The crater was still smoking. The air was thick with ash and the memory of fire. Wolfen stood at the edge, his hands bleeding, his ribs screaming, his heart doing something complicated that he didn't have a name for.
Absolute 5 stood across from him. His mask was dark grey, unreadable, but his posture was soft. Almost human.
"What, you're not going to greet your old man?"
Wolfen's jaw tightened. "You're not my old man. And no. I'm not going to do that." His voice was flat, cold, carved from stone. "You want to know why? Because you're the fifth thing I hate the most."
Absolute 5 tilted his head. "A09 told me you were going to come for me. But due to problems, you couldn't."
Wolfen's fists clenched. His nails dug into his palms, breaking skin, drawing blood. The pain was small. Familiar. He barely felt it.
"I was going to look for my sister."
Absolute 2 Eva watched from the edge of the crater. Her mask was black, her posture still. She looked at Wolfen's bleeding hands, then at Absolute 5, then at A09 standing behind him. She turned and walked away. No business here.
A09 took a step forward. Then stopped.
Absolute 5's voice was calm. "You can do whatever you want, A09. You've helped me a lot. Truly. I'm thankful." He paused. "You don't need to keep wearing that mask. Your days as an Architect are over. A09—or should I say, Sasha—go live your life."
A09 looked at him. At the ground. At Wolfen's bleeding hands. Then she walked past Wolfen, following the path Absolute 2 Eva had taken, disappearing into the smoke.
The crater was empty now. Just the two of them.
"I'm sorry, Wolfen."
Wolfen's eyes narrowed.
"I know I promised to—"
"Promise?" Wolfen cut him off. His voice was sharp, jagged, cutting through the apology like a blade. "I never believed in your promise."
Absolute 5 was silent.
"You planted gaps in my memories. Long ones. Years of nothing. Years of darkness. Years where I don't know what I did or what was done to me." Wolfen's voice was rising, cracking at the edges. "You wanted to prepare me for a life of solitude. The path you wanted me to walk."
Absolute 5's hands hung at his sides. "I wanted to protect you."
"From what?"
Silence.
"And who made me walk that path?" Wolfen's voice dropped. Deadly. Cold. "Who put me on it in the first place?"
Absolute 5's shoulders sagged. "I know I stole your humanity. I know I made you into a monster."
"No." Wolfen shook his head. "You didn't make me into a monster. You were too late for that. Someone already made me a monster before you ever found me."
Absolute 5's mask seemed to weigh heavier on his face. "I know you hate me. But for me... you're like a son. A son I don't deserve."
Wolfen stared at him. The fire inside him flickered. Died. Reignited.
"Let me clear something up for you." His voice was quiet now. Almost gentle. "I'm not your son. And you don't deserve me. Not because I'm good and you're bad." He paused. "Because I'm bad. And you're still... decently good."
Absolute 5's hands trembled. "If only you knew what I've done."
"I don't want to know." Wolfen turned away. "Keep it to yourself. Bury it. Take it to your grave. I don't care."
He started walking.
The ash crunched under his boots. The smoke curled around his legs. Behind him, Absolute 5 stood alone in the crater, his mask hiding whatever was left of his face.
"Wolfen."
He didn't stop.
"I am sorry."
Wolfen kept walking.
The crater faded behind him. The smoke swallowed the past. The future was somewhere ahead, waiting, and Wolfen had never been good at looking back.