Chapter 6: No Crown Survives The Fire

Time: One Week After The Exposé

Location: Across Valeburn – Navarro HQ Ruins, Hollow Archive, Public Uprising Zones

---

Jayce’s Apartment, Top Floor, Navarro Tower Ruins

Jayce paced. Rain trickled through shattered glass panes. Naomi stood at the doorway.

“You haven’t slept,” she said.

“I don’t need sleep. I need a reason.”

“To keep fighting?”

“To believe we didn’t just wake a storm we can’t control.”

Naomi walked to the window. “That storm is control. The people are loud now. That’s what matters.”

He turned. “Do you hear what they’re saying? ‘Kill the king.’ ‘Drown the empire.’ We lit the match, Naomi. And now we’re their targets too.”

Naomi’s eyes didn’t blink. “Good. Let them come. I’m not a queen anymore. I’m the one who buried the throne.”

---

Public Square – Broadcast Tent

Eli stood before dozens of rebel reporters, drenched in sweat, shirt stained with old blood.

“You’re not broadcasting propaganda,” he shouted. “You’re delivering resurrection. Truth isn’t a weapon—it’s medicine.”

A young voice: “What if truth kills them?”

Eli smirked bitterly. “Then they’ll die awake.”

---

Burnside Alley – Reina’s Ambush

The councilman staggered into the alley. Reina shoved him against the wall.

“You remember Sector Nine? Kids with needles in their necks? The ones who never woke up?”

He choked. “I... I followed orders.”

“Wrong answer.”

“Reina,” Naomi’s voice echoed over her comm, “Don’t kill him. Let the world see his face when he tells the truth.”

Reina raised her gun.

“Go live,” she told the cameraman.

On-screen, the man sobbed. “Yes. We took the children. We wired them into Hollow systems. They were test subjects for predictive governance. Naomi was the first success... but she turned.”

Reina lowered her gun.

“Thank you,” she said. “Now run. And keep running. Every parent will be hunting you.”

---

Jayce & Naomi – Hollow Final Archive

“Why are you shaking?” Naomi asked.

Jayce held a tablet, staring at his own file.

“I wasn’t her partner. I was her failsafe.”

“Jayce—”

“They bred me. Programmed me to love you. To hold the system steady if you broke.”

Naomi reached for his hand.

“But you chose me. Every day. That wasn’t code. That was you.”

Jayce’s voice cracked. “What if I don’t know who that is anymore?”

“Then let’s build him together.”

He looked into her eyes.

“Burn it?” he asked.

Naomi nodded. “All of it.”

They lit the server core together. Flames consumed records. The room smelled like rust and freedom.

---

Navarro Tower Steps – Public Statement

Eli stepped up to the megascreen platform.

“You want a throne? Take it. You want a name? Make one. You want justice? Then fight for it, because there are no kings left to blame!”

A voice from the crowd: “Then who are you?”

Eli replied, “A shadow that chose light. And if I fall, let the truth survive me.”

---

Broadcast Finale

Naomi took the stage beside Jayce. Her voice broke through citywide comms.

“Hollow tried to make us quiet. Navarro tried to crown us. Both failed. Because we remembered what they forgot: pain speaks. Pain builds.”

She pressed the detonation code on the Navarro mainframe.

“In memory of every child, every rebel, every silenced name. Let no throne survive the fire.”

The tower exploded behind them.

---

Last Scene

Reina crouched beside a mural painted by orphans. It read: “FREEDOM WOKE US.”

A child tugged her coat.

“Miss? Did the king die?”

She smiled.

“No, sweetheart. He just decided the people deserved his crown.”