The city didn't celebrate victories.
It swallowed them.
Ethan realized this as he stood beneath the shattered skybridge, rain dripping through cracked concrete like the city itself was bleeding. The data shard in his pocket felt heavier than it should—no longer just information, but a sentence waiting to be carried out.
Mara was silent beside him. Too silent.
"You're thinking about selling it," she said at last.
Ethan didn't deny it. "I'm thinking about surviving."
The shard contained proof—evidence that the Core Council had engineered the Blackout, sacrificed entire districts to consolidate control. If released, it would ignite rebellion. If sold, it would buy safety, anonymity, maybe even a way out of Neon City.
Hope or escape.
Neon City allowed only one.
They moved through the underlevels, past vendors selling synthetic food and broken dreams, until they reached the Broker's Gate. A single symbol flickered above the entrance: an open eye with a line slashed through it.
No secrets. No mercy.
Inside, the air hummed with encrypted signals. The Broker sat behind a glass desk, face hidden behind shifting holograms.
"You're late," the Broker said. "And you're being watched."
Mara's hand drifted closer to her weapon.
Ethan stepped forward and placed the shard on the table.
"I want immunity," he said. "New IDs. Clean exits."
The hologram paused.
"Everyone wants to disappear," the Broker replied. "But this…"
A soft chuckle echoed through the room.
"This can't be erased."
The Broker leaned in. "The Council will hunt you until the end of your borrowed life. Or you can give this to me—and I make sure you never existed."
Ethan's pulse thundered in his ears.
This was it.
The easy way.
Then Mara spoke, her voice low but steady. "And how many die quietly after you sell it back to them?"
The Broker smiled. "That's not my concern."
It should have been Ethan's.
He remembered the darkened streets. The screams during the Blackout. The way Neon City flickered and pretended nothing happened the next day.
He closed his fingers around the shard—and pulled it back.
"No deal."
The temperature in the room dropped.
"You're making a mistake," the Broker warned.
"Maybe," Ethan said. "But at least it'll be my own."
Alarms screamed.
The walls shifted, hidden turrets unfolding like mechanical insects.
Mara moved first.
Gunfire tore through the room as they ran, glass exploding behind them. Ethan felt the burn of a shot graze his arm, but he didn't slow down. They burst into the rain-soaked night, Neon City roaring awake around them.
Drones swarmed the sky.
"They'll never stop now," Mara shouted.
Ethan looked up, rain washing blood from his sleeve.
"Then we don't stop either."
Above them, the city glowed—beautiful, cruel, and finally afraid.
For the first time, Ethan smiled.