The battle was won—but the war is far from over.
As Sable's forces adapt and converge, Jeffrie's team regroups and plans their next strike.
But the deeper they go, the darker it gets.
⸻
The dust from the battlefield had barely settled, yet Jeffrie knew there was no time to rest.
The fight at Sable's stronghold had given them a significant victory, but they had also drawn attention. Too much attention.
The team regrouped at a hidden location deep in the mountain ranges, away from any potential tracking signals.
Azul had done her best to ensure they weren't followed, but something in the air felt off. The tension was thick like a storm waiting to break.
Jeffrie sat at the edge of the command table, staring at the holo-map of enemy movements. They had taken down one stronghold, but new red markers kept appearing, indicating Sable's forces had adapted. They were moving. Fast.
Sophia studied the data beside him. "We hit them hard, but they're still regrouping. If we don't act quickly, they'll be ready for us."
Raven leaned against the wall, arms crossed. "And if they've learned from their mistakes, that means they'll come at us harder."
Scarlett cracked her knuckles. "Let them. We're not running anymore."
Azul scrolled through the intercepted transmissions. "You're gonna love this. Sable's top enforcers? They're all converging on one location. A site we haven't touched yet."
Jeffrie narrowed his eyes. "Where?"
She projected the coordinates, revealing a heavily fortified facility hidden beneath a dense forest region. A site they had missed.
Lily's voice was quiet but firm. "It's a trap."
Raymond scoffed. "Of course, it's a trap. The real question is—how bad?"
Trice exhaled, rubbing his chin. "They wouldn't be luring us unless they had something major planned. We need to be smarter."
Jeffrie's jaw tightened. He knew they had no choice but to act, but he wasn't about to walk his team into a slaughter. Not again.
"We do this differently," he finally said. "We don't walk into the front door. We find cracks in their armor. We strike when they don't expect it."
Sophia nodded. "Then we need intel. Someone inside."
Azul smirked. "Already on it. I've got some old channels I can tap. Give me a few hours."
Raven straightened. "And while we wait, we prepare."
Jeffrie looked at each of them—his family, his fighters. They had been through hell, and they were still standing. But the fight was far from over.
"We end this on our terms," he said, voice steel. "Because the next time we hit them, we're not just fighting for survival. We're taking back everything they stole from us."
The shadows were closing in.
And Jeffrie was ready to walk through the darkness.
Under the cover of night and desert wind, Jeffrie's team moves on Sable's hidden facility. But the quiet is too loud.
The deeper they go... the clearer it becomes:
They walked into something waiting for them.
⸻
The desert wind howled through the night, kicking up waves of sand as Jeffrie and his team advanced toward the hidden facility. The only illumination came from the crescent moon hanging above them and the dim red lights lining their tactical gear.
Azul's voice crackled through the comms. "We're three clicks out. Security's heavier than expected. They must know something's coming."
Jeffrie tightened his grip on his weapon. "We stick to the plan. No unnecessary risks. We get in, gather intel, and get out before they even know we were here."
Sophia scanned the perimeter through her scope. "Snipers on the guard towers. Motion sensors along the fence. This won't be easy."
Scarlett smirked. "Since when do we do 'easy'?"
Raven crouched beside Jeffrie, her sharp eyes locked onto the facility ahead. "I can get us through the east side. Less visibility, but we need a distraction to pull those snipers off their posts."
Raymond's voice came in. "Leave that to us. Trice and I will stir up a little chaos."
Jeffrie smirked. "Try not to blow up the whole place before we even step inside."
Raymond chuckled. "No promises, Brudda."
As if on cue, an explosion rocked the far side of the compound, sending fire and debris into the sky. Alarms blared, and spotlights flickered to life, sweeping over the desert sands.
"Go, go, go!" Jeffrie ordered, leading his team through the darkened dunes.
Raven moved like a ghost, taking out a lone patrol guard before he could even sound the alarm. Scarlett and Sophia moved swiftly, clearing a path while Lily stayed close, prepared for emergency medical aid if needed.
Azul hacked into the facility's security grid, deactivating the outer fence. "You're in. But you've got a five-minute window before backup arrives."
Jeffrie and his team slipped inside the compound, weapons raised, ready for whatever lay ahead.
The moment they entered, they knew something was wrong.
The hallways were too quiet. No guards. No resistance. Just a long stretch of dimly lit corridors leading deeper into the facility.
Sophia tensed. "It's a trap."
"Of course it is," Raven muttered. "The question is, what kind?"
They came for intel.
But what they found in the dark wasn't data—it was a nightmare.
Some ghosts don't stay dead.
⸻
They moved cautiously, each step calculated, senses on high alert. As they reached the central hub of the facility, screens flickered to life around them.
A voice filled the room, smooth and calculated.
"Welcome back, old friends."
Jeffrie's stomach twisted. Dominic Sable.
His face appeared on the largest screen, his cold, predatory gaze locking onto them through the video feed.
"You've been making a mess of my operations," Sable continued. "But I expected no less from you. Jeffrie, Raymond, Trice... even your little entourage. You always were persistent."
Jeffrie clenched his fists. "We're not here for games, Sable."
Sable chuckled. "Oh, but I am. And the games already started."
The doors behind them slammed shut. A low mechanical hum filled the air.
Azul's voice crackled in their earpieces, panicked. "Jeffrie! They're jamming my systems—"
Then the lights cut out.
The hum in the walls shifted—no longer just alarms, but something deeper. Mechanical. Heavy.
Footsteps echoed through the corridor.
Not just any footsteps.
Jeffrie's breath caught in his throat.
No... It couldn't be.
He turned toward the red-lit entrance as two figures stepped into view—taller, bulkier, their silhouettes warped by heavy combat armor and unnatural enhancements.
But Jeffrie knew those faces.
Nick. Mack.
He staggered back a step. His heart pounded, blood roaring in his ears.
Raven's brows furrowed as she stepped forward. "Who are—?"
She froze. The moment her eyes locked onto them, something shifted in her expression.
Scarlett's voice came out sharp. "Those are the ones, aren't they?"
Jeffrie didn't answer. He couldn't.
Nick tilted his head, smirking. "Miss us?"
Mack's voice was cold, mechanical. "You were expecting more security."
Jeffrie stared, fists clenched. "You were dead. Marcus and Aiden—"
He stopped. The memory hit hard. Blood. Silence. He'd walked away, thinking it was over.
Nick chuckled darkly. "Yeah, thanks for letting Marcus Aiden take us, by the way."
Jeffrie's jaw tightened. "You weren't breathing."
Mack smirked. "Sable fixed that."
Raven's voice came quietly. "I didn't see it... I was unconscious, but... Jeffrie, you said they were—"
"I thought they were," Jeffrie said sharply, eyes never leaving them.
Nick and Mack were supposed to be dead.
Now they're back—with enhancements, rage, and a score to settle.
Jeffrie's not fighting strangers.
He's fighting the ghosts of his past—rebuilt in Sable's image.
⸻
He stepped forward, his voice low and dangerous.
"I would've burned their bodies if I'd known Sable could bring them back."
Nick cracked his knuckles. "Too late for that now."
Mack's eyes glowed faintly. "And now we get to return the favor."
Jeffrie didn't move.
But the rage building behind his eyes?
That didn't need words.
Jeffrie didn't hesitate. "We'll see about that."
Mack struck first.
Lightning fast.
Jeffrie barely dodged. He countered with a sharp elbow to the ribs—but Nick was already moving. His knee slammed into Jeffrie's gut, driving him back with brutal force.
They weren't playing around.
These weren't the same men he'd once fought beside. Sable had turned them into something else.
Jeffrie wiped the blood from his mouth, breathing hard. "That all you got?"
Nick smirked. "We're just warming up."
Then they attacked together.
Nick came high. Mack swept low. Jeffrie blocked one, twisted from the other—but their coordination was seamless.
Mack's leg swept his feet out from under him.
Nick's fist came crashing toward his face.
Jeffrie rolled, barely escaping a knockout blow.
"Damn, Brudda," Raymond muttered over comms as he took cover behind a collapsed console, still firing at nearby guards. "You want some help?"
Jeffrie exhaled sharply, resetting his stance. "Stay on mission. Get Azul what she needs. I'll handle this."
Trice's voice crackled in next. "Cuzzo got something to prove."
Jeffrie smirked. "Always."
Nick lunged again—but this time, Jeffrie met him head-on. Their fists collided with bone-rattling force. Jeffrie twisted, using Nick's momentum to hurl him sideways, following it up with a brutal knee to the ribs.
Mack charged.
Jeffrie ducked low, pivoted hard, and landed a devastating uppercut that sent him reeling.
Nick wiped the blood from his lip, smiling through it. "Not bad."
Jeffrie rolled his shoulders. "Not finished."
They charged again—fists flying, bodies colliding with raw, merciless force. This wasn't a fight.
This was a reckoning.
Brothers on opposite sides of a war they never chose.
Raven's past bleeds into the present.
And Trice? He doesn't just back Jeffrie—
He brings the fire.
⸻
Brothers forced onto opposite sides of a war they never chose.
And Jeffrie?
He refused to lose.
Raven's breath came in sharp, measured bursts as she cut through another enemy nearby. Her body still ached from the last time Nick and Mack left her broken.
And now they were alive.
She didn't even remember the end of that fight—only pain, then darkness.
But she moved instinctively, driven by fury and confusion—only for Scarlett to grab her wrist.
"Not this time."
Raven turned on her, eyes blazing. "Let me go."
Scarlett didn't budge. "And what happens when Jeff has to stop fighting to save you? Do you think he needs another person to protect right now? Another reason to hesitate?"
The words hit like a slap.
Raven froze.
She hated it.
But Scarlett was right.
Then—blurred motion cut between them.
Trice.
Already sprinting into the chaos. "Yo, Cuzzo! You takin' too long!"
Jeffrie barely glanced his way. "Thought you were handling the mission."
Trice grinned, ducking under a wild punch from Nick. "Azul's got it. You and me? We got them."
Jeffrie exhaled—shoulders loosening, heart steadying.
Trice wasn't here to take over.
He was here to stand beside him.
Like always.
Nick and Mack didn't even have time to adjust before Jeffrie and Trice exploded into their counterattack.
The air was thick with the scent of blood and gunpowder, the distant echoes of gunfire and screams filling the facility. Jeffrie took a steady breath, rolling his shoulders as Nick groaned beneath his boot.
The fight was over.
But the war wasn't.
Trice stepped forward, shaking out his fists, his knuckles raw from the blows he'd landed on Mack. "That was fun. But we got bigger problems."
Jeffrie turned his head, his gaze locking onto Azul, who was still frantically working on the security console.
"How much time?" he asked.
Azul didn't look up, her fingers flying across the holographic display. "Two minutes before the facility self-destructs. And I still can't override the system."
Sophia cursed. "We need to move. Now."
Raven holstered her blade, wincing hard. Blood ran down her thigh from a deep gash. Her shoulder was dislocated, arm barely usable. But she pushed forward, dragging her weight behind her.
Jeffrie glanced down at Nick and Mack's unconscious forms. A part of him wanted to drag them out, to make them face the truth—but there wasn't time.
"Leave them," he muttered, voice raw.
Trice didn't argue. Neither did the rest of the team. They knew what was at stake.
"Go! Now!" Jeffrie shouted, his voice hoarse from smoke.
The team moved—limping, bleeding, leaning on each other—sprinting down collapsing corridors as alarms shrieked louder. Red warning lights strobed across broken walls and buckling ceilings. Fire licked at the edge of their path.
Azul ran beside him, coughing violently, her shoulder burned from shrapnel. She pulled a drive from her gear. "I got what we came for," she rasped, "but I don't know if it was worth it."
Jeffrie took the device, fingers trembling. "It will be."
An explosion tore through the side wall—heat and metal ripped past them. Scarlett shoved Sophia ahead and nearly got caught in the blast herself. Sophia turned back, screaming her name, but Jeffrie grabbed them both and kept them moving.
They burst through the exit just as the facility behind them erupted into a full inferno.
They didn't stop running.
Not until they hit sand and open air.
Not until the fire roared behind them like a beast unleashed.
They collapsed in the dunes, some gasping, some silent. The night was thick with smoke, the air vibrating with the dying echoes of destruction.
Jeffrie dropped to his knees. His hands were shaking. Blood streamed from a split above his eye, his ribs were cracked, and his vision blurred.
He didn't speak.
Lily moved between them, covered in blood—not all of it her own. Her hands shook as she tried to stabilize Sophia's leg, press gauze to Azul's burns, splint Raven's arm. Her face was pale and tight with panic.
"No one move," she said through gritted teeth. "Just let me work. I got you. I got you."
Raymond limped over, barely standing. His jacket was shredded, and his leg was wrapped in a tourniquet. He dropped beside Jeffrie with a grimace. "That was one hell of a party."
Jeffrie exhaled. "And Sable's still out there."
Azul sat in the sand, her gear sparking in her lap, lips pale, knuckles white. She scanned the stolen files, breath ragged. "The encryption's tough. But I'll break it."
Raven wiped blood from her cheek with her good arm. "Then we go after him."
Jeffrie looked at her. And for the first time in what felt like forever—through the bruises, blood, and smoke—he saw it in her eyes.
Hope.
Not because they survived.
But because they were still fighting.
And they weren't alone.
They had bled. They had broken.
But they were winning.
The desert stretched endlessly before them. Behind them, fire raged. Smoke curled into the sky, carrying the stench of steel, fire, and blood.
Jeffrie stood, slow and unsteady, fists clenched, legs trembling beneath him.
He had survived.
They all had.
But something still gnawed at him.
Nick and Mack.
They were alive—barely. Left unconscious in the facility.
And even though he'd walked away, Jeffrie knew: Sable wouldn't let them die. Not if he still had use for them.
That's not how monsters like him operated.
Lily moved through the wreckage like a woman on a mission—her med kit already open, blood smearing her gloves, hair stuck to her face with sweat and ash. She checked the others quickly, but her eyes found Jeffrie first.
He was slumped against a fractured wall, body wrecked. One eye swollen shut. Blood still trickled from a cut on his scalp. His breaths were shallow. He didn't even realize how tightly he was clenching his fists until she knelt beside him and touched his arm.
"Hey," she said softly, tilting his head toward her. "Look at me."
He flinched but didn't resist.
Her fingers ghosted over the bruises at his ribs, the gash over his brow, the stiffness in his jaw.
"You fought two enhanced soldiers alone," she muttered. "What the hell were you thinking?"
Jeffrie gave a faint, broken smirk. "That I wasn't gonna let them walk out of there."
She paused. Her hands shook—just for a second—before she leaned in and pressed her forehead to his.
"You scared me."
"I scare myself sometimes," he whispered.
She brushed his hair back, then got to work. Efficient. Gentle. Grounded in care, not just protocol.
Across the field, the rest of the team slowly regrouped. Everyone was hurt. Some barely conscious. Azul leaned against a shattered support beam, her hands trembling as she tapped at her rig, scanning stolen data. Blood soaked the bandage at her side.
Raymond limped over with a heavy groan. "Hell of a party," he muttered, dragging himself down beside them.
Jeffrie's eyes stayed on Lily, her presence anchoring him in the chaos.
Then he spoke. "And Sable's still out there."
From the shadows, Raven's voice cut through. "Then we go after him."
Jeffrie lifted his gaze, meeting hers.
They weren't just alive.
They were still fighting.
And this time—they weren't running anymore.
Footsteps crunched through the sand behind him.
"You're thinking too hard," Trice said, stepping beside him, arms crossed. "I know that look."
Jeffrie didn't answer right away. He watched as Azul struggled to stabilize a live feed, her breath shallow, her face drawn.
"We need to hit them again before they regroup," he said. "Sable won't waste time licking his wounds."
Raymond groaned. "Yeah, well, neither should we."
Scarlett leaned against their armored transport, arms crossed, her own shoulder wrapped in a bloodied sling. "We just burned down one of his strongholds. Sable's pissed. That means he'll move soon."
Sophia nodded, reloading her weapon with bandaged hands. "Then we be ready first."
Azul suddenly cursed under her breath. "Damn it."
Jeffrie turned. "What?"
She swiped at her screen, voice cracking. "The files I pulled... they're not just weapons data. There are names. People. Soldiers. Test subjects. Brainwashed, enhanced—used."
Raven's tone sharpened. "How many?"
Azul didn't hesitate. "Hundreds."
The weight of it crushed the air.
They weren't just fighting for themselves anymore.
They had an army to free.
Jeffrie's fists clenched again, despite the pain. He had known Sable was dangerous. But this?
This was war on another level.
"We're not done," Jeffrie said, his voice like gravel.
"No," Raven agreed. "We're just getting started."
Trice cracked his knuckles. "Then let's finish it."
The team exchanged glances. No hesitation. No fear.
They had survived the fire.
Now they were going to burn Sable's empire to ash.
The wind whipped against their faces, smoke and sand swirling through the dark. Azul tapped deeper into the data, her screen flickering as she pulled up maps, names, redacted files.
"There's a site marked High-Priority Containment," she said. "It's in Russia."
Raymond groaned. "Knew this was gonna get worse."
Scarlett smirked. "Not a fan of the cold?"
"I'm a fan of not freezing my ass off."
Trice raised a brow. "Why's this place so special?"
Azul's fingers flew. "They're experimenting on people there. Prototypes. Stuff more advanced than even we've seen."
Raven narrowed her eyes. "Meaning?"
Azul looked up, pale and serious. "They're creating something worse."
Silence. Again.
Jeffrie exhaled. "We can't let them finish whatever they're building. We hit the site—fast, brutal, surgical. But we'll need help."
Sophia arched a brow. "So what—you're building an army?"
A slow smirk formed on Jeffrie's busted face. "Something like that."
Scarlett grinned. "You've got a plan, don't you?"
Jeffrie nodded at Azul. "How many names on that list are people we knew? Soldiers declared dead. Disappeared."
Azul scrolled. "At least fifteen. Including Nick and Mack."
The blow landed harder than anyone expected.
Raymond shook his head. "So that's why they were so good. They were taken first."
Trice cracked his knuckles again. "Then let's take them back."
Jeffrie's expression turned to steel. "We track them. We free them. And if we can bring them back to our side—good. If not..."
Raven finished it for him. "We stop them."
Jeffrie nodded. "Whatever it takes."
Azul stood, even though her knees shook. "We better move. Sable won't wait."
Jeffrie turned toward the dunes.
The decision was made.
The mission was clear.
And the war?
The war had just begun.