LOCATION: SECTOR C.

  "Well...? What are we going to play?" Clifford tilted his head slightly, waiting for the reaction.

  The floor beneath Zarbac's boots didn't just creak; it collapsed.

  The metal caved in, creating an instant crater beneath his feet. The momentum he gathered this time was different, an explosion of kinetic speed that surpassed anything seen before. His body moved on pure murderous instinct.

  Zarbac vanished and reappeared in front of Clifford.

  His fist stopped dead.

  "Who the fuck are you?" Zarbac growled, frowning as he saw his punch had been intercepted by an open palm, firm as a concrete wall.

  "Nobody important."

  Clifford swatted Zarbac's fist aside with a sharp flick of his wrist.

  Without missing a beat, Clifford's right leg rose like a whip, launching a high roundhouse kick. Zarbac reacted with inhuman reflexes, raising his forearm to block the impact aimed at his neck.

  Crack!

  The clash of limbs echoed in the hallway.

  "Wow...!" Zarbac exclaimed, his large, singular smile widening. "You look like a Promethe..."

  He couldn't finish.

  Clifford lowered his leg and fired a straight jab to the face, interrupting the sentence.

  Zarbac ducked at the last second. Clifford's glove cut the air where his nose had just been.

  Son of a bitch, Zarbac thought.

  From his crouched position, he immediately counterattacked, throwing a brutal uppercut toward Clifford's chin.

  "This will be so fu—" Zarbac laughed as his fist rose.

  "Shut up."

  Clifford read the movement. He ignored the threat of the fist and anticipated the position. He drove his knee up violently, impacting directly on Zarbac's exposed chin before the uppercut could connect.

  The blow snapped the madman's mouth shut. Zarbac stumbled backward, dazed, spitting saliva.

  Thus marked the beginning of the true fight in Sector C.

  This was different from all the previous ones. There were no defenseless victims. There was no weakness. There was no easy blood. Only equal brute strength.

  Although, clearly, one of them had the upper hand in madness.

  TIME: SIMULTANEOUS.

  LOCATION: REMAINING SECTORS.

  SECTOR: "A".

  "Today is a great day on the Capital Planet. Long live our founders and our Emperor," the voice came from a floating holographic panel in the living room. "Today's question is..."

  A little girl got up from the sofa and walked toward the balcony, its sliding glass doors closed. The wind blew strong at that altitude.

  "Dad, your news already started," she said, sliding the door open to step outside. "You said you wouldn't smoke anymore."

  The father slowly took the cigarette from his mouth. He was leaning against the glass railing, looking at the horizon.

  He was a man with a handsome face, fine eyebrows, and clear eyes. His pale skin and blonde hair stood out against the urban landscape: gigantic buildings of an iridescent material that seemed to tear through the clouds.

  "I'm sorry... these have an irresistible flavor," he said, flicking the cigarette into the void before turning to his daughter. "Ready for your first day?"

  The father smiled warmly.

  "No... I don't want to go." The girl lowered her gaze, clenching her fists. She turned around abruptly and went back inside the apartment, sliding the door shut with unnecessary force.

  She went straight to the kitchen, purposely making noise with the pans and utensils, seeking attention with her tantrum.

  "Received..." said the synthetic voice of a dispenser next to the refrigerator. "Materializing standard breakfast."

  The father entered the living room, watching her from afar.

  She's identical to you... Chloé, he thought, seeing his daughter's scowl.

  "As such, there is only speculation regarding the Emperor's health," the news broadcast continued, causing the man to stop and listen. "The Prime Minister has stated that his regency is due to a strictly personal issue."

  "I feel that the truly concerning part, should it be true," another analyst interrupted on the broadcast, "is about who will be on the throne after him. Let's remember there is no official heir yet."

  The father sighed upon hearing this. Unconsciously, he touched the bracelet on his wrist. It didn't have a blue crystal like the military ones; it was a soft green color.

  "Let's go," the girl said, biting into a freshly made sandwich as she walked past him.

  "Alright. Say goodbye to mom." The father nodded toward a photograph hanging on the wall.

  The girl stopped for a second. She didn't get closer.

  "See you soon," she murmured in a muted voice, looking at the photo from a distance.

  She left the kitchen and turned left toward the exit.

  The father watched her leave, her backpack bouncing on her shoulders. He closed his eyes for a moment, as if praying.

  "You'll see, she will be even stronger than you..." he whispered.

  As he closed his eyes, the image of the apartment faded. All that remained was darkness.

  The sound of the news broadcast warped until it became a high-pitched hum.

  He felt his own heart beating, but not calmly. It was an erratic drum.

  Tranquility...

  Calm...

  And suddenly, pain.

  A small point of light appeared in the blackness, dancing. Her breathing sounded forced, raspy, as if swallowing smoke.

  "What happened...?" Lyana mumbled, dazed.

  She opened her eyes with a titanic effort. The pristine ceiling of the apartment was gone; now she saw broken pipes and scorched metal. She sat up slowly, feeling the world spinning.

  "A dream...?" She touched her forehead, noticing ash on her fingers.

  Someone touched her shoulder.

  "Hey..."

  Selene's voice sounded rough, strained, as if she had glass in her throat.

  "Are you okay?"

  Lyana turned her head toward her. It took her a second to focus on her partner's face through the smoke. She nodded slightly.

  "And you?" Lyana asked.

  Selene brought her hand to the back of her neck. When she pulled it away, she saw her fingers covered in her own blood, red and thick. She stared at the stain for a moment, her eyes wide, fighting the daze of shock.

  "That explosion..." she grunted quietly, more to herself than to Lyana. "Almost killed us."

  It was then that another sound pierced the ringing in their ears. A high-pitched, terrified sound that barely managed to overcome the crackling of the flames: crying. Several of them.

  They both turned their heads at the same time toward the adjoining room. A bluish fire burned with chemical intensity over the rubble. It had a strange, almost liquid appearance, deceptively harmless.

  "Shit!" Selene exclaimed. The shock evaporated instantly, replaced by pure adrenaline.

  "Initiating security protocol," the AI's voice announced over the PA system, broken by static. "Critical failure... Manual system reactivation required."

  "Fuck!" Selene shouted again, ignoring the pain. "Lyana... let's go!"

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  Lyana nodded without complaint.

  They moved immediately toward the breach the explosion had opened in the wall. They walked almost in sync, with military urgency, but there was a difference: Selene was slightly dragging her right foot, not out of exhaustion, but because something in her leg wasn't responding well.

  Inside the room, the disaster was total. The walls were blackened by soot, most of the monitors were burning and sparking, and the glass wall that separated that room from the neonatal ward simply ceased to exist.

  A dense metallic dust floated in the air, a glowing cloud spreading slowly and inexorably throughout the place.

  "You go!" Selene ordered, limping toward a central monitor that was still blinking. "I'll activate the system."

  "Hurry!" Lyana replied, running toward the area where the cribs should be.

  "Warning..." the AI sounded in their personal transmitters. "Critical levels of suspended metallic particles. Inhalation hazard."

  Hearing the warning, almost with a synchronized reflex movement, they both touched their bracelets.

  The nanotechnology responded instantly. The material flowed from their wrists toward their necks and faces, solidifying in a matter of seconds to form hermetic metallic masks.

  Now they could breathe. But time was running out.

  "Ready?!" Lyana shouted as she reached the cribs, shoving aside a robotic nurse that was blocking the way over an incubator.

  "Almost!"

  The metallic dust was beginning to descend dangerously close to the blue flames.

  Lyana activated the brakes on the cribs and grouped them as far away as possible from the heat source.

  "System failure..." reported the monitor's AI. "Enter manual authorization code."

  The dust was inches from the fire. One more spark and the air would become a thermobaric bomb.

  "Failure... the system has been externally hacked..."

  "Damn it!" Selene slammed her closed fist against the screen.

  Lyana activated her shield, trying to cover as many cribs as possible.

  "Ignore protocol due to imminent danger!" Selene roared, physically bypassing the system.

  "Forced access granted."

  "Finally!" Selene looked at Lyana.

  From the ceiling, the smoke extractors opened with an industrial roar, sucking the stale air and metal dust into the filters. Simultaneously, hundreds of micro-drones emerged from the security compartments like a swarm of mechanical wasps.

  The machines dove onto the blue fire. Water didn't come from their bellies, but precise shots of chemical suppressor foam.

  One alone was insignificant. But being thousands acting as a hive, the foam suffocated the fire in seconds, leaving only a white, smoking crust over the destroyed equipment.

  "Thank goodness..." Lyana sighed.

  The adrenaline tremor hit her all at once. She looked down, resting her hands on her knees to keep from falling.

  Selene leaned heavily against the powered-down monitor. The smell of burnt metal, ozone, and chemical extinguisher was suffocating, even through the mask filters.

  "Good job, Lyana..." Selene said. Her voice sounded rough, raspy.

  Lyana looked up, ready to reply, but the words froze in her throat. The relief on her face transformed into confusion and then into fear.

  "Selene..." she whispered. "You're bleeding."

  Selene looked at her own hand and seemed to notice for the first time the fresh blood dripping from the back of her neck, staining the pristine floor. But before she could process her own injury, the sound of heavy boots running down the hallway put them on alert.

  They both raised their weapons again, aiming at the entrance.

  The metal door next to the explosion hole slid open abruptly.

  "HALT! AREA SECURED!" an authoritative voice shouted.

  A platoon of soldiers entered the room, deploying tactically.

  They wore white armor, neat, unblemished. On their pauldrons shone the golden emblem of the dragonfly: the White Cradle.

  They aimed their weapons at the disaster, but lowered their barrels slightly upon identifying the two women.

  "Are you alright, officers?" the leader asked, approaching cautiously but without lowering his guard. "The central AI alerted us of your presence and the detonation. A combat medical team is on the way for the neonates."

  Selene nodded, tense. She didn't lower her reaction pistol. There was something in the cleanliness of those soldiers that contrasted too much with the hell they had just lived through.

  "We were... busy," Selene replied dryly, nodding toward the smoking chaos.

  Right at that moment, Selene's transmitter came to life.

  It wasn't a clean beep. It was a deafening burst of static that made them shudder.

  Through the white noise, a human, terrified voice emerged. It was Major Matsumoto.

  "...zzrrt... Fox Squad! Do you copy?!" the voice sounded broken, on the verge of panic. "To everyone still left standing... head to Sector C and provide backup!"

  A freezing silence fell over the room, colder than the suppression system. Matsumoto's words bounced in their ears with a sepulchral weight.

  Selene squeezed the transmitter tightly.

  "I REPEAT, PROVIDE IMMEDIATE BACKUP!"

  "Sir?" Lyana paled behind her mask. "What do you mean by... 'those still left standing'?"

  The only answer was another burst of static and the transmission cutting off.

  Lyana and Selene looked at each other. The same horror reflected in their eyes. The fire, the explosion, the sabotage... it hadn't been an accident or an isolated attack.

  "Lunaria... Krzytof..." Selene whispered, pale.

  "Cedric..." Lyana's voice cracked as she pronounced the name.

  The fear for them completely swept away their exhaustion. It was instant, violent fuel.

  "Officer, wait!" the leader of the White Cradle platoon shouted upon seeing her move. "The area is not secure!"

  But Lyana was no longer listening. She shot down the hallway, running with blind desperation, the same she had felt in her dream, but now real.

  "Lyana, wait!" Selene shouted, touching her bracelet to deactivate her mask.

  She cursed under her breath. She looked at the White Cradle leader and snapped furiously:

  "Secure the children!"

  And limping, dragging her injured leg but moving with an unnatural speed born of loyalty, Selene ran after her into the darkness of the hallway.

  SECTOR: "B".

  Meanwhile, deep inside Sector B, the situation was different.

  After securing the first group of hostages, Cedric and Aki had advanced deep into the structure, freeing more civilians. However, they had not been successful with Aki's primary objective: his fiancée was nowhere to be found.

  On their journey, Aki had pointed out with surgical precision the spots where they kept prisoners. Just as they were heading toward another of these locations, Matsumoto's warning broke the silence of the comms.

  Cedric stopped dead.

  Aki, who was a step behind, bumped into his armored back.

  "Are you okay?" Aki asked, confused, taking a step back. "Cedric?"

  There was no answer.

  Cedric's face was rigid, his jaw tense. His pupils had contracted to pinheads. He seemed to suffer from tunnel vision, as if the infinite hallway in front of him had swallowed his soul, leaving him catatonic.

  "...zzrrtt..." the static from his transmitter sounded sharp, drilling into the ear. "Do you copy...?"

  Cedric didn't react.

  "...zzrrtt... Do you copy?" the voice resonated again, familiar and laden with urgency. "Damn it...! Answer, Cedric!"

  He gripped his sword's handle tightly, until the hilt creaked.

  "If you hear this, don't go alone. You hear me...? That's an order!" Selene's voice sounded choppy through the interference. "Lyana and I will meet you in your sector."

  Cedric blinked several times. The initial shock dissipated, replaced by a mechanical coldness. He brought his free hand to his transmitter. The sound of static increased, but he didn't even flinch.

  "Received," he said in a muted voice. Then, he instructed his internal system: "Share my location."

  "Negative..." his AI responded instantly. "Unable to establish link in high interference zone. Readings show a strong electrostatic anomaly in the eastern zone of the Blitz."

  He sighed slightly and turned to Aki.

  The White Cradle soldier looked at him in disbelief. He didn't seem to understand what was happening; it was evident that Major Matsumoto's warning had been selective, or his frequency was jammed.

  "Do you know where the hallway connecting to the other sectors is?" he looked at him coldly.

  "Yes..." Aki answered slowly, hesitating at the change in behavior. "One of the rooms with the largest number of hostages is located there."

  Again, Cedric squeezed his sword's handle. His gaze turned icy. There was something in Aki's certainty that he found insulting... or suspicious.

  "Tell me something..." Cedric lowered his head slightly, hiding his eyes. "Are you a damn traitor?"

  It was a blurry movement. Fast. Lethal.

  He drew his sword in a blink. The sharp, black blade gleamed for an instant in the hallway's emergency light, before stopping millimeters from Aki's throat.

  A drop of sweat slowly ran down the soldier's cheek, sliding down to fall on the dark steel that threatened to decapitate him.

  "What... what are you doing...?" Aki asked, trembling, hands raised. "Why do you want to kill me?"

  Cedric frowned.

  "How is it you know where the hostages are?" he pressed the edge a little more against the skin. "It makes no sense."

  Aki began to soak in cold sweat.

  "It makes no sense?! I told you..." his voice pitched, though his body remained rigid with fear. "I'm looking for my fiancée. I was in this zone when everything happened."

  "Did you see them?" Cedric asked almost in a whisper.

  "What are you talking about?" Aki tensed his neck.

  "The hostages!" Cedric exclaimed. "Did you see where they put each group?!"

  For a few seconds there was no answer. The question seemed absurd to Aki, whose face reflected a mixture of genuine terror and confusion.

  "I promise you by the glory of the White Cradle, I am not a traitor."

  Cedric sighed, disappointed.

  "Don't give me that bullshit." He shifted the weight of the sword, making a superficial cut on the skin of his neck. A thread of blood welled up.

  "Then by the love I have for my fiancée!" Aki shouted with a firm voice, closing his eyes. "I am not a traitor!"

  Another long sigh escaped Cedric.

  This time, upon hearing it, he slowly lowered the sword. His gaze softened a bit, losing its murderous intent, although it remained far from friendly.

  "Let's continue." He sheathed the weapon with a dry click. "I'll be right behind you."

  Aki nodded, swallowing hard. He turned and began to walk at a slow pace, feeling Cedric's gaze burning into the back of his neck.

  "Trust me," Aki said, without turning around, drawing a slight smile on his face.

  Cedric didn't answer. He just tightened his grip on the sword's handle again.

  They walked a few more meters until they reached an intersection, enveloped by the constant hum of alarms and the rhythmic echo of their own breaths.

  Suddenly, Aki stopped dead in front of a bend in the hallway.

  Cedric, his nerves on edge, almost bumped into him. By pure combat reflex, his hand went to the sword's hilt, unsheathing a few inches of black steel.

  But before he could threaten him again, Aki turned quickly. With an audacity born of absolute desperation, he placed his flat hand on the armor's breastplate to stop him in his tracks.

  "Look there..." Aki whispered, pointing to the side with his other hand.

  Cedric followed the direction of his finger.

  In front of them was a reinforced glass wall looking into a large conference room. The situation inside was clear and tense: a dozen civilians were grouped in the center, kneeling with their hands on their heads.

  They were surrounded. Cedric immediately recognized the heterogeneous mix of armors: rebel soldiers in worn gear and renegade imperials who had torn off their insignia.

  In the makeshift command center stood Captain Ripto, arms crossed, looking serious. Beside him, Private Valto looked everywhere with evident nervousness, sweating profusely.

  Aki pressed himself against the wall to get out of the line of sight, and Cedric imitated him instantly, returning the sword to its sheath with a soft click, but without letting go of the hilt.

  "There she is... my wife," Aki said. His voice cracked at the end of the sentence.

  Cedric peeked around the corner just enough to scan the hostages.

  "Who is it?" he asked, narrowing his eyes to focus.

  "She's the woman with long black hair... The one wearing a dark skirt and a white office shirt," Aki replied, never taking his eyes off her with a painful intensity, as if wanting to pierce through the glass.

  Cedric searched for the description among the mass of frightened people. He found her almost instantly.

  The woman was on her knees, hugging herself to contain the trembling of her body.

  And then, upon seeing her face, Cedric felt a dry blow to his stomach. A pang of absurd, irrational recognition, as if he knew her from another life or an erased memory.

  "Hmm... Are you sure?" Cedric asked, frowning, disturbed by the sensation.

  "It's her," Aki said, without blinking. "I gave her that shirt for our anniversary. It's too big on her shoulders. It's her."

  Cedric glanced at him sideways. The determination in Aki's eyes was absolute. There was no deceit there, only pure fear of losing her.

  He's not lying, Cedric thought, releasing some of the tension from his shoulders. If he's willing to die for her, he's on my side.

  "Then let's go get her," he declared.

  Calm descended upon Aki upon hearing this. He let out a shaky sigh, pressing his forehead to the cold glass for a second.

  "Thank goodness you're okay..." he whispered to himself. "Mía."

  They were about to breach when the door at the back of that room opened. A figure walked in with unnatural calm. He wore an open white lab coat over tactical clothing and a gas mask covering his face: The Masked General.

  Ripto and Valto straightened up immediately. The General didn't even look at them; he swept his gaze over the hostages as if they were merchandise.

  "Take everyone to the corvette," the General ordered, his muffled yet powerful voice reaching the hallway.

  Captain Ripto nodded and began issuing orders.

  The soldiers pushed the civilians to stand up. Valto grabbed the black-haired woman by the arm, Mía.

  That was the trigger.

  End of Chapter 9!

  Question for you: What do you think is Cedric's connection to Aki's fiancée? Why did he feel like he knew her?