The smoke had barely settled when Jayden lifted Royce carefully from the wreckage of the ruined aircraft, his hands steady despite the chaos still unfolding in the distance. Royce’s body was limp, his uniform torn open in several places where tal fragnts had sliced through fabric and flesh alike. Blood soaked through his clothes and dripped steadily onto the cracked pavent below, forming dark stains that spread far too quickly for comfort.
Jayden pressed his hand briefly against one of the deeper wounds, not to heal it, not yet, but to slow the bleeding enough to keep him alive.
"Hold on," he said quietly, his voice lower than it had been all day. "You don’t get to die now."
He activated his communicator imdiately.
"I need a chopper at my coordinates," he ordered. "dical priority. Imdiate evacuation to the island."
The reply ca fast, tense and respectful. "Yes, Your Excellency. En route."
Jayden remained crouched beside Royce as explosions echoed faintly in the sky above, his mind calculating distances and timing automatically, yet his focus never leaving the unconscious man before him. Royce’s breathing was shallow, uneven. His pulse was weak but present.
Jayden had seen many n fall in battle. He had learned to detach when necessary, to make decisions that cost lives in order to save thousands more. But this was different.
Royce had chosen this side.
Royce had defied Nexus.
Royce had fallen protecting Earth.
Jayden exhaled slowly.
"You better make it," he muttered.
The sound of approaching blades cut through the air minutes later. The helicopter descended quickly, kicking up dust and ash in violent spirals as it landed nearby. dical personnel jumped out even before the skids fully settled, rushing toward Jayden with a stretcher and ergency kits already open.
"What’s his condition?" one of the paradics asked urgently.
"Multiple lacerations," Jayden replied imdiately. "Possible internal trauma. Significant blood loss. He was struck mid air and crashed at high velocity."
They worked fast, checking vitals, applying compression pads, stabilizing his neck and spine before lifting him carefully onto the stretcher.
"He’s losing too much blood," a nurse said under her breath.
"Get him airborne now," another responded.
Jayden stood as they secured Royce inside the helicopter, watching closely as they began administering fluids and ergency treatnt even before takeoff.
He climbed in without hesitation.
The flight to the island felt longer than it was. Inside the chopper, the dical team moved with controlled urgency. One nurse pressed down firmly against a wound near Royce’s ribs while another inserted a line to replenish fluids. Monitors beeped steadily but not comfortably.
"Pressure is dropping," soone said.
"Push more units," another responded.
Jayden remained seated across from them, his posture rigid, hands resting against his knees. His expression betrayed little, yet his eyes never left Royce’s face.
There was sothing strange about this feeling.
It was not panic.
It was not fear.
It was sothing closer to responsibility layered with sothing softer, sothing he rarely allowed himself to show.
"Stay alive," he said quietly, almost to himself.
When the helicopter finally landed at the Presidential Health Centre on the island, a team of doctors was already waiting. The facility had been personally approved and funded by Jayden himself, built to handle the most critical cases with the most advanced technology available.
Royce was rushed through the sliding doors imdiately.
"Severe blood loss confird," one doctor said as they wheeled him down the corridor. "Prep operating room three."
"Vitals unstable but responsive," another added.
Jayden followed as far as he was allowed before the doors to the surgical wing closed in front of him.
"Sir, we will do everything we can," a senior surgeon assured him before turning away.
The waiting area outside the operating theater was quiet, sterile, almost too calm compared to the battlefield they had just left. Jayden stood still for a long mont before finally sitting down.
Minutes passed.
Then an hour.
For once, there was nothing he could command, nothing he could force into motion with money or authority.
He simply waited.
Eventually, a doctor erged, removing his gloves with a tired but relieved expression.
"He is stable," the doctor said. "The injuries were severe, but we managed to stop the bleeding and repair the internal damage. He will need ti to recover."
Jayden nodded slowly.
"Good," he replied.
He did not visit imdiately. He left, returned to oversee coordination efforts, issued new orders regarding the outer planetary threat Charlotte had discovered, and managed resources across multiple battlefronts.
Only later, when the sky outside the island had grown darker, did he walk quietly back into the hospital wing.
Royce was awake.
He lay propped up slightly against the bed, bandages wrapped firmly around his torso and shoulder. An oxygen line rested lightly against his face, though his breathing was now steady. His eyes shifted toward the door as Jayden entered.
For a mont, neither spoke.
"You look terrible," Royce said weakly, though there was a faint hint of humor in his tone.
Jayden stepped closer, studying him carefully.
"You look worse," he replied dryly.
Royce gave a small breath of laughter, which imdiately turned into a wince.
"Easy," Jayden said, almost instinctively. "Don’t push it."
Royce looked at him more closely then, noticing sothing subtle in his expression.
"You were worried," Royce said quietly.
Jayden’s jaw tightened slightly.
"I needed you alive," he answered evenly.
Royce smiled faintly. "That’s not the sa thing."
Jayden exhaled slowly and pulled a chair closer to the bed, sitting down across from him.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Like I fell out of the sky," Royce replied honestly. "Which I did."
Jayden nodded once. "The doctors said you were close."
Royce looked at the ceiling briefly. "I figured."
There was a pause.
Jayden leaned back slightly, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully.
"I never believed you would help us," he admitted. "From my perspective, joining the Sovereign Protocols was your best opportunity. You could have ruled what remained of the world."
Royce sighed softly.
"Of all the things I could do," he said slowly, "joining a force that would make Earth extinct isn’t even the least of them."
Jayden studied him silently.
Royce continued.
"That thing you have," he said, his voice gaining more steadiness. "The system. It wasn’t created by soone who wanted this destruction. It was created by soone who wanted to prevent it."
Jayden did not interrupt.
"I realized that a long ti ago," Royce went on. "I was appointed to save the world from the very beginning. I just didn’t understand it at first."
He looked at Jayden directly now.
"The Absolute Guide changed my life back in Sky High University. It forced to see things differently. It stripped away my arrogance. If that had not happened... I would still be blind. I would still be chasing power without purpose."
Jayden remained silent, absorbing every word.
Royce’s expression softened.
"And because of that," he said quietly, "I chose this side."
There was another pause.
Then Royce faced him fully and said, with complete sincerity.
"Thank you. Thank you for everything."
Jayden did not imdiately respond.
He looked at Royce for a long mont, then finally spoke.
"Recover," he said simply. "The world still needs you."
And at least, that was not a command.
It was a request.
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