Kira faltered, her consciousness suddenly in the pool below. Eyes flashed in her mind.
If she concentrated, she could make out the dim form of a coiled lu-ong crouched in the depths. Scales missing along its length. Open wounds that bled into the water around it.
Scars covered its snout and face.
Free me, child of a different era, it hissed with a touch of madness and a level of rage that was capable of toppling empires. You will not be able to destroy him by yourself.
"I don't know how."
The blessing does.
Suddenly, she was back in her body. The Osiri before her. Her flames still licking his body. Already weaker.
Off to the side, Raider was helping Elena out of the water. Thea was on the ground, her eyes lifeless. Pallas stood over her, his gaze on Kira and the Osiri.
Finn was fast fading from his wound on her other side.
In all that chaos, Lathan pacing out of the gloom along the edges of the room caught her attention. The only thing she could see in that moment. Lathan stopped on the edge of the walkway. Directly above the pool where the lu-ong was imprisoned. The lenacht was cradled in his arms as his eyes seemed to ask her a question.
"Do it," Kira ordered.
She didn’t know what was going to happen, but she didn’t really care. Nothing could be worse than what would transpire if they didn’t take this chance.
Lathan smiled and opened his arms, letting the lenacht fall. It dove into the water with a splash.
Kira’s ears popped as pure ki swept into the room, the pressure squeezing her body. A torrent of sound followed it. The roar of a beast finally finding its freedom.
"No," the Osiri breathed in horror.
A power originating from the lu-ong and lenacht rushed through Kira, twining together in a way that was stronger than they would have been separately. Her flames flickered and then caught, growing ever brighter as the unfiltered ki the two below were generating flowed into her soul. A deluge that threatened to destroy her in its flood.
Belatedly, she realized she was a conduit. A conduit for their will.
The water erupted just as her mind began to buckle. A massive lu-ong burst upwards. He crashed through the ceiling and beyond. All the way to the open sky. His body continuing upwards until even his tail vanished out of the opening.
Wreckage rained down on them. Raider cursed as he threw his body over Elena’s.
Still, the ki the lenacht and lu-ong had flooded her soul with continued to burn. A fire devouring her body and soul.
Kira redirected it, channeling it through the sword and into the Osiri despite the whisper in the back of her mind urging her to keep some of that power for herself. With it she would never risk having to lose anyone again. She could protect them. All she had to do was hold a little back for herself. Not much even. A tiny bit.
But loss was a part of life. She’d finally realized that.
If she held onto this power the lenacht and lu-ong had bestowed on her, she’d eventually become like this being in front of her. Corrupt and greedy.
What would be the point then? If it destroyed the beauty and good in her.
No. This gift had one purpose. To kill the undying and rid the universe of its taint.
She poured the last of her will down the sword. The Osiri’s answering scream was like that of a dying animal as he writhed under her blade.
Kira collapsed to her knees a second later. That was it. She had no more to give.
"He's gone," Pallas said with some shock.
Kira stared unseeing at the walkway beneath her hands. Oh God. Jin.
Somehow, she stumbled to her feet, ignoring Pallas's call as she staggered over to the place where Jin had fallen.
She hadn’t noticed before. The damage to her bond with him too extensive. Not to mention the intentional block he'd put up.
Still, how could she have missed something so important?
"What are you—?" Pallas broke off at the sight of Jin’s broken body.
His sphere lay in two pieces. The processing system damaged.
Kira’s hands hovered over him. Afraid to touch for fear that anything she did would accelerate what she could already feel happening.
"It's okay, Jin. We're going to be okay."
She was going to fix this.
"Oh, brother—this was not the fate we wished for you," Pallas whispered sorrowfully.
Raider pushed Elena toward the platform. "Help Finn."
Elena didn't move, staring at Kira and Jin. "Uncle."
"Do what I say," Raider ordered, waiting for her to follow his instructions before heading toward Kira and Jin. He knelt beside them. "Kira."
A little time. That’s all she needed. Just a moment to figure out what to do.
"Kira, he's gone."
She yanked away from Raider’s hand. "He's not gone! I can still feel him."
That's right. She could still feel him.
His soul. The thing that made Jin. It was still there. Fading quickly—but there.
Jin was never the drone. Hadn’t he proven that over the past few weeks? The sphere with all its circuitry and parts was nothing more than a vessel. One Jin could change at will.
"His spawn. Do you have it?" Kira asked desperately.
There was her answer. A vessel.
Raider's face showed confusion.
"The bird, Raider. I need the bird."
She just needed a medium to anchor Jin to. Preferably something that already carried his imprint.
Raider shook his head. "It’s not with me. I dropped it when I was fishing Elena out of the pool."
"No," Kira whispered, collapsing in on herself.
She couldn't lose Jin. Not like this.
Her gaze focused slowly on the cryopods. Specifically, the last one. The one that carried the boy that looked exactly like Jin.
Of course. Why didn't she think of that before?
"What?" Raider asked.
Kira shoved her friend out of the way, scrambling toward the pod. She fumbled for the controls, getting it open a second later. Water gushed out, spilling through the grates to the pool below.
Kira set a hand on the boy, her senses delving into him.
There was only one problem with the idea of placing Jin’s soul inside the boy’s body. And that was if the boy already possessed a soul of his own.
It was the biggest reason Kira had never gone this route before. Clones held their own sense of self. They weren't empty containers you could simply fill with whatever you wished. At least not without driving out what was already there.
That was a sin neither Kira nor Jin had wanted to shoulder. It stunk of their old masters. A level they never wanted to descend to.
"No soul," she breathed a second later.
Finally, something that went her way.
"Kira, wait. Are you sure?" Raider's face reflected uncertainty as he looked from her to the boy. "This clone is Tsavitee made. We don't know what it really is or its purpose for being here."
Raider had a point, but Kira found she didn’t care.
"I'm not letting him die here."
Not in this awful place.
Jin needed a vessel. There it was.
"Do what you've got to do. I'll guard your back," Raider told her.