Page 41 of Love, Nemesis (Ocean to Ashes #2)

SHE FELT WARMTH and then mild, aching pain.

She heard muffled voices.

The darkness came again.

Her mouth felt painfully dry.

She opened her eyes to the blurred designs of a ceiling, head shifting as she closed her eyes again.

Her entire body felt heavy and sore.

A quiet groan escaped her lips.

“Ana,” said a familiar voice. The voice of the doctor, Mech, from the State. “Ana.”

She opened her eyes as someone lifted a cup to her lips. She drank, her eyes settling on Mech, who huddled over her in a gray coat.

She was in a bed at the State. A Numbers hospital.

It took her a moment to clear the fog from her head. She started to sit up.

“Easy, easy,” Mech coaxed, hand on her back.

The memories returned through a haze. She could already tell they’d given her something strong for her pain. She looked from Mech to the other side of the bed and saw a familiar face watching her from near the hospital window.

“Diane,” she said hoarsely.

“Surprise,” Diane said, a fit, short-haired woman with the tattoo of a clock on her arm. “It was a surprise for me too, coming back from the border to see my retired teammate out on a mission.” She forced a smile as she said the words.

“Jasper,” Ana croaked, her black hair hanging in frazzled waves over her shoulder. If she looked anything like she felt, she was surprised Diane even recognized her.

“We know,” Diane said. “He saved you, used his own time to stop you from bleeding out.”

Ana leaned back against the headboard, peeling the sheets away from her body. She was bruised and bandaged, her original metal arm had been removed. Her eyes zeroed in on the new metal attachment that had taken its place. It was bulkier with triggers up the wrist.

She inspected the new arm. Mech continued to explain, but Ana only heard some of her words as she collected her thoughts.

“Hailey ordered that attachment for you. It’s an old prototype from the days when we experimented with putting Atlases inside prosthetics. It’s temporary but should do until we have your new one.”

“Where is Jasper?” Ana asked, ignoring the description of her new arm.

Neither of them said anything.

Ana looked between them. “What?”

“Ana,” Diane said, “Jasper defected.”

“What?”

“He only stayed long enough for someone to get you. He went off and joined the Mystics, likely resuming a position as one of the princes. He said he’d try and convince them to wait a bit longer so we can evacuate our civilians, but Hailey and the Var aren’t letting that happen.”

“I need to speak to Jasper,” Ana whispered.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Diane said.

“No.” Ana started to get up. “I have to go back out. I have to speak with him.”

“Ana,” Mech cautioned, placing a hand on her leg. “I”—she hesitated—“I had to submit a formal request to permanently remove you from the field. Hailey approved it yesterday morning. We can’t let you go…not that you’d get too far in your condition.”

“What are you talking about? Hailey sent me out in the first place!” Ana exclaimed.

Mech sat back in her chair, folding her fingers in her lap. She exhaled deeply, a representation of the pain etched into her face. She glanced over at Ana’s Atlas.

Ana followed her eyes. They’d transferred her time into a new one, but she could tell by Mech’s silence when she picked it up that there had been a great cost in her last battle.

She checked the remaining time.

Neither of them spoke. She had less than a week left.

“Jasper said you were doing everything you could to fight back. It was damaged in the struggle,” Mech said after a long while.

Ana’s memory felt muted by the painkillers, but she remembered the last few minutes of her struggle.

“This doesn’t have to be a defeat. You’ve done a hero’s job. It’s because of you that we have some small chance of preparing for what’s coming,” Mech said.

“I’ll never see him again,” Ana whispered.

“His time prevented you from dying there on the field. Please think of that as his parting gift, Ana.” After a moment, she added, “I would suggest you start to make your arrangements. Now, I have other patients to check in on, but I’ll be back in an hour, all right?”

Ana nodded, and Mech left them in silence. Ana kept looking down at the Atlas in her hand.

“He blamed himself,” Diane said. “Apparently, the Mystics needed more convincing to take you with them, and he couldn’t risk you acting out again like you did.

He was afraid they might try and kill you.

That’s what he told the Statesmen who picked you up.

I wish I would have been there to tell him how wrong he is to take full responsibility for it all. I thought he knew you better.”

“Why did he have to lie to me?” Ana said without thinking, an expression of some perplexed part of her soul.

“Ana,” Diane snapped impatiently.

Ana glanced up at her to see a fierce truth in Diane’s dark brown eyes. Ana wondered what she’d done to invite such a response. In their early work together with Jasper and Rule, Diane had always been fierce and competitive. She wasn’t a woman to mince words.

“Say it then,” Ana said.

Diane searched the hospital room once as if confirming that it was empty. She stood up and walked over to the door before closing it. She walked back to the end of Ana’s bed, standing there with her arms crossed.

“You hardly gave him a choice,” Diane said. “To any normal person, I wouldn’t have to explain this. You shouldn’t have fought back.”

“What do you mean? I should have just surrendered?” Ana argued, shifting in the stiff white gown they’d put her in. Her wound bit back in protest.

“You should have defected,” Diane replied firmly. “Jasper made a smart move. You acted irrationally, and this is where it landed you. Are you proud of that?”

“Am I proud of that?” Ana forced herself to sit up, wincing as her side and body ached from the movement. “Why am I wrong?”

“Because it’s not human!” Diane said. “Jasper has been there for you as long as you can remember. What has the State done for you? But you throw your life away for the State and leave Jasper alone out there with the Mystics!”

Ana didn’t say anything for a long moment.

“I never asked him—”

“You didn’t have to!” Diane said. “And that’s the point. He gave and gave and gave. Anyone in their right mind can see that he’d do anything for you.”

Ana raised her voice. “Diane. I couldn’t just give up everything—give up who I am.”

“So, the State is everything?” she shot back, looking out the window now before a long silence seemed to ease her temper. “As loyal as dogs and we’ll die like dogs.”

Ana stilled, realizing now the source of Diane’s anger.

Neither of them said anything for a moment.

“I’d heard the fighting on the border had gotten bad in Whendon,” Ana said.

Diane didn’t move, that firm, hard stare still focused through the window.

“Nothing either of us hasn’t seen before,” she said sharply.

“I always hated your brand of idealism, Ana. Always hated it. Hated you when I heard about what happened. It feels like some kind of joke seeing you lying in that bed again. You’re a dog soldier, but what am I if I still follow orders and can’t stand another second of it? ”

Neither of them spoke.

Diane walked up to the window, close enough to almost press her nose to the glass.

“You want to go down with this shipwreck?” Diane asked as she fished something out of her pocket, another letter.

Ana recognized it as one of the letters Ares had intercepted between Ivan Rowe and the State. Jasper must have mailed it directly to Diane with the other letters he’d sent. Ana thought it odd, though perhaps she understood Jasper’s reasoning in contacting Diane beyond any State officials.

“You’ll be dead in a couple of days,” Diane said.

“I know,” Ana replied.

“It’s going to take more than just me to build up a case against Hailey, even with evidence like this,” Diane said, waving the letter.

“I know, but if we hand Hailey over to the Mystics, it might just end all of this.”

“Avoid a final showdown? If all the Mystics want is Hailey, then maybe so, but what if the rumor about the State owning The Great Light is true? What if that’s what they want?” Diane reasoned back, crossing her arms as she turned away from the window.

“Hailey will know where the object is that The Great Light is attached to. We put him in prison. We get him to speak,” Ana urged, hopefully. She sat up more with every point she made, hoping Diane would accept it.

“Not to mention, according to Jasper, you’re betting on a single ROSE to kill the Strike. You always make this stuff sound so simple,” Diane said, inspecting the letter in her hands.

“You’re an Hour, Diane. You’ve done harder things and you have the connections,” Ana replied firmly.

Diane tucked the letter back into her pocket, crossing her arms again. After a few moments, she sighed after a few minutes. She rubbed the back of her neck as she scanned the room as if to ensure herself that it was still just the two of them there again.

“I’m so tired of playing this game,” Diane mumbled, oddly out of character.

She walked back to the edge of the bed, sitting down on the end.

“I’m tired of feeling things out and trying to get an idea of how you’ll react and what you feel like.

You’ll be gone soon, and you’re my friend, Ana.

I can’t keep doing this. We wanted to keep you out of this, let you live out the rest of your days in that peaceful cabin in Satellite. ”

“We?” Ana leaned back against the wall, giving Diane room where she sat. “Diane, what are you talking about?”

Diane proceeded to list off a series of familiar names and groups, finishing with, “and this includes Jasper and Ares.”

Ana’s brows furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

“The movement is big, still underground, but coming to the forefront with the help of the Mystics. Ares wasn’t the only one driving this. He’s just now heading up the operation.”

“What are you talking about?” Ana repeated, raising her voice.