The Brother

The city was dying.

Entire sections of Veykar had already collapsed.

Skyscrapers leaned at impossible angles.

Roads split apart.

Black Bloom covered everything.

And in the center of it all stood Andy.

Smiling.

The shattered pieces of Cardomin armor slowly fell from his body.

Xin stood across from him.

Breathing heavily.

Blood covered his face.

His hands shook.

Not from fear.

From exhaustion.

The five Phenom Force strikes had worked.

For the first time.

They had actually worked.

Andy looked down at the broken armor fragments.

Then looked back up.

His smile disappeared.

Completely.

No laughter.

No jokes.

No obsession.

No amusement.

Just silence.

For the first time since Kaila died.

Andy looked serious.

And that terrified Xin more than anything.

"Interesting."

Andy's voice sounded different.

Calmer.

Colder.

"You broke it."

The monster slowly stepped forward.

Each footstep shook the ground.

Black Bloom erupted around him.

Entire buildings were swallowed.

Roads vanished.

The city itself seemed to respond to his mood.

Xin immediately attacked again.

Phenom Force.

Andy vanished.

Xin missed.

A second later something slammed into his ribs.

His body flew through an office tower.

Then another.

Then another.

Glass exploded everywhere.

Xin crashed into a street.

The entire road collapsed beneath him.

Andy appeared above him.

Tentacles descended.

Hundreds.

Xin rolled away.

The street behind him disappeared beneath the attacks.

Entire city blocks shattered.

Cars.

Buildings.

Everything.

Gone.

Xin immediately countered.

Force Push.

BOOOOOOM.

The shockwave ripped apart multiple skyscrapers nearby.

Andy blocked.

The attack pushed him backward.

Only a little.

Then another figure appeared.

Orion.

The older Stonen landed between them.

His weapon unfolded instantly.

White energy flooded across the blade.

The sky above Veykar flashed.

Andy stopped.

Then smiled.

"Brother."

Orion said nothing.

For a moment.

Everything became quiet.

The city.

The Bloom.

Even Xin.

Then Orion moved.

And the city exploded.

The first strike cut through four skyscrapers.

Not accidentally.

The force alone traveled through them.

The buildings split apart and collapsed.

Andy blocked.

The impact still launched him through half a district.

Orion followed immediately.

No wasted movement.

No hesitation.

Years of experience.

Years of surviving.

Years of becoming something that should not exist.

Andy smashed into a tower.

Orion appeared above him.

Another strike.

The tower disappeared.

The ground beneath it collapsed.

A crater formed.

Hundreds of meters wide.

Xin stared.

Even he had never seen Orion fight seriously.

Andy punched upward.

Orion blocked.

The collision created a shockwave that shattered windows across kilometers.

Entire Bloom structures broke apart.

The skyline shook.

Again.

Again.

Again.

The two monsters collided.

Every strike leveled structures.

Every impact destroyed part of the city.

Andy's regeneration worked constantly.

Orion's attacks kept destroying him anyway.

Then Orion finally used the ability nobody had seen.

The markings across his body lit up.

White.

Blue.

Black.

Alien symbols.

The same symbols Dive had carved into him decades ago.

Energy erupted around him.

The ground beneath his feet melted.

Clara looked from a distance.

For the first time.

She understood.

"He's a hybrid."

Andy looked interested.

"Finally."

Orion attacked again.

Faster.

Harder.

The next strike shattered Andy's jaw.

The next destroyed half his torso.

The next completely erased one arm.

The next sent him through seven skyscrapers.

The next tore apart an entire Bloom tower.

Andy regenerated.

Again.

Again.

Again.

But slower.

Slightly slower.

Orion pressed harder.

He wasn't fighting to survive.

He was fighting to kill.

Xin joined him.

Both brothers attacked together.

Phenom Force.

Orion's blade.

Force Push.

Shockwaves tore through Veykar.

The city continued collapsing around them.

For the first time.

Andy was losing ground.

The monster crashed into a ruined stadium.

Orion landed in front of him.

Weapon raised.

Andy looked up.

Bleeding.

Damaged.

Regenerating.

Then he laughed.

Again.

"Good."

Suddenly.

Everything changed.

Black Bloom erupted.

Not from the ground.

From Andy himself.

The city darkened.

The sky disappeared.

The Bloom expanded across entire districts instantly.

Orion's eyes widened.

"Xin!"

Too late.

Roots exploded around Xin.

Hundreds.

Thousands.

They wrapped around his arms.

Legs.

Chest.

Neck.

Xin struggled.

Force Push.

Nothing.

More roots replaced the destroyed ones.

Within seconds.

He was trapped.

Held in the air.

Unable to move.

"ORION!"

Andy smiled.

Then attacked.

A tentacle.

One.

Simple.

Direct.

It pierced Orion's chest.

Silence.

The city itself seemed to stop moving.

Orion looked down.

The massive tentacle had gone completely through him.

Blood dripped onto the ruined streets below.

Xin screamed.

"No!"

Andy twisted the tentacle.

Orion coughed blood.

His weapon slipped from his hand.

The older Stonen looked toward Xin.

Not afraid.

Not angry.

Just tired.

"Listen..."

Andy smiled.

Waiting.

Enjoying it.

Orion looked at his younger brother.

The brother he never got to know.

The brother he spent years protecting from the shadows.

"When your parents died..."

He coughed blood.

"...I wanted to come."

Xin struggled desperately.

The Bloom held him.

"I wanted to tell you."

Another cough.

"But if I stayed..."

His vision blurred.

"Dive would've found you faster."

Andy listened.

Smiling.

"I watched you grow."

Orion's voice weakened.

"I watched Kaila protect you."

A tear rolled down his face.

"I loved both of you."

Xin stopped struggling.

For a moment.

He simply listened.

"I wasn't there because I didn't care."

His breathing weakened.

"I stayed away because I cared too much."

Silence.

Clara watched from the distance.

Tara.

Rion.

Everyone finally breaking free from the Bloom prisons.

Too far away.

Too late.

Orion smiled weakly.

"You were never alone, Xin."

The younger brother cried.

For the first time since Kaila died.

Actually cried.

"Orion..."

The older Stonen slowly nodded.

Then looked at him one last time.

"Goodbye, brother."

His voice barely existed now.

"I know you can do it..."

Andy smiled.

Then clenched his fist.

BOOM.

Orion disappeared.

Not a body.

Not remains.

Not bones.

Nothing.

Only red mist.

Gone.

Complete silence followed.

Xin froze.

His mind couldn't process it.

His brother.

The brother he had only just found.

Gone.

Andy slowly turned.

Toward Xin.

Then suddenly—

MISSILE WARNING.

A streak crossed the sky.

Then another.

Then another.

Tara.

The resistance.

Everything they had left.

The missiles hit Andy directly.

The explosions consumed entire city blocks.

Buildings disappeared.

Bloom towers collapsed.

The fireball swallowed Andy completely.

Rion landed beside Xin.

Cutting through Bloom roots.

"Move!"

Xin didn't react.

"XIN!"

Nothing.

His eyes remained fixed on the place where Orion died.

Tara grabbed him.

Hard.

"We are leaving!"

Another explosion hit.

The city shook.

For a brief moment.

Andy's body disappeared inside the flames.

Before regeneration could begin.

The group retreated.

Dragging Xin with them.

The younger Stonen never looked away.

Not once.

Even as Veykar burned behind them.

Even as Andy's laughter slowly echoed from inside the explosions.

Xin remained silent.

And for the first time.

Nobody knew what he was thinking.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━