Rae traces the path of the giant wires leading to the accelerator. She turns back around and follows it. “Then we need to find what’s powering this thing,” she says.
And then Rae remembers what the fragile devil told her. There’s an energy source. It’s how they powered the synthesis tanks.
“Come with me,” she says.
Following the cables to the other side of the city, she reaches a shaft. She drops to a lower level. The entire room is filled with clones in cryostasis units. Thousands of them, as far as the eye can see.
She doesn’t dare look inside the actual units, lest she see identical versions of herself again.
“My God,” she whispers.
Rae freezes and looks up with caution at the young omega. “Don’t come inside here,” she says.
The girl drops, and they’re both as still as a windless sea. “They were harvesting the omegas,” she says.
Rae grabs her shoulder and forces her to turn away. “We don’t need to talk about it.”
“Everyone knows about it,” she says.
“We need to turn them off,” Rae says.
“You’ll kill them,” the young omega says.
Rae drops back. Her chest rises as the lights from the cryo units shine.
Finding her courage, she walks up to a central control unit and gazes at the levels of those inside. The vitals illuminate. “Their brain activity is limited. There’s no telling if they’ll wake up normal. They must be the energy that powers this place.”
“Maybe, but you don’t know that,” the young omega says.
The omega is right. Turning off the units would be unconscionable. Rae can’t justify killing them.
She turns. “There’s another exit,” she says. “Something we’ve missed…”
“There isn’t,” the omega says. “I’ve checked for days. This is the only way.”
Rae climbs the steps back up to the city level. “Come. There’s an exploit somewhere,” she says. “Something will get us out of here without exploding.”
The omega follows. “Who was Cassian?” she asks.
“A monster,” Rae answers.
“There’s lots of those,” she says.
“Yeah,” Rae says, as she climbs back onto the pavement. She eyes the ladder up to the upper layer, knowing that she will have to return. “But not for long.”
Vash
“She’s not opening her eyes. Ruby? Ruby!” Vash screams and takes over co-pilot.
He puts his weight into pulling the throttle back. The pressure is too much to fight against. The plane rocks as they hit a set of dark clouds. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing,” he mutters.
Ruby wakes up, face drained of color.
“Care to jump in, miss soldier?” Vash asks.
Ruby coughs and grabs onto the wheel. “I’m fine,” she says. “Taking the vehicle into hyper-drive.”
“You’re exhausted,” he says. “We shouldn’t be going here. It’ll only bring us more hardship.”