The Gifted Divide

"In my rage, I can be anywhere, do anything. Vengeance is my path, and I must never once veer from it." ― Joseph Fink (The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home)

* * * *

The fluorescent lights in the ESA headquarters' break room flickered overhead, casting pale, sterile light across the cold linoleum tiles. It was quiet. Too quiet. The kind of silence that wasn't born from peace, but exhaustion. Like the whole building was holding its breath.

Lucas stood alone, tall and still, one hand braced against the vending machine's scratched metal casing. His onyx eyes were shadowed, their usual clarity dulled, staring blankly at the rows of colourful plastic wrappers behind the glass as if willing them to give him some kind of answer.

Something… Anything that might make the weight on his chest lift.

But there was nothing.

With a sharp hiss between clenched teeth, his boot slammed against the side of the machine with a crack. It groaned in protest but didn't budge. Chips rattled in their compartments. He hit it again, harder.

"Don't destroy station property," came a voice from the doorway. Calm, dry, and laced with that frustratingly flat tone only Elijah Rosales could master.

Lucas's head turned sharply.

Elijah stepped inside, the door clicking shut behind him.

His crimson hair fell in messy strands around his face, the hood of his black jacket pushed back. He didn't seem particularly surprised to see Lucas here, like he'd known exactly where to find him.

In one hand, he held a coin, which he casually slotted into the vending machine. A whir followed, and a cold can dropped into the tray with a mechanical clunk. Elijah retrieved it, cracked the top, and leaned against the wall beside Lucas like this was just another day at the office.

"Elijah." The name came out as a growl, low and bitter.

"I heard about what happened. At Zalfari. From Leroy."

Lucas's gaze darkened, his jaw tensing. But Elijah didn't flinch. He took a sip from the can, his eyes never leaving Lucas. "All I can say is… You kind of had it coming to you. And they didn't say anything that isn't true."

The words hit like a punch to the gut.

Lucas blinked, the edges of his vision flashing as blood surged behind his eyes. "'Leroy'?" he echoed, his voice low and taut. "I see. I'd been wondering where you got all your information this whole time. He's your contact."

Elijah shook his head. "Not exactly."

Lucas's fists clenched, his nails digging into his palms.

Elijah tilted his head slightly, his tone dropping lower. "Do you know how Taylor and I joined the ESA?"

Lucas frowned. "No. It wasn't in your file."

"Of course it wasn't." Elijah paused, his gaze distant now. "The director… Tiara… She was the one to bring us in. Taylor and I were born on the streets. Raised by the underground. We grew up in the Abyss, the heartland of underground society."

Lucas stiffened.

"I have no idea who our parents are," Elijah went on. "But the Abyss? That was home. The people there were family."

Lucas was silent, caught in the weight of that confession.

It did explain things. Elijah's strange connections, his uncanny knowledge of black-market pathways, and even the way he manoeuvred the underground like a native tongue. It even explained Taylor's composure in chaotic medical situations, and her willingness to bend protocol if it meant saving a Gifted.

Lucas looked at Elijah slowly. "Then why… Why did you join the ESA? You and Taylor both. With your skill sets, you could've made a killing as mercenaries. You didn't have to join the ESA."

Elijah didn't answer immediately. He stared at the unopened can in his hand for a long time. "…There's something I'm trying to find out," he said at last. "Tiara offered us a deal. Said she'd help. So we took it. But I told you before, Lucas. My allegiance has never been with the ESA." He looked up, his eyes sharp as knives. "My loyalty is to the people. The underground. The Gifted. Do you understand? If the ESA strays down a dark path, I will betray them."

Silence settled again. Lucas's breath caught in his throat. He couldn't even blame Elijah.

He had already heard the whispers.

Allen and Jonan talking in hushed tones when they thought no one was listening. Questioning their place here. Whether it was worth it. Whether staying made them complicit.

The vending machine hummed softly beside them. Somewhere in the distance, a door slammed, the echo ringing down the empty corridors. But Lucas couldn't move.

"Elijah," he murmured, his voice breaking for the first time. "What should I do?"

Elijah didn't answer right away. Instead, he turned his head, really looking at Lucas for the first time. "That's something only you can answer."

Lucas's fingers twitched.

"What do you want?" Elijah asked. "What do you wish for? Would you prefer to stay in your current position, pretending not to see what's happening? Ignoring the witch hunts? The cruelty?" His tone hardened. "Because let's be honest: the ESA is nothing more than a puppet of the hunters now. We all see it. Even the director sees it. And with everything that's happened, the lines are drawn in the sand. A civil war's coming, Lucas. It's not just whispers anymore. It's already here. It's on our doorstep."

Lucas inhaled sharply. His mind was a storm. He remembered Raul's voice, hoarse and furious, spitting words like venom.

"You can't plead ignorance. You know what they do."

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Zest's glare. Cold and dismissive. "You're talking to a damn brick wall."

And then, Sera's voice. So calm it cut like a scalpel. "Is anything you've done even worth it if it destroys what you love in the process?"

The words echoed through Lucas, over and over, like a drumbeat in his chest. What did he love? What had he sacrificed? What had he become?

His knuckles tightened. "Elijah…" he breathed. "Zest… He said something. Something about my father. And it's not the first time. I've heard whispers, too. In the underground. Always whispers. They never say anything directly, but… There's something they know. Something I don't. And the way the underground reacts whenever they hear my last name."

Elijah's expression didn't change, but Lucas didn't miss the subtle flicker in his eyes.

"I want to know the truth," Lucas said. The words spilled out like a dam breaking. "About my father. About what he did. About why the underground hates him. Why they look at me like I'm something to be feared. To be loathed. I need to know."

A long silence followed.

Elijah's shoulders slumped, and he sighed. "Sera said you'd say that," he muttered under his breath.

Lucas frowned. "Elijah?"

Without a word, Elijah reached into the black duffel bag slung over his shoulder and pulled out a small, weathered object wrapped in cloth. He handed it over.

Lucas blinked and took it.

It was lighter than expected. Almost too light. He unwrapped the cloth and found…a book. A simple, thin book. But something about it felt wrong.

Elijah tapped the cover lightly, and it gave a hollow sound.

Lucas's eyes narrowed.

Elijah's gaze shifted discreetly to the surveillance camera in the corner, then back. "This isn't just a book," he said softly. "It's a casing. Inside is a drive. The contents…are about your father. But also much more."

Lucas stared at the object in his hands like it might explode.

"You'll find documents. Footage. Reports. Some even go back decades. Some were redacted by the ESA. Others were buried by the hunters. It's all there."

A pause.

"You might want to get yourself prepared," Elijah added, his voice suddenly low and solemn. "The truth can be a cruel thing. It might not be the answer you're hoping for. In fact…" He exhaled. "It's like Pandora's Box, Lucas." His eyes met his captain's, sharp and piercing. "Once you open it, you can't stuff the truth back inside."

Lucas stood there, unmoving, staring at the book in his hands as if it burned him.

And in that small, sterile room, beneath flickering lights and stale air, the storm brewing outside the walls of the ESA loomed heavier than ever.

In Eldario, the city was tearing itself apart.

Protests had turned into riots. Gifted were dragged from their homes under flimsy accusations. Some disappeared entirely. Executions were now quietly authorised in the back rooms of hunters' headquarters.

Blue Pandora had begun to circulate in underground rings.

Videos had leaked. Footages of men injected with the shimmering liquid, transforming into grotesque weapons, barely human. And Nicolosi… Nicolosi stood above it all like a grinning god, unfazed, untouched, and orchestrating hell from the shadows.

People were dying. The lines had already been drawn.

And Lucas Alescio, once certain, once unwavering, now stood on a fault line, with the truth in his hands.

And once he opened it, there'd be no going back.

* * * *

The fluorescent light above Elijah's dorm room desk flickered once, twice, before stabilising into a constant, sterile glow. He didn't bother with it.

The blinds were drawn. The rest of the room was dark, save for the soft blue hue of the palm-sized encryption scrambler spinning slowly beside him, a cold piece of tech humming faintly like a heartbeat. That, and the faint glow of the cracked burner phone's screen.

A low tone buzzed. The screen lit up. And two faces blinked into existence.

Sera. Zest.

The former's eyes were unreadable, lit only by dim, golden lighting on her end. Zest leaned back with his arms folded, his face half-shadowed, wearing that usual mask of exhaustion and restrained fury he'd worn since Blackpool.

Elijah took a slow breath, brushed a hand through his crimson hair, and pulled up the hood of his jacket. His fingers itched, like they always did before something irreversible. His pulse was steady, but something in his chest had been uneasy all evening, like a storm cloud trying to form.

He knew this conversation wasn't going to feel good. It was never going to.

Elijah leaned forward slightly, his elbows on the desk, and gave them both a small nod. "He has it. I gave it to him. The data card. What you asked me to."

Sera's expression didn't change immediately, but something behind her eyes shifted. Like a window opening and a winter wind brushing in. "I see," she said, after a beat.

Elijah hesitated, just for a second. "Are you sure that was the right move?"

Zest raised an eyebrow. Sera looked at him squarely. He didn't avert his eyes.

"I mean it," Elijah went on, his voice quieter now. "Even I don't know what Lucas is going to do once he learns the truth. His entire world is going to shatter. His father… Everything. That name. That legacy. He's built his life not knowing the kind of man Gene Alescio really was. What he did."

Honestly, Elijah sometimes wondered how Lucas can gain his current rank and stay within the ESA for as long as he did without knowing anything about his father, and what he did, when every person in the underground does. Even the hunters do, and quite a few of those in the ESA. Amongst hunters and certain members of the ESA, Gene Alescio is a hero. To the underground and Gifted, however, he is a monster.

Elijah will wager that there were more than a few parties being thrown the day they got news about the death of Gene Alescio and his wife—some kind of car accident. And Elijah is relatively certain to this day that it isn't an accident at all. There are hundreds of ways to make someone's murder look like an accident, especially amongst the underground. But no one ever came forward to claim credit for Gene Alescio's death.

It's probably a big shock to Gene Alescio when both his sons turned out to be Gifted. Elijah, and Taylor probably, have recognised Lucas's last name immediately the day Elijah had met him—on the day Team Alpha was formed. That is nearly six years ago now. He, however, never gave anything away. And neither did Taylor.

Honestly, Elijah is almost amazed Lucas managed to walk away from Zalfari both times unscathed.

The first when he had first gone there over a year ago with Leonid to seek information about Zero and Aegis, back when Team Alpha was pursuing them. The second, when somehow, Kailey had brought Lucas with them when Aegis was making their escape from the hunters' headquarters when saving Wes.

Elijah exhaled, long and tired. The screen's glow made the sharp edges of his face look more angular, his pupils more pronounced—those slit cat-like eyes betraying tension. "It's going to be a hard pill to swallow," he said at last. "Finding out your father wasn't a good man. That to a whole part of the world, he was something worse than any hunter they've ever faced."

Sera closed her eyes briefly. "He'll find out sooner or later. I'd rather he hears it from us than from them. From the hunters. From Neuron. Or worse, from Nicolosi." Her voice darkened on that last name, like a shadow had crossed her throat.

Elijah's gaze lowered slightly. "Nicolosi…" he muttered. "That man doesn't see the Gifted as human. Not even as animals. He sees us as weapons, toys, and even ingredients. He doesn't even kill people like Claudia and Ness. He repurposes them."

The room fell quiet. Even the encryption device's hum felt heavier now.

Sera's voice came again, softer but steel underneath. "Tiara's been keeping Lucas protected for a long time. She's managed to keep the hunters' attention off him. I don't know how, even now. I don't know what it cost her. But we can't let him keep living blind in that bubble."

Zest let out a dry exhale. Something like a laugh, though there was no humour in it. "He's a Gifted, Sera. With the surname Alescio. He was never going to stay hidden forever."

"Exactly." Sera nodded once. "It's time Lucas understands what his name means. What his father left behind. Why the underground flinches when they hear 'Alescio.' Why Leroy refused to let him near Zalfari. Why there are people alive today because Gene Alescio died."

Elijah stared at the screen, recalling Lucas and Leonid's retelling of what had happened the first time they went to Zalfari, back when they were pursuing Aegis.

"It's going to change him," Elijah said quietly. "This will either make him…or break him."

Zest leaned forward now, his arms unfolding. "He's not a kid anymore. He's an adult."

"In some ways," Elijah said, a sad twist to his lips, "Lucas is still naïve. He wants to believe things can be fixed. That the ESA still stands for something. That justice still means anything in Eldario." He paused. "Ironically, Misha probably understands the world more than Lucas does. Even though he's younger. He sees it clearer. The way things really are." He looked away for a second, his voice quieter. "Lucas thinks he needs to protect Misha. But honestly? I think it's the other way around."

Zest was silent for a moment. "Do you think Misha knew? About Gene?"

Elijah nodded slowly. "Yeah. I think he did. Misha's not stupid. Knowing who his best friend is, there is no way Misha wouldn't know."

Sera didn't say anything at first. But something tight passed over her expression. Guilt, maybe. Or sorrow.

"Elijah," Zest said carefully now, "what about you and Taylor?"

That made Elijah still.

Zest continued, his voice calm but direct. "Shouldn't it be time you both clear out of the ESA? You know it's only a matter of time before someone finds out. About your connection with the Abyss. About your pasts."

Elijah didn't respond right away. His hand brushed over the encryption scrambler as though grounding himself. Zest didn't stop. "The way things are going, even the Gifted inside the ESA won't be safe soon. Not with the purge gaining traction. And the hunters getting bolder."

"Yeah…" Elijah finally said, his voice lower now. "Yeah. You're not wrong." He leaned back slowly, staring up at the ceiling. "More and more are defecting. Not all of them are Gifted, either. There are…Normals, too. People who see what the ESA's becoming. What Nicolosi's letting happen. What the hunters are doing." He let out a breath. "Not now. But… Soon. Soon, we'll leave."

The silence between them wasn't awkward. It was heavy. Like a pause before a storm breaks.

"We've been sending a few people to Ashenridge," Sera said then. Her voice was careful, but there was warmth in it. Hope, even if buried deep. "Even Rex is worried. More are coming in by the week. Some barely even made it out alive. The hunters are grabbing people off the streets now. And we all know what is happening to them. And where they're being taken to."

Elijah shut his eyes.

The memory from Blackpool was still vivid. Claudia's last smile. Ness's firm grip as Claudia's wind shoved them all out of the way. The light in Claudia's eyes as the wind barrier sealed shut. Her last words: Take care of Tatius.

"I am too," Elijah whispered. "Worried." He opened his eyes. "The whole thing's about to boil over. Eldario's stretched to the edge. The ESA is divided. The hunters are using Blue Pandora to turn people into monsters. The underground is furious. And the people… The civilians… They're caught in between. Scared. Angry." He looked at Sera again. "However this ends, it's not going to be a happy ending. For anyone."

Sera met his gaze, quiet and resolute. "But it still has to end."

Another long silence. But not empty. A silence filled with mourning. With years of hidden truths. And something close to grief.

Elijah reached out and turned off the encryption scrambler. The hum faded into silence. The phone screen dimmed, and Zest's voice came through, "Watch your back, Elijah. And tell Taylor we said the same."

"I will," Elijah murmured.

Then, he was alone again. In the flickering light. The screen black. The weight of the future pressing down like gravity.

He sat there for a long time.

The data card was gone. Lucas had it. And what came next… No one could predict.

But one thing was certain.

Soon, the war would no longer be a shadow. It would come roaring into the light.