Chloe felt her skin crawl when she approached the angry god.
After much barking, and threateningly waving his gun at the faces of those who'd been glued to the sight of the dead monster by a combination of awe and shock, Hardy managed to establish a proper perimeter around the corpse, and his guards got started, thrusting little metal rods into the ground, rods that would generate an electromagnetic field sufficient enough to contain the angry god if it turned out it wasn't quite as dead as they thought.
"That won't be necessary," Jin had said.
"Do not think even for a moment that you still being alive means you call the shots now," Hardy had snarled at her in response. "Do what you need to do with the body, prove to us that what you've said is true." To Jon, Hardy said: "Go find Cole and Glenn, find out how long it'll take to get the fences around the district up and running again, try to speed things up a little. Lucas, go with him."
"No." Lucas shook his head. "I stay here. I want to see this."
Hardy looked from Lucas to Jon, as if hoping Jon might try to drag Lucas along. Jon simply shrugged at Hardy. Hardy sighed, gave Jon a nod. Jon nodded back, then turned to leave. Before leaving, he halted beside Chloe, turned his face to her and spoke in a low voice.
"Do you trust her?"
"No." Chloe shook her head. "But she saved my life, and I know she wasn't lying back there. She might be leaving some stuff out but she was telling the truth about her father and mother. I want to see where this goes."
"Okay," Jon said, sounding not particularly convinced or in agreement. "But if she tries anything even—"
"I'll kill her myself." Chloe responded without taking her eyes off of Jin, who was crouched now at one of the angry god's limbs, limbs that now looked limp and rather rope-like.
"You'll have to hope Lucas doesn't beat you to it," Jon said, and then he left. As he did, she noticed he was walking with a slight limp. He hadn't yet fully recovered from everything that'd gone down and yet, there he was, moving about, calling the shots…being protective.
Her lips pursed, she looked toward Jin and spoke loudly enough that the girl could hear her. "I know you think I'm the one who'll keep them from killing you," she began, "but if you're playing some sort of game here, if my brother gets hurt—"
"No game," Jin said back. "Just the truth. Nothing more, nothing less."
Lucas scoffed. The swelling on his eyes had reduced greatly, but the burning rage remained within them.
Chloe had seen Lucas angry before, once when they'd witnessed a group of desperate humans offer children up as bait to Servants in a bid to save their own skins. Two of the six children had been killed by the Servants, turned into monsters, monsters that Lucas himself had had to put down. And he'd gone into a rage afterward, tracking down the despicable humans by scent and, despite Jon's attempts to calm him, Lucas had handled things most gruesomely. When he'd finished, standing in a room that had human bits and entrails strewn all over, all he'd done was laugh.
So for as much as they knew how playful and reckless he could get, both Chloe and Jon knew also what the darker edge to him was. Pandora had changed them all differently, stripped a piece of their humanity somehow. For the rest of them, the effects had been related to dulled emotions in some way or form. With Lucas, it seemed to Chloe like it'd been the opposite. Some of his emotions had been heightened. Guilt, remorse, rage. Pandora had made him unforgiving and brutal.
It was for that reason that she knew he was waiting, and that as soon as Jin outlived her presumed usefulness, he'd be the first to her and he wouldn't hesitate to rip her heart out. And if it turned out that he couldn't, she knew he'd find some satisfaction in knowing that he'd tried to avenge Spike.
Without saying anything, she walked up to him, stood just beside him and took his hand in hers. She squeezed hard and Lucas turned to her, his face softening slightly. She met his eyes and smiled.
He squeezed back at her hand and didn't let go.
Together, with Hardy, they watched as Jin nimbly navigated her way to the top of the angry god's corpse, its scaly and — now that Chloe was close and could make more out about the monster — slightly hairy head. Jin held up one hand, all of her fingers pressed together firmly. With a rather concentrated expression on her face, she brought her hand down on the creature's head with great force, striking with the points of her fingers.
She pierced through it easily, as though her hands were razor sharp. Chloe's gaze darkened at that.
She was strong. Incredibly strong. Stronger than the Pandorans were, that was for sure. Chloe had gone up against the monster, and all she'd managed to do was impale its eye. To rip through its flesh like that…
Lucas seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Chloe, since there was a stir in his expression after Jin struck straight through the monster's head, and his grip on Chloe's hand got even firmer.
Hardy on the other hand merely whistled. In his eyes, however, concern was etched. He knew Jin was a threat, perhaps even a greater one than they'd thought the angry gods to be.
Jin shoved her second hand into the tear she'd created and proceeded to pull apart, tearing a larger hole into the creature's head, while the others watched. Once Jin had created a large opening in the corpse's head, she stepped straight into it, vanishing from view.
Lucas let out a growl and took a step forward. Chloe held him back.
"Wait," she said, some curiosity in her eyes.
"How do we know—"
"Just wait."
Lucas looked displeased with it, but he didn't go any further, pausing and giving the angry god's corpse a look. A moment later, they noticed a slight bulge in it, some movement, a wormlike squirming beneath the skin of the creature that made Chloe feel almost sick to her stomach.
This went on for a good ten minutes before, finally, a fist punched straight through the corpse's dimmed eye. Jin's head emerged a moment later and after a slight struggle, she emerged fully from the angry god's corpse, then slid down one of its limbs to the floor, drenched in wet slime that was still rolling down her skin.
Jin got to her feet, wiped some of the slime off her face, and started toward them, more of the slime rolling off of her as she approached. Hardy retreated, appearing revolted by Jin's appearance.
Jin stopped in front of them and extended her hands, revealing what looked like metallic bits and strings, things that would have been most unnatural within an organic being. Then she held up a particular orb, one that was blinking slightly, flashing a red light every three seconds. Chloe frowned at the orb and stepped forward to take it from Jin.
It was warm to the touch and didn't feel at all organic. It was hard in her hand, and as she turned it over, she could feel lines that felt carved into it. Curious, she held it up to her face, taking a closer look at it. That was when she saw the crow, one identical to the exact tattoo Jin had on her hand. At the sight of the crow, Chloe's eyes widened slightly, her face darkening somewhat.
"Transmitter," Jin explained, to the confused look on Hardy's face.
"And the mark on it?"
"My father's mark." Jin took the orb back from Chloe and stared at the crow etched onto it. "Marks all those under his command, and those of his bloodline. It's like how your kind tend to take the names of their fathers, mothers…back in your earlier history, of course, all of which we familiarized ourselves with upon arriving on this world. Your people like symbols — flags, names, all of that stuff. My father thought it fitting to adopt the crow."
"Fuck." Hardy's face slacked, and he took a staggered step backward, cutting the image of a man who'd just had all of his beliefs completely rattled and disproved. "Fuck," he repeated, growing even more distraught. "It's been an invasion all along?"
Jin nodded.
"Your father," Lucas began, "do you know where he is right now?"
"It would be suicide to march toward him." Jin knew exactly what had been going through his head. "You wouldn't get within one mile of him before being obliterated. There will be a battle eventually, but your people will need to be prepared for it. Your current technologies, your weapons, your experiments…they're not enough."
"How the hell are we supposed to fight then?" Hardy demanded.
"When we first came, when your people had more of their weapons available, their missiles of carnage, you were able to kill a good number of the specimens, what you call angry gods," Jin answered. "In what you thought their blood, you found an important weapon and created the Pandorans with it. There is more in them that can be harvested, used for weaponry. And if you need blood for more of your experiments, you have mine, and believe me, it is of greater value than whatever flows through these puppets. Ask her," she nodded toward Chloe.
Lucas and Hardy looked toward Chloe, frowning. Chloe frowned too. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Power," Jin said. "Have you ever felt so strong as you do right now, after a taste of my blood?"
Chloe opened her mouth to speak, but paused.
Jin smiled. "My blood will make the Pandorans strong enough to deal with the rest of the specimens when they arrive," she declared. "In their corpses, you will find enough for new weaponry, weaponry that can be used against my father. It will not guarantee success, but it will be instrumental in avoiding crushing defeat."
"What do you mean by that?" Hardy's eyes flickered with fear. "What do you mean when they arrive? There's more on the way?"
"Certainly." Jin nodded. "Ravan is an intelligent man and among my father's most prized assets. He knows more than most the importance of retrieving me…his life depends on it, just as much as your lives depend on my ability to elude my father. The hounds, the servants, the specimen…a mere advance party, meant to weaken your defenses. More will arrive, many more."
"And you're just telling us this now?!" Lucas demanded angrily.
"How long do we have?" Chloe asked.
"Enough to prepare your people for what's to come," Jin answered softly. "Gather those who can fight, send away those who can't. Make your preparations. And I'd begin now if I were you."