Zoey saw a nearly identical room, herself clamped to a nearly identical table, all in the past, months ago, before she had been transported away. She watched nearly identical arms with nearly identical devices encircle both sides of her head, the humming increasing, the light growing …
And then what had been Zoey, all her memories and experiences, were simply wiped away.
“She’s learning!” The woman’s voice was frantic. “She’s remembering!”
This was how they had done it, she knew now. This was how they had erased her memories before, and as she pulled more and more threads, the memories of the entity inside Rose spilled out into the air like a busted dam.
The woman who had been Rose was right. She was remembering. And the more she remembered, the angrier she became. They were trying to do it all again. Reset her, make her another blank slate, hoping that would make her more cooperative, and it probably would, because it meant if they wiped her mind this time, she’d lose everything she had been through, everything that she had come to learn about herself, every memory she had made with Holt and Mira and the Max. All of it would be gone, all of it would have meant nothing.
She would not allow that to happen.
Zoey closed her eyes. She could feel every machine in the room, the tables holding her, the arms, the Centurions, all of it, and the reality was, it was all vulnerable to her. She knew that now.
It was why they had blocked her memories before: they were frightened of the power she could wield here, and they were right to be afraid, because in a place like this, with her Assembly abilities amplified by her Strange Lands–created biological structure … she was almost a god. She’d simply forgotten the truth.
“No!” Zoey shouted. Sparks sprayed from the arms reaching for her, as they contorted and collapsed to the floor. The restraints on her wrists snapped open.
“Stop her!” the woman who had been Rose yelled.
Two of the Centurions moved … then shuddered as Zoey overtook their controls, even with the entities inside. Their arms raised and smashed into one another, over and over, leaving each other nothing but sparking, dented, pieces of scrap.
Rose lunged for her. Zoey reached out. The last two Centurions involuntarily grabbed the woman and slammed her into a wall.
The ankle restraints snapped open. She was free, and Zoey jumped to her feet.
“Zoey, wait, please,” the woman yelled, struggling against the machines holding her. “You have no idea—”
“I do too.” Zoey cut her off, the anger boiling over. “I know what you did last time. It’s not going to happen again.” Zoey moved for the far wall and studied it. It was like everything else here, she now knew: completely under her influence.
Zoey concentrated. The wall shuddered and morphed, dissolving away into nothing. Beyond lay the interior of the Citadel, stretching down and up and away. Ships and walkers moved everywhere, pods raced along their rails. At her feet was a sheer drop into nothing, the bottom tens of thousands of feet below.
“Zoey…” The woman struggled, but she was locked tight. Zoey could feel her genuine fear for the little girl’s safety, but she didn’t care. She remembered everything now, every single little thing they had done to her, and it would never, ever happen again.
“It’s not like I thought at first.” Zoey reached out again with her mind, finding what she wanted, bringing it to her. “I thought it was me who was trapped in here with you, but that isn’t how it is, not really. The truth is … it’s all of you who are trapped in here with me.”
Outside sparks flew into the air as one of the pods came to a stop beneath her. Zoey could feel it, the rails and the power flowing through them, she knew how to manipulate them now; it was strange she didn’t see it before, but that had been the illusion the Assembly had tried to make.
Rose screamed as Zoey leapt down and onto the pod, forcing it to open with her mind. She swung inside, closed the doors, and projected outward. The pod began moving again, leaving the lab behind.
A repeating, pulsing tone of sound suddenly filled the interior of the Citadel. It blared loud and rhythmic, over and over in alarm, and as it did, the feelings and emotions from the entire array of Assembly inside blew over her like an ill wind. Word of what had happened spread instantly into the Whole, and it meant that not just the Mas’Shinra knew what was occurring: so did the other clans outside.
The Scion had escaped, the Scion was not cooperative.
In the background, she felt a tingling as the Assembly tried to shut down the rail system, but Zoey simply reached out and repowered it with her own energy. The pod didn’t even slow, it just kept taking her to where she wanted.
Three Raptor gunships appeared outside, taking up positions all around her pod as it moved. Zoey ignored them, reached out and felt the rail system. The organization of it appeared in her mind, stretching and branching off into countless different strands that traveled to almost every part of the giant structure.
Zoey studied the layout, finding the right path. The pod shuddered as it switched to a different rail, moving in a new direction, gaining speed.
The emotions from the Assembly all around her shifted. They knew where she was going, they knew what she intended. The horror that filled them was powerful. She sensed the reluctant order spread to the entities in the Raptors around her.
They were to fire. They were to kill the Scion. There was no other choice now.
Zoey smiled. It was far too late for that.
She reached out and took control of one of the Raptors, activating its weapons. Outside she heard the high-pitched whine as the plasma cannons burst to life. One of the ships exploded and tumbled downward.
There was another explosion as a second Raptor destroyed the one she was controlling, and as it did, the pod crashed through the railing system, breaking apart.
Zoey opened the pod’s doors, revealing the sheer drop below, then simply stepped into the air … and fell.
The rail system came apart above her, the pod breaking loose. All throughout the Citadel, pieces of the gridwork were falling in bursts of sparks.
She reached out as she plummeted, found the last remaining Raptor and took control of it.
The entity inside struggled, but it was no match for her. Zoey arced the ship into position beneath her … and she landed on its roof with a jolt. She grabbed on, held tight, and lifted the ship back into the air, feeling the energy that flowed through it flow through her. It was like she was the ship, and it felt amazing.
Yellow bolts of light sizzled past her, and she saw Mantis walkers on the platforms that circled the sides of the huge structure, firing up at her.
Zoey spun the Raptor and aimed at the Mantises below. Its cannons burst to life, sending plasma streaking down. Three of the Mantises took hits, exploded, and then she felt her gunship shudder. Flame burst from its engines, it contorted and began to drop, and Zoey controlled it down as more plasma bolts streaked through the air.
She looked to her left, and in the distance, through the Citadel’s columns and platforms and winding rails, she saw where she was trying to get: the giant, shimmering column of energy stretching all the way to the top of the structure. She could feel it, even from here, and she knew it was tied to everything she could do and everything she was. She felt it push up into the sky above and even farther, into space where it met with similar streams from other Citadels all over the world. It was called the Nexus, and it was the source of all that the Assembly were.
It was also the key to what she had come here to do. It was the key to destroying them.
She guided the Raptor toward a platform, but already she could feel walkers moving toward her. They knew where she was going, and they were scared. They should be, Zoey thought. They would never hurt her or anyone else again.
The Raptor hit the platform, slid forward in a shower of sparks, and Zoey held on until it stopped. She jumped off as, behind her, the Ephemera began to lift up and out, lighting everything in
brilliant, golden light.
Zoey walked purposefully, studying the platform as she did. Giant Spider walkers sat dormant in a line, unused, towering over her. Behind her she heard the frantic, digital chirpings of Mantises closing in, and she saw movement ahead, more Mantises, looking to cut her off.
Zoey reached out with her mind toward one of the unpowered Spiders and filled it with her energy. It flashed to life instantly, its engines powering up, standing up tall. She turned it to face behind her, and a dozen missiles streaked from its shoulders. She felt the heat of the explosions, felt the platform shake. The Spider kept moving, engaging the Mantises behind her.
Ahead, six more appeared. She took control of four of them, turned their guns on each other, blowing them to pieces. The other two she sent leaping off the platform, disappearing into the breach.
She brought two more Spiders to life, and they flanked her as she walked, continuing on the platform, toward where it ended in the center of the huge structure. The light from the Nexus was growing, she could feel its energy.
More walkers appeared, but they were irrelevant. She took control of them all. Some she blasted, some she sent off the edge, others she pulled along with her, surrounding her as she moved, the entities inside struggling to resist, but unable to. Behind her, the flames and destruction of where she had been made a glowing path of fire and smoke that stretched out of sight.
She reached the edge of the platform and looked to where the bright column of energy drifted lazily upward, about two hundred yards away. She had to reach it to do what needed to be done.
Zoey looked down at the platform and let her mind drift through the metal. She closed her eyes … and it all began reforming itself, spreading toward the Nexus, making a bridge. Zoey stepped onto it.
The alarm blared. She felt the frightened, desperate emotions from the Assembly all around her. Raptors appeared in the air as she moved, but she made them crash into one another and fall in flames.
The bridge stopped its formation a foot away from the Nexus. She could feel its power, a warming sensation that coursed through her. Just like before, the column shifted and began to bend toward her.
“Zoey!” a voice shouted.
Zoey turned and saw Rose on the platform behind her, saw the destruction she had left in her wake, saw the dozens of walkers she had dragged along with her through this place like a child’s toys. “I know what this is,” she yelled back at the woman. “It’s the place you were born.”
“Part of it, yes…”
“You took the energy with you, you carry it from world to world.”
“We need it,” the woman who had once been Rose said. “It sustains us.”
“Each clan builds a Citadel. Each Citadel houses a piece of the Nexus. And the Tone is broadcast from those pieces. My powers, they come from it too, just like yours.”
“Yes…”
“But I am born of the Strange Lands. I have no limits. I can drain it dry if I want, I can absorb all of it into myself, not just this piece, but the ones all over the world.”
Rose’s voice was shaking. “We would die. Please don’t do this!”
“You’ve hurt so many people,” Zoey said. “You won’t hurt anyone else.”
She reached out for the Nexus. It bent toward her even faster, bowing out in the center. She could feel the Feelings inside her recoil, trying to make her stop, but she ignored them too. If they didn’t want this, they shouldn’t have brought her here.
“Zoey, wait!” the woman who was Rose and not Rose shouted. “Just feel it. Just feel the Nexus, for one second before you do this. Please. Just feel it!”
It wasn’t the woman’s desperate voice that made her hesitate, or the words themselves, it was the emotion underneath. She felt what Rose was feeling. Horror. Not at what Zoey was about to do, but of what would be lost, and the sorrow for that loss was intense, it suggested to her that maybe, just maybe, the Nexus was something different than what she believed.
She felt agreement from the Feelings, a similar plea. It showed her what to do, showed her where to touch and feel with her mind, and instinctively, Zoey closed her eyes and reached out to the Nexus.
The outside world vanished. Her mind expanded. Warmth spread through her of a kind she had never felt. It was like having her body filled with sunlight, so much so she couldn’t really feel herself anymore.
There was nothing of her left … and it was glorious.
No words could describe the Nexus, the pure serenity, but that wasn’t what was most striking. Every sensation, from every Assembly entity outside that was trying to force its way into her mind, to plead with her, suddenly vanished … except from one singular, powerful source.
The Nexus itself.
With shock, Zoey sensed feeling and emotion from it. She felt it welcome her, felt it embrace her in its own way. She felt an outpouring of something she had only felt in a few instances, mostly from Mira and Holt, something she could only describe as … love.
The Nexus was more than an energy field that produced life. It was, itself, life. Zoey could feel its consciousness, and that consciousness, without question, was completely, undeniably gentle and benevolent. It spoke to her. Showed her things: solutions, ideas. It had waited for her coming a very long time. Zoey listened, considered what it had to say, felt the Feelings underneath it all agree. At last, the children of the Nexus could be whole and free, if only she would agree …
Zoey’s mind raced, struggling with the new reality that had just been thrust on her. Destroying the Assembly meant destroying the Nexus, and knowing what she knew now, that was completely impossible. The Nexus was wondrously alive. The idea of killing it was horrific to even consider.
She thought of what it had shown her, and she knew what it meant, it all seemed to fit, like the final piece of some giant, cosmic puzzle. Then again she had known the truth since the Tower, hadn’t she? Just not the form her actions would take. There was a strange calm that came with knowing now, with the end of the long road being so near.
She knew, finally, what she had to do.
Reluctantly, Zoey pulled her mind away from the Nexus. The world snapped back into focus. She was on the bridge, dozens of Raptors in the air all around her, guns primed. Behind her, more Spiders and Mantises waited … and Rose stood there, staring in desperation.
The whole experience had probably lasted seconds, but it had changed everything.
Zoey looked at Rose. Rose looked back.
“Now you see,” the woman said.
“Yes.” Zoey nodded. “I am the Scion. Your Ascension.”
An outpouring of emotion flowed over her from every Assembly entity in the Citadel and outside, hundreds of thousands, all at once, and the feelings: relief, joy, anticipation.
“Sunshine…” the woman who had been Rose said, opening her arms to the little girl. Zoey moved to her and let herself be held, trying not to think about what was to come. There was only one real solution, because she couldn’t do it alone. It was amazing, when she thought about it. How everything had lined up. Had the Tower arranged this too? Or was it simply fate?
Either way, she would know soon enough. She just hoped Mira and Holt found her soon.
22. PINCHER
GUARDIAN, THE PROJECTION came to her over the distance. Wait for us.
“Ambassador thinks we should wait,” Mira informed the others.
“Lucky for me I don’t take orders from Assembly,” Conner replied.
“But you do take them from me,” she said pointedly, looking down at the giant grid work of rails and old trains below them. They were at the crest of a hill, and at the bottom lay what remained of the West Platte Railroad Classification Yard. Once it was the largest rail yard in the Southwest, a busy hub hosting trains from all over the continent, conjoined here for repairs, reloading, and rerouting to their destinations.
Now it was a rusting junkyard. The tracks were still visible, but the desert sands were slowly overtaking them. There w
ere probably close to a hundred locomotives, falling apart where they stood, most with their rotting lines of cars still attached.
Interesting as it was, though, it wasn’t why they were here. At the far end, seven huge railway bridges stretched over the same river that had daunted them at Rio Vista, each wide enough to support a Landship. Only five of them were usable, though. Two were crammed with the charred, blackened remains of freight trains, probably strafed by Assembly Raptors long ago.
“Why didn’t we come here in the first place?” Mira asked. “Rio Vista only had one bridge.”
“Yeah, but it’s a smoother ride,” Dresden, standing next to her, replied. “You ever ridden over railroad tracks in a Landship? It’s not fun, you have to take it slow or you’ll bust an axle or a locking cap.”
“Not if we sit here and wait,” Conner said impatiently. “We should do this now, while we can.”
Mira wasn’t so sure. What bothered her about the situation was the complete lack of Assembly, especially after the welcome that had been waiting for them in Rio Vista. The aliens had accurately deduced where they were going that time, why not now? There were only so many routes over the river for a Landship.
“Where are they?” Mira asked with concern.
“You complain about really weird stuff,” Conner said. “Wherever the Assembly are, it isn’t here, and we should cross right now before that changes. We’ve got the wind for it. Besides, Smitty and that White Helix tinkerer have gotten over forty ships armed.”
That was all true, but what really bothered her was not having Ambassador and the silvers with them. Even Mas’Erinhah Hunters couldn’t keep up with the fleet at full Chinook, and they had been left behind this afternoon. It was just the fleet and the White Helix here now.
She looked down at Max, lying on the ground next to her. He rested his head on his paws and closed his eyes. At least he didn’t seem concerned.
Behind them was the Wind Trader fleet. Conner had ordered them lined up in five groups that would snake carefully through the rail yard and the maze of busted trains, each toward a separate bridge, and then cross one after the other. Most of the Captains knew this yard, had used the bridges before, so they wouldn’t be bogged down with pathfinding. All told, Conner said, the entire thing should only take a few hours.
Valley of Fires: A Conquered Earth Novel (The Conquered Earth Series) Page 21
