Chapter 510 510: Confrontation
"After all I did, you are running away?"
Reva turned on him.
Her expression hardened, anger cutting through the exhaustion like it had been waiting for permission. "Don't you put that on us," she said. "That strike was your call. Your people didn't die because of Kylus. They died because you decided to wipe the ground instead of pulling them back."
Jareth took a step toward her. "That strike saved you."
"It almost killed us," Reva shot back. "Lyra was right there. We were right there. You didn't care who got buried as long as the basin went quiet."
Lyra shifted weakly in Requiem's arms, a sharp sound slipping from her throat as another distant blast echoed across the ruins. Requiem tightened his hold, jaw clenched.
Jareth's face twisted. "I sacrificed everything to end this," he said. "To end him."
He turned sharply and raised his weapon, the barrel snapping toward Kylus' position.
"I'll finish it myself."
The first shots tore across the ground in a bright streak, chewing into debris and sending fragments flying. Kylus didn't move. He barely had time to lift his head before his assistant stepped forward, shield blooming into place with a solid, concussive whir that swallowed the fire whole.
Rounds hammered into the barrier and scattered harmlessly, light splashing across its surface.
"Fall back," she said, voice sharp and controlled, never taking her eyes off Jareth. She shifted her stance, widening the shield's coverage, angling it to keep Kylus fully behind her.
Jareth kept firing anyway, teeth bared, rage drowning out reason.
"Enough," Xavier said.
Jareth froze mid-burst and turned toward him. "You going to stop me now too?"
Reva looked at Xavier then, disbelief mixing with anger. "Why aren't you doing anything?" she demanded. "Do you even care what we went through? Do you have any idea how long he chased us, how many times we barely made it out?"
She gestured sharply toward Kylus' position. "He hunted us. He put that bounty out. Because of him, Lyra is like this!"
Lyra's breathing hitched again, shallow and uneven. Her fingers twitched against Requiem's sleeve, eyes unfocused as if the sounds around her were bleeding straight through her skull.
"You're just standing there," Reva continued, her voice shaking now. "So what, you show up at the end and suddenly it doesn't matter anymore?"
Xavier didn't look away from Kylus.
His gaze stayed fixed on the broken figure behind the shield, on the way Kylus held himself upright through sheer refusal, on the assistant who hadn't stepped aside once despite the fire tearing up the ground in front of her.
"I care," Xavier said quietly. "That's why I'm not unloading on him."
Reva stared at him. "That doesn't make sense."
"It will," Xavier replied. "Just not yet."
He glanced around the basin, eyes tracking the last pockets of movement, the wounded still firing out of habit, the drones twitching as their systems failed one by one. His attention came back to Lyra just as her body tensed.
Lyra's back arched sharply against Requiem's grip, her hands clawing at nothing as a violent shudder ran through her. Blood spilled from her mouth in a thick, dark stream, splattering across the stone and soaking into Requiem's sleeve. Her breathing broke apart, shallow gasps failing to keep up.
"Lyra!" Reva dropped to her knees instantly, grabbing her shoulders, trying to keep her upright as panic tore through her voice. "Hey, hey—look at me. Stay with me."
Xavier didn't move.
His jaw tightened, teeth grinding as he watched, every muscle in his body locked in place. His hands curled slowly at his sides, knuckles whitening as if he were holding something back rather than frozen.
Across the basin, Kylus forced himself upright with a rough grunt.
The motion sent pain rippling through him, visible in the way his shoulder dipped and his breath caught, but he stayed standing. He reached into a compartment along his armor and pulled out a small capsule, no larger than a thumb, the liquid inside it catching the firelight as it sloshed.
He threw it.
Xavier caught it without looking.
The capsule was cold in his palm. Clear casing. Dense fluid inside, faintly luminous, and surprisingly heavy for its size.
"Inject her," Kylus said. His voice was hoarse, scraped raw by pain and smoke. "Now."
Reva spun toward him. "Are you insane?" Her hand tightened around Lyra protectively. "You think we're putting something from you into her?"
Viola stepped forward as well, weapon half-raised, eyes hard. "We don't know what that is. You don't get to play savior after everything you did."
Xavier didn't respond.
He knelt beside Lyra, snapped the capsule open, and pressed it to her arm. The injector hissed softly as the fluid emptied into her bloodstream.
"Xavier!" Rin shouted. "What the hell are you doing?"
The reaction was immediate.
Lyra's convulsions slowed, then stopped. Her breathing steadied, panicked gasps easing into something closer to normal. The color drained from the blood at her lips as her skin tone shifted, warmth returning where it had gone pale and gray. Her fingers relaxed, unclenching from Reva's jacket.
After a few seconds, her eyes fluttered open.
She blinked once. Then again.
"Reva?" she whispered.
Reva froze, then pulled her into a tight hold, breath breaking as relief crashed through her. "I'm here. I've got you."
Lyra swallowed, grimacing, then nodded faintly. She looked tired, shaken, but present.
Rin stared. "What was that?" He looked at Xavier, then at Kylus. "What's wrong with her?"
Before Xavier could answer, Jareth's voice tore through the basin again.
"Are you all out of your minds?" he shouted. "You trust him now? After everything?"
He stepped closer, pointing sharply at Kylus. "That man has been hunting Bull's people for years. Picking them off one by one. Anyone connected, anyone who knew too much. You think this ends because he handed over a vial?"
His gaze snapped to Lyra. "You should know who he is. You should know what he's done to your crew."
Xavier rose slowly to his feet.
"That's enough," he said.
Jareth rounded on him. "You don't get to silence me after this. I lost my people because of him. Bull's entire network burned because of him."
Xavier met his stare, unblinking.
"You lost your people because you ordered a strike," Xavier said. "Bull's crew didn't die because of Kylus either."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Jareth scoffed. "What do you even know?"
"The one killing Bull's crew wasn't Kylus," he said. "It was you."
Reva's head snapped toward Xavier. Viola went still. Even Lyra looked up, something unreadable flickering across her face.
Jareth stared at him, disbelief cracking into something sharper. "Say that again."
Xavier didn't repeat himself.
"You cleaned up loose ends," he continued. "You erased witnesses. You made sure whatever Bull left behind couldn't point back to you. When mutiny occurred within Bull's crew, they were divided into two factions. You and your people have been hunting down the crew members who weren't against betraying Bull and stood with him."
The fires crackled. Distant gunfire faded as if the battlefield itself had decided to listen.
Lyra looked up at Xavier, confusion and dawning realization mixing in her eyes.