Graveport was quiet the next morning.
Too quiet.
The cathedral was gone just a crater filled with black glass and melted bones.
People avoided looking at Maxruell and Juvy.
They didn't cheer.
They didn't curse.
They just moved out of the way.
Juvy sat on the edge of the roof, legs hanging over the street.
She hadn't slept.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Arkon tear his own heart out.
She whispered, "How many people did we kill last night?"
Maxruell leaned against the wall behind her.
"Not enough to matter."
She flinched.
"That's not what I asked."
He didn't answer.
They buried the rescued children's dead in the old playground.
Small graves.
No names.
Juvy carved symbols into crystal markers so their souls wouldn't wander.
"I don't want them lost," she said.
Maxruell watched from a distance.
He didn't help.
Inside his coat, the black-red shard pulsed.
This city is yours,
the voice whispered.
Claim it.
He tightened his grip.
That night, rain fell.
Juvy finally broke.
"I don't want to fight anymore," she said suddenly.
Maxruell looked at her.
"I don't want to be a weapon.
I don't want people to die because of me.
I just want it to stop."
He stared at the wet street.
"It doesn't stop," he said.
"It chooses."
She grabbed his jacket.
"Then choose me."
For a moment the stone quieted.
For a moment, he looked like her brother again.
Then screams echoed from below.
Gunfire.
A gang raid.
Maxruell's eyes hardened.
"I'll handle it."
"No," Juvy said. "We handle it."
They went down together.
This time, Juvy didn't kill.
She trapped men in crystal cages.
She disarmed them.
She spared them.
Maxruell crushed three.
Only three.
But Juvy noticed.
Later, on the rooftop, Juvy said, "I'm getting better at stopping myself."
Maxruell said nothing.
She looked at him.
"You're getting worse."
Silence.
He pulled the shard out.
Black light bled from it.
"I found this on Cain's throne."
Her breath caught.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you'd destroy it."
"Because it's corrupting you!"
"It's teaching me."
She slapped it out of his hand.
It shattered the roof tile.
The voice screamed.
The wind howled.
Maxruell grabbed his head.
Juvy held him.
"Max… please."
The shard stopped glowing.
But the crimson stone inside him still burned.
Three days later, Word spread.
Government forces were moving.
Not drones.
Not scouts.
An army.
Juvy packed their bags.
"We can't stay."
Maxruell stared at Graveport's skyline.
"I don't want to run anymore."
She looked at him with tears in her eyes.
"Then we die."
He turned to her.
For the first time, he hesitated.
That night, a man in a hood left a letter at their door.
Only three words inside:
SHE REMEMBERS YOU.
Signed with Cain's symbol.
Juvy crushed the paper.
Maxruell didn't.
He folded it carefully.
And far away, in a city of ash, Mother Cain watched the twins through a wall of burning glass.
"Three weeks," she said.
"Then the world changes."