The shockwave had been instantaneous and final. Rex stood in the choking, pulverized dust, the thick cloud settling around him like a shroud over a freshly killed world. Where the neat, blue suburban house and the manicured lawn had been, there was now only a vast expanse of smoking, fragmented wreckage. The force had not merely destroyed the neighborhood; it had rendered it into fine powder and shrapnel, giving the aftermath the horrifying quality of a sudden, localized nuclear bomb.
Utter shock was etched across Rex's face, his eyes wide and vacant as he struggled to process the scale of the annihilation. The air was a metallic mix of ozone and burnt concrete, and through the haze, he began to hear it: the faint, muffled sounds of lingering agony. Different agonizing screams, each thin and almost soundless in the vast debris field, clawed at the silence, testaments to the lives violently extinguished in the blink of an eye.
Junn King, by contrast, remained immaculate, his white suit unblemished by the surrounding chaos. He began to walk deeper into the rubble, his pace slow and deliberate. Rex, numb and driven by a desperate need for answers, stumbled after him.
"Millennia ago, there were eternals, primal entities that each represent what exists today: Reality, Space, Love, Hate, Darkness, Knowledge..." Junn stated, his voice calm and instructional, completely at odds with the surrounding destruction. "On this very day, the embodiment of light, Elyohr, once pure and untainted by evil, became these world's very end."
They stopped walking, standing right at the edge of a massive, scorch-marked 100-meter crater. The ground was warped and black, the center a deep pit. Rex stared down, the horror of disbelief clear on his face.
Standing in the center of that crater was a man who physically looked to be in his twenties. He had fair skin, black spiky hair, and vivid yellow iris eyes. He wore a black buttoned shirt under a red puffer jacket and black pants with two horizontal white band lines on the left side, finished with black combat boots.
"Why... why are you showing me this?" Rex asked, his voice barely a raw whisper.
"Because... Revan's death, triggers this event." Junn stated simply, his white eyes fixed on the man in the crater.
"Who is he, Revan?" Rex asked, feeling a cold dread that went deeper than the shock of the explosion.
"Revan, like you, is a man devoted to love. My brother… Lon Hux has manipulated him. Turned him into what he is blind to acknowledge, death weaponized."
Deep in the crater, the man had his arm extended. A full circular yellow portal, shimmering with an unnatural, chaotic energy, appeared in front of him. He took a deliberate step toward it, seeking escape or ingress.
Before he could reach it, a large boulder, the size of a car, slammed into him from the side. The impact was deafening, and the boulder shattered against his body, sending him skidding across the scorched earth.
The man slowly got up, settling onto one knee, his yellow eyes fixed on his attacker.
Running up toward him was a bald man, wearing a damaged black armored bodysuit.
"Wait... I know that man," Rex gasped, instantly recognizing the bald man. Jimmy, a familiar face, a friend, someone from his own world. The sight of a known ally in this horrifying past event was a fresh, excruciating violation.
Jimmy suddenly stopped in his tracks, his armored body freezing. He looked down at his right palm, his face contorting in an expression of raw, agonizing pain. Then, a bright white light burst out of his bleeding eyes and mouth in an instant, the pure light overwhelming his form. Just as suddenly, the light stopped, and Jimmy fell lifeless to the ground.
The man remained kneeling, watching Jimmy fall as he had his hand extended and wore a chilling smile, clearly having been the one to execute Jimmy.
Rex relentlessly stopped himself from trying to head down the crater, his muscles coiling, the kinetic fury momentarily overcoming his shock. He was about to charge the distance to save his friend's ghost, but Junn's presence rooted him in place.
Before Rex could fully succumb to the desperate urge, a final sound cut the air:
SNAP.
Another snap from Junn's fingers.
The shattered ruins and the horrific vision vanished. Rex found himself standing in a void of only grey clouds everywhere, stretching endlessly in all directions. The oppressive vastness pressed in on him—clouds above, clouds below, clouds at every horizon. Thunder rumbled in the distance, a low, constant growl that made the cloudscape feel alive and watchful.
"Where… Where are we now, Junn?" Rex asked, his voice hollow.
"A personal space of mine," Junn chuckled, spreading his arms wide as if embracing the infinite grey expanse. "I come here to clear my mind or come up with more ideas."
Rex steadied himself on the solid-yet-ethereal cloud surface beneath his feet. The air was thick with electricity, making the hair on his arms stand on end.
Junn turned to face him fully, his white eyes gleaming with something between amusement and sympathy. The smile faded from his lips, replaced by an expression Rex couldn't quite read, "This is were you will make your decision."
"But before that," Junn said, his voice dropping to something more serious, "let me tell you the dark truth."
Rex's jaw clenched. "What truth?"
Junn began to pace in a slow circle around Rex, his pristine white suit somehow remaining immaculate despite the charged moisture in the air.
"Every path you take from this moment forward, every decision you make, every change you try to implement..." Junn paused, letting the words hang in the electric air. "Will ultimately lead to the same end."
Rex's eyes narrowed. "What end?"
"The end of everything." Junn stopped pacing, facing Rex directly. "This world, your world, everything— they all converge on a single point of annihilation. You can save individuals. You can delay the inevitable. You can even purify this radioactive hellscape or activate whatever machinery lies in that watchtower." He gestured vaguely at the clouds around them. "But the final outcome? It remains the same."
The words hit Rex like a physical blow. His fists clenched at his sides, the faint purple spark trying and failing to ignite around his knuckles.
"Then why?" Rex's voice was raw, desperate. "Why are you telling me this? Why show me any of this if it doesn't matter?"
Junn's smile returned, but it was different now— almost melancholic.
"Why not?" He shrugged, the gesture oddly human for someone who clearly wasn't. "Better to know now than later, wouldn't you agree? At least this way, you can make your choices with open eyes. You can fight knowing it's futile, or you can embrace the futility and find meaning in the struggle itself."
"That's..." Rex's breath came faster, anger and helplessness warring in his chest. "That's sick."
"Is it?" Junn tilted his head. "Or is it the only honest mercy I can offer? You're going to suffer either way, Rex Kenway. You're going to lose people either way. The question is whether you want to do it while clinging to false hope or with the dignity of understanding the true nature of your existence."
Rex took a step forward, his voice rising. "So what, we're all just puppets? Pawns in some cosmic game between you and your brother?"
"Not puppets," Junn corrected gently. "More like... characters. Characters in a story that's already been written, but one where the author is still curious to see how you'll perform your parts." He spread his hands. "My brother, Lon, strives for tragedies. I, however, prefer to see if there's any beauty in the resistance against them."
The thunder rumbled louder, and Rex felt the weight of the revelation crushing down on him. Every fight, every sacrifice, every moment of desperate hope— all of it leading to the same obliteration he'd just witnessed.
"I still don't get why I should make a decision at all?" Rex demanded, his voice breaking. "Why not just let me die with my friends?"
Junn's expression softened— an almost paternal look crossing his ageless features.
"Because even in a predetermined story, the journey is what matters. The choices you make, the people you save along the way, the man you become in the face of impossible odds— those things echo beyond the erasure. They matter in ways you can't comprehend yet." He stepped closer. "And because I'm curious, Rex. I want to see what you'll do when you know it's all for nothing. Will you give up? Or will you fight anyway?"
Rex stood there, trembling—not from fear, but from the sheer enormity of what he'd just been told. His mind flashed to April's frail face, to Lily's gap-toothed smile, to his team.
"You're a bastard," Rex whispered.
"Yes," Junn agreed pleasantly. "But an honest one."
He snapped his fingers.
The cloudscape around them shifted, and suddenly they were standing in a wide, dead grass field, littered with corpses draped everywhere. The bodies were in various states of decay—some fresh, others reduced to skeletal remains. The air reeked of death and rot. In the distance, a tall, imposing grey watchtower rose against a bruised sky, its structure flashing with rhythmic warning lights that cut through the gloom.
Junn gestured toward the tower with a theatrical flourish.
"There are two options; One!" His voice took on a game-show quality. "Save this world by heading into that watchtower over there and turn on a machine." He paused, grinning. "I won't tell you what it is, or what it does, or what you'll be getting yourself into, so... good luck!"
Before Rex could respond, Junn snapped his fingers again.
The dead field vanished. They were suddenly suspended in an overwhelming, deafening expanse of roiling grey stormclouds. Lightning arced between massive thunderheads, illuminating the churning chaos in brilliant, stroboscopic flashes. The clouds beneath their feet crackled with green-tinged energy, the visible signature of radiation poisoning the very atmosphere.
Thunder boomed so loud Rex felt it in his bones. The air itself felt toxic, heavy with the promise of mutation and death.
Junn had to raise his voice over the cacophony.
"Two! You turn this entire radioactive storm, the source of all these mutations, into a cloud that purifies the world!" He gestured at the seething chaos around them. "And to do that, you have to go to the place it originated from: the source!" He pointed downward, through the layers of poisonous clouds. "Somewhere down there, at the heart of this tempest, is ground zero. Find it, transform it, save everyone."
He snapped his fingers one more time.
They returned to the calm grey cloudscape—Junn's personal void. The sudden silence after the storm was almost painful.
Rex stood there, processing. Two impossible tasks. And according to Junn, both ultimately meaningless.
"And if I don't do any of those options?" Rex demanded, the purple light in his eyes flaring with contained fury. "What then? You just kill me here?"
Junn simply shrugged, his smile wide and utterly devoid of concern.
"That's your decision. I'll just go watch the others. Leave you here to die like every other person in this world."
The casual dismissal was like a punch to the gut. Watch the others. The simple phrase shattered the icy stillness of Rex's rage, reminding him of the lie about Arthur and Zane's deaths.
"The others." Rex seized on the word, the purple fading to a desperate white. "Where are the rest of my people?"
Junn sighed dramatically, waving a dismissive hand.
"Oh, they're fine. Just doing their own thing, exploring a new 'scenario,' so to say." He examined his fingernails casually. "You know, you'd be wise to focus on this world and your survival. Purify the world or head to that tower, or else there will be more problems on your hands, and everyone else's."
Junn's eyes, momentarily cold, drifted over the silent, electric clouds. His tone turned serious for the first time.
"This little radioactive experiment of mine… is more than just a quest, Rex. Do not forget that nor try hard to figure out what I mean because there will be consequences. And You'll have to clean up the mess. A suitable form of penance, wouldn't you agree?"
Rex took a single, deliberate step toward Junn, planting his feet firmly on the shimmering cloud surface. The bright purple returned to his eyes, not as a flash of power, but as a hard, determined gleam.
"How do I know any of this is real?" Rex challenged, gesturing at the clouds, the visions of the dead field and the storm. "How do I know this isn't all just a trick? That you're actually the same asshole that's trying to kill Claire?"
Junn's smile softened, becoming something less mocking and more appreciative. It was the smile of an artist admiring a clever student.
"Thinking like that is what makes it all interesting, no?"
He leaned in slightly, his white eyes boring into Rex's purple ones.
"But ask yourself this, Rex Kenway: even if it is a trick, even if none of this is real, even if every word I've spoken is a lie..." He spread his hands. "What choice do you have but to act as if it matters?"
Rex's breath caught. Because that was the trap, wasn't it? Real or not, predetermined or not, he couldn't just give up. Not while there was even a chance that someone could be saved.
Junn saw the realization cross Rex's face and his smile widened.
"And there it is. That beautiful human stubbornness. That's why you're my favorite."
Junn King snapped his fingers one final time.