~Every 'defect' is a weapon. Every new bond, part of a revolution.~
The Architect built a world where only perfection is allowed. Those born blind, deaf, scarred, missing pieces, or too broken to bond are branded "defects"-discarded, erased, forgott...
Kai fell to the floor hard, his hands shaking. "He knew. He knew what I was. This whole time. How brown, how empty, lost and alone I felt after I lost my parents." He started crying, not because he was angry or hurt but it was all of the emotions one person could have, combined.
Eden knelt beside him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "He tried to undo it. But he couldn't."
Kai leaned into him, his voice raw. "My mother died because of that fucking leak! I've been caged and manipulated like a mutt and stalked by rogue Alphas—"
Eden nodded. "They were hunting the Pulse. They didn't know you were incomplete. They thought you were activated, and that if you weren't, they would do whatever they could to prevent it."
Kai's eyes burned. "My mom tried to protect me. And he let her die," he whispered, harboring a rush of guilt he couldn't control.
Eden didn't speak. He just held him tighter counting on their mate bond to comfort him.
They stayed like that for a long time, the bond pulsing between them like a heartbeat. Eden felt Kai's grief settle into something colder. Sharper. Not just rage. Revenge.
As they finished listening to message from Eden's father, they understood what the Archivist meant about obtaining what they would need once they made it to Haven.
When they finally stood, Eden followed his father's instructions, using the shard from the Archivist and activated the chamber's interface. The memory glass folded inward, revealing a hidden cache—maps, encrypted logs, and a few other things that may prove useful later.
Kai traced the glyphs on the wall. "We're not just surviving. We've inherited a legacy."
Eden nodded. "And we're going to rewrite the wrong."
They left the chamber and continued quietly toward Haven.
The terrain shifted again—less canyon, more open field, but the ley-lines here were unstable. Eden felt them like static in his bones. Kai with new knowledge from the chamber, adjusted their route, using the shard's data to avoid the worst fractures.
They camped that night under a canopy of stars, letting their bond relax and center them like a song. Eden cooked, Kai mapped, and they spoke quietly about the future.
"I want to find others like us. Hidden away, suppressed and afraid with no one to trust, nowhere to go, no home, the ones who are trying to fit in and survive," Eden said.
Kai looked at him. "You think they're still out there?"
Eden nodded. "Not all. But some. And they deserve to know that the stories they've been told are real and not a rumor and that there's hope and a real home for them."
Kai reached for his hand. "Then we'll find them and share the message you've share with me. That they are not alone."
The next morning, they crossed into the outer perimeter of Haven's invisible energy field. The coordinates pulsed in Eden's neural thread, guiding them toward the hidden entrance.
But something was wrong.
The field was fluctuating—unstable, erratic. Eden scanned it, frowning. "It's reacting to us."
Kai stepped closer to Eden and asked "Why?".
With both, Eden and Kai visible in the sensor the field adjusted. Eden's eyes narrowed. "Because it's verifying who we are."
The shard pulsed in his system, and the field responded. Glyphs flared across the ground, forming a path. Eden took a breath and stepped forward as the field stabilized.
Kai followed, and the glyphs shifted again—forming a large symbol Eden hadn't seen before.
A unified glyph bearing the weight of age and ash, as if scorched and weathered by time itself. It glowed faintly while appearing more like a relic unearthed from the ruins of a forgotten sanctuary—etched in stone, tempered by fire, and surrounded by a lightning-veined flame. A fusion of the Enigma and the Pulse Omega.
They were recognized.
They were home.
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