Threads of Vengeance

The morning after the burial dawned quiet and heavy. The city had begun to stir, oblivious to the oath forged in grief the night before. Within the rusted walls of Silas’s garage, a war council had begun. Bags were packed in silence—disruptor rounds, alchemical vials, cloaking runes, charged cores, and rations. Each member of Shadow Requiem moved with practiced efficiency, but their eyes held a distant, unrelenting fire.

Silas stood at the workbench, fitting new plasma cores into his custom-forged gravity gauntlets. Aerin sharpened her throwing blades, murmuring blessings in her native tongue. Elena double-checked her hacking deck and recalibrated the drones shaped like small metallic ravens. Jenna cleaned the edge of her voidblade with care, watching it drink the light around it. Mason reinforced their armor plating with earth-forged seals, and Kai sorted through healing agents, compresses, and pain-eater spores, all while keeping a careful eye on Silas.

The air grew tense, silent but not calm. A storm loomed in the collective heart of the room.

Then—a knock.

Three soft taps against the garage door.

Every head turned. Jenna vanished into the shadows instantly. Mason and Aerin moved toward flanking positions. Elena’s eyes flickered with interface light, scanning the entrance. Silas walked forward, slowly. The knock came again—quieter this time, hesitant.

He opened the door.

A small boy stood there, no taller than Silas’s waist. Around ten years old, thin, freckled, eyes wide and red from crying. A woolen scarf—faded red with golden thread at the edges—was wrapped around his small hands. He held it out like it was a sacred offering.

“I overheard you... the other day,” the boy said, voice trembling. “You were talking about... revenge.”

Silas knelt, lowering himself to eye level with the boy.

“My little brother... he was inside Sunspire too. He... he loved to draw. He always carried crayons with him, and he’d make pictures for Lily. She was his best friend.”

Silas blinked slowly. The boy’s words cracked something deeper inside him.

“This was his scarf,” the boy continued. “He said it was his lucky one. He used to wear it even in summer, ‘cause Lily said it made him look like a hero.”

The boy stepped forward, arms shaking, and handed it to Silas.

“Please,” he whispered. “Take it. Maybe it can bring you luck too.”

Silas took the scarf gently. The wool was soft but worn, frayed at the edges from years of use. He looked at the boy.

“What’s your name?”

“Jace,” the boy said. “My brother’s name was Milo. We used to play tag with Lily in the alley behind the garage. She always let Milo win.”

Silas tied the scarf around his massive forearm. The small fabric barely circled the muscle, but it stayed firm. A banner. A vow.

“Thank you, Jace,” he said softly.

Jace nodded, blinking back tears. “Best of luck,” he said, then turned and ran down the street, his small figure vanishing into the city fog.

The door closed behind him.

No one spoke for a long moment.

Then Jenna murmured, “Even the children are making offerings now.”

“They understand the weight of this better than most adults,” Kai said, voice hollow.

Silas turned back toward the planning table. The map of Celestria blinked faintly, with coordinates marked in red.

“They chose to target our children,” he said. “They made it personal. So we make it brutal.”

Elena pulled up the encrypted schematics. “We hit the Ashfall Wastes first. That’s where the signal originates. That’s where we start.”

“Intel’s thin,” Aerin added. “We’ll be walking into a fog of radiation and memory. Old battlegrounds don’t forget.”

“Neither do we,” Mason said.

Kai raised his hand. “We move in a formation like we used to. Bastion leads defense. Wraith and Howl on recon and strike. Circuit controls support and tech. I handle field medicine. Silas commands.”

Silas stared at the scarf again. Then at the photo of Lily still taped beside the workbench.

“We don’t just fight,” he said. “We erase them. Not one trace left. No grave. No shadow. Just ash.”

Shadow Requiem was no longer dormant. The hunt had begun.

To be continued...

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