Another heavy drone plunged toward the street. Molten metal trailed from its flanks where Clara had sheared off its guns. It crashed and gouged a trench in the pavement. Lock and Athena set to ripping it apart before it ground to a halt. 

Clara left the dying drone behind and flew above the battlefield, chest heaving from exertion. She’d pushed herself so hard she felt like she was bleeding fire. It wasn’t far from the truth—her suit was melting under the strain. Clara couldn’t stay too low or she’d set nearby buildings on fire. The wind whipped across the battlefield. If the temperature differential got any worse, it would probably cause a cyclone. 

In that relative moment of calm, something tugged at her. It might’ve been intuition or anxiety… Either way, the source didn’t matter. 

Clara searched her HUD for her dad’s signal, but it was gone. 

A few seconds ago, he’d been on Ava Savanus’s flagship… Clara blinked in disbelief. The flagship was gone. That couldn’t be right. It had to be a glitch, or maybe Dad had been cut off. Had Midas done something? Had Midas found a way to circumvent TINA and Bastion?

A pit had formed in her stomach; Clara couldn’t tell where it ended and her fiery well of power began. It felt like the two were one and the same, like Clara was collapsing in on herself. 

“TINA, where’s the flagship? Where’s Dad?”

TINA’s voice was measured. “Your father was onboard the flagship with Midas. His exosuit went critical, and the backup fusion reactor detonated. There’s nothing left. He didn’t survive.” 

A higher-resolution picture appeared in Clara’s HUD. It was an aerial view from one of Daedalus’s spy satellites. 

Daedalus came through a second later, voice riddled with static. “I’m sorry, kiddo. He’s gone. You need… focus… almost time…”

If Daedalus was still talking, Clara didn’t hear him. The comm melted out of her ear along with the rest of the metal and nanites. All that was left was the layer closest to her skin. The remnants of her molten armor were flung away by the billowing wind. 

Clara doubled over in the air. Power surged through her in waves, making her gasp until it felt like she was breathing fire. Her armor had been channeling her power, and without it she began to fall. She tumbled downward. Wind swirled, turning into a cyclone around her that tore shingles off roofs and blew out windows. Out of the corner of Clara’s vision, she could just make out the frantic movement of drones and supers. Hopefully, they were safe—

Because there was no way Clara could stop. 

She was too far gone for containment foam, and she was miles from the magnetic field generator in the lab or the cooling waters of the bay. But Clara had never pushed herself this far. Even a plunge in the bay might not stop her. 

Clara held out her hands to catch herself. The blast tilted her upright, then she pushed energy down through her body. If she were wearing an exosuit, the power would’ve come out of thrusters on her feet, her legs, and her back. But now her power felt nebulous. Instead of coming out of her body, it felt like she’d been engulfed by it. 

And so stopping herself from falling felt less like engaging thrusters and more like aiming a firestorm. 

Clara squinted and saw the ground still a healthy distance beneath her. The important thing was that she’d stopped falling. She was hovering in mid-air. And thankfully nothing below her had caught fire… yet. 

Hovering under her own power should’ve been something to celebrate. But as victories went, it was the smallest one possible—just above not killing anyone. 

Seen from the outside, Clara was holding on perilously, but that was nothing compared to the turmoil inside her. Power rolled through her, twisting inside her core like the coils of fusion inside a reactor. Except that she didn’t have powerful magnets to keep the energy contained. Energy suffused Clara until her bones felt like lava and her muscles like lightning. Raw power not meant for this world spilled out of her through every pore, and the firestorm around her was growing more hellish by the second. She was a bleeding star about to go nova. 

She needed to get away from the others. Away from her team. Away from her friends. 

Nearby movement caught Clara’s attention—a floating ball of metal. It hovered at the edge of the maelstrom. It was a Fast-Response drone, but Clara could barely make out the shape of it. Nanites swirled around it and tried to keep it from melting. 

TINA’s voice came out of the drone, barely audible over the roar of the wind. “Another drone fleet is coming.”

Clara’s heart sank. Her words came out in a retch. “Please, no… not now.” 

“We need you.”

Clara felt like she’d fall out of the sky right there. Drop like a ball, hit the ground, melt through, and keep going straight to the center of the Earth. She could barely stay in the air. How was she supposed to fly? How was she supposed to fight?

Clara squinted, but she could barely see her own hands in front of her face. Her world was nothing but fire. 

“I can’t, TINA… I can’t even see.”

“I’ll highlight them.”

Tentatively, Clara looked up toward the horizon and saw a dozen glowing dots appear. Her helmet and HUD were gone, so how… Clara glanced at the glowing ball of metal again. The realization hit her—TINA was using her nanites to make the drones glow. 

“The team needs you, Clara. We need you.” As TINA spoke, her voice rose over the wind. “You’re more than your power. You’re a phoenix.”

Slowly, Clara realized that TINA’s voice hadn’t been growing louder—

The wind was dying down. 

Before Clara could question it, she felt what was happening. Her runaway, overflowing, all-consuming power was slowing down—not a lot, but enough that she could breathe without feeling like she was about to lose control. 

Deep within her, years of training wrestled with burning emotion. Dad was gone. Emmett was half a world away. Her team was far below her, fighting for their lives and for the future of humanity. So much was at stake. But there were good emotions swirling inside her too—a daughter’s love for her father, love for her newfound family and for Emmett. Pride in how far they all had come. Hope for the future. 

Clara called upon her inner strength. She seized her pain and rage and loss. Tempered it with her inner fire. Quenched it in everything she held dear. And honed it until it was a sword that could cut down gods. 

Clara took a measured breath. She could do this. She’d come too far to give up now. 

She rose into the air. Slow at first, but slowly picking up speed. Higher and higher, until the battlefield was far below her. The horizon stretched out all around. Her power cast the world in the deepest red, like the sun were about to plunge into night. The drone fleet twinkled like stars. 

Clara flew. 

She hurtled through the sky. Instead of thrusting herself forward, it felt like she’d seized the horizon and pulled. The sky burned around her. 

The distant lights of the drone fleet grew large in Clara’s vision. Her own power grew hot and dense and near-blinding again. The horizon had been miles away; Clara crossed it in an instant. She raised her arms overhead just before impact—more out of reflex and less concerned with looking like a superhero. She flinched, expecting an impact. 

Instead, she blew through the heavy drone like a railgun through tissue paper. 

She peered back at the wreckage. The heat liquefied the metal, nearly hollowing out the building-sized drone, and the impact folded what was left of the drone inside out. The mangled drone hadn’t even started to fall yet—Clara was already veering toward the others. 

She plowed through heavy drones one after another and vaporized Fast-Response drones just by being in the vicinity. The entire exchange lasted less than a breath.

Afterward, Clara hung in the air while the drones fell. Tons of metal crashed into the ground, rumbling across the landscape like thunder. Power thrummed through her—visceral, tangible—like a heartbeat. 

Clara focused on her breathing. She needed to come down. 

The surrounding area was safe. The only thing around was an empty stretch of highway. Clara plummeted and took a seat in the middle of the highway. Asphalt bubbled beneath her, smoldering, and finally catching fire. The smell was noxious, but to Clara, it was no more worrisome than an ill-chosen air freshener. 

The important thing was that Clara was alone. She wouldn’t hurt anyone. …But there was also no one that could help her. Clara was alone and on her own. 

Clara breathed slowly and looked out over the expanding lake of molten asphalt.  She called on all her years of meditation and emptied her mind. Pain and loss grew distant, and as they receded, so did her power. The fire softened. The red glow faded from the world until it was just a steady haze. 

She’d been staring off into the distance, but then motion caught her eye. A swarm rose out of the ground nearby and flowed toward her. At first, she thought it was TINA coming to check on her. 

But Emmett’s outline emerged from the swarm.

He walked over to her until he was close enough to touch. The swarm rolled behind him, like a giant school of fish. Clara had cooled down enough that she wasn’t melting nanites anymore. 

Emmett smiled, and his face shimmered with nanites. The pair embraced each other. 

“You came back.”

“I needed to make sure you were okay,” he said. “And I wanted to see you on fire one last time.”

“I’m okay,” Clara replied. She meant it. She would mourn later, but for now, she was in control. 

Emmett ran a hand over her hair. “I knew you could do it. I knew you could come back down. You’re so strong, Clara.”

Clara knew he was still fighting a one-man war in the Atlantic. This body was just a projection. Still, it meant the world to her that he was there. 

Clara’s  eyes were watering, but it was still too hot for tears. Realization slowly set in. 

She looked up at him. The swarm loomed large around him. She couldn’t see anything beyond him, except for a swirling storm of nanites. 

“It’s almost over, isn’t it?” she asked. 

Emmett nodded. He pressed his palm against her face. His skin was cool to the touch. Nanites flowed over her, remaking her helmet. A countdown appeared in her display. 

~ ~ ~