Public Lashes, Lies & Low Frequencies

[Sommer Dai]

She reached across the table and took his hand.


The music shifted below, deeper now, basslines dragging through their shared silence.


"I'm not done with you," she whispered.

For a moment, they just sat—together in the dim hush, the world below them throbbing with synthetic life.

But above it all, a dancer laughed in the distance.

And a red recording light blinked, unnoticed, in the shadows behind the booth.

 

[Kaelon Virex]

The glass door at the end of the upper corridor hissed open.


Boots — quick and deliberate — struck the floor like the sharp report of a verdict.


Kaelon stepped through, hair still tousled from the warm rains outside, shirt clinging to the hard lines of his frame beneath his obsidian trench. Tribal ink peeked from under one sleeve, and his eyes — those storm-gray slashes of suspicion — locked on Andrew Lonek like they'd been waiting for him.

 

[Sommer Dai]

Sommer's head turned. "Kael—"

 

[Kaelon Virex]

"That him?" Kael asked, ignoring her.

 

[Andrew Lonek]

Andrew stood slowly, every servo in his spine engaging with a faint metallic hum. "You must be the cousin," he said, his tone tight, measured. "Kael Virex. Heard a few things."

 

[Kaelon Virex]

"Wish I could say the same." Kael's eyes didn't blink. "You weren't with her."

 

[Andrew Lonek]

Andrew's jaw twitched. "I was fighting my own war."

 

[Kaelon Virex]

Kael took two steps closer to the booth, shoulders squaring.

"While she was in chains," he said coolly, "while some Sith sorceress tried to rip her apart and feed her soul to a demon, you were busy? Where the hell were you?"

 

[Andrew Lonek]

Sommer started to speak — but Andrew's voice cut in, low and dangerous.

"I was fighting Ghost."

 

[Kaelon Virex]

Kael stilled.

 

[Andrew Lonek]

Andrew's eyes didn't waver. "Yeah. That Ghost. Mann Dawncaster . The man who tried to melt my suit with an EMP dagger and nearly collapsed the Gilded Veil's lower foundation. You think I chose to be away while Azis tried to break her mind? You think I wanted that?"

 

[Kaelon Virex]

Kael blinked once. The name meant something.

"You expect me to believe that?"

 

[Andrew Lonek]

Andrew's fingers unfastened a latch on his forearm. He rolled the sleeve back — revealing part of the charred neural mesh running up his bicep, scorched where the EMP had kissed it.

"I almost died in Dock Quarter 9-A trying to keep that bastard from breaching the Veil's underground entry. He had enough ion-grade explosives to take out the club, the staff, and Sommer with it. I fought him off, blind, suit offline, hand-to-hand."

 

[Kaelon Virex]

Kael's stare lingered on the damage.

"Then why didn't she know?"

 

[Andrew Lonek]

"Because I didn't want to make her relive it," Andrew snapped. "Because she was barely standing when she came back. And maybe because I'm not great at... this," he gestured between them, "whatever you are."

 

[Sommer Dai]

Sommer finally stood between them. "Kael, stop."

Her voice was firm now. Exhausted, but strong.

"I survived Zori because of you. And because of him." She looked between them. "Neither of you gets to wear the whole cape. I needed both of you."

 

[Kaelon Virex]

Kael's face tightened — his expression folding into something rawer than anger. Protective. Wounded. Maybe a little…

 

[Sommer Dai]

Sommer's shoulders fell. "I didn't want you to see what she did to me. I wasn't ready to be looked at like I was broken."

 

[Kaelon Virex]

"You're not," Kael said, voice softer now.

 

[Andrew Lonek]

Andrew exhaled and stepped forward, extending a hand.

"I don't expect you to like me. But I was there, even if you didn't see it."