#27 : THE JUNCTION OF ASHES.

Crimson Fangs Armoured Van – En Route to Ghatkopar Metro – 00:42 HRS

The city blurred past our windows like a dying heart still beating.

Above ground—Mumbai slept.

Underground?

We were marching into hell.

Seven of us. Crimson Fangs. Soldiers, outlaws, survivors.

This wasn't infiltration.

This was judgment.

Meena checked her gear one last time beside me. Danny quietly adjusted the settings on a compact detonator. Yash sat with his head bowed, breathing slow. Vijay cracked his knuckles. Rudra didn't blink. And Kiyaan?

.

He just sat

A cold, murderous expression full of rage, but still calm.

The kind legends have before they break.

No one spoke.

We didn't need to.

The silence was our pact.

---

Ghatkopar Metro Depot – 01:02 HRS

The Ghatkopar Depot was a skeleton beneath the city. Forgotten tunnels. Unused platforms. A perfect graveyard.

The entrance was sealed by industrial plating—until Danny knelt down and slid a homemade charge across the seam.

Beep.

Click.

BOOM.

Steel burst like a soda can. Dust rained. Lights flickered.

The Fangs moved in.

And the war began.

---

Platform A-13

Kiyaan Malik moved like a storm down the abandoned track.

That's when they unleashed him.

An elite Serpent guard, taller than most, built like a cage-fighter, cloaked in kevlar—wielding twin chain scythes.

The weapons screamed through the air, slicing rails and concrete.

Kiyaan didn't flinch.

CLANG!

A scythe barely missed his cheek.

Another flew low—he grabbed the chain mid-spin and yanked the man forward with monstrous force.

The fight was chaos and craft. Kiyaan's fists against slashing steel. Sparks flew with every dodge. Every counter.

He bled.

And he smiled wider.

"You think those toys can kill a fang?"

Then he headbutted the man mid-spin and crushed his jaw with a rising knee.

One chain down.

The other coiled around Kiyaan's arm—he ripped it in two with brute strength, elbowed the man into the wall, and finished it with a throat punch that caved in the helmet.

But it wasn't over yet. The brutal showdown continued between the two demons.

---

Tunnel Sector 3

Yash and Meena flanked opposite ends of a curved corridor.

Gunfire erupted in blinding flashes.

Meena ducked behind a rusted pillar. "Right side's pinning us!"

"Cover me!" Yash yelled.

She nodded, gritted her teeth, and popped up—two shots, taking down a guard's shoulder and knee.

Yash charged.

He slid under bullets, tackled a Serpent gunner into the wall, and snapped his elbow like dry wood.

Meena adjusted her aim, sweating, shaking—but her eyes were clear.

She shot out a gas pipe behind the enemy wall—flames burst, creating a temporary blind.

"Go!" she shouted.

Yash ran through the smoke and cleared the tunnel like a demon.

---

South Utility Passage

Danny and Vijay crouched near the reactor core—guarded but brittle.

Danny pulled out three tiny cylindrical bombs, each no larger than a battery.

"Custom shock thermite. Only made one batch," he whispered.

Vijay grinned. "Then let's make it count."

They waited for the patrol to pass. Then—

Click. Click. Click.

Danny tossed the charges in sequence.

Vijay lobbed a gas grenade for cover.

The tunnel roared.

KRA-KOOOOOM!!!

The platform shook. Metal split like bones cracking.

They ran as debris collapsed behind them.

Danny looked back, grinning. "Looks like we just gave them a renovation."

---

Central Junction 13 – 01:47 HRS

I moved alone now.

The others were engaging deeper into the outpost.

But I had a different direction.

The signal on Meena's scanner—the one from Dev's old message—it was leading here.

Junction 13.

A black room. Steel floor. Neon-red server arrays blinking in the walls like eyes.

Then I saw him.

A figure.

Masked. Armored. Waiting.

I raised my gun.

"Who are you?"

He stepped forward.

Calm. Silent.

I approached slowly, heart slamming against my ribs.

The closer I got… the more familiar he looked.

He tilted his head slightly.

"Remove it," I said.

He didn't resist.

He raised both hands and pulled the mask free.

Gray hair.

Scar above the brow.

Eyes like polished iron.

My throat closed.

"Dev...?"

The breath left me like a bullet to the chest.

My vision blurred.

"So you survived."

He smiled.

Not kindly.

Not with warmth.

But with something deeper.

Colder.

"No, Amit."

"I evolved."

---

My fingers trembled on the trigger.

But I didn't pull.

I couldn't.

Dev Sharma.

My teacher.

My uncle.

My father's brother-in-arms.

Now here—beneath the city—with the Serpents.

My mind raced.

Memories. Blood. His voice. That photo.

All of it fractured now.

"You… you're working for them?"

"No," he said. "I'm building something better."

I didn't understand.

I didn't want to.

Not yet.

He took a step forward.

And I didn't stop him.

I just stared.

And felt everything I believed in crack.

---

TO BE CONTINUED