[Day 66 Post-Awakening | LE: 1,754/10,000 | Time Remaining: 34 Days]
SCENE 1: MISSION BRIEF — THE TEAM
[0400 Hours | Command Center]
The hologram showed Helix Shanghai Facility: 14 sub-levels. 600+ personnel. Clone production on Level-9.
Suicide mission.
We were doing it anyway.
Mira laid out the plan:
"Team Alpha (Infiltration): Ethan, Kiera, Whisper. You go in quiet. Reach Level-9. Plant LE-disruption charges on the clone vats."
"Team Bravo (Distraction): Aria, Thorn, Ember, three other Primordials. You hit the main entrance loud. Draw security away from Alpha's route."
"Team Charlie (Overwatch): Barrage, Renewal, Selene. You hold our exit point. If Alpha gets compromised, you extract them by force."
She looked at me.
"Questions?"
"Just one." I met her eyes. "You're staying behind?"
"Someone has to coordinate. And..." She hesitated. "...if this goes wrong, the Primordials will need a leader who isn't you."
Translation: If you die, I keep them alive.
Kiera clapped slowly.
"Mira Han: Ice Queen with a heart. I'm almost impressed."
"Save it, Navarro." Mira's glare could freeze fire. "You get Ethan killed, I'll hunt you myself."
"When did I become the damsel?" I interjected.
Both women looked at me.
Kiera: "When you started glowing green and coughing up leaves, darling."
Mira: "She's right. You're our most valuable asset. Act like it."
Aria stood.
"I want Ethan on Team Bravo. With me."
"No." Kiera's voice—sharp. "He's infiltration. I need him for biometric bypass—Helix systems recognize him."
"Then I'll infiltrate—"
"You're a hammer, Aria. This needs a scalpel." Kiera smiled. Cruel. "Stick to what you're good at. Breaking things."
Aria's hand went to her weapon.
Mira stepped between them.
"Enough. Aria, you're Bravo leader. Kiera, you're Alpha-2. Ethan's Alpha-1 because he's the only one who can interface with Helix clone systems."
She looked at me.
"Don't make me regret this."
[Team Assignments LOCKED]
[Mission Launch: 0600 Hours | 2 hours]
[Probability of Success: 9%]
[Probability of Casualties: 84%]
[Primordials volunteering anyway: 100%]
SCENE 2: PRE-MISSION — SELENE'S GOODBYE
[0530 Hours | Ethan's Quarters]
I was gearing up—reinforced polymer vest, LE-conductive gloves, enough gear to make me look like a tactical tree—when Selene knocked.
"Come in."
She was wearing her lab coat.
Hair down. No makeup. Just... her.
"I wanted to see you. Before."
"Before I potentially die in a Helix bunker?"
"Before you do something stupid and heroic." She stepped closer. "Ethan, if the mission goes wrong—"
"It won't."
"—if it does," she continued, "I need you to know..."
She trailed off.
Violet eyes shimmering.
"...You changed my life. I was waiting to die. Just... existing. Then you gave me a purpose. A reason to fight."
Her hand found mine. Squeezed.
"So don't you dare die on me. Because I'm not done saving you yet."
I pulled her into a hug.
Awkward—bark torso, fragile human woman—but she melted into it.
Her breath against my neck. Warm.
"Selene... if I don't make it back—"
"You will."
"—if I don't, keep researching. Find a cure for Verdant Syndrome. Save yourself. Even if I'm gone."
She pulled back. Looked up.
"I don't want to save myself, Ethan. I want to save us."
Then she kissed me.
Soft.
Desperate.
Goodbye.
Her lips on mine—human warmth against bark-rough skin. She tasted like mint and hope.
When she pulled away, tears streaked her face.
"Come back to me," she whispered.
"I will."
Liar.
[Selene Voss: Attachment CRITICAL]
[Romance Flag: TRIGGERED | Future scenes unlocked]
[WARNING: Emotional compromise detected — recommend tactical focus]
I dismissed it.
Let myself have this.
One moment of human before the war.
SCENE 3: INSERTION — HELIX SHANGHAI
[0600 Hours | 200m from Target]
Team Alpha moved through Shanghai's underground transit tunnels—abandoned maintenance routes Kiera had mapped during her Helix days.
Me. Kiera. Whisper (stealth Primordial, shadow-form, silent).
Kiera moved like smoke.
Every step calculated. Every corner checked.
"Security rotation changes in four minutes," she murmured. "We breach on the third cycle. Whisper goes first, disables cameras. Ethan, you handle biometrics. I cover."
"And if we're detected?"
Her grin was feral.
"Then I kill everyone, and we run."
Whisper flowed ahead.
Literally—his form dissipated into mist, slipping through ventilation grates.
Thirty seconds later, the Network pulsed: [Cameras disabled. Path clear.]
Kiera moved.
I followed.
Helix Shanghai Facility — Sub-Level 3.
We emerged in a sterile corridor. White walls. Fluorescent lights. The smell—antiseptic and ozone.
Kiera's hand found the wall panel. Pried it open.
"Biometric lock. Your turn, Sovereign."
I pressed my palm to the scanner.
[IDENTITY CONFIRMED: ETHAN CROSS | CLEARANCE: PRIMORDIAL TEMPLATE ALPHA]
The door hissed open.
Kiera's eyebrow arched. "They never revoked your access?"
"Arrogance. They think I'm too weak to attack."
"They're stupid." She slipped through. "I like stupid enemies."
SCENE 4: LEVEL-9 — THE CLONE VATS
[0645 Hours | Sub-Level 9]
The clone production floor was horrifying.
Rows of glass vats—each containing a feral Primordial. Twisted. Malformed. Some had too many limbs. Others, exposed LE cores pulsing erratically.
All of them screaming silently in the Network.
[DISTRESS DETECTED | SOURCE: CLONE PRIMORDIALS x47]
[Pain Level: EXTREME | Sentience: FRACTURED]
I stopped.
Couldn't move.
They were suffering. Helix had created sentient life just to torture it into obedience.
Kiera grabbed my arm. "Ethan. Focus. We plant charges and—"
"They're alive." I stared at the vats. "We can't just—"
"They're weapons. Helix will unleash them on your Primordials if we don't stop this."
"Then we free them—"
"They'll kill us. Look." She pointed.
One clone—hulking, covered in bone-spikes—was slamming against its vat. Eyes feral. No intelligence. Just rage.
"You want to save them?" Kiera's voice softened. "Then end this. So Helix can't make more."
I placed the first charge.
LE-disruptor. Would destabilize the vats, collapse the clones' matrices.
It would kill them.
Mercy kill.
But still kill.
"I'm sorry," I whispered to the Network. To the clones. "I'm so sorry."
No response.
Just screaming.
Alarm.
Blaring. Red lights.
Kiera swore. "We're blown. Whisper—"
Whisper materialized. [Security breach detected. Helix enforcers inbound. ETA: 90 seconds.]
"Charges planted?" Kiera asked.
I nodded.
"Then we run."
SCENE 5: AMBUSH — THE RESEARCHER
[0650 Hours | Escape Route — Sub-Level 6]
We sprinted through corridors—Whisper scouting ahead, Kiera covering rear, me in the middle trying not to combust from exertion.
Then we hit the lab.
A Helix researcher.
Young. Maybe 30. Lab coat. Glasses.
He froze when he saw us.
Kiera's gun was up instantly.
"Don't," I said.
"Ethan, he'll alert—"
"I said don't."
The researcher raised his hands.
"P-Please. I'm just a geneticist. I don't—"
"You work on the clones?" I asked.
He hesitated.
Nodded.
"Then you're guilty." Kiera's finger tightened on the trigger.
"Kiera."
"He's a scientist, Ethan. He knows what they're doing to those things. He's complicit."
The researcher's voice shook. "I—I tried to improve their conditions. I argued for humane treatment—"
"And yet you stayed." Kiera's voice was ice. "Took your paycheck. Went home. Slept fine."
She looked at me.
"Your call, Sovereign. But choose fast. We have 60 seconds before this place is swarming."
The Network offered an option:
[ABSORB TARGET? LE GAIN: +200 | WARNING: Template will be altered. Humanity threshold will decrease.]
I stared at the researcher.
Terrified. Human. Guilty.
I could kill him. Absorb his LE. Extend my life.
Become the monster Helix thought I was.
Or...
"Go," I said to the researcher. "Run. Don't look back."
He ran.
Kiera lowered her gun. "You're too soft for this war."
"Maybe. But I'm not a murderer."
"He'll report us."
"I know."
She sighed. "You're lucky I like you."
Then she shot the lab's control panel—sparks, smoke, alarm escalation.
"Now they'll think we sabotaged this floor too. Buys us time."
We ran.
Behind us, explosions.
The clone vats, detonating.
Forty-seven screams, cut short.
I felt every single one die.
And hated myself for it.
END OF CHAPTER 36