Ren's throat went dry. His lips parted, but no sound came out. The room still rang with the echo of the gunshot, the metallic tang of blood heavy in the air. Cypher's body was a crumpled heap at Axton's boots, and Ren couldn't tear his eyes away from it.
Axton stepped over the corpse as if it were nothing more than a discarded coat, his polished black shoes leaving faint streaks of crimson on the smooth floor.
"I asked you a question, Renault," he said, his voice quiet, almost patient—but the weight behind it pressed against Ren's chest like an anvil.
Ren forced himself to meet those silver eyes. His own heart was hammering so loud, it was a miracle Axton couldn't hear it. He could feel the faint tremor in his legs spreading to his arms, but he kept his jaw locked.
"I've already told you," Ren said, voice hoarse, "If I give you his name, you'll hunt him. And if you hunt him, you'll find my sister. I'm not—"
He cut himself off, realising he'd revealed too much.
Axton's head tilted the slightest degree, the faintest twitch of interest passing over his otherwise unreadable face. "Your sister."
Ren's breath caught.
The captain didn't raise his voice, didn't step closer, yet somehow Ren felt as if those words had stripped him bare.
"You think you have the right to negotiate with me?" Axton's tone didn't change, but his gaze sharpened to a blade. "You come into my territory, you steal from me, you accuse my soldier—correctly, as it turns out—and yet you still believe you hold the upper hand?"
"I'm not—"
Axton closed the distance in a single stride, his hand gripping Ren's jaw with cold precision. His thumb pressed against Ren's cheekbone, forcing him to look up.
He felt it again... that same fleeting headache he felt when he had touched Ren two days ago. Again, he pushed it aside, characterising it as one of his symptoms.
"You are still breathing because I am deciding if you are worth more alive than dead," Axton murmured. "Every second you waste my time, Renault, that balance tips toward death."
Ren's heart raced, his mind scrambling for words that wouldn't lead to a bullet between his eyes.
"If I die," Ren said carefully, "you lose the only person who can get you into Base7 without spilling more of your men's blood."
Axton's silver eyes searched his face for a long, suffocating moment. Then, slowly, the captain released him and stepped back, his expression unreadable once more.
"Corvin, now I'm curious. Why have you kept him alive?" Axton questioned, turning to the quiet doctor.
The silence that followed was different now—it was heavy with a new kind of dread, one born of knowing.
Ren stared at Corvin, not with the raw fear of a trapped animal, but with a dawning horror.
Corvin's eyes twinkled, a hint of something that might have been a suppressed excitement. "I want to understand, captain." He said, his voice still low and even.
"I want to understand why he survived a gunshot wound that should have been fatal. I want to understand what makes him different." Corvin continued.
"Your bullet should have killed him, Captain. It didn't. His regeneration is… remarkable." Corvin pinned Ren with a scrutinising gaze.
Ren's mind reeled. Regeneration? He thought of the throbbing ache in his abdomen, the sudden, sharp pain that had jolted him awake. He hadn't just survived—he was healing, it wasn't entirely fast, but, the lump on his head, the wound on his shoulder—he could feel the skin slowly knitting itself back together, the pain slowly receding. It was true. Something had changed inside him.
He was already wondering why he could still stand after facing hunger, torture, and even death. These crazy people must have done something to him while he was unconscious.
"He's a mutant," Corvin stated, his voice a dispassionate clinical assessment. "Or something very much like one. He's the key, captain. The key to understanding what's happening to us all. The key to controlling it."
Ren gulped. This was his fear. Now, his secret was out, and he was becoming what he feared: another specimen under the bright lights of an unfeeling doctor.
He looked from the doctor's impassive face to Axton's formidable one; he was no longer just a prisoner, he was a test subject. The thought was a cold, hard stone in his stomach. He didn't care about being a "key." He didn't care about "controlling it." All he cared about was Mira, and the two-day deadline that had passed, a clock that had run out while he was unconscious. His sister was out there, alone, vulnerable.
Axton eyed Ren with double interest, 'What an imbalance.' He thought quietly.
As Corvin said, Ren was indeed a special breed. His Interest has been piqued and he now wants to know why Ren was the only unaffected human among the whole factions.
Could he really be the cure?
Ren sensed that his journey had come to an end. Corvin seemed to have convinced Axton about experimenting on him; there was only one thing he could do: bargain with the devil.
"My sister," he said, his voice barely a whisper. "What about my sister?"
Axton pinned him with a heavy gaze. "She is a problem you no longer have to worry about. She's not important -"
"Then kill me now," Ren cut Axton off, surprising both Axton and Corvin.
"Kill me now and forget about ever experimenting on me. Forget about the possible cure to the virus," Ren stated, half bold, half fainting from fear.
But he couldn't have done it any other way. If he were sacrificing himself as a specimen, then he had to make some kind of deal.
He knew he was in no place to make deals just as Axton had stated, but he had to try. He had nothing to lose anymore; he was already a dead man. The experimenting would surely kill him, so he had to make sure he secured his sister first.
Axton remained still, his steel eyes darkening over Ren. For the first time, someone physically challenged him.
Corvin's expression showed how grave Ren's mistake was. He stared at Ren in disbelief, slowly shaking his head.
"And what about your sister?" Axton asked calmly.
Ren was surprised to hear the question, and he couldn't tell if Axton was genuinely asking or setting a trap for him.
Axton stepped forward but Corvin panicked and called out to him.
"Captain, we really can't afford to kill him. He's right about what he said; killing him only destroys our only chance at ever finding a solid cure to this virus. Also... I believe there's some potency in him that might be of great use to you in the future, Captain," Corvin hurried to explain further.
Axton heard and understood the secret message in Corvin's words; he relented, though his cold eyes promised future retribution for the insult of a rankless human speaking to him so insolently.
"Very well," Axton said. "You wanted a deal with me, right?" Axton returned to lean against his table just the way he was when Ren was dragged in, "You have one night to prove your worth. Fail… and your sister won't be the only one buried."
Ren swallowed hard, realising that whatever tomorrow brought, it would decide both their fates.