X-Marks: Rising Shadows

Cuts

"You were wrong about one thing," Nate said and stepped out of the shadows, "About me."

"Now is not the time to save your name," Gen said and shook her head slowly, "You friends have only thirty minutes before the lower city is destroyed. Don't waste their time with your useless comments."

Nate rolled up the sleeve of his baggy gray sweater where the bandage on his arm once was. There on his pale arm was a faded pink scar in the shape of a capital B.

Gen's mouth parted as her head turned to the mark on his arm and Dimitri's grip loosed on my neck.

"The only one who forgot about something was you," Nat said and lifted the slate in his other hand.

Dimitri let go of my neck, releasing me to the ground as he sprinted towards Nate.

"Dimitri," Gen shouted and pointed to Nate, "Stop him!"

Dimitri continued forward as Nate typed quickly into the slate, and before Dimitri could reach Nate, he fell and quivered on the ground.

"Ahhhh," Dimitri yelled and held onto his bracelet as if it was causing pain.

"He's a damn breaker!" Gen said and held onto her bracelet from the floor as well.

Shards of glass were scattered across the glossy white floor. Gen had broken a case on her way down.

"Quick!" Nate said and pointed to us, "Get something to tie them up! We don't have much time."

Evee and Macie lifted their bag from the floor and pulled out a long metal cord.

"Mat and Valen," Nate said and handed me a cord, "Tie up Dimitri and Evee and Macie will get Gen."

Mat held my hand and lifted me from the ground. We walked towards Dimitri who was lying limp on the ground. The screen of his bracelet was blinking red and his eyes were closed.

"I think he passed out," Mat said and held Dimitri's arms behind his back, "Valen tie his wrist."

I wrapped the metal cord around Dimitri's wrist with my shaking hands. Evee and Macie tied Gen's wrist to a steel chair with her head slumped, and chin tucked into her chest.

"Nate," I said and looked up, "What did you do?"

"I released a shock function to their bracelets," Nate said and continued to press his fingers on the slate, "It's only supposed to be used by officers, but once I broke into the Union's security functions I enabled it on Dimitri's slate."

"Nate, where did you learn to do this?" Evee said beside him.

"Evee," Nate said and softened his voice, "Remember when I told you about my family?"

Evee nodded.

"We were breakers," Nate continued, "My parents taught my sister and me how to break into the Allies computer systems to help the travelers free the centers. But I made a mistake that let the Allies find our hiding spot instead. That was when you found me. After they killed my family for being breakers."

"Nate," Evee said with a quivering lip, "I didn't -"

"What?" Nate smirked and looked down at the "B" shaped marked on his arm, "You thought you were the only ones marked."

"Very impressive," Gen said and lifted her head from her chair, "But you're only wasting time. The lower city will be destroyed with or without you."

"Do you ever get tired of being wrong?" Nate laughed and lowered his slate.

Gen moved her head back and raised her brows.

"That was just a test as you would probably call it," Nate said and looked down at Dimitri's lifeless body, "With every person in the upper city fitted with a bracelet. I guess there is nothing stopping me from going a bit bigger."

"You wouldn't," Gen said with a sting in her voice.

"Then again," Nate said and looked up toward the ceiling, "There's nothing to stop me from erasing your research data and their backups on our way out either."

"Idiot child," Gen said and raised her voice, "You have no idea what you are doing."

"Oh I most certainly do," Nate said and lifted his chin, "Let us and the lower city go, and you'll never hear from me again. The choice is yours."

Gen sat silent for a moment. I had never seen her this silent before. Her cold eyes left me breathless. What was she thinking? Had Nate done enough to stop this?

"I will let you go," Gen said with a bitter bite in her tone, "But you are making the biggest mistake you will ever make."

"Haven't you done enough," I shouted, "People have died because of what you've done. Good people!"

"It's not your fault, you've always been so easy to manipulate, Valen. Haven't you? All you need is a little attention, and you're willing to do just about anything. If anything you're just as at fault as me."

"That's not true," I said, a tear streaking down my cheek as I thought of Buggy and Ocean.

"There are those who are meant to be dead," Gen said with a smirk, "Consider them to be fortunate ever to have lived at all."

I raced to a jagged piece of glass on the floor, pressed it in my hand and felt the hard sting of its razor-like edge. I swung my hand up past my shoulders and sprinted towards Gen.

"Valen, no!" Mat screamed.

I swung at her smirking face and sliced a crooked gash across her brow to the corner of her lips. I stepped back with my bloody hand on my mouth.

I didn't see it at first. It was so small. It was as if my eyes were adjusting to the light. Then it started. The open wound between Gen's gash began to gather in rapid strings as the wound patched the skin closed and return to its perfect smoothness.

I looked at Gen's arm for a healing patch or a treatment pack of some kind. There was nothing. Even if there was, I've never seen a wound heal so quickly.

"How did she -" I said and stared at the blood on my hands.

"There are those who are born only to die," Gen said and rolled her neck as if it was stiff, "I was born to survive, designed to carry on the vision of this Union. My father made sure of that."

"That's why you were working so hard to create the evergreen cell," Nate said and stepped back, "You didn't just want the Union to live forever. You needed them to be like you. It was you who recreated the evergreen cell wasn't it?"

"Altruistic, selfish or as I would call it practical. Regardless, there are many who depend on this survival of this Union," Gen said.

"We don't have time for you or your pathetic speeches," Nate said and began to walk towards the door, "We need to get to the lower city. Come now, let's go."

"Yes, and do be quick," Gen said, "You've already wasted one minute and forty-seven seconds."

"Until what?" Nate said and halted in place.

"You think you're the only ones to try to kill me?" Gen laughed, "I had an implant installed years ago."

"What do you mean?" I said standing closer, her cool blood dripping between my fingers.

"When my cortisol levels increase the implant sends my location to the nearest security station. With a reported loss of blood they will be here even sooner," Gen said and locked her eyes with mine, "Thank you again, Valen."

The shard of glass in my hand continued to drip Gen's blood onto the floor. I watched it gather into a pool at my feet and onto a diamond shaped tile. The others began to run towards the door, but the bloody tile beneath my feet was now pulsing and glowing blue.

I moved my foot and watched the title slide away on the floor, revealing a familiar leather-bound book beneath the floor. The book was labeled, "To My Catalyst" in silver letters on its bind. Without a moment to spare, I reached down and picked up the book.

"You stupid-," Gen shouted, her eyes wide with violent furor, "Put that back! Or I'll have you hanged!"

Gen continued to thrash her body as the metal legs of the chair scraped against the floor.

Without another glance, I tucked the book into the sleeve of my coat, and I walked away and into the elevator with the others.