Chapter 38

The only sound Zane was aware of was Trip's agonized screams. They reverberated inside his mind and dug deep, digging furrows into his thoughts and blowing all rational thought out his brain. He didn't hear the glass shattering and scattering across the floor. He didn't hear the whir of the plane as it hovered just outside the window. There were only Trip's screams. He felt the need to scream with him, contribute to the agony.

Marlene was dead.

Zane had only known her for a few days, but already she was the mother he'd never had. Or, at least, she had been. Already he was familiar with the soft, gentle smile and the nervous laugh. He knew he was one of the reasons she'd died. Without him, she might still be alive. The realization weighed on him heavily, and he couldn't ever imagine it leaving. The foster mother who cared for everyone but herself was gone.

He felt the urge to destroy.

Anything and everything.

He had the power to do so.

Trip scrambled forward, held back by Jonas, surprisingly strong. Tears streamed down his face, tracking through glass shards and collecting droplets of blood drawn by them. His tears hit the ground pink.

Anastasia was facedown, her usual confident demeanor darkened into a silent scream, her mouth wide open. Daisy was desperately trying to calm her down, but Daisy was crying too.

Zane felt nothing but rage as he surveyed the scene around him, the total and complete agony Wawrzynski had just caused. Joseph was rigid, his back pressed painfully against a steel bookshelf. His eyes were closed and he was drawing in deep breaths as he struggled to contain his sorrow. Zane tried to talk to him, tell him something, but the screams were too loud. Instead, Zane pulled Joseph's head against his shoulder and sobbed with him. Joseph, his attempt at calm forgotten, gave in and tears began to stream down his cheeks.

Another explosion rocked the skyscraper, many floors beneath them. The building shook precariously and Zane spread his feet apart to brace himself. The maps shuddered and slipped to the floor. The shelves creaked.

Marcus's body was shaking and Mallory was wrapped around him, either embracing him or restricting him from moving. Zane couldn't tell which. Marcus's face had gone completely red, engulfed in anger, and his green eyes flashed, appearing black. His mouth was slightly open and he was breathing viciously through his teeth.

Zane knew the jet had left, but he didn't dare leave the relative safety of the shelves. He didn't want to end up like Marlene. He didn't want to be a body on the sidewalk below.

Trip was now clawing at Jonas, desperately trying to free himself. "Let me go!" he screeched. "I have to save her!"

Jonas pulled him back. "You can't save her! She's dead!"

"No! She can't be! It's not possible!" Trip broke free and dove over to where Marlene had stood. His slicked back hair was in disarray and his jean jacket was covered in a mixture of blood and tears. He slammed his fist into the ground, over and over, pounding down on the glass shards, tearing open his hand. "No!" he screamed. "Why Marlene?"

The building shuddered again, but this time it didn't stop. It continued to tilt dangerously, and the maps began to roll across the floor. Trip had to lean to maintain his balance. Jonas stood up shakily. "We've got to get out of here!" he yelled.

"How?" Zane demanded. "The lower floors are probably destroyed!" He too stood up, feeling the need to move. A shelf near the end of the room fell over and crashed through a window, tumbling through the air like Marlene only moments before.

The others scrambled to their feet at the cacophony of shattering glass. Trip began to slide toward the exploded window, his feet scrabbling for purchase, his bloody hands clawing for any possible handhold. Zane held on to the end of a tall shelf as his body threatened to do the same. "Trip, grab my hand!" he yelled, extending his arm out, his hair prickling in nervousness and anticipation.

The man grappled for Zane's hand, his fingers just finding Zane's. Joseph grabbed Zane and helped him pull Trip back.

Another shelf toppled.

"Guys!" Daisy said. "We're going out next."

"Anybody got any bright ideas?" Mallory said, holding Marcus in place. He vibrated on the spot.

Zane closed his eyes and pictured the faucet of his power, but this time he imagined a pressure behind it, longing to be let out. It was as if a stockpile of adrenaline was waiting within his grasp. He needed only to release it. He looked at Joseph, who was worried and concerned and scared.

He opened the faucet.

His body exploded in a shower of dust-like cells. His senses sharpened and he was able to analyze the situation easily. He saw the building as it continued to topple, and he saw the jet continue to fire at the lower floors, speeding up the destruction that would kill Zane and his friends if he didn't act fast.

He pictured what he wanted to make, and how many.

He multiplied his cells, watching as Joseph scrabbed to stay on his feet. The shelf he was leaning on tilted precariously. Zane frantically sent cells toward Joseph.

The particles gathered at the boy's back, forming into a backpack-like object. Whilst Joseph struggled to decipher what it was, Zane formed them on everyone else's backs as well. Joseph adjusted the pack and his eyes widened as he realized what it was.

Screams echoed in his ears, amped by his enhanced senses. He heard the screeching of the shelves sliding across the floor, and the shouts of harried people floors below or above. If Wawrzynski was willing to sacrifice hundreds of people to kill Zane, then he was truly ambitious. Zane hated to admit it, but Wawrzynski never gave up when he wanted something. He committed wholly to his beliefs and was willing to sacrifice others to get his way.

Zane saw the glass shards across the floor, half littered with dark red blood. The maps stood out to him, landmasses and cities and rivers scrawled across rolled up paper. The sky, deep blue and dotted with clouds, seemed pristine and calm compared to the situation Zane was in. All these images rushed past him in a fraction of a millisecond.

Within seconds, his entire body was dispersed into seven backpack-like objects, each on the back of one of his friends or Trip. Handles hung from them, begging to be grabbed and pulled. Zane hoped they would be.

He had no physical body anymore.

The FEPE building began to fall faster, and Joseph slipped from the window, tumbling through the air, a lifeline on his back. He screamed and Zane felt the imaginary breath leave his lungs as the sound ripped through every synapse in his brain.

"Joseph!" Daisy screamed, diving out after him like a swimmer into a pool. Her hair flew back, blown by the sudden rush of air. Her arms flattened to her sides and her legs tensed until she looked like an arrow flying toward its target.

The others soon followed, their fingers slipping. Screams rang through the air, and not just their's. Zane, his senses magnified, heard the screams of hundreds of people floors below. They spoke of agony and pain, trust and betrayal, but most of all confusion. A seemingly unprovoked attack had just desecrated a foreign embassy and would kill hundreds in the coming minutes. People saw no discernible reason why they were attacked, and they died without answers.

Zane wanted desperately to help them, but even when he was so powerful, he simply couldn't save everyone. Even he had limits.

Daisy reached Joseph and closed an arm around his waist, but she couldn't stop his fall, only slow it. She could, with ease, keep herself aloft with her unprecedented power, but Joseph was simply too heavy. She screamed in an effort to hold him still in the air. But they continued to fall.

Jonas, flipping quickly head over heels, tugged at the string connected to the pack on his back. A parachute blossomed behind him, bright white against the stark blue. He let out a breath like he was safe, but he most assuredly was not.

Behind him, the FEPE building was gaining speed and momentum, falling fast. Zane saw this from seven different perspectives in seven different heights and locations. This was one factor he'd forgotten to take into consideration. He tried to curse, but had no mouth to do so. Instead, he settled for struggling to find a solution to avoid his friends being crushed under tons of glass and cement and steel.

The others caught on and soon pulled their own tabs, releasing their own parachutes. Zane could feel the wind buffeting his cells that made them. Daisy was able to release Joseph, and, as Zane had anticipated, she didn't use the parachute. Instead, she simply zipped around, checking on the others and analyzing the situation.

The building was far faster than them, and shards of glass rained down on the parachutes, threatening to puncture them and sacrifice Zane's friends. Crunching noises echoed from below, presumably where the building was folding like an origami crane.

Daisy rocketed past Joseph, heading straight for Trip, who was in the most danger of being crushed. He must have exhausted his vocal chords, because now he simply hung in the air, his eyes wide and his mouth open in a frantic silent scream. His feet hung limp underneath him.

Daisy hit him like a quarterback.

He released a sound of surprise but offered no further resistance. "Sorry!" she yelled as he gasped for air. Daisy's speed allowed her to move Trip substantially and get him out of the way of the FEPE building. "It's necessary!" she offered in apology, letting him go and performing a speedy one-eighty. Her hair was razzled like the first time Zane had ever seen her, but this time her eyes were frightened, their upbeat hazel color darkened in fear.

Next she catapulted Anastasia out of the way, and the red-haired girl spiralled uncontrollably, but she was out of harm's way. Marcus and Mallory soon followed, their parachutes struggling to keep up with their bodies as Daisy threw them out of the way.

The building was too close now. Zane knew it. Daisy obviously knew it. She only had time to fly back under it once more before it was far too close to the ground to risk anything.

Daisy seemed to sense him nearby. "Who do I save, Zane?" she asked empty air.

Zane felt a feeling he would never get used to; despair.

Daisy flew under the building.

A boy rocketed out.

Daisy followed, a piece of steel slicing through the shirt on her back, but it would be nothing compared to what the boy left under the building would feel.

Daisy landed, her legs buckling, her chest heaving from the immense effort. Despite her exhaustion, she began to sob, her body racking with heaving hiccups. "I had to," she cried desperately. "I had to save him."

Everyone else clattered to the sidewalk, and Anastasia ran to her sister's aid. Their squabbles meant nothing at that moment. Anastasia simply needed to be there for her twin sister. "Hey, it's okay," she whispered. "You should never have had to decide. None of this is your fault."

"But he's dead because of me!" she sobbed. "I should have been able to save him!"

Mallory walked over, arms crossed. "Nobody expected you to," she said. "We're all standing here because of you." her hair was blown everywhere, more out of place than usual. Her nose piercing had flecks of blood over it.

"He's not!" Daisy screamed.

She pushed her sister away viciously and jumped upward, her body flying into the sky, tears streaming down her cheeks. Zane brought back his cells from her parachute that hadn't been opened, and continued to draw all of his cells back. He reformed his body from toe to head.

When he had formed his body, a tear was already tracing down his face. "Joseph!" he screamed, running for the pile of rubble and glass that was all that remained of the FEPE building. Police sirens wailed in the distance, rushing to aid the survivors of the tragic, seemingly unprovoked attack.

He knew why Daisy had saved Jonas instead.

Jonas contained far more informationa bout Wawrzynski and everything else related to New Vancouver. Daisy had made an analytical decision instead of an emotional decision. She had saved the boy with the information instead of the boy Zane may have loved.

Zane began throwing steel rods and beams away from the pile, glass digging into his palms. He didn't care. He needed to find Joseph. He had no other objective.

"Zane, stop!" Marcus said, grabbing at his arm.

"Let me go!" Zane hollered, wrenching his arm free.

He knew his power was exhausted. He knew he shouldn't push it too far. But he needed to find Joseph. Or Joseph's body.

He threw his arms toward the pile, and imagined every horrible thing Wawrzynski had ever done to him. That man had caused this. He had killed Marlene, too. He had sent the jet and the assassins, and he would be sorry he ever messed with his own experiments.

The entire pile of rubble exploded in a shower of particles.

Marcus stumbled backward in surprise. His eyes were wide. "What did you do?" he asked.

Zane ignored him and dove through the thick cloud of dust. All the glass lying on the street, all the steel sticking from the concrete, all the maps and documents lying in disarray, were all gone. He had deconstructed every single last shard of glass and shred of paper. His power was even more terrifying than before.

He kicked metal, which was confusing. There shouldn't be any metal left.

He bent down and almost cried in relief. It wasn't any ordinary piece of steel; it was Joseph, his skin transformed in mid-agony, hsi mouth wide open, his cerulean eyes wide. "No, Joseph," Zane whispered, tugging the boy out of the cloud of particles. Joseph may have been able to transform into steel, but it may not have saved him.

"Joseph!" Daisy screamed, her voice echoing from up above. Her figure dove down from the sky like a hawk circling its prey. "I'm so sorry!" Zane didn't have the heart to tell her he probably couldn't hear her.

As soon as Joseph's body hit fresh air, his form changed, his metal returning to skin. His eyes changed back to their usual beautiful blue. His mouth closed abruptly, freed from its confines of time.

"No," Zane said defiantly. "I won't let you die." He leaned down and, remembering a brief course from school in New Vancouver, placed his hands overtop of Joseph's chest. The small tear in the boy's shirt stood out starkly against the gray sidewalk.

Zane proceeded to press down repeatedly on Joseph's chest, hard. The boy wasn't breathing, but Zane was determined to make him do so. He halted briefly to place his mouth over the boy's and blow into his mouth, filling his lungs with air. He then went back to chest compressions. He might crack a rib or two, but that would be nothing compared to death.

Daisy landed lightly beside Joseph's head and watched as Zane once again blew his own breath into Joseph's lungs as if gifting him with air. The boy's eyes stayed wide open, staring at nothing.

Zane didn't know when, but at one point he began to sob uncontrollably, his tears falling on Joseph's shirt. "Don't die," he pleaded. "Please don't die, I need you." He flashed back to the plane, when Joseph had almost killed himself. Zane had been able to ave him then, and he only hoped he could do the same again. He pictured the knife poised above Joseph's heart and steeled his resolve, continuing the compressions on Joseph's chest. "Don't leave me now."

"Come on, Joseph," Jonas said pleadingly. Zane could tell from the look on the boy's face that he wished Daisy had saved Joseph, not him. He had known the anguish it would cause Zane.

Joseph gasped.

Zane sobbed.

Daisy rushed to pull Joseph up into a sitting position.

Zane fell backward, the exhaustion catching him off guard. He let his arms fall to his sides, and closed his eyes. Joseph was alive.

Unconsciousness seized him.