Page 86 of Alien Warlord's Fury
Then, chaos erupted. New energy signatures flooded the chamber—Ravik, Rivera, Jen, Aerie warriors. The psychic pressure from Hammond lessened abruptly as his attention was torn away.
Now.
This was the moment. The final opening.
I ignored the sounds of battle behind me, ignored the lingering pain in my head and the trembling in my limbs. I focused everything on the interface, on the corrupted control shard Hammond had embedded deep within the Nexus protocols.
I gathered all the energy I could draw—the pure lifelines of the children, the steady anchor of my bond with Nirako, the resonant power of my own stabilized markings, my fury, myhope. I shaped it into a focused counter-resonance, a harmonic frequency designed not just to stabilize, but to purge.
"No!" Hammond's physical voice cracked with panic from across the room as he realized what I was doing. "Get away from that interface! What have you done?!"
I felt his psychic presence lunge toward me in the system one last time, desperate to disrupt my connection.
Too late.
I released the energy.
It surged through the interface, a wave of pure, balanced power slamming into Hammond's corrupted control shard. The shard couldn't contain it. The energy rebounded, following the twisted pathways Hammond himself had created, feeding back through his own connection to the system.
Through the interface, I watched his psychic presence fragment, dissolving like smoke in the wind. I heard his physical scream echo through the chamber—a sound of agony and disbelief.
I input the final stabilization command, my fingers moving automatically across the ancient interface. The Nexus core flared with brilliant light—not the sickly green of corruption, but a clear, vibrant blue-green that pulsed with a healthy, rhythmic energy.
The roar of unstable power settled into a deep, harmonious hum. The energy fields holding the children dissipated completely. They were free.
I felt Nirako's relief mixing with his pain through our bond. He'd fallen when his leg gave out, but Ravik was with him. He was alive.
My gaze flickered across the room to where Hammond had stood. His body convulsed, lifelines of sickly energy crawling across his skin, burning him from within as his own corrupted technology turned against him. I watched dispassionately as hecollapsed, his physical form dissolving into dust and corrupted energy.
Justice. Finally.
The strain hit me all at once—the immense energy I'd channeled, the depth of connection to the Nexus, the children, and Nirako. My legs gave way. The interface panel slipped from my grasp.
The last thing I saw before darkness claimed me was the stable blue-green light of the Nexus core, pulsing like a healthy heartbeat.
NIRAKO
The blue-green light of the stabilized Nexus core pulsed gently, washing over the chamber, but all I saw was Claire crumpling to the floor. Her name tore from my throat, raw and desperate, lost in the sudden quiet after the battle's roar.
I pushed through the pain slicing through my limbs, the burn marks across my chest, the broken arm I held tight against my body. None of it mattered. Only Claire mattered.
I dropped to my knees beside her, ignoring the sharp jolt of agony that shot up my leg. "Claire." My voice came out rough, barely audible.
Her face was pale, lips tinged blue. I pressed my fingers to her throat, finding her pulse—weak, fluttering like a trapped bird, but there. Her chest rose and fell with shallow breaths.
Alive. She was alive.
Her markings had gone dark, no trace of the brilliant silver light that had coursed through them as she'd battled Hammond's corruption. I ran my hand gently over her arm, feeling the raised pattern of her markings beneath my fingertips. Cold.
Unresponsive. My tail brushed restlessly across the stone floor behind me, a betrayer of the fear coiling in my gut.
"Don't leave me," I whispered, gathering her carefully against my chest, shielding her with my body as chaos erupted around us.
Ravik's warriors swarmed the chamber, securing the perimeter, checking for remaining threats. The younglings huddled together near the interface, their small bodies trembling, lifelines dim but steady. Hammond's broken form lay where he'd fallen, consumed by his own twisted technology.
I kept my focus on Claire, willing her to open her eyes, to show me some sign she was still fighting.
"Nirako." Ravik's voice cut through my concentration. He crouched beside me, his face grim. "Hammond's neutralized."
