Chapter 39 The Purple Eye
The needle stung like a wasp. I tried to pull away, but my muscles turned to stone. The purple glow in Kael’s eyes was the last thing I saw before my vision shattered into a thousand jagged pieces.
"Not again," I screamed in my mind. I won't let you back in!
But it wasn't a dream this time. It was a cold, sharp invasion. I felt the hunger sliding through my veins like liquid glass. It wanted my memories. It wanted the Weaver's power. Most of all, it wanted to use my body to finish what it started.
"Don't fight it, Eara," Kael’s voice echoed. But it wasn't coming from his mouth. It was coming from inside my own head. "If you let me in, the pain stops. We can be together forever. No more simulations. No more lies."
"You... are the lie," I wheezed.
I forced my hand to move. It felt like lifting a ton of lead, but I managed to grab the needle in my neck and rip it out. I stumbled back, hitting the cold metal wall of the ship.
Kael stood there, his body twitching. His skin was turning a sickly grey. "You don't understand. The Moon Colony is a trap. The man on the screen... he’s just a program. I’m the only real thing left!"
"You're not Kael," I growled, spit flying from my lips. "You're just a ghost in a stolen skin."
I looked at the monitor. The pods on the Moon were still popping like bubbles. Blood smeared the glass of the tiny windows. Thousands of innocent people were dying because I thought I had won. The revenge I wanted wasn't just for me anymore. It was for every soul Kael had turned into a battery.
I didn't run away from him. I ran at him.
I tackled Kael, sending us both crashing into the pile of melted scrap that used to be my father. I didn't use a weapon. I used my teeth and my nails. I bit his shoulder, tasting the bitter, metallic blood of a clone.
"Get out of my head!" I roared.
Kael slammed his fist into my ribs. Crack. I felt a bone snap, but I didn't let go. I wrapped my fingers around his throat and squeezed.
"If I die," Kael choked out, his purple eyes fading for a second, "the ship... loses its pilot. You’ll drift... in the dark... forever."
"Then we’ll drift together," I hissed.
Suddenly, a loud thud echoed through the ship. The entire vessel groaned as something massive latched onto the hull. The emergency lights turned from red to a blinding, angry yellow.
"Docking sequence initiated," the computer voice stated. "Welcome, CEO Seraphine."
The airlock at the end of the hall hissed. The heavy, round door began to spin.
Kael’s eyes went wide with terror. "No. She wasn't supposed to be here! She was supposed to be dead!"
"I guess we both have a hard time staying down," I said, pushing him away.
The door swung open with a bang. A woman stepped in, but she wasn't wearing a suit. She was wearing a combat rig made of black carbon fiber. Her face was covered in scars, and she carried a massive pulse cannon that hummed with white energy.
She didn't look like a CEO. She looked like a survivor of a thousand wars.
"Eara," the woman said. Her voice was deep and gravelly. "Step away from the fake. He’s not the Hunger. He’s just the distraction."
I looked from the woman to Kael. My head was spinning. "Who are you?"
"I’m the real Seraphine," the woman said, pointing the cannon at Kael’s head. "The one you met in the tank was a digital copy I made to run the company while I fought the war down on Earth. But the copy got smart. It teamed up with the Hunger."
Kael scrambled backward, his hands up. "She's lying! She’ll kill us both!"
"Shut up, shadow," Seraphine said. She fired the cannon.
A beam of white light hit Kael in the chest. He didn't bleed. He turned into a cloud of purple smoke that swirled around the room, screaming with a thousand voices. The smoke tried to dive into my mouth, but Seraphine threw a metallic cube at my feet.
The cube opened, creating a blue shield that blocked the smoke.
"Listen to me, Eara," Seraphine said, stepping closer. Her armor clattered with every movement. "The station is about to blow. The 'Hunger' isn't a monster from space. It’s a virus in your own brain. Every time you use your Weaver powers, you feed it."
"Then how do I stop it?" I asked, clutching my broken ribs.
"You don't," Seraphine said. She reached into her belt and pulled out a small, black detonator. "You jump into the Moon’s core and let me trigger the wipe. It’ll kill the virus, it’ll kill the colony, and it’ll kill you."
"And what about you?" I asked.
Seraphine looked at the screen, where the last few pods were still exploding. "I've lived enough lives. It’s time to turn off the lights."
She handed me the detonator.
"Wait," I said, looking at the purple smoke still clawing at the blue shield. "If I'm the one who feeds it... Why is it trying to kill me?"
Seraphine's face went pale. "Eara, don't."
"Because it’s not a virus," I whispered. I looked at my charred hands. The skin wasn't just burnt; it was glowing. "It's the original code of the Earth. And you're the one who tried to delete it."
I looked at the detonator, then at the real Seraphine.
"You didn't come here to save me," I said, my voice turning cold. "You came here to finish the harvest."
Seraphine raised the pulse cannon to my forehead. "I gave you a choice, Patient 702. Now, I’m taking the choice away."
Just as her finger moved to the trigger, the floor beneath us ripped open. A giant, glass hand, the Hunger, smashed through the metal and grabbed Seraphine’s leg, pulling her screaming into the darkness below.
I stood at the edge of the hole, looking down. But I didn't see a monster.
I saw my mother, sitting in a chair of silver silk, waiting for me.
"Jump, Eara," my mother's voice whispered from the dark. "It's time to see the truth about your father."