Chapter 513 513: The Traitor (iii)
"For who?! For a ghost," Jareth spat. "For someone he'd never met."
The words came faster now.
"He kept saying it had to go to the right person. That everything he built was meant for someone worthy. Worthy of what? We were right there. We bled for him. We killed for him. We protected his back every time the guns turned on him."
He let out a harsh breath.
"And he set aside his legacy for a stranger."
Lyra's eyes flickered.
"That's what broke it," Jareth continued. "That's what started the mutiny. People can tolerate discipline. They can tolerate risk. They can even tolerate danger. But they don't tolerate being told they're placeholders."
The truth underneath his words was clear now. It wasn't a strategy or a vision. It was hunger.
"If he had just committed," Jareth said, voice rising again, "if he had just taken what was offered instead of pretending to be above it, none of this would've happened. We would have stood behind him. Every single one of us. There would've been no betrayal. No fractures. We would've been untouchable."
He spread his hands.
"The biggest. The strongest. No one rivaling us."
Xavier watched him steadily.
"You wanted everything," he said.
"Yes," Jareth shot back without hesitation. "And we earned it."
Xavier tilted his head slightly.
"Then why didn't you kill her and others?" he asked, nodding toward Lyra. "You had chances. Plenty. No one would've known."
Jareth's gaze slid to Lyra.
"Because she was useful," he said. "She was the one who was with Bull. She saw what he saw. Heard what he heard. She knew things he didn't tell the rest of us."
Lyra stiffened under Requiem's arm.
"I needed information," Jareth continued. "Routes. Codes. Hidden stashes. I kept her alive because she told me Bull was still out there."
His expression twisted when he looked back at Xavier.
"If I'd known he was already dead," he said, voice thick with anger, "I would've ended this sooner."
He let out a curse under his breath.
"It's not too late."
The shift in his posture was subtle but immediate.
He raised his weapon.
The movement was fast enough that Reva barely had time to react. The barrel leveled toward Lyra in the same brutal motion he'd used on the woman earlier.
It would have been over, but Xavier moved before the trigger fully depressed.
The air around Jareth snapped tight.
Every loose weapon within a few meters ripped free of the ground at once. Rifles, sidearms, shattered turrets, fragments of metal—everything metallic in reach lifted violently into the air as Xavier's last reserve of telekinetic force surged outward in a raw blast.
The weapons twisted midair, crushed inward by invisible pressure, barrels bending, triggers snapping, frames imploding like they'd been squeezed by a giant fist.
The force didn't stop there.
It caught Jareth full in the chest and hurled him backward across the basin. He slammed through debris, skidded across stone, then smashed into the base of a fractured mountain wall hard enough to crack rock and send dust cascading down around him.
The impact echoed. Dust slid down the cracked face of the mountain.
For a second it looked like Jareth might stay buried there.
Then his hand pressed into the stone, and he pushed himself up.
His armor was split across the chest where the force had taken him. Blood ran down from his mouth, dark against the soot. He wiped it with the back of his hand and started laughing again, the sound strained but steady.
"You think that was enough?" he said.
He reached to the side of his belt and pulled free a thin injector, metal casing scorched but intact.
Reva stiffened. "What is he doing?"
Jareth pressed the injector against the side of his neck and triggered it.
The hiss was short, and the reaction wasn't.
Veins along his jaw darkened, spreading like ink under skin. The cracked plating over his arms tightened as muscle swelled beneath it. His breathing evened out in seconds, the earlier damage fading behind a surge of controlled aggression. Micro-servos in his armor whined as systems recalibrated around a body that was no longer operating at baseline.
He rolled his shoulders once, testing.
Then he stepped forward.
"I knew you weren't normal," Jareth said, eyes locked on Xavier. "I felt it the moment you walked in. But I didn't know you were a nova."
'Oh yes, nova.' Xavier let out a sigh.
Jareth smiled through blood.
"It doesn't matter. I've killed plenty."
The distance between them vanished in a blink.
Jareth's fist came in hard, enhanced strength driving it forward with enough force to crack reinforced plating. Xavier leaned slightly to the side and let it pass, the air splitting where his head had been. Jareth followed immediately with a knee strike aimed at Xavier's ribs.
Xavier pivoted, the blow grazing his armor instead of landing clean.
A blade snapped out from his forearm as he slashed in a tight arc meant to open Xavier from shoulder to hip. Xavier stepped inside the arc instead of back, catching Jareth's wrist mid-swing and redirecting it just enough for the blade to miss by inches.
"You move like you're calm," Jareth snarled, twisting free and driving an elbow toward Xavier's throat. "But that's what will get you killed."
Xavier ducked, the strike passing over him, then straightened with a short punch to Jareth's midsection.
The impact folded Jareth slightly.
He recovered fast, driving a boot into Xavier's chest and forcing him back a few steps across broken stone.
"That's all?" Jareth taunted, charging again. "You are going to keep dodging like a coward until your powers have recharged? I know everything about novas and their powers."
Xavier didn't say anything in response. Jareth couldn't be more wrong and Xavier let him think he was right.
For the next few seconds, Jareth unloaded everything the enhancer gave him. Heavy strikes, fast combinations, blades flashing in and out, grapples meant to snap joints and crush bone. The biotech coursing through him pushed his body past normal limits, every hit carrying amplified weight.
Xavier moved through it without rushing.
He leaned away from one strike, slipped under another, turned his shoulder to let a blade scrape instead of bite. His boots slid over rubble as he adjusted angles, letting Jareth exhaust momentum with each committed swing.
Reva watched, breath caught somewhere in her throat.
Rin muttered, "He's playing with him."
Jareth felt it too.
He roared and lunged again, swinging wide to force Xavier into retreat.
"So…" Xavier scoffed mockingly. "You wanted to become the galaxy's strongest pirate with… this? Even Rin can kill you in ten seconds. What a lame existence you are."