Rain had returned by morning.
Not the wild storm of the first raid just a steady, grey curtain that blurred the towers and left everything slick. The kind of rain that made the city look tired.
Aiden stood in Loading Bay C, helmet tucked under his arm, watching the security checks unfold.
Three armored transports waited in a line, engines purring. Drones hovered overhead, their lights sweeping slow circles across the bay. Shield generators hummed along the walls, casting a faint shimmer over the opening to the street.
Kael stood between two guards at the base of the ramp.
Collar. Wrist band. Hands cuffed this time, heavy red lines circling his wrists and linking together with a strip of light. The tether control unit sat in Aiden's palm, its red switch a small, brutal promise.
"Convoy leaving in five," Captain Mara called, voice echoing off concrete. "Final checks."
She walked toward Aiden, visor up, rain dampening the edges of her short hair.
"You adjusted the route," she said.
"Yes," Aiden replied. "Minimizes contact with civilian traffic. Fewer variables."
"Logistics approved it," she said. "Director signed off. Still, if anything feels off, we revert to the original path."
"Understood," Aiden said.
Her gaze flicked to Kael.
"He so much as blinks wrong," she said quietly, "you hit that switch and you don't hesitate."
Aiden's fingers tightened around the control.
"I know," he said.
Mara studied him a heartbeat longer, then nodded and moved on.
Aiden walked to Kael.
Up close, he could see the faint shadows under Kael's eyes, the tension in his jaw. The lab session had left marks, mostly invisible.
"Field trip," Kael said, chains clicking softly as he shifted. "You really know how to show a guy the city."
"This isn't sightseeing," Aiden said.
"I noticed the cuffs," Kael replied.
A guard shoved him lightly toward the ramp.
As they walked up, Kael leaned just enough that only Aiden heard his next words.
"This is it?" he asked. "Your 'moment'?"
"If it comes," Aiden said. "It will be fast."
"Fast I can do," Kael said. "It's the 'don't fry anyone who doesn't deserve it' part that's tricky."
They reached the transport.
Inside, the air smelled of metal and recycled air. Benches lined the walls. Two agents sat opposite the spot reserved for Kael, weapons on their laps. Secure restraints hung from the ceiling and floor.
Aiden clipped the tether into a port near his seat. The band on Kael's wrist pulsed in response.
"Sit," one of the agents said.
Kael sat.
The restraints locked around his ankles with a dull thump.
Aiden took the seat nearest the door, control unit resting on his thigh.
The transport doors sealed.
The world shrank to the hum of the engine, the vibration of wheels over wet concrete, the quiet static of comms in Aiden's ear.
"Convoy moving," Mara's voice said. "Alpha one in front, research unit center, support behind. Drones overhead. Stay sharp."
The vehicle lurched forward.
Through the small armored window, Aiden saw the loading bay slip away, replaced by the narrow service road that ran between towers. Rain streaked the glass, distorting the world outside.
"You're awfully quiet," one of the escort agents said to Kael. "Not enjoying the ride?"
Kael tilted his head back against the wall.
"Waiting," he said.
"For what?" the agent asked.
Kael's gaze slid to Aiden, then away.
"For the part where something goes wrong," he said.
***
They passed two checkpoints without incident.
At the first, shield scanners swept the vehicles. At the second, a trio of drones buzzed closer, verifying IDs against central records. Everything matched. No alarms.
Aiden's heart rate didn't ease.
He watched the route on the small console screen at his side, the glowing line they were following creeping along the schematic of the city's lower levels.
They were approaching the adjustment he'd made.
"Approaching maintenance junction D‑14," the driver reported. "Switching to secondary corridor per updated route."
"Confirmed," Mara replied from the lead vehicle. "Proceed."
The convoy turned.
The main road fell behind. The transport entered a narrower tunnel, walls closer, lights older. Here, the shield coverage dipped, just as the internal map said it would. No drone lanes passed overhead. No cameras blinked on the schematic.
For a few precious meters, they were alone.
Aiden's hand clenched around the tether control.
Now.
He didn't move.
His throat felt tight.
If he hit the switch, Kael would drop screaming. The convoy would sail through as planned. The altered route would be nothing but a blip in the logs.
If he did nothing, the window would close in seconds.
He heard Lysa's voice in his head: *If you do nothing, he disappears.*
The console beeped softly.
"Shield coverage low," it noted. "Reverting to primary route in twenty seconds."
Twenty seconds.
Aiden took a breath that felt like falling.
"Driver," he said, forcing his voice to stay calm, "hold speed for ten seconds. I'm getting interference on the tether link."
"Copy," the driver said. The transport steadied.
Aiden tapped a pattern on his console a diagnostic request, harmless on the surface, but one he'd learned could momentarily reroute internal sensors.
Lights blinked as the system recalibrated.
For the span of a heartbeat, the tether readout went fuzzy.
Somewhere outside, something hit the side of the tunnel with a heavy metallic clang.
The transport shuddered.
"What was that?" one agent snapped.
"Possible debris," the driver said. "We've got—"
His words cut off as the lights went out.
Not just dimmed.
Died.
For a second, the world inside the transport became total black.
Aiden felt it before he saw anything: a sharp, electric tingle at the edge of his magic. A charge that didn't belong to the vehicle, or the shields, or any Department device.
Then emergency reds kicked in, washing the interior in bloody light.
Alarms shouted over comms.
"Alpha one, report!" Mara's voice snapped. "We've lost primary feed!"
"Something hit us," the lead driver yelled back. "Roadblock ahead, can't see—"
His words dissolved into static.
Aiden didn't have time to think.
"Kael," he said sharply. "Now."
Kael was already moving.
He twisted his wrists hard, electricity flaring between the cuffs. For an instant, the suppression lines fought back, glowing hot. Then something in the circuits popped with a sharp crack.
The cuffs snapped open.
The agents across from him jerked their weapons up.
Kael kicked out, catching one in the knee. The man went down with a curse. The second fired too fast, too wild in the jerking red light.
The bolt slammed into the ceiling instead, sending sparks down like a brief, brutal rain.
Aiden surged to his feet.
His hand hovered over the red switch on the control unit.
Hit it and drop Kael.
Don't hit it and become everything the Department feared.
He shoved the unit into his pocket.
"Don't kill them," he said to Kael. "Just drop them."
"You give very specific orders," Kael said through his teeth.
Lightning leapt from his hands, sliding along the metal bench and up into the agents' weapons. Circuits fried. The guns spat one last useless spark, then died.
Both agents convulsed as a sharp shock tore through them, enough to knock them unconscious but not burn.
They crumpled to the floor.
"Subtle," Aiden said.
"I'm a fast learner," Kael replied.
The transport swerved suddenly, tires screeching.
"What are you doing back there?" the driver shouted. "I'm losing—"
His voice cut off in a shout as something slammed into the front of the vehicle.
The transport lurched to a stop. Everyone inside was thrown forward.
Aiden caught himself on a ceiling strap. Kael's restraints on his ankles held just enough to keep him from flying into the opposite wall.
Outside, metal screamed.
"Convoy under attack," Mara's voice snapped over comms, sharp and distorted. "All units, defensive protocols—"
The line went dead.
Aiden moved to the door.
The manual override resisted his first pull, then gave with a groan, letting in a rush of cold, damp air.
The maintenance corridor outside had become chaos.
The lead vehicle had slammed into a makeshift barricade piles of scrap metal, abandoned equipment, and what looked like part of a collapsed ventilation duct. The support vehicle behind them had been boxed in by debris that hadn't been there thirty seconds ago.
And between them, shapes moved.
Not soldiers in uniform.
People in patched coats. Faces wrapped in scarves. Hands glowing faintly with different kinds of power light, shadow, force.
Lysa stood at the center of them, one hand raised, eyes on the convoy.
"Right on time," she called.
Drones tried to descend, but the air above the convoy shimmered with some kind of field. Their lights flickered. One dropped from the sky, crashing to the ground in a shower of sparks.
"Agents!" someone shouted from the barricade. "Shields up! Non‑lethal first!"
A blast of wind knocked one guard off his feet. Another agent's weapon tore from his hands and skidded across the wet ground toward a crouched figure, who kicked it into a puddle and froze it solid with a touch.
Aiden stepped down from the transport, hand raised to show he wasn't holding a weapon.
"Lysa!" he called. "You have your opening. Take it and go!"
She glanced at him, then at Kael, still half‑bound inside the vehicle.
"Get him loose," she shouted back. "We'll cover!"
Bullets or stun bolts, he couldn't tell which flared at the edge of the fight. Someone raised a shield of shimmering light, the impacts splashing across it like rain.
"Aiden!" Mara's voice cut through the noise.
She stood near the lead vehicle, shield up, weapon in hand, eyes locked on him. Blood ran down one side of her face from a cut at her hairline.
"What have you done?" she shouted.
He didn't answer.
Because right now, answering meant stopping.
And if he stopped, this ended here.
He turned back into the transport, grabbed the ankle restraints' manual release, and slammed it.
The locks disengaged.
Kael pulled his legs free, then grabbed Aiden's arm as he hopped down onto the corridor floor.
Lightning crawled over his skin, hungry.
"Aiden," Mara shouted again, voice edged with something he had never heard from her before.
Not anger.
Fear.
For him.
"Don't do this," she said. "You can still stand down. We can fix this."
Behind her, a blast of force threw one of the barricades aside. An agent went down under the weight of metal and sparks.
Kael's grip tightened.
"You heard your Captain," he said, low. "You can still pick the safe option."
"There's no safe option left," Aiden said.
He met Mara's eyes across the chaos.
"I'm sorry," he said.
Then he turned toward Lysa and the others.
"Cover retreat!" he shouted. "Get him out of the corridor!"
For a heartbeat, nobody moved.
Then the world exploded into motion.