Chapter 24 THE CHOICE THAT BREAKS EVERYTHING

Chapter 24 THE CHOICE THAT BREAKS EVERYTHING
Sera's POV

I had one hour to surrender myself for execution or watch thousands die.

Kade's body was still warm under my hands.

I couldn't let go.

Ryker stood beside me crying. Actual tears streaming down his scientific face. The man who analyzed everything had no analysis for this. Just grief.

Damon was unconscious on another table. Barely breathing. Ryker said he might not wake up.

Two of the three men I loved. One dead. One dying.

And Thorne wanted to make it three for three.

"Sera," Lila said gently. "We need to decide. Fifty-eight minutes now."

"There's nothing to decide," I replied. My voice sounded dead even to my own ears. "I'm not letting him kill more people. I'll surrender."

"Absolutely not," Nova said. She was standing guard at the door, watching for more Tribunal soldiers. "You surrender and die for nothing. Thorne will release the plague anyway. He's insane."

"Then what do you suggest?" I asked. "We can't find him in an hour. The city is massive. He could be anywhere."

Ryker wiped his eyes. Forced himself back into scientist mode because that's how he dealt with pain.

"The mobile dispersal device needs power," he said. His voice was shaking but he kept talking. "Significant power. Thorne can't just activate it from his pocket. He needs to plug into a major electrical grid."

"So we find the grid access points," Nova said immediately. "Narrow down possible locations."

Lila was already working on her device. "There are forty-three major grid stations in the city. But most are in secured areas. Thorne would need somewhere he still controls."

"The Deadlands processing facility," Nova said. "It's outside city walls. Tribunal controlled. And it has direct grid access for the labor camp operations."

"How far?" I asked.

"Thirty minutes by transport," Nova replied. "If we leave now."

I looked at Kade's body one more time. At his still face. At the man who'd finally learned to feel and then died for it.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm so sorry I couldn't save you."

I kissed his forehead. Cold now. Getting colder.

Then I forced myself to let go.

"Ryker, you stay with Damon," I ordered. "Keep him alive. Please."

"What are you going to do?" Ryker asked.

"I'm going to finish this," I said. "One way or another."

Nova gathered the surviving Wardens. Maybe twelve left. All wounded. All exhausted.

"One more fight," she told them. "One more chance to end the Tribunal forever. Who's with me?"

Every single one of them raised their hand.

We took a Tribunal transport vehicle. Drove through the rioting city toward the Deadlands.

The streets were chaos. People celebrating the broadcast. People demanding justice. People who had no idea Thorne was about to kill them all.

"Forty-two minutes," Lila said.

I checked the weapons Nova had given me. I'd learned to shoot over the past hour. Learned out of necessity. Out of rage.

Out of grief.

The Deadlands facility loomed ahead. Massive walls. Guard towers. The place where they sent people to die slowly instead of quickly.

"There," Nova pointed. "Power station is in the center. That's where Thorne will be."

We crashed through the main gate. Alarms blared.

Guards poured out of buildings. Tribunal loyalists making their last stand.

The fight was brutal.

Nova's Wardens were outnumbered but desperate. They fought like people with nothing left to lose.

I fought too. Not skilled. Not trained. Just angry.

Every shot I fired was for Kade. For my parents. For every person the Tribunal had destroyed.

We pushed through the guards. Reached the power station.

The door was sealed. Reinforced steel.

"Thirty-six minutes," Lila said. She was working on the lock.

"Faster," I urged.

"I'm trying!"

Gunfire erupted behind us. More guards coming.

Nova and her team held them off. Barely.

"Got it!" Lila shouted.

The door opened.

Inside was a massive room filled with electrical equipment. Transformers. Generators. Enough power to light up half the city.

And there, in the center, was Thorne.

He had the mobile dispersal device set up. Connected to the power grid. Ready to activate.

"Hello Sera," he said calmly. "Right on time. Thirty-four minutes left. Did you come to surrender?"

I raised my weapon. Pointed it at his head.

"I came to end this," I said.

Thorne smiled. "You won't shoot me. You're not a killer."

"You murdered billions," I replied. "Including the man I loved. Try me."

My finger tightened on the trigger.

Thorne's hand moved to the dispersal device. "You shoot me and my dead hand activates the release. Everyone dies anyway. But if you surrender, if you let me execute you publicly, I'll destroy this device. I'll let everyone live."

"You're lying," Lila said. She was beside me. My brave sister who'd risked everything.

"Maybe," Thorne agreed. "But are you willing to bet 10,000 lives on it?"

The same impossible choice. Again and again.

My life or thousands of strangers.

Except this time I'd already lost so much. Kade was dead. Damon was dying. What did my life matter anymore?

"Fine," I said. I lowered the weapon. "I surrender. But first you destroy that device. In front of me. Then I'll come with you."

Thorne considered. "You'll submit to public execution? No fighting? No escape attempts?"

"I'll submit," I lied.

I had no intention of submitting. But I needed him away from that device first.

Thorne reached for the dispersal mechanism.

That's when the building shook.

An explosion. Massive. From somewhere outside.

The lights flickered.

"What was that?" Thorne demanded.

Through the window I saw it. Smoke rising from the city. Multiple locations.

Lila checked her device and her face went white. "The other Genesis Centers. They're being destroyed. Someone's bombing them."

"Who?" Nova asked.

Lila showed us the screen. "The broadcast. People saw the truth. Now they're rising up. Destroying every Tribunal facility they can find. The revolution isn't just us anymore. It's everyone."

Thorne's face twisted with rage. "No. This isn't how it ends. I controlled the plague. I controlled the program. I controlled evolution itself!"

He lunged for the dispersal device.

I fired.

The shot hit his hand. He screamed and fell back.

The device was untouched.

"Lila, destroy it," I ordered.

"On it," she said.

But before she could move, the door behind us exploded.

Not from guards.

From something else.

Someone else.

Through the smoke walked Kade.

Alive.

Covered in blood. Moving like every step hurt. But alive.

"You died," I whispered. "Ryker said you died. I saw the monitor. Flat line."

Kade's voice was rough. "I did die. For three minutes. Ryker brought me back. Experimental procedure. Desperate measure."

He looked at Thorne. "You stabbed me. That was a mistake."

Behind Kade came Damon. Also alive. Also bloody. Also somehow standing.

And Ryker bringing up the rear. Looking proud and terrified at the same time.

"How?" I asked.

"Medical science," Ryker said. "And stubbornness. Mostly stubbornness."

The three men I thought I'd lost stood in front of me.

All of them alive.

All of them here.

"Sera," Kade said. "Step away from Thorne. This is our fight now."

But I didn't move. Because I'd already made my choice.

I walked toward Thorne. Grabbed him by his expensive suit.

"This is for my parents," I said.

I drove my fist into his face. He went down hard.

"This is for Kade," I continued. Kicked him in the ribs.

"This is for every woman you enslaved," Another kick.

"And this," I said, pulling him up to look me in the eyes, "is for thinking you could break me."

I threw him toward Nova. "He's yours. Do what you want with him."

Nova smiled coldly. "With pleasure."

Lila worked on destroying the dispersal device. Smashing it with tools. Making sure it could never be used.

I turned to face the three men.

Kade. Damon. Ryker.

All alive.

All mine.

"You died," I said to Kade. "I watched you die."

"I got better," he replied. Tried to smile. Winced from pain instead.

I threw my arms around all three of them. Held on like I'd never let go.

"Don't ever do that again," I whispered.

"Can't promise that," Damon said. "We're terrible at following safe plans."

Ryker pulled back. "Sera, we need to move. This facility is going to be overrun by rioters soon. We should—"

The building shook again.

Not an explosion this time.

An earthquake.

The floor cracked. Equipment sparked.

"What's happening?" Lila shouted.

Ryker checked the monitors. His face went pale.

"Thorne," he said. "Before we got here. He didn't just set up the dispersal device. He rigged the entire power station to overload. If it goes critical, it'll cause a chain reaction through the city grid."

"How long?" Nova demanded.

"Five minutes," Ryker said. "Maybe less."

"Can we stop it?" I asked.

"Not remotely," Ryker replied. "Someone would have to manually shut down the core. Inside the reaction chamber."

"Where's that?" Kade asked.

Ryker pointed to a door marked AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.

"In there. But the radiation levels will be lethal. Anyone who goes in dies."

We all looked at each other.

Another impossible choice.

Someone had to die to save the city.

"I'll go," Kade said immediately.

"No," Damon interrupted. "I'll go. I've got nothing left anyway."

"Neither of you are going," I said. "I'm going."

"Sera—" all three men started.

"I said I'm going," I repeated. My voice was final. "This started because of me. Because I chose to fight. So I'm finishing it."

"Four minutes," Ryker said quietly.

I looked at Kade, Damon, and Ryker one last time.

"Thank you," I said. "For showing me what freedom feels like."

I turned toward the reaction chamber door.

Then Lila grabbed my arm.

"Wait," she said. "There might be another way."

She pulled out her device. Showed me something.

"What if we overload it differently? What if instead of shutting it down, we redirect the power surge into the Citadel's systems? Destroy what's left of Tribunal control?"

"That would still cause explosions," Ryker said.

"But targeted ones," Lila replied. "And no one would have to die."

"Three minutes," someone called.

"Can you do it?" I asked Lila.

She looked at her device. "Maybe. If I'm very lucky. And very fast."

"Then do it," I said.

Lila's fingers flew.

Two minutes.

One minute.

"Now!" she shouted.

She hit the button.

The entire facility hummed. Power surged. Lights exploded.

Then everything went dark.

For ten seconds we stood in complete silence.

Then the emergency lights came on.

"Did it work?" I asked.

Ryker checked the monitors. "The overload was redirected. The Citadel's power systems just fried. Everything Tribunal-controlled in the city just went dark."

We'd done it.

Actually done it.

The Tribunal was finished.

I collapsed. Just sat down on the floor because my legs wouldn't hold me anymore.

Kade sat beside me. Then Damon. Then Ryker.

The four of us. Bloody. Exhausted. Alive.

"It's over," I whispered.

"It's over," Kade agreed.

But then Lila's device beeped.

She looked at it and her expression changed.

"Sera," she said slowly. "You need to see this."

She showed me the screen.

It was a message. From someone claiming to be Thorne's second-in-command.

"Councilor Thorne was not operating alone. There are twelve other Tribunal members scattered across the remaining settlements worldwide. They have their own plague variants. Their own control systems. And they just declared war on Neo-Genesis City for killing Thorne. They're coming for you, Sera. All of them. And they won't stop until you and everyone you love is dead."

The revolution wasn't over.

It was just beginning.