Echoes of Choices

The Enemy's Perspective: Lexa's Story

At the enemy base, a dimly lit room was filled with an eerie silence, save for the occasional flicker of a dying candle. Lexa sat across from Elijah, her expression unreadable, fingers tracing the rim of a half-empty glass. The battle had left her drained, but the conversation ahead would exhaust her even more.

"So," Elijah leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Tell me, Lexa. Why did you do it?"

She exhaled slowly, staring at the flame before speaking. "Before I answer that, let me start from the beginning."

"Before I knew about my powers, I was just another girl trying to make sense of the world. I wasn't strong, I wasn't special—I was just me. I grew up in a normal town with normal people who never expected anything from me. But that also meant that no one ever looked at me like I mattered."

She clenched her fists. "I was invisible."

Elijah nodded but didn't interrupt. He knew she needed to get this out.

"One day, I got into a fight. Some jerk thought it'd be funny to push me around, but when he swung at me—his punch never landed. Instead, it bounced right back at him, knocking him flat on his ass."

She chuckled bitterly. "That's when I found out I could deflect anything. But it came with a price. For every hit I send back, I take twenty percent of the damage. It doesn't seem like much at first, but in a real fight? It adds up. Fast."

She rolled up her sleeve, revealing faint scars. "Deflect enough times, and you're the one who ends up broken."

Her expression changed. "Then the enemy found me."

Elijah's expression darkened. "What did they do?"

"They took my humanity."

Her voice was a whisper now. "They found out about my power. Said I was 'useful.' I thought they wanted to train me, but they treated me like a weapon instead of a person. Every day was a test. They'd attack me over and over, forcing me to deflect until my body couldn't take it anymore. They wanted to see how much I could handle before I broke."

She rubbed her arms, as if feeling the pain all over again. "And when I finally collapsed, they locked me away. I was nothing more than an experiment to them."

"But then Emjay found me."

Elijah raised an eyebrow. "How?"

Lexa allowed herself a small smile. "He broke into the facility. Not for me—he was there for something else. But when he saw me… he chose to save me."

She closed her eyes, remembering that moment. "He freed me, carried me out when I was too weak to walk. No one had ever done something like that for me before."

"I owed him my life, so I joined his team. And for a while, it felt like I finally belonged somewhere. I fought for him, protected our group, and I even convinced myself that this was my new home."

"But deep down, I knew I was still broken."

Elijah tilted his head. "So why betray them? Why turn on him?"

Lexa's expression hardened. "Because they never saw the real me. To them, I was just another teammate, another piece of the puzzle. i never got the attention i deserved, i was alone...again."

She swallowed. "And then he found me again."

"Who did?" Elijah asked.

"the traitor." She muttered.

"He promised me something Emjay's team never could."

Elijah leaned closer. "And what was that?"

Lexa exhaled. "A purpose."

She looked him dead in the eyes. "They told me the truth: Emjay's team was fighting a losing battle. That no matter what we did, we'd always be running, always be hunted. But with them? I could be something more. I wouldn't just be a survivor—I'd be a force to be reckoned with."

Elijah nodded slowly, processing her words. "So you chose power."

"No." She shook her head. "I chose control."

Back at Emjay's Base: The Aftermath

Meanwhile, Emjay's team sat in the repaired base, the weight of Lexa's betrayal hanging over them like a storm cloud.

"She sold us out," Yano spat, her voice thick with emotion. "She was one of us! How could she do this? After everything we did for her?"

Bleaf, standing off to the side, sighed heavily, rubbing his temples. His tone was calm but firm. "We don't know everything, Yano. We don't know why she did what she did."

"What do you mean, we don't know?" Yano turned to face Bleaf, her expression furious. "She's been with us for years! We trusted her with our lives, and she just throws us away like we're nothing! She chose the enemy over us!"

Bleaf didn't flinch. "I'm not saying it's okay, Yano. I'm saying that there's more to this than we're seeing. Maybe she was pushed to the edge. Maybe she felt like she didn't belong here. Maybe we missed something. Have you ever thought of that?"

Yano's hands balled into fists, and she stepped closer to Bleaf. "So, what? You're going to defend her now? After everything?"

"I'm not defending her," Bleaf said, his voice rising slightly. "I'm trying to understand her. You're too angry to see past your own hurt. You think this is easy for any of us? For me? For anyone? We've lost a lot, Yano. A lot more than just Lexa."

Yano scoffed, stepping back. "You're delusional. You think I don't see it too? I get it, Bleaf. I know she's not the only one who's gone through hell. But the truth is, she betrayed us. And that's not something you just forgive."

Bleaf's eyes softened, though his tone remained resolute. "It's not about forgiveness, Yano. It's about understanding why. We're a team, and if we can't understand each other, we'll fall apart. We need to know what happened to her, or we're never going to move forward. Otherwise, we'll just keep fighting each other."

The tension in the room grew heavier as Yano opened her mouth to respond, but she was cut off by Kai, who had been silent until now.

"Enough," Kai said, his voice cutting through the room like a blade. "We can argue all night, but it won't change the fact that she's our enemy now. We need to focus on what comes next."

Bleaf's gaze softened, but his voice was firm. "He's right, Yano. We can't keep going in circles. We need to figure out what we do now. How we deal with this. We're not just losing one person—we're losing people who we cared about and who we've fought for, But now we fight for the dead and the living, and for ourselves."

Crimson & Leon: A Private Conversation

Outside the base, Crimson leaned against a cold metal railing, his eyes lost in the dark horizon. He hadn't spoken much since Lexa's betrayal, and his silence seemed to have only deepened the weight of the situation.

Leon approached, his boots soft against the gravel, and stood beside him without saying a word. The two of them stood there for a long time, the chill in the air matching the icy feeling inside Crimson's chest.

Finally, Leon spoke, his voice quiet but filled with the weight of years of shared battles. "You worried?"

Crimson didn't immediately respond, his gaze fixed on the distant lights of the horizon. It felt like the world was slipping away, like everything they had worked for was crumbling.

"Yeah," Crimson admitted, his voice strained. "I am. But it's not just Lexa. It's everything. I thought we had a chance, that we could make something out of this. But now... I don't know. I feel like I'm losing everything. Like it's all falling apart."

Leon's eyes darkened as he looked out at the night. "We all are. But it's not just Lexa, is it? There's another one we lost too."

Crimson stiffened. "Yumi," he whispered, the name bitter on his tongue. "She was supposed to be with us. She was supposed to be family. And now... she's gone too."

Leon let out a heavy sigh. "We trusted her, too. She was supposed to fight alongside us. But somewhere along the way, she made her choice."

The silence between them stretched on. Crimson ran a hand through his hair, the weight of what had happened gnawing at him. "I don't know how much more of this I can take. Yumi. Lexa. Both of them—betrayals I didn't see coming. We've already lost so much. How do we keep going?"

Leon's gaze sharpened, a quiet resolve in his eyes. "We keep going because we don't have a choice. We can't let their choices define us. We still have a mission. We still have a team. As long as we have that, we have a reason to fight."

Crimson looked at him, the flickering light of determination in his eyes. "You're right. We can't fall apart. Not now. Not ever."

Leon nodded. "We fight. Together. We survive."

Crimson's fists clenched. "Then we make sure we win. No matter what."

Emjay's Burden

Inside the base, Emjay sat alone in his quarters. His hands were trembling as he ran them through his hair, his face twisted in frustration. He had saved Lexa, only for her to turn on him. He had fought so hard to keep the team together, only for cracks to start appearing, cracks that were threatening to tear them apart.

He could feel the weight of it all pressing down on him. The betrayals. The loss. The responsibility.

Emjay stood up abruptly, as if to shake off the doubt, to push away the overwhelming sense of failure. He couldn't let the team see how much it was breaking him.

Straightening his shoulders, he took a deep breath. His team was counting on him. No matter how much it hurt, no matter how much it ate at him, he was still their leader.

And leaders don't get to fall apart.