CHAPTER 24: THE BETRAYER MARK

The next morning, the rain had stopped — but nothing felt clean.

Anthony stood alone near the crater where Simeon had fallen. The Riftblade was gone. The Riftborn had vanished into the shadows again. All that remained was a single shard of Beacon crystal, cracked down the middle like it had screamed before it died.

He knelt down and picked it up.

It pulsed once in his hand.

Weak.

But not dead.

---

Back underground, the rest of the Ghost Squad watched a Riftborn transmission leak from Chi-Chi's tapped satellite node.

> "THE UNMEASURED HAS BROKEN PROTOCOL."

"HE HAS KILLED HIS OWN."

"HE HAS BETRAYED ASCENSION."

The Riftborn emissary, cloaked in mirrored bone armor, raised a hand toward the camera.

> "From this moment, let it be known: Anthony Richard is no longer Unmeasured."

"He is the Betrayer."

"And he will be erased."

Chi-Chi paused the feed.

"So now we're fighting a cult, an army, and a religious war."

Ken scoffed. "What else is new?"

Confidence leaned forward. "The Riftborn called him Unmeasured with reverence. Now they're calling him a heretic."

Chi-Chi glanced at Anthony.

"You sure you want to wear that title?"

He didn't answer right away.

Then: "I'd rather be hated for breaking the pattern… than loved for staying in chains."

---

Later, Emmy approached him quietly as he packed equipment.

"You don't have to carry this alone."

He stopped what he was doing.

"You felt him, didn't you?" he asked.

She nodded. "When Simeon died… I felt the Beacon fragment cry."

Anthony turned to her.

"He was still inside. Even after everything they did."

"Then that means you can't give up."

He smiled faintly. "Not planning to."

---

Chi-Chi walked in, holding a new datapad.

"Found something," she said. "Something bad."

Anthony stood.

She tossed the pad to the table, projecting a recent feed from E.E.A. Black Level Command.

> "PROJECT: BABEL"

"ALPHA PROTOCOL INITIATED"

"PRIMARY ASSET: SUBJECT GL-001 — GOLIATH LOCKE"

"GENETIC CORE: UNMEASURED ECHO—EXPERIMENTAL"

"INJECTION DATE: POST-PULSE SPIRAL"

"PRIMARY DIRECTIVE: CONTAIN / COUNTERACT PRIME STARK SIGNATURE"

"MOBILIZATION STATUS: GREEN"

"LAUNCHING FROM: ZARIA BASE"

Ken's eyes widened. "They cloned you again?"

"No," Chi-Chi said. "They did something worse."

She tapped the side feed.

The image shifted to a grainy live feed: a humanoid figure in massive alloy armor strapped with Beacon seals and gravity anchors. Its chest pulsed like a synthetic heart. Its body radiated unstable Pulse energy.

Not just a clone.

A containment shell.

A living counter-Anthony.

Anthony stepped closer. "They're building something to trap me."

Chi-Chi nodded. "Something designed not to kill you... but to lock you out of your own power."

---

Hours later, Confidence mapped their options.

"We have two paths," she said. "We go after Zaria base and shut down Project Babel… or we vanish underground and wait for the E.E.A. to move."

Ken shook his head. "They'll move fast. And they'll drop that thing right on our heads."

Chi-Chi added, "And now that the Riftborn have marked Anthony, we won't get any help from rogue Variants either."

Anthony's voice was calm.

"Then we go to Zaria."

Chi-Chi turned sharply. "You want to walk into the base that's building your replacement?"

Anthony's eyes burned with that controlled fire again.

"I'm tired of reacting. It's time we start tearing the system down."

---

That night, Chi-Chi and Anthony sat on the edge of a destroyed rail line overlooking the city. The lights were dim. Drones scanned overhead, unaware of the ghosts below them.

She broke the silence first.

"I didn't say this back there… but thank you."

"For what?"

"For not letting him kill me," she said softly. "For trying to reach him first."

Anthony looked down at his hands.

"I didn't save you because you're part of the team."

She raised a brow. "Then why?"

He didn't look up.

But he said:

"Because it's you."

Chi-Chi blinked. For once, no quick retort came.

He finally looked at her.

"I don't know what I'm turning into, Chi. I don't know what I'll become. But when everything around me breaks, you're the only thing that makes me feel… human."

Her throat tightened.

Then she stood abruptly. "Let's get some rest."

She didn't walk away fast.

But she didn't walk far either.

---

Somewhere in Zaria, the GOLIATH LOCKE unit opened its eyes for the first time.

Sensors online.

Target: Anthony Richard.

---

Back in the tunnel, Emmy whispered in her sleep, eyes glowing faintly.

She mumbled a phrase in her dream, one the Beacon shard pulsed with at the same time.

> "Three Anchors must rise. One has been marked. Two remain dormant."

And then the Beacon map shifted — drawing a line toward Nairobi.