Inside the Division-7 hovercraft, the atmosphere was cold and clinical, all steel, humming engines, and steady pulses of blue light from reinforced restraints and medical units.
Kade sat cuffed to a magnetic bench, glaring across the hold. His mask had been forcibly removed. Dried blood marked his temple from the scuffle. But his eyes, sharp, calculating, never left the pod holding Dævd.
The containment capsule was clear on one side, surrounded by energy dampeners, stabilizers, and a flickering vitals monitor. Dævd lay unconscious inside, bandaged, barely moving but alive. The glowing veins of power beneath his skin had faded to a dull pulse.
"Tough kid." Kade muttered under his breath.
On the opposite bench, Jules was slumped, still unconscious but lightly strapped in. Some agent must've slapped a pulse patch on him mid-flight, his chest rose and fell, shallow but steady. His gear had been confiscated and piled in a crate at the rear of the cabin. Wires and gadgets were spilling out like a gutted machine.
Across the chamber, Rena stood beside a Division-7 analyst projecting data in the air: energy charts, seismic logs, atmospheric shifts, all of it traced back to one point.
The clash.
The fight between Dævd and Irohk had broken more than just the city. It had triggered waves of planetary disruption, energy signatures on par with weapons of mass extinction. Weather systems were destabilizing. Radiation pulses from whatever Dævd had done in his final attack still rippled across regional sensors.
"His energy readings dropped the moment he blacked out," the analyst said. "But whatever those eyes are… they temporarily hijacked gravity, magnetism, even thermal pressure in the area. We've never seen anything like it."
Rena's eyes narrowed. She stared at Dævd's still form and for a brief second, her expression cracked. Not fear… something deeper.
"Whatever's out there…." she said quietly, almost to herself. "… he's our best option."
The craft jolted gently as it began its descent toward Division-7 HQ, a sleek, secret facility nestled beneath a remote, mountainous terrain.
From the skies, the crimson hue still lingered, as if the clouds were stained by the blood spilled below.
Kade leaned his head back against the wall, breathing slow and deliberate. He closed his eyes, his mind racing not with escape plans, but with one thought:
"We weren't ready… And that wasn't even the worst of them."
The world came back to Dævd in fragments.
A low beeping. Cold air. The sterile hum of machines. The faint, high-pitched buzz of energy restraints. His head throbbed, and every muscle in his body screamed like it had been torn apart and stitched back together with lightning.
He opened his eyes.
White ceiling. Fluorescent lights. He blinked again. A tinted glass wall surrounded him, curving slightly, a reinforced containment room. Monitors tracked his vitals. Sensors pulsed across his skin, reading his cellular data in real time. His wrists were strapped to the sides of the medbed, but loosely as if whoever restrained him wasn't sure it would matter.
"Where…"
His voice cracked. Dry. Hollow. He tried to sit up but immediately hissed in pain. His ribs ached. His shoulder was bandaged, and burn marks laced his left forearm where Irohk's flames had seared him.
Then the memories came rushing back, Irohk. The meteors. The screaming. The little girl. Sovereign Cut. Blood. So much blood.
Dævd clenched his fists. They were shaking.
A door hissed open.
Rena stepped in, her uniform pressed, eyes sharp behind her glasses. Her gaze was sharp, but not hostile.
"You're awake," she said. "Took you long enough." she said, her tone unreadable.
Dævd looked at her, silent.
"You burned out nearly every sensor in Lagos. Global satellites caught your energy spike from orbit. You tore apart a Branded that could've potentially wiped out an entire country. And your sword…" She shook her head. "Our analysts can't even categorize it."
He still didn't respond. Just stared.
Rena stepped closer. The guards tensed, but she raised a hand.
"We're not here to hurt you, Dævd. You're not our prisoner."
She tapped a console. The restraints around his arms hissed and released.
"But you are under observation."
Dævd slowly sat up, eyes flicking toward the sword, then back at her.
He was quiet for a beat.
Then he finally asked, voice low:
"…Where's the girl?"
Rena blinked. "What?"
"The little girl," he said, more firmly. "I carried her to your men before I went back. She had blood on her face. She passed out in my arms."
Rena's features softened, just slightly. She looked at her datapad.
"She's alive. Stable. She's one of the only ones who made it out of that sector."
A pause. "You saved her."
Dævd looked down. A subtle tremble ran through his fingers again. "Not enough."
A silence settled over the room. Not awkward. Heavy.
Rena finally said, "After what you survived, you're lucky to even be conscious."
Before he could reply, another voice came from the doorway.
"Maybe," Lila said, stepping in. "Or maybe he's just built differently."
Dævd turned his head, eyes widening ever so slightly as Lila stepped into the room.
Her eyes locked with his, and for a moment, the weight of the last few days, the pain, the battle, the fire, lifted, just slightly.
"Lila…" Dævd breathed.
She walked straight to him, no hesitation, past Rena, past the tension.
Without a word, she reached out and pulled him into a gentle embrace.
"I told you to be careful," she whispered, voice trembling despite her strength. "You always do this… bear it alone."
Dævd's fists clenched again, but softer this time, the pain finally starting to feel real. He didn't resist her embrace.
"…I couldn't save everyone."
"No," Rena admitted quietly. "You didn't."
"But you saved many." She said, pulling back to look him in the eye. You gave them a chance. That little girl? She's alive because of you… that means something."
Rena stood to the side, watching quietly, no objections. Lila clearly wasn't new to this facility. In fact, from her security clearance and confident demeanor, she might have held rank here long before Dævd ever arrived.
She turned to Rena. "He stays under my watch. Agreed?"
Rena took a deep breath, regaining composure. "Agreed. But he's still not cleared for field deployment. Yet. We'll talk more soon. For now, get your strength back. This world just changed and whether we like it or not… you're in the center of it."
She gave Lila a small nod and exited.
Lila looked back at Dævd and smiled faintly.
"You're not alone anymore, Dævd. We'll face what's coming together."