Kren shook his head and struggled onto his feet.
“Kren, don’t,” I said.
But he ignored me and forced himself up.
“That’s why my species had to wipe out the neb,” the Supervisor said. “You were too powerful. Eventually, you would challenge us and declare war. It’s better your kind dies out now than billions of shrale lives. Your ability is the key against any hostile species we come against. We can drain them of their strength and turn it against them. Give me Ivy and no one else needs to be harmed.”
“He’s right,” Kren said, shaking his head. “We can’t beat him. None of us can.”
“What are you saying?” I said. “I can’t lose you. If I don’t have you, I don’t have anything.”
He pressed a hand to my belly.
“But you do. Take care of the baby. Bring it up to know love and warmth. Never let it have the life I had. I didn’t have a life until I met you.”
He wrapped his arms around me and held me close.
No, I thought. This can’t be right. This wasn’t how our story ended. Not after everything we’d been through.
Once again, I felt that soft thump in the pit of my belly.
I took Kren’s hand and placed it there so he could feel it.
“Can you feel it?” I said with tears in my eyes. “That throb?”
Kren’s smile broke, he was so happy.
“Yes. I can feel it.”
“Do you want to feel this again?” I said.
He looked at me.
“Then destroy this asshole,” I said. “Once and for all.”
“I can’t,” Kren said. “He’s too strong.”
“Too strong for one neb maybe,” I said. “But two? He doesn’t stand a chance.”
Kren shook his head and then felt that pulse in my belly again. A new resolve took over and he turned to face the Supervisor in his full suit of armor.
“You seriously want to do this the hard way?” the Supervisor said. “Okay…”
I felt the pulse in the pit of my belly, the sense that the baby wanted to do something else, something more. I didn’t pretend to understand what it was but I would run with it.
Twice now my unborn baby had saved my life. Twice it had used that throbbing beam of light to save its mother.
And now, it would save not only me but its father too.
“Kren,” I said. “Wait. Here.”
I took his hand and placed it on my belly.
Kren
I was confused why she wanted to waste time with me touching her belly when I had to fight the Supervisor.
Except I wasn’t sure I could. His armor… It was all the most powerful elements of the fighters stitched together.
Earlier, I managed to beat four of them. Could I beat this many in one go?
The moment my fingertips touched her stomach, I felt it. It wasn’t a kick or a heartbeat. It was a thud much like the soft glow in my chest, only much smaller and weaker.
And there was something else too.
The throb was attached to something. It felt like a tiny hand reaching up to touch me.
I didn’t hesitate. I reached out with my own power and touched that glowing light.
We were joined.
Its power was small but through me, it harnessed a strength far greater than the both of us.
I groaned in pain as the power flooded my system. I’d never felt anything like it. The river was a wild rush and blasted me from the inside and roared in my ears.
“Kren?” Ivy said. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I said in a voice that seemed far too calm. “I’m fine.”
“Enough of this!” the Supervisor said. “Your time is at an end!”
He bolted forward at an incredible speed.
I reached out with my hand and kept the other on Ivy’s belly, I sensed every ability the Supervisor had hammer into his armor. I didn’t know how he did it and I didn’t care.
I felt the intense rise of the glow and it filled my heart and chest and I sucked those abilities into myself, and all at once, they were mine.
I barely twitched my finger. A blast of ice as thick as my shoulders struck the Supervisor full in the chest.
His eyes bulged as he slammed against the floor. I channeled that ice onto the liquid fire section of his armor and blasted it until the surface cracked and splintered. It shattered into a million pieces, leaving the original regular armor underneath.
The Supervisor bellowed: “No! That’s impossible!”
How could it be when I’d just done it?
Another twitch of my fingers and I absorbed the fire element he’d installed in the armor. I burned away the jagged edges of the ice plate until it too was smooth.
The Supervisor threw his arms at me and blasted me with air, but I was ready for it, absorbed it, and blasted it back at him, stripping that power from him too.
I stripped every element from his armor until there was nothing left but scorched metal. As a final act, I shot the security door leading to the shuttlecraft with a blast of electricity before turning it on the Supervisor’s armor.
The Supervisor’s eyes fluttered shut, barely conscious. His skin was burned and frozen to frostbite, zapped with electricity, and scorched with air.
I removed my hand gently from Ivy’s belly and immediately lost all strength in my legs. I collapsed to the floor.
“Kren?” Ivy screamed, kneeling beside me. “Kren? What happened? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “I just… need to relax for a little while.”
“You can’t relax here! The guards will come up any second!”
She tried to lift me, to drag me, but it was no good. I was far too heavy for her.
I struggled to my feet and leaned on her for support as we stumbled toward the exit.
“Wait,” a weak voice said.
It was
