“Fletcher. Fight this. You have to,” Ariana managed to splutter through the paralysing pain. She clutched the threads of her aura as darkness snaked around her hands, her feet, her head. Ariana screamed.
Ariana?
Fletcher, his presence embedded deep in her consciousness. Ariana reached for him and pulled Eli into the connection.
I’m scared. I don’t know how to stop this.
Ariana focused on their tethered minds, pushing aside the pain. We can do this together. It’s why we’re here. To open the portal, destroy Nyx.
I can’t. I’m not in control of my own body anymore. I can’t stop killing them.
Fletcher, please.
Part of me … wants to.
I’m sorry …
Ariana focused on every memory she had of Fletcher: meditating together in the forest, the joy when they entered the spirit world for the first time, just the two of them. Eli added his memories to the stream of consciousness. Training, feeling the push and pull of their energy auras, running through the forest, the warmth and love of the strange little family at the earthship. The darkness wavered, began to recede, and her aura surged.
Eva shook her head in confusion. The other animals also paused. Eli and Ariana twitched then lay still.
Robyn took advantage of the bear’s momentary distraction to check on the walkers. She felt for their pulses; sluggish, their breathing shallow. I can’t lose them. Helpless, Robyn scanned the faces looking back at her; Catherine, Fang, Sara, Spencer and Chris against the wall, next to the motionless walkers and Derek. Everyone trusting that she could do something about this. Robyn froze. Wait – maybe there is.
Focusing, she willed the white light on her skin to bloom. A faint glimmer answered her call. She’d been able to help the walkers in the void last time – maybe she could again. It was worth a shot. What was her one life, when compared to the vast interconnected world, the millions of life forms on this planet that she could save? A speck of cosmic dust, destined to be part of the living, breathing ecosystem forevermore.
“I have to help them. It’s our only chance,” Robyn whispered to Catherine then took her place between the two walkers and gripped their hands.
Catherine knelt in front of her and pressed her forehead to Robyn’s. “I’ll be here when you get back.” Catherine closed her eyes, her lashes wet with tears, lips trembling.
Robyn stilled Catherine’s quivering lips with a kiss, wishing she had time to express all she felt. Gratitude. Apology. Goodbye. Then she plunged into darkness, colours dancing beneath her eyelids. Red and blue.
Concentrating on Eli and Ariana’s energy tethers, Robyn hurtled through the darkness. Flashes of light skittered past like stars. She felt weightless, composed only of atoms, breaking down into light itself. Abruptly, she stopped. White light flared on her skin. Before her hung Eli and Ariana, surrounded by red and blue light. From the darkness between them emerged the faintest glimmer of green. Fletcher. Robyn felt the gentle tug of his energy tether.
Ariana’s expression was calm despite the turmoil ravaging through her energy tether. We’re getting through to him.
Robyn dipped into the shared pool of memories, added her own. Embracing Fletcher in front of the earthship in the early hours of the morning, absorbing his despair, his fear. How she loved him as if he were her own brother. How strong, how good, how brave he was. Fletcher’s energy tether swelled and green light pulsed around him.
The darkness receded. Ariana felt more alive than she ever had. Pulsating with white light, Robyn fed her energy to the walkers. Ariana opened herself up, acting as a conduit for something bigger.
Yes. Atlantis’ voice resonated in her mind. Beyond that, Ariana heard the faint echo of another spirit through her connection to Eli; Notos, the air spirit. The layered inflections created a calming harmony. Together, you must open the portal.
Light burst outwards from her aura then accelerated and penetrated the very fabric of the void. Red light overlapped the blue, strengthening and gaining momentum.
Catherine shielded her eyes against the blinding white light shining from Robyn. Beside her, Eli and Ariana glimmered red and blue. Green light crept along Fletcher’s slumped form. The room began pulsating with a strange brightness. Debris whirled through the air as if funnelled by the walkers. The remaining glass shattered, pulverised into glittering dust. Sara went to protect Ariana and Eli, but Catherine grabbed her. “Don’t. I think this is something only they can do.”
Red light from Eli’s chest surged toward Fletcher, followed by blue light from Ariana. At the contact, Fletcher bucked and jerked but then green light on his chest brightened and spread over his limbs. Wreathed in white light, Robyn sat motionless, gripping the hands of the air and sea walkers.
You are the earth walker. You are connected to the earth spirit, to this planet, to us, Ariana urged. Visions of her past selves flickered into being, faint but present.
Fletcher’s voice was choked and ragged. I’m not like you. I’ve never been half the walker you and Eli are.
Ariana and Eli felt his despair, his suffering.
We’re so close. I know you can stop this, Fletcher, projected Eli.
I’ve already destroyed so much … I don’t know if I can. Fletcher’s green energy began to fade.
No! That was Nyx, not you. You are strong, kind and brave. Come back to us, Fletcher. Together we are strong. We can destroy Nyx and restore balance to our world.
Green light exploded from Fletcher and coalesced into a vibrant helix.
Ariana gasped as energy swelled within her, racing through her limbs, through her blood, through the very atoms that made her. She felt as if she had burst apart and was being re-made. For an instant, she was at one with the universe, with energy, and the light.
Sacrifice. Eli’s voice, calm in her mind. What was her body, her life, in the face of this? To long for a particular collection of atoms, a temporary body, when beyond the self was this boundless, eternal space? To give up her one small life didn’t seem like a sacrifice.
Ariana embraced the void and their three auras fused into one; a searing sphere of bright white light.
Together, the earth spirit sang, suddenly free.
Together, the air and sea spirits chimed.
Robyn came back into herself with a yelp of pain. She’d barely opened her eyes when Catherine pulled her into a hug.
“You’re all right,” Catherine said, tears glazing her cheeks.
“They did it.” Robyn held Catherine tight, watching the white light recede from the room.
Fang crouched down beside the walkers. “They’re not waking up.”
She was right. Eli and Ariana hadn’t moved. Robyn gently shook the walkers. When they didn’t respond, panic bubbled up inside her. No. This couldn’t be happening. She’d been there. They’d reached Fletcher and restored his energy aura. They’d saved him.
She scrambled to her feet and slid over the smashed desks, landing next to the earth walker. He lay slumped on the floor, but when Robyn gently shook him, he stirred. He was alive! Fletcher groaned, and green light flickered over his skin, free from the contaminant darkness. Robyn crushed him to her chest. “It’s over. You’re safe.”
Bewildered, Fletcher looked around the command centre, taking in the destruction. “But I can still feel Nyx.”
“That’s not possible …” Robyn began to explain but she was drowned out by the roar of a bear.
Eva reared up on her hind legs. She roared again, the sound reverberating around the room. Her dark eyes were fixed on the inert forms of Ariana and Eli slumped on the floor.
Fletcher’s eyes filled with sorrow. “She’s not really Eva. She’s a manifestation of Nyx’s dark energy, but somehow I can still feel her.”
Robyn released her hold on Fletcher and sprinted toward Eva, hurdling desks and fallen bodies. With an otherworldly snarl, Eva charged the walkers. “No!” Robyn screamed. Eli and Ariana were still adrift in the in-between. If Nyx reached them while they were undefended, she’d kill them and destroy the walker lineages forever.
Fang fired, emptying her rifle into Eva’s chest, but the bear kept coming. She scrabbled backwards toward Catherine and the convergers, who formed a guard in front of Ariana and Eli. Eva simply barged through them, but not before Robyn managed to twist her fingers through the bear’s fur.
Robyn yanked hard and the bear swerved, howling in rage. Rolling onto her side, Robyn leapt to her feet, ignoring the fear racing through her blood. Claws bit into her flesh, sliced cleanly through muscle, and Robyn fell. The bear loomed over her. She struggled to pull herself upright, but a jagged edge of bone penetrated her shin. In desperation, Robyn tried to summon energy from her body, but it was impossible to focus. She couldn’t move, couldn’t escape.
“No. More.” Fletcher’s voice cut through the chaos. He climbed onto a broken desk and surveyed the command centre. Green light surged from his limbs and a ring of figures flickered around him. “This ends now.”
A sudden explosion of green light. An inhuman shriek of pain.
With a splutter, Ariana and Eli awoke. Robyn shielded her eyes with her forearm against the impossible brightness of the walkers’ combined auras. White light blossomed across her skin and her aura joined forces with those of Ariana, Eli and Fletcher.
Eva crumpled. The dark light coalesced like a black hole and imploded into nothingness, sending a blast of energy shooting across the command centre.
Silence. Sunlight filtered through the rain of powdered glass and metal. It was almost beautiful, in a nightmarish hellscape kind of way. Robyn’s vision clouded, bright lights dancing beneath her eyelids. Red, green, blue.