Ad Astra Per Aspera

Chapter 21

"Answers. answers. answers."

Blaze POV

We woke up in a fucking cell chained to the wall. Our wall. I am surprised that we even survived the explosion. Someone found us, someone tried to kill us all. We made a lot of enemies over the years, I guess we should have been more careful. And where the fuck are our employees and Astra.

"Well, this took a turn. I thought we were careful to not leave any witnesses, but clearly we failed." I tell Arcane, who is chained to a wall, just like me.

"I guess we had someone in our place who sold the information to the gang. My bet is on Cartel, we pissed them off the most." By stealing his ex girlfriend.

"Yeah, but they are currently a little preoccupied. You think it didn't go according to plan?"

"I don't understand, who is to blame? Everyone is blaming each other, it's as if everyone got played."

"Yeah, but that would mean that there is someone who would benefit from the downfall. We would have been the perfect syndicate for this, but it's not us. There is a bigger player in all of this, or someone is really good at hiding."

"Usually the underworld joins teams to execute the biggest enemy first. Even we are fucking struggling right now, and we are fucking hidden."

"What syndicate did we piss off? Or at least pissed off with them knowing where we are. It could even be the one who got hurt in the process too. Maybe as an alibi."

"Who knows where we are?"

"There are fucking none, we made sure to monitor them all."

"Maybe we are looking at it wrong. Maybe it's not a syndicate ?"

"Just a small group of people?"

"No syndicate would be this undetected, this would explain how they ended up under our radar."

"Okay, so someone with enough connections and a motive."

"Someone skilled."

"Someone who knows the rules of this world and how to use them to their advantage."

"Someone who would go undetected, hide in the shadows."

"Someone... who was able to infiltrate us." Motherfucker.

"Oh my fucking god."

"We didn't even suspect, because the alibi was too good, too fucking skilled, we didn't even consider."

"We gave her all the information, everything she would need to end us. She said everything we wanted to hear. She fed information that would make us believe that it was someone else. Fucking played us."

"We didn't invite an enemy into our home, we fucking kidnapped her and gave her everything on the silver platter."

"We gave her free reign, because we thought we were the ones in charge."

"But Astralea held all the cards, and she destroyed us all."

"I was wondering how long it's going to take you to figure it out." Astralea walked into the room, she was blending in with the shadows, just how she was doing this entire time. An evil smile on her face. The gleam in her eyes.

"Why?" I ask, trying to make sense of it all.

"Because I know the truth, I remember it all, and I wanted you all to pay."