Chapter 6: In Six Days

JUNO'S POV

I woke up to the sound of people talking loudly.

I tried to make sense of what I was hearing then it dawned to me that they were arguing about whether to let me live.

Not ideal bedside manner.

"She knew Maya's name before we told her, Kai. She knew Siren would mimic Maya before any of us heard it. She knew where the cache was. That's not a power, that's intel. How did she get intel?"

That was Vera. Her deep voice right above me. She was trying to whisper but Vera whispering is still loud.

"She saved your life," Kai whispered back, harder. "Ren saw it. If she hadn't yelled, Siren would have ripped your throat out."

"And then she grabs Maya and starts bleeding and screaming about six days! What did she see? Is my daughter going to die in six days? You want me to be calm about that?"

"She's a kid herself, Vera. Look at her."

I kept my eyes closed. I was on a cot again. Softer this time. A blanket that smelled like old laundry detergent. My head still pounded, but the nosebleed had stopped. Someone had put a cold rag on my forehead.

I decided to keep pretending to be asleep for ten more seconds to hear more.

Alice's voice, quieter, "Her power is future sight. But what she saw when she touched Maya wasn't ten seconds. It was longer. Her nosebleed... it was bad, Kai. Worse than before."

"She said six days," Ren said. Just two words, but he rarely spoke, so everyone shut up.

I felt a small hand on my arm. Tiny fingers.

Maya.

I opened my eyes.

Maya was sitting on the floor next to my cot, holding my hand with both of hers, staring at me with huge brown eyes.

"You're awake!" she whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Four heads snapped to look at me.

Vera was there, arms crossed, hammer behind her back. Alice next to her, pistol holstered but hand near it. Kai leaning against the wall, his giant guns on the table, his gray eyes tired. Ren in the corner, almost invisible in shadow.

I sat up slowly. My head spun.

"Hi," I croaked. My throat was dry.

Alice handed me water. "Drink."

I drank.

"How do you feel?" Kai asked.

"Like someone used my brain as a basketball," I said. My voice was hoarse.

Maya didn't let go of my hand. "You were bleeding a lot. Like a lot a lot. Mama said you have a bad power."

"I have a... yeah. Apparently a bad power that hurts."

"Does it hurt now?" Maya asked.

"A little."

She leaned forward and blew on my forehead like you blow on a scraped knee. "Mama blows on it and it feels better."

My eyes stung. This little girl. In the book, she dies in Chapter 12 and Vera never recovers. She becomes reckless and dies later in Chapter 80.

I looked at Vera.

Vera looked at me like she wanted to shake answers out of me, but Maya was holding my hand, so she couldn't.

"Juno," Alice said carefully. "What did you see when you touched Maya?"

The room went silent. Even the kids playing outside seemed quieter.

I took a deep breath. I had to tell them something true enough to make them act, without telling them I read it in a book.

"I saw... the courtyard. On fire. Siren was here. She had Maya. Vera, you were running but you were too far."

Vera's hands turned into fists. Her skin flickered silver — Titan activating.

"When?" she demanded.

"Six days from now. I don't know the time. But I know it was daytime. The sun was out. And Siren... she mimicked Maya to get inside the gate."

Kai pushed off the wall. "That's how she hunts. She learns a voice she can use, then lures. She must have learned Maya's voice today when she followed us."

"But how did she learn Maya's voice?" Vera said. "Maya hasn't left the base in months. She only hums when she sleeps. Inside."

"She heard her today," I said quickly. "When we were outside the wall. Sound travels."

It was a lie, but a logical lie.

Ren spoke. "Siren marks. She marked Juno."

Everyone looked at Ren, then at me.

"What do you mean marked?" Alice asked.

Ren tapped his own throat, then pointed at me. "She spoke in Juno's voice. She never heard Juno's voice before today. But she used it. Means she marked her. Linked."

Marked. The system said the same thing. I had been marked by Hex #1.

"So Siren can find her?" Kai asked, eyes narrowing.

Ren nodded.

Great. So I was a walking tracker for a sound-mimicking mutant who wanted to bring me to the villain who wants to dissect me.

My day just kept getting better.

Vera crouched down in front of me, so big that Maya looked tiny next to her. She put her hands on my shoulders, gentle despite her size.

"Juno. Look at me."

I looked.

"Did Maya die in what you saw?" she asked, voice shaking.

I couldn't lie to her. Not about this.

I nodded, tears starting. "Yes. But it's not fixed. It's a future. We can change it. That's why I have this power, right? To change it?"

Vera closed her eyes. One tear slipped out. She never cries in the book. Not once until Maya dies.

Then she stood up, picked up Maya in one arm and her hammer in the other.

"Maya, go play with Jonah. Mama needs to talk grown-up stuff."

Maya pouted but obeyed, letting go of my hand reluctantly. "Feel better, Juno."

When she was gone, Vera turned to the team.

"We kill the Siren," she said. No question. Statement.

Alice nodded instantly. "We were going to have to anyway. She's too close. If she brings a horde to us with that voice..."

"We have six days," Kai said. He was looking at me now, not Vera. "Juno saw six days. So we hunt her before that. We don't wait for her to come to us."

"How?" Alice asked. "Siren is Hex. She runs when outnumbered. She only attacks lone targets."

"She won't run from Juno," Ren said quietly.

All eyes on me again.

My stomach dropped. "What?"

"She marked you," Ren said. "She wants you. For Dr.Crowe. She will come for you if you're alone."

"Absolutely not," Kai said immediately, sharp. "We are not using her as bait."

"We have to," Vera said, but her voice was pained. "If Juno is the bait, Siren comes to us on our terms. We pick the ground. We set the trap."

"I said no," Kai repeated, louder. He looked at me. "We are not putting a civilian who just Awakened yesterday in front of a Hex."

"I'm not a civilian," I heard myself say. My voice was small but I said it. "I have a... I have a power. And I... I know things."

"Like what?" Alice challenged, but not unkindly. "Juno, you keep saying you know things. How do you know these things and what exactly do you know?"

This was it. The moment where I either tell the truth and sound insane, or keep lying and they never fully trust me.

I looked at the map on the wall. Roosevelt High, Sector 7, the old radio tower where in the book Siren nests.

"I know where she lives," I blurted. "Her nest. It's the old radio tower two blocks from Lee's Pharmacy. The big one with the red light on top. She stays there because the height lets her voice travel."

Silence.

"How could you possibly know that?" Alice asked slowly.

"Because... because when she marked me, I saw a flash of where she was. Radio tower. Lots of wires. Nests made of clothes."

Another lie built on a truth. I knew from Chapter 9. They didn't.

Ren walked to the map and pointed at the radio tower. He tapped it.

"Possible," he said. "High ground. Sound mutant. Logical."

Kai stared at the tower on the map, then at me. He didn't look convinced, but he didn't call me a liar either.

"Okay," he said finally. "We scout the tower tomorrow. All five of us. No one alone. If Juno is right, we plan the trap there. If she's wrong..."

He didn't finish, but I knew. If I'm wrong, I'm useless.

Vera put her hammer down with a thud. "I need air."

She walked out. Alice followed her.

Ren disappeared too, probably to the roof. Ghost Step.

That left me and Kai alone in the teacher's lounge.

He sat back down on the table in front of me, closer than before. His knees brushed mine.

"You saw Maya die," he said quietly. "That's why you screamed."

I nodded, looking at my hands. The burn marks from the lightning were still there, faint.

"It wasn't just ten seconds. It was longer. Two minutes, maybe. I saw fire. I saw Vera come in too late."

"Can you control it? Make it longer when you want?"

"I don't know. It just happened when Maya touched me. Maybe because it was important."

He reached out, slowly, asking permission with his eyes before touching my hand.

His fingers were warm. Calloused.

The second he touched me, I didn't see ten seconds.

I saw one second, but it was clear.

I saw him, in this same room, leaning forward and brushing hair out of my face.

I gasped and pulled my hand back like burned.

"What did you see?" he asked, frowning.

"Nothing! Ten seconds! You... you told me to rest again!"

Bad lie. My face was red.

He stared at me for a long second, then stood up.

"Rest," he said, exactly like my lie. "We move at dawn. And Juno..."

He paused at the door.

"Thank you. For warning us about Maya."

Then he was gone.

I fell back onto the cot, my heart hammering so loud I was sure Ren could hear it from the roof.

The system flickered, soft blue, happy.

[SPOILER LVL 1 EXP: 90/100]

[WARNING: STRONG EMOTIONAL TETHER FORMING - KAI STORM]

[TIMELINE DIVERGENCE: 12% - HOLDING]

[NEW OBJECTIVE: KILL HEX #1 BEFORE DAY 6]

Six days to kill a monster that can mimic any voice it hears.

Six days to save a little girl who wasn't supposed to live past Chapter 12.

Six days to prove that an Error can change a story.

I pulled the blanket over my head, even though it smelled like old socks, and whispered to myself,

"Okay, Juno Cooper. You wanted to have a say on how the story goes. Now you're IN the story. Don't die stupid."

Outside, from the direction of the radio tower two blocks away, very faintly, I heard a humming.

My humming.

Mimicking me.

Siren was awake. And she knew I was here.