Silence had returned, but in Seth's mind, there was still noise.He was breathing heavily, leaning against the cracked wall of the apartment. The cold floor beneath his knees reminded him he was alive. Exhausted, but alive.
Every muscle trembled. The visions had drained him. Not just of energy, but of something deeper — something he hadn't known could be lost.Maybe hope. Maybe clarity. Maybe his very identity.
He stayed there for a few minutes, then slowly leaned back, pulling his hood over his eyes.
Just a bit. Five minutes. That's all.
And sleep took him without asking.
He woke with his heart in his throat. A dream.
But not just any dream — that nightmare.The one that visited him more and more often, whispering things he didn't want to believe, but that felt too real to ignore.
He was home again.Not in the abandoned apartment. Not in the filth of the ruined city. But in that warm place, with pale yellow walls and the smell of mint tea.His wife, Ana, smiled from the kitchen. Their daughter, Maia, played on the carpet with a broken doll, inventing worlds only she knew.
"Daddyyy, come too!" Maia shouted, her big eyes sparkling.
Seth bent down, picked her up and spun her around laughing.They were happy. A moment suspended in time.
Then, the window shattered.
A sharp sound, followed by Ana's scream.
Maia slipped from his arms.
Instead of warm light, shadows flooded the house. A Savior — the same one from the visions, with a burned tattoo on his neck and a half-melted mask — stepped inside.
Seth screamed, but no sound came out.He ran toward Ana, but it felt like moving through water. Everything was slowed down.Maia lay on the floor. Eyes open. Heart silent.
"You weren't there for them," the Savior said, approaching with a calm, cold stride."Just like you won't be there for the next ones."
Seth struggled. Wanted to fight. Wanted to scream.
But all he could do was collapse to his knees, silently screaming as the shadows swallowed everything.
He woke up abruptly, hands shaking and eyes filled with tears.
He covered his face, trying to breathe.The pain was still there. As alive as it had been that day.He didn't need the Apex Eye to remember what he had lost. That didn't need activation. It lived inside him, in his chest, like a deep thorn that couldn't be pulled out.
"I promise you…" he whispered. "I won't let anyone die because of me ever again."
He stood up slowly. His joints cracked.There was more than just exhaustion in his eyes now. There was fire.
It was time.
He dressed quickly, with deliberate movements. Slung his backpack over his shoulder and checked his improvised protection mechanisms — not that he had much hope in them.
He slipped out in silence, vanishing into the shadows of the city.
The plan was risky. But risk had become part of the air he breathed.
Around an old building with tinted windows and heavy security, he had noticed suspicious activity days ago. Black uniforms, unfamiliar emblems.It wasn't the government. It was something else.
The Council.
He had tracked their movements in silence, studying the routines.One of the bodyguards — a Savior — seemed isolated from the others. He'd step away at some point to smoke, far from the building's lights.It was the perfect moment.
Seth waited there, in the dark.
Two seconds. A precise strike. A stab to the neck, a swift twist, and the Savior collapsed, unconscious.He didn't kill him. Not yet.He stripped him of his uniform and hid the body in a pile of trash.
Wearing the guard's clothes and a tinted helmet that covered his face, Seth slipped into the building.
Inside, it was sterile and cold. Concrete walls. Cold neon light. Long, silent corridors.Other guards in the halls — all with blank but alert expressions.In one corner, Seth heard voices coming from a large, closed room.
He approached, keeping his walk calculated.
Peeking through a slit, his eyes widened.
Inside were the Council members — eight people, each wearing white robes with golden symbols.Around them, holographic projectors displayed complex diagrams of the human brain, genetic models, and… beings.
Modified beings.
"Phase 3 begins this month," one of them said. "We already have over 300 subjects receptive to influence. When we rise, the government won't know what hit it."
Another added:
"Mind-controlled Saviors. Stable implants. We're close to a new kind of species. The world will no longer belong to humans."
Seth swallowed hard.This wasn't just about power.It was about rewriting the human species.
And they called it liberation.
But Seth knew what it really was: subjugation masked as progress.
He tried to retreat discreetly, but a hand touched his shoulder.
He froze.
A girl, about 22, with her hair tied in a tight bun and a technician's badge, looked at him closely.
"You're not one of us," she whispered. "Come with me. Now."
Seth hesitated for a second. Then followed her.
They slipped through a narrow corridor, passed through a tech room, and then a service stairwell. The girl typed a code into a hidden door, and it opened with a metallic sigh.
They stepped out into the night.
The cold air hit him hard.
"Why did you help me?" he asked, still on guard.
The girl looked at him intensely, her eyes filled with a mix of fury and pain.
"Because my brother is one of the ones they transformed. And I want to see them all burn."