THE REVENANT’S CHOICE

CHAPTER 5: A NEW PLAYER IN THE GAME (Part 1) 

Ryan's boots struck the cold concrete, each step measured, deliberate. The corridor stretched ahead—long, sterile, eerily silent. The air carried the sharp scent of gun oil and machinery, mixing with the faint hum of ventilation systems overhead.

Beside him, Eleanor moved in silence. Her posture was tense, her eyes never resting. She wasn't just looking—she was analyzing. Memorizing patterns. Mapping exits. Spotting weaknesses.

Ryan felt it too. The creeping unease.

The weight of unseen eyes.

They hadn't just been brought here. They had been processed. Guided through a labyrinth of security checkpoints and steel doors that sealed shut behind them with mechanical precision.

Whoever orchestrated this wasn't improvising.

This wasn't a rescue.

It was a lockdown.

Ryan's fingers twitched at his sides, instinctively reaching for the familiar weight of his weapon.

Gone.

The moment he stepped inside, they had taken it. A calculated move. A necessary one.

At the end of the corridor, a reinforced door hissed open.

Inside, a man stood waiting.

Ryan recognized him instantly. Tall. Built like a soldier. Dark, messy hair. Sharp, calculating eyes. A long scar ran along his jaw—a mark of battles most wouldn't have survived.

His tactical jacket bore no insignia. But in the stitching, the ghost of Orion's emblem remained.

Ryan stopped.

His gut twisted.

"Drake," the man greeted, his voice rough, weathered.

Ryan's expression didn't shift. "You've got to be kidding me."

Eleanor frowned, glancing between them. "You know him?"

Ryan exhaled sharply, tension creeping into his shoulders. "Yeah. I know him."

The man smirked, stepping forward. "No warm reunion for an old friend?"

Ryan's voice was flat. "We were never friends, Cade."

Cade Lawson. A name Ryan hadn't expected to hear again. A ghost.

Officially, Cade had been eliminated. Wiped from existence. Buried deep in Orion's classified reports.

Except Orion was never good at keeping its past buried.

Eleanor folded her arms. "Someone want to explain?"

Cade's smirk remained. "Once upon a time, I was part of the same machine that built Ryan into what he is today. Orion's perfect soldiers. But unlike him, I saw the cracks before they collapsed."

Ryan's jaw tensed. "You betrayed them."

Cade tilted his head slightly. "I walked away. You should have too."

Ryan wasn't in the mood for history lessons. His patience was razor-thin. "What do you want?"

Cade's smirk finally faded. "It's not about what I want, Drake. It's about what Orion is doing." His tone sharpened. "And right now? They're making moves that'll make Project Revenant look like child's play."

Ryan's fists clenched. "Start talking."

Cade sighed, stepping back and gesturing toward a bank of monitors.

The screens flickered to life. Satellite footage. Classified reports. And then—

Something that made Ryan's blood turn to ice.

A list of names.

A long, detailed list.

Eleanor stepped closer, her voice barely above a whisper. "What is this?"

Cade crossed his arms. "That," he said, "is everyone Orion has ever experimented on."

Ryan's pulse spiked.

The list was long.

Too long.

And then, his eyes found something worse.

His name wasn't the only one highlighted.

Eleanor Graves.

Her name was there too.

Silence settled between them—thick, suffocating.

Ryan could hear Eleanor's breath hitch beside him. She took a step back, as if distance could erase what she'd just seen.

Cade studied their reactions, his voice dropping lower. "I take it you didn't know."

Ryan's hands curled into fists. "What the hell is this?"

Cade didn't answer immediately. Instead, he stepped forward, lowering his voice like the walls themselves might be listening. "You want the truth? Fine. But I'll warn you now—you're not going to like it."

Ryan's instincts screamed at him.

Everything in him said not to trust Cade.

But he needed answers.

He had come too far to stop now.

Ryan exhaled sharply, his gaze locking onto the screen.

"Talk," he said coldly. "And make it fast."

CHAPTER 5: THE TRUTH THEY WANT TO HIDE

(Part 2) 

Cade's words lingered in the air like a ghost refusing to fade. The silence that followed was thick, suffocating.

Ryan's eyes stayed locked on the list—his name, Eleanor's—buried among countless others. Some names had status markers beside them.

Terminated. Missing. Recovered. Active.

Eleanor stepped back, her breath unsteady. "No… That's not possible." Her voice was barely above a whisper, trembling. "This has to be some kind of mistake."

Cade met her gaze with something between pity and inevitability. "Do you really believe that?"

Ryan forced himself to remain still, his expression unreadable despite the storm raging inside him. He had spent years believing he was in control—of his choices, his actions, his identity.

Now, for the first time, the ground beneath him felt unstable.

His voice, when it came, was cold. "What is this supposed to mean?" He exhaled sharply, eyes narrowing at the screen. "Orion modified soldiers. We already knew that. I was part of their program. But this—" He jabbed a finger at the list. "This is something else."

Cade sighed, leaning against the desk. "Yeah. Because what Orion did to you? That was just the start."

Ryan's jaw tightened. "Explain."

Cade gestured toward another screen. A new document appeared—dense text, genetic schematics, Orion's insignia faintly watermarked behind the data.

It wasn't just about soldiers.

It was about rewriting what made them human.

"A decade before Project Revenant officially began, Orion wasn't just enhancing operatives. They were laying the foundation for something bigger—a new generation of controllable assets. Not just through physical modifications, but through something deeper."

Cade's voice was steady, but his eyes betrayed something darker. "They weren't just changing your body, Ryan. They were rewriting you."

Eleanor's breath hitched. "That's… impossible."

Cade tilted his head slightly. "Is it?"

Ryan wanted to deny it.

But deep down, he knew it was true.

The unexplained gaps in his memory. The way he had survived things he shouldn't have. The moments when his instincts felt more like programming than intuition.

Cade kept going. "Blood Code wasn't just about making soldiers stronger. It was about control. Orion didn't just need fighters—they wanted weapons that couldn't refuse."

Ryan's chest tightened. "Mind control?"

Cade nodded once. "At its peak? Yes. The Blood Code system was designed to adapt. If a subject resisted, the system adjusted—until it found a way to override free will entirely."

Silence hung in the air like a noose tightening around them.

Eleanor's gaze flickered between the two men. "But Ryan… he doesn't act controlled. He—" She hesitated, her expression shifting as realization dawned. "Wait. You said the system adapts."

Cade held Ryan's gaze. "You've felt it, haven't you? Those moments when your body moves before your mind catches up. When you make a choice, but deep down, you wonder… was it really yours?"

Ryan's fingers twitched.

Because, yes. He had felt it.

Flashes of combat—split-second reactions too precise, too perfect. The sensation that he wasn't just reacting to danger—he was anticipating it before it even happened.

Cade leaned forward. "Ryan, you weren't their only experiment. But you're the only one who ever broke free."

Ryan's blood turned to ice. "What?"

Cade tapped the screen, pulling up another classified file. Multiple subjects. Multiple iterations.

Then, a name Ryan recognized.

Subject: E. Graves

Eleanor's breath left her in a sharp exhale. "No. No, no, no. That's not—I was never—"

Ryan didn't hesitate. He lunged, grabbing Cade by the collar and slamming him against the desk. "What the hell is this?"

Cade didn't flinch. "It means Orion wasn't just watching you. They've had their eyes on both of you for a long time."

Ryan's grip tightened, his fury threatening to break loose.

But before he could demand more—

A sharp alarm blared through the facility.

Red warning lights flared.

The security monitors flickered to a live feed—heavily armed men breaching the outer perimeter.

Orion had found them.

Cade cursed. "Shit. We're out of time." He turned back to Ryan, voice urgent. "You need to make a choice. Now."

Ryan's mind was already racing.

No matter what he chose—

There was no turning back now.

CHAPTER 5: ESCAPE OR SUBMISSION (Part 3)

The alarms screamed through the underground facility, their sharp wails cutting through the tension like a blade. Red emergency lights pulsed in jagged bursts, painting the steel walls in eerie shades of crimson.

Ryan's mind raced. Orion had found them.

On the security feeds, he could see them—dozens of black-clad operatives flooding the lower tunnels, their formation tight, their intent unmistakable.

These weren't standard soldiers.

They were a retrieval unit.

They weren't here to kill him.

They were here to take him back.

Cade was already moving, yanking a rifle from the weapons cache and tossing another to Ryan. "We need to go. Now."

Ryan caught the weapon on instinct, racking the slide. Full magazine. His voice was low, edged with suspicion. "You knew this was coming."

Cade let out a sharp breath. "It was never a matter of if, only when."

Then—BOOM!

The walls shuddered violently. An explosion ripped through the facility's entrance. The blast sent dust and debris cascading from above, choking the air with smoke.

Eleanor took a step closer to Ryan, her voice tight with urgency. "We can't fight all of them."

"We won't," Cade said. He was already moving, sprinting toward a reinforced hatch on the far side of the room. He wrenched it open, revealing a dark, narrow tunnel beyond. "This leads to an underground transport. We take it, we vanish."

Ryan hesitated, eyes scanning the chaos.

Something felt wrong.

Too easy.

And then—before he could say it—

The lights died.

Total darkness.

A split second later—chaos erupted.

The steel door to the control room exploded inward, a shockwave of force sending fragments flying. Flashbangs detonated.

The world went white.

Silence swallowed everything.

Ryan dropped low, shielding Eleanor as gunfire tore through the haze.

His vision swam. His ears rang. Through the disorienting blur, he saw them— figures moving like ghosts in the smoke.

Orion's soldiers.

Fast. Efficient. Unstoppable.

Through the chaos, he caught a glimpse of Cade diving for cover, returning fire.

Then—

Hands grabbed Eleanor.

She let out a sharp gasp, struggling against the soldier locking an arm around her throat.

Ryan moved.

One shot. Clean.

The soldier dropped.

But—

Eleanor wasn't free.

Another set of hands yanked her back into the shadows beyond the breach.

Ryan's blood turned to ice.

Eleanor's eyes locked onto his. "Ryan!"

Then—

She was gone.

The soldiers vanished as quickly as they came, pulling back into the tunnels. A tactical retreat.

They had what they came for.

Ryan lunged forward, but Cade caught his arm and yanked him back.

"If you go after her, you're dead."

Ryan's rage flared. "Then I'll die."

Cade's grip tightened. "Think. Orion doesn't kill assets. She's bait. They want you to follow."

Ryan knew Cade was right.

But that didn't mean he could accept it.

His fists clenched, his breath sharp and unsteady. He had lost too many people already.

He wasn't losing Eleanor.

Ryan exhaled slowly, forcing his pulse to steady. "You have a way to track them?"

Cade hesitated—then nodded. "Yes."

Ryan's jaw tightened. "Then we move."

Cade met his gaze, his expression unreadable. "If we do this, there's no turning back."

Ryan didn't flinch.

"There was never a way back."

He stood amidst the wreckage, his pulse thrumming in his ears.

Eleanor was gone.

And now, he faced an impossible choice.

Trust Cade and his team?

Or surrender himself to Orion to save her?

But one thing was certain—

This wasn't just about survival anymore.

This was war.

And Ryan was about to bring it to their doorstep.