I lay here, breathin’ all slow, all messed up. Wind slashin’ at me, rain hammerin’ down, cuttin’ through my armor like it tryna carve me open. My visor’s cracked, spiderwebbed like the damn ice plains back on Ceres. Oxygen hisses out, and my body? My body don’t even feel like mine no more—just a broken husk in Ritcher’s killbox.

  That was stupid.

  I snapped. Snapped real bad.

  Jumped at Klaus like I ain't got no sense, like I thought I could take him bare-handed. Like I thought justice was somethin’ you could snatch out the air if you reached hard enough.

  But all I got was a rifle to the gut. Knocked the wind outta me. Put me down flat. Dirt in my teeth, pain in my ribs.

  And Canny?

  She charged.

  He shot her. No pause, no mercy. Just one shot—clean through.

  Canny jerked, like she lost all bones. She hit the wind, and then she was gone.

  "Canny!" Lanny shout. No thinking. No stopping.

  He ran.

  Right off the damn cliff after her.

  I got my people killed.

  So yeah. Now I lay dyin’ like I never came.

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  The wind howlin’, draggin’ across my skin, stealin’ what little heat I got left. The rain ain’t fallin’ no more—it slicin’. Ain’t nothin’ out here but the storm and the dark.

  And me. Just one more dead thing in the mud.

  Ritcher’s a murderer. Always was. And now? He done finished the job.

  Not just my parents.

  But the whole damn family.

  My fingers twitch, but they too heavy to lift. Ain't even mad no more. Just tired. When did this start bein’ about revenge? When did I start fightin’ for them and stop fightin’ just to fight?

  They dead.

  Killin’ Klaus wouldn’t bring ‘em back.

  And now I’m just gon’ join ‘em.

  I try to breathe. My lungs don’t work right. Air too thin. My cracked mask hissin’ out what little oxygen I got left.

  Then—

  Things start gettin’ darker.

  My fingers curl weak. First I think its me blackin’ out. But someone steppin’ up on me.

  Ritcher.

  He came to piss on my grave? To make sure I ain't breathin’ no more?

  I tilt my head.

  Nah.

  Ain’t him.

  This shadow ain't big enough. Ain't got the same vibe.

  I blink slow, vision blurry, my head feelin’ like it full of fog—

  Min-Joon.

  I freeze.

  That ain't real.

  He ain't real.

  I must be dreamin’, or maybe I done already slipped past dyin’ and now my soul just playin’ tricks on me.

  But he move. He real.

  He ain't broken. Ain't battered. Ain't crawlin’ on the ground like the rest of us.

  He kneel fast, hands workin’, diggin’ through his pack. Run off for half a second, then come back just as quick.

  I barely track what he doin’. Just know that when he reach for my visor, I damn near meet my ma from the shift in pressure.

  Then—

  I breathe.

  Deep.

  Clean.

  Air floodin’ my chest like I ain't never breathed before. Ain't no weight pressin’ down on me no more, ain't gotta fight for each inhale.

  Min-Joon pull me up, grip tight, holdin’ me like he the only thing keepin’ me from fallin’ straight through the planet.

  “Who did this?” he ask.

  I don’t answer.

  I just grab him. Hold him tight. Arms locked ‘round him like I’m a damn kid again. Don’t even know why. My chest just ache, my throat burn, and for the first time in a long, long time—

  I ain’t alone.

  Min-Joon stay still for a second, then pat my back. Say, “Vortex… what happened?”

  I shake my head. Breathe deep.

  Then he say somethin’ that cut through me worse than any of Ritcher’s hits.

  "The whole squad’s dead." The words hit me like they’re made of stone. I don’t move. I can’t. He swallows, and I hear the rawness in it, like he's still tryin’ to make sense of what he’s sayin’. "I don’t know how I made it out. But I did. And I came looking."

  I don’t move.

  Just stand there. Breathing. Feeling the weight of what he said.

  The cold. The dirt. The blood drying in my armor.

  I should be dead, too.

  But I ain’t.

  I take a breath, steady my feet.

  “We goin’ back,” I say.

  Min-Joon’s brow crease. “What?”

  "We ain’t leavin’ them all for dead." My eyes cut to the cliff’s edge—where Canny and Lanny disappeared. Where the wind still howls like it’s laughin’ at us. "We gon’ be real soldiers. Or die tryin’.”

  Min-Joon just stare at me for a long moment. Then, slow—

  He nod.