Bastion 2 - Chapter 39

“Father?” The word came from my mouth in a hush.

The door to the back patio was thrown open. Hiro Kumiho held a blade to my mother’s throat, and another assassin detained Eun-bi. The other children cried from the kitchen. Suyi held them all tightly away from the battle, her eyes red and face streaked with dirty tears.

Fury swelled in my chest and freed me from the ry command spell. I stepped forward as my vision narrowed on Hiro—Hiroto—Kumiho.

My father.

Shin-soo grabbed my arm and held me back. “Wait.”

“No!” I screamed trying to wrench myself from his grasp.

Father pressed the tip of the blade into mother’s neck, and two red drips followed as she winced. “Stop if you want her to live,” he warned, and I halted.

“We only want you. Or rather, what’s inside you,” he corrected, and I felt my anger intensify. How could he be pressing a blade to my mother—his wife’s throat—over a ghost?

“You knew it before you knew he was your father,” Mae said through the speaker on my chest. “He wants my power. I can feel the other piece of me somewhere on him.”

I swallowed hard against the lump growing in my throat. “It’s been you all this time?” the question came out, choked.

Bo shared an idea through our link: stay strong, negotiate, and stall him.

“Let’s not waste time. Come with me, and we can save your mother,” he said, still holding the knife to her throat.

“You’re killing my friends, everyone at Bastion, and holding a knife to her throat as you say we can save her?” I asked as Mae helped me cycle more ma and en.

“Are you coming, or not?” He pressed the blade down harder.

“Yes,” I said as I put my hands up.

“Jiyong!” Hana whispered in an outrage.

But I wasn’t giving up.

I took a slow step forward, then another. “You have to promise to let everyone live. Turn off the signal, deactivate the nanites inside the students at Bastion and everyone else in the city.”

He cocked his head slightly at the word nanites. So, I had surprised him. Good. There was more where that came from.

“I will not make that promise,” he said coolly.

I stopped. “Then there’s no reason for me to coming willingly, and you’ll have to try to kill us all now, while we still have the upper hand.”

“You wouldn’t sacrifice your mother!” he snapped, holding her tighter.

Mae used her power to visualized the ry flowing through his throat to hide his true intent. He didn’t want me to see through that outrage of disbelief to the root—his sorrow. He didn’t want to kill his family, and he didn’t want to kill me. He wanted me alive, and my mother, too.

But would he sacrifice us both if he had to? I didn’t know.

“Promise me and I’ll give you exactly what you want; full cooperation with Maeyoung,” I said and took one more step forward. I was flanked by Woong-ji and Se-nim, but for what I was about to do, that gave me little courage.

Father’s posture was stiff, but he didn’t press the blade down harder, or call my bluff. I couldn’t allow him to be in control of another two parts of Mae with how much destruction he’d caused holding just one.

He lowered the blade at my mother’s neck and whistled two high pitched notes. The Wong assassins pulled back, one of them grabbing my arm as they did. I hoped my connection with the others was still strong, as I revealed my intent: revolt.

I sent a massive jolt of en down my arm and electrified the man. His body seized, gripping me tighter as he dropped to the ground. Hana’s ry infused dagger flew past my head, aimed straight at my father. He pulled out of the way, straight into the path of the real blade.

The dagger pierced his shoulder and he dropped my mother. Suyi leapt from the doorway, stabbing the man holding Eun-bi with gardening sheers. The improvised weapon impaled his leg and he howled, rearing back.

The battle resumed all at once.

I cut the stream of electricity as the trembling man dragged me to the ground with him. I turned to go for the spear, but the electrocuted assassin held tight to my arm. He punched at my face as he jerked me back, and I deflected. I used the forward momentum to drop my knee into his gut. The man grunted, but was ready with another blow to my chest. I blocked, but the pain of his strike radiated through my forearms.

I moved my knee and planted my full weight against the assassin, throwing a punch with my free arm. He bucked, kicked, and pulled in quick succession when my fist came down. I flew over his head and hit the ground with a painful crack as orange goop exploded out from under my back.

The fog in my head thickened as I gasped for air. When I could finally breathe, the smell of pumpkin filled my nose. Eun-bi would be so upset about her destroyed garden.

Another fist pulled my focus as it flew toward my gut. I barely deflected the blow, sending it to the ground beside me. The man limped to my side with a black, machina clamp in his hand. He grabbed my wrist and I twisted, kneeing him in the kidney.

Without a second thought, I followed up the blow with two more punches to the gut. He stumbled back and I came up to my knees, then lunged forward to pin him back to the ground. We fell back with another crack that sent orange slime everywhere.

The device clattered out of his hand as his arms hit the ground. He punched wildly, landing blows against my head and neck as I hammered his sides with all my might. His ribs cracked with ever blow and his strikes grew weaker.

I came up to my knees and sat on his chest. He punched haphazardly and I dodged the blow. I caught his arm and slammed my palm against the back of the elbow. The joint popped and the man screamed.

A heavy strike landed under my arm and pushed me off the assassin. I needed to cycle. I needed to breath. Could I handle another potion, or would I die as Sung-ki claimed?

I crawled back to the man and I sent what little zo I had to my fist. Punch after punch the man deflected though he was down an arm. Finally, one connected with his head, snapping back. His body went limp and I sat back on my haunches, gasping for air.

The last potion came away from my belt and I looked at it with worry.

‘Can we survive this?’ I asked, woozy.

My eyes focused on the battlefield as red flared in tiny, sparking explosions.

My father danced in hand to hand combat with Bo. She was on the defensive, blocking and dodging without any counterstrikes. Every strike that he landed sparked red starbursts and Bo growled in pain. Hana and Gui-ne were locked in battle with a sword wielding assassin. Shin-soo held his bleeding side on his knees. Woong-ji was fending off two more assassins, and Se-nim was nowhere to be seen.

“We don’t have a choice,” Mae whispered.

I uncorked the vial and drank it back. Energy rushed through my limbs from my stomach, and air filled my lungs. I cycled healing zo and directed it to my critical injuries in the ribs and back. I ran toward the Golden Wing, finding the spear on the ground just outside the door. I felt Hana’s worry through our connection then heard someone land behind me on graceful feet before I was tackled to the ground.

The assailant pulled me back before I could get a hold on the spear. I turned and kicked at the woman’s face as she came up to a knee. She blocked the blow and twisted my ankle with a sickening pop. I screamed as I tried to pull the leg free to no avail.

The woman hit my back with two quick jabs and my legs went numb. I tried to circulate zo to my back, to heal whatever damage she’d done, but the pathway was blocked. The first jab was for my nerves, and the second my munje pathway. She wasn’t trying to kill me.

She was disabling me so I couldn’t resist.

The black cloaked woman moved her way up, ready to deliver another blow between my shoulder blades that would surely disable my arms. I sent a burst of electric en to my hand and clamped down on her wrist.

My hand seared with hot needles as the spell backfired.

“Didn’t think we’d be so stupid to fall for the same thing twice, did you?” the woman hissed the words in a snake-like voice. I couldn’t see her face behind the black mask, but I knew she was smiling as she moved in. My family flashed through my thoughts as the assassin raised her arm.

This was the end.