He surrendered.
Not out of fear.
Not out of weakness.
But because for one goddamn moment —
he still believed the world could be kind.
Would you have done the same?
Would you have dropped your blade?
Would you have looked your enemy in the eye and said,
"Take me. Just let her go."
Would you have trusted them?
Even if their smile didn't reach their eyes?
Even if the gun behind her ear had a full mag?
Kaizen did.
He dropped everything.
Hatred. Revenge.
The promise he made to a corpse long buried.
He gave it all up
because she told him to live.
"Run if you have to," she whispered once.
"Just stay alive."
"That's all I want from you."
She didn't ask for revenge.
She asked for survival.
So he bent the knee.
For her.
And you? Would you have bent too?
Would you have traded rage for hope?
What would you give to save the one person who still smiled at you like you were human?
They didn't overpower Kaizen.
They didn't break him with strength.
They beat him with a promise.
Lucen's voice over a flickering screen.
"Surrender, and she walks."
"Resist, and she dies screaming."
So he complied.
And for what?
What's compliance worth when your hands still remember blood?
What's obedience when it's carved into your spine like scripture?
Is it mercy if it leaves you alive just to suffer longer?
They killed her anyway.
And you need to understand —
it wasn't a mistake.
Not collateral.
Not panic.
Not even strategy.
They killed her because they could.
Because nothing crushes rebellion better
than proving mercy is fake.
That hope is a leash.
Still think he was stupid for trusting them?
Or do you hate that you would've done it too?
They took her life to prove a point.
To show him the cage was real.
To hammer in a lesson that couldn't be unlearned:
"Love gets you killed."
"Kindness is ammunition for the cruel."
"And anyone who believes otherwise deserves to be broken."
And Kaizen?
He broke.
They strapped him down.
Needles in his spine.
Drugs in his blood.
Screams in his ears that belonged to no one anymore.
And he stopped asking why.
He stopped speaking her name.
He stopped fighting back.
But not because he gave up.
Because he understood.
Lucen didn't just betray him.
He educated him.
You still holding onto your own promises?
Still believe in fairness? In justice? In doing the right thing?
What would it take to burn that out of you?
Kaizen wasn't a monster when they captured him.
He was a man trying to forgive the one who killed his master.
Trying to love again.
Trying to be better.
Doesn't that make what happened worse?
Doesn't it sting more, knowing he tried to be gentle first?
So when you see him on that slab…
With wires in his spine,
And silence in his mouth,
And numbers on the screen where his name used to be…
Just remember:
He's not just raging.
He's waiting.
Because Kaizen learned something beautiful that day.
A truth too sharp for prayers and too final for gods:
Mercy is a lie.
And love is the first thing they kill.
So what would you do now?
Would you still kneel?
Would you still hope?
Or would you rip your leash off with your teeth and drown the world in fire?
He chose both.
And the next time he opens his eyes?
You'd better hope you're not standing in front of him.
And far beneath the drugs, the pain, the compliance—
He hears her voice again.
"Stay alive. That's all I ask."
And he does.
He just stops living.
It all goes dark.