Terra tries to help her sister, but she can do nothing to ease the pain. She wishes that she had fought harder to give Eila immunity. The little girl screams and writhes from the psionic attack, all while Gabriel walks closer to them.
"Huh, this was supposed to stop both of you. Why are you unaffected?" he asks coldly.
Trembling, Terra places herself between the fanice king and her little sister. "Don't do this. She's just a child!"
"And you're in the most important room to the fanice, doing who knows what?" Gabriel declares.
"Okay, okay! That's true. Please, don't hurt her, though. She's innocent!"
Gabriel moves his hand, and Eila calms down. She sits up, breathing heavily. Tears stream down her face.
"You'd better tell me what's going on," the king demands. "Right. Now."
Terra feels like she can't breathe. What is she supposed to say? They're deep underground in a secret fanice facility they shouldn't know about. No excuse could justify that, no matter how well she sells the lie. She'll have to buy time until the professor gets here. "How did you find us down here?"
"Remember that necklace I gave you?" he asks. "It was laced with my magic. I used it to track you here."
"Wh-What?" So, it's her fault this is happening. She just had to catch feelings, didn't she? "So, was it all an act? You acted like you had feelings for me so you could… track me?"
"No," Gabriel says. "I asked you to be my date at the festival because Michaela and I had a feeling that if anything happened, it would be today. Someone killed my father, and we still hadn't caught the culprit. I wanted you to be close to me, because if you weren't involved, I could protect you, and if you were…" He trails off. "Well, here we are, I guess. I hope you know I didn't want it to be this way, but you've forced my hand. Now that you're separated from your mother, there's not much the two of you can do. Surrender, and I will vouch to make your sentence merciful."
Terra can't believe what he's saying. It seems he's still trying to help them in his own twisted way. They've come too far to back down now, though. They have to finish the mission. She reaches into her pocket, feeling for the pistol.
But Gabriel notices.
As if moved by an invisible force, the item nearest to Terra's hand flies out of her pocket and toward the king. No no no! Terra thinks. She's immune to his attacks, but the things she's carrying must not be. Without that weapon, she's defenseless.
However, when Gabriel holds up the item, she realizes it's not the gun he's seized.
It's the gyp.
That's even worse.
"What is this—" he begins to ask, but as he is studying it, he presses the pink button with the brain symbol. More particles fill the air, and Gabriel's expression changes from suspicious to enraged. "It can't be…" He presses another button, then another, until all of the magical illusions are cast at once: the pink particles, red pulsations, green sparkles, and orange lights.
"Gabriel…" Terra mumbles.
The fanice king's eyes turn redder, and he throws the gyp. It slams into the wall, shattering into a million pieces. "You're not even a fanice?!" he screams.
"I'm sorry. Please don't—"
"All this time… I gave you the benefit of the doubt, and it turns out Michaela was right all along. I don't get it, though. How could you have gone this long without being detected? Even now, as I use the system to scan you, it's telling me you're a half fanice!"
"Wait, what? I don't know how that could be. I—"
"STOP LYING!" he screams. "Your act isn't going to work anymore. I've been suspicious of you three since the beginning. That's why I made the three of you live underground instead of the surface. It's why I separated your family on the day of The Vanishing. I also ordered Michaela's guards to watch your 'mother' 23/7 because her behavior was the most questionable. Yet, as I observed you, Terra, you genuinely seemed to be struggling. You were lost and needed help. I thought, 'This skittish, ignorant girl could not hurt a fly. Maybe we're reading too much into it. Maybe the Faramunds are harmless. After all, they are half fanice and have many reasons to keep to themselves, to not tell us the full truth.' Wow, you sure had me fooled."
Terra and Eila back up as he walks closer. The particles in the air thicken, yet Eila does not seem to be in pain. He's hesitating to attack them, despite everything. She cannot fathom why.
"Terra…" he says, tears welling in his eyes. "Did you kill my father?"
"No!" she shouts. "That wasn't me! W-We didn't even know that was going to happen. I swear!" They tread farther back, and Terra realizes they're getting closer to the main computer. If they could just step backward a few more feet…
"Somehow, I doubt that's true," Gabriel says. "You two need to come with me. I don't know how you got through the system the first time, but I must correct that mistake. Do not worry. Your people are alive. They are not suffering. You won't, either."
As she takes a few more steps back, Terra remembers the portal the professor opened. All of the humans were there, asleep. They were curled up in fetal positions, floating in an endless void. The thought of her and Eila ending up like that shakes her very core. "That's a fate worse than death!" Terra shouts. "They were living their lives, minding their own business, before you came along. Now, they'll never grow up, never experience life, or even get to die properly. How can you think that is merciful?"
The king's eyes widen for a moment, and his lower jaw trembles. He snaps back to that cold gaze in seconds, though. "We are leagues more merciful than your kind ever could be. If humans find a problem, they destroy it. It's in your nature, but we fanice spent years finding a way to get rid of humans ethically, because we are better. They aren't dead, just asleep, and we have restored the planet. Humans were parasites in this world. They would have destroyed it and us. We couldn't just sit back and do nothing."
Finally, the girls are backed against the computer. Terra glances behind them and spots a place to plug in the drive, but it's several feet away, on the edge of the computer's interface. How is she supposed to reach that without the fanice king reacting?
She makes eye contact with Eila, and the girl's face is resolute. It's as if she's saying, Don't worry about me. Do what needs to be done. How can Terra save humanity without her, though? Eila is her whole world. If she dies, there will be no point in living anymore.
Still, Eila's conviction remains. She glares at Gabriel, a fiery hatred in her eyes, even though the rest of her body is trembling. She's always been so brave.
Terra is her big sister. It's time she started acting like one.
It's time she was brave, too.
She lunges for the plug, readying the drive. An invisible force tries to pull it out of her hand, but she holds it tight. This time, it doesn't budge. However, as she's about to plug it in, Gabriel grabs her arm.
Terra struggles in the king's grip, but it's tight as steel. So, instead, she pushes off the metal platform the computer is sitting on and tackles Gabriel into the wall. His eyes blaze red, but no matter what spell he tries, Terra is unaffected.
"You're immune," Gabriel concludes. "How? Only royals can grant that. I'm supposed to be the only royal left—" Then, his eyes widen in realization.
Terra doesn't say anything. The professor is a royal. That isn't new to her. She's not sure why she kept it secret, but it doesn't matter now. All that matters now is plugging in that drive and saving the world. Gabriel tries to push her off of him, but Terra keeps her legs spread apart, making that difficult. Enraged, punches her, but Terra blocks it easily. This man is terrible at fighting. He's probably relied on magic his entire life, unlike Terra, who's had to get she and her sister out of dangerous situations many times. She's not good at acting, but she's a decent fighter.
At least, decent enough to distract the king for just a few seconds longer.
Terra grabs Gabriel's shoulders and tackles him to the ground. She straddles her legs around the fanice king's hips, making it harder for him to get up. Then, she throws the flash drive backward, toward her little sister.
"Finish the job, Eila!"
The little girl picks the drive off the ground and moves to plug it in, but she's not quick enough. The psychic attack begins again, and Eila collapses again. The drive clatters onto the floor.
"No!" Terra screams. Her sister crumples next to the computer, but she's not screaming this time. Instead, the little girl stands rooted to her spot. She tries to reach for the drive she dropped, but only her arms move, not the rest of her body. Gabriel is stopping her from moving. Terra doesn't understand why he isn't killing her. The king knows who they are and what they're trying to do.
She grits her teeth. That doesn't matter. Gabriel is their enemy. He trapped all of humanity, and if she doesn't stop him here, they will never see the light of day again. Realizing she has no choice, Terra reaches into her pocket and pulls out the gun, pointing it at the king's head.
…
Seeing Gabriel's eyes widen in fear, Terra hesitates. "Please, don't make me kill you! This won't even harm your people. We're only trying to stop your magic."
"What?" he asks. "Stop… our magic? That doesn't—"
"Girls!" the professor interrupts. "Have you—" She was clearly about to ask if they'd plugged in the drive yet, but upon seeing the scene, her eyes turn crimson as well.
At the same time, the pistol goes flying out of Terra's hands. Oh no! she thinks. For a second, she was distracted by the professor's arrival. Now, her weapon is on the other side of the room.
Gabriel rolls over and pins Terra underneath him. With his frame larger than hers' he now has the upper hand.
But then an invisible force flings him off of her. He slams into the wall nearby.
"Damnit!" the professor shouts. "How did he get here too? This is my last countermeasure. You'd better make it count!"
Before the king can recover, Professor Faramund grabs another device and pushes the button. Again, the air itself glitches out, and Gabriel collapses. Eila is able to move again.
This is their last chance. Terra clambers off the ground and grabs the drive. Then, she stands over the computer and shoves it in.
Zzzzttt Zzzzttt Zzzzttt
The same glitching happens, but this time it's several times worse. All around them, the air lights up yellow, sparkles green, pulsates red, and fills with pink particles. Then, simultaneously, many of the effects fade to grey. What looks like specks of dust flickers and disappears bit by bit.
It's working! The magic is shutting down, and…
"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
A heart wrenching scream comes from Gabriel, and the roots on his body pulsate orange. Then, all of a sudden, his skin starts burning.
Agonizing screams from the surface echo into the caverns, including that of Michaela and her guards. It seems they survived the fight, but how can this be putting them in such pain? They're just shutting down their magic. The professor said this wouldn't hurt them.
Yet now, Professor Faramund looks haggard, as if she can barely stand. Then, she falls against the wall, struggling to breathe. This is hurting her, too.
Something must be wrong.
Terra unplugs the drive, and the screaming stops. Gabriel gasps, and he looks up at Terra. His eyes are no longer red. Neither are the professor's. Did it actually work?
"What are you doing?" the professor yells hoarsely. "Finish the job!"
Terrified, Terra moves to plug it back in.
"No!" Gabriel shouts.
She stops, hovering the drive over the computer.
"If you finish whatever that is, you'll kill us all! Is that what you really want?"
"Kill you?" Terra asks. "No, that's not what this is for. We're just taking away your magic."
"Is that what she told you?" he asks. "How can you be so naïve?"
"Don't listen to him, Terra!" the professor shouts. "I'll be fine. It's painful for us, but all half fanice will be fine. You just need to finish installing the virus!"
Terra's hand trembles. She wants to finish this. She wants to plug in this drive and bring the humans back to their home dimension, but what just happened? There was smoke coming from Gabriel's skin, and the fanice above ground were in so much pain that their screams echoed all the way down here. There's still something the professor isn't telling her.
"What are you doing?" Professor Faramund shouts again. "Finish this. Do it for humanity!"
"Not until you tell me exactly what this does!" Terra demands. "It looked like Gabriel's skin was about to melt off his bones. That's not what you said would happen." She looks at Eila, who seems just as confused and horrified as she is.
"Who cares about him?" the professor asks. "He's the reason the people of Nadura City disappeared. He's the enemy."
"Professor… that does not answer my question." She moves the drive further away from the computer, and the professor's eyes turn red again.
"Terra, finish installing the virus. Now."
"Don't do it!" Gabriel begs. "Please, my people just got to see the sunlight again. That's all we wanted. We didn't want to live as slaves anymore!"
"You should have thought of that before dooming the people of this planet to an eternity of stasis! They don't deserve that. Terra, you know the right thing to do."
"It's not as if I don't want to rescue everyone!" she yells. "I just want the truth. You hid the fact you were going to kill King Azrael from us. You hid the fact you were a royal, and now you're still lying. I love you, professor. I used to look up to you, but ever since the world changed, you've been different. You've been distant and secretive, and I feel like instead of family, Eila and I have been a means to an end. I need to know exactly what I'm getting into here, or how can I trust you?"
Finally, the mask comes down. Professor Faramund's expression turns from demanding to melancholy, almost as if mourning a loss. "I know why you're acting like this. It's because I made you spend so much time with them. Now, you sympathize with the fanice. You shouldn't, though. They're a petty, prejudiced group who only cares for themselves."
"That's not true!" Gabriel shouts. "We can change. What happened to half fanice in the past is regrettable, but—"
"You don't get to talk!" the professor screams. "You and your father have done enough damage. As if driving us out of the villages wasn't enough: you had to execute half fanice of royal blood as well. My mother told me they'd be safer with the fanice, and I believed her! Next thing I knew, she was dead!"
Gabriel stands slowly, breaths haggard. Still, he doesn't use magic. The virus must have done a number on him. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh, I'm sure it's of no consequence to you, but when I was young and foolish, I fell in love. I had a daughter. My mother and I tried to raise her on the surface where we had been banished, but her magic was too unstable. Not wanting to get caught, we hid her with a friend in the underground villages, but then your father decided to change his policies: as if banishment wasn't enough, now half fanice of royal blood were to be executed. My poor Dabria… she was only a child. That didn't seem to matter to your people, though."
Terra's heart sinks. Dabria, Gabriel's childhood friend, was Professor Faramund's daughter? That's an insane coincidence. The fanice king doesn't seem to know what to say.
"Not long after that, my mother was caught on the surface and taken from me. I lost everything. That was until I met you and Eila. I knew The Vanishing was coming, so I devised a way to protect you both. Then, I planned on having you help me bring the humans back. That's the truth, Terra. The fanice act kind and friendly, but only if you fit their mold: only if you possess wings and magic. Sure, this foolish king is trying to change things, but it won't amount to anything in the end. There are still many fanice who support the previous king and believe half fanice are inferior. As long as we exist in this world, half fanice will be second-class citizens, but if we get rid of magic entirely, none of that will matter anymore. We will all finally be equal."
In this moment, the professor's motivations become clear. She resents the fanice so deeply that she wants to take them down. Not just the ones who wronged her, but all of them. From the beginning Professor Faramund knew about The Vanishing, and she did not stop it. She wanted the fanice to come to the surface, so she could enact this revenge plan. To make sure that plan wasn't ruined, she purposely kept them in the dark.
Was everything a lie?
Gabriel's face erupts with fury. "Are you kidding me? Is that what you think Dabria's death was about? That the fanice are evil? That we can't change? No, clearly, you were looking for an excuse. Waiting for a reason to take revenge. Yeah, my father was bad. I get it, but you don't have to take it out on the entire fanice race!"
"Ohhhh, aren't you one to talk? Didn't you, only three months ago, take out all of humanity?"
"We didn't!" he shouts. "They're fine. Just in stasis. Much better than humans would have done."
"Shut up, both of you!" Terra demands. The two of them look at her. Gabriel's eyes turn red, meaning his magic is coming back. She grips the flash drive tightly, hovering it centimeters over the computer. Even if Gabriel tries to yank it out of her hands, Terra will plug it back in before he can succeed. As long as she stays like this, she has all the power. Eila still stands next to her, in complete and utter shock. She's not sure what the little girl is thinking, but she must be overwhelmed. Terra is, too. This was supposed to be a simple mission: go to the server room, shut down the fanice's magic, and rescue the humans. Now, it's a total mess. It seems that no matter what answer she picks, they're screwed. If she chooses the fanice, she and Eila will be in grave danger. If she chooses the humans, she will have the blood of an entire species of people on her hands. There can be no peace.
"So… you were using us, huh, Professor Faramund?" Terra asks, her eyes blurring with tears. "You wanted The Vanishing to happen. You kept us in the dark so we wouldn't question things. That way, we would be obedient little henchmen when it came time to take out the fanice."
"What? No, that's not it," she explains. "I want a fair world: one just for humans. It will be a fresh start, too. With most of our technology broken and our main source of energy gone, the government will be forced to pass more environmentally friendly policies."
"What do you mean… 'our main source of energy will be gone?' Didn't Nadura City rely on fossil fuels?" Terra asks.
"Not entirely," the professor says. She looks at the screen of the main computer. That animated image of Planet Viatrix with roots going to the core is still on there. Now, everything in this room makes sense. The surveillance of acts of magic, the depiction of energy draining from the planet. The server room runs and keeps track of all the fanice's magic. It stands to reason that this system fuels those acts as well.
She glances at Gabriel. As he stares at the screen, he looks like he's about to cry. That confirms it. "Our energy came from the fanice, didn't it?" Terra asks.
"Yes," the king says. "We got it from Viatrix's core, and the humans stole it. They used it to power their houses and their chemical processing plants, pumping toxins that were destroying the planet." He looks at Terra, resentment in his eyes. "That's how it always was, until we took the world back."
So that's what the professor meant when she said the humans need the fanice.
Not everything was a lie, but she clearly picked and chose what information she shared.
All so that Terra and Eila would do as they're told.
Professor Faramund stares at her. "Terra, some humans were bad, sure, but they don't deserve to be floating off in some other dimension: never aging, never waking. When we bring them back, things will change for the better. We'll dismantle the system together. We'll build a better world, one where everyone is equal. To do that, though, the fanice need to go."
Terra grimaces. She knows what the fanice did was wrong, but this is wrong too. If only she'd known about this sooner. Maybe she could have made a more informed decision. Instead, the professor took that choice away. "Why didn't you tell me that from the beginning?" she yells. "If you really wanted to do that for us, why all the secrets, the vague explanations, and the lies?"
The professor goes silent. She can't read her expression.
Meanwhile, Gabriel looks at her with… pity? No, that can't be right. He knows their secret now. He walks toward Terra. She tenses, bringing the drive in closer. "Relax, I'm not going to try anything. I now realize that not everything between us was fake. I know you hate me and have good reasons to, but we don't have to be enemies. If saving humanity is what you want, we can find another way. I know you don't want to do this, and you don't have to."
"H-How can I trust you?" Terra asks. "You're the reason my people are gone."
"You have my word, Terra," he says. "If you put down that device, I will not harm any of you, and we'll figure out a way to resolve this peacefully. I always keep a promise. You should know that by now."
Terra freezes. She isn't sure about anything anymore. For all she knows, this could be an act. After all, Gabriel has apparently been suspicious of them from the beginning, and he has plenty of motivation to lie, especially now. She literally holds their lives in her hands.
The professor, on the other hand…
The woman who raised them clenches her fists, and the sympathy drains from her gaze. "Seriously? Don't tell me you believe that obvious lie? When I took you in from the streets, you had a fire in you. Your passionate temper and willingness to do what's right made me think you could do anything, but you have one fatal flaw. You let your emotions rule you, dictate your choices. I didn't tell you the full truth because you wouldn't have been able to handle it. I mean, look at you now. Even when the entirety of humanity is on the line, you hesitate, and for what? A race of people you've just met? Don't waste your sympathy on the fanice. They don't deserve it, and they'll turn on you the first chance they get. Make the right choice, Terra. Save humanity, and let the fanice burn."
At that declaration, Terra's heart skips a beat. The fanice have truly hurt Professor Faramund, but on the other hand, is it right to kill all of them because of the sins of a few? Both sides have done wrong. Both have lied. She doesn't trust either of them.
As silence falls over the caverns, it dawns on Terra the position she's in. She has a choice to make. Save humanity and kill the fanice, or spare the fanice and risk never getting the chance to save her people again.
Horrifyingly, she has no idea what to choose.