Chapter 93: Worse Than Expected
The alarm tore through the capital at midday, sharp and relentless, and Reid was already moving before the second wave of ringing bells finished sounding.
"report," he barked, meeting Jayden and Logan at the war room’s entrance, both of them already half-armored, faces tight with grim urgency.
"multiple breach points," Jayden said, voice clipped. "not just the border. reports coming in from the eastern districts, the merchant quarter, even near the palace grounds. this isn’t a normal incursion, Reid. this is happening everywhere at once."
"everywhere," Reid repeated, disbelief and dawning horror colliding hard in his chest. "that’s not possible. nothing’s ever breached this deep into the capital before."
"it is now," Logan said grimly, already moving toward the armory. "civilians are panicking. the city guard’s overwhelmed. we need every available Sentinel mobilized immediately."
The three of them burst out into the courtyard moments later, and what greeted them stole the breath from all three at once.
Gray shapes moved through the capital’s wide avenues, shambling and hungry, dozens of them already visible from the academy’s elevated position, more pouring in from every direction the eye could track. Smoke curled thin and pale from several districts, some of it clearly the aftermath of panicked civilians setting fire to buildings in desperate, misguided attempts at defense.
"god what is this," Jayden breathed, staring out at the chaos unfolding across the capital he’d called home his entire life. "this is worse than anything we’ve faced. worse than the toxic zone. worse than the valley pass."
"this is exactly what the archivist warned us about," Reid said, jaw tight, memory of the war room’s grim speculation crashing back hard and undeniable. "if the entity behind Xavier and Ian decided we were no longer worth simply testing—"
"we don’t have time to theorize," Logan cut in sharply. "we have people dying right now. we figure out the why later."
Reid nodded once, forcing his mind back into sharp, focused command mode despite the horror still crawling cold through his chest. "squad leaders, to me!" he bellowed, voice carrying clear across the assembling Sentinels pouring out of the academy grounds. "defensive perimeters around the palace and the merchant quarter first, civilian evacuation takes priority over engagement wherever possible—"
"what about the eastern districts," one squad leader called back, voice tight with barely restrained panic. "reports say they’re already overrun."
Reid’s jaw tightened, the brutal calculus of triage settling heavy and unbearable across his shoulders. "secondary priority," he said, hating every syllable of it. "we save who we can reach first. I’m not sending anyone into a district already lost if it costs us the ability to save two others."
The squad leader nodded grimly, relaying the order, and the assembled Sentinels scattered fast into organized formations, breaking off toward their assigned districts with the same disciplined urgency they’d trained for their entire lives, though nothing in that training had ever prepared them for a crisis unfolding on quite this scale.
Jayden’s gold light flared bright as he moved toward the merchant quarter’s defensive line, cutting down the first wave of gray shapes with brutal, efficient strikes, civilians screaming and scrambling behind him toward whatever shelter they could find.
"fall back toward the palace grounds!" he shouted, voice carrying clear over the chaos. "the walls there are reinforced, we can hold a proper line—"
Logan fought at his side, blade flashing in controlled, economical arcs, expression carved from grim, focused determination despite the horror unfolding around them both. "there’s too many," he said between strikes, breathing hard. "we’re barely holding this one street."
"then we hold it anyway," Jayden shot back, driving his fist through another attacker. "however long it takes."
Reid coordinated the broader response from a raised platform near the palace gates, watching reports filter in from every direction, the scale of the crisis growing more devastating with each new update. Districts falling. Civilians trapped. Sentinels stretched thinner than they’d ever been stretched before, fighting an enemy that had suddenly, catastrophically expanded its reach far beyond anything they’d prepared for.
’this changes everything,’ Reid thought grimly, watching the chaos unfold across every district visible from his vantage point. ’we can’t keep half our forces committed to searching for Julian if the capital itself is under this kind of assault. we need every available Sentinel here, now, or we lose the entire city.’
The thought landed like a physical blow, guilt and duty warring hard and painful in his chest even as the tactical necessity of it settled cold and undeniable.
The Emperor arrived at the platform moments later, expression carved from the same grim, focused fury Reid felt burning in his own chest, ceremonial blade already drawn and bloodied from whatever fighting he’d already engaged in on his way there.
"status," the Emperor demanded.
"multiple districts under assault," Reid reported. "civilian casualties mounting. we’re stretched thin trying to hold defensive lines across too many fronts at once."
The Emperor’s jaw tightened, the same brutal calculation Reid had already been forced into settling visibly behind his exhausted, furious eyes. "the reconnaissance flight," he said. "has it reported back yet."
"not yet," Reid said. "and given what’s happening here, I don’t know if we can afford to wait for it before making a decision about the rescue effort."
The Emperor was silent for a long, heavy moment, staring out at the chaos consuming his capital, the weight of an impossible choice settling hard across his shoulders.
"we pull back," he said finally, voice rough with something that sounded disturbingly close to defeat. "every available Sentinel not already committed to the rescue effort comes home, immediately. we cannot search for one man while our own capital burns around us."
"and Julian," Reid said quietly, though he already knew, with sick, cold certainty, exactly what answer was coming.
"we don’t abandon him," the Emperor said, voice hardening even through the exhaustion. "but we cannot commit further resources to actively searching while this crisis demands everything we have just to keep our own people alive. the search pauses. not ends. pauses, until we’ve stabilized what’s happening here."
Reid said nothing, the bitter, impossible weight of the decision settling heavy in his own chest even as he understood, with grim, reluctant clarity, that the Emperor was right. There was no version of this crisis that let them do both at once, not with resources stretched this catastrophically thin.
"get the word out," the Emperor said, voice hard and final. "full mobilization. every Sentinel, every Guide, every resource this Empire has, focused on saving this capital. we’ll return to Julian the moment we’re able."
Reid nodded once, grim and reluctant, already relaying the orders even as something raw and guilty twisted deep in his chest, thinking of a man chained somewhere far to the north who had no way of knowing that the rescue he’d been so desperately hoping for had just, however necessarily, ground to a sudden and complete halt.