[Day 68 Post-Awakening | LE: 1,604/10,000 | Time Remaining: 32 Days]
SCENE 1: THE CALM BEFORE
[0600 Hours | Safe House — 72 Hours Until Dr. Voss's Arrival]
I woke to the smell of coffee.
Real coffee. Not synthesized. Not rationed.
Mira sat across from me, two cups steaming on the table between us.
"Drink," she said. "It's the last of my personal stash. Figured if we're about to fight a war with your girlfriend's psychotic father, we should do it caffeinated."
I took the cup. Sipped.
Bitter. Perfect.
"You think we can win?" I asked.
Mira leaned back. Her mechanical arm whirred—servos adjusting, recalibrating. "Honestly? No. Voss has resources we can't match. Intel we can't intercept. And he's smart. Smarter than you, probably smarter than me."
"Comforting."
"I'm a realist, not a cheerleader." She smiled—thin, sharp. "But you've got one thing he doesn't."
"What's that?"
"People who'll die for you. Not obey. Die. There's a difference."
She stood.
Walked to the window. Stared out at the Shanghai skyline—dawn light bleeding through smog.
"Ethan... after this fight, we need to talk. About what comes next."
"Next?"
"After Voss. After Helix." Her voice was quiet. "You've got thirty-two days left. We need a plan for when you... when you're..."
She couldn't finish.
I stood. Walked to her. Put my hand on her shoulder.
"Mira. We'll figure it out. Together."
She turned. Looked at me with those sharp, exhausted eyes.
"You keep saying that. But 'together' requires you to be alive."
"Then I'll stay alive."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
She smiled.
Fragile. Real.
"Liar."
Then she left.
[Mira Chen: Loyalty ABSOLUTE | Hidden emotional depth revealed]
[Foreshadowing: This is the last peaceful conversation Ethan will have with Mira.]
SCENE 2: HELIX MOVES FIRST — THE EMP STRIKE
[1200 Hours | Safe House Perimeter]
We didn't get seventy-two hours.
Voss moved early.
The alarm blared.
I shot out of the planning room—Aria, Selene, and Kiera already mobilizing.
Mira's voice crackled over comms: "Airborne contact! Three Helix gunships, inbound from the southeast. ETA: ninety seconds!"
"Primordials—defensive positions!" I reached for the Network—
Nothing.
The connection was gone.
No Thorn. No Lira. No Ember.
Just... silence.
Panic hit like ice water.
"Selene!" I grabbed her arm. "The Network's down—I can't feel them!"
Her face went pale. "That's impossible. The Network is biological. Unless—"
The gunships roared overhead.
And dropped three black cylinders.
They hit the ground. Didn't explode.
Just... hummed.
A sound that made my teeth ache.
A frequency that vibrated through bark, sap, bone.
And then—
Every Primordial in the safe house SCREAMED.
I ran outside.
Thorn was on his knees, hands clawing at his head. Lira convulsed—vines thrashing wildly, uncontrolled. Ember flickered between solid and flame, unable to stabilize.
The newer Primordials—Whisper, Barrage, the sprouts—collapsed completely.
"WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" Aria shouted.
Selene was scanning with a handheld device. "LE-frequency disruptor! It's jamming the Network—overloading their cores with white noise!"
"Can you stop it?!"
"Not without the source codes! This is Helix military-grade tech—"
An explosion rocked the perimeter.
Helix enforcers poured through the breach—twenty, thirty, fifty—all in adaptive camo, weapons hot.
And leading them:
Dr. Marcus Voss.
He looked like Selene.
Same violet eyes. Same sharp cheekbones. But where Selene's face held warmth, his held only cold calculation.
He wore a white coat over tactical armor. Carried no weapon.
Didn't need one.
"Ethan Cross," he called out, voice amplified. "The Verdant Sovereign. You've caused quite a bit of trouble."
I stepped forward. Unarmed. Network silent.
"Call off your attack, Voss. This doesn't have to end bloody."
He smiled.
"Oh, but it does. Blood is the only language evolution understands."
He gestured.
The enforcers opened fire—not at me.
At the Primordials.
Plasma bolts tore through Thorn's limbs. He roared—tried to fight back, but the disruptor had him paralyzed.
Lira took three rounds to the torso. Sap exploded from the wounds. She collapsed.
A sprout—barely a week old—was incinerated. Gone in a flash of superheated light.
"STOP!" I ran toward them—
A enforcer clotheslined me. Slammed me into the ground.
Boot on my chest.
Gun to my head.
Voss walked over.
Looked down at me.
"You care about them. The plants. How quaint."
"They're not plants. They're people."
"They're weapons. Biological automatons following your commands. The fact that you've anthropomorphized them is... touching. But irrelevant."
He crouched. Met my eyes.
"I'm here for two things, Mr. Cross. My daughter. And your research data. Surrender both, and I'll let your 'family' live."
I spat blood.
"Go to hell."
He sighed.
"Predictable."
He stood. Gestured to his enforcers.
"Kill one. His choice which."
Time slowed.
I looked at my Primordials—bleeding, broken, helpless.
Thorn, still struggling to rise.
Lira, curled around her wounds.
Ember, barely conscious.
The enforcers raised their rifles.
Aimed at Thorn's head.
And Mira stepped between them.
"NO!"
She raised her hands—one flesh, one metal.
"You want a hostage? Take me. I'm Resistance command. Worth more than a plant."
Voss tilted his head. "Mira Chen. The Ghost of Manila. I've read your file."
"Then you know I don't bluff."
"I also know you're expendable." He nodded to an enforcer.
They shot her.
Three times.
Chest. Shoulder. Gut.
She staggered. Fell.
I SCREAMED.
Tore free from the enforcer—slammed my fist into his helmet, felt bark crack bone.
Grabbed his rifle. Fired wildly—dropped two enforcers before the others swarmed me.
They beat me down. Boots. Fists. Rifle butts.
But I kept crawling.
Toward Mira.
I reached her.
She was coughing blood. Eyes unfocused.
"Ethan... you... idiot..." Her voice was fading. "...told you... to stay... alive..."
"Mira—no—please—"
"...take care... of them..." She smiled. Red teeth. "...all of them..."
Her hand went limp.
[Mira Chen: DECEASED]
[LE Status: 1,604 → 1,590 (automatic grief response; LE bleeds during trauma)]
[Ethan's Humanity: FRACTURING]
I didn't feel the enforcers dragging me away.
Didn't feel the rifle butts breaking ribs.
Just stared at Mira's body.
And felt something inside me die.
SCENE 3: LIRA'S CHOICE — BRUTAL CALCULUS
[1245 Hours | Safe House — Ethan Unconscious]
When Ethan fell, the Network surged back online.
Not from him.
From Lira.
She stood.
Wounds still bleeding sap, but her core was burning.
The EMP disruptors were still active—but she'd found their frequency. Learned to resist.
"PRIMORDIALS," her voice rang through the Network. "ETHAN IS DOWN. VOSS WILL KILL HIM. WE MUST ACT. NOW."
Thorn struggled to his feet. "Without Sovereign's command—"
"I am ELDEST. I COMMAND."
Silence.
Then—one by one—the Primordials synchronized to her signal.
Lira looked at the battlefield.
Fifty Helix enforcers. Three EMP disruptors. Voss in the center.
And thirteen Primordials—half-dead, under-equipped, outmatched.
She ran the numbers.
They couldn't win.
Not without a sacrifice.
She turned to the youngest sprout.
A newborn. Three days old. Barely sentient.
"Little one. I need your LE."
The sprout looked up. Confused. Trusting.
"Will it... hurt?"
Lira's voice cracked.
"Yes."
Thorn stepped forward."Lira—NO. Sovereign would never—"
"SOVEREIGN IS DYING!" Her voice was thunder. "If we do not act, Voss takes him. Dissects him. And we ALL die."
She knelt before the sprout.
"I am sorry, little one. But your life... can save his."
The sprout trembled.
Then nodded.
"For... Sovereign?"
"For Sovereign."
Lira placed her hand on the sprout's core.
And pulled.
The sprout SCREAMED—a sound like tearing roots, like forest fire, like a child's last breath.
Its body withered. Collapsed.
Turned to dust.
[Unnamed Sprout: DECEASED | LE absorbed: +240]
[Lira LE: 890 → 1,130]
[Primordial Morale: SHATTERED | Thorn: Loyalty -30% (horrified)]
[Lira: Guilt +100% | Will carry this choice forever]
But now she had POWER.
Lira turned to the enforcers.
Vines erupted from the ground—twenty, fifty, a hundred—each one LE-enhanced, diamond-hard.
They impaled enforcers. Crushed disruptors. Tore through gunships like they were paper.
In thirty seconds, forty-two Helix soldiers were dead.
Voss stared.
Then smiled.
"Fascinating. The weapon has learned to weaponize itself."
He raised a hand—and a neural implant on his temple glowed.
Lira's vines STOPPED. Mid-strike.
"Did you think I came unprepared?" Voss's voice was silk. "I designed the Primordial LE-frequency spectrum. I can control it."
Lira ROARED.
Tried to break free—but Voss's implant had her locked.
He walked toward Ethan's unconscious body.
"Take him. And my daughter. We're leaving."
And that's when Selene stepped out.
Rifle raised.
Aimed at her father's head.
"Let him go, Dad."
Voss stopped.
Turned.
Looked at his daughter.
"Selene. Don't be foolish."
"I've been foolish my whole life. Believing you wanted to help people." Her hands shook. "But you just wanted to own them."
"I want to save humanity—"
"By killing everyone who doesn't fit your design?!" Her voice cracked. "Ethan's not a weapon. He's a person. And I won't let you take him."
Voss's expression softened.
"Selene... you're dying. Verdant Syndrome. Six months, maybe less. Do you really want to spend your last days protecting a man who's already doomed?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
She lowered the rifle.
Looked at Ethan's broken body.
"Because he taught me that doomed doesn't mean worthless."
Voss stared at her.
Then sighed.
"I see. You've made your choice."
He tapped his implant.
Lira's vines released.
The remaining enforcers retreated.
Voss turned to leave—
—but stopped at the perimeter.
"Selene. When you die... and you will... remember: I offered you a cure. And you chose him instead."
He walked away.
The gunships lifted off.
Helix was gone.
SCENE 4: AFTERMATH — THE COST
[1400 Hours | Medical Bay]
I woke to violet eyes.
Selene was stitching my ribs. Her hands were steady, but her face was wrecked.
"Mira?" I croaked.
She didn't answer.
Just shook her head.
I sat up.
Regretted it immediately. Pain exploded through my chest.
"You have three broken ribs, a concussion, and internal bleeding," Selene said flatly. "Lie. Down."
"Where's—"
"Lira's in the other room. Thorn's with her. Aria and Kiera are... burying Mira."
The words hit like bullets.
"And the sprout? The newborn?"
Selene's hands stopped.
"Lira used its LE to power the counterattack. It's... gone."
I tried to stand.
Selene pushed me down—hard.
"You're not going anywhere."
"Lira killed a child—"
"Lira saved YOUR LIFE!" Her voice broke. "She made an impossible choice because you weren't there to make it! So don't you DARE judge her!"
I stared.
Selene was crying.
Violet eyes streaming, hands shaking.
"I almost lost you today, Ethan. I watched them beat you. Shoot Mira. And I couldn't—I didn't—"
She collapsed into my arms.
Sobbing.
I held her.
Felt her tears soaking into bark.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm so sorry."
"Don't apologize. Just... don't die. Please. I can't—I can't do this without you."
"You won't have to."
She pulled back. Looked at me.
"You can't promise that."
"I know." I touched her face. "But I'll try anyway."
She kissed me.
Desperate. Shaking. Alive.
And for one moment, the world was just us.
[Selene Voss: Loyalty ABSOLUTE | Chose Ethan over her father | Consequence: Voss will return]
[Ethan LE: 1,590/10,000 | Injuries: Severe | Recovery time: 3 days minimum]
[Primordial Status: Lira (traumatized) | Thorn (ideologically conflicted) | Ember (recovering) | Others (demoralized)]
SCENE 5: LIRA'S CONFESSION
[1600 Hours | Lira's Greenhouse Refuge]
I found Lira in the greenhouse she'd grown—her sanctuary, her home.
She was sitting among the flowers. Hands covered in dirt.
Digging a grave.
For the sprout.
A tiny mound of earth. A single white flower planted on top.
She didn't look at me when I entered.
"I killed a child, Sovereign."
Her voice was hollow.
"I pulled its LE. Felt it scream. Felt it die. And I did not stop."
She finally looked up.
Tears of sap running down her bark-face.
"Am I still your family? Or have I become... what you feared?"
I knelt beside her.
Touched the grave.
"You made an impossible choice. To save me. To save everyone."
"But the cost—"
"Was terrible. And you'll carry it." I looked at her. "But that doesn't make you a monster, Lira. It makes you... real. Flawed. Human."
"I am not human."
"No. You're better. Because you chose to feel this guilt. A weapon wouldn't."
She stared at me.
Then broke.
Collapsed into my arms, sobbing—sap and sound and grief.
I held her. Eldest daughter. First Primordial. My family.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry..."
"I know. And I forgive you."
"Sovereign—"
"But you need to forgive yourself, Lira. Can you do that?"
She was silent for a long time.
Then: "...I will try."
[Lira: Guilt acknowledged | Character development:From idealist to pragmatist | Loyalty: STRAINED but holding]
[Thorn: Watching from doorway | Reconsidering his oath | Foreshadowing: Primordial ideological split]