Awakening on Orbis (33 page)

I looked over at Theodore. He knew. “They’re coming,” I whispered.

Those sitting on crates jumped up. Someone cried out, but Max took control.

“We planned for this! Everyone get ready!” she ordered. “Grace! The windows. Theodore, raise the barricade.” Then she turned to me. “We have weapons.”

“Good,” Switzer cried. “We’re going to need them.”

He tossed a plasma rifle to Theodore, who caught it in midair and came closer to me.

“JT, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking —”

“Stop,” I interrupted him. “It’s all right. This moment was inevitable. We had to take a stand eventually.” I turned to my sister. “Ketheria!”

She was still in Charlie’s grip. Seated on his crossed forearms, she was gently examining the metal and wires exposed in his neck. She was smiling, but her eyes were close to unloading their payload of regret. I let her have another moment. It was an expensive gesture, but I let them have it.

Then I spoke again. “Ketheria!”

She turned to me slowly, as if forcing herself to come back to this moment.

“How are you blocking the staining?”

“It’s easy,” she replied. “I sort of let my mind drift around it, and then it’s not there anymore.”

“Can you do it for everyone?”

She nodded.

“Then do it now, please.” I turned inside. “Vairocina, how long —?”

The wall behind Charlie blew apart. Shards of plastic and stone rained down on him and Ketheria.

“They’re here!” Vairocina said.

“Move!”

I jumped outside and refocused for a nanosecond. I was gone again before I could swallow my surprise. “I think they sent an entire battalion,” I whispered to Switzer.

“That just means more fun for us,” he gloated. “Theodore, you ready?”

“Ready!”

“JT! Can you create a distraction, give us more time?” Max called out. She was tossing weapons to anyone within range. Four other people piled crates and other pieces of metal into a makeshift barricade. It wouldn’t be enough. Not even close. We were dead.

“Yes!” I told her, and turned to Charlie. I pointed at Ketheria, still in his arms. “Protect her!”

He nodded.

“Switzer, this time we have to take the big machines out first. There are four of them. I don’t know if we can confuse them like the Neewalkers. These guys are going to be ready for us.”

“No one is ever ready for
me,
” Switzer said, and looked back at Max and the others. “You think these guys can hold while we go out there?”

“They have no choice,” I whispered.

“Down the street, then on the backside. Go,” he ordered, and we refocused behind the battalion of Preservation Forces.

In front of us, hovering on the flanks of the battalion, I could see four of the metal monsters — two on each side.

“Take the one on the far left and fire across the battalion. You get one shot,” Switzer said.

I refocused inside the weapon’s cockpit.

They were waiting for me.

Two guards from the Preservation Forces tossed a net at me the moment I refocused. The mesh burned my skin as it touched me. The net was weighted with some sort of electrical spheres that were moving together, trying to close the loop. Something told me that if they touched, I would never get out of this net. I jumped back.

Switzer was already waiting.

“What was that?” he cried, rubbing at his skin.

“They know we’re here.”

“So much for that plan. Time to show you what I learned during my missing years. Wait here.”

Before I could protest, Switzer jumped. A few moments later, he was standing next to me again holding two plasma cannons. There was a trickle of blood running down his forehead.

“Where did you get those?” I exclaimed.

“Up my ass, where do you think? From out there! Here.”

Switzer tossed me a fist-size object. It was spiked like a space mine.

“Explosive?” I asked.

He nodded as one of the huge metal tanks blasted another hole in the hideout. “Get out of the way after you toss that thing,” he ordered. “And toss it hard. It blows on contact. They’ll know what’s happening after the first one. I figure we jump as we toss. We have to do this together. You ready?”

“Absolutely.”

“You take the two on the left; I’ve got these two. On three.”

“One . . .”

“Switzer?”

“What?”

“Thanks.”

“Shut up and go blow stuff up.”

I nodded and smiled.

“Three!”

I jumped within a meter of the first hover tank and felt the burn from its turbine reaching for my skin. No one saw me as I wound up and drilled the explosive into the rear-mounted engine. I jumped before it hit the tank. I refocused behind the next tank and felt the pressure from the first explosion race me to the next tank. Even the air was trying to get away, knocking over everything in its path. As I felt myself fall, the explosive slipped from my fingers.

It blows on contact.

I watched the spiked device roll over in the air as debris from my first strike pelted my skin. I refused to close my eyes in fear the explosive would speed up. I pushed myself through the empty space, reaching for the explosive before I even refocused. I stretched out and grabbed the prickly metal from some other dimension, refocusing on my back. I hurled the hunk of metal at the belly of my target. When I looked up, I saw the butt of a plasma rifle coming down from the sky, guided by a Preservation guard. The rifle and the guard both disappeared with the exploding hover tank. Obviously things standing straight up were ripped away first. I jumped before I was forced to follow them.

Back behind the action, I watched the last hover tank rip apart and the bulk of the beast land lopsided on the ground. Several troops were crushed after being knocked down by the explosion and unable to get out of the way. Switzer was next to me before they even cried out.

“Now for the messy part,” he said, and hoisted the cannon onto his shoulder. He looked at me before firing into the crowd. “Why don’t you go see if they need help inside?”

“You all right here?”

“Perfect,” he said, grinning.

As I refocused inside, I heard the first cannon blast from outside. Grace cried out as the walls of the building echoed the explosion.

“Don’t worry,” I told her. “That’s us. We got the tanks, too. It’s almost over.”

Every one of the kids in the room was armed and ready, hidden by a crate or a wall or some sort of makeshift barricade, most of the items just hunks of garbage. One blast from a cannon out there would blow all of this apart. Maybe they should know the Scion was in here. It would probably save a few lives.

“I’ll be back,” I whispered to Max, and she nodded.

I jumped outside and refocused away from the fight. I searched the mayhem for Switzer and found him to my left, jumping through the troops. I watched one guard turn where Switzer had refocused and fire. The errant round sailed past Switzer as he jumped again. After the guard watched one of his comrades fall from his own gun, he dropped his weapon and ran. Others followed his lead, but as the guards began to scatter, I heard a roar rushing up behind me. I turned to witness thousands and thousands of knudniks and Citizens marching to join the battle. The Preservation Forces were about to be unmatched.

I jumped next to Switzer. “Having fun?”

“More than you can imagine,” he replied.

“It’s time to go,” I told him. “That mob is even larger than before, and they’re headed this way. We need to leave before more troops arrive.”

“I’m right behind ya.”

We refocused inside.

“Theodore, come here!” I called to him, and then found my sister. “Ketheria, we are going to leave, but we’ll be back. When we return, can you do that thing you do and cloak us in your staining? Both me and Theodore. You have to be fast. Can you do that?”

“Sure,” she said. “Is Charlie staying here?”

“For now,” I told her, and turned to Switzer.

“Let’s jump back to Hach’s and wait for the trace to be picked up there. The moment they have us, we’ll jump back here and slip under Ketheria’s cloak.”

“Then what?” he said.

“I haven’t thought that far ahead, but I know we can’t stay here.”

Suddenly, the door behind Switzer swung open. Everyone turned and readied their weapons in the direction of the door as Drapling strolled into our hideout with three other Keepers following.

“The Scion can handle all of this,” Drapling announced. “She can take care of this fighting. She is coming with us. The Descendants of Light will show her how to use her powers. The Scion will restore order. Our order.”

“That’s not going to happen,” I told him.

Max stood next to me. “How did you find us?”

“I imagine everyone on the rings is converging upon this point,” he said, and then raised his hand toward Ketheria. “Come, my child. Now is the time for you to fulfill your destiny.”

A surge of kids jumped up and surrounded Ketheria. We made an imposing posse of plasma-toting teenagers.

Drapling stepped back, his arms still reaching out to Ketheria. “This is ridiculous. She is the Scion! You have to let the prophecy fulfill itself. You must not intervene in these matters.”

“Like you, Drapling?” I said.

Drapling would not look at me. He wouldn’t take his eyes off Ketheria, and she wouldn’t leave Charlie’s side. I could see the yearning in Drapling’s eyes. His prize was right in front of him! I looked at Charlie. “Don’t let him touch her,” I whispered, and he nodded. I might as well have locked Ketheria in a safe.

“C’mon, guys,” I said to Switzer and Theodore. “Be ready, Ketheria. We’ll come right back here. Max, please make sure everyone is ready.”

“For what?”

“To leave,” I told her.

“To leave where?”

“To leave the Rings of Orbis.”

We jumped back to Hach’s and hid in an empty room down the corridor from Theodore’s room. The stillness of the air made the building feel empty and lifeless.

“I don’t think there’s anyone here,” Theodore whispered.

“What do we do now?” Switzer asked.

“We wait. Vairocina, let me know when a trace has been placed on one of us, will you, please?”

“Already waiting for it,” she replied.

“I’m sorry about back there, JT. I wasn’t thinking,” Theodore mumbled.

“It was my fault. I should have told you.”

“That’s enough, girls,” Switzer scoffed. “Look, we found them, can we get back to the Hollow now? Pick your favorites and let’s jump back. I’m hungry.”

“I’m not leaving any of them,” I argued. “In fact, I’m not going back to the Hollow.”

“What —?”

“JT.” Vairocina materialized in front of us. “The trace has been placed. The Trading Council has mobilized an even larger force, and they’re heading in your direction.”

“Perfect. Now —”

“JT, they have no intentions of capturing you. The Trading Council has given orders for you to be killed on sight.”

“JT!” Theodore cried.

“It’s all right,” I assured him. “If they wanted me dead, they could have done it already. They could have killed me like they did Ganook.” I turned to Vairocina. “Thanks. One last thing.”

“Don’t say it like that,” she replied.

“Don’t worry. I have no intention of dying this cycle,” I told her. “Listen, can you jam the signal from the staining? I don’t know how, but is there some way of thinking I’m still here after I leave?”

“I don’t know if it’s possible, but I could try some sort of echo. I might need a little time, and it certainly won’t last. I’m sure they’ll figure it out.”

“That’s all I can ask.” I turned to Switzer and Theodore. “Switzer, straight back to Ketheria. Let her put Theodore under the cloak.”

“What about you? You’re not staying here by yourself.”

“Just until Vairocina’s ready. It’s me they want. Not you two.”

He nodded. “Then what?”

“Then it will be time to go. We’re not wanted here anymore,” I said.

I sat alone in my old room and waited for Vairocina’s cue. It wasn’t much of a room now, but that did not matter anymore. I wasn’t scared, either. In fact, I was quite excited by what was coming next. We would all leave the rings together, I thought, including the Scion. And better yet, I would have Max with me. With her and Switzer at my side, we were an invincible force.

“It’s ready,” Vairocina said.

“How much time do I have?”

“Fraction of a diam, not much more.”

“I’ll take it. Thank you.”

What am I going to do without Vairocina?
I suddenly wondered. I didn’t even know how I was going to say good-bye.

The moment I returned, Ketheria confirmed that we were now protected from any attempts to trace our genetic stain. I did not question her methods. I simply trusted them.

Outside the hideout, I could hear the war cries from knudniks charging the Preservation Forces.

“They’re pushing them back,” I said to Switzer.

He nodded. “I figure the rebels are getting squashed or being forced back into the city. Either way, I don’t think we have much time.”

“I know you have a plan,” Max whispered, slipping next to me and wrapping her arm in mine. I took a moment to enjoy her touch.