The Traitor

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Invasion

With one minute to go before the Daines finished their explosive wall and blew it up, we rushed down the stairs and positioned ourselves in front of the large metal door. Despite the multiple locks which now held the huge door closed, I knew they wouldn't protect us from what was coming.

We faced the massive doorway and took fighter stance, preparing ourselves both mentally and physically. How we were going to hold off all of those Daines on the other side of the wall with just us three, I didn't know. There had to be something Jasper wasn't telling me; something that would help us hold off the Other Side. I didn't know much about RAYs, but what I did know was that 1) we were half-robotic and 2) we were designed to be 'bait'- whatever that meant. I wasn't sure how either of those things was supposed to help us defend ourselves in the battle against the Daines, so if that was all we had, then we were as good as dead.

I decided to watch Savannah and Jasper and hope I could catch on to whatever they weren't telling me, so I mimicked their exact position and turned toward the door. I'm ready, I thought. Bring it on.

As if on cue, a deafening explosion echoed through the air, blasting the wall in front of us to shards. Debris rained down, but as I stood there, hands covering my head, nothing came close to hitting me. I finally got up the courage to look up from the ground and I almost had a heart attack. Jasper was still standing up straight, unphased by the explosion, but I noticed his arms were held above his head, and a glowing bubble encircled around us, protecting us from the falling rock shards. I almost fell back in shock as I watched debris bounce off the field which kept us protected from the explosion. So that's what they weren't telling me, I thought.

Finally, everything stopped, but only for half a second, then the Daines began making their way toward the large hole blown into the front wall. Jasper took a step forward in confidence, followed by Savannah, but I stayed back, not exactly eager to see any of the Daines right at that moment.

Connor was the first one inside, followed by two other older boys I didn't recognize. Then came Lauren and Sophia among a large group of people I vaguely remembered seeing around. I was not prepared to face them, so I took another step back, but not before Connor noticed me.

"Teya!" he shouted as he took a step toward me, but Jasper took a long stride to his left and stopped in front of me, blocking Connor from advancing anymore toward me. "Let her go," Connor demanded in a confident tone.

But Jasper just laughed. "What? Didn't she tell you? She's working with us now." He turned around and winked at me, to which I said nothing.

Connor looked over at me in confusion, trying to comprehend what Jasper had just said. "Teya, what is he talking about?"

But before I could answer, Jasper cut in, "You see, Teya's not like the rest of you. She's special. She, along with Savannah and I, is what we like to call a RAY, which, put into simpler words, means superhuman." There were audible gasps throughout the crowd which stood before us and I noticed Lauren wearing a hurt expression. I wanted to say something to her; to apologize, but I knew there wasn't anything I could say that would explain my side of the story. "And after realizing that, she came to us, knowing only we could help her after every single one of you didn't believe her about not bombing the train." Jasper finished his speech and smiled in satisfaction at the confused expressions he received in response to his shocking words. As much as I wanted to correct him, I was afraid of what might happen if I did.

Connor's expression fell. "Teya, I-"

"It's too late," Jasper interrupted. "She's one of us now. You should have believed her when you had the chance. But now she's going to help defend the Wen territory against her ex-team." He glared at Connor as he said it as if rubbing in the fact that he was talking about him.

But this time, instead of looking upset, Connor's face twisted in anger. "You traitor!" he shouted at me, then started running toward me. I took a step back, but Jasper blocked him from getting to me, holding him off.

He then shoved Connor to the ground, causing him to hit his head hard on a large piece of rubble that had landed there during the explosion. Then Jasper took a step closer to him and brought up what looked like a force field, holding it in a large basketball-sized sphere above his head, ready to throw at Connor.

Before thinking twice, I suddenly jumped in front of Connor, standing in between him and Jasper. "Stop!" I yelled. "Don't hurt him."

Jasper lowered his hands in surprise at my sudden movement. "What are you doing?" he growled. "Get out of my way!"

But I stood my ground, fear growing inside of me by the passing second. "No, I can't let you do this." I felt my legs begin to tremble as Jasper's face turned even more red in anger.

He gritted his teeth. "Get behind me Teya!" He brought his hands back up above his head and the glowing sphere reformed between his fingers.

"No!" I screamed, and just as I did, I felt a strong wave of energy leave me, blowing everything within a ten foot radius of me back. It felt powerful, almost like the violent shake of an unexpected earthquake. I heard a scream and I whipped around just in time to see Lauren being blown back and hitting the wall behind her hard, then falling to the ground. I gasped in shock and confusion as those who weren't bending over Lauren turned to stare at me.

I bolted from the room.