CTS TIME RE250.09.04 — 9:00 PM
SECTOR 9 — LOWER MECHATOPIA
The night here was unlike the shimmering skyline above—down in Sector 9, neon struggled to breathe. The alleys reeked of coolant and metallic oil, the kind of place where old machines came to rust and the unwanted gathered in silence. Broken drone wings littered the ground like forgotten bones.
Valerian stopped abruptly, his back resting against a rust-streaked wall. His storm-blue glow faint beneath his clothes flickered once before steadying, the faint trace of red in his reactor sharpening like a warning light. His gaze turned inward, not toward Luna but toward her words earlier—a spineless mutt.
He repeated them in silence. Again. And again.
But his face betrayed nothing.
A few steps behind, Luna hesitated, fingers fiddling with the hem of her sleeve. Her reactor pulsed faintly pink, shame flooding through her system. She remembered the ISA headquarters, the meetings with S-rank elites. She had always had this flaw—a tongue sharper than her intention. Whenever a teammate went too far, whenever she felt cornered, cruel words escaped her lips before her heart could stop them. And now, twice, she had lashed out at him.
Why do I keep doing this with him of all people? Her chest burned, not from embarrassment but from the fear that each careless word pushed him further away.
Valerian glanced at his wristwatch. The glowing holographic digits shimmered. 21:00 hours.
He let out a steady breath and pulled a small glass vial from the inner pocket of his biomechanical layering. The Memorium liquid shimmered inside—blue like liquid starlight, tiny sparks of nanite-light dancing as though alive. He twisted the cap, raised it to his lips, and drank.
The liquid coated his mouth with a cold fire, a taste somewhere between ozone and synthetic mint. It slid down his throat, his reactor pulsing brighter, stabilizing oxygen exchange and sharpening his mind.
Luna watched, swallowing hard. Her eyes widened slightly when he spoke, his voice as cold as the vial itself.
"You…" His gaze shifted to her without softening. "You forgot again, didn't you? You didn't carry your Memorium bottle."
Her breath caught. She fumbled around her waist, patting down the compartments in her biomechanical layering. Empty. She already knew it—carelessness again. Her lips trembled, words dying before they could form.
Valerian's silence was heavier than his words. He withdrew another vial from his suit—a spare he had kept. He didn't hand it gently. He extended it with the same cruelty in his voice, like the vial itself carried his disdain.
"Drink. And try not to die on me this time."
Luna's reactor pulsed bright crimson-pink, her cheeks burning as if his words were fire. Shame coated her chest, and yet, beneath it, an odd warmth stirred. She took the vial with both hands, almost reverently, as though his disdainful act was still a form of care. She tilted her head back and drank. The blue liquid shimmered across her lips, cold and biting, settling into her veins like lightning. She exhaled sharply as her body stabilized, though her heart still hammered from his words.
Why does it feel like even when he scolds me… he's the only one keeping me alive?
Valerian didn't wait for her gratitude. He pushed off the wall and stepped back into motion, boots striking against the steel floor. "Let's go."
The passage twisted into deeper shadows, the hum of neon signs fading into silence as they descended. Every step drew them closer to the heart of corruption—closer to the underworld where no law but machine law reigned.
And then, the glow reappeared in the distance. The fractured sign of a place they had already touched once. VAULT VOID CLUB. The letters flickered with unstable light, as though the club itself was alive and watching them return.
Luna's throat tightened. She followed just behind him, her reactor glowing faint pink beneath her clothes, her emotions spiraling again.
Valerian, however, was unreadable. Storm-blue eyes fixed forward, reactor glowing dark with resolve. If there are clues about Flame, they'll be here. And if she slips again… I won't let it compromise this mission. Not even once more.
CTS TIME RE250.09.04 — 9:42 PM
VAULT VOID CLUB
The club had not changed—dim lights sputtering across the massive fighting pit, broken androids strewn like corpses of a forgotten war. The scent of hot metal and ozone lingered thick in the air, mixed with the faint hum of damaged reactors struggling to regenerate.
But the atmosphere had shifted. Fear clung to the shadows now.
Valerian and Luna stepped onto the railing platform above the pit. Their faint glows cut through the darkness—stormy blue and lilac-pink, standing out like two living beacons in this graveyard of steel.
Down below, the Boss android sat with his girlfriend, overseeing repairs. His junior scrambled nervously across the pit floor, trying to patch the broken bodies of the six Mk-2s Valerian had destroyed earlier. Sparks burst from their cracked frames as cables were reattached, reactors glowing faintly again—two of them already back online.
The Boss's green octagonal reactor flickered sharply when his optics caught sight of Valerian.
His girlfriend gasped. "B-Boss… it's them! Those fake Mk-1s—"
Before she could finish, Valerian vanished from the railing. A blink. A blur. He was already there—standing before the Boss android, his presence as suffocating as gravity.
Luna's eyes widened, her breath catching. For the first time, she had seen Valerian's true speed. The shift of energy, the compressed space around him, the storm-blue glow that carved reality itself. And she smiled faintly despite herself.
So this… this is him at full speed. It's beautiful. It's terrifying. And yet… compared to me, it's still so slow.
The Boss android stumbled backward, optics wide with terror, his knees buckling. "N-no… not again…! Stay away from me!"
But Valerian's hand was already moving. Clean. Efficient. Without hesitation, he reached out, and with a sharp twist—
SNAP.
The Boss android's arm tore free, metal shrieking as circuits screamed in sparks. The Boss let out a sound halfway between a roar and a sob, clutching the stump where his limb had been.
Above, Luna flinched. Her reactor pulsed violently pink as her lips trembled. He didn't even think. He just… broke him like trash.
The two freshly repaired Mk-2 androids froze mid-step, their optical sensors shaking. Fear radiated through their frames. They had seen him once, but seeing him again—alive, faster, colder—it was unbearable.
"Y-you came back…" one stammered, voice shaking. "Why? Why again?!"
Valerian ignored them. His hand shot forward, and he seized the Boss's girlfriend by her throat. Her lilac optics widened, her slender body kicking against the grip that lifted her effortlessly off the ground.
"If you move," Valerian said, his voice calm, cruelly calm, "I'll crush her reactor in one hand."
The Boss android collapsed fully to the ground. His reactor pulsed violently, and—for the first time—his voice cracked, trembling like a child's.
"Please… don't… don't hurt her! Please! Anything, but not her!"
Luna's breath hitched. Her eyes locked on the Boss android's chest. His octagonal life reactor—she had never studied it closely before. Three slots. One glowed a fierce green for the woman struggling in Valerian's hand. Two more glowed faintly—for parents long away, maybe waiting for him in another sector, maybe believing their son was working honestly.
Her hands shook. He… he loves. He really loves.
She turned to the girlfriend in Valerian's grip. Her diamond-shaped reactor split into three soft glows—one burning bright for the Boss, and two softer for her family.
Valerian, for the first time, hesitated. He stared at the dual reactors, their glowing bonds, the unmistakable sign of devotion encoded into their very cores. Machines weren't supposed to love like humans. And yet, here it was. Proof.
They have families.
Luna's voice finally cracked through the silence. "Stop it!"
Her reactor glowed violently pink, flaring with both fear and empathy. She stumbled closer to the railing, her eyes wide, cheeks wet though she hadn't noticed tears forming.
"Valerian, please! You can't—don't you see? They're not just criminals. They're—" her voice broke, "they're people. They're a family. Just like us."
Valerian's hand trembled for the briefest of moments. His stormy-blue glow flared across his arm, energy screaming for release—but his grip loosened.
The Boss's girlfriend gasped as she fell to the floor, coughing, clutching her throat. The Boss crawled forward immediately, one hand around her, pulling her close, his damaged arm forgotten.
They held each other like fragile glass, optics trembling, reactors glowing as though they might burst.
The Boss whispered brokenly, "I… thought this was the end. I thought… I'd lose her."
Valerian stood above them, silent, unreadable. His gaze lingered on the pair, then shifted slightly toward Luna. Her eyes were burning into him, pleading, accusing, soft all at once.
Why do I feel… wrong? Why do I feel as though her pain matters more than my mission?
Luna clutched the railing tighter, her voice softer now but carrying across the chamber.
"You've trained yourself to see enemies. To see parts. Chips. Weapons. But what if you're wrong this time, Valerian? What if… what if this is just another family trying to survive in a world that forgot them?"
The Boss android held his girlfriend tighter, their reactors glowing brighter together in rhythm. Like hearts. Like humans.
And for the first time in a long while, Valerian's stormy-blue reactor flickered—not red, not green. Just uncertain.