The Lumithrax Shard

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Aboard one of Severance's space shuttles, Sage piloted back to Earth, fleeing the monstrous threat that pursued them. He engaged the autopilot to hurry back to the passenger area to check on Keiran. What happened earlier was probably putting him in so much pain.

Keiran sat there motionless, tears streaming down his cheeks as he mumbled his sisters' names. He was shattered to the core. The people he valued most, those he had vowed to protect, had died right in front of him, and he had been powerless to save them. The loss was more devastating than anything he had ever experienced. Mentally and emotionally, he felt he might never recover from it.

Sage, haunted by the memory of the twins' lifeless bodies he saw earlier, sank to the floor beside Keiran. He grabbed a handful of his hair in frustration, sweeping it back. He hadn't been there to help them when they needed him most. If he had arrived earlier, perhaps Belize and Astral could have escaped. Maybe they would've been alive. Despite his lifelong training to mask emotions, Sage couldn't hold back his tears for the childhood friends he had just lost. "I'm sorry. I couldn't be there when you needed me the most," he said, his voice thick with regret as he sobbed into his knees.

Keiran, lost in his mental torment, did not respond. The horrific scene of his sisters' deaths replayed endlessly in his mind. Overwhelmed, he began sobbing and smashing his fists against the floor repeatedly, tears and snot streaming down his face.

Sage turns to look at Keiran and retreats to his corner where he starts to sob quietly with him. Astral and Belize were not only friends, they were his childhood. They've been together ever since and losing them and being able to see how they die was painful and horrible. He can't even begin to imagine what Keiran was going through.

Keiran, trembling with rage, clenched his fists against the ground, his face contorted with resentment and murderous intent. "I will fucking kill him... I won't leave a single part of his body unscathed!" he snarled, glaring at the wall as he spoke. "I will end him, Sage. Mark my words!"

Sage, sighing deeply, extended a hand to his grief-stricken friend. His eyes met Keiran's, sharing the same burning resolve. "That makes two of us."

With tears tainting his cheeks, Keiran sits up. "Head to Nexus Fleet. We're giving Commander Leonne Dwight a visit."

---------------

During their harrowing escape from Severance, the Corvus hybrid smashed through a concrete wall to create a path to the space shuttles. Scanning the area and seeing one shuttle missing, it quickly realized that Keiran and Sage had probably already fled. Undeterred, it boarded one of the shuttles, throwing Shier inside before starting the machine and setting a course back to Earth, where unfinished business awaited.

Inside the shuttle, Shier, seething with rage from what the monster did to his sister, grabbed anything he could find and attacked the monster from behind. "You killed her! You promised you wouldn't hurt her! You fucking liar! How could you?!" he screamed, desperately trying to inflict any damage on it.

Unfazed, the hybrid turned to him and set the shuttle to autopilot. It grabbed Shier by the collar, lifting him effortlessly into the air. "Wasn't this what you wanted?"

Shier spits at it, kicking wildly to free himself from its iron grip. "What the hell are you talking about?! I was talking to Zephyre, not you!"

With a snarl, the Corvus slammed Shier to the ground with such force that blood seeped out of his mouth and nose, groaning and hissing in pain as he scrunched down on the floor. "Fuck..."

The hybrid wiped the spit from its face and loomed over Shier, pulling him up again. "I am him! Zephyre and I are one."

Through his agony, Shier managed to gasp out, "Y—you’re not him and you'll never be him..."

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