The cave was unusually quiet that night, despite the presence of strangers and returning firelight.
Kael sat by the wall like a ghost anchored to grief, his back toward everyone. The crude drawing of Ravager Mk III glinted faintly in the torchlight, like a headstone scratched into stone.
Vireya stood a few paces away, arms folded tightly across her chest, her mind spiraling.
She had known Kael would react like this—angry, raw, broken—but not like this.
Not this silent. Not this unmovable.
---
She'd expected resistance. She hadn't expected this level of emotional entombment.
No yelling. No argument.
Just that silent defiance, like a wall that refused to even acknowledge a battering ram.
She had tried once already.
"Kael… I'm sorry," she had whispered softly earlier, when no one else was near.
He hadn't even turned around.
She might as well have been part of the wind.
---
Now, she sat on a flat rock nearby, staring at the low flame Oris had managed to kindle with some Kaiju bone resin.
The others avoided her.
Even the girls in Unit 404 glared from a distance.
And Tyren? Tyren had muttered something about "snakes wearing lipstick" before storming outside to check the perimeter.
Vireya didn't blame them.
She had betrayed Kael.
And she had no illusions about how deep that betrayal cut.
She had loved him once. Truly. Before the orders, before the family pressure, before the soft words from her uncle promising her a commander's position if she just… stayed silent.
She chose her ambition.
And Kael had been destroyed for it.
---
She stared at him again.
He hadn't moved in hours. Still tracing his fingers over the lines of the wall drawing like it was the only thing keeping him tethered to the present.
I can't get through to him emotionally, she thought bitterly. Not anymore.
But maybe… maybe I don't need to.
Her mind sharpened. Not with malice.
But with purpose.
If there was one part of Kael that had survived everything, it was his ego. That unstoppable, volcanic pride that refused to kneel, refused to surrender.
The same ego that once made him stand up to admirals.
That let him pilot a mecha without balance assist just to prove he was better than the rest.
That ego was still there.
Twisted now, buried under trauma, but alive.
---
And if she couldn't reach his heart…
Maybe she could strike at his pride.
She stood up and walked toward him again—slowly, quietly. This time, her approach was different. Not gentle. Not guilty.
Strategic.
---
"I was wrong," she said flatly, standing just behind him.
Still no response.
"You're doing exactly what they wanted," she continued.
That caught his shoulder ever so slightly. A twitch. A breath.
She pressed on.
"You think you're proving something by rotting here? By refusing to be rescued? No. That's not pride, Kael. That's surrender disguised as rebellion."
She stepped closer.
"They branded you weak. Disposable. They said you'd die on this planet like the failure they made you out to be."
Kael's fists slowly clenched.
Good.
"They said you wouldn't even make it past the first week. That the Ravager was just a rusty shell for a has-been warrior who fell apart."
Still, he didn't turn—but his breathing deepened.
"They'll say: he died crying over his dead mecha in a hole, and no one even needed to lift a finger. That's your legacy now?"
That did it.
Kael stood up slowly, not looking at her. His back still to her, voice hoarse but sharp:
"Say one more word…"
But Vireya wasn't scared.
"You think this planet broke you?" she snapped. "You're letting them win. You're proving them right with every minute you sit here doing nothing."
---
Silence again.
She turned away, adding just before she left:
"You were a storm once, Kael. The kind of soldier people feared, not pitied. If you want revenge—get off your knees and go take it."
---
Back near the campfire, Tyren watched her return and narrowed his eyes.
"What did you say to him?"
"Nothing he didn't already know," she replied, coolly.
Oris tilted his head. "You look too smug for that to be true."
"I didn't need him to like me," she said. "I needed him to move."
---
And back in the cave's corner, Kael stared at the wall a little longer.
He then looked at the torn hunk of metal that was once Ravager's outer frame.
He stood.
He walked toward it.
Placed his palm on the cold surface.
And for the first time since the explosion…
He whispered:
"We rebuild. We don't kneel."