Chapter 12 FRAGILE TRUST

“Stay with me, you big stubborn bastard,” I grunted, hauling Scar’s heavy arm tighter over my shoulder. His blood soaked through my shirt, warm and sticky. Every step sent fresh pain shooting through my side, but I kept dragging him through the twisted ruins. “You don’t get to die after all that talk about putting me down.”

Scar’s breath came in short, wet rasps. “Then… stop… talking and move faster, kid.”

I laughed, even though it hurt. “There he is. Still bossing me around with a hole in his gut. Typical.”

The Fractured Wastes stretched dark and hungry around us. Distant howls answered the spiritual stink rolling off us from the massacre. Scavenger beasts, twisted things with glowing eyes and too many teeth, were already circling, drawn by the fresh power and blood.

One lunged from behind a collapsed wall, a mangy wolf-thing with crystalline spines. I shoved Scar against a pillar and met it head-on. “Come on!” I slammed my palm into its side where the main vein pulsed. “Extract!”

Warm energy trickled into me. Not enough to get drunk on, just enough to keep my legs steady. The beast whimpered and collapsed, shriveled. I dragged Scar up again. “See? I’m controlling it. Small pulls only. For you.”

Scar leaned heavier on me, voice weak. “Felt like more than small back there. You drained them… like they were nothing.”

“Had to,” I muttered, pushing forward. “They were killing you. I wasn’t gonna watch another person die because of me.”

A flash hit me hard. One of the warriors I’d drained, his little sister’s face when he left for the hunt that morning. “Bring me back a pretty stone, big brother.” The memory burned behind my eyes. Then another. A wife waiting with their newborn. Regret thick enough to choke on. “I should’ve stayed home. The bounty wasn’t worth it.”

I stumbled, nearly dropping Scar. “Shut up,” I hissed through gritted teeth. “Those aren’t my thoughts. Those aren’t my families.”

“Talking to the ghosts again?” Scar rasped. His weight shifted as he tried to help walk. “They get louder… after big pulls. You sure you’re still winning this fight?”

“I’m winning enough to keep your ugly ass breathing,” I shot back. Another beast snarled from our left…some kind of mutated rat the size of a dog. I kicked it hard, then drained a tiny vein from the ground beneath it. The rush steadied my hands. “See? Controlled. I’m choosing when and how much. Not the Emperor. Me.”

We kept moving. The ruins grew thicker, vines choking everything. I talked to fill the silence and keep Scar awake. “Why’d you really stick around? After what you saw me do in that basement. After I laughed like that thing. Most people would’ve run.”

Scar coughed, blood on his lips. “Told you. Last time I walked away… whole camp died. Can’t do that again. Not if there’s still a chance you’re different.”

“Chance?” I nearly laughed. “I’ve got dead men’s regrets screaming in my skull right now. One guy was thinking about his kid’s birthday while I drained him. How am I any different from the Emperor? He takes what he wants. I’m doing the same.”

“You’re doing it to keep me alive,” Scar said quietly. “That’s something. For now.”

More beasts came. Three this time. I set Scar down against a rusted beam and waded in. “Stay down!” I drained a mid-sized environmental vein to boost my speed, then took them apart with my knife and quick pulls. Their dying memories flooded me, hunger, territory, simple animal fear. Cleaner than the human ones, at least.

By the time we reached the hidden shelter, an old maintenance bunker half-buried under spirit moss, I was panting hard. I kicked the rusted door open and dragged Scar inside. The air was stale but dry. Safe enough for now.

“Alright. Time to fix you.” I laid him on the cracked floor and pressed both hands over the worst wound on his ribs. “Hold still. This might sting.”

I reached for the energy I’d stored from the small pulls. Warmth flowed from my palms into his body. The gash slowly knit together, skin closing over muscle. Scar groaned but didn’t pull away.

“Keep talking,” I said, focusing. “Don’t you dare pass out on me yet. Tell me something. Anything. What was your name before they started calling you Scar?”

He gave a weak chuckle. “Doesn’t matter. Wasn’t anyone important. Just another clan enforcer who got tired of harvesting kids for power.”

I kept the energy flowing, stabilizing the deep cuts on his back next. “Yeah, well you’re important now. Whether you like it or not. First person in years who didn’t try to stab me in the back right away.”

Scar’s eyes fluttered. “You’re still you… mostly. Fight it, kid. Don’t let it take the parts that matter.”

The wounds finally stopped bleeding. His breathing evened out a little. I sat back against the wall, exhausted, blood still covering my hands.

Scar’s eyes drifted shut, fever taking him under. “Next time… be careful who you trust…”

I watched him sleep, chest tight. The bunker felt too quiet. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking as I stared at the blood drying on them. So much blood. Mine. His. Theirs.

Then the voice spoke. Clear. Calm. Right beside my own thoughts, like we were sitting together having a normal conversation. Not a whisper this time. Not during a blackout.

“He will betray you. They always do.”

I froze. My own voice answered in my head before I could stop it. [No. Scar’s different. He’s stayed.]

The Emperor continued, warm and reasonable, sounding exactly like the tired scavenger who’d survived twenty-four years alone. “He already thought about killing you. Multiple times. When you’re gone, he’ll tell himself it was necessary. Just like the last time.”

I looked down at my bloodstained hands, clenching them tight. Was that thought mine? The doubt? The fear of betrayal? Or was it the Emperor planting seeds, making me question everything?

I couldn’t tell anymore.

“Get out of my head,” I whispered, but my voice shook. Scar slept on, unaware, chest rising and falling slowly.

The ancient presence lingered, patient and almost kind. “I am not in your head, Chen. I am becoming your head.”

I pressed my forehead against my knees, bloodstained fingers digging into my hair. The shelter suddenly felt smaller. The trust I’d started building with Scar felt thinner than the veins I kept draining.

And I no longer knew if the fear twi

sting in my gut belonged to me… or to the thing smiling inside my chest.