Chapter Text
Spensa’s screams drowned the quiet of her cockpit.
It was like every single cell in her body had been lit on fire. Millions of white hot blades relentlessly dug and cut through her. Tears ran down her grime-stained cheeks, but she could barely feel them. The violet jet of light continued to pierce through her chest, but she could barely see it. Nothing else existed but the pain. Heart violently pounding in her chest, she bent forward and grabbed her head in her hands, nails clawing into her scalp.
Spensa couldn’t breathe. The light scorched through her, silencing her lungs as her screams turned into broken gasps and desperate sobs.
“Make– Make it stop,” she grunted, bending further forward with her forehead touching her knees.
Sweat-covered hands still gripping her head, she started rocking back and forth and slamming her foot against the floor. The pain pulsated through her chest right where the jets of light had hit her before radiating everywhere else. And with every beat, another blade was driven right through her. With every beat, another wave of searing pain drowned her. With every beat, Spensa felt her heart fail and herself drift a little more.
“Please,” she moaned through laboured breaths, another tear crashing against her knees. “Please.”
The corners of her vision darkened and she squeezed her eyes shut. She wrapped her arms around her knees as tight as she could.
She couldn’t take it anymore.
Head still resting against her knees, muffled screams mixed with hopeless cries escaped her once again. The agonising sound reverberated around, piercing her own eardrums.
Until it wasn’t anymore. Spensa opened her eyes and gasped before jolted back up. Her back slammed against the seat.
The pain was gone. The scorching feeling completely evaporated. Instead, a tingling feeling crawled up her fingertips and up her hands. She lowered her gaze and turned her bloody hands over.
Her breath caught in her throat the hazy sight of her hands and wrists. Bright purple specks covered her skin. Slowly, she raised her shaking arms and pulled her sleeves up. She watched the dots move up her arms, her skin tingling at their passage. The jets of light that stabbed her in the chest pulsed brighter as the skin of her shoulders, neck and face started to tingle. Spensa stared wide-eyed at her own reflection in the glass of her canopy: she was covered in those purple specks. The tingling moved down her chest, abdomen, legs and feet, and although she couldn’t see it, she could imagine her skin dotted with purple spots there too. Her mouth slightly open in shock, Spensa turned her palms over, staring at the dots. Their bright violet colour pulsed in rhythm with the pulsations of the light that pierced through her heart.
Spensa was expecting the pain to surge back and break her in half, but it never did. Instead, a calming sensation washed over her. Her heart slowed down to a normal, calm rate and her breathing settled. She felt... weightless. And incredibly rested. Like all the heavy aches her body had endured through during her time in the nowhere had been bandaged and soothed. Like she had just woken up from a long, peaceful sleep. The blood coating her knuckles seemed to turn a shade lighter, and Spensa squinted at it through the purple hues of the light bathing her cockpit.
Black blood... A very accurate indicator of a cytonic’s health.
The Intruder’s words resonated in her head as she examined her fingers. A spark of hope ignited within her. Did that mean–
Right then, a familiar buzzing soared from the corners of her mind, submerging her body and soul with cytonic energy. There was no doubt about it now.
Her mind was fully awake again.
Her powers had returned.
And with them, her body seemed to gain some of its strength back, the intense exhaustion and weakness that had overwhelmed her before dissipating.
Spensa almost burst into tears. As the purple jets of light vanished, she heaved a long, trembling sigh and sniffled.
She couldn’t believe it. She’d gotten her cytonics back. The first part of her plan had worked. Now, she needed to find the portal that had drawn cytonics away in the first place... and close it. And she’d need to do all of that before the powers she’d just recovered could fade away again. She didn’t know how much time away from the Astral Spirits she would have before her powers would start to disappear, and yet, hope and determination consumed her, drowning every other worry and dimming her fear.
For the first time in weeks – perhaps even longer – she felt unstoppable.
Spensa settled in her seat and surveyed the starry sky around her. The Astral Spirits had dragged her down to that place, but she had no idea how to get back to the coordinates where they’d found her. The screen on her dashboard was still off, so she didn’t have a map.
It was as if the Astral Spirits had intercepted her thoughts. Before she could even begin to consider tinkering with the controls on her dashboard to get herself back to the coordinates, a sudden force propelled her ship forward and rotated it so its nose was pointing upward. Spensa only had time to hold on to the sides of her seat before her ship was thrusted upward. Just like when the Astral Spirits had caused her ship to dive through space, she was weightless and could almost have been floating, if not for the seatbelt that held her in place. The g-forces seemed to be non-existent. She watched the star-ornated sky unfold under her eyes, the stars dwindling as she ascended closer to the void obscurity.
Her ship abruptly stopped and Spensa yelped in surprised as her body lurched forward slightly, her wrist with the communication bracelet violently hitting the dashboard. She straightened up and moved her hand back and forth before looking around.
Spensa was floating in space, amidst near-total darkness. The lights on her dashboard blinked before switching back on, and she sighed in relief when the screen flickered back to life, the map with her dotted route projected again.
Right then, a familiar, naturally joyful voice rose from her wrist, causing her to jump in a start.
“Spensa!” M-Bot’s voiced said. “Where are you? I’ve been trying to contact you. You said you’d reach out when you reached the coordinates, but you didn’t and I got worried you had gotten killed or something! Why didn’t you contact me? Why, Spensa? I was so worried, I–”
Spensa bit her lip, refraining a chuckle. Although she felt guilty for not contacting M-Bot and leaving him to worry, she couldn’t help but think of the way he was scolding her like a too-stressed parent. A mother hen, even. It was quite endearing.
“I’m sorry, M-Bot,” she said, raising her bracelet to her face. “I wanted to contact you, but as soon as I reached the coordinates, my ship got dragged down, just like when we explored the coordinates before going to the nowhere.”
“What?” M-Bot exclaimed. “Are you alright, Spensa? You fainted the last time that happened!”
“I promise I’m alright,” Spensa said, her lips stretching into a wide, genuine smile. “Better than alright, actually.”
“What.. What does that mean?”
Spensa proceeded to tell M-Bot everything about her encounter with the Astral Spirits, about what she’d learnt about the Intruder and the portal he’d created to draw cytonics into the inbetween, and about the way she’d recovered her powers.
“But I don’t have much time before they fade again,” she said, gripping her controls and readying herself for action. “I have to find the portal, M-Bot.”
“Understood,” M-Bot said. “You have no idea how relieved I am that you’re alright, Spensa. I.. I thought I’d lost you.”
Spensa’s heart constricted in her chest at the words. Stars, she hated that M-Bot had been left all alone in the nowhere, with just a bracelet to communicate with her when her cytonics had been stolen away from her. No one had been there to comfort him, or even keep him updated on the quest. She couldn’t begin to imagine how she would have felt if the roles had been reversed.
She knew she wouldn’t be able to stand it.
“I’m sorry, M-Bot,” she said, her fingers tightening around her controls. “Truly. I promise I will make my way back to you soon.”
“I know you will. So, what’s the plan?”
Tapping a finger on the flight stick, Spensa’s gaze darted from the screen to the sky. There was no trace of the Intruder. Odd... Where had he gone? Had he simply given up on their chase when he realised she’d vanished?
“I lost the Intruder,” Spensa said. “But probably not for long. I need to get to the portal, but I can’t hyperjump there without knowing where it is or what it looks like.”
“Right,” M-Bot said. “I’m sorry, Spensa. I can’t help very much. I haven’t been able to fix my programs yet. But from what you’ve told me, the portal has to be in the nowhere, right? Could it be near that chamber where you were kept prisoner?” M-Bot paused briefly, and Spensa imagined that if he’d had lungs, he would have sighed in frustration. “If only Chet was here... As a delver, he would be able to take you there. Delvers know the nowhere better than anyone else. It’s their home.”
Spensa slowly nodded, an idea blooming in her head. Her eyes narrowed at the horizon. She could see the breach in the distance. A physical gateway between the somewhere and the nowhere, but... it was static. It had stopped growing and swallowing the somewhere before she’d reached the coordinates. Now, stars floated peacefully around it, as if it didn’t exist at all. As if such a disturbance between dimensions had never occurred.
The delvers had been the ones to create the breach in the first place, responding to the Intruder’s request to join him. If the breach had stopped expanding... Did it mean that the delvers had turned against the Intruder? Or at the very least, did it mean that they’d stopped responding to his commands? Could she ask the delvers for help?
“The breach has stopped growing, M-Bot,” Spensa said into the bracelet, remembering that M-Bot was still stuck in the nowhere and couldn’t see the current state of the galaxy like she could.
“Really?” He asked. “Are you sure your human eyes are not betraying you? Often times, humans see what they want to see, Spensa.”
“I’m sure,” she said, unequivocal.
“Does that mean–”
“That the delvers broke their alliance with the Intruder? Probably. I think it’s worth asking them for help if that’s the case. I could ask them to hyperjump me straight to the portal. I don’t know how much time I have left with my powers at full strength, but I need to hurry and that would be the quickest way to get there.”
She could still feel her cytonics fervently buzz all throughout her mind and soul, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she would need every single bit of energy she could get from it to seal the portal... and fight the Intruder.
“I agree, it’s your best bet.” M-Bot paused. “I... I won’t be able to stay on the line, Spensa. Communicating through the bracelet is interfering with my attempts to repair my programs.”
“I understand,” Spensa responded, a weight crushing her heart at the thought of having to say goodbye to M-Bot so soon. “It’s okay.”
“Thank you. But before I go... Spensa?”
“Yes?”
“Be careful, please,” M-Bot said, his voice now quieter. “I... I almost lost you too many times to count. And the pain is extremely unpleasant each time. Unbearable, even. I wasn’t designed to feel those emotions, Spensa, and yet... I feel them all. You’re not just my pilot. You’re my best friend. You’re the only one who’s ever believed in me. The only one who’s ever saw me as more than just a machine. You saw me. So please... Don’t drift where I won’t find you again, Spensa.”
A knot formed in Spensa’s throat and she let out a wavering breath.
“You’ll find me again, M-Bot,” she whispered, not trusting herself not to break if she spoke any louder. “I promise.”
Without another word, she switched off the bracelet and gripped her controls back. Stars, talking to M-Bot, talking to a friend right before throwing herself into the monster’s den had been both wonderful and heart-wrenching. She could still hear his voice almost begging her to come back to him alive, could almost feel the pain in his words radiate right through her.
She didn’t know if she would make it out of this alive. She didn’t know if she would ever see her friends and family again. M-Bot, her mother, Rig and FM – whom she hadn’t seen nor spoken to in what felt like years – along with the rest of her flight.... and Jorgen.
Perhaps she wouldn’t. But she was okay with that, as long as it meant she died freeing her friends and giving their world a second chance.
Spensa let her gaze drop to her dashboard, readying herself to contact the delvers. And that’s when she saw it.
Her heart sank.
The Intruder was back.
The dot representing his ship blinked on her screen. Still far away from her, but close enough to cause panic to twist her gut.
Quickly, she closed her eyes and reached out for her own cytonics. She was immediately plunged in void darkness, roaming through it using nothing but her cytonic senses to guide her. She used the vibrations of her mind to call out to the delvers, scrutinising the obscurity for the familiar – yet still unsettling – white eyes.
She was about to give up and return to reality and check where the Intruder was when a voice echoed through the dark.
“Human,” the voice rasped from behind her, sending a chill down Spensa’s spine.
Spensa spun and immediately recoiled in surprise at the sight of the hundreds of white irises surrounding her. But contrary to what she had expected, not a hint of menace shadowed their stare. Instead, curiosity emanated from them.
“I need your help,” Spensa said, not wanting to waste a single second.
The largest pair of eyes – the one that hovered right in front of Spensa – squinted at her.
“What do you want, Human?” The voice asked.
“I want to stop the Intruder,” Spensa said, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible despite the creeping anxiety. “I want to stop him before he starts destroying anything else. Before he starts hurting anyone else. I... I want a second chance at peace for our world. And I know that’s what you want, too.”
The eyes blinked before looking at each other. Spensa could feel the uncertainty that radiated from them. She sighed.
“I know you opened the breach,” she said, slightly desperate. “But I also know you stopped it from growing further. You broke your alliance with the Intruder, didn’t you? You want to see him fall. Just as I do. He hurt the taynix – the little delvers – and he invaded your home. He frightens you, that’s why you joined him in the first place. But you won’t have to live in fear if I can stop him. And to stop him… I need to get to the portal that’s stolen the Cytonics’ powers away. I was given my powers back, and I can close it.”
The eyes stared at her, and Spensa shifted uncomfortably on her feet, waiting for an answer.
“If you get close to that portal, Human, your powers will be drawn through it. How will you close it if that happens?”
“My cytonics are stronger this time,” Spensa said. “They should resist the portal’s powers long enough for me to close it.”
The more she talked about it, the more doubts she had about the entire plan. As much as she wanted to appear confident, the truth was... She had no idea if her powers would resist the portal at all. The Astral Spirits had told her they should, but even they hadn’t seemed so sure. And not only that, but she also had no idea how to close the portal. She would have to figure it out on the spot, but what if she couldn’t? She felt her palms grow clammy at the thought.
Her plan was incredibly flawed, her odds of success getting slimmer and slimmer the more she thought about it. But... it was all she had.
“Do you know where the portal is?” Spensa asked, straightening up as she shoved her doubts to the side. “Can you hyperjump me to it?”
The eyes blinked at each other again, as if considering her request. Spensa had to restrain from yelling at them to hurry up with their decision. The Intruder could have already reached her ship by now. Spensa clenched her fists at her side, a blend of frustration and anxiety bubbling inside of her.
After what had seemed like hours of waiting, the voice rose again.
“We will take you as close to the portal as we can, Human, but we cannot help you any more than that. The portal blocks our powers as soon as we approach it. If what you are saying about your cytonics is true... You might then be our only hope.”
Spensa’s breath hitched at the implication behind those words.
Our only hope.
She wasn’t allowed to fail.
Spensa was about to break the connection but stilled instead, remembering something else.
“Thank you,” she said to the eyes. “But before I leave, I have another request.”
Spensa snapped her eyes open as her mind returned to the somewhere. She was still floating around in space, her ship still intact. Her gaze instinctively dropped to the screen on her control panel and her heart skipped a beat.
The Intruder was behind her and racing in her direction.
Not wasting another second, she grasped her controls and shoved the flight stick forward before slamming on her boosters. The g-forces crushed her in her seat as she dashed through space and away from the Intruder. Spensa’s eyes darted between the screen and the sky. The delvers had agreed to hyperjump her to the portal, but where were they now? What were they waiting for?
The reflection of a red destructor fire caught her eye and she veered to the right, swearing as she barely dodged the Intruder’s attack. She’d only just returned to a neutral position when the Intruder’s destructors lit up again.
He was determined to destroy her. Did he suspect that she had recovered her powers? Could he feel her cytonic mind buzzing, just like she could feel his?
She dodged another attack in a brisk dive, the fire brushing her shield.
Stars, that had been close. What were the delvers doing?
The Intruder was quickly on her tail again and Spensa – deciding she couldn’t wait for the delvers any longer – was about to hyperjump herself away from the battlefield when her skull started pounding in pain. Wincing, she closed her eyes tight.
A sigh of relief escaped her when hundreds of white eyes appeared all around her again. They blinked and she nodded, a silent agreement passing between them.
Spensa relaxed against the grip on her soul and pulling rope that wrapped around her body as the delvers dragged her back into the nowhere.