The city was burning again.
Ash drifted in the night air like snow, settling on the shattered streets of what used to be downtown Havenreach. Jaden crouched behind a half-destroyed armored truck, his breathing calm despite the chaos unraveling around him.
"Three on the left. Two enhanced," whispered Lena, peeking over the vehicle with her pulse rifle drawn.
Jaden's eyes flicked to the Lock interface hovering silently before him, invisible to anyone else.
Lock #012: Phase Trigger — Active.Duration: 3 seconds per activation.Cooldown: 15 seconds.
He clenched his fists, adrenaline humming just beneath his skin.
"Give me five seconds," he said.
Lena nodded, trusting him without hesitation. She covered him as he sprinted into the open—right into enemy fire.
Bullets zipped through the air. One grazed his shoulder, another pinged off a metal sign behind him. Then—
Phase Trigger: Engage.
Jaden vanished.
His body became mist, barely visible even to his own eyes. He slipped through the first enhanced soldier, a muscular brute with molten eyes and scorched skin. Jaden reappeared behind him, slamming his knife into the base of the man's skull. The enhanced screamed—then went still.
Another soldier turned just as Jaden flickered back into sight. Too slow. Jaden's pistol barked once. Headshot.
Lena moved in with surgical precision, taking out the rest with two clean bursts. The fight was over in less than twenty seconds.
"You're getting faster," she said, lowering her weapon.
Jaden didn't answer. His eyes were locked on something down the ruined street.
The convoy they'd been hunting for days—black vans marked with the Eclipse insignia—had stopped at the edge of Sector Nine. Guarded. Reinforced. But vulnerable.
Inside one of those vans, according to Echo's intel, was a high-ranking Eclipse scientist. Someone who'd worked on Subject Zero.
And maybe someone who could help him understand what he was becoming.
"Time to breach?" Lena asked.
Jaden shook his head. "Not yet. We need backup—and a full scan of the sector. This smells like a trap."
A voice crackled in over the comms. "Knightley, you've got movement on the rooftops. Two heat signatures. Fast movers."
Jaden turned, activating Phase Trigger just in time as a figure dropped from the rooftop, slicing through the air where he had stood.
The attacker was wrong. Twisted. Limbs too long. Skin like living metal. Eyes—hollow.
"New variant," Jaden muttered.
He raised his pistol, but the thing was fast. It lunged for Lena.
"Back!" he shouted.
She rolled clear. Jaden blinked forward again, landing behind the creature and unloading his clip into its back. It screeched—an unnatural, synthetic sound—and collapsed.
The second variant didn't attack. It watched. Studied.
Then it vanished into the dark.
"What the hell were those?" Lena asked, panting.
Jaden crouched beside the corpse. It was already dissolving into a pool of shimmering fluid.
"Not zombies. Not Eclipse soldiers either," he said. "Something else. Something... engineered."
His Lock System chimed in silence.
Unknown Variant Neutralized. Analyzing genetic data...Temporary Lock Bonus Acquired: Lock Surge+20% Movement Speed for 10 minutes.
The power flooded his limbs. And with it came something else.
A memory not his own—flashes of metal walls, cryopods, and screaming subjects.
He staggered.
Lena caught him. "Jaden? Are you—?"
"I saw something," he whispered. "From the creature. Like... a flashback."
"Your own memory?"
"No," Jaden said. "I think it was its."
Then Voss's voice broke through the comms.
"Knightley. Abort the mission. Return to base. That's an order."
"What?" Jaden blinked. "We just found proof Eclipse is creating new biotypes. I'm not leaving now."
"You've gone off-script one too many times," Voss said. "You've become... unpredictable. This mission is over."
Lena's face hardened. She raised her weapon.
"I'm sorry," she said. "They think you're a risk. If you don't come now, they'll mark you as hostile."
So this was the play.
They didn't know about his system—but they feared how effective, how different, he was.
And someone in the resistance wanted him out of the way.
He activated Phase Trigger.
"Wait—" Lena started.
Too late. He blinked through the wall, reappearing in the alley beyond.
But he wasn't alone.
"Tess?" he said, catching sight of the figure waiting by a wrecked bike, hood up.
She tossed him a small EMP disruptor. "That'll wipe any trackers. Hurry."
"You knew this was coming?"
Tess nodded. "I've seen the reports, Jaden. They're afraid of what they can't leash. I didn't sign up to be someone's lapdog."
He took the device, crushed it under his boot. Static hissed briefly, then silence.
"Come with me," he said.
She hesitated. "Not yet. Too risky. But I'll contact you when it's safe. Just don't get killed before then."
She turned and disappeared into the haze.
Jaden slipped into the shadows, vanishing into Havenreach's broken skeleton.
That night, beneath the collapsed spine of the Old Metro, Jaden sat in silence.
Affiliation – NoneStatus – Independent
The Lock System pulsed softly in his mind.
The resistance had turned its back. Not because of what he was—but because they couldn't own him.
No more sides.
No more chains.
From now on, he would forge his own path. His own faction.
And as for the Resistance?
If they got in his way, they'd burn with the rest.