Page 109 of Supernova

Nova didn’t know what to do. Magpie was a Renegade, an enemy. She’d never even liked the girl to begin with.

But still, something inside Nova refused to let her just walk away.

“He annoyed the hell out of me,” Magpie said with a hiccup. Nova was surprised that she was speaking at all, and at that, not making sassy commentary for once. She sniffed. “But still… I thought, if he had the helmet, we might be able to win. He was obnoxious ashell, but he was always… more heroic than any of us. He didn’t deserve…” Magpie grimaced. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have given him the helmet.”

Nova swiped the sweat from her forehead, no doubt leaving traces of blood in its wake. “It’s Phobia’s fault.”

Sniffling again, Magpie turned her head to Nightmare, her eyes full of loathing. “It’s your fault, too.”

Nova swallowed, hard. “I know.”

She reached forward. Magpie started to pull away, but it was too late. Nova’s fingers brushed her forehead and the kid sank down onto the steps, asleep.

Nova staggered down the rest of the stairs and over the rail. She was too weary for a graceful landing, and instead collapsed when she hit the muck-covered field. She forced herself to stand and keep going.

She noticedhimthen. The Sentinel, standing in front of the Dread Warden, who was remarkably visible for once. Visible, with his face covered in swollen welts. Ace was speaking again, taunting Captain Chromium, who had shackles binding his wrists and ankles.

Nova could still stop this. Everything had spun out of control so quickly. This had not been what she’d planned, what she’d wanted.

She needed to get to Ace.

“Ace,” she started, but it was barely a croak. How many times tonight had she screamed? In anger, in heartbreak, in denial. “Ace…”

The Sentinel put himself between Ace Anarchy and the Dread Warden, acting like a protective shield. Nova shook her head. He was an idiot if he didn’t realize how vulnerable that suit would be to a telekinetic like Ace.

Except… it was the Sentinel who captured him in the first place…

Then, the Sentinel pressed a hand to his chest, and the armoredplates started to condense, the suit folding in on itself. It was like watching an origami doll as it got smaller and smaller, then disappeared altogether into the chest of a human boy.

Nova froze.

The world faded, a tunnel around her vision. Like peering through narrow binoculars, bringing the world into sharp focus, yet being unable to comprehend what she was seeing.

The boy…

The Sentinel…

It wasAdrian.

Even as she stared, trying to comprehend, her uncle was lifting a thousand weapons from the debris, surrounding Adrian and his dad with everything from abandoned blades to splintered wooden beams.

“No…” Her voice broke.

Ace didn’t hear.

She staggered forward. She couldn’t quite align the identity of Adrian with the Sentinel, but she could see that Ace intended to kill him. There would be no surviving the attack of so many weapons at once.

She couldn’t watch it. Not him, too.Anyonebut Adrian—

“Ace!” she cried. “Ace, wait!”

He didn’t wait.

With the twitch of a finger, he sent the amassed shrapnel flying at Adrian.

Nova screamed.

Adrian thrust out his left hand.

---