The Other Side of Truth (The Marked Ones Trilogy Book 3)

by Alicia Kat Vancil

  “Patrick!” Travis called out urgently.

  I whipped my head in his direction. “You go. Go find Parker. There’s…there’s something I need to do.”

  I could see so many emotions move across his face. Warring with each other, to see which would win out. But one shone louder than them all. I may have been his brother—his family—but Parker was his One.

  “Go, you idiot, I can take care of myself!”

  He didn’t wait to be told again—just turned and continued running.

  I walked slowly toward the door, the corridor feeling somehow longer with each step. A cold prickling sweat had broken out across my skin, and my breathing was coming out in short, shaking breaths. My heart beating unbelievably fast in my chest, like a frightened rabbit, and I was afraid to know why. But I still asked. Aku, what’s behind this door?

  He didn’t answer, but I could feel him stirring. Feel a strange mixture of seething rage, and unfathomable terror swirling around inside me.

  Aku?

  This is where it all happens, he finally stated in an uneven voice.

  Where what happens? I asked him within my own head. I was getting more used to the idea of talking to him—to myself—within my own mind. But it didn’t make the whole thing any less weird.

  Where they take everything from you.

  Everything?

  Everything, Aku repeated bitterly, and that’s when I finally understood—finally remembered. Beyond this door was the Machanta. The machine that stole our memories—our-souls—and made us into monsters. This was were Aku had been born. Where this Patrick had been born.

  I swallowed hard. We have to destroy it.

  Aku was silent for a long moment before he replied. Yes…we do.

  There was something about the way he said it that was unsettling, but in that moment I couldn’t decide why.

  I put my hand to the door to slide it open, but it didn’t budge. I looked over to the keypad. It didn’t have a hand sensor like the others, but a more traditional twelve button display.

  If the rest of the doors opened when the power was knocked out, why didn’t this door open?

  This door, and everything beyond it is on its own generator, separate from the rest of the facility, Aku stated.

  Why?

  I don’t know.

  Well, if the power to this door wasn’t knocked out when everything else was, then how do we get in? I asked with slight frustration.

  That I do know, Aku stated with confidence.

  You do? I asked skeptically, my eyebrows shooting up.

  Unless he’s changed it—and I doubt he has, he’s much too arrogant for that—the code should still be 14550151.

  Why 14550151? I asked as my hand hovered over the keypad.

  Think about it.

  14550151. 14550151. 14550151. What could it— and then it hit me all at once.

  “Oh that’s a bit brilliant,” I said with a small laugh as I started to punch in the numbers.

  There was something about the sleek simplicity of the Machanta that made it seem even more sinister.

  “That’s it?” I asked aloud this time as I stared at the machine that looked more like a tanning bed than a torture device.

  Yes.

  Without another word I turned, and walked back into the control room I had passed on my way into the Machanta room. I picked up the closest object that wasn’t attached to anything—a metal chair—and marched back into the Machanta Room.

  What are you doing? Aku asked as I raised that chair.

  I’m going to destroy it, I answered as I prepared to bring that chair down on the Machanta. It had taken so much from me, from Aku—from us all—and it would never take another single thing again.

  Wait, Aku said suddenly.

  Why? Do you want the honors or something? I asked, pausing.

  Well yes, but it’s not that.

  Then what? I asked, lowering the chair a bit more.

  I don’t know what will happen, Aku admitted after a moment.

  What do you mean?

  Aku was silent for an even longer time before he answered, I don’t know which of us will be…dominant.

  I froze. What?

  After we had the chip removed the first time, there was only about a fifty percent chance you would have woken up as you instead of me. Which means—

  “It’s a gamble,” I breathed out on a heavy breath as I lowered the chair slowly.

  And then I realized something else.

  You didn’t have to tell me that, I said slowly.

  I know.

  So what do we do? I asked hesitantly.

  You decide if it’s worth the risk.

  I lowered the chair a bit more. Was it? Was it worth risking losing myself to finally be rid of the thing that made me a monster?

  I’ll always be a danger to her—to them, as long as this machine is active, right?

  Yes.

  Then that really only leaves one option, doesn’t it? I said with resignation as I raised the metal chair high above my head. And brought it down swiftly on the Machanta. Reveling in the sound of it shattering. The sound of the pieces bounding off the floor around me. And then I couldn’t seem to stop myself as I slammed the metal chair into everything in sight.

  Some time later, I stood there surveying my handiwork, breathing heavily, a slightly unhinged grin across my lips.

  It’s finally over, Aku said with wonder.

  So what do we do—?

  A flash of pain hit me like a lightning strike erupting in my head, and I dropped the mangled metal chair. A sound was screaming through my head, so horrible and high-pitched that it washed away everything else. Every other sensation, other than the blinding, mind numbing pain.

  Get away from the Machanta! Aku screamed inside my head. If you don’t get away from it now, we’ll die! Aku continued, his voice just barely cutting through the screeching sound that was filling my head.

  I stumbled out of the room, and into the next. Blindly crashing forward, desperate to make the pain stop. I don’t know how far I got before I collapsed to the floor.

  TRAVIS

  I bolted down the dimly lit corridor, my heart beating like a warning in my chest. I rounded a corner, and stopped dead when I saw a smear of something dark and blood-like on the floor just in front of a stairway. So out of place in the sterile white corridor.

  Please be okay. Please, gods, let Parker be okay.

  Creeping forward cautiously, I peered down into the stairway, my TranqGun ready for any threat. Parker was leaning up against the wall on the mid-rise landing, the broken body of a Kakodemoss guard a bit further down the stairway. One of her hands was wrapped protectively across her middle, and the other was holding tight to a TranqGun that was leveled at me.

  “Travis?” Parker asked in disbelief, squinting up at me in the dim light.

  “Um…hi,” I greeted her, breathing a sigh of relief. She was alive. She was okay…or mostly okay anyways.

  “Good thing I hesitated,” she said as she lowered the TranqGun.

  “Oh, yeah, good thing,” I agreed as I started to lower my TranqGun as well.

  “What are you doing here, Travis?” Parker asked as she pulled her mask down around her neck.

  “Your comm went offline and—”

  It all happened so quickly. The fear filling Parker’s eyes as she screamed my name. The blade slicing across my right shoulder as I turned. My finger pulling the trigger. And the stunned confusion filling Natasha’s eyes.

  What felt like only a heartbeat later, Natasha grabbed hold of my sleeve, her mouth trying to form a word. But she never quite made it there before her grip on me slackened, and she crumpled to the floor. Joining the smear of blood a
nd the four tranq dart casings. Her katana making an odd clang as it hit the ground. The smoky, acid green tinge to the air around it marking it as titanium. The sickening color swirling up into the air like the blade was releasing dye into a pool of clear water. And I just stared down at her, unable to move or even breathe.

  I had just killed someone. It was to protect my life—to protect Parker’s life—but I just killed someone. And the weight of that hit me hard in the chest shortly before the realization that had I still been a regular Kalodaemon I would have been moments from death right now. That being infected with the K1-2012 virus had just probably saved my life.

  “Travis!” Parker screamed, finally ripping me from the numbness.

  I turned back around to face her, my whole body shaking. And without saying a word, I started down the stairs to her. I somehow managed to make it all the way down to the bottom step before I sat down hard. And then I just stared at my shaking hands.

  You just killed someone, a voice in the back of my mind whispered.

  “Not that I’m not happy to see you but…Travis, what are you doing here?” Parker asked, pulling me from my inner torment.

  “I just couldn’t stay on the Bus not knowing what had happened to you,” I answered, still staring down at my hands.

  “So you thought you’d just run in here with absolutely no training and a TranqGun?” Parker asked dubiously.

  “It’s no harder than a video game,” I said with a slightly hysterical laugh as I finally looked up at her.

  “Video games don’t usually make you bleed when they hit you,” Parker pointed out with narrowed eyes.

  “I’m fine,” I stated, wiping my sweaty palms on the strange tight black pants of the Amurai uniform.

  “Travis, it’s dripping onto the floor,” Parker countered flatly.

  “Okay, maybe I’m not,” I agreed as I ran my hand across my right shoulder, and it came back covered in blood.

  This is bad, this is really, really bad. I need to get us both out of here before I lose too much blood.

  “Are you hurt?” I asked, my eyes darting to her. But even as I asked it, I realized that it was a stupid question. The right side of her cuirass was shredded and her lower left leg was at a weird angle.

  “We fell down the stairs, but this guy—” Parker stated as she jerked a thumb in the direction of the dead Kakodemoss agent, “—took most of the impact. So I’m fairly certain that the…that the baby is okay.”

  My heart shuddered and skipped a few beats as my eyes darted to the hand still wrapped protectively around her middle.

  The baby! How could you forget about the baby? Her baby—your baby, I admonished myself within my own head.

  “However, my leg most definitely is broken,” Parker continued with a grimace.

  I nodded one short nod, and stood quickly. Gritting my teeth as I prepared to lift her.

  “What are you doing?” Parker asked as I wrapped my arms around her, and lifted her up.

  “Getting you somewhere safe,” I answered through gritted teeth. Trying my hardest to ignore the pain shooting through my body, and how very wet my kimono top was. Telling myself it was only sweat, but not really believing it.

  “But you’re hurt,” Parker protested as we started to make our ascent back up the stairs.

  “So are you. And I’ll be damned if I’m just gonna stick around and wait for someone to get us.”

  A Monster Hiding behind a Smile

  Tuesday, January 1st

  PATRICK

  Patrick, get up, Aku said urgently, but I just couldn’t make myself move.

  Patrick, you need to get up, Aku said a little more fervently, but still I just laid there.

  PATRICK! Aku shouted, and I finally opened one of my eyes as the blurred shapes of shoes came into view.

  I furrowed my brow, confused at the odd angle of them until I realized my cheek was resting on the cold, white linoleum of the corridor floor.

  I looked up slowly to the owner of the shoes as he looked down at me.

  Eskel, Aku growled with seething hatred.

  “Aku?” Eskel asked in confusion, his head cocking to one side like a viper before it struck.

  A painful surge raced up my spine, and I nearly threw up.

  We have to fight him together! Aku pleaded urgently. It’s the only way.

  Fight who? I managed past the pain.

  The other us. The one Eskel controls. The one with no soul.

  How?

  You have to pretend it doesn’t hurt. Eskel will know we are resisting if we show any hint of emotion.

  I don’t think I can, I moaned.

  There was a pause and then Aku said, Then give me control.

  What?

  I have much more practice pretending to be him.

  Aku—

  Do you trust me?

  Did I? Did I trust Aku to let me come back once this was all over?

  He warned you about the Machanta, didn’t he? Some small part of me in the back of my mind whispered.

  I closed my eyes, and did what was quite possibly the hardest thing I had ever done. Okay. And then I let go.

  A heartbeat later my eyes slid open, but not because I had moved them. My body rose up slowly into a sitting position and my head tipped forward, looking at the floor.

  “What does Director E ask of Aku?” my voice asked in Daemotic, an eerie, unfeeling calm to it.

  “Find out what is going on. Cut down any enemy who gets in Aku’s way. And when Aku is done, Aku is to return to Aku’s room,” Eskel ordered in Daemotic.

  “It will be done, Sir,” Aku stated, my lips moving robotically through the motions.

  Without another thought, Eskel passed us on his way to the Machanta room.

  What are we going to do now? I asked Aku within my own head.

  We’re going to do what he asked, Aku answered as he moved silently to his feet. The only sound the soft click-whoosh of the wakizashi’s scabbard retracting to become the blade’s guard.

  We’re going to do what?! I asked Aku incredulously.

  Patrick, you need to trust me—

  Trust you?! You just said we were going to kill—

  Enemies. Eskel ordered us to take down enemies. And right now, he’s the only one here.

  Oh.

  Yes, oh. So will you please stop shouting for one moment? This is painful enough as it is without you shouting at me, too.

  Painful? But even as I asked it, I heard the strange electronic screaming growing louder with every step Aku took back toward the Machanta room.

  I’m going to need your help, Aku said as we moved forward.

  Well, you’ve got it, because I’m sure as hell not going anywhere.

  Aku didn’t say anything after that, but I knew he was smiling.

  Eskel was standing in the doorway of the Machanta Room, unmoving. Clearly caught off guard by the destruction before him. Which gave us the only advantage we would ever need.

  Aku stepped up close to Eskel as silent as a shadow. So stealthily that Eskel didn’t even know we were there until the blade of Shawn’s wakizashi was being held to his throat.

  Eskel tensed, and froze deadly still. “How did you overcome the program?” he asked in an unbelievably calm voice—in English, this time.

  “We accepted that me and him are one and the same,” Aku answered through gritted teeth. The screeching of the Machanta was almost unbearable, like an ice pick to the skull. But it seemed to be having little to no effect on Eskel, which meant it was only us—those with chips—that could probably hear it.

  “So which of you is it that is talking to me now?” Eskel asked in the same unconcerned voice.

  “The one who desires your death from the bottom o
f his soul,” Aku answered, his eyes narrowing in pained concentration.

  “Of course,” Eskel replied with an amused huff.

  “You don’t seem very concerned to have a blade to your throat.”

  “When you create a monster, you should never be surprised when it comes to devour your soul,” Eskel stated, his cruel smile reflected in the shine of one miraculously untouched black monitor screen.

  “You have no soul,” Aku spat savagely, his hold on the titanium blade tightening. “Someone who would do those things to his own people could never have a soul.”

  “My people? That’s an interesting notion,” Eskel said as if he had never considered the idea. “You are wrong, however. The Kakodaemons are not my people.” Aku opened our mouth to interject, but Eskel continued on. “And neither are the Kalodaemons, or even the Marked Ones.”

  Eskel let out a heavy sigh and made to turn, but Aku pressed the blade closer and he froze again.

  “You are all so in love with being separate—of hating each other for your differences—that you have all lost sight of the most important thing.”

  “And what is that?” Aku asked derisively.

  “That we were the children of the gods—the stars. That we were as close to immortal as anything on this wretched planet ever will be. And we just let it slip away from us as if it was nothing. So what if a few have to die so that we can regain our birthright? I will not dishonor their noble sacrifice by letting conscience get the better of me.”

  And that’s when I realized that we were all just lab rats to him. Just interesting things he could watch, and tinker with in his pursuit for near-godhood. And worse, that he believed, with total conviction, that all the atrocities he had committed, were right.

  “You’re sick, you know that?” Aku said in stunned disgust.

  “We all are, that’s the point,” Eskel said with a slightly unhinged bark of laughter. “We are all in such desperate need of fixing.”