The wind whipped past Kai's hair as the helicopter blades churned the sea spray below. Richard carried him effortlessly, each step precise, unwavering, as though the world itself bent to his control. The small village blurred beneath them, cottages and alleys shrinking as they ascended toward the sky.
Kai's struggles continued, but Richard's arms were unshakable. Every twist, every kick, every attempt to wriggle free was met with the same calm, merciless grip. Kai's chest heaved, the taste of salt and adrenaline thick on his tongue, but the harder he fought, the more Richard's presence reminded him of the futility of defiance.
"You're going to be quiet now," Richard said softly, his voice carrying over the roar of the helicopter. He pressed Kai's face against his shoulder again, not cruelly, but with a controlling inevitability that stole Kai's breath. "This isn't a game. Father won't wait any longer."
Richard said calmly, but with underlying reprimand.
Kai gritted his teeth, struggling to speak. "I… I'm not yours to take!" he shouted, muffled against Richard's neck. "I… I have a life here! You don't —"
Richard silenced him with a firm tilt, adjusting Kai so that his arms instinctively wrapped around his brother's neck. It was an instinct, a reflex that Kai couldn't control, a strange reminder of blood and family ties he had spent years trying to escape.
"You are mine," Richard said, the words calm but ironclad. "And whether you like it or not, this is the only way it ends."
Kai's blue eyes blazed with defiance, even as he realized he couldn't escape. His power hummed beneath his skin, itching to cancel Richard's abilities, but the resonance of their shared blood made it unstable. The closer he got to Richard, the more his power faltered. The connection was undeniable.
The helicopter roared above them, a mechanical leviathan waiting to carry him back to the world he had run from. Kai knew what awaited him — Leon.
His father, whose blue lightning and suffocating aura had dominated every corner of his life. The thought should have terrified him. It didn't.
It made him furious.
"I will never belong to him!" Kai spat, struggling again, though he knew it was futile. The instinctive hold around Richard's neck tightened in response, a reminder that he was trapped not just physically, but by the blood that ran through their veins.
Richard's eyes softened — not entirely, but enough to make Kai's chest tighten. "You always have a choice," he said quietly, almost imperceptibly. "But running isn't one of them. Not anymore."
Kai's heart pounded, his mind racing. He had trained for assassins, for spies, for government hunts — but never for this. Never for the inevitable pull of family that made every attempt to resist feel like swimming against a tide he couldn't fight.
The helicopter blades spun faster, carrying them higher into the sky, and Kai realized with a cold certainty: the quiet life he had built on the edge of New Zealand was over. The storm had caught him. And in the sky, with his eldest brother holding him like a hostage, there was no running from the Asterians — not from Richard, and certainly not from Leon.
Kai's gaze met Richard's again, fiery and defiant. "If he wants me, he'll have to fight me," he growled, even as the helicopter hummed beneath them.
Richard's smirk was faint, ice-cold and knowing. "Oh, he will," he said. "And you'll find that fighting him… is nothing like fighting me."
Kai swallowed hard, gripping Richard instinctively, realizing the truth: the real storm was waiting for them. Below, above, and within — the legacy he had tried to escape was about to consume him.