CHAPTER 13: WHEN GODS START WATCHING CLOSELY
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The Whisper Vault... Rei's First Move
Under Eden, beneath even the Sanctum Core, lay a door that didn't exist.
No one spoke of it.
No one dared.
And finally Rei found it... as if it had always been waiting for him.
The Whisper Vault.
It hummed faintly in the dark, like a heart beating underwater. The corridor around it was lined with scripts no human hand had written: glowing divine curses to ward off trespassers.
Rei moved like a phantom through the pressure fields and tripwires, the distortion cloak clinging to his silhouette, muffling even his breath.
The Vault's lock was a cruel trinity: a DNA sigil, a psychic pattern, and… belief.
The first two he'd stolen easily enough.
The third?
He forged it from a sliver of Luther's memory... a faint image Naomi had left in his mind, back when she still whispered to him in half-phrases and riddles.
"Belief," Rei murmured to the lock, pressing his gloved hand to its cold surface, "is just memory with conviction."
The Vault opened.
The air inside was heavier. Too heavy.
Rows of glass coffins stretched into the dark, each one holding a fragment of history too dangerous to release. Broken Akuma. Failed prototypes. Children whose names had been erased.
At the far end, a single projection hovered in silence: Named Rupture- 001 Elian
A boy... A young boy with a resemblance to Mr.P.
Not being saved.
Not being baptized.
But taken.
By the Observers.
Not the Church.
Not Hell.
Them.
Rei's jaw tightened.
"You took him from Mr. P…" he whispered, eyes burning.
Then his reflection in the glass smirked back at him and added quietly:
"…but you made me."
Behind him, a sensor lit red.
He was not alone.
But by the time the Vault's lock hissed shut again, Rei was gone.
...
The Throne of Threads — Zero's Observatory
High in the Tower, Zero sat cross-legged in a chamber of glass and light.
Threads stretched in every direction... strands of possibility, shimmering faintly as they spun through his fingers.
He ran one between his thumb and forefinger.
And watched.
Luther weeping over Elian's body.
Another thread: Luther kneeling in fire, staring him down.
Another: Rei driving a blade into Mr. P's back.
But each thread frayed too quickly. Each vision blurred before it could finish.
Zero's pale eyes narrowed.
"He's slipping the weave…"
The boy was growing too fast. Too erratic. Too divine.
Zero felt it... the faintest crack inside his perfect stillness.
Not fear.
Not yet.
But tension.
"Paku," he murmured softly, "what did you build ?"
The threads pulsed in his fingers, and one… broke.
Snapped with a faint whisper.
Zero simply smiled faintly.
"I still hold the center," he whispered to no one.
And he stood.
...
The Observers' Emergency Council
The Council chamber burned with argument.
Envy stood in the center, her translucent skin shimmering, her voice cutting like ice:
"Luther's resonance is destabilizing. If he ascends out of sequence, the entire lattice collapses. And so do we."
Genna Vrae's arms were crossed, flames curling from her shoulders. "Then we end it now. Break him before he breaks us... or becomes an unknown variable. "
Callus sat hunched over, tinkering with a ruined Akuma claw. "Or crack him open and harvest what's left. His lattice alone could power Eden for a decade… And plus the madman can still remake another right."
Sera watched them all with a faint smile, silent.
And Lust merely sat.
Watching.
Until Mr. P's Clone 18 chuckled from his chair in the corner, flipping his thermos cap idly.
"You really are adorable when you think you're predators," he said lazily.
Genna the Wrathborne sliced the clone into 16 pieces.. "You such an annoying prick." She said to a disfigured clone.
"Well somebody had to say it." Responded Clone 18.
The room became tensed
Except Zero.
He raised a single hand.
Silence.
"No," Zero said softly. "Not yet."
Envy's glow flared. "You still believe he can be controlled?"
Zero's gaze swept them all.
"I don't believe anything," he said simply.
"I seen everything."
But as he spoke, the faint shimmer of another thread behind him faltered and… snapped.
He did not flinch.
...
Rei's Return
The data drive in his hand felt heavier than it should have.
Rei stood at the edge of Eden, staring into the black horizon.
He uploaded the encrypted package to a ghost-server known only to two people.
The filename appeared on the screen:
"Pawn to E5 "
And with a single keystroke, he sent it.
...
Mr. P's Clone Lab
The file arrived mid-smoke.
Mr. P leaned back in his chair, sunglasses catching the light of the hologram.
The message was short.
"I know the lie. What's the truth?"
He smiled faintly.
And murmured to the nearest clone:
"He's either baiting me… or biting."
The clone shrugged. "Bite back?"
Mr. P grinned wider.
"Ahhht nah not yet."
He flicked a finger over the console.
And sent back a single line:
"Sometimes, a king hides behind a pawn. So are you black or white now. "
...
The Summons
When Luther entered the Tower chamber, it was the first time he'd seen Zero in person since… ever.
The room was quiet. Too quiet.
And Zero was already waiting... hands folded, his pale eyes unreadable.
"Come," Zero said, his voice soft, almost warm.
Luther stopped just inside the threshold.
Zero rose and walked to him, and to anyone else it might have seemed almost… kind.
"Your work tonight," Zero murmured, as though speaking to a friend, "was exemplary."
Luther said nothing.
"You've lifted a heavy burden from our shoulders Luther," Zero continued, circling him like a teacher appraising his brightest pupil.
"You've protected this city. You've protected us."
He stopped in front of him and met Luther's gaze directly.
"Thank you," he said.
Luther's hands twitched slightly at his sides.
"Your health," Zero added suddenly, with something like concern. "It matters to me. Does the burden weigh too heavily on shoulders, please do tell. Since i value you very much Luther."
Luther's jaw tightened.
"I carry what I must," he said simply.
Zero nodded faintly, almost approving.
And then, just as suddenly as the praise had come, Zero turned his back.
"You're dismissed."
It wasn't cruel.
It was worse.
It was casual.
A performance.
Luther bowed his head and left without another word.
And as the door closed, Zero allowed himself a faint smile.
He murmured to the threads around him:
"The pawn moves. But the board is still mine."
And behind him, another thread faltered and fell.
But he didn't look back.
...
END OF CHAPTER 13: WHEN GODS START WATCHING CLOSELY