{Earth}

“I’m so glad your sister is super strong,” Bones quipped when he punched through another skull. The fractured bone scraped his fist on the retraction.

The King Regent grunted as he threw another Icarus through a wall. “I think we’re all glad it was potent enough to wake you and Lucas.”

Bones hid his wince. He convinced Icarean prisoners to opt for this program over imprisonment on Gait. His kin. He couldn’t fathom why they’d forfeit their volition for this. And killing them wrenched his heart.

So he made inappropriately timed jokes to cope. He was relieved the others shared in his humor. Laugh the blood and tears away. Find comfort later. Maybe Para was free—

“Down!” Twenty-One called from across the lobby.

Bones and Jack ducked while a detainee flew over their heads. Blood and other fluids rained over them.

X all but whisper-cheered as Pablo snapped two cables loose on the suspended stairs. It collapsed, spilling Icari into the lower lobby. The entire structure fell on top of them in a cartoon splatter effect.

That was the signal.

Bones flew Jack to the upper lobby, bringing them one step closer to the exit. They shared a high-five in celebration. Lucas alighted beside them with an elegant shake of his head at their unsophisticated celebration. Twenty-One arrived next and reached out for a fist-bump. At least he got it.

It was worth celebrating. Only three dozen Icari stood between them and the exit. The copies mysteriously withdrew when the Shadow started gaining ground.

X rasped, “Look out!”

Lucas, Bones, Jack, and Twenty-One dove in all directions. The enormous slate sign suspended on the ceiling broke free and swung over their heads. A drum solo of percussive thuds resounded as it took out every Icarus in the lobby before clamoring loudly to the floor.

Pablo sat atop it, having rode it down. Adrenaline sent a fine tremor through the doctor’s body.

Twenty-One stepped around the wreckage, assessing the damage and nodding with respect. “Chief Lynn should hear of this.”

Bones knelt beside Pablo with a hand on his shoulder. “Are you all right?”

X plopped down and helped Jack off the floor. The King Regent gaped from where the sign started and to where it landed. “Wow, Pablo. That was awesome.”

“Yeah and yeah. Yeah.” The doctor sounded a little shocky to Bones.

Twenty-One kept watch while Lucas helped Bones shoulder Pablo. The golden-eyed Icarus assured, “Don’t fret, doctor. We’ll reunite you with your wife in a matter of moments.”

The Luk alien looked over his shoulder. “I’ll want to return for his body.” Referring to his traitorous brother. “There are rites to perform.”

They headed out the door while Jack consoled X. “Of course. Absolutely. But first—”

An army of Icari and figures waited for them outside. The Pablo copies chimed, “Did you think we would underestimate ourselves?”

Bones and Lucas let Pablo carry his own weight. He blinked a few times into the bizarre reality.

Opening his wings, Lucas recited, “‘In the void, you will know yourself. Within Inanis is us.’” His three copies recited the line with him as if to prove his point.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

A shiver went down Bones’ spine. He glanced over at his dopplegangers—so many of them. They were smirking at him, smelling his fear.

“Right.” X took up a position between the Shadow unit and the Imminent army. “I’ve had a bad day.” Electricity flickered off him, yellow in its phosphorescence. “While, I love my friends, I’m tired of seeing so much of their faces. This is how it will be. Leave. Never come back. Or—”

“Or what?” The Twenty-One figures sneered, enticed by the threat of violence.

The Shadow Twenty-One stared stonily back at them. Talk about facing your past.

Jack stepped up beside them, completing the line. They all felt Rayne’s blood still affecting them, but none of them knew for how much longer. Bones didn’t know what injected the Luk with so much confidence, but Bones vibed with it.

X stretched his stick-like arms wide. A lattice of electrical excretions formed a membrane barrier between the two fighting forces. The Icari with wings, including the Bones, Twenty-One, and Lucas copies, opened their glorious black span.

Bones almost took an involuntary step backward. They were extremely outnumbered, with no weapons and precious cargo to guard. This looked bad.

Pablo trembled between them. But it didn’t look like fear. It looked like outrage. He cried out, “Why?! Why did you do this? All of you!”

It was a fair question. Why did they defect in the first place?

The Imminent Pablo’s answered matter-of-factly, “Where we come from we are gods.”

Copy Bones jeered, “Most of us.”

Then fake Twenty-One. “We can’t understand why you choose to be less.”

Finally, the Lucas figures tilted their heads and offered, “Except Lucas. We know his motivations. Do you?”

Bones glanced over at Lucas, who clenched his jaw and tightened his fists.

Odd.

X cut his hand through the air. “Enough. Are we doing this or not?” Maybe he went suicidal after losing his brother?

The Imminent army took to the air like a volley of soldiers. They rained down on the Shadow unit. Just shy of collision, X gestured a twisting motion with his hands. The electrical membrane formed a dome over the Shadow squad.

They watched in terror as the Icari collided into it, testing it. With each bombardment, they fell to the ground like zapped mosquitoes.

Jack glanced between Pablo’s hollowed gaze and Bones’ tight eyes before asking, “Are they dying, X?”

“I hope so.” Twenty-One meant all three words. “They ruined a positive exchange for our people. And I cannot imagine the horrors of losing one’s autonomy to a bloodless creature like this Celindria.”

Bones’ eyebrows went high.

Lucas stared at the dying horde. “Eloquently put, soldier.” He gazed out at the field. “They’ve stopped. What are our options? We’re detained here.”

Pablo blew the air from his cheeks. “Almost poetic, isn’t it?”

X squinted, staring beyond the army. “Hey… Hey is that—”

Cries erupted around them. Shouts. Gurgling. Blood piercing screams. The sound of a massacre.

Bones suggested, “X, can you open a window?”

The Luk opened his hands into a square, and the group meandered cautiously to it. Through it, they watched a gas spread across the cliff top. A soft blue smoke. The Icari carried the remaining Pablo copies up from it, but their wings beat it into a cloud that followed.

“You need help.”

Bones startled at the voice behind them. Twenty-One peered curiously at the man outside the dome.

Pablo whispered-shouted as he ran over, “Legir!”

X sagged to his knees. “Thank… goodness…”

“Shit.” Jack rushed to him, where the whispering Luk fell into his arms.

The jellyfish barrier collapsed and left them exposed.

“I’m afraid you arrived at an unlucky time for us, Yu Leader.” Lucas gave him a wry smile as he ripped the sleeves from his bloody shirt.

Twenty-One stood, watching the blue fog chase their enemies into the sky. “They’ll be on us soon.”

Bones wet his lips and gripped Legir’s shoulder. “Friend, we’ll need you to take Jack and X to the Ecology atrium. The glass ceiling is an emergency exit. You’ll have to climb out. Twenty-one, Pablo, Lucas, and I will hold them off as long as we can. Don’t let them have Jack.”

Jack griped, “Hey, I can help—”

“By not dying, kid. Sorry. Your ass has been on the line long enough. Don’t make me knock you out.”

The young Progeny waved at X. “Sure. And if you knock me out, who would carry him? Is Legir able to do it?”

The Yu people are upside-down triangles for torsos with ultra-thin arms and legs. Big round heads. Kinda hard to carry someone in that shape.

Bones pressed, “Go—”

“They see us.” Twenty-One sounded eerily quiet. He stood tall and proud, like a man making his last stand.

Pablo walked over with him. Lucas followed.

Right. This was happening.

“Go, Jack. Thanks, Legir.”

Like a good King Regent, Jack scooped X in his arms and gazed between them. “Don’t die.”

Bones couldn’t muster any confidence for the kid. “We make no promises.”

“That’s not true. Jack, I’ll make one promise. We’ll make the Shadow proud.” Lucas beamed at the young man and put his back to Twenty-One’s.

And that was it. Legir and Jack retreated with X back into the Ecology to buy them some time for reinforcements that weren’t coming. The remaining four soldiers put their backs together. Rayne’s blood coursed through them. At least they could do some damage before they died.

It was too bad, too. Bones saved a slice of Colton’s cheesecake back at the pit to celebrate Sagan’s return. Now, who would eat it?