The revelation that Elder Valerius was a traitor hung in the air of the small substation like a death sentence.
They were no longer just fugitives from the Vanguard; they were now, by virtue of the information they possessed, enemies of their own clan.
To reveal this truth would be to accuse a sitting elder of high treason, an act that would be seen not as whistleblowing, but as sedition.
They would be silenced before they could even speak.
"We're checkmated," Jin whispered, his face ashen.
"We can't go to the council. Valerius *is* the council. He'll have us executed for heresy and bury this ledger so deep no one will ever find it."
Kiera paced the room like a caged animal.
Her every instinct screamed for justice, for a direct confrontation.
To march into the council chamber, to throw the datapad at Valerius's feet, and to watch him burn.
But she knew Jin was right.
It would be a glorious, righteous, and very short-lived act of suicide.
"We can't fight them from the inside," she said, her voice a low growl. "So we have to fight them from the outside."
Joric looked at her, his old, cynical eyes sharp with understanding. "You're suggesting we leak the information."
"Not just leak it," Kiera clarified.
"A general leak would be dismissed as Vanguard misinformation. We have to deliver it to someone who has the power to act on it, and the motivation to do so."
Their eyes all fell on the same name in the ledger: the Sunstone Jaguar general, the one who was being manipulated into a war with the Onyx Serpents.
If he were to receive undeniable proof that his clan, the Serpents, and the Azure Dragons were all being played by a third party, and that the assassination of his own councilor was part of that plot... he would have no choice but to act.
It would shift the entire political landscape.
"It's a desperate gambit," Joric warned.
"The Sunstone Jaguars are our rivals. Giving them intelligence of this magnitude... it could be seen as an act of war in itself. And they would be just as likely to kill us and take the information for themselves."
"It's a risk we have to take," Kiera insisted. "It's the only move they won't see coming."
The plan was to leave the Azure Dragon stronghold, return to the Outer Sector, and find a way to establish a back-channel communication with the Sunstone Jaguars.
They would have to become true fugitives, disavowing their own clan to save it.
As they prepared to leave, Kiera turned to Ryu.
"This is it," she said.
"Once we step out of this stronghold, we are truly alone. No clan, no allies, nothing but the information on this chip and the enemies on all sides."
Ryu nodded, his expression serious.
The journey that had begun with a beating in a dusty arena had led him here, to the heart of a conspiracy that threatened to topple nations.
He was no longer a dust-rat. He was a keeper of secrets, a warrior in a shadow war.
He could feel the quiet, steady power humming within him, a power that Kiera had paid for with her own.
"You're not alone," he said, meeting her gaze. "We're in this together."
Through their link, Kiera felt the truth of his words.
It was not a declaration of loyalty; it was a simple statement of fact. They were bound together, for better or for worse.
She gave him a curt nod, the closest she could come to a smile.
"Let's go," she said. "It's time to show the dragons, the jaguars, and the serpents who the real enemy is."
They slipped out of the substation and back into the maintenance tunnels, no longer just rebels, but traitors to a corrupt cause, carrying the one truth that could either save the world or get them all killed.