The air stank of oil and dust, thick, gritty. Kaiser could feel it settling on his tongue as he stepped across the cracked tarmac. Seven shadows followed, boots crunching over broken glass and dead leaves. The hangar loomed ahead, a rusting carcass against the pale sky.
Caine, on his right, pulled his jacket tight against the wind. "You sure about this, Viktor?"He almost never used that name. Not unless it mattered.
Kaiser didn't look at him. "We need to settle this for good."
No more territory splits. No more fake peace. The rival gang had pushed too far, carved too deep. This meeting, this charade of diplomacy, was just a setup to end things clean. Or dirty. Whatever it took.
"Place gives me the creeps," muttered one of the younger men. Kaiser didn't bother to check which. They were soldiers, not friends.
"Keep your eyes open," he said.
They passed a derelict security booth, half-buried in weeds and graffiti. A rusted chain-link fence rattled in the wind, and somewhere beyond the buildings, a bird shrieked. The place had been abandoned for over a decade, but even the ghosts didn't seem to want it.
Kaiser ran through the plan one last time in his head. Quick negotiation. Take out Morales. Clean house. Tie up loose ends. The fewer survivors, the cleaner the future. And if anything went south, Caine would handle the fallback.
That was the idea.
The metal door moaned as they pushed it open. Inside, the hangar swallowed the light. At its center sat a rotting wooden table, surrounded by armed men. At the head, slouched in a folding chair like he owned the air he breathed, was Morales, the rival boss.
"Kaiser," he said, nodding. "Didn't expect you to bring the whole damn army."
Kaiser approached alone, the echo of his footsteps bouncing off the steel walls. He sat across from Morales and rested his pistol, still holstered on the table.
"Let's skip the bullshit. You got the shipment?"
Morales gestured lazily. "You'll see it when I see your end. You really wanna talk business after all this?"
"I'm not here to talk."
He pulled the pistol and fired. One clean shot, between Morales's eyes. The man didn't even have time to blink. He slumped instantly.
Chaos ignited.
Gunfire burst from both sides, quick and brutal. Kaiser's men opened up, dropping Morales's crew before they could stand. The whole thing lasted less than ten seconds.
Then, silence.
Shells clinked and spun on concrete. Blood crept like oil across the floor.
Kaiser stood. He scanned the room slowly. It was done.
Too easy.
He turned to Caine. The man was already raising his gun.
Pain tore through his side. Kaiser stumbled back, hand flying to his ribs. Warmth spread across his shirt.
"You-"
Caine didn't flinch. "Could've done it cleaner, Viktor. You always did like drama."
Kaiser dove behind a steel beam. Shots rang out. He fired back blindly, reloading fast. His breath came short. He'd trained these men. Given them everything.
Betrayal burned hotter than the wound.
He kept his back pressed against the cold metal, blood wetting the inside of his shirt. Another volley of gunfire cracked the air. Concrete splinters pinged against his boots. He could hear them now, three of them, closing in. Slow, methodical.
"You boys think you're ready to wear the crown?" he muttered. Kaiser gritted his teeth and peeked around the corner. One of the traitors was trying to flank him.
He moved. Quick, low. Two shots, chest and head. The man crumpled without a sound. No time to breathe. Another was already rushing in, yelling. Kaiser sidestepped the wild spray, grabbing the man's wrist and twisting hard. The gun fell. Kaiser drove a knee into his stomach, then slammed the man's skull against a support beam. He dropped.
Two down.
Footsteps echoed from the opposite side. The last one.
Kaiser was already moving. He sprinted across the floor, keeping low behind debris. His side burned, every step like dragging a knife through flesh. He could feel the blood soaking through, warm and sticky.
He caught the last man in the open. No cover. Bad form.
One shot to the leg dropped him, and a follow-up ended it. Kaiser didn't linger. He turned, gun up-
Caine was waiting.
They met at the center again. Guns drawn. No words.
Click.
Kaiser's chamber was empty.
Caine's wasn't.
The shot hit center mass. Kaiser felt it in his spine. Another. His legs folded. He hit the floor hard, breath rattling in his throat.
Everything slowed.
He looked up, blood rising in his throat like hot syrup.
Caine stood over him, expression unreadable. "You were a goddamn relic."
Kaiser blinked. The world swam. His limbs wouldn't answer. There was no regret. Just... inevitability. It always ends this way. Backstabbed. Gasping on cold concrete.
There was a memory, hazy, flickering. A younger Caine, laughing like he meant it. They'd pulled their first job together, knocking over a rival stash house. Caine had taken a bullet to the shoulder and still cracked jokes all the way home.
"Never trust a man who smiles after getting shot," Kaiser had told him.
He should've listened to his own advice.
Another image. A smoky bar. Late night. Caine had leaned in, whispered about ambition, about power, about building something bigger than turf wars. Kaiser had laughed it off.
Should've paid attention.
More memories surged, faces of the men who'd died for him, lied for him, and sometimes even lived long enough to thank him. A flash of the old apartment where he used to patch up wounds and count money. The smell of gun oil and vodka. The sound of rain on a steel rooftop.
This was the life he'd built. Brick by brick. Gun by gun.
And now it was gone.
The pain in his ribs throbbed, but it was distant now. Like someone else's problem. He couldn't feel his hands. Couldn't hear his breath.
Everything was slipping.
A strange light flickered in the corner of his vision. Not from the hangar. Not from anything real. Like static crawling over his eyes. A buzzing, not sound exactly, more like a pressure behind his ears.
He blinked. Tried to speak. Tried to scream.
But the world had already moved on.
As darkness pressed in, something glitched.
A flicker.
Bright blue text blinked into existence above him, impossible and real:
SYSTEM INITIATING... Desire Engine Online Welcome to your new chance Syncing memories... Preparing Host Body...
Kaiser tried to breathe, but the world was already gone.
A new one was loading.