Kayden didn't go home.
He couldn't.
After Hale's confession, after the small metal failsafe burned into his palm like a forbidden secret, after the truth about the last Arclight sank into his bones like ice—his mind wouldn't let him rest.
Alex and Phineas walked beside him through the dim facility corridor.No one spoke.No one breathed too loudly.The air felt thick enough to cut.
Kayden turned a corner toward the elevator—and froze.
Voices.Two of them.
Muffled.Sharp.Coiled in anger.
He lifted a hand, signaling Alex and Phineas to stop.
The voices were coming from behind a half-open door—a conference room filled with glowing screens and abandoned files. Kayden moved quietly toward the gap, each step slow enough not to draw sound.
He didn't mean to overhear.
He needed to.
Inside, two officials from the briefing—the woman with the tablet and the tall man with the clipped tone—were in the middle of a heated argument.
Kayden stayed silent…
And listened.
"You're being reckless," the woman hissed, slamming her tablet onto the table. "We cannot let that boy walk out of here without supervision."
The man shot back, "He is still a civilian. Containment without legal justification will compromise the entire division."
"Legal justification?" She laughed coldly. "We are dealing with a Tier-3 Signal Candidate. The anomaly has already responded to him twice."
The man lowered his voice."We have Hale on record opposing containment. He's influential. If we move too soon—"
"Too soon?" she snapped."If the anomaly reaches full breach because of that kid, it won't matter what Hale thinks. Or what any of us think."
Kayden's breath caught.
The woman paced, heels striking the floor in sharp, angry clicks.
"He should've been transported hours ago. He's statistically unsafe. He's unpredictable. And he's replicating the same behavioral markers the 1972 subject showed before disappearing."
The man stiffened."Don't compare him to that."
"Why not?" she demanded. "History is repeating itself. And if we let him roam freely—"
She stopped mid-sentence.
Then whispered the words that made Kayden's blood run cold:
"He becomes a breach vector."
Kayden clenched his jaw so hard his teeth hurt.
A breach vector.Not a person.Not a victim.
A tool.A threat.A door the anomaly could open.
APEX whispered urgently in his mind:"Commander. Immediate exit advised. Emotional spike detected. Do NOT engage."
But Kayden couldn't move.He couldn't look away.
The man spoke again, voice lower, afraid.
"And what do you expect us to do? Bag him? Drag him downstairs and lock him behind a Faraday cage? We can't just—"
"Yes," she said sharply."That is exactly what we do if he shows even one sign of anomaly resonance. Hale is too attached. We aren't."
Kayden felt his stomach twist.Hale… attached?Attached enough to disobey protocol?Attached enough to warn him?
The woman leaned closer to the man, her voice dropping to a venomous whisper:
"If Kayden Arclight spikes again, we isolate him immediately. If Hale interferes… we remove Hale from the operation."
Kayden felt ice pour through his veins.
Remove Hale.
As in suspend him.Or silence him.Or worse.
The man swallowed. "And what about the other two? The friend and the researcher?"
"Collateral," she said coldly."If they interfere, isolate them too."
Alex, behind Kayden, inhaled sharply.Phineas's hand curled into a fist.
Kayden stepped back from the door before either official could notice him.His hands were shaking.
Not from fear.
From rage.
Alex whispered, "Bro… they were gonna take you."
Phineas muttered, "And Hale would've been punished for protecting you."
Kayden forced a breath out.Slow.Controlled.
This was the moment Hale had warned about.
"The real danger is the people who think they can own you."
Kayden understood now.
The SRD wasn't divided into allies and enemies.
It was split into:
those who wanted to control him
and those who were afraid of him
Hale was the only one in the middle.
Kayden turned away from the door as the voices inside grew quieter, settling into cold administrative tones.
He spoke softly, but his voice carried steel neither Alex nor Phineas had heard from him before.
"We're leaving."
Alex blinked. "Now?"
Kayden nodded once."Right now. Before they decide I can't."
Phineas stepped forward. "We need a plan. They may track us—"
"No," Kayden said, pulling the hexagonal device Hale had given him from his pocket."He already gave me one."
Alex stared at the device."What… does it do?"
Kayden exhaled, eyes drifting to the dim hallway, the locked doors, the facility buzzing with secrets and classified fear.
"It opens doors they think I can't touch," he said."And sends Hale our location."
Alex nodded firmly. "Then let's go."
Phineas adjusted his glasses. "I'll deactivate the cameras outside the briefing wing."
APEX pulsed gently."Commander. This choice alters future probability lines by 62%. Recommended."
Kayden tightened his grip on the device.
The facility thought he was a breach vector?
Fine.
Then he'd breach himself out.
As they moved toward the exit, Kayden glanced back once at the closed briefing room door.
He didn't feel fear anymore.
Just a single, sharpened truth:
The anomaly wasn't the first force trying to claim him.The world was.
And he wasn't going to let either side do it without a fight.