### **Arc 6: The Kill Switch**
#### **Chapter 25: The Price of Truth**
The geothermal vent was a descent into the planet's gut. Hot, humid air thick with the smell of sulfur filled their lungs. They rappelled in silence, the only sounds the scrape of their gear against the rock and the distant, dying groans of the collapsing facility above.
When they finally emerged into a wind-whipped Siberian night, miles from the epicenter of their escape, the exhaustion hit them like a physical blow. Kuro, running on caffeine and adrenaline for forty-eight hours, stumbled, caught only by Renji's steadying hand. Hikari leaned against a snow-dusted rock, her small frame trembling not from the cold, but from the aftershock of her psychological war. She had touched the minds of those soldiers, felt their fear, and twisted it. The victory felt like a stain on her soul.
Renji, the last pillar of strength, scanned the horizon. His ICC had receded, leaving behind a migraine that felt like shattered glass behind his eyes and muscles that twitched with phantom electricity. He had won the battle, but the weight of his mother's last words was a heavier burden than any physical toll. His parents weren't just victims; they were unwilling architects of the very system that had consumed them. The clean lines of his vengeance had blurred into a messy, heartbreaking tangle of duty and grief.
A low hum grew in the distance. A sleek, matte-black VTOL aircraft, unmarked and utterly silent, descended from the low-hanging clouds, its landing lights cutting through the swirling snow. It was their extraction, a relic of Kyro's former life, called in by one of the few contacts he still trusted.
As they boarded the aircraft, leaving the Siberian wasteland behind, a fragile silence settled over them. They had the data—the "unsent letter"—but the truth was not a key that unlocked a simple solution. It was a poison. And they had all taken a lethal dose.