I knew the second I saw Mi’kael’s face.

That look—sharp, glassy, hollow in the center—wasn’t grief anymore. It was something starving. Something hunting.

He moved like a pulled trigger.

By the time my body understood what was happening, he was already running down the grave-sector path, boots splashing through mud thick as tar. The rain came down in sheets, cold needles striking my skin, but the only thing I could feel was the pit forming in my stomach.

He wasn’t just leaving.
He was heading somewhere with purpose.

I sprinted after him, lungs burning, mud slinging across my uniform. The district’s lamps flickered in the stormlight as I followed the fading sound of his footsteps.

Then I saw him.

Stepping out from our family quarters, shoulders squared, coat whipping behind him in the wind. Father’s blaster was strapped to his thigh — charge light active, safety off.

My heart nearly stopped.

I’d never seen him draw that weapon before.

Not once.

Mi’kael didn’t look back. Didn’t hesitate.
He simply walked — like something inside him had already died, and whatever was left didn’t fear anything anymore.

I didn’t have a plan. Didn’t think to grab a weapon. Didn’t think at all.

I just moved.

Because if Mi’kael was crossing that line…
then I had to be there when he did.

Even if I couldn’t stop him.
Even if it destroyed us both.

I had to try.

_____MI'KAEL SERAPHANE_____

Dusk bled across the district, the sky sinking into a bruised orange glow that stretched long shadows down the steel corridors. The heat vents exhaled warm bursts across my neck as I tightened the strap of the holster.

The blaster felt heavier than it should.

Or maybe I finally understood what it meant to carry it.

I slipped through the alley grid like a shape without substance — sticking to blind spots, ducking past scanners, avoiding every wandering gaze. Caelus’ locator pinging faintly on my wrist, guiding me through the maze.

And then—

There he was.

Laughing.
Talking.
Smiling like a man who hadn’t shattered my world.

My chest tightened, breath catching somewhere it couldn’t escape from. Watching him like this, so at ease—so untouched—felt like swallowing molten metal.

He didn’t deserve peace.
Not after what he’d done.

So I followed.

Just like he taught me.

Ghosting my footsteps.
Shallow breaths.
Weight on the outer edges of my boots.

He’d made me into a weapon.
Now I was turning it back on him.

_____CAELUS SERAPHANE_____

The evening grid-cycle cracked and hummed overhead, shedding sparks of static light as I walked. The crowd noise faded behind me—soft conversations, distant machinery, idle laughter.

But underneath all of that…
I heard him.

Good.

Let him come.

His footsteps were nearly silent, but the cadence… the restraint… the trembling decision buried beneath every step… it gave him away long before he reached me.

He had grown sharper.
Meaner.
More focused.

Almost perfect.

I slowed as the path curved into a maintenance corridor—tight, dim, blind to cameras. The conduits buzzed along the ceiling like angry insects.

A trap.

And he walked right into it, as I knew he would.

He thought tonight was about revenge.

He still didn’t understand.

This was a test.

One he was not prepared to pass.

_____MI'KAEL SERAPHANE_____

His silhouette slipped into the maintenance corridor, swallowed by flickering lights.

I stepped in after him.

The smell of ozone clung to the air. Heat leaked from exposed pipes. The walls felt too close, the atmosphere too still. My hand brushed the grip of the blaster — not gripping it fully, just feeling it.

A slow clap echoed through the narrow space.

Caelus emerged from the shadows, smile carved sharp beneath the stuttering lights.

“Very good, Young Master,” he murmured. “I almost didn’t hear you.”

I stayed silent.

He circled once, eyes scanning me, amused.

“But not good enough. I felt you leave the graveyard before you even touched the street.”

His grin widened. “And still you followed.”

“I wanted you to see me,” I said quietly.

A flicker of something — recognition? irritation? — crossed his face.

“Just like I saw you. That night.”

The grin twitched.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.

“Careful,” he warned, voice sinking lower. “You were lucky that night. Luck won’t save you here.”

I shifted my coat aside, revealing the matte-black blaster at my hip.

“This little charade ends now.”

My hand drew closer to my weapon, slow enough to show control, not fear.

“You’re shaking,” I said. “Is that fear… or guilt?”

His nostrils flared.
A crack in the mask.

“Don’t pretend you understand anything,” he hissed. “Your mother was—”

“Say it.”

His voice didn’t soften.
It sharpened.

“Collateral.”

My vision went white around the edges.

“And,” Caelus continued, stepping closer, “if you had half a brain, you’d ask why no one investigated. Why the Authority sealed the records.”

The floor seemed to tilt beneath me.

He leaned in, whispering like he was sharing a secret meant to ruin me.

“It wasn’t my order. It was your grandfather’s.”

The words didn’t hit.

They detonated.

My throat closed.
My stomach lurched.
Every memory I had of him twisted, rotting from the inside.

He was lying.
He had to be lying.
He—

But I saw his eyes.
Caelus wasn’t gloating.

He was telling the truth because the truth hurt more.

The grief.
The fury.
The betrayal.
It all collided at once.

My hand tightened around the blaster.

Something inside me slipped.

And fell.

_____AZRAEL SERAPHANE_____

I reached the corridor just as Caelus’ voice echoed through the stale air.

“It was your grandfather’s order.”

Mi’kael stood there, trembling—but not with fear.

With clarity.

A terrifying, decisive clarity.

His blaster was raised.
His jaw locked.
His eyes empty in a way that made my breath catch.

The gentle boy who cried at bad dreams...
the boy who hid behind my arm when storms frightened him…
the boy who loved too fiercely…

He was gone.

Standing in his place was something carved from heartbreak and rage.

A storm given a human shape.

And I knew—
if I stepped into that corridor,
I might already be too late.

Some lines, once crossed,
never let you come back.