The Defender drifted silently through the void, its engines whispering in the stillness like a secret too heavy to speak aloud. The stars did not blink. The black canvas of space offered no comfort.
Inside, the tension was not spoken, but it was there. It clung to the corridors, thick and choking, like smoke after a fire that would not die.
In the dim-lit medical bay, Aika sat hunched on one of the narrow cots, knees drawn tightly to her chest. Her small frame shook, her breath shallow and sharp. Her eyes, once bright with warmth and curiosity, were now glass—clouded and blank, staring past the wall as if it no longer existed. That light… that fragile light inside her… was gone.
Shattered.
Kai leaned nearby, propped against the wall as though he needed it to stay standing. His arms were crossed, but his shoulders trembled. He was holding himself together—not because he was strong, but because if he let go, even for a second, he wouldn't come back from it.
"This isn't real…" he muttered, the words brittle, cracking with every syllable. "It's not… this is just a dream. We'll wake up. We'll all wake up…"
But no one answered.
Because everyone already knew.
The lie didn't land. It didn't even bounce.
Footsteps echoed through the corridor like approaching judgment.
Arnik stepped in slowly, and just the sound of him breathing—just existing—felt wrong. The way his eyes refused to meet theirs. The way he walked like he was carrying the dead. Like his own soul was buried somewhere back on Earth. He knelt beside Aika, and his hand, calloused and trembling, reached for her shoulder.
"Aika…"
His voice was low. Steady. Too steady. It wasn't real. It was the voice of someone trying to pretend they hadn't already broken.
Aika recoiled. Her body flinched at his touch as if it burned.
"Positive?" Her voice cracked—glass shattering beneath boot heels. She lifted her head, eyes soaked in grief, face twisted in something worse than pain. "Did you see it?! Did you SEE WHAT HAPPENED?!"
She didn't wait for an answer.
"People DIED, Arnik! Families—innocent people—my mom…!"
He winced.
"I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF THEY MADE IT OUT!" she screamed. "Mom… Dad… my little brothers… I hope they're alive, but I don't know! I don't KNOW!"
The silence devoured her voice.
Rose stood off to the side, her eyes downcast, fists clenched, tail hanging lifelessly behind her.
"I hope they're safe…" Rose whispered, voice fragile as thread.
"…Me too," Aika choked, her voice breaking again.
Arnik lowered his hand and dropped to one knee, facing her—desperate to reach her, to say something, to prove there was still something solid left in the wreckage.
"I don't know how we win this," he said softly. "But if we give up now… then we've already lost. And you…"
He swallowed.
"You're stronger than this. We all are."
Aika didn't answer. She simply crumbled. Her body lurched forward, burying into him, sobs ripping from her like something primal. She clutched his jacket, fingers digging into the fabric like it was the only thing keeping her tethered to reality. He held her. Not as a soldier. Not as a hero.
But as someone just as broken.
Then—
BANG. BANG. BANG.
The door shook violently under heavy fists.
"OPEN THIS DAMN DOOR ALREADY!!" Rose's voice cracked like a whip, furious and trembling.
"STOP IT!" Kai shouted, turning. "You're just making noise!"
The banging stopped. A thick silence.
Then—
"It's better than sitting around pretending this is NORMAL!" Rose's voice cut through like a knife.
Kai stormed toward the door, anger blazing in his eyes. "You think I didn't lose anyone?! That I'm fine?! That I'm not breaking too?!"
Rose opened her mouth to reply, but he didn't give her the chance.
"I LOST JUST AS MUCH AS YOU!" he roared. "But I'm not falling apart!"
He pointed at Aika, still clinging to Arnik like a drowning child. "She needs you. Not me. YOU."
Rose's hands trembled. Her knees buckled. She fell, hands covering her face as the first sob escaped.
Kai's voice softened.
"Be strong," he whispered, kneeling beside her. "For Aika."
She peeked out through her fingers. Saw Aika. Saw what she wasn't doing. And something inside her cracked.
"I… I'm sorry," she whispered. "I was being selfish."
"You're not alone," Kai said. "She needs you."
Rose wiped her tears. "I get it. I just… I just didn't know how to deal with it."
"It's okay to break down," Kai murmured. "Just don't break alone."
He offered his hand awkwardly.
She slapped it away. "Don't touch me, four-eyed perv."
Kai blinked. "I was trying to be nice!"
"You're terrible at it."
Kai scoffed. "Well, excuse me."
Arnik muttered, "You two are unbelievable."
But he didn't get far before Rose shoved him aside—hard.
"OW!" Arnik yelped, crashing into the wall.
Rose collapsed beside Aika, wrapping her arms around her tightly. "I'm sorry, Aika. I'm here now. We'll get through this. I promise."
Aika trembled. Then, slowly… she leaned into her.
Kai crossed his arms. "At least someone's being useful."
Arnik grumbled, still rubbing his head.
Kai turned.
"…Arnik. Why didn't you tell us?"
Arnik froze.
He didn't have to ask. They all knew.
"You're a mutant," Kai said.
Arnik looked down. "It's not that I didn't trust you. I just… couldn't."
"Because of your dad?" Kai asked.
Arnik hesitated.
Then nodded.
"After my mom died, my mutation awakened. I thought… maybe he'd understand. That he'd be proud."
He paused. None of them moved.
"He wasn't. He told me never to show it to anyone. He said I'd be hunted. That I was dangerous."
His voice broke.
"Days later, he told me I was leaving. No explanation. No goodbye. Just gone."
His jaw clenched.
"I begged him to tell me why. All he said was: 'You're going to live your life without me.'"
The air was still. Too still.
"Not long after… news broke. That I'd died in a car crash."
Arnik looked at his hands.
"He didn't just send me away. He erased me."
Kai's throat tightened. Aika was crying again. Rose said nothing.
Then—
HSSSSSSK.
The med bay doors opened.
Andrew Handerfall stepped inside.
The weight of his presence dropped like iron.
He glanced around the room. "So… you all survived."
The room froze.
Arnik stood stiff. Like a marionette held by wire-thin rage.
Andrew's gaze flicked toward him. "If you've got something to say—say it."
Arnik stepped forward. Fury burned in his eyes.
"Yeah," he spat. "What the hell happened?! Our Sovereign—he was a demon."
Andrew nodded. "Correct. There's much to explain. Come with me."
"NO!" Arnik barked. "Why me?! Why am I important?! Why did you hide me?! Why did you throw me away?!"
Andrew's voice didn't rise. "Because if Lionel knew what you were… he'd have killed you long ago."
Arnik trembled. His voice dropped.
"Then tell me…"
He took a step forward.
"Where is Markus?"
Andrew's eye twitched.
He turned toward the terminal. Tapped a few commands.
The screen blinked.
And there—lit by pale, sterile light—was Markus.
Strapped to a medical slab. Limbs bound tight. Skin torn and bruised. Blood drying across his face.
His body spasmed violently.
And his eyes—those golden, blazing eyes—were wide with madness.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" Markus shrieked, voice mangled and raw. "I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!"
Aika gasped, hand flying to her mouth.
Rose stumbled back, tail stiff and twitching.
Kai gripped the bedframe so hard his knuckles went white.
The only sound was Markus—screaming, writhing, thrashing—trapped in a cage of light and steel.
And Arnik…
Arnik stared.
Kai's body jolted forward before his mind could catch up, slamming his palm against the terminal with a sharp crack. The impact rattled the console, but the feed continued, uncaring. Markus's screams echoed through the room—unfiltered, raw, and laced with something no human should ever have to feel.
"What the hell happened?!" Kai barked, voice shaking, eyes locked on Andrew like they could cut him in half. "Markus has one of the strongest wills I've ever seen—what the hell could've done this to him?!"
There was no answer.
Only Markus—thrashing, snarling, screaming like an animal cornered in its final moments.
Kai's mind reeled. Too strong for this. Too stubborn. Too proud.
And then—
I have to go home.
The words came back like thunder.
Markus's voice. A memory. A goodbye.
Kai's stomach twisted, a cold, ugly realization blooming in his chest like rot.
"…No…" he breathed, the word trembling on cracked lips. His pupils shrank.
He looked back at the screen—at what Markus had become.
His voice fell to a whisper.
"…He saw them. His family… he saw them die."
Everything inside him collapsed.
Kai's knees buckled, crashing to the floor with a hollow thud. His hand slipped from the console, fingers numb. It hung at his side, limp, like it no longer belonged to him. His shoulders sagged forward, spine curving under the invisible weight of what he now understood.
"Make it stop…" he muttered. His voice didn't rise. It shrank. Shriveled. "Please… make it stop…"
Aika let out a choked breath and doubled over, clutching her stomach as her body convulsed. She turned to the wall and dry heaved, her sobs too broken for sound.
Rose flinched. Her tail shot stiff behind her, not a hair twitching. Her hands balled into trembling fists, knuckles white as bone. She didn't look at the screen—she couldn't. Her gaze burned into the far wall, jaw clenched tight, eyes shimmering but refusing to let the tears fall.
And still…
Markus screamed.
Trapped in light. Shackled in steel.
Thrashing like the cage wasn't made of metal, but memory.
No one moved.
No one could.
The sound of Markus's rage—it wasn't just noise anymore. It was pain incarnate, echoing through the sterile room like a funeral bell that refused to stop tolling.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" he screamed. "I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!"
Not a threat.
A plea.
A soul unraveling in real time.
Andrew stepped forward, slowly—like a man walking into a storm he'd already seen coming. His voice didn't rise. It didn't need to. The weight in it made the walls feel smaller.
"…Arnik. Come."
He didn't turn to look at them. He didn't offer comfort. Only direction. His words landed like iron dropped into water.
"You need to hear everything."
Arnik stirred, barely. His legs twitched to life beneath him, like the command had pushed air back into his lungs. He turned, stiff, gaze unfocused—but before he could move, Kai reached out with a shaky hand and grabbed his arm.
"I'm coming too," Kai said, barely above a whisper—but something in the way he said it left no room for argument.
Andrew's eyes cut toward him.
"No."
That single word cracked the air again. Cold. Commanding.
But before the tension could boil, another voice split the silence.
"We all deserve to know," Rose said.
She stepped forward. Her tail swayed behind her, no longer rigid but sharp, deliberate—like a blade waiting to strike. Her voice held none of Kai's desperation, but all of his resolve.
Andrew's jaw clenched. His eyes drifted from Rose… to Kai… then finally back to Arnik.
He let out a slow breath. The sound of a man surrendering—not to them, but to time itself.
"…Fine. Follow me."
They moved like shadows through the Defender's dim corridors, each footstep a whisper against metal floors.
Medical teams darted past them, pale and grim, their arms full of gauze and blood-soaked wraps. The hum of machines and the sharp beeps of fading vitals surrounded them like a quiet war. The scent of antiseptic and blood clashed in the air—clinical, sterile, yet somehow sickening.
No one spoke.
Rose walked beside Aika, who was still trembling from the scene they had just witnessed. Quietly, without prompting, Rose reached over and covered Aika's eyes as they passed a door—just wide enough to glimpse a small, lifeless hand slipping off an operating table.
"Don't look," she whispered.
Aika nodded into her palm.
At last, they reached a heavy set of doors. Andrew placed his hand against the scanner, and it hissed open. Inside was a chamber of sharp angles and cold light. The walls were lined with digital panels, some flashing with alerts, others streaming endless data. In the center of the room floated a slowly spinning holographic model of Earth—rotating in perfect silence.
But it was not the Earth they remembered.
Red warning markers pulsed like open wounds across the continents. Dozens. Maybe hundreds.
Andrew stepped forward and began typing. Each keystroke echoed. As the hologram zoomed in, the true devastation revealed itself—cities blacked out, coastlines eaten away, entire regions redlined.
"This…" Andrew finally said, his voice low, even, "is what we're facing now."
He turned to them, his face unreadable.
"And what I'm about to tell you changes everything."
A moment passed.
Then another.
"For years, you've been told the Great Demon War was legend," he began. "Something buried in dusty books, or passed around like fairy tales to scare children. But it was real. And the truth…"
He paused, jaw tight.
"…was far worse than the stories."
He began to pace.
"Three thousand years ago, the world didn't just fall apart. It shattered. The demons didn't conquer—they erased. Cities didn't fall—they were vaporized. Soldiers weren't defeated—they were eaten alive. Entire bloodlines… gone. Whole languages, cultures, erased from memory."
His words filled the air like ash.
"No one was spared. Not humans. Not demi-beasts. Not mages. Not the winged, the horned, the scaled. The demons tore through them all. And no one… no one… could stop them."
He turned to the hologram, gaze hard.
"Until the Great Spirit chose a single human. No army. No weapons. Just… will."
He nodded toward Arnik.
"The First Mutant."
Arnik stiffened, but said nothing.
Andrew continued.
"With the Spirit's gift and the Archmages at his side, he turned the tide. They sealed the demons away—not destroyed them, sealed them. Trapped in a vessel forged with every ounce of magic the world could still offer."
"But…" Andrew's voice grew quieter. "It wasn't perfect. Something… survived. A sliver. A mind. A will."
Kai's voice cut in, sharp. "You mean Lionel."
Andrew's eyes met his. "Yes."
Kai stepped forward, fists clenched. "Then why now? Why didn't you stop him before? How long have you known?!"
Andrew didn't flinch. "Not long enough."
"But the signs were always there. How he always stayed one step ahead. How nothing seemed to shake him. How people followed him—blindly, like they had no choice."
He began typing again.
"I started digging. Found gaps. Fake documents. Medical anomalies. Then I found the records—old ones. Carved into stone, sealed in magic vaults."
He turned to them again.
"Warnings. About a presence that would survive. That would wait. That would wear the skin of man."
He let that sink in.
"Lionel is not like us. He never was. And now… it's begun."
A long silence.
Then—
"Arnik," Andrew said, voice firm again. "You have his blood. The First Mutant's. Whether you like it or not, you're the only one who might be able to stop him."
Arnik's lips parted, but no words came.
Then—
"I WILL JOIN!"
The voice was hoarse but clear.
Everyone turned.
Markus stood at the entrance, covered in blood and sweat, still wrapped in bandages. His knees shook. His body screamed for rest.
But his eyes…
His eyes burned.
"I don't care what it takes," he growled. "I want to fight. I want Lionel to burn."
Andrew gave him a slow nod. "Then you're in."
Arnik looked at Markus. His throat worked as he swallowed.
"I'll fight too," he said quietly. "If it's for Earth… I won't run."
Kai stepped forward. "Count me in."
Rose followed. "Same."
Kai turned sharply. "No. This isn't a joke—"
"You're not my father," Rose snapped.
Kai flinched. "Aika needs—"
"I WILL JOIN TOO!"
Everyone froze.
Aika stepped forward, still shaking, but standing on her own.
"I'm not staying behind," she said, her voice trembling—but her eyes were alive again. "I won't."
Andrew raised his hand for silence.
"They've made their choice, Kai."
Kai looked at each of them.
Then slowly… he nodded.
"Fine. But if we're doing this… we do it right."
Andrew's gaze swept across them all, then locked onto Arnik.
"You'll train. You'll be pushed past your limits. You'll earn your place here. You want to stand against Lionel? Then prove it."
He stepped in close.
"You're young. Too young. But you've got something in you—a fire. A weight. A reason."
He turned to Arnik again.
"And if you survive what's coming… maybe we have a chance."
Then—
"NOW GET MARKUS TO THE MED BAY BEFORE HE BLEEDS ALL OVER MY FLOOR!"
"Whoaaa—HEY—watch the arm—AGHH—" Markus groaned as Rose and Kai dragged him off.
Andrew watched them go.
Then… the silence returned.
He looked up at the spinning Earth, bathed in red.
Ran a hand down his face.
"I'm dragging kids into a war…"
He clenched his fists, whispering:
"…But if I don't… there won't be anyone left to save."
His eyes narrowed.
"Lionel gave us hell…"
A final beat.
"…So we'll return the favor."