Hosted in the bodies of thousands, Celindria surged through the sparks and smoke.

But not toward the Shadow. Her armies fell forward and backward through horizontal conduits and into the Oblivion Cathedral’s perilous chasm. It paid off to own puppets in transport. Race after race, person after person—hundreds fell into the Source and joined the ranks of Supreme Imminence. Probabilities shattered into existence, and Celindria rode the high.

The spectacle rattled the petrified audience, who surprised Celindria by massing upon her dolls before the conduits could swallow them. The free citizens—the vaccinated, the vice avoiders, and those unfortunate enough not to know Celindria’s touch—latched onto her vessels and weighed them down. She knew they wouldn’t kill her puppets, so why were they—

Zip.

Zip.

Zip.

Like insect bites, electricity surged along their flesh, and Celindria realized what was happening. The doctor who’d impressed her, Pablo Suarez, snatched one of Celindria’s vessel and wrenched them around to face him. He looked into their eyes as if he could see Celindria inside and said, “This is from Lynn.”

There was a shock and then nothing.

They were disabling the nacres within Celindria’s dolls, disconnecting her from their volition. Throughout the crowd, she lost connection.

Father is clever, and so is Mrs. Lynn Renee.

But they understand so little.

Across multiple Probabilities, Celindria faced the Shadow. In these, Nox led their resistance, covered in Celindria’s Verse. It was time to test the waters.

Sparing one Probability, Celindria sent a dozen dozen of her new Supreme soldiers into battle against the Shadow. Head-on, they clashed. Rather than impaling and slicing, the Shadow maintained non-lethal tactics.

Xelan looped Celindria’s dolls about the neck with his sickles and punched them unconscious.

Korac took out targets with the butt of his axe, while Sagan and T.a.o. opened conduits across the battlefield to reroute descent into the Source.

Tameka had tied a heavy bean bag on the end of her chain dart and knocked out Source soldiers left and right.

When Tameka wasn’t draining them to sleep, Pax was flexing their shared ability enough for mother and son.

Andrew strained to gain control against Celindria’s volition over her subjects, but she’d practiced for millennia to maintain control. He and Andrius paired together, however, proved quite the match.

Once, Celindria had inoculated herself against Progeny abilities with Rayne’s blood when it was infected with the shield virus. But there wasn’t enough for each soldier, allowing Ross, Devis, Kyle, and Bethany to send Celindria’s army to its knees, overwhelmed with their memories.

Tumu, Aria, and Torch could decompress to their sixty-five feet forms, but Celindria knew they aimed to avoid unnecessary casualties. At their full height, it was difficult not to squish those under her control and the citizens the Shadow had recruited to anchor her vessels. So, twelve-feet looked like their limit, and they took great advantage of it to leave her dolls down for the count.

Even Lamassau restrained himself from breathing fire and resorted to hand-to-hand combat. With his Pil platinum gauntlets, he easily rendered Celindria’s puppets useless. For a time.

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Celindria must admit, Pehton was always one of her favorite toys. And there she was, fighting alongside Celindria’s other favorite toy. In the flurry of battle, Chris and Pehton strayed from their units and met backs in a nasty swarm of Celindria’s dolls. As a human without abilities and a Lyrik with lethal ones, the no-kill tactics had reduced them to brute strength. The swarm mounted, grabbing and snatching at them. Celindria wanted to drag them into the Source and make them like her. Perhaps, once they understood her, they wouldn’t resist and would come home to her.

We are so alone.

Not all of us.

Ignoring the reminder of Celindria’s weakest link, she returned her focus to the battle. A task which proved more difficult as her dolls fell into the Source and multiplied across the Probability Matrix.

So many minds.

We are Eternal.

The Valkyrie proved the most bothersome out of the Shadow. Not only were Para and Karter skillfully laying down Celindria’s arms, they’d hidden reinforcements throughout the crowd. Hundreds of Valkyrie, Silence among them, fought against Celindria, honed in their craft. Elegant pirouettes with crushing blows were landed on tender junctions of nerve and function, eliminating Supreme soldiers.

Bones fought to protect Pablo and Qas, who not only disabled nacres, but administered vaccines without consent. Ethics had no place in war.

Caedes, Twenty-One, Puk, and Yito formed a box, narrowing in from all sides around several of Celindria’s squadrons.

With Iuo’s Lamian gifts, he combined his legs into one muscled tail and strangled his opponents unconscious, while Miy and the other Lyriks sang them to sleep.

Matt and Lucy, always together, looked less than satisfied as the boy squeezed his targets by their temples until they slipped to the ground, healing. And the girl zapped Celindria’s dolls with nacre-disabling pistols. Celindria’s nacre disabling pistols. Father must’ve saved them from her lab’s destruction in Enki. Pity.

Evoking immense concern from Celindria, Lucas and Smith stood on the stage and watched. That’s all. They stared into the chasm leading to the Source and waited.

When Jack laid low an entire battalion with a nacre-disabling shrapnel grenade, Celindria knew it was time to call in the drones.

Millions of F8’s people, the proud citizens of Monarch 3, marched into battle from fresh conduits already exposed to the Source against their wills.

Now they understand.

Now they beg for us to stay and never leave them.

Soon, the Shadow would join them.

All the while, throughout this experimental Probability, Celindria sent her dolls to reason with Nox. With his powerful fists, he leveled them with one restrained blow. In coordination with Rayne’s twirling baton attacks, they had decimated more foes than the entire Shadow combined. Already, Celindria had lost several thousand to their speed, agility, and strength.

“Please, come with me.” Doll down.

Another one went up to bat. “We can build Paradise together.” Felled.

They kept coming. “I never wanted to hurt you—”

“It was required for me to find Hope and Pax—”

“But if you come with me now, I can spare you from Eternity without me—”

“And free you from her.”

Rayne glanced over at the last and, in her distracted state, narrowly dodged a blade to her heart.

The look on Nox’s face when he saw Rayne in the slightest of danger…

Disgust rolled over Celindria.

How could he love her…

When he has us?

As Celindria’s lover and his temporary obsession danced in seamless, choreographed combat, the Probabilities furthest from the dominant one withered and vanished.

The Eternal Bind.

In Celindria’s true form at the Source, she clenched her fist around the ribbon.

Hundreds of Probabilities mirrored the current events within the dominant one. In all of them, she tried a different tactic to rip the Eternal Bind apart. When Jack, Ross, Bones, and Tameka were at Celindria’s mercy in her lab, she’d collected blood samples. The same samples she and Pax had manipulated only days ago to uncover the key to bypass the shield virus.

Our Pax in Paradise…

He saved us.

In one Probability, Celindria took Jack’s volition and attacked the Shadow. Gifted with his sister’s speed and strength, Celindria inside Jack swung fists and landed kicks faster than most could see. Blood and gore splashed everywhere as she mowed the Shadow down.

It took an entire sixty seconds for someone to notice. Pehton screamed, “She’s got Jack!” before he ripped her nacre from her chest.

After which, someone shot Jack with a nacre-disabling round and he went down. The Shadow switched to lethal means, and Celindria’s army fell in minutes. This Probability vanished.

In another Probability, Celindria tried with Ross. Not as familiar with the memory Progeny’s gifts, Celindria couldn’t focus the deadly overload attack and inadvertently killed her own army along with most of the Shadow. Unfortunately, Rayne, Kyle, and Bethany survived. With tears in their eyes, they laid Ross to rest, perhaps to spare her from living with killing the Shadow. This Probability vanished.

Bones wasn’t exactly gifted, so Celindria didn’t bother with him.

Now, Tameka.

That just might work.