“A what-fucker?” Killian mutters.
Cassian turns to command his feral pack. “Toss your weapons in the snow,” he says.
The feral alphas glance around before one obeys. The rest follow.
Teasing his rifle with both hands, he stands before the line of alphas like a general before a weary army. “You have given me what I needed,” he says. “For that, I say, thank you.”
Before anyone can speak, he opens fire. No alpha spared. It’s pure carnage.
Killian shouts, “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Cassian faces them with a crooked smile. “Pick up your weapons. I never demanded your surrender,” he says.
“We can’t outlast you,” Vash says. “We don’t have the ammunition.”
Cassian steps over the dead bodies and grabs whatever guns, grenades, and ammo he can get. “Three of you. One of me. It should be an easy match,” he says, tossing the gear their way.
Killian bends and grabs a few clips.
Vash seems more wary, but he does the same, pocketing a pulse grenade. “What tricks do you have up your sleeve, brother?” he asks.
Lucas stands behind the bodies.
“No tricks. Just a good old fashioned brawl between old comrades,” he says.
Vash dives into the snow and fires. He misses. Overjoyed by the conflict, Cassian cackles. “Chin, chin, brother. You were one of the better marksman if I can recall correctly.”
“Fuck off,” Vash yells.
“Oh, brother,” he says. “I’ve missed our troublesome bond.”
Vash fires again, and the bullet hits his chest. Cassian falters, but his armor saves his life. The bullet drops into the show.
Cassian looks at it and grins. “So now you want to fight,” he mutters, tight-lipped.
He raises his battle rifle and poises to aim. He takes the shot, bullet cutting through smoke and air.
It nicks off a piece of Vash’s ear. Cassian could have killed him; he’s putting on a show.
Cassian charges them. “You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve seen, brother.”
As backup, Killian shoots his rifle, but he can’t seem to get a handle on the wind trajectory. Each shot that’s made misses. The kids hug his knees, causing him to lose balance. By the time he can reload, Cassian ducks behind a plot of snow.
Killian observes Vash wipe the blood from his ear and roll away, wheezing. He’s never seen Vash lose a fight, and Cassian is taking every opportunity to make gains on him.
Cassian fires another round of ammo. The bullets whizz by his side.
Cassian stands confidently. “I’ve lived a nearly endless stream of lives. I was an emperor in a nation called Sankara. I was a peasant farmer with a wife and three children. I’ve explored over thirty three different planets, and I haven’t aged an hour. Do you understand what I’m telling you, brother? Put the past aside for one moment. I have found the cure to death.”
Vash groans and tightens his body as he takes out the pulse grenade. He pulls the pin and waits. “You’ve done it all brother. But the one thing you’ll never be able to do is conquer Rae’s heart,” he says.
He lobs the grenade and braces for the explosion.
But it doesn’t come.
Cassian walks to the grenade, picks it up, and throws it high into the air. It explodes late, illuminating the darkness with a web of electricity.
Cassian puts his rifle to Vash’s head. “Boom,” he says.
Vash drops the revolver. “There. You win. Happy?”
Killian does the same. He grabs his children, sheltering them with his massive arms. “It’s okay,” he keeps repeating. “It’s going to be okay.”
Cassian snaps a set of electro-lock bracelets around Vash’s wrists. Same treatment for Killian and Ruby.
When he gets to the children, he cackles. “So these are your heirs. They don’t look like leaders, but we’ll get them there with a little training.”
Killian doesn’t grace him with a response. He’ll do what he’s told to do, but he will not give into the evil comedy act of the century.
Cassian leads them to a small caravan near the bodies. Lucas helps Ruby in, and Killian hears him whisper, “I did this for the children. You have to know that. I’ll fix this. Trust me.”
“Traitor,” Killian mutters under his breath.
Killian wrestles against his lock bracelets. “It’s impossible to break free,” Cassian says. “But you know that, Killian. You used the cuffs on the omegas at the Varikar invasion. That was right before you killed them.”
Killian screams so loud it tears his vocal cords. “I’ll fucking mutilate you, you monster.”
Cassian walks back to the children. He kneels. “Sweet, sweet baby alphas. Bred from the finest fruit I offered this lonely planet.”
He places his palm around one child’s faces and glides across the small alpha’s cheek.
Killian goes berserk. He tries to stand, but an electric shock shoots through the chain locks.
Vash leans by him, eyeing Lucas like a hawk. “You backstabbing motherfu--”
Lucas interrupts. “She’s dead, Vash. She’s fucking dead.”
Killian feels like he’s losing sanity. “What do you mean she’s dead?”
As Lucas takes a breath, Cassian chuckles to himself. “I saw her with my own eyes. Her body. Her face. Her regal nose and thick-lipped frown. I saw her, dammit. She was… cold.”
Vash twists his neck. “No. I don’t believe it,” he says. “He has betrayed us. We can’t trust him.”
Killian agrees. “He ruined our family.”
The rage hits him, but he is powerless. Adrenaline absorbs into his bloodstream, but he’s left with no options. He just wasn’t the alpha he thought he was.
They had one chance, and they fucking blew it.
He looks across at Ruby. Her eyes are glued open in horror. Her face has color, but there’s no telling if the drugs will do any long term good.
Love has destroyed them.
“You’re wrong. We can still be a family,” Lucas says. “If Rae is dead, we have nowhere to go except home. The Ouroboros was our home. What other choice did I have?”
Lucas’ justified expression only drives the knife in deeper. Killian sinks further into misery.
Every alpha can fall from grace. He just didn’t think it would be Lucas.
Vash sighs, breath billowing around his face. “I’ll never let my children grow up like us,” he says. “I loved you, Lucas. You were my brother until the end. Don’t let Cassian fool you. Once he has what he wants, he’ll kill you.”
Lucas looks stunned.
Cassian scoops the squirming children into his chest. He bounces them against his arms. “Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I have a proposition,” he says. “I’ll take you to the Iron Eye. I’ll show you my machine. You’ll experience the machine’s magnificence first hand.”
“Do we have any choice?” Killian asks.
“Free will?” Cassian laughs at the thought. “That’s precisely what I’m trying to end.”
Rae
With no food, no sun, and no practical way out, Rae stands with the young omega near the particle accelerator. The heat warms her skin. Every second that passes brings her shock-waves of paralyzing anxiety.
She can’t see him again. She can’t.
The motherboard’s taunting laughter grows louder. This is all a sad game that has finally come to its expected conclusion. Cassian won the eternal battle over her body, mind, and soul. He’s closer than she ever imagined.
The two omegas hold each other as the light grows brighter. When she thinks they might get swallowed by its power, the force dims. It turns off. It never quite gets to full-capacity.
Rae glances at the top of the towering machine. Standing at the edge is Cassian, scepter on his hip, her children sleeping against his chest. He gazes down at her like a God, but she knows he’s the real devil, the one who designed her hell.
He made he
r. And now he’ll own her soul forever.
Behind her appears two faces she has been waiting to see since she left. “Vash! Killian!” she shouts.
They both raise their heads, eyes widening with true adoration.
Lucas comes from behind. Ruby rests in his arms. That’s when she snaps out of it and realizes everything is all wrong.
Lucas gasps. “Rae… you’re alive?”
She breathes. She can’t seem to calm down. “Ruby,” she says, glaring at Cassian. “What happened to her, you sick fuck?”
Cassian leads the alphas down the machine until they step inside the cavernous city.
Vash shouts, “Don’t trust Lucas. He stabbed us in the back. He’s the reason we were caught.”
She’s knocked back from the news. “Lucas, is it true?”
Lucas looks away from her. Tears run down his cheeks. “Cassian said you were dead,” he mutters. “He showed me your corpse. He tricked me into following him.”
The young omega runs to hide.
Cassian cocks his head. “Do not lie. My offer intrigued you,” he says. “All of you. There is evil in all our hearts, but that no longer matters.”
The wind from the accelerator brushes Lucas’ hair away from his eyes. He’s beautiful. He’s her alpha in all the ways he could be. He’s curious, resilient, and sometimes, he is self destructive. She loves all of his qualities. But right now, she can’t focus on any of them. Her heart feels ready to explode.
She knows what Cassian is like. He’s more convincing than any alpha on the planet.
Vash and Killian inch toward her, but Cassian moves past them. “Ruby is dying, but she’s not a part of the equation. I’m sure mother explained to you my plans.”
Rae shields the tank baby with her arms. She knows she doesn’t contain the extinction gene. She won’t have to go through synthesis, but the child still means something to her.
She won’t be able to kill Cassian. He is extinction. If he dies, they all die.
Killing him destroys the entire omegaverse, themselves included. The vaults of time would cease to exist. Worst of all, her children would never get a chance to experience happiness and freedom. This is all they’d know of their world.
Cassian spins, raising his arms into the air. “The slaves that built the Alpha-Omega Machine are dead. My army is dead. But one truth remains quite alive. I am the God particle, the alpha who refuses to abide by the constraints of life, avoiding death but keeping him near as my witness. I am all beings, good and bad.”
He turns, eyes wide and mad. “Brothers, we have come to a turning point in civilization. Governments have failed us. More and more alphas are sterile, and the omegas are nearly extinct. Don’t you ever sit and wonder what’s next?”
Killian growls. “Not a lot of time for that, these days,” he says.
“Get on with it,” Vash scowls. “What is the machine?”
Cassian tells them about the cryo units. “I went from discovering synthesis to complete and total consciousness-transfer. The ability to live in multiple places at once. First, I created universes just like ours. When I got the conditions right, I learned how to divide the mind from body. I have built a multiverse called the Omegaverse. It is mine. All mine,” he says.
Though Rae knew of his discoveries, his words still hit her hard. She runs to Ruby, holds her, but doesn’t know what to say.
“Thank you, sis,” Ruby whispers.
“Thank me when I save your life,” Rae cries.
Vash raises his locked wrists to his forehead. “In your fucked up vision of a new world, what will happen to this one and its inhabitants?”
“The alphas will war. The crops will rot. Resources will dwindle. And all life will die off or be used by the machine,” Cassian replies. “When that happens, this world will become my storage unit, a place where I can rest and rule over the omegaverse for an eternity.”
“You bastard,” Lucas shouts.
Cassian smirks but ignores him. Instead, he walks across the paved path. He calls out, “Mother! I am home.”
The entire cavern lights. “Welcome home, son.”
“Mother?” Vash whispers. “How is she still alive?”
“I gave her a bigger body this time,” Cassian says. “Mother, did you show our guests a lovely time?” he asks.
This isn’t like Cassian. He is far too chipper. When she knew him, he didn’t smirk or smile, nor did he celebrate. He didn’t waste time. He has been alone, waiting for this moment like a caged lion.
“Is the cryo bunker prepared?” he asks.
The motherboard responds. “There are five empty units, each connected to a different universe.”
Cassian claps his hands together. “Rae will achieve synthesis with the fetus. Once reborn, she will go through consciousness-transfer in the cryo bunker. She will wake in Sankara with me by her side. I have done well for myself there,” he says.
“There is a forty percent chance of death if the baby goes through consciousness-transfer,” the motherboard warns.
“You’re right,” Cassian growls. “It’s too late for synthesis. We’ll proceed to direct consciousness-transfer.”
“You’ll do anything to beat me,” Rae says, raising her eyes toward his. “And that’s how I know I’ve already won.”
“What are you talking about?” Cassian grunts.
“You want control. Everlasting life. But you can’t live without me. If I die, there is no point to your existence,” she says. “I am the only thing that makes you alpha. I own you.”
In a quick fit of enthusiastic rage, he turns and rushes Rae. Tightening his grip around her neck, he forces her to bend. He squeezes so hard she drops the tank baby.
The liquid leaks from a small crack.
“No!” Rae screams and bucks.
He coils his ankles around hers, slamming the bone against the ground. A flash of pain paralyzes her, but she soon twists her hips and throws an elbow to his nose.
Cassian pauses as a trickle of blood drags out of one nostril. He catches a drop on his tongue and swallows. “You bitch,” he growls and slams his forearm around her neck.
She chokes, but the more she struggles, the more weight he forces on her.
Her vision wanes. The room turns into dark particles. She will faint.
The alphas scream, but their electro-locks shock them.
Oh, God…
Cassian releases his grip at the last moment. Desperate for oxygen, Rae coughs and swallows, clenching her hands around her throat.
He grabs her hair and drags her toward the cryo bunker. “If you won’t go the easy way, I’ll get you there the hard way.”
As her back scrapes across the beaten path, she catches eyes with Lucas. Weakly, she mouths the words, “Help me.”
Cassian gets to the ladder, but the room is still closed off. Irritated, he swings Rae onto her back and steps onto her stomach. “Mother, open the cryo bunker.”
The motherboard speaks. “System access denied. I cannot access the proper protocols. Cassian, there is someone messing with my internal programming.”
She grabs his boot and pushes as he digs his heel down further. “Mother, dammit! Open the bunker. I demand it.”
“System access denied. System access denied. System acc--”
The motherboard voice chip goes crazy. Like a spinning broken record, it repeats the same phrase until the octaves in her voice drop. It dies away, and another voice replaces it.
It’s the voice of the young omega. “Rae, I’m shutting down the cryo units.”
“The omega I saw earlier...” Cassian hisses.
Rae’s heart flutters. That omega has awakened something inside of her.
Cassian lunges away from Rae, running toward the ladder to the upstairs. “No! My machine. My worlds!”
A loud hiss echoes across the city. The light from the bunker slowly dims. The cryo units flatline. Death is everywhere, but it brings hope of life.
Cassian climbs through
the caves, disappearing into the darkness above. Rae uses this as a chance to run back to her alphas.
She traces her fingers across her neck, feeling the heavy bruising that purples her skin. She gasps and cries. Vash and Killian rush to her aid.
She drops to the ground, taking the leaking tank baby in her hand. “Oh, no,” she whispers, applying pressure over the thin cracks.
As soon as Lucas takes a step forward to help her graft the glass with some tape, Killian nudges in front of her. “Back the fuck away, traitor.”
“It was always you and me, remember?” Lucas asks.
Killian nods. They go way back. Even further than him and Vash. “Memories fade,” he says.
From above, Cassian’s roars echo. The young omega jumps down the ladder, running toward the particle accelerator.
Cassian climbs back into the city, reeling. “She destroyed mother,” he growls. “Where is she?”
When he sees her, a look of vengeance washes over his face. Outwardly, he saves face. “It is of no consequence. I can make more copies,” he says. “Now, we can fill the cryo vacancies. But the omega has to die.”
Cassian swings out his rifle.
The young omega runs over to Lucas, near the opening portal of the particle accelerator.
Lucas steps in front of her, shielding her.
Cassian aims. “You’re in the way,” he says.
Lucas braces and shoots a glance at his old pack. “I don’t deserve forgiveness. I know what I have to do now,” Lucas says. “Sacrifice. A leap of faith.”
Rae can see it in him. She can see the sorrow in his eyes, the readiness to lose everything for her. He isn’t a bad alpha. He was doing what he thought he had to do.
Lucas seems to take the longest breath of his life.
He holds his hands out as Cassian charges him. He closes his eyes and embraces fate.
Lucas
The particle accelerator spins faster than before, casting vibrant shades of color around their bodies. The omega tugs on his shirt, whimpering against his tattered armor.
Lucas acknowledged who she was as soon as he saw her run. She is Aden’s daughter, possibly the last real omega left.
Broken Angel: The Complete Collection: A Dark Omegaverse Romance Page 44
