Chapter 3 - Aftermath of reveal

In the sterilized, high-security briefing room of the GDI High Council, the air was thick with a different kind of toxin: pure, unfiltered shock. The live feed from the stratos-drone played out on the massive tactical display, showing the "Broken Talon" camp in crystal-clear detail.

Director Redmond Boyle leaned forward, his knuckles white as he gripped the edge of the mahogany table. Beside him, General Jack Granger watched with a grim, unreadable expression.

Ignatio Mobius... that man was a fraud. A glorified gardener who saw a new ecosystem and tried to pull it out like a weed. He called tiberium a 'cancer' because he was too incompetent to map its resonance. He spent billions of GDI's credits on containment while the solution was staring him in the face: you don't fight the crystal, you re-code it.

Is he... is he actually reversing the crystallization? That's impossible. Mobius said the process was as irreversible as aging.

Granger didn't look away from the screen as Umbra, the mutant leader, stood tall—his face smooth, his humanity restored by the very substance GDI used to justify their wars.

Mobius followed the science of the old world.

Granger said quietly, though the bite in his voice was clear.

This boy... this Edward Green... is using the science of the new one.

It's a trick, a nod propaganda stunt. They've probably staged this with actors and specialized makeup. There is no 'cure' for Tiberium, General. There is only containment and eradication.

Boyle hissed, though even his usual bravado sounded hollow.

Behold, the failure of GDI science. They use your taxes to build ion cannons to burn this world, while the brotherhood uses the very resource they fear to mend it. Mobius was a hack who feared the future. I am the future.

The council members shifted uncomfortably. They weren't looking at a terrorist; they were looking at a savior. For decades, GDI had positioned itself as the only hope for humanity against the "plague." If this feed were to leak, the yellow zones—where billions lived in filth and fear of the crystal—would flip to nod in a single day.

A senior analyst noted while tapping a tablet.

He's right about one thing, our scanners are reading a massive drop in the local tiberium signature. He isn't just curing the man; he's 'stabilizing' the environment. He's doing with a needle what we couldn't do with a thousand Sonic Emitters.

Boyle turned to Granger, his eyes narrow and dangerous.

General, this broadcast ends now. I want a Firehawk strike on those coordinates. Level the camp. I want every trace of that 'serum' and that doctor turned into a crater.

They're civilians, Redmond.

Granger countered, his voice rising.

And if Green is right, we've spent forty years chasing a ghost while he found the key. We don't kill him. We capture him. We need to know if Mobius really was a fraud.

Edward, back in the wasteland, knelt to adjust the dosage for a young mutant child, completely unaware that he had just turned the GDI's greatest scientific minds into a laughingstock in front of their own leaders.

In the silence of his private lab, Ignatio Mobius had ignored three priority calls from the High Council. His eyes were glued to a molecular reconstruction of the "Broken Talon" broadcast. He wasn't just watching; he was re-running the chemical equations he had written twenty years ago.

The protein-lattice structure... it's not a static prison.

Ignatio realized, his heart hammering against his ribs.

I assumed the crystal was a parasite that replaced carbon-based life. I was wrong. It's a chrysalis.

He pulled up his original 1995 data and ran it through a modern resonance filter. The mistake glared back at him like a neon sign. Because he had approached Tiberium with the goal of containment, he had only studied how to kill it. He had completely missed the "Resonance Key"—the specific frequency at which liquid tiberium could be used to reorganize mutated DNA back to its original state.

 gave them the wrong data. I told them the planet was dying when it was actually... adapting. God help me, I've spent my life fighting a war against a solution.

Meanwhile, the GDI War Room was in total meltdown. Redmond Boyle was pacing so fast he was nearly running.

Boyle hissed, his voice cracking with fear.

Mobius just sent his update. He confirms it. He says the boy—Green—found a 're-coding' method that he completely overlooked. He admits he gave the GDI Council false scientific foundations for the last two decades!

Boyle slammed his fist into the console.

Do you realize what this means, Granger? If the public learns we could have been curing the poisoned instead of just walling them off in yellow zones, they won't just protest. They will hunt us down. My position, your command, the entire GDI structure... it'll collapse under the weight of this blunder.

General Jack Granger looked at the screen with a grim, tactical focus.

Then we don't let them find out. Not until we control the cure ourselves.

Jack then ordered the elite zone trooper squads.

Ignatio admits he can't replicate the re-coding yet. He's too far behind. If we want to save GDI's reputation and the human race, we need the source. Vanguard Squad, move in. I want Edward Green secured. Use Zone Trooper extraction protocols. If he won't come willingly, stun him. But do not let his research fall into the hands of a rival Nod faction.

Edward was still deep in his work at the camp, oblivious to the fact that his "badmouthing" of Mobius had just been proven scientifically accurate by Mobius himself.

Ignatio... you bastard. Either you had a fake degree or you are completely incompetent. Even a fool can determine the exact nature of these crystals now.

He sighed, checking the pulse of a Forgotten youth whose skin was finally losing its translucent green tint.

It's no wonder the Prophet abhors those blind GDI fools. Just because Mobius didn't research the crystals properly, the whole world suffered. Let's focus on finding a way to evolve them further. The patient is cured and those Zone Troopers won't find this place easily.

He turned back to his centrifuge, unaware that because he had proven Mobius wrong, he had just become the most hunted man on the planet.