HERO

62 / The Reset

There is no rule to dictate how long an embrace should last. It differs, depending on the circumstances. Lovers. Friends. Happiness and sorrow. Birth and death and everything in between.

Thomas and Bren were holding each other for much more than the death of the boy's father. They had killed. They had suffered. They had known such fear. And they had survived.

But, at what cost? Thomas had just wanted to be like everyone else. He wanted a normal life. Bren wanted acceptance. She, too, wanted to fit in, though in her own way. And now, it seemed everything lay in ruins around them.

After a while, they separated. The only sound in the room was coming from Iain's apparatus. It was a wide cylinder of smooth blue metal. The lid, with brighter blue lights spinning around it, had a hinge at its back but no obvious way to lift it, lacking either a handle or a lip of some sort. They looked at it, realising this was the final act they had to carry out. Iain had set everything up. He'd started the sequence to exact his reset, but had failed to initiate it fully. That undertaking lay with them.

They could stop it entirely. The world would continue, oblivious to the potential changes that could have been brought. It would either recover or destroy itself.

"I just want powers like you. Well, like everyone else," Thomas said. "I've waited for so long for them."

"Haven't you seen what they do? Is being like everyone else so important?"

"Don't you want yours back?"

Bren paused. Did she?

"No! I can say that honestly. I had more than I knew how to use, but I'm... I'm glad they're gone."

"We could use them properly though. We could make a difference."

"I bet there's so many who have thought the same, but they all end up the same way."

"But you healed me! That means they can be used for good!"

"If it wasn't for the powers in the first place," Bren insisted, avoiding including Iain, "no one would have needed healing. Or bringing back from the dead."

Thomas held her gaze, realising just how far her abilities had taken them both.

"OK," he said.

He saw a depression in the front of the cylinder and pushed it in. It gave slightly and the lights went out, followed by the whirring sound. There was a click and the lid lifted with a hiss.

Inside, a receptacle of a dozen test tube holders was slowing it rotation to a halt. There was only one tube and Thomas lifted it out. He showed it to Bren.

"Are you sure about this?"

"I am," she said. She'd expected to question her decision, but didn't. It had to be done.

"OK."

Thomas threw the tube containing her blood towards the hole in the wall. It hit the rim and smashed, the fragments disappearing inside. He picked up one of the other tubes and ran his thumb over his name. When had his father taken them? How had he not been woken by the needles or noticed their marks? He'd never know now.

He put it where Bren's had been then quickly filled the others with more. There were still twice as many left on the table. He lid closed the lid.

"We don't have the code," Bren realised, her heart sinking.

"He already entered it," Thomas said. "It was just before he... Before David..."

Bren put her hand over his and squeezed.

"You're right," she said. "He did. So now we just have to..."

"Push the big red button."

The button was attached to a display behind the machine. It wasn't particularly big, but it was very red. A clear sign it was significant. Their hands still held together, Thomas and Bren leaned forward and, together, pushed it.

The lights started again, as did the whirring sound. A light on the ceiling began to flash the same colour as the button. The screens changed and the pair turned towards them.

The outside images were gone. In their places were small rooms, each with a different location written in the bottom left corner. In each room was a small table and on each table was an open cube. The cubes had a mass of wires connecting a mechanism attached to their tops to panels on the walls next to them. In unison, the mechanisms began to move down. A metal plate slid into place at the base of the cubes, containing a small clear bowl.

The device started to vibrate though, in reality, it was actually moving about in tiny increments.

"Come on," Bren said. "Let's go."

Thomas followed her as she walked to the rim of the hole Dor had made and climbed down. A tunnel led away, sloping slightly upwards. It wasn't long and they quickly reached the outside. Hand in hand once more, they walked to the edge of the cliff, noticing the barrier was gone.

Thomas and Bren looked out at the world, each wondering how long it would take for the reset to take effect. Each wondered if they had done the right thing and how bad it might get before it improved. Neither, however, spoke. They didn't need to.

Thomas licked his lips. He felt the fangs that had started to protrude from his incisors. He felt the spines begin to push through the skin at his spine. He felt parts of him feel as if they were phasing out, eager to be elsewhere.

He closed his eyes and willed the fangs and the spines and the teleportation to cease. To retreat.

"Are you OK?" Bren asked.

Thomas nodded.

###

THE END