For three excruciating seconds, neither man breathed.
Ryker's gaze flicked down to the broad, dark stain sinking deep into the carpet just two feet from the bed. The faint, lingering smell of copper fought a losing battle against the sharp scent of soap, but he didn't flinch.
Instead, he lowered the towel to his shoulders, his expression unnervingly calm.
"You're finally awake," Ryker said, his voice dropping an octave, smooth and steady. He gestured vaguely toward the en-suite behind him. "I hope you don't mind me using your shower... I just couldn't risk leaving you unprotected while I stepped out to find another one."
Cassian's throat felt like dry paper, his pulse hammering against his ribs. The disorienting heat clung to his skin, making every breath feel heavy.
In his frantic rush to reach for a weapon, he had thrown the blanket completely off and following Ryker's cool, unhurried gaze downward, Cassian realized the reality of his situation. The sheet was pooled around his thighs. He was completely bare, exposed, his flushed skin streaked with dark, dried grime.
A wave of mortification flooded his face, burning hot against his feverish skin. He froze, his jaw dropping slightly as his mind scrambled to make sense of why he was naked in front of someone he barely knew.
'What the hell...?'
Shame instantly turned into a desperate grab for control. Slinking back, Cassian frantically snatched the sheet, hauling it all the way up to his neck. His face was flushed crimson, a mix of sheer embarrassment and mounting disorientation.
As the initial shock wore off, the absurdity of the situation set in. His confusion quickly ignited into a hot, defensive anger.
"Why..." Cassian rasped out, his voice cracking before he cleared his throat and tried to harden his posture beneath the sheet. "Why am I naked, Ryker? And why are you walking around my room in a towel like this is your lounge?"
Ryker held up his hands in a quiet, apologetic gesture, dropping his gaze just enough to look sheepish without losing his composure.
"Ah..I'm sorry," Ryker said gently.
He stepped back half a pace to give Cassian space.
"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," Ryker continued. "But I couldn't leave you unprotected while you were burning up and unconscious. If another creature came I wanted to be right here to handle it. At least in here, I'd hear them coming faster."
Ryker offered a small, disarming smile.
"My hearing has always been better than most."
Cassian gritted his teeth. The sharp edge of his anger faltered against the soft, logical apology.
He was still completely unsure why he was stripped bare, but deep down, he knew Ryker wouldn't have done anything..wrong, he was just trying to keep him alive.
The knot of tension in Cassian's chest loosened, though he only relaxed slightly, keeping the sheet pinned firmly to his collarbone.
Forcing himself past the lingering mortification, Cassian wiped a palm down his flushed face, his brows drawing together in sudden, urgent focus.
"How much time do we have left?" Cassian asked, his voice rough and hurried.
"There should still be about fifty minutes on the system countdown, right?" Cassian pressed.
"That's enough time. We need to get down to the basement and hand out weapons to the civilians before whatever the system has planned hits."
Ryker froze, staring at him in sheer bewilderment. He blinked, completely caught off guard.
"What are you talking about?" Ryker asked, his tone dropping into quiet disbelief.
"Cassian... the countdown has been zero for a while," Ryker said softly. "The breach already happened."
Cassian blinked back at him a cold dread washing over his face as he tried to process the words.
'Fifty minutes?'Ryker thought, his mind racing as he watched the disoriented panic in the man's golden eyes.
He thinks there were still fifty minutes left? He must have passed out long before the timer struck zero.
But how could he fight, unleash that lightning, and incinerate the entire horde if his consciousness dropped that early?
Is this memory loss a side effect of channeling that much power?
It was a crucial, chilling piece of information, but Ryker locked it away, keeping the deduction entirely to himself. Instead, he let his expression soften into a look of quiet, sorrowful concern.
"I don't know what happened," Cassian rasped out, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the sheet against his chest.
"I can't remember anything..." Cassian whispered. "All I know is, in that split second before I went under, I saw one of my men turn. And after that... absolute blank."
"Cassian..." Ryker said gently, stepping a fraction closer as if trying to cushion the blow.
"I'm so sorry, but... your men didn't make it," Ryker added softly. "The mutated creature wiped them out. It happened so fast."
Cassian's mind snapped.
Before Ryker could even finish the sentence, Cassian sprang from the mattress, the bedsheet twisting around his waist as he lunged forward with terrifying speed.
He slammed Ryker backward into the bedroom wall.
The drywall groaned under the impact as Cassian drove his forearm hard against Ryker's throat, pinning the youth against the plaster. His breathing was heavy, ragged, and boiling with wild, unstable heat.
"Don't you ever joke like that," Cassian snarled, his voice dropping into a guttural, terrifying gravel.
He leaned in close, his face inches from Ryker's.
"I don't play around when it comes to my men," Cassian choked out, his jaw gritted so hard a tendon bulged in his neck. "It isn't funny, Ryker! Don't you dare stand there and pretend--"
Cassian didn't notice it, but as his fury peaked, a faint, radiant light began to pulse beneath his scalp. Strands of his hair flickered with a faint, static glow, tiny arcs of gold electricity snapping silently through the air around his temples.
Ryker didn't fight back. He didn't even reach up to grab the forearm choking off his air. His dark eyes remained calm, tracking the shimmering light dancing through Cassian's hair with quiet, fascinated horror.
Ryker swallowed against the pressure of Cassian's arm, his voice coming out tight, strained, but utterly unhurried.
"I'm... not joking, Cassian," Ryker choked out softly.
Cassian's arm tightened, his golden eyes blazing with desperate denial.
"Listen to me," Ryker whispered, keeping his gaze locked on the frantic man. "When I came down... from my room... your soldiers were already fighting."
Cassian's breath hitched.
"One of your own men had turned," Ryker continued, his voice dripping with quiet, solemn pity. "It ripped through them... before they even realized what was happening. It tore them apart, Cassian. I tried to step in... I tried to help them, but it was to no avail."
"Shut up..." Cassian rasped, though the power in his voice was already faltering, trembling under the weight of horror. "Shut up!"
"If you don't believe me..." Ryker choked out, gesturing faintly toward the bedroom door with his eyes, "...go check downstairs. See for yourself."
The grip on Ryker's throat abruptly loosened.
Cassian stumbled back a pace, his eyes widening in sudden, agonizing recognition. Violent fragments of memory slammed into his mind a sickening barrage of images he had dismissed as a fever dream where he couldn't save his men.
The sound of rending flesh.
Screams cut short in the dark.
A towering, mutated nightmare sweeping through the corridor.
It matched every single word Ryker had just spoken.
"N-no..." Cassian gasped, clutching both hands to his head.
An unbearable pressure throbbed behind his temples as the horrifying images aligned perfectly with reality. He wasn't denying them anymore. He couldn't. The horrific truth was forcing its way into his chest, tearing down every wall of denial he had built.
His legs gave out.
Cassian crumpled heavily to the floor, the sheet pooling around his waist as he sank onto his knees, gripping his head as if trying to physically hold his mind together.
Against the plaster wall, Ryker slowly reached up with two slender fingers, gently massaging his bruised, aching throat.
Ryker took a quiet, unhurried breath, his voice dropping into a smooth, reverent cadence.
"You avenged them, Cassian," Ryker said softly.
Cassian's shoulders shook, the horrific vision of mutated beasts storming around him tearing through his consciousness, suffocating him with immense guilt.
"Without you... I too would have died down there," Ryker continued, stepping closer to where Cassian knelt in agony. "It was because of you. With your powers... I managed to see another day."
Through the blinding pain and the storm of violent memories, the word echoed in Cassian's mind.
He slowly forced his chin up, his face pale, flushed, and streaked with sweat. His golden eyes, filled with profound grief and sheer confusion, locked onto Ryker.
"Powers...?" Cassian rasped out, his voice a broken whisper.
Ryker slowly lowered himself to the floor, kneeling right beside Cassian. He didn't even notice or care that his knee sank directly into the thick, dark stain on the carpet, pressing into the drying blood of the woman he had killed.
A subtle, feverish glint sparked in his dark eyes.Seeing actual powers manifest was intoxicating.
"Yes, Cassian," Ryker murmured, his voice trembling with a quiet, suppressed thrill. "Powers."
Cassian didn't hear a miracle. He heard absolute nonsense.
"Stop," Cassian rasped, his voice dropping into a dangerous, warning growl.
His head was pounding, the sickening images of his dying mens screams flashing violently behind his eyes. He had just realized his squad was likely slaughtered downstairs, and now this weird person was kneeling next to him with a creepy, wide-eyed look, spouting childish garbage about fantasy powers. The grief and sheer absurdity snapped whatever restraint he had left.
As Ryker reached out, his hand hovering to touch him, Cassian violently shoved Ryker's arm away.
"Get the hell off me!" Cassian roared, pushing Ryker back so hard he stumbled awkwardly against the bedframe.
Cassian pushed himself up onto his knees, his jaw tight, his chest heaving as he glared at Ryker.
"Powers? Superpowers? Stop spouting this bullshit to my face!"Cassian snapped, his rough voice laced with venom.
Ryker, pushed back onto his hip, just sat there with calm, quietly taking in the furious outburst.
Cassian pressed two fingers hard against his throbbing temple, dragging the sheet back around his waist as he forced himself onto shaky legs.
"I can't listen to you right now," Cassian gritted out, his teeth grinding together. "I'm going downstairs. I'm going to see my men with my own eyes."
Ryker didn't scramble to stop him physically. He remained seated near the bed, calmly tracking Cassian's unsteady rise.
"So you're going downstairs like that?" Ryker asked suddenly.
Cassian paused, his hand gripping the edge of the headboard to steady his trembling legs.
"Wrapped in a bedsheet?" Ryker added, tilting his head slightly. "Covered in dried grime, with your eyes glowing like gold coins in the dark?"
Cassian gritted his teeth, refusing to look toward the en-suite mirror.
"I'm going to see my team, the people I swore my life too," Cassian growled.
"And what about the civilians hiding outside?" Ryker countered quietly.
The words made Cassian's posture instantly stiffen.
"Look at yourself, Cassian," Ryker said, gesturing faintly to the faint micro-sparks still crackling subtly through the air around Cassian's knuckles. "You're radiating heat. You don't even realize it, but whatever is inside you is leaking out. It's unstable."
Ryker leaned forward, his voice dropping into a sharp, grounding murmur that hit with lethal precision.
"If you march down there right now grieving, frantic, carrying an ability you don't even understand what happens if you lose control?" Ryker asked. "How long until a stray spark jumps off you? How long until you accidentally hurt someone... or kill the very people you're trying to protect?"
Cassian froze, his breath catching in his throat as his gaze dropped down to his bare hands. Tiny, golden arcs of static snapped silently across his skin, vanishing into the suffocating heat filling the room.
The denial in his chest fractured. He couldn't fake this. He couldn't rationalize away the raw electricity dancing over his own knuckles.
"Think about it, Cassian," Ryker pressed, doubling down as he saw the man's resolve weaken. "Can you really not remember how that mutated zombie looked? Surely you remember something now. You were the one who dealt with them... and definitely not in any normal way."
Cassian sharply turned his face away, unable to look at Ryker as a sickening knot tightened in his stomach. Deep down, the terrifying reality was sinking in.
Yet, the burden on his shoulders pressed heavier than ever. He was a protector. He was those civilians' last hope, the shield between them and the hell outside. How would they feel knowing he was up here, hiding away in his room, stripped of his uniform and losing his mind while they cowered in the dark below?
The thought of failing them made his chest ache with a quiet, agonizing grief.
"I'll..." Cassian rasped out, his voice thick and hesitant, forced to slowly accept the bitter truth even as every fiber of his being resisted it. "I won't... I won't hurt anyone. I'll keep it under control."
His gaze briefly flicked back to Ryker, noticing the subtle red mark forming on his throat where Cassian had violently pinned him against the wall moments ago.
A heavy pang of guilt cut through his grief.
"Ryker," Cassian said softly, his voice low and worn to the bone,"I'm... I'm sorry for doing that to you."