Eon fires behind me. “Evo!”
“I’m trying!”
“Pretend he’s Aera and a Solcrue has a knife to her throat,” Eon calls back. “That’s what I do with Raven.”
I don’t have to pretend.
Crezlith’s bite marks on my mate are enough to find the anger and utilize its power to break the glass wide open. The force shatters the layers one at a time, filling the room with glass.
The Titan slowly lifts his head. His irises flash through an array of colors as they focus on my position.
“Brother, are you corrupt?” I ask.
“They tried.” He fights the bands. “A little help?”
I walk up to him and pull up Magma’s skills, heat my hands and run them down the bands, melting them until they are soft enough for him to break free.
The Titan tears himself out. As I step back, he gets to his feet. His body is seamless with glints of hydramidium, and bears the digibadgeG.Paradox.
“If you don’t mind,” Paradox says with a cool, deep fury in his voice. “I would like a chance tocleansethis ship of what remains. It has been too long since I was in battle.”
Eon glances back at us, gapes at Paradox, then offers him his rifle. “Have at it.”
Paradox stands almost a head taller than both of us. He takes the rifle, stalks past us, and enters the security officers’ quarters, firing with surprising speed. Bullets glance off of him, sending fiery wisps dancing away from his body in a radiant silhouette.
“Shall we take the bridge?” Eon asks with a laugh. “I think Paradox has this covered.”
I lift a fist, and he bumps it. We phase out and run past Paradox, who clears every Solcrue that comes within range. He is the best of us. I have no concerns about him successfullycleansingthe ship.
Eon and I ascend the stairs to the bridge. There are only two guards outside the doors. We walk right up to them, fist-bump, phase in, and grin at the Solcrue as we punch them in their smug faces, steal their rifles, and shoot them down.
I set my hand on the coded pad, run the programs in my mind, and unlock the door. Eon steadies his rifle in his hands, keeping the igniter hot.
Eon>>Evo: You go left. I go right.
I click back twice, and we enter the bridge.
Solcrue shout. Some get up and run for escape pods. Eon doesn’t let them get away, and neither do I. They have come to destroy us. I am done letting them control our future. I finally have a reason I want to operate to see it...to see beautiful Aera again.
She is the one thing in this universe that has the power to pull my broken pieces together. I want it to be safe for her so she can live in the peaceful galaxy that she deserves.
Chapter 27: Aera
Raven doesn’t like hearing that Eon is gone. “No, that doesn’t make sense.”
“I don’t have them,” I insist. “None of the Titans here know where they are.”
“But I still have a ping for Eon. He’s...still in operation,” Raven replies.
The Titans, with me, shrug and shake their heads. Fracture steps out of the crowd. “We do not have him in our network. I have no ping. But they have been known to...phase out.”
Evo mentioned something. “But what does that mean?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know what it takes for them to come back. Those two have a connection none of us understand. I’m sorry.”
“But you have a ping, Raven?” I ask, thinking back to Evo’s crystal cloud on the distant planet.
“Yes.”
