Chapter 1
{Day 97}
Nico's fingers were pale and cold as she gripped her staff again, staring through it to the empty pillow opposite her. She was on her side, knees tucked up to her chest, mind running through an increasingly short list of synonyms.
It had been 97 days since Karolina didn't make it back to the hostel. 95 days of Nico pretending to keep it together for the good of the group. 52 days since Alex came up with a plan and they managed to rescue Gert. A day after that Old Lace had somehow found them all again. 40 days since Gert and Old Lace left in the middle of the night and 33 days since they turned up with Chase. That was a day Nico would never forget.
{Day 64}
"She's coming back, Molly. They both are," Nico told her, gripping the younger girl's shoulder with what she hoped felt like confidence rather than desperation. "You know she would never leave you."
Alex pushed up his glasses and stared at the ceiling, most likely calculating some scheme to try and find them. A scheme Nico knew she would go along with, even it was completely crazy, because these people were the last family she had left. And she wasn't losing any of them.
Any more of them.
But she pushed Karolina from her mind as quickly as she could. Today was about keeping it together. Every day-- every minute-- was about keeping it together.
"The question is why would she leave in the first place?" Alex asked, talking more to himself than the others. They had the same conversation a hundred times over the past week. "It doesn't make any sense, even if she is going after Chase. She would have to know our chances together are--"
Nico's eyes snapped to Alex. That was new. "What are you talking about? What do you mean she's going after Chase?"
"It's just a theory," he answered, still looking up into the bit of sky they could see from the hostel, "I can’t think of any other reason for her to just go like that."
"Actually that makes sense," said Molly, her voice rising in excitement, "she wouldn't tell us because she knew it would be dangerous, and she wouldn't want to risk anything happening to us because of her plan."
"No," Nico answered, her voice dangerously low, "No, Alex, when I-- when I said I was going after Karolina alone you begged me to stay for the sake of everyone here. You told me we would come up with a plan to get them all back together."
Alex's eyes were now darting between Molly, who had stood up in anticipation of a Gert-finding mission, and Nico, whose effort to remain calm made her look like she was holding a particularly difficult spell for far too long. Maybe she was. "Look, guys, I don't know for sure that's where she went, okay? And Nico, it's not like she asked my opinion before she took off."
Nico had stood up too, almost without realizing it, her staff extended in her hand. "If we're all going to be fine with Gert leaving to get Chase, then there's no way in hell that I'm just sitting in this place for one more day without actually trying to--"
"Gert?"
Alex's expression made Nico's voice give out, and she spun around on the spot.
Old Lace was standing in the entrance of the hostel, a person dangling from her mouth. The purple hair hanging limply across Gert's face was the only giveaway that it was her. She was covered in dirt and-- Nico's stomach dropped-- what could only be blood. She took a step toward them only to be almost knocked over by Molly, who sprinted past her, eyes glowing yellow. And then Chase slid from the back of the dinosaur and landed awkwardly on the floor, clearly favoring his right leg.
Nico knew the first thing she should be feeling, first thing she should be asking, was whether or not they were okay. Old Lace had gently deposited Gert into Molly's arms, and Nico felt a surge of relief flood through her when Gert stirred. Chase had barely greeted them before he knelt down next to Molly, cradling Gert's head in his arms.
Alex had run past Nico, too, skidding to a stop around the huddle and firing off ten questions a second, the same questions Nico should be asking. Chase was answering as well as he could with his attention completely devoted to Gert.
They had been held in the lab in his parents' basement. He and his mom had been taken at the same time. The aliens from Jonah's ship had taken over Tina and Stacey's bodies. Gert found Chase in one of the healing tubes, and she and Old Lace caught Stacey off-guard when they barged in, managing to knock her out and damage the tube enough to get to Chase. They would have made a clean getaway if Jonah hadn't shot light at their car from half a mile away and sent them off the edge of a hill into a gulley. Gert had hit her head, but she was going to be fine. He looked up at them for the first time, brown eyes searching each of their faces.
"She has to be fine, right?" he asked, more sincerely than Nico had ever heard him.
Alex stopped asking questions and clapped Chase on the shoulder. "Yeah, man. She's going to be fine."
Nico was still processing information, although she had managed to walk to the rest of the group and kneel down at Gert’s side near Alex. Not everything Chase had told them was new. Nico, Molly, and Alex had found about Tina and Stacey at least a month before, though, when Xavin had volunteered to spy and get information. They found out Nico's dad survived the fight, and Frank was still being held by Gibborum. After learning that, Leslie decided to go back to the desert compound when she got close to her due date, deciding that being with her mother and medical care was better than being without her daughter or, on bad days, even soap. Xavin volunteered to take the Leslie, "the holy mother of the betrothed" to the compound. They hadn't come back yet.
Gert groaned softly and turned, opening her eyes. She found Chase first, and Nico had to bite back the heat rising in her throat when she saw the way Gert looked at him, drinking him in, making sure he was there-- really there. 64 days since she had opened her eyes to find a pair of ocean blue ones looking back at her. 64 days, and she had realized on day 5 that the next morning would be the longest she had gone without seeing Karolina ever. Even after Amy died, she had seen her around school or the neighborhood. From the first time she met Karolina, she hadn't gone more than a week without catching a glimpse of her, and now--
She shook her head, forcing herself to snap out of it. Now Chase and Gert were back. She should be celebrating that.
Gert looked at Molly next, smiling up at her little sister with an apology in her eyes. "I'm sorry I left you, Molls," she whispered, her eyes suddenly brimming with tears, "I couldn't risk something happening to you, and I knew you would never let me go alone."
Molly laughed through her tears, shaking her head. "I'm totally going to yell at you later, but for now I'm just glad you're back. Never do that to me again?"
Gert chuckled. "Promise."
Old Lace nudged Nico on the shoulder, and she glanced up, smiling at the dinosaur before catching Chase's eye. He was staring at her like he had bad news, and Nico knew he had never been very good at hiding his thoughts. She opened her mouth to ask him to spit it out when she heard Gert's voice, soft.
"Nico."
Nico closed her eyes. They had theorized, over hours and hours of hashing out the same scenarios, same facts, same inevitable conclusions, that Jonah had probably taken Karolina to the same place he was keeping Chase and Janet. They knew his human body had to be regenerated, and they knew that now Tina and Stacey's would be, too. They knew, although none of them had ever said it out loud, that Karolina's half-human, half-alien biology would more likely than not create the best energy source. Privately, Nico tortured herself with wondering whether that meant they would harvest her first or last. Whether they would try to use her more than once. Whether she was cold in that sunless, lifeless lab. Whether she could still remember the girl who loved her. Whether her heart was even still beating. Asking the questions had been agony. Nico opened her eyes. The answers could only be worse than the questions if Karolina was already dead. Or at least that's what she told herself as she forced herself to look down at Gert.
"Nico, I'm so sorry," Gert said, her voice breaking. "I promised myself I wouldn't leave without Karolina if she was there, and she was, but..."
Chase squeezed Gert's hand. "She was in the box, Nico. Jonah was in the other one, and that's why it took him so long to figure out what was going on and shoot us off the road."
"I didn't know how to open the box without Jonah realizing we were there, and he would have just taken all of us, so I-- I left her." Fresh tears started down Gert's face, and she turned her head into Chase's chest. "Oh my God, I left her."
"It's not your fault." Nico's voice sounded wooden, even to herself. "You're right, he would have just kept all of you."
"There's more," Chase said, "but we should get Gert to a doctor first. She's hurt."
"No, Chase," Gert spoke, "she needs to know now. I'm fine."
Chase glanced down at the gash across Gert's hairline, but he nodded, jaw clenched. When he spoke, his voice was tight. "Yesterday, when they put her in the box, it was only the second time that anyone had been in the other one."
Alex frowned. "So they had harvested... used her once before?"
"Yeah, and it was-- she was weak afterward, but alive. They woke me up to watch, just to show me what they were capable of, I guess. I don't really know why. But they had been putting her in the box a lot without anyone in the other side. They had it hooked up to this machine, like they were trying to transfer her energy to some sort of battery pack. At first I thought they were creating it as a contingency, in case they couldn't get anyone for a while, but then I figured out they were experimenting with the energy. Trying to use it to increase itself, I think. They would-- they were, like, giving it back to her somehow after they messed with it. It changed the color of her glow when they did it, at least temporarily." Chase looked down. "It was hurting her. I know it was hurting her."
Nico stood up abruptly, catching everyone off guard and then swaying on the spot when black danced in front of her eyes.
Alex grabbed her arm to steady her, but Nico shook him off. “We have to find her. Are you listening to me, Alex? I am leaving right now, and I am not coming back until I have her, okay? She’s hurt, and she’s alone, and—“
“Nico,” Alex interrupted, “They will have increased security, taken precautions since Gert was able to get Chase out. They may have even moved her, so we should at least wait until we’re all healthy enough to try and break her out before you just go running in there and get yourself killed.”
Nico could feel the panic rising in her chest, making her sick with adrenaline and fear. It was fight or flight with no one to battle and nowhere to go. Her staff was extended and glowing, but she ignored it. No matter how times she had begged it to find Karolina, no matter how many ways she asked, it had stayed unyielding.
“You don’t understand,” she felt herself yelling now, breaking down in front of everyone, but she didn’t care. “It doesn’t matter what happens to me. It never did! I have to see her. I have to see her, now. Please, please, let me see her. Karolina, I’m so sorry. I’m…”
The end of her sentence faded as the staff suddenly sprang to life. An image formed in the air, and suddenly, there she was.
“Karolina,” Nico whispered, not daring to move in case it made the picture fade. But now the image was moving, like a movie projected from the staff into the air. Everyone was silent.
Karolina was in the box.
Her skin was pale and sallow, and dark circles had sunk in deeply beneath her eyes. Her usual glow was gone, washed out under florescent lights, and her hair draped lankly across her shoulders. But she was breathing. And she was the most beautiful thing Nico had ever seen.
Nico reached out with her hand not holding the staff, but her fingers fell through empty air.
“That was disappointing,” Jonah said in Victor’s voice.
Chase paled, tightening his grip on Gert.
Two arms reached down and picked Karolina up roughly by the shoulders, lifting her to a sitting position before hoisting her out of the box. The image shifted, and Nico could see the whole lab now, with Karolina slung over Victor’s shoulder. She couldn’t take her eyes off of her, off her stillness, her limpness.
But not lack of life, she reminded herself. She’s alive. She’s alive.
Victor set Karolina back in the tube and adjusted the settings so Karolina’s body straightened out and faced directly ahead.
“I’m going to have to use her, Jonah,” said Stacey, walking into the frame with an ice pack pressed against the side of her head. “I know you wanted to save her energy for your experiments, but it won’t do us much good if these bodies we’re in fall apart.”
“Not fair,” Tina whined, following on Stacey’s heels. “You two have both already had a chance, so that means it’s my turn now. I have like four hang nails already.”
Nico’s gut clenched when she saw her mother. She was evil before, Nico knew that. And now she was evil again. Same difference, even if it didn’t feel like it. A rational voice in the back of Nico’s mind reminded her that no matter what happened it was still okay to love her mother, even to be worried about her, but Nico ignored it. Victor was talking again.
“Look, we have to be rational about this. She’s the only source we have left at the moment, and she potentially holds the key to renewable energy for us, energy that we can create on our own. Imagine the freedom we would have if we weren’t dependent on humans any more—“
“She is not the only source,” Tina interrupted, hands on her hips. “We have Janet just sitting around here sucking up air and, like, all the Cheetos by the way, so we need more. And we should just use her.”
Victor sighed. “I’ve explained, darling, that my host puts up quite the resistance when I seriously considered harvesting her before. I’m waiting for him to quiet down, and then we can. But it’s pointless to waste energy fighting him right now when we have a viable source right in front of us. We just have to conserve for a while. If we harvest her again within the next few days, well, we would likely be wasting an invaluable scientific goldmine.”
Nico fell to her knees, barely having noticed the energy the spell had been sapping from her.
“No!” she shouted, fighting to keep the picture up, “please.”
But Karolina faded away, and she was left staring into Molly, Chase, and Gert’s stricken faces.
“You guys, we have to go get her,” Molly said, breaking the stunned silence. “We can’t wait anymore, or she’ll—she looked really bad.”
“How long have you been able to do that?” Alex asked, staring at Nico.
Nico blinked, eyes still searching the place Karolina had been seconds before. “I—do what?”
“Um, that staff astral projection thing you just did,” Chase answered, motioning at the empty air. “Where did that come from?”
Alex frowned. “It’s not technically astral projection—“
“Guys,” Molly shouted, “did you hear what I said? We have to go get her now.”
{Day 97}
It had been 97 days since Karolina didn’t make it back to the hostel. 97 nights that Nico broke her daytime façade and faced the dreams that came with the dark. And 33 days since she figured out that she could still see Karolina, even if she couldn’t touch her. She could still remind herself that Karolina was alive, even if every day the likelihood of that fact being true the next diminished.
She had already used the words see, view, watch, stare (she felt semi-creepy saying it, but Gert’s thesaurus was too moldy to be all that helpful), observe, gaze, peer, gape, and over a dozen others. Nico had started keeping a notebook with her to write down new synonyms when she thought of them throughout the day, which had proved to be helpful for doing more than see Karolina every night. But there are only so many ways to ask to see someone, and she was running out. An obvious one had occurred to her that morning though, so obvious she couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it before.
Nico steeled herself, choking on her nightly fear that she would say the words and it wouldn’t work or, far worse, that it would work and show her something that she experienced in her nightmares every time she closed her eyes. Karolina dead.
“Let me look at Karolina,” she whispered, “please.”
The by now familiar projection hovered over her staff, filling the room with its dim light. Nico stared at the image as it formed, ignoring her hammering heart as Karolina appeared in front of her. She was there, eyes closed, body upright in the healing tube.
“Hi,” Nico murmured softly, scooting toward the projection in an effort that had longed proved to be in vain. “It’s been 97 days, now. Chase’s new Fistigons are almost finished, and Alex says found a way to hack into the Stein’s surveillance, so it shouldn’t be like last time. We won’t fail or leave without…”
Nico’s throat got tight, and she stopped talking, instead outlining the details of Karolina’s face with her eyes, memorizing it and then memorizing it again.
After a few minutes, Nico spoke again. “I was thinking about that time we were fighting, after Jonah, and you thought I’d called your name, remember? You said it had been a long week, and I was feeling—well, relieved that you were speaking to me at all, but also awkward and tired, so I just said “tell me about it,” which could have ruined the moment. But it didn’t because of you, Karolina. You told me that you’d like to tell me about it, and God, I was so grateful in that moment. It was the first time I thought maybe we’d be find a way to be okay. It sounds crazy, but I would give anything just to hear you tell me about your day again.”
Karolina’s face remained blank, as always. Her eyes never opened, and if hadn’t been for the gentle rise and fall of her chest, Nico might have believed they never would again. Nico, feeling the pull of the spell growing heavier, was about to close her eyes when suddenly two arms reached forward into the tube and hoisted Karolina up. The staff shifted the view, and for the first time since the night Nico had originally accidently activated the projection, she saw Victor, Tina, and Stacey again. This time, however, Stacey looked bad, her skin flaking and scaling like dried paint.
Nico sat up, hardly daring to breath.
“Yesterday’s experiment was enough of a success that I think we can risk using her to restore your energy, my love,” Victor told Stacey, lowering Karolina into the box. “She might survive it, but even if she doesn’t, I’d say we’ve gotten what we can from her. Besides, rumor has it that there might be another one born--”
The staff dropped from Nico’s hand, and the image flickered out, but Nico was already sprinting into the hallway. No more waiting. They were getting Karolina back that night, even if she had to die trying.