the city was silent in Ciphers wake, The bodies Of Twenty men lay sprawled around him, their blood dark against the rain-slicked pavement. He reloaded his silenced pistol, stepping over the corpses without a second glance.

His earpiece crackled. "Cipher. Report."

"Target neutralized." His voice was devoid of life, as always.

"Good. Proceed to the next mission. New objective incoming."

Cipher didn't respond. He simply moved. He did not think about his kills. He did not remember their faces. They were irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was execution.

Arriving at the next location, he prepared for another clean kill. But as he entered the dimly lit apartment, his enhanced vision locked onto a single figure. A girl-small, trembling, holding a blood-streaked datapad.

"You're... him," she whispered. "The Reaper."

Cipher raised his silencer. "You are the target."

She didn't plead. Instead, she stared at him, unblinking. "They'll come for you too, you know. The second you stop obeying."

Cipher's finger tightened trigger. There was no hesitation.

A gunshot echoed.

The bullet pierced through her shoulder, disabling but not killing.

Not a mistake. Not mercy.

Simply calculation.

Let her bleed. Extract information. Then eliminate.

Nothing had changed. Nothing would ever change.

Cipher remained a machine.

And machines do not feel.

Chapter 2: Collateral Damage

Luna collapsed against the wall, gripping her bleeding shoulder. Her breath came in ragged gasps, but her eyes remained locked onto Cipher-cold, unreadable, inhuman.

"You... hesitated," she said between shallow breaths.

Cipher stepped forward, gun still aimed. "Incorrect." His voice was devoid of anything resembling emotion. "A kill shot would have rendered you useless. You will answer my questions. Then you will die."

Luna gave a weak smirk. "And what if I don't answer?"

Cipher fired another round. The bullet grazed her leg, precise and deliberate. She bit back a scream.

"Pain is irrelevant. You will break," he stated, unmoved.

She glared at him, her defiance faltering as the blood pooled beneath her. "You're already broken. You just don't know it yet."

Cipher did not react. He holstered his silencer and activated his comm. "Captured the target. Proceeding with interrogation."

But before he could extract further information, his instincts flared. Enhanced perception detected movement-three units approaching, silent, methodical.

Echelon operatives.

Cipher turned to the window. The city skyline flickered with distant neon lights, but in the darkness below, shadows moved unnaturally fast.

"They're here," Luna whispered.

Cipher didn't need her warning. The moment he confirmed their presence, his course of action was clear.

He shot her again-this time in the thigh.

She screamed, collapsing fully. "What the hell?!"

Cipher ignored her. "You are now a liability. They will prioritize you over me."

A calculated distraction.

He turned and stepped into the shadows, seamlessly blending into the environment as the assassins breached the room.

Luna gasped as masked figures surrounded her. One of them, clad in tactical black, knelt beside her. "Where is Cipher?"

She gritted her teeth, still in pain. "Gone."

A metallic whisper cut through the air.

A single figure emerged behind them-Cipher, moving like a phantom. Before they could react, he struck.

Three shots. Three kills. Silent. Efficient.

The last operative staggered, eyes wide in shock. Cipher had moved faster than humanly possible. The assassin barely had time to comprehend his own death before Cipher finished him with a single neck snap.

The room fell silent again.

Cipher turned to Luna, who stared at him, eyes wide.

"You..." she breathed. "You could've left me to die."

Cipher reloaded his weapon. "I don't leave loose ends."

Without another word, he lifted her onto his shoulder like dead weight and disappeared into the night.

Luna didn't know if he had just saved her... or if she had become something worse than a target.

A possession.

A tool.

And Cipher?

He remained exactly what he had always been.

A perfect killer.

An emotionless machine.

A ghost with a name.

Cipher moved like a shadow, carrying Luna through the rain-soaked alleyways. Her breathing was uneven, the wounds slowing her down, but he never adjusted his pace.

She either kept up or she didn't.

"You shot me twice," she muttered, voice strained. "That's not how saving people works."

Cipher didn't look at her. "You misunderstand. I do not save people. You are alive because you are still useful."

Luna let out a short, bitter laugh. "And when I stop being useful?"

Cipher didn't answer. He didn't need to.

She already knew.

They reached an abandoned high-rise, its broken windows offering nothing but darkness inside. Cipher set her down against the cold concrete, then stepped back, scanning their surroundings with detached precision.

Luna watched him-watched the way he moved, the way he calculated everything without a shred of hesitation.

"You really feel nothing, do you?"

Cipher turned his gaze to her, empty and unreadable.

"Emotions do not serve a purpose."

Luna scoffed. "They do. They make us human."

Cipher kneeled in front of her, expression as lifeless as ever. "Humanity is a weakness. That is why they created me."

Luna's fingers clenched around the torn fabric of her sleeve. "And yet, you're the one they're trying to kill now."

Silence.

Cipher's eyes remained blank, but for the first time, he didn't answer immediately.

Luna smirked, despite the pain. "Looks like your creators don't think you're so perfect after all."

Cipher stood up, dismissing the conversation as irrelevant. He checked his ammo, his movements mechanical.

"Rest while you can. We move at dawn."

Luna exhaled, watching him with something unreadable in her own gaze.

Cipher wasn't human. He wasn't broken.

But something told her... maybe he wasn't whole, either.

Chapter 4: The Price of Perfection

The night passed in silence. Cipher remained motionless, standing by the broken window, his eyes scanning the city below. He didn't need rest-his body had been conditioned to function beyond human limits. Sleep was an unnecessary liability.

Luna, however, was different. Even in pain, she had eventually drifted off, exhaustion overriding her fear.

Cipher noted that she wasn't a trained operative. No combat instincts. No discipline. Just a scientist running from her execution.

His orders had been clear. Eliminate her.

And yet, she was still breathing.

Cipher didn't dwell on it.

At exactly 04:00, he moved. He approached Luna's unconscious form and nudged her shoulder-firm but not violent. "Get up."

She woke with a sharp inhale, eyes unfocused for a second before locking onto him. "You don't waste time, do you?"

Cipher turned away, already checking the ammunition in his pistol. "Time is a resource. I do not waste resources."

Luna stretched slightly, wincing at the pain in her shoulder and leg. "Right. Because you're a machine, and machines don't feel."

Cipher glanced at her, but his expression remained unreadable. "Your sarcasm is unnecessary. We move now."

He started towards the exit, expecting her to follow.

She did but not before muttering, "You really are the coldest bastard alive."

Cipher had no reaction.

Because it was true.

They moved through the city unseen. Cipher's precision made evasion effortless. Every alley, every street, every blind spot in surveillance-he calculated it all without hesitation.

Luna struggled to keep up. Her injuries slowed her, but Cipher neither offered help nor adjusted his pace. If she fell behind, that was her problem.

By the time they reached an abandoned metro station, Luna was out of breath. She slumped against a rusted pillar, glaring at him. "You know, normal people check if their allies are okay."

Cipher merely looked at her. "You are not my ally. You are an asset."

She scoffed, shaking her head. "Right. Forgot I was traveling with a human-shaped computer."

Cipher ignored her and turned his focus to their surroundings. His instincts sharpened. Something was off.

He pulled his silencer. "We are not alone."

Luna stiffened. "What? I don't-"

A bullet grazed the pillar beside her.

Cipher moved instantly. He grabbed Luna and shoved her down as a second shot ripped through the air. In the next fraction of a second, he had already drawn his sidearm, aimed, and fired.

The sniper fell without a sound.

Luna barely had time to register what had happened before Cipher was moving again. "Stay down."

She obeyed-partly because she was still processing the fact that he had just sniped a sniper with a pistol.

More figures emerged from the shadows. Elite operatives. Echelon's best.

Cipher didn't flinch. He stepped forward, completely unfazed, eyes cold.

The enemy surrounded him, weapons drawn. One of them spoke. "Cipher. Surrender."

Cipher didn't answer. He simply raised his gun.

The first man died before he even registered the movement.

The second one lunged. Cipher sidestepped, grabbed his wrist, and snapped it effortlessly before shooting him in the head.

The third hesitated-fatal mistake. Cipher seized his knife, spun it, and drove it into his throat before using the body as a shield against incoming fire.

It took less than five seconds.

Five men, dead.

Luna watched in stunned silence. It wasn't just that he was efficient-it was the way he moved. No hesitation. No wasted effort. Every motion was absolute.

A killing machine.

Cipher turned to the last operative, who was frozen in place.

"You are already dead," Cipher stated simply.

The man barely had time to react before Cipher closed the distance and snapped his neck.

Luna swallowed hard. "You... you took them apart like they were nothing."

Cipher reloaded his gun without looking at her. "Because they were."

She exhaled. "And what am I?"

He glanced at her. "A liability."

Luna clenched her jaw. "You could've left me."

Cipher turned back to the bodies, looting ammo with the same efficiency he applied to killing. "I could have."

She waited for an explanation. None came.

Because Cipher never explained himself.

Because Cipher didn't feel.

At least... that's what he kept telling himself.

Chapter 6: The Line Between Hunter and Prey

Cipher moved through the tunnels without hesitation, his footfalls silent, his mind calculating the most efficient path forward. The mission had changed, but his approach remained the same: eliminate obstacles, achieve the objective.

Luna limped behind him, struggling to keep up. "How many of those guys does Echelon have?"

"Enough." Cipher didn't slow down. "They will keep coming."

She exhaled sharply. "And you don't care?"

He didn't answer. Because the truth was simple-he didn't,

Luna gritted her teeth, forcing herself to move faster. "At least tell me where we're going."

"Somewhere they cannot reach."

She huffed. "Vague. Helpful."

Cipher ignored her sarcasm. His mind was already focused on the next threat. They had been too easy to track. Which meant more would come. Stronger, smarter, faster.

His instincts flared.

Hostiles detected.

In one motion, he pulled Luna against the wall, his silenced pistol already aimed. The moment a shadow moved at the tunnel's entrance-he fired.

A body dropped.

Another figure lunged from the side. Cipher reacted instantly, catching the attacker's wrist mid-swing. A knife gleamed in the dim light, inches from his throat.

Cipher twisted the man's arm, shattering bone, then used the same knife to drive it through his skull.

Luna flinched as blood splattered onto the wall.

Cipher stepped over the fresh corpse, eyes cold. "Move."

Luna hesitated. "Do you ever hesitate?"

Cipher turned his empty gaze to her. "No."

That was the difference between him and the rest of the world.

He never hesitated.

He never failed.