>   IV   <


    “Kayce? I’m home!” Natalie brushed the tarp aside and stepped into the room.


    “Natalie!” The blur of white hair and ragged clothes flew into her. Slender arms closed around her waist. Natalie smiled. Kayce looked up at her, and her smile dropped to the floor. The little boy’s face was dirty and bruised; his left eye was swollen.


    “Kayce!!” She fell to her knees and ran her fingers over the bruises. “What happened to you?!”


    Kayce rolled his eyes and brushed her hand away. “I’m fine, sis…”


    Natalie’s voice hardened. “Have you been fighting again?”


    “I said I’m fine! Look! Mrs. Charla brought—”


    “Don’t change the subject, Kayce. Answer me: have you been fighting again?” She glares at him.


    Kayce stepped away, his ruby gaze falling to the floor. “Yes…”


    Natalie stood. “Unbelievable.” She walked past him and tossed her coat. It landed in a pile by the beanbags.


    “Oh, come on! They started it!” Kayce said.


    Natalie spun. “Oh, really? Just like how they ‘started it’ last time? Or the time before?”


    “That was different—”


    “Kayce, one of these days you’re gonna pick the wrong fight and either wind up dead or in prison somewhere! And then what, huh? What about me?!” Natalie paced the room. “You think I can afford to bail you out? I barely make enough money to buy us food!”


    Kayce lolled his head to the side and groaned. “Come on, Nat, they hit first—”


    “You’re almost ten, Kayce, ten!” Natalie paused and rubbed her eyes. “Kids your age should be going to school and learning to support themselves, not…fighting in the streets!”


    “Well then maybe you should send me to school!” Kayce planted his feet. His eyes blazed. “Maybe then I’d have something to do besides sitting around here all day with you! Maybe then I could make actual friends instead of being picked on all the time! You ever think about that?”


    Natalie flinched as the words broke through her skin. Tears blurred her vision.


    “Shut the hell up…do you have any idea what…what I’m—” She choked.


    Kayce’s expression softened. His burning gaze cooled and fell. “I’m…I’m sorry…”


    Natalie fell into one of the beanbags, wiping tears on the back of her hand. “I’m trying Kayce,” she said, burying her face in her knees. “I’m trying, okay? You think I don’t go out every day…walk to that stupid factory and look at all those other kids on their way to school…and just…wish you were one of them?”


    The beanbag next to her rustled as her little brother dropped into it. His small body leaned against hers.


    “I’m sorry, sis, I…I didn’t mean it…”


    “No…you’re right…” Natalie swallowed a sob. “I’m not…doing enough. It’s not fair…not to you, not to anyone…I wish you didn’t have to be born into a world like this…I wish you weren’t…” Her fists tightened. “...I wish you weren’t stuck with me.” She pulled in a long breath and shuddered. “But when I found you…when I found you, you were…I couldn’t just leave you there…I…” Her eyes fell on her coat—the corner of the little card Nobunaga had given her peered out from the pocket. “I wish I could give you…a brighter future…”


    Kayce snuggled closer to her. “I know you’re trying, sis. I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean it… You’re doing just fine.” He put his arms around her.


    Natalie chuckled and wiped her eyes. “Thanks…” She stood. “Let’s just…change the subject, okay? You said Mrs. Charla brought us something?” Kayce’s face lit up. He sprang to his feet and dashed into the tent of blankets and pillows across from them. He reemerged, holding a dirty dish with half of a casserole in it. Natalie smiled.


    Mrs. Charla had moved into the shack below them about a month ago. She was a middle aged woman with graying hair and a manic demeanor. By all means, she didn’t belong in District 43—no woman with an electric camp stove or cookware or a fine sleeping bag really did, but she insisted this was where she would stay until her husband came to fetch her, that is, if he really loved her. He never turned up, but Natalie often wondered if the man even knew where she was…or if he even existed at all. Regardless, the woman had taken a liking to Kayce, comparing him to the son she’d never had, and often brought them offerings of cold leftovers.


    Kayce paraded the casserole back to the beanbags, and the two of them ate in silence. Natalie finished first and drew the little card from her coat pocket. She wiped her thumb across the P.U.S sigil, then flipped it over and read the address on the back. A brighter future…huh? She glanced over at Kayce.


    “What’s that?” He was gazing at the card between her fingertips.


    “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.” She slipped the card back into her pocket. “Here, come here.” Natalie pulled a half-empty tube of tar black hair dye from behind the beanbags. Kayce sat in front of her. She lifted a few locks of his hair, where the previous coat of black dye was fading into a faint gray, and began combing fresh color into them. When she finished, she capped the dye and put it back.


    “So,” she said, “you said they started it…”


    “I thought you didn’t want to talk about that anymore…”


    “Well, I’m talking about it now. What did they do?”


    Kayce picked at the floorboards. “They jumped out at me…pushed me down and said I wasn’t allowed to walk on their street anymore.” His voice cracked. Natalie studied his bruised face—it was dark and his eyes were glittering. “They called me trash…said no one would ever love me and that I should just die…” A tear crawls down his cheek. “It’s not fair…it’s not…they think that just because they go to school and dress nice they can push me around… I hope they die…I mean…I hope…sorry…” His eyes dug gouges in the floor.


    Natalie sighed and stood. Kayce looked up at her.


    “Come on. Stand up,” she said.


    “Why?”


    “Just stand up.”


    Kayce stood. Natalie swung her left leg out. Her shin met his ankles and swept his legs forward. He tumbled back onto the beanbags with a cry.


    “What the hell?! What was that for?” he said, glaring.


    Natalie pulled him back up. “If you’re gonna fight kids bigger than you, then you need to stay on your feet.” Kayce studied her face for a moment, then his glare turned to a grin. “Now come on,” she said, “you’re not gonna win any fights standing there like that. Put your arms up.”


    >>>   |||   <<<


    “Kayce…?” Natalie retracts her face guard. “Kayce, what are you doing here?”


    The boy’s crimson eyes narrow. “That’s not my name…” His voice is hollow beneath the fanged mask. “...not anymore, anyway…”


    “What? Kayce, don’t be ridic—” BANG! Natalie’s head is thrown to the side as something glances off her helmet. The rapid beat of her heart emerges beneath the ringing in her ears. Kayce holds a smoking gun in his hand. When did he…? He pushes the gun into a holster at the small of his back.


    “My name is Feng!” A faint light flickers in his glare. He sighs and relaxes a little. “Y’know, I’ve dreamed of this moment…every day for the past six years, I’ve dreamed of this exact moment. Every job, every contract… I was just hoping you would be there…”


    “What are you—”


    “I thought of a hundred ways to say how much I hate you…and none of them were good enough…so I thought of a hundred more.”


    Natalie’s chest tightens. “Kayce, listen…I—”


    “But it’s funny, you know?” He chuckles. “I don’t have any words for it now…I don’t need any words for it now… All I can think of is what I’ve wanted every day since you left.” He looks down. One of the wounded Enforcers is clutching his ankle, sparks and blue dust pouring from a deep gash in its neck. He draws his pistol again and levels it at the Enforcer’s head.


    Natalie hobbles to her feet, clutching her sword. “Look, I’m sorry, I never meant—”


    “I don’t want your apology.” Kayce’s gaze snaps back to her. His eyes burn.


    “Then what do you want? It’s been six years!! Six! Years! You think I didn’t want to see you again? What do you want from me, Kayce?”


    He locks eyes with her—his gaze pushes into her skull like a blood-soaked blade. “I want to kill you, Natalie.” BANG! The bullet drives the Enforcer’s head into the ground. Kayce’s figure begins to shimmer and fade from view. “I want you dead.” He vanishes.


    Natalie’s heart skips. She deploys her face guard and ignites her sword. Thoom! Thoom! Thoom! Thoom! Thoom! Her pulse rocks her body. She scans over the flooded, empty streets. A held breath burns her lungs. Plash! She whirls. Nothing.


    An armored boot collides with her spine. Air flees her body; stars waltz with black spots in her vision. She hits the ground—water floods through the gaps in her armor, soaking her uniform. The whisper of a blade cuts the air. She rolls onto her back and catches the edge of a large, curved knife on her sword. Hardlight screams as it contacts beaten crimson metal. The knife crackles, coated in threads of blood red lightning. The eyes behind the blade are bright with fury. Natalie thrusts Kayce off with her foot. She leaps to her feet, sword raised.


    KREEE!! A slash deflects off the edge of her blade. Then another, and another. Kayce’s knife is a ruby blur. Left, down, up, right, left. Natalie’s hand cramps. The hilt begins to slip from her fingers with each blocked blow. Kayce leaps back into a crouch and springs at her. Natalie summons her shield. Both his feet connect with the hardlight wall and drive her arm against her chest. She gasps from the force of the impact.


    Kayce backflips off the shield into another low, predatory crouch. A wildfire blazes in his eyes as he sneers at her through his mask.


    “Now that’s more like it!” He draws a second, identical knife and lunges. Natalie spreads her stance and plants her feet.


    A chain of strikes hammers her shield—Kayce dances, spins and flourishes with ribbons of ruby light trailing off his weapons. Natalie braces against her back foot and shoves forward. She thrusts her sword. Kacye steps to the side. The edge of his knife shrieks over her faceguard. She winces and tumbles backward, off balance. Kayce leaps and stabs down with both blades. She catches the blow on her shield, but the impact throws her onto her back.


    He’s fast…when did he get so fast? She swings her shield, throwing him off. He recovers before she can stand and delivers a kick to her stomach. Pain and nausea spring into her throat. She tumbles. The world spins to a stop.


    Natalie’s head feels swollen. She chokes down air and begins to crawl to her feet. “Stop…stop this—” She coughs. Kayce’s laugh floods around her.


    “Aw, what’s wrong, sis? Scared? Afraid of what I’ve become? Of what you left behind?” Another kick drives into her gut. Natalie rolls through the shallow water and hits a wall. “Or maybe you’re mad at yourself for letting it happen! You feel like a failure, don’t you?” Natalie stands and raises her shield. “Good!” Kayce’s boot connects with the shield. The force drives her into the wall—concrete explodes from behind her with a krakk! Blinding pain paints colorful spots over the sky. The air slips from her throat. “That’s how you should feel!”


    Natalie falls to her knees, coughing. “Kayce—stop!” A hand drives her head into the ground. Bitter water pours into her helmet and fills her mouth before she can get a breath. She thrashes against the arm pinning her down.


    “Freeze!” The garbled, monotone voice fills her chest with cotton. The other Enforcers have returned from patrol. Kayce releases his grip on her and stands, turning to face them.


    Now…while I have the chance… Natalie grits her teeth and commands her aching body to stand. She crawls to her knees. Kayce laughs at the Enforcers and twirls his knives.


    “I…” She plants one foot. “Said…” Then the other. “STOP!!” The muscles in her legs scream as Natalie hurls herself at him. She resummons her shield and collides with his back, throwing him down and pinning him under it. Tears roll down her face. She grits her teeth and screams. “Why the hell are you doing all of this?! Helping the Scissors?! Do you have any idea what I’ve gone through to give you a better future?!”


    Kayce pulls a small, black pebble from the wrappings around his wrist. “You honestly think I care about the Scissors?” He crushes it—it explodes into a cloud of the same black smoke from before, burning Natalie’s eyes and throat. She falls back. “I’m here for you!!” He flies from the cloud and pins her down by the throat. A blade gleams over his head. “I don’t give a damn about anyone else! Not the Scissors! Not P.U.S! Not even Urbino!” He thrusts downward. Natalie catches his arm against her own. “They can rip each other to pieces for all I care!” He presses down harder. The muscles in Natalie’s arms bloom with blazing agony. The quivering tip of the knife inches closer to her face. “In fact…I hope they do!” It presses against the glass visor of her helmet. Natalie’s heart beats her eardrums. Cracks flower from the knife’s point.


    “Target is aggressive. Escalating force.” CRACK! A gunshot. Kayce yelps and falls forward, clutching a wounded shoulder. The Enforcers close in, keeping their weapons trained on him. “Hostile Contact,” the squad leader drones, “discard your weapons and place your hands on your head. Failure to surrender and comply will result in the authorized use of lethal force.”


    Panting, Natalie picks herself up and points her sword at the back of Kayce’s head. Her arm trembles under the weight of the weapon.


    “I’m sorry, Kayce…” she says. “I…I don’t know why you’re doing this. I don’t understand it—it didn’t have to be like this…” She shakes her head. “I’ll…make sure you get the fairest treatment possible…I’ll pull every favor, make sure you get the best accommodations…”


    Kayce is silent for a moment. Then, he chuckles. A hum begins building in the air. Something flickers above his head. The hum grows louder. His whole body quakes with manic laughter. He glares over his shoulder.


    “Burn in hell, sis.”


    The hum reaches a deafening peak and turns to a violent buzz. Natalie’s skin tingles. The air crackles…


    Silence.


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    BOOM!


    Thunder heaves the ground beneath her feet. Natalie turns. An explosion of sapphire light is crawling into the sky. Blue lightning arcs between the clouds. A surge of wind tears across her body—she stumbles. It rips the water up from the street and hurls it away. The rain turns to mist.


    The road trembles under her. CRA-AA-ACK!


    “What did you do…” She turns back. “What the hell did you do?!” Kayce is gone. “No, no—” A knife hisses and sings over the carnage. She turns to see him crouched on the shoulders of one of the Enforcers, his blade buried into its head. He glares at her as he shimmers and disappears. “Dammit!” Natalie springs forward.


    CRAKK! THOOM! Pavement rears beneath her. She falls forward. A pained groan rips the air apart. The ground tilts. Armor plates grind over concrete as she slides. Behind her, the widening maw of a massive crater bellows out clouds of dust. The sinkhole drags her in like a singularity, threatening to rip her apart should it catch her in its jaws.


    No, no, no, no no nononono… She claws at the crumbling ground. Something grabs her wrist in a painful grip. She looks up. The Enforcer commander is lying on its belly, holding her up.


    “Please, remain calm—” The ledge shatters beneath it with another deafening CRACK! Rubble spays and rattles against her helmet. The Enforcer topples forward and lets go.  Natalie falls.


    She can’t hear her scream over the roar of destruction.


    She hits the avalanche of debris. Something catches the lower rim of her faceguard. It tears her helmet off. Dust blinds her and fills her mouth. Rocks pummel her exposed face. Rubble and boulders of concrete drown her. A spear of rebar slashes across her cheek. The back of her head connects with something solid.


    >>>   |||   <<<


    Natalie stuffed the last of her clothes into a navy duffle bag and zippled it shut. She hoisted it off the ground and shrugged her beanbag over her shoulder. As she started toward the door, Kayce flew in front of her.


    “NO!!” He threw his arms out, blocking the door.


    Natalie rolled her eyes. “Kayce, we’re not doing this.”


    “You’re not leaving!” he said, “I won’t let you!”


    “You aren’t the boss of me! You can’t stop me!”


    His eyes narrowed. “Then take me with you!”


    Natalie scoffed. “Right, let me just bring a TEN-YEAR-OLD to bootcamp! Brilliant idea there!”


    “I can handle myself!” Kayce said.


    “Good. Then you can handle yourself here. I told you, you’re staying with Mrs. Charla, end of discussion.” Natalie stepped toward him. “Get out of the way, Kayce.”


    He glared at her and planted himself. “Make me.”


    “I’m not gonna fight you…”


    “I’m not gonna let you leave!!” Natalie let the beanbag slip from her shoulder and drop to the floor. She reached for him, but he swatted her hand away. “Don’t touch me!” A hot pressure was building in Natalie’s chest. She pushed him aside. He shoved back.


    “Get out of my way,” she said, clenching her fist. “Now!”


    “So you can ditch me too?!”


    “Don’t even start with that! That’s not what I’m doing and you know it!”


    “That’s exactly what you’re doing!”


    The taut feeling in Natalie’s chest began to coil around her lungs. She shut her eyes and drew in a long, slow breath through gritted teeth.


    “Kayce. Move.”


    Kayce’s voice broke. “No.”


    The tension snapped. Words bubbled up from deep within and burned on their way out. Natalie began to shout. “Would you stop being so selfish?! I need this!!”


    Tears streamed down Kayce’s face—his voice trembled and cracked. “...need what? …to get rid of me? Dump me off on someone else like…like trash?”


    “I told you, that’s not what I’m—ugh!!” Natalie’s words stretched into a groan. A knot tightened in her throat and tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. “I’m trying to do something with my life, Kayce! I’m trying to make a difference! Why can’t you understand that?” She wiped her eyes on her sleeve. The words continued to boil over. “Why can’t you just be happy for me?” She dropped the bag and threw her arms out. “I’m trying to make a better future for you and everyone else out here!”


    Kayce looked at the floor. “I don’t care about everyone else…” He balled his fists. “I just want you…”


    “You don’t know what you’re saying…” Natalie scraped the last few tears from her cheeks with her sleeve.


    Kayce sank to the floor in a ball, sobbing. “If you really cared…you wouldn’t leave…”


    “That’s not fair.” She lifted her belongings from the floor. “Now get out of my way.” Natalie stepped over him and through the doorway. The tarp crinkled as it settled back between them. She pressed back more tears and swallowed the knot in her throat. Her chest was burning. She tensed against it, squeezing her eyes shut.


    “I hate you…” It was almost a whisper. She flinched.


    She sank to the ground and gnashed her teeth against a sob.


    “...I know you don’t mean that…” she said.


    The stairs were longer than usual on the descent. When she reached the bottom, she checked the address of the recruiting center one last time, and started up the road. I’m sorry, Kayce…one day you’ll understand… She paused and turned, gazing up at the decaying tower. I’ll come back for you, I promise…


    She watched the tarp covered doorway for any sign of life. Kayce never emerged.


    >>>   |||   <<<


    Pressure. Pressure bears down on her chest.


    Cold. She shivers. She curls and uncurls her fingers.


    Her right hand still clutches the hilt of her sword. Rocks tumble nearby. She pulls in a dust-filled breath.


    Natalie’s eyes fly open and she coughs. She’s pinned under a slab of concrete. Pale light filters through the clouds above and pours into the overextended jaws of the crater. The rain has stopped. Rising smoke stretches the light into wavering curtains. The lip of the chasm is high and jagged—broken water lines and sewer pipes jut from the wall, spewing their contents in heavy fountains that crash against the debris below. Bent road signs and street lights rise from the hills and valleys of rubble like twisted, metal bones. Battered cars lay half buried in the rocks. The air rumbles as the groaning wreckage shifts and settles. Fires snap and hiss nearby, flicking orange tongues from the husks of destroyed machinery.


    Natalie’s arms are hollow and loose. She grunts and pushes up against the concrete. The bones in her arms ache and groan. Rocks tumble away. Her body trembles under the weight of effort. The slab slides away, pulling a mini-avalanche of debris in its wake. Natalie’s arms fall limp back to her sides. She pants. The air is rancid with smoke and dirt. She sits up.


    Pain.


    Tendrils of pain coil around the bones in her shin like barbed wire, tightening with every little movement. Natalie screams and grips her leg. The pointed tip of a broken piece of rebar has punched through her leg, just below the knee, rending metal and cracking bone. Bright petals float off the glowing wound. Tears stream down her face and she chokes back sobs with ragged breaths. She drops her sword, grips her leg above and below the wound, and pulls. Sharp pain flies up her leg and stabs into her side. Another scream forces itself from her chest. She doubles over, whimpering.


    “Help…” she says. “Someone…please…please help…”


    “No one’s coming to help you.” Kayce’s voice falls on her like a second landslide. Her body goes cold.


    She jerks upright and yelps as another jolt of pain tears through her knee. Kayce is standing a few feet away. He clutches her lost helmet by the faceguard, turning and studying it. He glances up at her. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” He tosses the helmet away. It clatters over the wreckage and disappears. Kayce gestures to the destruction around them. “All of this.” He chuckles. “The Scissors’ bomb really was impressive—a modified Type P-4, big enough to demolish a small city block. Unfortunately, they failed to calculate for how…decayed…this trash heap was.” He kicks away a chunk of concrete and shakes his head. “Perhaps if they’d gotten insider knowledge from someone who lived here, this could’ve been prevented. What a shame…”


    Natalie grits her teeth. Heat pours off her glare. “Why?” Her voice is a hoarse rasp.


    “Why? You still don’t understand?” Kayce steps closer and kneels. “I did it for you. I want you to suffer. I want you to know exactly what it feels like to have everything you love ripped away from you. To know exactly what you did to me.” He stands. “I want you to die miserably, with nothing left for you in this world.”


    Natalie tries again to pull her leg off the rebar spike. Metal grinds against bone and shreds flesh. The fires of agony consume her leg once more—she chokes on another scream and gasps.


    “This…this was your home…”


    Kayce laughs. “Home? Home?! You think this…” He throws his arms out and turns. “...was home?! This place was hell! I’m glad it’s gone. You should be, too!”


    “People could’ve died…”


    “Oh, what a tragedy that would’ve been. Filth swept off the rotting face of this world.”


    “This isn’t you…” Natalie continues pulling on her leg, whimpering as the metal tears from the wound.


    “It isn’t?” Kayce turns back to face her. “This is what you made me, Natalie. I am the product of your hypocrisy, your self-righteous delusions.”


    “Shut up…” The rebar is almost out.


    “You preach about the ‘needs of the many’ and think you get to decide what the sacrifice of the few is worth. You trample on what you have, stand on the backs of those that love you so that you can feel better about yourself…oh but it’s all alright, in the end, right? Because you’re ‘making a difference’...”


    “Shut…up…”


    “Look around you, sis. Everything you see? All this pain? All this destruction? It’s all your fault. You did this.”


    “I said…” Natalie tears her leg off the rebar. In the same motion, she grabs and ignites her sword, throwing herself at Kayce. “SHUT UP!”


    Kayce catches her sword on crossed knives. His eyes are wide and gleaming. “There you are…”


    He hooks her sword with one knife and pulls. She tumbles forward, and his heel strikes her wounded leg. Natalie screams and falls.


    “What’s wrong, Nat?!” Kayce yells. “Do you feel ashamed of yourself?!” He grabs her hair and jerks her head up. “Look at me! Look me in the eyes and face what your actions created!” He throws her back down. “You can’t run anymore, Nat! Consequence has finally caught up with you! There’s nowhere left to go!” Natalie picks herself up. “You’re going to die here! It’s what you deserve!”


    Natalie twists and swings her sword. Kayce backflips over it. His knives curve downward. A shriek rips through the air as the weapons connect. Natalie stumbles forward.


    The blade of her sword flickers and disappears. The projector is cleaved in half—it hisses and spits sparks and smoke. She falls to her knees. Her stomach curls. The useless, broken weapon rolls from her trembling fingers and clatters against the ground.


    Kayce sheathes his knives. “What a pathetic joke…and here I was holding back.”


    Tears roll down Natalie''s face. “I-I…I can’t let you do this…” Rubble shifts nearby. “This isn’t you…this isn’t you…”


    “This is me,” Kayce says. He draws his pistol and checks the magazine.


    “Please stop…please…” The words slide off her tongue. “Kayce…Kayce…th-this…this isn’t what I wanted…for you…”


    Kayce goes stiff and silent. The clatter of nearby rubble gets louder.


    “You…you think…” Something begins to shimmer over his head. His voice picks up a metallic echo. “You think…you get to talk like that…after everything?”


    In a flash of movement, he’s upon her again. He plants his foot onto her chest and drives her onto the ground. His gun is leveled at her head. A blue light is flickering in his wide eyes. He starts screaming. “Just who the hell do you think you are to talk about what you wanted for me?! You have no right!!” He presses the heel of his boot against Natalie’s throat. Her lungs catch fire. She claws at his foot as black spots swim through the air. In the darkness of her vision, dim blue threads dance over his head.


    “Kayce…please…” She chokes and reaches for the edge of his cloak. He smacks her hand away with his gun. A small landslide rumbles close by. “Please—”


    “YOU ABANDONED ME!! And you think you just get to sit there and talk about my future?! THIS IS ALL YOUR!! FAULT!!” He screams and swings his gun back toward her head. Rubble crashes. A black, armored fist connects with his mask. Natalie’s heart seizes.


    The black-armored Enforcer commander tackles Kayce to the ground and pins him under its knees. “Target noncompliant. Lethal force authorized,” it croaks. Sparks and smoke fly from its damaged body. It beats him down, hammering his face with blow after blow. Sparks glint off his mask. He sinks into the rubble under the onslaught.


    Natalie sits and watches. Her mouth is dry, her mind is a void, and her stomach churns.


    It’s…it’s going to kill him… “Stop it…” It’s gonna kill him…it’s gonna kill him, it’s gonna kill him, no, no, NO, NO! NO!! “STOP IT!!”


    The Enforcer freezes and looks at her, its arm cocked back for another blow. A distorted screech tears the air and echoes off the walls of the crater. Ice fills Natalie’s gut. A hand flies up and closes around the Enforcer’s face.


    “GET…OFF!!” Kayce’s voice sounds corrupted and hollow, like it’s coming through a broken speaker. “GET OFF! GET! OFF!” He throws the Enforcer off like a broken toy. It crashes into the debris. Kayce rises, hunched over and twitching. Cracks of blue light have bloomed across his skin and his eyes glow the same bright hue. Sapphire fibers weave and twist over his head. He arches his back and lets out another metallic screech. “HATE…YOU… HATE YOU HATE YOU HATE YOU!!!” He pounces on the Enforcer, screaming the words over and over again.


    The Enforcer shrieks. Sparking chunks of metal fly as he tears it apart with his hands. Glittering dust clouds the air. He tears off its head with a distorted scream and bashes it against a chunk of concrete until it crumbles to scrap and a cloud of glowing blue petals. Then, he screeches again and begins hammering his fists against the chest of its mangled, smoking corpse. “KILL YOU! I’LL—I’LL KILL YOU!! KILL…YOOUUU!!” BAM! He strikes it one more time and lays there, doubled over and panting.


    Natalie trembles. Her hand is clasped over her mouth—she holds her breath while tears pour down her face. No…this can’t be happening…not you too…not you too…please…Kayce…


    Kayce jerks, reaching a shaking hand into a bag on his waist, and produces a syringe tipped with a long needle. Dark, forest green liquid glitters within the vial. He jabs it into his neck and presses the plunger. The cracks on his body recede and the strands over his head fade away.


    Kayce tosses the syringe away. The air settles again, laced with the sounds of distant, crashing water and his shallow breathing.


    “You’re…sick…” Natalie says, standing.


    “What do you care?” Kayce picks himself up.


    “We…we can help you…P.U.S has the resources—”


    “I don’t need anything from you.”


    “Kayce—”


    “I said stop calling me that!!” He flies at her, knives drawn. Natalie summons her shield.


    SKREE-EETCH! Bright pain tears across her arm. The device on her forearm sparks and sputters, and the shield vanishes. A deep, smoking gash runs across the projector lens. Natalie squeezes her hand tighter. Nothing. No! Her heart pounds. Come on, not now, not—


    A blade cuts the air. It screams as it shreds the armor on her shoulder and bites deep into her flesh, lacing her arm with sharp pain. Natalie yelps. A red glint streaks toward her. Another blade rips into her side. She grips at the wound, gasping.


    “After I’m done with you…” His voice comes from every direction at once. Another blow. A knife clips the back of her leg, cutting deep. She cries out. “I’m gonna crush every memory of you to dust!!” Another slash from the front. More pain. “I’m gonna destroy everything you love, kill everyone you know!” Another slash from above. Another from the front. A streak of red light lances through the air around her, too fast to track. “I’m gonna make it like you never existed!!”


    The hurricane of strikes quickens. Blades whistle around her. Natalie reels, juggled between blows. Pain soaks into every inch of flesh. Kayce continues.


    “And then—I’m gonna burn this world to the ground!” Above. Behind. Back left. Front right. Shoulder, leg, face, side, arm. Natalie can’t draw a breath. Pain fills every limb, every joint. “Take everything!! So that when the ashes settle…” A fang drives through her back. Natalie gasps and chokes. The tip of a curved, crimson knife protrudes from her chest, scattering weightless flakes of sapphire glass into the air. Agony sprouts roots through her whole body. She coughs and claws at the blade. It slices deep into her fingers. Kayce leans close to her ear. “...everyone will know what it’s like to have nothing.” He jerks the knife up, rending through her chest, then tears it out.


    Natalie falls forward onto her face. Her head spins. Everything is coated in a blurry, red haze. Kayce steps around in front of her and crouches down. The cold barrel of a gun presses into her temple. Her whole body is on fire. Every limb is heavy, weighed down by her own flesh. She drags her arm up. Her fingers land on his wrist and slide off. Hot tears leak from her eyes.


    “Don’t…” The word drifts off her slack tongue.


    “Goodbye, Natalie.”


    White.


    The world is white. Kayce is gone. The crater is gone. The pain is gone. Her body is light. She floats and drifts in nothingness. She can’t feel herself. She can’t feel anything. There’s no sound. No smell. No taste. There’s only white.


    “Nattie!!”


    She blinks. There’s a little boy, standing in front of her, gazing at her through eyes like shining garnet. His face is dirty, his skin is pale, his hair is white with a streak of black. He’s smiling. She knows him. She doesn’t know his name. She doesn’t even know her own name. She reaches for him. She has no hand, but she reaches for him. He stands too far away. Muffled voices surround her. The void grows brighter. The light begins to consume him. The voices get louder and more clear, like she’s lifting her head out of water. His smile is the last thing to go. The light blinds her.


    “I’ve got her!” Natalie’s feet meet solid ground. She falls forward into someone’s arms. Her stomach tightens and bile flies up her throat. She vomits. “Hey, hey! Easy! First time reconstruction is always rough…” A little white sphere with cyan fins drifts in front of her. It looks at her through a large, black lens and emits a bright, cheery chirp. Natalie lifts her head and looks into the honey-colored eyes of a girl with ash-colored hair.


    “...K-...K-Kokona…?”


    “It’s okay, Natalie, you’re okay.” Kokona smiles at her. Shiny lines trace down her cheeks—she’s crying. “Ya scared the hell outta me, you know that? You’re lucky we were able to lock your code in time…”


    “I—” Memory kicks down the door to her skull and pours in. An explosion. Debris. A screech. A red glint. Pain. Pain. So much pain. Feng—no… Kayce. Tears form in her eyes and cling to her eyelids. They stretch and warp Kokona’s face. Kokona catches her on her shoulder and holds her in a tight embrace.


    A scream flies from Natalie’s chest and rakes its claws against her throat on the way out.