The alarm broke the silence.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Kael opened his eyes, groaning softly. His muscles ached, ribs bruised from the last week of hell, but the dull pain was finally bearable. He rose slowly from bed, his breathing shallow. Morning light bled through the blinds, soft and golden, almost too peaceful for what they were living through.
Brush. Brush.
Water splashed.
His reflection stared back at him in the mirror — pale, exhausted, and hollow-eyed, but alive.
---
Downstairs, the kitchen was quiet.
Raegal sat at the table, eyes fixed on an old tablet, smoke from his cigarette curling above him in slow spirals. Alex sat opposite, absently stirring his black coffee with a spoon he never used. Their silence wasn't awkward — it was practiced.
Kael joined them, wordless at first. He watched Alex for a few seconds, then cleared his throat.
"I wanted to talk to you," he said quietly.
Alex didn't look up.
"I've been... ignoring you. For too long. I didn't trust you when I should've. I—"
Alex stood up mid-sentence, pushed his chair back with a scrape.
"I'm full," he muttered.
He placed his half-eaten food on the counter and walked out of the room without looking back.
Kael sat frozen.
Raegal didn't say anything. Just lit another cigarette.
---
That evening, the three of them sat on the rooftop.
Kael and Alex drank flat cola from old glass bottles. Raegal smoked in silence, legs dangling over the ledge, eyes focused on the dying sun as it dipped behind distant buildings.
The wind was calm. The world was too still.
Kael tilted his head back, letting the breeze brush against his face.
"It's quiet," he said.
"Too quiet," Alex replied, but his voice carried no humor this time.
Kael didn't laugh. He just stared into the sky, a hollow stillness sitting in his chest.
They sat that way for a long time. Three broken men beneath a burning sunset, pretending — for one night — that they were free.
---
That Night
Alex couldn't sleep.
The room was too silent. No footsteps. No air drones. No surveillance buzz.
And that's what scared him.
He lay on his cot, eyes open, scanning the ceiling like it held answers. Something in his bones was wrong. Off. Off in a way that couldn't be explained.
He closed his eyes. Focused.
beep… beep… beep…
His eyes snapped open.
That's not the microwave…
He jumped out of bed, bare feet hitting cold tile as he rushed out the door.
"KAEL—IT'S A BO—"
---
BOOOOM.
The house exploded.
The hallway lit up in fire, smoke, and shrapnel. Wood splintered. Pressure blasted outward. The walls shattered like glass.
Alex was thrown back. Dust filled his lungs. His ears rang.
When he opened his eyes, all he could see was grey and blood and something burning near the staircase.
And then came the sound.
Wood creaking. Fire crackling. And... footsteps. Light. Cold. Inhuman.
---
He coughed, groaning, dragging himself from the rubble. Half his shirt was scorched, blood dripping from his eyebrow. His head throbbed. His vision swam.
And then he saw her.
A figure stepping through the smoke.
A girl. Blonde hair. Teenager. Cold, focused, unfazed.
She walked like she'd been here before. Like she knew how this would end.
Her nose crinkled at the scent of blood and dust.
"Disgusting traitor," she muttered.
Her voice was calm. Controlled. Unfeeling.
Lily.
The President's left hand.
She raised a pistol and pointed it straight at Alex's head.
---
Alex smiled. Even now — bleeding, aching, bruised — he looked cocky.
"Says the one who betrays her own family," he said casually, brushing the dust off his sleeve.
He wasn't afraid.
He was cocky — and he knew it.
Because back in the White Room, he once tried to kill Kael in his sleep.
Didn't go well.
---
A loud crack sounded as a wooden board flew upward.
Kael burst out of the rubble like a storm, breathing hard, blood trailing from a cut along his jaw.
His eyes widened when he saw her.
"...Lily?"
His heart twisted. Just for a moment.
That name — once soft — now sounded like a curse.
He wanted to reach out. But the Lily he knew... was gone.
Her expression didn't change. Her fingers twitched. She raised a second gun.
Two guns.
One aimed at Alex.
One at Kael.
---
Alex coughed.
"Kael… you think she knows Japanese?"
"I don't—"
"Shinu."
Kael turned his gun and shot Alex.
---
Alex dropped like a corpse.
Lily blinked — just once. Her breathing steadied.
Kael's voice came low.
"Why would I betray my sister… for someone like him?"
She hesitated.
Kael moved.
"FIRE!"
Her shot came a second too late. Kael dodged, rolling through the ash.
"THIS WON'T WORK AGAIN ON ME, LILY!" he screamed — eyes wild. It wasn't the first time someone tried to end him like this.
He remembered.
He remembered Aira.
He remembered the betrayal.
And he wasn't going to fall for it again.
---
Alex moved.
He hadn't been hit. Just played dead.
He rose behind Lily like a shadow.
Threw a punch.
She ducked — lightning fast.
Then spun and slammed a kick into his ribs.
CRACK.
His ribs folded like paper. The pain was instant. Sharp. Unforgiving.
> "UAGHH—!"
Alex hit the ground, coughing blood into the ash.
Kael winced.
"She's not human…"
"Totally…" Alex grunted, crawling back, blood dripping from his mouth.
Lily scanned the scene once more.
Then stepped back.
She pulled a grappling gun from her side holster, aimed up at the cracked roof, and fired.
WHIP.
She vanished.
Gone.
Like a ghost.
---
Alex collapsed onto the rubble, wheezing.
"She ran?" he asked between coughs.
Kael nodded.
"Not fair when two superhumans gang on you."
Alex chuckled, holding his ribs.
"I think I broke… at least three…"
Kael helped him up.
"Let's go home," he muttered.
Then stopped.
There was no home left to go to.
The house was reduced to smoke and blackened wood.
Walls collapsed. Half the roof gone.
And in the middle of it all — asleep on what used to be the floor — lay Raegal.
Unbothered.
Snoring.
---
They limped over together.
Collapsed near him.
And just sat.
Breathing.
Alive.
Scarred.
---
"WAKE UP!" Kael shouted, exhausted. "WE GOT BOMBED."
Raegal opened one eye.
"…I was sleeping."
---
Kael stared at him in disbelief.
"You're literally buried in rubble."
"Good insulation," Raegal muttered.
Alex groaned beside them.
"Dad...she...she..was..-"
"Lily...?" Raegal answers in disbelief