Traitor in the light
The explosives Kael had planted earlier — small charges, not to destroy, but to collapse escape routes — triggered all at once. The outer corridors caved in.
Smoke filled the chamber.
In the chaos, Kael lunged.
He moved like a ghost — striking Darex hard, knocking him to the floor. Elen dashed forward, cutting the prisoners loose, dragging them toward cover.
Darex tried to rise — but Kael was already on him, blade at his throat.
"You kill because it's easy," Kael said coldly.
"I fight because it's hard."
He didn't strike the killing blow.
Instead, he slammed Darex's head into the stone — hard enough to knock him out, but leave him breathing.
"This isn't mercy," Kael muttered.
"It's war."
Minutes Later – Tunnel Exit
Elen hauled the prisoners out through the emergency shaft. Kael followed, dragging Darex's unconscious body.
They emerged into the early gray of morning — smoke curling in the skyline, sirens echoing in the far distance.
Elen turned to Kael, stunned. "You didn't kill him."
"Not yet," he said. "He started something bigger than just us."
He looked down at Darex's still form.
"And to end it… I need him alive."
Resistance Outpost – Sector Nine – 06:07 A.M.
The dawn burned orange across a fractured city.
Inside the concrete bunker, Darex was chained to a reinforced chair, bruised but grinning. His mask had been removed. For the first time, Kael saw the full weight of time and madness etched into his face.
"You look disappointed," Darex smirked.
"Expecting a monster, got a mirror."
Kael didn't speak. He paced instead — cold, focused, unreadable.
Elen stood nearby, arms folded, watching. Two guards flanked the door. Everything seemed under control.
"Why keep me alive?" Darex asked. "Trying to redeem me?"
Kael finally spoke. "No. I need to know what comes next."
Darex's smile widened.
"Smart. Because the city's fall was just phase one. The real plan?"
"It activates with me dead."
Kael froze.
"What did you trigger?"
Darex leaned in. "Ask your allies. Not everyone in your little rebellion shares your sense of restraint."
Kael turned toward the command console — but something was off.
One of the guards was… gone.
He spun around.
Too late.
A blade slashed through the air, striking Elen's side. She cried out and fell. Kael moved instinctively, drawing his sidearm.
The other "guard" ripped off his helmet.
Commander Rell — formerly of the regime, now a trusted member of the Resistance council.
"I always believed in the purge," Rell said. "You just weren't willing to finish it."
With one shot, he shattered Darex's chains.
"Darex's plan was flawed — but useful. Now we rebuild the city our way."
Darex grinned, blood dripping from his lip. "Told you I make good friends."
Kael fired — but Darex and Rell dove into the side hall. Smoke charges filled the room.
"Stop them!" Kael shouted, coughing, dragging Elen behind cover.
But when the smoke cleared…
They were gone.
Minutes Later – Emergency Medical Station
Elen lay on a stretcher, pale but conscious. "They planned it all… the escape, the betrayal."
Kael nodded grimly.
"This war's not over. It's just changed faces."
He looked out the window, toward the burning skyline.
Darex had allies. The regime wasn't dead. And now a new faction had emerged — willing to do anything for control.
Kael clenched his fists.
"No more shadows."
"Next time, I take the war to them."
Outer Slums – Sector Twelve – 02:04 A.M.
The streets were silent — not because they were safe, but because they were owned.
Rell's new faction, calling itself The Purifiers, had taken hold of the outer zones. Their promise?
Order through fear. Stability through surveillance. A "clean slate."
Kael crouched in the shadows, his face hidden beneath a rebreather mask and hood. Elen's voice buzzed faintly in his ear.
"You're deep now. Signal drop-off will hit in ten minutes. After that… you're alone."
"Wouldn't be the first time," Kael whispered.
He moved through the ruins of an old comm tower. His ID chip — stolen from a captured Purifier — granted him access through the first checkpoint.
Guards didn't look twice. In this world, fear was thicker than trust.
Blend. Observe. Don't engage.
Those were the rules.
But inside the heart of the camp, Kael saw the truth.
Children being trained to kill.
Civilians branded with tracking implants.
Executions livestreamed as loyalty tests.
The Purifiers weren't a militia — they were a cult of control, built on Darex's chaos and Rell's doctrine.
Then he saw him.
Darex.
Standing atop a makeshift stage, surrounded by armed fanatics.
He wasn't in chains now. He was in command.
"Ghost thought the people wanted mercy," Darex said to the crowd. "But mercy is weakness. And weakness built the old world."
"We burn that world. Together."
The crowd erupted in cheers.
Kael's fists tightened. He recorded every word, every face.
But then—
"We have a traitor in our ranks," Darex said suddenly, gaze sweeping the soldiers.
"And I want him found."
Kael froze.
Had he been made?
His stolen ID chip pulsed red. Someone had activated a trace protocol.
"Elen," he whispered. "They're onto me."
No response.
His comms were dead.
"All units, lock the perimeter!" barked a Purifier captain.
"No one leaves until the Ghost is bled dry."
Kael's cover was gone.
And now…
He had to fight his way out — or disappear completely.
Purifier Encampment – Inner Perimeter – 02:42 A.M.
Chaos hummed in the air.
Searchlights crisscrossed the camp. Purifier drones swept the corridors. Every soldier wore a scowl and an itchy trigger finger.
But Kael had vanished.
Not by running.
By blending in.
He moved beneath their noses, changing uniforms, altering his gait, adopting the posture of a loyal grunt. He knew how they walked. He was trained to be one of them — once.
Now, he used it against them.
Underground Power Grid
Kael slipped through a maintenance hatch. Sparks lit the dark as he pried open the grid's spine.
He rigged a timed EMP charge — enough to knock out the comms and cameras in the upper zone.
Enough to confuse, not kill.
He didn't need bodies.
He needed cracks in their foundation.
One system down. Four more to go.