Kaiden sat on the edge of the bunk, staring at his reflection in a knife blade.
His eye had stopped twitching. That was new.
The rest of him still ticked. Still pulsed with every faint core surge. But for once, he felt still.
Too still.
He flipped the blade and caught it by the hilt. Not bad reflexes for a half-dead accident.
"You survived," a voice said.
He didn't look up.
"You survived a confrontation with one of the Four-Circle mages of the human realm. With a broken leg, no left arm, and half your systems malfunctioning."
The demon commander stood in the doorway, arms crossed. His voice was unreadable. Praise? Suspicion? Pity?
Kaiden looked at him finally. "Should I apologize?"
"You were spared."
That word again.
It cut deeper than anything Arvan had done.
The commander stepped closer. "We don't like variables, Kaiden. The war doesn't reward unpredictability."
Kaiden didn't respond.
The silence dragged until the commander tossed something at him — a metal disk. A mission sigil.
"You're being deployed again. But not with your old unit."
Kaiden turned it over in his hand. The marking was unfamiliar — a low-tier scouting squad.
"Why the change?"
"Your presence disturbs the others. They think you've been tampered with. Or cursed."
Kaiden's grip tightened. "And you?"
"I think you're useful. Until you're not."
________________________________________
The new squad was quiet.
Not hateful — just indifferent.
Kaiden didn't bother learning their names.
They moved like ghosts, traveling by night along fractured paths near the borderlands. The terrain was jagged, twisted by past magic bombardments. Nothing lived here long. Not even memories.
Still, Kaiden's thoughts wandered.
Why did he let me live?
Why do I still hear his voice in my head?
What did he mean by "you weren't meant to exist"?
________________________________________
The echo came again that night.
Not out loud.
Inside.
In the middle of patrol, as they passed a ruined waystation, Kaiden's vision blurred.
Then: Earth.
His old room. His reflection in a bathroom mirror. Blood on his knuckles. A broken phone.
He blinked it away.
But his breathing came faster. Sharper.
He wasn't dreaming. He was remembering something that hadn't happened.
Or maybe something that was cut short.
________________________________________
At camp, he sat apart from the others. They didn't care. The silence was mutual.
He stared at the sigil again. The command marker glowed faintly — blue at the edges.
He tilted it.
It flashed red.
Then back to blue.
That wasn't normal.
He checked the other sigils in storage. None of them shifted.
Kaiden's jaw clenched.
He was being tracked.
Or tested.
Or maybe just watched.
________________________________________
"You weren't meant to be here."
The memory returned uninvited.
Not just Arvan's words.
The look in his eyes. That mix of recognition and revulsion. Like Kaiden was something built wrong — something that broke the script.
________________________________________
Kaiden crushed the sigil in his hand until the metal dented. He whispered:
"I'll write my own fate."
The Dog They Won't Unleash
Kaiden crouched near the ledge of the ruined ridge, watching the energy field pulse beneath the surface. A fractured leyline, still unstable after the last spellstorm.
His orders had been clear:
"Observe. Don't engage. Report if the energy pattern shifts."
But there was no support team. No relay scouts. Not even a soul-bound observer tracking his vitals.
He was alone.
Again.
________________________________________
He shifted his arm — the servos clicked, the forearm re-seating with a groan of metal. His systems had mostly stabilized after the Arvan encounter. But "stabilized" didn't mean "fine."
His leg dragged on uneven terrain. His core sputtered if he pushed too hard. And worst of all, his own thoughts lagged now. Like someone else was trying to think inside him.
He scanned the leyline again. Its pulse had changed.
But it wasn't the only thing shifting.
Footsteps.
Kaiden turned slowly, hand ready — but it was no ambush. Just two low-level demon enforcers, barely armored, approaching with a casual pace that made his teeth grit.
"We were told to verify your position," one said, not looking him in the eye. "Command assumed you might've... malfunctioned."
Kaiden stared for a long moment. "And what would you have done if I had?"
The enforcer didn't answer.
Didn't need to.
________________________________________
After they left, Kaiden stood in the fading light, the leyline glowing underfoot.
It hit him then.
He wasn't here to scout.
He was here to see if he'd break.
If the glitch in their system still functioned.
If he'd snap, defect, disobey, or die.
Not a soldier.
Not a leader.
Just a tool. A problem wrapped in flesh and steel. One they couldn't control — but wouldn't throw away either.
Yet.
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