and she dropped to the ground.

What the-

Rachel walked up to Miss Murder’s body, a satisfied smirk resting on her lips. Her throat was still cut open, but there was barely any blood flowing from the open wound. But how? The damage was undeniable. It should have severed her carotid artery. Why wasn’t there more blood?

“Scared you for a bit there, didn’t I?” she said, her voice raspy and weak. “Figured she’d try and trick like that.”

“I don’t understand,” I said, staring at her neck. “How?”

“Made a few modifications. Made the vital stuff a little harder to cut. Nothin’ complicated.” She coughed loudly. It sounded painful. “Anyway. Let’s get this one somewhere safe. Can’t keep her like this for long.”

“What did you do to her?”

“Electric dart,” she said. “Was hard work getting enough voltage in such a tiny package, lemme tell you.” Another cough. “Should release a charge every few seconds, enough to keep her from using her blinking.”

Rachel ripped Miss Murder’s sleeve, exposing the skin of her arm. She pulled out a little box with wires attached, and strapped it the exposed flesh, then pressed a button on the side. I assumed it was a more reliable way of executing the same concept as the dart.

“Let’s get her to the interrogation room, then,” I said, picking her up. Rachel picked the assassin’s knife up from the floor, pocketing it.

When we got to the interrogation room we’d prepared, a different one to the last one, we were both surprised to see Zoe waiting for us. There was an almost vicious look in her eyes.

“What’re you doing here?” Rachel asked, her voice still strained and hoarse.

“I didn’t want to miss the fun,” she said.

“So you’ve finally decided to help?” I asked, accusingly.

“Just with this bit,” she said. “I want to see just how this one works. I’ve never met a blinker before.”

“And you’re not about to,” Rachel muttered. “Unless we fuck up, she isn’t going to be blinking. Only talking.”

That could be an issue,” Zoe said. “She doesn’t talk.”

“You know what I mean.”

“What happened to your neck, anyway?”

“Cosmetic damage, nothing more. I’ll fix it later.”

While they bickered, I strapped the now unconscious Miss Murder into the chair we’d prepared. Rachel ripped at her outfit, exposing more skin, and attaching wires. A constant current would prevent her from teleporting away.

I hadn’t seen her up close before. Curious, I tugged at the scarf that covered her neck and half her face. She was pretty, surprisingly so. Her features seemed Eurasian, and somehow familiar…

“Holy shit,” I said.

“Something wrong?” Rachel asked.

“I know her,” I said softly. “We went to school together. She’s… she’s my age. How did she end up like this?”

My gaze fell to her neck, and the blackened skin in the shape of a hand wrapped around it.

“What the hell happened to you?” I asked.

She stirred, her intense green eyes darting about the room. They settled on Rachel, and her expression shifted from determination to fear.

“Let’s talk,” Rachel said, grinning sadistically.

 

Next Week: You Want To Know What I Took From Charlie?

Chapter 47 – There Are Far Worse Things I Could Do To Him

I stood atop a rooftop, staring down at the street below. According to Rachel’s data, a concept that was meaningless to me, a patrol of Stars was due through the area within the next ten minutes. So long as she was right, I didn’t care how she came to her conclusions.

She sat on the rooftop opposite mine, looking down with a confidence that unsettled me. She looked almost serene, and I wondered if I’d make a mistake, bringing her along.

I glanced at the upgraded gauntlet she’d provided for me. Apparently this one was specifically designed to be able to handle people like Gabriel, and would siphon less energy from me. I’d never admit it to her, but it was a comfort to have it.

She hadn’t brought any weapons with her, which I was more than a little suspicious off. It was possible she had some tricks stashed away in that leather jacket of hers, but we were going up against a whole team of Stars. They were a lot better prepared than the other gangs.

Our eyes met, and she smiled. That was creepy. Creepier still was the way her eyes looked in the moonlight, the dark brown of her irises broken up by softly glowing lines of yellow.

Just how much had she changed about herself? I knew she spent a fair amount of time working on herself, but wasn’t there a limit to this kind of thing? How’d she even managed to do something like replace her own goddamn eyes? What else had she augmented? Is that why she was so confident? Did she just have guns that would pop out of her arms now?

The distant sound of footsteps caught my attention. I couldn’t see them yet, but from what I knew about my hearing range, that put them at about two blocks away. Perfect. I nodded to Rachel, and we backed away from the edges of the rooftops, not wanting to be seen too early.

I closed my eyes, focusing on my hearing. With barely a push, I could hear every sound they made. The gentle thuds of their footfalls, about six of them. Fairly typical sized group. No talking amongst them. They were keeping a comfortably quick pace.

Within a few minutes, they were below us. I didn’t need to say anything to Rachel, she would have picked up on it by now. Besides, the first move was mine to make. We’d already gone over the plan.

Finally. I leapt off the side of the building, enjoying the feeling of speed as I hurtled towards the ground. The gangsters didn’t even notice me until I hit the ground, my knees absorbing the brunt of the impact.

I felt a smile creep onto my face as I looked at them, their faces registering surprise but not, annoyingly, fear. Well, we’d soon change that. My grin widened.

Rachel dropped down behind them, cutting off their only avenue of escape. Not that it looked like they were planning on running, but it was important that they couldn’t. We needed to keep one of them. The rest, well…

Rachel had insisted we not kill any of them. A ‘favour to an old friend’ or something. I didn’t really care. Keeping them alive would make things only slightly more difficult. She never said anything about making sure they could recover.

“Nice night for a stroll, isn’t it?” I said, flexing my fingers and rolling my shoulders.

The gangsters drew closer together, forming a tight perimeter, guns raised and pointed at Rachel and I.

“You’re not actually going to try and shoot us, are you?” Rachel said, her tone full of condescension and disappointment.

I saw one of them fiddling with something on her belt, surreptitiously trying to dislodge it. A metal canister dropped to the ground, and I recognised it only a moment before it went off.

“Flashbang!” I cried out, squeezing my eyes shut. With Zoe’s enhanced senses, it was a considerably more brutal blow, getting caught by one of those. I’d discovered that the hard way.

I missed the flash, but the bang hit me hard, the deafening sound disorienting me momentarily. When I opened my eyes, the gangsters had split up, racing to take more tactical positions on the mostly abandoned street.

Rachel seemed unfazed. She reached into her jacket, pulling out a small metal sphere and tossing it into the air. As it reached the pinnacle of its arc, it exploded, filling the air with what appeared to be dozens of tiny darts.

Several of them impaled me, but I already knew I wouldn’t be affected by the paralytic toxin contained within them. Three of the gangsters were caught in the rain, and dropped in a matter of seconds. The other three had managed to find themselves appropriate cover. Wouldn’t save them for long.

We needed to figure out which of them was the leader. I’d been watching for clues in their body language, but so far nothing had given it away. We had to hope it wasn’t one of the three Rachel had already taken out.

One of them opened fire on me, the bullets ripping through my torso in a tight burst. Heat and pain washed over me, then cold as the fresh night air flowed through the open wounds, wounds that were already begging to close. I growled.

He opened fire again, but this time I was already moving, leaping over his cover, my hands around his throat. It was so tempting to squeeze just that little bit harder, but it wouldn’t have helped anything. I tossed him to the side, enjoying his grunts as he bounced across the asphalt.

A hail of bullets caught Rachel in the back, but they didn’t even penetrate her jacket. So it was bulletproof. I’d wondered about that. Should’ve aimed at her head, idiot. She whirled around, crossing the distance between her and her assailant faster than a person with her abilities should have been able to. How had she managed to augment her speed?

More gunfire directed at me. The one who’d dropped the flashbang. Perfect. As burning chunks of metal tore through my arms, I raced towards her. She stood her ground.

The moment before my fist connected with her torso, her hand twitched, and a thin metal blade telescoped out from a device she’d been concealing. I ran straight into it, driving it right through my chest.

That supposed to stop me, you- a debilitating surge of energy ran through the blade, and I felt my body twitch and convulse. The gangster wasted no time capitalising on my weakened state, drawing a pair of spikes from her utility belt and driving them into my shoulders. They seemed to keep the current going, and I could barely move.

“You think we’re not prepared for people like you?” she taunted, kicking my away from her. I fell helplessly to the ground, furious. “You’re nothing more than a child’s projection of a comic book hero. I’m surprised you’ve lasted this long-”

She was cut off as a dart hit her in the neck. She pulled it out immediately, but it was obviously too late. She wobbled, then collapsed. Rachel’s taunting smirk appeared above me.

“That’s gotta be embarrassing for you,” she said, reaching down to extract the spikes from me. “You barely managed to take out one of them.”

“Go to hell,” I muttered, pulling myself to my feet. My entire body ached. The Stars were really this prepared to take on someone like me? No wonder they were still operating. “Did you figure out who the leader was?”

“Sure did,” Rachel said, grinning. She pointed to the one I’d nearly strangled. “Caught him trying to radio for backup after you wrecked his shit.”

His hands were bound behind his back, his ankles tied together and his mouth gagged. It hadn’t stopped him wriggling around on the ground, trying to get away.

“You can carry him,” Rachel said.

We left the others on the street, unconscious and for the most part, drugged. If anyone else came across them, if any infected came across them…

“We can’t waste any time,” Envy said, whispering the words into my ear as if there was a chance that someone else could hear. “They’ll be fine. And if they aren’t, fuck ‘em. They shouldn’t have thrown their lot in with a gang.”

She has a point.

I carried the battered gangster, and he struggled the entire way to the interrogation room Rachel had set up. It was similar to the room I’d used to trap Gabriel, only a little more refined. It seemed like every time Rachel put her mind to something, she could make it a little better than the last time. That was something to keep an eye on.

With the door locked, we tied the guy to a chair, and removed his gag. He glowered at us, but said nothing.

“You ever interrogated someone before?” I asked Rachel, circling the gangster. “I was thinking of just breaking stuff until he talks.”

“As always, you have no finesse,” Rachel replied, running her fingers down his face. He twitched, and I realised she was running a tiny current through her hand. “I mean, I’m not saying you can’t break things. But there are far worse things I can do to him.”

“You’re all talk,” I said, placing pressure on the guy’s arm. I could feel his bone straining under the force of it.

“No, really,” she insisted. “I could place spikes on all of his bones, so every time he moved, he cut himself up from the inside. Not enough to kill him, just enough for it to hurt. Constantly. Or I could place a disrupter in his ears, so that he always feels off-balance. Or, maybe something that delivers an electric shock at random intervals, just enough to knock him on his ass.”

The guy was trembling, but whether that was from the pain, fear or a combination, I couldn’t tell. I pushed down just a little harder, the tension in his bone just on the edge of breaking point.

“Pfft, what’s to stop him getting all that taken out as soon as we let him go?” I asked. “We should just break his bones, one by one, and if that’s not enough, start taking pieces out, so there’s no chance they’ll heal properly.”

“Okay first of all,” she said, indignant, “my work is not that easy to undo. Second of all, who ever said we’d send him back to his normal life? If he doesn’t talk, I say we just lock him up somewhere dark and forget about him.”

“Finally, something we can agree on. I know just the spot, too. Nobody would ever find him.”

“I can’t help you!” he shouted, and we grinned at each other. Progress, finally.

“Can’t?” Rachel asked, stroking his face again. “Or won’t?”

Can’t,” he insisted. “I know you’re looking for the Celestial, but I don’t know anything that can help you. None of us know where he is, I swear.”

“Sure you can,” Rachel said. “You can contact him, right? We can trace a connection.”

“We get our orders via encrypted messages,” he said. “The only contact I have goes to an automated service that relays things back to him. There’s no way to get to him through me.”

“What do you think?” I asked Rachel.

“It sounds exactly like something he’d do,” she conceded. “I could probably trace him back through it all, but it’d take me weeks, and he’d probably switch to a new system before I did.”

“That’s not good news for our friend here, is it?”

“Not good news at all,” she agreed. “What do you want to break first?”

“I think…” I began, still pressing against his arm. My other hand rested on his thigh, and began to squeeze. I’d rip through the muscle before having any impact on the bone that way.

“Miss Murder can find him!” he shouted, squirming uselessly.

“And what good does that do us?” Rachel asked, procuring a scalpel she twirled effortlessly in her hands.

“Sh-she’s backup,” he said. “If you’d let me call for backup, she might have come. She could tell you. I-if you could get her to talk…”

“Now why didn’t we think of that?” Rachel asked, pressing the blunt end of her scalpel casually into his skin.

“What would make her show up?” I asked, squeezing his thigh tighter.

“A priority mission,” he said, through gritted teeth. “Important enough that he couldn’t just abandon it and try again later. I can’t tell you more than that, I’m sorry.”

We both stepped away from him at the same time. He looked confused, and very badly shaken. Still, he was unharmed. He should have been grateful.

“That’s all we needed, I think,” Rachel said.

“Yep, that basically covers it,” I agreed.

“So, what do we do now?” she asked. “We can’t just let him go, he’ll report what happened here.”

“I still know where that dark hole is,” I suggested.

“Tempting. Instead, let’s give him to Zoe. At least until we’re done.”

“Works for me,” I said.

“Alright. Let’s go wrangle ourselves an assassin, then.”

 

Next Week: We Have A Reputation To Maintain

Chapter 46 – Didn’t She Nearly Kill You

“You’re alive,” Rachel commented, as I stormed back into the room. She sounded surprised.

“You’re different,” Zoe added.

I’m better, I wanted to reply. After all, I had Gabriel’s power, now. The last part of the fight was a little hazy, but I had his power. That was all that mattered.

“I got what I wanted,” I said, shrugging.

“You killed him?” Rachel asked, putting down the circuit board she was fiddling with.

“No. We came to an understanding.”

“That sounds more like him,” Zoe said, surprisingly easy to convince. “Done with the distractions now?”

Not even close. Your pathetic mission to get yourself home is at the very bottom of my priority list, you monster. I need to find Haylie, then destroy Charlie.

“In a manner of speaking,” I said cryptically.

Zoe twitched, a clear sign of irritation. She was having a harder and harder time hiding it. Or maybe I was just getting better at spotting it. Either way, she was easier to read, which was an advantage for me.

“Oh, what now?” she asked, mimicking Rachel and putting down the bundle of wires in her hands.

“I believe I owe Rachel a debt,” I said, my rehearsed lines flowing easily. Rachel gave me a curious look.

“That’s unexpected.”

“I was… angry, before,” I said, and it almost sounded genuine enough to convince me. “I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted,” she said, her confused expression nearly managing to mask her scepticism.

“Now, I want to help you.”

“With?”

“Your side project,” I said.

“Side project?” Zoe asked, her focus sharpening on Rachel.

“The Celestial,” Rachel replied, answering Zoe and confirming my inference.

Zoe looked exasperated. If I was being fair, I couldn’t really blame her. She’d been stuck here for months, and despite trying to keep herself, kept getting swept up in all of the chaos this city seemed to be embodying these days. Unfortunately for her, I wasn’t interested in being fair.

“I think we should bring him down,” I said. “He already found us once.”

“We don’t have the resources,” Zoe argued.

“On that, I disagree,” Rachel said, stepping away from her desk. Zoe rolled her eyes.

“You obviously have some plan in the works.”

“Purely conceptual,” Rachel assured her.

The two of them stared at each other, and the tension was obvious. Their ability to work together was being pushed. Maybe something to distract them would be good for everyone?

“Between the three of us, we can do anything,” I said, trying to channel the naïve optimism I’d been pushing before Veronica had died. They both bought it.

“I’m listening,” Zoe said, though her tone suggested otherwise. We both looked at Rachel, who hesitated for only a moment.

“Alright. Here’s what I know,” she said. “The Stars are the most dangerous gang in the city. Not the largest, but they’re the best equipped, best organised and they have the advantage of prescience.”

“Prescience?” I asked, unfamiliar with both the word and the application.

Rachel sighed.

“The Celestial can, for all intents and purposes, see the future.”

“Impossible,” Zoe said immediately.

“Lot of that going around,” Rachel said dismissively. “But to be more specific, he sees possibility and probability, so he always knows where to be, and where not to be.”

Well that just sounds unfair.

“How the hell do you fight someone like that?” I asked, feeling confident she had a plan, or at least a theory. That was her whole thing, right?

“He’s still limited,” Zoe said. “He has to be.”

“Right you are,” Rachel agreed. “His precognitive abilities seem unreliable when it comes to people like us.”

“Us?” I asked, feigning ignorance. It was new information, but I wasn’t nearly as clueless as I wanted them to think I was. “You mean like, superhumans?”

“Precisely,” Rachel said. “At a guess, I’d say our abilities create an exponentially greater possibility output, and he can’t keep up.”

“Convenient,” Zoe said, almost muttering it. It was a little out of character for her.

“I have a theory about that too, but we’ll save that for another time,” Rachel said. “Let’s focus on what we can do.”

Thankfully, they were both saying exactly the things I needed them to. They were happy to focus on the Celestial, who would bring me that much closer to Haylie.

“Alright,” Zoe agreed.

“His entire network has one very obvious weak point,” Rachel said.

“Him,” I chimed in, surprising both of them. I smiled nervously, almost childishly. Their focus returned to the discussion.

“And how, exactly, do we get to him?” Zoe asked, back to sounding exasperated.

“He’s not well guarded,” Rachel said with a shrug.

“How do you know?” I asked, prompting.

“More people knowing where he is makes him vulnerable,” Rachel explained. “He trades in information. He knows how dangerous it can be, so he relies on his assassin for protection.”

As if for impact, she rubbed her palm, the one that had been cute wide open after her last fight with Miss Murder.

“Didn’t she nearly kill you?” I asked, skirting the edge of provocative. Rachel shook her head.

“One on one, she’s dangerous, but I survived, and I was already at the end of my rope. Between the three of us, we’ll be fine.”

I couldn’t bring myself to take Miss Murder seriously as a threat. With the possible exception of Rachel, her power seemed like the least threatening thing to me I could think of. I mean, teleporting? She didn’t have superhuman speed or strength, just a knife. Even if she could take me by surprise, she couldn’t cause any serious damage, and I doubted she was fast enough to stay ahead of me, especially with Ami’s power.

“You’re assuming my involvement,” Zoe said, almost petulantly. Rachel bristled.

“I told you, it’s all hypothetical.”

You’re getting off track. Focus on moving forward, not whether it’ll work. It doesn’t matter if it works, so long as it gets me close to him.

“So how do we find him, then?” I asked.

“We start at the bottom,” Rachel said. “Go out into the street, snatch one of his lieutenants. Pump them for information, rinse and repeat.”

“How delightfully crude,” Zoe remarked.

“If you’ve got a better idea…”

“I do, as a matter of fact,” Zoe said shortly. “I’m going to stay here, and keep working on the Gate. If you want to waste time on this, fine, but leave me out of it.”

“Happily,” Rachel snapped. “Sabrina, come with me. We don’t need help, especially for this part. If you can provide the muscle, I can come up with a solution to this.”

“I’m all ears,” I said, as she led me away from Zoe.

 

Next Week: There Are Far Worse Things I Could Do To Him

Chapter 45 – All Alone And A Long Way From Home

He moved a lot faster than I was expecting him to. The moment he concluded there was no way to avoid a fight, it was like a switch got flipped. He launched himself at me, a blur of movement I could barely keep up with, even with Zoe’s enhanced reflexes.

He struck me in the temple, sending me staggering back, and before I could recover, he’d hit me again. Each blow was vicious, precise, almost surgical, knocking me further and further off balance. Though it didn’t quite register as pain, the impacts felt deeply uncomfortable and disruptive.

He knows how Zoe’s physiology works. The idea irritated me a lot more than it should have. The bastard had an unfair advantage, and he was pressing it from the beginning of the fight. And why shouldn’t he? There was no spectacle here, no reason to pull punches.

I grunted, leaping backwards to put as much distance between us as possible. I needed breathing room, time to think. Thankfully, when focussed, Zoe’s mind worked incredibly quickly, and I seemed to be able to channel that, albeit only briefly.

Think, Sabrina. What are his weaknesses?

From observation and conversations with Zoe, I knew a few things about him. He was a little more resilient than she was, but she was faster. They were reasonably evenly matched in terms of strength, though she was more designed to cause damage. She was a killer, a wildcard, a singular force of destruction. He was a protector, a guardian.

Zoe’s nails were incredibly hard and sharp. I’d seen her use them like claws, watched them shred flesh like it was nothing more than paper. That was an edge I had.

Gabriel was more intuitively observant. His brain was designed to take in body language and micro expressions, tiny pieces of information, and predict actions and movements. Combined with his incredible reflexes, it was very difficult to catch him off guard or take him by surprise.

His body was more durable than Zoe’s, with denser bones and thicker skin. She was lighter, which helped her move just a bit more quickly. He also healed faster than she did, by a small margin.

So I needed to target vulnerable areas, and do a lot of damage very quickly. The only way to make sure he couldn’t counter everything I did would be to trick him into expecting what Zoe would do, then doing something different. That would only work a few times, so I’d need to make it count.

Technically, I didn’t actually need to beat him in a fight, just challenge him enough that he was completely focussed on the fight. Even still, I knew part of me wouldn’t be satisfied without giving it my all, and he deserved to suffer.

The moment my feet touched the ground, he was on me again, not willing to give me even a second to shift the balance. At least for once someone was taking me seriously as a threat.

Almost without thinking, I put all my weight on my right leg, lashing out with the left quickly enough to catch him off guard and get him just slightly off balance. I tried to follow through with a clawed swipe at his throat, but he was already moving away from it. He struck low, aiming for my thigh, but I twisted away, raking my claws across his forearm.

Blood splattered outwards, less than I’d have expected, but enough to take him by surprise. He actually cried out, though the bleeding had already stopped, clotting in a matter of seconds.

Didn’t see that coming, did you? Arrogant prick.

He switched tactics, adopting a slightly more defensive style whilst maintaining his aggressive pressure. He dropped low in an attempt to try and sweep my legs out from underneath me, a move I barely managed to avoid. Before I recovered, he used his momentum to carry forward into a brutal hook kick, striking me in the jaw.

Fuck! Livid, I reacted instinctively, grabbing the arm that had struck me. He was already trying to twist out of the grip, but it didn’t matter. I’d used the hand that was wearing Rachel’s gauntlet.

I felt the familiar sting as it drained me, delivering an electrical current that would have been debilitating to any human. I wasn’t sure what it’d do to Gabriel, but I was hoping it would at least surprise him.

As it happened, it did more than surprise him. Whether by accident or design, the gauntlet seemed to react differently to him than anyone else I’d tried it on. I could feel it sucking a lot more energy from me than usual, and the shock it delivered was exponentially greater.

Gabriel twitched violently, and I let my fingers clamp down harder, holding him in place. Shifting my weight to one leg, I slammed my foot into his chest. The impact sent him flying backwards across the room, and he collided with the wall with a satisfying thud. I was already moving towards him to follow up.

“She was innocent,” I snarled as he recovered, rolling out of the way of my attack.

He lashed out again, but my reflexes saved me, twisting sideways and striking back. Zoe’s own ability to learn seemed to be catching up, and unless he had any new tricks-

His heel crashed into the side of my head, and for a brief second, I saw stars. He didn’t let up, turning his hook kick into another savage blow, and I staggered back.

No. Fucking. Way.

Still off-balance, I threw myself towards him. It was a stupid, reckless move, and if I hadn’t had the strength and speed of a genetically perfect killing machine behind me, he absolutely would have won the fight right then and there. Instead, he only managed to turn my momentum against me, slamming me into the floor.

I twisted in his grip, shoving the gauntlet into his face. He tried to get away from it, but he wasn’t fast enough. Another jolt of energy paralysed him momentarily, which was enough to rake my nails across his throat, sending a small torrent of blood spilling out.

He grabbed the gauntlet, applying enough pressure to shatter it, and my wrist at the same time. We both backed away, his throat healing only slightly faster than my wrist.

“I must confess,” he said, once he was capable of speaking again, “I did underestimate you.”

Envy whispered in my ear, appearing beside me without warning.

“I’ve nearly got it, but you need to maintain eye contact.”

“I’m going to destroy you, Gabriel,” I snarled, my chest heaving. I wasn’t technically out of breath, but my body had a habitual response to exertion.

The idea seemed to amuse him. He began to unbutton his shirt, already ruined with blood. As it dropped to the floor, he laughed.

“A sentiment I’m quite used to inspiring,” he said. “Nobody’s come through just yet.”

I shook what was left of Rachel’s gauntlet off my wrist. It was a shame to lose it, but she could probably build me another. I’d just have to request one without telling her how much of a difference it had actually made. I still didn’t believe being a ‘tinker’ was a real super power.

Gabriel’s smug expression taunted me, and it took all of my self-control not to race across the room and try to hit him again. Instead, I tried to relax my body.

“Then this will be a new experience for you,” I said.

“I doubt that,” he retorted, but his confidence waned as my body began to change. I let go of the sensation of Zoe, and it was like pulling a plug, all of her power being drained back into the core of my being. At the same time, Ami’s form began to flow in. I could feel my face begin to reshape itself, my hair straightening.

All at once, I was intimately aware of every corner of the room. My presence filled the space entirely, and I could feel Gabriel’s body, every tiny movement.

“What? What are you?”

“Don’t break eye contact,” Envy cautioned.

“You’re not as clever as you think you are,” I told Gabriel, speaking in a new voice. Recognition dawned on his face.

“Exxo? How?”

“Nearly,” Envy chimed in, and I could feel a very palpable tension between Gabriel and I.

“You’re all alone and a long way from home,” I said, wrapping my focus around his body, a thousand invisible hands grabbing at every part of him.

It would be so easy to tear you apart right now…

“Got it!” Envy said, breaking my concentration. It didn’t matter. I could feel a new sensation floating inside of me, a new energy. His energy.

I let his strength fill me, replacing Ami’s, my body changing again. His form felt resilient, tenacious, tense. It was like being a tightly wound string.

And male. I felt my body shifting back to a form I’d tried so hard to escape, a form that had never felt right for me.

Except this did feel right. With all of this power, it wasn’t so bad, wasn’t so alien. It was me.

Oh, it wouldn’t do permanently, didn’t change how I felt about myself, but it was nice, in its own way.

“What did you do?” Gabriel asked, sounding almost panicked for the first time. “Who are you?”

I grinned. No, Envy grinned. It wasn’t me.

“You already know my name,” she said, using my lips.

“No,” Gabriel said. “This isn’t you. Exxo was, is my friend. You’re not them.”

“Maybe not,” she said, as I shrugged. I couldn’t fight her. “It doesn’t matter. I have everything I need from them, just like I have everything I need from you.”

Stop, I begged, unsure if she could even hear me. Give me back control. Give me back my body. Please.

“I’ll stop you,” Gabriel threatened.

“You’re nothing,” I replied, and I couldn’t tell if it was Envy or not. She was gone, leaving the two of us alone.

Chapter 44 – It’s Not Like You’d Miss Me

By the time I made it back to Zoe’s base, my mind was made up. I felt resolve, clarity of purpose, and that felt good.

“Change of plan,” I said quickly, as soon as the door was shut behind me. Rachel and Zoe both looked up from their construction work. Rachel breathed a sigh of relief, playing it up for effect.

“Oh thank fuck.”

“Another distraction?” Zoe asked, equal parts critical and curious.

“I need Gabriel,” I replied, and she froze. Her eyes narrowed, and her lips curled into a sneer.

“No.”

That… wasn’t the response I was expecting. Not that it mattered. She wasn’t in charge, regardless of what she thought.

“You don’t want to be free of him? You’re enjoying hiding?”

“You don’t stand a chance against him,” Zoe said.

So people keep telling me. It’s getting a little old.

“So help me,” I said. “He’s down two teammates, and Ami isn’t exactly helping him. When will you get another opportunity like this?”

There it is. That cleverness, that calculating intellect. You’re weighing up the options, seeing the opportunity. You think I don’t know you, but you’re wrong.

“I don’t want to kill him,” she said. She sounded almost… tender.

“What?”

That was wrong. Of course she wanted to kill him. They were arch-nemesis, locked in battle for what, a century? Two? The details escaped me, but they were at war. His team had captured her. It was all…

“You’ll never understand,” she said cutting through my internal crisis. “We were born together. We rebelled together, ran together. We love each other, and always will. Just because we chose different sides, doesn’t mean I would ever want a world without him.”

But that’s not fair

No, that was a momentary setback, nothing more. I didn’t need her; it just would have made things easier. Well, whatever. To hell with her.

“So you won’t help me.”

“No.”

She went back to work, delicately but rapidly assembling tiny components, putting together what looked like a futuristic circuit board.

So that was that, then. Fine. Gabriel couldn’t be that hard to find, surely.

“I’ll help,” Rachel said. “But only because I don’t think you can kill him. I don’t think you want to kill him.”

Technically, she was half-right. All I really wanted was to take his power. Killing him would just be a nice bonus, after what he did to Veronica.

Wasn’t like I could say that, though. She couldn’t know stealing powers was something I could do, in case I ever had to fight her. It seemed unlikely, but I still didn’t trust her, not by a long shot. She had some other scheme in the works.

“Whatever,” I said coldly.

“Just tell me what you need,” Rachel said, sighing again. Zoe glanced up, and the two of them exchanged a look, but it meant nothing to me.

“Get me in a room with him,” I said. “And make sure he can’t run.”

I could have asked for more. Death traps, maybe. I didn’t want her to have any more control over the situation than I was already giving up by including her.

“You’re signing your own death warrant,” Zoe said, as I walked out of the room.

“It’s not like you’d miss me,” I muttered.

“I’m sorry you feel that way,” Zoe replied, just loud enough for me to hear.

Rachel joined me in the next room, frantically scrawling something in a large sketchbook. She met my eye, her hand still moving unsupervised.

“I’ve got a plan,” she said. “Help me build it and this will be over a lot faster.”

Perfect. Something to take my mind off of things, and the chance to pre-vet the place and make sure Rachel didn’t leave any nasty surprises for me, as well.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

We found an abandoned apartment complex, not too big, not too far from the city centre. I spent the better part of a day salvaging yet more scrap, a job I was very familiar with, and carrying them to the site Rachel had picked out.

She started working immediately, bashing down walls and setting up some kind of arcane construct inside them. I only caught glimpses, watching it all progress in stages, but I couldn’t even begin to comprehend what she was doing. All I knew was that it looked incredibly complicated, and she’d spent all of half an hour thinking about it before she started working.

“This was all off the top of your head?” I asked, dumping another pile of heavy metal in the middle of the room.

“That’s how my power works,” she said, shrugging and not taking her eyes off the wires she was delicately threading.

Twenty-two odd hours later, with neither of us resting, the work was done. Rachel showed no signs of fatigue, and she’d worked so fast, so relentlessly, I began to suspect she’d replaced herself with some kind of robotic clone.

When she finally did relax, though, it was the most human display I’d seen from her in a while. She groaned loudly, leaning back on her hands with her legs spread. I just watched as she let herself tip over, bouncing on her shoulder once and rolling onto her back.

No rest for the wicked, Rachel.

“So, now how do we get him here?” I asked, standing above her, arms folded. I wasn’t even close to worn out. If anything, I felt ready for a fight.

“Already took care of it,” she mumbled, eyes closed.

“How?”

“Don’t ask,” she said. Her eyes fluttered open, and she pulled herself back up to a sitting position. Our eyes met, and for a brief moment, I thought I saw concern. “Just… don’t die.”

“Won’t be a problem.”

She nodded, hauling herself to her feet, and brushed the dust and plaster off her clothes. We exchanged one final look, then she left.

The moment we were alone, Envy appeared in the centre of the room. She looked satisfied, confident even.

“Just do exactly as I say,” she instructed.

I didn’t bother saying anything back. She walked over to a wall, leaning against it, and I took her place in the centre of the room. Together, in silence, we waited.

It didn’t take long for Gabriel to arrive. I’d have to grill Rachel later to find out what she’d done to lure him here; it seemed very suspicious. He just walked in like he was expected, and even smiled when he saw me.

“Hello again, Sabrina.”

This is a trap, you idiot. Aren’t you supposed to be intelligent?

“Gabriel.”

He looked around casually, his posture relaxed and his expression friendly. We’d see how long that lasted.

“I seem to have walked into a trap,” he said idly. “How clumsy of me.”

His arrogance grated on me like nothing else had. No fear, no concern, just… indulgence. He was treating me like a child, playing pretend.

I’m going to enjoy killing you.

“Everyone seems to be underestimating me, lately,” I said. Time for that to change.

He smiled more broadly, his eyes locked intensely on mine. It was mildly off-putting.

“My apologies. What can I do for you, my dear?”

Arrogant, pompous shitheel.

“I need him distracted,” Envy said. Gabriel showed no signs of having heard her. “Thinking about you would be even better. Fight him.”

I cracked my knuckles, smiling genuinely for the first time in days.

“You infected Veronica, Gabriel. You can die.”

No fear, no concern. Just indulgence.

“C’est la vie,” he said.

Chapter 43 – Stop Telling Me Who I Am

“I have a location for you,” Zoe said, handing me a folded up piece of paper. “She’s there a lot.”

That was the first and last thing she said to me about it, which was exactly what I wanted. No questions, no warnings, just information.

It had taken her a few days. That was fine. I spent that time preparing, going over everything I knew about Charlie.

Number one, she was a better fighter than me. She knew her way around a fight, probably had some kind of martial arts training, and she’d been a costumed vigilante even before Impact Day. In a contest of skill, she’d kick my ass.

Number two, she was vicious, and she was clever. She’d lied to Rachel, manipulated her and used their relationship to get what she wanted, then left Rachel broken and half-dead. Her intellect was not to be underestimated.

Number three, her physical ability was likely on par with mine. I didn’t understand the specifics, but it seemed like we were both derivatives of superhumans from the other reality. My power came from Zoe, hers from someone called Wendy. From what I’d gathered, Zoe was the superior fighter, but Charlie was closer to Wendy than I was to Zoe. That more or less evened us out, in that respect.

That might have been a comfort, if not for the first two points. If we were equally matched physically, her skill, experience and cunning would all give her the edge. In a head-to-head fight, I’d lose.

Except I had more tricks up my sleeve. I had Ami’s power, too, and I’d been practicing. It wasn’t even close to perfect, but I was pretty sure I could do some serious damage with it, especially if she couldn’t see it coming. That would be my trump card.

Previously, Charlie had presented herself to me as a pacifist. She didn’t even want to kill the infected. I would have expected that to give me an edge, if she hadn’t then resorted to cold-blooded murder. No certainty there.

The plan was fairly simple. Corner her, fight her, see which of turned out to be stronger. If it was her, I’d bust out Ami’s power, take her by surprise, rip her heart out before she could do anything about it. If I was stronger, I’d do the same, but with my bare hands.

I still had Rachel’s gauntlet. I doubted its electrical discharge would do much to Charlie, but wearing it made me feel a little safer. Like I had an extra weapon, another person on my side. And I could feel a little more righteous about the justice I was dispense. Charlie definitely had it coming.

“Sabrina.”

Rachel was waiting for me by the entrance, leaning against the wall, one knee tucked underneath her. She wore a haunted expression.

“Don’t bother, Rachel.”

“I just want to tell you what to expect,” she said.

I hesitated.

“Fine. Talk. Fast.”

“You can’t beat her,” she said. “It’s impossible.”

Great. Thanks for the pep talk.

“Nothing’s impossible,” I said, taking another step towards the door. If she was going to waste my time, I wasn’t interested in waiting around.

“Sabrina, she’s immortal. Literally. No matter what you do, you can’t kill her.”

It was amazing how little that word meant to me. Was I supposed to care? Functionally, I was too. So was Zoe. So were a bunch of others. It just meant killing her would take longer.

“Good. I can do it as many times as I want, then.”

Rachel recoiled, clearly not expecting my anger. Little did she know.

“Jeez, Sabrina.”

“She has to have a limit,” Zoe interjected. I hadn’t even realised she was paying attention. “We all do.”

Rachel’s eyes darted between the two of us, and she looked uncertain, like she was trying to make up her mind. Her hands clenched into fists, then relaxed.

“No, you’re not understanding me. Zoe, you have a huge reserve of energy. Enough to draw on to heal your body over and over, but like you said, it has a limit. Your body is still a container for it. Take enough damage, and you wouldn’t heal. The energy would escape, or be used up, and you’d be dead.”

Zoe looked genuinely alarmed, more so than I’d ever seen her before. There was a dangerous glint in her eye as she stared down Rachel.

“How do you know that?”

“Because I understand how things work. So trust me when I tell you, Charlie is different.”

“Impossible,” Zoe said, shaking her head. “Energy isn’t limitless.”

“Charlie’s is,” Rachel insisted. “That’s my point. She is impossible.”

Who cares? She can heal herself infinitely? So what? That just means I can keep killing her, over and over and over and over…

“Great, well, you two nerds have fun arguing about that,” I said. “I’m heading out.”

Neither of them stopped me. I shifted into Zoe’s form, already wearing my costume. It felt like the appropriate aesthetic for avenging Veronica.

The address Zoe had given me was for a warehouse along the riverbank, beyond the commercial part of the city. I couldn’t even imagine why it would be the sort of place Charlie would frequent, but it didn’t really matter. As long as there was a chance I’d see her, I’d wait as long as I needed.

“Sabrina, please don’t do this,” Envy said, appearing in a nearby window. I just ignored her. She couldn’t stop me, and I wasn’t interested in hearing her lecture me about it.

I only had to wait for a couple of hours before Charlie showed up. She wasn’t even trying to be subtle. Thankfully, she was alone.

Finally.

I dropped down from my vantage point, landing directly in front of her. She didn’t seem at all surprised, just stopped walking, her hands in her pockets, her trench coat fluttering behind her.

“Found you,” I said, letting my lips curl into what I hoped was a vicious grin.

“Sabrina.” She smiled back at me, almost compassionate. Almost… pitying. Bitch. “I heard about Veronica. I’m so sorry.”

So you won’t even admit it. You’re just making this easier for me.

“I’m sure you are.”

Once again, no surprise registered on her face. And why should it? She knew exactly what she did.

“Ah. I see.”

“Why did you do it?” I asked, not really caring what she had to say. There wasn’t any combination of words that could convince me not to go through with this.

She didn’t even try, though. Her body language shifted, almost imperceptibly, to a more defensive stance.

“I can’t explain it in a way you’d understand. All I could do was make it painless.”

That’s it? That’s all you can say in your own defence? You murdered her, you killed my best friend, a girl you’ve known for years. But hey, at least it was ‘painless’.

“A luxury you won’t be afforded,” I growled.

That time, she did look surprised. Her eyebrows arched, and her eyes grew wide. Not with fear, more… curiosity. I hated her.

“You want to fight me?” she asked, the same way a concerned parent might question a child’s wardrobe choices.

“I want to kill you,” I corrected her.

“That’s not like you,” she said, still sounding concerned.

I caught a flash of Envy, still watching, still silent. Good.

“Everyone needs to stop telling me who I am. None of you know me.”

“Evidently,” Charlie said, sighing. Her shoulders slumped, but if anything she seemed to be relaxing, not tensing up.

Don’t underestimate me, bitch.

“How many times do you think I have to rip off your head before it stops growing back?” I asked, letting all of my malice and aggression flow freely. If she wasn’t going to be intimidated by my words, I’d just have to show her with my actions.

“Go home, Sabrina,” she said calmly. “Find a healthier outlet for your anger.”

Don’t. Talk. Down. To. Me.

“Are you threatening me?”

“No,” she said, sighing again. “I’m very deliberately not threatening you. I don’t want to fight you.”

“Scared?”

In that moment, all of the compassion disappeared from her face. Good, it was clearly fake anyway. She didn’t know how to feel compassion.

“Sabrina, you’re becoming a cliché, and it’s boring me. I like you, I really do. But don’t push me.”

That’s it.

“DON’T TALK DOWN TO ME!” I shouted, loud enough that several windows shook. Envy looked almost frightened. Charlie seemed entirely disinterested, which was only making me want to hurt her more.

“Don’t act like a child, then.”

“You killed my best friend, you sociopathic bitch,” I spat.

Just hit her, I kept telling myself. Talking is a waste of time. Just hit her.

“She was infected, remember?” Charlie said. “Blame Gabriel for that.”

Oh, I will. Right after I’m done with you, I will track him down, and I’ll destroy him too. I’ll destroy every last one of you, if I have to.

“You said you could save her,” I said, barely aware I was fighting back tears.

“I tried.”

“Not hard enough.”

She hesitated, her eyes scanning me. Reassessing my threat? Trying to decide where to hit first? Checking me out?

“I’m leaving, Sabrina. Do us both a favour, and don’t follow me.”

No. You are not getting out of this, you are not walking away from me. You will answer for what you did.

“Fuck-” I began, but the you never came out of my mouth.

“Stop,” Envy said, just a voice in my ear.

I was frozen, completely unable to move as Charlie turned on her heel, and walked away, calmly, patiently. The walk of someone completely without fear.

It was only once she was completely out of sight that I was able to move again. I collapsed to the ground, my entire body aching.

“What?” I choked out, confused and in pain. Had Charlie done something to me? Was there more to her power than I understood?

“I told you not to fight her,” Envy said, standing right in front of me. Not a reflection, no mirrors, just her, standing there. “She’d destroy you.”

“What did you do to me?” I asked, still struggling to talk. I felt so weak, when I hadn’t done anything at all.

“I saved you,” she said passively.

“You-”

“We’re not enemies,” she said, not letting me finish. “Sabrina. We’re in this together.”

No. No, no, no. This is not fair. This is not how any of this is supposed to go.

“You can control me?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. How was she here? What had changed? “I can resist you. It’s not just your body anymore. It’s ours.”

“I never agreed to that,” I said, shaking.

Of course it wasn’t simple. How could it possibly be simple? How stupid was I, to honestly believe I could just one day get all of these superpowers, and not have to pay a price?

“Without me, you’d be dead,” Envy pointed out.

“That still-”

“I know,” she said, and she sounded sincere. She placed a hand on my cheek, and it felt warm. “I didn’t want to ever do this to you, but I had to save you.”

“You betrayed me,” I said, too weak to even push her hand away.

“It’s my power you’re using to fight.”

I felt defeated, barely able to support myself. My body was shaking, weak, and I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. I dropped to hands, my chest heaving, letting the sobbing overtake me. Envy just stood beside me, one hand resting on my back, between my shoulders, the other gently playing with my hair.

I don’t know how long we stayed like that. It felt like hours. It could have been minutes. It didn’t matter.

I’d lost everything. I lost Veronica, lost my home, lost my purpose. I’d lost control over myself. I’d lost my future.

“You’re certain I’d lose?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said immediately.

“Why? What do you know that you’re not telling me?”

“Charlie, she’s…” Envy paused, and the pause felt pained, uncomfortable. “I don’t know the word. Essential? She’s like a law of this universe.”

What.

“What does that mean?”

“It means if you want to be able to challenge her, you need to use power from outside her universe,” Envy said.

“Like you?”

“Exactly,” she said, smiling.

“I already have you,” I pointed out, but she shook her head.

“I’m not strong enough yet.”

Yet. She said yet.

“So what do you need?” I asked. This fight wasn’t over yet. Together, she and I would get stronger. Then, we’d crush everyone else.

“Collect the power of the others,” she said. “Start with Gabriel.”

“And who else?”

“We need Haylie,” she said.

There’s that name again. It seemed like everyone was looking for Haylie. Even Veronica had written a bunch of notes about her.

Who was Haylie? What made her so damn important? What was she, their damn queen?

“Doesn’t everyone?” I said dryly.

“Gabriel first,” Envy said, ignoring me. “Then her.”

“Then Charlie?”

“Then Charlie,” she said. “I promise.”