First draft
As they ventured further inside, the base started changing. It looked more and more like an underground cave. Omen and Dia walked silently, a palpable tension running between them. Although deep down she knew that leaving the mercs behind had been the right choice, she couldn't accept it, not after what happened with Jenkins.
Dia was trying to keep all interaction to a minimum, but when the hallway forked ahead of them, she couldn't help but ask, "Which way?"
Omen shook his head. "Don't matter, either one."
"Guys..." Rodriguez' voice came over the comms. Her breath was labored, abnormal. "I hate to rush you but we're in a bit of pickle here."
Omen and Dia traded a look.
"What is your current situation?" Omen asked.
"We retreated to the elevator's room. The place is secure...for now, but I don't know how much longer we can hold them back. Whatever you have to..." The sound of automatic weapons fired cut her off momentarily. "...quickly."
"Copy that, Rodriguez." Omen replied, then he took a deep breath, glancing at Dia. "It's better if we split up."
Dia hesitated, but only for a second. The mercs and Sarah were waiting for them. "Alright."
"Dia," He shot her a glance filled with worry. "be careful."
Her expression softened. "You too."
Dia followed the hallway until it jogged left and then ended in a staircase leading to the lower floor. As she approached the stairs, Dia heard something. A mechanical noise. It was coming at regular intervals. She proceeded down the stairs with caution, the noise getting louder and louder.
But when she reached out to open the door, a sudden weakness in her limbs made her stagger backward. Warning bells went on in her head, an irrational fear taking hold of her. There was something wrong with that room. She could feel it. Dia made a visible effort to gather herself together. Then she glanced at HUD, searching for possible hostiles, but all seemed clear. Yet she was still restless. There was something that had set off a vague sense of danger that nagged at the back of her head like a fly buzzing behind her ear.
She ignored it, and checked the rifle's electronic display, making sure it was fully loaded, and pushed the door open. She took a couple of steps across the room, then stopped short, her jaws hanging open. Industrial liquid filling and capping machines were working at full capacity, while conveyor belts zigzagged across the room ferrying the filled vials to the automatic packing station.
An assembly line? Here?
It was surprising, but then her gaze fell on the "ice sculpture" on the far side of the room, and her surprise turned into shock. It was a very big lizard, similar to a dinosaur. Bearing a large bone frill and five horns on the skull, it looked a lot like a triceratops. But there was an important difference: its jaw and skull were massive. More importantly, it was equipped with a long head of serrated, bone-crunching teeth. The creature before her was no herbivore.
It looked frozen, its huge body covered in a thick layer of ice. Useless to say, it wasn't a natural phenomenon. Two nozzles were spraying the creature with some kind of cryogenic liquid at regular intervals. Other than that, a dozen of tubes were deeply embedded in its midsection, though considering their function, they looked more like big pumps. They were sucking its blood before storing it into three huge glass tanks.
As she watched the scene with her mouth wide open, Dia experienced a strong feeling of deja vu. Although her memory was hazy, as if covered by a layer of fog, she was sure she had seen something like this before. In her dreams.
Dia observed the creature warily. Its eyes were closed but she knew the truth. The creature was awake. As soon as she approached it, she felt some kind of resonance, a sense of kinship. Before she knew what she was doing, she'd already established a link with its mind. An image flashed through her mind, and her perspective suddenly shifted. More importantly, she felt what it felt in that moment.
She could hear its cries of pain, she could feel its rage, its desire for destruction. She somehow knew that the creature before her and the monster she'd met in that mine on Daxum were one. The Shinigami was just an avatar, the manifestation of the creature's fury. She also knew without a doubt that the long captivity had twisted its mind irreparably. She was about to probe further, delve deeper into its mind, when the creature's gaze focused on her.
She suddenly felt very small under its scrutiny, just like a child before her parent, or a human being before a god. And that god was furious, so furious that at some point its anger seemed to take physical form. Dia felt like she'd been punched in the stomach and staggered backward, a low rumble rising in her throat as her other self started waking up.
She went into a panic and hurried to sever the connection, only to discover, much to her dismay, that she couldn't. The creature may be weak, but its mind was still strong, and it was much more experienced than her. She was trapped, unable to fight back. The only thing she could do was endure in the hope the creature would lose interest. A few seconds, or maybe a few minutes later - Dia couldn't really tell - the assault subsided, but the creature still didn't let her go. Instead, it started showing her a series of images. It looked like a wordless picture book, a report of its captivity, but it wasn't just that.
She could feel its emotions, its pain, its rage, its agony like she was experiencing first hand. Above all, she felt its hunger. The creature was starving. Little by little she began to change, her resistance fading away as her thoughts, her own mind was being altered by the creature's experiences. As she started losing her sense of self, she realized the creature wasn't just reacting to her intrusion as she'd thought at first. It was using those images to change her, taint her with its insanity. But even now that she knew the truth, she couldn't do anything. She was too far gone, utterly unable to resist. She lay there and let out a single choked gasp, her eyes unfocused.
She was about to surrender when she felt her body, her own blood freeze. The crushing pressure on her mind gradually lessened, vanishing for good when the link between them was severed. All of a sudden, Dia found herself on the floor, unable to understand what had happened. Still breathless, she looked around but the room was pitch black.
She was trying to stand up, when someone said, "Apologies, miss Zephyr." The Umbra's unmistakable voice came from behind her. "It can be a little moody from time to time."
A second later, when the overhead lights flickered back to life, Dia noticed that she wasn't alone anymore. The Umbra, clad in his power armor, but without his helm, was less than ten steps from her, while dozens of cyborg surrounded her. When Dia saw that face, Reyes' face, she felt her anger mounting.
"Umbra." She hissed.
"Miss Zephyr." The Umbra greeted her with a half bow, the metal joints of his exo-suit creaking slightly. "Welcome to the Greenhouse."
Dia looked around, searching for an escape route, but the situation seemed hopeless. She was badly outnumbered, and her rifle was on the floor, out of reach. She must have dropped it.
"I have to say that it's...appropriate to have you here to witness my triumph. After all, none of this would have been possible without you..." The Umbra paused, looking up at the creature. "...and without it, of course."
She hesitated before following his gaze. As it turned out, however, she had no reason to fear. The creature was still frozen.
"Amazing, isn't it?" The Umbra asked, though his voice betrayed no emotion. "The Collective calls them progenitors. I'm sure you can guess why."
Dia sneaked a look at it, her face drawn with weariness, "You're starving it. Why?"
The Umbra shrugged. "Its abilities are amazing, yet it has a weakness. Just like a machine, it can't operate without power. But you should know that well, shouldn't you Miss Zephyr?"
Dia's whole body stiffened. Flooded by a rush of emotion - fear mostly - Dia didn't trust her voice, so she remained silent.
"You know," The Umbra didn't seem bothered by her lack of response. "I thought a lot about what happened to those torpedoes. Reyes believed that it was Fanning's fault, but we both know it wasn't him. He doesn't have the guts to betray me."
Irked by his attitude, Dia couldn't help but say. "You'd be surprised."
The Umbra's lips twitched ever so slightly. "I assume you're referring to Fanning's stepbrother, the Spider?"
"You knew?" Dia blurted out.
"Oh, I know all about him. In fact, that's why I hired Fanning in the first place." Then he waved his hand dismissively. "but that's not important. I'm more interested in your talent, your ability to interact with machines, or better, to command them."
Dia stiffened, holding her breath. "I don't know what you're talking about."
She seemed to be experiencing some difficulty keeping her voice level.
"Really?" The Umbra's voice lacked emotion as usual, but Dia knew he didn't believe her. "No matter. We'll talk about this later."
"How long has it been here?" She decided to change the subject.
The Umbra shrugged. "Hundreds of thousands of years probably. It was hibernated under the ice when I found it. It should be grateful that I pulled it out, don't you think?" As if it could hear him, the progenitor released a soft, mournful cry. The Umbra chuckled. "Maybe not."
"Gibson knew about it, didn't he? That's why he came on Daxum." Dia shook her head. "No, he didn't just know. You made sure he knew. You leaked the information on purpose, didn't you?" She glared at him with an air of accusation.
The Umbra didn't try to deny it.
"That was quite perceptive of you, miss Zephyr." He nodded. "Indeed, you're right. Unfortunately, Gibson was a very cautious person. I tried very hard to lure him out of hiding, but every attempt ended in failure. And that's where you came in."
"I was the bait." She spat, her green-blue eyes full of fury and bitterness.
"Now, now, don't sell yourself short, miss Zephyr." The Umbra gently rebuked. "Your role was vital." Dia snorted, but the Umbra continued unaffected. "You see, neither Gibson nor I had enough information to repeat Elizabeth Weir's feat, at least not on our own." Dia inadvertently flinched when he mentioned her mother's name. The Umbra didn't seem to notice. "Although Gibson managed to acquire her research..."
"How?" She interrupted. "Wasn't that guy...Stevenson supposed to delete it?"
"I don't know what happened, but it's pretty obvious he didn't delete it. Maybe Stevenson disobeyed orders, maybe he tried to escape." The Umbra shrugged. "It's not really important. The only thing that matters is that part of the data Gibson recovered was corrupted. That's why he was so anxious to get his hands on you."
"You and Gibson were allies. Didn't you share your findings?"
"We weren't allies. We worked together." The Umbra said in an indulgent tone. "But we never trusted each other."
"Is that why you betrayed him?"
"Oh, you misunderstood. I didn't betray Gibson. That was Reyes' idea."
"Reyes?" Dia repeated. She tried not to let her surprise show, but it was almost impossible. "Why would you, I mean...why would he do that?"
The Umbra's lips curled into a little, mocking smile. "That's the funny part. He did it to protect you. He knew that Gibson was about to find you. That's why he came up with this plan. I was all too happy to get along with his idea, though my goal was completely different."
"You were already planning to capture Gibson." She accused, anger coloring her cheeks.
"Involving the Empire was a great risk."The Umbra continued without answering. Dia took it as a tacit admission. "I knew that if Gibson died, I would lose the research forever. On the other hand, if the Empire failed, I was afraid that he would tell the Collective about you out of spite."
"That's why they were hunting him." Dia said quietly. "You turned the Collective against him."
The Umbra looked at her with a faint air wonder. "Again, very perceptive of you, miss Zephyr. Turning the Empire against him was the easy part. I had more than enough evidence to prove he was working with the enemy. The Collective, on the other hand, proved more tricky."
While she listened, Dia tried to come up with a plan. Excluding the Umbra, there at least twenty cyborgs, every one of them armed to the teeth.
"Luckily," The Umbra said. "Gibson's research subject is a big taboo for them. Unfortunately, I underestimated Gibson."
"He told them anyway, didn't he?"
"Indeed he did." Although his expression remained unchanged, there was a wry, almost bitter note in the Umbra's voice. "I don't know if the Collective believed him, but I know that they would check out his story. That's when I understood that I had to act." His gaze suddenly turned sharp, almost feral. "You see, I couldn't let them have you, not after everything I went through to keep you safe. So, I did a little greasing, whispered a few words in the ears of the right person, and a day later, you were reassigned to the Siren. "
"No, that's...that's not possible." She said levelly, trying to control the urge to hyperventilate. "The order came directly from the Emperor."
"And who do you think suggested it to him?" He asked suggestively. She eyed him skeptically and he added, "Oh, don't misunderstand. I've never talked to the Emperor. It's hard to meet someone like him. But what about his aides? They are much easier to approach. Bureaucrats, in particular, are so so easy to fool, so easy to use them to do your bidding." He gave a little, amused chuckle. "You should have seen them, miss Zephyr. They were all so anxious to please Emperor, so desperate to gain his favor, just like a pack of dogs waiting for scraps at his feet. All I had to do was say the Collective was looking for you. They did the rest. They didn't even ask questions." He chuckled again. "Of course, the Emperor was different. He probably wondered why the Collective was looking for you, but doctor Weir's cover was perfect. No matter how much he searched, he didn't find anything."
"You knew what he wanted and you used it against him." She said almost absentmindedly, "You played the Emperor like a fiddle."
"He still obtained what he wanted, didn't he? He got his war." The Umbra said casually.
Dia frowned. Something didn't add up. "Wait...you said you couldn't let the Collective find me. Then why did you send me on the Siren? You just put me in more danger."
"That's because you assume you were safe in the Empire, but miss Zephyr, you're wrong. If you stayed in the Empire, the Collective would have found you. It was only a matter of time. That's why I had to take a gamble."
"What about Suzanne? What's her role in all this?"
"Suzanne?" The Umbra asked absentmindedly. "Oh, her." He waved his hand in dismissal. "She is inconsequential."
"Inconsequential?" Dia released an involuntary snort, her eyes glittering with suspicion. "Then why did she look like me?"
The Umbra's smile turned positively sharklike, and Dia felt a stir of uneasiness. "Oh, did she?" He made a mock surprised face. "I've never noticed."
"Answer me," Dia smothered a flare of annoyance and added, "please."
The Umbra regarded her silently for a moment. "Let's just say that she was...convenient. She was exactly what Reyes needed at that moment."
Dia blinked in confusion. "Reyes? Needed?"
"A lover, a girlfriend. Someone who could fill the hole you left behind, miss Zephyr."
Dia felt sick to her stomach, a look of something very like guilt crossing her face, "Are you saying she is my...replacement?"
"That's correct." He said, like it was the most normal thing in the world. "After leaving you Reyes acted like he lost his soul." The Umbra shook his head distastefully. "He was so distraught that he was disrupting my work. I couldn't allow that. That's why I gave him a toy to keep him busy."
"A toy?" She asked, her voice lowering to a pitch.
"Oh, come on now, don't look at me like that." He joked lightly. "Actually, you should be grateful to me. Reyes was very unstable at the time. Who knows what he would have done if I didn't do that."
Dia bit her tongue against a fresh urge to snap at him. "You realize how crazy all this sounds, right?"
"Is it?" The Umbra gave her a somewhat peculiar smile. "Personally, I think it was the most practical solution."
"Really?" Dia looked at him skeptically. "Wouldn't have been easier to just kidnap me? But maybe you couldn't do that." Her tone turned insinuating. "Maybe someone was preventing you from doing it."
Silence reigned over the room for a long moment, the Umbra's expression becoming unnaturally frigid.
"Very perceptive, miss Zephyr." He whispered, his voice strangely soft. That didn't make him any less dangerous. "You're right. Reyes'...attachment to you may have somewhat influenced my actions, but don't fool yourself in thinking you may able to use that against me. He is gone, miss Zephyr. He is not coming back."
Dia examined him carefully, sensing that there was something fundamentally different about him. He was much more expressive, more human-like. That didn't make him any more likable.
"You keep talking like you and Reyes are two different people." She said cautiously.
"Because we are different." He said, his eyes unreadable.
"Fine." She humored him. "But if you're not Reyes then...who are you? Because you can't be the Umbra, that's for sure. He's been around for decades."
"That's an interesting question." The Umbra tilted his head to one side thoughtfully. "I suppose you could say that I am who I am because of you."
Dia couldn't help but stare at him in shock. His words had caught her completely off guard. "Because of me?"
"Indeed." He paused and something indefinable flashed through his eyes. "Six years ago the Umbra, the real Umbra gave Reyes an order. As you already know, his mission was to infiltrate into the Academy, and recruit a few young women. Among them, one person was particularly important for the Umbra." The Umbra looked at her intensely for a moment. "Reyes was supposed to bring her back with him, but when the time came, he went back alone. For the first time in his life, he disobeyed the Umbra's orders. His father's orders."
Dia felt the hairs on her arms and neck stand at attention. "F-Father? The real Umbra is your...I mean, Reyes' father?"
"Was." He corrected her. "When Reyes came back to Daxum, he confronted him. Reyes couldn't accept what his father had in store for his little lover." A glint of something, maybe contempt, flashed in the Umbra's eyes. "That's why he killed him."
Dia gawked at him, her jaw hanging open in horror and surprise. He...killed him? Dia repressed a shudder at the thought of killing her own father.
"That was the night the original Umbra died, the night I came into existence." He said softly, with a somewhat nostalgic tone. "But as it usually happens, there was a price to pay. The Umbra hadn't gone down without a fight. Reyes' legs, my legs were crippled and the wounds on our face so serious, they required extensive reconstructive surgical repair. It took months before we even started walking again. It was hard, but not as hard as taking over the running of the Umbra's empire."
"...your father's empire you mean. The father you killed."
"Reyes did that. That was probably the only good thing he ever did." The Umbra sounded nonchalant as usual, but Dia saw a trace of emotion pass through his face, "and it killed him, eventually. Well," He smiled. "someone might say that the person who actually killed Reyes was you, miss Zephyr."
Dia felt a sick indignation at his words, her blue-green eyes looking at him with a dangerous sparkle. "Don't try to put this on me. That was Reyes' decision. Your decision."
"Really?" He asked in a mocking tone, his smile growing broader in proportion to Dia's indignant anger. "But I think we can both agree that none of this would have happened without you. Reyes would have never stood up to his father. The original Umbra and Gibson would still be best friends, and your warmongering emperor would have never had the chance to start the war. Millions, maybe billions of people would be still alive."
it was almost impossible to stay focused on her task and at the same time talk with the Umbra, but that was exactly what she had to do. "What about you, Umbra? Do you ever feel remorse for what you've done?" She asked while she kept going through the server's libraries.
"You're confounding me with someone else, miss Zephyr." He sounded calm as if it were business usual, but a ripple of emotion passed over his face for a nanosecond, his emotionless mask cracking ever so slightly. "Why should I feel remorse?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe because your father is dead because of you?" She asked, trying to buy some time. She had finally found what she was looking for: a computer program that limited the amount of power supplied to the progenitor.
"You're mistaken. The Umbra wasn't my father." He denied, but his expression had undergone a subtle change, a hint of regret touching his gaze. More importantly, his voice sounded different, as if it belonged to another man. Maybe something of Reyes was still left, after all.
Stop it, Dia. Don't lose focus. She growled at herself as she yanked her thoughts back to the problem at hand.
"Biologically at least, he was." She replied while she deleted a little line of code, disabling the cryo nozzles.
The Umbra bent one corner of his mouth in a derisive smile, his eyes flashing with contempt, "You came out of a test tube, miss Zephyr. Do you really want to talk about biology?"
"Actually, no, I don't."
The Umbra gave her a puzzled look. Dia seemed eerily calm, completely unaffected by his words. They stood in front of each other, and for a second or two, nothing happened, then a small crack appeared in the ice around the progenitor, then another and another. The progenitor roared, and the floor, the walls - the whole facility - seemed to shake while the ice around the creature begun to crack before their eyes.
"What have you done?!" The Umbra shouted in anger, but beneath that anger, another emotion was hidden. Terror. The Umbra was scared of it.
"I've set it free." Dia said simply.
The Umbra gave her a murderous look before ordering, "Quickly, freeze him!"
One of the cyborgs went to the security station, rushing to obey his commands. He typed something on the keyboard, but the terminal emitted an error beep.
"It's not working!" The man screamed in panic.
Another cyborg came to his aid, but it was too little, too late. The ice finally shattered and another, stronger, tremor shook the whole base. Then a terrifying roar echoed throughout the room and the lights went out. Dia heard someone scream and a couple of seconds later, when the light bounced back on, she saw a cyborg dangling from the progenitor's huge mouth. He was still in one piece, though the progenitor was chewing him up.
Maybe realizing it was too late for half measures, the Umbra ordered, "Fire!"
After that, the scene quickly devolved into chaos. Something huge - maybe the progenitor's tail - swept across the floor like a tidal wave and smashed into a cyborg, sending him flying like a rag doll. The cyborgs went on a shooting spree, emptying their clips in a matter of seconds.
A barrage of beams slammed into the progenitor, charring its skin, but the creature's chitinous hide was so thick, they didn't do any real damage. The only thing they achieved was to make it angry. Suddenly the progenitor's head whipped back and screamed. It was like an explosion. It shattered glass, and sent the cyborgs backward. Then the Spice tanks crumbled apart, and dozens of gallons of liquid poured down on the cyborgs. Dia instinctively covered her ears, trying to protect herself. Regrettably, the danger was only partly physical.
Dia faltered, feeling a sudden pressure in her head. She pushed it back, immediately realizing what the progenitor was doing. It was the exact same trick it'd used on her before. The only difference was that this time she wasn't the only target. The progenitor was exerting its will over the cyborgs, trying to worm its way through their minds. The only upside was that its attention was divided between multiple targets, so the pressure was a lot weaker than before.
Dia and most of the cyborgs managed to resist, but others weren't so lucky. They started to change, mutate. Dia could feel the progenitor warp their minds, turning them into mini versions of itself. A few seconds later, when the process was over, the cyborgs were no longer human beings, but mindless beasts, creatures of rage. They lunged at their former comrades like madmen, growling like rabid animals.
Maybe the progenitor knew she was the one who had freed it, or maybe she was just lucky - in any case, it seemed to ignore her and focused its attention on the remaining cyborgs. Dia knew it was now or never and broke into a run. Zigzagging around the cyborgs, she headed for the door.
The Umbra saw her and shouted, "Stop her!"
One of the "sane" cyborgs tried tackling her, and Dia hurled herself sideways, dodging him by a hair's breadth. Then she was out. She climbed the stairs and then lunged forward, racing down the corridor so quickly she almost lost her balance. Soon all noise ceased, but she kept going, ears ringing, heart pounding.
"Dia!" Someone called her, and her steps faltered for a moment. She slowed down, turning her head back, and saw a figure emerge from the darkness. Omen. He was heading her way, jogging, almost running.
"Did you find him?" He immediately asked when he reached her, obsession shining in his eyes.
"I did but..." She paused, shaking her head. "We have no time for this."
"Where is he?" Omen insisted, impatience rising in his voice.
"We have no time for this." She repeated more firmly. "We have to get out of here. Right now!"
Omen hesitated, warring between his desire for revenge and the need to get away. Thankfully the latter won. "Rodriguez, how are you holding up?"
"Fine..." Rodriguez answered a few seconds later. "...but hurry up. We're almost out of ammo."
Dia could hear the merc's ragged breathing, the noise of gunfire in the background.
"Copy that. We'll meet you at the elevator."
They tried to move quickly, well aware that the mercs and Sarah were running out of time. But while they were on their way back to the turbolift, something odd happened. The overhead lights started flickering, while the sliding door suddenly opened and then slammed shut on its own. All the electronic instrumentation seemed to go crazy, turning it on and off without warning. Although Dia didn't believe in ghosts, she had to admit that the base looked infested.
Then a power conduit overloaded without apparent reason, and the lights went off. Dia and Omen didn't stop. A few seconds later, the backup generator came into function and the lights went back on. As the darkness faded, Dia and Omen were confronted by a ghastly spectacle. A cyborg's corpse was stuck in a door, his blood, bone and brain matter decorating the icy cold floor. It was like the door had closed on him, crushing his upper torso and the back of his skull.
They were still watching the body with awe and horror when Omen's exoskeleton started behaving like a bucking horse. It suddenly sped up, heading toward a wall. Omen tried to stop, but the controls weren't working. He was about to crash when Dia intervened, willing the machine to stop. The exoskeleton surprisingly resisted, like it had a mind of its own. Dia redoubled her effort, finally managing to stop its mad rush.
"That was close." Omen gave her a thankful look. "Thanks. I owe you one."
Dia made a small, throwing-away gesture, her gaze locked on the exoskeleton. It was faint, just an echo of consciousness, but Dia could sense the progenitor's hand all over this. The scary part was that the progenitor wasn't even aware of what he was doing. Dia had an inkling the progenitor's powers over machines were reacting to its emotions, its desire for destruction. It was like some kind of electronic plague, but more virulent than any computer virus.
She looked so worried, Omen asked, "What is it?"
Dia shook her head. "We'll talk later."
Then they started running again. When they were getting close to the stasis-pod room, a wave of screams, bestial growls, and voices, each overriding the other, assaulted their ears. Countless red dots appeared inside her HUD's blue display. Dia and Omen slowed down, shocked at the sight before them.
The stasis-pod room looked like a battlefield. Broken bodies and amputated limbs lay everywhere and the smell of charred meat filled the air. But despite the carnage, the fight was far from over. Hundreds of cyborgs were still engaged in a confused brawl.
The infected cyborgs looked already different, substantially more animal-like. Although they were equipped with laser rifles, they seldom used ranged weapons, preferring instead to fight in close quarters. Dia noticed that a few cyborgs - maybe the sane ones - had gathered in a group and were shooting indiscriminately at whoever came to their sight. They were holding up pretty well, but then, all of a sudden, one of them fell for no reason, his body shaking all over. The seizures lasted only a few seconds, then smoke started emerging from his head, and the smell of burnt circuitry, metal, and flesh spread through the air. It looked like the core embedded in his brain had overloaded for some reason.
While his comrades were staring at him, distracted by the gruesome sight, a cyborg charged at the group. Dia saw him carrying some kind of device, maybe a makeshift bomb. The cyborgs must have seen that too because they tried to retreat, but their exoskeletons didn't move. Similarly to what had happened to Omen, their motor system short-circuited, leaving them stuck and helpless.
Dia and Omen watched in consternation as the suicide cyborg charged at his former comrades. Then a bright white light, just like a camera flash, went off, and the floor shook beneath them. The shockwave hit Omen and Dia like a sledgehammer, knocking them back, shaken but unhurt. Others hadn't been so lucky. Damaged by the explosion, part of the ceiling had collapsed, crushing the group of shooters. Dia watched with bated breath as tons of stone tumbled down with slow, deadly grace. Then she looked around, assessing the situation. Although the cyborgs hadn't noticed them yet, the situation was growing more unstable with each passing moment.
We have to leave. Now.
Dia and Omen exchanged a glance and then nodded at the same time. No words were needed. They moved fast, sidestepping claws and blocking teeth. Dia tried to avoid the fight if possible.
Yet, the more Dia ran, the more she tried to gain control. Unlike Dia, she wanted to get into the fray, show them her dominance, her strength. Dia struggled to keep her at bay, but it was like trying to hold a lion on a leash. Knowing this was a battle she couldn't win, Dia reluctantly handed over the reins.
Needless to say, that was exactly what she was waiting for. One of the infected lunged at her, but she was faster. She sidestepped and sliced her claws down in a classic overhand strike, splitting her foe's helm and head vertically. Blood gushed everywhere. While the cyborg flopped to the floor, lifeless, she pivoted on her foot, looking for a new target. A few infected noticed her and rushed toward her, not unlike a pack of velociraptors rushing towards their prey. They made a few clicking sounds, communicating with each other, then they encircled her.
That was when she completely lost control. She simply let go, turning off her mind, her humanity and gave free rein to her bloodthirsty instincts. She threw herself into the battle with savage joy, cutting flesh, limbs, heads, tearing her enemies to pieces. Someone called her, maybe Omen, but she was unable to hear him at the moment.
Only when all the infected nearby were dead, their bodies forming a small pile, that red haze receded. Thinking that she'd fed the beast, Dia tried to reclaim control, but she wasn't sated. She wanted more. Dia fought to regain the calm the situation demanded and eventually mastered the bloodthirst raging in her gut. At least momentarily. Dia knew she was still there, waiting to take over.
The only bright side was that they'd made it to the other side. They'd managed to leave that hellhole - the stasis-pod room - behind them. The downside was that she was exhausted, and looked like death warmed over. Her face was deathly pale, her exoskeleton full of scratches, dents, and covered in blood like she'd bathed in it.
Omen gave her a worried look. "We're almost there."
Dia nodded stiffly, forcing herself to keep walking. As they moved away from the stasis-pod room, the infected thinned out. They found the path clear, except for a few stragglers that Omen and Dia were easily able to avoid. They made their way to the hallway preceding the turbolift room and Dia saw a slew of half-burned and bullet-riddled corpses littering the floor. As the shouts faded away, a strange and eerie silence descended. It was so quiet, Dia was starting to get worried. But then she saw them: the mercs and Sarah. They were waiting near the turbolift. They were still in one piece. Everyone looked happy to see them. Well, everyone except Willis.
"Took your damn time." Willis looked more irritable than usual. "Care to explain what the hell is going on?"
"Later." Dia said tersely. "First, let's get the hell out..."
She was still talking when a roar erupted from behind them. Slowly, almost fearfully, Dia turned and saw the Umbra turn around the corner. He wasn't alone.
"What the hell..." Willis muttered, his eyes wide open in fear and shock.
The progenitor was chasing after the Umbra. It looked mad with rage, a force of destruction that annihilated everything in its path. When it seemed the progenitor would reach him, the Umbra shouted something, and the remaining sane cyborgs started running toward the progenitor. Without concern for their own safety, they put themselves in the progenitor's path, trying to block it with their bodies.
Needless to say, their actions were ill-advised, if not downright foolish. The progenitor didn't even bother to slow down. It simply ran over the cyborgs, crushing them like tin cans. Then it proceeded toward its target, the real object of its rage. The Umbra. Problem was that he was heading toward the elevator, toward them.
While the others watched the scene in shock, Omen was the first to compose himself. "Get on the elevator!"
He didn't have to say it twice. Everyone crazily rushed inside.
"Close the door!" Rodriguez shouted, showing signs of panic for the first time.
Will pushed the button, but the elevator didn't move. "It's out of power!"
"Move!" Sarah shouted, unceremoniously pushing him aside. Then she started tinkering with the elevator panel.
In the meantime, the Umbra and the progenitor were getting closer and closer. Forgetting for a second about the risks, Dia snatched out a gun from Willis' hands and pointed it at the Umbr- Then she opened fire without hesitation. The Umbra was running so fast she nearly missed. The energy blast barely grazed his pauldron, but it was enough to slow him down.
Maybe the Umbra understood he wouldn't make it because he stopped and looked at her. Dia saw a strange expression pass across his features. He looked regretful but at the same time, he also seemed at peace, like he'd already accepted his fate. For a moment he wasn't the Umbra, the villain, but Reyes, the Reyes she'd met at the Academy, the man she had known and loved.
He opened his mouth and was about to say something when Sarah shouted, "I did it!"
The last thing Dia saw was the progenitor's jaws closing around him. Then the doors closed and the elevator started going up, leaving the Umbra and the progenitor behind.
Last two chapters coming soon!