Chapter 37: Replay
Silence settled over Iron Bastion.
Not the peaceful silence found beneath a quiet night sky.
Nor the comforting silence that follows the end of a storm.
This silence was oppressive.
It seeped into every corridor, every steel wall, every reinforced cell, pressing down upon the soul until even breathing felt like an act of defiance.
The prison never truly slept.
Surveillance cameras rotated with quiet mechanical precision.
Whirrr...
Searchlights swept across endless corridors.
Far above, countless layers of electrified fencing crackled endlessly beneath the storm clouds gathering overhead.
BZZZZZZZT...
Every few minutes, the distant clang of a closing security gate echoed somewhere deep within the facility.
Every sound served as a reminder.
There was no escape.
Tonight...
Iron Bastion had welcomed eight new prisoners.
And each of them now sat alone.
* * *
Inside one of the prison's deepest detention blocks, Daito Greyhell slowly regained consciousness.
Pain greeted him before his eyes even opened.
It wasn't confined to one wound.
It was everywhere.
His ribs burned with every breath.
His shoulders felt as though they had been torn from their sockets.
His back throbbed relentlessly where Cassian's kick had nearly shattered his spine.
Even lying still hurt.
With considerable effort, Daito forced his eyes open.
A dim fluorescent light flickered weakly overhead.
The cell itself was little more than a concrete box.
Bare walls.
A steel toilet fixed into one corner.
A narrow drain running across the floor.
Nothing else.
No bed.
No blanket.
No window.
Only a thick reinforced door with a small observation slit that occasionally slid open before closing again without a word.
"..."
Daito slowly pushed himself into a sitting position, his back resting against the freezing wall.
His breathing remained uneven.
Every movement sent fresh waves of agony through his battered body.
He lowered his head.
His hands instinctively searched his waist.
Nothing.
His fingers froze.
The Traditional Blade...
It was gone.
Confiscated.
His sword had never left his side for as long as he could remember.
Now...
For the first time...
It wasn't there.
A strange emptiness settled inside him.
Almost worse than the physical pain.
He closed his eyes.
Brandon...
Champagne...
Wasabi...
Fah-jin...
Zachia...
Wei-Wan...
Avenor...
Were they alive?
Had anyone escaped?
Or...
Had everyone fallen?
No answers came.
Only silence.
Then another thought surfaced.
Cassian Vanderbi.
Daito's breathing slowed.
He replayed the battle again and again inside his mind.
The exchange of blows.
The impossible speed.
The overwhelming pressure.
Most of all...
That final strike.
He remembered cutting Cassian's neck.
He remembered feeling the blade slice cleanly through flesh.
There had been no mistake.
No illusion.
His sword had connected.
And yet...
Cassian had stood there smiling.
Without a wound.
Without a scar.
Without even a drop of blood.
"...What are you...?"
The question escaped his lips almost as a whisper.
"...Monster."
For the first time since beginning his journey...
Daito realised there were enemies standing before him that he simply could not comprehend.
That thought terrified him more than any prison cell ever could.
* * *
Several levels below, inside Block C, another prisoner slowly opened his eyes.
Brandon.
His vision remained blurred as powerful tranquillisers continued flowing through his bloodstream.
"...Ugh..."
He tried to rub his face.
His arm didn't move.
CLANK!
The sound of heavy chains echoed throughout the chamber.
Brandon looked down.
His wrists had been shackled to reinforced steel restraints thicker than his own forearms.
Additional chains secured his ankles.
Another wrapped tightly around his waist.
His entire body had been fastened to a solid steel interrogation chair that had been bolted directly into the concrete floor.
He tested the restraints.
Muscles bulged.
Veins rose beneath his skin.
The chains strained.
CLIIIIING...
They didn't move.
Not even a single millimetre.
Brandon exhaled sharply before allowing his head to fall back.
"...Damn."
Outside the observation window, two correctional officers watched him through reinforced bulletproof glass.
"He's awake."
The younger officer sounded nervous.
The older one simply nodded.
"Good."
"...Should we increase the restraints?"
"No."
The veteran folded his arms.
"If those chains fail..."
He looked directly at Brandon.
"...No amount of extra steel will save us."
The younger guard silently agreed.
* * *
Block D.
Champagne paced slowly around his cell.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
His footsteps echoed softly through the otherwise silent room.
The cell appeared ordinary at first glance.
Concrete walls.
Steel door.
Observation window.
Yet every few seconds, the floor beneath him emitted a low vibration.
HMMMMM...
Magnetic field generators.
Each pulse interfered with the balance required for high-speed movement.
Every time Champagne attempted to accelerate...
His body felt strangely heavy.
As though gravity itself had increased.
He stopped walking.
Lowered his stance.
Then exploded forward.
FWOOOSH!!
Or at least...
He tried to.
Instead, his momentum collapsed almost immediately.
His body stumbled.
He caught himself before falling.
"...So that's your game."
He looked down at the floor beneath his feet.
The magnetic panels quietly hummed in response.
"...Clever."
His fists slowly tightened.
Then—
BOOOOM!!
His punch slammed into the concrete wall.
The impact echoed throughout Block D.
Dust drifted from the ceiling.
Hairline cracks spread across the reinforced surface.
But the wall remained standing.
Champagne stared at it for several seconds before lowering his fist.
"...Damn it."
His voice disappeared into the empty corridor.
No one answered.
* * *
Two levels above, in Block E, silence carried between neighbouring cells.
Wasabi sat cross-legged on the cold floor, absent-mindedly spinning an imaginary screwdriver between her fingers.
Old habits.
Without her gadgets...
She didn't know what to do with her hands.
Every invention.
Every drone.
Every explosive.
Every communication device.
Gone.
Confiscated.
The walls surrounding her were lined with specialised signal-blocking alloy.
Even if she somehow rebuilt a transmitter...
No signal would ever leave the room.
Across the corridor, Fah-jin leaned comfortably against her wall, arms folded behind her head as though she were relaxing in a hotel rather than sitting inside one of the world's most secure prisons.
After several minutes, she finally spoke.
"...You thinking what I'm thinking?"
Wasabi looked up.
"...Depends."
"...This mission went spectacularly wrong."
A tired laugh escaped Wasabi.
"...Understatement of the year."
Silence returned.
Neither woman smiled for long.
Eventually Fah-jin sighed.
"...Do you think Daito's alive?"
Wasabi didn't answer immediately.
Instead...
She looked toward the steel ceiling.
"...He'd better be."
* * *
Inside Block B, Zachia sat alone on a narrow metal bench.
Unlike the others...
He wasn't truly alone.
Rows of neighbouring cells surrounded him.
Behind every observation slit...
Eyes watched.
Veteran murderers.
Veteran Savages.
Prisoners whose names had long since become forgotten by the outside world.
One gruff voice emerged from the darkness.
"...New guy."
Another chuckled.
"...Looks strong."
A third laughed quietly.
"...Wonder how long before someone breaks him."
Zachia never looked in their direction.
His elbows rested upon his knees.
His fingers slowly intertwined.
But beneath that calm exterior...
His fists gradually tightened.
The metal bench groaned beneath the pressure.
CREEEAK...
One thing became immediately clear to every inmate watching him.
This newcomer...
Was dangerous.
* * *
Far deeper within Iron Bastion...
Where almost no sunlight had ever reached...
Wei-Wan stood perfectly still inside his isolated cell.
He wasn't resting.
He wasn't panicking.
He was observing.
His eyes moved methodically across every centimetre of the room.
The distance between floor panels.
The angle of the surveillance camera.
The ventilation ducts.
The hinges.
The electronic locking mechanism.
The reflection on the observation glass.
Every tiny detail entered his memory.
"...Interesting."
He murmured quietly.
"...They've eliminated every obvious weakness."
He paused.
"...Which means..."
A faint smile appeared.
"...The escape route won't be obvious."
Even imprisoned...
Wei-Wan's mind had already begun planning.
* * *
Within Iron Bastion's specialised containment sector...
Avenor sat inside a chamber unlike any other.
The walls shimmered with polished reflective alloy.
Every surface reflected another.
Hundreds of distorted images surrounded her from every direction.
She activated her camouflage.
For a moment...
Her body blurred.
Then—
WHOOOM...
The reflections scattered the optical field.
Her invisibility collapsed almost instantly.
Avenor sighed.
"...They really did think of everything."
She leaned her head back against the wall.
For the first time in years...
She felt completely exposed.
* * *
Far above them all...
Beyond layers of reinforced steel...
Beyond countless locked doors...
A single bolt of lightning illuminated the storm gathering over Iron Bastion.
CRRRAAAAAACK!!
The flash briefly bathed the prison in ghostly white light.
Then darkness returned.
Inside their separate cells...
Each member of the rebellion reached the same painful conclusion.
They had lost.
They had been separated.
And for the first time since this journey had begun...
Every one of them was completely alone.
to be continued....