Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 619: Marriage can be hell.

As two burly mercenaries stepped forward, Arwin’s hands ignited. Small, flickering orange flames licked at his fingertips. "Don’t touch me!" he warned. He threw a fire bolt, the ball of heat whistling past a mercenary’s head and scorching the wall.

"Arwin, stop!" Paula shouted.

But Arwin was blinded by betrayal. He spun, ready to blast the door open, when a sudden, violent gust of compressed air slammed into his chest. The air bolt, launched with surgical precision by Paula, sent Arwin flying backward. His head cracked against a structural steel pole with a sickening thud. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious before he even hit the dirt.

Heath clapped, his eyes wide with genuine admiration. "Beautiful! The timing, the force... beautiful! I didn’t know you had that kind of kick in you, Paula. Nothing should stand in your way_ not even that fool of a brother."

Paula didn’t look at her brother’s limp body. She kept her gaze fixed on her father, her face a mask of cold calculation. "I told the Quinns I’d go back. They trust me. They think I’m one of them now. I will be our eyes and ears inside."

Heath’s eyebrows shot up. "Go back? Is that wise?"

"Yes," Paula said, crossing her arms. "If I go back as a friend, I can collect information. I can find the weak points in their shields, the schedules of their guards, and the codes to their labs. I’ll be your spy, Dad. I’ll give you the fortress on a silver platter. Maybe we won’t even need to fight when the time comes because I will open the gates for you."

Heath’s face lit up with a predatory glow. He walked over and squeezed her shoulder, his fingers digging in with pride. "Good thinking. My god, you really are my daughter. Arwin will be locked up until he comes to his senses."

Paula nodded, her eyes dark and unreadable. "He’ll understand eventually," she said. "Once he’s living comfortably and sleeping under the bubble shield, he’ll thank us." 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Heath laughed, "Go on.... don’t keep the Quinns waiting. Tell me what you need to take back, and I will give it to you."

****

The midnight silence in one of the ordinary bedrooms didn’t break gracefully, it shattered.

Moon gasped, her lungs hitching as a wall of ice-cold water slammed into face. She bolted upright, gasping for air, her nightgown clinging to her skin.

Through the dripping strands of her hair, she saw the culprit and recoiled. It was none other than her husband.

Peter stood by the mahogany bedpost, dangling an empty wooden pail. He seemed unbothered as if he’d just finished watering a particularly stubborn garden weed.

"What is wrong with you!?" Moon’s voice tore through the room in a deafening, jagged scream. "What kind of sick, twisted marriage is this? I’m your wife, not a dog! How dare you do this to me?"

Peter didn’t flinch. Instead, he let out a low, dry chuckle that made the hair on Moon’s arms stand up. He set the pail down with a heavy thud. "Wife? You are not the only wife I have since I married again yesterday," Peter echoed, his voice dripping with mock wonder.

Moon’s lips twitched. She had no doubt that Peter would be taking more brides, searching for those that benefited him.

He snapped his fingers. "The honeymoon ended the moment I realized you were about as useful to my future as a used tissue. You’re decorative, sure, but the smell of desperation is starting to ruin the aesthetic."

Moon bit her lip so hard she tasted copper. The mask had completely fallen off. Ever since Peter had started to bring women to their home and casually admitted to murdering Charmaine_ claiming the man was a "bad influence" on her_ the walls of her world had turned into a cage.

She had tried to play him, tried to navigate his insanity, but she realized now she had played herself right into a trap with no exit. She looked at his eyes_ flat, dark, and utterly devoid of warmth_ and remembered she was at the mercy of a man who viewed human life as a logistical hurdle.

"I... I can’t predict the future when I’m under this much stress, Peter," she stammered, trying to sound pathetic enough to be spared. "My visions... they need peace, so leave now and come back later."

Peter scoffed, looking at her like she was a dirty rug he was considering throwing out. "Save the mystic act for the help. What I want to know," he leaned in, his shadow looming over the wet bed, "is about that ’lucky bracelet’ you were so desperate for. The one you told Denise to steal from Cassius."

The name hit Moon like a physical blow. A hot surge of fury momentarily drowned out her fear. "That bitch!" she hissed, her fingers clawing at the air. "That stinking, rotten, loud mouthed bitch!"

She had offered Denise a deal_ a way out, a life far away from this madhouse_ if she just got that bracelet. It seemed Denise’s loyalty to Peter was either fueled by genuine love or, more likely, a terror even greater than Moon’s.

Peter laughed, a mocking, high-pitched sound. "You really thought Denise would betray me for a ’sisterhood’ that doesn’t exist? Now, tell me about it. Why does Cassius have it, and why do you want it?"

Moon opened her mouth to weave a lie, but she saw Peter’s hand twitch toward his pocket knife. The truth was her only currency left. "Because I saw a vision. In that vision, Cassius used that bracelet to become the greatest superhuman in the apocalypse," she whispered. "He was supposed to be a god among men. Power, resources, luck... everything flowed to him and it was because of that bracelet."

Peter shifted, his posture changing instantly. The boredom left his face, replaced by a sharp, predatory hunger. Here he was on his way to Babel city to scheme against Hades and all this while, there was something that could make him powerful!

Powerful enough to take over Fortress four so easily! What the hell had Cassius been waiting for to tell him about the bracelet? Surely, his son knew this secret.

"So why hasn’t Cassius used it? He’s a little powerful, sure, but he’s not a god. He’s just a drinking, pining for the maid and letting Cross town fall to pieces."

Moon shrugged, her shoulders shivering from the cold. "I don’t know. Maybe it needs something special to be activated. I just don’t know!"

She would not tell him that it was a Raine family heirloom because he would go in search of Sunshine. Maybe he would even make her one of his wives if she knew something about the bracelet! If that bitch was out there suffering, she had to stay that way.

"How do you activate it?" Peter demanded, grabbing her wrist.