Chapter 30

30: Daniel looked horror struck by Chadwick's story.  "What's wrong, Daniel?" asked Bill.
  "He's telling the truth.  The Nocent travelled here on a spacecraft called the Riven.  Rend was a convicted felon aboard the ship.  The Sypraxian body does look like water in its natural state, but we can form into any shape we choose.  We can even imitate colors by bending light.  The Collective imprison felons by freezing them and keeping them in a box.  When the Riven crashed into the lake, the machine that was keeping Rend frozen must have broken, allowing him to thaw and escape.  What did you say about the chips?"
  "Rend was implanting these chips into the backs of people's hands.  He said it would give them super-human powers or something."
  Daniel thought about this for a moment.  "This must have been the plan all along.  I never told you this, but just before the Nocent were about make their trip to Earth aboard the Riven, they slaughtered every one of the Collective.  They wanted to use our liquid bodies as fuel for the trip.  The computer aboard the Riven is called the Core Zone.  It can be run using the Sypraxian body as energy."
  Mina was terrified.  "They killed all of the Collective?"
  "Yes, but they failed to take into account our spirits.  You see, the Core Zone has an artificial intelligence which our spirits were able to basically stow away with during the trip to Earth.  Along the way, we befriended the on board computer who then sabotaged the Nocent's life support systems.  She opened a hatch which sucked out every one of the Nocent into the coldness of space, killing them.  All that was left of them were their Syproid glands, which are basically their brains.  That is the main difference between the Nocent and the Collective is the absence of the Syproid gland in the Collective.  This brain of theirs is only the size and shape of a dime."
  "So they're completely made of liquid except for this little dime-shaped brain?" asked Jeffrey.
  "Yes.  I believe that when Rend thawed out, he collected all the Syproid glands aboard the Riven and took them with him intending to give them new bodies.  That's why he kidnapped Sandy and used her to advertise the Nocent's intent to implant these 'chips' to give you super-human strength."
  Bill seemed to make a connection in his head.  "So that was probably Rend in the bathtub as both my wife and the blood.  He must have had her tied up somewhere and just retrieved her after Kenn and I left the house.  That's why the police didn't find anything when they got there.  No wonder she looked so lifeless on TV.  That was Rend."
  "Which explains his red aura that I saw," said Mina thoughtfully.
  "What Rend failed to take into account was the Scathing, the Sypraxian virus that was laying dormant in each one of those Syproid glands.  The Defectors who had the chip implanted fell prey to this virus and died.  Now they've started coming back to life and each of them is still quite contagious with the Scathing.  The Revenant could spread the virus."

Chapter 19

19: Miles away, at the Johnson/McGee Copper Mill, a man stood overseeing the implanting of the chips.  The massive iron structure of the mill offered little shelter from the elements, but it suited his needs just fine for now.  The Defectors served as guards and a few who were doctors helped out as chip implanters.  A 38 year old female road worker wearing an orange vest was currently on the operating table.  The surgeon sterilized the back of her hand with a piece of gauze dipped in hydrogen peroxide.  He then took his scalpel and made a half-inch incision in the center of the back of her hand.  An assistant handed him one of the chips and he used surgical pliers to insert it into the incision.  After that, it was a simple matter of three or four stitches and her hand was bandaged up to keep it safe from infection while it healed.
  The man who seemed to be in charge, known only as Rend, smiled with satisfaction at the sight before him.  He was of a medium build and dressed like a fisherman with a camouflaged vest and blue jeans with leather boots.  "There are only a few chips left.  Then these pathetic sons of Adam will soon be completely vanquished and the sons of Ithodyn shall have a new home on this bright blue globe."
  One of the Defectors, apparently a grocery store bagger wearing a forest green apron, turned to Rend and asked, "Who is Ithodyn?"
  "My young follower, Ithodyn is your new master.  Here on Earth you have the one you call Lucifer, which means 'bringer of light'.  On Sypraxia, we have Ithodyn, which also translates to 'bringer of light'.  He has his own followers who are the equivalent of dark spirits here on Earth.  You all have so much to learn and I shall teach you."
  A red-haired woman in her mid-twenties who wore a flower-print cotton blouse and khaki capris seemed to be disturbed by this and began to head toward the exit.  "Grab her.  Bring her to me."  Two of the guards seized the helpless woman before she could get very far.  "My poor child, what seems to be the rush?"
  With a horrified look in her eyes and a defiant smirk on her lips she replied, "I don't owe you anything.  Look at my hands.  No chip.  I am still untaken and I will never follow you."  She spat on the floor.
  Instead of walking to her, Rend seemed to melt before everyone's fascinated eyes.  This rush of what looked like water moved closer to her and then formed up again into the man they knew as Rend.  "Fool!  The Untaken shall all die!"  With that, he gently lay his hand over her mouth which didn't seem like a threatening gesture, but the woman's eyes went wide as she struggled for air.  He calmly pulled his hand away and she fell to the floor dead.  He had drowned her.
  Just then a middle-aged male Defector dressed in a yellow buttoned shirt with a brown tie ran into the mill and knelt before Rend.  "Rise, my loyal follower."
  "I just got back from town.  It seems that many of the Untaken have made their way to a local amusement park and are staying at a hotel there.  There's no telling what they're planning."
  "Good work, son.  We need to plan an invasion of this hotel of theirs.  There is no way of knowing what sort of danger they might be if they band together."  Rend turned back to the corpse on the floor.  "Get this wretch out of my sight now!"