REND

Imani Nanda (Tove)

Imani Nanda checked her phone again, anxious to get a message from anyone. Jubilee, who went by Jubjub during missions, had sternly reminded her to turn off her phone because the police would be tracking signals. But Imani couldn’t help herself. She had been waiting for Jubilee’s return for more than half an hour and was desperate to know anything.

The screen’s light—blue due to her wallpaper of a serene beach in Goa—washed her face in the darkness of the room. She blinked her eyes to adjust to the brightness.

Notifications! Imani’s heart jumped.

She hissed a curse when they turned out to be government advisories. They told her to stay indoors and report anything suspicious. Just those messages over and over again. A couple of texts listed streets for commuters to avoid because they were blocked. She recognized those were in the area of the Greaves convention center.

The whole city now knew something wrong, if they didn’t already.

Imani grasped her phone tight and held it to her chest. Everything went dim, with only the occasional red and blue light peeking through the small gaps between the boards on the windows, disappearing as sirens faded. She was in a room of a condemned motel scheduled for demolition, three streets away from the convention center. This was their team’s agreed meeting point if the mission went awry and they had to scatter to escape.

Only Imani was at the safe house, and she didn’t feel safe at all.

Many black goo monsters had slinked out of the convention center and were being hunted by the police and the BID. Imani knew she couldn’t stay here long—a few minutes ago, there were gunfire and a loud boom nearby—but she also didn’t want to leave yet.

What if Marco and Ronan came here needing help?

Imani stopped referring to them by their codenames of Boojum and Snark in her head, superstitiously hoping that’d cancel the mission and teleport them next to her.

Part of her wanted to cry. Another part wanted to run out into the streets to look for them. There was also a bubbling urge to scream. She didn’t know what to say—she just wanted to scream and scream until all her friends were safe by her side.

“Marco, I’ll suffer through your preachy lectures,” she mumbled at the nothingness in front of her, feeling warm tears stream down her cheeks. “Ronan, I’ll listen to your stupid jokes all day. Just… come back.”

The last she saw Marco and Ronan was when their team split up. Imani went with Deen’s group, while the two guys left to protect the crowd that fled when Pino’s controlled beast fought the black goo monsters. Imani eventually reunited with Jubilee and met other survivors, but none of them knew what had happened to Marco and Ronan or the people they were with.

That time, Imani didn’t… couldn’t… couldn’t even think of Marco and Ronan.

She was focused on protecting unconscious Erind while running for their lives. Their group was eventually cornered in the basement of the building, with only a barricaded door protecting them from the black goo monsters led by clay bastards. Imani thought that was her end.

It was only because of Erind waking up that they survived.

Imani didn’t see how it went down, but Erind used her Core-granted ability to wipe out the incoming black goo monsters. And what fearsome power Erind had, though Imani couldn’t tell exactly what it was. Tornado blades, maybe? Some sort of blast force?

Confetti of inhuman fleshy parts splashed with black slime decorated the path to their hiding spot. Imani vomited when she first saw the gruesome sight and again while tiptoeing across the disgusting corridor.

It was only after Jubilee directed them to a sewer opening that her shadow crows found when Imani realized they were leaving behind Marco and Ronan.

But there was no going back at that point. The building and its surrounding areas were a battlefield between monsters and humans.

What could I have done there? Imani thumped her chin with the top of her phone as if to rattle her brain. She didn’t have her combat augs or any of the chemicals the Professor provided them that boosted physical performance. An average human—that was all she was. Less than average. Even a gun couldn’t have helped her.

She could only join Jubilee in escorting the few survivors they gathered.

As they exited the stinky tunnels to a familiar street above, Jubilee separated Imani from the rest of the group with a wall of shadows. The swirling shades whispered to Imani what she should do next—head to their designated safe house while Jubilee led the people they saved to the police.

Imani complied without question and bolted through the path between parting shadows. She didn’t know how Jubilee would explain her sudden absence to the others, but Imani couldn’t spare the energy to puzzle about that, relieved and thankful she got out alive.

Guilt gnawed at that feeling now that she sat alone on the dirty floor.

Jubilee will find Marco and Ronan. The shadows told her so. Imani kept chanting the same sentence to drive away the helplessness hugging her. The image of the four of them together was in her mind. Jubilee promised…

Marco and Roman seemed to be the last people she’d think of dying.

The ever-serious Marco was a pillar of strength and self-assurance; Imani always turned to him whenever she wavered during missions. He had a heroic aura about him even if Jubilee was their leader. If this were a story, he’d be the main character. Main characters don’t die.

Sometimes, she was scared of Marco because he absorbed corpses to heal himself. Not just dead enemies but dead anybody. It didn’t sit right with Imani, making her slightly cautious around Marco. However, she still trusted him the most.

Ronan was the opposite, joking around even in the direst of situations—the class clown. Imani felt closest to him because they were the humans of their group—squishy meat bags that couldn’t regenerate, as Ronan always said—and had aug-limbs. She knew that Ronan shared the same fears as her, but he only ever expressed his worries through jokes.

“Jubilee will find Marco and Ronan,” Imani repeated out loud.

It wasn’t working; she couldn’t psych herself up. Her heart thumped faster and faster, and she didn’t know why. Did something wrong happen to them?

Her mother’s voice rang in her ear—in uncertain times, remember to pray.

Nothing to lose if she tried.

Imani bowed her head. Her long straight hair fell over her face like a black waterfall. She didn’t bother sweeping it aside, preferring to hide behind the curtain.

Closing her eyes, she prayed in a trembling whisper, “Mother Core, I know I don’t talk to you much these days, but this is for Marco and Ronan, not me. Please help them. Please keep them safe. They’re my friends—no, this isn’t about me. They’re brave guys, far braver than me. I know they’ll save more people than I ever could. I swear, I’ll do anything to have them back.”

She stopped. Distant sirens and the noisy rotors of a helicopter passing overhead were all she could hear. The cell phone in her hand was still.

Continuing her prayer, Imani mumbled, “I… I’ll merge with an artificial Core. I swear on that, dear Mother Core. I’ll be brave like Marco and Deen, and also Erind. I won’t be afraid of your power. I-I won’t be afraid of… of…” Her voice caught in her throat. She continued in her head—of leaving my humanity.

The phone vibrated. She hurriedly checked if it was Marco or Ronan texting her.

“Mom’s still awake?” Imani blurted. She shrunk upon seeing the name on the message, the sudden excitement gone. It was too much to hope that the Mother Core would instantly answer her prayer or even care to listen to her.

Mom was worried because of the flood of government advisories. All that Mom knew was that Imani was at a co-worker’s house for a small get-together. Before attending the Tech Fair, Jubilee reprised her usual role and picked Imani from her house to sell the story.

Imani didn’t have the energy to reply. She wanted to curl under the table and wait until Jubilee returned with Marco and Ronan.

And she did just that, letting herself slump to the floor.

“What would Mom say… if I’m no longer human?” Imani asked the rough floorboards. She was tempted to take back her promise to the Mother Core.

Remember Amber Deen. The Leska heir had more to lose than her but still took on an artificial Core.

Imani knew she had the strength to do it, buried somewhere in her. Where did all that talk of courage go? Was she going to give up at their lowest point?

She pictured the face of her mother in the near darkness. That image shifted to the parents of Marco and Ronan. Marco’s mother was nice; she gave Imani a box of cookies the one time she visited their house. Ronan’s father, someone who tinkered with augs, helped her install some upgrades to her right hand.

“What will I tell them if their sons are dead?” she whispered. Then she answered herself. “I… don’t know.”

She closed her eyes. Sleep could take away the utter defeat choking her.

Their group had many wins. Some losses too. The biggest success was leading the BID to one of the Tea Party’s secret laboratories, saving the small team of agents from getting killed, and trapping Mad Hatter until the BID reinforcements arrived.

This was their biggest loss. Instead of saving Deen and Erind, they saved them. Imani didn’t know if Deen and Erind made it out alive.

She should care about them too, but her heart only wanted Marco and Ronan back.

Maybe when she wakes up, they’ll be…

---

 

Guns?

Imani’s eyes opened wide as she promptly sat up, pointing the finger of her aug-arm at—

Nothing.

She was still alone in the room, and it was still dark.

Checking her phone, she had been asleep for around twenty minutes. There was another text from Mom and a bunch of advisories—no word from Jubilee, Marco, or Ronan. The messages weren’t what woke her up. She was sure she heard shooting.

A wail of sirens made her flinch. She scampered to the corner of the room as red and blue lights passed; the police weren’t coming for her. She was lucky that nothing had happened to her while she was asleep.

“I shouldn’t have slept,” Imani scolded herself, hitting her temple with her phone.

Five minutes. She would wait five more minutes. If there was no more noise, she’d sneak out and go home.

Imani curled up near the walls, humming church hymns her Mom would sing while doing chores. Usually, they annoyed her, but now, they comforted her.

A creak!

Imani shone her phone’s light on her surroundings. The door was closed, the room empty other than rotting furniture. Was that a rat? The old building settling?

Another creak made Imani start. The door rattled. Dark liquid seeped through its hinges.

Imani chuckled in relief. It wasn’t the black goo monsters. “Jubilee… Jubjub, you scared me.”

“Ssssorrryyy…” replied layered wispy voices.

The liquid pooled in front of the door as a woman wearing all black. “Tove, is everything okay here?” Jubilee said in her normal voice.

“I’m fine. But there was gunfire a few minutes ago. I was going to—”

“That was me. I distracted the police up the street for our escape. Let’s get out of here. I’ll cover—”

“What about Marco and Ronan?” Imani dusted herself as she stood up.

“I already tried looking for them,” Jubilee said. “Came up empty.”

Imani pushed back the tears.

“Damn hard sneaking,” Jubilee continued, “with many scanner drones flying around. I eavesdropped on BID agents arguing with some suits from Greaves. Apparently, they couldn’t find a bunch of people.”

Imani furrowed her brows. While breaking the hostages free with Pino’s help, they came upon a couple of rooms that mysteriously had missing occupants despite traces inside and being locked from the outside. It could be an Adumbrae’s power at play.

“They couldn’t have disappeared into thin air,” Jubilee said. “I hope they weren’t eaten or—”

“They’re still alive!” Imani snapped.

“You’re right. Sorry. Marco and Ronan are strong and have good heads on them. They’ll pull through.”

“They’ll pull through,” Imani firmly repeated.

“If lucky, they might’ve teamed up with Amber and escaped elsewhere. I don’t know what Amber’s power is, but it’ll probably save them from the complete crap that happened.”

Imani didn’t want to theorize about the survival rates of her friends. To distract herself, she asked, “What about the people with you? Are they safe?”

“Yeah, I led them right to… to some police officers,” Jubilee said. She walked to the window, peered through the gaps, and observed the outside. “They should be fine now. Don’t worry about them.”

“Did they ask about where I went? I should’ve stuck with—”

“It’s better you’re not with them so… so the police won’t investigate you. I just told them you must’ve gotten lost in the sewers, and I’d go find you.”

“They’re fine with that explanation?” Imani asked.

Most, if not all, of the survivors didn’t trust Jubilee because of her powers. They thought she was an Adumbrae despite helping them. When they saw the carnage that Erind caused, they thought Jubilee did it and became even more afraid. They only stuck with Jubilee because she presented the only way to escape, and they feared she’d kill them if they disobeyed.

“Yeah. ‘Course they are.” Jubilee shrugged, still facing the window. “Why wouldn’t they?”

“I thought some of them would insist on finding me.” Imani had Kiera in mind. She was the only one who opposed sending Erind on her own.

“People are people. They’re more than ecstatic they survived hell against all odds. They’re not going back to risk their lives.”

“I guess so…”

“Don’t think of them anymore. They’ll assume you’re dead and forget about you too. They don’t know your name and will forget your appearance soon enough. We’re all clean on that part.”

Jubilee was right. As things stood, it was better if she kept her distance.

But Imani still wanted to check on the people they saved—it’d be motivating to see proof they did something right tonight. No life was too little. Each person that didn’t die could do good in the future. It might not be wrong to befriend some of them—Kiera, for example. If talking about courage and standing for what was right, Kiera got mounds of those traits that Imani wished she even had half of.

A thought occurred to Imani. “Isn’t it better if I…?” she began to ask Jubilee. She paused. Was she wrong that it would’ve been better if she didn’t leave the group? That wasn’t a stupid idea, was it?

Imani already pretended she didn’t know Jubilee. There’d be no problems if she was examined by medics or passed through BID scanners—she was human. Since she was outwardly innocent as could be, she could’ve spied on the survivors and police for developments and looked out for clues regarding her friends. The numerous tests she’d undergo would be a minor inconvenience.

“What is it?” Jubilee turned around, a severe brow raised over her round eyes.

“No-nothing.” Imani decided she’d check the survivors without telling Jubilee. She didn’t want to argue with her. It’d be hard to find their names because the government would keep it a secret—others might persecute the survivors for… surviving—but she was set on trying.

“I’ll get you home, then I have to report to the Professor about the mess here,” Jubilee said. The pool of darkness underneath her rushed to the door, enveloping its knob to open it. “Maybe Marco and Ronan would’ve surfaced by then, not to mention Amber. We were supposed to protect the La Esperanza girls but lost Erind.”

“Erind should be safe because…” Imani didn’t continue to reveal Erind’s secrets. The Professor must’ve kept them from Jubilee for a reason like Deen’s power. She’d need to ask permission from Erind. “…because we didn’t find her body.”

“Do you mean the couple trying to look for Erind among the monster corpses? Tesh and Kiera, right? Who knows, maybe Erind went out after whatever railroaded those monsters had passed. I think I saw what did that—a huge beast with black and red hair. It saved me from Finlay. If I got lucky, then maybe Erind did too.”

“Let’s hope so,” Imani said. Please, Mother Core. Make Marco and Ronan lucky too!