Dominos: Zero Point Awakening

Chapter 43: Shadows, Tension and Disaster

As narrated by the event keeper

Ten days after the attempted coup on the Planetary Defense HQ

Cipher’s hands shook as he cared for Sane, his touch tender yet tinged with a quiet urgency. Day and night, he stayed by her side, tending to her wounds with a devotion that caught Angela off guard. Watching her brother nurse this stranger, Angela felt the ice of her resentment thaw. She began speaking to him again, her forgiveness silent but unmistakable.

Within days, Sane’s strength returned. With Angela’s guidance, she settled into the steady rhythm of farm life—a simple, grounding contrast to the dread that had shadowed her existence. But beneath the calm, a thread of unease coiled in her chest. Her past was a relentless hunter, and she knew it was only a matter of time before it found her.

Cipher wrestled with his own inner storm. Two voices clashed in his mind: one ached to stay near Sane, to shield her from the chaos; the other urged him to grow stronger, to shatter the invisible chains binding him. Their fates were woven together, inseparable, and so—due to his awkwardness with words—he chose power. With a heavy heart, he returned to his training, pushing himself beyond his limits each day.

But no one escapes their shadow for long.

It was late afternoon, around 5 p.m., when Sane and Angela knelt in the garden, digging for groundnuts under a sky streaked with gold. A voice, soft yet piercing, broke the stillness.

“Sane, is that you?”

Sane turned, her breath hitching. Captain Agatha stood there, her eyes widening as she saw Sane’s unmasked face for the first time—raw, unguarded, human. “It is you!” Agatha rushed forward, wrapping Sane in a fierce embrace. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I was terrified you were gone.”

“Captain...” Sane’s voice trembled, thick with emotion. In Agatha’s gaze, she saw her own fears mirrored—and the quiet promise that she wasn’t alone.

“You’re not fighting this by yourself,” Agatha said, her tone resolute. “We’re all with you.”

Footsteps crunched behind her as the squad approached: Billy, Bill-board, William, Dmitry, and Yukio. Relief and warmth lit their faces.

“Damn, Sane! Why’d you hide a face like that behind a mask?” William quipped, flashing a grin.

“Good to see you again,” Bill-board said, his voice steady.

“Class-X stands together,” Dmitry added firmly.

Sane’s eyes dropped, guilt etching lines into her expression. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I failed the mission. I don’t deserve to live, but... I don’t want to die.”

“No one’s dying,” Agatha snapped, her words cutting through the air like a blade. “If they come for you, they’ll have to face all of us.”

The squad’s loyalty was a wall of steel, but Sane’s past was a wildfire she feared would consume them all.

Agatha’s gaze shifted to Angela. “And who’s this?”

“That’s Cipher’s sister, Angela,” Sane replied.

Agatha crouched beside the girl, her smile gentle. “I didn’t know he had a sister. Hello, Angela.”

“Hi,” Angela said, her voice small.

Then Agatha stiffened, her senses sharpening. “Wait... where’s Cipher? And what’s this energy I’m feeling?”

Sane tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

“This power—it’s incredible. I felt it half a mile away, and it’s growing stronger.”

“Oh, that’s Cipher,” Sane explained. “He’s been training nonstop to stabilize his energy for the war.”

Billy raised an eyebrow. “What kind of training?”

Agatha’s eyes darted around, chills prickling her skin as she sensed the invisible dome of power cloaking the farm. “This is... unreal.” She’d witnessed strength before—Hira 125, Commander Grey, Victor—but Cipher’s aura was a different beast, both mesmerizing and unsettling. “What exactly can he do?”

“He calls it the Surveillance Umbrella,” Sane said. “It lets him detect any Neogen who enters the dome.”

“So he already knows we’re here,” William muttered. “That sneaky brat. Where is he?”

“In the basement library,” Sane replied. “He spends most of his time there, meditating.”

Agatha’s voice turned grave. “There’s something urgent I need to tell both of you.”

They descended into the basement, the air humming with energy. There, suspended midair, was Cipher, surrounded by a glowing blue field of compressed power.

“What the hell?” William blurted, jaw slack. “He can fly now?”

“Yes,” Sane said, “but only within that energy field. He’s been working to expand it, in case we have to fight the Vodocks in the air.”

Billy smirked, leaning closer. “You know a lot about him, huh? Are you two...?”

Sane’s gaze sharpened, her assassin’s edge glinting through. Billy backpedaled. “Good friends! Yeah, good friends!”

The captain’s voice sliced through the stillness, edged with urgency. “Can you wake him up? He seems to be asleep.”

Sane shook her head, her eyes fixed on Cipher’s motionless form, suspended in quiet reverie. “I think we should let him finish. When he’s like this, you can’t even get close.” She turned to the group, her smile faint but tinged with effort. “Let’s wait in the house. Mrs. Phiri, the cook, isn’t here, but I’ll try to whip something up for you to eat.”

Angela arched a brow, her tone dry. “You mean I’ll make something. Let’s not pretend you’re safe in a kitchen.”

Sane’s smile brightened, a flicker of warmth breaking through. “Right—Angela will prepare something. Come on.” She stepped forward, her stride deceptively light, as if shrugging off an unseen burden.

Yukio’s gaze trailed her, his expression puzzled. “It’s like staring at a stranger. Is this really Sane—the assassin who didn’t utter a word for nearly a year?”

William huffed, his gruff voice cutting in. “Stranger? Hell, did you catch that look she shot Billy? Made my skin crawl.”

They followed her to the main house, where Angela took charge, her hands moving with quiet confidence. She crafted a local dish—sweet potato salad, a recipe handed down from her grandmother. The squad settled around the table, eating in a silence that felt almost sacred, a fleeting calm amidst the gathering storm.

Three hours later,

Cipher returned,

His steps dragging with fatigue. He paused at the sight of them gathered around the dinner table, shelling groundnuts, their easy laughter jarring against the tension knotting his chest.

“Captain, guys—what brings you here?”

Captain Agatha rose, her face etched with gravity. “Cipher, take a sit. We need to talk.”

He pulled out a chair, his posture rigid. “Fine, but I’ll save you the trouble—I’m not going back to the defense force.”

Agatha sat across from him, her gaze steady yet softened by concern. “Listen, both of you.” She glanced at Sane, then back to Cipher. “This is confidential—only a handful know. The day Sane hit the Neogens, there was an attempted coup.”

Sane’s breath caught. “A coup?”

“Yes,” Agatha said, her voice weighted. “Someone tried to assassinate the president of the planetary defense force. It’s a mess—intelligence is ripping through the ranks to expose the people behind this. We need unity now more than ever. General Flick’s back in command, and tomorrow they’re launching the geostationary orbital weapon. He sent us to bring you both back—to finish this mission together.”

Cipher’s jaw clenched. “It doesn’t matter. Sane nearly died. To them, we’re criminals—expendable pieces in their chess game.”

William leaned in, his tone firm but grounded. “Kid, we get it. But we swore an oath to protect this planet—not for the power-hungry brass, but for the people who can’t fight back. Our home.”

Cipher’s mind flickered to the promise he’d made when he took the serum, the words etched deep.

“I’m not abandoning my mission,” he said, voice low and resolute. “I’ll keep training, but on my terms.” He shoved his chair back and strode out, leaving silence in his wake.

Agatha turned to Sane. “And you?”

Sane’s expression darkened, her eyes shadowed. “I need a favor from all of you—don’t tell anyone I’m alive.”

“Why?” Agatha pressed, but Sane’s lips pressed tight, her silence a wall.

“It’s for everyone’s sake,” she murmured, the words heavy with unspoken meaning.

Dmitry stood, breaking the quiet. “They’ve made their decisions. We should head back before it’s too late.”

Angela smiled gently. “Why not stay the night? We’ve got spare rooms.”

It was late, and they agreed, settling in under her roof.

At 5 a.m., Cipher slipped into the basement to train, only to find the twins—Billy and Bill-board—rifling through his notebooks.

“What are you two doing here?”

Billy flashed a grin, unbothered. “Oh, Cipher. Morning!”

Cipher snatched the notebooks from their hands, his voice sharp.

“Careful—these were my father’s. They’re all I have left.” That’s when his eyes snagged on a page, and a familiar formula stared back at him, and a chill sank into his gut.

“We were just checking out your setup,” Billy rambled on. “The eyes—you, Victor, now John Grey. What’s the trick?”

But Cipher stood frozen, the notebook trembling in his grip. The equations—he’d glimpsed them before, at the geostationary orbital weapon site. Why was Number One using quantum gateway formulas for the weapon?

He bolted from the basement, panic surging.

“Captain!” he shouted, bursting into Agatha’s room.

She jolted awake, bleary-eyed in her pajamas. “What is it?”

“You said they’re launching the weapon today—when?”

Her eyes sharpened at his tone. “This morning, I think. Why?”

Cipher’s face drained of color. “I’m going to Fort Vanguard. We have to stop it—now!”

“Stop what? Wait!” she called, but he was already gone, racing toward the base, chasing a catastrophe already in motion.