Chapter 57 The Rescue

Chapter 57 The Rescue
Cole Mason - POV
The facility entrance hid behind a maintenance building three miles off campus. Looked abandoned. My gut said otherwise. I felt them inside. Five guards. Maybe six. Armed definitely.
"Thermal reads two more on lower level," Blake whispered. His tablet glowed pale against his face. "Kane's intel checks out so far."
Kane. We'd pulled information from her an hour back. She tried lying at first. Ryan showed her the files we'd found. Her fear after that had been useful. Very useful.
"Marcus confirms the layout," Ryan said beside me. Voice steady but I felt his panic through the bond. Sharp and cold. Marcus used to do tech support for Project Ascension. Used to. Blake's contacts had explained why cooperation beat loyalty. Marcus agreed fast.
Kai crouched behind me. Paint still crusted under his nails. He'd been working on something when Ryan found the timeline change. Dropped his brushes mid stroke. We all dropped everything.
Six hours until dawn. Until they drained Emma dry and left her empty.
"We go," I said. Not asking.
Ryan pulled bolt cutters from his pack. Blake checked his phone one last time. Kai flexed his hands, nervous energy bleeding through the bond like electricity.
I felt nothing. Pushed it all down deep. Emotions after. Get Emma first. Only thing that mattered.
We crossed to the door. Heavy steel. Electronic lock that blinked red. Ryan had it bypassed in under thirty seconds. His memory had swallowed Marcus's notes whole. Security codes. Guard rotations. Camera blind spots.
The lock clicked green. We slipped through.
Concrete hallway stretched ahead. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, one flickering weak. The smell hit me wrong. Antiseptic trying to cover something else. Old fear maybe. Suffering soaked into walls over years.
The bond tugged in my chest. Faint but there. Emma somewhere below us. Distance and that collar blocked most of it but I still felt her. Thread pulling me forward.
"Stairs ahead," Blake murmured. "Left corridor. Two flights down according to the schematic."
We moved fast and quiet. My boots made no sound on concrete. Years of family training. Years of being their weapon while hating every use.
A guard rounded the corner ahead. Young face. Looked bored with his shift.
I moved without thinking. Had his throat before he registered us. Pressure point behind his jaw. He dropped. I caught him. Lowered him silent to the floor. Unconscious not dead. Still had that much choice.
"Clear," I said.
We kept moving. Down the stairs. The bond grew stronger with each step. Emma closer. But something felt wrong with the thread. It vibrated strange. Unstable like frayed rope.
Second floor corridor. Three more guards. Blake handled two with words I didn't catch. Something that made them turn on each other instead of us. I didn't ask. Kai took the third. Faster than I expected. His underground fighting leaking through the artist facade.
The hallway opened up. Metal doors lined both sides. Small reinforced windows cut into each one. Faces pressed against the glass from inside. Watching us pass.
Some scared. Some hopeful. Some just broken.
"Subject housing," Ryan said. His voice went flat. "The ones who didn't survive enhancement."
My jaw locked tight. We'd come back for them. After Emma. Had to prioritize or lose everything.
The bond pulled harder. End of the hall. Double doors with observation window. I saw equipment through the glass. Saw Emma strapped to a table. Metal crown on her head. Cables snaking everywhere.
My heart kicked hard. First real feeling breaking through my control. She looked too small. Too fragile. Wrong on every level.
"Two technicians inside," Blake said. "Vance in adjacent control room based on heat signatures."
"Fast then," I said. Already moving.
I hit the doors. They swung inward. Not locked. The techs looked up. Mouths opening.
I had the first one down before sound came out. Second reached for an alarm button. Kai stopped his hand. We dragged both out to the hall. Locked them in an empty cell.
I turned back to Emma.
Worse up close. Her skin too pale. Sweat beaded her face. Monitors beside her showed numbers spiking red. I didn't understand the readings but they looked bad. Really bad.
"Get that thing off her," I said.
Ryan moved to the crown. Started examining where it connected. "It's integrated with her neural pathways. Removing it wrong could cause permanent brain damage."
"Then don't do it wrong."
His hands moved precise. Disconnecting wires one at a time. The equipment sparked. Smoke rose from circuits.
Something shifted in the air. Pressure building like before a bad storm.
"Her psychic output is increasing," Ryan said. His voice went tight. "The extraction destabilized everything. Her abilities are active but she can't control them."
Blake stepped back from the table. "Cole, we should be careful here. If she lashes out without meaning to..."
Power exploded from Emma.
Invisible wave slammed me back three steps. Felt like getting hit by a truck. Ryan went down hard. Blake caught the table edge. Kai stumbled into equipment that crashed loud.
Emma's eyes opened. But they weren't seeing. Not really. Just glowing faint with energy that leaked out uncontrolled.
"Emma," I said. Took a step closer. "It's us. We're here for you."
Another wave hit. Harder. Something in my ribs cracked. The bond screamed at me. She was attacking through it. Not on purpose. Just raw power thrashing at everything nearby.
"She can't control any of it," Ryan gasped from the floor. Blood on his lip. "The extraction scrambled her pathways. She's attacking everything in range."
I pushed forward through the pressure. Another wave crushed down. Then another. Each worse than the last. My vision blurred at the edges. Tasted blood where I'd bitten my tongue.
"Cole, stop," Blake said. "You physically can't get close. She'll kill you. Kill all of us through the bond."
I didn't stop. Took another step. Power hit like falling off a building. My shoulder wrenched. Dislocated probably. Didn't matter right now.
"Someone has to reestablish the bond," I said. Got the words out through gritted teeth. "She needs an anchor. Something familiar to grab."
"Not like this," Ryan said. "Her power is too unstable. Direct contact could trigger catastrophic feedback. Stop your heart. Stop all our hearts through the connection."
I looked at Emma. Still unconscious. Still trapped in whatever hell the extraction left her in. Power pouring out in waves she didn't know how to stop.
We left her like this, she'd burn herself out completely. Or kill someone by accident. Maybe both.
"Better hope I'm strong enough then," I said.
Took another step. The power felt like being crushed. My kneecap cracked audible. I kept going anyway.
"Cole, don't." Kai's voice. Actually scared.
I reached the table. Emma's hand lay palm up beside her. Fingers twitching. Power crackled around them visible now. Blue white like lightning.
The bond pulled desperate. She was drowning and couldn't find the surface.
I had to touch her skin. Reestablish full connection. Give her something solid.
But touching her while power spiked this bad. Ryan was right about the risk. Feedback could stop my heart. Could stop all four hearts through our shared bond.
Didn't change anything. She needed me.
I reached out. My hand shook. Never shook before in my life. Fear finally cracking through everything I'd pushed down and buried.
"Cole, please," Blake said behind me. "There has to be another way to do this."
There wasn't. We both knew it.
My fingers touched hers.
Everything exploded.
Power slammed through the bond like a dam breaking. Not a wave. A flood. Every nerve I had lit up at once. I felt Emma's pain. Her terror. Her power completely wild and tearing her apart from the inside out.
The bond snapped into full connection. No collar blocking it anymore. Must have failed when we removed the crown.
I felt Ryan's spike of fear. Blake's rapid calculations. Kai's desperate hope bleeding through. All of us connected with Emma burning at the center.
Her power poured into me. Through me. Too much. Way too much for one person.
My heart stuttered. Rhythm breaking apart. Some medical term flickered through from Ryan's knowledge in the bond. Fatal if not fixed fast.
I tried holding on. Tried being her anchor. But the power kept flooding. Overwhelming everything I was.
My vision went dark around the edges. Heart stopped. Just stopped beating.
Shouting somewhere distant. Hands on me maybe. Ryan or Blake. Hard to tell anymore. Everything fading out.
Last thing I felt was Emma's consciousness surfacing through the chaos. Recognizing me finally.
Her horror at what she'd done.
Then nothing.
Just black empty space.
And the bond going completely silent for the first time since the ritual.
Either I was dead.
Or something way worse than dead.