VEILBREAKERS
Episode 8: "The Silence Before the Burn"
[LOCATION: Underground Tech Bunker – Night. Hidden beneath the city's oldest substation. Dust. Cold steel. Monitors still flickering from the chaos above.]
The camera pans through shadowed corridors. Tools scattered. Old tech humming faintly. A screen shows the aftermath of the fight. A dozen red dots blinking—disconnected.
Jett (still breathing hard):"They really sent a kill team."
Kael (unbothered):"And they really got folded."
Kael tosses his blood-slicked sword onto the counter. It doesn't clatter—it sinks slightly into the reinforced steel. His Dominion Will is still active, barely suppressed.
Jett (watching the blade):"…You good?"
Kael:"Getting there."
[SCENE TRANSITION: TRAINING CHAMBER – HOURS LATER]
The bunker has a crude chamber—meant for drone repairs, now converted into a brutal simulation space. Punching bags hang like bodies. A combat dummy is torn in half.
➔ Kael trains alone. No shirt. Muscles like a coiled weapon. Slow punches. Breathing measured.➔ His body glows faintly—lines of energy tracing his arms. Dominion Will coursing like veins of light.
Then—he stops. A whisper of a memory surges.
"One day, it'll wake up. And the world will feel it."
➔ A pulse of invisible force ripples the air. Lights flicker. Steel creaks. The symbol from before—the ancient circular glyph—flashes faintly in his iris.➔ His Edge Theory triggers. The angles of the room shift. His awareness bends, understanding not where things are, but where they'll be.
Kael (to himself, low):"…I'm not ready."
[LOCATION: BUNKER CONTROL ROOM – NIGHT]
Jett's fingers race across keys. Surveillance feeds, AI systems, decrypted chatter from city-wide comms. The screen glitches—someone's talking.
UNKNOWN COMM PULSE — Symbol: ★†∇ (tri-linked insignia)
Voice (modulated):"Directive Alpha-X sighted. Host vessel: unstable but awakening."
Jett (mutters):"What the hell is Directive Alpha-X…?"
Kael (stepping into frame):"Me."
Jett flinches. Kael's eyes burn faintly gold. Whatever's inside him… is no longer sleeping.
[FLASH — NEW GROUP, UNKNOWN LOCATION]
A long table. Shadowed faces. Holograms of Kael rotating mid-air. Heat maps. Genetic scans. Veil fracture footage. One figure speaks.
Stranger (cold, precise):"He's the Directive Core. Activated. Track every breath he takes."
[BACK TO BUNKER – NEXT MORNING]
Jett:"We need to disappear better. Lay low. If another hit squad comes—"
Kael (interrupts, calm):"They won't get a second chance."
But then—BEEP. Perimeter alert. Unfamiliar signals. Not hostile. Not clean either.
Jett (frowning):"Movement. East tunnels. No insignia. Not them."
Kael:"Then it's someone new."
[SCENE: EAST TUNNELS – SHORTLY AFTER]
Kael and Jett move like ghosts. Flashlights off. Guns ready. Then—
A figure stumbles through the shadow—injured, bleeding, coughing. Then another. Two teens. Burn marks. Civilian gear, but… strange tech clipped to their belts.
Jett (aiming):"Who are you?!"
Stranger (weakly):"We're not with them. We were running from… things. Crawling out of the fractures."
Kael (quiet):"…They saw them too."
The girl collapses. Kael catches her—his Dominion Will stabilizing her for a second.
Jett (surprised):"Wait, you're helping them?"
Kael (cold):"They're not enemies. Yet."
[LATER – INSIDE THE BUNKER]
The newcomers rest. Their gear sparks with alien fragments. Jett scans it, eyes wide.
Jett:"This isn't city-grade. These aren't regular survivors. They've seen real fractures."
Kael (to himself):"…They've been inside."
➔ His knuckles tighten. The Directive Core inside him pulses again. The glyph burns brighter. A warning. Or a call.
[OUTSIDE CITY]
The shadowy organization watches through satellite footage. The tri-linked insignia glows brighter. They speak a name.
Voice:"If he bonds with them… the Directive becomes unpredictable."
Kael—standing alone outside the bunker—breathes in. Quiet. But something big is coming. He feels it in his bones.
Kael (softly):"Time's ticking."
To be continued
NEXT EPISODE: "Enters the swordsman"