Page 18 of Rebels Rising

I didn’t know what had brought on such thoughts, my focus typically on the present. I never liked to look behind me, the pain of the past something I refused to let in. I never looked towards the future, either, my path always laid out in front of me with the expectations of my father. Even joining the military wasn’t something that would have gotten me out of whatever he had planned for me, my end goal always his.

Until now, it seemed.

Perhaps that was why my subconscious was drumming up the echoes of the past, because my future no longer made any sense. I had turned my back on everything my father stood for, but in doing so, had I turned towards the path my mother would have been proud of me for following?

There was no way to know for sure, but I liked to think so.

I hadn’t thought of her for so long, but there was something about the way she persevered despite the odds, even if she did eventually succumb in the end, which reminded me of Artemis. Maybethatwas it. Cancer stole my mother from this world, and Artemis had mentioned something about that too. The Program had healed her of the formidable illness, and she had taken that opportunity and used it to become the woman she was today.

Would my mother have done the same if she’d been gifted a cure?

I wanted to be bitter about it. There was an entire organisation out there that had a solution for so many problems. So many lives could have been saved, and they’d chosen to abuse that power and knowledge by not only by hoarding it to themselves, but by weaponizing it as well.

I recalled the information Artemis had bestowed upon us about her life within The Program, and I decided I was glad my mother had passed on into the next realm rather than be subjected to the whims of such evil just to survive.

As I settled into my bunk, clothes still on, I realised that was one of the things that drew me to Artemis in the first place. Her resilience, her strength, and her courage to stand up for what she believed in; the way he protected those she loved even to her own detriment because she knew it was the right thing to do. She stood firm and unwavering against the odds that were stacked so heavily against her and it drew me in, beckoned to me like a siren’s call.

The real question was, was I interested in answering that call, even if it led to my demise?

The answer was obvious. I was here, after all, throwing everything I could have had away for the chance to be a better person, to do the right thing. It was a new concept for me, but these people surrounding me were more than enough proof that I was on the right path. I had found friendship and loyalty in Henrik I had never experienced before, and I was opening myself up to the concept of building a completely different life for myself. A family.

And there was still so much to discover about the mysterious woman. A cyborg, she’d called herself. All her trials, pain, and suffering had moulded her into the incredible woman I had the immense pleasure of starting to know, and I wanted more. She was like an addiction. I couldn’t get her out of my head, and lying here, sleep eluding me, I realised I didn’t want to. I wanted to know everything about her, starting with her strange abilities.

But that led me back to my original thoughts. Why was I experiencing an echo of those abilities? I hadn’t been able to control them, that much I knew. If I was correct in my summations, I had merely been dragged along for the ride whileshecontrolled them. But why me? Was this what had happened to Bromm?

My eyes widened in the darkness at the thought. Was I about to succumb to the same fate as the Griknot Prince, unconscious and on death’s door in the infirmary?

I really did need to inform someone of what had happened with me if that was the case, but was it truly? It had only happened once, and there wasn’t much to speak of. So I’d been sucked into the web alongside her, but it sounded like I hadn’t truly been there at all. Not physically, at least, which was a good sign, right?

Right?

The panic that rose at the possibility was tamped down quickly at what else that might mean. If I was experiencing these side-effects for who knew whatever reasons, did it mean I was changing, too? Was I becoming just like Artemis, and now Reece and Adara?

The excitement at the prospect overrode any negativity I felt towards the situation. If that were true –andI fucking hoped it was –then a little pain and suffering was a small price to pay to be a badass just like her.

Cadmus, the Drakfern-Terran Cyborg, Hero of the Intergalactic Union.

Damn, that had a nice ring to it.

The fact of the matter was that I had no clue what was happening to me, but I wasn’t going to let myself worry about it. I would come out the other side stronger for it, I had no doubt.

It was those happy thoughts that allowed me to finally relax and let sleep tug me under the cloak of darkness, a smile fixed unwaveringly on my lips.

???

I was back.

It wasn’t just a fluke, then,I thought to myself as I took in my strange new surroundings. Just because I’d been here once already didn’t mean I was still awestruck at what I was seeing.

White lines spread out in a web of intricate designs, Artemis’s name for the place an accurate description. The glow that emanated from each line varied, and even in different clusters there was an array of intensity. All of them, however, were muted compared to the one I had found myself perched on.

What caught my attention with an even greater sense of awe was the endless mass of nothingness spread out beyond the web. It gave off the impression of both utter emptiness and bone-crushing pressure all at once, and it was completely disorienting.

And yet…

Disorientation was a sensation, and the last time I had been here there was no sensation whatsoever.

I looked down at myself and realised with a jolt that I actually could. My neck bent, my gaze adjusted course, and there I was. Only I still wasn’t totally tangible. Instead, that sense of being a phantom was impressed upon me again with the vagueness of my form. I could see the outline of my body, but details were hazy. And I wastransparent, the line beneath me shining through with a muted glow where my body attempted to block it out, only it wasn’t fully successful.

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