Chapter 104
I Returned The Favor
Veykar was already waiting for them.
The city had changed again.
Not slowly.
Not naturally.
It looked like it had grown overnight.
Black Bloom covered the towers completely now. Streets were gone beneath thick roots. Entire buildings bent inward toward Facility Zero like they were bowing to it.
The sky above the city was dark.
No stars.
No moon.
Only the red pulse of the Bloom.
The convoy stopped outside the ruins.
Tara stepped out first.
Then Rion.
Then Clara.
Then Dren.
Nora.
Sia.
Survivors.
Fighters.
People who had no powers.
People with cracked rifles.
People with shaking hands.
People who came anyway.
Xin stepped out last.
He carried no armor.
No Raxton.
No shield.
Only his body.
Only his fists.
Only Kaila’s necklace around his neck.
Tara looked at him once.
“You ready.”
Xin looked toward Facility Zero.
“No.”
Tara nodded.
“Good enough.”
The plan began quietly.
No speeches.
No dramatic charge.
That was Tara’s rule.
Andy wanted rage.
Andy wanted noise.
Andy wanted everyone to run at him screaming.
So Tara gave him silence.
Teams split across Veykar.
Rion took the eastern route with Nora and three fighters.
Clara took the high structures, phasing between broken towers and Bloom-covered rooftops.
Dren moved with the explosives team through old sewer lines under the facility.
Tara led the delivery squad.
Xin went alone.
Not because he wanted to.
Because he was the bait.
Again.
But this time, he knew it.
Facility Zero opened its doors before Xin reached it.
The giant gates moved apart slowly.
Inside was darkness.
Then Andy’s voice came from everywhere.
“You came back.”
Xin kept walking.
Andy laughed softly.
“You brought them again.”
Xin stopped at the entrance.
“You scared?”
Silence.
Then the entire facility pulsed.
Andy’s voice changed.
Almost amused.
“Of you?”
Xin looked down at the necklace once.
Then back into the dark.
“No.”
He stepped inside.
“Of losing her.”
For the first time.
Andy did not answer.
That was the opening.
Tara’s voice whispered in the comms.
“Phase one.”
The first Anti Spinat trap activated beneath Facility Zero.
Blue-white light tore through the lower floors.
The whole structure trembled.
Bloom roots recoiled from the pulse, curling back like burned nerves.
Andy roared.
Not in pain yet.
In surprise.
Dren’s voice came through.
“Basement package delivered. Holy shit, it worked.”
Tara answered sharply.
“Move to phase two.”
Missiles launched from the west side of Veykar.
Not normal missiles.
Anti Spinat loaded.
They struck the facility walls and exploded into white chemical fire.
The Bloom screamed.
The sound was not human.
Not animal.
The whole city seemed to cry out.
Andy appeared at the top of Facility Zero.
Massive.
Twisted.
Angry.
His tentacles spread across the skyline.
His eyes locked onto Xin.
“You think this is enough?”
Xin stood below him.
“No.”
He raised his hand.
“Now.”
Clara appeared behind Andy.
Her void form expanded, and four black cubes formed around his limbs, not to hold him forever, only to slow him.
Rion struck from the east.
Berzar.
The slash carved across Andy’s back and drove him forward.
Tara fired from the lower tower.
Anti Spinat rounds hit Andy’s exposed side.
One.
Two.
Three.
The rounds sank into his flesh and released blue-white veins beneath his skin.
Andy hissed.
That was new.
He actually hissed.
Rion saw it.
“He felt that.”
Tara spoke into comms.
“Keep pressure.”
Then everyone attacked.
Not just the powerful ones.
Everyone.
Normal fighters threw grenades from windows.
Others fired rifles from collapsed stairwells.
Some used old Dive launchers.
Some threw firebombs.
One man with a shaking hand ran close enough to plant an explosive on a Bloom root before being pulled away by Nora.
Nobody was trying to kill Andy directly.
They were trying to drown him in interruptions.
Seconds.
Half seconds.
Tiny openings.
Tara had built the whole plan around those.
Andy tried to raise his hand.
A grenade exploded near his wrist.
He turned toward the shooter.
Rion cut his ankle.
Andy tried to grab Rion.
Clara sealed the space between them.
Andy broke it.
Tara shot him in the eye with an Anti Spinat round.
Andy roared again.
This time louder.
This time uglier.
“Phase three,” Tara ordered.
Dren triggered the buried charges.
The ground beneath Andy collapsed.
He dropped through six levels of Facility Zero, crashing into the central hall below.
The same hall where he had trapped them before.
The same hall where Orion died.
Xin followed.
He jumped down through the broken floors and landed across from him.
Dust rose between them.
Andy stood slowly.
His body was already healing.
But slower.
Much slower.
Blue-white Anti Spinat lines pulsed beneath his skin.
His tentacles twitched.
Not smooth anymore.
Unstable.
Andy looked at his hand.
Then at Xin.
“What did you do?”
Xin stepped forward.
“Made you smaller.”
Andy smiled.
But it was forced.
“You learned that from Zane.”
“No.”
Xin clenched his fists.
“I learned it from everyone you killed.”
Andy attacked.
The tentacle slash crossed the hall.
Before, it would have cut through multiple skyscrapers in one movement.
Now it tore through only half of the chamber wall.
Concrete collapsed.
Steel bent.
But the attack stopped.
It stopped.
Everyone saw it.
Tara saw it from the upper level.
Rion saw it.
Clara saw it.
Xin saw it.
Andy saw it too.
His smile finally faded.
Xin moved.
Phenom Force.
He struck Andy in the ribs.
Andy slid back.
Not far.
But he moved.
Rion entered from the side and slashed both tentacles before they could reform properly.
Tara fired again.
More Anti Spinat rounds.
Dren’s team tossed chemical grenades through the shattered ceiling.
The hall filled with blue-white smoke.
Andy staggered.
For the first time.
Truly staggered.
Then he stopped pretending.
The Bloom erupted.
Not everywhere.
Not wildly.
Precisely.
Roots shot from the walls and captured Tara first.
Then Dren.
Then Nora.
Then Sia.
Then the fighters on the upper level.
Rion cut through dozens of roots, but more wrapped around his arms, legs, and sword.
Clara formed a void field, but Andy’s Bloom moved around it, like it had learned the shape of her ability.
Within seconds, everyone was trapped.
Not dead.
Held.
Suspended in the walls, wrapped in black roots and pulsing Bloom.
Tara struggled.
“Xin!”
Xin turned.
Andy was already in front of him.
A clawed hand grabbed his face and slammed him into the ground.
The floor cratered.
Andy leaned down.
“No more interruptions.”
Xin punched upward.
Andy took it.
Barely moved.
The Anti Spinat was weakening him, but he was still a monster.
Still stronger.
Still bigger.
Still Andy.
He lifted Xin and threw him across the hall.
Xin smashed into a pillar.
The pillar broke.
He hit the ground, rolled, and pushed himself up.
Andy walked toward him.
Slowly.
“You keep coming back.”
Xin wiped blood from his mouth.
“So do you.”
Andy’s expression twitched.
Something in his face changed.
For a second, he looked almost tired.
Then the monster returned.
They clashed.
Fist against claw.
Force Push against Bloom.
Phenom Force against regeneration.
The hall shook with every hit.
Xin landed one strike across Andy’s jaw.
Andy retaliated with a blow to Xin’s chest that sent him through the floor and into the level below.
Xin jumped back up seconds later, bleeding and breathing hard.
Andy followed.
Tentacles lashed out.
Xin dodged three.
The fourth grazed his side and tore through the wall behind him.
He grabbed the fifth tentacle with both hands and pulled.
His muscles screamed.
He tore it off.
Andy roared.
Xin threw the severed tentacle back at him like a spear.
It hit Andy in the shoulder.
Not enough.
But enough to slow him.
Xin rushed in.
First Phenom Force.
Andy blocked.
Second.
Andy’s arm cracked.
Third.
Andy’s chest caved inward.
Fourth.
Andy stumbled.
Fifth.
Andy hit the far wall hard enough to collapse the entire upper balcony.
Tara watched from inside the Bloom roots.
Her eyes widened.
“He’s doing it.”
Rion tried to move.
The roots held him.
“No,” he said quietly.
“He’s killing himself doing it.”
Xin’s body was breaking.
His hands were split open.
His lungs burned.
His vision blurred.
But he kept moving.
Andy stood again.
His regeneration fought the Anti Spinat and barely kept up.
His body repaired wrong in places.
Too slow.
Too unstable.
He looked less like a god now.
More like a wounded beast refusing to fall.
That made him more dangerous.
Andy suddenly lunged.
Faster than he had moved since the Anti Spinat hit him.
Xin tried to dodge.
Too late.
A tentacle pierced through his stomach.
Xin froze.
Pain exploded through his body.
Tara screamed his name.
Rion roared and fought harder against the roots.
Clara’s void body flared violently.
Xin looked down.
The tentacle had gone clean through him.
Andy stepped closer.
His face inches from Xin’s.
“You were never enough.”
Xin coughed blood.
Andy raised another tentacle.
This one sharper.
Aimed directly at Xin’s heart.
“This ends now.”
Then the hall went quiet.
Not silent.
Quiet.
Like the world moved far away.
Xin blinked.
The pain faded for one second.
The Bloom faded.
Andy faded.
The hall became white.
Soft.
Warm.
He stood in a place he recognized.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
A small rooftop in Droplin.
Evening sky.
Cold breeze.
And Kaila stood there.
Not bleeding.
Not broken.
Not fused into anything.
Just Kaila.
She smiled sadly.
“You look terrible.”
Xin stared.
His voice broke.
“Kaila.”
She walked closer.
“You always do this.”
“What.”
“Carry everything alone.”
Xin shook his head.
“I couldn’t save you.”
Kaila’s eyes softened.
“I know.”
That hurt more than anything.
Xin looked down.
“I came late.”
“You came.”
Silence.
She reached out and touched his chest.
Not his wound.
His heart.
“Andy kept part of me.”
Xin looked up.
Kaila’s face darkened slightly.
“But not all.”
Behind her, something moved.
Light.
Soft golden light.
Skate.
Not a weapon.
Not a god.
A memory that refused to be erased.
Kaila looked past Xin.
“He can’t use me anymore.”
The world snapped back.
Andy’s second tentacle was inches from Xin’s heart.
Then it stopped.
Not because Xin blocked it.
Because something held it.
A pale light wrapped around the tentacle.
Andy’s eyes widened.
He froze.
“No.”
The light grew stronger.
A shape appeared behind Andy.
Not fully.
Only for a moment.
Kaila.
Her hand held the tentacle back.
Her eyes looked sad.
Not hateful.
Sad.
Andy’s face broke.
For the first time, the monster looked like the boy he used to be.
“Kaila?”
His voice cracked.
The tentacle inside Xin loosened.
Xin gasped.
Kaila looked at Andy.
“You loved a cage.”
Andy shook his head.
“No. I saved you.”
She stepped closer.
“No.”
The light around her flickered.
“You kept what was left because you were afraid to let go.”
Andy trembled.
The Bloom roots across the hall weakened.
Tara dropped to the floor.
Rion tore himself free.
Clara collapsed to one knee.
Xin gripped the tentacle in his stomach.
Pulled it out with a scream.
Then looked at Andy.
Andy was still staring at Kaila.
Frozen.
Broken.
Lost.
Xin moved.
Final Phenom Force.
No rage scattered everywhere.
No blind screaming.
Everything focused.
Kaila.
Orion.
Alaric.
Harper.
Tara.
Rion.
Everyone.
The force gathered into his fist.
His entire body shook.
Bones cracked.
Muscles tore.
But he held it.
Compressed it.
Then released.
His fist hit Andy in the chest.
The shockwave did not spread outward.
It went inward.
Andy’s body folded around the impact.
His chest collapsed.
The Anti Spinat inside him flared blue-white.
His regeneration failed.
For one second, Andy looked at Xin.
Not angry.
Not smiling.
Just afraid.
Then Xin hit him again.
Second Phenom Force.
Andy dropped to one knee.
Third.
The Bloom roots across the hall died.
Fourth.
The Cardomin fragments in Andy’s body shattered.
Fifth.
Andy’s back hit the ground.
The hall cracked open beneath them.
Andy lay there.
Still alive.
Barely.
His body tried to regenerate.
Failed.
Tried again.
Failed.
Black Bloom crawled weakly around him.
Xin stood above him.
Bleeding.
Shaking.
Crying.
Andy looked up.
His voice was barely there.
“Kaila…”
Xin punched him.
Again.
And again.
And again.
The others stood around the ruined hall, free now, silent.
Nobody moved to stop him.
Xin kept punching.
Each strike weaker than the last.
Not because Andy resisted.
Because Xin was breaking.
Flashbacks hit him with every blow.
Kaila laughing in Droplin.
Kaila working late to feed him.
Kaila telling him not to cry.
Kaila holding his hand after their parents died.
Kaila saying:
Return the favor.
Orion smiling through pain.
Alaric saying keep moving.
Harper dying scared but fighting.
Everyone.
Everyone.
Everyone.
Xin punched until Andy stopped moving.
Then still punched.
Until the floor beneath Andy cracked.
Until the Bloom around them went still.
Until there was nothing left in Xin’s arms but pain.
Rion finally stepped forward.
Slowly.
“Xin.”
No response.
Tara approached next.
She raised a hand.
Stopped.
Could not touch him.
Xin sat over Andy’s body, breathing like his lungs did not know how to work anymore.
His fists rested against the dead monster’s chest.
Blood dripped from his knuckles.
His face was wet with tears.
The hall was silent.
The Black Bloom had stopped pulsing.
Far above, Veykar became quiet.
Xin reached for Kaila’s necklace.
Held it tightly.
Then leaned closer to Andy’s ruined body.
His voice was almost gone.
But everyone heard it.
“I returned the favor.”
Nobody spoke.
Nobody cheered.
Nobody smiled.
Because victory had never looked so empty.
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