Until We Break (7 page)

“She is your blood. You care about her. That is reason enough.” Ev could feel the tears coming and knew there was no stopping them. But Hades suddenly said, “Not yet. I will not allow you the luxury of grieving so soon. Your suffering must continue. For now, embrace the darkness, the nothingness.”

Everything faded to black, and Ev was suddenly in a void not unlike Gehenna. But Gehenna had the Tower of Babel and other things inside it; he somehow knew there was absolutely nothing here. It was completely empty.

He cried out for someone to hear him, to find him, to
help
him. He was ashamed of his weakness, but he couldn’t help it; he desperately wanted to be anywhere but here.

Maya. He wanted to see her again. He didn’t deserve it, though; he had failed to avenge Mom, he had killed his own father and Arcturus Reich, and he knew he should die here as penance. He believed this with every fiber of his being.

Nevertheless, selfishness won out, and he found himself wishing he could be with Maya one last time.
If only I could hear her voice.

Suddenly, he heard something in this desolate void:
“Thank you, Professor. But I can’t just stand by while Ev faces his execution. I’m going to save him.”
It was far off, yet distinct. Someone was speaking.

He moved his arms and legs to swim through the gulf that separated them. Further and further he went—as least, he
thought
he was moving—until he spotted a light up ahead. He reached out. He could almost touch it…

* * *

“Please don’t do this, Maya,” Freya said as Maya got up to leave.

“I won’t change my mind,” she said.

“Ev wouldn’t want you getting yourself killed.”

“It doesn’t matter what he wants,” Maya insisted. “You said it yourself; love is selfish. We both know you’d do the same thing for Professor Strong. We’ve all seen how you look at him.”

“That has nothing to do with—”

Maya held up a hand to silence her. “You know it doesn’t matter what you say to me. I’m going.”

Sighing, Freya said, “Jaysin, please talk some sense into her.”

He shrugged. “That would make me quite the hypocrite, dontcha think? Me, who risked my life to save
her
, telling her not to do the same for someone else? I’m afraid I can’t do that. In fact, I’m inclined to go with her.”

“This isn’t a game!” Freya said, her emotional control almost gone. “You can’t just go running off to die! If you die, how will that make Ev feel?” Her hands were shaking.

After an awkward silence, Maya said, “This has happened to you before, hasn’t it? Someone you loved went on some mission and died, didn’t they?”

Freya explained, “I have loved many people during my life. Mortals, they think they have to do something grand to impress a goddess. In those days, they would go off on epic adventures, risking their lives to win my favor. It’s not like the old tales; instead of succeeding and living happily ever after, they inevitably got themselves killed. I didn’t want to burden you with my problems, Maya, but you’ve left me no choice. I know I said love is selfish, but there is such a thing as being
too
selfish. Think about what it would do to Ev if you got butchered by Zero Grade. Think of what it would do to your friends. What about CiCi? She’s counting on you being there for her during her recovery.”

There was another uncomfortable pause. Maya balled her fist, doubt wracking her soul. What should she do? It was an impossible choice.

Finally she said, “I—”

He words were cut off by a figure falling from the ceiling. Her eyes went wide as she saw who it was. “Ev!”

He was unconscious and covered in black ooze, but it was definitely him. “Where on Narska did he come from?” Jaysin said.

They looked up. A mysterious black hole had formed in the ceiling. They could see nothing beyond it. Within moments, it closed. “Hades,” Freya said.

Maya blinked. “What?”

“Ev got swallowed up into Hades of the Flawless Few. He should have been lost forever. I’ve never heard of anyone escaping before.” She felt his pulse. “He’s still alive.”

Maya hugged his limp body. She didn’t care if she got slime on her clothes. Ev was alive and her world remained complete.

* * *

They promptly took Ev to the infirmary and laid him down next to CiCi’s bed. “Ev!” she said upon laying eyes on him. “What happened?”

They explained the situation to her and Dian Cecht. He took it in with his usual stoic attitude, while she expressed shock. They hadn’t even told her Ev had left the Academy.

After examining him, Dian Cecht made his diagnosis. “Ev is in a coma due to the shock of his experiences. No one but Hades himself can pass through his dimension unharmed. I’ve never heard of anyone surviving it before. Quite frankly, Ev should be dead.”

“You sound almost disappointed,” Maya said. She wished the physician would show a little more happiness at Ev’s continued status among the living.

“I’m merely trying to keep you from getting your hopes up. I don’t know if he’ll ever recover from this. Hades’ realm has wrecked his body and I may not be able to fully repair the damage, though I’ll do what I can.”

Maya’s heart sank. “So then…Ev might stay this way for the rest of his life?”

He nodded grimly. “There is a strong possibility of that, although I can’t say for certain. The effects of Hades’ realm on other life forms have not been studied because no one has ever emerged from it before. Ev may recover quickly or not at all.”

“Damn you!” Maya yelled, and they had to hold her back. “You say these things as if you don’t care! Doesn’t this bother you even a little?”

“I assure you, I have only the utmost concern for Ev’s life, though I don’t show it. I learned long ago that a doctor must avoid showing too much emotion for his patient. Getting excited won’t help Ev.”

Maya managed to calm down. “Fine. But don’t you
dare
give anything less than your best when it comes to treating him.”

Brandon came rushing into the room, nearly knocking everyone else over. “I heard what happened. Where is he?” They directed him to where Ev lay, and he staggered over to him. “No! Oh, Ev. This is all my fault,” he said, agony etched on his face. “I shouldn’t have listened to Bethos. I should have gone after you.”

Freya put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Don’t blame yourself. You couldn’t have gotten there in time to save him.”

“But I could have! If only I’d left as soon as I found out he was missing.”

“You didn’t even know where he had gone,” Jaysin said. “For all you knew, he had gone somewhere else.”

Brandon shook his head. “No. I knew. We all did. We just chose to not do anything about it.”

“Dammit, Brandon, Bethos was right. It would have been suicide to go charging into Upton. You’d be lying dead beside everyone else in that town,” Freya said.

Brandon stared at Ev in silence. He knew she was right, but he would continue to blame himself for this. Maya decided right now she had to be strong. “So what’s our next move?”

Freya explained, “The president is summoning all alumni and former faculty members. Once they arrive, we can plan our attack. Until then, I don’t want anyone running off and getting themselves killed. Is that understood?”

Maya nodded.

“No worries there, mate; I have a very strong survival instinct.”

“Good,” Freya said. “In the mean time, I want everyone training for the coming battles. Spread the word.”

“Right,” Maya said.

“And away I go,” Jaysin added.

Chapter V

Six hundred miles southwest of Vinguard was Brazo Mountain, a heavily fortified military installation. Built decades ago through tunneling and explosives, the complex continued to act as the Morovian military’s heart and brain during crises.

Right now, Joe Lambda and his staff were inside an elevator heading down into the deepest levels. “Are you going to tell me what we came out here for?” he asked his Secretary of Technology.

Cid Larson adjusted his thin brown glasses. In his mid sixties, Larson still had a mostly full, albeit gray, head of hair. He was short and stocky but with a sharp mind. “We’re here so that I can show you our possible salvation.”

Intrigued, Lambda said, “So we
do
have a means of fighting Zero Grade?”

“Possibly. It remains untested and I don’t want to get your hopes up just yet.”

“If this is so important, why wasn’t I told about it until now?”

“This was classified to the highest level. Even the president can only be told when he has a need to know.”

Anger rising, Lambda said, “You mean to tell me there are things even the president isn’t allowed to know?”

“I assure you, Mr. President, I don’t decide these things. You know the law. But with the uprising in attacks by superpowered beings, I decided you needed to know.”

“I feel I should remind everyone of something,” Lyra said.

Lambda looked at her. “What is it?”

“Ahem. Well, during the incidents in Stiftung and the Tru Republic, eyewitnesses reported seeing different groups of superhumans fighting one another.”

He knew where she was going with this. “You think we’re not just dealing with Zero Grade, that there’s another group to worry about.”

“Yes, sir. But if this other group is actively opposing Zero Grade, we might be able to…I don’t know…work together?”

They exited the elevator and began walking down a sterile corridor. “You can’t be serious,” Haig said. “Neither of these groups can be trusted. Just look at all the damage they’ve caused.”

Hinsom chimed in. “Under the circumstances, collateral damage may have been unavoidable. Zero Grade was active within a civilian population on both occasions.”

“Exactly,” Lyra said. “If this other group hadn’t intervened, our best estimates show the casualties would have been even higher.”

They came to a massive steel door with the words “LEVEL 8 CLEARANCE ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT. LETHAL FORCE IS AUTHORIZED.” That meant only the president and Larson could pass.

The president turned to him. “This is your show, Cid. Why don’t you do the honors.”

Larson leaned in to the retinal scanner and placed his thumb on another scanner below it. A green light coming from both confirmed his identity, and the door opened with a loud creak. They took a step back to avoid getting hit by it.

They then entered the long, well-lit lab. Like the rest of the facility, it was metallic and
very
clean.
Un
like the rest of the facility, it was filled with glass cases full of… stuff.

Lambda whistled. “Very impressive, Cid. But what is all this?”

“Earlier this year, when the superhumans attacked the Tru Republic, Adlo sustained heavy damage. The South District was the hardest hit, with superhumans actively fighting in the streets. We’re not sure, but we believe they were battling over McCormack Technologies Incorporated, as that building was at ground zero.”

“It might have just been a coincidence,” Lambda suggested.

Larson shook his head. “Unlikely. Prior to the fighting, there was a series of explosions underneath the building. The official blueprints show nothing underneath, but when authorities dug their way down there, they found the remains of a high-tech facility similar to this one, albeit much smaller. A facility that wasn’t supposed to exist. Much of it was destroyed, obviously, but they were able to salvage some things, like…” They stopped in front of a case with some sort of heavily damaged mechanical outfit.

“Is this a robot?” a stunned Lambda said. The others gave in to excited murmuring.

“Not quite, Mr. President,” Larson said as they surveyed the jet-black assemblage of torso, limbs and head. “It’s a sort of bionic integration system. You put this—well, let’s call it a suit—on and it enhances your physical capabilities. We believe the superhumans were planning to use it to become even stronger, if you can believe that.”

“It seems I have no choice
but
to believe it,” Lambda said. “Do we know which side was using that facility?”

“No, sir. MTI is a legitimate corporation, but its board of directors disappeared after the incident. The Trus examined the remaining employees, but found them to be perfectly normal humans.”

“How did we even get a hold of this technology?” Lyra said.

“I can’t imagine the Trus gave it up out of the goodness of their hearts,” Hinsom said.

Larson nervously cleared his throat. “Well… you remember that emergency relief bill we pushed through to help them after the incident? We didn’t do that out of the goodness of
our
hearts. We knew they had the tech, and we wanted it. So we made a deal.”

Lambda glared at him. “You mean to tell me we exploited them? That’s outrageous!”

Putting up his hands defensively, Larson replied, “Mr. President, I understand your concerns. I can assure you the Trus benefited greatly from this. They got the aid they needed, and they only gave us a small fraction of the tech they found. Their technological progress will make leaps and bounds, same as ours. We couldn’t very well take
everything
; we’re in this together, and we’ll need each other’s help to get through this crisis.”

Lambda took a step back and thought about it. What Larson said made a lot of sense, and every nation would need all the help it could get to defeat Zero Grade. “Fine. But I want this technology fast-tracked and shared with every other country. Find out how it works and get it into the hands of as many people as possible.”

“We’re actually very close,” Larson said, clearly pleased with himself. “Give us a few weeks and we should have the first prototypes up and running. However, as this tech was meant for humanoids, we’ll have to use actual humans to test it in a timely manner. We’ll need volunteers, and there’s no telling what will happen to them during testing.”

Lambda nodded resolutely. “Promise them whatever you have to, but get it going as fast as possible.” He met the gazes of each of them. “And, of course, I’m expecting secrecy from each of you. Don’t tell anyone who doesn’t need to know what you’ve seen and heard here today. Am I understood? Our entire civilization depends on it.”

“Yes, Mr. President,” they said in unison.

* * *

The next day, the Academy reinforcements arrived. This colorful and eclectic group hailed from many different religions and walks of life. The second-year students and up were summoned to the hangar to meet them.

Izanagi. A trim, sharply-dressed man in a dark suit with narrow eyes. He had a somewhat effeminate face and mannerisms. He looked vaguely similar to the history professor, Ji Gong.

His wife, Izanami, who wore a flowing, navy-blue dress. She was a beautiful woman with alabaster skin similar to her husband’s, and long black hair which fell to her waist in luxurious curls. The duo represented a long-dead religion called
Shinto
from the nation of Japan in the previous universe. The Japanese people had referred to their gods as
kami
.

From the same region of the previous universe came Hotei. He was bald, overweight, and wore cheap robes, but beamed with a perpetual smile. Prayer beads adorned his neck, and he carried his meager possessions in a sack made out of cloth. He represented an ancient religion called Buddhism.

He brought with him his friend Son Goku, a youth with dark wild hair. Son Goku just wore a red vest and brown headband. He had no pants; instead, his lower half was covered in fur like some kind of monkey, and nothing obscene was visible.

Next up was Baldr “The Brave,” the god of light in the old religion known as Norse. He had silky beige hair and wore what the students were told was an embellished version of traditional Viking attire (Ancient Religion was an Academy class). He was the brother of the more famous Thor.

Rounding out the new arrivals was Fionn mac Cumhaill (or “Mac” to his friends), a legendary warrior of Irish mythology. The students gaped as they laid eyes on him. He had fair skin and hair, but he was easily Atlas’ equal in size and muscles. He strode through the hangar like a king in his resplendent green and red armor, and Dian Cecht greeted him warmly; it was the first time any of them had seen the physician smile. The two of them came from the same mythology and obviously had a longstanding relationship.

These legendary deities stood in a row with their backs to the hangar door, and after making the introductions, Bethos announced that more would be arriving soon.

Maya had a hard time paying attention to what was said. Her thoughts continually drifted back to Ev and his comatose state. What if he never woke up? What if he stayed a vegetable forever? She felt her heart being crushed by these thoughts. She knew it wasn’t healthy, but she was only human at heart, and she resisted in vain. She had no idea what she would do if Ev never recovered. Would she stay by his bedside for the rest of his life, and if so, how long would that be? He wasn’t quite a mere mortal anymore and there was no telling how long he would live. Would he live longer than mere humans, or shorter due to the effects of Hades’ attack?

She shook her head. Such thoughts would end up killing her. Nevertheless, they continued to have sway over her soul.