I'LL BE THERE

Shade pulled up a picture from his Xen-Link and sent it to Cipher's holoscreen. "I found these around Drift Market." A blue-tinted bounty flickered to life, casting a faint glow across the table.

WANTED

Liora aka Myst

"You're not just an anomaly; you're a famous one, too," Echo murmured, nudging her with his elbow. She rolled her eyes. His ability to entertain himself within serious events really amazes her, but it did little to settle the weight pressing against her ribs.

After the attack at Neon Veil, The Clan had regrouped at the Bastion. Plans were being formed, routes discussed. Cipher was already working to scrub traces of her from the lower net, while Razor and Blaze debated their next move.

Myst, however, was the only one who wasn't listening.

The words on the bounty blurred in her vision.

They knew her name.

Not Myst—the identity she had scraped together in the Outer Districts—but Liora. She wasn't just being hunted.

She couldn't sit still as this issue gets bigger and bigger. The waiting game doesn't work for her anymore. If she won't move, she—and The Clan—won't get more leads at this point.

So, she quietly tapped around Cipher's decrypted files and left.

Myst moved cautiously through the wreckage of Grid Maw, the corrupted sector pulsing with flickering neon and the eerie hum of malfunctioning tech. The air rustled with static, and her boots crunched against broken glass and old data chips.

The city's failed attempt at self-repair had left it in a permanent state of corruption—a tangle of skeletal buildings, flickering neon, and streets where time itself seemed unmoving.

A data hub caught her eye, its once-sterile exterior now a mess of exposed wiring and cracked screens. She crouched beside it, fingers brushing against the console. It powered on at her touch—barely.

IDENTIFYING...SUBJECT BLUE ROSE. INTRUDER DETECTED!

Myst's breath caught in her throat. Blue Rose. The same name the Ascended scientist had muttered. The same name that felt buried in the edges of her memories.

But how did a rogue system here recognize it?

A low, mechanical growl echoed through the ruined space. The screen flickered violently, warning symbols flashing as the console's AI core forced itself awake.

Myst staggered back as metal limbs jerked and unfolded from the debris—a rogue defense unit, its optics glowing a sickly red.

The bot lunged.

Myst barely twisted out of the way before it crashed where she had been standing, metal fingers tearing through rusted panels like paper. She scrambled for cover, heart pounding hard.

She had no weapons, nothing to disable it. She needed to run. Now.

"Re—turn… Blue Ro—se… to… origin…."

She gritted her teeth. "I don't know what that means!"

A gunshot cut through the chaos. Sparks erupted as a round tore into the bot's exposed wiring, causing it to falter for half a second—just enough for a shadow to slam into it, forcing it back.

The AI recalibrated, its movements faster than before. A sharp metallic finger lashed out, slicing across Myst's cheek and shoulder. Pain flared as the impact nearly sent her sprawling—until an arm caught her, pulling her back against something solid.

Flux.

His knife cut clean through one of the bot's main joints. With a sharp yank, he dragged Myst out of range just as the machine twitched again. She barely had time to process his sudden arrival before he stepped in front of her, his stance tense, his expression carved from frustration and something sharper.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" His voice was low but edged, breath sharp from the fight.

Myst almost hissed, yanking her arm free from his hold. "I was looking for answers."

"In Grid Maw? Alone?" Flux's eyes burned with something unreadable, but his voice carried the bite of restrained fury. "You think this place isn't crawling with things worse than bounty hunters?"

"I didn't ask for a babysitter."

Flux scoffed, turning back as the rogue bot rose again. "Yeah? Well, you sure as hell needed one."

The bot lunged. Flux moved first. A sidestep. A flicker of steel. His knife plunged into its exposed core, sparks bursting as the machine seized. Its system shorting out before collapsing in a bundle of twitching metal.

He ran a hand through his hair, exhaling sharply before turning to her, gaze still sharp. "If you pull this kind of reckless shit again, don't expect me to be around to save your ass."

She met his stare, something stubborn in her chest tightening. "I didn't ask you to."

A long silence hover around them, heavy with unspoken things. Flux's jaw clenched, but he didn't push further. Instead, he just shook his head, muttering a curse under his breath before motioning for her to move.

"Come on," he said, his voice quieter this time. "We're leaving."

Myst hesitated, her eyes flicking back to the screen—Blue Rose. The words blurred at the edges, corrupted, slipping further out of reach.

"I can't just walk away from this," she said, her voice quieter now, but firm. "If I don't chase it, who will?"

Flux pressed a palm on his face before running a hand through his hair. His gaze flickered to her cheek, a thin line of red trailing toward her jaw.

With a frustrated sigh, he pulled a cloth from his pocket and wiped the blood away, his touch unexpectedly...soft.

She stiffened at the gesture, but he didn't meet her eyes.

"You're an idiot," he muttered, shaking his head. "But I'm not letting you get yourself killed."

Myst clenched her fists. "I said I don't need you to babysit me."

"Good," Flux said, voice flat. "Then just pretend I'm not here."

Myst hesitated, then stepped forward, determination tightening her expression. She wasn't done.

Flux sighed again, watching her with something unreadable in his eyes. He wasn't stopping her. He wasn't even arguing anymore.

And Myst, too caught up in the weight of the moment, didn't question it.

"Let's move," she murmured, pushing forward. Flux matched her pace without another word.