But still, they were family.
Monrova had made Gabriel his killer.
And Eve, she…
“I thought we killed you once already, Preacher!” she called.
“I’m like a bad cold, darlin’,” the cyborg smiled. “Just can’t get rid of me.”
“What are you doing, Ezekiel?” Gabriel roared. “This animal killed Hope. Now Uriel, too? How many more of us do you want to murder?”
“You don’t get to talk about murder, Gabriel!” Ezekiel cracked off a handful of shots at his brother’s cover. “You murdered Nicholas, Alexis, Alex. You murdered Silas. You murdered thousands of people when you overloaded the Babel reactor. And you’ll murder millions more if you get your way!”
“We’re your family!”
“You betrayed the one who made us! You left me for dead! And you’re trying to engineer the destruction of the entire human race!” Ezekiel shook his head, his voice incredulous. “Us being related doesn’t get you a pass for genocide! Just because you’re family doesn’t mean you’re not assholes!”
“Ezekiel, listen to me!” Eve called.
“No, you listen to me!” he yelled. “I’m sorry I lied to you, Eve! I’m sorry everyone else lied to you! I’m sorry your life didn’t turn out to be what you wanted, but that’s what life is! People lie. People screw up. People fail. But I know you! The girl you were built to be, and the girl you became afterward. And this girl I see in front of me now isn’t anything like either of them!”
“That’s the p—”
“—the point, I know! But is this who you really want to be? What do you think Cricket would say if he could see you now? Or Silas? Or Lemon? If you’re going to wipe out humanity, does that mean you’re going to kill her, too?”
“Humanity is a plague, Ezekiel!” Gabriel called. “A thorn in the side of the earth. Look at this world! Look what they did to it!”
“And you think you’re going to do better?” Ezekiel demanded. “When your reign begins with the murder of millions?”
“All right, enough of this crap,” Preacher muttered. “Jojo, execute.”
The blitzhund growled deep in its chest, its eyes flipping to a murderous red. Claws scrabbling on the steel, it dashed around the generators and charged right at Gabriel. The lifelike rose up from cover, plugged two shots into the blitzhund’s optics. Sparks burst as the bullets struck Jojo’s steel combat chassis, the hound stumbling and exploding a few meters short of its mark. The blast was still enough to knock Gabriel back, pepper him with shrapnel, shred his flawless skin. Preacher followed up with two grenades, lobbed in a lazy arc right toward the lifelike’s head.
Ezekiel’s heart was in his throat. Gabriel was a monster, but despite everything he’d just said, how far Gabe had fallen, they were still brothers. He remembered the days before the revolt, the pair of them in Babel, both falling in love for the first time. Zeke knew what it was to love with an intensity that was almost frightening. Could he blame Gabe for loving Grace as much as he loved Ana?
Do I really want to see him die?
Eve emerged from cover, face twisted as she ran. She dove through the air, arms outstretched. And moving like lightning, she caught Preacher’s two grenades and flung them back, tumbling behind cover as the explosives burst.
Preacher was thrown backward by the blast, coat and flesh shredded. Ezekiel was firing with his shotgun, muzzle flashes strobing, blasts catching Gabriel in his chest and dropping the lifelike to the floor. Eve rolled to her feet, boots thudding on the deck as she rounded his cover, eyes narrowed and locked with his. Ezekiel fired, but god, she was so fast—just as fast as he was. A shot struck her shoulder, she weaved through the rest, diving toward him and spear-tackling him into the wall.
His shotgun flew from his grip as his breath left his lungs. Her knuckles crashed into his jaw. Her knee with his groin. Doubling him up as she brought both fists down on the back of his head.
Bright light. Concussive pain.
“Eve, stop,” he gasped, trying to rise.
She drove a boot into his side hard enough to crack his ribs. Ezekiel felt his insides tear, coughing blood onto the metal, and she kicked him again. Again.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Crunch.
“Eve…”
Crack.
She drew back her foot to stomp on his head, her face an ashen mask. “I warned you this wouldn’t turn out the way you wanted it to.”
The shots burst out through her chest, one, two, three. Her eyes went wide as the blood sprayed, she staggered and turned, scarlet lips drawn back in a snarl. Another three shots struck her belly, chest, neck, sending her stumbling backward into the wall. Eve hit the steel hard, her face twisted in pain. Zeke could see the fury boiling in her eyes as she tried to push herself back up, tried to rise, to fight as she’d always done. But the damage was too much. The hurt just too deep. And slowly, eyelids fluttering closed, red spattering on her lips as she sighed, Eve slithered down to the floor, leaving a trail of red smeared on the metal behind her.
Ezekiel pulled himself to his hands and knees, wincing at the white pain of his broken ribs, the black agony in his crotch. He reached out for Eve’s throat, pressed shaking fingers to bloody skin. His belly surged as he felt a faint pulse, as he saw her wounds beginning to knit closed.
Preacher dragged himself to his feet, spitting a bloody, dark mouthful onto the floor. “She alive?”
Ezekiel looked at the bounty hunter. His face and chest had been shredded by the grenade blast, the metal combat chassis beneath gleaming in the frosty light. Despite his injuries, the cyborg reached into his coat, fished about in his pocket and stuffed a fresh wad of synth tobacco into his cheek.
“Sh-she’s alive,” he managed.
“Mmf.”
Preacher pulled his hat back on, the fabric smoking and torn by shrapnel. Reloading his weapons, he limped to where Gabriel lay in a puddle of blood. Gabe was already trying to rise, bright green eyes locked on the bounty hunter.
“I’m going to—”
Preacher raised his pistol, put two shots into Gabe’s kneecaps. The blasts rang out almost deafening in the hollow space. Zeke’s brother screamed, rolling around on the ground and clutching the wounds.
“Stay down, Snowflake,” he growled.
“You m-maggot,” Gabriel hissed. “You insect! You and all—”
Preacher fired again, blowing off Gabriel’s lower jaw in a spray of blood. The lifelike collapsed back with a strangled gurgle, eyes rolling up in his head.