Chapter 28, part 1
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Isaac watched apprehensively as Kendra furiously paced the pilot's nest, her breaths resounding loudly through her nostrils and she contemplated deep within herself. He had also noticed with much discomfort that as her anger rose, so did the vicious chanting of the Marker in the back of his head. After a long moment of highly tense silence, she turned and glared at him sharply.
So... where do you think you're going with that Marker anyway, Isaac? You can't take it. It belongs here. You know this.
Isaac, still entranced by her ominous hold over him, just looked at her blankly. He himself had no idea why he would have ever desired to bring the Marker to Earth, but his agitated revolt at her presence only provoked him to act upon it all the same, taunting her in a scowling effort to infuriate her even more. He lowered his head slightly, returned her vicious glare with darkened eyes.
Isn't that what you wanted, Kendra? Wasn't that at one time your goal, too? I'm just doing what needs to be done. For human development. So we can all go to heaven, just like in the books.
Kendra's pacing paused at his words and she huffed indignantly.
Isaac, you're not leaving here with it. Even if you tried, you wouldn't get a fraction of a parsec beyond this place. And you know exactly why.
Though moved by the gravity of her hastened speech, Isaac watched her as she fumed with obvious annoyance, smiling to himself with silent, growing amusement. He examined her body language, listened to the sharpened edge of her voice, saw as she waved her hands about in between her words. He blinked, tasting a vicious inner satisfaction at her thick plated, angered front unable to conceal her own fear - her very deep inner fear about the Marker's safety. Suspicion reared its head in his mind.
It seemed... extraneous. Even for her. No one else aboard the Ishimura seemed to share her anxiety at this point. Even as concerned as he himself was, knowing his own destiny, he still wasn't as worried about it's safety as she seemed to be.
He began to reflect within himself upon their previous conversations; her words, her methods, her undeniable knowledge; her sadistic actions. It all seemed so excessive for just another vessel of the Marker. As he stared at her, she immediately turned back around and stormed up to him, her eyes burning with a searing hatred as she detected his probing thoughts. Tightening her arms and stamping her feet, she glared and began to pitch highly irate and aggressive words at him.
That's it, Isaac... I'm through playing games with you! I really don't give a shit anymore, because you're just too fucking daft to be allowed to live. I should just kill you right here where you stand and put you out of your misery.
Unmoved, Isaac just continued to look at her with dark eyes, opening his mouth to crack a sideways grin.
I call your bluff, Kendra. You can't kill me. You told me so yourself - you need me just as much as I need you. You know what I think?
She paused, staring back at him, anticipating his provoking response with fists clenched and ready to attack. Isaac, however was undeterred by her now seemingly hollow threats as he looked into her eyes. She desperately tried to conceal her sense of worry, and noticing her failing attempts, he leaned in closer. He glanced down in a quick moment of thought then looked back at her, beaming a sneering smile across his face.
I think we're at a stalemate here, my little Hive Mind.
Kendra fell silent and immediately loosened her stance, pulled back as she fought the instinctive urge to widen her eyes at Isaac's statement. Though her expression was restrained behind a wall of ice, it was very clear to him that inside she was totally arrested, astonished and now engulfed in a raging fire.
... You know...?
Isaac nodded, and Kendra drew her lips back angrily in disgust. She turned around and walked away from him, crossing her arms and fumbling to maintain her arrogant profile.
Well then... so you know. Actually... that's good for me, because now I don't have to hold your fucking hand through all this anymore. Now, you can walk on our own two feet, Mr. Clarke.
She stopped in her tracks, and without turning her head prompted him. Though her telepathic query was wrought with hard iron, it was also tinged with a hesitant curiosity.
...So... just how long have you known, anyway?
Isaac just smiled, side glancing her with dire amusement while examining his now partially healed fist, stroking the red, stratous lines of new flesh across the knuckles with his fingertips.
Actually, I didn't. I was just making an educated guess.
He bore a large, childishly derisive grin that sent Kendra into an explosive rage. Despite being visibly shaken at the awareness of his realization, still she did not back down. Instead, she returned an icy sharp glare and with a stickly finger pointed directly at him, shaking it with a vile emphasis that caused him to shudder as the Marker's voices now sliced through the back of his brain. Her projected voice was now laden with a deeper, far more foreboding tone.
Don't fuck with me, Isaac. You think I can't kill you? That's bullshit. I may not want to, because it does no good for either of us, but that doesn't mean I can't, you fucking prick.
Isaac subconsciously glanced down to the floor as he was forced to swallow the budding comprehension of her retort. Kendra, catching the hairline fault in his confidence, broke a small smile and softened her stare a little, lowering her arm and turning fully to face him.
You see, Isaac? You see what I mean? I give myself to you. Unconditionally. Over and over again. All for you. And what do you do? You steal what's mine. You take from me, and you give me nothing back. And then you act like an ungrateful child, without any appreciation for my endless patience with you. Is this what being human is all about, Isaac? Or are you just some anomalous oddity of your kind?
In that moment, the voices of the Marker instantly receded from his head until he could no longer hear them. Not having expected to hear such brazen, up-front honesty from her, Isaac now felt at a sudden loss. Though his apparent conviction of Kendra's true position had momentarily brightened his spirits, knowing that now he knew exactly who she was and how that might have given him some advantage over her, he was again seized as now all the other outlying realizations, including Kendra's own vicious words, began to sink in.
She was the Hive Mind... he was just the vessel.
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