Cipher Code {complete}

Chapter Sixty Four: God's Eye.

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Corey Roya had never liked fighting. He had seen what it did to his father and it had destroyed his mother.

But maybe he had been wrong. Maybe the only road to peace was overwhelming power. Maybe just this once he could let go and burn down everything that stood in his way.

"Operation Cipher commencing." Kathryn sparked to life on Corey's wrist, paying no heed to his distress. Her next announcement was drowned out by a peal of thunder but the minister knew what was next.

If he did this then everything would be okay. He took in a deep breath and forced himself to believe that, waiting for the power to flood his veins, to turn him into something even his father would be wary of.

Dawn, I'll find you.

Corey turned to the remains of the gate, his eyes sifting through the sight as though he could pinpoint Dawn's location from the rubble.

"Commencing loading process." Kathryn's detached voice was alien to him now, not that he used her often enough to know but Dawn had programmed her to be emotional. "5%."

Corey started making his way to the beast that he had to fight, the creature Dawn must have been fighting before she. . .

Corey took in a deep breath, filling his lungs with the cold air.

He could ignore the rain, the way his clothes dragged him down, even the possibility of his own death, but he couldn't suppress the chill that seized his heart the moment he saw the gate fall.

She wants me to use it.

Dawn had warned him that he couldn't ever let the thought cross his mind. There was only a small possibility of him getting hurt beyond the repair of 26th century medicine but she had relented.

He remembered how much he had to beg for the second activation code, and now she was the one who started it.

Corey didn't know when he started crying but he could taste the salt as it ran down his cheeks, mingling with the rain before getting washed away. "Dawn," he let out a choked cry, cursing the way things had turned out, how fast it had all happened, "you can't die. . . not now."

"Loading process, 15%." Kathryn reminded him as he stared at his chip. He should have been preparing himself, getting ready to focus on his goal and locating his targets. But he couldn't. Even though he only had a limited amount of time to wield the Cipher Code, he couldn't think of anything but Dawn.

She would have wanted to see it, her project in all it's glory. He remembered her saying that it would be her two favorite things in one, 'him' and the ability to 'whoop Gideon's ass any day'.

Despite the current circumstances, Corey found himself laughing at the memory. She had been so pure back then, long before he became minister and she had to kill to protect him. He had made her do what she hated the most.

He was no different from their father.

It should be me. Corey thought for a moment as he brushed his finger against the scar on his wrist. I should be the one to die.

He asked me to save the capital. But Dawn can't die.

"Kathryn, where is Dawn?" Desperation tinted his voice as he lifted his writ to eye level, narrowing his gaze at the faint glow under his skin. "Tell me where she is."

"Pinpointing pair activation code. Scanning immediate vicinity."

Corey waited, the rain suddenly falling in pace with the beats of his hammering heart. This is taking too long.