MY CRUEL PROTECTOR
The Source was blind again, its organic network destroyed by the hand of the woman it had tried to co-opt.
We stood on the launch pad of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Vanguard-01 looming over us like a silver titan. It was a beautiful, terrifying machine—part Syndicate ship, part Sovereign-core, part Viteri-engine. It was the culmination of eighty-seven chapters of war, and it was ready to leave the only home we had ever known.
Leo stood at the base of the ramp, his silver-wire blueprints tucked under his arm. He looked at the stars, and for the first time, he didn't look like a god. He looked like a little boy going on a long journey.