The battle raged through the hallways and command floors of the CDE, but it was more than just fists and firepower. It was ideology clashing with desperation.

  Rob and Steve moved like twin wolves through the chaos, their combat suits glinting under flickering lights they were beating Beta and Zeta who were relentless, hurling knives and concussive blast grenade, but Rob and Steve countered them like they had rehearsed this war for years. Rob’s baton spun midair, catching Zeta’s shoulder, while Steve drove an electrified knee into Beta’s side. The twins staggered, disoriented by calculated pressure. It didn’t take long Beta went down hard with a gasp, and Zeta followed seconds later, stunned into unconsciousness.

  Steve was already moving. “Rob, we assist Zara and Lynx—”

  “Negative,” Rob cut in, catching a transmission over comms. “No we assist the others.”

  “They’re getting desperate,” Rob replied grimly. “Let’s push them back.”

  Across the open hall, Kai and Spectre clashed in a blur of motion. Her precision was lethal efficient strikes aimed for joints and soft spots. Kai blocked, ducked, twisted, never fully matching her elegance, but bringing power and grit with every return blow

  “You really chose this side, Kai?” she spits. “You used to be reasonable. Now you’re following a kid with a martyr complex.”

  Kai deflects her blade with his forearm guard, eyes steady. “Maybe he is a kid, maybe his ideal seem naive. But they’re the right ones.”

  Spectre sneers. “Right doesn’t win wars.”

  “No, but it rebuilds what war destroys,” Kai fires back. "We are being directed by fear and not logic, becoming what GORE used to be "

  Spectre’s blade slid against his guard, sparks flying. “Maybe fear is logical. You think people will follow your soft ideals when the world’s burning?”

  Kai countered with a heavy fist, forcing her to retreat a step. “They might. And if they don’t, at least we didn’t become monsters pretending to be their saviors.”

  Lynx and Zara’s duel was another world entirely. Unlike the others, theirs was silent, feral. Tension burned beneath every strike. Not just combat—history.

  “You always thought you were better than me,” Lynx growled through gritted teeth, parrying Zara’s curved blade.

  Zara snorted, leaping off a wall and twisting midair. “Because I was. I never needed to betray my team to feel strong.”

  Their weapons locked again. Sparks danced between their faces. “I wanted what was best for everybody and become my own self” Lynx hissed.

  Zara kicked her off with both feet and rolled back to stance. “Yet here you are being Lucian’s lapdog.”

  They launched at each other again, strikes blurring. Metal cracked against metal, fists found flesh. Their bodies moved like mirror images, each predicting the other’s next step because once, long ago, they had trained side by side.

  And now? Now they were trying to kill each other.

  Across the floor, Rob and Steve's assault was tipping the scale. Lucian’s faction started to falter. Morale dipped. One by one, some began to retreat and fearing the what would happen if they lost, the loyalists grabbed nearby unarmed personnel techs, researchers, doctors and pulled them into the center of the room. They didn’t even pretend to defend themselves anymore. Their weapons hovered over trembling heads.

  “Back off,” one of them barked. “Or they die.”

  The resistance froze. The upper hand crumbled.

  Kai’s head turned just for a second causing just the the needed upper hand Spectre needed. Spectre slammed her elbow into his temple. Kai dropped to his knees. A swift kick to the ribs, and he was down.

  Spectre turned, eyes locked on Lynx and Zara.

  Zara bled from the lip, Lynx panting hard.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “I’m done watching this circus,” Spectre snarled. She reached behind her and pulled something different. Real. Heavy.

  A live firearm.

  She aimed at Zara’s chest, the shot rang , Zara twisted, but not fast enough the bullet hit her arm she cried out, stumbling back, blood slicking her suit. Lynx yells at Spectre to stop, but Spectre was already taking aim again. Spectre snapped. “This ends now.”

  But it didn’t.

  Everything changed in a heartbeat.

  A low thrum echoed like distant thunder. Then everyone was on the floor forced to the ground by a crushing, unseen weight. Hostages fell unharmed. Spectre’s gun skittered away. Rob grunted, his armor whining from the pressure. Even Lynx and Zara couldn’t stand.

  Floating down from the upper floor, carried by soft pulses of gravitational force, stood the last person they expected.

  Axel.

  Clad in a sleek, black battle suit, beard untamed, face a mask of calm fury, three others people followed him, unknown but battle-ready. Axel walked over to Zara, kneeling by her, touching her wound. “You alright?”, Zara stared at him, stunned. “You’re alive.” He nodded. “Where’s Lucian?” before a mesmerised Zara could answer him a loud boom echoed through the base. Something massive just cracked.

  Zara’s head turned toward the direction of the noise. “There.”

  Axel’s eyes narrowed.

  He rose slowly, turning toward the source of the destruction. He waved his hand once—Lucian’s loyalists flew backward, gently but firmly pushed from the hostages, landing hard against walls.

  He turned to his three allies. “You know the plan.” They nodded, stepping forward to secure the area. Axel stepped into the hall, massive debris littering the path. With a single wave of his hand, the path cleared. Steel beams floated, twisted, and flung aside.

  He was going to find Lucian and he was going to end this.

  Jace’s breath came in ragged gasps, his body sprawled out on the cold floor as the pain from his bruises pulsed through him with every movement adding to the weight of exhaustion. His body had pushed itself too far right before the battle against Lucian, and now he could barely summon the strength to get up.

  As he lay there, trying to steady his breathing, a shadow loomed over him, and a voice cut through the haze of his thoughts.

  “Jace.”

  Jace’s head snapped up, blinking against the disorientation as Axel stood over him, dressed in a sleek black battle suit. The familiar presence of his old mentor was enough to jolt him awake. Axel’s gaze was hard but concerned, his movements smooth and calculated as he reached down to help Jace to his feet.

  Jace’s mouth opened, but his mind was racing, trying to process the impossible. “Axel? How… how did you get out?” His voice was hoarse, barely more than a whisper.

  Before Axel could gather his thoughts to answer the floor beneath them trembled, a heavy thud echoing through the walls. Lucian’s enraged voice followed, his footsteps pounding closer.

  “ Axel Reed you think you can just waltz back in here like nothing happened, ?” Lucian spat, his voice thick with hatred. His metallic arm whirred and hissed, components shifting into position as he pulled away from the wall. There was an unmistakable madness in his eyes.

  “How did you escape?” Lucian’s voice was laced with fury and disbelief. “No one gets out of The Box!”

  Jace’s mind spun. The Box the maximum-security facility where Axel had been locked away, kept under the most impenetrable isolation the CDE could devise.

  Axel’s gaze was steely, almost indifferent. “The Box was attacked I thought it was our dear Jace here but clearly he has been busy"

  Lucian’s eyes blazed with a mixture of rage and desperation, he raised his hands and started firing burst of bullets from his suit. “What are you doing here, Axel? The CDE is my vision!”

  “Your vision ? It’s a vision of madness, Lucian.” Axel scoffed while using his abilities to push the bullets back Lucian too

  Jace watched, still trying to get his bearings, as the two men exchanged heated words. Axel’s presence was almost overwhelming, like a force of nature, and yet there was something about Lucian’s defiance that kept the fight from being fully one-sided.

  Axel’s voice remained steady, though it carried an edge of fury. “You are, still clinging to your twisted ideals. Tell me, Lucian, what’s your next move? More bloodshed? More destruction? Or are you going to let the world burn just to satisfy your hatred?”

  Lucian sneered. “The world doesn’t deserve saving. It deserves cleansing.”

  “Cleansing?” Jace spoke up for the first time, his voice weak but defiant. “You want to cleanse humanity you’ve lost your damn mind, Lucian.” His words came out in a rush, fueled by the anger that had been building ever since he learned what Lucian had been doing.

  Lucian’s eyes flickered toward Jace, and he smiled, a dark, twisted expression. “You don’t get it, kid. You’ll never understand what it’s like to be broken. To be made into this,” Lucian motioned to his own metallic body, his scarred face and the cold, mechanical appendages. “We are the future. You’re all just accidents waiting to happen.”

  Axel’s hand clenched into a fist, his powers rippling through the room once more, the weight of the air thickening. “No, Lucian. This future doesn’t belong to you.”

  With that, Axel snapped his fingers, and the force of his powers threw Lucian across the room once more, crashing into a pile of debris. The sound of his armor scraping against the concrete echoed in the air. Jace, still dazed, managed to stay on his feet, watching the battle unfold.

  As Lucian struggled to rise, his armor screeching as it recalibrated, he let out a frustrated roar. “You’ll never win, Axel. You’re just another disgusting freak!”

  Jace’s eyes narrowed, the words fueling a new fire within him. “Then why don’t you show us Lucian?” he spat, pushing off the ground with what little strength he had left.