JACKIE:

After hours of flying beneath the Grid encircling the planet, we reached Bennu Island. Strange seeing it in person rather than through the slipstream.

Unfortunately, it looked the same as the future stream, with fields of fire and scorched land as far as the eye could see. I coughed in the smoky air. The complex still stood on the lip of the volcano. The castle tower was complete, but the lush green forests were in dire jeopardy of being erased, one acre at a time.

Looking closer at the balcony overlooking the volcano, Beatrice stood with arms outstretched, directing her fire-spitting drone. Man, she moved fast. That evil thing threatened to destroy everything in sight!

“The future has been written.” Firestorm sighed.

“Beatrice scorched the lands to create a powerful fire portal into the slipstream,” I said. “She’s always one step ahead, isn’t she? Now what?”

Before Firestorm could answer, two scavenger birds called out in the distance. They sounded hungry.

“Let’s get somewhere safe so we can talk.” He banked to the left to turn around and flapped his wings fiercely to stay ahead of the Bennu birds. They hunt in packs, so even though we didn’t meet the ones that called out, there were two more waiting for us around the bend.

“Incoming!” I called out as a scavenger leapt out from behind a tree below.

It swooped up into the sky to chase us. Firestorm waited until it got close and smacked it with his tail. The bird screeched out in pain, but was unrelenting in its pursuit.

It chomped its giant jaw. The force of it biting Firestorm’s tail jolted me.

It was Firestorm’s turn to screech. The piercing sound made my skin crawl.

Firestorm nosedived down toward the ground. “Get off, Jackie.”

I quickly dismounted so he could get back to the fight.

Two Bennu birds surrounded him with bloodlust. He swung his tail around, smacking them both in the face, but that wasn’t enough to keep them at bay. Both scavengers attacked Firestorm, drawing blood with their teeth and talons.

I wanted to help, but Firestorm didn’t need it. Somehow, he was stronger and faster than both of them combined. He grabbed one by the torso and ripped its wings off! That was the end of that one. The other one got burnt to a crisp when Firestorm inflamed its whole body with his fiery breath. It was incredible to see how powerful he was. Why was he more skilled than all the others?

He swooped down to get me, and we flew over a fire field to get back to the warehouse I now knew so well. The one where Grace and Zayne met.

I moved the busted door so Firestorm could get in, but there was barely anything left of it, so the entrance remained exposed. Still, Firestorm felt like it was a safe place to regroup.

I stepped into the damp space and breathed in the dank air. Although I had already been here in the slipstream, the reality of it felt concrete and inescapable.

“Your wounds…” I gasped at the sight.

Firestorm healed before my eyes.

“And yours?” he asked.

I looked at my abdomen and it too had healed. Not completely, but the progress was impressive.

“So I changed things for the worse,” I said. “Now what?”

“We’ll think of something.”

I sat on a broken cage, defeated. A training manual with the Life Rite logo sat next to me. I picked it up and opened it, hoping there’d be some answer to all my problems in there. It shocked me to see the manual filled with Polaroid images of Zayne and several other village boys. The photos started out normal, albeit sad to see them imprisoned.

As I turned the pages, the photos turned more grotesque. These training manuals showcased the stage by stage progression of the villagers mutating from boys to Bennu birds! First with scaly patches of skin, then with their arms growing wings, talons ripping out of their hands, their flesh molding into something inhumane…

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I looked up at Firestorm and asked, “They did this to you too, didn’t they?”

He nodded with regret in his mutated eyes.

Firestorm explained, “The Life Rite serum is made from the DNA of the Bennu bird eggs, but it’s so powerful that it causes mutations. After testing the serum on the local boys, Mark got the brilliant idea to make a second serum from their blood, which was given to Beatrice, and now other Life Rite clients. They experience the rejuvenation and rebirthing without the mutation side effects.”

We sat in silence for several minutes, sitting with the cold, hard truth of what Mark and Beatrice did to these boys. While I couldn’t deny the rejuvenating benefits of the Life Rite serum, the cost to create it enraged me. Why was one life considered more valuable than another? The injustice left a sour taste in my mouth.

“What happened to Grace and Zayne after they threw Beatrice and Mark into the volcano? Surely they escaped?”

Firestorm sighed. “We got out, but…”

“We?”

“Jackie, I’m Zayne. Firestorm is what I’ve become.”

“Oh,” was all I could say. A tear rolled down my cheek. I felt a deep sorrow for the boy in the cage who had escaped, only to turn into an unrecognizable creature.

Firestorm continued to explain. “Grace and I left this wretched place and started a family. We tried to be normal.”

I looked at Firestorm through my tears.

“Does that mean…”

“Yes, Jackie. I’m your father.”

That was a lot for me to take in. Not because he had mutated into a full-on phoenix, but because… well, maybe because of the phoenix thing. I don’t know, it’s hard to describe how I felt. Conflicted. Perplexed. Sad and anxious, I guess. Regret, remorse, guilt… Mostly anger, though.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“I needed you to understand what we were up against. Needed you to see me for who I was, not what I’ve become.”

“Where’s Grace now? Where’s my mother? Why did she leave me with Baxter? Why did you leave me?” I had more unanswered questions than ever.

Firestorm calmly explained, “I thought I’d stop mutating when the injections stopped. I wished we could be normal, but… I’m a freak. Look at me… But really, I’m the lucky one.”

“What do you mean?”

“For some reason, my blood type slowed the mutation process. That was the key Mark needed to make the first successful serum to give to Beatrice. All the other boys mutated too quickly. Those boys, my childhood friends, they are the scavengers who seek to destroy us. They lost all traces of their humanity. It doesn’t look like it from the outside, but I have a shred of mine left.”

I said nothing. Maybe I should have said something polite about him not being a freak, but I didn’t have it in me. So he continued.

“Life Rite is still making mutants. The serum allows their rich clients to rebirth and explore the slipstream. Beatrice has to be stopped.”

“So you left us because you mutated?”

Firestorm nodded. “I couldn’t hide it anymore.”

“What was Grace’s excuse? Why did she leave me with Baxter?”

“Once she realized Beatrice was still alive, she knew you would never be safe. You’re a pure gene carrier, Jackie. My blood and Grace’s blood… with the serums we took, that’s incredibly powerful. You’re the first person born with the phoenix gene.”

His answer made me uncomfortable. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that my blood had any value to anyone.

“Okay, but where’s my mother now? What happened to Grace after she left me with Baxter?”

Firestorm’s head drooped to the ground. Whatever the answer was, it wasn’t good.

After a beat, he said, “She’s dead. Grace is dead.”

Dead. That single word rung in my ears, deafening me. I felt sick to my stomach. This whole time, I thought… I’d hoped… I couldn’t stop shaking my head.

“No… You said we could save her!”

“The few injections she had made her sick. When we left the island, she stopped taking them, but her cells needed more to survive.”

“No!” I screamed.

“It’s hard to take in, but we’re running out of time. We’ve got to stop Beatrice before she burns this place to the ground. Before she snuffs out the last of my people.”

“You said we could save her!”

“Grace still lives in the slipstream. You’ve seen her in our memories. Maybe we can still save her…”

“Maybe?” I screamed. That was not the answer I was expecting.

“The plan changed when you told Beatrice about the fire portals.” Firestorm said firmly. “First, we have to save my people. They’re alive right here, right now, but for how long? Tinga, Jappa, all the kids… After we’ve saved the island from burning to ash, we can go back to the original plan, go back into the slipstream to manipulate the probabilities and try to save Grace.”

“How?” I asked. “I don’t understand.”

“The slipstream is very powerful, Jackie. You’ve only begun to see…”

“Show me!” I yelled.

“I will,” Firestorm whispered. “But first, we have to stop Beatrice from destroying this place. My people can’t be collateral damage anymore. They’re worth so much more than that. They’ve stayed to protect this place, to protect the Bennu eggs. If we don't help them, they’ll die here.”

He approached me with caution. I flinched as he put his wing around my shoulder, a failed attempt at comforting me.

Firestorm embraced me fully, and I softened, allowing my body to crash into his. He was so warm, and his chest heaved as he breathed.

As strange as it was, I found my real father. I always had an inclination Baxter wasn’t my blood relation, and now I had confirmation.

As painful as it was, I was glad to know. Ignorance isn’t bliss, it’s powerless. Equipped with the truth, I’d finally make my own educated decisions. Or any decisions at all, for that matter, because I never had choices before. I didn’t choose to be a janitor. I didn’t choose my roommate infested home, and I certainly wouldn’t have knowingly chosen to be ignorant of my family tree.

We sat in our embrace, savoring the newfound closeness we had both craved for so long. It was finally time to choose my fate.

I looked Firestorm, my father, in his eyes and said, “You’re right. We’ve got to save your people. I guess they’re my people now, too. Let’s protect the eggs and this island… But after that, you’re going to show me how to use the slipstream to save Grace, save Baxter, and stop Life Rite from hurting anyone else. They’re going down!”