They buried Varkos at sunrise.
No coffin.
No priest.
Just a hole in the cracked earth and a pile of stones.
Juvy placed the metal tag on top.
It clinked softly.
"That's all he gets?" she whispered.
Maxruell stood beside her.
"He wouldn't want more."
She laughed bitterly. "He died for us and we give him rocks."
"He chose it."
She turned on him.
"Stop saying that like it fixes things!"
He didn't reply.
They stood there while the refugees watched from far away.
Nobody cried except Juvy.
Later, Juvy sat alone on a bus seat, knees to her chest.
"I killed him," she said to the empty air.
"If I didn't freeze…"
"You didn't kill him."
She looked up.
Maxruell leaned in the doorway.
"Cain did."
Juvy shook her head.
"She only won because we played her game."
Silence sat between them.
Finally, she whispered, "Are you hearing her again?"
He hesitated.
"…No."
It was a lie.
The crimson stone pulsed.
She showed you the truth,
the voice said.
Your sister will die if you stay weak.
That afternoon, the sky darkened.
Not clouds.
Helicopters.
More drones.
More soldiers.
Juvy looked up. "They found us again."
Maxruell's shadows stirred.
The refugees panicked.
"Don't fight," Juvy said. "We move. Now."
They ran through alleys and broken rails, smoke rising behind them.
One refugee stumbled.
A drone tracked him.
Juvy raised a hand and The drone exploded into crystal shards.
But more came.
Missiles fired.
Buildings collapsed.
Maxruell turned.
His eyes were red.
"Keep moving."
He raised both hands.
Darkness spread across the street like oil.
Soldiers vanished into it.
Gunfire stopped.
When the shadows withdrew nothing remained but crushed armor and blood.
Juvy stared.
"You didn't have to…"
"They wouldn't stop."
She saw it then.
He wasn't shaking.
He wasn't sick.
He was calm.
That scared her.
They hid inside a collapsed hospital.
Night fell.
Rain washed blood off the streets.
Juvy sat near a broken window.
"Varkos said our parents were soldiers."
"Yes."
"And Cain was their leader."
"Yes."
"Then why does she sound like she loved them?"
Maxruell didn't answer.
The voice whispered again.
She loved them because they betrayed her.
He closed his eyes.
Do not tell her.
That night, Juvy dreamed of Varkos.
He stood in the road, smiling.
"Don't let him become her," he said.
She woke up crying.
Across the room, Maxruell stared at his hands.
They were clean.
But he could still feel the bones breaking.
He whispered into the dark:
"If I become a monster…
will you keep her safe?"
The stone pulsed.
I will make you strong enough to do so.
And somewhere, in a ruined cathedral, Mother Cain knelt before a map.
She traced the twins' path with black ink.
"Good," she whispered.
"Now they're running the right way."