The sound of dripping liquid echoed across the metal walls.
Red pooled under a tilted chair.
Dawn's silhouette lingered at the edge of the light ... neither solid nor absent , half-drenched in shadow, half in the sterile white of the dockside bunker.
"Now, Vex, this could've been over a drink," he said softly, almost apologetically. "But you just had to be difficult."
Vex Marrow coughed through blood, the rough scrapes of his breath cutting through the silence. His mechanical arm twitched, sparking where the wires were peeled apart. "You- you're insane," he wheezed.
Dawn chuckled lightly, leaning against the table, mask reflecting the pale blue hue of the room's lights. "No, no. I'm creative."
He looked toward us ... the unseen watchers and tilted his head.
"You ever notice how people always call you insane when they've run out of vocabulary for pain? Happens all the time. Anyway..." he gestured with a finger, and his shadow elongated, stretching across the floor like a living serpent, coiling around Vex's legs. "Let's try again."
The air grew colder. The shadow constricted but not enough to kill, just enough to remind.
Dawn's voice carried the casual warmth of a friend telling a story by candlelight.
"So, the job. Simple stuff... at least it sounded simple." He rolled his shoulders as he paced. "Pick up a package from one of Hawk's sub-vaults. Deliver to a private client in the lower rings of Unity. No questions, no inspections, no delays."
Vex spat. "You wanted to steal containments. You have no idea what those things are—"
"Containments," Dawn interrupted, tapping the side of his mask as if savoring the word. "You mean those shiny black capsules wrapped in government secrecy? Oh, I know exactly what they are."
He crouched beside Vex, his tone softening, almost intimate.
"They're what's left of Project Solas, aren't they? The experiments that were meant to purify Humarite genetics. Only it didn't purify — it sterilized."
Vex looked up, shocked. "How- how do you know?"
Dawn shrugged. "Lucky guess."
He grinned under the mask. "See? Talking wasn't so hard. You just had to lose some weight."
He gestured toward Vex's missing arm, and the shadow beside him trembled like laughter.
"Now then," he said, standing. "Who hired you?"
Vex hesitated.
Dawn sighed. "See, this is the part I hate. I'm not mad, I'm just... disappointed."
A tendril of shadow slithered upward, caressing Vex's cheek before pressing into it , the skin denting slightly but not breaking. "Come on. Don't ruin the mood."
Vex's voice cracked. "The contract came from Vale Industries. Off-record. No official ledger, but they wanted the containments moved to the Lunar side."
Dawn froze.
His laughter quieted. "Vale… them?"
He turned toward us again. "You know how it is? government companies pretending to be private, buying and selling lives like trading cards. We'll learn little by little. Secrets are better in doses."
He leaned close to Vex again. "Good boy. You earned a treat."
When he was done, Vex slumped in the chair, barely breathing. Dawn dusted off his coat. "You're lucky I'm feeling generous. You're a nice hunter, even for a human. I might call you again, if you're still alive."
He began to walk away.
Vex's hoarse voice followed him. "Wait!!one question."
Dawn paused.
"Out of all the outlaws and freaks… why the mask? What are you hiding under it?"
Dawn tilted his head, his voice turning lazy, almost mocking. "Underneath? Nothing interesting. Just another disappointment."
He waved dismissively. "Masks make people listen. Faces make them forget."
And then like ink dissolving into water, he fell backward into his shadow, vanishing entirely.
The world reassembled around him.
Black walls of shadow peeled open to reveal the underbelly of Unity , pipes, vents, and flickering light strips painting the narrow tunnels in faint gold.
Dawn's voice followed through the echo:
"You know… those containments, the stuff I wanted to deliver, they're not energy sources like the rumors say. They're poison. The kind that turns Humarites weak... breaks their link to whatever makes them more than human."
He chuckled darkly. "Isn't it funny? The perfect counter to the superior race comes from their own research. Balance in the cruelest form."
He stopped walking. His reflection shivered in a puddle at his feet with the mask staring back at him.
"You see, masks aren't just things we wear. They're rules. They tell you when to smile, when to fear, when to obey. The government wears one called order. The humans wear one called pride. The Humarites wear one called evolution. And me?"
He tilted his head. "I wear mine because I refuse to pick a side."
The shadow swallowed him whole again.
Meanwhile, at the Hawk base above the glimmering spires of Unity, tension cracked through the air like thunder.
A digital board flickered with Dawn's bounty:
2,000,000,000 ANDROSS :Shadow Dawn , Priority Level : Red.
General Orin paced across the command deck, barking at the squad captain standing stiff before him.
"How long," Orin growled, "has it been since his last sighting?"
"Forty-two hours, sir," the captain stammered. "Dockside incident confirmed ... seven dead, two critical, one missing. Vex Marrow presumed."
"And still no trace?"
"Sir, we've traced his shadows through three sectors, but they dissipate"
"Because you're tracking light, Captain," Orin snapped, slamming a fist onto the console. "You think shadows move where light does?"
Silence.
The general turned to the digital map of Unity. His eyes burned red from sleeplessness. "If we want to catch a ghost, we need something worse than one. Get me a Hyrion."
The captain blanched. "A- a what, sir? That's… an XT bloodline."
Orin nodded slowly. "Exactly. He's not a threat to the city yet, but a bounty that high means someone important wants him gone. If Vale's involved, then so is the Council."
"But getting a Hyrion approved could take months—"
"Then start now," Orin said flatly. "Because when he comes for us next, I want him to know we were waiting."
The holographic board flickered again with Dawn's masked face spinning slowly, eyes hollow and endless.
Somewhere, unseen, a shadow smiled.