The broken mask fell from Cipher's face, clattering against the concrete.
For a moment, silence hung in the ruined air, broken only by the distant wail of sirens and the static hum of broken Execution Codes flickering around them.
Cipher stood there, breathing heavily, crimson blood trickling down the side of his jaw — but his eyes were sharp. Alive. Focused.
Riven gritted his teeth, his fists trembling.
"You're supposed to be dead."
Cipher simply smiled — a tired, bitter thing — before spinning around.
In a blink, he moved.
Fast. Brutal.
The soldiers from Death Protocol — the ones Cipher had arrived with — barely had time to react. He tore through them like a shadow; their bodies collapsed one after another, disabled with precision strikes. No wasted movement. No hesitation.
Kira stood beside Riven, eyes wide in shock.
It wasn't a battle.
It was an execution.
When it was over, Cipher wiped the blood from his hands and turned back toward them, standing alone in the flickering aftermath.
> "I needed a cover," Cipher said. His voice was low, steady. "Pretending to be under their control was the only way to gather the truth."
Riven stepped forward, rage burning in his chest.
"You made us think you were dead, Cipher!" he shouted. "We mourned you. We fought thinking you were gone!"
Cipher's expression didn't change.
If anything, there was a glimmer of guilt in his dark eyes.
"I had no choice."
"They were watching everything. If I had even flinched the wrong way, they would've killed all of you."
The tension in the air was suffocating.
Kira lowered her blade slowly. Her hands were still shaking. She could feel it — Cipher wasn't lying.
Cipher's gaze shifted to her.
"I sabotaged the treatments they were using on you," he said.
"The drug injections, the mind control systems... I corrupted them from the inside. That's why you were able to resist. Why you broke free."
Kira's eyes widened, a wave of realization hitting her like a storm.
Cipher stepped closer.
"You weren't supposed to survive, Kira."
"They were grooming you to become something else. A weapon against something much bigger than any of us."
The words hung in the air like a dagger.
"Something?" Riven asked, narrowing his eyes.
"What are you talking about?"
Cipher's face hardened.
"Something is coming."
"Even Death Protocol is afraid of it."
"The Shadow Council... the experiments... the executioners... it was never about just controlling the world. It was about survival."
The street around them seemed to grow darker as Cipher spoke.
A chill crept down Riven's spine.
"Then we need more information," Riven said. His voice was calm now, steeled by the weight of what they were hearing.
"We need to know the truth."
Cipher nodded grimly.
"Then it's time we went straight to the source.
"We're going to find Cigar."
In the background, the soft sound of children's laughter echoed faintly from the direction of the safehouse.
Lucy, oblivious to the heavy conversation unfolding, was kneeling among the kids, patching a small scrape on a boy's knee. Her hands were gentle. Her smile, tired but warm. She was doing everything she could to keep them safe. To preserve whatever fragments of innocence they had left.
None of them knew just how fragile that safety truly was.
Because the real war had only just begun.