Episode 103 — Ashes and Oaths
Rain clung to the city like grief, soft and unrelenting, as if the sky itself mourned everything lost.
Inside the dim confines of the clinic, Raian stood at Aria's bedside. The weight of her fragile body beneath his hand made his heart ache. Her skin was cool, her breaths shallow but steady — a rhythm he had almost forgotten to believe in.
Aria's eyelids fluttered, lashes damp with restless dreams. A faint tremble passed through her fingers, and Raian clasped them gently, grounding her. Grounding himself.
"I'm here," he murmured, barely above a breath. "I kept my promise. One more dawn."
Aria stirred, her voice a ghost against the quiet. "You look like hell."
A small, breathless laugh escaped him. "Takes one to know one."
She smiled weakly. "You came."
"I always do."
---
At the doorway, Lina lingered with a cup of tea gone cold in her hands. Ayan stood just behind her, leaning on the wall, arms folded, eyes heavy with something deeper than weariness. He had fought long and hard, not just on the streets — but inside himself.
They watched the couple inside the room as if witnessing a miracle stitched from blood, betrayal, and impossible devotion.
"Still think they're gonna destroy each other?" Lina whispered, sipping quietly.
Ayan didn't answer immediately. Then, softly, "Maybe. Or maybe they'll burn everything else down before that happens."
---
Later that morning, Raian stepped outside the clinic for the first time. The world had changed. The alley was still broken, but the silence held weight now. He turned to find Ayan waiting, arms crossed.
"You going somewhere?" Ayan asked.
Raian's voice was raw from hours of silence. "Not yet."
"Good. Because Malik's dogs are sniffing around. And we both know you're not fully healed."
Raian's jaw tensed. "They won't stop."
"No," Ayan said. "But neither will we."
The air between them hung with the heaviness of history — one that had shifted, scarred, and aligned in the strangest of ways.
"I never said thank you," Raian murmured.
Ayan shrugged. "You never needed to."
---
Inside, Aria sat up with Lina's help. Her face was pale, body still fragile, but her eyes burned with a strength that terrified and comforted everyone around her.
"I need to see the files," Aria said.
"What files?" Lina frowned.
"The ones Dev died for. The ones Malik wants to erase."
Lina hesitated. "They're scattered… bits and pieces. Some with the kids, some hidden."
"Bring them," Aria said. "If I can't fight with guns, I'll fight with truth."
---
By dusk, Ishaan arrived.
He wore a dark jacket soaked from rain, eyes wide with disbelief as he saw Aria conscious and speaking.
"Saira didn't believe me," he said breathlessly. "She cried when I told her. I think she'll cry again when she sees you."
Aria smiled faintly. "I'm not dead yet."
"God, you have no idea how many people you scared," Ishaan muttered.
"And Malik?" Raian asked, voice cool.
"Furious. He's killed two of his own already. That blood-stained page you leaked? It lit fires everywhere."
Raian exchanged a glance with Aria. "Good."
---
That night, the clinic became more than a hiding place — it became a war room.
Aria, pale but alert, sat surrounded by scattered notes and smudged ink. Lina fed her warm soup between whispers. Ayan leaned over the maps, tracing patrols and street routes.
Raian sat silent at the far edge of the room, gaze fixed on Malik's name like a wound that never healed.
"Tomorrow," he finally said. "We go."
Lina blinked. "Go where?"
"Into the storm," Aria whispered, eyes locked on Raian's. "To end this."
---
But the city didn't wait.
Around midnight, a sharp knock rattled the clinic's rear door. Ayan moved first, gun drawn, followed by Ishaan. The silence thickened until a young boy stumbled in — soaked, bleeding, eyes frantic.
"They're coming," he gasped. "Two streets away. Twenty men. Dogs. Guns."
A chill swept the room.
"No more time," Raian said.
"We have to move her," Ayan growled.
"She won't survive a chase," the doctor warned.
Aria gritted her teeth. "Then we don't run."
Raian knelt in front of her. "This isn't your fight now. You need—"
She gripped his wrist. "This has always been mine too. I'm not hiding anymore."
---
Outside, thunder rolled as if the sky itself braced for what was coming.
Ayan took position at the front, while Lina and Ishaan gathered the children and injured. The city had become a battleground, and even innocence was a luxury they no longer had.
Inside the room, Aria sat propped against the wall. Raian knelt before her, pressing a kiss to her forehead, then lingered.
"If anything happens—"
"Don't," she cut him off. "We survive. Both of us. Together or not at all."
---
At the front line, Malik's men fanned through the alley like a plague.
But this time, they weren't the only ones armed.
From behind trash bins and crumbling walls, old friends and forgotten allies stepped into the shadows — men and women who once bled for Raian's father, now ready to bleed again.
The fight erupted fast. Loud. Brutal.
Gunshots cracked through the night.
Inside, Aria clutched the page she'd pieced together — the final ledger.
"This is proof," she whispered, voice shaking. "Proof he bought the police, the judges, even hospitals."
She turned to Lina. "Get this out. If I don't make it—"
"You will," Lina snapped. "Don't even finish that sentence."
---
Raian fought like a storm unleashed.
He moved through smoke and fire like death in flesh, but this time — not for vengeance. For Aria. For what they had left. For what they still might build.
A bullet grazed his arm; he barely flinched.
A second caught Ayan's shoulder. He swore, gritting his teeth, but didn't stop.
Ishaan held the backline with fierce precision. Lina dragged children through basement tunnels. Saira arrived midway, bleeding but alive, gun in hand and fury in her eyes.
---
By sunrise, the alley was silent.
Bodies lay scattered. Blood soaked the earth.
But Raian was still standing.
So was Aria.
And in that quiet, amid broken walls and dying fire, they found each other.
She reached for him.
He fell into her arms.
---
From a rooftop above, a drone camera flickered.
And across the city, that morning — news channels exploded with footage.
"Corrupt kingpin Malik exposed."
"Anonymous group leaks ledger of crimes."
"City awakens to truth."
---
Raian stood beside Aria, hand wrapped in hers.
Behind them, Ayan and Lina — bruised but standing.
Ishaan and Saira, guarding the children who survived.
The war wasn't over.
But the silence had broken.
---
Teaser for Episode 104: The city reacts. Malik goes into hiding. But the price of truth has only begun to reveal itself — and Raian and Aria will soon learn that even love must bleed for peace to grow.
---