I tried to twist my way free, but stopped as Nikos pressed his knife against my throat enough to hurt. “Okay, yeah, none of that. Just hold still, little Squire. I was telling the truth about not coming here for you, but that cuts both ways. It means I don't really need you for anything. You’re a convenient hostage, but I still have the bomb if I decide you’re not worth keeping around. I mean, it's not like you're worth anything without big sister to prop you up. The Eighty-Seven don't give a shit about you. They only want her.”
“Bomb, what bomb?” That was Rachel, who managed to keep her voice remarkably calm, under the circumstances.
Nikos ignored the question. But the next immediate one I had, about where Derecho was and why he hadn't jumped in already, was answered a moment later. It was an answer I didn’t like, because it came as Nikos’s own Kite, Konrul, appeared. His color scheme, and the scheme of Nikos’ armor when he wore it, was espresso brown with blue slate mixed in. At the moment, Konrul was in some sort of small gorilla form as he came into view, holding a red box about the size of a cat kennel. There were strange glowing crystals all over it, and we could hear the sound of Derecho inside snarling and fighting to get out.
“Yeah, I wouldn't waste your energy, buddy!” Nikos called out toward the box. “My new friends assured me that there's no way you can transform in there. Just pipe down.”
Rachel was glaring daggers at him. “What the hell do you think you're doing? What is this? Are you just going for the world record for being a fucking traitor? Because you're not infected. The scans would've been screaming about it if you were. You're not one of them, you're human. You're a Freestyler, so what the hell is this?”
Nikos shrugged a little. “This is me seeing which way the winds were blowing. This is me being tired of getting thrown out to the wolves every other day, fighting and killing and watching everyone and everything I care about go up in flames. This is me being a little sick of the fact that I finally made some real friends and then the people in charge decided to kick me off that team to go somewhere else just so you could take over. Just so you could take everything away from me.”
He started to say something else, but then just made an annoyed sound deep in his throat. “Most of all, this is me telling you to start walking. You may be quick. You may be damn good. But you are not good enough to stop me from shoving this knife through little sister's throat before you can get it away from me. So turn around and start walking. You first, we’ll be right behind you. And, just for the record, if I hear you even start to suit up? You won't finish the command phrase before this bitch is bleeding out on the floor.”
I wanted to be brave. I wanted to be self-sacrificing. Seriously, we couldn't let him get away. Rachel couldn't let him get away. And she sure as hell couldn't allow herself to be taken by the Eighty-Seven. She was the hero, I was nothing. I was nobody. She could get a new Squire. The right thing to do, the best thing to do, was to shove my throat right into that knife and take the decision away from both of them. Maybe she'd even be able to save me once she beat this bastard down. But even if she didn't, it would mean she was safe. It would mean she could keep being a Freestyler, and that this traitor wouldn't get away. I could do that. I could save my sister from whatever this fucking prick had planned, just by pushing my throat forward a little.
That was the right thing to do. It was what I should've done. It was what a truly brave and selfless person would've done. It was what a hero would do. Me? I whimpered and froze. Then I let Nikos march me out of the bedroom behind Rachel, just far enough back that she couldn't get close enough to us to grab him. His Kite came last, still carrying that box. We walked right out of the trailer in our pajamas, past our dad, who was snoring away in my bed. Nikos gave him a brief glance and snorted. “That tracker I stuck on little Cadence here back at the Watering Hole only got me to this trailer park, you know? I had to go window to window earlier, checking to see where you were. Now that was nerve-racking. I thought someone as special as you, as important as you, would have parents that gave a shit. Hell, I thought you’d be smart enough to be on your guard. But neither of that’s true, is it? You were just sitting there doing homework while I watched you through that window. And your dad back there? The only time he got up at all was to take a piss. I don't think he even hit the toilet right, to tell you the truth. When was the last time he was sober enough to do any real work?”
Rachel's voice was quiet and dangerous. “Don't say anything else about our dad. Not another word.”
For a second, it sounded like Nikos was going to taunt her with that some more anyway, as we walked across the trailer park toward the rear gate. Then, he simply replied, “Eh, I guess it doesn't matter that much. It's not like you’re going to see him again. But hey, maybe losing you too will make him get his shit together and take care of sissy? This could be good for him, really push him to wake up and be part of society. You know, for however long society keeps being a thing.”
No one in the trailer park was paying any attention to us. Of course they weren't. Those who were awake were probably too drunk or high to notice anything was going on at all. And even if they weren't, this wasn't exactly the sort of place where people watched out for their neighbors and called the police to come save them. This was the sort of place where if the cops did show up, most of the residents would scatter and run for it.
All of which was to say, we weren't going to be rescued by our neighbors. And neither of us had our phones. Mine was still sitting in its charger back on my desk. I was wearing flannel pajama bottoms and an old yellow T-shirt that went down to my knees. Rachel, meanwhile, had drawstring shorts and her own old T-shirt. The only reason we weren't barefoot was because we'd both automatically slipped our feet into our tennis shoes on the way out the trailer door.
Nikos made us walk out to the alley behind the trailer park, where the dumpsters were kept. There was an old red station wagon sitting there, something that wouldn't stand out at all around here. Under his direction, the Kites were put in the trunk, his shrinking down from a gorilla to a large cat. Derecho, of course, stayed in the box.
Rachel got in the driver's seat, while the two of us slid into the back. He sat right behind her, keeping me close with one arm around my throat and the blade of his knife touching my chin. Then he ordered my sister to use the keys that were already in the ignition to turn on the car and pull out. He would direct her on where to go. And if she did anything to try to attract attention, broke any traffic laws, or did anything else stupid, he would take it out on me. Of course he would, because I was useless here. I was nothing but a hostage. If I wasn't here at all, if this was just between the two of them, Rachel would kick his ass, and we all knew it. Sure, he’d said something about a bomb, but she could take him before that became an issue. The only reason she was stuck like this, the only reason any of this was happening was because I was too pathetic to break free. And too pathetic to do the right thing and just take the knife in my throat so Rachel could do what she had to. God dammit, what was wrong with me? I couldn't let this happen! I couldn't let them take Rachel. She was the hero here. She was the important one. If I had to die just to make sure she got out of this, I should have done it.
But no, I was too much of a coward. I sat there with that knife touching my chin and tried to remain as still as possible. Maybe because part of me still thought Rachel would find a way out of this. Why wouldn't she? She was Rachel. She was my sister. She could always find a way to win. She could figure this out. She always did. For a moment, I entertained the brief fantasy that she had already realized the same thing I did about what Nikos had said at dinner, but far earlier. I daydreamed that this was all a trap for him, that the rest of the squad were waiting to jump in as soon as she gave the signal, as soon as he had revealed enough secrets.
But no. That wasn't it. She hadn't realized earlier. There were no teammates listening in to all this, no squad waiting to intervene. There was no one. We were alone out here. Rachel didn't even have Derecho right then. He was trapped in that box. And, from the sounds we've been hearing, about as happy about that as I was.
We drove for half an hour like that, going even further into the outskirts of the city than we'd been already. We drove until we reached an old drive-in movie theater that had been shut down since before the Eighty-Sevens even arrived in the first place, with Nikos directing Rachel through every turn and telling her exactly what speed to go at. He even criticized how close she was following another car, demanding she fall back. The guy was like the world's worst backseat driver, and I wasn't just saying that because he was threatening to stab me in the throat.
Nikos directed my sister to park all the way up near the big screen. Keeping that blade close to me, he ordered her to step out, walk several feet to the side of the car, then lay down on her stomach with her arms folded underneath herself, and her ankles crossed. Only when she finally, reluctantly, did that, did he step out of the car with me. We moved to the back, and he let Konrul out with Derecho’s box. He sent his Kite to stand over out of the way, before taking something out of his pocket with his free hand. It looked like a garage door remote. Toying with it a bit, he spoke up, looking toward Rachel. “I’d say none of this is personal, but it kinda is. You came barging in where you never really belonged, and broke up the best damn group I ever had.”
He had clearly been obsessing over this whole thing for a long time, because he couldn't stop once he started unloading. “My squad and me, we were perfect. Then you showed up, and the very first thing you did was get my Squire, my Squire, killed. Verse went in there to help show you the ropes, and you couldn’t even look after him. You got him killed, and what do they do about it? They fucking reward you. They pat you on the back and praise you for running the fuck away and leaving him to die. You got my friend killed, and they rewarded you.”
He yanked me closer, but not close enough for Rachel to reach him in a lunge, even if she could manage to push herself up out of that position quickly enough to try. “That's when I figured out that they don't actually give a flying monkey shit about any of us. We don't matter. They threw me to another group just to make me shut up about Roger. I lost my best friend because of you, and they respond by rewarding you, and then make me leave all my other friends just because I have a problem with that?”
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He finally went quiet for a moment, and Rachel used that time to speak up. “First of all, if you still think I just abandoned Roger in there, then you really haven't listened to any of the debriefings. I'm alive because of him, I know that. But I did everything I could to save him. He was already dead when I got out of there. I couldn't do anything to save him. I tried. I swear to you, I really tried. I'm sorry I couldn't bring him back. I'm sorry he died.”
Rachel let that sit for just long enough that the unhinged guy next to me started to make a noise of disbelief, then she pushed on. “But on the other hand, maybe it's a good thing he's not here right now. Because if he was, he'd be so fucking ashamed of you. Seriously, you’re doing this because you’re sad? You’re lonely and pissed off about being transferred, so you sell out the entire human fucking species to help the Eighty-Seven? You're pissed off at me because you think I got your friend killed, and then got rewarded for it, so you decide to help out the people who literally killed him? What the hell kind of logic is that? You can try to justify it however you want, but the truth is, you're just a selfish fucking traitor. If you could do something like this, you always would have. You were just looking for an excuse. I’m sorry Roger died, but you? Fuck you.”
With a snarl, Nikos very nearly stepped that way. But he caught himself at the last second, his blade pressing into my chin enough to draw blood. “Think you can make me do something stupid when I'm this close to getting rid of you? Yeah, nice try. Don't worry, this’ll all be over soon. You keep playing nice, and useless little sister gets to walk out of here as soon as you're safe and sound in the heart of Eighty-Seven territory, where they can get everything they want out of you.”
I started to say something, but he kicked the back of my knee and made me fall with a yelp. His voice was dark. “And hey, since I'm such a nice guy, I'll even warn her not to be anywhere near the station in… oh… exactly fifteen minutes and twenty-two seconds. Unless she's just so distraught about losing you that she wants to scatter herself across half the solar system.”
Rachel and I both understood what he meant immediately, but she was the one who spoke up. “The bomb you mentioned. You put a fucking bomb on the station!? You said you did all this because you missed everyone, because you were pissed off that they sent you away, and now you put a goddamn bomb on there? You fucking cocksucker, those guys were going to spend the night up there! They’re all still on the station, and so all those other people! You knew that, you knew they were staying up there! What the fuck is wrong with you!?”
Konrul, back in that gorilla form, made an angry noise and almost moved closer, but Nikos raised a hand to stop him. His eyes were narrowed. “You already turned them against me. I'm not stupid. I know they aren't the same people I was friends with. Those guys are long gone. And let's face it, if I'm actually going to move on with my new life, I need to make a clean break. Can't have things weighing me down. It's really important not to cling to the past in situations like this.”
Oh, he had totally lost the plot. This was really bad. I couldn't even begin to comprehend how much damage someone like him could do when he was like this. Fuck, Fuck! He put a bomb on the Arbalest! He was going to send Rachel to the Eighty-Seven, and she was only going along with any of it because he was using me as a hostage! No more being a coward. No more just letting this happen. I couldn't let it happen. Rachel was more important than me. The Arbalest was more important than me. The rest of the squadron, all those Support personnel, everyone up there, would be killed. They would die. I couldn't let that happen. I wouldn't let that happen. If I had to die so Rachel could stop this motherfucker, so be it. This was how my life could matter. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to let myself be used to force Rachel into letting something this horrific happen.
Unfortunately, resolving to do that didn’t automatically mean I had any newfound ability to pull it off. It really didn’t matter how determined I was, when the second I started to move from my kneeling position, Nikos just planted his foot in the center of my back hard enough to send me sprawling flat against the ground. “Yeah, okay, don’t you decide to try to play hero now too, little girl. Just stay right there before you get hurt. You’re not your sister, and you never will be.” His foot came down again, that time pressing hard enough into my back to send a jolt of pain through me. And he clearly wasn’t even trying that much. This was a guy who could pick up a car. I was absolutely nothing to him.
Standing practically on top of me, he lifted that remote thing and pressed the button on it. As he did so, the movie screen in the distance began to glow. A second later, an actual portal appeared in front of it, projected from the screen itself somehow. We could see some sort of vast crystal cavern beyond, with shadowy, indistinct forms just barely visible in the background. They were clearly waiting expectantly. Waiting for Rachel to be delivered right to them, just like this fucking traitor had promised. No, no, no, I couldn’t just sit here and let this happen, this couldn’t happen!
“Okay, babe, this is your ride,” Nikos put in. “You step close enough to that thing, and it'll take over. Remember what I said, you do this and little sis goes free. You have my word! I mean, for what that’s worth. But to be honest, what choice do you have? You walk through that portal and I’ll let this one go. She can go off to live her boring old normal life without a hero in the family. Without any real purpose. But she’ll be alive, which is more than I can say for the person I cared about most in the world. So move it.” To emphasize his point, he dug his foot into my back enough to make me yelp.
Rachel slowly picked herself up under his instructions. She turned to face us, while taking a few steps backward toward the portal. As soon as she was just a little bit closer to that portal, a couple tens of energy lashed out of it and grabbed her arms. I could tell if they were pulling her back, stringing to drag her into the portal while she held her ground with some effort. Her eyes were on me, not Nikos. I waited, ready for my sister to make her move. If I died, fine, at least she’d still be here. Whatever she did, though, I wanted to be ready for it.
Her voice was quiet. “Cadence, I’m sorry.”
Sorry? Of course, she was… she was apologizing because she couldn’t figure out a way to get through this without risking my life. She was apologizing because getting out of this might mean that I would die. I was-- not okay with that, but I understood. She was more important than me. I could accept dying like this if it meant she would still be here to save everyone else.
Except, I'd barely had that thought before she continued. “You're going to have to be the one who keeps going. You're going to have to do this without me. I know you can. You are stronger and better than you've ever let yourself believe. You can do this. You have to warn them about the bomb. You have to get them out of there. Cadence, there is no one in this world, or any other, that I trust more than you. There is no one I love more than you. You're my sister. You're my hero.
“Now it’s time to be theirs.”
By that point, I had completely abandoned any thought of staying where I was. I didn't even care about the pain in my back. I was shouting, crying out as I struggled to push myself up against the weight of the foot on my back.
For his part, Nikos gave a single cough. “Yeah, that's great and all, very touching. But there's no way little sister can make it all the way to the station from here. I'm not exactly willing to give her a ride, if you know what I mean.”
Standing there in front of that portal, Rachel finally looked at him. Even in her sleepwear, without any weapons or anything, separated from her Kite, and struggling against those tendrils as they did their level best to drag her into the portal, my sister managed to look heroic. She gazed at that traitor for a silent moment, before speaking once more. “You know, if you ever really understood what it meant to be a Freestyler, you might have learned a few things.”
“What, like self-sacrifice and responsibility?” the boy shot back, unimpressed.
“Well, that,” she confirmed, “and other bits and pieces. Like, you know what Kite’s are before they bond with us? A cloud of energy.”
“Yeah, yeah, no shit,” he shot back. “That’s how they appear. Then they show up, you breathe them in so they go inside your body for the bonding, then their physical form appears. They’re always part of you. The actual Kite energy itself is inside our body, giving us all that power, and they project a physical construct to act as their own body. A body they puppet from inside us. That’s nothing new. You’re stalling. How about if I see just how well little sister can go warn everyone if my foot is halfway through her torso?”
By that point, Rachel had been pulled so far back that she was nearly on the cusp of the portal. I shouted her name again, but she wasn’t looking at me. Her attention was on Nikos. “You’re right, I was stalling a little bit. But not to get out of this. I was stalling to say goodbye. Because the thing you don’t know, the thing you can’t understand, is that a Freestyler can surrender their power. They can give it up. They can willingly choose to release the bond with their Kite. They can let them go.”
For a moment, Nikos just stared at her. “What the fuck are y--”
“Now, Derecho, I release you!” My sister’s shouted words interrupted him. “Do it!”
There was a loud bang from the box Konrul was holding, making the gorilla-shaped Kite jolt with a yelp. Then… then something erupted from Rachel. A swirling cloud of black-pink energy poured out of her mouth and formed into some sort of tornado. A tornado that flew across the ground, sending discarded trash sailing in every direction just before it slammed into Nikos. The impact knocked the boy backwards away from me. Then he was yanked forward through the sideways tornado and was sent flying toward Rachel.
Quickly rolling over, I had just enough time to see the swirling funnel cloud of energy hovering over me. Then it dropped, enveloping my face. With a sudden, deep gasp, I instinctively breathed it in. I breathed in that cloud.
Then the cloud was gone. I jumped to my feet, only to belatedly realize I had actually jumped to my feet. I just kicked my legs out and did a kip up without thinking about it. What’s more, the ache in my body was gone. Even the pain from that cut to my chin had disappeared. I felt… light. And speaking of light, I saw everything much more clearly. It had been almost pitch-black out here before, but now it might as well have been the middle of the day.
Then I saw my arms. They were covered in black metallic armor, with matching gloves that had slight pink accent lines. My hand rose to my face, encountering the helmet there. A futuristic knight helmet.
A Freestyler helmet.
My eyes snapped toward my sister just in time to see Nikos struggling against her grip. She had one arm wrapped around his neck, holding him against her after the funnel cloud had sent him flying that way. The funnel cloud that had been Derecho’s true form. He was fighting against her, with Konrul on his way to help. But it was too late. Rachel gave me one last look, our eyes meeting. She mouthed the words, ‘I love you.’
Then she hurled herself backwards, dragging Nikos with her. Both of them went through the portal, with Konrul right behind them. And me? I was right behind Konrul. But it was too late. Just after the other Kite went through the thing, and an instant before I hit it, the portal winked out of existence. Leaving me stumbling through empty air with a useless cry.
She was gone. My sister wasn’t there anymore. She wasn’t there to hear the choked sob that escaped me as I stared at the spot where she’d been standing just a second earlier. She… she wasn’t there. She gave her power, her Freestyler gift, her bond with Derecho, to me. She gave it up and let herself be taken by the Eighty-Seven.
She wasn’t there to help me warn the Arbalest about the bomb that was going to go off in about ten minutes. She wasn’t there as I stood completely motionless, staring at the spot where she had disappeared. She wasn’t there to stop the dozen or so Taken, the basic crystal humanoid Intruder footsoldiers, who were just starting to emerge from the shadows and close in around me. She wasn’t there as the pit in my stomach rose to an emptiness that became all that I was. She wasn’t there…
She wasn’t there.
JOKE TAGS
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