by Patti Larsen
“I did her a favor, really.” I don't have to turn to know Solo stands behind me, deeper in the room. Or that she's not alone. Her Crawlers wait for her orders as much as my friends wait for mine. It's come to this then, two sides to a single story and only death and destruction for the prize.
I let my hands fall from Duet's quivering fingers. “I can't let you do this, One.”
Solo's laugh tinkles like breaking glass. “I already have.” I turn at last to face her, see her smile, a smile I hate with a surge of passion so strong I know she sees it in my face because the edges of her humor crumble visibly. “You gave me what I needed.” Hissing now, letting the facade vanish, her true heart showing. “Two's power wasn't necessary, but it bridged certain... complications.” I glance over her shoulder at the computer panels controlling the portal. They pulse with green light, with Duet's blood. “Now I realize how shortsighted I was being. Of course she's useful. As the perfect power source.”
I want to lash out at my sister, but I know I'll accomplish nothing by it. Standing here, holding myself inside the calm buys me time, a little time. Before the inevitable.
“Care for some family photos?” Solo gestures at the panels. Where once calculations and graphs flickered, three images flare to life. It takes me a moment to recognize they are scans. Brain scans. Solo’s perfect smile twitches as I frown at them. All the same. Or are they? I spot the difference as she goes on. “Mine, of course, is beautiful.” The first one pulses with light, a small, white nodule glowing in the midbrain. What is it? Whatever the mass, she shares it with the second image. “Duet’s, equally so, I suppose, if skewed.” I see what she means instantly. Solo’s exists in her left brain. My own whispers, logic. The thinking hemisphere. Duet’s small, glittering growth pulses on the right side where creativity lies.
The third is mine.
“You see it, then.” Solo shrugs. “Yours is perfect.”
I have the growth, too. On both sides.
“What does it mean?” I don’t have to ask. I’m putting the pieces together on my own.
She responds anyway. “For whatever reason, sister mine, they screwed up with Duet and me. And made you right.” Solo gestures again and the images return to their previous flicker of data. “They were going to kill us for it, you know? Dissect our little brains to find out what it meant.” Her laugh sickens me. “But I already knew. It made us even more special than before.”
The nodule has to be the source of our power. And the reason my sister’s control over her creations iss flawed. Why the Crawlers aren’t perfect. And why I have equal control over the Sick as well as curative power. Why I can bring my friends to their own perfection.
It all makes sense now. And yet, makes none whatsoever.
“We could have had everything together.” Solo sighs, crosses her arms over her chest, shaking her head so her smooth, dark bob sways around her jawline in precise ripples. “But you just had to do it, didn't you? You just had to go and trust these humans.”
The Crawlers rush forward as though by some signal, seizing my friends in their iron grip.
Don't fight. It's the hardest command I'll ever give. Because it won't save them.
Nothing will save them.
By asking them to hold, I've accepted their deaths.
A shudder runs through me as one Crawler forces Socrates forwards, ripping the boy's armor away with one sharp jerk. Green ichor flies like he's bleeding himself. Solo bends, takes the disk from inside his shirt, his narrow chest heaving as she taps the case against her cheek.
“He's no longer useful.”
A wail rises inside me in answer to her words, but I can't stop this, have seen this come to pass. Not the details, but the end result. Socrates turns to me, dark eyes meeting mine, still and calm as the Crawler takes his head in metal gauntlets and twists.
Dauphine. Oh, Dauphine. Why could you not have kept this to yourself?
Beckett gapes, Ande too as the Crawler releases Socrates, the boy's thin body falling sideways, facing away from me, limp and lifeless. Beckett's head swivels, eyes meeting mine and before I can look away he knows, he understands.
And he forgives me.
I can't forgive myself. I never will. I will fix this if I can, but I will pray to die so the memory of what I've done, the losses I've allowed for the slimmest chance at victory will not haunt me.
Solo crosses to the panel, inserts the disk. A program runs, flashing patterns on the screen and I know then Solo has had everything she needs all along. Everything but the algorithms to properly align the portal.
And now she has that last piece of the puzzle.
Ande acts before I can tell him to be still, to keep him alive a few more moments, turning to strike at the Crawlers behind him only to have a taser pressed to the base of his throat. His body quivers and vibrates as his eyes roll into his head, the scent of his cooking flesh bitter, so bitter. When he falls, his head rolls toward me, steam rising from his open mouth, the bubbling fluid all that remains of his hazel gaze.
I gag on the need to vomit up my guilt.
Solo returns to me, smiling again. “You rejected me.” Solo tsks, wags her index finger. “And for that, I'm going to take away everything you have. Everything. And I'm going to laugh when you finally break.”
I can't answer, the words won't come, only the bubbling in my stomach as my soul slowly dies from grief.
“Why, One?” The words are hard to speak, but only because my throat is tight and raw. “Why all this destruction?”
She pauses, poses. As though benignly considering my question. “It's all been an experiment, of course, my very dear Three. I needed to test them, to see what worked, what didn't. To find those whose DNA was an ideal match to the power.” Her smile is gentle, kindly, the total opposite of her words. “And now that I do, now that this little test is over, I can go back, before any of this, before any of us, and remake it all exactly how I want it.”
Memory strikes me, this time from the present, of Vander and I, talking on the train. He'd called this an experiment, hadn't he? And now he's gone, and my friends are dying around me and I can't do anything to save them.
I almost don't notice the flickering light until it's too late, but someone shouts and it's enough to draw my attention to a shimmering wall as it parts and my mother comes through.
***
Chapter Forty One
Solo stares, open mouthed, at the woman who made us even as the Poppy who will be gestures at my sister. Something flies from her hand and Solo staggers back, gasping, grabbing at something sticking from her shoulder. For a heartbeat I rally—Mother's come to save me, to help me in my task.
But Solo is already laughing again, throwing aside the trank dart the woman used on her, gazing on her as though she's some prize Solo hadn't considered a possibility. “Hello, Mother,” she says. “You'll have to do much better than that.”
“One, you have to stop this.” Mother wrings her hands, her old face a wealth of wrinkles, white hair now thin and wisping around her face. “Please, you must listen.”
Solo tips her head back until she's looking down her nose at the woman who gave us life. “And why ever should I listen to you?” Her forehead wrinkles, her extra twenty years showing again. “You never cared for me. Not like you did her.” She points at me, as though I'm guilty of some slight against her. Solo reminds me very much of a petulant child in this moment.
“That's not true, One.” Mother sighs, tears rising in her eyes. “I loved you all equally. All three of you.” She flinches from the sight of Duet behind me. What remains of Duet.
A touch of a mind flickers in my consciousness. A curiosity where once there was emptiness. And I know then I've not lost her after all. Not completely. The girl who was Two exists still. But she is so far away and I cannot bring her out.
No, but the sound of our mother's voice can.
Solo's scowl twists her perfect features until she appears as purely evil on the outside a
s I know she is on the inside. “Prove it.” She gestures and someone squeals, fights, thrashes. Poppy is brought out, shoved into the middle of this family moment, but I can't move to help her.
She doesn't want my help. She's glaring at Solo as if her very gaze could tear the clone apart. Poppy spits at Solo's feet before standing strong, defiant.
Mother wavers, reaches for Poppy. It's the worst thing she can do. Solo snaps completely, all the proof of our mother's absent love she needed. “Say goodbye, Mother.” Solo lashes out with precision, two fingers catching Poppy in the center of her chest, a whisper of power behind it.
I cry out at last, reaching even as Beckett is reaching, but we're both too late, even as the ghost of Duet sighs in my mind, her sadness a weak and weary thing.
Poppy's eyes fly wide as she staggers back a step, hands pressed to her chest. Beckett is shouting, pulling against the Crawlers who hold him, sobbing for the girl he loves. She falls backward, into Mother's arms. Looks up, meets her eyes. Turns and sees me.
I'm the last thing she sees. I watch the light leave her eyes and know I can take no more of this.
No more.
But Solo's not finished yet.
***
Chapter Forty Two
My entire body jerks in time with Poppy's death even as I feel a surge from Duet. Solo rocks back on her heels as the girl dies. Mother's tearful face turns to me in the same moment as she reaches for me, only to flicker out and vanish.
The tear in the bubble behind her seals closed with a hiss.
“You fool.” I choke on the words. “Now we all vanish.” I almost welcome it.
But Solo looks around, down at herself, her smile returning. “Not so, sister mine.” When she laughs there's an hysterical edge to it. “It worked as well as I hoped.” She points at me, then at herself. “We're changed, he changed us enough.”
Beckett breaks free at last, screaming, throws himself at Solo.
I can't watch when they kill him, but I force myself to, make myself watch his beautiful face, so dear to me, contort under the electric charge of one, two, finally three tasers. It takes that much to kill him, so much Solo actually looks afraid a moment before it's done.
I whisper love to him, the calm cracking, wishing I had more to give.
Solo hugs herself when he's dead, hops on her toes once as her face lights in joy. When she stills, calms, smiles at me, I know it's over and I've lost. “Time to finish what I've started.”
The portal behind me flickers to life. I feel the ripple of its waking energy as it flares, white light rushing past me in a blaze to throw the room into sharp lines and shadows. Solo's face is demonic in the light, her smile a snarl.
But it's not her I focus on in that moment. No, instead I feel for the core of my cyborg sister that, in the moment of the portal's activation, surges awake.
I don't hesitate, but reach for her, wrap her in what I have left of myself. Love you, Duet.
Trio. Faint, that voice, but hers. Love you.
I almost sob for her. The task. I must make this work.
Duet's consciousness understands me in the instant I decide, screams my name, but I'm bending, touching the dog's shoulder. He looks up at me as I smile and give him everything I have.
He shudders gently, licks my hand. Nods.
I straighten and smile at Solo. She's frowning at the dog, the puppies hiding in the shadow of their carriage. But it doesn't matter. I take a step forward, extend my hand to her while Duet weeps in my mind.
“One.” I let the calm take me at last, open up everything I have left to its call. I'm empty now, a shell of who I'd been, all of my power, my strength, my ability gone with the dog. But the calm, that I still have. And it's enough to keep me going. Enough to allow me to smile at my hated sister as though I love her and only her in the end.
Suspicion flickers across her face. “Three.”
I open my arms. “I always loved you best.”
Is she so easy to convince? Yes, as I knew she would be. Her weakness, her flaw.
To be loved best.
“I want to come with you.” My words slur slightly, even the calm struggling to hold me upright. “Now that I know why you did this. You saved us. They would have killed us.” I inhale slowly, exhale. “I choose you.” I waste some precious mobility looking down at the dog. “Only you. Over all of them.”
Solo beams a smile at me, reaches out, hugs me. I hug her back, praying the calm will last.
Will fool her.
She's not paying attention to me anymore, too wrapped up in her fantasy, the one she's dreamed of her whole life, since we were the littlest of girls. “I knew it.” She sighs her rapture. “You were always my favorite.”
I hold her hand, manage to turn. I have three steps in me. Or I tell myself so. Because it will take three steps exactly to pass through the portal.
Three.
Solo smiles at me.
Two.
I smile back at her while Duet sobs and begs.
One.
I stumble, but we're there and it's time, time at last for my task as I pull my hand free of Solo's in the last moment, just as Duet's broken mind obeys me and disrupts the sequence.
I have one frozen moment in time to see the shock on Solo's face as I touch her mind and show her how I really feel.
The moment couldn't be more perfect.
***
Chapter Forty Three
Dog stands waiting. He knows what to expect. The puppies whine behind him, but a simple touch from his mind quiets them. They feel it, as he feels it in every cell of his body when beloved Trio and her evil sister die. The portal closes, the damaged one doing her duty. Dog watches with impassive eyes as Solo's head falls to the floor and rolls free, bouncing toward him. He bends, sensitive nose touching it as he sniffs.
Waits.
The building begins to shake, vibrating in coordination with the shifting of time. Dog reaches for Duet, finds her weeping and hysterical even as the Crawlers around him run for their lives. He ignores them. They are of no use or consequence. Duet is all that matters now.
She must open the portal for him. He has somewhere to be.
Duet quiets as he waits, sends love to him, and to the puppies. Not much remains of her, but enough is left she knows him, knows them. And is aware what she's about to do will mean her end.
He feels her welcome it as she reaches out, not through the original program, but to the edges of the bubble Poppy of the future created. It's still there, fading, the last of its energy tied to another life within. A life they both know, the one named Ever. Dog needs that energy, knows Duet's actions will destroy her soul within, but there is no choice and he is certain the one he knows as the leader of the cyborgs would rather things were put right.
Duet's power reaches, strains, her Tek blood surging. She's already given so much of herself. And now, in the end, she gives the greatest gift of all. Her life.
The light flares, welcomes Dog. His touch on Duet's mind is tenuous now, fading as she fades. He feels her with him, struggling to stay alive while she wicks him down the light, to the junction of the bubble. With her last energy and a final surge of love, she forces him over the barrier between time lines—
***
Duet's dying cry ends when the world flashes and goes out.
***
Chapter Forty Four
Scientists are running, shouting while the red lights flash overhead, just as the time portal flickers to life once, twice, three times before flaring open. The running and shouting ends abruptly. No one moves, speaks. They can only stare now, as time stands still.
It's never been used. Hasn't even been tested.
This isn't possible.
Dog emerges from the light, the simple wagon rolling along behind him. The moment he exits, the light dies, cut off by the passing of the world he's left.
Scents he's not familiar with yet knows intimately, thanks to Trio, assault his sensitive nose. He lunges forw
ard, a scientist falling back at his advance, the man tripping and falling only to have his dark-skinned face covered in Dog's kisses.
He knows this man, by smell and by sight. Or knew him, as a boy genius named Socrates.
Trio's memories whisper to Dog as he barks once sharply in happiness before turning away and trotting toward the exit.
No one makes a move to stop him as he moves with confidence, a swipe of his tongue wetting the back of a woman's hand. Another scientist, this one without the metal parts he's used to. Ever, his mind whispers in Trio's voice. She was Ever. The one in the bubble whose life energy brought him here.
Dog has a purpose, can't stop as he continues down the hall, wheels rolling smoothly behind him. He feels them follow, but ignores them as he hunts for those he must find. More people are shouting up ahead and a door opens before him.
Vander. Dog brushes past the tall man in the white coat, the other behind him, his brother Gault. There will be time for him to reacquaint himself with them, in their new forms, to consolidate what he knows of them with what Trio knew. But not now.
Not yet.
The clone lab is fresh, newly built, he can tell. Dog chuffs softly to himself. He's in time after all. A young technician reaches for him, but Dog dodges easily, barking at the boy, now a man, he knew as Ande and the beautiful girl who smells like the seer, Dauphine.
But neither of these two are his target either. He has a job to do, his task, the task Trio left with him.
He can sense her clearly, not needing her familiar smell to find her and to his delight she looks up and smiles at him even as a man gets in his way. Dog growls softly, stands his ground.
“Dad.” A tall, handsome man pulls the other aside. “Just let him be.”
Dog barks at Beckett, lolls his tongue, gives him a swipe too before looking up at her. She crouches next to him and his tail wags so hard it thumps against the straps of the wagon with such force he's shaking the puppies.
