Until they didn’t. With a burst of Earth-enhanced strength, Gaia 2 broke through the bands, sending lumps of dirt flying. Aiming her own power my way from the tips of her fingers, she turned the ground under my feet into quicksand.
The quicksand dragged me down fast, giving no slack. My first instinct was to grab hold of something, but there was nothing nearby. My second instinct was to work the quicksand with my own powers, transforming it into dust. As soon as the change took hold, I stepped free of where the quicksand pit had been, already sizing up my next attack.
By then, though, Gaia 2 was up and had used her power to grab a plume of lava from one of the vents and fling it right at me.
My mind raced as that searing plume hurtled toward me, hot enough to melt the flesh from my bones. If I were up to full power, I could have flung it aside with ease, but it was coming in too fast, with too much momentum, for my half-powered self to handle.
Instead, I decided to fling myself. Reaching down, I found a pocket of hot steam underground and turned it loose, meanwhile carving out a slab of ground under my feet.
The steam burst forth in a geyser, propelling me and the slab up and away from the path of the lava. I came down hard enough behind Gaia 2 to smash the slab to bits, but I wasn’t hurt and wasted no time pelting her with the broken bits of slab.
I was just about to drop her in a sinkhole when a massive, jagged fissure raced across the ground toward me, forcing me to leap away to avoid it. I ended up on my ass, tailbone aching from the fall—watching with horror as the fissure quickly widened, and lava bubbled up from the depths of the resulting trench.
Again, I sensed the hand of Mother Earth at work, and again, I realized I could never beat her on my own. I’d known going in that this would be a losing battle, but now the inevitable outcome was smacking me in the face.
“You’re dead, bitch!” Gaia 2 perched atop a pillar of earth a dozen feet off the ground, pointing and laughing at me. “You can’t even save yourself, let alone the human race!”
The lava topped the trench and oozed out onto the ground, flowing toward me. As it did, another trench opened on the other side of me, and more lava bulged up and flowed toward me from that direction.
I needed to leap up and get out of there—but when I tried, I was stuck. Looking down, I saw the ground under me had turned to bubbling tar, and it was holding me fast.
Chapter 33
Trapped in a tar pit between two lava flows, I realized the contest was about to end…and I wouldn’t be the winner.
The harder I tried using my powers to change the tar to dust or sand, the stickier it got. I felt Mother’s hand in the mix, resisting my efforts, holding me down for the coup de grâce.
Still, I refused to stop trying. I writhed in the gooey black tar, struggling to break myself free in any way possible—but I couldn’t seem to disperse the stuff with a geyser or push myself out with a surge of earth from below or perform any other trick that occurred to me.
Meanwhile, as the lava continued its approach, the heat built from both sides, quickly becoming unbearable. Sweat beaded and ran on my skin, and the superheated air got harder to breathe with each passing second. Heat ripples danced above each flow like waves in the desert air at high noon.
So, this was how I was going to die, I thought. Cooked alive by competing lava flows while stuck in tar…knowing, in the brief moments when I sizzled out of existence, that I had failed miserably in my duties and personal mission. Knowing also that if there was an afterlife, I would soon be joined there by billions of souls slaughtered by the very world that had given birth to them.
As if that weren’t bad enough, I had to listen to Gaia 2’s bullshit even over the rumbling of the ground and the hissing of the lava.
“Ancestrum!” she shouted from atop her pillar. “I win! Give me my prize! Join me in ending the menace of humanity once and for all!”
The ground shook harder, and more volcanic vents erupted, spewing lava and steam. The sky turned hazy gray with gas and smoke and dust, occluding the sun. Yellowstone was starting to look like ground zero of the apocalypse, its natural beauty defiled by the throes of devastation.
“Ancestrum! I know you can hear me!” howled Gaia 2. “My supposed replacement has lost. It’s time for you to join the winning side the way you promised!”
The Ancestrum didn’t answer. No army of avatars rushed in to help Gaia 2 and Mother wipe out humanity. Maybe they were waiting till the bitter end, when the last of my flesh seeped off my bones in the blistering lava.
Cursing, I fought the tar and reached around for some miracle solution, but the only thing that changed was that the air got even hotter. The lava was only a few yards away on either side now, advancing at a steady pace.
With a supreme effort of will, I managed to wrench an arm free—but then Mother slung up a tentacle of tar and dragged it back into the ooze.
I was wearing out fast, and the heat was killing me. With death only moments away, I thought of one last way to escape—in spirit, if not in body. Even at a fifty percent power level, I thought I could send my consciousness into the ley line network. Where I’d go and what I’d do after that, I didn’t know, but at least my mind might survive this disaster.
It was surrender, I knew, but there was no other avenue of escape. Maybe, if I could make it down into the network, I could figure something out someday and rebuild myself.
Or not. It might just as well be the last move I’d ever make.
“Ancestrum!” screamed Gaia 2. “Keep your promise! Join me!”
I decided they would be the last words I’d ever hear. I took a deep breath, then another, and steeled myself to take the final leap.
Chapter 34
I was ready to abandon my body, knowing I could never return to it. I’d made peace with taking that step…but I still shivered on the brink of it.
The heat continued to rise as the lava closed in. More vents erupted, spattering the ground nearby with sizzling beads of red-hot molten rock. I had scant seconds left before even the voluntary evacuation of my physical form would not be possible.
Relaxing into the tar, I drew in another deep breath and held it. I was determined to release the spirit from my shell when I let that breath out.
Goodbye. The word echoed in my mind as tears rolled from my eyes. Goodbye, life.
Then, just as I was about to breathe out, the ground around me cracked and crumbled. The breath jolted out of me as the bed of tar in which I lay was wrenched upward—but I held the spirit in. One last glimmer of hope flickered to life in my heart, inspiring me to keep it together a moment more.
As I sailed upward, the tar dissolved and fell away, releasing my body. Turning a slow circle, I rose, leaving the blast furnace heat of the lava flows far below me.
Just as I wondered what had happened, White Buffalo glided into sight above me, regal as ever. “Remember me?” she said, smiling.
I nodded, though in the heat of battle, I hadn’t given her and the others much thought. I hadn’t seen any sign of them and hadn’t relied on Drusilla’s promise to allow them to help me. Assuming I was completely on my own had been the smart play.
Now here she was, and I couldn’t help smiling back at her. “Thank you.” If ever there was a goddess worth worshipping, I knew it had to be her.
“Take a breath.” Her dark hair streamed around her, and the white fur of her gown fluttered in the wind. “Are you ready to get back in the fight?”
“Yes.” I nodded forcefully. “Let’s do this thing.”
Flipping around for a look at the battlefield, I saw a flock of crows attacking Gaia 2 on her pedestal, knocking her off-balance. Ebon commanded them from the ground with arms outstretched. Further on, Georgia stood in the middle of a stream, sending flumes of water from its bed to drench the raging brushfires kicked up by sparking embers.
But even with their help, I could see the situation was dire. More vents blew open as I watched, tracing the outline of the vast
supervolcano. I could feel the massive pool of gas and magma straining underground like a child struggling to be born. It wouldn’t be long until all of Yellowstone was consumed, the Ring of Fire went ballistic in a global chain reaction, and the ingredients were set loose to contaminate the planet’s atmosphere and kill off humankind.
Armageddon was staring us in the face. We had only one play left to make, if even that would be enough.
“We need to take her down, if we can.” I pointed at Gaia 2. “Now that you and the others are here, at least maybe we have a shot.”
“She has her own defender, in addition to Mother,” said White Buffalo. “But I think Mid can handle her.”
She gestured, and I spotted Mid and Beatrice Brown scuffling on the ground in the smoke, the two old women lobbing rocks and dirt at each other the best they could in their much-reduced states.
“All right then.” As I watched, Gaia 2 drove off the crows with a volley of pebbles and dirt from her column. “Let’s take this bitch down for the count. Shoot me right at her.”
White Buffalo slung me headfirst at the enemy. Gaia 2 was too busy batting away the last of the crows to spot me until it was too late.
She cried out as I plowed into her with my fists, knocking her from her perch. The two of us hurtled earthward together, plummeting toward a grassy hill that rippled like a blanket from the tectonic forces driving through it from below.
An agonized cry tore from her lips as she took the brunt of the impact when we crashed down. I pressed the attack from on top of her, punching her again and again in the face.
“I’ll kill you!” She thrashed underneath me, trying to toss me away, but I wouldn’t budge. “You and all the rest of worthless humanity!”
A rock the size of a cinder block flashed toward my head, but I seized control and redirected its flight, casting it into a nearby lava flow. I punched her again, hammering her toward unconsciousness, desperate to win at any cost with the stakes so high.
With one last burst of strength, she flung me off and rolled onto her hands and knees. Bruised and bloody, she clapped the ground with a trembling hand, and a fissure raced toward me like the fuse of a bomb.
The crack widened fast, but I still dodged it and lunged at her, pitching her onto her side in the dirt. She clawed and twisted and kicked, battling like the demon she was, but I wouldn’t give her an inch. The earth shook and bucked, but I wouldn’t let it throw me.
Then, as the war-bitch launched one more furious blow in my direction, I hauled back both fists and unleashed a heavy strike, sledgehammer-style, at her head.
Finally, her eyes fell shut and she went limp underneath me, out cold.
Now, it was my turn to call out to the Ancestrum, and I did, at the top of my lungs.
“I did it! I beat her!” I cried. “Now it’s time to keep your promise!”
Could the avatars in the Niche even hear me over the rumbling quakes and volcanic blasts? If they did, I saw no sign of it—just the ongoing disaster raging all around me.
“Come on! There’s no time! If you’re going to help me save humanity, you have to do it now!”
Still nothing from the Niche.
It wouldn’t be long, I thought, until Mother came after me hard. I had minutes, maybe seconds, until she finally put me down and went on with her business of wiping out the human race.
Soon enough, all the avatars in the world wouldn’t be able to save me.
“Please!” I shouted, as loud as I could. “Please keep your word! The people of the world need you! I need you!”
Then, my time was up. Instead of an avatar cavalry rushing to my side, a massive fireball leaped out of a volcanic vent and streaked toward me, a cherry red missile engulfed in gold and orange flames.
By the time I saw it, I knew, it was already too late to get out of its way.
Chapter 35
I realized two things as the fireball cruised toward me: it was a gift from Mother Earth, and it had been coming for me all of my life.
From the moment of my creation, it had been heading my way. Sooner or later, with a volatile bitch for a mother like mine, it was going to get me. Without becoming the kind of monster she wanted, I could not possibly have avoided it.
Now, there it was, my reckoning for a life well-spent.
As it hurtled toward me, the breath caught in my throat. I only had time to resign myself, not to prepare, as the brilliant glow of the flames held me transfixed. My only regret was that humankind would follow me into death not long after.
Then, suddenly, I was plucked from the ground and hauled skyward, shooting out of the blazing orb’s path. Gaia 2 was yanked up, also, and dragged high, her body limp as a rag doll.
Rising and rolling through the air, I saw an incredible vision: rank after rank of avatars, hundreds of them, pouring out of a portal in the sky. They glowed with brilliant energy, shimmering in the smoky haze like angels over the battlefield.
At the head of the group, Drusilla smiled grimly in my direction. “We have come as we said we would.” Though the air roared with noise, I could still somehow hear her voice clearly. “We will keep up our side of the bargain as promised.”
She clapped her hands, and bolts of lightning burst to life between me and Gaia 2, binding us together. Our bodies jolted and spasmed from the current, and I lost consciousness—then regained it as power surged into me, thrusting me onto another level of strength and awareness.
By the time Drusilla clapped again, cutting off the fireworks, I felt stronger than I had since my jail cell back in Confluence. Stronger even than I’d felt for weeks before that, truth be told; Mother and Gaia 2 must have been sapping my strength for longer than I’d thought.
“You have been restored to full power, Gaia Charmer.” Drusilla gestured at Gaia Grenoble as she floated nearby, her body steaming. “As for that one, she has been fully drained. She is no longer a threat to you.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Just please keep her safe.” If I survived this mess—if humanity survived it—I would need her to beat the murder rap back home and stay out of prison.
“You now have not only your own full power, that of the entire Ancestrum behind you,” said Drusilla. “Millennia’s worth of avatar might, experience, and wisdom at your command. All you have to do…” She bowed her head and spread her arms. “…is command it. What would you have us do, Gaia Charmer?”
With my new army arrayed behind me, I surveyed the battlefield. As I watched, fresh vents exploded, blowing ash and steam and molten rock in every direction. Fresh fissures cracked the ground, and lava flows oozed out of them. The rumbling from underground intensified by the minute, suggesting it wouldn’t be long until the biggest blow of all, the one that triggered the whole damn Ring of Fire.
Where the hell should we begin? Time was running out, and there were too many flare-ups to deal with at once.
The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me there was only one way to end this in the short time we had left.
“We need to take the fight directly to her,” I told Drusilla. “It’s our only chance.”
“Mother, you mean?” She frowned.
I nodded. “Go right to the source. Stop her from following through with this, whatever it takes.”
“If you mean stop her physically, I don’t think that’s possible,” said Drusilla. “If you mean talk her out of it, I don’t think she’s feeling very reasonable right now.”
“I don’t mean either one,” I said.
“Something different?” said Drusilla. “Like what?
Just then, another vent disgorged a load of gas and dust not far from where we drifted, adding to the clouds of murk in the air. A moment later, a familiar figure emerged from the murk and soared toward us—White Buffalo, her once-pristine gown soiled with ash.
“Good to see you’re in one piece, Gaia,” she said. “And the Ancestrum has decided to join us.”
“We were just talking about stopping the carnage by taki
ng the fight to the enemy…but I can’t do it alone.”
“You need a contingent?” asked Drusilla.
Maeve, who’d been listening nearby, waved her hand excitedly. “I volunteer! And I can put together a crack team to go with us!”
I shook my head. “Thanks, but I don’t need a team.”
Maeve frowned. “But you just said you can’t do it alone.”
“Correct,” I said. “I don’t need some of you. I need all of you.”
“All of us?” said Maeve.
“Every last damn one of you,” I told her. “Because I think that’s what it’s going to take.”
“To do what, exactly?” asked White Buffalo.
“To stop her,” I said. “Once and for all.”
Chapter 36
The sky was full of floating bodies, held aloft by wind currents and clouds of thick vapor generated by White Buffalo and Georgia. It was the only way this could work. If we lay our bodies down on the ground, they’d be vulnerable to attack the instant we sent our spirit selves into the ley line network. None of us would have a physical form to return to when our mission was done.
Even so, we knew we were all still taking a chance. We were high enough the current eruptions couldn’t reach us, but if the whole supervolcano blew, it could be a different story. Not to mention, Mother might have a surprise up her sleeve that could bring us all down to Earth…though it was true, if things went well for us, she might be too distracted to play her hand.
Looking around, I saw that most of the Ancestrum had already left. Their bodies hung limp in the sky, arms and legs and hair and white shifts dangling, faces to the sun.
“Okay, then.” I’d wanted to be among the last to go so I could be sure everything was working as planned. “Looks like it’s about that time.”
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