The vision of the Vulture armada had shattered the world's arrogance. The political posturing was over, replaced by the cold, frantic urgency of a species that had just been told its extinction was scheduled. The politicians and generals retreated to their respective capitals to deliver the grim news, leaving the seven heroes—the true architects of the coming war—alone in the quiet of the Giza pavilion.
The air was thick with the silent weight of their shared terror. They were no longer representatives of their nations; they were seven survivors, staring into an abyss.
"A unified command led by the Alliance is unacceptable," Lin Feng stated, his voice a flat, hard line that broke the silence. "We would be trading one master for another."
"But a committee of nations is a guaranteed failure," Jack countered, pacing the floor, his mind already working through the impossible logistics. "We saw it in Tokyo. By the time they finished arguing about jurisdiction, the city was a tomb. We don't have time for diplomacy. We need a chain of command. A fast, brutal, efficient one."
"Then it will not be a chain of nations," said Amira, her voice imbued with the calm, ancient authority of the spirits she communed with. "It will be a chain of us. A new power, independent of the old world, loyal only to the mission of survival."
The idea was radical. Treasonous, even. To demand that the world's governments hand over their most powerful assets—their Awakened soldiers, their most advanced technology—to an independent, non-state entity.
"They will never agree," Ivan Petrov rumbled, his voice like the grinding of a glacier. "They will see it as a threat to their own sovereignty."
"Then we must make them an offer they cannot refuse," Sophia Cohen said, her voice quiet but firm. "We do not ask them to give up their power for nothing. We ask them to invest it. We must each give something of our own. A dowry, to build this new family."
A new, pragmatic silence settled over the group. This was the price. To gain their independence, they had to offer up their most guarded secrets, their most precious treasures.
Sophia was the first to step forward. "The Light of Life and I will offer the complete, mass-producible formula for the anti-aberrant virus cure," she declared. "No patents, no restrictions. A gift to the world, to be distributed by this new coalition. It will be our first act of global healing."
The weight of her offer was immense, a humanitarian gesture of incalculable value.
Diego met her gaze and nodded. "The LAAU will sanction the Amazon Guardian Zone not as a national asset, but as a global training ground for all Awakened. The forest will test them, teach them, and forge them into warriors worthy of defending it."
Jack, speaking for himself but with the tacit approval of the EAC, stepped up to the holographic display. "I will give you the Sentinel program. All of it. The complete, uncensored schematics for the Titan and its successors, including the fatal neural flaw. And I will lead a new development team, loyal only to this coalition, to build a new generation of mechs. Machines that serve the pilot, not enslave them."
The offer of the world's most advanced military technology sent a ripple of shock through the room.
Lin Feng, after a silent, meaningful glance from Director Chen who watched from a distance, spoke next. "The East Asian Community will share its most guarded secret: the psycho-energetic training regimens that combine ancient martial arts with Awakened biology. We will teach every soldier of this coalition how to master the energy within, to be more efficient, more powerful. We will sharpen every sword."
Sakura, a ghost of a figure, simply held up her hand. A tiny, perfect fissure in space, a sliver of void, appeared and vanished above her palm. "I will be your logistics," she said, her voice a soft whisper that carried more weight than a general's roar. "I will move your armies, your supplies, your hope, from one side of the world to the other in a single breath."
All eyes then turned to the silent, imposing figure from the north. Ivan Petrov. The traitor. The deserter.
"I have no nation to speak for," he said, his voice a low, gravelly rumble. "I offer only myself, and the loyalty of the men who followed me. But I do not come empty-handed." He looked at each of them, his gaze cold and hard. "I bring with me a strategic asset. A power source capable of altering battlefield thermodynamics on a continental scale. I cannot reveal its nature, not yet. But I pledge it, and my life, to this cause."
Finally, Amira brought the circle to a close. "And I," she said, her eyes glowing with a faint, golden light, "will be your eyes and ears. My Eidolon team, and the council of spirits I speak for, will give you intelligence that no satellite can see. We will read the enemy's past in the stones and listen for the whispers of their future on the wind."
They stood in the shadow of the pyramids, seven disparate souls from seven warring worlds. They had laid their greatest treasures on the altar of survival. The price had been named. The alliance had been paid for. And in that moment, the Global Awakened Coalition was no longer a desperate idea. It was a reality.