The red energy at the tip of the High Architect’s golden staff grew so bright it hurt to look at. The air in the sterilized vault smelled like burning ozone. Silas Kapito did not step back. He stood between the glowing staff and the glass jar holding his ancient, fossilized bone. "Goodbye, little copy," the High Architect sneered. But Silas was not looking at the staff. He was looking past the High Architect. He was looking at Battery Three, the clone girl lying on the floor. Silas did not use his fist. He used his mind. Silas sent a massive, focused "Vibration Tap" through the clean floor, straight into Battery Three’s dark metal-laced bones. It was a command: “Wake up.” The girl’s solid black eyes snapped open. The silver sparks inside them flared. She did not stand up. She reached out with her bare, wet hand and grabbed the High Architect’s ankle. The High Architect frowned. He looked down. "Get off me, you broken toy." But Battery Three did not let go. She used the kinetic

The red warning sign on the thick glass jar said: [DANGER. DO NOT TOUCH.] Silas Kapito did not care about the sign. He ignored the danger. He raised his heavy, Iron-Grey hand. His marble-white skin glowed softly. He placed his flat palm directly against the thick glass of the containment unit. The moment his skin touched the glass, the world disappeared. It was not a gentle feeling. It was a massive, violent explosion of raw power. The 300-year gap between the old world and the new world vanished in a single micro-second. A huge electrical discharge shot from the ancient, blackened bone floating inside the jar. The bright blue lightning arched right through the thick glass. It hit Silas directly in the center of his chest. Silas’s current body, the body of the boy named Kian, could not handle the shock. The ancient bone was infinitely stronger than Kian’s body. The energy rushed into Silas’s system like a tsunami hitting a small village. Silas went into a violent, hyper-kinetic

The sparks flew like bright fireworks in the dark elevator shaft. Silas Kapito slid down the heavy steel cable, carrying his entire pack. His tungsten hand gripped the metal tight, slowing their fall. They dropped deep into the earth. The air grew warm and smelled like old sulfur and wet mud. Finally, they saw the bottom. The broken elevator car sat uselessly on the ground. Silas squeezed his hand, creating massive friction against the cable. The sparks flared blindingly bright, and they came to a gentle, perfectly controlled stop. Silas let go of the cable. The pack let go of him and stepped onto the solid stone floor of the deepest sub-level. "We made it," Ren gasped, breathing heavily. He helped Kael sit down against the cold stone wall. Anya ignited her energy-sword, casting a soft green glow in the dark tunnel. "We are in the Sump now. But where do we go?" Silas did not answer. He was looking at Battery Three, the clone girl with the dark metal lattice in her skin. She was

The deep underground cavern was filled with a blinding, bright silver light. Elara, the Mother Battery, floated just inches above the wet mud. She pointed her glowing hand directly at Silas Kapito’s chest. Her eyes were cold. She was ready to erase him. She thought he had broken his promise. She thought he had let the old world burn while she slept. Silas did not raise his heavy fists to fight back. He looked at the woman he had loved three hundred years ago. He felt a deep, terrible sadness in his human heart. "I failed you," Silas whispered quietly. He lowered his broken left arm. "I am sorry, Elara." He closed his solid black eyes, waiting for the blast of energy to end his cloned life. "No! He did not fail!" A voice echoed sharply through the cavern. It was Battery Three. The clone girl ran directly between Silas and the glowing Mother Battery. She did not care about the danger. Elara stopped. Her glowing silver eyes narrowed. She looked at the strange girl who had metal-la

The ceiling of the deep underground cavern groaned like a dying beast. Massive chunks of black rock fell into the mud. High above the Sump, the giant floating city of the Citadel was falling. The Chrome Council had overloaded the Core Reactor. The city was sinking, crushing everything beneath its terrible weight. Silas Kapito stood in the center of the shaking cavern. General Krov lay dead at his feet, completely frozen solid like a statue of green ice. Silas looked down at his own hands. The terrible truth burned inside his mind. The Chrome Council had stolen his life. They had trapped his original brain in a glowing green vat. They tortured his mind every single second to power their shiny flying cars and their beautiful luxury gardens. Every shield the Gilded students used, every smart calculation they made, was powered by his cloned marrow and his stolen pain. Silas realized that his entire life as a Dreg, his hunger, his beatings in the mud, was all a twisted joke. He was th