Why? 3 (Flashback)

The screen flickered, the hum of the monitors filling the silence between each breath Alex took. His mother's familiar yet distant voiceresonated through the room again.

"I know what you're thinking, Alex." She continued as if she already anticipated the time it would take for his outburst. 

Alex squeezed his eyes shut as if he could block out the words—block out her. But it was useless. The moment she had appeared on the screen, she had rooted him in place.

"But it isn't like that."

His breath trembled. His fists clenched, nails biting into his palms.

"Your father and I… we aren't saints. We weren't blind. We did try to find another way, Alex. We tried everything we could before we had no choice."

Then why?

"We even thought about fighting back."

Alex's body jerked as though something had struck him. He sucked in a sharp breath, lifting his head to glare at the image of his mother.

"Then why didn't you?!" The words never left his lips, but they screamed inside his mind, burning and tearing at the walls of his sanity. His chest rose and fell in uneven bursts, his pulse a deafening roar in his ears.

She had to have an answer. There had to be something—anything—that justified what happened.

"At first, we considered war. We weighed the risks, the strategies, and the counterattacks. We had power, we had warriors, and we knew the strength of our clan better than anyone. If we fought, we could have taken many of them down."

His throat clenched. He knew they could have. His father alone had been a force of nature, a warrior feared even among the Higher Clans. His mother—calculating, methodical, always ten steps ahead—would have outmaneuvered them. His siblings, their elite warriors, even the hidden trump cards they had kept … They could have won.

"But the moment we retaliated, it wouldn't have stopped with us."

His breath caught.

"The other Higher Clans wouldn't have stopped with our destruction. They would have fought amongst themselves. Our war would have turned into their war. And the casualties..." Her voice faltered, just for a second. That second was enough to send a fresh wave of anguish through Alex's chest. She didn't want this. She never wanted this.

"The world wouldn't have been able to recover, Alex."

A strangled sound escaped his throat. His vision blurred, but he couldn't tell if it was from the sting in his eyes or the sheer weight of her words pressing down on him.

"The magical beasts have always waited for an opportunity. If the Higher Clans turned against each other, they wouldn't hesitate to strike. if the world were thrown into chaos. And with humanity still recovering from the last war…"

The breath he had been holding came out in a shuddering gasp.

So that was it?

That was why?

His mother had died for this—his father, his siblings, his entire clan—because the world couldn't handle another war. Because the beasts lurking in the shadows would take advantage of the bloodshed?

He gritted his teeth so hard his jaw ached. His shoulders trembled. A firestorm of rage and grief crashed through his veins, leaving him barely able to contain the scream clawing its way up his throat.

"Then why did it have to be us?" he rasped, his voice broken. "Why… why did we have to die for them?"

His mother's image remained unchanged, frozen in time. Unfeeling. Untouchable. She couldn't hear his pain. She couldn't take back what she had done.

The world didn't deserve them.

The world didn't deserve his mother, his father, his siblings.

The world didn't deserve him.

Tears streamed down his face, silent yet unrelenting. His body shook, his arms wrapped tightly around himself as if he could hold himself together before he shattered completely.

Nyxara watched him from the side, silent. She didn't speak. She didn't move.

Because there was nothing to say.

She had no words that could fix this. No comfort that could take away the hollow agony tearing him apart.

His mother's voice returned, steady, firm, and final.

"That's why, after much thinking… your father and I made the only choice we could."

Alex's breath hitched. His entire body felt like it was collapsing in on itself. He wanted to scream at her, to curse the so-called choice that had taken everything from him.

But before he could, she spoke again.

"We even tried to escape, Alex."

His eyes widened. His breath stalled.

"We searched for a way to leave this world entirely. To take our clan, our people, and find a place beyond the reach of the Higher Clans. A world where we could be free."

Alex's hands trembled as he reached for the screen as if he could grasp onto her words, onto some fragment of hope that had long since crumbled into dust.

"And we did."