Chapter 5: The Debt and the Invasion
The fire between them had burned down to embers. Derek sat with his back against a rock, his knees drawn up, watching the camp settle for the night. Tents were being tied down. Children were being herded inside. A woman was passing out portions of dried meat, her hands steady, her eyes tired.Chapter 5: The Debt and the Invasion The fire between
Selene sat beside him, her legs crossed, her white hair catching the firelight. The cheerful face she'd worn when she walked out of the forest was gone. Her jaw was tight. Her eyes were fixed on the ground.
"So." Her voice was flat. "You and your friends went through hell."
Derek nodded slowly. "Yep."
"And I nearly killed an Absolute Architect." She said it like she was still processing it. Like the words didn't quite fit in her mouth.
"You said you fought one with a black mask." Derek poked at the embers with a stick. "That's an Absolute. So yeah."
Selene was quiet for a moment. The fire popped. Somewhere in the camp, a child laughed.
"Lily destroyed eighty percent of the facilities," she said. "Her monsters were attacking the place that was holding me. That's why I'm free." Her voice cracked, just a little. "I feel bad for her. And for Eva. For the other one."
"They both went through hell." Derek watched the smoke curl up into the dark sky.
"Shit." Selene's hands curled into fists in her lap. If it hadn't been for Lily, she'd still be in that prison. Still frozen. Still waiting.
She wanted to repay her somehow. But Lily was dead. Lily was gone. There was nothing she could do for the girl who had freed her.
"So." Selene straightened, forcing her voice lighter. "What are your friends going to do now?"
Derek shrugged. "I don't know."
"I can help." The words came out fast. "If you want. I can keep you safe. From monsters. From twisted stuff."
Derek almost smiled. "I don't think any monster is going to attack us."
Selene frowned. "Why?"
He looked out at the camp. At the people who had survived because Lily had saved them, because Lily had died for them. "Lily's monsters listened to her. I'm sure she would have told them not to attack anyone she knew."
Selene nodded slowly. "Probably." She looked down at her hands. "Is there anything I can do?"
Derek heard it in her voice—the need to make it right, to pay back a debt that could never be paid. He thought for a moment.
"You know, you have a pretty cheerful personality." He nudged her arm. "Maybe you could help Eva."
Selene's head shot up. Her eyes were bright. Determined. "Where are your friends? I'll help. I'll do anything."
Derek blinked. She really was very cheerful.
He told her where the facility was. How to find it. What to expect.
Selene stood, already moving, already planning. "I'll pay her back. Somehow. For Lily."
She walked into the darkness before Derek could say goodbye.
---
Somewhere Else
The portal ripped open the air like a wound.
Green light spilled out, wrong and sickly, staining the ground, the trees, the sky. Figures stepped through one by one, their shapes sharp against the light, their movements fluid, hungry.
A woman led them.
She was built lean, strong, muscle moving under scarred skin. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, tight against her skull. Her face was marked—old wounds, deep cuts, the kind that never really healed. Her smile was twisted.
Eva Katerina Rostova.
Not the Eva of this universe.
Behind her came the others. Wolfen—his golden eyes colder, his smile sharper. Maya—her hair cropped short, her gaze already scanning for prey. Leo—blood on his clothes, blood on his face, blood in his eyes. Derek—a fresh wound still weeping down his cheek, his knuckles split, his grin wide. Jordan—his katana already drawn, already wet.
They were the same. They were nothing like the same.
Andrew Angstrom stepped through last, his bald head gleaming, green tubes pulsing into his skull, his smile wide and patient.
"Where are the ones from this place?" The other Eva's voice was a rasp, sharp as broken glass.
Andrew spread his hands. "Wouldn't it be more fun if you found them yourselves? A small hunt, let's say."
Leo laughed. It was a small sound, dry, hungry.
Andrew opened another portal.
A figure stumbled out. Its clothes were torn, its skin grey, its eyes dead. It grabbed Andrew by the throat, fingers digging in, and he let it.
"Someone you want is here," he choked out. "Your enemy is alive."
The zombie's grip tightened. Its dead eyes burned.
Andrew gasped. "In a cave. Far from here."
The zombie released him and was gone, snarling into the darkness, leaving nothing but the echo of its hunger.
Andrew opened more portals. Behind them, armies waited. Architects with weapons drawn. Hybrids with empty eyes. Soldiers who had been promised rewards for cleaning up the mess Lily had left behind.
Andrew smiled.
He was a businessman. The Architects wanted the anomalies dead. The anomalies had made themselves very, very expensive. Who was he to refuse such an easy profit?
---
Absolute 2 Eva's Room
The body hung from the ceiling, its screams wet, ragged, beautiful.
Its guts spilled onto the floor, pooling in the light, steaming in the cold. Absolute 2 Eva watched it twist, watched it struggle, watched it die slowly. Her mask was black. Her hands were red. Her heart was very, very quiet.
"Theatrical," a voice said from the doorway.
Absolute 4 leaned against the frame, his hands clasped behind his back, his mask tilted as he surveyed the room. The blood. The body. The woman standing in the center of it all.
"Quite the art," he murmured. "Such beauty."
Absolute 2 Eva turned. Her voice was flat. "Leave."
"Make me."
The room went cold.
Two Absolute Architects stood across from each other, ten feet apart, a body swinging between them. She was known as the Butcher. He was known as the Heartless. Neither had killed the other yet.
They were both wondering how that would change.
---
The Family's Place
The room was dark. It was always dark.
The Hollow Jester sat in the center, rings spinning, grin fixed, waiting. The Still Listener stood behind it, patient, eternal. The Crowded Shadow shifted, never still, never alone.
They were all there. All thirteen.
And at their center, on a platform of bone and stone, the boy stood with his hands folded behind his back.
"Mother is dead," one of them said. It might have been the Reader. It might have been the Blooming Eye. It didn't matter.
The boy's smile widened. "The successor makes the decision."
The others watched him. The Jester's rings spun faster. The Winged Doubt stirred in its sleep. The Walking Jaw's great mouth opened wider.
The boy's eyes were old. His smile was twisted. He was hungry.
He was ready.