The gunshot cracked like lightning.
Raed felt the force slam into his side, a searing punch that ripped the breath from his lungs. Helena screamed, grabbing his arm, trying to keep him upright. The catwalk shuddered beneath them as the ignition core below roared like a living beast.
Dietrich advanced, pistol still raised, smoke curling from the barrel.
"Step away from the lever," he shouted over the deafening alarm. "Both of you!"
Helena's eyes flashed—anger, fear, defiance. She pressed her shoulder against Raed's, steadying him as his vision blurred.
"Raed—pull it!" she shouted.
Dietrich fired again.
Raed yanked the lever with everything he had.
A thunderous metallic CLANK echoed across the chamber.
The ignition core screamed.
Lights flickered, machines howled, and a tidal wave of sparks erupted from the generator towers. The entire facility trembled as if a giant had slammed its fist into the earth.
The shockwave threw Dietrich backward, slamming him against a railing. Pipes burst along the ceiling, raining boiling steam. The catwalk lurched violently.
"RUN!" Helena grabbed Raed's hand and pulled him forward.
Below them, the core began to collapse into itself—glowing brighter, hotter, spinning like a star about to explode.
Sirens wailed:
"EMERGENCY CRITICAL FAILURE. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."
Raed stumbled, pain burning through his ribs. "We have to stop Halden. He'll try to restart it."
"He's already gone," Helena yelled back. "If he had half a brain, he fled the second alarms went off!"
They reached the stairs just as a blast tore through the lower chamber. A fireball erupted from the machinery, engulfing the lower levels in blinding blue-white light.
The shockwave lifted Raed off his feet.
Helena grabbed his coat, anchoring him.
Together they crashed into a railing, metal bending under the impact.
Raed groaned, coughing smoke. Helena dragged him upright with surprising strength.
"This place is going to collapse!" she said.
They sprinted through the corridor, the world shaking around them. Flames chased them down the hall as pressurized tanks burst like artillery shells. Workers screamed, scattering in every direction. Papers, glass, and twisted equipment littered the floor.
Dietrich emerged ahead of them—blood on his forehead, staggering but alive.
He raised his pistol again.
Raed barely had time to react.
A support beam above Dietrich cracked, groaned, then tore loose.
It came crashing down.
Dietrich dove—almost making it.
Almost.
The steel beam crushed his legs.
His gun clattered across the floor, spinning to a stop inches from Raed's boot.
Raed and Dietrich locked eyes.
Hatred. Confusion. Fury. And for a brief, flickering instant—fear.
"Help me," Dietrich gasped, reaching weakly toward them. "Please… don't leave me here."
Helena grabbed Raed's wrist. "We don't have time!"
Raed hesitated.
Dietrich had tried to kill him.
Dietrich had shot him.
But leaving a man to burn alive—
Even in war, even in this nightmare—
Raed's jaw tightened.
He stepped toward the beam.
"Raed!" Helena snapped. "We'll die!"
Raed braced himself and shoved against the steel. The pain in his side flared. His vision dimmed. The beam shifted an inch. Then another.
A second beam fell behind them, shattering the floor.
Helena screamed, "RAED, NOW!"
Raed backed away.
He looked at Dietrich one last time.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly.
Dietrich's expression twisted—rage and betrayal merging into something feral.
"You TRAITOR!" Dietrich shrieked, pounding the floor as flames raced toward him. "TRAITOR!"
The fire swallowed him.
Helena pulled Raed down the corridor as the ceiling collapsed behind them.
Escape to the Surface
They stumbled through the final blast doors and out into the frozen air just as the entire facility detonated in a plume of fire. The ground buckled. Smoke billowed into the sky. Alarms from the city's defense towers began to wail.
Soldiers poured out of nearby barracks, shouting orders, running toward the inferno.
Raed collapsed against a snowbank, clutching his side. Blood seeped through his shirt, dark and warm.
Helena knelt beside him, tearing open her coat to check the wound. Her hands trembled. "It's deep, but not fatal. You're lucky he missed your lung."
Raed chuckled weakly. "Lucky isn't the word I'd choose."
"You're still alive. That's enough."
They both looked toward the burning crater where Project Phoenix once stood.
A monstrous plume of black smoke curled into the sky like a dying serpent.
"It's over," Raed whispered.
Helena shook her head. "No. Halden is still out there. And if he survived… he will rebuild Phoenix somewhere else."
Raed closed his eyes, exhaling hard.
Of course. The nightmare wasn't finished.
But they had won a battle today.
And Vienna—Europe—might live another night because of it.
Helena touched his shoulder. "We need to get you to a safe house. Then we plan our next move."
Raed nodded slowly.
"We find Halden," he said.
"And we end this."
As flames devoured the last remnants of Phoenix behind them, Raed felt a cold certainty settle in his chest.
The war was changing.
The shadows were shifting.
And the true storm had only just begun.