Joan Ascends

Chapter 9: It ends sooner than you think

Flo runs a series of tests on me, confirming that the H2IV is all but gone from my system. As for me, the relief of being well again makes me feel like I could scale a mountain.

Harriet has arranged with Lexi that I will receive the antidote every 48 hours, so that I don't get so sick next time. Unfortunately, Lexi insists on giving me my next dose in person. In two days, we'll meet at a popular Throwback coffee shop.

When the Bunker is bustling with its usual activities and Justus leaves to check on his family, I manage to find a quiet corner to text Jo about what's been happening to me over the past two days, including my vision of the Chrysalis.

Supposedly my "destiny" is waiting for me there, but the idea of going alone gives me the creeps. Using the excuse that Leo knows that building better than anyone else, I ask Jo to bring him so the three of us can explore it.

An hour later we meet at the underground entrance to the Chrysalis. Jo looks impatient as she paces in front of the door, but Leo is completely still, staring blankly at the ground in front of him.

"What did you tell him?" I ask Jo, unable to look at Leo directly.

"Nothing," he says. "She's been grilling me about every piece of intel that Crew had gathered on Strand, and then she dragged me here. To the last place I want to be."

My hands clench into tight fists at my side. "What right do you have to be haunted by this place?"

"I thought you'd understand what it is to be tortured by your greatest mistakes," he says, and when his eyes meet mine, I'm surprised to see anger simmering in him, too.

"There are mistakes, and there is murder."

"You think I knew? That I had any part in the slaughter of those kids?" Leo's yelling now, and his voice echoes down the walls of the Lab. "Crew was a paranoid, narcissistic psychopath, and he knew that I had limits when it came to what I would do to advance Throwback rights. He never trusted me with the worst parts of his plan."

"Did you know about Circe Night? When those Strand executives were killed?" I demand.

Leo gives a short, sharp nod.

"What about those Evolved politicians that were mobbed on the street?"

"That got out of hand. Crew took it to a place I never dreamed even he would go. We were supposed to decide as a team who deserved death. Instead, he lit a fire and watched as the city burned."

"But you didn't leave! You stayed!"

"I had to make my move when the time was right."

"After you betrayed us," I spit.

"Enough. Both of you," Jo says. "We aren't here today to determine Leo's level of guilt, or to rehash the past."

"Fine," I huff. "Leo, get us in there. You go first so that any booby traps will take you out, not us."

"There are none," he says, and he sounds defeated, like all the fight has been drained out of him. "The only protection that still exists on the Chrysalis is the technology that ensures only people with cloned DNA can enter."

"Marie disabled that," I disagree.

Leo shrugs. "Crew had Dennis put it back in place as a nasty surprise for any Evolved who entered the building afterward."

My hands go cold at my side as I imagine what could have happened if Justus or Kat had entered this space for any reason. Their lives would have been snuffed out for nothing other than Crew's warped sense of justice, reaching from beyond the grave.