Betrayal: Book 3 of the Guardians Saga

Ch. 8.3 From Explosion to Nuclear

At the brothers' apartment, Gabe and Cale crowded around Grange, peering at the screen of the mini-tablet in his hand.

Grange showed them the real-time security schematics of Hermann's lab that he had hacked. Several dots glowed green, one red.

"One security camera isn't registering. Three guesses as to who took it out," Grange said.

"Alex and Rile," Cale said.

"We'll follow their trail of bread crumbs," Grange said. "I should be able to access that hand scanner without much problem."

"Bread crumbs?"

"Earth idiom. Never mind. Let's go."

***

Alex watched, frozen, as Morgan dragged Rile through one of the larger metal doorways. This one had tiny lights embedded in the metal doorjamb, all glowing red.

"Who are you really?" Alex's voice wavered slightly as she addressed the stuff of her nightmares, the nightmare that made her freeze, useless.

The nightmare that should be dead.

"Alex, follow me," Morgan commanded and placed his hand on the hand scanner at the doorway.

There was a fritz of electricity and the tiny red lights turned blue. He dragged Rile into the lab, Alex trailing them. There was a crackle of electricity as they passed through a force field.

Once through, the tiny lights blinked to red again. The lab was jammed with machinery, one containment cage like Cale had been imprisoned in, and an unassuming wooden door in the back.

Alex pressed against the wall next to the doorjamb, trembling. "I saw Morgan's head fly across the room."

Back to her, Morgan knelt over the unconscious Rile, working on something that she couldn't see. He looked over his shoulder at her and touched the side of his head where a huge pinkish-grey scar glistened like a giant earthworm. "That loser? The Great One gave me his implants. I plan to kill one that has a slipstream generator in his chest so I can fly like you."

"The Great One?" Alex asked, confused. She rubbed her throbbing temples.

"Losers like you and these lizard things call him The Adversary."

"So The Adversary made a clone of Morgan and gave you his implants?"

Morgan scoffed. " You're stupid and ignorant, just like these reptiles. They never told you about alternate timelines? Or were you too dumb to understand or remember?"

Pain flared in Alex's head and she clutched it. She honestly couldn't remember if they had told her.

After some deep breaths, she said, "Another timeline Morgan." Alex forced herself to loosen her fingers, to move her toes, despite the raging short circuit in her head. "That makes sense. Why are you here? Why don't you bother your own Alex and dragon brothers?"

Breathe and open and close your fingers. Move your arms, just a little. Time to hero up and save Rile.

He shrugged. "Apparently you come first. Fine with me. Hope these lizard things are more of a challenge in my timeline."

He stood and kicked Rile, sprawled on the floor, eyes closed, completely limp. His chest rose and fell in shallow breaths. "What do you think you're going to do? Wave your little fingers at me? I know your powers don't work on me, you piece of toilet paper."

Alex shivered at the memory of his counterpart's words shouting in her mind: 'Your powers don't work against me because you're nothing but the toilet tissue I wipe myself with. You know you're trash and your blocked powers are proof. Otherwise you would blast me. But you know what you are. Anyone who saw how useless you are against me would know it, know you really want me, love me, love how I use you.'