The night after the blackout didn't feel like a victory.
It felt like breathing after nearly drowning — lungs burning, heart hammering, relief tempered by the memory of what tried to kill you.
The quad was still filled with students.
Some slept sitting upright. Others kept guard with flashlights and makeshift barricades. All of them carried phones now — not to scroll, but to watch. To record. To witness.
And above it all, glowing from the cracked screen of the administration building, was her face.
Lila.
Smiling. Free.
Still alive in all the ways that mattered.
Killian and I returned to the greenhouse.
We hadn't spoken much since the server drop.
Not because there was nothing to say.
But because there was too much.
He sat by the broken fountain, hands in his hair.
"I never thought it would work," he said.
I looked at him. "The revolution?"
"No," he whispered. "You."
I didn't sleep that night.
Couldn't.
Not after the final file.
Lila's voice, soft and resolute:
"If they break me, they win. But if I break them—even in death—I win."
She did win.
But not alone.
And I wasn't done yet.
By morning, the campus was silent.
No professors.
No guards.
No Cassandra.
But we knew better than to relax.
Because the Crown hadn't fallen.
It had gone underground.
At noon, I received a message.
From: Level Zero
Subject: Parley.
Location: Blackmere Chapel. Come alone. No live feed. No interference. Or everything burns.
Attached was one image:
A CCTV still.
Jules.
Bound. Gagged. Alive.
I showed it to Killian.
"I'm going," I said.
"I'm coming with you."
"No."
"You're not walking into a trap by yourself."
"I'm not walking in as a victim," I said. "I'm walking in as a threat."
He stared at me.
Then handed me something cold and heavy.
His phone.
Pre-set to record.
Hidden camera mode on.
The chapel was empty.
Not just of people — of sound.
Even the birds outside were quiet.
The stained-glass windows had been blacked out with tarps.
Candles flickered on the altar.
And in the center of it all, waiting like a statue carved from absence—
Cassandra Vale.
Dressed in black.
Hair pinned like a crown.
No guards. No weapons.
Just her.
And Jules, tied to the pew beside her.
"You're braver than your sister," she said.
I kept walking.
"She came here too," Cassandra added. "Begging. Believing she mattered."
"She did."
Cassandra tilted her head.
"She died screaming. Alone."
I stopped two feet from her.
"No," I said. "She died a hero."
Cassandra smiled.
"You keep using that word. Like it means something."
"She exposed you. Everyone saw."
"Yes," Cassandra said calmly. "And do you know what happens next?"
She opened her palm.
A silver switch.
Deadman's trigger.
"If I let go," she said, "a surge will fry every server connected to PRAXIS. All data. All files. Including the names of those who helped. Students. Staff. Allies. They'll be collateral."
"Why would you destroy your own system?"
Her eyes turned cold.
"Because I'd rather burn the throne than let someone else sit on it."
My mouth went dry.
She had the Crown rigged to implode.
And if I pushed her too far… everyone who'd helped would vanish.
Like Lila.
Like Jules.
"Let Jules go," I said quietly.
"No."
"She's not part of this anymore."
"She always was," Cassandra replied. "She talked. You listened. She will die for it."
And then a voice spoke behind her.
"Not today."
Cassandra turned.
Jules had freed herself.
And behind her — in the chapel doorway — stood Killian and Halvers.
Armed.
I lunged.
Knocked the trigger from Cassandra's hand.
It skittered across the floor.
She dove — but Jules kicked it away.
And Halvers grabbed it mid-roll.
Cassandra screamed.
Like a wolf caged.
"YOU THINK THIS IS OVER?!"
I stood over her.
"It is."
And then—
sirens.
Outside.
Federal ones.
I looked to Halvers.
He nodded.
"I sent the files to the DOJ. Live."
Cassandra went still.
Finally.
Truly.
Defeated.
The next hours were a blur.
Agents. Arrests. Interviews.
Cassandra was taken into custody.
Jules was cleared and released.
Killian and I stood together as the students gathered in the quad once more.
No chants this time.
Just silence.
Until a freshman girl stepped forward and held up her phone.
"Lila saved me," she said. "I was on the list."
A second voice joined her.
Then a third.
Until the whole quad filled with stories.
Of watching.
Of surviving.
Of resistance.
The system was dead.
But the movement was alive.
Later that night, I stood on the chapel roof.
Killian beside me.
Looking out over a campus no longer ruled by shadows.
"Do you think she knows?" I asked.
He wrapped an arm around my shoulders.
"I think she planned for this."
I nodded.
Lila didn't just dream of fire.
She left us the match.
We walked down in silence.
Past students.
Past cameras.
Past the statue that now bore a single word etched in paint:
CROWNLESS.
[Creator's Note – THIS IS THE CHAPTER 😭👑🔥💀]
ZARA CONFRONTED LEVEL ZERO
JULES FREED HERSELF
KILLIAN CAME THROUGH
CASSANDRA GOT ARRESTED
HALVERS SENT THE FILES TO THE DOJ
AND LILA??? PLANNED IT ALL
This was the peak of the mountain.
And you, dear reader, climbed every damn step with these characters.
Chapter 20 is next — the epilogue of revolution. The aftermath. The healing. The scar.
But also… the next spark.
Drop your love, grief, and shouts of "CROWNLESS" below 🖤
xoxo
–Smith_10