Cybernova, page 29
I look at long last into the eyes of my enemy.
The eyes of Nicholas and Julia Wolf.
The eyes of my parents.
No. No no no no no. This is impossible. This is—
“Mom!? Dad!? What…what is this? I don’t…understand. Please, this doesn’t make any sense! What…”
I break down into tears, heaving for breath between violent bursts of sobbing. I feel my body go completely limp. There’s nothing left to keep me fighting.
The Shinigami force me up. One of them grabs my head, making me look at my parents. I try to fight it, but they’re too strong, and I’ve lost all will to fight.
“Please. Why? I don’t…”
“Oh, Oliver. Poor, foolish Oliver.” The voices taunt again. Then they laugh a horrible cacophonous chorus of demented laughter echoing through the room and directly inside my head.
It’s utterly terrifying and even more confusing. The voices are those of my parents, but they speak as one. And the voices in my head are completely different, a chorus of hundreds of voices, all acting under one mind, one thought.
Despite how horrible it is, I force myself to look closer. The longer I stare at my parents’ faces, the surer I am that I’m not looking at my parents at all. Their eyes are glazed over, and they aren’t actually looking at me. In fact, they don’t seem to be looking at anything at all. The look in their eyes reminds me of the stim-junkies I’d see as I pass through the black market. It’s the look of someone whose mind is not their own, someone who has lost their senses to an all-encompassing stimulus.
A mangled, twisted web of wires stem from each of their heads, connecting them to the metal spider thrones before stringing off to every bundle of cables in every corner of the room.
“It’s not them, is it?” I ask, defeatedly.
“Well, well. Smarter than he looks.” The voices answer.
“Then who, or what, the fuck, are you? I demand to know!”
“Who do you think I am, you fool? You really haven’t a clue? My, my. Clearly, this one is the runt of the litter, mentally speaking. Come on, boy, think! Do you seriously think I would allow my company to be run by anyone else other than myself? Did you really think I would let death stop me from achieving my goals? From getting everything I’ve ever wanted and more? No. No, boy. I have always been here. And I always will be.” The voices answer, breaking into another terrifying chorus of laughter that echoes through every corner of my mind.
It takes me a second longer than it probably should to put two and two together, but my mind is flooded with thoughts and emotions, and my body is threatening to fail me at any moment.
Wait just a goddamn second.
“John Nova? Seriously!? John fucking Nova?”
“Bingo, kid.”
“But…you died years ago. And why…what do you need my parents for?”
This makes no sense. My parents…why? What? How?
It’s so hard to look at my parents, to see them like this… I thought I lost them forever, and yet I’ve found them. Here they are, right in front of me, after all these years, only for them to be empty husks used as human computers, puppets of this evil son of a bitch. Their mouths move, but it’s not them behind the words. They laugh, but there’s no joy on their faces. They stare ahead, seeing nothing, comprehending only the information that is deemed valuable, only thinking what they’re forced to…
I start to cry again, unable to control my tears. They flow freely down my face. My vision blurs through the tears, and snot pours from my nose. Heaving sobs rock my limp body.
“I asked you why, damn it! Answer me!”
“You ask me why, boy? Do you want to know the truth? Well, I’m happy to tell you. They volunteered, plain and simple. Didn’t you know that? Didn’t you ever wonder why they left all those years ago? What new, miraculous jobs they had received? The ones that could finally afford to feed your precious little family? Oh dear, what a foolish boy you are. What a poor little rage-fueled idiot, never seeing more than two feet in front of your own face, striking out irrationally at whatever happens to stand in front of you. They did it all for you, you fool. You and your meddlesome brother, Miles. But I suppose I do have you to thank. Your parents do make such good auxiliary processors.” Nova responds, his voices dripping with malice, mocking me with every echoing word.
If I had any fight left in me, that would make my blood boil with rage.
“You…you killed my brother and used my parents as fucking computer hardware? You fucking bastard! And for what? Why bring me here? Why do any of this? I don’t…understand.”
“Ah yes, so many questions. So many blabbering, incoherent questions. I despise such mundanity. But fine, I suppose I can indulge this meaninglessness for a moment. Ask me a coherent question, and I will answer.”
I want to spit in his proverbial face, to tell him to fuck off, but I have to know. If this is how I die, then at least I’ll die knowing the truth after all this time. I steel myself with what little resolve I have left and ask a question.
“Why us? Why my family, of all people? And why keep me alive? Don’t think I didn’t notice your murderous lapdogs were holding back.”
“Oh, so he is aware. Intriguing.” Nova chuckles. “I’ll answer the latter question first, as it is simple. The reason you are alive is because I wanted you to have hope. To think that maybe, just maybe, you could actually succeed in your foolish quest to destroy me. And then, when you had made it oh so close to that tantalizing goal, only then would you learn the truth. And oh, how sweet it was to watch the hope drain from your eyes as your delusions of grandeur came crashing down around you.” He laughs again, a hearty laugh of countless voices that makes my head feel like it’s splitting in two while my heart sinks and my gut burns with rage.
“As for why I chose your family, you, and your brother, and your dear old parents, well, surely you don’t really want to know that. But I promised you that I would indulge your meaningless questions, so I will be a gracious host and answer. The reason your parents are my processors, and your brother is one of the countless voices you are hearing in your head at this very moment, and the reason you were able to get within even ten miles of this building is that it was convenient. That’s it, that’s the answer. Your parents volunteered for our little ‘brain enhancement’ project, and their minds just so happened to fit the bill better than the other candidates. Then, your brother was dead set on hacking into our system, so we simply absorbed him into it. And you, precious little Oliver, well, you were oh so determined to march in here and get your answers, so why should I stop you?”
I feel sick. My stomach lurches, and I nearly throw up, but I force it down. Tears well in my eyes, but I try to blink them away.
No. This can’t be. It can’t…
“Fuck. You.” I grit my teeth, trying to mask the hopelessness that’s building inside of me.
“Haha, oh, look at you, so full of hate, even in the end. Hold on to that. It will make you into such an excellent Shinigami.”
I’m left completely speechless. Everything I ever believed was a lie. Everything I worked for was for nothing.
Mom…dad…Miles. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.
The last shreds of rebelliousness leave me as I start to cry. My body collapses once more, and I’m powerless to stop it.
It’s all for nothing. It’s…there’s no point. I lost.
“This has gone on quite long enough, I think. I grow tired of dealing with you. Get them out of my sight.” Nova commands.
With that, the spider thrones back away, retreating into the darkness once more, my parents disappearing into the shadows of CYBR Corp. The last thing I see is the endless, tangled mass of wires dragging along behind them as the spotlights turn off and cast the room into dim, red darkness once more.
“I’m so sorry…I let everyone down…”
Shinigami drag me away. I’m powerless to stop them.
“Mom…dad…Miles. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
One of the Shinigami shocks me. “Shut up.”
“I…I’m so…Astra…Zeke…Dex…I…I’m so sorry…"
A final electric shock courses through me, my body completely failing me, the shocks delivering me into the awaiting embrace of nothingness.
Hunter Whitlow, Cybernova
