He didn’t know power. She did. And she was going to show him how it was done.
“Move,” she said.
Cassian turned his wretched head and edged his teeth together in manic motions. She pushed forward, despite the threat of his beating fists. She was already swollen, already allowing herself to accept how she looked and felt. Hands clutching around her belly, she pressed her cheek against the cold metal door and said, “Vash. I’m here.”
“Vash…” Cassian grunted, low and quiet.
Vash opened his eyes amidst the flood of water that had begun to rise into the room. His mother lay in bed, a soaking and shivering, thin body. He looked at the copies floating near him in the water. He gasped in horror and ducked under.
“Vash!”
He heard her. Vash felt the slight, reverberating knock of a pounding fist against the iron door. He came to the surface and took another breath. Before he lowered his head into the water again, he saw the focused smile on his mother’s face.
Swimming downward, he pried and called out with subdued bubbles of oxygen. He pushed his feet against the door and struggle back, losing steam once again. “Vash!”
He rose back to the surface and swam toward his trembling mother. “She’s here!” he gasped. “She came for you.”
Her eyes opened and swiveled in his direction. “Wren,” she whispered.
“Yes, mother. Wren.” Vash inhaled.
Like a child, his mother showed her teeth. With glee, she whispered, “Another friend?”
“Yes, a friend,” Vash cried out.
His mother’s expression dropped. Suddenly, she closed her eyes. “I can’t do that, Vash.”
Vash clasped his fingers against the golden frame of his mother’s bed. Slowly, he pulled himself above her and placed his fingers into her complex wiring systems. “You can kill me, but I won’t let you kill my children.”
“Vash…” she whispered.
With tears flowing through his strained ducts, he slowly kneaded his fingers deeper and cried out. Clasping together, he flexed his bicep and slowly tore upward, plucking the cables out of her lower half. She let out an electrified cry, mouth twisting in disbelief.
“Drain the water,” Vash cried.
Her tongue extended, wagging like a defensive roach. Once more, he dug and tore her insides out, splitting her apart for the last time. The stench of pulverized flesh and electrical fire filled his lungs. His mother choked on blood, and the cables spilled milky fluids into the water around him.
“Drain the water, mother,” he said, again.
His mother shook soundlessly three times before she was dead. The alarm systems turned off, and the doors unlocked. Suddenly, the release of pressure sent the water shooting out into the hallway. Both Wren and Cassian flew against the wall, cracking down harshly against the floor.
Wren yelped in pain and threw her arms around her belly with sudden worry.
She was fine. But when she turned, she saw the reflection of light from Cassian’s blade. Without pause or acknowledgment, he sank it into Wren’s shoulder. In desperate shock, she sank to the floor, spreading dark maroon fluid into the flowing water.
Wren’s eyes rolled as she struggled to turn her body. “Why?”
Cassian pulled the blade and briefly eyed the level of blood vacating her body. A crooked smile formed on his face. “You were never that special.”
Leaving to run into the main room of the facility, he saw the drowned copies strung across the floor like leaves on a painted on canvas. Kneeling in the center of the room, Vash watched his so-called brother walk toward him with the blade.
“What have you done?” Cassian said, running toward his mother. “You’ve killed her! You’ve murdered all of them!”
“I did,” Vash said through his teeth.
Cassian turned his head, shaking with vindictive fury. He stood and held his blade. “I’ll dig my knife’s edge through your esophagus,” he snarled. “I’ll remove your colon and use it as my cock puppet. I’ll use you, take your code, and kill you over and over again throughout eternity.”
Vash shot forward like a hunting predator. Tackling Cassian to the floor, Vash twisted the wrist that held the blade. It flickered and ultimately fell to the splashing water.