The snow crunched under Saya's loafers. It was a lonely, rhythmic sound in the vast silence of the Siberian night.
She walked with her head down, shoulders slumped, dragging the heavy cello case behind her like a burden she could no longer carry. To the sensors on the Citadel walls, she looked like a dying animal seeking shelter.
In her pocket, the frequency emitter pulsed—a silent scream on a wavelength only Chiropterans and Chimera sensors could hear.
Come and get me, she thought.
Ahead, the massive energy gates of the Citadel buzzed. Two hulking shapes detached themselves from the shadows of the guard towers.
The Type-Beta Synthetics were monstrosities. Standing seven feet tall, clad in armor that was bolted directly into their flesh, they were a grotesque mockery of the Chevalier form. Their arms were elongated, ending in hydraulic claws, and their faces were covered by smooth, featureless faceplates.
They didn't speak. They didn't breathe. They just intercepted.
Saya stopped ten feet away. She let the cello case handle drop into the snow. She swayed on her feet, feigning exhaustion, though her heart was beating with the steady, slow rhythm of a predator lying in wait.
"Identity confirmed," a voice boomed from the PA system above the gate. "Subject: Queen. Status: Critical. Initiate retrieval."
One of the Betas stepped forward. It reached down with a massive claw to grab her.
Saya didn't flinch. She let it grab her arm. The metal was cold, smelling of ozone.
"Take me to him," she whispered, her voice cracking perfectly.
The second Beta moved to the cello case. It scanned the leather box with a red laser grid.
"Warning," the PA announced. "High-density biological material detected. Class-A resonance. Secure the container."
The Beta picked up the cello case as if it weighed nothing.
Saya watched through her lashes. Good. Keep it close.
The heavy steel gates groaned open. Steam vented into the freezing air as the seal broke. The Betas marched her inside, dragging the Queen and her coffin into the belly of the beast.
The interior of the Citadel was a stark contrast to the frozen wasteland outside.
It was a world of sterile white corridors, brushed steel, and blinding LED lights. The air was filtered, smelling of antiseptic and ozone. It was a hospital built inside a tomb.
They didn't take her to a cell. They took her to "The Cathedral."
That was what the central lab looked like. It was a massive cylindrical chamber deep underground, rising ten stories high. The walls were lined with stasis tanks—hundreds of them. Inside each tank floated a humanoid figure, connected to tubes and wires. Failed experiments. Twisted flesh. Synthetic Chevaliers that hadn't made the cut.
In the center of the room stood a raised platform surrounded by banks of computers and surgical machinery.
The Betas shoved Saya onto a metal examination table. Magnetic clamps slammed shut around her wrists and ankles, pinning her down.
"Secure," the Beta droned.
The other Beta placed the cello case on a diagnostic table nearby.
A door at the far end of the catwalk hissed open. Two figures approached.
One was a woman in a white lab coat, holding a tablet—Dr. Aris. She looked at Saya with the detached curiosity of a biologist dissecting a frog.
The other was a man. He wore a pristine gray suit that looked out of place in a laboratory. His hair was slicked back, silver at the temples. He moved with the arrogance of a man who believed he owned the future.
Commander Vale.
"Remarkable," Vale said, stopping at the foot of the table. He looked down at Saya. "Thirty years of hibernation, and she hasn't aged a day. The cellular stability is... godlike."
"She's malnourished," Dr. Aris noted, checking the readout on the table. "Anemia is severe. But the core frequency is strong. It's singing, Commander."
Vale leaned in close to Saya's face. "Can you hear me, Your Majesty?"
Saya stared up at the blinding lights. She didn't struggle against the restraints. "Where is the machine?"
Vale chuckled. "Straight to business. I like that. You are lying on it."
He gestured to the room around them. "This entire facility is the machine, my dear. We call it the Resonance Chamber. We transmit your frequency through the stasis tanks to stabilize the army. But the signal degrades over distance. We need the source... integrated."
Saya turned her head to look at the cello case. Dr. Aris was scanning it.
"Commander," Aris said, her voice trembling slightly. "You need to see this."
She projected a hologram from the diagnostic table. It showed the contents of the case: a dense, glowing cloud of blue particles.
"It's not just a weapon," Aris whispered. "It's pure Chevalier DNA. Crystallized. But the molecular bonds are... vibrating. It's dormant, not dead."
Vale walked over to the case. He ran a hand over the leather. "The Guardian? Hagi?"
"Yes," Aris said. "The concentration of energy is off the charts. If we could liquefy this... if we could inject this concentrated DNA into a host..."
"We could create a God," Vale finished. He turned back to Saya, a cruel smile spreading across his face. "You brought us a gift. How thoughtful."
Saya's hands clenched into fists inside the magnetic restraints. "Don't touch him."
"Him?" Vale laughed. "It's dust, my dear. It's raw material."
He snapped his fingers. "Bring out Subject Zero."
The floor of the chamber began to rumble. A heavy blast door at the back of the room slowly ground open.
Heavy footsteps shook the platform. Thud. Thud. Thud.
From the darkness emerged a nightmare.
It was twelve feet tall. It didn't have skin; it had armored plating grafted directly onto exposed muscle. Its face was a horrific patchwork of Diva's features and something reptilian. One arm was a massive, organic blade, glowing with heat. The other was a bundle of hydraulic tentacles.
It roared—a sound of pure agony and rage.
"Meet the future," Vale announced, spreading his arms. "Subject Zero. Created from the last drops of Diva's blood we salvaged from the Opera House. He is strong, but he is unstable. He is constantly dying."
The monster twitched, black fluid leaking from its joints.
"But with the Guardian's dust," Vale whispered, looking at the cello case. "We can stabilize him. We can make him eternal."
He turned to the Betas. "Open the case. Extract the samples."
"NO!" Saya screamed. It wasn't a feint this time. She thrashed against the table, the metal groaning under her strength.
"Sedate her," Vale ordered casually. "Aris, prepare the centrifuge."
Dr. Aris moved to the console. A robotic arm descended from the ceiling, holding a massive syringe filled with a glowing green sedative.
The Beta guard reached for the latches of the cello case.
Click.
The first latch opened.
Saya's eyes went wide. She stopped thrashing. She focused.
Ren. Now.
Location: The Ridge Overlooking the Citadel.
Time: Simultaneous.
David lay prone in the snow, peering through digital binoculars. "They took her to the central tower. I see movement on the thermal scans. Level 10."
Isolde was beside him, her eye pressed to the scope of her rifle. "I have a shot on the ventilation turbine. But the glass on that tower is bulletproof."
Ren was huddled under a thermal blanket, his fingers flying across his tablet. "I'm in the subsystem. Their firewall is massive, but... wait. Someone left a backdoor open in the waste disposal protocols."
"Hurry up, kid," David growled. "They're prepping a needle."
"I'm trying!" Ren panicked. "I need to reroute the geothermal power to overload the grid. If I do this wrong, I won't just kill the lights; I'll blow the reactor."
"Then don't do it wrong," Isolde said calmly.
"Okay... okay... almost there..." Ren tapped a final sequence. He hit ENTER.
"Let there be darkness," Ren whispered.
Location: The Cathedral (Level 10).
The Beta's hand was on the second latch of the cello case.
Suddenly, a siren screamed.
WARNING. POWER SURGE DETECTED. REACTOR CRITICAL.
The blinding white lights of the laboratory flickered once, twice, and then died.
The room plunged into total darkness, save for the emergency red strobes rotating lazily on the walls.
The magnetic clamps holding Saya's wrists lost power. Clank.
"What is happening?" Vale shouted in the dark. "Backup generators! Now!"
"The grid is fried!" Aris screamed. "We're locked out!"
In the red strobing light, movement blurred on the table.
Saya sat up.
She ripped the ankle clamps off like they were made of paper. She slid off the table, landing in a crouch.
The Beta standing near the case turned toward the sound. "Target loose. Engaging."
Saya didn't run away. She ran toward the case.
She tackled the Beta, driving her knee into its chest plate. The momentum carried them both off the catwalk. They plummeted twenty feet down to the lower level of stasis tanks.
Saya kicked off the falling soldier in mid-air, grabbed a hanging cable, and swung back up to the platform.
She landed next to the cello case.
"Get away from him," she hissed.
She popped the final latches. She threw the lid open.
In the strobing red light, the blue dust shimmered like embers. The sword lay on top, waiting.
Saya grabbed the hilt.
SHING.
The blade sang as she drew it. She held it with two hands, assuming a high stance.
"Subject Zero!" Vale shrieked, backing away toward the armored exit. "Kill her! Kill them all!"
The massive monster roared. It charged, crushing the diagnostic equipment under its feet. Its blade-arm swung in a wide arc, cleaving a computer bank in half.
Saya stood her ground.
She wasn't the broken girl anymore. She wasn't the refugee.
She sliced her thumb along the edge of her blade. Her blood welled up, coating the steel, turning it into a crystalline weapon capable of killing a Chiropteran.
"Come on," she whispered, her eyes glowing red in the dark.
Subject Zero lunged.
At the same moment, the glass ceiling of the Cathedral shattered inward.
CRASH.
Isolde's sniper bullet punched through the reinforced skylight, weakened by the sudden temperature change from the power outage.
Glass rained down like diamonds.
"Breach!" David's voice crackled over the facility intercom (thanks to Ren). "Team Alpha, go! Go! Go!"
Isolde rappeled down through the broken skylight, firing her rifle upside down as she descended. Bang. Bang. Two Betas dropped.
David and Ren blew the airlock doors on the ground level.
The Trojan Horse was open. The war had begun.
Saya looked at the massive monster bearing down on her. She glanced at the open cello case, safe for the moment behind her.
"Watch me, Hagi," she whispered.
She leaped into the air to meet the monster.