The snowstorm in Prague grew heavier that morning, veiling the city in a hush of white that blanketed the chaos just beneath the surface. Inside the safehouse, Scarlett moved mechanically, packing gear she hadn’t touched in months compressed drives, encrypted keycards, an EMP disruptor, and a pistol she hoped she wouldn’t have to use.Sebastian leaned against the doorway, arms crossed, watching her with an unreadable expression.“You’re certain about this?” he asked.“No,” Scarlett said plainly, zipping the duffel. “But I have to go. If it’s really her, then she’s not just code or biology. She’s… she’s my responsibility.”Sebastian nodded slowly, then pushed away from the wall and walked toward her.“You won’t go alone,” he said.“I didn’t ask you to come,” Scarlett replied.He cupped her chin and gently lifted her gaze to his. “Doesn’t matter. You’re not facing this without me.”A fragile silence passed between them. It wasn’t just loyalty anymore it was the quiet recognition of a sh
The quiet didn’t last.For a few days, Scarlett allowed herself the illusion of peace. She went on walks with Sebastian through the Prague streets, bought fresh bread from corner markets, and felt the weight of the world lift molecule by molecule from her shoulders.But it never left completely.Not really.Every time she closed her eyes, she still saw Seraphina’s face.Every time she touched Sebastian’s hand, she remembered the blood on her own.It was remote. Arctic. Nothing but steel walls and silence. A digital hum pulsed through the air like a mechanical heartbeat.Inside, a figure stood before the glass watching something, someone.Her.Suspended in a vertical pod, wires embedded in what was left of the synthetic flesh, Seraphina’s eyes flickered. The glass fogged with her breathproof of something no one had ever planned for:She was evolving."98% neural recovery," the technician murmured. “This shouldn’t be happening. She was locked.”“She was learning,” the man in the shadows
The world outside Orbis had changed.Or maybe it hadn’t.Maybe the sky had always looked this blue. Maybe the air had always felt this still after a storm. But to Scarlett, everything tasted different more raw, more fragile. As if the silence after the chaos was louder than the war itself.They landed in Prague just before sunrise. The city was slowly stirring, unaware of how close it had come to a silent digital apocalypse. Scarlett remained in the chopper a moment longer than the others, her eyes fixed on the horizon. Light bled gently across the skyline like a wound beginning to heal.Sebastian turned at the door and extended his hand. “Scarlett.”She didn’t take it immediately. Her eyes shimmered not with tears, but with memories too heavy to blink away.“I don’t know who I am outside of this,” she murmured.He stepped in, closed the distance, and reached up to remove her helmet. Her hair tumbled free, tangled and damp. His hand cupped her jaw.“You’re not Aria anymore,” he said q
The wind howled like a wounded beast as the chopper sliced through the night sky, cutting above the storm-drenched landscape of Eastern Europe. Below, the mountains loomed cold, silent witnesses to secrets long buried beneath the earth.Inside the aircraft, Scarlett sat strapped in her harness, her face hidden behind a black tactical helmet. Her fingers were gloved but trembling slightly, not from fear but from memory. Each mile they crossed dragged her closer to a past she had tried to bury.Sebastian sat across from her, his gaze locked on her through the dim cabin light. Damien checked their weapons, speaking into the comms with their pilot, issuing clearance codes that only a ghost operation like Orbis would still recognize."We're almost at the coordinates," the pilot crackled through the headset. "Two clicks north of the original drop zone. No visible threats, but the system’s giving me intermittent radar interference.”“EMP pulses,” Damien muttered, strapping on his sidearm. “S
Thunder rolled across the sky like a warning drumbeat as rain poured down the glass windows of EmTech’s command center. The city beyond faded into a blur of lights and shadow, while inside the sleek, dimly lit war room, tension hung thick like smoke.Scarlett sat at a glass terminal, her fingers dancing across the backlit keyboard. Her brows were furrowed in concentration, lips pressed into a thin line. Damien stood behind her, eyes glued to the shifting code that scrolled down the monitor in electric blue lines. On another end of the room, Sebastian paced, his hands tucked into the pockets of his tailored suit, but his storm-gray eyes held a different kind of unrest one not even power could ease.“This isn’t just another system breach,” Scarlett murmured, voice laced with suspicion. “This code isn’t from the outside. It’s built on our own architecturemodified, yes but it started here.”Sebastian paused mid-stride. “You’re saying this was an inside job?”“Worse,” she whispered. “It wa
The air in Santorini was thick with salt and sunlight. Waves whispered along the white cliffs as the newlyweds strolled hand-in-hand through cobbled streets, hidden from the world. For the first time in what felt like forever, Sebastian and Scarlett weren’t fighting enemies or ghosts they were simply in love.They had rented a private villa perched on a hill, overlooking endless blue. Days were spent in laughter, nights tangled in whispered vows and warm sheets. No chaos. No danger.But even paradise has shadows.One afternoon, while Sebastian was preparing lunch yes, he cooked now, though terribly Scarlett sat by the infinity pool, sunglasses on, sun on her skin. A gentle breeze danced through her curls.Her phone buzzed once on the side table. A message.Damien:You need to see this. Check the secure line. Now.Her chest tightened. She slipped away into the villa’s private study, keyed in the encryption.A live feed opened grainy surveillance footage of a laboratory, somewhere in Ea