Chapter 10: Break into Blackthorn Prison

Three days after Zero's fortress fell, Ryo woke up screaming.
The nightmares were getting worse. Every night, the same vision—his father's laboratory, the Crimson Core pulsing like a heartbeat, and his own reflection in a mirror with eyes that glowed red.
"You're okay," Sera's voice cut through the panic. "Just a dream. You're safe."
Ryo sat up in the bed of Redwater Ridge's only decent hotel—paid for with what remained of their assault funding. His hands were shaking, but at least they weren't crackling with red energy. That hadn't happened since the facility collapsed.
"What time is it?" he asked.
"Dawn. You slept four hours. That's progress." Sera handed him water. She'd barely left his side since they returned, watching for signs that he might lose control. "How do you feel?"
"Like I'm carrying a bomb inside my chest that could go off any second." Ryo drank deeply. "Any word from Blackthorn?"
"He's been locked in meetings with what's left of the FDI leadership. Apparently, destroying Zero's operation created a power vacuum. Every gang in the territory is scrambling to claim his resources." Sera sat on the edge of the bed. "But that's not your problem. Your problem is figuring out what your father did to you."
"And how to undo it."
"If it needs undoing." Sera's cybernetic eye focused on him. "You said you've had these enhanced reflexes your whole life, right? You've been living with whatever this is for nineteen years. Maybe it's not a time bomb. Maybe it's just... part of you."
"A part of me that glows red and convulses when hit with an EMP. Super normal."
"Nothing about you is normal, Kazehara. That's why I like you."
A knock at the door interrupted them.
Sera's hand went to her revolver. "Who is it?"
"Blackthorn. We need to talk."
The sheriff entered when Sera opened the door. He looked exhausted—his dead eyes somehow even more hollow than usual. He carried a data pad and what looked like medical scan results.
"I had the FDI medical team analyze the footage from Zero's facility," Blackthorn said without preamble. "The moment when the EMP hit you. When you..." He gestured vaguely. "Lit up."
"And?" Ryo asked.
"And you're right. Your father did something to you. Probably in utero, before you were born. He integrated micro-fragments of Crimson Core energy into your developing neural system. So small they're almost undetectable. But enough to enhance your reflexes, your processing speed, your combat instincts."
"Why would he do that?" Sera demanded.
"Insurance." Blackthorn pulled up schematics on his data pad—Ryo's neural system, mapped in detail. "Takeshi knew Zero would come for him eventually. Knew he might fail to destroy the Core. So he created a backup plan. A child who could grow up normal but carry the tools needed to stop Zero if necessary."
"He turned me into a weapon," Ryo said quietly.
"He gave you a chance." Blackthorn's tone was softer than usual. "The enhancements are stable. They won't kill you or turn you into Zero. You're not bonded with a full Core like Ezekiel was. You just have... echoes. Shadows of the Core's power. Controlled by your own will, not the other way around."
"But the EMP triggered something. I felt it trying to activate."
"Temporary reaction to the electromagnetic pulse. The fragments were damaged but they're healing. Within a few days, you'll be back to baseline." Blackthorn set down the data pad. "You're going to be fine, Kazehara. Your father made sure of that."
Ryo wanted to feel relieved. Instead, he felt used. His entire life, every choice he'd made, had been shaped by something his father did before he was even born.
"There's something else," Blackthorn continued. "Zero wasn't lying. There is one more Core fragment. A backup he created years ago."
Sera tensed. "Where?"
"That's the problem. We don't know. Zero died before he could tell Ryo the location. But I've been analyzing his operations, his supply chains, his communication patterns." Blackthorn pulled up a map of Redwater Ridge. "And I think I've found something. Blackthorn Prison."
"Your prison?" Sera asked. "You named a prison after yourself?"
"It was named after my predecessor. I just kept the name when I became sheriff." Blackthorn zoomed in on a section of Redwater Ridge—an old fortress-like structure on the edge of town. "It's not really a prison anymore. More of a... containment facility. For people and things too dangerous to execute but too valuable to kill."
"You're saying Zero hid the Core fragment in a prison?" Ryo asked.
"I'm saying someone in that prison knows where it is. Three years ago, Zero had an accomplice arrested—a researcher named Dr. Helena Crane. She worked on the Crimson Core project with your father and Zero. When she tried to leave, Zero had her captured and placed in Blackthorn Prison." Blackthorn's dead eyes met Ryo's. "She's been there ever since. If anyone knows where Zero hid the backup fragment, it's her."
"So we go talk to her," Sera said. "Easy."
"It's not easy. Crane won't talk to me. She hates the FDI, hates authority, and definitely hates me." Blackthorn looked at Ryo. "But she might talk to you. Takeshi's son. Someone who's also been hurt by the Crimson Core."
"You want me to interrogate a prisoner?"
"I want you to find the last fragment of the weapon that destroyed your family. Before someone else does." Blackthorn stood. "Zero's operation is collapsed, but his soldiers are scattered. Some of them might know about the backup. Might be looking for it right now. We need to find it first and destroy it. Permanently."
Ryo looked at Sera. She shrugged. "Your call, partner. But he's right. We can't leave a weapon like that out there."
Ryo thought about his parents. About Zero dying in his arms. About the red energy that still pulsed faintly inside him.
"When do we go?" he asked.
"Tonight. After dark." Blackthorn headed for the door. "The prison's security is lighter then. And most of the inmates are sedated. We get in, talk to Crane, get out before anyone notices."
"Wait," Sera called. "We? You're coming with us?"
"It's my prison. I know the layout, the guards, the protocols." Blackthorn paused at the door. "And I owe it to Takeshi to see this through. To make sure his son finishes what he started."
He left.
Sera turned to Ryo. "Do you trust him?"
"No. But he's right about one thing—we need to find that fragment." Ryo stood, testing his balance. The weakness from the EMP blast was fading. "And maybe talking to someone who knew my father will give me answers. About what he did. Why he did it."
"And if the answers aren't what you want to hear?"
"Then at least I'll know the truth." Ryo checked his revolvers—they'd been returned to him after the assault. "One way or another, this ends tonight."
---
Blackthorn Prison loomed against the night sky like a monument to despair.
Five stories of reinforced concrete and steel, surrounded by walls topped with automated turrets. Spotlights swept the perimeter. Guards patrolled in pairs, armed and alert.
"Home sweet home," Blackthorn muttered as they approached the service entrance. He'd brought them through back alleys, avoiding main streets where Ryo's face might be recognized. The bounties were still active—twenty-five thousand chips for Ryo, thirty thousand for Sera. Until the FDI officially pardoned them, they were still wanted criminals.
Blackthorn pressed his hand to a scanner. The service door unlocked with a heavy clunk.
"Stay close. Don't talk unless I tell you to." He led them inside.
The prison's interior was worse than the exterior. Dim lighting. The smell of disinfectant barely covering rot and despair. They walked through corridors lined with cells, most occupied by figures that didn't look quite human anymore—too many augmentations, too much trauma, too long without hope.
"What is this place?" Sera whispered.
"Where the frontier puts people it can't fix," Blackthorn replied. "Augmentation addicts. Failed experiments. People driven mad by neural interfaces. They can't function in society, but they don't deserve death. So they end up here."
"This is monstrous."
"This is mercy. You'd prefer we execute them?" Blackthorn's tone was flat. "The world isn't divided into good and evil, Quinn. Just bad options and worse ones."
They descended to the lower levels, where the real dangerous prisoners were kept. Maximum security. Neural suppression fields that made Ryo's teeth ache. Guards behind armored glass, watching everything.
Blackthorn stopped at a cell door marked with biohazard symbols and warning signs.
"Dr. Helena Crane," he said. "Thirty-eight years old. Brilliant neuroscientist. Helped design the Crimson Core's interface system. And completely insane."
"Define 'completely insane,'" Ryo said.
"She spent three years bonding with partial Core fragments during testing. It didn't turn her into a ghost like Zero, but it broke her mind in different ways. She sees patterns that aren't there. Hears voices. Sometimes she's lucid. Sometimes..." Blackthorn shrugged. "Just be careful. And don't let her touch you."
He opened the door.
Inside was a cell that looked more like a laboratory. Equipment lined the walls—most of it non-functional, but arranged in patterns that suggested obsessive organization. And in the center, sitting at a desk covered in papers filled with equations and diagrams, was Dr. Helena Crane.
She was small, gaunt, her hair gone white despite her age. Her fingers were stained with ink, moving constantly across the papers even as she spoke without looking up.
"Sheriff Blackthorn. You bring guests. How unusual. How... interesting." Her voice was hoarse, unused to speaking. "And one of them carries the echo. The shadow. The fragment-that-lives."
She looked up, her eyes fixing on Ryo.
They were the same pale gray as Zero's. As Blackthorn's.
"Takeshi's son," she whispered. "I wondered when you'd come."
"You know who I am," Ryo said carefully.
"I know what you are. What your father made you. The last weapon. The final failsafe." Crane stood, moving with jerky, unnatural motions. "He showed me the designs before he died. The micro-integration. The neural bonding. So clever. So cruel. To give his son the tools to fight monsters by making him part monster."
"I'm not a monster."
"Not yet. But you will be. The Core changes everyone eventually. Even fragments. Even shadows." She circled him like a predator studying prey. "You want to know about the backup. The final fragment. The piece Zero hid before he died."
"Where is it?" Blackthorn demanded.
"Ah, Sheriff. Always so direct. So... blunt." Crane's smile was unsettling. "But I won't tell you. The FDI failed us. Failed Takeshi. Failed Ezekiel. You want to destroy the fragment? I want it studied. Understood. Controlled."
"We can't control it," Ryo said. "Zero tried. Look what happened."
"Zero was impatient. Arrogant. He thought he could master the Core through will alone. But true mastery requires understanding. Science. Patience." Crane returned to her desk, fingers dancing across papers. "I've spent three years calculating. Planning. I know how to stabilize the Core. How to use its power without losing humanity. But I need the backup fragment to prove it."
"You want us to get it for you," Sera said.
"I want you to bring it to me. Let me study it. And in exchange, I'll help young Kazehara understand what he is. Help him control the fragments inside him. Teach him to be something new—not human, not ghost, but something better."
"No," Ryo said immediately. "I'm not interested in becoming 'something better.' I just want to destroy the last fragment and end this."
Crane's expression went cold. "Then you'll never find it. Because only I know where Zero hid it. And I won't tell you unless you agree to my terms."
"We could make you talk," Blackthorn said quietly.
"Could you? The neural suppression field in this cell blocks most forms of coercion. And I've been in worse pain than anything you could inflict. The Core fragments inside my brain see to that." Crane sat back down. "No, Sheriff. The boy agrees to bring me the fragment, or I die with the secret. Those are the only options."
Ryo looked at Sera and Blackthorn. Sera shook her head slightly—don't trust her. Blackthorn's expression was unreadable.
"How do I know you're telling the truth?" Ryo asked. "That you really know where it is?"
"Because I helped Zero hide it. Three years ago, before he had me arrested. He needed someone who understood the Core's properties to create a containment system that wouldn't be detected by scanners or fried by EMPs." Crane pulled out a piece of paper covered in schematics. "It's in Redwater Ridge. Hidden in plain sight. But the location is... coded. Encrypted in a pattern only I can read."
"Show me."
Crane smiled. "First, you agree. Bring me the fragment. Let me study it. Help me prove that the Crimson Core can be used for good."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then the fragment stays hidden. Until someone else finds it. And trust me, boy—people are looking. Zero's soldiers. The Brass Vultures. Criminal organizations that would kill millions for that kind of power." Her gray eyes bored into him. "At least with me, you know the fragment will be contained. Studied safely. Maybe even destroyed once I'm satisfied. Can you say the same about anyone else who might find it?"
Ryo hated that she had a point.
"I need time to think," he said.
"You have until dawn. After that, I'll assume you've refused, and I'll destroy the location data. Let fate decide who finds the fragment." Crane returned to her papers. "Now leave. I have work to do."
Blackthorn led them out of the cell, sealing the door behind them.
They walked in silence until they reached the prison's main level.
"She's playing you," Sera said immediately. "Everything she said was manipulation. She doesn't want to study the fragment—she wants to bond with it. Complete what Zero started."
"Maybe," Ryo admitted. "But what if she's right? What if someone worse finds the fragment?"
"Then we keep looking. There are other ways to find it. Blackthorn, you said you've been analyzing Zero's operations—"
"Nothing definitive," Blackthorn interrupted. "Crane might be our only real lead. And she's right about one thing—people are looking for that fragment. I've already had three inquiries from criminal organizations offering information about Zero's resources. It's only a matter of time before someone stumbles onto it."
"So what do you suggest?" Ryo asked.
Blackthorn was silent for a moment. "I suggest you agree to her terms. Get the location. Retrieve the fragment. Then decide what to do with it. Whether to give it to her, destroy it, or..." He paused. "Or use it."
"Use it?" Sera stared at him. "Are you insane? We just spent three days destroying Zero's operation because he wanted to use the Core!"
"Zero wanted to enslave humanity. But Crane might be right about one thing—the Core's power could be harnessed without losing humanity. If properly controlled. If integrated carefully." Blackthorn looked at Ryo. "You carry fragments already. You know what it feels like. If we could replicate that—create controlled enhancements without the psychological cost—it could revolutionize medicine. Security. Save lives."
"It could also create an arms race," Sera countered. "Every gang, every government, every lunatic with resources would want their own Core fragments. We'd be back where we started."
"Not if we control the supply. Not if the FDI manages the technology."
"The same FDI that experimented on you? That turned you into what you are?" Sera's voice was sharp. "Forgive me if I don't trust them with super-weapons."
They were at an impasse.
Ryo looked between them—Sera, loyal and protective, wanting him safe. Blackthorn, pragmatic and cold, seeing opportunities where others saw threats.
And inside himself, the fragments pulsed gently. A reminder of what he was. What he could become.
"I'll agree to Crane's terms," he said finally. "Get the location. Retrieve the fragment. But after that..." He met Blackthorn's dead eyes. "After that, I'm making the decision. Not the FDI. Not Crane. Me. And if I decide to destroy it, that's what happens. Understood?"
Blackthorn considered, then nodded. "Understood."
"Ryo—" Sera started.
"It's the only way," he said. "We need that location. And we need it now."
They returned to Crane's cell.
The scientist looked up as they entered, a knowing smile on her face.
"Smart boy. Just like your father." She stood, holding out the schematic. "The fragment is hidden in the old water tower. Eastern district. The abandoned one near the scrapyards. Zero installed a containment unit inside the main tank—disguised as a filtration system. You'll need this access code to open it."
She wrote a sequence of numbers on the paper.
"And once you have it," Crane continued, "bring it to me. At midnight. I'll be waiting."
"How?" Sera asked. "You're in a cell."
Crane's smile widened. "Sheriff Blackthorn knows I don't stay in this cell by force. I stay because it's convenient. Because the prison gives me resources and protection I couldn't get outside." She looked at Blackthorn. "Isn't that right, Sheriff?"
Blackthorn's expression was carefully neutral. "Dr. Crane is a consultant. She provides information in exchange for accommodations."
"A consultant," Sera repeated flatly. "You've been letting her work for you this whole time."
"The frontier needs information on neural augmentation. Crane provides it. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement."
"It's insane."
"It's pragmatic." Blackthorn turned to Ryo. "You have the location. Go get the fragment. We'll meet at the water tower at midnight."
"And if this is a trap?" Sera demanded.
"Then we deal with it." Ryo folded the schematic and put it in his pocket. "But right now, finding that fragment is more important than our paranoia."
They left the prison as dawn began to break over Redwater Ridge.
Ryo could feel the fragments inside him resonating—responding to the knowledge that another piece of the Crimson Core was nearby.
And for the first time, he wondered if destroying it was really the right choice.
Or if his father had given him these fragments for a different reason.
To understand. To control. To become something new.
The thought terrified him.
And tempted him in equal measure.
---
**END OF CHAPTER 10**
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