CHAPTER 44: "Burnt Offerings"
"It was never a war. It was a birth. And we were the blood."
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Scene 1: The Escape Fallout
The team staggers out of the Bloom Nest. Crown lies bound. Her smile bleeds confidence. Jakku walks ahead—silent. Maiku smolders. Gift clutches her head—shards of Reen's thoughts flicker like static.
Gift: "She's not gone. I hear her in pieces."
Crown: (laughs softly) : "You think I matter? I was just the lock. The door's already open."
Maiku grabs her collar—light flares in his eyes.
Maiku: "You built this nightmare."
Crown (calm): "No. She did. You just handed her the matches."
Crown (grinning) : "Wasn't she the one who merged?"
The crew goes silent and says nothing.
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Scene 2: The Mind of Reen
Inside Crown's neural prison: Reen is dreaming.
She walks through a world that doesn't exist. Her friends are alive. The sun never set. There was never a war.
But something's wrong.
Time stutters. Faces blur. The sky flickers like a broken screen.
Reen looks down. Her hands—roots.
She whispers:
Reen: "This isn't real. I'm not real."
Then louder—fire crackling in her breath:
Reen : "If this is my cage… I'll burn it from the inside."
And the dream begins to melt.
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Scene 3: Jiro's Descent
Jiro, changed. Irogi's blood still fresh in his mind.
He walks into a collapsed Feeder outpost. Finds an old comrade named Hiro Hiradeki. They try to speak sense into him.
It doesn't go well.
Hiro : "You're not hunting monsters anymore, Jiro. You're becoming one."
Jiro stabs them.
Florin watches—doesn't intervene. Not anymore.
Florin (coldly): "This isn't revenge anymore. It's rot."
Jiro lights the body on fire and walks away.
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Scene 4: Azula's Prophecy
In the ruins of an old forest near a river bank, a child waits. Bloomed. Calm. Eyes of void. False peace of mind. A child.
Azula Kioto. Eight years old. Eyes too old. Voice like silk.
She speaks as Jiro approaches:
Azula: "Your path is written in ash ,Jiro. Genocide follows you, but it won't end with you."
She tilts her head.
Azula: "Someone you trust will shatter you."
Jiro (growling): "Stop talking."
Azula: "You already know who."
Jiro kills her. One clean shot. No hesitation.
She dies smiling.
Florin: "She saw too far. That's why she smiled."
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Scene 5: Crown's Revelation
Interrogation room.
Crown tied to a rusted chair. She's humming.
Gift slams her into the wall.
Crown just smirks and spits blood.
Crown: "You're late. The Root doesn't grow in nations. It replaces them."
She shows them—on her skin, a bio-hologram blooms. A map. A countdown.
The True Root Body—buried. Dormant. Awakening.
Crown: "You think you delayed the birth? You prepared it. You're the midwives."
Maiku punches her relentlessly, so much to the point where his knuckles begin to bleed.
Maiku almost kills her.
Gift stops him.
Barely.
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Scene 6: Jakku's Reckoning
Jakku stands alone in a quiet place. A field burned long ago.
Wind moves through ash.
Irogi appears. Or maybe he doesn't.
He's just… there.
Irogi: "You could've spared me."
Jakku (quiet): "Mercy doesn't bloom in places like this."
He throws down his blade.
But picks it back up.
Duty always wins.
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Scene 7: Return to the Nest / The Core Awakes
Back to the Bloom Nest.
It's breathing now.
Alive.
The Root Body has changed. Taller. More human. But not human. Almost her.
Reen's voice echoes clearer now:
> "I'm still here. But not for long."
Maiku falters. His hand shakes.
Gift steps forward.
Gift: "Reen—if you can hear me… don't give in."
The Body turns.
And smiles.
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Final Line:
> "She was still alive. But not alone.
And inside that monster… she was starting to believe she belonged there."
Narrator:
> "Burnt Offerings." A name not given lightly. Not in a world where survival means becoming the very thing you fear. Not in a story where escape is just another form of transformation.
This chapter wasn't war. It was aftermath. It was a birth scream echoing through burned soil and cracked memory. The team escaped the Nest—but no one leaves clean. Jakku may be silent, but silence carries weight. Maiku may burn, but fire is fueled by grief. And Gift—she hears pieces of Reen like static in her skull. And Crown? She's not just a prisoner. She's a prophet of the inevitable.
Reen, meanwhile, dreams in her own prison—beautiful, false, and bleeding at the edges. She begins to awaken, not gently… but violently. Reen is changing. Or worse—becoming.
Then there's Jiro. His descent is no longer a question—it's a promise fulfilled. He kills with conviction now, not rage. When even a child's prophecy isn't enough to halt your blade, you are no longer a man. You are momentum.
Azula Kioto saw the end. Smiled anyway.
And Crown? She reveals what they feared: that the Root doesn't conquer cities. It replaces foundations. It doesn't need war. It just needs time. And their interference… helped.
Jakku stands on his own reckoning. Mercy once lived in him. It died with Irogi. Or maybe… it died long before.
Then they return—to where the silence first turned into screaming. The Bloom Nest is not a ruin now. It's a womb. Breathing. Shifting. And at the heart, something that once was Reen… smiles.
Because the cruelest part of it all?
She might want to stay.
> They were never fighting to win. They were fighting not to become. And as of now… they're losing.