Darn Stupid Brother You Are by Mairee

Chapter 117 (Angel's POV) The room was suffocating. I sucked in air as the reality of the situation sank in. Dr. Nixon-Aurora-stood before us with her face no longer covered by a mask. She still looked unaffected and cold. The mastermind behind all of this horror had been right in front of us the entire time.

I turned to my mom as my voice trembled. What is she even doing here? "Is it true, Mom? All Hendrix toldabout you conspiring with Joe?" She flinched and her gaze darted to the floor. Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides as if she wanted to grab the words back before they could even escape her lips. "Angel..." "Tell me!" I shouted; the betrayal stung deeper than any wound.

She didn't answer, but her silence spoke volumes. My knees nearly buckled. The woman I'd looked up to, the one I'd wanted to believe had my best interests at heart, had been a part of this nightmare.

I turned back to Nixon. "You pretended to be our ally. You fed us lies, acted like you were helping us. And now we find out you've been running this hellhole all along? How could you?" Her lips curled into a bitter smile. "How could I? That's a question I've been asked my entire life, Angel. How could I survive when no one else did? How could I rise above the filth that tried to swallowwhole? You wouldn't understand." Before I could reply, the door burst open, and Dr. Joe stormed in with a gun in hand.

"Aurora!" he barked, his eyes wild. "You're running out of time. We need to leave" His words trailed off when his gaze landed on us. His confusion quickly morphed into anger. "What the hell is this?" Aurora didn't flinch. "Relax, Joe. I've got it under control." But Joe's expression twisted further when he truly saw her-wigless, maskless, exposed. "You?" he stammered in equal disbelief. "It was you all along?" Aurora's smirk didn't waver. "Surprise." Joe raised the gun, but Aurora moved faster. With a flash of a move, she grabbed his wrist, twisted it, and sent the weapon clattering to the ground. She shoved him aside, and before I could react, she bolted toward the hallway. "Go after her!" Hendrix shouted, already moving.

We chased Aurora through the center, past blinking monitors and walls smeared with the remnants of the rebellion. My legs burned as I pushed myself to keep up, my lungs screaming for air.

We burst through a set of double doors and onto a balcony overlooking the facility grounds. Aurora was cornered, her back to the edge. The chaos below was a fitting backdrop for the monster she truly was.

She held the gun she'd retrieved from the ground and aimed it at us with a steady hand. "Stay back," she warned, sounding eerily calm.

"You think this ends well for you?" Hendrix growled, his fists clenched.

Aurora let out a hollow laugh. "You're all so naïve. Do you know how much this operation is worth? How many lives I've saved by taking others?" Her words hit like a slap. "Saved?" I spat. "You've butchered innocent people, destroyed families. For what? Money? Revenge?" She tilted her head and her expression softened in a way that made my stomach sink. "I was just like you once, Angel. A scared little girl with no one to protect her. Do you know what men did to me? How they laughed as they ripped my life apart?" Her voice cracked, but the fire in her eyes didn't burn out. "I decided to take control. To make them pay. Every bastard who thought they could use me, ownI made them pay. And then I realized... why stop there? The world is full of monsters. Why not profit from their destruction?" I shook my head, my throat tight with disgust. "You're not a savior. You're just another monster. You justify your greed and your crimes with stwisted idea of justice, but you're no better than the people you claim to hate." Her gaze hardened. "You don't get it, do you? This world chews people up and spits them out. I just found a way to survive." "And how many had to die for your survival?" I demanded.

Her lips curled into a bitter smile as she tightened her grip on the gun. "You think I wanted this? You think I dreamed of running a place like this? No, Angel. I wanted to disappear, to erase every single scar those bastards left on me. But the world doesn't let you heal-not if you're weak. Not if you're a victim." Her voice grew colder, sharper, as she gestured toward the chaos below. "Do you know what it's like to be treated like garbage, Angel? To have men look at you like you're nothing but a plaything? Joe... he's no different from them. He looks atand sees what he thinks he can control. A junior doctor, a puppet on his string. But I control him, Angel. I control this entire place. And the irony? He doesn't even realize it." She laughed with venom. "Those men who destroyedthey were the first. But as I climbed higher, I realized something. The world is full of men like them. Men who think they own the world. So I started taking from them, one by one. Their money, their power, their lives. They deserved it, every last one. And then I found a way to turn their destruction into profit. Why not? If the world's going to be a hellhole, at least I'd be the devil who runs it." I couldn't stop the bile rising in my throat. "You're insane. Do you even hear yourself? You're justifying mass murder because you were hurt? How does that make you any better than them?" Aurora's gaze snapped back to me; her expression alone was sharp enough to cut. "Better? I'm not better, Angel. I'm worse. Because I know exactly what I've done. But don't stand there and act like you wouldn't do the sif the tables were turned. You think you're different, that you wouldn't break if the world ripped you apart like it did to me?" She took a step forward as her eyes continued burning with a terrifying intensity. "You're wrong. You'd do exactly what I did. You'd destroy everyone who dared cross you." I shook my head fiercely as my voice also shook with rage. "No, I wouldn't. Because what you've done isn't justice it's greed. It's selfishness. You stopped fighting for survival a long tago, and now you're just fighting for power. You're everything you hate, and you don't even see it." Aurora's smirk faltered, but only for a moment. She straightened her back, the gun still steady in her hand, and continued with a cold determination that sent chills down my spine. "You don't understand the scale of what I've built, Angel. Do you think this center is the only one? Oh no. This is just one cog in the machine. The demand grew. The market for fresh organs, especially from young, healthy bodies... it's insatiable. Do you know what the elite are willing to pay for youth, for vitality? They don't care where it comes from. They just want to live longer, look younger, and cheat death." Her eyes glittered with something like pride, and my stomach sunk further. "And so, I expanded. Opened more facilities like this one. Each disguised as a safe haven, a place to cure or treat the sick. But behind every locked door, we were harvesting. Slicing open the bodies of people the world wouldn't miss. Who was going to care about a girl with no family? A boy with a record? A woman whose only crwas being too broken to fight back? No one. That's who." Aurora's voice dropped into an unnatural tone. "This isn't just my revenge, Angel. This is a system. A perfectly oiled, profitable machine that exploits the cruelty of this world. People like Joe, they're tools. Weak, vile tools who think they're in control, but they're not. They never were. They're just the faces I use to keep this empire running. And the people who pay me? They're the real monsters. They fuel this. They've turned suffering into a commodity, and I've made it my business." I wanted to scream, to lunge at her and make her stop talking. But her words pinnedin place. Each one was a revelation that felt like a dagger in my chest.

"Do you know how many I've saved, Angel? None. Because saving people doesn't pay. It doesn't keep the lights on. It doesn't fund the operation. But harvesting... that's the future. That's the world we live in." Her voice softened, almost wistful. "At first, I thought I was helping. I targeted the worst of the worst-men who deserved to lose everything. But then, the demand grew, and I had to adapt. I had to reach younger, healthier donors. And places like this... they becmy solution. A steady supply of 'fresh recruits,' as your dear mother likes to call them." The bile rose in my throat again, and this tI couldn't hold back. "You're disgusting," I spat. "You've turned pain into profit, suffering into a business. And you think that makes you powerful? All it makes you is empty. A hollow shell of a person who can't see past her own greed and hatred." Aurora's eyes flared, but there was no denying the faint flicker of doubt that crossed her face. For the first time, I thought I saw a crack in her confidence. But her voice remained steady and her grip on the gun didn't shake. "Say what you want, Angel. Hateall you like. But in the end, I've survived. And survival is all that matters." Before I could open my mouth to reply, Hendrix, who we both forgot about at the moment, struck.

He hurled a metal rod he'd grabbed from the hallway and knocked the gun from her hand. It clattered to the floor as he lunged at her. The two of them struggled near the edge of the balcony.

Aurora fought back with surprising strength and even drove a syringe into Hendrix's thigh. He groaned in pain but didn't let go, shoving her backward.

I grabbed the gun and threw it over the edge, ensuring it was out of play.

Aurora turned on me, fury rising in her eyes. She charged, but I met her head-on and slammed into her with all the strength I had left. We collided, and her momentum carried us dangerously close to the edge.

She clawed at the railing with her fingers gripping the cold metal as she dangled above the chaos below. For a moment, I thought she might fall.

But the sound of sirens filled the air, and she froze. Authorities had flooded the grounds. Their presence was an overwhelming force that signaled the end of Aurora's reign.

Her eyes met mine, and I could see the rage and resignation in them. Would she finally give up? "You think you've won?" she hissed. Before I could reply, she let go.

I screamed, expecting her to plummet to her death, but acaught her mid-fall. The authorities were already swarming to restrain her.

The door behind us burst open, and the rest of the group ran onto the balcony. Cylan and Dilara stared in shock at the scene before them.

Dilrah's voice broke the silence. "I called them. The authorities. I... I couldn't let this continue." I turned to her, too exhausted to respond, as Hendrix stumbled besideand leaned heavily on the railing. "It's over," he muttered, exhausted and wracked with pain.

I knelt beside him. "At least we've done it," I whispered.

(Hendrix's POV)

A few hours later, the center was a hive of activity. Patients were being led out in groups. Slooked m relieved, other's fooked confused, while a few looked both confused and relieved. The authorities worked quickly to shut down operations and collect evidence.

I helped guide the remaining patients to safety even though my leg was still aching from the tranquilizer. Angel lingered near a stretcher. Her eyes were fixed on Thomas's body as it was loaded into an ambulance. The world felt surreal, like a dream I couldn't wake up from.

As I watched her, a heavy feeling settled in my chest. We'd sacrificed so much to get here, lost so many people. But for the first time, I felt a bit hopeful. "Angel," I called softly as I walked over to her.

She didn't look at me. Her gaze was still locked on the stretcher.

I stood beside her, silent for a moment. "We'll make sure it wasn't for nothing," I said finally.

She nodded, and a single tear slipped down her cheek.

As the ambulance doors closed, I made a silent vow.

Joe. Nixon. Aurora. They would all pay for what they'd done.