Awaken: Dying Light

A Desperate Plan

A sneer twisted the speaker's face, his voice dripping with venomous contempt. "We've been far too lenient for far too long! It's time to remind these so-called heroes of the true power of the Nexus. They will pay dearly for underestimating us!"

A collective surge of rage rippled through the assembled figures, a dark energy crackling in the air. The flickering candlelight danced on their cloaked forms, casting grotesque shadows that writhed on the damp stone walls. The Nexus, a viper nest of fanatics hidden from the world's gaze, thrummed with a renewed sense of purpose.

Their leader, shrouded in darkness and radiating an aura of absolute power, surveyed the room with a steely gaze. Hundreds of years of relentless pursuit had honed the Nexus into a weapon of exquisite lethality. They had endured, thrived even, in the face of relentless opposition from the world's most powerful families.

"Excellent," the leader rasped, his voice echoing in the cavernous chamber. "Craig," he continued, his gaze settling on a broad-shouldered man with a shaved head, "report on the Pentagon family."

Craig, his face etched with a mixture of apprehension and grim determination, shifted uncomfortably under his leader's gaze.

"Master," he began, voice barely a whisper, "gathering intel on them has proven...difficult. Security around Veridian Reach has tightened considerably in the past three years."

A flicker of annoyance crossed the leader's features. "Difficult?" he boomed, his voice sending tremors through the chamber. "The Nexus does not deal in difficulties, Craig. We deal in results."

Craig flinched, his head bowed in submission. "I understand, master. We've lost several members in the last few attempts. The Pentagons seem to have become…paranoid."

"Paranoid, or protective?" the leader mused, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Tell me, Craig, what happened three years ago that might have caused such a sudden shift in their security measures?"

Silence descended upon the chamber, thick with tension. Craig racked his brains, desperately searching for an answer that would appease his volatile leader.

"They…" Craig stammered, "they had a child. The wife of that bastard…she gave birth to a child three years ago."

"A child," the leader echoed, his voice devoid of emotion. "Is that all?"

"There has been much speculation," Craig continued cautiously. "The child, a girl, is seen frequently in the capital, always surrounded by powerful guards. Many believe…"

"Many believe what?" the leader pressed, his patience wearing thin.

"That the Pentagons are grooming her as their heiress," Craig finished hastily.

The leader scoffed. "An heiress? How predictable. But surely there's more to it than that. Something…unforeseen must have transpired to warrant such a drastic increase in security."

A long, pregnant pause hung in the air. Then, a slow smile spread across the leader's face, a smile that sent shivers down the spines of even the most hardened members of the Nexus.

"Unless…" he began, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, "they are protecting someone else as well."

Craig's heart hammered against his ribs. "Someone else, master?"

"Indeed," the leader chuckled, a sound devoid of humor. "Imagine, Craig, the Pentagons, that bastion of mad dogs, harboring a secret. A secret that could very well be their undoing."

The leader leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with a predatory glint. "Tell me, Craig," he rasped, "what do you know about twins?"

The revelation struck Craig like a physical blow. Twins? The implication hung heavy in the air, a truth too shocking to contemplate.

"This information," the leader continued, his voice laced with excitement, "it is priceless, Craig. The other families…they likely remain ignorant. But not for long. The world will soon learn of the Pentagons' dirty secret: not one child, but two."

A cold dread settled in Craig's stomach. He understood the gravity of the situation. If the leader was right, this twin posed a significant threat. Eliminating him would be paramount, but how? The Pentagon estate was a fortress, impenetrable by conventional means.

"There are two possibilities," the leader declared, his voice hardening with resolve. "Either this child is…defective, a burden the Pentagons wish to keep hidden. Or he possesses some…unnatural ability, a power that could disrupt the balance of power."

He slammed his fist on the table, the force echoing through the chamber. "Whichever the case, Craig, we cannot allow him to survive.

"Eliminate him. I don't care how many resources you expend. Consider it your top priority." The leader's voice left no room for argument. With a flick of his hand, he vanished from the room, leaving Craig alone in the dimly lit chamber.

The weight of the task settled heavily on Craig's shoulders. He knew the leader wouldn't tolerate failure. Infiltrating the Pentagon estate, let alone eliminating a family member, was near-suicide. Yet, disobeying an order was unthinkable.

Craig spent the next few hours meticulously studying blueprints and security protocols for Veridian Reach. Every attempt by the Nexus in the past three years had ended in failure, their operatives ruthlessly eliminated before they could even breach the estate's outer perimeter.

Frustration gnawed at him. How could he possibly succeed where others had perished?

A sliver of hope flickered amidst the despair. The leader had mentioned something about the girl, the supposed heir. Perhaps gaining intel on her movements, her routines, could provide an opening. He decided to start there.

Days bled into weeks as Craig delved into his investigation. He scoured every available source, both within the Nexus network and through carefully placed bribes in the capital. Slowly, a picture began to emerge.

The girl, Kiara, was indeed heavily guarded, but her movements were predictable. She attended prestigious locations in the capital, surrounded by a constant escort of elite guards.

A dangerous plan began to take shape in Craig's mind, a desperate gamble that hinged on precise timing and a healthy dose of luck. He knew presenting it to the leader would be a high-stakes proposition, but it was the only viable option he had.

Finally, after weeks of meticulous planning, Craig stood before the leader once more. The air crackled with anticipation as he laid out his proposal, his voice betraying a tremor of nervousness despite his outward composure.

The leader listened intently, his face an unreadable mask. When Craig finished, a long silence stretched between them, broken only by the faint hum of energy from the pulsating Nexus Heart that lay on the table before them.

"An audacious plan, Craig," the leader finally rumbled, his voice devoid of emotion. "But one that holds promise. Very well. You will have your resources. But remember, failure is not an option."

A sliver of pride warred with the knot of dread in Craig's stomach. He had the leader's approval, but the mission's success was far from guaranteed. The fate of the entire operation, perhaps even the future of the Nexus, now rested on his shoulders.

As Craig left the chamber, a single thought echoed ominously in his mind: infiltration was only the first step. The real challenge would be eliminating the boy, whoever he was, without alerting the entire Pentagon family and unleashing a maelstrom of retribution upon the Nexus.