Droplin did not sleep that night.
It pretended to. Lights dimmed. Doors closed. People stayed quiet. But Xin could feel it. The tension crawling through the walls, the sense that something had shifted and would not settle back into place.
He sat on the edge of the old mattress, Kaila's note folded and unfolded so many times the paper felt soft. Rion stood near the window, watching the street below.
"They will come," Rion said. "Not tonight. But soon."
Xin nodded. "They always do."
Silence followed. Not awkward. Heavy.
"Raxton," Xin said finally. "My parents really built something like that."
"Yes," Rion replied. "And the Dive feared it enough to kill them."
Xin clenched his jaw. "Then they failed."
Rion turned slightly. "You are alive. That alone means they failed."
Xin looked up at him. "You really think this armor changes everything."
"No," Rion said honestly. "I think it changes enough."
Xin stood and walked to the window. He looked out over Droplin, the narrow streets, the quiet people who had learned to survive by staying small.
"I'm done staying small," he said.
By morning, the signs were obvious.
A drone passed overhead. Too high to hear. Too precise to be normal. Rion spotted it instantly.
"Dive," he said.
Xin exhaled slowly. "Then this city is burned already."
They moved fast.
Supplies packed. Money secured. The data chip from Kaila's box slipped into Xin's pocket. He did not know what was on it yet, but he knew his parents had not left it by accident.
They exited Droplin through the back routes, old paths Kaila had taught him years ago. Narrow alleys. Broken stairs. Underground passages that smelled like rust and damp stone.
As they moved, Xin felt it again.
That distant pressure.
Not Zane. Not yet.
Something colder.
Rion felt it too. "The Overseer," he said quietly. "Watching through others."
Xin's eyes hardened. "Then let him watch."
They stopped on a ridge overlooking the city.
Xin turned and looked back one last time.
"Kaila wanted a quiet life," he said. "She never got it."
Rion said nothing.
Xin continued. "I don't get one either."
He tightened his fist.
"But I get to end this."
Rion nodded once. "Zane will come again. Andy will not stop spreading. And the Overseer will keep hiding behind masks and soldiers."
Xin looked forward, toward the broken horizon.
"Then I'll kill Zane," Xin said calmly. "I'll end Andy. And I'll tear the truth out of whoever's behind that mask."
Rion studied him. "That path ends you or makes you something else."
Xin met his gaze. "Either way, it ends them first."
They turned and walked.
Behind them, Droplin faded into distance.
Above them, Dive systems recalculated trajectories.
Somewhere far away, Zane smiled without knowing why.
Deep underground, Andy continued to grow.
And in the shadows of power, the Masked Overseer watched the pieces move closer to the end he had planned.
The war had only just decided its shape.