Pain does not always
destroy.Sometimes he
organizes.
Elián understood this on the sixth day of isolation, when the suffering ceased to be a
constant noise and began to take shape. It didn't disappear. It transformed. It went
from being an open wound to a fixed point around which his mind began to
work.with dangerous clarity.
She wasn't
crying
anymore. She
was thinking.
The sealed room hadn't changed, but he had. He moved less, spoke less, breathed
with measured precision. He had learned to observe the system's patterns even
from inside the cage: the timing of the assessments, the micro-variations in the
lighting, the constant three-second delay between each automated announcement.
Nothing was accidental.
And if it wasn't, it could break.At another point in the K-7 complex, Kael had also left the initial chaos behind. The
pain was still there, deep, like a constant pressure under his sternum, but he no
longer felt it.It was overflowing. I used it.
Each memory of the lost synchronicity became a focus.Every
absence has a reason.
Humans believed that isolation weakened him.
They did not understand that, for a Kha'Reth, pain could become discipline.
Kael watched. He listened. He waited.
The opportunity came in the form of an unexpected
crack. Lysa.
Elián hadn't seen her since before the separation. He thought they had cut him off
from all real human contact. That's why, when the door to the sealed room opened
and it wasn't guards who entered, but her, he sat up abruptly.
"We don't have much time," Lysa said quietly, closing the door behind her.Elian
looked at her, incredulous.
—What are you doing here?
—The same as you —he replied—. Think.
He approached and placed a small storage device on the table.
"This is suicide," Elián said. "If they find out..."
"They already did," she interrupted. "They just don't know how
yet." Elián frowned.
—Explain yourself.
Lysa took a deep breath.
"The data cross-referencing," he said. "It wasn't an isolated error. I've found at least
twelve."
More coincidences. Small, almost imperceptible… but they all point to the same
thing.
"To the bond," Elián said."Something bigger," she corrected. "A capacity that the Confederation cannot
control."
Elian felt his pulse quicken.
—Kael?
"And you," Lysa said.
"Together." Elian looked
down.
"They're going to destroy it," he murmured.
"Not if we act sooner," she replied. Elián
slowly looked up.
—How should we act?
Lysa activated the device. A three-dimensional map of the complex appeared in the
air.
"There is a sector that is not fully integrated into the central system," he explained.
An older node, predating the latest security update. They use it as
backup… but they don't monitor it in real time.
Elián recognized the area immediately.
"The outer transit corridor," he said. "It leads to the transfer docks."
"Exactly," Lysa agreed. "If Kael gets there, the containment field loses its
effectiveness."for forty seconds.
Elian stared at her.
—That's not enough to escape.
"Not for a human," he replied. "But Kael isn't human." Elián
closed his eyes for a moment.
The plan was beginning to take shape.
"Why are you helping me?" he
asked. Lysa hesitated."Because what you have," he said, "isn't an anomaly. It's a discovery. And because
if Hale wins, none of this will ever matter again."
Elian nodded slowly.
"I need to get in touch with him," she said. "Even for a second."
Lysa smiled tensely.
—I already thought of that.
Deep in the cell, Kael perceived the change like a sudden breeze in an airless place.
It wasn't perfect synchronicity, but it was enough to make his body tense.absolute
attention.
Something was coming.
When they activated the sensors for a new evaluation, Kael didn't resist. He
allowedthat they measured, that they observed, that they believed it was still
within the expected parameters.
Deception was a form of patience.Then it
happened.
A brief,
unstable
pulse.
Familiar.
Kael closed his eyes.
Elian.
It wasn't a full connection, but it was a message.
Resist. Prepare.
Kael opened his eyes with a fierce clarity.
"Understood," he whispered.
In the sealed room, Elián felt the response as a gentle pressure on his chest.No
calm. No synchronicity.
Confirmation."It's ready," he said.
Lysa nodded.
—Then we don't have much room to maneuver.
The plan was simple in structure. Deadly in execution.
Lysa would manipulate the monitoring system during a maintenance window
Scheduled. Elián would be released under minimal supervision for "final evaluation".
Kael
He would be transferred to the external
testing sector.The crossing would occur in
the old corridor.
Forty seconds.
Elián felt the weight of the risk fall upon him.
"If it fails," he said, "there won't be a second chance."
"I know," Lysa replied. "That's why it has to work."
The chosen night arrived without ceremony.
The K-7 complex continued operating as usual. Guards, lights, protocols. Nobody.He
was shouting. Nobody was running.
That was the danger.
Elián was escorted out of the sealed room for the first time in days.
"Walk," a guard ordered. "No sudden movements." Elián
obeyed.
In another corridor, Kael advanced, escorted by three soldiers. His steps were
firm,controlled. Inside, every muscle was prepared.
As they both approached the old corridor, Elián felt his pulse rise in his throat.
"Now," Lysa murmured into the
communicator. The lights flickered.
The system hesitated.Forty seconds.
Kael's containment field weakened.Kael did
not wait for orders.
Broke.
Not with blind fury, but with absolute precision. A swift movement, a concentrated
burst, a calculated shove. The soldiers fell, bewildered by what had happened.
Elian ran.
When they saw each other, for the first time since the separation, time seemed to
fold in on itself.There were no words.
Kael held his arm tightly.Elian
placed his hand on his chest.
The pulse
returned.Not
complete.
Enough.
"Let's go," Elián said.
The alarms began to sound.
"Intrusion!" shouted a
voice.Forty seconds were
running out.
They ran together down the old corridor, the metal vibrating beneath their
feet. DronesWaking up. Doors closing.
The system reacted.
"They're not going to let us out," Elián said between
gasps.Kael looked at him with fierce determination.
—Then we won't turn out the way they expect.They reached the end of the corridor just as the containment field was partially
reactivated.
Kael turned around, protecting Elián with his body.
"Trust me," he said.
Elian did.
Kael released the energy he had been holding back since the separation.
NonviolenceUncontrolled. Not indiscriminate destruction.
Release.
The field collapsed.
The corridor was illuminated by a brutal discharge.
And the K-7 system, for the first time since its creation,
failed.Not completely.
But enough.
When the smoke began to dissipate, Elián and Kael were no longer
there.The plan was born out of pain.
ANDnow…
The course of everything had changed.