---
The ground's tremor grew stronger, rattling the rusted pipes and crumbling concrete around them. Dust fell from the ceiling in thin, ghostly streams as if the facility itself was exhaling after centuries of stillness.
Evan raised a hand instinctively, his telekinesis wrapping around them in a protective barrier, dampening the vibrations and masking their psychic signatures. The last thing they needed was to be detected — by whatever lurked deeper in the ruins.
> "Stay close," Evan ordered, voice sharp.
Aidan nodded, tension lining his frame. His instincts screamed at him to act — to fight — but Evan's presence, so calm and controlled even in this chaos, kept him grounded.
They moved silently through the winding corridors, passing old observation rooms with shattered one-way glass and broken data terminals. Symbols of an era of experimentation and cruelty long buried under official lies.
Every so often, the walls shuddered again, accompanied by an eerie moan from deep below.
> "It's waking up," Evan murmured, more to himself than to Aidan.
> "What is?" Aidan hissed under his breath.
> "Something the Academy locked away. Something they thought they'd never need to face again." Evan's expression hardened. "They were wrong."
---
They reached an atrium-like chamber — larger than anything they'd yet seen. In the center, a massive containment pod stood cracked and inert, black fluids dried and staining the floor in thick patterns. Strange vines and organic growths sprawled out from it, fusing with the walls and ceiling.
Aidan wrinkled his nose. "What the hell happened here?"
Evan didn't answer immediately. His eyes scanned the marks, the ruptures, the claw-like gouges in the steel. He recognized the work: Gravemind had not been born whole. It had been evolving — feeding on everything the Academy had poured into it.
Including him.
> "This is where they tried to chain it," Evan finally said, voice low. "But you can't imprison thought. You can't imprison hunger."
Something rustled from the shadows.
Aidan tensed, stepping in front of Evan instinctively — even though he knew Evan was far stronger.
Dozens of twisted figures emerged from the darkness, half-formed creatures of flesh and psychic residue — failed experiments left to rot and mutate.
The Hive.
Their empty eyes locked onto Evan with primal recognition.
> "Friend of the Mind," they rasped in broken, overlapping voices. "He returns…"
Evan's mind surged with pressure, but he kept control. His telekinesis wrapped invisibly around Aidan and himself, dampening their presence even further. He wasn't interested in a fight — not now.
> "We're not here for you," Evan called out, voice amplified by a subtle psychic pulse. "Let us pass."
The creatures hesitated, shivering under the weight of his power.
A few shuffled forward, but Evan tightened the invisible noose around the room — bending reality just enough to cow them without a full display of force. Even broken minds understood dominance.
Slowly, grudgingly, the Hive receded into the darkness.
---
Once the immediate threat had passed, Aidan exhaled a shaky breath.
> "That… was insane," he said. "You didn't even lift a finger."
> "Violence draws more violence," Evan said, his voice distant. "Gravemind would've lashed out. I am not Gravemind."
The distinction seemed important — not just for Aidan to hear, but for Evan himself.
Aidan studied him quietly, the realization settling deeper: Evan wasn't simply a villain. He was a survivor. Someone shaped by choices forced upon him — someone who, maybe, didn't want to be the monster the world believed he was.
> "So what now?" Aidan asked, glancing around the derelict hall.
Evan turned his gaze downward, feeling the pull beneath their feet. The real threat — the true heart of the darkness — lay deeper still.
> "Now," Evan said grimly, "we find out what the Academy buried. Before it finds us first."
---
End of Chapter 4