Iron Revenant: Blood Of The Marked

The First Marked

Jace Caldwell’s knees buckled in the warehouse, the second Obsidian Heart pulsing in his hand, its sickly green glow searing his palm.

 Black tendrils sprouted from his chest, binding him like chains, tugging him toward the scarred woman in the black exosuit. Her red eyes burned, mirroring The Shroud’s, her voice cutting through the chaos: “You’re holding my Heart, Caldwell.” 

Ethan’s whisper echoed in Jace’s skull—She’s the first Marked—as Lena Voss scrambled to her feet, blood dripping from her shoulder, her gun trembling. Victor Kane was gone, the first Heart with him, and Silas, the traitor defector, lay unconscious amid the rubble. Drones buzzed outside, NexTech’s boots closing in.

 Jace’s scar—jagged, black, alive—screamed with heat, his senses razor-sharp, but his heart was a raw wound. Ethan, alive, dead, or something worse? And this woman—who the hell was she?

The tendrils tightened, yanking Jace forward. He roared, fighting their pull, his scar blazing. The Shroud’s voice slithered through his mind: She’s your mirror, Iron. Kill her, or bow. His vision flickered—half warehouse, half void, the woman’s face warping into The Shroud’s, its red eyes laughing. 

He shook it off, gripping the Heart. Its pulse synced with his scar, images flooding in: Ethan in a lab, screaming, the first Heart in his chest, and this woman—younger, unscarred—watching, her eyes human then.“Jace!” Lena shouted, firing at the woman. The bullets sparked off her exosuit, useless.

 The woman moved—faster than Jace, faster than anything human—her blade flashing. Lena dodged, barely, but the blade grazed her arm, drawing blood. Jace’s scar pulsed, and his body reacted, breaking the tendrils with a surge of strength. 

He tackled the woman, slamming her against a crate, wood splintering.“Who are you?” he growled, pinning her. Her scar, a twin to his, glowed faintly on her neck, pulsing in time with the Heart in his hand.“Call me Mara,” she said, voice like steel. “The first to survive the Heart. You’re the second.” 

She twisted, her suit’s strength throwing Jace back. He hit the floor, rolling as her blade slashed the air where he’d stood. His scar burned, healing the bruises, but the Heart’s weight dragged at him, its glow flaring.Lena fired again, distracting Mara. Jace lunged for the Heart’s case, but Mara was faster, kicking it away.

 The tendrils surged from the floor, not hers but the Heart’s, lashing at all three of them. Jace dodged, his scar guiding him—every tendril’s arc glowed in his mind, like a map only he could see. He grabbed Lena, pulling her behind a steel beam as the tendrils shredded crates, sparks flying.

Mara laughed, dodging with the same unnatural speed. “You feel it, don’t you?” she said, her red eyes locked on Jace. “The Heart’s power. It’s in your blood now.”

“Shut up,”

 Jace snarled, firing his Glock. The bullets ricocheted off her suit, but one clipped her scar, and she staggered, blood trickling. The Heart in Jace’s hand pulsed, and his vision split again—The Shroud’s void, Mara standing over Ethan in a lab, her voice: He’s not strong enough.

 Ethan’s screams echoed, his body dissolving into shadow.Jace snapped back, gasping, as Mara charged, her blade aimed at his chest. His scar screamed, and time slowed—his body moved on instinct, sidestepping, his fist cracking her jaw. She stumbled but didn’t fall, her suit whirring. 

“You’re just like me,” she said, smiling through blood. “NexTech’s perfect weapon.”“I’m nothing like you,” Jace roared, but The Shroud’s voice hissed: Aren’t you?

 His scar burned, and he saw it—his own reflection in a shattered crate, eyes glowing red, like hers, like Ethan’s.Lena grabbed the Heart’s case, her face pale. “Jace, we have to destroy it!” she shouted, dodging a tendril. “It’s controlling her!”

Mara’s eyes flared. 

“Destroy it, and you kill him.” She pointed at Jace. “The Hearts are linked—through you, through Ethan.”Jace’s heart lurched. Ethan’s video flashed in his mind: You’re the balance. 

He clutched the second Heart, its pulse erratic. The warehouse shook, drones breaching the ceiling, their cannons glowing. NexTech assassins poured in, exosuits gleaming, rifles blazing. Jace’s scar guided him, dodging bullets with inhuman precision, his Glock finding visor cracks.

 Blood sprayed as two assassins fell, but more came, relentless.Lena fired, covering him, but her wound slowed her. Silas stirred, groaning, his lenses flickering. “Caldwell,” he rasped, “she’s right. The Hearts… they’re a circuit.

 You’re the switch.”Jace’s scar burned hotter, and The Shroud’s void swallowed him again. Ethan stood there, half-shadow, the first Heart in his chest. “I tried to stop them,” he said, voice breaking. “Mara was the first.

 I was the second. You’re the last, Jace. The Shroud needs you to wake.”Jace clawed back to reality, gasping, as Mara grabbed Lena, her blade at Lena’s throat. “Give me the Heart, Caldwell,” she said, “or she dies.”

Jace’s scar screamed, and The Shroud’s voice roared: Choose. His phone buzzed—a new video, unknown number. Ethan’s face, in a lab, his voice calm: “Jace, the Hearts need three Marked to wake The Shroud. 

Mara, me, you. Break the circuit, or it’s over.”The warehouse lit up, a drone’s blast tearing through the wall. Jace dove, shielding Lena as Mara staggered, her suit sparking. 

He grabbed the second Heart, its glow blinding, and ran, dragging Lena with him. Silas fired his pulse rifle, covering their escape, but his lenses glowed red, betraying a new allegiance.They burst into a back alley, Chinatown’s neon chaos swallowing them. 

The Heart pulsed in Jace’s hand, tendrils spiraling from his scar, not attacking but guiding him—toward a derelict temple, its doors etched with runes matching his scar. Lena coughed, blood staining her lips. “It’s calling you,” she whispered. “Don’t go in.”Jace’s scar burned, and Ethan’s voice echoed: Break the circuit.

 He kicked the temple door open, the air inside thick with incense and dread. The second Heart glowed, revealing a stone altar, a third Heart embedded in it, pulsing in sync. Mara’s voice echoed behind them: “You can’t stop it, Caldwell.”Jace turned, but she wasn’t there—her voice came from the Heart in his hand. 

His scar flared, and his vision blacked out, The Shroud’s void consuming him. Mara stood there, unscarred, beside Ethan, both younger, in a lab. “We were the first,” she said, her voice soft. “We trusted NexTech. Now we’re its slaves.” 

Ethan’s hand reached out, dissolving into ash. “Break it, Jace.”He snapped back, gasping, the temple trembling. Lena grabbed his arm, her eyes wide. “Destroy the Heart, Jace. It’s the only way.”But the altar’s Heart pulsed, and a new figure emerged from the shadows—Kane, holding the first Heart, his suit gleaming. “Too late,” he said, smiling. 

“The circuit’s complete.”The ground split, tendrils erupting, not black but red, forming a massive figure—The Shroud, half-formed, its eyes blazing. Jace’s scar exploded with pain, and his body froze, the second Heart burning his hand. Ethan’s voice screamed in his skull: You’re not the last.

A new voice—female, young—cut through the chaos, from the temple’s depths: “He’s right.” A girl, no older than sixteen, stepped forward, her eyes glowing red, a fourth Heart in her hands. “I’m the last Marked. And you’re all dead.”