It would seem, that everything that happened the past few days was not a dream. A blinding yellow light pulsed into my eye, educating me on the fact, that I was not dead.

I croaked as rolled the side, sucking cold vapour wrapped up in humidified air. Where am I? I asked myself. The blurriness of my vision subsided after a few seconds, then I noticed a bunch of surgical instruments littered on the table across from me.

A subtle beep chiselled into my ear drawing my attention. I looked around the room, realising that I’d been hooked up to a monitoring machine, ensuring my vitals were stable.

They were.

I popped myself from the machine and the beeps galloped as if I were heading into cardiac arrest. The sound of the beeps hit my head like a jackhammer on a construction site, which made me woozy, which wasn’t helped by the fact my cybernetics were off.

Gliding my right hand across the left end of my body sent cold ripples through my arm, reminding me that I was a cyborg.

I slid my hand down the section of my arm in which the cleaved off in our battle. My hand glossed over it in its entirety. Someone’s repaired it I noted, did Mr Black get me?

Once I pressed the manual power on my Cybernetic Arm. A white dot pulsed into existence within my eye. The SMB attached to my skull clutched my brain like a vice grip, making me wince.

The white dot spread across my eyesight into a white line, then collapsed into a red line, which slowly exploded into the form of vision.

The vector lines of the HUD system slowly activated, displaying everything in front of me by name, length and width. I stimulated the prompts from my vision leaving everything in front of me bare, then finally pushed myself up feeling my back scream from the motion.

Wait a minute I thought for a second, my hands not stinging. I raised my right to my eyes, noticing a sharp line filled with sliver staples nestled into my hand. I squeezed my arm and a sharp pain shot up my hand.

My brain roiled from a surge of pain that my body didn’t expect. My eyes went white, and the pain shot down my body like lightning stitching itself into my bones, hoping to shred dem bare. Fuck neural hemicrania I spat in my mind.

The surging pain of my SMB rejecting the painkillers they used to, on top of whatever sedative they used was roiling not just from my brain, but across the entire right side of my body. I felt as though my body was a plane flying into the Waste, with ground shots successfully hitting me.

“God damn it” I growled, “who’s the asshole that put this shit in me?”

“That would be me.” Someone said close by.

I snapped my head around, only to see a female doctor, sitting at her desk eating what seems to be double. Hell, she was even dippy the double skin into some channa which made my stomach growl from the sight.

A strong scent of curry, chana and cucumber swarmed into my nose, making it twitch from the spiced. I slathered my lips in saliva, then sat up looking at the doctor.

“Who are you doc?” I asked, rolling my neck.

“Just that, a doctor.”

“What kinda bullshit answer is that?” I growled. “Where am I?”

The doors to my right shot open, and five people came pouring through the Naedon, Stelig, Tryzer, Rynord and none other than Commissioner Hexan.

“Naedon, where the fuck am I?”I growled.

“BLED District.”

I puffed my cheeks and closed my eyes. I didn’t want to be here, because I didn’t want that bastard Gonzada to cross my mind, but when Naedon said BLED District, I failed at hiding my frustration.

“Cypher.” The Commissioner said, pushing herself up to me. I raised my eyes, gazing at her wondering if I should punch the shit out of her. She gave me a warning, but never put any details into the warning.

If I had damn well known that Gonzada was under investigation for killing EXiCONs and was known to be a dirty cop. NONE OF THIS WOULD’VE HAPPENED. I simply would’ve just had to deal with the Elhisia situation, but this bullshit right here? This was utter and complete shit in my eyes.

“What?” I finally growled after ten seconds of eyeing her pensively.

“Glad to see you alive, but do you have to leave bodies everywhere you go?”

“That mother fucker KILLED MY FAMILY. And you wanna tell me about BODIES. Fuck You Hexan!” I hissed.

“Cy—“ Naedon said, but Hexan raised her hand silencing the man. I guess they came to some agreement, fuck them both!

“I’m not talking about Akatani Cypher.” Commissioner Hexan said calmly. “I’m talking about the Reaver you tossed through your window.”

All the eyes from within the room gaped upon the Commissioner’s words. Then, I noticed Rynord’s neck tattoo bulging as he swallowed deeply. Stelig smiled wryly in response, whilst Tryzer shook his head. Naedon, of course, the face was blank as ever. Unbothered by the news. “Just another Friday for you…isn’t it Cypher?”

“Not in the mood for Jokes Naedon,” I said softly. “Let me out of here.”

“You’re free to go Cypher, but what happened at your apartment? There’s a Reaver on the bottom floor of the building. I need to know what happened so that I can explain it accordingly.”

“You’re mighty helpful today.” I snarled.

“I’ve always been helpful, especially to people who I deem worth it.”

“Whatever.”

“I have some questions Cypher.”

“Are you gonna detain me?”

“No. I just need you to answer some questions for me, so that I can explain why the Reaver is there. You don’t have to worry about the Freedom Park bullshit. I’ve already handled that, drug deal went bad.”

“…heh, I see.”

The room went dark, the moment I closed my eyes. My head was pounding thanks to neural hemicrania. “Ask your questions Commissioner,” I said, not in the mood to speak.

“Did you take out Electric Grid for one of the sectors for the Gallows just to infiltrate Underwent?”

“Yes,” I answered.

“Holy shit Cypher, that was you?” Tryzer asked.

“I didn’t take down the Grid, but I asked someone to get it done for me.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. Next question.”

Commissioner Hexan folded her hands across her chest, dangling the medals on her breast pocket. I eyed her and ignored her, speaking with her eyes making her lips draw into a line. “Why?”

“…Akatani wanted me to infiltrate Underwent and get something for me.”

“Something like what?”

“I don’t know. It was something called a serphandias.”

“Serphandias? What the hell is a serphandias?”

“…Commissioner Hexan. I truly don’t know what a serphandias is, I am as confused as you, but that bastard Akatani sequestered me to get it.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, he probably read my file. Which seems to OPEN to everyone these fucking days,”

“You think a low-level drug dealer hacked into The Laquadral?”

“Akatani isn’t some low-level drug dealer,” I said firmly. “He’s one of Deslin Arkon’s people.”

“The Deslin Arkon?” Naedon asked.

“Yes.”

“That’s bullshit, everyone associated with Deslin is either dead or locked up,” Stelig added.

“Tell that to my dead wife and daughter Stel,” I added.

The room went silent again, as it should. I was in a foul mood to answer these questions, but if I wanted to leave without respite. Then I would stomach it for a little longer.

“Why was the Reaver at your place?”

“To kill me.”

“I know that Cypher…but why?”

I ground my teeth, feeling as though the Commissioner wanted me to rot here, but my frustration wasn’t going to allow that. I needed to leave, and I needed to leave now!

“Tha—“ I tried to say, but Naedon cut me off.

“It’s obvious Commissioner, to kill him,” Naedon said firmly. “Didn’t you mention Cypher firing a gun in Underwent Market a few months back? Now he infiltrated the place. No matter the cost, this disrespect would have him marked.”

I slid off the gurney, shots of coldness crawled my feet as I touched the tiles. I wasn’t in the mood for people. How could I be? After being through what I’d just experienced. “Are we done where?”

“Yes,” Hexan said shaking her head.

“Cypher,” Naedon said, but the Commissioner grabbed him by the shoulder, giving him a discerning look, which silenced him. “Let him go. He needs his rest.

Whatever that meant, I thought. The only thing I wanted, was to get back my wife and daughter’s body back and bury them peacefully. Then I’ll END THIS! I thought bitterly.

I headed towards the door, but when I made the third step. Stelig cupped my shoulder, “That’s the wrong way Mate.” He said firmly.

“My family’s that way,” I grunted.

“They aren’t.” Hasan said, “Head through the back door.”

I stopped midstep, and all the anger boiling within my stomach, finally burst from my lips as I turned around stomping towards Hexan’s. “Why didn’t you tell me that bastard was corrupt!” I growled.

“…didn’t I warn you not to trust him?”

“You should’ve spoken frankly, not be coy about it.”

“There’s a misunderstanding Cypher. I did warn you about him. I told you not to trust him. It’s not my fault you didn’t follow up on the bastard properly.”

She’s right, I thought bitterly. When I asked Rex to dig into Gonzada, I scoffed at his fee and that only served to bite me…with the loss of my family.

Gonzada…I still have to kill him. I can’t END this yet!

I made a step forward, then someone grabbed me by the shoulder again. My knee hit the ground with a thud, I leaned to my left, hitting the wall, trying to stop myself from falling, but the only thing that I could feel was my heart seeping into my chest.

I closed my eyes for a second and felt the coldness of the ground, smother me whole. I bit the inside of my cheek, forcing myself awake, but that was to no avail. “I’ll be seeing you around,” I said, lying through my teeth.

Walking through the corridors of the BLED’s hospital were like walking through a cemetery, but with me being a Lazarus man. The only difference being, I’d left a piece of my soul in my grave to wait for me as I served all debts owed. “I’m coming for you Gonzada…you just have to wait.”

The weightlessness of my body trudged up and down, like a jackhammer. After battling to the elevator, I finally reached the ground floor and made my way out of the Hospital.

The cold winds of the night’s embrace nestled across my neck, as I stared into the sky watching as lights from the skyscrapers flared and pulsed in the distance, mimicking the stars which sat beyond them. “No,” I said aloud. “Those aren’t stars. That’s the god damn Dome, mimicking stars.”

I ground my teeth to the beautiful sight, thinking of Hannah and Shin-Lee. They’ve never been inside the BLED Dome before, but I was certain Hannah would love this sight, whilst Shin-Lee would dread it.

People, living within a Dome? That was too close to home for her. That’s what it was like for her back in the Latrina Empire. And at that very moment, for the first time in years, I admitted something that I didn’t want to. “I should’ve never allowed you to get involved with me.” I whispered, “that way…you’d still be alive.”

I love this city…but it hates me.