The two guards passed, boots echoing hollow against the stone, and Kai caught Sera's eye. She gave the barest nod. He lifted two fingers, dropped them quick. The signal.
They broke into a rush. Three shadows slipping through a corridor of firelight, feet whispering against stone, lungs burning with the knowledge that this was the single chance. No retries.
The courtyard opened before them, a hollow space beneath the enormous glass dome. Moonlight bled through the cracks, spilling across crumbled concrete and the skeletal outline of fencing in the corner. The air smelled of iron, oil, and old blood. And there—woven like thorns across their way out—was barbed wire.
"Go," Kai hissed, already calling Flicker from his shadow. The spirit twined into his hand, reshaping into heavy pliers. The teeth gleamed spectral-pale as they clamped down on the first strand. A single snap, muffled by the chaos beyond the dome. He cut again. And again.
Sera crouched behind him, eyes darting back to the corridor. Riven danced impatiently from foot to foot, muttering curses under his breath.
The final strand gave. Kai shoved the gap wide. "Up—now."
Riven went first, scrambling through with wiry ease. Sera followed, strong arms pulling herself up and over the jagged fence. Their feet hit the dirt on the other side with the sound of hope given shape.
Then the shot cracked.
Riven jerked mid-stride, his grin vanishing into a strangled gasp. The bullet tore through his ribs, spraying crimson across the glassy floor. He staggered, hands pressed to his side, but another shot split the night. His head snapped back. He collapsed boneless, sprawled in the dirt, eyes still wide with disbelief.
"No—" Kai's voice caught.
Sera spun, pipe raised, but another gunshot barked. The bullet punched into her shoulder, spinning her sideways. She still moved—fought to lunge forward—but the second round slammed into her chest. Her breath fled in a wet choke, and she toppled against the fence, barbed wire biting cruelly into her arms as if the city itself refused to let her go clean.
Kai froze, caught between moving forward and backward, between trying to drag her or flee. DM whispered flatly: [Loss confirmed. Probability collapse. Extraction compromised.]
Shadows detached from the dome's pillars. Three men stepped forward, rifles smoking, eyes cold.
"Tch," one spat, voice like gravel. "You should've stayed stray."
The barrel of his weapon swung toward Kai, steady as judgment.
DM murmured, [No favorable path. Options reduced to survival as property.]
Kai's throat tightened. He exhaled through his teeth, a hiss that was half sigh, half surrender. He dropped Flicker back into shadow. There was no winning here. Not against three guns and the weight of the city itself.
The men closed in, their boots deliberate, the stench of sweat and gunpowder clinging to them. One kicked Riven's corpse with casual disgust. Another spat near Sera's fallen body.
"Waste of stock," the tallest muttered. "Two less heads to sell."
"Don't matter," another said. "This one's still worth coin. Zone Alpha stock. Quiet type. They like quiet."
They dragged Kai back the way he'd come, shackles clanging against stone, ribs aching where fists slammed into him for daring to resist even a little. The pens swallowed him once again, that stink of rust and despair wrapping around his lungs.
The brand waited.
One of them stoked the iron in a brazier until it glowed red, then white-hot, heat shimmer warping the air around it. Kai was shoved to his knees, arms pinned behind him. He tried to twist, but hands like iron locked him in place.
The first kiss of the brand seared his cheek. Agony exploded across his skull, sharp enough to tear a scream from his throat before he could hold it back. The stench of burning flesh filled his nostrils, sickly sweet and thick. The sound—the hiss of skin searing—would stay lodged in his mind long after the pain itself faded.
He sagged forward, chest heaving, saliva thick in his mouth. But they weren't finished.
A needle gleamed next, held by gloved hands. The liquid inside shimmered faintly, wrong even to look at. He tried to jerk away, but a fist smashed into his ribs, knocking the breath out of him. The needle slid into his neck. The burn of it spread quick, a cold fire that wormed through his veins.
His vision swam. The world tilted. Colors sharpened until every flicker of lamplight was too bright, every sound too loud. His eyes dilated, swallowing the dark, and his jaw slackened. A moan slipped free unbidden as euphoria rushed in, drowning pain, drowning fear.
[Resist,] DM urged. Its voice was strained, the first hint of desperation Kai had ever heard from it. [Focus. Identify compound. Fight it.]
But Kai only sighed, lips wet with drool. His body melted against the stone, obedience settling into his bones like a chain forged from within. The voices of the men blurred together. Orders, laughter, insults—it was all noise. His thoughts dissolved into sugar-water haze.
Hours blurred into nothing. He drifted in and out, drooling, eyes glassy, heart hammering in a rhythm he couldn't slow. The brand on his cheek throbbed with dull ache, but even that was muted by the artificial ecstasy.
When the high began to ebb, it left him hollow, scraped raw from the inside. His skin itched, his muscles twitched, and his hands clawed unconsciously at the puncture in his neck. He wanted more—needed more.
DM broke through the fog, voice sharp now, cutting. [Kai. Listen. It is called Chain. A synthetic compound. Designed to bind you in obedience. You must fight the addiction. Do not let it cage you from within.]
Kai scratched harder at the wound, nails dragging lines into his own skin. The craving gnawed at him, louder than hunger, louder than pain. He could barely hear DM at all.
Still, somewhere deep inside, a corner of himself stirred—a spark that knew this wasn't survival. This was slavery dressed as bliss.
And it terrified him.
The 'R' burned onto his cheek itched
But the itch, the urge that filled Kai.
That felt permanent.