Vex

The shot tore through my side at close range. No warning just a white-hot burst of pain and the sound of betrayal louder than the gunshot itself. Tilo pulled the trigger. The boy I saved a dozen times. The one I covered for when Sector 6 wanted him erased. I carried him through raids, patched him up after black-market jobs went wrong, and this this is how he repays me. I dropped to one knee in a piss-stained alley, lit by a flickering sign for synthetic pleasure mods in languages no one speaks anymore. Rain hissed off the vents overhead, washing my blood into the gutter like it belonged there. I watched him limp away, injuredbarely standing. Still breathing only because I let him. That mercy won’t happen again. They found me hours later near Checkpoint 44. Sector 6 didn’t ask questions. They dragged my bleeding body through scanners and steel doors, past the guards who didn’t blink. They strapped me to the Chair. Neuro-feedback reconditioning. Pain as programming. Obedience rewritten through electric pulses. Defiance stripped away, one volt at a time. I didn’t scream. I stared at the ceiling and held onto Tilo’s face those eyes when he turned and ran. He thought it was over. He thought he’d escaped. When they unstrapped me, I stood with blood trailing down my back and said what they wanted to hear: “I’ll bring him back.” But this time, it isn’t about orders. It’s personal. Tilo is mine to hunt. Mine to break. Tokyo, 2047—this city doesn’t sleep. It breathes heat, metal, and war. Neon gangs run the alleys. Surveillance drones hum overhead like vultures. But I’ll carve my path. I’ll go through anything and anyone to find him. And when I do? No hesitation.