The Pawn’s Rebellion

The corridors stretched before her like the arteries of a dying machine, their fluorescent hum the only sound left in the Dominion facility. Jessica moved quickly, her grip firm around the pistol she had taken. The weight of it was nothing compared to the weight in her chest.

She was close. He was waiting. Mr. Black had always been waiting.

She stepped through the last doorway, into a room that overlooked a bank of monitors showing world leaders, cities, power structures shifting beneath unseen hands. This was the heart of the machine.

And at its center, Mr. Black stood with his back to her. He didn’t turn when she entered. Jessica didn’t hesitate. She raised the gun, leveling it at his back.

“It’s over.”

Mr. Black exhaled softly, slipping a hand into his pocket. Jessica’s finger tightened on the trigger.

“If you pull out a cigarette, I swear to God—”

He smirked, retrieving a single white pawn.

Jessica’s stomach twisted. Mr. Black rolled the chess piece between his fingers, finally turning to face her. Calm. Relaxed. Like this was inevitable.

“Do you know what I admire about you, Jessica?” he mused.

Jessica didn’t lower the gun. “Enlighten me.”

His dark eyes held hers. “You’re exactly what we wanted you to be.”

Her breath caught. The Truth, Laid Bare. Mr. Black stepped closer. Jessica didn’t move.

“You think you’ve beaten me,” he murmured. “That you broke free. But , you were always meant to be free. Not because I made it so, but because no one could make you otherwise.”

Jessica’s grip tightened. “Try harder, Black. I expected a better speech.”

He smiled faintly. “Who do you think erased Vanguard?”

Jessica stilled.

“Who gave you just enough to follow the trail? Who kept you alive when Dominion wanted you dead?”

Jessica swallowed. “You needed me.”

Mr. Black nodded. “I didn’t create you. But I protected you. From them. From yourself.”

Her blood ran cold.

“Dominion perfected control,” he said. “But they needed to test the opposite. Could someone break free? Could they escape their programming, their conditioning?”

Jessica felt her heart hammer against her ribs.

“You were the test, Jessica.” His voice was almost gentle. “And you passed.”

She exhaled sharply. “I am not your experiment.”

Mr. Black tilted his head. “Aren’t you? You were designed to resist, so your freedom would look real.”

Jessica’s jaw clenched. “Then why let me go?”

His expression shifted. For the first time, something flickered behind his calm. regret? Respect?

“Because I wanted to see what you’d do when you thought it was your choice.”

Jessica’s breath slowed. She saw it now, the pattern, the manipulation. She had destroyed Vanguard, erased the trail, burned the files. Not despite Dominion, but because of it. She had done exactly what they needed.

“You used me.”

Mr. Black shook his head. “You used yourself. I just built the stage.”

A long silence passed between them.

“You’re still trying to win,” she said.

“No,” he said. “I lost the moment you became something I couldn’t predict.”

She blinked. “Then why keep pushing?”

“Because the game never ends.” His voice lowered. “And there are others. You weren’t the only one, Jessica. Just the first to walk away.”

Jessica’s hands trembled slightly.

Mr. Black stepped forward, eyes narrowing.

“You’ll spend the rest of your life wondering,” he said softly. “Whether any of this was ever really yours.”

Her finger hovered on the trigger. She looked at him, not with rage now, but clarity.

“No,” she said. “You built the cage. I figured out the lock. That’s the difference.”

She pulled the trigger.

Mr. Black staggered back, blood blooming against his shirt. His smirk faltered into something else. Was it satisfaction or surrender? She couldn’t tell.

He collapsed into the chair behind him, breath shallow. Jessica lowered the gun, her chest rising and falling with quiet restraint.

He coughed, blood across his lips. “You did well,” he murmured.

She said nothing.

Mr. Black smiled one last time. Then he was gone.

Jessica’s breath came steady, her pulse slowing as the silence stretched. Her gaze drifted toward the desk, where a large dossier sat untouched. Her name was printed in bold, red ink.

JESSICA SANCHEZ : TOP SECRET

She hesitated. For a long moment, she just stared at it. Then, without a word, she reached for the file, tucking it under her arm.

She didn’t need to open it. Not yet. The answers could wait.

The world would wake up tomorrow free from Dominion’s control. But the war wasn’t over. Jessica knew that now.

His body slumped against the wall, the echo of the gunshot fading into silence.

Jessica turned to leave, but the screen behind him flickered. A video file queued itself. AUTO-TRIGGER: VITALS OFFLINE.

She hesitated. Then hit play.

Mr. Black’s face filled the screen, calm, confident.

“If you’re watching this, I’m dead. Good. I always said you had potential.” His voice lowered. “But you didn’t really think I’d leave it all behind, did you?”

A second screen lit up showing coordinates, encrypted scripts, and old Dominion asset tags.

“You were always meant to be free, Jessica. I just never said from what.”

Then static.

She stood in the silence, the coordinates still glowing on the terminal. A warning? A clue? Or another game? She didn’t know. But she would face it eyes open this time.

Jessica slid the gun back into her coat and stepped into the hallway. No more pawns. No more games. She was walking her own path now. And no one, not Dominion, not Mr. Black would ever decide for her again.