Chapter 14: The Sheriff's Secret

Red Glass Valley was beautiful in the way that death is beautiful.
The orbital strikes had fused the sand into vast sheets of crimson glass that caught the light and threw it back in fractured rainbows. Twisted metal sculptures—the remains of testing equipment—jutted from the ground like abstract art. And scattered across it all were the ruins of research facilities, half-melted into the glassy surface.
It looked like hell had frozen mid-scream.
Ryo and Sera abandoned their sand-skiff a mile out, approaching on foot to avoid detection. The FDI bikes had disappeared behind a ridge, but Ryo could still track them with his enhanced senses—five signatures, converging on the valley's center.
"What are we looking for exactly?" Sera whispered as they picked their way across the treacherous glass.
"Zero's memory showed me a facility. Underground. Marked with FDI designation Alpha-Seven." Ryo consulted his mental map—the fragments had perfect recall of everything Zero had experienced. "It should be at the valley's lowest point. Where the worst of the orbital damage concentrated."
"Of course it is. Because that's where all the radiation is."
"The fragment should be in a lead-lined vault. Shielded from the radiation and scanner detection." Ryo paused, his enhanced hearing picking up something. "Wait. Do you hear that?"
Sera activated her auditory filters. "Sounds like... machinery? Power generators?"
"This facility was supposed to be dead. Abandoned forty years ago." Ryo's instincts—both human and fragment-enhanced—were screaming warnings. "Someone's been here. Recently."
They crept closer to what remained of the facility's entrance—a blast door half-buried in fused glass. Someone had cut through it with industrial equipment. Fresh marks. Days old at most.
"FDI got here first," Sera muttered.
"No." Ryo studied the cutting patterns. "Wrong equipment. FDI uses plasma torches. These are mechanical cutters. Someone with less resources. Someone desperate."
They entered the facility.
The interior was worse than the exterior. Corridors that had partially collapsed, radiation warnings flickering on dying displays, the smell of ozone and decay. Emergency lights cast everything in sickly yellow.
And bodies.
Three of them, scattered through the first corridor. Dead maybe twelve hours. Not killed by radiation—killed by bullets. Professional shots. Execution-style.
"Mercenaries," Sera said, examining the bodies. "Independent contractors. Someone hired them to breach the facility."
"And then killed them to tie up loose ends." Ryo's fragment-enhanced mind cataloged the wounds, the trajectories, the weapon used. "Single shooter. Military training. Cybernetically enhanced based on the precision. And—"
He froze.
"Ryo?"
"I know this shooting pattern. I've seen it before." He looked at Sera. "Blackthorn. These are Blackthorn's kills."
"That's impossible. Blackthorn's in Redwater Ridge, dealing with the FDI—"
An explosion rocked the facility.
Not near them—deeper in. Followed by the staccato bark of automatic weapons fire.
"Someone's fighting down there," Sera said, checking her rifle. "FDI versus whoever else got here first?"
"Only one way to find out."
They descended through the facility's twisted levels, following the sounds of battle. The radiation got worse as they went deeper—not lethal yet, but Ryo could feel it making the fragments inside him vibrate uncomfortably. Like they were resonating with something nearby.
The final fragment. It was close.
They reached a massive chamber—some kind of testing arena, walls lined with observation windows that had long since shattered. And in the center of the chamber, chaos.
Five FDI soldiers had taken positions behind hastily erected barricades, firing at a single figure who moved through their lines like a ghost.
Sheriff Blackthorn.
He was different now. Faster. More aggressive. And his eyes—his dead eyes—were glowing with a faint crimson light.
"Oh no," Ryo whispered.
As they watched, Blackthorn disarmed two soldiers with inhuman speed, his cybernetic enhancements working in concert with something else. Something familiar.
He had fragments. Crimson Core fragments.
Just like Ryo.
"He lied," Sera breathed. "He said the bonding failed. But he didn't fail—he succeeded. He's been carrying fragments this whole time."
"Not just carrying them. Using them." Ryo watched Blackthorn fight, recognizing the patterns. The optimized movements. The enhanced reflexes. "He's everything I'm afraid of becoming. A person who survived the Core bonding but lost pieces of themselves in the process."
The FDI soldiers fell one by one—disabling shots, not kills. Blackthorn was still trying to minimize casualties even while fighting for his life.
Then he saw Ryo and Sera in the doorway.
"Kazehara!" he shouted. "Get out of here! This facility is rigged to collapse!"
"Not without that fragment!" Ryo called back.
"There is no fragment! It's a trap! Crane set us all up!"
As if summoned by her name, Dr. Helena Crane's voice echoed through the facility's ancient intercom system.
"How perceptive, Sheriff. Yes, I'm afraid I've been somewhat dishonest with all of you."
Screens flickered to life around the chamber—dozens of them, showing Crane's face. She was no longer in her cell. She was here. Somewhere in the facility.
"You see," Crane continued, her voice almost conversational, "there never was a backup fragment in Red Glass Valley. I invented it. Created false evidence. Fed you all the information you needed to come here."
"Why?" Ryo demanded.
"Because I needed you all in one place. The three greatest successes of the Crimson Core program." Crane's smile was unsettling. "Sheriff Blackthorn—first test subject, partial bonding, fascinating psychological profile. Zero Vance—complete bonding, total psychological transformation, deceased but well documented. And you, Ryo Kazehara—genetic pre-integration, carrying fragments since birth, the perfect control subject."
"This is about data collection," Sera said. "You're studying us."
"I'm studying the future of human evolution. And you three represent critical data points." Crane's expression went cold. "But data is useless without experimental validation. So I've prepared a test. A challenge, if you will."
The floor beneath them rumbled. Panels opened in the walls, revealing automated defense systems—turrets, drones, hunter-killer robots that had been dormant for decades but were suddenly very much active.
"Survive the next ten minutes," Crane said, "and I'll tell you where the real fragment is hidden. Fail, and... well. At least I'll have excellent data on fragment behavior under extreme stress."
The turrets opened fire.
Ryo, Sera, and Blackthorn dove for cover as bullets tore through the chamber. The FDI soldiers, caught in the open, were cut down immediately—not killed, but disabled. Crane was thorough but not sadistic.
"Behind me!" Blackthorn shouted.
They scrambled behind his barricade as rounds sparked off metal and concrete around them.
"You've been lying to us," Sera said, glaring at Blackthorn. "About the fragments. About what you are."
"I had to. If you knew I was like Ryo, you wouldn't have trusted me." Blackthorn fired back at the turrets with mechanical precision. "The FDI bonded me with Core fragments twenty years ago. It worked. Too well. I became faster, stronger, smarter. But I also became... this." He gestured at himself. "Unable to feel properly. Unable to connect with people. A weapon pretending to be human."
"That's what I'm turning into," Ryo said quietly.
"Not necessarily." Blackthorn looked at him, and there was something desperate in those glowing eyes. "I was bonded as an adult. My personality was already formed. The fragments had to overwrite what was there. But you? You've had them since birth. They're integrated with your development. You might be able to control them in ways I never could."
"Or I might be more thoroughly corrupted because I've never known anything else."
"Maybe. But at least you feel things, Kazehara. You love. You fear. You grieve." Blackthorn's voice cracked slightly. "I can't remember the last time I felt any of that. I know I should. I know emotions are important. But it's like trying to remember colors when you've been blind your whole life."
A drone swooped low, firing. Sera shot it out of the air with three precise rounds.
"Touching," Crane's voice came through the speakers, "but we're wasting time. Eight minutes remaining. And the real challenge hasn't even begun."
More panels opened. These revealed something worse than turrets.
Three figures stepped out—humanoid but clearly not human. Their bodies were patchwork constructions of flesh and machine, held together by Crimson Core energy that pulsed visibly beneath synthetic skin.
"Test subjects from the original program," Crane explained. "Failed bondings. The Core integration drove them insane, but their bodies survived. I've kept them in stasis for years, studying them. Now? They're your final exam."
The three creatures moved with terrible grace, their glowing red eyes fixed on Ryo, Blackthorn, and Sera.
"They're drawn to Core energy," Blackthorn said. "They'll attack me and you first, Kazehara. We need to—"
The first creature lunged impossibly fast.
Ryo's fragments activated automatically, his body moving to intercept. He caught the creature's strike, felt its inhuman strength pushing against his enhanced muscles.
It was strong. Stronger than Zero had been.
Because it had nothing left to lose. No humanity to constrain it. No conscience to slow it down.
Just pure, distilled Crimson Core power.
The second creature went for Blackthorn. The sheriff fought with desperate efficiency, his partial bonding giving him just enough edge to survive.
The third turned toward Sera.
"No!" Ryo threw his creature aside—using more strength than he intended, the fragments surging with protective rage—and put himself between Sera and the monster.
"Get back! Find cover!"
"I'm not leaving you!"
"This isn't a debate!" Ryo's eyes blazed crimson. "These things will kill you! They're drawn to Core energy but they'll eliminate anything else as a threat!"
The creature lunged at him. Ryo dodged, fired three shots—each one placed perfectly to disable joints, slow the thing down. But it barely noticed. The Core energy inside it was healing damage almost as fast as he inflicted it.
Across the chamber, Blackthorn was having similar problems. His creature was relentless, forcing him back step by step.
"We can't kill them!" Blackthorn shouted. "The Core integration makes them nearly immortal!"
"Then we don't kill them!" Ryo's mind raced—enhanced by fragments but still fundamentally human. "We disable the power source!"
He reached out with senses he didn't know he had, feeling for the Crimson Core energy animating the creatures. It was there—pulsing nodes of concentrated power in their chests, keeping their broken bodies functional.
"Blackthorn! Target the chest! The Core nodes!"
"If we destroy those, the feedback could—"
"Just do it!"
They fired simultaneously—Ryo and Blackthorn, their enhanced reflexes synchronized without discussion. Four shots, perfectly placed, hitting the glowing nodes in two creatures' chests.
The nodes shattered.
Energy exploded outward in a crimson wave. The creatures collapsed, their bodies falling apart without the Core energy to hold them together.
But the third creature, the one still advancing on Sera, remained active.
Ryo moved without thinking. He crossed the chamber in a blur, fragments pushing his body beyond safe limits. His hand shot out, plunging into the creature's chest—through synthetic skin and broken ribs—and closed around the Core node.
The energy burned. Seared his hand. The fragments inside him screamed in sympathetic agony as he ripped the node free.
The creature fell.
And Ryo stood holding the broken Core fragment, his hand smoking, the pieces of the Crimson Core in his body resonating with what he held.
For a moment, he felt the temptation. To absorb it. To integrate it. To become stronger.
Then he crushed it.
The fragment shattered in his hand, energy dissipating harmlessly.
Silence fell over the chamber.
"Fascinating," Crane's voice said softly. "You had the opportunity to enhance yourself and you rejected it. Either you have remarkable self-control, or you're more damaged by the fragments than I thought."
"Where is it?" Ryo demanded, his burned hand already healing—the fragments fixing tissue damage automatically. "Where's the real backup fragment?"
"Ah. Yes. I did promise to tell you, didn't I?" Crane appeared on one of the screens—not a recording now, but a live feed. She was in what looked like a command center, surrounded by equipment. "The truth is, there is no backup fragment. Zero destroyed it himself three years ago. He was many things, but he wasn't stupid enough to leave pieces of the Core lying around for others to find."
"You said—"
"I lied. To get you here. To study you under controlled conditions." Crane's smile was almost apologetic. "But I have learned so much. About how the fragments affect different integration types. About psychological resilience. About the balance between power and humanity."
"You used us," Sera said coldly.
"I used what was necessary to advance science. To understand the Crimson Core so we can control it instead of being controlled by it." Crane looked directly at Ryo. "You're the key, you know. You've proven that the fragments can be managed. That humanity and the Core can coexist. With proper training, proper understanding, you could be the first of a new generation. People who are enhanced but not destroyed. Powerful but not monstrous."
"I'm not interested in being anyone's prototype."
"Too late. You already are. You were born a prototype. Your father made sure of that." Crane's expression hardened. "But you can choose what kind of prototype you become. A warning of what not to do, like Zero. A cautionary tale of partial success, like Blackthorn. Or something new. Something better. Something that proves the Crimson Core was worth the price."
"Nothing is worth the price that was paid," Blackthorn said. "The people who died. The minds that were destroyed. The families torn apart. No advancement is worth that."
"Spoken like someone who's forgotten what it means to truly feel something," Crane replied. "But I suppose that's the fragments talking. They've taken so much from you, haven't they, Sheriff? Your emotions. Your connections. Your ability to be truly human. All that's left is duty. Purpose. The cold mathematics of survival."
Blackthorn said nothing. But his glowing eyes told the truth.
"As for you, Kazehara," Crane continued, "you have a choice. Come with me. Let me study you properly. Let me help you understand and control the fragments before they consume you entirely. Or walk away. Hope you can figure it out on your own before you become another Zero."
"If I come with you, you'll just experiment on me. Turn me into a weapon."
"I'll turn you into a person who can safely wield weapons. There's a difference." Crane leaned forward. "But it's your choice. It's always been your choice. That's what makes you different from all the others. You still have free will. The question is: what will you do with it?"
The screens went dark.
The facility shuddered. Structural warnings began blaring—Crane's parting gift. The whole place was collapsing.
"We need to leave," Blackthorn said. "Now."
They ran through the twisting corridors, the facility falling apart around them. Behind them, tons of radioactive rubble crashed down, sealing chambers, blocking routes.
They emerged into the valley just as the main structure imploded, sending up a massive dust cloud that glowed faintly from residual radiation.
The FDI soldiers who'd survived were already evacuating on their bikes. In the distance, Ryo could see another vehicle disappearing over the ridge—probably Crane, escaping with her data.
"She played us," Sera said, breathing hard. "Played all of us."
"But we survived," Blackthorn replied. "And we learned something important."
"What?" Ryo asked.
"That you can resist the fragments' influence when it matters. That you can make choices the Core wouldn't approve of." Blackthorn looked at him with something approaching respect. "You had the chance to absorb more Core energy. To become more powerful. And you crushed it instead. That's not something Zero would have done. Or me, at my worst. That was human choice. Human will."
"I got lucky. Next time—"
"There might not be a next time. Crane said there's no backup fragment. If that's true, then the only Crimson Core pieces left are inside you and me. And mine are... degrading." Blackthorn touched his chest. "The partial bonding was unstable. The fragments are breaking down. In a few years, they'll be inert. Useless. And I'll just be... me. Whatever that means."
"What about mine?" Ryo asked quietly.
"Yours are stable. Integrated since birth, like she said. They'll be with you forever." Blackthorn's expression was unreadable. "Which means you have forever to learn to control them. To be something better than what Zero and I became."
"And if I can't? If I end up losing myself anyway?"
Blackthorn drew his revolver—but didn't aim it at Ryo. He just held it loosely, looking at the weapon.
"Then you find someone you trust. Someone who knows you well enough to recognize when you're not you anymore. And you give them permission to stop you." He looked at Sera. "Someone like her."
Sera met his gaze steadily. "If it comes to that, I will. But I don't think it will."
"Why not?" Ryo asked.
"Because you're too damn stubborn to let a bunch of circuit fragments tell you who to be." She took his hand—the one that had been burned, now healing. "You're Ryo Kazehara. You survived five years hunting the deadliest outlaw in the territories. Survived bonding with Core fragments. Survived everything the FDI, the Vultures, and Zero himself threw at you. You'll survive this too."
Ryo wanted to believe her.
And maybe, for the first time, he did.
They stood in Red Glass Valley as the sun began to set, painting the broken landscape in shades of crimson and gold.
"So what now?" Sera asked.
"Now?" Blackthorn holstered his weapon. "Now I go back to Redwater Ridge. Try to hold off the FDI for as long as I can. Keep them from coming after you."
"What about you two?" He looked at Ryo and Sera.
Ryo thought about it. About Crane's offer. About the FDI's pursuit. About the fragments inside him and the uncertain future ahead.
"We disappear," he said finally. "Go somewhere the FDI can't find us. Somewhere I can learn to control these fragments without anyone trying to turn me into a weapon."
"Any ideas where?"
Ryo smiled—genuine and human. "Actually, yeah. There's a town. Way out on the frontier. Place called Promise. It's small. Remote. Mostly farmers and miners. No FDI presence. No gang activity. Just... normal people living normal lives."
"Sounds boring," Sera said. But she was smiling too.
"That's the point. I need boring. Need normal. Need time to figure out who I am when I'm not fighting or running or hunting." Ryo looked at her. "You don't have to come. This isn't your fight anymore."
"Are you kidding? I just spent three days in the desert keeping you from having a crisis of identity. I'm too invested to quit now." Sera checked her rifle. "Besides, someone needs to make sure you actually relax instead of brooding about your tragic backstory."
"Fair point."
They said their goodbyes to Blackthorn—awkward but sincere. The sheriff gave Ryo a data chip containing everything he knew about managing Crimson Core fragments. Not much. But something.
Then he left, disappearing into the wasteland, a ghost chasing other ghosts.
Ryo and Sera walked back to their sand-skiff as twilight fell."So," Sera said as they drove away from Red Glass Valley, "what are we going to do in this boring town? Besides not being weapons?""I don't know. Farm? Mine? Learn to cook?" Ryo grinned. "I've spent nineteen years being defined by these fragments. Maybe it's time to figure out who I am without them driving every decision.""That's very mature and healthy. I'm proud of you.""Don't get used to it. I'll probably have another crisis next week.""I'm counting on it. Keeps things interesting."They drove into the night, leaving behind the radioactive ruins and the broken facility and all the ghosts of the Crimson Core program.Ahead, somewhere in the vast frontier, a town called Promise waited.And for the first time in his life, Ryo Kazehara allowed himself to hope.Not for power or revenge or answers.But for something simpler.A chance to be human.Whatever that means.