The barrel of the pistol didn't shake. Martha's hand was steady, locked into position by the neural override.
But her eyes were screaming. Tears streamed down her bruised cheeks, cutting through the grime on her face.
"Lucas..." she whimpered, her jaw trembling as she fought the wires in her brain. "Run... please run..."
"I'm not leaving you," Lucas said. His voice was calm, but inside the helmet, his world was screaming.
[HUD WARNING: Heart Rate 185. Cortisol Levels Critical.]
[TARGET ANALYSIS: Civilian. Neural Override Grade-4. Removal fatal without surgery.]
The Alchemist stood on the catwalk above, thumb hovering over the red button of the detonator.
"How touching," the scientist sneered behind his mask. "The monster has a pet. Ten seconds, Ghost. Drop the gun, or she shoots you. If you shoot her, I blow the supports. Checkmate."
"Lucas!" Elena's voice was frantic in his ear. "I can't hack the implant! It's air-gapped! If she pulls that trigger, at this range..."
"I know," Lucas whispered.
He looked at Martha. He remembered her smuggling extra bread to his cell in The Pit. He remembered her bandageing his first crystal scars when the other doctors wanted to amputate. She was the only reason he hadn't turned into a Berzerker years ago.
"Kill me," Martha sobbed. The pistol in her hand cocked. Her finger began to squeeze against her will. "Lucas, don't let me kill you. Please!"
Time seemed to slow down.
Lucas looked at the Alchemist. Then at the chain holding Martha over the magma. Then at his own Shatter Pistol.
[CALCULATION: Shot to Alchemist = Dead Man's Switch triggers. Martha dies.]
[CALCULATION: Shot to Martha = ...Survival.]
"No," Lucas growled.
He didn't aim at the Alchemist. He didn't aim at Martha.
He aimed at the chain.
"Hold on," Lucas said.
THUMP.
The sonic spike hit the steel link holding Martha's harness. The metal shattered instantly.
Martha screamed as she fell.
But she didn't fall into the magma. Without the tension of the chain, she dropped straight down onto the metal platform, ten feet below. She hit the grate hard, rolling away from the edge.
"You idiot!" The Alchemist shrieked. "She was the leverage!"
He slammed his thumb onto the detonator.
CLICK.
Nothing happened.
The Alchemist stared at the remote. "What?"
"Kain!" Lucas roared.
From the shadows of the upper gantry, a blur of neon green motion appeared. Kain, battered and bleeding but grinning like a demon, was hanging upside down from a pipe directly behind the Alchemist.
In Kain's hand was a wire cutters. He had severed the detonator cable a second before the button was pressed.
"Did someone order a disruption?" Kain laughed, coughing up blood.
The Alchemist didn't hesitate. He spun around, threw a smoke grenade, and sprinted for the exit tunnel.
"Tank! Secure the exit!" Lucas yelled.
He rushed to Martha. She was lying on the grate, gasping for air. The pistol had skittered away.
Lucas knelt down, his heavy hydraulic suit hissing. He gently lifted her head.
"Martha," he said softly. "It's over. We're getting you out."
Martha looked up at him. The terror in her eyes hadn't faded. It had turned into something worse. Acceptance.
"No, Lucas," she whispered. Her voice was buzzing, mechanical. "It's not over. The protocol... it wasn't the remote."
[ALERT: BIO-SIGNATURE SPIKE DETECTED.]
[SOURCE: MARTHA'S IMPLANT.]
"Elena?" Lucas asked, panic rising in his chest. "What is she talking about?"
"Lucas, get away from her!" Elena screamed. "The implant isn't just a controller! It's a receiver! It's broadcasting a wake-up signal!"
HUMMMMMM.
The sound started low, a deep resonance that shook the entire factory.
Lucas looked up.
The tanks. The three hundred glass tanks towering around them.
The blue liquid began to bubble.
Three hundred pairs of eyes opened simultaneously.
They didn't look like human eyes. They were glowing, faceless blue voids.
"The Hollows," Martha wept, clutching Lucas's armor. "I'm the key, Lucas. My heartbeat... it syncs them. As long as I'm alive... they wake up."
CRACK.
The glass of the nearest tank shattered. A wet, naked clone fell onto the walkway. It didn't shiver. It stood up, its skin already hardening into crystal shards. It looked at Lucas and screeched—a sound of pure hunger.
Then another tank broke. And another.
"They're waking up," Tank yelled over the comms, his rotary cannon spinning up. "Boss! We got movement everywhere! Hundreds of 'em!"
"Martha," Lucas said, grabbing her shoulders. "We can remove the implant. Elena can fix this!"
"There's no time," Martha said. She reached up and touched the cold metal of Lucas's helmet. "You have to be the King, Lucas. A King doesn't let the monsters out."
She closed her eyes.
"Do it."
"No!" Lucas yelled.
Martha's hand moved. Fast.
She didn't reach for him. She reached for the Shatter Pistol magnetized to his thigh.
Before Lucas could react, she pressed the barrel under her own chin.
"Be human," she whispered.
THUMP.
It was a quiet sound. A soft sound.
Lucas froze.
Martha's body went limp in his arms.
Instantly, the humming stopped.
The clones that were climbing out of the tanks froze. Without the synchronization signal from Martha's living brain, the virus inside them lost its cohesion. They collapsed, twitching, returning to their dormant state.
Silence fell over the factory.
Lucas knelt there, holding the only mother he had ever known. Her blood was dark against the pristine white of his armor.
[HUMANITY INDEX: 82%... 75%... 68%...]
The number plummeted on his HUD.
"Lucas..." Elena's voice was a whisper in his ear. She was crying. "I'm so sorry."
Lucas didn't answer. He couldn't speak. The rage inside him was cold. It was ice. It was crystal.
He stood up, lifting Martha's body in his arms.
"Boss?" Tank called out from the tunnel entrance. "The Alchemist... he got away. He rigged the geothermal vents. The pressure is spiking. This whole place is gonna blow in two minutes."
Lucas looked at the tanks. Three hundred clones. Three hundred potential lives.
"Leave them," Lucas said. His voice sounded like it was coming from the bottom of a grave.
"But—"
"I said leave them!" Lucas roared. The blue light of his arm flared so bright it cracked the lens of his helmet. "Burn it all."
[OUTSIDE - THE WASTELANDS]
The explosion was beautiful in a terrible way.
A pillar of fire erupted from the snowy ground, turning the night sky orange. The factory collapsed into the earth, swallowed by the magma and the ice.
Lucas stood by the armored transport, watching the fire. Martha's body was wrapped in a tarp in the back seat.
The Alchemist was gone. The clones were destroyed.
But the war had just started.
Alexander Vane walked up to Lucas, leaning heavily on his cane. He looked at the fire, then at his son.
"She died to save you, Lucas," Alexander said quietly. "Do not waste it on pity."
Lucas turned to face his father. The blue light in his right eye was pulsing, jagged and unstable.
"Pity?" Lucas asked.
He held up the data drive they had recovered from Vargo. He crushed it in his crystal hand, not destroying it, but merging it—absorbing the data directly into his suit's interface.
[DATA UPLOAD COMPLETE.]
[NEXT TARGET LOCATION: ACQUIRED.]
[TARGET: THE ACADEMY.]
"No," Lucas said. "I'm done with pity. The Alchemist thinks he can run? He just led me to the rest of them."
Lucas walked to the transport.
"Elena," he said over the comms. "Upgrade the Codex. Unlock Tier 2."
"Lucas," Elena warned, "Tier 2 will eat twenty percent of your lifespan. It will hurt."
"Good," Lucas said, slamming the door. "I want it to hurt."