Rui's Pov

My eyes went wide. My heart slammed against the left side of my chest so hard it rattled my ribs, burning instinct through me.

I leaned forward, slapped a hand against the cold floor for leverage, and my other hand fumbled desperately around my belt for anything…, anything I could use.

The bot’s screen was already flashing, flickering its cheerful emoji into a pulsing red alert, sliding the air with a high-pitched tone as its interface began dialing.

Of course. I knew exactly who it was calling. Those bastards. The ones who wouldn’t stop until I was erased from the picture.

“Momma—” Mei gasped and lurched forward, slamming her palm down hard against the bot’s casing.

A sharp grunt ripped from her throat, and she yanked her hand back instantly. Pain twisted across her face, clenching her teeth as both her eyes pinched shut.

The bot whirred, swiveling its sensor array, washing cold beams of light over Mei’s face. Then it shifted, scanning Fen, then Jia, and its voice mercilessly blared: “You will also be arrested for aiding a fugitive suspect.”

Fen’s grip tightened on Mei’s shoulder, biting her nails through the fabric of Mei’s sleeve. Jia clutched the other side, trembling.

“Is this how we go down?” Jia’s thin voice cracked, breaking under panic.

The bot continued: “And you will all be—”

I didn’t wait for the sentence to finish. Pain roared through my ribs, but I ground my teeth until sparks danced in my vision.

With a violent shove of my palm against the floor, I lunged forward. The world tilted, but I forced my body into motion, closing the space in a single desperate strike.

The taser from my belt lit up blue. I rammed it against the bot’s back panel, snapping the crackle sharp through the air.

Electricity surged.

My body collapsed with the effort, slamming me back to the floor. The wound at my side tore open again, and hot blood seeped out in a fresh line, soaking through the fabric, sliding sticky against my skin.

The agony ripped me apart from inside, setting every nerve on fire.

But the bot spasmed violently, spraying sparks across the floor as its mechanical arms jerked out of control.

It twisted, clattered sideways, and then crashed flat, twitching its limbs one last time before it gave a final death rattle of static.

The whirring slowed. The red light dimmed. Then silence swallowed the room.

The three girls stared. No one moved, no one breathed—not until the bot’s hand gave one last pathetic clank against the tiles and stilled for good.

I dropped back hard, wheezing for air. My arms trembled, and I curled both fists against the pain as the blood loss sank in deeper. I wasn’t strong enough. Not for this. Not for him. Not for the commander who was surely on his way again. Not yet.

“Rui…”

Her voice was softer than I expected as I cracked one eye open. Mei crouched low before me, filling my vision with her face.

She didn’t flinch at the blood, at my pale, shaking body. She only looked at me, trying to pierce straight through using her dark eyes.

“Are you really a fugitive?” she whispered. “As they all keep saying? Are you really… all of that?”

Her question sank into the pit of me, heavier than the pain.

The fire in my ribs dulled for a moment, replaced by something else—something I didn’t want to name.

I planted both palms flat against the floor, and that made every muscle tremble as I forced myself upright.

My knees wobbled, my vision swam. The dizziness made it feel very heavy. I wanted to lie there, close my eyes, and drift into the dark where none of this mattered.

Hell, even take a nap. Forget SkyBastion, forget the blood, forget her staring at me like I owed her an answer.

But this wasn’t the time. This wasn’t the place.

I leaned forward, dragging myself closer to the wrecked bot. My breath came ragged, sweat slid down my temple, but I pressed on. My fingers shook as I pried at the panel seam.

Plastic groaned. Metal resisted. Then—

CRACK.

The casing split under my grip, exposing the bot’s insides in a mess of sparking wires and fried circuits.

Mei’s eyes flicked toward the taser I’d dropped, then back at me.

Her hesitant voice wavered, but it was surely sharp enough to cut the silence. “Is that yours? Or did you snatch it from a soldier, too? It… it looks like something only a SkyBastion soldier would carry.”

Her words twisted in my chest harder than the wound in my ribs. I didn’t bother to look up; my hands were buried in the smashed bot’s compact storage unit, searching, tearing through wires and shards. “I’m a SkyBastion soldier myself, Mei.”

My voice was low, tired, but it didn’t stop me from finding what I needed—a dented metal can of analgesic spray.

I yanked the soaked, still with blood fabric from around my side, and pressed the nozzle down.

Psshh; cold, biting, merciless. The sting ripped a grunt from my throat as I clamped my eyes shut, curling my fists into stone.

The chilling burn chased the fire inside my ribs until it simmered down to a dull, manageable ache.

The girls had fallen quiet. Fen. Jia. Even Mei. The two sat on the bed, looking at me with heavy and pity-laced gazes.

I could feel it pressing, the same way people had always stared at me.

Mei’s voice, now softer, pulled me back. “Then why are your fellow soldiers after you? What… Did you do wrong?”

Her sharp yet disarming eyes lingered on, pulling me in with a strange gravity I couldn’t explain.

I didn’t answer right away. Instead, my fingers kept working through the wreckage until I found a microstaple band shoved into the corner.

I slid it around my wound with careful precision, locking the mechanical clicks into place as relief dripped in slow waves.

“That’s the thing,” I finally muttered. “I have no damn idea. One minute I’m in the commander’s office, grabbing my mission tab for the day. The next—” I let out a humorless scoff. “Next, I’m a fugitive plastered all over wanted boards. And I—”

BAM!

The door exploded inward, rattling the sound through the cramped room, forcing me to whip my gaze to the entrance.

Xinyi stumbled inside, crouched low, bracing one hand against her knee while the other slammed the door shut behind her.

Sweat plastered strands of hair across her face as her breath tore out in frantic bursts.

“Mr. Rui…” her voice cracked, fighting for steadiness. “You need to leave. Right now. If you don’t… we’re all finished.”

“Xinyi, take a break, will you?” Fen shot up, grabbing her shoulder. “Calm down and speak clearly. What’s the problem?”

“She—” Xinyi’s chest heaved, and her words stuttered between gasps. “She ratted us out. She… told them we’re hiding him. And now—” Her voice broke completely, as her eyes went wide, almost wild. “They’re coming. For all of us. In full force.”

Jia stepped forward, tightening her voice. “Wait, Xinyi. Who is she? And who exactly is coming for us?”