The Gavel and The Ghost

The morning of the trial didn't break; it fucking shattered. The sky over the city was a bruised, heavy grey, looking like it was holding its breath for the goddamn apocalypse. Inside the safe-house, the atmosphere was clinical, lethal, and loud as fuck.

ShaYou was currently standing in the middle of the living room, surrounded by three different tailors and a security team that looked like they’d just crawled out of a black-ops wet dream.

"I don't care if it's bulletproof, it needs to be sharp!" ShaYou barked, shoving a tailor aside. "We are going to a funeral today—the funeral of the Old Associates. I want them to see us and realize they’re being buried by people who look ten times better than they ever did!"

Gao Tu walked into the room, looking like a goddamn nightmare in a charcoal suit, his silver-rimmed glasses catching the light. He looked at the chaos, then at ShaYou. "The armored transport is idling downstairs. The secondary judge, Han Su Shin, has been briefed. She’s clean, she’s terrified of us, and she’s ready to play ball. Can we move out before you decide to buy a tank?"

"I already bought two," ShaYou smirked, checking his watch. "They’re stationed at the north and south exits of the courthouse. Just in case the fossils try to make a run for it."

Wenlang stepped out of the bedroom, and the room went dead quiet. He wasn't wearing a suit—he was wearing a custom, deep-black tactical coat over a silk shirt, the top buttons undone to show the jagged, glowing mark on his neck. His gold eyes weren't just shimmering; they were vibrating with a violet-rimmed intensity that made the tailors instinctively fucking drop their measuring tapes.

Beside him, Hua Yong was a wall of pure, unadulterated Enigma power. He didn't need a weapon. He didn't need a suit. He just needed to exist. The air around him felt heavy, like the gravity in the room had tripled.

"Let's go," Wenlang said, his voice carrying a jagged, Enigma-laced authority that made even ShaYou’ve knees do a little skip. "I’m tired of talking. I want to see Sheng’s face when the Reaper takes the fucking stand."

~~~~~~~~~~

The courthouse was a goddamn circus. The street was choked with protesters, journalists, and enough security to start a small war. But as the lead armored SUV pulled up to the steps, the noise didn't just fade—it fucking died.

The doors opened.

ShaYou and Gao Tu stepped out first, a billionaire and his lethal shadow, cutting through the crowd like a hot knife through butter. But the real show started when Wenlang and Hua Yong hit the pavement.

They didn't walk; they marched. Wenlang was at the front, his presence hitting the air with the weight of an Alpha King who had just been upgraded with a Reaper’s soul. Every camera in a three-block radius turned toward them, the flashes creating a strobing, chaotic light that Wenlang didn't even fucking blink at.

They reached the massive oak doors of the courtroom. The bailiffs, usually stoic and bored, looked like they were about to have a goddamn heart attack. One of them reached out to ask for ID, but Wenlang didn't even stop. "Open the doors," Wenlang commanded.

The Command hit the bailiff like a physical shove. The man’s hands flew to the handles, throwing the doors open with a crash that echoed through the high-ceilinged chamber.

The entire room went fucking silent.

The three lead Elders of the Associates, sitting at the defense table, turned around. Elder Sheng’s face went a sickly shade of grey as he locked eyes with the boy he’d used as a lab rat for twenty years.

Wenlang led the group down the center aisle, his boots clicking rhythmically on the marble. He didn't look at the gallery. He didn't look at the press. He looked straight at the bench where Judge Han sat, looking like she wanted to be anywhere else on the goddamn planet.

They didn't sit in the back. They walked straight to the front row, directly behind the prosecution. Wenlang leaned forward, his hands resting on the wooden railing, his gold-violet eyes boring into Sheng’s skull.

"Morning, pricks," Wenlang whispered, his voice carrying through the silent room like a gunshot. "Hope you enjoyed your last night of freedom. Because the King and the Reaper just arrived, and we’re all out of mercy."

Hua Yong sat beside him, his massive frame radiating a cold, dark static that made the lights in the courtroom flicker. He didn't say a word. He didn't have to. The "closed circuit" between him and Wenlang was hummed with a dark, victorious heat that everyone in the room could feel.

ShaYou sat on Wenlang’s other side, popping a piece of gum and grinning at the lead defense attorney. "Nice tie, Counselor. Shame it’s going to be covered in your client's career-blood by noon."

Judge Han cleared her throat, her voice trembling just a fraction as she tapped her gavel. "This... this court is now in session. Case number 402-S. The People vs. The Sheng-Gao Associates."

Wenlang leaned back, a slow, dangerous smirk spreading across his face. The war was finally official.

Judge Han hadn’t even finished her opening statement before ShaYou decided to set the entire room on fire. He didn’t wait for his turn. He didn’t wait for a prompt. He simply stood up, pulled a sleek, transparent tablet from his blazer, and tapped a single command.

Across every monitor in the courtroom—and every jumbotron in the city square outside—a waterfall of red numbers began to cascade.

"Your Honor, if I may interrupt this boring-as-hell preamble," ShaYou chirped, his voice cutting through the tension like a goddamn chainsaw. "I’ve just liquidated every offshore account associated with the Sheng-Gao defense fund. As of ten seconds ago, the gentlemen at that table are officially broke. Their legal fees? Void. Their bribes for the jury? Gone. They couldn't buy a goddamn hot dog on the street right now, let alone a fair trial."

The lead defense attorney jumped up, his face turning a panicked shade of purple. "Objection! This is illegal! This is a private financial—"

"It’s a corporate audit, prick!" ShaYou barked back, his gold eyes flashing with a predatory glee. "I own the banks. I own the servers. And now, I own your clients. Sit down before I liquidate your mortgage, too."

The courtroom erupted into a frenzy. The Elders were screaming at their lawyers, who were staring at their tablets in horror as their retainers vanished in real-time. Judge Han pounded her gavel until the wood nearly splintered, but it was Wenlang’s voice that finally killed the

"silence."

The Enigma-laced command hit the room like a physical weight, pinning every fucking person in their seat. The reporters dropped their pens; the  lawyers collapsed back into their chairs. Wenlang didn't even stand up. He just looked at the judge with a cold, terrifyingly calm expression.

"ShaYou’s done with the math," Wenlang rasped. "Now it’s time for the truth. Call the witness."

The room was so quiet you could hear the heartbeat of the person three rows back. Hua Yong stood up, his massive frame unfolding like a shadow rising from a grave. He walked toward the witness stand, every step heavy enough to vibrate the floorboards.

As he sat down and placed his hand on the Bible, he didn't look at the judge. He looked directly at Elder Sheng.

"State your name for the record," the prosecutor stammered, his hands shaking as he held his notes.

"I don't have a name," Hua Yong rumbled, his voice a low, jagged vibration that made the glass water carafes on the tables ripple. "For twenty-three years, I was Subject Zero. I was a weapon forged in a basement by the men sitting at that table. I was the 'Reaper' they used to erase their mistakes, made by my own father and him."

For the next hour, the courtroom was a goddamn house of horrors. Hua Yong spoke with a clinical, terrifying detachment. He detailed the bone-grafts without anesthesia. He spoke about the psychological conditioning, the sensory deprivation tanks, and the "Alpha-purges" where he was forced to execute failed experiments.

He didn't just tell them; he showed them. With the 40% connection hummed between him and Wenlang, the Enigma energy in the room spiked. People in the gallery began to weep, hit by the phantom echoes of the pain Hua Yong had endured.

"They didn't want a human," Hua Yong finished, his violet eyes glowing with a luminescent, lethal light. "They wanted a god they could control. But they forgot one thing."

He leaned forward, the wood of the witness stand cracking under the pressure of his grip.

"Gods don't take orders from fossils." Elder Sheng was shaking, his face ashen. "He’s a monster! Look at him! He’s an unstable anomaly! We were trying to protect the city from—"

"The only thing this city needs protection from is you," Wenlang interrupted, standing up slowly. He felt the violet fire of the bond surging through him, a perfect mirror to Hua Yong’s rage. "You tortured a child for two decades to build a security empire. You used S-Tiers like goddamn batteries. And now, the bill is due in full."

Judge Han looked at the evidence, then at the broken, hollow men at the defense table. There was no more law to hide behind. The Reaper had stripped their souls, and the CEO had stripped their pockets.

"The court has heard enough," Han whispered, her voice filled with a mix of awe and pure, unadulterated terror. "I’m ordering an immediate freeze on all Sheng-Gao assets and the immediate arrest of the board members pending a final sentencing. Take them away."

As the bailiffs moved in, ShaYou let out a loud, sweary cheer, clapping his hands. Gao Tu just adjusted his glasses, a small, cold smirk of satisfaction on his face.

Wenlang walked up to the witness stand and held out his hand. Hua Yong took it, his grip grounding and solid.

"It’s over, Chairman," Wenlang whispered, his gold eyes softening as he looked at the man who was finally free.

"No," Hua Yong replied, pulling Wenlang close until their foreheads touched. "It's just the beginning. We have a city to rebuild."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The air in the penthouse wasn’t just thick with the smell of expensive champagne and high-end catering; it was vibrating with the sheer, unadulterated weight of a win that had been twenty years in the making.

ShaYou had gone predictably overboard. He’d hired a goddamn orchestra to play on the balcony, but within twenty minutes, he’d paid them all to leave so he could blast heavy bass and shout over the music.

"To the fossils!" ShaYou roared, standing on top of the Italian marble coffee table with a bottle of vintage bubbly in one hand and a cigar in the other. "May they enjoy their new, rent-free accommodations in a six-by-eight concrete box! And to the Reaper—who is officially the most terrifying witness in the history of the goddamn legal system!"

"Get off the furniture, ShaYou," Gao Tu muttered from the sofa, though he was leaning back with a rare, relaxed look on his face. He was nursing a glass of sparkling water, his hand resting over the slight but visible curve of his stomach. "You’re tracking marble dust onto the velvet."

"I own the velvet! I own the table! I own the goddamn building!" ShaYou cackled, hopping down and sliding over to Gao Tu, dropping to his knees to press a kiss to the secretary’s hand. "We did it, Gao Tu. The board is gone. The stocks are ours. The city is officially our playground."

Gao Tu’s expression softened, his fingers curling into ShaYou’s hair. "Yeah. We did."

Across the room, away from ShaYou’s high-octane celebration, Wenlang was leaning against the floor-to-ceiling windows, watching the city lights blink like a sea of diamonds. He felt... light. The 40% Enigma hum was still there, but it wasn't a jagged needle anymore; it was a steady, warm current that made him feel like he was plugged into the very heart of the world.

A heavy, familiar heat settled against his back. Hua Yong wrapped his arms around Wenlang’s waist, pulling him back against that solid, S-Tier chest. The "closed circuit" snapped shut, a deep violet-gold thrum that made Wenlang’s lungs feel like they were breathing in pure stardust.

"You're quiet," Hua Yong rumbled, his chin resting on Wenlang’s shoulder. "Just thinking," Wenlang rasped, leaning his head back. "About how much blood we had to wade through to get to this goddamn view. About how Sheng looked when the handcuffs clicked."

"He looked like a man who finally realized his 'weapon' had a soul," Hua Yong whispered, his lips brushing against the mark on Wenlang’s neck. "Thank you, Wenlang. For being the one who found it."

Wenlang turned around in the Enigma’s arms, his fingers digging into the back of Hua Yong’s silk shirt. "I didn't find it, you prick. I just reminded you that it was there. And now that the war is over..."

"Now we start the real work," Hua Yong finished, his eyes glowing with a devotion that made Wenlang’s knees go weak. "No more labs. No more purges. Just us."

"And the kid," Wenlang added with a smirk, glancing over at ShaYou who was currently trying to teach Gao Tu how to "properly" celebrate a hostile takeover. "Because let’s face it, if our kids are anything like us, this city is going to need a whole new set of rules."

"We'll write them," Hua Yong promised

The party raged on until the early hours of the morning. Wenlang eventually found himself slumped on the oversized rug with Hua Yong, both of them watching ShaYou finally crash out on the sofa with his head in Gao Tu’s lap.

The adrenaline was fading, replaced by a deep, bone-settling peace. Wenlang looked at his hands—the hands of a King who had finally secured his kingdom. He felt the phantom pulse of the future, the tiny, distant heartbeat of the legacy they were building.

He closed his eyes, letting the scent of sandalwood and ozone wrap around him like a shield. The Old Associates were ghosts. The "fossils" were dust. "I love you, you lethal prick," Wenlang muttered into the dark. "I know," Hua Yong’s voice drifted back, steady and sure. "And I’m never letting go."

The King and the Reaper fell asleep as the sun began to rise on a city that finally belonged to them. The war was over. The era of the Subject Zero was dead.

And something much, much more dangerous—and beautiful—was about to begin.