{Earth}

“What’s wrong, Bones? Aren’t you having fun yet?!”

Pablo laid the sarcasm on extra thick as the door lurched against them once more. The Icarean P.O.W. rammed it again, clattering the doctor’s teeth. The blunt impact reverberated in his ears.

Bones pressed his back against the door and planted his feet in a power squat. Ignoring Pablo, he repeated his question through gritted teeth, “How much longer?!”

Further in the lab, metal knocked together in precise assembly before Jack called out, “Good to go.”

“Got the last one. Let’s open it up.” X, in a sour mood with the loss of his brother, aimed at the door Pablo and Bones held closed. His spindly arms, meant for setting traps, held the rifle steady.

They both jumped the hell out of the way in time for the door to burst open within fifteen feet of X and Jack. With a crackle of electricity and a perfectly programmed signal engineered by one hot Chief, the Icarus fell face forward, unconscious.

Bones caught her before she kissed the tiles. His gaze bounced in concern between the non-Icarean custodians. “Set to stun, right?” Absently, he zipped her coveralls for her modesty.

Pablo assured, “She’ll be fine in forty-eight hours. Hopefully sans Celindria. That woman’s ruined all of my research.” She forced them to kill two of the detainees already before they made it to the rifles.

X growled in that Luk whisper. “She killed my brother.”

The room got quiet. No one wanted to say it with X grieving and all, but his brother was an accomplice to Celindria’s invasion. Pablo held room for doubt, but unfortunately R killed himself rather than pleaded his case.

Twenty-One’s voice came over the earpieces. “I found Lucas. He’s knocked out. Breathing. Pulse is weird, but fine.” The massive Icarus sounded genuinely relieved. At the start of this mess, they split up. He volunteered to find Lucas. And they went to grab the weapons from the Med Lab.

Pablo sighed and sank into a chair. “Thank you. Andrew will thank you. I wish I knew what happened. Why would they give their volition to her?”

Bones pat him on the back. “You treated them good, Doc. Don’t blame yourself.”

X whispered while reloading another tazer round. “They’d be executed anywhere else in the Vast Collective.”

“That’s right.” Jack handed a loaded rifle to Pablo and one to Bones. “Whatever she offered them had nothing to do with you.”

“She offered them another war.” Twenty-One sounded quiet, but certain. “She took Story Taker down there and whispered of another great battle with free-flowing blood. King Nox prepared us for eight thousand years to retake Earth and destroy the Progeny. Some will take longer than others to let it go.”

He was speaking from experience. Pablo liked the detainee. They adopted him into the Shadow with a chain and all the perks. But it was hard to forget the man came here as a cold-blooded killing machine. All of them were killers. Maybe this was a mistake.

Jack crouched down and put his face in Pablo’s sight. “Even if you only reform one, you’ve saved enough.”

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“Your sister would be so proud of you, Jack.” Pablo took the offered rifle and spared a warm smile for Bones.

X stayed quiet while staring at the floor with a wideness to his eyes and a shallowness to his breath that implied shock.

“Right.” Pablo stood once more. “Let’s locate the detainees—”

“Incoming!” Twenty-One whisper-shouted over the earpiece.

Synchronous footsteps in a march sounded from down the hall. Four at least. X and Jack squared off with the door. Pablo and Bones aimed from the sides. The steps echoed like thunder the closer they came until the small battalion entered the lab. Six of them. X and Jack waited for all six to reach the fifteen-foot range before shooting the front two.

One Icarus kicked Bones’ gun from his hand and throttled him. Pablo wanted to help, but his Icarus backhanded him hard enough to make his eyes bleed and engage the hard tissue repair system in his nacre.

X and Jack needed fresh charges. In the meantime, the Luk guarded the King Regent and blocked an incoming jawbreaker. They went about dancing a few rounds.

Pablo’s attacker snarled in his face. Not very elegant of Celindria. “Shit. Shit.” He crawled away to find his gun. While she fitted the male Icarus’ hands around Pablo’s head to break his neck, he stretched and snagged the rifle. He fired at the detainee on Bones, whose eyes closed about forty seconds ago.

The other man’s assailant went down like a sack of Vittle. The hands at Pablo’s jaw turned him in the most involuntary manner. Any second now, he’d hear his vertebrae crack. He hoped no one told Lynn he technically broke their vows—

“Get off!”

All the Icari went flying out of the room. Lurched up from their targets and tossed like discarded toys. Jack held the last one over his head and tossed it so hard it pinballed off the far walls. Probably dead.

The three hundred pound Twenty-One ran through the door from the cafeteria, carrying Lucas over his shoulder. He glanced from the King Regent to the fallen Icari. A Progeny above all else, Jack’s sister also discovered her godly strength under desperate circumstances.

Ignoring how close he came to death, Pablo crawled over to Bones’ unconscious body. Over his shoulder, he asked, “Jack, are you okay?”

“I… I almost lost you guys. Is Bones all right? Here, X, let me help you.” Jack’s voice shook with adrenaline and a hint of excitement. Couldn’t blame him, really.

X took the help off the floor, rolling onto his ‘feet.’ “Thanks for that. I’m not bad with combat, but I prefer setting traps. I don’t know how humans survived the Icarean invasion. They’re impossibly strong and fast.”

Pablo gripped his chain. No more close calls. He wanted to spare the Icari, and there was no guarantee of doing that after drinking Rayne’s blood. But at the next sign of conflict, he’d take it. If only to see Lynn again.

“Bones will wake up, eventually. Jack, I’d hate to ask…”

“I’ll carry him.” He came over to throw the Icarean warrior across his shoulder. “We’d better—”

More footfalls. An impossible number. The Ecology housed over two hundred and thirty-eight detainees. And it sounded like every one of them marched toward them.

Twenty-One signaled for them to hide in a smaller exam room. Jack laid Bones on the table and took point. X reloaded the charges. Pablo peeked through the small window in the dark facility. This took him straight back to Invasion Day at J.A. Fair. Except these Icarean soldiers drifted by without a glance in their direction. They headed for the stairs instead.

X whispered, “Can they leave the Ecology?”

The red button Pablo pressed locked the facility down with them trapped inside. Theoretically, it shouldn’t happen. But…

Jack shifted in the dark. “That depends on if they have a Seamswalker, and what Celindria wants with them exactly.”

Twenty-One laid Lucas beside Bones and took over looking out for the Icari. Pablo immediately checked on him. No obvious contusions. No broken skin. His pulse fluttered like a hummingbird. It was some kind of arrhythmia. “Maybe he was electrocuted.”

“Dr. Suarez, is there an alternative way outside?” Twenty-One sounded more curious than concerned with the Icarean activity.

“Ahh… no. We designed both Ionas with only one entrance. They’re programmed to blood seals. Only we can unlock—”

“Pablo Suarez.” A choir called in a single melody, for all the voices were the same. “We’re here to replace you. Surrender without resistance, and we’ll kill your wife quickly and painlessly.”

Icy fear breathed down Pablo’s neck. It froze his frantic heart. He heard that voice every time he spoke, and now he would never hear it the same way again. Pablo owed Lynn an apology.

Because he was about to endanger this. He was preparing to risk himself without her. And he might leave without coming back this time.

X stared hard while Pablo took off his chain. Twenty-One followed suit.

With all the command of his sister, Jack gripped his pendant. “It’s time.”