The datapad lay on the floor, flickering with that cursed headline. The soft whirring of Velaria's distant traffic barely made it through the sealed windows of Alan's high-tier residence—but inside this room, it felt like the world had frozen.
Alya stared at the screen like it might erase itself. Nolan leaned against the wall, arms folded, but his face betrayed his unease.
They had seen those five men the day before. GG tech officials. Clean suits, cruel grins. The ones who pushed Alya, who called Nolan gutter-rat. Laughed while doing it. The kind of people who walked above laws, wrapped in government silk and Nexus arrogance.
Now?
Now they were in hospitals, hooked up to machines—not dead, but broken.
Minds fractured. Nerves twitching. All they could say, over and over again, was one word: "I'm sorry."
Nolan looked at Alya.
Alya looked at the hallway.
They didn't say it.
But they knew.
Alan.
They found him upstairs in his private room. No armor. No weapons. Just black joggers and a t-shirt. A glass of water on the table. Blood was no longer dripping from his hand, but the dried streaks on the tile still told the story.
He didn't look at them when they entered.
Didn't move.
Just sat in the corner, chewing gum like nothing happened.
ALYA: "It was them… wasn't it?"
Her voice came out shaky, too soft for her usual fire.
NOLAN (quieter):"We saw them yesterday… alive."
Alan plucked the gum from his mouth and flicked it into the dustbin.
A cold, hollow metallic ping echoed through the silence.
He stood slowly, with a predator's casual grace.
ALAN: "It's not because I'm affectionate with you."
He walked toward the tall glass window. Raindrops traced silent trails across the surface, a city weeping without emotion.
ALAN (continued):"It's because I made a promise."
He didn't turn to them.
Didn't flinch.
NOLAN (confused):"What promise?"
Alan's red eyes reflected the city's distant lights, glowing with something older than rage.
ALAN: "Time tells better than I do."
Then came the gesture—simple, cold, commanding.
ALAN: "Sit. Both of you."
They obeyed without speaking. Something in the air wrapped around their bones and pulled them down.
Alan stepped forward.
His voice sharpened. Reality was about to cut.
ALAN: "You want to know why I protect you? Why I put my name on your heads?"
He didn't wait for them to answer.
He didn't need to.
ALAN (continued):"Because this world is built to erase you."
He began pacing—slow, like a lion thinking through murder.
ALAN: "Velaria doesn't care who you are. It cares who owns you. If you're not backed, you're not human. You're property. Market rats, like they said."
He turned his head slightly, just enough to let the weight of his stare fall on them.
ALAN: "I've seen kids smarter than Nolan, stronger than Alya, turned into organ farms before they hit sixteen. Sold to the highest bidder because they pissed off the wrong suit."
The room shrank around them. The weight of those words wasn't metaphorical—it was physical.
Like gravity itself got heavier.
ALAN: "I've watched people beg. On their knees. Holding their dead siblings, crying for help that never came. And the suits? They laughed."
His voice remained a monotone. That's what made it worse.
There was no fire. No anger.
Just truth.
Dead and cold.
ALAN: "I've had to break into government black sites to retrieve corpses… just so a mother could bury something."
Nolan gritted his teeth. Alya looked away.
Alan didn't stop.
ALAN: "I've slaughtered entire rooms full of Nexus hunters—each of them laughing while dissecting a conscious child. Not for research. For entertainment."
He stepped closer.
Too close.
Alya had never felt so small.
ALAN: "They think suffering is currency. Pain is policy. The only reason you're alive is because I pulled you out early."
The silence between breaths was unbearable.
ALAN: "If I hadn't, you'd be trophies now. Or worse—invisible."
Then he crouched slightly, his tone suddenly softer—but so much darker.
ALAN: "You don't get to feel sorry when filth like those five suffer. You don't get to mourn animals."
Alya didn't dare speak. Her throat was too dry.
ALAN: "What I did to them wasn't murder."
A pause. A crooked smirk tugged at his face.
ALAN: "It was education."
The air in the room turned frigid.
Even the rain seemed to quiet down outside.
Nolan finally managed to speak.
His voice was no longer hesitant—it was afraid.
NOLAN: "If… if we wanted to leave?"
Alan didn't move at first.
Then he turned his head slowly, as if such a question insulted physics.
ALAN: "Then I'd suggest you start praying."
His voice hit like a guillotine.
He sat down in front of them, resting his arms on his knees, face shadowed by the overhead light.
ALAN: "Leave me, and the GG will find you before the week ends. They'll take your blood, your bones, your thoughts—and sell the leftovers to Nexus for experiments."
Each word was a hammer. Every syllable sharpened by lived hell.
ALAN (continued):"They'll inject you with things that burn your soul. Rip open your brain for data. Hollow you out to see what makes you 'resist.' You'll scream until your vocal cords snap… and they'll record it. For research."
The images burned into their minds like acid.
Alya looked like she might throw up.
But Alan wasn't finished.
ALAN: "But if you stay?"
A pause.
This one heavier than all the others.
ALAN (continued):"You become monsters."
NOLAN: "Monsters?"
ALAN: "Strong. Unforgiving. Silent when needed. Loud when it matters. Feared. Not pitied. You either become predators or prey."
Alan stood again.
He picked up the datapad from the table and stared at the screen one last time.
ALAN: "Those men didn't scream. They whispered. I didn't need to kill them. Just… show them what silence feels like when the walls start closing."
He looked back at them.
His voice dropped into the deepest, quietest part of hell.
ALAN:"I didn't promise to protect you."
Step closer.
The weight of his presence was unbearable.
ALAN:"I promised to forge you."
The silence afterward could've swallowed time.
Alya stood.
Her hands were shaking, but her eyes were steady.
ALYA: "Then forge us."
Nolan followed her—no fear in his eyes, only resolve.
NOLAN: "We'll do anything. We'll live. We'll protect. Just tell us what to do."
Alan didn't smile.
He didn't blink.
He just nodded once.
ALAN: "Then the pact begins now."