Seraph stared at Sterling’s smiling face on the screen. Her hand moved toward her sidearm, acting as if she could somehow shoot through the screen and hit the real man on behind it.
"What does he mean?" Draven asked.
They got their answer seconds later.
The ground began to shake violently. Not from an explosion this time. This was different. It felt alive, like something huge waking up from sleep.
It was a loud scream that didn’t sound human at all. It came up from the massive crater Jonah made. One scream turned into two. Then five. Then dozens.
"Oh no," Silas said quietly. Her voice, usually so flat and emotionless, carried something new. Fear.
Seraph moved to the edge of the hole and looked down. What she saw made her feel scared.
The underground factory stretched out below them, lit by the sickly green glow of broken containment pods. Crystalline fragments covered the floor like broken glass. And moving through that glass, climbing over wreckage and each other in panic, were people.
Young people. Teenagers, mostly. Each one had a God Mark somewhere on their body, glowing with unstable light.
Sterling’s failed Weavers.
They were coming out from the wreckage like ants leaving a destroyed home.
"Seraph!" Vanessa’s voice came through the comm. "We are detecting huge psychic disturbances from your position. What’s happening down there?"
Before Seraph could answer, the first Weaver reached the surface.
He was a boy, maybe around fourteen years old. His God Mark covered half of his face like scars. He came out from the crater, looked around and screamed.
The scream wasn’t just noise. It carried a mental force that made Seraph’s head hurt badly.
Then the boy summoned his Progeny.
The creature that appeared was wrong. It had the basic shape of a wolf, but its body parts were all messed up. It had too many legs. Eyes in places eyes shouldn’t be. It moved with jerky, unnatural motions.
The boy pointed at nothing in particular, and the wolf-thing attacked. It didn’t matter that there was no target. It just attacked because its creator was scared and confused.
"They’re coming up!" Draven shouted.
More Weavers were climbing out of the crater now. Each one summoned their own twisted Progeny the moment they reached the surface. There was only psychic noise, screaming, and the sounds of corrupted creatures tearing into anything nearby.
High above, Jonah felt every one of them.
His God Mark burned like fire against his skin. The psychic pressure threatened to split his skull open. Hundreds of voices crashed into his mind all at once.
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"Jonah!" Vanessa grabbed his shoulders. "Stay with me!"
He forced his eyes open. "We have to land. Now. The team is down there."
"Landing in that chaos is suicide," Ariana said from her position at the navigation console. "The area is too unstable."
"I don’t care!" Jonah’s voice came out sharper than he intended. "Our friends are down there!"
Ariana met his eyes for a long moment. Then she nodded. "Hold on."
Nomad banked hard, diving toward the chaos.
On the ground, Seraph’s team was in trouble.
The Weavers weren’t attacking them specifically. They were attacking everything. Even at each other.
"Defensive positions!" Seraph ordered. "Do not engage unless necessary!"
A corrupted version of Maul, with his bones all exposed and wrong angles, charged at Draven. He raised his golden shield just in time. The impact pushed him back few feet, his boots leaving marks in the floor.
"These things are strong!" he grunted.
More Weavers were rushing out every second. And with them came Sterling’s cyborgs, coming out from bunkers around the area. But the cyborgs weren’t fighting the Weavers.
They were just watching. Recording.
"They’re gathering data," Silas said. She stood apart from the chaos, her shadow panther circling her protectively. "Analyzing combat patterns. Studying the failures to improve the next generation."
A young girl stumbled toward them. Her God Mark covered her arms in jagged lines. She was crying.
"Please," she begged. "I can’t make it stop. I can’t..."
Her eyes suddenly rolled back. Against her will, she summoned another Progeny. This one was even more deformed than the last.
Seraph felt sad. These weren’t enemies. They were victims.
The sky lit up with golden light.
Nomad crashed down in the middle of the chaos, its massive form scattering Weavers and cyborgs alike. The cockpit opened, and Jonah stumbled out, barely able to stand under the weight of the psychic pressure.
Vanessa caught him before he fell. "I’ve got you."
"Reunion later!" Seraph shouted, firing aimed shots to disable an approaching Progeny. "Survival now!"
They formed up quickly, backs together, surrounded on all sides. Draven’s shield flickered as impact after impact hit it. Seraph was down to her last magazine.
And still they came. More and more Weavers climbing from the wreckage. More deformed Progeny filling the air with their screams.
Jonah’s legs went weak. The psychic noise was too much. Too many broken minds crying out at once. He couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe.
A corrupted Nyx flew at Vanessa. Draven blocked it, but the effort cost him. His shield broke completely.
"Draven!" Seraph moved to cover him, but she was out of ammunition.
They were out of options. Out of time.
In that moment, surrounded by the horror Sterling had created, Jonah realized something important.
He couldn’t fight this. Nobody could. You can’t punch trauma. You can’t shoot pain.
But maybe you could soothe it.
"Get behind me," he said quietly.
"What?" Seraph looked at him like he’d lost his mind.
"Trust me." His voice was steadier now. "Please."
Something in his tone made her nod. "You heard him. Defensive circle around Jonah."
His team moved without question. Even exhausted and wounded, they formed up to protect him.
Jonah closed his eyes. He reached deep into his Beast Space,
He reached for the Progeny he’d created not as a weapon, but as a promise.
"Sylva," he whispered. "I need you."
Soft golden-green light began to bloom around them.