The blast had thrown him across the concrete, leaving a sharp metallic taste in his mouth. His ears rang in deafening waves, vision swimming as smoke curled upward into the night sky. Through the haze, the laboratory’s towering silhouette wavered, its pristine facade now scarred by jagged holes and blackened steel.

Scaramouche forced himself up, legs trembling, lungs burning with the acrid sting of chemical smoke. He stumbled forward, his uniform heavy with dust and ash. This was supposed to be a covert investigation — quiet, invisible — yet the silence he had counted on was now replaced by the distant groans of collapsing beams and the shriek of fire tearing through sterile halls.

He crossed the threshold, and the air changed. The once-white corridors were painted in red — some from blood, some from emergency lights flickering against the haze. Shards of glass crunched under his boots, each step releasing a sharp scent of antiseptic that barely masked the copper tang in the air. The bodies of scientists lay where they had fallen, their white coats mottled with soot and still-warm embers.

His heart pounded harder with every turn he took. There was no sign of her. No sign of the woman who had raised him, whose work he had never understood, whose secrets had always been locked behind a professional smile.

Then — faint, uneven. A sound. Crying.

He followed it, weaving past overturned carts and crushed equipment until he reached a scorched doorway. The cries came from inside.

There you were. Huddled in the corner, limbs drawn close, heat from the flames making your skin sheen with sweat. You were trembling — not just from the heat, but from him. From the uniform, the gun at his side, the chaos around you.

You couldn’t be older than him. Maybe younger. But this was his mother’s office.

His mind filled with questions, but his body moved first. He stepped inside, lowering himself until his knees touched the blood-smeared tiles.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, voice softer than the fire’s roar, arms outstretched.