Chapter 104
Chapter 104
Miles away, back at the Faction 7 compound, Axton Conan lay still in his bunk, a massive, unmoving weight. When he finally woke, the world came back to him as a blinding, throbbing agony in his skull where Kael's wrench had struck.
His mind was a shattered mosaic. The last clear memory was the sound of Ren's primal shriek, the feeling of the Beast taking over, and the horrifying realisation of his own father's cold-blooded contempt.
Axton bolted upright, his breath catching in his throat, and immediately registered the cold, hollow pit in his stomach. He didn't need to see the empty restraints or the worried faces of Corvin and Rhys to know: Ren was gone.
"Corvin! Rhys!" he bellowed, his voice raw.
Corvin rushed in first, wincing as he moved his bruised ribs. "Captain, easy. You're awake. Tide managed to track Ren, but he escaped. He overloaded the transport's power core in the vehicle that was used to contain him. Rhys and Kael went out after him in a scout."
Axton's eyes, dark and haunted, fixed on Corvin. "My father. Did he… do you think he'd tell Ren that the whole thing was my idea?" He asked.
Corvin hesitated, then nodded gravely. "I was there when Yide tapped into the Vehicle's speaker. We were there. We all heard what he said. Everything." He looked away, unable to meet the gaze of his disappointed Captain.
The reality hit Axton like a physical blow, heavier than Kael's wrench. His father, General Conan, had not only orchestrated Ren's suffering but had also used Axton's deepest emotional connection—his love for Ren—as a tool for experimentation.
'Ren must hate me now' Axton clenched his jaw.
In his desperate attempt to save Ren, he had only managed to lose control of his own Beast, revealing his greatest secret to anyone close enough to see.
Axton slammed his fist onto the wall, cracking the reinforced metal. "He wanted to see the Beast. He wanted a reaction. He got it."
The first phase of his plan would be to find Ren, but a more urgent, deeper instinct took hold. He stood, gathering himself with a chilling determination.
"Rhys and Kael are looking for Ren," Axton stated, his voice now dangerously calm. "Good. Tell them to stand down and return. The desert is too vast. Ren is a force of nature now. He'll find his own way back."
Corvin stared. "But Captain, your father will—"
"My father," Axton interrupted, his tone laced with venom, "will soon realise I'm not his compliant son anymore. He wanted trouble? He's going to get one."
Axton's reaction was not despair, but a sharp, surgical focus on his one, clear enemy. He stripped off his shirt, revealing the faint markings on his skin that he must have gotten while struggling with Rhys, then grabbed a comms unit.
"Corvin," he commanded, his eyes burning with the silver energy of his barely contained Beast, "get me a direct, secure line to Senator Vance. Tell him I have irrefutable support to find the signal. I'm cutting the general off from this search." He said with a tone of finality.
Axton's revenge would be a cold, bureaucratic strike at his father's power base. While Ren brings the brute force of the Beast-bound to the front door, Axton would pull the structural supports out from under his father's entire world.
"Yes, Captain. I will let Vance know immediately," Corvin bowed and left.
Outside the military's guest quarters, Reed stood by the side of the building, his hand holding the gun in his holster as he stared at the building.
"Do it," Dorian suddenly whispered behind him.
Reed froze.
He took his hand away from his gun and snapped his head to Dorian.
"What were you talking about?" Reed glared.
"You want to kill the captain, don't you?" Dorian tilted his head to the side and observed Reed's guilty face, "Thought as much." He scoffed.
"Well, yeah. Go take a swing. Now is the right time to poke him, his mood is so sweet that he'll break you in two with a smile on his face. See you later coward." He patted Reed's shoulder and walked away.
Reed stood there, boiling in anger.
'Why do I have to fear him? Why does he get to be captain? Why does he get respect and I don't?' Je balled his fists, eyes narrowing at Axton's window.
"Just wait, Captain... that title will be mine, soon." He murmured and stumped off angrily.
——
Ren's chest expanded with a sensation that was part exhilaration and part cold, hard purpose. Staring out over his newly acquired, kneeling army of Beast-bound creatures, the desert sun glinting off their scales and rough hides, he felt the last vestiges of his human pain—the heartache of betrayal by Axton—burn away into a crisp, pure rage. The primal instinct of the Beast was overriding his humanity, replacing confusion and grief with an undeniable truth: power was the only currency that mattered.
The thought of an "army" brought a savage grin to his face, making the scales on his skin tighten. He was no longer just a prisoner or a pawn; he was a leader, a warlord of the exiled and the despised.
"Rise," he commanded, the single word a low, vibrating growl that held the weight of his new authority.
The creatures rose as one, a silent, disciplined force awaiting instruction. Their obedience was absolute, their eyes fixed on the dried blood on his wrists—a sign of the superior, uncontainable Beast that resided within him.
His immediate destination was not a place of safety, but the heart of his betrayal: the General's Faction.
"You will follow me," Ren hissed, gesturing vaguely to the east. "We're going home. And we're going to teach a certain general a lesson in loyalty."
He felt no guilt, no remorse, only the heady intoxication of power and the simple, direct goal of vengeance. The General, who had callously orchestrated his capture and used his loved ones as bait, would be the first to fall under the weight of the Beast's collective fury. Ren's plan was simple: the sheer shock and overwhelming force of a coordinated Beast-bound attack would disable the faction's defences, allowing him to bypass the Faction's trained agents and make a direct path for General Conan.
They marched, their footsteps echoing through the desert, a thumping or a foreboding war.
Suddenly, a growling sound of a formidable vehicle was heard from afar.
Ren and his army paused as the sound got closer.
He gritted his teeth and lifted his head to stare at the dusty rising ahead as the vehicle sped toward him.
In the blink of an eye, Ren was surrounded by the Beast-bound creatures.
They were protecting him.
With a roar, the vehicle slowed in front of the Beast-bound creatures, and in the next second, Kael jumped out of the vehicle and started to shoot the creatures blocking his way to Ren.
"No! Don't move!" Ren ordered and quickly made his way forward, "Stand down!" He shouted and the creatures immediately bowed their heads.
"What the fuck is happening, Renault?!" Kael didn't put down his gun, he held it up for protection and glanced around the place in shock.
Ren frowned, looking away from Kael, "Go away, Kael. I don't want to hurt you." He said, turning away from Kael.
"Wait, Renault!" Kael caught Ren's hand, blocking his path.
"Can you just receede the glowing eyes and scaly skin then we can talk?" He asked on edge.
Ren snatched his hand away from Kael's hold and gripped his collar, "You either go, or you die. I don't mind whichever." He whispered.
Kael gulped, holding Ren's gaze, "You can snap out of it, Ren. Axton needs you –"
"I don't need him!" Ren threw Kael to the vehicle, growling.
The sickening sound of metal colliding painfully with a human skull ripped through the air.
"Fuck! That hurts like a biatch!" Kael groaned on the ground, his forehead dripping with blood.
"Let's go!" Ren growled at the Beast-bound creatures and they immediately turned to the opposite direction, marching away from the scene.
Ren took a step firwsed and paused, and slowly turned to face Kael, who was now staggering on his feet.
"Don't worry, Soldier. I'm going to kill your father first, then I'll come for that traitor brother of yours." Ren smirked and turned away.
"I'm sorry, Ren," Kael muttered and fired his at Ren.
No sound was heard, but Ren had fallen to the ground, unconscious.
"Corvin is a genius," Kael whispered and hurried over to Ren, pulled out the small needle by the side of his neck, and then he lifted him over his shoulder and hurried over to the vehicle.
As he was about to enter the vehicle, he heard growls behind him and realised that these damned creatures had noticed the absence of the leader.
"Shit, Rhys! Move this fucking vehicle!" He threw Ren into it and dove in just as the vehicle started and speed away from the creatures could reach them.
"They're not going to stop. We need to hurry," He said as he slid the door shut.
"Are you alright?" Rhys asked from the wheel.
"Well, you'd better drive to the thing to base immediately or we both won't be alright by the time he wakes up," Kael said and dragged Ren onto a chair.
"Yes, the Beast-bound creatures are coming for Ren, too," Rhys muttered.