Grief carved me in half. And fury honed the pieces into a weapon. Now it was time to unleash it." ― Kerri Maniscalco (Kingdom of the Wicked)

* * * *

The silence that surrounded them is almost ominous.

The faint scent of roasted beans and aged wood permeated the warm air of Cross Café, a curious blend of cozy ambiance and subterranean grit. Afternoon light filtered through narrow, stained-glass windows, casting muted rainbows across the lacquered mahogany bar.

Vinyl jazz murmured low in the background, its husky saxophone croon giving the room a strange, almost nostalgic melancholy. In a corner booth cloaked in shadow, three figures sat.

Sera Kroix leaned back in the booth, her body relaxed, but her eyes sharp. Beside her sat Zest, his form taut and upright like a coiled spring, one hand resting on the table, the other clenched beneath it.

Across from them, Lucas Alescio sat stiffly. His ESA badge wasn't visible, but it may as well have been stamped across his forehead. His expression was tense, a tangle of suspicion, confusion, and a gnawing sense of betrayal he hadn't yet dared name. The cup of black coffee in front of him had long gone cold.

There was a beat of silence, long and weighted.

The seconds that ticked by felt almost like hours even as Lucas sat on one side of the booth, staring at Sera and Zest, who occupied the other side, even as they stared back at him coolly.

Neither one of the two opposite Lucas looked intimidated or concerned in the least, merely waiting for Lucas to begin their conversation.

Finally, Lucas sighed. "I'll go straight to the point," he said at last, breaking the silence, "Aegis… And Zero…" Lucas didn't miss the way Sera's fingers twitched when he mentioned the two names, "It's you, isn't it, Sera?"

Sera gave nothing away as she leaned back into the seat. "What makes you think that?"

"That reaction for one," Lucas answered, his eyes never moving away from Sera's. "And it's also the little things that you've said over the years that I've known you. You never speak out against either the hunters or even the ESA. But it's obvious you didn't like them. Then awhile back, I met someone that told me about Blade, and even about Blade's leader." He revealed. Again, Sera gave nothing away. Neither did Zest. "Aegis's formation came about not long after Blade's demise. All the clues add up."

"Hmm. You're sharper than you look." Sera noted. "I was actually wondering how long it's going to take you to figure it out."

"You're not denying it?"

Sera and Zest exchanged looks—a silent message passing between their eyes.

"Let me ask you something," Sera said at last, her voice smooth and quiet, but cutting, like a blade wrapped in velvet. Her eyes locked onto Lucas unflinchingly. "Let's assume that you're right about everything. Me being Zero. Being the leader of Aegis…" Her fingers tapped once against the wood. "Why do you think I'm doing this? For what reason am I doing this?"

Lucas swallowed hard. He'd asked the question moments ago—boldly, almost recklessly, but now that the moment had arrived, it suddenly felt like standing at the edge of a cliff, one foot dangling in the air.

This was Sera. Mysterious, sharp-witted, and almost impossible to pin down. For as long as he'd known her, even before the ESA had its eye on Aegis—she had always answered questions with more questions. Riddles in riddles. A game of shadows.

She always liked to make him work for his answers. Sometimes, Lucas has no idea if she finds some kind of perverse enjoyment in making him think and figure out puzzles instead of giving him the answers he seeks.

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And yet, he had followed her. Or perhaps, in some way, he had always hoped she would let him follow.

"Do you think they're doing the right thing?"

"Someone needs to protect the Gifted community."

His past conversations with Sera, Tiara, and even Timo came to the fore of his mind just then.

Lucas forced himself to speak. "Because you're angry. You saw what they did. You're a Gifted. And… You're tired of being hunted."

Sera tilted her head. There was a faint gleam of approval in her eyes, but it was quickly masked by something colder. "There's more to it," she said.

Lucas's jaw tightened. "It's the hunters. You're going after them."

"Right and wrong," Sera said calmly, then leaned forward just slightly. "I was the leader of Blade, as you already know. That's no secret. I've stopped pretending. Everyone in the underground knew. Anyone who asks the right people, and pays the right price, will find out everything they need to about Elvryn and Blade."

Her tone changed then. It dipped lower. Like something sacred was about to be unearthed.

"Two years ago, hunters attacked. We didn't provoke. We didn't fight back, until we were forced to. Blade was more than a gang; it was a family. A home. We protected Elvryn. Some of us were Gifted. Most of us weren't. We had children. We had dreamers. Do you know what the hunters did, Lucas?"

Her voice faltered for just a heartbeat, barely perceptible.

"They burned everything. They tore the streets apart. They slaughtered indiscriminately. Normal or Gifted, it didn't matter. If you were with Blade, if you wore our colours and our symbol, you were guilty by association."

Lucas's face had gone pale. "They…wouldn't—"

"You think they wouldn't?" Zest suddenly snapped, his voice slicing through the air. "You think they wouldn't kill a child if they thought she once sat next to a Gifted at dinner? You're so goddamn naïve, Alescio."

Lucas blinked, stunned by the venom. His mouth opened, but no words came out.

Zest stood halfway out of his seat now, his shoulders squared. His red eyes were hard, burning with something barely contained. "You have no idea how the underground works. No idea what it's like to live with a target on your back every day, to watch friends disappear and never come back. And yet, you still wear that badge. Still spout your ideals like the ESA has any real power. The ones in power in Eldario are the hunters, not the ESA!"

"Zest," Sera said quietly.

The command in her tone made Zest pause. He sat back down with a slow breath, his fingers drumming against the table in frustration.

Sera returned her gaze to Lucas. "It wasn't always like this," she murmured. "We just wanted to belong. That's how it started. A place to rest. A place where we didn't have to run. But the more we saw, the more we realised… No one else was coming to help. Then before we know what's going on, we ended up doing this."

Lucas looked down at his cold coffee. His hands trembled slightly. "But you didn't have to kill them," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "You could have brought them in. Turned them over to the ESA."

"Hah!" Zest barked a laugh that held no humour. "The ESA? That's rich. Please tell me you're joking. You actually believe that they can help?"

Lucas looked up, his brows furrowed.

"Don't lie to yourself," Sera said, her voice sharper now. "You know damn well the ESA's reach only goes so far. Hunters walk free. The law favours them. How many times have you seen one of them 'prosecuted' only to be slapped on the wrist and sent back out again? The Gifted are murdered every day. Who speaks for them? Who gets them justice?" Her lip curled. "Even the Butcher? Walden? Before we got to him, how many has he killed? And you still think we're the 'bad guys'? You still insist that the hunters are the 'good guys'? The protectors? You are still trying to help them? Protect them?"

"I didn't… I wasn't part of that…"

"But you were," Sera whispered, her voice cutting into Lucas like ice. "You helped the hunters. Even if you didn't pull the trigger, you enabled them. You looked the other way. You turned a blind eye to your own kind, Lucas. You betrayed yourself."

Lucas felt something collapse inside him.

He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. His throat was thick with grief, with guilt that he hadn't realised he'd been carrying until now. Flashes filled his mind—reports he'd dismissed, pleas he hadn't answered, the faces of the Gifted whose names he never bothered to learn. Even Misha, Elijah, and Jonan… Didn't they say something like that before?

"I…" He whispered. "I didn't mean to…"

"When did you start lying to yourself?" Sera asked, her eyes soft now, almost mournful. "When did you start forsaking yourself? When did you stop seeing things for what they were?" She stood, her coat whispering against the leather of the booth.

"Sera—" Lucas began, but his voice cracked.

"Sera, we should go," Zest said, standing beside her. His hand brushed lightly against hers.

Sera turned back to Lucas. Her eyes were dark, heavy with unspoken truths. "Think about it, Lucas. Ask yourself what you're really fighting for. And if you don't have that answer… If you go into this war without knowing where your loyalties lie… The price you'll pay might be steeper than you can imagine."

With that, she turned.

The bell above the café door jingled softly as they stepped into the outside, the cold breeze sweeping through the café's warmth like a ghost.

Lucas sat in silence. The café was nearly empty now. The only sound was the distant hum of the espresso machine and the soft clinking of glass being polished. At the counter, Timo cleaned a glass with a rag, his face unreadable.

Lucas rose slowly, his legs heavy, and his heart even more so. He walked to the counter and pulled out his wallet.

Timo waved it away.

Lucas hesitated. "You heard everything, didn't you?"

Timo placed the glass down with a quiet thud. He looked up at Lucas, his eyes old and tired and far too knowing. "They're right, you know," he said, his voice low but steady. "You think this country's still worth saving the way it is?"

Lucas's throat tightened.

"I've known Sera and Zest longer than you can imagine. I know what they've lost. I've seen what the hunters did to Blade. To Elvryn. To the hundreds who have lost their lives at the hands of hunters. You have your reasons for being with the ESA, I'm sure. But reasons don't make you right." Timo leaned in slightly, his voice dropping to a whisper. "All of us, in the underground, we see what's coming. The path the hunters are carving? Goddess forbid, if we keep following it… Eldario will eat itself from the inside out."

Timo leaned back, picking up the same glass again. "Go home, Lucas," he said gently. "And ask yourself… Whose side are you really on?"

Lucas stood there for a long time, as the shadows grew longer and the bell stopped echoing.

Outside, Eldario was alive with sirens, secrets, and smoke. And somewhere in the dark, a war was quietly waiting to begin.

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