“Don’t be so sure about that,” I said. By now I was just cocking off, still hesitating. I didn’t want to attack him, and I didn’t know why. He was just being so damned ... polite.
“Don’t you realize what’s going on here?” Sovereign turned on the passion, and I could feel it exude from him. “He’s got you fighting for a world where the people who were supposed to show you the most care betrayed you, hurt you, left you. You’re lined up to defend a world that has made you lonely, bitter and mournful. I know you don’t want to hear it, and this whole ... this extinction, you call it ... this isn’t how I would want to get to where we’re going. But there aren’t any other viable options. The old world has to be torn down to bring about a new one.” I could hear the remorse in his voice, and I knew— somehow knew—that he actually felt the pain; he wasn’t just putting me on. “I don’t want to do what we have to do. It took a long time to convince myself that it was right. I don’t expect you’ll come around until you see the result, I really don’t. You’ve been beaten down, broken, shattered by people you trusted. I don’t think you’ll look at me and see someone who’s trustworthy for a long time, not with what I’m doing, how we’re going about this. But I know that when we’re done, you’ll be able to look out on what we’ve built, and it’ll be a shining world, something new and bright without the rough edges and cruelty you’ve come to know from this one.”
“And who’s going to live in this world of yours?” I asked, practically choking up. “The five people who haven’t ever done anything bad, haven’t ever hurt a soul?” I glared at him.
“Everyone could have a place in that world, that’s the point,” Sovereign said. “It won’t take as much as you think.”
“I don’t think I have a place there,” I said. “I don’t think I could live in your world.” I put my hands up one last time. “I’m going to fight you now.”
“I won’t fight you, Sienna,” he said, shaking his head. “I won’t. I’m not here to harm you. I’m here to save you.”
I felt a curious swell of emotion, some great sadness and longing that I didn’t want to feel, but it was there anyway. “Well, I’m here to save the world, so I don’t think you’re going to have a choice.”
I launched myself at him, a little slow, halfhearted, and he dodged by hovering right out of my path. I landed and turned, and he hung a couple feet off the ground behind me, watching me with sad eyes. “I told you I don’t want to fight you.”
“I don’t feel the same,” I said and pulled my gun. I ran through the magazine, sixteen rounds, and he stood there all the while, never moving. When the smoke from the chamber cleared and the action was open, he still hovered, and I heard a faint clinking. I looked down to see the bullets falling off of him, hitting the concrete floor of the construction site one by one.
“You can’t hurt me,” he said, shaking his head. “And I won’t hurt you.” He swept to my right, hovering just behind Winter. “But I’ll tell you what ... here’s a gift for you. Take Winter. Do what you want to him.”
Winter’s eyes widened, but he said nothing.
“You think I give a damn about Winter now?” I shook my head at him, incredulous. “You’re a pretty lousy mind reader if you think I’m going to waste my effort on him while you’re still hovering over there, ready to destroy everything—everything I hold dear.”
“Sweetheart ... all the things you hold dear are things you shouldn’t,” he said, looking down on me with sadness. “The things that have hurt you.”
“Sure, tell me how to feel, that’ll fix everything.” I nodded at Winter. “What I see is this—another guy who just has plans to make the world over in whatever image he wants, not really caring that everyone else might not want to share his vision. Sure, yours is grander than his, but your intentions are exactly the same. Remake your corner of the sky to your exacting specifications, and to hell with the consequences for the people who don’t fit into your plan.” I almost spat at his feet. “You want to talk about legacy? Yours is a mass grave.”
He gave me a haunted smile, a kind of half-hearted expression that didn’t even look like he was remotely happy. “The people who change the world? They almost always have a mass grave under their feet. Most of the time that doesn’t end up being their legacy, though.” He stared me down. “What about you? You’re digging a pretty large gravesite at this point. You don’t want to at least examine the reason why it’s happening?”