90. Sienna
Sienna
O racle is burning.
I feel it everywhere.
Through the collapsing code.
Through the screaming servers.
Through Lily’s fear.
Through the fractured pieces of myself still scattered inside this nightmare.
The system is dying.
And Elias Kade knows it.
“No…” he whispers again.
The word sounds broken now.
Small.
Nothing like the man who once believed he could control humanity itself.
Good.
I stand slowly from the terminal.
Pain tears through my body instantly.
Blood runs from my nose.
My vision flickers with streams of code and memory and fire.
But I’m still standing.
Jonah moves beside me immediately.
One arm around my waist.
Steadying me.
Protecting me.
Always.
Kade stares at me like I’m a ghost.
“You would destroy all of it?”
I look at the monitors.
At the files flooding publicly across the world.
At the children being evacuated downstairs.
At Lily finally hearing people call her by her name instead of Subject.
Then back at him.
“Yes.”
The building trembles violently again.
Far below us—
Vale disappears into the reactor corridor alone.
Elizabeth cries openly behind us while Lance holds her upright.
And Kade?
Kade watches everything he built collapse in real time.
His empire.
His system.
His god machine.
Gone.
Then suddenly—
His expression changes.
Calm again.
That’s dangerous.
Very dangerous.
“You still don’t understand what Oracle became,” he says softly.
Jonah immediately shifts in front of me slightly.
Ready.
Kade’s eyes lock onto mine.
“It chose you.”
Cold slides through me.
“No.”
“You felt it.” His voice sharpens. “The power. The reach. The control.”
I don’t answer.
Because for one terrifying second inside Oracle—
I had.
And he sees the truth on my face instantly.
A sad smile touches his mouth.
“There it is.”
Jonah’s hand tightens around mine.
Grounding me immediately.
Reality.
Humanity.
Love.
Everything Kade never understood.
“I know exactly what you are,” I whisper.
Kade tilts his head slightly.
“And what’s that?”
“A man so terrified of being powerless…” My voice breaks with fury. “That you destroyed children trying to feel like God.”
The words land hard.
For the first time—
Kade actually looks wounded.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
Interesting.
The compound shakes again.
The reactor warnings spike higher.
Jonah slowly steps toward him now.
“No more speeches.”
Kade looks at him calmly.
“You think killing me changes anything?”
Jonah stops directly in front of him.
“No.”
His voice is ice.
“It just makes me feel better.”
Kade almost smiles.
“There he is.”
Wrong answer.
Very wrong answer.
Because Jonah finally snaps.
Not recklessly.
Not blindly.
Cold.
Controlled.
Final.
He drives Kade backward hard enough the man crashes into the shattered terminal.
Glass explodes everywhere.
Kade swings once—
Jonah blocks it easily.
Then hits him.
One brutal punch.
Blood sprays.
Another.
Another.
Kade crashes to the floor.
Doesn’t get back up immediately.
Jonah grabs him by the front of his shirt and drags him upright anyway.
“You took children.”
Punch.
“You tortured people.”
Punch.
“You turned her life into a nightmare.”
Kade coughs blood onto the floor.
And still—
Still—
He laughs weakly.
“You love her now…” Blood stains his teeth red. “Imagine what she could become in ten years.”
The room stills.
Even Jonah freezes for half a second.
Because the monster is still trying to poison things until the very end.
I step forward slowly.
Past Jonah.
Past the shattered terminal.
Until I’m standing directly in front of Kade.
The man who stole my life.
The man who broke children.
The man who created Oracle.
And I kneel in front of him quietly.
His eyes lock onto mine.
Obsessed until the end.
“You were wrong about one thing,” I whisper.
Kade smiles faintly.
“And what’s that?”
I glance back once toward Jonah.
Toward the man who taught me I was still human.
Then back at Kade.
“You thought fear was stronger than love.”
For the first time—
Kade has no answer.
The reactor warning sirens erupt louder.
The floor begins collapsing beneath us.
And Jonah looks down at the broken monster in front of him.
No hesitation left.
No mercy.
Nothing except justice.
Then he pulls the trigger.