Opening – The Longest Night
Darkness falls over Cindervault.
Not the kind born of the sun's setting, but of anticipation—the charged silence before annihilation. Lights across the Awakened stronghold flicker. Every system hums on edge. The obsidian ships of Zarxes inch closer by the hour, their engines cloaked in artificial storm.
Inside the council chamber, the Awakened leadership gathers around the crystalline core. The fractured archive pulses like a second heartbeat.
This night will decide everything.
The Debate Begins
Kaelen presents the full schematics of the rewrite protocol—its scope, its limits, its risks. A choice to trigger a memory reformatting wave within Zarxes' core ranks. Not death. Not mind control. A chance to overwrite fear with understanding, hate with empathy.
But not everyone sees salvation.
Calyra (cold):"Rewrite one mind, and you cross a line. Who draws the next one?"
Taryn:"And what if it fails? What if it unleashes something worse?"
Kaelen:
"What if it doesn't? What if this is our only chance to break the cycle?"
Seren, calm but forceful, speaks.
"Zarxes already rewrites with fire and fear. At least this gives a choice."
But Rhoan stays silent, arms crossed, listening—judging not the arguments, but the speakers' resolve.
Visions from the Past
The crystal unexpectedly emits a surge of light. The room dims.
Everyone sees flashes—not projections, but shared memory fragments:
Vael'Ruun walking away from a burning city, tearless.
Zarxes watching a child die, unmoved.
Kaelen, in another life, rejecting the sword in favor of a seed.
These aren't illusions. The archive is testing them—seeking resonance. Seeking a match.
Only Kaelen doesn't flinch. He's lived them already.
The Tipping Point
The debate breaks into three camps:
The Idealists – led by Calyra. They refuse to use the weapon, no matter the cost.
The Strategists – led by Taryn. Willing to test it if it offers an edge.
The Believers – gathering around Kaelen. They see it as the next evolution.
It comes to Rhoan, the one who's stayed silent.
He speaks finally.
"I've lost too many to doubt. But I'll be damned if we become what we fight."
"Test it. One controlled subject. One chance. Then we choose."
A Willing Volunteer
Silence follows.
Then—unexpectedly—a captured Hound, taken alive during the last raid, is brought in. Still snarling, hate-filled, broken by indoctrination.
Kaelen (quietly):"Let him choose. Let the memory show him who he was before Zarxes took him."
They initiate a partial rewrite pulse. The room watches, breathless.
At first—screams. Then... stillness.
The Hound—eyes wide, trembling—speaks a name no one knows. A name he hasn't used in decades.
"My name... is Jalen."
He sobs.
The Awakened watch, stunned. A crack in the mask of war.
Closing – The Storm Breaks
Outside, Zarxes' fleet darkens the skies.
Inside, the Awakened have their answer. They will wield the rewrite weapon—not as tyrants, but as a last gambit.
Kaelen clutches the crystal. Seren loads her blade. Rhoan dons his war armor.
Kaelen (voice low):"We fight tomorrow. Not just for freedom. But for the chance to change what freedom means."