Page 103 of Rebirth

That’s when I hear the crack.

Even with the pain and the rushing noise of my own blood in my ears, I hear it.

“It’s…coming…” I whisper, hardly getting the words out.

“It what?” Adira stops, stiffening as she looks at me, right before the splintering of glass shatters the air around us.

Water floods the room like a tidal wave and I’m only aware of Adira’s scream as she’s swept up in the flood.

But He’rox doesn’t falter. He doesn’t wane. Not even when the water hits him and there’s a deafening screech that splits my skull. His fingers fly across the matrix, performing the final calculations as the Gryken screeches once more.

“Fuck!!” Adira’s scream shatters my consciousness as she moves like a blur, launching herself in the air as she aims for the Gryken. Her bravery is astonishing.

But the Gryken reacts as if it expects her. With one tentacle, it slaps her out of the air and she bounces off the wall before falling to the floor, the water from the regen tank draining almost as fast as she moves.

“No,” I whimper, helpless in my state.

But the Gryken turns in my direction, those soulless eyes swallowing me whole as it advances.

And I hear it. I hear it in my mind.

“Little one,” it says. “You have adapted.”

And somehow I know, it’s not speaking to me. It’s speaking to it. The network. As if the mass of veins invading my being is its child.

This being that towers over all of us as it stands at its full height, sends terror through my veins.

And then…it reaches for me.

A tentacle moves through the air too fast for me to see.

Through the pain, a scream lodges in my throat as I wait for the impact.

But it doesn’t come.

Instead, the Gryken screeches, splitting the air in two. And that’s when I see He’rox has got a hold of it.

Two of his tentacles war with the Gryken’s one as he grips the fiend and pulls, taking the thing away from me.

I fight to see what’s happening. Fight through the pain. But all I manage to catch sight of is a deadly dance.

The Gryken thrashes and screams, its tentacles lashing out and He’rox meets each one with his own. They’re a blur of motion, tentacles striking and slapping only to be blocked by the other. The lab shakes with the force of their attacks, as He’rox throws the Gryken into the wall, only to be grabbed and slammed into the floor himself.

He’rox!

I want to scream his name. To help him somehow. But even as my body slams back into the table, I feel my limbs go weak.

So…this is the end. The real end. All those other times were just practice.

And yet, I am not afraid of it.

What I’m afraid of is seeing He’rox go down.

Adira gets to her feet and races towards me, ripping the straps from my limbs. “We have to get you out of here!” she shouts. But I can only watch the battle between He’rox and the Gryken, horrified and unable to move.

He’rox roars, a guttural inhuman sound, as his tentacles wrap around one of the Gryken’s, twisting and jerking it until it rips from the creature’s body. Black fluid sprays through the air, spattering against the walls. But the Gryken merely shrieks louder, shooting its remaining tentacles at He’rox with deadly speed. One strikes him across the chest, slamming him into the wall, and all I can do is stretch toward him.

“He’rox,” I whisper.

---