Kai Langford - March 2121
I try to shake 002 off me, but it's difficult. He's fast, stronger than I remember, and every movement I make seems to be one he's already anticipating. He trained me in the facility, after all. He knows most of my moves, knows how I fight and, more importantly, knows what I do when I'm under pressure. Every time I try to catch him off guard, he seems to know exactly what I'm going to do before I even have the chance to do it.
But I don't stop. Unlike the facility, I don't need to defeat him immediately. I just need to keep pushing, keep forcing him to use his abilities until he reaches his limit. I know I can outlast him now.
Then I see someone dragging Noah away and my attention shifts for barely a second, but it's enough.
A shot tears through the air and strikes my shoulder. Pain explodes through me, hot and immediate, and I stagger as my hand instinctively reaches for the wound. I force myself to look back towards Noah, and the desperation building inside me becomes almost unbearable when I see him still struggling against the soldier pulling him away.
Finn isn't with him and Ethan is nowhere in sight. I have no idea where either of them are, and the thought makes something inside my chest tighten.
I need to end this quickly.
Ignoring the pain in my shoulder, I turn back towards 002 just as he finishes forming another weapon. A rocket launcher materialises in his hands, and the second he presses the trigger, I throw both of my hands forward. A wall of shadows erupts from the ground and slams into the missile, stopping it before it can reach me.
I don't wait for him to recover. I shift my weight and sprint around the barrier, catching him off guard as I close the distance between us. He reacts quickly, though, and the rocket launcher disappears from his hands, replaced almost instantly by a machine gun.
The first burst of bullets tears towards me.
I throw another wall of shadows into their path, and the bullets hammer against it relentlessly. The impacts ripple through the darkness as I struggle to hold it in place, but instead of trying to withstand the attack, I force the entire wall forward.
The shadows surge across the field and slam into 002, forcing him backwards and the gunfire stops, but instead smoke begins spreading around us.
I can't see him anymore, so I spread my shadows across the ground and wait. They move through the grass like tendrils, searching for any movement around me. When I detect a footstep, I immediately form a spear in my hand and throw it towards the sound.
A body drops.
I move towards it, expecting to find 002, but as the smoke begins to clear, I realise it's one of the soldiers. He's not the one I'm looking for.
Another ripple moves through my shadows somewhere behind me and I turn too late. A stun gun fires directly into my chest.
The device pierces through my clothes and electricity tears through my body. My muscles seize instantly, and I collapse onto my knees as the current races through every nerve. I reach up to pull the device free, but my arms are shaking too violently to get a proper grip.
Something strikes the side of my head.
My vision flashes white, and I fall sideways onto the ground, the electricity still tearing through me. Before I can recover, another stun gun hits me, followed by another burst of current that makes every muscle in my body lock up.
"004."
I hear 002's voice somewhere above me. He crouches beside me, watching as I struggle helplessly against the electricity.
"You've gotten a lot stronger, lad"
He wipes the blood from beneath his nose, and despite the pain ripping through my body, I notice it.
I'm close. I've pushed him further than he expected, all I need to do is just keep going. 002 seems to notice the thought on my face because he gives me a small smile before reaching towards me.
"Look," he says, tapping my scar on my face with two fingers. "Your father wants Noah alive, but you..."
His expression hardens.
"You've become a liability. One that needs to be disposed of."
I try to force my shadows towards him, but they only flicker weakly across the ground before disappearing. The constant current running through me makes it impossible to concentrate, and every attempt to summon my power ends with another wave of electricity tearing through my body.
002 stands.
"It was fun knowing you, lad."
A handgun forms in his hand and he raises it and aims directly at my head.
For a moment, I can't move.
Images of Ethan, Noah, Finn, and everyone else at the school rush through my mind, but Ethan is the one I see most clearly. His face, his smile, the way he looks at me when he thinks I'm not paying attention. I think about the promises we've made to each other, about all the things we still haven't done and all the time I thought we had left.
I can't die here, i need to find Ethan. I need to get back to him and know he's safe, But my body won't move.
002's finger begins to tighten around the trigger. Then something suddenly appears behind him. A hand grips the side of his neck, and a needle sinks into his skin.
002 freezes.
I stare in disbelief as he staggers backwards, and that's when I see Noah standing behind him with an empty nullifier vial in his hand.
The handgun disappears first followed by the stun guns attached to my chest vanish. The electricity cuts out so suddenly that I gasp, dragging air into my lungs as my body finally becomes my own again.
"Kai!"
Noah drops the vial and runs towards me. I push myself upright, still shaking from the electricity, and reach for him. He's coming towards me, and for one brief moment, all I can think about is the fact that he's safe.
Our fingers almost touch, then the gunshot rings out and Noah freezes.
My eyes drop to his chest as a dark stain begins spreading across his clothes.
"No." I barely recognise my own voice.
Noah looks down at himself, then slowly raises his eyes to mine. There is confusion in his expression, almost disbelief, as though neither of us can understand what has just happened. Then his knees give out and I catch him before he hits the ground, dropping with him as I pull him into my arms.
"Noah."
His head falls against my chest, and I immediately press my hands against the wound, trying desperately to stop the bleeding. There's so much blood. It covers my fingers, my clothes, everything, and I can't make it stop.
"You're going to be okay," I say, although my voice is already shaking. "I've got you. You're going to be okay."
Noah coughs, and blood appears at the corner of his mouth.
My heart feels like it stops.
"No, no, don't do that."
I wipe the blood away with trembling fingers before pressing my hands against the wound again.
"Stay with me, Noah. Please."
His eyes find mine. They're already filling with tears. He lifts one hand towards me, and I immediately take it, wrapping mine around his as I hold it against my chest.
"I'm here," I whisper. "I'm right here."
He tries to speak.
"Kai..."
Another cough cuts him off.
"Don't talk," I tell him quickly, shaking my head as tears begin spilling down my face. "You don't need to talk. We're going to get you healed."
I don't know if any of that is true , but I just need him to believe it.
Noah shakes his head weakly, and a tear slips down his cheek. I wipe it away.
"Please, Noah." My voice cracks. "You can't leave me."
I can't stop the tears anymore. They keep falling as I stare at him, desperately trying to find something I can do, some way to use my powers, some way to fix this. I've spent my entire life learning how to fight. I've learned how to hurt people, how to survive, how to turn my shadows into weapons.
None of it matters now.
"I need you," I whisper. "I've always needed you."
His fingers tighten weakly around mine.
"002," he manages.
I glance over my shoulder, but he's gone. The soldiers are gone too. The battlefield has fallen strangely quiet, with only smoke and distant gunfire remaining where the attack had been raging moments before.
I look back down at Noah.
"He's gone," I tell him, brushing my thumb gently across his cheek. "He's gone. You saved me."
Noah looks at me for a moment, and despite everything, a small smile appears on his face.
"I'm glad..." His voice is barely audible. "...you're okay."
My chest tightens so painfully that I can barely breathe.
"I'm okay because of you."
I lean closer, pressing my forehead against his as I hold him tighter.
"You hear me? You saved me. So you don't get to leave now. You don't get to do that to me."
His breathing becomes weaker. "Finns..." he calls out.
I feel him slipping away, and panic takes over completely.
"Stay with me. Please, just stay with me."
I keep talking because I don't know what else to do because if I stop talking, if I acknowledge what is happening, then I have to accept that there might not be a future for him to be part of.
"Let's go back to the cabins," I say, forcing a smile as I wipe another tear from Noah's cheek. "We can just stay there and forget about all of this. No more running, no more GeneX, no more fighting. Just me, you, Ethan and Finn. We can disappear and pretend none of this ever happened."
Noah looks at me, and something soft settles across his face.
"That would be nice," he manages to say.
"It would," I reply quickly, holding onto the thought as though I can somehow make it real just by saying it enough times. "We could stay there as long as we wanted. Ethan would probably complain about being bored, but he'd get over it. Finn would pretend he hates doing all the cooking, even though we'd both know he secretly loves it."
A weak laugh escapes Noah, and I smile when I hear it.
"You said you always wanted a dog," I continue, squeezing his hand gently. "So we'll get one. A big one. You can choose the name, although I'll probably have to stop you from naming it after some stupid chemical."
Noah's lips twitch upwards.
"I don't have stupid names."
"You absolutely do. You once tried to name a hamster after a chemical."
"It was a good name."
"Carbon isn't a good name, Noah."
He gives another quiet laugh, but it quickly turns into a cough. I immediately pull him closer, one hand moving carefully across his back until his breathing settles again.
"Sorry," he whispers.
"Don't apologise."
I brush his blood stained white hair away from his forehead and try to smile again.
"You can sit in front of the fireplace with the dog while you work on all your experiments," I tell him. "You'll have your little notebook, your ridiculous equipment and about fifty different things you're not supposed to be mixing together, and I'll have to keep coming in every ten minutes to make sure you haven't accidentally blown the cabin up."
"And you will gather wood to keep the fire going?"
His voice is weak, but there's a little amusement behind it.
I nod.
"Yeah. I'll gather as much as you need. I'll always make sure the fire keeps running for you."
Noah looks at me for a long moment. There's something in his expression that makes my chest ache, but I can't understand it. I don't want to understand it.
"I know you would," he says quietly.
I look away for a moment, desperately trying to keep myself together, and when I glance back at him, the smoke above us has begun to thin. The darkness of the night sky is slowly revealing itself, and thousands of stars appear overhead, scattered across the sky as though nothing has happened beneath them.
Noah follows my gaze.
"It's... beautiful," he whispers.
"Yeah," I say quietly. "It is."
For a moment, neither of us speaks. I simply hold him against me, listening to the faint sound of his breathing while the stars shine above us. I try to imagine waking up tomorrow and finding him sitting beside the fire, complaining that I haven't brought enough wood inside.
I imagine him arguing with Ethan over something ridiculous, Finn telling both of them to shut up, and the four of us sitting together like we have all the time in the world.
I hold onto the image because it's easier than looking at the reality in my arms, but Noah shifts slightly, drawing my attention back to him.
He looks up at me, his eyes tired but strangely peaceful.
"Thank you," he whispers.
I frown.
"For what?"
His fingers move weakly against mine, and I tighten my grip around them.
"For being my brother, Kai."
My throat closes.
"You don't have to thank me for that."
"I do."
"Noah..."
He gives me a faint smile.
"You were always my little brother."
A broken laugh escapes me despite the tears running down my face.
"Only by a few minutes."
"I know." His smile grows slightly.
I shake my head, wiping at my eyes with the back of my hand before looking at him again.
"You're my brother," I tell him, my voice trembling. "That's never going to change. I don't care what happens, Noah. You're always going to be my brother."
He watches me quietly, and for a second I think he might say something else. Instead, he looks back towards the sky.
"I think I'd like that," he whispers.
"What?"
"The cabin."
My heart twists painfully.
"Then that's where we're going," I say immediately. "As soon as you're better, we'll go back there. We'll get the dog. You can sit by the fire all day if you want, and I'll bring you enough wood to keep you warm."
Noah smiles.
His eyes slowly close as he rests his head against my chest, but the faint smile remains on his face. His hand grows heavier in mine.
"Noah?"
There is no answer.
I stare down at him, waiting for his eyes to open, waiting for him to tell me that I'm panicking over nothing, waiting for that familiar smile to appear again.
Nothing happens.
"Noah..."
My voice breaks completely.
I pull him against my chest, burying my face against his hair as a sob tears out of me. I hold him tighter, as though I can somehow keep him here through sheer force, as though letting go would make his death real.
But he's already gone.