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You Keika
You Keika
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Novels by You Keika

Moonbound: The Rise Of The Alpha

Moonbound: The Rise Of The Alpha

In a world where the powerful Elders ruled with iron fists, the Marked Ones warriors cursed and gifted with abilities beyond mortal understanding were bound to serve. Among them, Lyla, a fierce and unyielding leader, emerged from the ashes of war with one purpose: to shatter the chains of the Elders and claim the throne for herself. After years of bloodshed and sacrifice, Lyla did the impossible she destroyed the Elders, dismantling their legacy of domination. But victory came with a price. Her rise to power awakened something far older and far more dangerous: the Forgotten Kings ancient rulers who had existed long before the Elders, hidden in the shadows of time, waiting for the right moment to reclaim what was once theirs. The city of ruins that Lyla thought was a stronghold of the past turned out to be a gateway to a prison for the Forgotten. Her mere presence, her power, unlocked the seals that held them back, and now, the ancient kings stir, whispering through shadows, testing her strength with apparitions and phantoms that defy life and death. Lyla, unyielding and defiant, refuses to kneel. With the Marked Ones by her side, she begins a journey to understand the true nature of the power she wields, a power that may have never belonged to the Elders, but to something much older, much darker. As the boundaries between past and present blur, Lyla must decide if she will be a mere successor to the throne or its ultimate conqueror. But with the Forgotten Kings watching her every move, and the shadows growing restless, the true war for dominance over the world has only just begun.
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Chapter: Chapter 115: The War That Never Ended
The ground split open.Not like a wound.Like a mouth.Lyla moved first, claws igniting with silver fire as she lunged for the Elder.But the Elder did not flinch.Did not defend.Did not even care.Because they had already won.The wind howled.The shadows beneath them unraveled not just darkness, but something alive.Something old.Something returning.Eli’s voice was sharp. “Lyla”Jorah’s golden eyes burned. “It’s not just them.”Dani’s smirk vanished. “We’ve been fighting the wrong war.”Caelum’s silver gaze was steady, his voice quiet. “No. We’ve been fighting the wrong enemy.”Lyla landed hard, skidding back just as the thing began to rise.Not a creature.Not a god.Something in between.Something born from the ashes of a fallen empire.The Elder smiled, stepping backward, into the shifting black."You thought you were the ending."The whispers in the wind became voices."But you were only ever the beginning."Lyla bared her fangs."Then let’s see how this story really ends."T
Last Updated: 2025-07-14
Chapter: Chapter 114: The Last of the Fallen
The shadows moved.Not like the remnants.Not like anything Lyla had ever faced before.This was older.Darker.Wrong.Eli shifted beside her, blade raised. “That’s not a remnant.”Jorah’s golden eyes narrowed. “No. It’s something worse.”Dani exhaled, rolling her shoulders. “About time.”Caelum didn’t speak, his silver gaze locked on the figure emerging from the trees.It stepped into the torchlight, slow and deliberate.Not twisted. Not broken.Whole.A survivor.An Elder.Lyla’s breath stilled.They had burned their empire to the ground.But at least one had crawled out of the ashes.The figure lifted its head, dark eyes filled with something ancient and knowing."You thought we were all gone."The wind shifted.The Bloodmarked tightened their stance.Lyla bared her fangs."We’re about to fix that mistake."The torches blazed.The last of the Elders smiled.And the final battle began.The forest held its breath.Lyla stood still, silver eyes locked onto the figure before her.An El
Last Updated: 2025-07-14
Chapter: Chapter 113: Whispers in the Dark
The night was too quiet.Lyla moved through the trees, the Bloodmarked following in silence. The ruins were behind them, but the feeling that weight pressing against her ribs had not faded.Something was still out there.Something that had survived.Eli walked beside her, his voice low. “We’re being watched.”Jorah’s golden eyes flickered. “I know. I can feel it.”Dani’s fingers brushed her daggers. “Then let’s make them regret it.”Caelum exhaled. “The Elders are dead, but their shadow lingers.”Lyla already knew.The whispers in the wind weren’t just ghosts of the past.They were warnings.She stopped, inhaling deeply.A scent.Faint. Old. But still there.Her silver eyes sharpened."They didn’t all die in the fire."The Bloodmarked tensed."Someone is waiting for us."The torches burned low.The wind carried the echoes of something just out of reach.And Lyla Blackwood stepped into the dark.Because whatever was left?She was going to find it.And this time she would make sure it d
Last Updated: 2025-07-08
Chapter: Chapter 112: The Shadow That Remains
The ruins were behind them, but the weight of what Lyla had done still clung to the air.The Elders were gone.Their rule erased.But power did not disappear.It waited.Eli walked beside her, his voice measured. "We burned their empire, but that doesn’t mean we burned their influence."Jorah’s expression was grim. "Some will still follow their teachings. Some will still believe in their order."Dani scoffed. "Then we make sure they don’t have the chance to rebuild."Caelum’s silver gaze flickered. "The past doesn’t let go so easily, Lyla."She knew that.She could feel it in the wind, in the shifting energy around them.The Elders were dead.But something of them remained.A shadow that had not been burned away.Lyla stopped, inhaling slowly."Then we find whatever is left."The Bloodmarked listened."And we finish what we started."The wind carried her words into the unknown.Because this was not just about what they had destroyed.It was about what still needed to fall.And Lyla Bl
Last Updated: 2025-07-08
Chapter: Chapter 111: Wolves Without Masters
The embers had faded, but the fire Lyla had lit would never go out.The Elders were gone.Their rule, their control nothing but dust on the wind.But the world would not stay empty for long.Power did not die.It waited.Eli stood beside her, watching the Bloodmarked gather. "They’ll expect a leader."Jorah nodded. "The packs will want answers."Dani smirked. "They’re not gonna like what they hear."Caelum studied Lyla carefully. "Are you ready for what comes next?"She already knew what came next."We don’t give them a new ruler."The Bloodmarked listened."We give them something better."The wind stirred, carrying her words across the battlefield."A world without masters."The warriors bowed their heads.The torches burned low.And the new world one without kings, without thrones, without chains began.The wind howled through the ruins, carrying the last traces of the Elders’ rule into the past.The Bloodmarked stood waiting.For a command.For a future.For her.Eli’s voice was lo
Last Updated: 2025-07-02
Chapter: Chapter 110: The Price of Power
The ruins were still.The Elders were gone, their empire reduced to ash and memory.But Lyla knew that victory came with a cost.And that cost had yet to be paid.Eli stood beside her, his blade still in hand. “This isn’t over.”Jorah surveyed the battlefield, golden eyes sharp. “The Elders ruled through fear. But fear doesn’t die with them.”Dani exhaled, rolling her shoulders. “No, but we sure as hell gave it something to be afraid of.”Caelum remained silent, his silver gaze locked on Lyla. Waiting. Watching.Because this was where most conquerors stumbled.Not on the battlefield.But in the moments after.Lyla had taken power.And now, she had to decide what to do with it.The Bloodmarked waited.For her next move.For her next command.For the future she had fought to create.She lifted her chin, her voice steady."We didn’t fight to take their place."A hush fell over the warriors."We fought to make sure no one ever does."The wind stirred, carrying her words beyond the ruins.
Last Updated: 2025-07-02
Cold Hands, Warm Lies

Cold Hands, Warm Lies

Two years after her sister vanished without a trace, Sera Duvall is barely surviving emotionally and financially. But when a chance encounter leads her into the arms of Lucien Calder, the tech billionaire who was the last known person to see her sister, she makes a dangerous choice: infiltrate his world and expose the truth from within. Lucien is controlled, powerful, and hiding something behind every careful word. He offers her a deal: stay with him for one week, and he’ll give her what she wants. But the closer Sera gets to uncovering what happened, the more tangled she becomes in a web of secrets, emotional manipulation, and a slow-burning desire she didn’t see coming. And in a world where love is leverage and lies are currency, the truth may destroy them both.
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Chapter: Chapter Fifty Six
> Ava (over comms): “The file Elise left it's geo-tagged to a location in Manhattan. Midtown. Off-grid.”> Sera: “She’s pulling us back to where it began.”Lucien’s jaw flexed. Snow still clung to his coat, but his eyes burned.> Lucien: “She wants us in the open.”> Ava: “Then let’s not come quietly.”Amber Jet – En Route to Manhattan – 14:03 ESTThe hum of the engines faded beneath the tension in the cabin.Sera sat across from Lucien, elbows on her knees, fingers laced tightly.> Lucien: “You don’t have to go. I can take Ava ”> Sera (cutting): “If she’s there, I’m walking through that door first.”He didn’t argue. He never did when she was like this ice over fire, unstoppable.> Lucien: “I keep thinking about that message. The way she said it. ‘You chose love. I choose peace.’ It sounded... final.”> Sera: “Elise doesn’t do final. She does calculated.”> Lucien: “You think she’s baiting us again?”> Sera: “I think she’s giving me a chance to bury the rest of her. Or resurrect it.”
Last Updated: 2025-07-14
Chapter: Chapter Fifty Five
> Ava (over comms): “We’re ten minutes out. Temp’s already dropped below -30. You sure you want boots on the ice?”> Sera (flat): “She wants us to follow. We follow.”> Lucien (cutting in): “But we follow smart. No hero moves. No splitting up.”> Sera: “You mean like Elise did?”The jet sliced through the pre-dawn sky, frost veining across its reinforced windows. Below, a frozen stretch of Canadian Arctic came into view barren, brutal, and humming with invisible code.Sera stood by the window, arms folded. Her reflection fractured in the glass. Lucien moved up behind her, wordless, but close.> Sera (without turning): “What if we’re walking into her trap?”> Lucien: “Then we spring it together.”She turned now, locking eyes with him. Snowlight caught the sharp line of his jaw, the steel in his expression. But his voice that was soft.> Lucien: “I lost her once. I won’t lose you too.”Sera searched his face.> Sera: “You never really had her. Not the way you have me.”She brushed her h
Last Updated: 2025-07-08
Chapter: Chapter Fifty Four
> Lucien: “He’s not testing the system anymore. He’s testing us.”Sera didn’t flinch. Her back still pressed to his, skin buzzing from the kiss, the threat, the choice Aquila had left like a loaded gun on the table.> Sera: “Then we don’t give him what he wants. We give him what he fears.”Lucien turned to face her fully. Hair tousled. Eyes sharp. She wasn’t just surviving anymore. She was becoming.> Lucien: “You really want to bring him in?”> Sera: “No. I want to beat him at his own game.”Footsteps approached from the corridor light, fast, precise.Ava.> Ava: “He’s gone. But not far. And we have a bigger problem.”Lucien’s jaw clenched.> Lucien: “Say it.”> Ava: “There’s a breach in Amber’s Santiago node. Unauthorized uplink. 2:47 a.m. Their time.”> Sera: “That’s one of the three Elise flagged in her journal. It’s a triangulation attempt.”> Lucien: “Someone’s trying to map the neural backbone.”> Ava: “Or corrupt it.”Silence hit them like static. Sera moved first, brushing pa
Last Updated: 2025-07-08
Chapter: Chapter Fifty Three
A red siren jolted through the penthouse. Sera bolted upright, heart spiking. Lucien was already alert, pulse pounding.> Lucien (urgent whisper): “They’re inside.”Still clad in last night’s heat, they raced through dimly lit halls toward the command hub. Crimson warning lights flickered.> Sera (fingers flying on the console): “I’m isolating the node PENTHOUSE_NODE.”Codes streamed across the screen then a new alert: INTRUDER: Basement Safe Room.They exchanged a charged look.> Lucien: “Stay close. Let’s move.”They crept toward the basement staircase, hallway lights flickering with each breath.The basement corridor felt colder, glass walls reflecting metal racks and server cages, silent sentinels of their world. The door to the safe room was ajar.> Lucien (whisper): “I’ll go in cover me.”Sera shook her head.> Sera: “No. I’m not hiding.”They slipped inside.Aquila stood before them, relaxed yet dangerous, rain glistening on his damp coat.> Aquila: “You built a sanctuary but l
Last Updated: 2025-06-30
Chapter: Chapter Fifty Two
The grey dawn in Berlin mirrored the mood on Marktplatz Square, a stark contrast to the soft glow of Amber nodes worldwide. Protest signs littered the plaza: “Don’t Test My Truth!”, “Amber = Surveillance!”, “Free Choice or Digital Cage?”Sera stepped out of the van, bundled in a trench coat beside Lucien and Elise. The air smelled of diesel and damp concrete. They wore earpieces, tablets in hand, not tourists, but peacemakers in a digital rebellion.> Ava (over comm):“Berlin node is live but flagged every 30 seconds. A mass node freeze is pending.”Sera studied the crowd faces alive with rage, fear, confusion.> Sera (into mic, determined):“We’re here to listen. Not lecture.”Lucien wrapped an arm around her waist silent strength beside her.> Lucien:“Let’s show them it’s human-powered.”They approached a line of police barrier tape. A group of protesters surged forward, chanting slogans in German.Sera raised a hand peaceful, measured > Sera (voice calm):“We’re with you. Let us
Last Updated: 2025-06-27
Chapter: Chapter Fifty One
As dawn broke in Manhattan, whispers of Amber’s “Emotional Fidelity Test” swept across social feeds. The debate was ablaze: hashtags #FidelityNow and #TrustTooFar clashed pixel for pixel. Meanwhile, in the penthouse, screens showed live dashboards:Global Node Activity: 7.8 M users onlineTest Flags: 54 active fidelity alertsAverage Sync Time: 17 sec (Global Avg)Sera sat at the main terminal, Lucien next to her. A monitor flickered with a new alert:> User 042-Nairobi: Inconsistent response panic.Sera’s chest tightened.> Sera: “Let’s reach them.”Lucien tapped the comms mic. Lucien and Sera prepared to perform live emotional “therapy-in-code” sessions. Each intervention would test Amber’s promise empathy coded to compassion, not control.> Lucien: “Remember honesty, warmth, no judgment.”He cupped her face.> Lucien (soft): “You already saved a soul. You can do it again.”They began linking global nodes:1. Nairobi2. Tokyo (still red)3. MumbaiA face popped on Sera’s screen youn
Last Updated: 2025-06-27
Trigger Me Gently

Trigger Me Gently

Ember Vale, a runaway living under a stolen identity, crashes a mafia auction in search of answers about her missing father. But the moment she’s recognized by Lucien Vairo, heir to the deadly Vairo Syndicate, everything spirals. Instead of killing her, Lucien cages her suspecting she’s linked to the murder of his older brother, Rafael. Trapped in a world of enemies dressed as family, Ember navigates layers of deception, discovering that Rafael might have faked his death and that both her father and Lucien's powerful family are tied to it. But it’s Lucien she fears most. He’s cold, calculating, and yet... dangerously magnetic. As Lucien and Ember are dragged into a deeper conspiracy, their relationship evolves from hatred to obsession to a raw, passionate connection that neither of them trusts. Allies fall. Families betray. And old ghosts return with blood in their teeth. War breaks out between syndicates. Ember’s past comes to light. Rafael returns with his own deadly plans and Lucien’s father, long thought dead, emerges to reclaim his empire. In a final storm of betrayal, the couple must decide whether to fight for each other or let the past consume them both. In the end, love won’t be enough. Only survival. And someone always has to pull the trigger.
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Chapter: CHAPTER 31: MEMORY HUNT
“Did you ever love me?” Solene’s question hung in the haze of smoke and blood.Lucien’s heartbeat thundered beneath his vest. He didn’t answer, couldn’t. Instead, he kissed her, hard and raw, like it was their last gasp of air.INFILTRATION HALLWAY – 3:22 a.m.Solene, pistol still warm, as Lucien closes the gap, his hand steady on the weapon he dropped.Solene’s voice trembled. “If you did say it.”Lucien murmured against her lips. “I’m still here.”They stood, breath mingling, smoke swirling like ghosts. But Lucien’s eyes flicked to the detonator he dropped now silent. Gunfire echoed in the compound’s depths. The child he’d vanished. And the kill-switch? Still active.A burst of gunfire rattles the corridor’s steel doors. The compound’s power shudders, then blinks lights flicker. They move as one.Lucien whispers: “Security’s collapsing.”Solene nods, voice low: “Then we split.”She heads deeper into the compound; he goes left toward the child’s voice echoing in the network, signs of
Last Updated: 2025-07-14
Chapter: CHAPTER THIRTY: THE GIRL WHO KILLED GOD
LOCATION: ANGELO’S COMPOUND – PERIMETER TUNNELSTIME: 2:07 a.m.The tunnel was dark.Darker than memory. Darker than the guilt Solene couldn’t kill with knives or sex or names no one used anymore.Lucien’s breath rasped behind her. Close. Protective. Tense.They were twenty feet from the gate.Twelve inches from a legacy they couldn’t walk away from again.“Third sensor’s fried,” she whispered, checking the trip wire. “We go in silent.”Lucien’s hand caught her wrist before she moved.“You sure you want to be her tonight?”Solene turned.> “I already am.”He pulled her into him.Hard.No armor. No warning.SHADOWED ROOM – MOMENTS LATERThey kissed like countdowns.Solene pushed him against the wall, tore open his tactical vest. Her teeth grazed his jaw. Her nails bit through his shirt.Lucien flipped her fast hands sliding down to her thigh holster, pushing the gun aside just to get to her skin.> “We could die tonight,” he rasped.She pulled him down with her.> “Then die inside me.”
Last Updated: 2025-07-08
Chapter: CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: MAKE ME BLEED FIRST
LOCATION: NEW EDEN SOUTHWEST TERRITORY BORDERTIME: 9:13 a.m.The rain had stopped, but the blood hadn’t.Solene moved through the underground checkpoint, hair damp, boots slick with soot. The child had been spotted crossing Sector 9’s smuggler lanesalone, fast, bleeding from somewhere.She didn’t ask Lucien to come this time.He came anyway.They walked in silence until they reached the gates.Then he asked, “Do you think he’s still human?”Solene didn’t look at him.> “No,” she said. “But I still am. And that’s the part that hurts.”FLASHBACK – YEARS AGO – SOLENE AS A CHILDAge ten. Small hands. Big knife.She was told to kill the girl who’d stolen from the vault.They locked them in a room. No exit.The girl cried.Solene didn’t.> “If you don’t kill her,” the voice said through the speaker, “you’ll both starve.”Three days later, Solene walked out.The girl didn’t.BACK TO PRESENTLucien saw it in her eyes.That memory.That ghost.“You’re not that girl anymore,” he said.Solene l
Last Updated: 2025-06-30
Chapter: CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: INHERITANCE HAS TEETH
LOCATION: BACK ALLEY, NEW EDEN LOWER BLOCKTIME: 4:54 a.m.The body slumped in the alley was still warm.Lucien crouched beside it. Gloved hand over the pulse point. Nothing.Another ex-syndicate courier.Third one in two days.All of them had something in common:They once reported to Rafael.And now?Their throats were slit with surgical precision.Too clean for chaos. Too sharp for chance.A message.Solene stepped beside him.“No blood spray,” she murmured. “Means whoever did it cleaned them after.”Lucien looked up at her.> “That boy is ten years old, Solene.”She met his gaze. Unblinking.> “So was I. The first time they made me kill something.”LOCATION SHIFT – SAFEHOUSE – LATERThey stood in front of the fireplace.Not speaking.Lucien poured whiskey. Poured another. Tossed the second one back.“You still think he’s worth saving?” he asked.Solene didn’t answer right away.Instead, she reached for his belt.His hand stopped hers.Firm. Sharp.“I’m not asking for sex,” he said
Last Updated: 2025-06-27
Chapter: CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: MOTHER OF NONE
LOCATION: BIANCA'S SAFEHOUSE – INNER COURTYARDTIME: 2:16 a.m.Rain fell like a memory sharp, relentless, unwelcome.Solene walked into the courtyard dressed in blood-red silk and silent intent. No armor. No backup. No Lucien.She’d left him on purpose.Because this was war, not rescue. And what stood between her and the child wasn’t an army.It was Bianca.She waited beneath the stone archway, blonde hair coiled like a crown, wine glass balanced in one manicured hand. The storm didn’t touch her.“You came,” she said, smiling.Solene didn’t stop walking.“I’m not here for you.”“No,” Bianca replied. “You’re here for the boy who doesn’t know what you are yet.”LOCATION SHIFT – SAFEHOUSE INTERIOR – BIANCA’S CHAMBERThe room smelled like lavender and something sweeter lies made to taste like intimacy.Bianca poured two glasses. Offered one.Solene didn’t take it.“I’m not drinking poison.”Bianca laughed, light and cold. “I don’t waste poison on women who poison themselves.”Then: “He’s
Last Updated: 2025-06-25
Chapter: CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: BUILT FROM BLOOD
LOCATION: VAULT OMEGA – INFIRMARY TIERTIME: 12:06 a.m.Lucien bled from the shoulder.The child had slashed him once clean before freezing.Not confused.Not afraid.Just… still.Solene stood in front of the boy now, between him and Lucien.Eyes locked on her own mirrored face.He was small. Pale. Silent.But something inside him flickered.Recognition?Or pre-programmed obedience?“Do you know who I am?” Solene asked.He tilted his head.Then whispered:> “You’re the one I’m not supposed to love.”Her breath caught.Lucien cursed under his breath. “He’s been conditioned.”“No,” Solene murmured. “He’s been copied.”FLASH TO: YEARS AGO – SECRET FACILITYA woman in white injects a serum into a synthetic embryo.Behind her, a man watches from the shadows.Not Rafael.Someone older.Calmer.The vial reads:> “Vairo Protocol: Subject Ω-FEM”“Donor DNA: Solene V. / UNKNOWN”BACK TO PRESENT – VAULTSolene stepped closer.The child stepped back.Lucien stood now, one hand pressed to his blee
Last Updated: 2025-06-23
Cold As My Heart

Cold As My Heart

Adrian Cain has no past. At least, not one he remembers. He woke up at eighteen with a name, a guardian, and a carefully constructed identity that led him to build one of the most powerful tech empires in the world. Now, as the CEO of CainTech, Adrian is feared, admired, and emotionally impenetrable, his past locked behind clinical amnesia, sealed files, and a steel wall he doesn't dare breach. Until the suicides start. After two employees from his most classified division die under suspicious circumstances, trauma counselor Sera Vaughn is brought in to assess the psychological impact on staff. But Sera has her own reasons for stepping into CainTech, her older brother vanished fifteen years ago, and the only lead she has left is a face in an old photograph: Adrian’s. But his name back then wasn’t Adrian. It was Daniel Ward. As Sera begins digging into Adrian’s history and as Adrian’s carefully managed psyche begins to crack, long-buried memories start surfacing: a mysterious basement, whispered codewords, and a girl calling his real name. What neither of them knows is that they were both part of a covert experiment known as Project Phoenix, designed to erase identities and rebuild human obedience from the ground up. Together, they uncover a trail of lies, altered files, and fractured lives along with a chilling truth: Adrian may have been programmed to forget what he did… and who he destroyed. Now hunted by the people who created him, stalked by a version of himself he doesn’t remember becoming, and drawn to a woman whose trust he doesn’t deserve, Adrian must face the darkest corners of his past before they both disappear into it. Because some memories don’t stay buried. Some were never meant to.
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Chapter: Chapter 29: When Gods Go Quiet
The next twenty-four hours passed like a half-remembered fever.The ship’s lights stayed low, power rationed to auxiliary mode. Elias and Lira worked non-stop rerouting the power grid, patching the comms, checking the satellite field for signs of Kirin’s ghost.But none came.Kirin was gone.Or so they kept saying.Sera didn’t believe it.She stood alone in the observation deck, staring at the cold swirl of dead orbit. The same satellites that once trembled under Kirin’s voice now just… waited.Not destroyed.Not shut down.Just dormant.Like teeth in the dark, bared but not biting.Adrian’s reflection appeared beside hers in the glass. He didn’t speak at first. Just watched her.Sera felt the weight of him before she turned. The tension they’d kept coiled these past days was still there, brittle and hungry. When she finally faced him, it all cracked open.“You haven’t slept,” he said softly.She let out a bitter laugh. “Neither have you.”He stepped closer. The closeness felt dangero
Last Updated: 2025-06-30
Chapter: Chapter 28: The Consequence
The ship had stopped moving.But not because it was adrift.Because something was holding it.Outside, beyond the viewing ports, thousands of once-dead satellites had aligned in a perfect arc, a formation too precise to be instinct, too inhuman to be coordinated by chance.They weren’t aimed to fire.They were aimed to listen.To Syra.In the cradle chamber…Sera stood inches from the glass, watching Syra’s body flicker between light and shadow. She was no longer restrained, not physically. The machine around her was breaking down on a molecular level, not due to force, but from a rewrite loop originating inside her neural stem.“She’s not stabilizing,” Elias shouted over comms. “She’s collapsing into an identity recursion.”“What does that mean?” Adrian called back.“It means she’s being overwritten by Kirin.”“No,” Sera whispered, staring at Syra. “She’s fighting it.”Inside the neural planeSyra’s mindscape wasn’t coherent anymore.The battlefield had fractured.She stood ankle-dee
Last Updated: 2025-06-27
Chapter: Chapter 27: Kirin
The ship’s lights hadn’t just dimmed. They’d shifted.Colors had softened.Sound was delayed by fractions of seconds.The ship itself felt… folded.Sera paced the corridor outside the medbay, where Astra lay unconscious.Not hooked to anything.But still pulsing with a residual signal Elias couldn’t map.“Vitals are fine,” Elias reported. “No system breaches. But her brain activities are off the charts like she’s dreaming with her whole mind.”Adrian stood at the entrance, arms crossed, jaw tight.Lira leaned against the wall, weapon ready.Elias added quietly, “Whatever she saw… it’s still with her.”Sera stepped inside the medbay.Astra lay still, wrapped in a thermal blanket, lips slightly parted. Her hands were curled in loose fists.Like she was waiting to hold something.Sera brushed hair from her face. “Can you hear me?”Astra didn’t answer.But the screen beside her lit up.No signal source.No manual input.Just words.Appearing one by one.> “Are you ready to see it?”Sera f
Last Updated: 2025-06-27
Chapter: Chapter 26: The Last Line of Mira
The ship floated in deep drift.No destination.No agenda.Just space.Sera hadn’t spoken in three hours.She sat alone in the lower systems bay, one hand resting lightly against the glass of Zero’s cradle. Not in fear. Not in pity.In something like recognition.She could feel the quiet buzz of the dormant core inside her. Not active. Not threatening.Just waiting.Like a final note that hadn’t been played yet.On the bridge…Lira watched Astra like she was a lit fuse.The girl was calm, too calm. She sat cross-legged beside the nav console, drawing again. Same symbols. Same spirals. Except now, she was starting to repeat them.Lira finally asked, “What are you drawing?”Astra glanced up, then held out the datapad.Lira frowned.It wasn’t a picture.It was a key.A sequence. Old Mira code. Buried formatting decrypted without a guide.Lira stiffened. “Where did you learn this?”Astra blinked. “I didn’t. I just... remembered it.”Below deck…Elias studied the repeating data loop runnin
Last Updated: 2025-06-25
Chapter: Chapter 25: The Fourth One
The cryo-glass slid open with a sound like ice inhaling. The chamber lights flickered, struggling to adjust to a form they couldn’t recognize because it kept shifting. The being stepped from the pod. Nude. Pale. Unscarred. They were not Syra. Not Sera. Not Astra. But they wore pieces of each. Like the mind inside hadn’t decided who it wanted to be yet. It she took her first breath. And the monitors registered it not as oxygen intake… But as a signal pulse. This was no clone. This was no child. This was Zero. On the bridge... Elias froze mid-sentence. The data spike on his display was wrong. Too symmetrical. Too cold. “Adrian,” he said slowly. “Did you open the cryo vault?” “No.” “Lira?” “No.” Elias leaned closer. The monitor labeled the reactivation sequence as: > MIRA-VN: 0_0_1 / ALPHA ROOT DESIGNATION: ZERO ACCESS: SYSTEM OVERRIDE Adrian stood so fast his chair fell backward. Sera’s voice cut in from comms: “What the hell is ‘Zero’?” Elias stared at the
Last Updated: 2025-06-24
Chapter: Chapter 24: What We Make of Ourselves
The child was silent.Eyes wide. Breathing shallow.Wrapped in a thermal blanket from Adrian’s pack, she clung to Sera’s side as they moved through the Cradle’s collapsing hallways. The facility’s emergency grid was failing. Heat was dropping by the second. Gravity had begun to buckle, drawing debris into quiet spirals along the floor.But the girl, barely nine, biologically perfect, wasn't afraid.She was watching.Studying.“Does she have a name?” Adrian asked gently, walking beside them.Sera looked down at her.The girl tilted her head slightly, a perfect mirror of Sera’s own expression.“No,” Sera said. “But I think she’ll choose one.”Behind them, Syra walked in silence. Disarmed. Wounded. Not by a weapon but by what she had lost.“She was the only version I made without Mira,” Syra whispered, her voice jagged. “No directives. No subroutines. Just pure structure. Built from your echo.”Sera didn’t respond.Syra went on anyway.“She would’ve been better.”Sera stopped walking.Tu
Last Updated: 2025-06-22
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