The pain was worse than before. Though she had practiced this with Enkara, the real thing made Mina cry out in agony.
Perhaps it was simply stronger than Enkara predicted. Or perhaps Mina had changed her trajectory just enough to throw her off the mark. No. She wouldn’t make that mistake. Not after everything they had rehearsed.
Maybe it was the anticipation of what was waiting on the other side. The agents, hybrids leading the charge. This was not the safety of the Plaza. Runa was not there to pull the plug or help her heal. This was not their experiments testing how the shield would react to her DNA. A wall between her and the only man strong enough to protect her. The only safety net she had were the Second Gen and humans loyal to them. And considering how they were already neck deep in the shit, she didn’t hold out much hope for them coming to her aid either.
Burning.
Minutes felt like hours as the air around her began to dismantle her on a cellular level. It was strange at the things that crossed her mind as she struggled to burst through to safety. What a wonderful deterrent this shield was. What clever creatures they were to make these blocks to protect themselves. How amazing it was that they were able to turn the Originals own technology, their own safety measures, against them. Brilliant really.
And how it burned.
When relief came it was short lived. Mina had neither the strength nor the will to maintain flight and dropped from the sky immediately after her body crashed through.
As if the injuries she had already sustained weren’t bad enough, Mina skidded across the roof of a long abandoned truck before crashing into a dumpster.
Perfect. Exactly as planned. Well...not exactly.
But she survived.
So far.
Mina counted her blessings as she assessed the damage to herself and began to focus everything she had left on healing. There was a reason she was the only one to do this. Her specialty would be vital now. The recovery for her would take less time than any other Original. And with the Second Gen occupied with the hybrids and agents, someone else needed to get those shields down. Failure was not an option.
Now bleeding from what seemed like everywhere and sitting on a mattress of very old, rotted trash, she barely had the strength to open her eyes. And when she did, the bright sun was too much for them. Slowly, Mina closed her eyes once more and shut out the world. If she had more energy she would have used telepathy to at least tell Vincent that she was alive. Not that it would calm his nerves much, she guessed.
Her only hope was to go unnoticed at least until she had her strength back. Well, at least some of it back. Some was better than none because the next part of her mission might even be worse than the last.
