She uses her fingers to lift my chin. Her response is different from what I expect. It’s empathetic and real.
Emma looks at my face and says, “We’re going to fix this. Whatever happened, we can get through it.”
But there is something that’s been hanging in the recesses of my mind. “What if we can’t? What if none of this can be fixed?”
What if the med-bay pod can’t heal me? I’ll be stuck like this forever, and then I will die. If that’s the case, this is my last chance to stand by her side and love her again.
I’ve never seen her more confident in my life. “We will win this fight, young or old. I don’t care how you look. I care about who you are,” she says.
To hear those words is a breath of fresh air.
She grabs my arm and loosely throws it around her shoulder. With Akron’s assistance, they help me onto my feet. “It’s going to be okay,” she keeps saying.
Akron is silent.
The med-bay isn’t far. Just another few hundred feet.
With the miners’ protection, we walk toward the med-bay.
“Slain,” I mutter. “He’s here with the other alphas.”
Emma’s muscles tighten. A sense of hopefulness washes over her. “They’re still alive?”
I nod, feebly. “Yes, but Slain has them in his control.”
“With the sentinels,” Akron says.
I shake my head. “No. He has abandoned our planet’s police force. The Resnyx has given him unforeseen powers.”
We enter another wing in the facility. The med-bay is at the other end of the hall.
“What kind of powers?” Akron asks, appearing more worried than confident.
“He thinks he can use the element to become a God,” I reveal. “And I’m not so sure he’s wrong. He has turned into a floating entity, a force he is starting to gain control of. I saw him subdue Lök and Vraik with one flick of his wrist.”
“This is worse than I thought,” Akron says. “We have to act fast. There is no time to get you into the med-bay. It might take hours for you to heal.”
I sigh. “I don’t plan on leaving.”
To save Emma and the rest of the alphas, I need to sacrifice myself.
“Don’t kid around with me,” Emma says. “You’re going to be fine.”
We stumble into the med-bay room. Carefully, the two set me inside the pod.
Emma holds the door over my body.
“You don’t understand,” I say. “On Slain’s mothership, I activated a starfisher bomb.”
“A… what?” Emma asks, but I think she knows it’s something detrimental.
Akron paces, angrily. “What have you done?”
I try to get them to understand. “It was the only way to destroy Slain without destroying our home,” I say.
“I won’t leave you,” she says.
Again, I have failed. Over and over, I have made the wrong choices. “I didn’t know you were alive.”