They left the warehouse at first light.
Jin walked ahead, eyes sharp beneath the hoodie pulled low over his face. Ash followed in silence, her senses on edge, every footfall deliberate. Haru stayed close — not quite behind her, not quite in front — his presence a steady gravity she didn't have to look at to feel.
They were heading toward a drop site: a contact from Phoenix who was meant to smuggle them out of the city and into one of the resistance's safe zones near the southern border.
But something was off.
The air was too quiet.
Jin noticed it too. He slowed his pace near the alley entrance, hand resting near the knife hidden in his belt loop.
"I don't like this," he murmured.
Haru's jaw tensed. "We move or we wait?"
Ash scanned the area. No birds. No street noise. No signs of life.
"Neither," she whispered. "We disappear."
Too late.
The first shot rang out like a thunderclap.
They scattered.
Ash rolled behind a dumpster as bullets pinged off metal. Haru dove across the alley, landing hard against the cracked side of a delivery truck. Jin ducked low, pulling a smoke flare from his coat and slamming it against the pavement.
Gray fog erupted.
Shouts echoed.
Footsteps closed in — not police, not DaeCorp.
Phoenix.
Ash's blood ran cold.
Jin was already moving, fast and deadly, disappearing into the smoke. Haru cursed under his breath and made his way toward her, shoulder bleeding from a graze.
Ash reached out, grabbed his wrist, yanked him to cover.
"Phoenix?"
He nodded grimly. "A splinter group. One that didn't like what you did to DaeCorp. They wanted the system to rot, not collapse."
Ash stared at him, heart pounding. "They want me dead."
"They want control," Jin growled, emerging from the smoke with one attacker already unconscious at his feet. "And they think killing you will give it back to them."
A flashbang exploded near the alley mouth.
Ash's ears rang. She dropped to her knees, disoriented. Haru grabbed her, pulling her behind him. Another figure charged through the fog.
Jin tackled him mid-sprint, knife flashing, but a second man followed — this one fast.
He raised a rifle.
Ash reached for her weapon, but she was seconds too slow.
Haru stepped in front of her.
The shot cracked.
And Haru dropped.
Time shattered.
She didn't scream. Her voice broke before it could leave her throat.
She crawled to him, hands already soaked in blood, pressing against the wound in his side. Not his heart. Not his head. But it was deep.
"Haru," she whispered, shaking. "Haru, stay with me. Don't you dare—"
His eyes fluttered, but didn't close. "Not… dying."
"You're bleeding out."
"Been worse."
"You're a liar."
His hand, wet with crimson, reached for hers.
"And you're still beautiful."
She could've broken in that moment.
But she didn't.
Jin reappeared, face hard. "We have to go. I've cleared a path."
"He can't walk."
"Then we carry him."
Ash met his gaze. "If he dies—"
"He won't," Jin snapped. "But if we stay here, you both will."
She nodded once.
Together, they lifted Haru — one arm around each shoulder — and moved. Fast. Quiet. Every breath a promise, every step a gamble.
They left the city behind as the sun began to rise again, the sky bleeding with gold and the faint sting of gunpowder.
They didn't stop until they reached the edge of the Phoenix border outpost — where loyalty was still uncertain and enemies wore the faces of former friends.
But Ash wasn't afraid.
Not anymore.
Because Haru had bled for her.
And she had something worth fighting for — not vengeance. Not justice.
Love.
Messy, flawed, hard-won love.
And if Phoenix wanted her?
They'd learn what it meant to bite the hand of a girl who'd learned how to bare her own teeth.