Battle of the ULTRAs (18 page)

“
H
ow nice
. A little family reunion. Kind of sweet, I suppose. And fitting that you’ll all fall together.”

Saint walked toward me, Cassie, and Daniel. We held our ground, as much as I wanted to get away. The energy ripping across Saint’s hands as his tower collapsed all around us wasn’t something to be messed with. I knew what he was capable of. I knew the risk he posed whenever he was near.

I knew just how strong he was.

His footsteps echoed against the metal walkways as he got closer. I could smell burning. I knew I needed to act fast if I wanted to save the brainwashed humans he had imprisoned in here.

“So how does it feel, hmm? The old gang, all reunited.”

“It’s over, Saint,” I said.

Saint shook his head. The energy in his hands grew bigger, more threatening. “See, I don’t think it is over. I don’t think it’s over at all. Because you’re too forgiving. I mean, even after what Daniel here allowed to happen to Orion, still you forgive him.”

“I should’ve seen what you were a long time ago,” Daniel said.

Saint tilted his head to one side. Although his face was burned badly, I could tell he was smiling. “And you really trust him, do you? You really trust Daniel not to make a power grab the second I fall? You don’t see this for what it really is?”

I had to admit I’d considered that this might all be some kind of ploy. Surely it was only right to be a little skeptical.

But a part of me just kept on hearing Orion’s words echo around my mind.

“Forgiveness burns a much brighter light than the black void of vengeance.”

I just had to hope my forgiveness was well placed.

“You might think you’re strong, the three of you. You might think you can take the world for yourself. But you’ll encounter problems. Difficulties will arise. And you’ll see why I’ve had to make many decisions I’ve made. You’ll know why I’ve done what I’ve had to do.”

“You haven’t had to do a thing,” I spat. “You’ve chosen this world. You chose to brainwash humans. To hunt down ULTRAs. You chose it because you’re weak.”

Saint’s smile twitched. “I’m weak, am I?”

“Yes. You’re weak because you don’t trust people or ULTRAs to follow you. So you have to resort to dirty tricks to get them onside. You’re the ultimate coward.”

“That’s what you think the paradise I want is? A dirty trick?”

“I think it’s worse. I think calling it a dirty trick is very kind. I think your ‘paradise’ is psychotic.”

Saint took another step nearer. His footsteps sounded even heavier. I knew it was because of the energy spheres in his hands.

“No matter how idealistic a view you have of how this is all going to work out for you, you’re wrong. You’re wrong about everything. And you’re sounding like a weak man with no options left but to make empty threats.”

Saint paused for a second. He didn’t say a word.

Then, “Empty threats?”

He brought the two spheres of energy together. Their light was so bright I could barely look into them. A crackling sound split through the tower as more of them fell around us. We didn’t have long to get out of this place. We had to move fast.

“How’s this for an empty threat?” Saint said.

The energy in front was so big that it was sucking me toward it.

“Here we are, just as Orion and I stood all those years ago. Now you can attempt to kill me by using your powers to fly at me, finishing what Orion started. But please know that if you step within inches of me, you’ll be incinerated, and so too will every single human in this tower. So go on. Do what you have to do. Because only by flying through this sphere of energy with everything you have, will you kill me. But you’ll die and you’ll sacrifice everyone else in the process, of course. Are you willing to make that kind of sacrifice, Kyle? ‘Glacies’? Does your family really mean as much as you say it does? Or are you really just all words?”

I looked at Cassie. I saw her shaking her head, tears in her eyes.

Then I looked past her at Daniel.

There was something different about Daniel. He was staring right at Saint, at that growing energy ball. The walls around us crumbled and moved toward that energy. It was growing stronger by the second.

“Have you got it in you, Kyle Peters?” Saint shouted.

“Daniel,” I said.

He looked at me. His face was pale. “I have to.”

“Daniel, no!”

Daniel charged up his powers.

Then he threw himself at that ball of energy.

I watched him get nearer to it. I held Cassie as I prepared for the explosion to ripple through Saint’s tower; the explosion that ended Saint for good, taking us down in the process.

I saw Daniel sacrificing himself for me, and I saw the value of forgiveness all over again.

I knew what I had to do.

I took a deep breath. “I love you, sis.”

“Kyle, what—”

I flew toward Saint. I was at Daniel’s side in a flash. He glanced at me, then I glanced back at him and nodded.

I flew closer to Saint and readied myself to fly into him. If it protected my family, then I had to do it. It was a sacrifice I had to make.

But I noticed something by my side. When I looked around, I saw Cassie was by my side too. All three of us were now powering at that mass of energy, stronger than anything we’d ever witnessed.

All of our powers were charged up to the max.

“Go,” I shouted. “I’ve got this.”

Then Cassie took my hand.

And Daniel took my other hand.

“We’re family,” Cassie said.

“We’re in it to the end,” Daniel said.

I felt a tear roll down my cheek and I looked ahead of that enormous sphere of energy.

All of us tightened our hands.

“I love you,” I shouted.

“Love you too, brother,” Daniel shouted back.

“I love you too,” Cassie said.

I felt the collective love of the three of us intensify our powers.

I put all my focus, all my strength, all my energy onto Saint’s mass of energy.

Then it wrapped around me, swallowed me up, and there was nothing but bright, warm light as I held on to Cassie and Daniel’s hands.

T
he light didn’t
last for long.

Soon, there was darkness.

But I was still awake.

I
hovered above Saint
.

By my side, Daniel and Cassie.

Saint’s spheres of power had gone.

In their place, an enormous wormhole into nothingness.

“Still not believe in the power of forgiveness?” I asked.

Saint looked scared. For a split second, he actually looked scared.

That’s when I knew I’d done what I had to do.

I kicked him down into the wormhole.

I watched him fall into it, screaming as the electrical storms ripped the last of his armor away.

I watched him shrink as he tried to use his powers to cling back on the outside.

But together, me, Daniel, and Cassie focused on closing that wormhole.

Closing it for good.

“You’ll regret this!” Saint screamed. “All of you, you’ll regret…”

The wormhole snapped shut.

Saint’s voice went silent.

When the wormhole closed, I fell to my knees.

And in the middle of the ocean surrounding Saint’s falling tower, the waves now still, the sun glowing against the water, I closed my eyes, and finally, I felt at peace.

T
wo days later
…

I
t didn’t take
the world long to rediscover its spirit.

The sun shone brightly down on Staten Island. It was quieter than I remembered. Usually, when you were anywhere around the greater New York area, you could always hear that tangible buzz in the city, and feel it in your bones. Not now. There was a solitude about the place. Not of the bad kind, though. Sure, Saint had left the world a shell of what it used to be. But it was a silence of people getting back to grips with their lives, settling back into their homes, taking things one step at a time.

Saint wouldn’t be bothering anyone anymore. I’d made sure of that.

So too had my brother and sister.

“I’m not sure I can do this.”

I looked to my left. Cassie stood by my side. It was still weird, standing beside her. It didn’t feel real, or like it should be happening at all. We’d been apart for so long that I’d just accepted she was gone. I put my hand on her back. “You can. You have to.”

“It’s just weird being back here,” she said, shaking her head. “Back where it… where it ended.”

“Hey,” I said, looking around my street. “I like to think this is where it all started. And right now… right now, we’re just picking up where we left off.”

Cassie smiled at me. “You always were mature for your age.”

“Unlike you,” I said. “You must’ve lost, what, eight years in that sleep of yours?”

She punched my arm playfully. “Get screwed.”

We giggled together. It sparked warmth inside. I wanted to just speak with my sister forever.

But there were people to see.

There were reunions ahead.

I looked over at my house and swallowed a sickly lump in my throat. I couldn’t help being nervous about seeing my family again. They had no idea I was still alive. So God knew how they’d react to finding Cassie alive.

Truth be told, we all should’ve been dead when we’d flown toward Saint’s sphere of energy. We’d flown into him willing to sacrifice all our lives.

But something had happened. Maybe it was that willingness to die that gave us the strength to live, bound by pure, total love.

We’d found a strength between us to fight the sphere of energy, to diminish it, and then to toss Saint away into an infinite wormhole for the rest of his existence, however long that was.

Like I said, he wouldn’t be bothering anyone again.

“Maybe you should go first,” Cassie said.

“You sure?”

She nodded. “If Dad’s anything like he used to be then he’ll jump through the ceiling when he sees I’m home.”

I smiled. “Yeah. He’s pretty much how he used to be.”

I walked on toward the front of my house. Across the street, I saw people smiling, families reunited as their brainwash had been lifted. My legs were like jelly. I wasn’t sure I could do this.

When I reached my house, I realized I didn’t have a choice.

Dad was at the front door. The door was open. In the hallway, I saw Ellicia and her parents. Damon and his parents, and Avi and his parents too.

They were all chatting to one another, catching up on the horrors they’d been through, no doubt.

I didn’t want to disturb them. I didn’t want to intervene.

Then Ellicia’s eyes met mine.

They locked for a few seconds. I swore someone said something, but I didn’t know who. All sounds disappeared. Everything disappeared.

Ellicia pointed at me, then ran to me.

After her, Damon followed. Then Avi followed.

And after them, Dad followed.

“You’re alive,” Ellicia said, wrapping her arms around my neck. I felt the tears on her cheeks rub against my face as we held one another, as the mass of people I loved crowded around me. “You—you’re alive.”

I held on. Looked Avi in his smiling face, Damon in his tearful eyes. And then I looked at Dad, whose smile was larger than any I’d ever seen. “Of course I’m alive. Didn’t think you’d got rid of me that easily, did you?”

“I kept—I kept the book for you, boss,” Avi blubbered. He was holding on to the crinkled pages of what looked like a dating guide. “The one with the—the Goodreads reviews. The 4.1 stars.”

I grabbed the book and patted Avi on his back. Then I moved on to Damon, looked into his eyes a few seconds.

“Come here,” he said.

He grabbed me and squeezed me in a big bear hug. And as we reunited, it was only then that I remembered I had another reunion to make. Another person to introduce.

I looked into my dad’s eyes. He put a hand on my shoulder. “My boy,” he said. “My brave boy.”

He hugged me, his chest shaky, and I hugged him back.

When he pulled away, I cleared my throat.

“Dad, there’s—there’s someone else here. Someone you have to meet.”

I turned around and pointed over at Cassie, who stood alone in the middle of the road, right at the spot the Great Blast had taken her away from us.

Dad looked over at her. He narrowed his eyes. He didn’t seem to recognize her.

Then confusion spread across his face.

He went completely pale and staggered to one side. “It can’t be… it—it can’t be—”

“It’s Cassie,” I said. “She never died, Dad. She’s still here with us after all this time. She’s still here.”

Dad stumbled from side to side, and I wondered if telling him was such a good idea after all.

Cassie stood still, just staring at Dad.

And then Dad regathered his composure and he ran toward Cassie.

“My girl,” he said. “My—my angel. My angel.”

“Dad,” Cassie said, as she collapsed into Dad’s arms. “I’m here, Dad. I’m here.”

“My angel,” Dad cried, on his knees. “My sweet angel.”

I watched the pair of them hold one another through tearful eyes. I heard sniveling all around me. I wanted to go over there and hold on to both of them, but I let them have their moment. It was a moment neither of them thought they’d ever have again.

I felt a hand grab mine. When I looked, I saw Ellicia by my side.

“You said you’d come back,” she said. “You said you’d protect me. No matter what.”

I nodded. “I wouldn’t lie about a thing like that.”

“You made it back just in time,” Damon said, clamping a hand on each of our backs. “The new Mission Impossible movie got delayed ’cause of all that, y’know, Saint stuff. But now it’s here. And I’m hearing this time, Ethan takes on his very first ULTRA. How frigging cool does it get?”

I laughed with Damon, Ellicia, and Avi. I felt the joy of a normal life with my friends returning. A life I never thought I’d have the chance to live again. I looked at Dad and Cassie still holding one another, and as the sun shone down on our Staten Island street, I wasn’t sure I’d ever had it so perfect.

At the corner of the street, I saw a dark, hooded figure. I didn’t have to see his face to know it was Daniel Septer.

He half-smiled at me. Nodded.

I took a deep breath and nodded back at him.

Then he turned around and walked away.

I looked up at the sky. Orion was right. Forgiveness really did burn a much brighter light than the black void of vengeance. I owed him so much for making me as strong as I was right now. I owed him for teaching me what I needed to know to take down Saint for good.

But right now, I had family to be with.

Real family.

“I’ll be a minute,” I said.

I let go of Ellicia’s hand and I walked toward Dad and Cassie.

I walked toward the warm sunlight.

I walked toward their arms, and we held each other on the spot where the Great Blast took everything away from us all those years ago.

It didn’t feel like an ending anymore.

More like a beginning of a new start.

A beginning of a new life.