We’re all sitting on benches around the training room. Warner is sitting next to me and I’m doing everything I can to make sure our shoulders don’t accidentally touch.
“All right, so, first things first, right?” Winston says, looking around. “We have to get Sonya and Sara back. The question is how.” A pause. “We have no idea how to get to the supreme.”
Everyone looks at Warner. Warner looks at his watch. “Well?” Kenji says.
“Well, what?” Warner says, bored.
“Well, aren’t you going to help us?” Ian snaps. “This is your territory.”
Warner looks at me for the first time all evening. “You’re absolutely sure you trust these people?” he asks me. “All of them?”
“Yes,” I say quietly. “I really do.”
“Very well.” Warner takes a deep breath before addressing the group. “My father,” he says calmly, “is on a ship. In the middle of the ocean.”
“He’s on a ship?” Kenji asks, startled. “The capital is a ship?”
“Not exactly.” Warner hesitates. “But the point is, we have to lure him here. Going to him will not work. We have to create a problem big enough for him to be forced to come to us.” He looks at me then. “Juliette says she already has a plan.”
I nod. Take a deep breath. Study the faces before me. “I think we should take over Sector 45.”
Stunned silence.
“I think, together,” I tell them, “we’ll be able to convince the soldiers to fight on our side. At the end of the day, no one is benefiting from The Reestablishment except for the people in charge. The soldiers are tired and hungry and probably only took this job because there were no other options.” I pause. “We can rally the civilians and the soldiers. Everyone in
the sector. Get them to join us. And they know me,” I say. “The soldiers. They’ve already seen me—they know what I can do. But all of us together?” I shake my head. “That would be amazing. We could show them that we’re different. Stronger. We can give them hope—a reason to fight back.
“And then,” I say, “once we have their support, news will spread, and Anderson will be forced to come back here. He’ll have to try and take us down—he’ll have no other choice. And once he’s back, we take him out. We fight him and his army and we win. And then we take over the country.”
“My goodness.”
Castle is the first to speak.
“Ms. Ferrars,” he says, “you’ve given this a great deal of thought.” I nod.
Kenji is looking at me like he’s not sure if he should laugh or applaud. “What do you think?” I ask, looking around.
“What if it doesn’t work?” Lily says. “What if the soldiers are too scared to change their allegiance? What if they kill you instead?”
“That’s a definite possibility,” I say. “But I think if we’re strong enough
—if the nine of us stand united, with all of our strengths combined—I think they’ll believe we can do something pretty amazing.”
“Yeah but how will they know what our strengths are?” Brendan asks. “What if they don’t believe us?”
“We can show them.”
“And if they shoot us?” Ian counters.
“I can do it alone, if you’re worried about that. I don’t mind. Kenji was teaching me how to project my energy before the war, and I think if I can learn to master that, I could do some pretty scary things. Things that might impress them enough to join us.”
“You can project?” Winston asks, eyes wide. “You mean you can, like, mass-kill everyone with your life-sucking thing?”
“Um, no,” I say. “I mean, well, yes, I suppose I could do that, too, but I’m not talking about that. I mean I can project my strength. Not the … life- sucking thing—”
“Wait, what strength?” Brendan asks, confused. “I thought it’s your skin that’s lethal?”
I’m about to respond when I remember that Brendan and Winston and Ian were all taken hostage before I’d begun to seriously train. I don’t know
that they knew much about my progress at all.
So I start from the top.
“My … power,” I say, “has to do with more than just my skin.” I glance at Kenji. Gesture to him. “We’d been working together for a while, trying to figure out what it was, exactly, I was capable of, and Kenji realized that my true energy is coming from deep within me, not the surface. It’s in my bones, my blood, and my skin,” I try to explain. “My real power is an insane kind of superstrength.
“My skin is just one element of that,” I tell them. “It’s like the most heightened form of my energy, and the craziest form of protection; it’s like my body has put up a shield. Metaphorical barbed wire. It keeps intruders away.” I almost laugh, wondering when it became so easy for me to talk about this stuff. To be comfortable with it. “But I’m also strong enough to break through just about anything,” I tell them, “and without even injuring myself. Concrete. Brick. Glass—”
“The earth,” Kenji adds.
“Yes,” I say, smiling at him. “Even the earth.”
“She created an earthquake,” Alia says eagerly, and I’m actually surprised to hear her voice. “During the first battle,” she tells Brendan and Winston and Ian. “When we were trying to save you guys. She punched the ground and it split open. That’s how we were able to get away.”
The guys are gawking at me.
“So, what I’m trying to say,” I tell them, “is that if I can project my strength, and really learn to control it? I don’t know.” I shrug. “I could move mountains, probably.”
“That’s a bit ambitious.” Kenji grins, ever the proud parent. “Ambitious, but probably not impossible.” I grin back.
“Wow,” Lily says. “So you can just … destroy stuff? Like, anything?” I nod. Glance at Warner. “Do you mind?”
“Not at all,” he says. His eyes are carefully inscrutable.
I get to my feet and walk over to the stacks of dumbbells, all the while prepping myself mentally to tap into my energy. This is still the trickiest part for me: learning how to moderate my strength with finesse.
I pick up a fifty-pound free weight and carry it over to the group.
For a moment I wonder if this should feel heavy to me, especially considering how it weighs about half of what I do, but I can’t really feel it.
I sit back down on the bench. Rest the weight on the ground.
“What are you going to do with that?” Ian asks, eyes wide. “What do you want me to do?” I ask him.
“You’re telling me you can just, like, rip that apart or whatever?” Winston says.
I nod.
“Do it,” Kenji says. He’s practically bouncing in his seat. “Do it do it.” So I do.
I pick it up, and literally crush the weight between my hands. It becomes a mangled mess of metal. A fifty-pound lump. I rip it in half and drop the two pieces on the floor.
The benches shake.
“Sorry,” I say quickly, looking around. “I didn’t mean to toss it like that
—”
“Goddamn,” Ian says. “That is so cool.” “Do it again,” Winston says, eyes bright.
“I’d really rather she didn’t destroy all of my property,” Warner cuts in. “Hey, so—wait—,” Winston says, realizing something as he stares at
Warner. “You can do that, too, can’t you? You can just take her power and use it like that, too?”
“I can take all of your powers,” Warner corrects him. “And do whatever I want with them.”
The terror in the room is a very palpable thing. I frown at Warner. “Please don’t scare them.” He says nothing. Looks at nothing.
“So the two of you”—Ian tries to find his voice—“I mean, together— you two could basically—”
“Take over the world?” Warner is looking at the wall now.
“I was going to say you could kick some serious ass, but yeah, that, too, I guess.” Ian shakes his head.
“Are you sure you trust this guy?” Lily asks me, jerking a thumb at Warner and looking at me like she’s seriously, genuinely concerned. “What if he’s just using you for your power?”
“I trust him with my life,” I say quietly. “I already have, and I’d do it again.”
Warner looks at me and looks away, and for a brief second I catch the charge of emotion in his eyes.
“So, let me get this straight,” Winston says. “Our plan is to basically seduce the soldiers and civilians of Sector 45 into fighting with us?”
Kenji crosses his arms. “Yeah, it sounds like we’re going to go all peacock and hope they find us attractive enough to mate with.”
“Gross.” Brendan frowns.
“Despite how weird Kenji just made this sound,” I say, shooting a stern look in his direction, “the answer is yes, basically. We can provide them with a group to rally around. We take charge of the army, and then take charge of the people. And then we lead them into battle. We really, truly fight back.”
“And if you win?” Castle asks. He’s been so quiet all this time. “What do you plan to do then?”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Let’s say you are successful,” he says. “You defeat the supreme. You kill him and his men. Then what? Who will take over as the supreme commander?”
“I will.”
The room gasps. I feel Warner go stiff beside me. “Damn, princess,” Kenji says quietly.
“And then?” Castle asks, ignoring everyone but me. “After that?” His eyes are worried. Scared, almost. “You’re going to kill whoever else stands in your way? All the other sector leaders, all across the nation? That’s 554 more wars—”
“Some will surrender,” I tell him.
“And the others?” he asks. “How can you lead a nation in the right direction when you’ve just slaughtered all who oppose you? How will you be any different from those you’ve defeated?”
“I trust myself,” I tell him, “to be strong enough to do what’s right. Our world is dying right now. You said yourself that we have the means to reclaim our land—to change things back to the way they were. Once power is in the right place—with us—you can rebuild what you started at Omega Point. You’ll have the freedom to implement those changes to our land, water, animals, and atmosphere, and save millions of lives in the process— giving the new generations hope for a different future. We have to try,” I tell him. “We can’t just sit back and watch people die when we have the power to make a difference.”
The room goes silent. Still.
“Hell,” Winston says. “I’d follow you into battle.” “Me too,” Alia says.
“And me.” Brendan.
“You know I’m in,” Kenji says.
“Me too,” Lily and Ian say at the same time.
Castle takes a deep breath. “Maybe,” he says. He leans back in his chair, clasps his hands. “Maybe you’ll be able to do right what I did wrong.” He shakes his head. “I am twenty-seven years your senior and I’ve never had your confidence, but I do understand your heart. And I trust that you say what you believe to be true.” A pause. A careful look. “We will support you. But know now that you are taking on a great and terrifying responsibility. One that may backfire in an irreversible way.”
“I do understand that,” I say quietly.
“Very well then, Ms. Ferrars. Good luck, and godspeed. Our world is in your hands.”
