A Throne in Chains

Chapter Twenty Three - Fragile Truths

Alex looked down at his hands, flexing his fingers as if testing whether they still belonged to him. "I don't know."

Jade's stomach twisted. "Alex—"

He looked up, meeting her gaze, and for the first time, she saw fear in his eyes. Not of them. Not of dying.

But of himself.

"I don't know who I am without it anymore."

Jade felt her chest tighten. She wanted to tell him it wasn't true, that he was still him, still Alex. But the words wouldn't come because a part of her understood.

She had felt the Void's pull. She knew how it whispered, how it wanted.

Alex wasn't just fighting corruption.

He was fighting addiction.

A New War to Fight

The silence stretched, heavy and suffocating.

Price's voice crackled over the comms. "Jade, Krampus. Report to briefing. Now."

Jade hesitated. Leaving him now felt wrong, but Alex must have seen it on her face because he gave her a weak smirk. "Go. I'll still be here when you get back."

She nodded, squeezing his wrist once before stepping away. Krampus lingered for a second longer before following her out, his voice low enough that only she could hear.

"He is not safe."

Jade turned on him the moment the door shut behind them. "I know that. But he's not lost. I won't let him be."

Krampus exhaled, his gaze unreadable. "Do not let your hope blind you. He is not the man you remember."

Jade swallowed. "Neither am I."

They walked in silence toward the briefing room, but Jade's mind was already elsewhere. On Alex. On the war inside him.

She had fought through hell before.

And now, she would fight for him.

Even if it meant saving him from himself.

The truth loomed over them like a storm cloud, thick and suffocating.

The Briefing

Jade sat at the briefing table, arms crossed, her foot tapping restlessly against the floor. The room was dimly lit, the only illumination coming from the holographic display flickering above the center console. A cold tension filled the space—unspoken, but impossible to ignore.

Price stood at the front, hands pressed to the table as he studied the data. The images were grainy, distorted from residual Void interference, but the message was clear. It wasn't just Alex. Others had been taken, twisted by the same corruption.

"This facility was abandoned years ago," Price began, his voice sharp. "At least, that's what the records say. But according to our source—" his eyes flickered to Alex, who sat silently in the corner "—it never stopped running. Someone kept it active. And they weren't just housing Void-touched. They were creating them."

Jade stood from her chair and started pacing the length of the briefing room, her mind racing as the reality of what Price had just revealed settled into her bones. Alex hadn't been the only one touched by the Void. There were others. And if they were anything like him, they wouldn't be lost souls looking for redemption.

Soap exhaled through his nose. "And let me guess, we have no idea who's behind it?"

"Not yet," Price admitted. "But that's why we're going in. We find the source, gather intel, and make damn sure this place never operates again. If we move on this now, we have a chance to contain the threat before it spirals out of control. But we need to decide what to do with Alex."