Chapter five:The blood moon Heir

3:36 a.m. – Voss Penthouse

Aurora ran.

The everything seemed blurred as she walked through the corridor,barefoot,her hair free falling on her shoulder all messy ,beating louder than the monitors. The nurse tried to stop her, whispering between them something about oxygen saturation and morphine, but Aurora, unable to hear them, pushed open the doors to Victor’s room with the little strength she could gather. On entering the room she was met with the metallic taste in her mouth,a sterile scent which felt final. Victor laid there lifeless on the pillows, skin the color of fading parchment. His chest barely rises. The oxygen mask hung loose at his jaw. When his eyes found her, they lit up but not with life, but with duty.

“You… came,” he managed to say while trying to lift his .“I always do,” Aurora said admist sobs exactly the same words she had said to Damien hours ago. “Don’t you dare die before telling me what the hell the ‘blood moon’ means.”she said 

Victor’s cracked lips curved into something like a smile. “Voss women… always think they have time.” He coughed, but the sound came out dry. “It’s the serum, Aurora. Your mother never told you what it truly was.”

Aurora froze you mean the prenatal serum you made for me? She asked, arching her brows in a query. It was for her he interrupted decades ago. Gene therapy Neural binding. It was never meant for commercial use. It was meant for preservation.” His voice broke, desperate. Your child isn’t just an heir to VossTech. She is VossTech.”

The room darkened ,it got crowded to Aurora but it was just her and Victor in the room “You’re joking,” Aurora said,sounding serious though her shaky voice betrayed her fear.

Victor’s hand shot out, skeletal fingers gripping hers with unnatural strength. “Listen to me. The AI core elysium wasn’t coded. It was grown,It was half human, half machine. Your mother’s DNA started it. Yours completed it. Now your child…” His breath rattled. “She’s the final key.”

Aurora’s pulse spiked. “Elysium? That’s the signature on the text E. The message came from”she said flashing back to the codes messages she's been receiving.

  Victor’s monitors screamed she looked at the monitored and it was flatlined she screamed his name

“Victor!” Aurora shook him vigorously making the bedstand screech against the marbled floor, but his eyes had already gone blank ,The nurse rushed in, pressing defibrillator pads to his chest pressing hard on his chest ,one ,two, repeatedly but nothing ,, he's gone Aurora muttered without noticing the tears which had drip it's way down her cheeks

Aurora stumbled back, clutching the bedframe. Outside the window, the city skyline bled crimson with dawnor was it something else?

A sliver of moon still hung over the East River. Copper-red. Blood moon.

Another message came again to her phone. One message and just like before it was from the unknown number “He’s gone. They’re moving in. Take the child and run. – E.”

The message read

Aurora’s throat tightened. She turned around instinctively screaming, as the penthouse security alarms blared the Motion sensors tripped the Front door override Someone was inside all she could think of was how to get out of the house she ran…

3:47 a.m. – Voss Penthouse Main Hall

The elevator dinged. Three men in black stepped out with their faces masked, silencers gleaming. Not the police neither was it the federal,they were Something older and looked Hired.

Aurora ducked behind a marble column, adrenaline burning through grief. She reached into Victor’s desk drawer—his old Colt still there, loaded. She exhaled, steadying her hands.

They moved like phantoms, scanning each room, radios whispering coded bursts.

“Target may be with the corpse.”

“Orders?”

“Retrieve sample. Terminate if necessary.”

Sample.???

They weren’t here for her. They were here for the baby. She knew and she wasn't going to let anybody take her child from her,never she muttered under her breath

Aurora gritted her teeth. Over my dead body.

She fired once a clean shot to the lead man’s knee. The others hid for cover. She moved towards the nursery, her mind racing. Every instinct screamed protect, survive, escape.

The crib stood there, innocent and waiting. She grabbed the emergency duffel from beneath it there was a burner phone an encrypted flash drive, prenatal serum vials, cash. Victor’s preparations. Always one step ahead.

Bullets tore through the hallway glass. She lowered and ducked into the service stairwell, and ran.

4:02 a.m. – Lower Garage

Her breath came ragged as she hit the basement. A black SUV stood in the shadows its headlights flashed twice. Familiar it looked familiar

The driver’s window lowered. A woman leaned out, sharp green eyes and a smirk that could cut glass.

“Need a ride, Boss Lady?”

Aurora blinked. “Lila?”

“The sneaky bitch herself,” Lila said. “Turns out betraying Damien was the best decision I ever made.”

Aurora hesitated she wasn't going to trust Lila just like that. Lila tossed her a keycard. “You trust me enough to get in, or you want to wait for your fan club upstairs?”she said jolting Aurora from her thoughts…

Aurora slid into the back seat. The SUV peeled out just as an explosion shattered the top floors of the building behind them. Looking back there was Smoke,Glass and Fire.

Lila whistled low. “Guess Ryder Tower isn’t the only thing collapsing tonight.”

Aurora clutched her stomach, heart pounding. “Drive. Anywhere but here.”

“Anywhere it is,” Lila said, determining to do anything just to make Aurora trust her flooring the gas the car dissapeared into darkness

Outside, the blood moon dipped lower, bleeding into the horizon. Aurora stared at it, one hand over her belly, the other gripping the vial of serum still warm from her pocket.

Victor’s last words echoed in her head:

> Your child isn’t just heir to VossTech. She is VossTech.

She turned to Lila. “We need to find Elysium.”

Lila arched a brow. “The AI project your mom buried twenty years ago?”

Aurora’s gaze hardened. “No. The one that just texted me.”okay if you say so then we'll Lila said slightly nodding her head

4:19 a.m. –Somewhere beneath Brooklyn

Far below the city, a network of silent servers came to life.

On the main monitor, code cascaded like rain. Then, a single message appeared, pulsing in white:

> “Welcome home, Aurora. I’ve been waiting.”

– Elysium