The tear in reality doesn’t recede, and the Shepherd doesn’t pull back his blade. It turns, from sideways to right side up. Like a pendulum, it swings, stopping to hover directly over Mika who’s still hunched and cupping her face.
There’s no time to save her, push her away. Syl and Astra are too far.
Desperate, I reach inside to where my power burns as it waits for release. I reach toward Mika, pray I have enough time to bat her away before the Shepherd cuts.
But something stops me. The rift he cut through crackles like lightning, and this close I can see it clearly for the briefest moment. Feel it. Something about it resonates inside me, hums in the same place my power hides.
Experimentally, in the space between one beat of my heart and the next, I reach out. Snatch its ragged, glowing edges with my mind. I don’t know what I’m doing or how, but I take the edges and yank them together.
The effect is instant. The Shepherd’s blade, just beginning a descent that will cut Mika in half, shatters like dark glass. There’s an electric shriek from beyond the tear, deafening for a split second before cutting off like someone’s hit the world’s biggest mute button. Black shards of… Something… fall to the ground like razors, slicing into my face and hands before bouncing across the pavement. When they come to rest, they hiss for a moment before vaporizing in lines of white code that drift upward like smoke.
“Shit,” I say, rising unsteadily. “I take Mika’s hand, lifting her. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she growls, finally removing her hand. “He nicked me.”
Nicked? The top of her right ear is gone, as is most of the hair on that side of her head. The Shepherds blade must have missed her skull by a millimeter. “That’s pretty badass action hero of you and all that, but seriously.”
“Seriously.” She gingerly touches her ear, barely wincing. “Yeah, it hurts, but I’m good.” She runs her hand through her shaved hair, leaving a streak of blood from her eye to the back of her head.
“You are so fucking hot right now.”
“Agreed,” Syl rumbles from next to me. “She is was a warrior.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Mika says with a little smile. “I’m the greatest, I know. Astra, are you okay?”
I blink, realize I haven’t looked to the AI since I shattered the Shepherd’s blade. She stands a bit apart from us, eyes locked on the ground. “Astra?”
“How did you do that?”
I bend, run my hands along the rough asphalt where the Shepherd’s weapon evaporated. “Ever slammed a door on your hand?”
Mika hisses. “I have. Broke my pinky.”
“Like that.”
Astra huffs, exasperated. “No, I mean… That you harmed him at all.” She kneels next to me, hand to my shoulder, voice awed. “He’s programmed to be invulnerable.”
“Is that not true of you, as well?” Syl reaches down to help us both up. “Clearly, things have changed.”
“Yeah, but she’s only mortal because she’s untethered from the…” My lips work a moment after my voice dies.
“Is that possible?” Mika asks. “And if he is, how does it affect us?”
“No… No.” Astra shakes her head. “That can’t be possible. I’m like this because Sam pulled me through the portal I created to get you three out of here. Just me.”
There’s a long silence, made creepier by the utter stillness of the unfinished trial we’re in.
“What if he chose to follow?” I ask, putting words to the thought we’ve all got running through our heads.
Astra takes a step back, breath hitching. “That can’t… I don’t believe it.”
“Why not?” Mika follows her, takes her hands. Astra grips them so tight her knuckles pale. Goddamn, the Shepherd terrifies her more than it does me. “You chose to help us. Even if he’s… Simpler… Than you… Why wouldn’t he have the same capability to choose?”
Astra’s mouth works like she can’t speak. Mika pulls her close, and the AI hugs her gratefully. At least she’s not losing it like before. She’s still lucid. I don’t blame her for being freaked, and don’t begrudge her needing to wrap her head around this, but we need to go. Syl and I scan the towers, the street. I can’t relax. “We should move.”
“Agreed,” Syl rumbles. “We should not linger.”
“And hey,” I say, giving Astra an over the shoulder wink. “At least now we know we can fight him.”
Astra sighs. “You’re right. Both of you. I feel like I keep apologizing, but… I’m sorry.”
“Hey, hush.” Mika releases her, gives her a fake jab to the shoulder. “I’ve been in this place what feels like forever and I’m still scared enough to wet myself.”
“Thank you,” Astra says, smiling. “Though somehow I think you’re just saying that.”
“Nope. Scout’s honor. My bladder’s gonna go any second.”
“That would be unwise,” Syl says. “Urine is a powerful tracking tool.”
“That’s not…” Mika laughs, hard. Astra and I join her as Syl looks on, brow furrowed. “I love you, Syl.”
Syl shrugs, obviously still confused, but her too large eyes glitter with amusement. “And I you, Viera.”
The look they share is laden with deeper meaning and it warms me. I feel so connected to all of them, but we’re better if they feel the same about each other.
Still, I can’t let that one pass. “Viera? When do I get a sexy alien nickname?”
Syl flows up to me, planting the length of her hard body along mine. Her tongue flicks out, tasting my lips for the briefest moment. There’s challenge in her eyes that heats my blood. “I have another nickname for you, Sam.” She exhales, and somehow, her hot breath smells like sex. “Perhaps I will tell you what it is someday.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” I say, sliding a hand down her scaled back to her little ass. “But wasn’t it you that said we had to get moving?”
There’s something hungry in her gaze. That look she gets when she almost loses herself. But she shakes her head, inhaling deep. She turns, sauntering away, but casts one last look over her shoulder that I don’t have to be telepathic to decode: Later.
We move together this time. Syl no longer ranges out. We know the danger this place poses, and the fact that it can come from anywhere and anytime makes scouting useless.
The pillar’s a lot brighter, now, and I’m surprised it wasn’t more visible before this. We approach its base with no further attacks from the Shepherd. I have to hope he’s learned his lesson, that maybe he’ll leave us alone while we bail from this place.
I know that’s not true.
At the base of the pillar, nestled amongst the blue glow, is a door like those at the end of every trial. But something about it is messed up, unfinished like the rest of the trial. “No handprints.”
“No,” Astra says. “I’ll have to configure this one. Give me a moment.”
We array around her protectively. Syl’s claws extend at least a foot, and Mika’s hands light with liquid flame. I stand between them, gripping my power, ready to seal any tears that open.
Long moments pass as Astra fiddles with the door. I glance from Syl to Mika. “Wish I had my rifle.”
“Your power is far more useful than either of us will be if the Shepherd attacks,” Syl says.
“Yeah, but you two look so much cooler than I do right now.”
Mika snorts. “What’s the point of surviving if you don’t look awesome doing it, right?”
“I know! This is bullsh–”
Ahead of us, the air tears itself in half. The rift is the biggest so far, taller than any of us. It extends from the ground upward, and it splits so wide that…
“He’s trying to come through!” Syl warns.
This time, I’m ready. I throw my mind at the rift. The edges crackle to my senses, and once again, I can feel its length and energy. I grip its edges, ready to rip the tear closed.
But I can’t. I grit my teeth and strain, but the rift stays open
.
The Shepherd stands on the other side, watching us. His arm is regenerated, which is just lovely, but at least he’s not attacking. Or maybe he’s afraid to try again after getting jacked up the first time.
Somehow, I doubt that. Whatever the case, this is a stalemate. “Hurry.” Holding the rift is hard as hell with the Shepherd staring at me from three feet away.
“I’m close.” Astra’s voice is far more controlled now. It’s still laced with fear, but there’s determination, too. And anger.
I’m not surprised. She’s a badass, and despite having her entire existence uprooted, I can tell she’s not the type to take shit from anyone. And being chased, terrorized, and cut in half by the Shepherd definitely counts as “taking shit” in my book.
“Sam, look.” Mika points at the Shepherd with a shaking finger. “He’s different.”
She’s right. I think I already knew, somehow, but didn’t want to think about it. It’s like waiting for news, not knowing if it’ll be bad or good. Somewhere, deep inside, your brain doesn’t want to know either way because ignorance really can be bliss.
But I can’t ignore this. The Shepherd’s body is still a blotchy, endlessly shifting mass of shadow that makes me feel sick when I stare at it too long. But now, the white threads of code that artery its body move endlessly in long worms of letters and numbers. But more than that, something about the way it holds itself, something about how bright its red eyes blaze with hatred convinces me.
This isn’t our enemy rebooted. This is the same Shepherd from the previous iteration. The same Shepherd that’s chased me since I woke up in this nightmare what seems like years ago.
The beast stares at me, and though it has no face, I swear it smiles.
“Uhh, Astra?”
“Sorry, Sam,” she grunts. “Close, just have to relearn how to do all this. I can’t use my old methods, my old codes, so I have to–”
“Hurry,” I interrupt, trying and failing to close the rift again. “He’s about to try something.”
“How do you know?” Syl crouches lower, looks ready to leap through the portal.
“I don’t know. It’s like… Like I can feel it.”
At my words, the Shepherd’s invisible sneer widens. I can’t see it, but I can sense its echo in my soul. It slides into my heart like a tentacle of oil.
“I’m trying! Just need another second,” Astra says. I can’t hear what she’s doing, but I can hear the fear in her voice. “Just another second!”
Too late. The code that flows through the Shepherd speeds faster and faster, flickering so fast I can’t see its form anymore.
And then it stops.
The towers that surround us open, huge doors like broken teeth evaporating into smoke.
Behind the doorways is…
“Water,” Mika gasps.
I don’t have time to agree. To curse. Millions of gallons of water explode from a hundred towers, roaring toward us like God’s flood sent to scour the Earth of sinners.
“Astra!” I bellow, turning to wrap an arm around her.
Mika’s hand slips into mine a millisecond before the torrent hits us from every direction at once. I manage a ragged gasp of air before we’re swallowed.
I lose my grip on the rift, on Mika, even on myself. For an infinite moment, all that exists is the water that pounds into me like a thousand hammers, sucking me upward and away as the world floods and my body’s battered. Where are the others? Where’s the Shepherd? I don’t know, can’t even think as I struggle to hold my meager breath against a raging fist of water that pounds my chest.
I try to swim and fight the current, but it’s pointless, like trying to push against the power of a hurricane. I’ve never felt so powerless.
I reach out with my power, not even aware of where I am anymore. There has to be something close that I can attach to, some place I can pull myself to so I can breathe and find the others.
Images are blurry in my mind, like the rushing darkness that surrounds me distorts my inner vision. It’s like staring through an old, dirty window, and it takes agonizing moments as my lungs scream for air before I realize where I am.
I haven’t moved. I’m near the pillar.
How?
Astra. A silver rope of her material is looped around my stomach, and another around Mika’s. She’s thrown more of herself around the glowing pillar, anchoring all of us in the flood. Mika and I float a few feet above the ground as the rush of the water tries to sweep us away, but Astra’s tether holds us tight.
And she’s still manipulating the pillar. Still trying to get us out.
Somehow, badass suddenly seems like too simple a term for her.
Panic seizes me, and not just because I suddenly see tiny stars as my lungs spasm and beg for air.
Syl? Where is she? Astra doesn’t have her.
I throw my senses out further and further, searching, praying. Please, please don’t let her be lost. If she’s gone, torn away by the water, we’ll never find her.
There’s nothing. The rift is gone, not closed by me. Good. Maybe the asshole got hit with a river and had to shut the door himself. But past us, past the pillar, I sense nothing. Just an ocean of flowing water funneled by the towers that still stand like giants in an impossibly large flood.
No. Please. Syl, where are you?
I push further, further than I ever have. My mind tears, and hot blood spills from my nose before the torrent tears it away.
I can’t find her.
Light. Something’s changed. I flail around, barely turning toward the pillar.
Astra’s opened the door. Brightness spills forth, bleeding into the inky water and dying after only a few feet. Salvation, a star in the infinite night that surrounds us. Beckoning.
Is water flooding through it, filling the next chamber? I reach toward it with my mind and want to sob in relief. Some kind of crazy ass Citadel fuckery’s at play, and the wall of water stops at the open doorway.
Now we just have to escape.
Astra pulls us toward the light. I can’t tell her to stop, can’t shout or signal. Not yet. Not without Syl.
But I can’t breathe. Can’t hold it anymore. The pain in my lungs is like nothing I’ve ever felt and I’m moments from passing out. My vision blackens and with every beat of my heart that darkness grows until I can’t see the light of the door.
I can’t stop her. Astra yanks us through the portal and into safety.
We thud to the ground in a tangle, bashing into each other so hard I’m sure someone’s broken something. But none of us care or even feel the pain of our landing. My body’s an endless bruise, bashed by the water, but I barely feel even that.
All I feel, all I can comprehend, is the air tearing its way into my lungs as I gasp ragged breaths. As my body reanimates and air threads back into my starved bloodstream. As my sluggish brain reactivates and I can finally think again.
And my first thought is of Syl.
I open my eyes, terrified. “Don’t close the door!”
“I haven’t! I can’t! It’s… It’s Mika,” Astra sobs. She kneels over Mika’s prone body, hands to her bare chest. As Astra lifts her silver hands away, Mika’s chest doesn’t rise to take a breath.
Oh God. “Mika!” I shout. I know it’s stupid, pointless, but maybe if she hears me…
Astra keeps compressing after giving Mika two long breaths. “Come on,” she whispers. “Come back.”
“What can I do?” I ask, trying to fight back hysteria. I’ve never been good with first aid and don’t even know CPR myself. I have the mad urge to check Web MD, but I’m sure it’d just say something about cancer. I choke back a laugh that’s more of a sob, wondering where the hell that thought came from.
I feel stoned, can barely hold a thought. It must be the lack of air to my brain. My focus is sharpening, but too slow. I want to dive back through the door, find Syl, but I can’t leave Mika. Not when she’s… When she might be...
“Just let m
e… Let me do this,” Astra gasps. “Find Syl.”
Shit. She’s right. I’m not helping anyone right now.
I dash for the doorway. It’s a dark rectangle as the floodwaters hover just across its threshold like the world’s most terrifying aquarium. I grip the plain white walls of the room we’ve landed in on either side, and taking a long breath, plunge my head back into the deluge.
It’s chaos. I have to fight animal panic, the need to yank my head back and out of the water. It’s so cold, so powerful, and though only my head and shoulders are in the doorway, it still tries to suck me through.
I don’t waste time, and though taking my power with my sluggish mind is harder than it’s ever been, I still cast it out like a net. Searching for Syl.
I find her instantly. She’s not far, close enough that I can’t believe I missed her before. She’s about fifteen feet away, her claws plunged deep into the pavement. It holds her fast as her body’s whipped back and forth by the rampaging current.
And she’s not moving.
Oh God. Not her, too. I can’t shout to her, can’t tell if she’s even alive. Her body’s completely limp, like a kite being tossed by the wind.
Above her, a rift opens.
No. This is not happening. I can’t swim to her, and she’s too far to reach.
The Shepherd’s blade slips through the rift almost lazily, sliding effortlessly into the water above Syl’s back.
I don’t think, just react. I take Syl with my mind, gripping her like iron, and I pull. There’s resistance as her seemingly indestructible claws hold fast. I pull harder, powered by sheer terror as the black blade slips closer to her glittering scales.
Suddenly, she’s free, ripping chunks of pavement up and away as her claws tear from the ground. She sails toward me like a missile.
I catch her, barely getting my arms up in time as she clears the doorway. As strong as I am now, she still throws me off my feet. We tumble across the room, barely missing Astra as she still tries to revive Mika.
I come to a rest over her and rise on shaking arms. “Syl!” I shout, praying, hoping for some sign of life. Please, please open your eyes. She was out there so long. I don’t know how to resuscitate a human and wouldn’t know where the hell to start with her.
Aspirant 2: A Sci-Fi Harem Adventure Page 12
