It didn’t take long for the reptile to find the core, the heart of the Ra Engine. Yet when he laid eyes on the machine, his face twisted into a frown. The Ra Engine itself was the smallest thing in the entire facility. Proving to Jackson that the whole building was just a facade to hide what was really there, and he was unimpressed.

  The device was the size of a small car. It had a platform, which suspended a crystal sphere with a silver lining five feet above the ground. Dangling off the sides were a series of cables, making the engine look like it had a few strands of hair. The engine hummed and whistled an ugly tune while a weave of energy snaked around to bind and unbind itself like slithering worms. With every pop, a spark of electricity struck the crystal shell, which in turn was transferred into the grid through the cables.

  It was an engine fueled by souls, the harvester of magic. Jackson didn’t understand the internal mechanisms of the engine and how someone could figure out a way to harness magic, but he knew what was happening inside the crystal cage. He figured the crystals had magical runes that would conjure a miscast spell to replicate a Magaric Plurality. Essentially, a Magaric Plurality is a state where a spell fails to properly materialise into the physical world and, besides dissipating back into a neutral state, the energy used for a spell would collapse into itself. Creating a chain reaction that would have the immediate area erupt in magical energies, or simply, the failed spell blows up in the caster’s face. The plurality refers to the increasing instability of the collapsing spell.

  The existence of the Ra Engine would also imply that the world was aware of the existence of magic to some degree. Jackson couldn’t recall if the papers or advertising for the Ra Engine included the fact that it uses souls to potentially fuel the entire state. But even if the wider world doesn’t know the existence of magic, there would be communities that had witnessed its effects for figuring out how to harness a plurality.

  But to see a plurality being used in a stable environment to produce energy, and at a glance. The engine must be magically intensive. If the crystals could handle dozens of magical explosions while being fueled by billions of souls. Its destruction would be catastrophic. Jackson looked at the Ra Engine, contemplating whether he should do it. If it was worth potentially killing millions and exposing the world to the hidden world of magic for his revenge. He didn’t fully understand the extent of the runes or if breaking the crystal shell would level the island and have the same yield as the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. In either case, he believed it would carry with it disastrous consequences if it were to be destroyed.

  After a few seconds, he had made his decision. Jackson planted a piece of C4 on the Ra Engine and primed it to detonate in 20 minutes. Enough time for him to head into the main building and deal with Brian. Even if destroying the engine would level a large portion of the city, it would wound Brian’s pride and legacy. Showing the world that his creations would do nothing but bring about the death of anyone who used them. That would be his final revenge, his final act to the world that never wanted him. A bitter final note, if there was to be one.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  He could tell Mark, but it was best to leave that detail out. The assassin was just an ally, nothing more. Jackson would do what they both agreed to do to prevent any kind of complication. In the end, it didn’t matter whether Mark or Jackson would survive, but in the case that they did, that was also acceptable. To Jackson, his end would come either way. It would be better if he survived, as that would allow him to go back to his hometown, the place where it all started. Appleseed.

  ‘Don’t!’ Jackson turned to find a scientist standing in the hallway. A young woman with short red hair and dark skin. ‘You don’t know what you are doing!’

  ‘Walk,’ the reptile coldly ordered. ‘Leave now.’

  The scientist shook her head. ‘Look, if you destroy it now, you’ll kill everyone in the city. Hundreds of thousands will die! You can’t do this!’ Jackson remained firm, unmoved by her pleas. ‘Please,’ she whimpered. ‘I have a kid; he just started school. Don’t let this happen. I don’t know why you are here or why you are doing this. But I can help you, just don’t destroy the engine.’

  ‘Leave,’ Jackson demanded one more time. ‘Final warning.’

  ‘If you just want to destroy it, let me turn it off! Then you can…’

  Bang!

  With a single pull of the trigger, and with no remorse, he ended her life with a shot to the head. Turning her brains into pulp that splattered freely all over the wall. An innocent life, someone who only wanted to stop something horrible from happening, died. An unforgivable murder.

  He had a motive to kill the woman. To him, if she had left her alone, she would have done anything in her power to either defuse the bomb or relocate it somewhere else and save the Ra Engine at the cost of her own life. Her protest was proof of that being an eventuality, which was something he couldn’t allow. Jackson was also glad to have killed her without Mark being able to know what happened. The murder would only complicate things further if he wasn’t discreet.

  Once he was done and ready, the reptile locked the room down to prevent anyone from getting into the room and tinkering with the explosive. But before he left, he stepped over the headless corpse of the scientist to read her bloodstained name tag on her chest. “Willow”. That was her name, something to remember. He wondered what her son’s name was, or if it mattered for him to know.

  At that moment, he realised that he had done the same thing Brian had done to him and his family. Murdering someone who had no involvement in the situation or conflict. Yet, besides soaking in the hypocrisy and moral failing of his selfish revenge, he walked over her body and continued onward. Being right or wrong was never something the reptile took time considering. Not when his entire world was about slaughter. He knew there was nothing right about murder or killing, no matter the circumstances. But in the end, someone had to do it, and he chose himself.