*******
Blades clashed. Plasma bolts lit up the cave like stormfire. Zayne and Zeke fought back-to-back, swinging wildly, barely holding ground.
Vemira darted between ancient columns, launching stun discs with precision.
Their mom, panicked, tried to stay low, until a Vortex scout tackled her from behind and pressed a blade to her neck.
"Drop your weapons!" the scout barked.
The boys froze instantly.
"Let her go!" Zeke shouted, his voice breaking.
The tracker emerged from the shadows, calm and calculated. "You want her alive? Then don't move."
"Zeke," their mom whispered, "don't be stupid. Let them take it. Just… get out of here."
They didn't move.
The tracker stepped toward the altar toward the Stone. It sat suspended in the center of an ancient spire, glowing faintly, humming low. Writings circled around it in a language long dead, the symbols etched into black stone with gold veins.
"Umm…" Zayne muttered to his brother. "Doesn't this feel like that part in every movie where someone removes the glowing magical thing and then the whole cave collapses??"
"Not now," Zeke hissed.
"He has mom, bro!!" Zayne whispered.
Vemira huddled beside them. "We need a distraction. If one of us circles around...."
Zeke shook his head. "Too risky."
But Zayne's eyes narrowed. "No. It might work…"
"Zeke would draw the scouts' attention. I would flank left, set off mflash charge.
Zayne… would go for Mom." Vemira whispered the plan
It almost worked.
The moment the charge went off, light exploded. Chaos. Shouts. Zeke tackled one scout. Zayne reached for his mom....
But the tracker was faster.
In one clean motion, he drove his blade through her back.
"No!!"
Zeke screamed.
Time froze. Quietness filled the atmosphere
Zayne caught her before she hit the ground, her eyes fluttering.
"I'm so proud of you," she whispered.
"You'll be fine, mom..... you'll be..." Zayne sobbed.
She used the last energy in her to lift up her left hand as she caressed Zayne's face.
And then....she was gone
Zayne stood, trembling. His fists clenched. "You…"
The tracker turned back toward the stone. "Finish them," he ordered.
But Zayne and Zeke were already moving.
They ran forward, rage blinding them both...and reached out...
The tracker pushed Zeke away with a heavy punch.
And just when Zayne was about to give his own attack, the tracker ducked, revealing the stone.
And then, Zayne got in contact with the stone
A shockwave exploded through the cave.
Zayne screamed...agonizing, guttural. The cave lit up in pulses of black lightning as he levitated off the ground, his body twisting in midair. Symbols from the stone carved themselves into his skin like fire.
"ZAYNE!!" Zeke called out, but couldn't move. No one could. Everyone watched.
The screaming stopped.
Zayne floated in silence, eyes closed… shirt burnt away… his skin glowing with the same ancient markings from the altar walls.
Then...
His eyes opened.
Solid black. Endless. Silent.
Something ancient had awakened.
Something... unstoppable....
Vemira and send stared at him with the other Vortex men on the ground