The news spread across Elizes faster than the smoke itself.
For the first time in the planet's recorded history, the King's Palace had been breached.
A bomb blast, inside the heart of power.
The streets filled, not with panic, but with voices. Plazies gathered in clusters, whispering theories, trading lies as easily as facts. Some spoke of rebels, others of traitors, and a few, quietly of humans. In a world where life had always been secure, fear felt unfamiliar, and unfamiliar things always needed someone to blame.
While Elizes argued with itself, we regrouped inside Alexander's home. When we go to Alexanders compartment we all used to wear dress like him so that no one in the locality would guess that we were in his room, also every and each period one of us would be out for groceries. though right now we all entered at the same time to his room, we were not noticed.
The badge Raj had built benefitted us 6 people this time, not just me.
Every trace of the technology we used was erased burnt, melted, wiped clean. The room smelled of scorched metal and urgency. Whatever we had done inside the palace was now history, and history had to leave no fingerprints.
Jurgen stood at the center of the room.
We surrounded him not threatening, not gentle, just waiting. He hadn't blinked since we arrived. His eyes moved slowly across our faces, one by one. Not just our eyes, not just our expressions. It felt like he was measuring something deeper, something unfinished.
I couldn't tell what he was searching for.
The silence grew unbearable.
Anna and Runge slammed the table at the same time. The sound snapped through the room like a gunshot.
Anna spoke first.
Anna(leaning forward, her voice sharp but controlled):
"What did you see in the palace chambers? In the air-vacuum section?"
Before Jurgen could answer, Runge's voice cut in, low, dark.
Runge:
"Did you see yourself there? In the hall… or the chamber?"
Jurgen flinched.
Jurgen(almost shouting):
"No!
But if I had been dragged there as a captive, if I had stood before the masked king then yes… I would have seen myself."
That answer unsettled all of us.
Thoughts began forming, half theories, half fears. Alexander broke the tension, speaking calmly, almost philosophically.
Alexander:
"Perhaps the king reveals the truth of the crimes committed. Not to punish, but to force sympathy. To turn guilt into obedience."
Jurgen finally moved.
He turned his face toward a mirror mounted on the wall beside him. For the first time since we arrived, he blinked. Slowly. Repeatedly. As if returning from somewhere far away.
Jurgen:
"I climbed through the ventilation chambers, tight paths, sharp turns. My hands were clinging to metal that didn't want to hold me.
At the end… I saw a prison room."
We stayed silent.
Jurgen:
"A woman was chained there. She was brought in for trial.
Then the masked king entered and stood before her."
Runge stepped closer.
Runge:
"Was it Raj's mother?"
Jurgen:
"No."
He paused, frowning.
Jurgen:
"I don't remember her face well… I couldn't recognize her.
But she was disturbed. Scarred. Still standing."
His voice dropped.
Jurgen:
"When the king approached her, he removed his mask."
Everyone leaned in.
Jurgen:
"His face… it resembled hers. Not identical, but close. Like a reflection twisted by time.
He spoke to her, trying to make her confess truths. Facts he wanted spoken aloud.
She didn't react. Not even once."
He swallowed.
Jurgen:
"I was watching from above—from the ceiling chamber.
Then the blast happened. Somewhere else in the palace. The wormhole codes—destroyed."
The room felt colder.
Jurgen:
"The shock shook the ventilation path. I lost balance for a second.
And the king looked up."
Silence.
Jurgen(quietly):
"For one second… his face changed."
He tapped the mirror lightly.
Jurgen:
"It looked like me."
No one breathed.
Jurgen:
"No one else noticed. It changed too fast.
But I saw it.
And worse…"
He met our eyes.
Jurgen:
"He saw mine."
A heavy truth settled over the room.
Jurgen:
"That's why I'm afraid.
The king knows we exist."
The rain over Elizes that night did not fall like water.
It fell like punishment.
Thunder rolled above the city while the power grids flickered across the towering buildings. The advanced streets of Elizes, once glowing with pride and order, were now drowned in alarms, smoke, and fear after the palace incident.
Inside Alexander's dark apartment, the tension finally broke.
Suddenly, Runge pulled out his weapon and pressed the barrel against the back of Jurgen's head.
The metallic click of the trigger froze all of us.
Jurgen did not move.
For one terrifying second, I truly believed Runge would kill him.
But instead, Runge dropped the gun onto the floor and grabbed Jurgen by the collar, smashing his head against the wall again and again in fury. The walls echoed with the sound of impact.
I rushed forward and pulled Runge back.
Bjorn:
"Is sacrifice the only thing you've seen in your life?
Right now you're even ready to sacrifice your own friend… your own brother!"
Runge stopped.
His breathing grew heavier. Slowly, he looked down into Jurgen's eyes.
Rainlight entered through the broken window behind him, revealing his face clearly for the first time.
His eyes were red.
Not from rage alone.
There were tears.
Runge(his voice trembling with fury):
"This is what the Plazies made us into.
Monsters.
People who can sacrifice their own blood for victory."
He clenched his fist so tightly the veins rose through his skin.
Runge:
"The commands they taught us… the wars they made us fight…
it hollowed us from inside.
They weaponized us. Deformed us.
They took people… and turned them into tools."
The room remained silent after that.
Only the rain spoke.
Grimmer slowly opened the window wider so some pale light could enter the room. In the dim grey darkness, only Runge's face was visible clearly, half covered in shadow, half burning with grief.
For the first time, our commander did not look like a beast.
He looked tired.
After a long silence, Runge straightened himself.
Runge:
"This is our only chance.
We move to the launch centre tonight.
If we fail now, we die here."
Nobody argued.
Everyone rushed to prepare.
Food packs, probes, weapons, fuel cells, medical kits everything was thrown together in desperate speed.
Then suddenly
Anna panicked.
Her voice cracked through the room sharply enough to make even Grimmer grunt in irritation.
Anna(shaken):
"My records…!
I left my face-blindness journals at home."
Jurgen frowned.
Jurgen:
"You can make new ones later.
We're leaving this planet forever. Why carry old faces with you?"
Anna looked at him with genuine fear.
Anna:
"Those books are my memory.
I wrote every face I've ever known inside them… my family, my friends… my father.
If I lose them, one day I'll forget how the people I loved looked."
Grimmer immediately snapped.
Grimmer:
"Is this really the time for that?
We're between survival and death right now!"
Raj suddenly stepped between everyone.
I stood beside Anna without hesitation.
Unlike Runge's side, I understood her fear.
Some people lose lives.
Some lose memories.
For Anna, forgetting a face was like watching a person die twice.
Raj(commanding Runge directly):
"The launch centre is only forty kilometers away.
With Bjorn driving, we can return within fifteen minutes."
Grimmer(more softly now):
"Brother… we don't even know if we'll survive the roads."
Bjorn:
"We'll make it back. Trust me."
Alexander stood in the middle of the room, unable to choose sides. Finally, I convinced him to leave with Runge's group.
He still hesitated.
Alexander:
"You don't know the routes through Keeron city…"
But there was no more time.
Soon the team split apart.
Runge, Jurgen, Grimmer, and Alexander mounted their steel two-wheeler beasts and stormed toward the launch centre like hunters chasing prey. Their engines roared violently through the wet streets.
Meanwhile, I drove Raj and Anna toward their old apartment.
The roads of Elizes were nearly empty now, drowned under stormlight and police sirens. I kept my face hidden beneath Alexander's disguise gear while driving. If cops stopped us, I needed enough seconds to escape.
When we reached the apartment, the place was already destroyed from investigation.
Doors broken.
Furniture overturned.
Dust everywhere.
The government had searched the house completely for traces of treason.
But they had failed to realize the important belongings had already been taken earlier by Raj and Anna for the mission.
Only one thing remained.
Elisha's diary.
The same diary that mentioned the Earth wormhole code, the one Raj's father accidentally spoke while drunk years ago.
While Anna crossed carefully through the dusty hallway toward her locker, Raj wandered silently through the ruined home.
I could see him tracing memories.
His mother's footsteps.
His brother's laughter.
The silence after loss.
Near the exit stood a locked cabinet.
Something inside him made him open it.
Inside was a bottle of medicine once used by his father during his final days.
Raj slowly picked it up.
Tears began falling from his eyes.
And then the memory struck him.
Raj's Father(drunk, broken):
"We humans from Btell… were born from a mistake…
Our creation itself is a lie… hahaha…"
Then his expression changed.
Sadness replaced madness.
Raj's Father:
"But you… Bjorn… your brother… Anna…
you are not lies.
You all carry my memory.
One day… ignite it."
Anna suddenly grabbed Raj's arm to pull him away.
The medicine slipped from his fingers.
It hit the floor.
And exploded.
The blast shattered the apartment instantly.
Raj and Anna were thrown violently onto the staircase outside. Raj's head smashed against the steps, blood spreading through the rainwater.
The entire building shook.
Bricks and debris crashed down behind our vehicle, only a few meters away from killing me.
Anna, injured and dizzy, forced herself up. Her legs trembled but she stayed standing.
When she saw Raj unconscious on the stairs, panic finally reached her face.
Without wasting another second, she hooked an emergency cable from the upper floor and descended with Raj to the ground.
The explosion had already alerted the city.
Sirens screamed nearby.
Police vehicles began rushing toward us.
We escaped into the forest roads immediately, but within minutes, three cop cars locked onto our trail.
The engines screamed through the darkness.
The headlights cut across the forest like hunting beams. Even the animals hidden among the trees began roaring in fear from the noise.
At the same time
Inside the launch centre, the others waited.
Minutes passed.
Too many minutes.
Then suddenly, through the distant forest sky, they saw it—
A burst of red powder exploding upward.
My signal.
Danger.
But by then, I had already lost one finger from a police bullet tearing through my hand while driving. The cops weren't trying to destroy the vehicle.
They wanted us alive.
Alive meant interrogation.
Alive meant answers.
Inside the launch ship, panic erupted.
Grimmer wanted to wait for us.
Runge too.
But Alexander stepped forward and slammed the launch command.
The engines ignited.
The ship rose into the storm sky.
Runge turned toward him with fury burning in his eyes.
Runge:
"So this is how we leave?!
Without our own brothers?!"
Alexander(trying to stay calm):
"They're already surrounded!
If the police found them, they'll trace us too!
We have to survive… or none of this truth will matter!"
Jurgen remained silent.
He sat frozen in his seat, hiding whatever grief was tearing through him for Anna.
Grimmer lowered his head, mourning me like a lost brother.
Finally, even Runge collapsed back into his seat, guilt and helplessness crushing his pride.
But Jurgen
Jurgen suddenly removed his seatbelt and rushed toward the unbreakable glass window.
He slammed both fists against it again and again like a trapped beast.
And for the first time since I met him
The madman cried.
Not softly.
Not quietly.
He roared like a wounded lion that while the ship abandoned us beneath the storm-covered skies of Elizes.
And from that moment onwards
our path as a team was finally broken apart.