Ascension (39 page)

Chapter 30

“The danger is not yet over,” Monica had told Katherine, as they hurried back along the corridor and attended to the other operatives in need of their assistance. “We might have defeated the masked Corrupted, but the winged Corrupted is still at large.”

Now that she'd rescued Monica, Katherine wanted to ask her about what she'd come to learn. She wanted to know the truth about her own parents, to understand the organisation's explanation of cloning, and to confront Monica about what happened to her mother. But before she could utter a word, she heard a barrage of gunfire ahead, and the cries of many operatives engaged in battle.

Once they had arrived at the school block's exit, they found their path blocked by two shadows: one belonged to a scale-laced figure with a hulking frame that smelt of the sea, and the other belonged to a mere boy.

Justin clapped. “You are beyond belief. To have defeated Alu, a Reaper, a highly regarded servant of my lord…Truly I am impressed. But I'm disappointed that you'd choose so poorly. Mind you, in the end, and with so many already in his service, it is likely you'd only prove yet another pawn on lord Namtar's chessboard and nothing more.”

She smirked back at him. “Then what does that make you?”

“I like to think of myself as a knight,” he replied. “Soon enough my lord will have collected all the energy he needs to raise Atlantis from its watery depths, and restore of it as the world's centre. Then, in his image, I shall assist him to reshape the rest of a new world.”

“And you see no problem with this?” She asked, itching for a fight and waiting to bring his nonsense to an end.

He glared back at her. “Why would I? The world is in dire need of change. Only by eradicating humanity, those who are corrupted in his eyes, can the world start to recover from the damage we've inflicted throughout history.”

“What I don't understand is why you'd ever think that I, or anyone in their right mind, would support such insanity?”

“I suppose it all depends on your point of view,” he responded. “Whether or not you believe humankind carries the necessary strength to achieve an even greater tomorrow, or that you see the humans as a flawed species the world would be better without.”

He then walked into the corner of the corridor with a gigantic, imposing fishlike Corrupted at his side. “Come Kur we must return to our lord with the news. Farewell Katherine Munroe. I had hoped that we'd meet again, but there is now another you must defeat, and I promise you he is not nearly as weak as Alu.”

With the rapid gunfire now silenced, Justin and this Corrupted seemed to disappear in the shadows before she could react. Although she desired nothing more than to hunt him down, she knew he'd meant that she must fight this winged Corrupted first. But there was this other Corrupted who'd stood by his side and who now occupied her thoughts. She had felt such a cold and cruel energy radiate from its scaled flesh, a greater energy than that of her last opponent.

“Who was that scaled Corrupted?” She had to ask, shuddering.

“I don't know,” Anzu replied. “He's not Namtar, but he's much more powerful than any of the other Corrupted we've so far confronted.”

Monica parted the front doors. “We must hurry.”

They stepped outside to be met with a strong gust of wind that pressed up against them, and propelled them back into the corridor. As she crept forward, toiling through the blustering gale, she saw this foul, winged creature fighting Blake's frazzled water guardian. Amidst the cluster of fallen operatives sprawled all over the asphalt, Kulullu grasped her side with one webbed hand, but wielded a javelin of ice in the other.

The winged Corrupted jeered, disarmed Kulullu and slammed her backward against the floor. “Not so confident now, are we water spirit? If only you and your master had enough energy left to replenish all my lost strength… but I guess I'll have to make do.”

“Are you ready?” Katherine asked Anzu, seeing they must intervene.

“Do I have any choice?” He replied, advancing toward the winged Corrupted and slamming up against his back.

The winged Corrupted grunted and staggered to reclaim his footing. “I'm really not in the best shape for this right now. But you look like you've also seen better days…”

“Stand down, Kulullu and I shall deal with him,” she heard Blake growl from near Walter's surveillance van.

“Blake, you can't be serious,” she responded, rushing to her guardian's side. “You can barely walk, we must work together.”

“I appreciate the offer, but Kulullu and I would rather work alone.”

The winged Corrupted scowled. He stormed toward Anzu and beat him about his ribcage. “Are you kidding me? You're just a pair of petulant children.”

With her guardian hurtled over in a heap, Kulullu re-joined the battle and jabbed the winged Corrupted with a newly formed spear of ice. But the winged Corrupted proved far too agile to fall victim to such a feeble effort. He dislodged the spear, and threw her sprawling to the ground.

“Fine,” Blake finally cried out, stumbling before the winged Corrupted. “Have it your way.”

He chucked a pair of plasma grenades before the winged Corrupted's feet and forced the creature airborne. But as the Corrupted hung in the sky, he beat his wings and conjured up yet another forceful torrent of wind.

Now's our chance, Blake plans to attack him while he's preoccupied calling forth the winds,
Katherine realised, as she channelled her own energy.

With the winged Corrupted beating down upon them, Blake promptly called for her to join him in one final attack.

“Now Katherine, hit him with everything you have left.”

With both young Indigo's channelling their remaining energy, Anzu and Kulullu unleashed their element upon the fluttering winged Corrupted. The surging energy of their combined attack, as potent and ferocious as it was, hammered the winged Corrupted heavily against the exterior wall of the school block.

She could see that cracks quickly formed upward and across the winged Corrupted's torso – his strong body of solid marble crumbled, shedding large shards onto the concrete pavement below. Severely drained of energy and with his laboured breathing, the winged Corrupted pushed himself free of the school wall, and then landed on his knees with a jarring crunch.

“I will not be defeated twice,” he cursed, as he tore toward Anzu with his arms outstretched.

“Watch out,” Katherine screamed, diving at her guardian, but feeling an unwelcome jab from a stone fist in her side.

She was sent flying backward across the asphalt and landed with a sickening thud. She could hear and feel nothing – her whole body was numb and raw. Her gaze drifted slowly, coming to rest on the golden feathers of her guardian. Then, all faded to black.

Chapter 31

When she finally awakens, how do I to answer all the questions she'll have for me?
Monica pondered, seated in the organisation's medical wing.
She has seen what happened in my past. Those events will not be easy to explain in so many words.

As she sat there redressing the bandages around Katherine's forehead, she thought back to a time when she'd done the same for Katherine's father. She'd tended his wounds as he had lain there in the medical wing, also having suffered a nasty gash across his forehead.

I'm not really sure what you expected to happen. Stephen could have killed you,
she had told him back then. She had thought him a fool to challenge an Indigo.

With his head cocked, dazed, and in significant discomfort, he'd glared at her from beneath the bandages and asked her what else he was supposed to do.

She is my wife
, he had said, refusing to remain idle as they carried out their experiments to clone her sister.

Whilst he'd tried to reason with her upon the morality of cloning, Monica had also seen there was a bag packed at his bedside, reminiscent of the time Katherine had made the choice not to join them based upon similar moral views. These views were also not so different from her own, for she'd pleaded with her sister in the beginning to reconsider joining the organisation. But Elizabeth would hear none of it. She was resolved to do all she could to play her part, content to sacrifice her own happiness and wellbeing for the greater good.

I'm not doing this because I want to,
she had once said.
I've agreed to do this because there is no other way. Vast numbers of Corrupted beings grow by the hour and attack the innocent. The organisation has become overwhelmed; and won't be able to sustain their charge for much longer. The organisation needs me; you need me.

But Duncan, stubborn as a mule, denounced this organisation no matter what she or his wife had said.
None of our efforts have yet proven successful
, he had reminded them.
And yet you want me to continue to serve an organisation that is willing to sacrifice my wife? I can't do it Monica, whether Elizabeth wishes it of me or not.

Katherine soon stirred, and put her hands to her head. “Monica…? Where am I?”

Monica smiled. “You're in the organisation's medical wing. You suffered a fairly severe knock on the head, and quite a few broken ribs.”

“What happened to the winged Corrupted?” Katherine asked, blinking profusely.

“He got away,” said Anzu, as the gryphon stretched out his stiff arms and clambered toward the bed's end. “But we did manage to successfully repel his advances, and ensure he didn't consume any more of our energy.”

Katherine winced, holding her neck and flexing her jaw. “I really got clobbered out there, didn't I? So how did you exactly drive him off? Last thing I remember was he'd gained the upper hand.”

“We were lucky,” Monica replied, her mind clear as to what had transpired, but she was unsure with where to start. “I've got something here for you to ease the pain.”

She handed Katherine a glass of Walter's painkilling concoction, and the young Indigo coughed after drinking it. “I don't think I'll ever get used to that taste. How long have I been out?”

“A week,” Anzu answered, his head resting against the duvet.

Katherine straightened. “A week?”

“I'm sorry Katherine, I failed you,” said the gryphon, his head bowed.

“You did nothing of the sort. As I recall, I purposefully threw myself in harm's way to protect you. We're a team you and I, and I saw it as the right thing to do at that moment.”

“Walter informs me your injuries will heal in time, but you need plenty of rest…,” Monica paused, for Katherine had leapt out of bed and rushed over to a nearest mirror.

With a drawn out sigh, Katherine saw that her left cheek was a dark purple colour and severely swollen. “No amount of makeup will be able to do anything about this.”

“Katherine, you shouldn't be moving about so soon,” Monica responded, concerned that she might cause further damage and hinder the healing process.

Katherine laughed. “Are you absolutely sure that you knew my father? I'm used to the odd bump and bruise. Sometimes I'd finish a workout with him barely able to move afterward. He wasn't exactly easy on me.”

“You're without a doubt his daughter,” Monica replied, surprised with how the young Indigo shrugged off her injuries as if they were an inconvenience. “But you are lucky to be alive following from a strike of that magnitude.”

She rubbed at her cheek. “Monica…about my father.”

“Once you had awoken, I figured there would be quite a few questions you'd want to ask me. I just didn't know where you'd want me to begin.”

“I suppose at the beginning,” Katherine replied. “Am I my mother's clone? And is Duncan Munroe truly my father?”

Monica took hold of her hands and looked deep into her blue eyes. “You are not a clone. And you are without a doubt Duncan Munroe's daughter.”

She could see a sense of relief sweep over Katherine, and noticed that the young Indigo's breathing return to a normal pace, and her hands had stopped trembling within her grasp.

“Following the conflict with Namtar,” she continued, thinking back on that day when she first set foot on the porch of eleven Delphi Crescent. “Your mother had left me with a young daughter. I took you to your father cradled in my arms.”

With her heart weighing heavy and with tears stinging at the back of her eyes, she told Katherine how she'd convinced the others to abandon the cloning of her sister, for they had learned she was with child.

“I then had to tell Duncan, that his wife was gone,” she said, trying her best to keep talking normally. “I had to tell him about how Elizabeth had given her own life, so that I could live.”

Katherine bit her lower lip. “I saw you throw a plasma grenade at the wraith while he had hold of my mother. You killed her. You let her die so you could go on living.”

“It wasn't that simple. The only way I can even begin to explain it, is if I were to show you. If you feel you're up to it, and you want to know the truth, I will need you to concentrate. What I'm about to show you, will not be easy...”

Without the slightest hesitation, Katherine did as instructed; she seamlessly took control of her breathing, relaxed her muscles, and cleared her mind of all unrelated thoughts. Now that Katherine had become more proficient in controlling her own energy, Monica had found it possible to return with her to the top of that rocky precipice.

Once Katherine had opened her eyes, Monica shared her memories with the young Indigo. Before them, the wraith of Atlantis stood clasping Katherine's mother. Monica's younger self was there too, wounded and kneeling at the wraith's feet clutching a pair of plasma grenades.

“Can you remember everything that happened at Anabasis High? Can you remember a faint voice calling out for you, and the illusion that had approached you?” She asked the young Indigo.