Endosymbiosis

46. Digestion

I followed Korrok to one of the rooms deep in the underground city, where the energy-filled cartridges I was supplying for the revolution fed Venerna.

"I need you to disconnect them." Korrok said. "Only authorized people can do this, but I can't find them anymore."

I couldn't blame them. When I heard the roars and gunfire exploding in the city, I wanted to run as far away as possible too. But I couldn't just turn my back on those who never turned on me.

I begged my fingers to stop trembling and connected my enhancement cable to the panel that controlled the energy flow, accessing the machine.

If the Arkadi of years ago could see the risk I was taking now so that cause could take a few more sighs, he would have thought that, somewhere along the way, I had lost my mind. He wouldn't understand how living could have fallen so much on my priorities list and would beg me to get away from there as quickly as possible, but I couldn't abandon the cause that, below my feet, had kept my head above the surface. Now I needed to do the same for Venerna.

I bypassed the barriers that prevented access to the controls with my enhancement and activated the permission so that cartridges could be disconnected. Korrok and I immediately ripped them from their posts and tossed them through a tunnel in the wall to the transport ships, until tiredness was audible in our breaths. With each capsule removed, Venerna's mechanical sounds diminished more and more, making the screams above more audible and my hands more shaky.

We were like sailors, throwing water out of a boat that sank in the middle of an inescapable storm... May the depths have pity on our souls.

"Did you imagine this would happen?" I muttered.

"I would be stupid not to... But this is like death, Phaga: we know it's coming, but we never expect it."

I wondered how close I could be to my death... But before I could come up with a guess, Korrok threw one of the cartridges into the tunnel with more force than the others, as tormented by the whole situation as me.

"Watch out." I warned. "You don't want to break one of them."

Korrok looked at me for a moment and nodded silently.

"How many do you think we're going to need, Phaga?"

"It depends on how long the revolution will last."

The vorrampe straightened, his imposing red stature fueled by a surge of determination that sent shivers down my spine.

"We'll get this over with." He growled and rested his claw on my shoulder. "We're coming to the end, my friend... And then we'll finally have justice. By victory; or by death."

Had I done enough that any ending I encountered would be fair?

No... A universe that cared about justice wouldn't let me end that war outside a grave.

• • • ֍ • • •

We ran through the dark corridors towards the parking lot, where our escape ships were. The only light in our path was that of the fishes of Venerna, shining just enough for me to make out Korrok's silhouette leading the way in the darkness. My legs tried to keep up with his, but then I stepped on a loose rock that crackled beneath my feet.

When the light from the flashlight of one of the fageines landed on my face, my vision was blinded by the death that was staring me in the face... But then something bounced on my cheek and fell on the floor.

Suddenly everything became easier to see. My vision expanded, until there wasn't a single silhouette I couldn't decipher, too efficient to really be mine... Because my real eyes were on the ground, while the fevino's ones were on my face.

My body dodged the first shot, but I wasn't sure that moviment was my command. His second shot, however, hit my arm and ripped my hand away in an explosion of blood. But the pain didn't even hit me, because, in the blink of an eye, the fevino's claws replaced the empty space and flew over the fageine.

I ripped a chunk out of the creature's milky body and sent his flashlight flying away. The fageine let out a shrill scream and fired at me again, but even with the fevino's reflexes, the enemy managed to hit my foot, quikly replaced by the beast's much more agile limb beneath my skin. I lunged toward the creature, and when I flew my claws into his eye, the fageine let out one last shot.

The projectile flashed and hit my abdomen, getting lodged deep within. My claws flew at the fageine's weapon and flung it away as well, as a stinging flame erupted in my core. My human hand landed on the wound to hold my shattered insides, the human organs the fevino couldn't replace.

My vision blurred, my legs weakened, and when my body collapsed into the pool of blood as the fageine approached, I knew I was screwed.

I tried to crawl away across the ground with my claws digging into the rock, but I couldn't escape.

So there was my death...

There were no rebel soldiers there to help me; the fevino's strength had drained through the ground with my blood; Korrok had left me behind now that he no longer needed me; and Doxy had waved me goodbye with her last look, maybe heading for death, maybe making peace with mine...

I was alone.

Truly and completely alone.

I would die like a parasite, painting Venerna with my blood trail. My remains would stay there, eternalized on the ground until they formed one of the layers of that slope, never to be seen again. I would be nothing, just as I had been before; just as I never ceased to be.

I felt the fageine's body wrap around my foot, the pain so excruciating that I thought hell was engulfing me, not even letting me go through purgatory. I tried to push myself farther forward, but when the blood ran out of my head, everything went black and I passed out into eternity.