Chapter 28: The Truth

In the stillness of the Void, Josar and Sicrus sat on opposite rocks, the distance between them not quite wide enough to be called space, but far enough to feel like silence. The terrain stretched endlessly in all directions, broken only by jagged stone and the pale shimmer of distant moons above. Neither spoke until Aku arrived. He stepped from a portal before taking a seat on a stone between them.

Sicrus: Josar told me you went to see Sen.

Aku: Yeah… just got back.

Sicrus: And how was it?

Aku: It was good.

Sicrus: I was worried I’d have to check up on you.

Aku: I’m ok.

Sicrus: How did he take it?

Aku: He was surprised, but that was expected.

Sicrus: Did he resist?

Aku: No. He only had questions.

Sicrus: Is he going to join us?

Aku: I didn’t bring that up, fully.

Sicrus: Does he even know why you showed up then?

Aku: No. I only asked him to question Kyto.

Sicrus: About what?

Aku: About everything I learned during my time in Luria and Krutone… the broken system.

Sicrus: Why didn’t you just tell him about it?

Aku: That would be pointless. He needs to hear it from the mouths of the people who run everything. Me explaining it to him would just be unbelievable. He has no reason to take me seriously. At least not yet.

Sicrus: Does he trust you?

Aku: I don’t know.

Sicrus: Will he ask them?

Aku: I think he will.

There was a brief pause. Aku turned to Josar.

Aku: And how are things with you, Josar?

Josar: Same.

Aku: I see.

Josar: What’s the next move?

Aku: We wait.

Josar: For?

Aku: Sen to find the truth.

Josar: Then what?

Aku: Then I ask for his alliance.

Josar: And after he finds out about everything, you think he’ll join us?

Aku: Like I said before, that’s my hope.

Josar: And if he joins?

Aku: Then we strike Krutone. Together.

Josar: And if he doesn’t?

A slight pause.

Aku: Then… we strike Krutone.

Another slight pause.

Josar: So, you’ll strike Krutone with or without Sen.

Aku: That was always the plan.

Josar: And if Sen resists?

A longer pause. Sicrus looks to Aku.

Aku: Then we hold him down.

Josar: Interesting.

Aku: Is it?

Josar: Yeah… your choice of words.

Aku doesn’t respond.

Josar: Hold him down. You never intend on killing him.

Aku stays unresponsive.

Sicrus: Will you do it for Aku?

Josar: Dumb question. Of course not.

Josar sighs.

Josar: Will you, Sicrus?

Sicrus: Only if Aku asks.

Josar: Of course.

Silence.

Josar: I hate how we talk like this.

Sicrus: Well, these are matters we need to discuss.

Josar: We used to talk about simpler things.

Sicrus: Well, those times were simple.

Josar: No, they weren’t. They never were. We just—

Aku: Josar, can we not right now?

Josar: Not what? Not figure what things are going to look like after we try to clean up this mess? Have you thought that far yet, Aku? Have you? Say that you do get what you want. You finish your mission. What then? What do we do from there? Have you thought about that yet? What about you Sicrus? What are you going to do? Because I’ll tell you both something: I don’t know what I’m going to do.

Aku and Sicrus remain silent.

Josar: And say Sen joins what? What does that mean for him now? We’ll only have another person just as lost as us. Are we not going to think about this through? You want Sen, just because he’s your brother, Aku? That’s it!? Please tell me I’m not the crazy one here.

Aku: You’re not.

Josar: Then let’s stop while we can!

Aku: We can’t. We’ve gone too far already.

Josar shakes his head.

Sicrus: Josar, can you calm down?

Josar: How am I supposed to be calm in all of this? Are you serious? Be calm?

Aku: We’re making change.

Josar: Ah, here we go again.

Aku: Josar…

Josar met Aku’s eyes and saw pain. He said nothing.

Aku: If Krutone doesn’t fall, nothing will change. Silence rewards suffering… and you know it.

Josar sighed. Aku approached and placed his hand on Josar’s shoulder.

Aku: Blood has already been shed on my end. I don’t want it to be for nothing. Can you understand that at least?

Josar took a small step back, pulling away from Aku’s hand that rested on his shoulder. Then he walked away. Time passed and Josar was out of sight.

Sicrus: He’s going to turn his back, Aku.

Aku: He won’t.

Sicrus: He will.

Aku: And what of it?

Sicrus: He’ll ruin our plans.

Aku: He can’t stop our mission. He’s only one person.

Sicrus: It’s Josar.

Aku: Exactly. It’s Josar. He’ll complain, but he won’t do anything. He’s been complaining since it all started, and yet he’s still here… and he’ll continue to complain… and he’ll continue to stay.

Sicrus: How can you be so sure?

Aku: Because it’s Josar. He’s our brother. He’ll keep arguing with us some more later, but he’ll stick by us…

Aku sighed.

Aku: Because we’re family…

Krutone. Prism Tower. Sen sat at the far end of the long obsidian table, its surface so polished it mirrored his expression— still. Zarnem stood by him. Jaze and Esako by the entrance. Across from them, the most powerful figures in the world sat in perfect formation—President Kyto at the center, hands folded with surgical grace. Cayten, Queen Lessa, Chancellor Forim, President Esren and Emperor Osin were all seated and stared at Sen without blinking. Sen said nothing. He only waited.

Kyto: Welcome, Osin. A pleasure seeing you again.

Osin: And you as well President.

Lessa: Oh, I wish I could say the same.

Osin: Bitchy as always.

Kyto: You confirmed Amalo is dead on the way here?

Osin: Not just Amalo. All of Yumitra is nothing.

Forim: The entire place of Yumitra?

Osin: All of it. The place reeks of peasant bodies. Acid everywhere.

Cayten: Zan.

Kyto looks to Jaze.

Kyto: Please take Zarnem and Esako. You three are excused.

Zarnem: Sen is going to be alone? I can’t leave him.

Kyto: Sen is autonomous.

Zarnem didn’t push to argue for staying by Sen. Kyto gave a single nod to which then, Jaze, Zarnem and Esako left the room. Minutes passed.

Kyto: Have you come to an answer, Sen?

Sen: I… Um…

Kyto: You hesitate. You still wish for knowledge?

Sen paused and reflected on his talk with Aku.

Osin: You passed through Revano with Zarnem. You were the one in my chamber, correct?

Sen looked to Osin.

Sen: Yes… that’s me.

Kyto: Zarnem took interest in him.

Osin: Why?

Kyto: He must’ve noticed Aku’s interest in him. Same with Sicrus and Zan.

Osin: Ah. Using Sen as bait. Classic Zarnem.

Sen’s finger flinched at Osin’s words.

Sen (thinking): That’s not it… but ok…

Kyto: Be specific with me Sen. What knowledge do you seek? What do you wish to know before agreeing to cooperate with us? How can we make a deal?

Sen pauses.

Sen: I want to know. I want to know about this… broken system.

Osin chuckles. Sen notices.

Lessa: Oh, what a brave young man.

Osin: Will you actually explain it to him Kyto?

Kyto pauses.

Kyto: I will.

Sen looks up to Kyto who is already staring him in the eye.

Kyto: It is offensive, Sen, to speak of the system as broken. It is not broken. It is designed. It is calculated. It is… beautiful.

Sen lightly clenched his teeth.

Kyto (leaning forward, his tone unwavering): Look around you, Sen. These are the world’s leaders. The world believes we are enemies— rivals, fractured by borders and ideology. That illusion has served us well. The truth? We have always been allies. Every war, every treaty, every shift in power… all orchestrated. All agreed upon. Everyone beneath us— your soldiers, your civilians, your family— they’re pawns in a game we’ve already won. We create jobs and currency not to provide freedom, but to provide distraction. Money is nothing more than a number in a system we control— an illusion of value to keep the structure running. That structure… is Krutone. It is the heart of global order. It is what keeps us in power.

Kyto sighs.

Kyto: The poor in Eztan? The starving in Troita? That wasn’t failure. That was design. We withhold technology from them. We restrict their growth. Not because we can’t give them more— but because we choose not to. Each region is tailored to serve a function. Clyden serves as the moderates— obedient, passive, patriotic. Revano plays the villain— unhinged, brutal, necessary. Krutone… is the brain. The control center. The final word. This is not chaos, Sen. It is calculated balance. And it has always worked— because we understand one simple truth: People do not need freedom. They need structure. They need struggle. They need something to obey. And we provide it. Our system is not broken as you say it is. It is perfect.

Sen sat frozen, his mind reeling. The words echoed louder than the voices that spoke them. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Lessa: Oh, you scared the poor boy.

Sen ignored Lessa.

Sen: How long?... How long has this been going for?

Kyto: You ask how long. But the better question is— how many lives ago? The faces change. The names change. But the structure remains. It has always remained. That is the nature of control, Sen. It doesn't need to be visible. It only needs to be believable.

Esren: You think your world was real? You think Clyden mattered? We needed a middle ground.

Forim: Every country, every district, every technological advance or resource— rationed. Not by need, but by narrative. You’re not living your own story. You’re living ours.

Osin (grinning): Why do you think the wars never end? Why do you think they always happen in someone else’s backyard? Because the moment a nation forgets pain, it forgets to obey.

Kyto: And when someone does rise— someone dangerous, someone with influence— we have our ways of absorbing them… or erasing them. Your brother Aku was different. He slipped through.

Sen: How?

Kyto: We don’t know. We only know he can somehow hide his presence. Our best sensory users could never detect him. He found The Orb. He stole The Orb.

Sen (quietly): So, you admit you rewrote the history of The Orb?

Lessa: Oh, not us, but those before us. We only continued it.

Kyto: We also know you already met with your brother, Aku.

Sen’s jaw flexed.

Kyto: That wrist band you wear purchases anything you want. It also tracks your location. It also documents your conversations, and I can retrieve them on my end. I’ve been monitoring you, and I will continue to.

Sen: So, you’ve always known?

Kyto: That is why I am willing to tell you the truth about the system. There is no need to lie. I have the truth you want, and you are the decoy I need for Aku. He is coming back for you. They are coming back for you.

Sen: They?

Kyto: Sicrus. Zan. Penim. Mayzen… Josar and Scray.

Sen: You know them?

Kyto: Again, I can retrieve the conversation between you and Aku.

Osin: I don’t he realizes how powerful we are.

Sen glances at Osin and turns away.

Sen: And the people don’t fight back?

Forim: Because they can’t.

Kyto: A crucial pillar of control is illusion. The illusion of choice. The illusion of voice.

He leans forward slightly, tone steady.

Kyto: You want to keep people obedient? Make them believe they have power.

Sen says nothing, confused but listening.

Kyto: Tell them they have a vote.

Sen’s brow tightens, still not fully following.

Kyto: Convince them that ticking a box every few years reshapes the world— that their voice shifts the tides of power. When in truth… the decisions were made long before the ballots were printed. I am nearing the end of my term. Publicly, I will step down. The people will think they chose my successor. They’ll see names. They’ll see debates. They’ll see opposition… But Cayten will win because we’ve already chosen him.

Kyto gestures to the others at the table.

Kyto: Even Lessa, who appears to be his opponent, knows her role. It’s theater. A performance for the masses to keep them docile. And at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who wins the stage— because everyone at this table is running the world.

Cayten: Another trick? Divide people. That’s the real key— get them so caught up fighting each other, they never think to look up.

Sen: Divide them how?

Cayten: However you can— race, religion, gender, sexuality, money, class, education. Doesn’t matter. Hell, people will argue over the dumbest things. You’d be amazed. I’ve seen entire debates over body weight—weight, Sen. Like how fat someone is. You could have a fire ripping through a town or a flood wiping out cities, and somehow they’ll make it political. It’s honestly kind of beautiful.

He leans back, more amused than disturbed.

Cayten: That’s where media comes in. We monitor how people are reacting. If they’re not divided enough, we stir the pot ourselves. Sometimes we send our council members in with real accounts. Sometimes fake ones. Doesn’t matter. We just push the right angle until the people start turning on each other.

He taps his temple.

Cayten: Then we do the real magic. We tie their logic to their morals. Once someone believes their opinion makes them a good person, they’ll defend it like it’s their soul. And that’s when we’ve got them. They think they’re standing for justice… but really, they’re just standing exactly where we put them. Belief if powerful, yes, but reality is even stronger.

Kyto: The most powerful weapon we possess… is not our nuclear arsenal. It’s not our elite soldiers. Not even the Intergy we’ve embedded into our machines.

He pauses, folding his hands.

Kyto: Do you know what it is, Sen?

Sen says nothing.

Kyto (coldly): Language.

He lets the word settle like a blade being drawn.

Kyto: With language, you can wage wars without ever raising a weapon. You can bend memory, reshape history, build gods, dismantle nations— all with words. You can construct a truth so convincing, so morally charged, that people will fight for it— kill for it— without ever realizing they were never thinking for themselves. Make them believe they’re righteous… and they’ll burn the world for you— gladly.

Sen: How... how do you keep getting away with it?

Kyto: We start with the children. The most impressionable minds. We rewrite history, word by word, line by line— never all at once, of course. Outrage comes from sudden change. But if you shift the truth slowly… subtly… you can turn fact into myth. You can turn atrocities into folklore. And once it's folklore? You put it in textbooks. You make it part of the curriculum. You make them study it like a fairy tale. Eventually, no one questions what really happened— they just memorize it for a test.

Cayten: The original plan was to erase all knowledge of The Orb completely. Phase it out of education. Label it fiction. Archive it. Let the memory die.

Sen: Why? Why bury something so powerful? So dangerous?

Kyto: Because power like that is most useful when it’s hidden. The Orb was our contingency plan— our last resort. If the world ever united… if the people ever stopped fighting each other and looked up... We would have needed a monster to scare them back into submission. But Aku took it before we could. He didn’t follow the script, and that is what makes him a threat.

Sen: Are you afraid of him? Aku?

Kyto: Of course. Everyone at this table is, and so should you. He has The Orb. Look at all the damage he’s already caused. 

Sen: And you want me to draw Aku in?

Cayten: That’s the plan.

Sen: And what will do you with him?

Kyto: Kill him.

Cayten: I thought that was an obvious one. We’ll take The Orb back.

Sen took some time to reflect.

Sen: How do you sleep?

Cayten: Excuse me?

Sen: How do you sleep doing all of this?

Lessa: Oh, he’s questioning our morality. Such a sweet boy.

Cayten: We sleep just fine. Thank you for your concern. We’re the ones in power. Not them.

Osin: Every leader has their own method of control. Mine? I keep my people hungry. Starving men don’t rebel— they’re too busy wondering where their next meal is coming from. Hunger doesn’t breed anger. It breeds fear. Fear of dying, fear of failing their families, fear of losing what little they have left. That kind of fear keeps them in line. And if they ever do rise up? They’re too weak to win. Malnourished bodies don’t stand a chance against soldiers who eat, train, and kill with precision. And once you make an example of the first few... the rest won’t dare try.

Lessa: Oh, that’s so fucked, I love it!

Osin (cool, blunt): Not that it matters. Wherever there are people, there will always be the unhappy. Misery is universal.

Kyto (articulate, methodical): Consider the contrast. In Revano, Osin engineers oppression by design— starvation, silence, survival. The people there suffer, yes, but most are too uneducated, too broken, to even recognize their despair. Now look at Krutone— flawless infrastructure, boundless resources— and yet the citizens rage in the streets, fists in the air, pretending to be righteous.

Osin: If they truly cared, they’d fight for the starving in Revano. But no— they stage protests for applause. Meanwhile, my country doesn’t even have roads to march on.

Kyto (leaning forward): So ask yourself, Sen— why hand power to those who corrupt it the moment it’s given? The masses preach virtue while drowning in their own hypocrisy. We, at least, understand what they are. That’s why we rule. That’s how we sleep.

Cayten (shrugs): And really, they make it easy. The system practically runs itself. We don’t even have to try anymore— just show our faces on the news once in a while so it looks like we care.They’ll handle the rest—tear each other apart over ideology, morality, religion, whatever you feed them that day. That alone proves they want this. They choose this.

Sen remained silent. The weight of their words pressed into him, heavy and endless.

Kyto (lightly, but watchful): You’re awfully quiet, Sen. Everything alright?

Lessa (chuckling): Oh, did we scare the poor thing? Look at you, Kyto, asking if he’s okay like we didn’t just rip the veil off his world. Hahaha.

Sen didn’t move. He didn’t blink. He simply stared forward, hollow and still.

Kyto (casually): As I said, your brother Aku has The Orb. And apparently, he wants you. That makes you our key to getting it back. I could go on more about the brilliance of the system we’ve built… but by now, I think you understand exactly what you’re dealing with.

Cayten (lightly, tilting his head): You’ll comply, right?

Sen remained silent.

Cayten (more firmly): Sen. You will comply… right?

Sen (quietly): And if I don’t? What if I tell the world what you’re doing?

Cayten: Then we’ll kill you. Don’t forget— we’re always listening.

Kyto: You want this war to end, don’t you? Then you’ll have to work with us.

Sen still said nothing.

Cayten: Come on. You don’t really have a choice. You care about people, don’t you? Dain. Yerah. You want them safe? You want them out of this war?

Still, no reply.

Kyto: You’ll be remembered as a hero, Sen. The one who helped end it all. You’ll return to Clyden with Dain and Yerah. Quiet, peaceful lives. No more death. No more chaos. We’ll make it happen. If it’s money you want, you’ll never work a day again. We’ll give you a home. Or better— how about a mansion here in Krutone? You’ve earned it. All you have to do is deliver Aku.

A long pause.

Sen (softly): …Okay.

Lessa (smirking): Oh, that’s a good boy.

Kyto (rising from his seat): Then we’re finished here. Thank you for your cooperation, Sen.And like Cayten mentioned—keep this conversation to yourself. Our surveillance reaches farther than you think. And try to keep your chin up. It’s not all bad… not if you play your part. We will reach out to you on how we will go about baiting Aku. For now, I must speak to everyone else here how we will unite against the Zagons. Do you have any questions?

Sen kept quiet.

Kyto: Very well. Please see yourself out. Thank you, Sen.

Sen got up from his seat slowly and walked out of the chamber in silence, each step slow and deliberate as the obsidian doors slid shut behind him with a soft hiss. The air in the corridor felt colder now, like it had been stripped of something vital. He kept his head low, his eyes hollow, not from defeat, but from restraint.

Osin: We’re for sure killing him after we get Aku.

Lessa: Oh, without a doubt. Maybe even everyone else he arrived with.

Cayten: Zarnem too?

Lessa: Oh no, he’s too valuable. He’ll always slave himself away to us.

Cayten: What do you think, Kyto?

Kyto: Zarnem is used up. He’ll never amount to Zash’s use. After we retrieve The Orb, you can have your way with him, Osin. Perhaps kill him like you killed his father.

Osin: He still doesn’t know it was me.

Kyto sighs and pull out some papers from a folder. He has images of Aku, Mayzen, Penim, Sicrus and Zan.

Kyto: Let’s move on with the agenda.