The storm had passed by dawn, leaving the city dripping and exhausted under a muted, bruised sky.
Jayden sat at the long, battered wooden table in headquarters, nursing a cup of bitter coffee that had long since gone cold.
Across from him, Aria was bandaging her wrist, humming a stupid song under her breath like the adrenaline hadn't already shredded her nerves.
Sophie and Elias argued quietly over the security footage, their voices low, sharp, too tense to be casual.
Jayden's mind wasn't on them.
It wasn't even on Victor, rotting in a holding cell by now.
It was on the face he'd seen in the shadows last night — a glimpse only, but enough.
A familiar figure, tucked among the mercenaries.
Someone he trusted.
Someone who wasn't supposed to be there.
His stomach twisted.
There was a traitor.
---
> "We need to talk," Jayden said finally, setting the cup down.
The room went silent like someone had cut a wire.
Sophie blinked at him.
Elias frowned.
Aria just raised an eyebrow.
Jayden folded his hands carefully, hiding the tension that made them want to shake.
> "Last night... someone tipped them off.
They were ready for us.
Not Victor's usual guards.
Professional hitters."
Sophie crossed her arms, defensive.
> "You think one of us—?"
> "I think someone around us talked."
Elias rubbed his jaw, looking more tired than angry.
> "Not necessarily one of us.
Could've been intercepted communications.
A mole nearby."
Jayden nodded slowly.
> "Maybe.
But we can't ignore the possibility.
We need to be smarter."
The word smarter hung in the air like a loaded gun.
For a moment, no one moved.
Then Aria leaned back in her chair, kicking her boots up on the table like nothing was wrong.
> "Okay.
Paranoia 101.
Where do we start?"
Jayden smiled grimly.
> "With trust."
---
Over the next two days, Jayden laid his trap.
Not loudly.
Not directly.
Just small things.
A change in meeting locations, shared only with one person at a time.
A false leak about a shipment, whispered too close to a microphone he "forgot" to turn off.
A misleading map casually left on a desk.
If someone was leaking information, it would show.
Meanwhile, life at headquarters carried on with a brittle, aching cheerfulness.
Sophie fixed the broken coffee machine, grumbling about savages who didn't respect technology.
Elias re-calibrated every security camera, muttering curses in at least three different languages.
Aria made sarcastic jokes about installing booby traps in the toilet.
Jayden laughed with them, smiled with them.
And watched.
Always watched.
Each moment stretched taut like a wire ready to snap.
Because trust wasn't something you lost all at once.
It frayed.
One silent doubt at a time.
---
The first hit came three nights later.
Jayden had leaked a fake intel packet — about a hidden safe house where they'd supposedly be moving Victor's evidence.
Only two people knew about it: Sophie and Elias.
The safe house burned to the ground at midnight.
No survivors.
Jayden stood in the rain, watching the flames consume everything, feeling sick.
Aria appeared beside him, umbrella forgotten, hair dripping.
> "Coincidence?" she asked softly.
Jayden shook his head.
No.
Not this time.
Someone had sold them out.
Someone close enough to hear every breath they took.
Aria shivered, not from the cold.
> "Who?"
Jayden's hands curled into fists.
> "I don't know.
Yet."
But he would.
He had to.
Or they would all burn next.
---
Back at headquarters, tensions simmered just below the surface.
Sophie barely looked at anyone, buried in lines of code, her mouth tight.
Elias cleaned his guns obsessively, a habit Jayden had only seen once before — the night Elias had buried his brother.
Aria acted normal.
Too normal.
Jayden hated himself for even noticing.
This was worse than being hunted.
This was being poisoned from the inside, slowly, painfully, by someone you loved.
He needed answers.
And he needed them soon.
Because the next strike wouldn't be a safe house.
It would be them.
---
In the middle of the tension, life forced them to live anyway.
Aria, frustrated beyond reason, declared that if they didn't take a break, she would throw herself off the roof — "and not even dramatically, just in a really embarrassing splat."
So Jayden, against all better instincts, agreed.
They gathered in the kitchen, cobbling together a meal from whatever hadn't molded into science experiments.
Sophie discovered a can of ravioli from 1998.
Elias found instant noodles that smelled vaguely of despair.
Jayden burned the popcorn, setting off the smoke detector.
Aria laughed so hard she almost choked.
For a while, they ate like starving wolves, laughing, teasing, pretending the world wasn't cracking apart around them.
Jayden caught himself smiling.
Really smiling.
Even if it was only for a few stolen minutes.
Even if it cost him later.
It was worth it.
---
The attack came that night.
Not with guns.
Not with explosions.
With silence.
Jayden woke to find Sophie standing over him, a syringe in her hand.
His heart stuttered in betrayal.
For one second, he thought he was dreaming.
Then he saw her eyes.
Flat.
Empty.
Cold.
> "I'm sorry, Jay," she whispered.
He knocked the syringe away violently, scrambling back.
Aria burst into the room a second later, weapon drawn.
Sophie didn't resist.
She just dropped to her knees, hands raised.
> "It's me," she said quietly.
"I'm the leak."
Jayden couldn't speak.
Couldn't breathe.
Elias stormed in, eyes wild.
> "What the hell is going on?!"
Aria stared at Sophie like she didn't recognize her.
Jayden finally found his voice, hoarse and broken.
> "Why?"
Sophie looked at him with something almost like pity.
> "Because if I didn't... they would have killed my sister."
The room froze.
Sophie swallowed hard.
> "The Syndicate found her.
I tried to fight it.
I did.
But every choice... every time I hesitated... they hurt her more."
Her voice cracked.
> "I thought I could protect all of you.
I thought I could manage it.
But... I was wrong."
Jayden's chest ached.
Because he wanted to hate her.
He wanted it to be simple.
Black and white.
But it wasn't.
It never was.
---
> "What do we do with her?" Elias asked finally.
The question wasn't cold.
It wasn't cruel.
It was just real.
Jayden looked at Sophie — the girl who had saved his life more times than he could count.
The girl who had laughed at his terrible jokes.
Who had sat with him in the darkest nights, just breathing together so he wouldn't fall apart.
The girl who had betrayed him.
And saved him.
And damned him.
All at once.
His heart felt like it was breaking into a thousand bloody pieces.
Aria touched his shoulder lightly.
Silent support.
The choice was his.
Jayden exhaled slowly.
> "We help her."
Elias stared at him.
> "Are you serious?"
Jayden nodded.
> "We find her sister.
We kill whoever's holding her.
And then..."
He looked at Sophie.
> "Then we figure out how to fix this."
Because if they abandoned each other now, they were no better than the monsters they fought.
Sophie crumpled to the floor, sobbing silently.
Jayden knelt beside her, pulling her into a hug.
Forgiving didn't mean forgetting.
It didn't erase the scars.
But it was a beginning.
And right now, they needed beginnings more than anything.
---
In the Shadows, They Stir
Far away, behind layers of concrete and steel, the woman with the monitors frowned.
> "Unexpected," she murmured.
She had bet on betrayal shattering them.
On fear eating them alive.
But instead...
Instead, they had chosen hope.
A dangerous, reckless choice.
And far harder to kill.
She tapped the screen thoughtfully.
> "Change of plans," she said.
The shadows around her shifted.
The real war hadn't even begun yet.
And Jayden?
Jayden was about to learn that the price of love — of loyalty — was steeper than he had ever dared imagine.
---