Cadence.

  I gave no reaction to the silent voice. How could I? How could I do anything? Rachel was gone.

  Cadence!

  Rachel wasn’t here. The portal took her, leaving me standing there without my sister, without anyone. I needed her. How was I supposed to function without my sister? How could I live?

  Damn it all, Cadence, duck!

  That particular silent shout (in a deep baritone voice) cut through my thoughts, the order firm enough to make me react reflexively, ducking just as something went sailing through the air just over my head. It was a pipe of some sort. A pipe that had been hurled at me by one of the humanoid crystals known as Taken. Twelve hollow crystalline figures coming toward me from all sides. That hurled pipe that the one marching straight toward me from the front had thrown barely missed two of the ones behind me.

  In that same moment, just as I ducked, one of the Taken walking up from the left abruptly collapsed as something big and furry slammed into it from behind. They-- we all looked that way just in time to see that big furry thing leap sideways from the fallen form toward the next one over. In mid-lunge, it transformed from what had been some sort of cougar to a much-larger and even furrier bear. The Taken there practically exploded, shards being sent in every direction as that heavy form slammed into it. Obviously, that wouldn’t kill the thing, since it could just pull itself together. But it did put it out of commission for at least a few seconds. Maybe even longer.

  Cadence! The silent shout, the voice in my head, came again as the shaggy bear’s large head snapped over to look at me. I could see… emotions in those eyes. Very intense emotions that seemed so very familiar to the ones I was having. You have to fight right now! Behind you!

  I had to admit, there was a part of me, a small, quiet, but extant part, that didn’t care about that. There was a part of me that didn’t care about fighting back now. There was a voice that tried to point out that if I just let these things take me, maybe I’d end up wherever Rachel was. Maybe I could get back to her that way and the two of us could work together again. We could escape together. Yes, it was wrong, and it was bad, and it was absolutely selfish. But I had the thought.

  And then I realized what it would mean. Giving up? Surrendering? Even if it worked, even if I really was taken to where Rachel was, and even if we escaped together, the others would be dead. The bomb on the station would go off, while Rinweld, all those soldiers and workers, and even the rest of the squadron were there. I would have to look my sister in the eyes and tell her that the first thing I had done after she was taken had been to surrender and let all those people die. Those people, our friends, our teammates, our-- they were there, they were going to die if I didn’t move. They were going to die if I didn’t escape this place and warn them. They were going to die if I surrendered here. If that happened, I would never be able to save my sister, because I’d never be able to look her in the eyes. I’d never be able to look myself in the eyes.

  I had one choice right now, just one. Surrender, and let everyone on that station die, let my sister down just when she actually needed me to step up the most, because I was sad. Or fight back.

  With a pained, broken sound that rose somewhere from the depths of my soul and tore its way up through my throat, I pivoted just as one of those Taken was reaching for me. The motion took my head away from its grasp, but it didn’t stop. It reached for me again. I saw… I saw its blank, empty expression. An expression just as hollow and nothing as its insides. This Taken was based on a real person. At some point, a real, living human being had been injected with one of those crystals. The crystals grew around his physical body, encasing him. And when it was done, the person inside had been transported to a new world, leaving this Taken footsoldier.

  The person, the real man himself, was attacked by these things, beaten and broken and injected with the crystal that became this shell. Whoever the actual person had been, he was gone now, maybe forever. He’d been taken away from his friends, his family. Just like Rachel. The man whose face this crystal was wearing had been taken away from those who loved him, just like Rachel.

  Another noise escaped me, that one a scream. At the same time, my fist lashed out. It was a purely instinctive move. I didn’t think about what I was doing. I saw that crystal face, thought about what it meant, what must have happened to the man it belonged to, and reacted. With that scream, my gloved fist collided with the Taken’s face. If I had been my old self, if I was still just the Squire, that impact would’ve left my hand stinging in pain while barely doing anything to the figure itself. But now? Now I felt almost nothing at all, while the crystal nose snapped off, a line of fractures spread through the face, and the Taken went stumbling backward from the impact.

  Something at the back of my mind warned me about something else coming up from behind me, to the left, and my leg was snapping up and out before I’d even consciously acknowledged it. I felt my foot slam into the chest of another Taken. But it didn’t stop there, because that sense was telling me about yet another threat. Without any conscious thought, I used the brace of my foot against the chest of the second Taken to push myself up and over into a spinning, flipping motion that let my other foot snap around to collide with the third Taken’s face while it was still in mid-lunge. It was enough to lift the thing off the ground and send it flying sideways to slam into a metal pole.

  “Holy shit!” The words came blurting out of me after I landed smoothly. “I just--” And then I paid the price for being distracted, as the Taken whose face I had punched recovered and nailed me right in the back with a kick that lifted me up and sent me flying into the car we’d come here in. I hit hard enough to dent the entire side inward before bouncing back off it to land hard on the ground with a pained groan. That one definitely hurt. But the fact was that it should have killed me. It would have turned me into total mush, if I was a normal person. Hell, if I was the person I’d been just two minutes earlier, every bone in my body would’ve been broken from that impact. All my insides would’ve basically been liquefied. But now? Now I just grunted in a bit of pain.

  And it wasn’t just the lack of pain and death. It was all of it, everything that had just happened over these past few seconds. The motions that came without thinking. That punch, the first kick, using that to push up and spin around into the second kick, even landing afterward, all happened without any thought on my part. It was instinct, reflex that came as part of being bonded to… of being given… of what had happened. Seeing so easily through near pitch-darkness, the strength, the skill, it came as a package deal. A package that I desperately wanted to give back.

  But I couldn’t. I had to see this through right now. I had to get out of here and warn everyone. The clock was ticking loudly in the back of my mind. Another gift from all this, apparently, was knowing exactly how much time had passed since Nikos had said that bomb would go off in fifteen minutes and twenty-two seconds. That had been five minutes and forty-two seconds ago. So there were only nine minutes and forty seconds left before the whole station would explode.

  Somewhere in the background, part of me was acknowledging that, even as the bulk of my focus was on the Taken who had just come rushing up with its foot raised in an attempt to kick into (and possibly through) the front of my helmet while I sat with my back against the crumpled car. An audible yelp escaped me as my hands jerked upward to catch that incoming foot. It stopped the kick short, though the force of it was enough to send a jolt of pain back through my limbs. So I couldn’t even imagine what would’ve happened if I’d still been my old self when I tried to do that. Both arms would have snapped like a couple toothpicks trying to catch a falling brick.

  As it was, the Taken seemed surprised when its foot was caught in the palms of my braced hands. It froze, head lowering to stare at me briefly. This particular one had come from some older woman, the crystal detailing good enough to make out the lines of her wrinkled face. The actual age of the person being encased to create the Taken didn’t matter. It wasn’t like this one was particularly weaker just because it came from someone who might actually have been a great-grandmother. But it sure pissed me off. I’d never met any of my grandparents, so I’d built up fantasy versions of all of them in my head. Plus, I knew Madison’s grandma. And the thought of any of them being taken like this made me angry enough to snarl as I gave it a hard shove.

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  The Taken didn’t talk much, if at all. Mostly they just made nonsense noises. This one had just enough time to make what sounded like a surprised, worried, “Bluh?” sound before my violent shove sent it flying up and away from me. It went a solid twenty feet up, flailing wildly before coming down on the far opposite side of the drive-in lot, near the entrance. There, it shattered like a glass being thrown from the top of a building, tiny, broken pieces flying in every direction.

  Meanwhile, the Taken I’d punched (who then paid me back with that kick in the back) had come rushing up just before leaping the last few feet, springing toward me with its hands raised. I threw myself into a sideways roll away from that, just in time for the thing to crash into the side of that poor car. The already-caved-in doors completely fell in from that impact, and the Taken actually managed to get itself partially stuck. It hit so hard, its sharp crystal fingers went right through the metal, and through the upholstery. So it had to take a second to try to extricate itself.

  By that point, I managed to scramble to my feet. Another Taken had summoned a big crystal sword and swung it at me. And I… froze. I froze. I saw the sword coming, felt what I was supposed to do, but completely froze up. A rush of panic set in and took over, as the images of what that sword could do if it actually hit me ran unbidden through my brain. Terror overwhelmed me, and nothing my fancy new reflexes and instincts tried to say about how to stop it mattered. Through it all, I could hear the sound of my own heartbeat slamming against my chest loudly.

  And yet, just as that deadly sword swept through the air at my terror-frozen body, it was abruptly pulled out of reach. Mostly because the Taken who was holding it was grabbed around its waist by the mouth of an alligator. And it was just the mouth, since the rest of the animal was a horse. It was the sound of that horse galloping closer that was the actual source of what I’d thought was my heartbeat. A horse with a crocodile snout and mouth. Not to mention teeth. The horse had come galloping up just in time for those powerful jaws to catch the Taken mid-swing, before the amalgam creature spun on its hooves and released, sending it flying very far out of the way.

  That was when I saw yet another one of those things try to jump on the gator-horse from behind, with a crystal knife of some sort. The gator-horse that was, of course, Derecho. It was Derecho, my sister’s Kite. This… this fucking piece of shit monster was trying to hurt my sister’s Kite.

  I screamed. It actually scared me a little bit, the way the wail of anger erupted from me. It sure startled the Taken, who came up short from its intended lunge, just in time for me to grab its arm as it stood briefly motionless. I caught the thing, yanking it away from the horse-gator. And then my leg rose before slamming into it. The thing tried to grab me with its other hand, but I just caught that one too. I held both its wrists up out of the way, then kicked it again. Then I kicked it again. Then I kicked it again. Over and over, I kicked it, the enraged scream coming the whole time. At one point, it collapsed, falling out of my grip. But then I just started stomping on it.

  I only realized that the whole thing had shattered under those repeated impacts, and that I was stomping broken shards, when the deep voice of Derecho cut through the anger. Cadence, stop now!

  Freezing, I looked down at the tiny shards, then raised my gaze to see that he had shifted into a gorilla. The two of us stared at each other, before his hand rose to touch the side of my helmet. No, not my helmet. Rachel’s helmet. This was her suit. This was her power. This was her Kite in front of me. Hers, not mine. Never mine. She was the one who was supposed to be here now.

  “Derecho,” I managed, my voice cracking. It was like I could hear my sister, the way the electronic distortion affected my voice was just enough to make it sound like she was talking. I felt hot, blinding tears coming on as my stomach clenched and twisted violently. “I just-- she--”

  Yes, his silent voice agreed, the gorilla hand sliding down the helmet to my shoulder to squeeze. But not now. Not now, Cadence. The others. The bomb. We have to go now! Even as he said that, we both saw more of the Taken coming out of the shadows. I’d… hit a couple, and really did a number on that one, while Derecho had done most of the damage. But more were coming.

  The reminder about the bomb snapped me out of the feelings that had been rushing up. The others, the station, they needed me. Just barely forty-four seconds had passed through all that, so we were down to eight minutes and fifty-six seconds before… before the whole situation would get so much worse than it already was. I couldn’t let that happen. I wouldn’t. My hands went to grab my phone to call them, only to bounce off the long duster over the armored suit. No phone. Our phones had been upgraded to be able to reach the station, but that didn’t actually help at all when I didn’t even have my phone with me! It was still sitting on its charger at home.

  Tsseew! Tsseew! Ksssh!

  I was snapped out of my panic about my phone by the sound of lasers. Which was the moment I realized Derecho wasn’t in front of me anymore. Rather, he was, but not as a gorilla. Or any other animal. He’d moved away before transforming into his starfighter form. That was the source of the laser sounds, as he simply used the ship cannons to shoot the approaching Taken.

  Get in, Cadence! His voice was even more urgent now, the cockpit opening while yet another group of the incredibly stubborn (and seemingly endless) crystal footsoldiers started appearing.

  But it wasn’t just the Taken this time. I saw worse things, stronger things, mixed in with them. Some of the actual Eighty-Seven had arrived, and they were absolutely not interested in letting us get out of there to warn the others. There were monstrous forms coming out of the shadows.

  Scrambling toward the ladder as it descended, I climbed up quickly and all-but threw myself into the seat. We had to go, we had to get out of here now. Even if there was a part of me that was screaming about how this was abandoning Rachel, that there might be a way to get that portal open again so I could go save her. I ignored the voice, as well as the guilt, shoving it far down.

  Unfortunately, one thing I didn't push down right then was my instinct about where to sit. I dropped into the seat and quickly buckled up. A very brief, yet poignant silence followed before I heard Derecho’s voice in my head again. Cadence, the other seat. You need to be in the front.

  Why did that hit me so hard? Why was that the thing that made me freeze up again? I sat there, staring at the back of that first seat, the pilot's seat, Rachel's seat. I knew there wasn't time for this. I knew I needed to put it away and focus on getting out of here to save the others. The clock was ticking in my mind. But the thought of doing that, of putting myself in Rachel's seat, was basically admitting that she was gone. And that made the world close in.

  The others. All those people. All of our squad mates. Everyone who was going to die if I didn't pull it together. Swallowing the lump in my throat and the heavy feelings of guilt, I heaved myself up and over, scrambling a bit awkwardly before basically falling into the forward seat. My head was shaking rapidly the whole time as I protested, “I don’t know how to prep, I don’t know how to fly, I can’t do this, I can’t--” The panic was rising, making it hard to even focus on the holographic console in front of me. My hands were shaking so much as I reached out for the controls that I couldn’t actually touch the one I wanted. I just sat there, staring at my violently shivering fingers.

  The rich, soothing, baritone voice in my head came firmly, yet gently. Stop, Cadence. Stop. I have you. Put your hands down. Close your eyes. Breathe in. Hold it. Hold it. Let it out. Breathe in. Hold it. Let it out. You can do it. We can do it. You know the emergency procedure. Open your eyes.

  I followed Derecho’s instructions through that, letting my hands drop to my sides while doing my best to ignore the sound of the Eighty-Sevens approaching, and the cannons firing to keep them back. I closed my eyes and breathed in, then out a couple times. When I looked at the console again, things were still a little blurry from the tears, but I could see better. And my hands were steady enough for me to find the right holographic control for the emergency start. Because Derecho was right, I did know the procedure. I’d done it with Rachel, now I had to do it myself.

  The ship hummed to life. Before, it had been running just enough power to fire the cannons a few times, but now the central core was rumbling like a jungle cat. I felt its strength, its sheer potential. I felt everything it could be. Kites in mech mode were the most advanced, powerful weapons on the planet. Me? I was just Cadence. I was the little sister. I was the Squire. Without Rachel, I was nothing. But now that nothing had to get this ship out of here, and warn the station about the bomb. And there sure as hell wasn’t time to waste on normal preflight procedures.

  To that end, the ship’s computer had just run through maybe a quarter of the checklist it was actually supposed to do before each flight, when I gave a quick snap of my hand against that screen to send the holographic display down and to the side with a muttered, “Good enough.”

  Looking out the front of that cockpit after dismissing the warning that tried to pop up, I saw almost a hundred Taken scrambling to reach the ship, with at least a dozen actual Eighty-Sevens mixed in. And more were appearing by the second. They were calling in all the reinforcements.

  Rachel would’ve had a pithy remark. She would’ve known exactly what to say, and stayed cool under pressure. Me? I made a noise in the back of my throat that was half-whimper, half-choking sound of absolute terror. Then I grabbed the control stick and gave the engines the liftoff command, sending all power to thrusters.

  That was a mistake. We rocketed forward and up so fast that I was slammed backward in the seat. The ship tore through the giant drive-in movie theater screen, and I caught the slightest glimpse of a tall building looming in front of us. At the last second, I jerked the stick backwards and tilted the ship, sending us hurtling skyward.

  Six minutes and thirty-four seconds left.

  And dots were already appearing on the sensors as Intruder ships rose to give chase.

  JOKE TAGS

  ?Six Minutes And Thirty-Four Seconds? That's Way Too Much Time To Be Sufficiently Dramatic, Better Take A Quick Trip Around The Planet Just To Maintain Enough Narrative Tension

  ?????????You Know What? I Kinda Feel Like The Eighty-Seven Might Eventually Look Back On This Moment And See Exactly When They Fucked Up

  THE ELEVENTH (AND FINAL) CHAPTER AND THE REST OF THIS ARC (THREE INTERLUDES) ARE ALL AVAILABLE ON PATREON RIGHT NOW, BY SIGNING UP FOR THE FIVE DOLLAR LEVEL AND THEN GOING TO THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER RIGHT