Chapter 23: Under the Table
"'We're all mad here,'" Jervis Tetch crooned as he stalked the grass, his shoes leaving neat, damp prints in the dew. "'I'm mad. You're mad. You must be, or you wouldn't have come here.'" He recited it like a lullaby and a threat, his voice pitching up and down, the words from Alice in Wonderland coiling around the edges of the garden as if he could will the party into a tea-time hallucination.
Under the table, Kairo pressed his back to the metal leg, feeling the vibration of the Mad Hatter's laughter through the ground. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried not to hyperventilate. He was angry, angry was the easy part; he was even furious, actually, at himself for being useless.
In his mind, he imagined keeping everyone safe, like a promise, a promise he made to himself and everyone around him. He'd promised to keep Rebecca safe, to keep Beryl safe, to keep everyone safe, and here he was, cowering under a table in a duck prince costume while all the adults stood frozen and the Mad Hatter spun his nightmare into the daylight.
First, he wishes he wasn't 5, but nothing much he can do about that.
He wanted to do something.
He wanted to do anything.
He wanted to do Everything . . . . . but nothing was all he got . . . .
He wanted to shout, to run, to fight. But every time he tried to reach for that place inside himself where his time powers lived, he hit a wall. It wasn't just fear. It was the certainty that if he tried, if he really used his power, he'd break something important . . . . .
maybe . . . . even . .himself, Rebecca, maybe the world. He'd felt that line since the day he was born, the edge of a cliff in his soul, and right now, the wind was howling.
Kairo was so stuck inside his head that, He almost missed it.
Rebecca's hand shot up and grabbed his face, hard. Her nails dug into his cheeks, sharp and real, snapping him out of his spiral. She yanked him forward until their foreheads touched, her breath hot and shaky on his skin.
"Hey!" Kairo yelped, but she was already moving, already pushing her thoughts into his, her green eyes burning so close he could see the gold flecks in them. Her sweat smeared across his cheek, but for once, he didn't care about the mess.
From Rebecca's point of view, the world was a storm she couldn't quiet. the many. many, many, endless, overlapping and constant Voices.
All so real, imagined, psychic, all of it, now buzzed behind her eyes like a hive. A hive of bees that dug into her thoughts, but for now, she was somewhat focused. Focused on Kairo.
But when she pressed her head to Kairo's, the noise went quiet. Not gone, but muffled, as if she'd ducked underwater and left the rest of the world on the shore. She wanted to thank him for that. For being brave, even when he looked ridiculous, for trying so hard to figure a way out. His hair was a mess, his costume was silly, but he was here, and that counted for more than she could say. She was sorry, too . . .sorry for what was about to happen, sorry she was going to lose control, sorry she couldn't be the hero she wanted to be.
Just looking at Ace on the stage was enough to make every mental exercise, every trick her grandpa had taught her to keep calm, shatter. That girl wasn't just psychic; she was a siren, a storm, a nasty dark, terrifying storm, all in a black-and-white suit, and Rebecca could feel her pulling at the edges of her mind, unraveling her calm one thread at a time. She wished her grandpa was here. He always knew how to help, even after she hurt her grandma, even after she started having those nightmares that weren't really nightmares at all . . . . . visions of wings, of flying men, of teeth and darkness.
Rebecca's nails dug harder as she forced her thoughts, her apology, into Kairo's mind. His consciousness felt like a locked room, all of it tight and black, impenetrable. But when he realized it was her, the door cracked open, just a little, just enough for her to whisper: I'm sorry. Please stay away from me until I calm down.
Kairo's eyes widened. He felt her fingers tremble, saw her green eyes flare, literally flare, the color brightening like an emerald lantern. Her whole body tensed, her breathing ragged, and then her bones started to shift.
Kairo could see them, her chest, the ribs under her skin, he saw them moving around, then the bones in her arms and legs started to bulge and shift.
Kairo's eyes widened further in shock as he watched her 'reaction'? unfold before him. He could feel her fingers trembling and stretching uncontrollably, their slight quiver a clear sign of her distress.
Her entire body tense up, muscles visibly straining under her skin, her breathing becoming ragged and uneven as if she was fighting some internal battle.
Then, without warning, he saw her bones begin to shift faster and start to grow beneath her skin.
Her chest expanded and contracted as her ribs moved and rearranged themselves. He could see her bones gaining a metallic gleam, then the bones under her skin, twisting and flexing. Her arms and legs weren't left untouched; the bones in them started to bulge and shift, again, and again, elongating and reshaping in a disturbing, unnatural way, as if her skeleton was rewriting itself right before his eyes. And to be correct, her skeleton was, in fact, rearranging itself.
He crawled backward, heart pounding more out of surprise than fear, as Rebecca's body shuddered and grew. Her auburn hair thickened, spreading down her arms and back. Her spine arched, her arms lengthened and twisted, hands splitting into claws, nails curving into talons. Her legs bent, feet splitting into gnarled, leathery paws. Her face stretched, her jaw widening as fangs pushed through her gums, eyes glowing so bright it hurt to look at them. Wings erupted from her back, huge, leathery, webbed as they started crashing against the underside of the table. The metal frame screeched, bent, and then flipped as Rebecca, or what had been Rebecca, burst upward in a hurricane of fur and panic.
The table went flying, landing in a heap of splinters and plates halfway across the garden. Rebecca, now a giant bat, stood in the center of the chaos, her wingspan blotting out the sun, her tail lashing against the grass. She threw back her head and screamed, a sound so loud and sharp it shattered every glass on every table. The zoo animals all around them and past the garden they were in erupted in terror, their cries blending with hers, a symphony of panic that rolled through the city.
Kairo barely had time to react. The wind from Rebecca's wings knocked him flat, and he watched as Addison and Alaric were blown out of their chairs, their eyes wide and terrified, bodies frozen by the Mad Hatter's mind-control devices and whatever strange gravity Ace was holding over the stage.
Only their eyes moved, darting wildly, tracking the monster Rebecca had become.
In that moment, something inside Kairo snapped. He felt danger, real mortal danger, and his powers, so, so, so stubborn, so unreliable . . .woke up on their own.
Time slowed, then stopped. The world went silent, colors sharpening to a painful brightness. Kairo stood, feeling light as air, as if the rules of gravity had loosened their grip.
He leapt, no, more like moon-jumped, across the grass, grabbing Addison and Alaric by the collars, hauling them away from the bat-monster's path, leaving their overturned chairs spinning in the frozen air.
As time snapped back, Kairo tumbled to the ground behind a toppled drinks cart, the twins landing in a heap beside him. Addison's eyes were still wild, but she could move her mouth now, just enough to whisper, "What the hell. . . . . .?"
The Mad Hatter stumbled back, laughter bubbling up from his throat, a high, wild, half delight, half terror. "Oh, what a marvelous trick!" he cackled, clutching his hat as Rebecca's monstrous gaze fixed on him. "Didn't expect that, did you, Ace?"
Ace, for the first time in months, looked genuinely surprised. Her eyes went wide, her mouth falling open, and for a heartbeat, she almost looked her age, scared, excited, alive. She'd known the girl had psychic abilities, but this? This was more than she'd bargained for.
Penelope, still astride her Pegasus. . . . .now named Nimbus, thank you very much . . . .was just grateful she was stuck to its back as the creature took flight, wings beating furiously as it sailed away from the chaos.
Rebecca, now fully Man-Bat . . . . Woman-Bat . . . . . Girl-Bat?, lunged across the garden, her claws snatching the Mad Hatter up by his coat. He shrieked, legs kicking, hat hanging on by a miracle, as she soared upward, wings cutting the air in thunderclaps. "Ace! Help me!" he screamed, voice cracking, but Ace was still locked in place, her mind racing.
Finally, Ace snapped out of it. Her face lost every trace of color as she raised her hands, pure power altering the air itself as her power started rolling off her in waves. She closed her eyes, focused, and with a gesture, pulled a dome of pure mental force over the entire Gotham Zoo, a shimmering, translucent shield that sealed the sky, trapping Rebecca inside.
Down below, Kairo set the twins gently behind a pile of garden chairs, their faces pale but their eyes tracking every movement. He looked up at the sky, at the bat-monster circling, at the way Ace's dome glittered in the afternoon sun.
He knew what he had to do. If he could snap people out of mind control, maybe he could save Beryl. Maybe he could save everyone.
He took one last look at the chaos, then the adults standing, smiling, oblivious; the kids huddled in fear; the Mad Hatter dangling from Rebecca's claws, Ace pouring every ounce of her will into keeping the monster contained, and Kairo, duck prince, time anomaly, squared his shoulders and got ready to try.
Because sometimes, you don't get to wait until you're ready.
Sometimes, you just have to be brave.
And hope the world is kind.