The Rise of Nine

18

All of a sudden, Nine’s at the edge of his seat. ‘Holy shit! Four! Check it out. They’ve moved.’

‘Who moved?’ I take the tablet out of his hand. The blue dots that identify us have changed position. At least, some of them have. There is still one blue dot in Jamaica and two in Chicago. But there are now three off the coast of Africa, and one in New Mexico. My chest relaxes when I see there are still seven dots, but I’m confused by how they moved to these other places so quickly. ‘How did they do that?’

‘I have no idea,’ Nine says. ‘It’s like they teleported or jumped through space. Maybe they found a stargate, or something?’

‘Henri said stargates don’t exist,’ I said, shaking my head.

‘Yeah, well, neither do aliens from another planet, according to some people. In fact, many people.’

He’s right. Maybe Henri was wrong. ‘One Garde is in New Mexico, Nine. Near what you think might be our ship. That can’t be a coincidence. Do you think they’re going after it?’

‘Man, I hope not. It is so not time for that yet. We have a lot of shit to take care of before we leave Earth.’

I stare at the blue dot pulsing in New Mexico, and press the green triangle, revealing where the Lorien ships are hidden again. There is no way this one has accidentally landed so close to it. Add that to the fact I’ve been told Sarah is out west, possibly with Sam, and I’m convinced.

‘I’m serious, Nine. That’s where we are going. New Mexico. Now. Everything we’ve seen and learned points to it, tells us we need to go there right now.’ I rush out of the room, slam my Chest shut and put it next to the front door. ‘BK?’ I call out. Bernie Kosar trots over with the steak bone in his mouth.

Nine follows me. ‘Dude. Slow. Down. We are not going to up and fly off to New Mexico! Especially after what we just saw! These guys are teleporting around. By the time we get in the elevator, they could be in Antarctica! Or, Australia! There’s too much we don’t know yet. We don’t even know for sure that’s our ship. What if it’s a trap?’ Nine moves in front of the door and crosses his arms. I know I must look like a crazed lunatic, punching at the elevator button, trying to pretend Nine is not there blocking my efforts.

The words tumble out of my mouth. ‘We have to go there anyway. Even if the Garde member we see now disappears before we get there. New Mexico is still the obvious and only place for us to go.’ I’m desperate for him to get on board with this. ‘We can take some of your guns.’ My head is spinning. I sprint into the training room and head for the munitions cabinet. I’m leaping over the mats in the direction of the cabinet when I hear the metal rings clang overhead. Nine drops from above me, into my path, and puts his hand up.

‘Whoa. Hold on there, bud. Take a breath,’ he says with his hands up, palms out towards me. ‘I think we should go to Paradise.’

‘Are you freaking kidding me? Now you want to go to Paradise?’ I am going to kill this guy.

‘I got to thinking while you were asleep. We need to go back to where you found the tablet. You said before there were a bunch of papers down there, not to mention that skeleton and some maps. I think we’re missing something, something that is the key to beating Setrákus Ra.’

‘You don’t get it,’ I say, pushing past him. ‘Things are happening out west this second. Do you have a car?’

He shoves me hard in the back. I almost fall, but I catch myself. I stand there, back to him, fuming. ‘I do have a car, but we’re going to Paradise first. We need to find anything we can to help us fight.’

‘Not a chance.’ I turn and shove him back, and before I know it, our arms are locked over each other’s heads. Nine kicks my feet out from underneath me and I fall to the ground.

Bernie Kosar barks, telling us to stop.

‘Relax, BK,’ Nine says, waving at him. ‘Consider this a little light training before we head to Ohio.’

‘Right. We’re training now,’ I spit, pulling myself to my feet. ‘With everything we just learned.’

Nine throws a jab and I deflect it. But I can’t do the same for his right hook. My ribs feel like they just got hit with a battering ram. I fall to my knees, clutching my middle, and he side-kicks my sternum, knocking me flat on my back.

‘Come on, man!’ he yells down at me. ‘Step it up, why don’t you? You think you can charge into the desert, take on whatever enemy comes your way, but you can’t take me?’

I spring to my feet and surprise him with a clean punch to the gut. As he doubles over, I knee him in the mouth.

‘That’s what I’m talking about, Four!’ Blood spills from his split lips, but he’s beaming at me. We circle each other. ‘Tell you what. Since you’re showing signs of giving me a decent run, I’ll make you a deal. You beat me, we go to New Mexico. Immediately. I’ll even let you drive. But if I win, we spend a couple more hours here, figure some shit out, and come up with a real plan. Then, we go back to Paradise and head down that well.’

‘And you call me a coward,’ I say.

We continue to circle each other and we each land some devastating blows. I hear one of Nine’s ribs snap when I connect with my right elbow. I swing around with my other elbow, but he delivers a hard kick to my left knee. Cartilage rips and pain sears through my leg. Limping, I’m able to throw a few more punches, but I can’t move, giving Nine a huge advantage. He leaps behind me and kicks my other leg out from under me. My head hits the floor and the world goes white. When I get my bearings, Nine has my arms pinned to with his knees. The fight is over. And with it goes our chances for finding the Garde out west.

‘I’ll get a healing stone,’ Nine says, slowly standing. With blurred vision, I watch him hold his side as he leaves the room. Bernie Kosar whimpers.

‘This is bullshit, you know that?’ I yell after him. ‘You can’t just decide things like this! That Garde in New Mexico could die on their own and you don’t even care!’

Nine’s voice booms through the apartment. ‘We’re soldiers, Johnny! And soldiers die. We were sent here to train and fight and some of us aren’t going to make it. That’s the nature of war.’

I slowly hop into the living room on my one good leg. I can see through the windows the sun is setting. BK sits on the floor, in the last patch of light, looking at me. He begs us to sit down and talk and plan our next move with level heads.

Nine walks in with a healing stone held to his ribs. He tosses it to me and I immediately place it to my left knee. Through the pain, I feel the cartilage slowly reconnecting. It doesn’t take long for it to do its thing and soon the pain has disappeared completely. I plant a hand on the window frame and say, ‘If we’re not going to New Mexico, then let’s deal with Setrákus Ra. Right now. You and me. Maybe if we take him out, the rest of the Mogs will die, and we’ll save two worlds.’

Nine sits down on a leather couch and puts his feet up on the glass coffee table. He sighs and closes his eyes. ‘Sorry, Johnny, but even if Setrákus Ra dies, the Mogs will still fight. Just like Pittacus Lore died and we still fight. Stop looking for an easy way out and face it. We’re all going to fight until the last one is killed.’

I look out the window and gather the strength to say what I’ve wanted to say for weeks, ever since I read Henri’s letter: ‘Pittacus isn’t dead. I’m Pittacus.’

‘What did you say?’

I turn to face him. ‘I said, I’m Pittacus Lore.’

Nine leans back laughing so hard he nearly flips over the couch. ‘You’re Pittacus? Why on Earth would you think you’re Pittacus Lore?’

‘I feel it,’ I say. ‘It’s why Lorien hibernates. Pittacus lives on through me.’

‘Oh, yeah? You know what? I think I can I feel it, too,’ he mocks, feeling his torso. He stands and marches over to me. ‘But, hey, if you are Pittacus, the strongest, wisest Elder of Lorien, then I just kicked Pittacus’s ass. I wonder what that makes me?’

‘Lucky,’ I say, regretting I said anything.

‘Really? Sounds like somebody wants a rematch.’

Enough, Bernie Kosar says. No more fighting. Save your strength.

I ignore him. ‘Fine. A rematch it is, then.’

‘If you want to take me on again, then there’s going to be a change of venue. And to make it even more interesting, Pittacus, I say we each get to use one item from our Chests.’

‘Fine.’

I open my Chest, reaching immediately for the four-inch dagger. The handle vibrates the moment I touch it and quickly wraps itself around my fist. I see Mog ash still stuck in its grooves; the smell of it makes me hungry for another fight.

Nine grabs the short silver staff with his right hand. Okay, that makes me nervous; I saw how he decimated all those pikens in West Virginia with that thing. He waves his finger at me when he sees my dagger. ‘Ah, ah, ah. I said only one item.’

‘I have my dagger. That’s it. And that’s all I’ll need.’

‘And what about your cute little bracelet?’

‘Uh, I forgot about it. It’s probably the better choice for me. Thank you.’ I toss the dagger back into my Chest.

‘Follow me,’ Nine says. Ignoring Bernie Kosar and his pleas to stop, I follow Nine through the apartment and into the elevator, both of us silent. I assume the fight will be in the building’s dark basement among columns and cement walls, our powers hidden from the world. Instead, we ascend. The elevator doors open and Nine punches a keypad by the door in front of us, and it clicks open. We’re on the roof of the John Hancock Center.

‘No way, no freaking way. Too many people can see us up here!’ I say, shaking my head, turning back towards the door inside.

Nine walks out onto the roof. ‘Nobody can see us up here. That’s what’s so great about being at the top of one of the tallest buildings in the city.’

I don’t want to look like I’m chickening out, so I follow, showing a lot more confidence than I feel. But I’m not prepared for the fierce wind that hits me hard, almost pushing me back into the doorway. Nine keeps walking, his black hair whipping around his head, seemingly impervious to the force of the wind. His white T-shirt balloons around his torso until he strips it off and lets it fly over the ledge. When he gets to the center of the roof, he snaps his wrist, expanding the silver staff at both ends until it’s over six feet long and glowing red. He turns to me and curls his palm, beckoning me closer. Like a tightrope walker, I take a deep breath and put one foot in front of the other to walk towards him. We’re in the giant shadow of the looming white spire at the far end of the roof and, just as I near him, Nine turns and runs towards it.

I have no idea what he is about to do, so I stop walking to watch his next move. Without breaking stride, he sprints straight up the spire until he reaches the top. The spire is swaying in the wind and I’m dizzy just looking at him, teetering up there. Nine pulls the red staff over his head and, before I can register what he is doing, he hurls it. The second it leaves his hand, Nine dives headfirst towards me, and I’m faced with dodging two flying objects at once. I just manage to roll away from the sharp staff as it nears me, and I watch as it plunges into a metal beam at an angle. I turn to deal with Nine’s approach and as he’s about to tackle, I land a blow so hard I send him flying across the roof.

I reach over and yank Nine’s red staff out of the metal beam. Henri never trained me with anything like it, but I twist it over my head and charge anyway. Nine stands and steels himself for my attack. I swing the staff across his body, but he parries it away with his wrist and immediately moves to kick my newly repaired knee. I pull my leg back so he misses, but he’s able to get his hands on the staff. We both struggle to gain control of it, circling and kicking, dodging and blocking. He uses his telekinesis to float my feet off the ground. I start to resist but then realize I can use it to my advantage with the strong wind up here. Carefully timing my moves with a hearty gust, I flip over the staff; in a fraction of a second, I’m behind Nine with the staff against his throat.

‘We should be on our way to New Mexico,’ I say, pulling us towards the door that leads back to the elevator.

Nine head-butts me with the back of his skull, right into my nose, and I lose my grip on the staff. He grabs it as I stumble backwards and slam into an electrical box.

‘Is that you talking, Johnny? Or, is it Pittacus?’ he says mockingly as he swings the staff. My bracelet expands just in time to deflect his blow. The electrical box I’m next to has been sliced in half by his near miss. Sparks fly everywhere, including inside my open shield and onto me. When they bounce onto my shirt, I let the fire catch and spread. My shield shrinks, and Nine stares, stunned at the sight of me consumed by flames.

He shakes the surprise off. ‘Why didn’t you turn into a human fireball when we were on the same team?’ he shouts.

The fire around my body crackles and hums in the strong wind. I walk towards him. He may think this is all fun and games. I don’t. ‘Are we done now?’

‘Not quite.’ He smirks.

I form a small ball of fire in my palm. I figure I’ll make my lack of humor about the situation clear enough if I bowl the ball of fire at his legs, but he knocks it away with the end of the staff like a hockey player. I skip two more fireballs down the roof, each one faster than the last, but he uses his mind to push them to the side. The first one rolls off and ineffectually burns out; the other makes its way to the edge of a fan casing. The heat melts it away, and the high winds tip the whole cover off the enormous fan, leaving it exposed.

I raise my hands over my head to create a fireball the size of a refrigerator, but as it grows, Nine charges at me with the staff over his shoulder. He plants one end of the staff in the ground and vaults himself, feetfirst, at my flaming chest. He screams in pain as the soles of his shoes connect with my burning body, and I’m sent flying backwards. The world that had been reds and yellows is now grays and blues. On my final rotation, I realize I’m flying directly into the exposed fan. At the last possible moment, I spread my arms and legs out and catch myself, mere inches from its blades. The fan is powerful enough to nearly extinguish what’s left of my dwindling fire before I dive off and roll away.

‘Trying to cool off?’ Nine asks, hands on hips, as if simply observing my technique. He’s kicked off his half-melted shoes.

‘I’m just getting warmed up!’ I leap to my feet to ready myself to respond to his next move.

Nine sprints to his left and I follow. He jumps over some pipes onto the raised ledge. Again I follow. We are now both inches from a thousand-foot drop onto the street below. To my utter shock, Nine then steps off the ledge. I yell and lean over to grab him, but when I do, I don’t see him sailing to his death. He’s standing, horizontal, on a window with his arms crossed, that same, big, smile on his face. I’ve leaned too far, trying to grab him, and I frantically wheel my arms to regain my balance. But I can’t catch myself and suddenly I’m tipping further over the abyss. Nine sprints back up the side of the building and hits me with a powerful uppercut to my jaw. I’m knocked backwards but I don’t have the chance to land. Nine catches me by the neck, spins and holds me over the ledge.

‘Now, Number Four. All you have to do to get me to set you down, all safe and sound, is say it.’ He holds the staff with his other hand over his head. ‘Say you’re not Pittacus.’

I kick at him, but he holds me out, just out of range. I end up swinging back and forth like a pendulum.

‘Say it,’ he repeats, his teeth gritted. I open my mouth, but can’t bring myself to deny what I feel with such certainty to be true. I believe I am Pittacus Lore. I believe I am the one who can and will end this war. ‘You want to go running to New Mexico to find our ship. You can’t believe for even a second it might be a trap. Then you talk about taking on Setrákus Ra, but you can’t even beat me in hand-to-hand combat. You are not him. You’re not Pittacus. So, let’s stop the bull right now. Just say it, Four.’

He tightens his grip on my throat. My vision blurs. I look up into the cloudless sky and it turns red, just like the night the Mogadorians invaded Lorien. I see flashes of the faces of Loric who were slaughtered. Their screams ring in my ears. I see the explosions, the fire, all of the death. I see krauls with Loric children in their teeth. The pain I feel for all of them at that moment is so overwhelming that I know I can withstand whatever is done to me now, including Nine crushing my neck.

‘Say it!’

‘I can’t,’ I manage to squeak out.

‘You’ve got to be delusional!’ he yells, squeezing harder. Now I see the bombs falling on Lorien. I see the torn bodies of my people, my planet being destroyed. At the top of one mound of bodies, I see my dead father wearing his silver and blue suit. Nine shakes me violently, my feet swinging wildly. ‘You’re not Pittacus!’

I close my eyes to escape the visions of carnage swimming in front of me, dreading whatever comes next. I can see Henri’s letter in my mind: ‘When the ten of you were born, Lorien recognized your strong hearts, your wills, your compassion, and in turn she bestowed the ten of you the roles you’re all meant to assume: the roles of the original ten Elders. What this means is that, in time, those of you left will grow to be far stronger than anything Lorien has ever seen before, far stronger even than the original ten Elders from whom you’ve received your Inheritances. The Mogadorians know this, which is why they’re hunting you so feverishly now.’

Whatever it all means, I know Nine wouldn’t actually kill me. Each member of the Garde is too important, Pittacus or not. More than anything, coming together and fighting as one, as the Garde we were born to be, is more important than any fight he and I might have. That’s small comfort, given the fact that my body is still swinging when I feel the wind change slightly. The hand around my neck opens and my stomach drops as I start to fall. Could I have been wrong? Instead I feel my feet touch down in less than a second. I open my eyes and find myself back on the roof. Nine walks away, his head down. He snaps his wrist and the long red staff shrinks into a piece of silver. Over his shoulder, he yells, ‘Next time, I drop you!’