Dark Matter (Interchron Book 3)

by Liesel K. Hill

  First, energy hummed around them. It buzzed in Doc’s ears, tickled his joints, and made his hair stand on end. As the seconds passed, the feel of the energy multiplied rapidly. Soon, the entire room pulsed with it.

  Marcus, keeping one hand levitating above Maggie's face, put the other on the hilt of the knife sticking out of her chest. Doc held his breath as Marcus eased the knife back a fraction of an inch. When he did, the thrum of the energy intensified.

  Maggie didn’t move in the least. She gave no sign she’d felt the knife move. David, on the other hand, flinched.

  Doc noticed the other Healers, watching Marcus from the foot of Maggie’s bed with wide eyes. Because they shared his ability, they saw and understood what Marcus did. As the seconds ticked past, their mouths slowly dropped open and their eyes grew to fill their faces.

  Everyone in the room turned watch what Marcus and David. Karl stood up off his bed to see around Marcus. He wouldn’t have been able to see the energy any more than Doc, but that hardly mattered. Everyone felt it: they were witnessing something momentous. Lila stopped crying and she and Joan watched with intensity. Others of Interchron’s population appeared at the doorway, peering in. They’d felt the energy, too, and come to investigate its source.

  With each tiny movement of the knife, Maggie remained still, David flinched harder, and the energy in the room increased. Doc soon felt like his entire body whirred with it. As if medical had become a microwave and they might all have their brains cooked.

  After a few minutes, David began to tremble. First, only a subtle quivering of his hands. Soon, his entire body shook violently.

  When Marcus had pulled the knife roughly halfway out, he began to quake as well. Both men sweated through their clothes, their chests heaving, mirror images of one another.

  Marcus looked like he might collapse. Doc wanted to hold him up, but feared to leave David side, who looked worse. He moved around to stand behind David, hands poised beneath his armpits, ready to catch him if he fell.

  Doc glanced significantly at Karl, who read the look and went to stand behind Marcus, taking the same pose. If either of the two men passed out, or simply fell, Doc and Karl would catch them.

  The dagger was roughly three quarters of the way free, and Doc’s chest surged with hope. The boy at the canyon had died by now, and while Maggie's vital signs felt frighteningly faint, a quick scan told Doc her heart still beat in its place. Her face, utterly tranquil, might have simply been sleeping if not for the pallor of her skin.

  Then something happened. The energy in the room…cracked. Doc couldn’t think of a better word. It faltered. For the first time, Maggie shuddered violently on the table. Doc’s guts lurched. Either Marcus or David—or both—were running out of steam. If they quit now, with inches of the knife still in Maggie’s chest, she might still die.

  Joan walked up beside Karl and rested both hands lightly on Marcus's shoulder. Following suit, Karl put a hand on Marcus’s other shoulder. Doc realized they were transferring their energy to him. They couldn't help him with his actual ability, but they could send their own life force into his cells, sending a boost of energy to sustain him. Doc did the same with David, placing a hand on his shoulder. After a moment, Lila came to stand by Doc, putting hands on David’s arm. Doc felt Lila’s energy mix with his and flow into David.

  David, though still breathing heavily and sweating profusely, stood taller.

  Minutes passed, and the team’s added energy made less difference. Marcus slumped to one side, as though he simply couldn’t stay upright anymore. David, too, bent at the waist, leaning his forearms on the side of Maggie’s bed for support. Karl wrapped an arm around Marcus’s waist to hold him upright. Doc considered doing the same for David, though leaning against the bed seemed to be working for David for now.

  The intensity of energy in the room hadn’t flickered again, so despite their physical distress, at least the two men were still doing their part to Heal Maggie.

  Thirty seconds later, David’s knees buckled. Lila and Doc caught him. He wasn't unconscious. The energy around him still swirled, but obviously the pain he took on from Maggie's injury had become too intense for him to remain on his feet. Doc couldn’t imagine the pain of a knife being pulled through one’s chest, through soft muscle tissue and vital organs. He marveled that David remained conscious at all.

  Doc focused so heavily on David and Marcus that, at first, he didn’t notice the others streaming into the room. He registered movement but didn’t truly understand until someone came to stand beside him.

  The other members of Interchron who’d watched from the doorway entered. Some congregated around Marcus. Others, around David. As many as could reach placed their hands on Marcus and David to give them strength. Soon, too many stood around each man to allow anyone else access. More of Interchron’s residence continued to stream in. They simply stood behind the first layer of people and placed hands on their shoulders, creating a chain of strength that stretched out into the corridor, beyond Doc’s line of site.

  Energy flowed through all of them into Marcus and David, who remained conscious, though neither bothered with keeping their eyes open anymore.

  As Doc watched with fascination, both brothers began to glow with a strange, soft light. Whether it came from their abilities, their combined actions to save Maggie, or the others from Interchron supplying them energy, Doc couldn’t have said. Marcus and David’s skin glowed with a subtle, luminescent orange. Yet white light poured out of the crevices as well. It streamed from their fingernail beds, beneath their eyelids, and from Marcus’s scar.

  A remarkable sight to behold, and one that frightened Doc a bit. Still, the Healing continued, and Maggie's vital signs strengthened.

  *******

  Pain. She felt only pain, and darkness. Maggie moaned in misery. Where was she? Her entire being hurt, she could do nothing but moan in her own head.

  Suddenly, the pain disappeared. Proof, it winked out of existence. Strange sensations followed. Strange processes happening inside her body. She felt movement and energy, but not the normal movement of her heartbeat or her systems doing their normal work. It felt more like an alien force inside of her, moving things around. It didn't hurt, but the sensation puzzled her.

  Maggie felt lighter. The darkness began to recede. She became aware of her five senses. The metallic tang of blood filled her nose. The soft murmur of voices in her ears. She sensed presences around her. She couldn't explain them, but moved upward, to a lighter place than she’d been when she felt the pain. She rose quickly now, flying through the darkness…

  Maggie opened her eyes. A heavy weight she couldn’t comprehend lay across her abdomen and hips. She lay on her back. The ceiling above looked like medical. She’d been here enough times to know. Every part of her body felt heavy as a rock. She didn’t want to move, not even to turn her neck.

  The scene at the canyon came crashing back to her. Jonah! Oh, Jonah! What had he done? Where had he gone? Maggie’s heart raced with panic.

  Above her, Doc's face came into view. He hovered over her, looking down with sad, haunted eyes. "Maggie?" His voice sounded like a muddled echo in her ears. "Can you hear me?”

  Maggie tried to nod but couldn't. "Yes,” she whispered. It came out so softly, she wasn't sure Doc heard. He put a gentle hand on her forehead and she felt comforted by it.

  Seconds passed and she sensed movement around her. Voices floated around her but she couldn't decipher them. Still, she felt sure a lot of people stood in the room. They seemed to be shuffling out. She sensed their forms moving past her bed.

  Maggie flexed her fingers. Seconds later, she bent her elbows and knees. The heavy weight still lying on her belly made her not want to move her feet, but after a few minutes she managed to lift her head and look around.

  The girl she'd seen before with the Cimerian sat on the bed in the corner. She wasn't screaming anymore, as she had been when Maggie passed out. Yet tears rolled silently down the girl�
�s cheeks and moisture had run from her nose onto her upper lip. She trembled from head to toe. In short, she looked much the way Maggie felt.

  Benny, of all people, sat on the bed beside her. As Maggie watched, he put his short arm across the little girl’s shoulders and pulled her close to him. Though she was both older and bigger than Benny, the girl laid her head on his shoulder.

  On Maggie's right, Lila sat against the far wall on the floor. She’d pulled her knees into her chest and tears coursed down her cheeks.

  Lila, curled up in a ball, crying.

  Maggie marveled as flash and reality merged into one.

  Joan stood by her daughter’s side, looking down at Lila worriedly. She glanced at Maggie and affected a weak, unconvincing smile.

  Maggie turned her head slowly back to stare upward. Only then did she lift it off the pillow.

  The heavy weight pressing down on her middle was David. He lay slumped over her, obviously unconscious. She wanted to ask if he was all right, but didn't have the strength for words yet. Doc and Karl each took one of David's arms and hoisted him upward. Neither appeared worried, so Maggie assumed David lived, and simply slept.

  As soon as they moved him, her eyes fell on Marcus. He lay slumped, exactly as David had been, across her hips. Marcus’s skin held the pallor of fresh snow. Dark circles resided under his eyes. He looked half dead, and Maggie cringed inwardly with fear.

  Doc and Karl returned and picked up Marcus. Once again, neither of them looked worried about his condition. Maggie told herself to relax. If Marcus were dead, or in danger of being so, Karl would be a wreck. If he wasn’t worried, she wouldn’t either. It didn’t take away the horrible pit in Maggie’s stomach, but she felt calmer.

  She swept her eyes slowly over the room several times. No Jonah. Tears filled her eyes. She didn’t know what his absence meant, but it couldn’t be good.

  It must have been another five minutes before Doc returned Maggie side. By then, she’d scrounged up enough energy to speak.

  "Are they okay?" Her voice came out a raspy whisper.

  Doc nodded. "Both will sleep for a week, but they'll be fine. They saved your life Maggie."

  Maggie swallowed. She’d figured that, though she hadn't formed the thought consciously yet.

  "He united the collectives," she rasped at Doc.

  The Adam's apple in Doc's throat bobbed. "I know."

  Maggie cleared her throat. It made her voice worse, not better. "How are we still us?"

  "You killed the Cimerian. Lila killed the Council of Six. All of them. And Karl got a hold of the orb. All three elements were needed to assimilate. We stopped the assimilation, not the fusing of the collectives."

  Maggie nodded, processing the information. She’d need to get details on the stories later, but for now, the information calmed her.

  "Jonah is gone," Doc said softly. "He's one of them now. He was the dark matter. The sleeper cell they installed long ago."

  It clicked so abruptly in Maggie's head, it took her breath away. “The hotel, in Vegas. He’d disappeared when you took me back. That must be when they did it."

  "I thought the same thing," Doc said, nodding.

  "But how did they do it, Doc? That wasn't Jonah. It wasn’t my brother. They’re controlling his mind somehow."

  "Shh, Maggie. I know. Of course it wasn't Jonah. I don't know how they did it, but it might be some form of brainwashing. Something about what Bart said activated a mechanism in Jonah's brain, like flipping a switch. He stopped being himself anymore. He became theirs."

  Maggie sobbed, and it hurt. Everything in her abdomen felt sore in the way a muscle feels sore after working out too hard. "What can we do?"

  Doc shook his head. "I don't know, Maggie. I don't know if there's anything we can do for Jonah now."

  Maggie cried quietly.

  Doc took her hand, gently rubbing his thumb over the back of them. "Tenessa is gone as well," he said quietly. "She sacrificed herself to save Karl and Marcus."

  Maggie sniffled. "That's a very individual thing to do."

  "Yes," Doc said softly, looking both sad and resigned. "It is." He glanced at Maggie's face, as though gauging what he should say next. "You…executed the Cimerian." No judgment laced his voice. It almost sounded like a question, though she knew he understood what happened. He was probably trying to discern how she felt about her actions.

  "I warned the Cimerian, Doc." Maggie's voice remained thick with tears. "I told him to stop fusing the minds or I’d kill him. Why didn’t he relinquish his power when he knew he would die for it?"

  "It's not in his nature to accept the things he cannot change,” Doc said softly. “His heart burst for it."

  Maggie sniffled again. Tears leaked freely from the corners of her eyes. She didn’t try to stop them. "Will it be possible to separate the collective minds now?"

  Doc frowned in a way that made the wrinkles on his face seem deeper. Canals carved into stone. "I don't know, but they’re tied to Bart. If we kill him without separating the minds from him, they will all die when he does. He's made me vulnerable by burning away the binding, yet ensured his own safety because he knows I won't want to kill all those people."

  Maggie didn't know how to answer, or even feel about Doc’s words. Finding the strength to lift her left hand, she laid it across her eyes and cried. Doc squeezed her shoulder gently.

  After a moment, he spoke again. "I have no idea if this is an appropriate time to tell you this, Maggie. But perhaps it will help you see one speck of hope in this bleak day."

  Maggie took her hand away from her eyes. "What hope?"

  "Kara and the baby are doing well. Kara has decided to name the baby Maggie."

  Maggie felt a fresh wave of tears rise up. “Why?”

  Doc sighed. “I think she already knew before we left, but was too emotional to tell us. She said if it had been a boy, she would have named him Clay. But she and Clay discussed names before…the island. And he wanted to name the baby after you.”

  Another sob wracked Maggie's body. For some reason, it made her feel worse rather than better. She felt honored that Kara and Clay would name the baby after her. Yet, she didn't feel equal to their confidence. “Again,” she whispered. “Why?

  Doc gave her a compassionate look. “Because Clay loved you.”

  I love you, Maggie. Tell the team, I love them.

  She'd seen Clay fall to his knees, screaming, when she'd been stabbed. As if his reaction, the one from her flash, had been a result of her being stabbed. Maggie didn't know if it was possible, but nothing else made sense.

  She’d let her team down in so many ways today. She didn't stop the melding of the collective minds. She didn't keep Tristan from being murdered. She certainly didn't save Nat. And Jonah. She’d utterly failed her brother. Her loving, goofy, loyal brother, who depended on her to keep him safe. No, she wasn't worthy of their confidence at all.

  She sobbed softly while Doc held her hand.

  Epilogue: Fractured

  “Where is Doc?!” The young man practically screamed his question into the quiet of medical.

  Lila jumped up in alarm. “Shhhh!” She manhandled the teenage boy out of the room, away from where Maggie, Marcus, and David slept deeply. “You’ll wake them,” she chided angrily.

  The young man didn’t look ashamed in the least.

  “What is it?” Lila asked, annoyed.

  “Karl has left Interchron.”

  Lila frowned. She hadn’t heard anything about Karl going anywhere, but that wasn’t odd. It wasn’t like he kept her informed of all his plans.

  “Karl isn’t…prohibited from leaving if he needs to,” she said, frowning.

  The young man gave her an annoyed look. “I know that. Theresa-Ann is on duty at the Southwest entrance. He asked her to let him out. She said he looked…troubled. It worried her. She wanted to tell Doc. Thought she should ask him if he knew of Karl’s departure.”

  Lila turned the situation over in her head,
the full implications dawning on her. Why would Karl leave now? After all that happened? And if this Theresa-Ann had been alarmed, Karl must have looked downright frightening.

  Oh no. Tenessa. It must be about her.

  Lila grabbed the young man’s arm. She couldn’t have kept the alarm out of her voice if she’d tried. “Doc and my mother went to the Command Center. Go get them and relay this message. Theresa-Ann is right. They need to know. I’ll try and head him off.”

  She didn’t wait for a response before sprinting down the corridor, yelling out warnings when she could, but more often mowing people down when she came around corners unexpectedly.

  Minutes later, she skidded to a halt at the Southwest entrance: a cave that opened onto the slopes of Interchron. The woman she assumed was Theresa-Ann pointed out of the cave urgently. "He hasn't Traveled yet. He still there. Hurry."

  Lila burst through the exit and out onto the grassy slopes. Down below, far down, her eyes fell on Karl’s unmistakable figure. He moved steadily away from her, his broad shoulders swinging back and forth and up and down as he navigated the steep slopes.

  Lila followed as fast as she dared. The incline proved steep enough to force caution on her. Tumbling head over heels would get her to Karl faster, but Lila didn’t relish breaking any bones. She’d had enough of that recently.

  "Karl!" Enough space still stood between them for the wind to have carried her words away before they hit his ears. She pushed herself faster, doing her best to close the distance. Karl moved steadily away, not seeming to be in a hurry.

  Minutes passed, and Lila drew closer to him. Close enough that he should hear her now when she called out. "Karl!"