The air in the underground hangar was thick with the scent of ozone and cheap grease. Forty-eight hours. The countdown felt like a physical weight on Kai's chest.
In the center of the room, Cinder and Echo were sparring. Cinder's fire was erratic, popping like a dying engine, while Echo countered by projecting a high-frequency wall of sound that shattered his flames. They weren't "Heroes" yet; they were raw nerves and jagged edges.
Kai sat on the edge of a crate, staring at his hands. The white scars from his clash with Malice looked like lightning frozen under his skin.
"You're overthinking the output again," a voice said softly.
Mina sat down beside him. She had traded her gold-trimmed cape for a tactical harness loaded with Photonic-Cells. She looked sharper, her eyes losing the naive sparkle of the Academy and replacing it with something harder, like tempered glass.
"I'm thinking about how much I can take," Kai admitted, clenching his fist. "Malice isn't just a Graft. He's a nuclear reactor. If I try to swallow his full power at the Gala... I might not just burn. I might vanish."
Mina reached out, her hand glowing with a soft, steady silver light. She placed it over his. "Then don't swallow it. Chunker it. I'll be your filter. I can create the prisms to catch the overflow."
"Mina, if this goes wrong, R-nex won't just kill you. They'll turn you into a cautionary tale. They'll erase your family's name."
"My family already thinks I'm a hostage," she said with a bitter laugh. "The truth is, Kai... I was a hostage long before you 'kidnapped' me. I was a hostage to the brand. For the first time in my life, I actually know what I'm fighting for."
She leaned her head on his shoulder. For a moment, the violence of the world outside—the Gore, the corruption, the looming war—faded. It was just two kids in a dark room, holding onto the only real thing they had left.
Meanwhile, at the Aegis Gala Entrance...
The red carpet was already being rolled out. It wasn't made of wool; it was a smart-fabric that displayed the faces of the Top 10 Sovereigns in high definition.
Malice stood at the balcony of the Grand Ballroom, watching the security teams install "Null-Pylons"—massive towers designed to shut down any Graft that wasn't registered with an R-nex ID chip.
"Sir," his assistant whispered. "The scanners are set. If Vance even breathes within a mile of this building, we'll detect the Void-signature."
Malice adjusted his cufflinks. He wasn't worried. He was excited. He reached out and touched a glass of champagne, and for a split second, the liquid turned to steam.
"Good," Malice said. "I want the whole world to see the moment the 'Ghost' realizes that in my world, there is nowhere left to hide."
Back in the Shadows...
Vantablack emerged from the corner, her bandages fluttering like the wings of a moth. She looked at Kai and Mina, her black-pit eyes unreadable.
"The Sun is rising," she hissed, gesturing toward the digital clock on the wall. "Time to go hunting."
Kai stood up, the Null-Void swirling around his feet like ink in water. The quiet hour was over.
"Everyone, gear up!" Kai shouted to the hangar. "We don't stop until the screens go black and the truth comes out. Tonight, we aren't students, and we aren't mistakes."
He pulled a black mask over his face.
"Tonight, we're the Vantablack."