Red lights washed over the corridors like blood running through metal veins.
Kael moved fast faster than Lira had ever seen. His boots struck the ground with silent precision as he pulled her toward the armory. His body was tense, controlled, every muscle coiled like a weapon ready to snap.
Lira tried to match his pace, but fear slowed her steps.
"Kael, how did they find us?" she asked.
"They locked onto our heat signature," he said.
"Even the Dark Zone couldn't hide it."
He slammed his palm onto a scanner.
The armory doors slid open.
Racks of weapons lined the room rifles, shock blades, EMP rounds, toxin suppressors. Kael didn't hesitate. He grabbed a pulse rifle and threw a smaller blaster toward Lira.
"Take it."
She stared at it.
"I don't know how to use that."
"You won't have to," he said.
"You only shoot if I fall."
Her chest tightened.
"Don't say that."
He didn't answer.
He fitted an energy core into the rifle and turned sharply.
"Stay behind me. Don't run. Don't scream. Don't freeze."
Lira tried to steady her breathing.
"Kael… what exactly is an Inquisitor Protocol?"
He paused just for a second and she saw something flicker behind his eyes.
"It's not a protocol."
He loaded his weapon.
"It's a person."
The hallway vibrated.
Metal groaned.
Something heavy landed on the hull of the ship.
Lira flinched.
"What was that?"
"Inquisitor boarding claws," Kael said.
"They're latching on."
A violent wrench pulled the whole ship downward, like a beast dragging prey from the sky.
Kael grabbed her wrist and pulled her close.
"Listen to me," he said, voice low and steady.
"No matter what you hear, no matter what they say, you stay with me."
Lira swallowed.
"What would they say?"
"That I'm dangerous. That I'm property. That you don't belong with me."
He looked at her sharply.
"They'll lie."
Her pulse hammered.
"Why would they care about me?"
He didn't answer.
Which scared her more than anything.
The ship jolted again. A loud hiss echoed through the corridors the sound of metal giving way.
"They're inside," Kael said.
He moved into the hallway with silent precision, rifle raised. Lira stayed just behind him, her smaller blaster shaking slightly in her grip.
The overhead lights flickered.
Then, a shadow appeared at the far end of the corridor tall, armored, moving with unnatural grace.
The Inquisitor.
Kael stopped.
Lira froze behind him.
The figure emerged from the darkness, towering, its armor black as void, glowing with cold blue lines. Its helmet had no face only a mirrored surface reflecting Kael and Lira back at themselves.
A distorted voice echoed through the corridor.
"Subject: Kael Mercer."
A pause.
"You have attempted unauthorized escape. Surrender."
Lira felt Kael's body stiffen.
The voice continued.
"Protocol dictates immediate retrieval and termination of accompanying civilian."
Lira's heart stopped.
Kael stepped forward.
"If you touch her"
The Inquisitor tilted its head.
"You cared about the last one too."
Kael's grip tightened on his rifle.
"Don't talk about him."
"You hesitated."
The machine's voice was almost emotionless.
"And he died."
Lira's blood chilled.
Kael didn't move, but Lira saw the pain hit him sharp, silent, buried deep.
"That was the weakness we corrected in you," the Inquisitor said.
"Do not make the same mistake twice."
Kael's voice darkened.
"I'm not yours anymore."
"You are property," the Inquisitor replied.
"You were engineered, not born. Built, not chosen."
Kael slowly raised his rifle.
"Then consider this my malfunction."
The Inquisitor didn't hesitate.
It moved first.
A blur of black metal lunging down the hallway.
Kael shoved Lira behind a wall and fired.
Blue energy rounds cracked through the air, slamming into the Inquisitor's chest.
The machine barely slowed.
Lira covered her ears as the hallway exploded in sound metal smashing, energy ripping, sparks burning the air.
Kael dodged the Inquisitor's strike and countered with a precise kick to its knee joint.
It staggered, but only for a heartbeat.
The Inquisitor swung again.
Kael barely ducked.
The metal claws tore into the wall behind him, leaving a deep crater.
"Kael!" Lira screamed.
"Stay back!"
He rolled across the floor, firing round after round.
The Inquisitor absorbed the hits like they were raindrops.
Then its mirrored mask turned toward Lira.
"Civilian recognized," it said.
"Threat identified."
It charged at her.
Lira gasped and stumbled backward.
Kael's eyes snapped wide.
He moved faster than she had ever seen a blur of raw power. He slammed into the Inquisitor, tackling it into the opposite wall.
The impact shook the entire corridor.
"Touch her and I'll tear out your core!" Kael roared.
The Inquisitor responded by grabbing Kael by the throat and lifting him off the ground.
Lira screamed.
"Let him go!"
She fired her small blaster three frantic shots. The blasts hit the Inquisitor's arm, forcing it to drop Kael.
Kael landed hard, but immediately pushed himself up.
He glanced at Lira, shock flickering through his eyes.
"You shot a Nexus Inquisitor?" he asked.
"I'm not letting you fight alone," she said.
He stared at her for half a second a look she couldn't read.
Admiration.
Fear.
Something deeper.
Then he turned back to the machine.
The Inquisitor lunged again.
Kael met it head-on.
He struck fast faster than human reflex allowed hitting weak points, joints, circuit nodes. Sparks flew as metal cracked.
The Inquisitor staggered.
Kael grabbed its helmet and slammed its head into the wall.
Once.
Twice.
A third time, harder.
The helmet fractured.
"Kael," Lira gasped, "you're"
But she stopped.
Kael's eyes had changed.
The blue glow beneath his skin the hidden energy Nexus had built into him was rising, pulsing, burning like something waking up.
He wasn't just fighting.
He was becoming what Nexus created.
The Inquisitor tried to stand.
Kael seized its chest plate with both hands, muscles tightening, power igniting through every fiber of his engineered body
And he ripped the core from its chest.
The machine collapsed instantly.
Lira stared, breath gone, heart pounding.
Kael dropped the sparking core to the floor.
He turned toward her.
His breathing was rough.
His eyes were glowing faintly.
He looked dangerous.
Unstable.
Something more than human.
Lira took a step toward him anyway.
"Kael… are you alright?"
He didn't answer.
He just looked at her, chest rising and falling, the glow under his skin fading slowly.
Then he said quietly:
"They won't stop coming."
Lira swallowed.
"Then neither will we."
Kael exhaled a sound close to disbelief.
She wasn't afraid of him.
Not even now.
That terrified him more than the Inquisitors ever could.