Rui's Pov

The heavy, violent, and hurried footsteps came first, hammering boots down the corridor. And with them, faint shrieks and panicked screams slipped through the cracks in the walls.

Mei’s hands were trembling as she tried to steady me, with her hair clinging damp against her temple.

Jia and Fen flanked her, under pale faces, with ragged and uneven breaths as beads of sweat continued to slide down all three of them.

The door rattled once, then blew open with a bang so loud that the walls coughed up dust.

I didn’t wait.

I quickly threw myself through the stretched window behind me, scraping my body against the curved frame on the way out, skidding against its edge before I hit the ground.

Thud.

Sharp pain ripped up from my ribs, searing across my chest. I grunted hard, snapping my jaw shut, and bit down on the groan that wanted to tear out of me as the taste of copper pooled at the back of my tongue.

Crouched low, I pressed myself against the shadowed wall beneath the dorm’s ground-floor windows.

My breath came shallow and ragged with sweat prickling my forehead as I fought to steady it.

And then… boots. A pair. Close. Too close.

They planted themselves just at the corner ahead of me, as their polished shine reflected the stray glow of streetlights bleeding through the smog.

“And where do you think you’re going… my prized fugitive?”

That voice.

That smug, razor-edged tone I’d know anywhere.

Slowly, I raised my head, narrowing my eyes, until my gaze locked with his.

“Duan,” I muttered, clenching my teeth.

He grinned, and before I could move, he lunged.

The stun rod flashed to life in his hand, fused with a silver brass knuckle that hummed with static.

He swung wide, aiming for my head, as the hiss of raw electricity sparked through the air.

I shoved back, dropping my weight low, digging one foot into the ground as I leaned away. The rod barely missed my forehead, grazing my knee instead.

Zap.

The sharp and biting shock surged through me, forcing a hiss between my clenched teeth as one eye snapped shut against the burn.

My muscles twitched, protesting, but I shoved myself backward with another desperate skid across the concrete.

With ragged breath and screaming ribs, I darted a glance past him… through the wire-mesh fence that boxed the dorms in.

Soldiers were lined up, raising their rifles, with red glints from their scopes in the night.

The snipers were poised, humming low with electro rifles, leveling all of their barrels at me, and there wasn't a single gap in their wall.

Duan straightened, flexing his knuckles before the humming rod, but his cold eyes never left me.

“You’re better off peacefully coming with me, you know.” He tilted his head, widening that grin. “Your futile resistance will only make things worse.”

I let out a scuffed breath, letting out a bitter laughter in my throat, cracking my voice low, under the ragged weight of pain.

“I’m honored you prepared all of this for me,” I rasped, eyeing the rifles, the snipers, the shimmering fence of death around me. “But tell me… why are you trying to stop me?”

His grin twitched into something harder.

“Sorry, lad... I’m just… following orders.”

Orders. Always orders. Always someone higher pulling the strings.

I steadied my breath, that throbbed the ache in my ribs with each inhale, and fixed him with a gaze as sharp as the pain tearing through me.

“I’m trying to rescue my—” My throat caught. The word sat heavily. I forced it out. “No… our comrade.”

I leaned forward, tightening my fists under the heat burning in my chest. “How the hell does that make me a fugitive?”

I paused. “Where is your so-called sense of responsibility, Commander?” My voice cracked out before I could bite it back.

“You put your nose where it wasn’t wanted, Han Rui…” Duan’s voice rose, spitting with authority as he slammed his boot into the concrete so hard it echoed off the dorm walls. “You know too much… That’s why you need to be taken out of the—”

“What?” My words tore out raw. “So you’re also supportive of their vision for this city? You’re also standing behind General Ren and helping that syndicate lord with his filthy chokehold, giving him power to do whatever the hell he wants? That’s it…? That’s who you’ve become?”

“SILENCE, RUI!” Duan barked, and my chest tightened as his glare pinned me.

He curled a smirk, widening his grin. “You know what… I’ve changed my mind.” His eyes lit wide. “Seeing as you’ve got no escape route left… I’ll just end you right here.”

He drew the pistol blaster from his belt with a practiced jerk. The metal gleamed cold, and the charge chamber hummed as he aimed straight for my skull.

I moved.

I shoved every ounce of weight I had left toward the dorm window, stretching the glass across its wide frame.

The world cracked open with a gunshot behind me. The blaster round sliced fire past my shoulder, grazing the edge of my torn jacket as if the air itself combusted.

Then the impact.

Glass exploded around me. The shards tore at my arms, carving heat into my skin as I crashed through.

My elbows struck the floor first, slamming against it with a bone-jarring CRACK.

Pain shot through my arms into my ribs, dragging a guttural grunt out of me.

Blood smeared against the shards beneath me, glittering red against the broken window light.

Soldiers outside were already closing in, crunching the gravel under their boots, raising their rifles in unison, as the glow of charged barrels painted my vision in streaks of red and white.

Duan’s footsteps pounded closer, deliberate and heavier.

Sprawled in glass, I twisted my head left, right with a hammering heart as desperation clawed up my throat, as my eyes caught it.

I shoved myself to my knees, staggered, then, with a sharp grunt, heaved a layered, half-rotten cupboard against the broken window.

Wood split with a CRASH, spitting dust from its joints as it slammed into place, blocking Duan’s path… at least for seconds.

I spun to the door. The sound outside was war itself: gunshots rattling, electro-bolts shrieking, metal shrieks as dorm security bots clashed with soldiers. Shouts tangled with terrified screams… the girls.

It’s my fault they’re in this mess. My fault.

I yanked the door wide and hurled myself into the storm.

Bullets split the air in streaks. Blasters shrieked past my ears, kissing my skin with heat. The mists of gunfire and smoke swallowed me whole.

Soldiers blocked the entrance, bots held the line, and the girls crouched in the crossfire, as the chaos continued to swallow their cries.