The military base reeked of steel, sweat, and regret.
Zayden stood in line, boots sinking slightly into the muddy ground as rain continued its assault from above. Uniforms weren't supposed to feel like shackles—but his did. Every thread whispered the same thing: You left her.
He clenched his jaw.
Two hundred recruits stood shoulder-to-shoulder under the cold drizzle, but Zayden felt alone.
A name barked through a megaphone snapped him out of his thoughts."Wu Zayden!"
He stepped forward.
The officer barely looked at him as he shoved a rifle into his hands. "You're nothing until we make you something. Understood?"
"Understood, sir," Zayden replied, voice steady. Inside, his heart raged.
He wasn't here to find honor. He wasn't here to serve a flag.
He was here to disappear.
---
Three Months Later.
They broke his body.
They tried to break his spirit.
But each push-up, each bruise, each sleepless night… only hardened something inside him.
He never called home. Never wrote. There was nothing to say.
Aria's face haunted him every time he closed his eyes—her tears, her trembling voice, the way she begged him to stay. He'd replayed that final moment more times than he could count. The worst part?
He still wasn't sure if walking away had saved her—or destroyed them both.
---
Six Months Later – Operation Black Ash.
A jungle. Foreign soil. A black-ops mission they weren't supposed to exist in.
Zayden crouched in the shadows, rifle tight against his chest. Five soldiers ahead. Three flanking. Silent hand signals in the dark.
Then—
Boom.
Explosions tore through the silence. Screams followed.
Gunfire rained down from above. They'd been ambushed.
"Those bastards knew everything!""There's a rat in the command! We've been f**king betrayed!"
Zayden's blood ran cold.
What...?His breath caught in his throat as bullets tore through the jungle.
"They knew our route... our timing... everything!"
The words echoed louder than the gunshots.
Zayden's eyes went bloodshot with rage.
Who?! Who betrayed us?Someone gave them our lives—just handed us over like trash!Coward. Bastard. I'll find you. I swear to God, I'll—
An explosion nearby threw him to the ground. Heat. Shrapnel. Screams.
Zayden spun around—his squad leader took a bullet to the neck.Another teammate detonated trying to cover retreat. Blood soaked the soil. The jungle roared.
Zayden ran.
He ran until his legs gave out. Blood poured from a wound in his side—he didn't know when he got hit. Trees blurred. His vision swam. Then...
Mist.
A strange, glowing mist rolled across the jungle floor like it didn't belong to this world. The air turned still. Heavy. Electric.
His hand touched something—air that pushed back. Like a wall of glass, invisible but solid.
And then—
The world snapped.
Light engulfed him.
And when Zayden Wu opened his eyes… the world he knew was gone.