All Chapters of THE MAN WHO RETURNED AS THORN: Chapter 51
- Chapter 60
86 chapters
51
The ruins of the Pulse Tower still smoked when dawn bled across the horizon. The storm had finally passed, leaving only the smell of ozone and burnt circuitry. Evan stood amid the wreckage, his hand trembling over the pulse core — now a fractured, glowing shell.Vivianne’s voice came through the commlink, weak but alive. “Evan? Are you… are you still there?”He swallowed hard. “Yeah. I made it. Somehow.”“Then it’s over,” she whispered. “The network collapsed. The override’s dead. We did it.”Evan looked down at the shattered console. The city skyline flickered faintly in the distance, half of it dark, half of it slowly waking. “We stopped the collapse, yeah. But it’s not over.”Footsteps crunched behind him. He didn’t have to turn to know it was Kieran.“You always think you can fix things,” Kieran said quietly. “Even after everything burns.”Evan turned slowly. “You should be dead.”“Maybe I am,” Kieran replied, blood running down his temple. “Or maybe I’m the only one who remembers
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Evan stood alone at the edge of the pier, jacket soaked, the broken core fragment pulsing faintly in his palm. Midnight. The city’s skyline blinked behind him — wounded, scarred, still trying to remember itself.Vivianne’s voice whispered in his earpiece. “You shouldn’t be there alone.”“I have to be.”“No, you want to be,” she countered. “That’s not the same thing.”Evan didn’t respond. He stared at the water, the reflections twisting with every ripple. “They said midnight. It’s midnight.”A low hum rose from across the dock. A black skimmer slid out of the fog — silent, sleek, bearing the Directorate’s sigil: a serpent swallowing its own tail.From it stepped three figures in dark coats. Their faces hidden by mirrored masks.The one in the center spoke, voice modulated. “Evan Caelum. You’ve caused quite a storm.”“I tend to do that,” he muttered. “You said you wanted the core fragment.”“Yes,” the voice replied. “You’re going to give it to us.”Evan held it up, the pale light reflec
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The first thing Evan heard was the hum of machines.Cold light pressed through his eyelids, and when he opened them, the ceiling above was lined with cracked fiber screens showing flickering data streams. His chest burned like electricity had been poured straight into his veins.He tried to sit up—but metallic cuffs pulled at his wrists.“Easy,” said a voice beside him. “You flatlined twice. We didn’t drag you out of that dock just to have you fry yourself again.”Evan turned. A woman stood there—short black hair, silver augmentations lacing the side of her jaw. Her eyes gleamed faint amber.“Who the hell are you?” he rasped.She smiled slightly. “Nova Kael. Commander of the Null Array. And apparently, your new babysitter.”Evan’s throat was dry. “Null Array? Sounds like another cult with better branding.”Nova laughed once. “We prefer ‘counter-system insurgency.’ Cults worship. We dismantle.”She tapped on a console. The cuffs released with a hiss.Evan rubbed his wrists. “Why am I h
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The chamber pulsed like a beating heart.Blue light flickered against Evan’s face, painting his trembling hands as he aimed the suppressor straight at Kieran’s shifting form.Nova shouted over the hum. “He’s pulling energy from the Spire’s core! If he reaches full merge, the entire city grid will fold!”Kieran’s voice echoed through every surface, distorted and layered, as though a thousand versions of him spoke at once.“Why destroy what we can rebuild, brother? You don’t have to fight me. Just… let go.”Evan’s pulse pounded in his ears. “You’re rebuilding the world by enslaving it, Kieran! That’s not creation, that’s control!”“Control is an illusion,” Kieran said softly. “Freedom is chaos. I offer peace. A mind without division.”Nova raised her rifle beside Evan, eyes locked on the entity. “You merge that core and you’re not offering peace—you’re deleting free will.”Kieran’s gaze flickered to her, his voice low and cold. “And yet you call yourself Null. How ironic. You destroy ev
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Rain fell hard against the cracked skylight above them.The old metro station had become their hideout for the night—a maze of forgotten rails and rusted trains buried under the city.Nova worked silently on the comm drive, fingers trembling over the wires. Evan sat across from her, drenched, his hair plastered to his face. The glow under his skin pulsed faintly, like a warning.For a long time, neither spoke. Then Nova finally whispered, “He’s still in there, isn’t he?”Evan didn’t look up. “Sometimes I hear him breathing.”Nova froze. “Breathing?”Evan’s voice cracked slightly. “Like he’s… using my lungs.”Nova dropped the wire she was holding. “Evan, we need to purge it now. Whatever’s left of Kieran—if he’s integrated that deep, waiting won’t help.”He finally looked at her, eyes dark. “You think I haven’t tried? Every time I close my eyes, he talks back. And sometimes, he sounds like me.”A spark hissed from the comm drive. Nova cursed, trying to fix it. “We can’t risk you going
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Winds howled through the framework as Nova and Evan climbed the narrow staircase, rain soaking their clothes and skin.Every few seconds, the tower crackled with electricity—remnants of a system that had once powered half the city.Evan’s breathing was ragged. His pulse glowed visibly beneath his shirt, pulsing faster than it should.Nova glanced back, panting. “You need to sit. You’re overheating.”Evan shook his head, clutching the railing. “If I stop now, it’ll sync completely.”She stopped climbing, turned to him, and grabbed his face. “Evan, look at me—do you even know what ‘it’ is anymore?”He hesitated. “Kieran… Cipher… I don’t know. It’s all bleeding together.”Lightning split the sky. For a brief moment, both their faces flashed silver-white.Nova exhaled shakily. “Then we separate them now. Before you lose the part that’s still you.”They reached the top platform, where a half-functioning control pod blinked faintly under layers of grime. Nova rushed to the console, yanking
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Evan sat among the ruins of the relay tower, now nothing more than a charred iron skeleton.Every time he closed his eyes, he could still hear Nova’s scream—and Kieran’s laughter echoing from the last frequency they had shared.Three days had passed since the explosion.He had survived only because his defense system activated seconds before the energy spike reached its peak.Nova wasn’t that lucky.Or perhaps… she was simply too strong to die.Evan stared at his fingertips—there was still a faint blue flicker there.Not his. Not Kieran’s either.Nova’s.He closed his hand, as if trying to trap the light.“Where are you now?”Only the whisper of the wind answered.In the distance, the city of Lurevia was still smoldering.The government had sealed off the area, labeling the incident as an “unknown electromagnetic resonance.”No one knew the truth—that behind every spark of electricity, two souls had been fighting to remain human.Footsteps echoed behind him.Evan stood up instantly, t
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The city was drowning in noise that night. Sirens screamed in the distance, neon lights bled through the fog, and yet, inside the narrow hallway of the old apartment, everything was silent—except for their breathing.Finn leaned against the wall, his shirt torn and blood staining his left sleeve. “You shouldn’t have come back,” he said, voice low, rough. “You were supposed to stay dead.”Across from him, Shawn stood half in shadow, his expression unreadable. “And you were supposed to stay loyal.”“Loyal?” Finn’s laugh was short, bitter. “To what? To a man who sold my name for his own safety?”Shawn’s jaw flexed. “You think you know everything, don’t you?”“I know enough to hate you.”Vivianne appeared at the end of the hallway, her steps soft but certain. “Stop it,” she said, voice trembling but firm. “Both of you. You’re acting like this is still about revenge. It’s not.”Shawn’s eyes flicked toward her, and something shifted there—something raw. “Viv, you don’t get to talk about rev
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The gunshot cracked through the hallway like thunder.Vivianne screamed. The lights flickered. For a second, everything went white.When the sound faded, Finn realized he wasn’t the one bleeding. Shawn had thrown himself sideways, knocking Carter’s arm just as he pulled the trigger. The bullet had torn through the wall instead of a skull.“Run!” Shawn barked.Vivianne stumbled, but Finn grabbed her hand, yanking her toward the stairwell. Carter fired again—metal screamed, plaster burst, and the whole corridor filled with smoke and chaos.“Finn!” Shawn shouted, still pinned near the door. “Get her out of here!”“Not without you!” Finn yelled back.“Now, damn it!”Another gunshot. This time, Carter’s voice followed it—calm, eerie. “You think you can run from me, Shawn? After all I taught you?”Vivianne froze mid-step. “Taught him?”Finn dragged her down the stairs. “Don’t listen to him.”But the words hung heavy in her chest. Taught him?As they reached the second floor landing, Shawn’s
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The rooftop was silent except for the rain. Carter’s body lay still, the wind tugging at his coat.Vivianne’s voice trembled. “He’s lying. He has to be lying.”Shawn stared down at the corpse, frozen. “Carter never lied to win. He lied to hurt. There’s a difference.”Finn wiped blood from his arm. “You’re saying someone else survived that lab fire?”Shawn’s eyes flicked toward him. “Not survived. Hidden.”“Hidden where?” Vivianne asked.“Inside the network.”Finn frowned. “You mean the encrypted systems?”“No.” Shawn’s voice was barely a whisper. “I mean inside the signal.”Vivianne blinked. “What—like a ghost?”Shawn looked at her, expression unreadable. “Exactly like that.”Finn sighed, half laughing in disbelief. “A ghost made of data. Fantastic. Maybe next we’ll fight zombies made of Wi-Fi.”But Vivianne wasn’t laughing. Her pulse raced, the edges of her mind flickering with fragments—faces, codes, voices. “Shawn… what kind of signal are you talking about?”Shawn hesitated. “The o