Contradicting Worlds 34 The Undying Secrets

I JUMP FROM THE pile of useless bricks under my feet and stalk towards the warriors with my friends hot in my heels. I tilt my chin up, square my shoulders in hopes to unnerve them but I was met by blank stares and faces. It's almost like they are lifeless, there's no light in their eyes, no tension rolling in their shoulders, no clenching of jaws, no twitching, they almost look robotic. My eyes narrow and suspicion runs deep to my core. I stopped approaching to study them for a minute. "There's no reason for this," I called to them, still watching them watch me. "We just want to talk with the head. There's no reason for this to turn b.l.o.o.d.y. Trust me, that's the last thing we want this war to turn into."

One of them steps up and her face gives nothing away. "The Head will not speak to you. You have no right to speak with The Head," she sneers when she said that. "What the head is doing is the right thing for all of us. She's not doing anything wrong."

I said what, at the same time she said charge. My eyes widen in surprise and I shout, stand back just in time. Our fire users swipe their hands and fire became our borderline. The leader bares her teeth and she smiles wickedly before flicking her hand. The next second our fire is gone and they are advancing to us again.

"Ready yourselves... Now!" I shout. We all charge forward, daggers meeting, spheres clanging, weapons including gunshots, filled the air. Abilities shot off everywhere, lighting up the place, making it look almost magical but lethal.

I silently thank the G.o.ds that I made the right choice of leaving the kids in the cave. An arrow dart to me but I dodge it sideways. I saw the one who shot the arrow and saw her still holding her bow. She sees me watching her and she made run for it but I'm faster than her.

Moments later, I have her neck in my firm grasp and she's looking directly at my eyes. I push down the guilt that is trying to claw up in my guts when I realize that she's younger than I am.

She's lost in my eyes now and I can see what she's seeing but she's not a writhing mess in my grip. Almost like she antic.i.p.ated this to happen. She stares into my eyes blankly, no emotion etch in her face. The guilt was soon replaced with confusion as my grip around her neck starts to loosen. She took advantage of it and attempt to run but was glued to the ground with vines, crawling around her ankles, holding her down. A man who is much older than I am is standing not so far from us. I send him a silent thanks and he nods in my direction. I round the warrior so I am in front of her and stare again in the darkest depth of her eyes.

Although she keeps jerking her feet in a motion that tells me she's still trying to run for it, her face is as blank as a paper. Nothing. No antic.i.p.ation, excitement, and nervousness. Her eyebrows didn't even lift as I stare at her. She does not speak. Then suddenly, in a motion that completely caught me off guard, she fell in my arms. Yes, fell. Like her body turned into a lifeless ragged doll in my arms. Like she suddenly runs out of life.

I lift her dead weight slightly to look at her face. My eyes widen in surprise as I find her eyes and ears bleeding. Her eyes are not close so I can see the blood running out of it. My heart skips a beat and my hands start shaking as I reach behind her neck. I pull my dagger out to slice her skin open.

My fore and middle finger made their way inside. I can feel her blood coating my fingers as I roam them around, finding the smallest thing ever created in the world. I froze when my fingers felt what they were looking for. My breath hitch and a lump forms in my throat as I slowly pull it out for inspection.

With shaky legs, I stand up and hold it out in front of me. I know my body is numb for good but when a cry of outrage is released not so far from me, I turn around. Just in time to see one of my cadres run for the kill to one of the warriors who's doing nothing to defend herself. I release a scream but it's too late.

The warrior's body fell to the ground with a thump. The warrior's eyes are still open and it was bloodshot. I feel sick to my stomach that I might just puke. Something is wrong but all I could think of is, what the h.e.l.l is happening?

Another cry of wrath and this time I can stop what was going to happen. I yelled stop and Mice stops mid-way, she looks at me with confusion but I can just shake my head. The warrior who should have been dead just now runs as if nothing happened.

My breath hitch and a lump form in my throat. I whirl around gaping and staring in horror as I watch the scene before me. Bodies falling to the ground, there are fires everywhere and the sky had darkened and it's all I can see. The blood dripping down their bodies, their ragged and shaky breaths show me how exhausted they are all the while the warriors are just defending and not attacking.

I yelled stop by the don't seem to hear me. They are too busy fighting and screaming at each other. They can't see what I see, they can't see that the warriors are not fighting back. They can't see their blank faces, their stone hearts. But I do, I see them. And I can see how fudge up this situation is.

My blood is boiling in my veins and my heart is pumping too much adrenaline for me to take. The sensation causes all of my muscles to ache and I am angry. Blinded by the fury I currently feel for Sarah. She is doing this. She is letting us kill her soldiers, the people who swore an oath to protect her and she waste no energy in defending them, fighting with them. They are sacrificing their lives for a person who doesn't even care what'll happen to them. And that person is currently hiding in the castle. Waiting for this to end. She's watching, I know she is. Because that's what she does. So if she's watching, I want her to watch this instead.

I let whatever's inside me take over my body. I let it rein in my veins, drive my blood, curl my brain mad. I let it because it's all that I can do not to burst apart. And right now? I care about nothing than finding Sarah and ruining her.

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*RAVEN'S POV*

I felt it before I see it. It takes me a moment to realize what's happening and when I do, I know it's too late. I watch, momentarily mesmerized by what I was seeing, Rebecca, is flying. Literally. Her feet are slowly drifting up from the ground and her hair is wild around her head, her eyes, those are not her eyes, right now her eyes have turned into white b.a.l.l.s. No irises, nothing but a ball of flas.h.i.+ng lightning.

I knew the fight stopped around me. And I know that we are all watching her because who could resist? She looks like a ball of fire hovering in the wind and waiting to combust. Even the warriors have stopped attacking and they are all in awe. We all are.

But then something inside her snaps, and she screams, she screams so loud I wonder if my ears have been rapture. I am forced to bow down on one knee and clamp my hands over my hurting ears. She continues to release that high-pitched scream. And I wince and grunt as it gets louder and louder only for it to stop.

Or I thought it did. Because I could feel the ground shaking beneath my knee. The shaking turns into tremors until it became a full earthquake. I am lost for a moment, asking if she's the one doing this because we all know that she can't do this.

The quaking stopped and I stand up slowly, my eyes drifting to Rebecca who's still suspended in the air. I hear a cracking sound and my eyes lowered and widen when I saw the ground having fault lines. They're not big but they are so many I am afraid that the ground might give up. Then along with the crawling fault lines come the earthquake. As I said, it's not as lethal as it should be but I am afraid of what the aftermath could be.

Rock breaks and water droplets come from the fault lines. It's like it's raining but the water is coming from below. And to add to the storm that's already brewing, the sky darkens and lightning and thunder are being emitted from above. The vibration in the ground is growing stronger. My lips part as I watch the buildings' gla.s.ses shattered into pieces. The buildings fissure and the ground beneath us are not running any fault lines anymore but cracking and splitting. The sound is like bones cracking and the rocks around us along with the debris made by the gate are slowly floating in the air.

I throw my arm over my eyes to s.h.i.+eld them when the rocks suddenly burst into ashes. My eyes found Rebecca again to see that she's raising her hands and the ashes from the rocks are following her every movement.

With a scream, she thrusts her arms forward and the ashes came surging forward. Because of the force of the wind, my feet are forced to glide over the ground. I found Riley beside me and I shout to catch her attention. "Go! Tell everyone to retreat now!" I command her and she nods. "I'll try to stop her."

"Be careful. She's not herself right now."

"I know." Trust me, I know.

Rebecca is hovering in the air a hundred feet above the ground. She's still conjuring different kinds of abilities that surrounds her like some kind of an army. She raises her hand and a rotating ball of abilities appears on it. It made a whirling sound that makes my ears bleed but I refuse to back down. I need to stop her. But I can't swipe her ability because it's too powerful for me to take.

My eyes widen as she throws the ball to the castle. Lightning shoots off her fingers and to the castle. The castle disintegrates before me and I was thrown off my feet because of the impact. I must've blacked out because the next thing I see Rebecca is already on the ground and walking towards what was left of the castle.

I'm still lying and trying to refocus my vision. Once I'm clear-headed again, I saw that the warriors are all running towards her but they can't even reach within a 50-meter distance before they disintegrate into ashes.

I look around and saw that most of us have already evacuated. A hand went around my shoulder to haul me up my feet. I look at Riley, her face is filled with worry and determination. "These people are too determined to fight with us. I told them about the danger and the risks but they wouldn't listen. They are too stubborn for their own good."

I nod at her. "But tell them to stay away from her as much as possible instead things get so much out of hand." Our friends along with many others are still here, standing, watching, and on guard.

Rebecca is now approaching the pile of what was left of the castle but the warriors never seem to learn, they are still coming for her. And now, more of them are being slain to ashes. "Cover me," I told Riley and she looks at me as if I've grown two heads.

"And what can you possibly do? Rebecca isn't herself right now. Before you even have the chance to swipe her powers, you'll be nothing but a pile of ashes on the ground." She grits out.

"She's right. There's nothing you can do." Another voice said from beside me. I turn around to face Juliana. "But there's something I can do."

"What?" Both Riley and I said.

"She's the life royalty in case you've forgotten. She can bring the dead back to life but she can also wipe the life out of you if she wants to."

"And what makes you think that you can stop her? She's practically wiping everything that's going out of her way." What she said was right but I cannot help but retort.

"We are both royalties though not of the same way. But I can withstand her powers more than any of you can." She stares right into my eyes and somehow I find myself agreeing to her. "I'll try to stop her from wiping us out. But you have to protect those warriors."

"Why would we do that?" Riley asks.

"Because everything is not how you think it is. When we started clas.h.i.+ng with each other, I instantly feel that something is not right. With those blank faces, something felt off. I saw Rebecca earlier, holding a dead warrior in her arms. I know Becca felt the same way I did. Because she cut off the warrior's skin. There, she finds the chip."

"Chip?" Riley tilts her head. "As in the chips that alter our memories." Juliana nods slowly.

"Yes, those. Only these chips are not made only to alter memories but also to control them. Sarah must have found a way how to do that in the past."

"That's why the warriors kept running to her."

"Yes. Because they don't have control." She looks at the warriors who continue to make their attempt to Rebecca. "As of now, Sarah is having their minds in her hands. And since they are not stopping, that means Sarah is still alive. She may be inside the castle when Rebecca blew it up but she sure as h.e.l.l survive it or else these people would have stopped. Becca is not fully consumed by her powers yet. That's why I know that I can still save her."

"She is not fully consumed by her powers yet?" Riley said, raising her voice a little every word.

Juliana shakes her head. "You better wish that I can stop her before she became very settled in this type of her."

"Why? What will happen?" I ask her, grabbing her shoulder.

"She'll wipe the world out."

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*JULIANA'S POV*

I instantly felt that something was wrong from the moment I saw the warriors and the dark aura surrounding them. I brushed it off because of Rebecca. But the moment that I saw her holding that chip in her fingers, I knew that I should've done something. I ran to her because I know what's going on inside her head and what's about to happen but with the battle, my movements were slowed. By the time I was able to reach her, she was already drifting off but it's not yet too late, because I can still feel her presence.

I have to move fast because her power is becoming too overwhelming for her, it'll destroy her.

I run as fast as I can to keep up with Rebecca's hurried steps. My friends are covering me, they are fighting the warriors who are coming for me, but they are not killing them, simply making them unconscious. I made a safe distance between us, just enough to make sure that she can't hurt me.

My run turns into a full sprint when I can see myself catching up to her. My feet coast roughly in front of her, bringing myself into a halt. She stops right in front of me, her power radiating her body like a halo. It's so powerful it hurts. I place my hand over my chest where my heart lies within to ease some of the aches I feel. I stumble backward slightly but I hold my ground.

"Juliana," her voice sounded so distant yet so near.

"Rebecca, please, whatever you're doing, stop this."

"There's no stopping now, Juliana. Nothing can stop me now. Not even you," I refuse to flinch at the coldness in her voice and instead I stare right into the depth of her eyes that still has some of my best friends.

"No. This is not what you want Rebecca."

"You have no idea what I want, Jules." The lifelessness in her voice is making me rethink my decision.

"Look around you and see. Then tell me that this is what you want." She looks around but her face doesn't change. Not even a little bit.

"You're right, this wasn't what I wanted but right now it is what I crave."

"This isn't who you are." My voice is past it's begging point. I don't know what I'm doing but I'm sure I am past begging her to stop.

"You have no idea who I am," she laughs humorlessly, the sound is like a knife buried in my gut. "h.e.l.l, I don't even know who I am or who I'm supposed to be. All I know is that I must do something."

"And this is something?"

"Yes, you might not see it but I do. I see it, Juliana. As clear as the sky can be, as clear as the water should be. These people, the humans you are protecting, they aren't worthy of that. They are vicious and manipulative. They are getting what they deserve." The ground shakes and I brace myself, knowing that she is reaching her limit.

"I am not protecting them. I am protecting you. From being a..." I trailed off because I don't want to say the word. Not because she might not snap but because it doesn't feel right.

"A what Juliana? A monster? If I am a monster, then what about Sarah? What do you call Sarah and these people?" She stopped but when she continued her voice is like ice invading summer. "I'll give you one last chance Juliana. Get out of the way. I'm finis.h.i.+ng Sarah, once and for all."

"No," I stood rooted on my ground. I'm not opposed to her ending Sarah because that's what this battle is for but I am afraid of what she might do after. She's pus.h.i.+ng herself to her limits, she's reaching her endpoint and when she reached that, I cannot restrain her anymore. And Sarah's death might trigger that.

"Get. Out. Of. The. Way. Right fu****g now, Juliana." I shake my head, ready to defend myself whenever she strikes. But her gaze moves past me, over my shoulder.

I turn my head slightly and my jaw falls open. Sarah is now approaching us in her leisure steps, her own eyes gleaming and her hands are posed ready. "What the--"

"Go, Juliana. Do as she said. Take everyone with you. Including my warriors. I've dismantled their chips so you can take them, they're not going to put up much of a fight. Go now while I try to stop her. You cannot take her down." She said through our link.

"What?" She smiles gently at me before I'm being thrown away a hundred feet.

"Go now, Juliana. Just remember that I've always loved all of you. Like a real mother should be." And that's all I can remember before everything went black. Somehow the tables had turned.

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*REBECCA'S POV*

I feel a pounding in my head as I take my time in opening my eyes. "What?" I blurt out when I scan my surroundings. I don't remember coming to the head's office but then, I don't even remember anything.

"Glad to see you're finally awake." I scramble to stand and regret it in an instant when my head screams at me. I wince at the pain. "You must calm yourself down or everything will hurt you. Here have some coffee." Sarah, who was standing and staring by the window, walks towards me, holding a cup of coffee in her hand.

I didn't take her offer instead I just stand there, staring at her suspiciously. "What am I doing here? I don't remember coming in here." She smiles at me, a thing that has me reeling back.

"You must relax for the memories to return." I bunch my brows but found myself doing the thing she said.

The memories came running in like a rush of water in a river and it has me stumbling backward. She chuckles a little and I glare at her but that went away when I remember what I did. "Oh my ghad, what did I do?" I whisper, my hand coming up to cover my mouth. I feel sick in my stomach.

"It's not your fault. It's mine. I did that to you and I'm sorry about that." She looks apologetic enough for me to almost believe her.

"Why?" Despite having so many questions prepared for her, it's the only thing I could ask at the moment. "Wait, don't answer that. Answer this first, where are we if we're not in the battle?"

"We're inside my head. My thoughts. This is how I envision us when I finally told you why." She takes a sip of her coffee and moves to sit down on her chair behind her table.

"H-how?" I stutter.

"I'm still the knowledge royalty. I can do anything that has something to do with our heads, minds, or thoughts as well as with time. It's part of the gift." Her tone is patient.

"Okay," I drawl out. "Then maybe you can start explaining now."

"I'm not gonna tell you from the start, I'm sure Roderick already told you that."

"Right, where is he?" I cut her off.

"In a safe place now." Her eyes turned into longing. There's a stab in my gut when she said that.

"You killed him?" She flinches at the venom coating my voice.

"I didn't. The disease killed him. He has been infected Rebecca and he knows it. That's why he began reaching out to you in the first place because he knew that his time is near." My breathing turned erratic when silence engulfs us. "I've given him a proper burial, so you needn't worry about that."

I nod, unsure how to continue but luckily she does. "You know that I am the knowledge royalty and with that, I am blessed with the power to see through time. It was a gift, but also a blessing in disguise. When I first experience this newfound ability, I admit I wasn't prepared for it. I didn't even know how to use it. So I made the only thing a normal kid would do. I told my friends--Allianah, Jacob and Cade--about the things that I see. And yes, it created some changes because we can stop some events from happening. I know what you're thinking but it wasn't always bad. Sometimes the changes are good. So we fell into this routine where I always tell them what will happen and we will stop it. The bad changes are as bad as you can imagine but not bad enough to make us stop doing it. So we didn't. Not until Jacob. When they took him away from me, I thought I was going to die, and somehow a part of me did. He took a part of me along with his soul and sometimes I still wish that he just took everything in me. But he didn't, because he knew that I can make the change. The change we've all been looking for. The change to everything. The best chance, we call it. But he's wrong, I didn't make the change Rebecca. Do you know who did?" I shake my head, wondering where this is going. "You. You and your friends. You made the change." Silence. Deep fudging silence. "I saw it you know. I saw the world's endpoint. I saw the people along with the world dying and starving to death because of this disease. With us--the gammas--ruling over it. We couldn't do a thing about it and I saw the world turned its back on us. Riots are everywhere, demanding our resignation, people are fighting over a piece of food. And us--their leaders, the gammas--are helpless over this disease. Then sooner than later, the day that I dreaded the most came. One of us became positive with this disease. That's when we know, how I know that the world isn't safe anymore. If one of us became infected that means every one of us can too. Then as fast as a plague can be, the next week after that day, half of us are already diagnosed with it. We can't tell the people about it because panic will arise. If they know that their supposed hopes were infected with the disease, they will panic. We did everything we could just to find something, something that might help us save the people infected. But there's nothing. Nothing. Helplessness is still the understatement of what we felt at that moment. It was as if the light had vanished from the earth and was replaced by darkness. That's when I saw it. The things that I've said from earlier, those riots, chaos, and the whole fiasco. I was afraid to tell your mother because of what might happen so why am I telling you right now? You see, it took me a good two years to perfect this experiment. To take away the memories from these people and to start a new life. It's the only thing I could do to avoid the riots and everything from happening. At first, I did this to avoid those things but then I saw something. Something had changed. Although the s.h.i.+ft was so subtle, I still saw it. And hope sparks up. That's why I decided to continue what I started. I waited for the s.h.i.+ft to happen again but nothing happened. After a year of nothing that's when I decided to include you and the rest of the new gammas in the experiment. A year later, another miracle happened, that was the day Chelssey died."

"That's why you continue to kill those people. Those exiles. In hope for a miracle?" I cannot help but put an accusation in my voice. She grimaces as if it stung.

"Yes. And no."

"What's that supposed to mean, huh? You're risking innocent lives. Just to, just to have your miracles! Why are you even saving the world?!" My voice is raising but I don't care.

"Because there's still a chance! There's still light! There's still hope!" She shouts at me.

"Is there?" I whisper, trying so hard to keep my tears at bay.

"Yes, there is. You just have to keep believing that there is." She takes a deep breath before continuing. "I am not doing this for the world or the people. I am doing this for the next generation. I want them to live the life we are not able to have. I want them to experience the things we haven't experienced. I don't want them to conceive just to wake up every day with an empty stomach. I don't want them to fight for a piece of food. I don't want them clamping their hands over their ears because of the riot going on around them. I don't want them to be angry at the world and wish they were never created. I want them to have a life. A life that is worth living!"

"What you said. Those things. They were the things that are happening right now. To us. To the kids, you chose to throw into this experiment. To the people you chose to sacrifice for a future, we are not sure of having." She straightens up and looks at me with regalness.

"Yes, you're right. But if I didn't do this, what you should be experiencing right now is much worse than you expected. Trust me, I know. And you are going to have a future. A future worth all of this."

"How do you know that? How do you know that this is not the end yet? How do you know that we are not supposed to die because of this disease?" My voice turns into a full-out shout.

"Because I see it! I can see it! Although it's not clear it's there. It's there Rebecca, the future is there. You just have to keep believing." I didn't realize that she stood up until now. She is standing right in front of me.

"Believing isn't enough, Sarah. And you of all people should know that." I run a hand through my hair and take a deep breath. "Why? Why are you telling me this?"

"Because it's the last piece I need. For years and years, while this experiment is going on, I am preparing myself to tell you why am I doing this. Because somehow, I knew that by telling you, the last s.h.i.+ft that I'm waiting for is going to happen." She pauses to gulp. "Please Rebecca. Whatever you do, don't waste this. Continue believing. Be the perfect leader I failed to be." She approaches me and I don't move away. I didn't flinch when she caressed my cheek. "I'm sorry you have to go through that. I know you hate me for all the things I did and you have every right to. But trust me when I say that this isn't only for the future generation. This is for you too and Juliana. And as sh*tty as it may sounds, but I did all that to prepare you. To prepare you to be the great leaders I know you'll be. Because the moment you greeted this earth from your mother's womb. I saw it. I saw it, Rebecca. You and your friends are going to start the new world. The world where no child and no person would be afraid to go out and be themselves." She stops and looks in the window. When she turns to me, she has a sad smile on her face. "My time has come. It is now time for me to leave and to join my other friends in a safe place but we will continue to watch over you. Recreate the world, Rebecca. Be their hope but not their last. Continue believing. You will forever be my daughter, though not by flesh but by heart."

The room s.h.i.+ft and I feel a weight fell in my arms. I land on the ground on my b.u.t.t with a thud, struggling to keep my arms around Sarah. I look down at her. Her chest is heaving in every breath she takes and she is sputtering blood. She smiles at me and reaches up to take my right cheek in her hand. The blood is now running down her neck and I struggle to keep my tears in the bay.

She wipes the tears that fall and she whispers as she takes her final breath. "You did...it...Rebecca...I knew...y-you w-would. Y-You changed...it." Her final breath leaves her but her mouth is curled up in a smile. The woman who I believed is the cruelest and most evil person in the world died with a smile on her face all while believing that the world would change.