Chapter 31: Fracture Lines
The city didn't sleep anymore.
Screens flickered with corrupted broadcasts, Emberlight symbols glitching into static as underground signals bled through every frequency. What began as whispers had turned into noise—too loud to ignore.
Cyan watched the data streams pour in. Locations. Names. Faces.
"They're responding," he said quietly. "Subjects we never reached before. Some scared. Some angry. Some ready."
Mira exhaled, steady but heavy. "And Emberlight?"
Cyan's jaw tightened. "Vale is closing the net."
As if summoned by his name, the lights dimmed. A new transmission cut through—clean, uncorrupted, unmistakably official.
Dr. Adrien Vale appeared on the screen.
Older. Sharper. Unapologetic.
"You were always anomalies," Vale said calmly. "Sentiment where obedience was required. You call this freedom—but it's chaos."
Mira stepped forward, eyes unwavering. "You built children and called it progress."
A pause. Then a smile.
"You were never meant to survive this long," Vale replied. "And yet… here you are. Which means I must correct my mistake."
The feed cut.
Cyan's console screamed warnings—satellites realigning, drones activating, lockdown protocols spreading outward like veins.
"They're not hunting just us anymore," Cyan said. "They're hunting everyone who answered our call."
Mira clenched her fists, then slowly relaxed them.
"Then we stop running," she said. "We expose everything. Every file. Every lie."
Outside, sirens echoed. The fracture lines had finally split wide open.
And there was no sealing them back.