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Scene 1: Silence Where She Should Be
Lucine didn't show up for morning drills.
Aeyon knew instantly something was wrong—not by logic, but by the absence of rhythm in his world. Her laughter didn't echo through the courtyard. Her half-sung humming in the hallway? Gone.
He checked her room. Blank. Cold. Unsettling.
Then a message arrived on his encrypted tablet.
> "If you want her alive, come alone. Docks. Midnight."
No signature. No traceable signal. But he didn't need one. The signature wasn't in the tech. It was in the arrogance.
And Aeyon remembered arrogance.
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Scene 2: Valeiris Docks – Midnight
The docks were abandoned. Salt in the air. Mist rising from black waters. Six men waited. Low-tier gangsters from the old city sector—the kind who thought violence was dominance.
Lucine sat tied to a chair, bruised but breathing. Her eyes—defiant.
Aeyon walked in slowly, hands in pockets.
> "This is the part," he said calmly, "where you tell me what you want, and I pretend to care."
One thug stepped forward, waving a gun.
> "You've got a mouth on you, freak."
> "And you've got ten seconds of relevance left."
The thug laughed—then screamed.
Because the gun melted in his hand.
Aeyon had activated a proximity pulse—designed to destabilize crude tech within three meters. But it wasn't the tech that shook them. It was the way he smiled.
> "Next time," he whispered, stepping closer, "don't send pawns to play chess."
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Scene 3: The Mind Game
The leader stepped forward. Smarter. Sharper eyes.
> "You don't scare me with your tricks. I know who you really are."
> "Then you know why your heart's beating faster right now."
> "She's leverage. Let her go and maybe—"
> "You let her go," Aeyon interrupted, "and I won't make you relive your worst memory in reverse time-loop, frame by frame."
The gangster faltered. That wasn't a bluff.
Lucine watched—speechless—as Aeyon whispered something. The gang leader collapsed, convulsing. Silent. Not screaming—because Aeyon had shut down the part of his brain that processed sound.
The rest ran.
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Scene 4: Aftermath
Aeyon knelt beside Lucine. Untied her gently. His fingers shook—barely.
> "I thought I could handle myself," she whispered.
> "You did. You stalled. You made them think you were afraid. That's a kind of power most don't understand."
> "And you… What did you do to him?"
> "I gave him truth. The raw kind."
> "You scare me sometimes."
> "Good. That means I can keep you safe."
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Scene 5: The Real Threat
Later that night, Aeyon sat alone in the Valeiris observatory.
A new message blinked on his retina HUD. Encrypted.
> "That was a warning. We're watching her. And we're not gangsters. We're the Architects of Collapse."
> "You took the bait, King of Broken Minds."
Aeyon smiled, calm and slow.
> "Then I hope you brought stronger hands. Because next time… I won't come alone either."
He looked at the night sky.
> "And when I collapse… I'll take your whole house with me."
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TO BE CONTINUED...