The glass shattered before anyone moved.
Layla didn't even hear the sound first—she felt it. A razor-sharp crack splintering through the tense silence of the command room. Her head snapped up, eyes scanning for the source.
Then the wall display went black.
Every screen in the room blinked out at once, replaced by a suffocating darkness that swallowed the last remnants of their victory.
For a heartbeat, no one breathed.
Then a single word appeared on the central monitor.
[TRAITORS.]
Cole swore, already moving. "What the hell does that mean?!"
Rhea's smirk faltered, her fingers flying across her console as she tried to reroute. "Not good. Not good at all. Someone's hijacking the local system."
Isla flinched, hugging her arms around herself. "B-But we just fought them off… how could they—?"
Layla's voice cut sharp through the panic. "Because this wasn't about the parasite. That was just the distraction."
Her gut twisted. They hadn't been fighting outside intruders this time.
The enemy was already inside.
The word lingered on the screen like a brand: TRAITORS.
Cole's jaw clenched. His eyes darted from Isla to Rhea to Layla, suspicion burning in his glare. "They're trying to turn us against each other."
"Or," Rhea muttered, "maybe they're telling the truth."
That earned her a furious glare from Cole. "What the hell are you implying?"
"Relax," Rhea said coolly, though her eyes glinted sharp. "I'm not pointing fingers. I'm just saying—if they had access, someone had to give them a door in."
Isla's voice cracked. "Y-You think one of us—?"
"No one is a traitor," Layla snapped, slamming her palm against the desk. The sound cracked through the tension like a whip. "That's exactly what they want. Doubt. Division. If we turn on each other now, we lose before the fight even starts."
Her voice steadied, colder now. "Stay focused. That's an order."
As if mocking her, the black screens flickered back to life—this time, with live video feeds.
Not of the system.
Of them.
The cameras around the command room blinked on, each monitor showing their faces from different angles. Every twitch, every breath, every flicker of doubt magnified and displayed back at them.
Rhea's smirk collapsed into a snarl. "They're watching us. Through our own feeds."
Cole's fists balled. "I'll rip every camera out of this damn place!"
But even as he lunged toward the nearest one, new text scrawled across the central screen.
[YOU CAN'T HIDE.]
[CHOOSE.]
The room felt smaller now. Hotter. Every second of silence scraped across their nerves like knives.
Layla forced herself to keep her breathing steady, though her pulse hammered in her ears. She couldn't let them see the cracks—not her, not now.
"They're forcing a choice," she muttered, scanning the text. "They want us to believe there's a traitor among us. That we'll destroy ourselves from the inside."
"Or maybe," Rhea said lightly, though her eyes were sharp as glass, "they've already turned one of us, and they're just waiting to see how long it takes for the truth to surface."
Isla recoiled as though struck. "S-Stop saying that!"
Cole's voice rumbled low. "Enough. I don't care what their game is. Nobody in this room is turning on anyone."
But the way his fists stayed clenched said otherwise.
"Listen to me."
Layla's voice sliced through the tension, iron-hard.
"They want to break us. I won't let that happen. So here's how this is going to work: no accusations, no finger-pointing. We focus on finding the breach. That's all."
Her eyes locked onto each of them, one by one.
"Cole—you're muscle and power. Rhea—you're precision. Isla—you're the heart. And me—I'm the one who decides when we strike. We each play our role, or we lose. Understand?"
Cole gave a curt nod. Rhea smirked again, though it was thinner now. Isla's shoulders trembled, but she whispered, "Y-Yes."
Layla let out the breath she'd been holding. Good.
At least for now, they were still a team.
Hours blurred into minutes as they worked. Cole tore through the hardware, disconnecting physical ports. Rhea dug deep into the code, tearing out threads like poison from veins. Isla monitored every anomaly, her eyes wide and unblinking despite her exhaustion.
And Layla—Layla guided them all, her commands precise, relentless.
But the deeper they searched, the clearer the truth became.
This wasn't just a hack.
It was a message.
Every trail they followed, every corrupted file, every false lead—it all led back to one thing:
Them.
The system wasn't just infiltrated. It was rewritten. Their identities, their movements, their voices—all woven into the enemy's code as if the four of them were nothing more than pieces on a chessboard.
The next message hit harder.
[LAYLA.]
Her breath caught.
The others froze, watching as line after line scrolled across the central screen—each one fragments of her past.
Her old missions. Her mistakes. Her failures.
Private files no one else should have had access to.
Isla whispered, horrified, "That's… that's your life."
Cole's face twisted. "How the hell do they know all this?"
Rhea's gaze flicked to Layla, curious, sharp, almost amused despite the danger. "Looks like someone's got secrets."
Layla's jaw clenched so tight it hurt. Her past was supposed to be buried. Locked away. Forgotten.
But now it was on display for all of them to see.
And the enemy wasn't done.
[YOU CAN'T LEAD THEM.]
[YOU WILL BREAK.]
Silence swallowed the room.
Cole shifted uneasily, looking between Layla and the screen. Isla's eyes filled with worry. Rhea tilted her head, lips quirking in that infuriating little smirk that always said she knew more than she should.
The tension twisted like a knife.
Layla forced herself to stand tall, even as her insides churned. "Ignore it. We keep moving."
But her voice wasn't as steady as she wanted it to be. And they all heard it.
The enemy had found her weakness.
Not the system.
Her.
Then, without warning, the power cut.
The command room plunged into darkness.
For a moment, only their breathing filled the air—uneven, ragged, strained.
Then, faintly, the emergency lights flickered on.
And Isla was gone.
"Where is she?!" Cole's roar echoed off the walls. He spun, searching the shadows.
Rhea's smirk vanished, her face deadly serious now. "She was just here…"
Layla's blood turned to ice.
The enemy hadn't just been watching.
They'd been waiting.
And now, they had Isla.