EDGE OF DAY

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

"I didn't sign up for it. Dayna did."

"You believe you are Day. You're not. It's a mask. A personality I created."

"Dayna's just a personality too. Conditioned by her experiences and your training."

"That's what she chose."

"She also chose to become me."

The far doors flashed open, and Amber entered. 

Day stepped closer to Will. She had to get him away from The Lady. "Will ," she hissed, "wake up!"

"It's too late," Amber said.

Day spun on her sister. "Too late for what?"

"As soon as he saw the energy flux, the code activated. When it's finished, poof." Amber gestured a miniature explosion with her hands. "No more Will. The code will take over his whole mind and we'll have the key to closing the porthole for good."

Day moved to stand between Will and the Lady. She took his hands in hers and squeezed. "Look at me. Will, please, look at me." He stared to the side of her, eyes glued to the electrical ribbons of information. "Will." She cupped his cheeks in her palms, leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. "Will, come back to me." No sign he knew she was even there. As though his mind was inside an alternative reality.

Anger blew-up inside her. She could sense Fredinando and Amber pressing in on her, wanting to conclude their business. She was furious with them; furious with herself for bringing Will here.  Without any warning, she sprung on her feet and  kicked high. The heel of her shoe smacked Ferdinando in the side of his face. He cried out and staggered off balance.

Amber swept in and pulled a one-two punch to Day's ribs and cheek. Winded Day hunched over, spluttering for breath. Fire flared in her cheek and up to her temple.

"You really aren't making this easy," Amber muttered. Ferdinando pulled a hanker-chief from his pocket. He dabbed the blood at the top of his head and stood up slowly. Amber sidled towards him and massaged his shoulder, but he flipped her off.

Panting, doubled over, Day watched Ferdinando's leather shoes approach. He circled a hand around the side of her head and stroked down her hair.

"You," he said, shaking his head, "were my most dedicated student. I have great faith you will come back to us, Dayna."

His eyes hooked into hers, and then something hard pressed between her bruised ribs. Electricity zigzagged through her spine, through her nervous system, and up into her brain. She fell to the ground.

***

The last two years flashed before her eyes, as though she was dying and witnessing a rerun of her life. She gripped the handles of the seat they'd strapped her into. It felt like they were ripping up the synapses in her brain and laying new pathways. Perhaps that's what was happening as the machine oozed memories back into her cerebral cortex.

She lost all sense of where she was. Her mind time-travelled. One minute she was locked down in the operative chair, the next she on a space shuttle with Amber headed for Mars for the first time. They showed her The Lady. They showed her details of her parents' accident caused by the Mars energy flux experiments—the magnetic track over the ravine damaged by an earth-quake.

They introduced her to the Veda's mission: to close the inter-dimensional doorway. She pledged herself to their goal, and trained in the academy—combat-fighting, handling arms, wiring explosives. She was on beach, running from a firing helicopter. She was alone in the wilderness assigned to capture an enemy, without getting caught.