John clutched his head as he staggered through the empty hallway, dizzy and disoriented.
His eyes darted wildly, struggling to process the flood of memories crashing into his mind.
He panted heavily.
The memories came too fast, too vivid.
It wasn't the information itself that threatened to overwhelm him—it was the crushing mental pain that came with it.
How could he have hurt the very people he had sworn to protect?
"No… No… This can't… it can't be real…" John whispered, his voice shaking uncontrollably.
He slammed his fist into the wall, cracking the concrete.
The noise caught someone's attention.
"Hey there! You alright?" a woman asked, stepping closer.
Before she could say another word, John's hand shot out and clamped around her throat.
Just as he was about to snap her neck, he froze.
He released her instantly, eyes wide with horror.
"I'm sorry… I'm really sorry…" he stammered, raising his hands in guilt. "I thought you were someone el—"
The woman didn't wait.
She turned and flew away, knowing better than to fight John.
John stared at his own trembling hands.
"What's happening… Oh God…"
"Sir."
The sudden male voice made him flinch. Startled, John spun around, searching for the source.
It could be Sovereign. It could be one of his soldiers. It could be Knox.
"Sir, it's me," the voice said calmly.
John whipped his head left and right, but the hallway was empty. "Where the fuck are you?!"
"It's me, Mark. Your personal AI assistant."
John's eyes widened in shock. He hadn't heard a single word from Mark since the day he was captured.
"The effects of the EM Suppression Chamber have finally worn off," Mark explained.
"Mark…?"
John punched the wall again, breathing hard. "The voices… They're fucking with me again…"
"I'm not a hallucination, sir. When you were in that isolation chamber, something blocked my ability to communicate with you. But I was still receiving your neural signals the entire time." Mark said.
"The constant beeping wasn't ordinary audio. It was designed to interfere with chips like me that rely on electromagnetic fields. The chamber itself was an EM Suppression Chamber. They wanted you completely isolated… even from me." Mark explained.
John let out a long sigh of relief.
"I'm so glad I implanted you straight into my brain…"
"I'm glad you did too, sir."
John slowly slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor.
He covered his face with both hands and began to cry.
"I fucked up, man… I really fucked up…"
"I almost killed them…" His voice cracked.
"But you didn't. The fact that you stopped yourself means you didn't truly intend to hurt them."
"You were a different man then, sir. A beast. A monster. A killing machine. And they probably know that too." Mark said, comforting John.
"It's not your fault." Mark said.
"It is!" John snapped. "I should've known better… I've known Hannah for a decade. She was the first person I befriended when I joined HEX! And I fucking forgot who she was…"
Mark stayed silent for a few moments. "They wiped your memories, sir."
John looked up, tears stopping instantly. "What do you mean?"
"Obedrex V1 doesn't just force obedience. It wipes your memory so you can't mentally resist. Obedrex V1 didn't fail on you, sir. You were simply too strong for it to fully control. But it still succeeded in erasing your memories." Mark explained.
"Why didn't you tell me?" John asked.
"Because I knew you would blame yourself for everything you did. It was better to tell you when you were already at your lowest." Mark said.
"How do you even know how Obedrex V1 works?" John asked.
"Obedrex has always existed, sir. Before you implanted me into your brain, you transferred data from another chip onto mine. That chip belonged to Karlis." Mark explained.
"Karlis…? Who's that…?"
"The father of Aris. Karlis was the one who originally created Composite X and Obedrex V1. After he was murdered, Aris continued his father's work." Mark said.
"Who killed him?" John pressed.
There was a brief silence. "It seems not all of your memories have fully returned yet."
"Huh? What do you m—"
John's eyes suddenly widened in horror as the memory slammed into him.
"I killed him…"
"When he caught me scheming my plan to betray the rich… I had no choice but to kill him…" John whispered, clenching his fists tight.
"You did what you had to do, sir," Mark said gently.
John grabbed his own face, as if he no longer recognized himself. "No… I never wanted to kill anyone, Mark. I swore to myself I never would. My father always told me…"
"When someone does something wrong, don't kill them. Teach them a lesson. Everyone has room to change, son. Remember—a life is still a human life. No matter how horrible someone seems, they won't stay that way… forever."
"…forever," John finished quietly, repeating his father's words.
"What if it was already too late for them to change, sir? Karlis was going to report you," Mark said.
"It doesn't matter… He was still a human. He had people who loved him, people who relied on him. And I took that away." John explained.
"When you kill someone, you don't just take one life… You get what I'm saying?" John said.
"I see. I suppose that makes sense, sir."
A long, heavy silence filled the hallway. John didn't move or speak.
"What do I do now, Mark?" he finally asked, voice barely above a whisper.
"Find them. Gain their trust." Mark suggested.
"They're going to hate me… I nearly killed them multiple times." John said.
"Sure, they'll hate you at first. But they'll hate you because they don't know why you acted that way." Mark said.
"Alright, but… how do I even leave HEX? Sovereign will kill me if he finds out." John asked.
"Insist on killing Hannah. Keep it simple, sir." Mark suggested.
"I don't have any better ideas… So why not."
John grunted as he pushed himself up from the floor.
Then—
Three men burst out of the elevator and marched down the hallway straight toward him.
They looked ready to hurt him. John didn't want trouble right now, so he turned to run.
But as he spun around, two more men appeared, blocking his path. He thought they were just trying to intimidate him, so he stood still, waiting to see what would happen.
One of them threw a punch.
John had no choice but to defend himself.
---
Knox gasped sharply as he woke from his coma, eyes darting around in panic.
"Am I dead? Where am I?" he whispered to himself.
"You're lucky your brother came in and carried your 'dead' body back," Sovereign's cold voice echoed through the room.
Knox froze in fear.
He could only see Sovereign's long shadow stretching across the wall as the footsteps grew closer.
"You ended up like this simply because you are weak and futile," Sovereign said.
"I mean, you were literally crying. Is this the feared monster Knox Maiden everyone talks about?" Sovereign finally stepped into full view, standing in the doorway.
He sighed in disappointment.
"Perhaps it would be best to just kill you right here. What possible use could you still be to me?"
No words came out of Knox's mouth.
His lips quivered. His entire body trembled with fear. He slowly shook his head, too terrified to speak. He didn't want to die.
"Your crying makes this decision even easier," Sovereign said, raising his hand and clenching it into a fist.
"Don't kill him, sir!" a voice boomed.
Sovereign's fist stopped mid-air.
"He's my brother. If you want to kill him, you'll have to kill me first!" Nixon shouted, brave enough to challenge the King of the World.
Sovereign's eyes narrowed, observing Nixon. Sovereign lets out a dark, amused chuckle.
He simply turned and walked away, closing the door behind him without another word.
Knox exhaled in relief. "Thank you… Thank you so much."
"What did I tell you, man?! If you can't defend yourself physically, do it mentally," Nixon scolded.
"I know… I was thinking about your words the whole time. I tried… but I just couldn't…" Knox muttered, disappointed in himself.
"Dammit! You've always been like this!" Nixon shouted.
The moment the words left his mouth, Nixon's eyes widened in regret. "Wait, sorry, I—"
"Get the fuck out," Knox ordered quietly.
Nixon tried to apologize and explain himself, "Knox, I didn't mean—"
"GET OUT!" Knox roared.
Nixon nodded silently. He stood up and walked toward the door, glancing back one last time before closing it behind him.
Alone in the room, Knox cried softly, tears sliding down his cheeks.
All he could think about was that five-year-old boy—the one who had been saved and adopted by that couple.
"I wonder where that boy is now…" he whispered to the empty room.