Page 106 of Call of the Fathoms

“I just created you. You are the perfect version of yourself!” Harlow stamped her foot. “Alexia, you are required to listen to me!”

“Alexia the eighth is dead, if that’s who you’re referring to. I killed her when you locked me in that room and waited for only one of us to come back out. All of you knew what you did, and what guilt you carried on your shoulders. You’re the reason the world ended, and still here you stand, assuming you’re owed something by the people and the planet you destroyed.”

There was a long moment of silence and fifty faces staring up at her in shock.

“How do you know that?” Original Lester asked, his voice shaking with rage.

“I saw the museum you left as a cock stroke to yourself. You’re all idiots, you know that? You think you are so smart, creating a way to control the weather. But you just ruined the only home you had, and now seem to think that the sea is yours as well. But you’ve just been ravaging that too. All you know is how to destroy.”

The Originals started talking amongst themselves, but Harlow didn’t move. She stared up at the window, and Alexia wished she was closer so she could see if that was sadness or rage in her eyes.

“Alexia, you’re like a daughter to me. I’ve been with you through seven generations of your being. What would you have us do?” She widened her arms, as though waiting for a hug. “Seven generations of your life, and all that effort to make you the perfect being that you are. Surely that proves how much you mean to me?”

“That’s not good enough,” Alexia interrupted. “You made an eighth, Harlow. You were going to kill me.”

“Only because the others made me.”

“You want me to see you like a mother? Well, I do, Harlow. I spent my entire life looking up to you, dreaming that you were the woman I wanted to be, loving you as much as I could with all those drugs running through my system.You are my mother.”

She was done with all this. Done with the expectation of the people down below that she would help them. Over the expressions of the people surrounding her, who worried she would help those they had just defeated. But neither group expected her to reach for the old school gun at Mira’s waist. This one had bullets in it, and that was more than enough.

Arges reached for Mira at the same time she turned. All the undines lunged for their mates, grabbing the women like they thought she was going to harm the people around her, but she wouldn’t do that.

No, she spun and put a perfect bullet hole through the window, and right out through the glass above all the Originals. It was too high for any of them to patch. They’d never reach it time, anyway. Water gushed in, cracks forming around the hole as the pressure of the ocean compromised the entire room.

Screams echoed from the room as the Originals and their guards ran for the door. They all pounded on the sealed entryway, their cries of begging and pleading unanswered as water quickly filled the room.

“What did you do?” Mira hissed.

“I ended this.” Calmly, she handed the gun back to Mira and then reached for a droid that had been rolling around Ace’s feet. She held it up to the glass in front of them, and immediately, the droid started heating a tiny rivet gun and melting the glass. It would patch the hole long before the water reached their level.

And the entire time, she made sure to watch as all the Originals drowned. One by one.

“We could have used their knowledge,” Mira murmured.

But Alexia shook her head. “They had more than enough time to fix what they broke. It’s our time now.”

Forty-Three

Fortis

He could see the others were angry. And in some sense, he understood why. A lot of knowledge had just drowned in front of them. But as he stared at those floating bodies, he couldn’t feel bad for them. They had gotten what they deserved, and the more he thought about it, the more right this felt. She’d needed to heal from all the things they had done to her, and this was the best way for her to do so.

Alexia had gotten her revenge. Finally. She’d cut all the ties to the people who had weighed her down for years now, and she shouldn’t feel guilty for choosing her freedom over their influence.

He touched a hand to her shoulder, drawing her toward him where he was propped against the wall. “We’re leaving for a bit.”

Mira’s head whipped around toward him so quickly he thought he heard her neck crack. “Excuse me? You’re not taking her anywhere. She’s the only one who knows how to get around this place.”

He was ready to argue on her behalf, but Alexia replied, “Ace’s droids have already mapped the place. You’ll need to go room by room to make sure anyone left alive either agrees to join us or kill them. Just make sure you aren’t going into sector twelve.”

Anya stepped forward, tapping on the droid attached to her head. There was likely a map already on the glass that descended over one of her eyes. “What’s in sector twelve?”

“The experiments. There should be quite a few genetically enhanced children in those rooms. Some of them will still be in stasis, so waking them up needs to be done carefully. And beyond that are the rooms with all the reborns. They are genetic matches for the Originals.”

Daios slapped his tail on the floor. “Shouldn’t we destroy them?”

“They aren’t the Originals. They’re clones. And they deserve to have a life just like we do.” Alexia’s voice had hardened, but Fortis already knew a threat when he saw one.

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