The alarm broke the silence.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Kael opened his eyes, groaning softly. His muscles ached. Ribs still bruised from a week of hell. But the dull pain was finally bearable.
He rose slowly from bed, breathing shallow. Morning light bled through the blinds—soft and golden. Almost too peaceful for what they were living through.
Brush. Brush.
Water splashed.
His reflection stared back—pale, exhausted, hollow-eyed.
But alive.
---
Downstairs, the kitchen was quiet.
Raegal sat at the table, eyes fixed on an old tablet. Smoke from his cigarette curled in slow spirals.
Alex sat opposite him, absently stirring his black coffee with a spoon he never used. Their silence wasn't awkward—it was practiced.
Kael joined them. He watched Alex for a few seconds, then cleared his throat.
"I wanted to talk to you," he said quietly.
Alex didn't look up.
"I've been… ignoring you. For too long. I didn't trust you when I should've. I—"
Alex stood up mid-sentence, his chair scraping the floor.
"I'm full," he muttered.
He placed his half-eaten food on the counter and walked out without looking back.
Kael sat frozen.
Raegal said nothing. Just lit another cigarette.
---
That evening, the three of them sat on the rooftop.
Kael and Alex drank flat cola from old glass bottles.
Raegal smoked in silence, legs dangling over the ledge, eyes fixed on the dying sun.
The wind was calm. The world was too still.
"It's quiet," Kael said.
"Too quiet," Alex replied, deadpan.
Kael didn't laugh. He just stared into the sky, a hollow stillness settling in his chest.
They sat like that for a long time.
Three broken men beneath a burning sunset.
Believing that for one night—they were free.
---
That night—
Alex couldn't sleep.
The room was too silent. No footsteps. No drones. No buzzing.
And that's what scared him.
He lay on his cot, staring at the ceiling.
Something in his bones was wrong. Off.
He closed his eyes. Focused.
Beep…
Beep…
Beep…
His eyes snapped open.
"That's… shit, that's not the microwave…"
His legs tensed—instinct begging him to run.
He jumped out of bed and sprinted into the hallway.
"KAEL—IT'S A BO—"
BOOOOM.
The house exploded.
Fire, smoke, and shrapnel tore through the walls. Pressure blasted outward. Wood shattered.
Alex was thrown back, dust choking his lungs. His ears rang.
When he opened his eyes, everything was grey.
Dust. Smoke. Blood.
Then came footsteps.
Light. Cold. Inhuman.
---
He coughed, dragging himself from the rubble.
Half his shirt was scorched. Blood dripped from his eyebrow.
His head throbbed. His vision swam.
Then he saw her.
A figure stepping through the smoke.
A girl. Blonde hair. Teenager. Cold. Focused.
She walked like she'd done this before.
"Oh… it's you," she muttered.
Her voice was calm. Unfeeling.
Lily.
She raised a pistol and pointed it at Alex's head.
---
"I don't want to kill you."
"Just tell me where the old man is." Her voice never wavered.
Alex smiled.
Even now—bleeding, aching—he looked cocky.
"Lily. The one who betrayed her own family," he said, brushing dust off his sleeve.
He wasn't afraid.
Back in the White Room, he once tried to kill Kael in his sleep.
Didn't go too well.
---
A wooden board cracked upward.
Kael burst out of the rubble, breathing hard, blood trailing down his jaw.
His eyes widened.
"…Lily?"
His heart twisted. That name—once soft—now felt like a curse.
He wanted to reach out.
But the Lily he knew… was gone.
Her expression didn't change.
She raised a second gun.
One at Alex.
One at Kael.
Three lives staring each other down.
Three children ruined by the same lab.
One blinded by revenge.
Two just trying to survive.
---
"Alex… you think she knows Japanese?"
"I don't—"
"しぬ."
Kael turned his gun and shot Alex.
---
Alex dropped like a corpse.
Lily blinked once, steadying her breath.
Kael's voice came low.
"Why would I betray my sister… for someone like him?"
She hesitated.
Kael moved.
"FIRE!"
Her shot came a second too late. Kael rolled through the ash.
"THIS WON'T WORK AGAIN ON ME, LILY!" he screamed.
---
Alex moved.
He hadn't been hit—just played dead.
He rose behind Lily and swung.
She ducked—too fast.
Then spun and kicked him in the ribs.
CRACK.
Alex hit the ground, coughing blood.
---
Kael winced.
"She's not human…"
"Totally…" Alex grunted, crawling back.
Lily scanned the scene once more.
Then stepped back.
"Tell Raegal… that the daughter he sold… is alive."
She fired a grappling hook upward and vanished.
---
"Sold…?" Kael muttered.
Kael's heart ached—almost like it skipped a beat.
"No… Raegal… He—He couldn't."
---
Alex slumped onto the rubble, wheezing.
"She ran?" he coughed.
Kael nodded, lifting him up.
"Not fair when two superhumans gang up on you," Alex chuckled, clutching his ribs.
"I think I broke… at least three…"
Kael let out a weak breath.
"Let's go ho—"
He froze.
There was no home left.
Just smoke. Broken wood. A crater of a life.
And in the middle of it all—
asleep on the ruined floor—
lay Raegal.
Unbothered.
---
They limped over.
Collapsed near him.
Breathing.
Alive.
Scarred.
---
"WAKE UP!" Kael yelled. "WE GOT BOMBED."
Raegal opened one eye.
Kael stared.
"You're literally buried in rubble."
"Good insulation," Raegal muttered.
Alex groaned.
"It was…—"
"Lily…?" Raegal finished.