Kai Langford - March 2121
The drive to GeneX is almost completely silent. The only sounds are the low hum of the engine, the tyres against the road and the occasional crackle of the radio that neither of us bothers to fix. There isn't anything left to say between Finn and me.
We've decided to risk everything and end this tonight. Even if neither of us makes it out alive. It's the only way I can see to keep everyone else safe.... That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.
I stare through the passenger window as the city passes outside, barely registering the lights sliding across the glass. My thoughts keep drifting back to Ethan.
I see him lying on that bed, his wrists trapped in the chains I put there. I see the tears running down his face when he begged me not to leave him. I hear his voice telling me that he loves me, telling me he needs me, and every time the memory comes back, something twists painfully inside my chest.
I know what I'm doing to him. I know that walking away is hurting him. But if keeping him alive means making him hate me, then I'll take that hatred. I'd rather he hate me than die because of me.
Finn eventually turns off the main road and parks down a narrow alley a short distance from the GeneX headquarters. The building is visible between the surrounding structures and I can already feel the familiar weight of it pressing against my chest.
Neither of us says anything as we climb out of the car.
The air is cold, and I pull my jacket tighter around myself before opening the boot. We begin checking our equipment without needing to discuss what we're doing. Everything has already been planned.
I strap my knife across my back and secure a handgun into the holster at my side. I don't want to carry anything that will slow me down. My powers are my greatest weapon, and if I need to move quickly through the building, I need to be able to do it without being weighed down by equipment.
Finn has a very different problem. He doesn't have powers to protect him.
Instead, he pulls on his bulletproof vest and adjusts the straps until they're tight against his chest. He checks the magazines for his assault rifle before loading them into the pouch on his vest, then adds several grenades to his belt.
I watch him for a moment.
He's prepared for a war neither of us expects to survive.
When we're finally ready, we move deeper into the darkness of the alley and lean against opposite sides of the wall. The distant glow from the city barely reaches us here.
For a while, neither of us speaks. Then Finn breaks the silence.
"Guess this is it."
I look across at him.
"Yeah," I say quietly. "Guess it is."
The words hang between us. Neither of us laughs and neither of us tries to pretend this is just another mission.
Because it isn't.
We both know that.
Finn reaches into his pocket and pulls something out. When he holds it towards me, I realise it's a cigarette. I stare at it for a second before looking at him.
"One last one before the road," he says.
A small smile pulls at the corner of my mouth despite everything.
"I promised Ethan I'd stop."
Finn raises an eyebrow.
"You're about to break into GeneX and probably get yourself killed, and you're worried about breaking a smoking promise?"
I let out a quiet laugh.
"Yeah."
I take the cigarette from him and roll it between my fingers for a moment. The thought of lighting it is strangely tempting. Maybe because it feels like something familiar.
But then I picture Ethan and his expression when he made me promise.
I hand it back.
"I'll keep it." Finn studies me for a moment before putting it back into his pocket. He leans against the wall again, staring towards the end of the alley.
"You know, Kai..."
I look over at him.
"You've always been a good friend."
The words catch me slightly off guard. I lean back against the wall beside him and look out into the darkness.
"You too."
It's simple, but Finn smiles anyway.
For a few seconds, we're just two friends standing in an alley, waiting to walk into a building that has taken so much from both of us.
Then his smile disappears.
"Which is why I don't think you should be doing this."
I close my eyes briefly.
"Finn..."
"No, hear me out."
I look at him.
"We've already gone through this."
"Yeah, I know."
He looks down at the rifle resting against his leg.
"But I still stand by it."
I don't answer.
"You deserve to keep living, Kai," he continues. "You deserve to have a life after this. A real one. You and Ethan could leave all of this behind."
My chest tightens at the mention of his name. For a moment, I'm not standing in this alley anymore. I'm back in that room.
I can see Ethan pulling against the chains, his face wet with tears as he begs me to stay. I can hear him shouting my name as I walk away. I can still feel every instinct inside me screaming to turn around and run back to him.
I force myself to swallow.
"I can't."
Finn looks at me.
I can't, because Noah is dead. Because my father is still alive. Because GeneX is still out there. Because Ethan deserves a future that doesn't involve constantly looking over his shoulder, wondering when the next attack is coming.
And because every time I close my eyes, I see Noah dying in my arms.
I stare at the ground.
"How could I do nothing after they killed Noah?"
Finn's expression changes immediately. He lowers his head, and for a moment I can see the same pain I've been carrying reflected in his face.
Neither of us needs to say his name again. Noah is everywhere between us. He is in the silence, in the grief and in the reason we're standing here.
I remember him laughing at the cabins. I remember the way he'd talk for hours about some experiment none of us understood. I remember him calling me his little brother even though the difference was only a few minutes.
And I remember his last words.
Thank you for being my brother, Kai.
My throat tightens.
Finn finally looks back at me.
"I miss him." His voice is barely above a whisper.
I reach across and put my hand on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.
"I miss him too"
Finn looks down at my hand before giving a small nod. For a moment, I wonder if either of us really believes we're going to walk back out of this alley. Maybe that's why neither of us says goodbye. Instead, I push myself away from the wall and check the weapon at my side one last time.
"Come on," I say quietly.
Finn picks up his rifle.
"Ready?"
I look towards the distant GeneX building.
The place that took my brother. The place that taught me I was nothing more than a weapon. My shadows begin curling around my fingers.
"Let's end this for good."
Finn steps beside me.
Together, we disappear into the darkness.
________________________________
The front doors of GeneX finally come into view at the end of the street, towering above us behind a wall of glass and steel.
Finn keeps pace beside me, his assault rifle held tightly against his chest as we continue towards the entrance. At first, only a few people notice us. Heads turn, conversations stop, and then someone spots the weapons.
A woman near the entrance freezes before grabbing the person beside her and pulling them away, and within seconds the calm movement around the building changes completely.
People begin running in every direction, some shouting for security while others rush towards other buildings for cover, but neither of us slows down.
We're only a few metres from the entrance when the doors burst open and a group of armed guards rushes towards us. I react before they can even raise their weapons, snapping my hand forward as my shadows erupt from the pavement and spread across the ground like a wave before crashing into them.
The force sends the guards flying backwards, their bodies slamming into the glass doors and surrounding walls with enough force to leave some of them crumpled on the floor. One of them tries to push himself upright, but I tighten my fingers and the shadows immediately wrap around him, forcing him back down.
"Go!"
Finn doesn't need telling twice. He reaches into his pouch, pulls out a grenade and yanks the pin free with his teeth before throwing it towards the entrance.
I barely have time to react before the explosion tears through the doorway. The blast shakes the ground beneath my feet and sends a wave of heat across my face as glass erupts from the windows and rains down across the pavement.
Smoke pours through the shattered entrance, thick enough to swallow the entire reception area, while debris flies past us. I raise my arm to shield my face and wait for the worst of it to pass, but within seconds Finn's voice cuts through the ringing in my ears.
"Move!"
I follow him through the broken entrance and into the reception area, where everything has descended into chaos.
Alarms scream through the building, their sound echoing off the walls and making my pulse hammer against my ears, while emergency lights flash overhead and bathe the reception desk and polished floors in bursts of red.
People are running everywhere, some screaming while others desperately try to reach the exits, but we push through them without stopping.
I catch Finn as he swings his rifle around, scanning the balconies and corridors for movement. Before I can say anything, the sound of approaching footsteps echoes through the hall, followed by several more sets coming from different directions.
"They're coming" Finn mutters.
The first Guardian appears at the end of the reception hall, followed by another and then three more. They move with the same mechanical precision I remember, spreading out to surround us. Finn immediately brings his rifle up, and the first burst of gunfire tears through the hall.
One Guardian drops, followed by another, and Finn shifts his aim quickly enough to take down a third before the others can even react.
One of them manages to get through.
He charges straight towards me, and I step forward, throwing my hand out as my shadows explode from beneath its feet. They wrap around its body before twisting upwards and locking tightly around its throat.
The Guardian claws at the darkness and I can see him trying to form something in his hand to break free, but I don't give him the chance. I pull hard, and a sharp crack cuts through the alarms before its body collapses to the floor.
For half a second, I stare at him, something cold settling in my stomach. Noah created the nullifier to take down the Guardians, the people GeneX had altered and turned into weapons just like they had done to me. But instead of using his creation, I'm destroying them in my own way, with the shadows GeneX gave me. For years, they tried to turn me into a weapon, and now I'm using that weapon against them.
Then more footsteps echo from the corridors and Finn turns, firing again.
"Keep moving!"
We push deeper into the building. Every time someone appears, Finn's rifle answers first, while my shadows follow whenever anyone gets too close. We move almost instinctively now, covering each other's blind spots without needing to speak, relying on months of fighting together to keep us alive.
Eventually, we reach a security door. Two ID cards lie scattered across the floor beside fallen guards, and Finn crouches to pick them up before throwing one towards me.
"Guessing you know how these work?"
I catch it and give him a look. "Yeah, I've seen them before."
I swipe the card against the reader. The machine beeps and the door unlocks, allowing us into the stairwell.
The sound of the alarms becomes slightly muffled behind the heavy door, but the panic inside the building is still obvious. People are flooding down the stairs, pushing past each other as they desperately try to escape through the emergency exits. Some scream when they see us, while others stop dead when they notice the weapons, but I step aside and let them pass.
We wait until the last of them disappears down the stairs before moving forward, but after only a few steps, we both stop.
Finn looks at me and I look at him.
Neither of us needs to say anything because we both know what happens next.
Finn needs to go down. The networking system is beneath us, deep inside the facility, and that's where Noah's seed needs to be planted. Once it's connected, it will begin overriding GeneX's systems from within, tearing apart everything Noah spent years helping them build.
Finn is the only one carrying the seed, which means this part of the plan belongs to him.
And I have somewhere else to be.
A different part of the building. A different fight. Possibly a different death.
Finn reaches his hand towards me, and I stare at it for a moment before taking it. His grip is firm, but mine isn't. I can feel my fingers shaking despite everything I've done to keep myself under control.
"Take care of yourself," he says quietly.
The words hit harder than they should.
"You too."
I swallow hard, forcing the tears threatening to surface back down. Neither of us lets go, and for a second I think he might say something else. Instead, Finn suddenly pulls me towards him, wrapping his arms around me in a brief, tight hug.
I freeze for a moment before hugging him back. My hand grips the back of his jacket as tightly as I can, and for those few seconds I allow myself to forget where we are. I forget GeneX, the weapons, the alarms and everything waiting for us below and above.
He's my friend, one of the last people I have left, and I don't know if I'm ever going to see him again.
"Don't do anything stupid," he mutters against my shoulder.
A broken laugh escapes me. "That's a bit late."
He pulls back and looks at me, and there's a sadness in his eyes that he tries to hide behind a smile.
"Yeah," he says quietly. "I guess it is."
He releases me and turns towards the stairs. I watch as he takes the first step down, then another, each one carrying him further away from me and closer to the part of GeneX where he could easily die.
I don't move, even when Finn glances back once. I give him a small nod, and he returns it before continuing downwards, slowly disappearing into the darkness of the stairwell.
I keep watching long after I can no longer see him. My chest feels painfully tight as I think about where he's going, what he's carrying and exactly how dangerous the task ahead of him is.
For a brief moment, I want to run after him. I want to grab him and tell him we should forget the plan, get back in the car and drive back to the cabins.
But I know that's not going to happen.
There is no running anymore, not after Noah death and not after everything GeneX has done. Too many people have died because of this place, and too much has already been taken from us. Walking away now wouldn't bring any of them back. It would only leave GeneX standing.
I close my eyes and take a slow breath before forcing myself to turn away from the stairs.
"Survive, Finn."
The words barely leave my mouth, but I know he would have heard them if he were still close enough.
I turn away before I can change my mind, my hand closing around the weapon at my side as I begin climbing the stairs. Each step takes me further from Finn and closer to the person I've spent years trying to escape.
Finn has the responsibility of planting Noah's seed.
I have another purpose.
I need to find my father and destroy every last Lunex Vial.