The sirens had stopped blaring hours ago, but the aftershock still lingered in the bones of the city. Smoke coiled through the collapsed archways of Sector B-13, and the sky above the Neutral Zone was a color that didn't exist on any chart not blue, not gray, just... exhausted.
Kei Jalen stepped over a piece of broken pipe, the soles of his scavenged boots flapping. His shirt was torn near the left sleeve, and the hole had gotten wider since morning. "Another beautiful day in heaven," he muttered, peering into a trash unit with a bent crowbar in hand.
Nothing. Just compacted duracans and the sour stench of hot ammonia.
"You're back early," came a voice from above.
Kei looked up at the crumbling apartment ledge where his younger sister, Amika, leaned. She was twelve but carried herself like she was already thirty, with braided hair tied up and eyes that had seen far too many evacuation drills.
"Wasn't much to find," Kei called back. "Raiders beat me to the good zones."
"You said that yesterday."
"And the day before that. Starting to think I'm cursed."
"Or lazy."
"Same thing."
Amika disappeared from the ledge, and a moment later the sound of sliding metal echoed as the front hatch creaked open. Kei ducked into the tenement their home and bolted it shut behind him. The door had no lock anymore, just a manual bolt and a stack of boxes leaned against it.
Inside, the walls pulsed faintly with old circuitry. Most didn't work. One screen still blinked softly in the corner, displaying endless error messages from when the power grid failed three winters ago.
"Do you eat?" Kei asked.
Amika shrugged. "Saved you half."
He grinned. "You're the best little sister a mooch could ask for."
"And you're the worst brother a girl could be stuck with."
They sat on opposite sides of the crate-table, chewing in silence. Synthetic beans again. Slightly burnt, but warm.
Kei looked at her face as she ate that small frown she always wore, like she was trying to hold her breath forever. He hated how normal it had become.
"You heard the broadcast?" he asked between bites.
Amika nodded. "Lan transport got hijacked. Near the Cradle Rings."
"Really?" He whistled. "Those are Concord lanes. Some serious balls."
"Idiots," she said. "People keep messing with the system and they wonder why everything gets worse."
Kei leaned back, balancing the chair on two legs. "It's not like the Concord cares about us either. We're just background static to them."
"Still. Stealing Lan's asking for a death sentence."
He didn't reply. She wasn't wrong. But something about it stirred a bitter admiration in him. To even get near Lan that pure, godlike energy was to get near power. Control. Meaning.
That Night
Kei couldn't sleep. The heat buzzed against his skin, sticky and loud. Out past the window, the skyline of B-13 looked like a rusted maze drawn by a drunk god. Neon signs flickered, and airships groaned above like dying whales.
He slid out from under the blanket and grabbed his crowbar. "Back in ten," he whispered, though Amika was already asleep.
He wandered down the alleyways, listening. Always listening. The Neutral Zone never truly slept it just paused its chaos, waiting for a reason to wake up and burn.
A low sound caught his ear. Not machinery. Not footsteps.
Something... crying?
He followed it through the wreckage, into a collapsed tunnel where the old transit rails still shimmered faintly. There, half-buried under concrete and wires, was a creature. Not human.
It was small, trembling, glowing faintly green. Like a translucent fox, but with liquid veins of light tracing across its body pulsing rhythmically like a heartbeat.
Kei freeze.
It was a Lan Beast .
He'd only ever heard rumors. Creatures born from long-term exposure to Lan — twisted, mutated, sometimes divine. And this one was injured. A massive gash ran down its side, leaking green mist.
"…Hey," Kei said softly, approaching with his palms up. "I'm not here to hurt you."
The creature blinked at him, breathing raggedly. Its body spasmed.
Kei dropped to one knee, ignoring the voice in his head that screamed to run. "You're bleeding out," he said. "Wait, do you…bleed?"
His fingers hovered near the wound. A strange urge welled up inside him, raw and foreign — not fear, not instinct, but connection .
And then it happened.
The green mist swirled, and his fingers brushed against its surface.
In that instant, something detonated inside him.
The Awakening
Kei collapsed onto the floor, seizing. Green tendrils shot from the creature's wound and latched onto his chest, not piercing but merging threading light into his skin, his bones, his core .
His vision blurred. His ears rank.
And he saw things. Memories that weren't his. Folding galaxies. Starfire storms. A green giant born from vines wrapping around planets. A whisper in his mind:
"You are chosen."
He screamed.
When he woke up, the tunnel was silent. The creature was gone.
But his body…pulsed. Every nerve felt sharp and alive.
His arms cracked faintly. Green light danced across his veins like circuitry.
"What the hell…?" he whispered.
Escape
The silence didn't last.
A whistle rang through the air sharp, mechanical.
Kei turned and saw them.
Three figures in white armor with black visors. The Concord's Collectors . Elite hunters. They weren't supposed to patrol Neutral Zones.
One of them raised a hand. "Subject 46 identified. Green Lan signature confirmed. Engage."
Kei panicked.
He sprinted.
The air behind him exploded as one of the Collectors launched a stun spear. He dodged sideways, tumbling through debris, heart pounding.
"I don't have a weapon!" he shouted.
Didn't matter. They weren't here to fight. They were here to capture .
Another blast, he jumped. Or tried to. His legs surged with an alien strength. The jump carried him six meters forward.
"What the!?"
His hands snapped forward instinctively and the vines came.
Bursting from his arms like coiled snakes, thick green roots slammed into the side wall, lifting rubble and forming a shield behind him.
Kei stumbled backward, staring at his own hands.
He laughed.
"Okay. This is awesome."
Then one of the Collectors broke through the vines, spear in hand.
"Less awesome!"
Kei ducked, instinctively slamming his palm into the ground. The concrete split. A thick root shot upward like a battering ram, shooting the enemy across the tunnel.
He stood panting.
He could feel it now. Lan .
Living inside him.
Home Again
He limped back to the apartment near dawn, his shirt torn and hands still faintly glowing.
Amika stared when she saw him.
"You look like hell," she said.
He dropped onto the floor, breathing heavy.
"You ever see a fox that glows and talks to your soul?"
Amika blinked. "You're bleeding."
"No, I'm not." He checked. "…Okay, yeah. A little."
She brought over bandages. As she wrapped her arm, she said, "Kei. You touched Lan, didn't you?"
He didn't answer.
"I don't know if you're lucky or cursed."
"Both," he said. "But... I'm done hiding. I felt it, Mika. The power... it wants me to do something."
She sat beside him.
"Then do it better than the ones who ruined everything."
He smiled, tired but alive.
"For once," he said, "I might actually be good at something other than stealing beans."