Chapter 98: The Weight of the Past
Chapter 98: The Weight of the Past
Aboard the Narak’Tharr, the silence in the room felt suspended in the void.
Griffin was there. Flesh and blood. Leaning against the wall, arms crossed, his features more drawn than Evelyn had ever allowed herself to imagine. Not unkempt, no — he’d never known how to be — but… worn. Damaged by time, by solitude, by everything he had carried for her.
He was watching her. Not like a scientist measuring a result. Not like a mission lead or a cold, methodical Exotherian. Just… like a father. A gaze lit by relief he barely managed to contain, and by a sadness he no longer bothered hiding.
On the table between them sat Marn Sevil’s case. Still sealed. Still mute. As if it swallowed words before they could be spoken.
Evelyn still hadn’t dared to open it. Not even with Griffin at her side.
She lifted her eyes to him, leaning against the opposite bulkhead. Arms crossed, posture straight. On the surface: the trained surgeon, the former mercenary, Vykhor’s My’Lari.
But her hands were trembling. Just a little.
“You know what’s inside?” she asked at last.
Griffin shook his head slowly.
“I have theories. Not certainties. Marn didn’t tell me everything. On purpose, I think.”
He moved closer and sat beside her without a word. Like before. Like when she’d been too young to understand the nightmares, and it had been enough for him to stay in the room for her to feel safe.
Silence.
Then Evelyn spoke again, her voice a shade rougher.
“I can’t open it. Technically, I could. I could bypass the locks. Dismantle the safeguards one by one. But…”
Her gaze dropped to the case.
“I think I don’t want to know. Not yet. Not alone.”
Griffin turned toward her.
“You’re not alone anymore.”
She looked at him uncertainly, caught between relief and pain.
“I missed you,” she whispered. “Even when I was sure you’d never come back. Even when I learned how to live without you.”
He smiled. A real smile this time. Small. Hesitant. But genuine.
“You did more than live without me, Evelyn. You survived what no human, no Exotherian, should ever have endured. You stood up to monsters. You built a family. You did what I never had the courage to do.”
A shiver ran through her.
“And now I have to face the one who started all of this.”
Griffin leaned in slightly, his voice lower.
“The Master only sees you as a prototype. A perfected tool. But I see a free woman. And he’s going to learn just how wrong he was.”
She nodded slowly, jaw clenched. Then, with the tips of her fingers, she brushed the surface of the case.
“When I open it… there’s no going back.”
“No,” Griffin confirmed. “But it will be your choice. Not his.”
Evelyn drew a deep breath. Closed her eyes for a heartbeat. Then opened them again, her gaze burning with resolve.
“Then stay with me. Until the end.”
Griffin placed his hand over hers.
“Until the end.”
Later, in the Infirmary
The Narak’Tharr’s infirmary was bathed in dim light from organic wall panels. Sensors blinked lazily, confirming what Kryna had already reported ten minutes earlier: Jonathan Kane’s vitals were back within acceptable ranges.
“You planning on standing there all day?” a rough voice growled, half-muffled under a thermal blanket.
Evelyn arched an eyebrow. Arms crossed, she didn’t move an inch.
“You complain when I’m not here. You complain when I am. Want to pick one coherent option for once?”
Kane yanked the blanket down, revealing a torso mapped with fresh scars, old burns, and a bioactive patch still regenerating perforated muscle tissue.
“What I want is for people to stop treating me like I’m on hospice. I’m standing. I’m breathing. And I’ve got a location to give you.”
Kryna chose that moment to speak, her neutrality perfectly calibrated:
“Recommendation: avoid any intense physical activity for another thirty-six hours. Relapse risk estimated at 42.3%.”
Kane stared up at the ceiling like he might find an off switch for the AI.
“She’s exaggerating. I’ve been worse off and I survived.”
“That doesn’t mean you were fit to fight,” Evelyn snapped, harsher than she meant to. “You don’t get a bravery badge for being reckless, Kane. We need you lucid. And stable.”
He grimaced, but didn’t argue. Not immediately.
A moment passed. Then he spoke again, calmer.
“The Master’s stronghold… his last known active hideout… is tucked inside an orbital station off the trade routes. Officially decommissioned. But his people dug in there. And from it, you can access an old tunnel network carved into the nearby asteroid. That’s how he moves his most sensitive assets.”
“Is there an access point to the main complex?” Evelyn asked.
“If the intel I paid for is still current, yes. But we’ll have to infiltrate the station without blowing everything to hell. Otherwise he’ll seal the tunnels and we’ll lose the element of surprise.”
Evelyn nodded slowly.
“Then we’ll have to be smart. And fast. Kryna, prep the briefing room. Send the coordinates to Vykhor and the others.”
“Acknowledged. Strategic room ready in eight minutes. Coffee for Evelyn is warming.”
Evelyn let out a brief smile.
“Alright. You’ve earned a firmware update.”
Kane pushed himself up with effort, refusing the hand she offered.
“Don’t need compassion. Just a good gun and a clear plan. And believe me, I’ve got scores to settle with him too.”
They left the infirmary in silence, side by side. One driven by rage. The other by fear of what was coming… and the need to overcome it. Together.
Narak’Tharr – Briefing Room
The briefing room lit up gradually, revealing the familiar faces of the Kael’Set’h pack. They weren’t just a team. Not simply an elite squad.
They were a pack in the most visceral sense of the word.
Vykhor stood with arms crossed, back to the wall like a blade waiting to strike, studying each of them in turn. Evelyn was there, upright, calm on the surface. But those who knew her saw the faint tremor in her right hand against her hip — not fear.
Adrenaline.
Rax tapped at his datapad, focused. Skye, her weapon disassembled in front of her, cleaned each component mechanically, like she was trying to scrub tension out of her own skin. Zeynn sat on the edge of a console, watching everyone with quiet attention and childlike vigilance.
And Griffin.
Griffin, visible at last after months — after years — in the shadows. His dark gaze belonged to a man worn down by time, but refusing to go out. His presence alone added weight to the moment, and Evelyn fought not to look at him for too long.
Kane entered last. A metal cane in hand, more to shut Kryna up than out of real necessity. He planted himself in the center, hissed through his teeth, then said:
“Alright. This is where it starts.”
A hologram formed: a station that looked abandoned on the surface, latched onto a dead asteroid, rotating slowly in the darkness of an isolated field.
“What you’re looking at is Helios-V8. Officially decommissioned. Unofficially? A strategic outpost. It’s an airlock into something bigger — a complex buried under the surface of that rock. That’s where the Master is hiding. Or what’s left of his main operations.”
Kane pulled up a second display: tunnels. Twisted, uneven, but connected directly to the station.
“We go in through Helios. We cut surveillance without alerting the whole place. Then we take the underground network. It’s old. Slick. Probably trapped. But if we make it through…”
He zoomed in on a central section of the complex.
“…we land right in the heart of the system. Where he keeps everything he wants protected. Including that.”
He pointed to the still-sealed case sitting on the console beside Evelyn.
A tense silence settled.
“We still don’t know what’s inside,” Skye murmured.
“No,” Griffin said. “But I have a pretty good idea. And it’s not a box of chocolates.”
Rax sniffed.
“I can’t crack something like that without triggering alarms. It’s not just a code. It’s a test. A trial designed specifically for her.”
Every gaze turned to Evelyn. She met each one without flinching.
“We’ll find out what it holds once we’re inside. We’ve waited too long. This isn’t just a mission anymore. It’s a war that needs to end.”
Vykhor stepped forward.
“We’re not going there to run. We’re not going to negotiate. We’re going to end something that should’ve died a long time ago. We’re ready.”
His eyes met each of theirs. Skye nodded, her weapon reassembled and ready. Rax straightened. Zeynn dipped his head slightly. Griffin, impassive, rested a hand on Evelyn’s shoulder without a word.
Even Kane looked… slightly less cranky than usual.
“Then we go,” Evelyn said, voice steady. “Kryna, start preparations. We leave in twelve hours.”
“Message received. Assault module prep initiated. Atmospheric filter cleaning in progress. Last Zeynn playlist detected: ‘Epic Bloodbath — Vol. II.’ Would you like—”
“No,” Evelyn cut in with a sigh.
A soft, almost-laugh rippled through the room.
And just like that… the final act began.