The convoy moved at dawn.
Six armored carriers cut through the wasteland highway in perfect formation, each one wrapped in layered suppression fields that shimmered faintly against the rising sun. Drones hovered above like silent carrion birds, scanning for thermal anomalies, magical fluctuations, anything that deviated from approved norms.
To the Ministry, it was routine.
To Ashfall, it was a gift.
"They're overconfident," Mira said, watching the live feed scroll across her monitors. "Public pressure's got them stuck in damage-control mode. They don't think we'll move so soon."
Kael stood at the center of the command room, eyes closed, breathing slow and deliberate. Fire rolled beneath his skin in measured pulses—carbon lattice only, no deviation.
Hold the line.
Lyra adjusted her gauntlets. "Convoy enters the ravine in forty seconds. Once they're boxed in, there's no clean exit."
Seris leaned forward, fingers white-knuckled around a data tablet. "That middle carrier—Unit Three. That's where they keep the synthesis logs. And the live subject."
Kael opened his eyes.
"Live?" he asked.
Seris nodded grimly. "Prototype Post-Ranker. Early-stage. Still… human enough."
Kael didn't respond immediately.
Then: "We don't kill unless we have to."
Lyra glanced at him. "That's not going to make this easier."
"I didn't say it would," Kael replied.
---
The ravine swallowed the convoy whole.
Sheer rock walls rose on either side, blocking satellite visibility and scrambling long-range comms. As the lead carrier crossed the narrowest point—
Kael stepped into the open.
He didn't hide.
He didn't suppress his fire.
He let it be seen.
Heat shimmered around him, distorting the air as carbon-lattice fire hardened into a visible halo. Drones screeched warnings as their sensors overloaded.
The convoy screeched to a halt.
Weapons deployed instantly.
A voice boomed from the central carrier. "Unrankable Prime. You are interfering with classified operations. Stand down."
Kael tilted his head.
"Classified," he repeated softly. "That's your word for 'ashamed.'"
He raised his hand.
The ground beneath the lead carrier crystallized—fire transmuting into brittle glass-ceramic. The vehicle sank halfway before locking in place.
Panic rippled through the formation.
Lyra moved.
Explosions detonated along the ravine walls—not lethal, but disorienting. Suppression fields flickered as Ashfall's countermeasures flooded the zone.
Mira's voice echoed in Kael's ear. "Broadcast is live. You're on every major network."
Good.
Kael stepped closer to the central carrier.
"People are watching," he said calmly. "So choose your next words carefully."
The carrier's hatch hissed open.
A man stepped out.
He wasn't armored.
He wore a Ministry insignia pinned neatly to his coat, gray hair slicked back, expression controlled but tight around the eyes.
"Kael," the man said. "I was wondering when you'd show up."
Lyra stiffened. "You know him?"
Kael's fire flared dangerously.
"I know of you," Kael said. "Deputy Minister Harkon. Architect of the Post-Ranker initiative."
Harkon smiled faintly. "Oversight committee, actually. I prefer not to take sole credit."
Kael laughed once, sharp and humorless. "Still hiding behind process."
Harkon spread his hands. "You've made your point. The Freezer was a mistake. We're correcting it."
Kael's eyes hardened. "By moving the experiments."
Harkon's smile faltered—just slightly.
The world saw it.
"Release the logs," Kael said. "All of them."
"You know I can't do that."
Kael stepped forward.
The heat intensified.
"I know you won't," Kael corrected. "There's a difference."
---
Inside Carrier Three, alarms screamed.
The prototype Post-Ranker lay strapped to a containment gurney, eyes wide, breathing shallow. He couldn't have been older than eighteen.
"Please," he whispered to no one. "I don't want to forget."
Kael felt it—the pull. The same hollow wrongness he'd sensed in Elias before defection.
He reached out.
The system pulsed.
[ANALYSIS: POST-RANKER COGNITIVE INTEGRITY — UNSTABLE]
[SUGGESTED ACTION: INTERFACE]
Kael hesitated only a second.
He pressed his hand to the carrier's hull.
Fire flowed—not destructive, not invasive—but connecting. He let the system interface bleed through him, bridging the gap between Unrankable and Post-Ranker architecture.
The boy gasped.
"I can hear myself," he whispered. "It's… quiet."
Kael swallowed hard.
"Remember this feeling," Kael said softly. "It's yours. Not theirs."
Outside, Harkon's composure finally cracked.
"What are you doing?" he demanded. "You have no idea what you're destabilizing!"
Kael turned back to him.
"No," he said. "I know exactly."
Seris' tablet chimed.
"Logs decrypted," she said, voice shaking. "Oh god… Kael, it's all here. The synthesis. The freezer correlation. The hostage contingencies."
"Broadcast it," Kael said.
Harkon shouted, "You can't—!"
Too late.
The world watched as documents flooded every channel.
Graphs showing mental decay tied directly to material overuse.
Footage of unrankables being "cycled" after degradation.
Memos authorizing family detainment as motivational leverage.
And finally—
A line item stamped with a familiar seal.
PROJECT AWAKENED — SECONDARY DEPARTMENT OVERRIDE
The chat feeds exploded.
"They lied."
"All of them."
"There were two programs?"
Harkon staggered back, face pale.
"That wasn't us," he said weakly. "That was another department. A parallel initiative. We didn't authorize—"
Kael's gaze was merciless.
"You knew enough," he said. "And you stayed silent."
Harkon met his eyes.
For the first time, fear outweighed authority.
"You don't understand what you're unleashing," Harkon said. "The Awakened are already moving. This will push them into open war."
Kael nodded slowly.
"Good," he said. "Then they stop hiding behind children."
---
The prototype Post-Ranker was escorted out, trembling but conscious.
Elias knelt in front of him. "You're safe," he said. "For now."
The boy clutched his sleeve. "They said people like you were monsters."
Elias smiled sadly. "They say that about everyone they're afraid of."
Above them, drones pulled back, unsure.
The convoy stood immobilized, authority stripped bare in the open light of public scrutiny.
Lyra stepped beside Kael.
"You just burned their last clean excuse," she said quietly.
Kael watched Harkon be taken into Ashfall custody, fire finally dimming.
"No," Kael replied. "I burned the lie that it was ever clean."
The system pulsed once—steady, approving.
[EVENT QUEUE UPDATED]
[NEXT PHASE: SYSTEMIC COLLAPSE — IN PROGRESS]
Far away, in the shadows of abandoned cities and frozen ruins, the Awakened watched the broadcast in silence.
Their leader smiled.
"Good," he murmured. "Let them tear each other apart."
The pandemic was about to change.
And Kael, standing at the center of a truth too big to contain, felt the weight of it settle fully onto his shoulders.
This wasn't revenge anymore.
It was responsibility.
And it terrified him.