They won't fall by accident. They'll fall in front of cameras. With applause. And the world will think it was their idea.
Scene: Training Hall Echo – 11:47 a.m.
No one noticed when Rook Vale returned to the main rotation.
The students were too focused on a live spar between two cadets in the central ring.Instructors whispered. A Zodiac lieutenant passed through, nodding silently.
And Rook?
He didn't speak to anyone.
He watched.
Because today, one of the Zodiac was going to fall — and the weapon wouldn't be a gun, or a knife, or even his fists.
It would be his silence.
Step One: The Bait
The first name on the kill list wasn't the loudest. Not a headline captain like Leo Virex. No. That came later.
The first name was Capricorn — real name: Vern Anden.
A compliance officer. Mid-tier Zodiac. Unseen, but dangerous.
He was the one who sanitized mission reports, rewrote debrief logs, and quietly rerouted enemy tech to Concord black sites under the label "hero salvage."
Rook had spent months feeding false data through the backend systems, forging a breadcrumb trail that looked like Capricorn was embezzling and black-bagging alien tech for personal use.
Now, all it needed was light.
He pinged Aya.
No words.
Just a blink-code.
"Start the noise."
Scene: HeroNet Broadcast Tower – Command Room B
Aya walked into the broadcast prep chamber disguised as a junior trainee.Hair dyed black. Retinal contact lenses. Uniform one size off.
She placed a fabricated interview chip into the console queue.
Topic: "Behind the Badge – Zodiac Logistics"
A fake anchor. A real segment queue.Slated to air on the Academy-wide internal stream.
The footage?
An altered voiceover, layered with Rook's forged data logs, timed alongside images of Anden walking into restricted Concord data vaults.
It would last four minutes.
Just long enough.
Step Two: The Spotlight
Rook watched as the feed hit every instructor terminal.
The room froze.
Even the cadets noticed.
A silence spread through the hall like water spilled on glass.
Then the whispering began.
"Did you see that?"
"Capricorn? No way."
"They said he rerouted Fyros tech—"
And then Anden walked in.
Right on cue.
He paused as the feed died.
All eyes turned toward him.
His face twitched — just slightly. Not anger. Not confusion.
Recognition.
He'd seen the files.
He knew they weren't fake.
And that was the point.
Because the world didn't need to see proof.
It just needed to see him crack.
Step Three: The Fall
By nightfall, Capricorn had filed for an emergency panel defense. He claimed slander. Internal sabotage. A rogue digital frame.
But his tone was wrong.
His voice trembled.
Rook made sure Tessa was watching when it aired.
He didn't ask her what she thought.
He let her listen.
Let her feel what it was like to hear someone powerful get caught lying — and see how fast the system pretended to care.
Anden was removed from public duty within the hour.
An "internal reassignment."
Translation: disappeared.
Scene: Dorm 103 – Late Night
Rook sat at his terminal, replaying the last ten seconds of Anden's final speech.
"...I did what I was ordered to do. I didn't ask where it went."
He stared at the man's eyes.
And whispered, "That's why you're the first."
Aya leaned in the doorway.
"You could've gutted him. Made it messy."
"I don't want messy."
"Why not?"
He looked at her.
"Because I don't just want them gone.I want the people who watched them fall… to cheer."
Final Scene: Tessa's Dorm – Same Time
Tessa couldn't sleep.
The way Anden's voice cracked in the stream wouldn't leave her ears.
And neither would Ava's words from three nights ago:
"We're all pretending. The only question is who taught us how."
She opened her messages.
Typed one name.
Rook.
Deleted it.
Typed again.
We need to talk.
Paused.
Then deleted the whole message.
She didn't know why.
But something told her he already knew.