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The city-ship moved like a drifting melody, neon glows flickering in hypnotic rhythm against the artificial twilight. Luminara District, always caught between the lines of reality and illusion, stretched endlessly ahead, its skyline a hazy watercolor of holograms and soft electric hues. Sol walked through it all like a man slipping between the notes of a song only he could hear. The air felt weightless, carrying the hum of distant engines and synthesized voices that blended into a symphony of the unknown.

He hadn't even decided where he was going. Not really. His feet carried him forward, slow and deliberate, the soles of his boots tapping against the streets in time with the pulse of the world. The song of the city wrapped around him, thick and inviting, the perfect space between awareness and dream.

As he strolled, Peach stirred on his shoulder, the little bear stretching with a lazy yawn. Sol smirked, reaching up to scratch behind Peach's ear. "Enjoy your nap?"

A soft, contented chirp was his only answer.

He wasn't surprised when his communicator buzzed. It had been a month of silence—of training, of vanishing into the cracks of the city's forgotten corners—but now the universe was catching up. He checked the screen lazily, half expecting some unknown name, but instead, a familiar one stared back at him.

Elise.

Sol let the name linger in his mind for a moment before answering. "You miss me already?"

A low chuckle hummed through the line. "You're insufferable."

"I try." He turned a corner, stepping into a side street bathed in soft blue light. The signs above flickered, advertisements cycling through alien scripts and seductive promises. "So, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"We need to talk. Preferably in a place where no one will bother us."

Sol smirked. "No promises. Where?"

"A lounge in the Helix Atrium. You'll like it. It's got that… dreamy aesthetic you seem to enjoy."

Sol glanced up, spotting the distant glimmer of the Helix Atrium's towering architecture in the distance. A part of him considered ignoring the call, but curiosity was a fickle thing, and Elise never reached out without a reason.

"Alright, I'll bite. Be there in an hour."

He ended the call before she could respond, stuffing the communicator back into his pocket. A soft synthwave beat trickled from a nearby storefront, and for a moment, Sol let himself sway to it, his mind slipping into the effortless flow of movement and time.

---

The Helix Atrium was the kind of place where reality blurred just enough to make people forget themselves. Soft holographic flora drifted above the entrance, casting gentle pools of bioluminescent light along the sleek metallic flooring. The whole district had an air of curated elegance, as if every inch had been designed to lull its visitors into an expensive, tranquil illusion.

Sol stepped inside the lounge Elise had chosen, greeted by a slow, jazzy tune that curled through the air like smoke. It was dimly lit, soaked in deep purples and soft golds, a place where time didn't move unless you willed it to. Booths lined the curved walls, each one its own secluded pocket of the universe, meant for quiet whispers and veiled conversations.

Elise sat in one near the back, dressed sharply as always, her presence a carefully placed note in the larger orchestration of the room. A woman who never stood out unless she wanted to.

Sol slid into the seat across from her, stretching out lazily. "Nice place. Almost makes me forget I'm probably walking into another headache."

Elise sipped from her glass, watching him with something between amusement and calculation. "Maybe if you learned to behave, you wouldn't have so many of those."

"Not in my nature." He picked up the menu on the table, barely glancing at it before tossing it aside. "So, what's this about?"

She leaned forward slightly, fingers lacing together. "Things are shifting. Your name is starting to mean something. Not just here, but further out."

Sol arched an eyebrow. "I'm flattered."

"You shouldn't be." She set down her glass, eyes meeting his with deliberate weight. "You've walked through fire and somehow come out without burning. That makes people nervous."

Sol exhaled through his nose, drumming his fingers lightly on the table. "Nervous people do stupid things."

"Exactly. And that's why I'm here."

A brief silence stretched between them, the music weaving through the air like a liquid lullaby. Sol could feel it, the subtle shift in the atmosphere, the sense that the world was teetering on the edge of something inevitable.

He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Alright. Tell me who wants to kill me this time."

Elise's lips quirked, but there was no humor in her expression. "You're thinking too small, Sol. This isn't just about who wants to kill you. It's about who wants to own you."

The words settled in, curling into his thoughts like cigarette smoke. He leaned back, gaze flicking toward the shifting lights overhead.

"That's cute," he murmured. "They think they can leash me?"

"They think they can try." Elise's voice was smooth, but there was something else beneath it—an edge, a warning. "Which means you have a choice to make. You either stay in the shadows and let them write your story for you, or you step into the light and start shaping it yourself."

Sol let the thought settle, the weight of it pressing against his skin. The lounge, the music, the dim glow of the Helix Atrium—it all felt like the backdrop to a scene he hadn't yet decided to act in.

He tapped his fingers against the table, considering. "And what if I don't feel like playing their game?"

Elise smirked. "Then you do what you always do. Rewrite the rules."

Sol chuckled, shaking his head. "You make it sound so easy."

"Nothing about you has ever been easy." She finished her drink, setting the glass down with a soft clink. "But I'll tell you this—if you're going to make enemies, you might as well make the kind worth having."

The music swelled around them, the city-ship humming its endless, dreamy tune. Sol sat back, watching Elise, watching the way the world seemed to slow in moments like these.

Maybe she was right. Maybe it was time to stop letting others decide the melody.

A smirk curled at the corner of his lips.

"Alright, then. Let's make some noise."

Elise leaned back, her expression shifting slightly as she reached into her coat and pulled out a sleek tablet. She tapped the screen, then slid it across the table toward Sol. "You might want to see this."

Sol raised an eyebrow before picking up the device. The screen lit up with a video that had been uploaded to the net, already racking up views at an alarming rate. "Been going viral," Elise murmured, swirling the last of her drink.

Sol hit play.

The footage was pristine—high quality, perfect sound. Someone had recorded the entire encounter from the previous night. The video opened with the meeting at the docking bay, capturing everything: Sol's nonchalant attitude, his amusement at the stranger's tension, the moment the man attacked, and how Sol danced around him effortlessly, never even taking his hands out of his pockets. Then came the snap—the moment reality fractured, the stranger's mind crumbling under an unseen weight.

Sol watched as his own mirage stared at the broken man, then turned toward the unseen camera, flashing a slow, knowing smile before vanishing into thin air.

He let out a low whistle. "Damn. Who shot this? Even the sound mixing's good."

Elise chuckled, shaking her head. "You might have a fan club now. Check the comments."

Sol smirked, scrolling down. His eyes flicked over the endless stream of reactions flooding the page.

**@VoidWalker89:** *This guy moves like he's listening to music none of us can hear. What the hell did I just watch?*

**@NebulaDreamer:** *The way he dodged without using his hands??? I'd be terrified too. That snap at the end? Pure nightmare fuel.*

**@SynthSpecter:** *Not sure if I want to hire him or run in the opposite direction. Either way, I'm invested now.*

**@DigitalReaper:** *Bro turned a fight into a damn ballet. Never seen someone flex that hard without even trying.*

**@StellarWitch:** *The real question is… why is he kinda fine though? Asking for a friend.*

Sol snorted, tilting the screen toward Elise. "Some of these people get it."

She rolled her eyes. "You're impossible."

---

Elsewhere...

The room was dimly lit, the only glow coming from the large screen mounted on the far wall, playing the viral video on repeat. The stranger sat in silence, his hands clenched into fists on the polished surface of the table. His breath was shallow, beads of sweat clinging to his skin despite the artificial cold of the room.

Across from him, a figure watched the screen with an unreadable expression, fingers steepled together. The soft hum of the playback filled the space, punctuated by the occasional distorted sound of Sol's smooth, unbothered voice. The moment of the snap played again, the man's breakdown on full display before the video ended with Sol's haunting, knowing smile.

The figure leaned forward, finally breaking the silence. "Tell me…" The voice was rich, slow, weighted with the kind of power that didn't need to be proven. "Was it really as bad as it looks?"

The stranger swallowed hard, his throat dry. His own voice betrayed him when he spoke. "Worse."

A pause. Then a quiet chuckle. "Worse?"

The stranger forced himself to meet the figure's gaze. "You didn't see it. That… that wasn't just some cheap trick. It wasn't some illusionist's parlor game. That man broke reality around me. I felt it. I was inside it."

His breath hitched as he relived it, his skin prickling with phantom sensations. "It was like… like everything was unraveling at the seams, like I was floating over an abyss that had no bottom. No edges. Just… nothing. And then, he looked at me."

His voice cracked slightly, his hands tightening into fists against the table. "His eyes— they weren't just eyes. They were galaxies. Twin spirals, pulling everything in, devouring the light, dragging my soul into them like I was nothing but dust in a black hole's gravity well. I felt myself being erased, piece by piece, like I wasn't meant to exist in his presence."

He shuddered, his body betraying him. Cold sweat dripped down his face, soaking into the collar of his shirt. He hadn't stopped sweating since that moment, since that look.

"He could've crushed me with a thought," he whispered. "And the worst part? He decided I wasn't even worth the effort."

The figure watching him remained silent, contemplative. The glow of the screen reflected in their sharp, calculating eyes. "And yet, you're here. Breathing. Speaking. Not broken beyond repair. That means something, doesn't it?"

The stranger exhaled through his nose, frustration seeping into his expression. "You think I walked away from that?" He leaned forward, hands pressing against the table. "I crawled. And he let me. That's the part that should worry you."

Another long pause. Then, the figure smirked. "Oh, I'm not worried. I'm intrigued."

The stranger's stomach twisted at that. "You don't get it. This isn't someone you recruit. This isn't someone you play chess with and expect to win. He's playing something else entirely. A different game, with different rules, and the only reason we're still breathing is because he hasn't decided otherwise."

The figure finally leaned back, exuding a calm control that only unsettled the stranger further. "Which means we need to understand him better before we make our next move."

"Or," the stranger said, his voice bitter, "we leave him the hell alone."

The figure chuckled again, slow and indulgent, as if savoring the conversation. "And waste all this potential? No, no… I think we're just getting started."

The screen flickered, looping back to Sol's final smile, his presence lingering in the room like a ghost.

"Send a message," the figure finally said. "I want to meet him. Personally this time."