[The Legend of ZERO 01.0] Forging Zero

by Sara King

  “Because she took them out tonight.”

  Joe opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again. “Let’s go back,” he finally said. “Let them lose sleep if they want to. I’ll talk to them later.”

  Monk made a disgusted noise and went back inside. Joe almost followed her, but then sat down on the stairs to wait. Somewhere along the line, he fell asleep, because he woke to the sound of laughter.

  It was Maggie.

  “…tied him up like that,” she was saying.

  “Wish we could tell Joe about it,” Scott complained.

  “Joe will find out tomorrow when they try to find out who did it,” Libby replied.

  “Joe will find out right now,” Joe said, standing from the shadows. “Nice night for a walk, huh, guys?”

  All three of them stopped dead in their tracks, several steps down from him. It was Libby who regained her composure first. “Hey.”

  “Libby.” Joe glanced at the other two. “Scott. Maggie. Hope you enjoyed it out there tonight.”

  “We did,” Libby said. Standing tall, she almost matched Joe in height. He had the uncanny feeling that she was going to keep growing.

  “Good,” Joe said. “Next time, warn me before you leave.”

  “Why?” she snapped. “So you can make us do pushups?”

  “So Monk and I can go with you.”

  “Oh.” Libby blinked at him.

  “You’re coming with us?!” Maggie shrieked. “Joe, it was so cool. We saw three guys from Third walking around, so Libby had us hide and we all—”

  “Tell me later,” Joe interrupted. “Scott, Maggie, go to bed. I want to talk with Libby for a few minutes.”

  Maggie’s face lost its exuberance and quickly turned into a worried frown. “She’s not in trouble, is she?”

  “No,” Joe assured her. “Get upstairs. We’ll be in soon.”

  Scott gave Joe a searching look, then sighed. “Come on, Mag. We got a hunt tomorrow.” At that, he turned and led her up the stairs to the barracks.

  After they were gone, Libby braced herself, her face grim.

  “Libby—” Joe began.

  “We’re not gonna stop,” Libby blurted. “Nebil told us to, Joe. He said we need to stand up for ourselves. You don’t let bullies walk on you, Joe. You fight back. And you kick their asses while you do it, so they stop picking on you.”

  “—do you want to be battlemaster?” Joe finished.

  Libby jerked. “What?”

  “You heard me,” Joe said. “Do you want it? If you do, it’s yours. Sasha’s right. You’re better at this than I am.”

  “No…” Libby took a step backwards, like he was trying to give her the plague. “Joe, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you mad.” She looked panicked.

  “I’m not angry,” Joe assured her. “I’m a little frustrated and a lot tired, but I’m not angry. Come on, Libby. You saw how I screwed up the other day in that tunnel. If it wasn’t for me, we would’ve kept that flag.”

  “But now you’ve got that little translator for the PPU,” Libby said quickly. “That won’t happen again.”

  Joe took a deep breath. “I lost it.”

  “What?”

  He let his breath out in a huge sigh of frustration. “It wasn’t in my gear this morning. Lagrah saw it earlier. I think he took it, or maybe a Takki when it was switching out my clothes.”

  He saw her face flicker with disappointment. “But you already know most of the symbols, right? You know how to position the map. That’s enough to get us out of there next time we’ve got the flag.”

  “I’ll talk with Nebil about getting you Battlemaster,” Joe said. “Monk’s right. You deserve it more than I do.”

  Libby grabbed his arm. “That’s furgsoot. Every recruit out there knows who you are. You almost got us out of there with a flag. All of us look up to you. You’re a hero.”

  Joe snorted. “A hero that starts crying like a little baby when he has to crawl through a hole.” Joe yanked his arm away, narrowing his eyes at her. “If you don’t want to be battlemaster, that’s fine,” he said softly. “Just stop burning patronizing me.” At that, he stormed back up the stairs, outraged that she would try to manipulate him like that.

  Joe felt Libby hang back on the stairs, watching him go.

  When the battlemaster woke them the next morning, Libby was gone.

  CHAPTER 26: The Punishment for Failure

  “Where in the Jreet hells is your groundmate, Zero?!” Nebil demanded.

  “I don’t know.” Joe blinked at the looks of horror Maggie and Scott were giving him. They think I hurt her, he realized, stunned. “Guys, I didn’t—”

  Battlemaster Nebil ripped his head back to face him. “Do you know the penalty for desertion?!”

  “She didn’t desert,” Joe said quickly. She’d never desert. This is her life.

  “Then where is she?!”

  “I don’t know.”

  “A battlemaster is responsible for an entire platoon and everyone in it. If you can’t manage your recruits, Zero, I’ll hand it over to someone who can.”

  “I saw her run off toward the east side of the city,” Sasha offered. “She’d just had a fight with Zero and she was all alone.”

  Joe narrowed his eyes at Sasha, but said nothing.

  “Find her,” Nebil barked. “You have an hour while we get ready for the hunt. I want her back here before Tril finds out she’s missing, you understand?”

  Joe took his groundmates and ran.

  They found Libby sitting against a wall, beaten bloody.

  She looked up, both eyes swollen and her lip split and bleeding. As Maggie and Scott looked on in quiet fear, Joe knelt in front of her. “Libby? Can you walk?”

  Slowly, she shook her head back and forth. Joe looked down and saw that both legs were bent in odd angles. The offending length of metal lay a few feet away, spattered with clotted blood. It almost looked like a crowbar, except blue instead of black. The whole area was covered with blood.

  A little ball of fury began to build in Joe’s gut. “Who did this?”

  Libby made an odd, choking sound.

  “Libby?”

  Blood leaked from the corner of her mouth.

  Joe swallowed down a spasm of terror. “Hold on. I’m gonna lift you onto my back.”

  Libby pushed him away and closed her eyes, making the same snorting sound in the back of her throat. More blood spilled out over her chest. A snake of dread wormed through him when Joe realized all the blood soaking the diamond chips was hers.

  “I’ll get her torso. Maggie, Scott, you get her legs. We’ve gotta carry her.”

  Against the wall, Libby thrashed her head back and forth. She made another weird, animal sound. Both Maggie and Scott stared at her, wide-eyed, as Joe hesitated.

  “What did they do to you?” Joe asked, carefully peeling her vest away from her chest. The skin underneath was unbroken. He pushed her forward until she made a moaning cry, then did the same for her back. Nothing. Not even a bruise.

  “I think there’s something wrong with her mouth,” Maggie said quietly.

  Against the wall, Libby made a pathetic, hopelessly wry sound.

  “Lib, open your mouth.”

  She refused.

  “Burn me. Joe, is that her tongue?” Scott pointed at a bloody, gravel-encrusted lump in the dirt.

  Joe’s gut twisted in horror, spawning something entirely new and dangerous. He squatted beside the piece of flesh and, as Monk and Maggie shied away, gingerly picked it up. It was a tongue. He could even see taste buds on the pale, lifeless meat.

  “You guys stay with her,” Joe said, standing. “I’m getting some help.”

  “But the Rule of Three…” Maggie began.

  “Burn the Rule of Three. Stay with her. Anyone tries to stop me, I’ll make them wish they were never born.” At that, Joe ran at a dead sprint back to the medical center. He brought the medics back to Libby and could only watch helplessly as they dosed
her with the silvery solution and carried her away.

  Joe returned to the barracks riding a wave of fury. He did not even remember gathering up his gear and going to the plaza. When the battlemaster got in his face, demanding to know where Libby was, Joe snapped.

  “She’s in the hospital,” Joe snarled at him. “They broke her legs and cut out her burning tongue because you told us to pick fights with Second.”

  Battlemaster Nebil stared at Joe for several moments before saying, “Stay here, you Takki-ash furgs.” Then, while the rest of Sixth Battalion boarded the attack haauk, he hurried off in his waddling alien gait. Joe closed his eyes and felt the full weight of his responsibility descend upon him.

  It’s my fault. I made her run off.

  When Battlemaster Nebil returned, he was oddly subdued. “She’s going to be fine. They’ll be able to fix her legs. She’ll earn her tongue back later, after she’s worked a few years for Congress.”

  Earn back…her tongue? Joe was stunned. “She’s not gonna be able to talk?!”

  It was Commander Tril who said, “Recruits don’t need to talk. They need to follow orders. She’ll have a headcom that reads brainwaves so she can report while she’s in combat.”

  “What about the rest of the time?” Joe demanded, furious.

  Commander Tril ignored him. “Nebil, get them loaded on the haauk. We’re wasting time.”

  Joe felt his fury carry him through their first fight with Second Battalion, but it wasn’t enough. Second was better than Sixth—at everything. He managed to take down several white-clad defenders, but with Libby gone and them pitted against Lagrah’s recruits, most of his platoon went down within minutes.

  Commander Tril was particularly unhappy with the day’s events.

  “This was our chance!” he shouted out at their formation once the medics had revived everyone. “This was our chance, but what happened?! Second Battalion starts attacking us! They burning left their tunnels to attack us!” Tril paced, his alien features twisted in fury. “Everyone who died within the first hour, step forward.”

  Two thirds of the battalion stepped out of formation and made a nervous line in front of him, Joe amongst them.

  Commander Tril pulled the black device from his vest and held it up. “I’ve put it at the second setting. All of you undress. Now!”

  Battlemaster Nebil stepped forward. “Commander, this was only their second attempt…”

  “Be silent or I’ll target you, too.”

  The battlemaster’s pupils narrowed and he stepped into the line with his recruits.

  “So be it,” Tril said, scowling at Nebil.

  The tight coil of rage that had awakened in Joe’s gut over Libby’s beating continued to grow. Slowly, he removed his vest and set it far behind him, out of the way. Then he followed with his shirt, his boots, and his pants. After cold deliberation, he removed his underwear, too. Then he stood there, waiting, the chilly breeze tightening his balls. He did not even look at the secondary commander, did not listen to the rest of what he said. All he felt was a deep, animal rage, a hatred for Congress and everything they had done to him. Not even their battlemaster’s gesture eased the anger in his soul.

  When the pain came, Joe sucked in a sudden breath. The spore-choked air inside his lungs was the last coherent sensation he felt. Then it was all a mash of agony. His entire world devolved into searing, mind-numbing pain. Endless pain, from which there was no escape careened through his body, missing nothing, hurting everything. Joe could think of nothing but how bad it hurt, how bad he just wanted to die…

  When the agony finally ended, Joe was no longer standing. He was lying on his side, a pool of green vomit under his face, his heart skipping and pounding like he’d had a heart attack. His limbs would not work. All he could do was lay there and stare at the ground under his face, unable to think.

  Near him, Commander Nebil was standing, pulling his Congie blacks back over his pale brown skin, an unreadable look on his face.

  “Get them up!” he heard Tril shout.

  After a moment, Ooreiki arms were grasping his shoulders, lifting him to his feet. Joe fell back to the ground, unable to hold himself upright. He thought he landed in a smear of shit, but he couldn’t be sure.

  “Now everyone understands the consequences of failure!” Tril shouted, once their battlemasters had dragged them all back to their feet. “Do any of you think I was unfair? That I was not within my rights as your commander? If you do, step forward again and say so. I will show you what it means to feel pain.”

  Battlemaster Nebil stepped forward. Commander Tril glanced at him, but returned his scowl to his recruits. They all stayed where they were. Joe fisted his hands at his sides, wishing he could use them. Nebil shouldn’t be up there alone.

  “You Takki sootbags,” Tril ranted. “You better burning stay where you are. Just like you better burning get Second’s flag next time. You humiliate me again and I’ll set this asher to nine and watch you all sizzle.”

  Joe felt himself take a step forward. And another. Some insane rage was powering him, now, moving his body like he was on wires. He stepped past the last row of recruits and stepped beside Battlemaster Nebil, staring down at Tril in cold, wordless fury.

  Nebil wrapped a tentacle tightly around his arm. “Get back, Zero.” he said. “I’ll handle this.”

  But Tril had already noticed him. “Battlemaster, step away from that recruit.”

  Nebil stayed where he was.

  “You have something to say, recruit?”

  Slowly, forcing his numbed mouth to form the words, Joe said, “When we get our first flag, you and your little black box aren’t gonna have anything to do with it. You’re just a sad dancing monkey who thinks he’s a Prime. You got Kihgl killed so you could take his place. That’s why everyone hates you.”

  His speech was slurred from his last experience with the black device, but a collective silence swept through the ranks, even the battlemasters holding their breath. Beside Joe, Battlemaster Nebil’s sudah were whipping the air, but he never took his eyes off of Tril.

  “Watch carefully,” Tril said, his voice amicable. Slowly, lazily, he twisted the dial on the black device. Then he held it out for Joe’s inspection. “See that? That’s the ninth setting. As soon as I push this button, you won’t function for a week.”

  Joe’s stare never wavered. “Go ahead and do it, asher.”

  Tril’s slitted eyes glimmered with malice, but before he could push the button, Battlemaster Nebil slammed a balled tentacle into Joe’s solar plexus. “You poison-flinging Jreet!” Nebil screamed. “How dare you humiliate me in front of my secondary commander?!” He smashed a heavy tentacle into Joe’s head and Joe’s face exploded in a crunch of pain. Blood trickled from his nose and spattered onto his chest.

  “Come here!” Nebil shouted, wrenching Joe off of the ground. He began dragging him through the putrid gravel surrounding the other naked recruits.

  “Battlemaster Nebil,” Tril said. “Where are you going?”

  “This one’s been a troublemaker from the start,” Nebil snapped. “I’m taking him to Knaaren, trading him for one of the other recruits he took two weeks ago.”

  Tril’s face twisted. “They won’t be any good as soldiers.”

  “They’ll be better than this mouthy jenfurgling.”

  Tril eyed the battlemaster for a long moment, then nodded. “With any luck, he’ll eat him.”

  Without another word, Battlemaster Nebil dragged Joe away from the formation and onto his haauk. “You stupid sootbag furg,” Nebil said, lifting the haauk off the ground. “I can’t burning believe you did that.”

  “You did it too,” Joe said.

  “I did not force a young, insecure secondary commander to prove his power over his recruits in front of his entire battalion.”

  “Don’t take me to Knaaren,” Joe said. “Let Tril punish me. I can handle it.”

  “You’re a soot-eating furg!” Nebil snapped. “Tril had t
hat thing set to nine! It would have hotwired your system until your muscles gave up and you died. Tril’s only read the literature. He’s never seen it in action. I have. If he hit you with a Ninth Degree, it would kill you.”

  “So you’re giving me to the Dhasha, instead?!” Joe cried. “Why can’t you just tell him it would kill me?!”

  “I’d already pissed him off,” Nebil replied. “If I’d said anything other than what I did, he would have activated the unit and you wouldn’t be here now.”

  Joe took a desperate grip on Nebil’s arm. “Let him kill me. I’d rather be dead.”

  “Keep your eyes down and your mouth shut,” Nebil said. “Do exactly what you’re told and you might make it out of this alive.”

  Joe’s anger left him suddenly to be replaced with cold, stark fear. “Please, I don’t want to go to the Dhasha.”

  “You don’t have a choice.”

  Joe panicked as they approached Knaaren’s tower. “Then let him kill me!”

  “I can’t do that.” The battlemaster lowered the haauk to the ground outside Knaaren’s tower. “As stupid as you are, Kihgl would still haunt me if you died. At least this way, you have a chance of surviving.” He shoved Joe toward the Dhasha’s tower. “Get onto the elevator. Now.” Behind Nebil, the rest of Sixth Battalion was offloading onto the plaza and Joe saw his groundmates watching him, their faces twisted in concern.

  Joe swallowed hard, determined to remain strong in front of them.

  He stepped onto the elevator.

  Battlemaster Nebil followed him inside and the Takki controller shut the gate. Immediately, the machine started speeding them upwards, towards Knaaren’s penthouse at the top. Joe glanced over the railing several times as they ascended, wondering if Congressional medicine was strong enough to bring him back from the dead if he jumped.

  “I’m sorry,” Joe said, trying not to let his voice shake.

  “Shut up, Zero.”

  “I was stupid.”

  “Enough. You won’t change anything by begging.”

  “Give me a second chance.”

  “It’s too late.”

  Joe was panicking, now. “Let me talk to Tril. I’ll apologize. I’m one of the best runners in the regiment. I can carry more gear than most. I led the only platoon to get its hands on a flag. I’ll convince him.”