The abandoned warehouse loomed like a rotting skeleton at the edge of the city.
Broken windows stared out like hollow eyes, and rusted metal creaked and groaned as the wind whispered through the crumbling beams.
It was exactly the kind of place where bad things happened.
And Jayden had just willingly walked into it.
> "This is a terrible idea," Sophie muttered behind him, her breath forming small clouds in the cold air.
> "Most of my ideas are," Jayden replied dryly.
Elias grunted in agreement, weapon drawn but lowered.
Aria hovered close to Jayden's side, silent but alert, her wide eyes scanning every shadow.
They were a small army against whatever awaited them inside.
But they had faced worse.
Or so Jayden desperately told himself.
--
The warehouse smelled of damp and rust and the faint metallic tang of old blood.
Their footsteps echoed too loudly in the vast emptiness.
Jayden moved first, cautious but unafraid.
Marcus was waiting at the center of the warehouse, sitting casually on an overturned crate like he was waiting for a bus.
He looked... older.
Sharper around the edges.
Like someone who had walked through hell and made it out the other side, but not without leaving parts of himself behind.
> "You came," Marcus said simply.
Jayden stopped a few feet away, hands loose at his sides.
> "You have thirty seconds to convince me not to shoot you," Sophie said cheerfully from behind him.
Marcus smirked.
> "Nice to see your friends have kept your charming attitude, Jayden."
Jayden didn't smile.
> "Talk."
---
Marcus sighed, running a hand through his hair.
> "Cain was never the real threat," he began.
The words hit Jayden like a fist.
> "He was... a pawn. A big one, yes, but a pawn all the same."
> "Pawn of who?" Elias demanded.
Marcus' smile was grim.
> "Of the ones who built Emerald City in the first place."
He let the silence hang, letting the weight of it settle.
> "The founders.
The secret syndicates.
The families no one talks about anymore.
They control everything — the politics, the crime, even the hospitals."
Jayden felt the ground shift under his feet.
He had thought Cain was the monster.
He had only been fighting the smoke.
Not the fire.
Marcus continued:
> "They let Cain rise. Then they let him fall.
Because they needed someone new.
Someone smarter.
Someone willing."
His eyes burned into Jayden's.
> "They chose you."
---
The words stunned him.
Jayden staggered back a step before he caught himself.
> "What the hell are you talking about?" Sophie snapped.
> "Jayden's rise," Marcus said softly.
"The 'victories.' The allies 'miraculously' showing up.
The leaks you 'found'... none of it was an accident."
He reached into his coat slowly, carefully, and pulled out a small, battered notebook.
Tossed it at Jayden's feet.
Jayden bent, picked it up.
Inside were pages and pages of notes, photographs, transcripts — a web of manipulation spanning years.
And at the center of it all...
His name.
Jayden Cross.
Chosen.
Shaped.
Molded.
He was a king, but one they had built for their own game.
Jayden felt like vomiting.
---
> "Why tell me this now?" Jayden asked, voice dangerously low.
Marcus looked genuinely pained.
> "Because I used to believe in them," he said, voice cracking.
"Until I saw what they did to me.
Until I realized what they planned to do to you."
> "And what's that?"
Marcus' voice dropped to a whisper.
> "They're going to break you.
The way they broke me.
Turn you into something unrecognizable."
Aria stepped forward, fierce despite the fear in her eyes.
> "Jayden isn't like you.
He's better."
Marcus smiled sadly.
> "For now."
He turned to go.
> "But the storm is already here.
You either stand against it... or drown in it."
Without another word, he disappeared into the shadows.
Leaving only the battered notebook behind.
And a thousand questions.
---
Outside, the rain had started again, soaking through their clothes and chilling them to the bone.
Jayden stood under the broken awning, staring at the notebook in his hands.
> "We have to burn it," Elias said.
"Destroy it. Forget this happened."
> "No," Aria said, her voice trembling but sure.
"We read it.
We learn.
We fight smarter."
Sophie snorted.
> "Great.
Because that worked out so well for Marcus."
Jayden said nothing.
His heart was a battlefield.
Part of him screamed to walk away, pretend he never knew.
The other part — the part that refused to bow, refused to break — demanded he fight.
Even if the enemy was bigger.
Even if the game was rigged.
Especially because the game was rigged.
He tucked the notebook inside his jacket.
> "We fight," he said quietly.
"We fight on our terms."
And somehow, despite everything, he smiled.
Because for the first time in a long, long time...
He wasn't just reacting.
He was choosing.
---
Back at the hospital, the team sat around the tiny kitchen, shivering and dripping wet, drinking terrible instant coffee.
Sophie threw a balled-up napkin at Jayden's head.
> "You're an idiot," she said fondly.
He caught it easily, grinning.
> "Takes one to know one."
They all laughed — tired, strained, but real.
It wasn't victory.
But it was survival.
And in a world like theirs, sometimes survival was enough.
For now.
---
In a skyscraper across the city, in a room full of velvet chairs and crystal glasses, the true masters of Emerald City watched the rain fall.
Their faces were hidden.
Their voices were soft.
> "He's moving according to plan," one murmured.
> "Good," said another.
"Soon he will have no choice but to become ours."
A third chuckled darkly.
> "Or he'll burn.
Either way, we win."
They raised their glasses in a silent toast.
Outside, thunder rolled across the sky.
And the city shuddered in its sleep.
---