Kinetics: In Search of Willow (51 page)

Jacob Yoshida looked at
his brother and shouted at him to stop. But his younger
brother
wasn't
listening anymore.
Eugene
spread-eagled his arms and a wall of fire shot
out, separating the Isiroans from the Alliance. The wall of fire
roared and where Eugene was standing the fire was turning blue and
white.

I grabbed
Jack's
shoulder.
"
We need to use this
opportunity to get out of here
."

"
But we
can't
leave him
."
Jack said, pointing at Eugene. The fire wall was even bigger
now and beginning to encapsulate the Alliance insurgents. Most of
the Isiroans were free. Someone in the distance shouted for us to
evacuate to the teleporter.

Minus the defensive line,
a
massive
wave of
people were running toward the Spiral. Jack
didn't
move
an
inch
and
because of that
Roy
didn't
either. And surprisingly
enough Grey was still standing next to us too.

"
Mr. Grey
?"
I shouted over the roar of
Eugene's
firewall.
"Aren't
you going to
leave
?"

He shook his head and
shouted back,
"
No. That boy has more going on in his head than
he's
letting on. A
Vunjika
shouldn't
be able to do what
he's
doing right now
."
Mr. Grey came to stand right next to
us.

"
What do you mean
?"
Jack asked.

"There's
something acting on his powers. A foreign power
source.
"
He
narrowed his eyes.
"
I
can't
tell what though
."

The firewall reached up
and over the heads of the Alliance and created a dome around them.
The Isiroans were almost gone now, leaving only us, the defensive
line, Eugene, and the Alliance insurgents inside
Eugene's
fire
dome.

What little I could see past the fire,
the Alliance was attacking Eugene. I saw all sorts of powers thrown
at him. But they deflected or he burned them away like leaves to a
torch.

"
We have to go
!"
An Isiroan troop waved at us to follow her. The Isiroan
troops were starting to disperse, heading back to the Spiral now
that Eugene pretty much had them under control.

"
You kids go,
"
Mr. Grey said.

"
But
,"
Jack
started to say but Mr. Grey ignored him and ran up to
Eugene.

He wrapped one arm
around
Eugene's
neck and the other around his waist. Eugene burned hotter but
Grey was unaffected. Grey with his arms still around Eugene reached
up and tapped a device on his wrist. I recognized it as one of the
few technologist teleporters. The two of them glowed and then
disappeared with a swirl of fire in their place. We ducked when the
firewall exploded outwards and the Alliance insurgents were all
that was left in the base besides us and the last few remaining
Isiroan troops.

Roy grabbed my arm and
dragged me up the hill after Jack. We were pressed and pushed into
the center of the Spiral when one of the Isiroan generals activated
the teleporter. We
Deconstituted
in seconds.

None of us had
any
time to prepare for
the teleportation to the snowy mountains of Argentina. As soon as
we
reconstituted
on the other side, harsh winds and frozen snow chilled us to
the bones. Fortunately the gate to the base was already wide open
and they were letting everyone through.

I had never seen the
inside of the Argentinian base so packed with people.
"Let's
get to the
monitors
."
I said
to Jack and Roy.

They followed after me as I pushed and
squeezed through the masses that were all shouting and crying and
demanding answers. Of course no one could have seen this coming. No
one could have known that the Vunjika named Eugene could have
caused so much harm and danger. A whole base had been brought to
its knees by the simple fact that Eugene loved Willow too much to
let her go.

"
Harry
!" Willow's
voice called out over the crowd.

I looked over and saw her
working her way through the crowd. She grabbed my arm and pulled
herself through the last of the people between us.
"
What happened to
Eugene
?"

I shook my head.
"
Mr. Grey took him
somewhere
."

"
Is he safe
?"

I nodded.
"
If
he's
with Mr. Grey
he's
probably really
safe
."

"
Thank you. I love that boy, but
he's
an idiot
sometimes
."
There
were tears in her eyes. She had been incredibly strong since
joining the Isiroans, especially knowing that her whole life was
changing drastically, especially knowing that she was abandoning
everything she knew.

I chuckled.
"
I know the
feeling
."

She hugged me and
said,
"
Thank you
for looking after him
."

"
I did what I could
."
I hugged her back and looked up to see the
monitors on a far wall showing the security footage from Laramie.
The whole base was overrun and crumbling to ashes.

"
Miss Patterson
."
One of
Isiro's
guards squeezed through the crowd and came up next to
us.

"
Tom, what is it
?"
Willow broke free and faced the
newcomer.

Tom swallowed and looked
around apprehensively at the people pushed together like sardines.
He seemed worried that one of them would attack at any
moment.
"It's
time. We have to go now. Isiro is ready to be
transferred
."

***

EUGENE YOSHIDA

"You're
not Willow
."
I said again. The feeling of losing something bit
at my heart.

She shook her head.
"
Ever since your Willow
was kidnapped, she left something in your mind. It is a message
that you have slowly been unpacking, and at the same time you have
been letting me see
."

"I've
been dreaming about
…"
I tried to remember all the things that I had
dreamt about. I could see
Willow's
face, but the words were hard to
recall.

“
Let me assist you,” she
said.

Like a gardener pulling roots I felt
parts of my mind wake up to dreams I’d been having for
weeks.

I
once thought that the world was simple, Eugene. Willow stood
on the embankment of a raging river.

L
ong ago, I felt the need to run away. Willow leaned against
the edge of a tree--

O
ne of the things that I really loved about our neighborhood
was all the people. Willow knelt in the grass and picked a
dandelion--

V
ery few times did I realize that by the time I was 15 I would
be part of a world falling apart. Willow walked on the edge of the
rhythmic waves from the sea.

E
very day I hope that things will get better.

Y
ou know the time that we ran across the fields as
children?

O
h, something has gone terribly wrong!

U
nfortunately, everything has changed.

Willow melted like food
coloring into water
.

And then I saw it. The
thought she was trying to leave me.
I L O
V E Y O U
. I could sense it in the words
and the thoughts, spread out through a million shades of
emotions.

"
The memories were hers
."
The Not Willow cocked her head. The more I looked
at her the more the difference between her and the real Willow
stood out.
"
The
thoughts, the emotions were hers, but I was using them to
facilitate a connection with you
."

"
Who are you
?"

"
My designation, my name if you will, cannot be pronounced
with human language or understanding. Ben Ashwater called me
Sarasvati
."

"
Sarasvati
?"
I looked around at the darkness. It looked like we were
floating in a black void.
"What's
happening
?"

"
You were in danger, and therefore I was in a danger. I have
taken over your body for the meantime until the danger has
passed
." Sarasvati smiled.

"
Taken over? Wait...
" Something had
taken over when I had lost control at the Laramie base. Was it
her?

I remembered more moments.
I could remember back at Roswell with the man who had tried to kill
me and Harry. I remembered the voice that shouted
NO
while the fire
exploded from my hands. I could remember sitting under the overpass
listening to Willow’s voicemail message and feeling her rush up
from the bottom of my mind trying to get out. I could remember
standing in front of Joseph Carmichael and feeling his mind invade
mine, but only it was stopped by the presence of this Sarasvati who
not only stopped it but took over everything.

She nodded as my realizations
unfolded, as if she was watching them flow out of my
brain.

"Through less than
fortunate circumstances,
Ben Ashwater put
my AI into you when you were little more than a baby. I have been
tied to you since then and as my primary programming objective is
to protect myself I must take matters into my own. You will wake in
due time, but for now I am in control of your
body
."

"
Why me
?"
I
asked. Now that I
wasn't
standing in Laramie anymore I could think
clearly. I had lost control over my powers and she had taken over.
But that meant that the battle raging elsewhere… Where was it?
Where was Willow? Where was
my
Willow.

"
I do not know why I have been placed with you, a child with
no means and few abilities
."
She shook her head and appeared to think about
it.

"
Can you not… can you not look like Willow
?"
I asked.

"
Is this form not pleasing
?"
She looked down at herself and
frowned.

"
N—no
it's
not that,
it's
just… never mind
."
I looked away, wondering if my face was turning
red.

The image of Willow
shimmered and a different, taller woman with long dark hair,
cinnamon skin and a red sari appeared.
"
This was the form of Ben
Ashwater's
mother, Priya
Kapoor. She will work
?"

I nodded, amazed at the
shift.
"
What are
you
?"

"
I was created almost a millennia ago by our people to begin
archiving all the knowledge that we encountered
."

"
What people? Kinetics
?"

Sarasvati shook her
head.
"
The people
from which Isiro was born
. The
Sho'da."

I think I would have
choked if I was breathing real air.
"
Isiro?
You're
Isiroan
?"

She looked to the side and
patted her forehead.
"
Ahh, why Ben Ashwater, this one? You are not too bright. I
was put in you by an Isiroan.
Surely
it makes
sense
."