Kiana's POV
Underground Lab – Biomedical Park
For countless nights, she dreamt of drowning—
Not in water, but in a bottomless abyss where no light could reach her.
A place where warmth, hope, and even time were swallowed whole.
She floated there, weightless, numb.
She tried to swim... once.
To reach the surface.
But it was so far. Too far.
And maybe—maybe it was easier to just... sleep.
She was tired.
But then...
A voice—faint, broken, but familiar—echoed through the void.
"Kiana...!"
Cracks appeared in the endless black. Hairline fractures in the cold, suffocating silence.
"Kiana!"
The name... it felt foreign.
Like a mask, she used to wear, now discarded in a forgotten life.
And yet—each syllable echoed in her chest like a heartbeat.
"Wake up, Kiana!"
She remembered.
She remembered the name.
The pride it once carried.
The weight of hope behind it.
And slowly, consciousness returned.
She gasped—ragged, dry. Her throat burned as she coughed violently.
Pain crawled through her limbs like electricity.
Memories returned in fragments—syringes, needles, restraints, wires.
The cold metallic bite of the table beneath her.
She remembered the experiments. The interrogations. The screaming.
But her mission...
Her mission wasn't over.
She would not sleep again.
"Very impressive, Herrscher of the Void," a cold, disembodied voice echoed through the lab.
Jackal's voice.
"You were unconscious for only 0.3 seconds during the latest test. Your body is... miraculous. Always stitching itself back together no matter the damage. Tell me, can you still speak?"
Kiana forced a smirk despite the pain.
Her lips cracked, her breath shaky.
"...Your experiment..." she coughed, "...how many people in Arc City survived it?"
There was a pause.
"Are numbers truly important to you?" Jackal replied with clinical amusement.
"I thought humans were nothing but breadcrumbs on your dinner plate, Herrscher. Still, I might share the results—if you live long enough to care."
Her voice was calm. Detached. Dead.
"Next test item," Jackal continued. "Let's examine the connection between your Herrscher core and your biological tissue."
Pain.
It came in waves—sharp, searing, relentless.
Kiana screamed, the sound raw and guttural as if it tore itself from her soul.
Jackal watched from behind a screen, lips curled into a sadistic smile.
"Fascinating... Your cellular structure resists Honkai corruption at an unprecedented level. And look—your stigmata glow when exposed to Honkai solution. Such elegant patterns... How beautifully you reflect my Sire's promises."
Through clenched teeth, Kiana rasped, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.
"The stigmata... That's why you stole the Schicksal vaccines... To create something like me..."
She coughed again, laughing through the pain.
"...Too bad for you... no one else in this cursed city has stigmata... except for the dead."
"Your calculations..." she wheezed, a wicked grin curling at her lips, "...might be just a decimal point off."
Jackal's expression turned.
"Preposterous." Her voice sharpened.
"I do not waste my theories on lab rats."
With a cold gesture, she initiated the next sequence.
Kiana convulsed.
"KYAA–!!!" she screamed again, the pain blinding, suffocating.
And yet she clung to a shred of defiance.
"M-maybe... you just did your math wrong..." she gasped, eyes fluttering open, barely conscious.
"...Put the decimal point in a funny place... happens to me... all the time..."
Even now, battered and broken, she mocked her captor.
Because she was Kiana Kaslana.
And she was not done yet.
Jackal waved her hand again.
Another surge of electricity. Another torturous sequence.
Kiana's body jerked as pain lanced through her nerves like fire. Her teeth clenched. A guttural hiss escaped her lips.
But she didn't scream this time. She refused.
Jackal watched her squirm, voice dripping with contempt.
"You're just an insect who stumbled onto power you never deserved... and you think that gives you the right to rewrite the fate of the world?"
She stepped closer to the reinforced observation glass.
"This is divine knowledge—knowledge meant to shape the future! Not something to be insulted by your pathetic grade school arithmetic!"
Her hands gestured wildly, impassioned.
"The improvements to the vaccine... the calibrated dose of Honkai to baptize the city and awaken stigmata across the population—these are revelations only a genius like me could understand!"
Through ragged breaths, Kiana's voice rasped out.
"You're... releasing the Honkai? Where...? The city center? The outskirts?"
Jackal froze. Her smile faltered.
"You're getting far too inquisitive, lab rat. Enough tests. Begin the dissection—now."
Kiana let out a long, exhausted sigh...
Then chuckled.
A low, deliberate smirk spread across her face.
"Aww... and here I was putting on such a good show for you."
Jackal blinked.
"What?"
Kiana's body stopped trembling. Her limbs relaxed, not from weakness—but from control. Her eyes narrowed with sharp, mocking clarity.
"I thought if I screamed a bit louder you'd monologue a little harder... maybe slip and say something useful."
Her voice now carried the chill of certainty.
The helpless girl on the table had vanished.
In her place was a predator wearing a smile.
"You... you can't be..." Jackal's voice trembled. "We measured—we know your limits—!"
"Tch." Kiana clicked her tongue.
"Please. I've seen girls fake screams and tears to get out of exams. You really thought I couldn't fake a little pain?"
She clenched her fist. The sound of muscle tightening echoed through the chamber.
With a deafening CRACK, she slammed her fist into the reinforced glass.
Once.
Twice.
Shatter.
The observation window exploded into shards like splintered ice.
Kiana stepped through the broken frame, her battle stance grounded, her eyes burning with fury.
"And remember this, Jackal."
She raised her hand, Honkai energy sparking across her fingers.
"I'm not just going to break your glass."
She pointed at her captor, voice rising into a roar.
"I'm going to shatter your stupid project, your fake promises, and every last delusion you built this lab on!"
Jackal stumbled back, disbelief contorting her face.
"I will show you," Kiana snarled, advancing with every step echoing defiance.
"What happens when you corner a Kaslana."
The girl threw a few more punches, each one cracking and smashing through reinforced steel and glass. She destroyed the comm screen before Jackal could utter another word.
"I'll smash your stupid dog head too!" Kiana roared.
She yanked the IV tubes from her arms, painlessly tearing them away. Her feet hit the cold floor as she stepped out of the test tank, exhaling deeply—like someone taking their first real breath in years.
Alarms screamed. Red lights bathed the lab in an eerie glow.
From one of the containment cells, a grotesque monster emerged, its body encased in a sickly purple carapace, pulsing with Honkai energy.
Kiana's eyes sharpened. Her muscles tensed. A battle was seconds away.
But just as she braced herself—
—someone passed her.
A familiar presence, a blur of motion brushing her shoulder.
She turned.
Her eyes widened.
"Are you alright? Kiana?" Shin's voice was laced with panic and warmth. "Geez... you really had me worried. Was this your plan all along? Did they hurt you?"
Kiana blinked, caught off guard—not by the monster, but by him.
And then... she smiled.
"Shin... Funny thing is... it doesn't hurt at all."
Shin turned to face her fully, his expression softening.
Behind him, the monster that once loomed menacingly—collapsed into ashes.
Without a word. Without a fight.
"Also," Shin said gently, pointing behind her.
Kiana turned.
And her breath caught in her throat.
"Kiana..."
The voice was gentle. Familiar. Trembling.
Kiana's eyes widened.
There she was—Raiden Mei.
She had imagined this moment a thousand times.
Every reunion, every embrace, every tearful smile.
But not like this.
Not here, in a bloodstained lab filled with ghosts of her suffering.
There was no joy.
Only fear.
"Mei-senpai... What are you doing here?" Kiana's voice wavered. "You... You shouldn't be here! This place—it's dangerous!"
She tried to step back, to hide the pain, the guilt, the monster clawing inside her.
She thought she had grown strong enough to face Mei.
But in an instant, she was that same runaway girl again.
Scared. Lost. Broken.
The whispers of her sins clawed at her ears.
But Mei said nothing.
She simply stepped forward—
—and wrapped her arms around Kiana in a tight, trembling embrace.
"Kiana..." she whispered, tears soaking Kiana's shoulder.
"You're hurt..."
She held her tightly, as though letting go would mean losing her again forever.
"I'll take you back. Back to the Hyperion. Principal Theresa... Major Himeko... everyone's waiting for you..."
Kiana didn't return the hug.
She stood still, her arms limp by her side.
"No..." she whispered.
"I can't go back, Mei."
She looked past Mei to Shin.
To the monster inside her.
To the part of her that had changed everything.
"That world's gone. The one where we laughed, where we were just girls fighting for tomorrow... it's gone."
She knew she could never go back and pretend nothing had happened.
Would they really smile at her?
Would they hug her and say it's okay?
No.
Some wounds don't heal.
And a smile forced over guilt only deepens the scars.
"I'm sorry..." Her voice cracked.
"I can't... I won't put any of you in danger again."
Mei pulled back, her face twisted in pain—
as though she was looking at someone she barely recognized.
Someone she once called her best friend.
Just then, a calm voice spoke up from beside Shin.
"Kiana, this isn't the time to talk about the past."
It was Fu Hua, appearing with her usual quiet resolve, her gaze already scanning the surroundings for threats.
Shin frowned slightly and turned to her.
"Come on, President... at least give them a moment."
But Fu Hua's voice remained firm.
"There's no time. Enemies are coming through the corridors."
Kiana's expression sobered. She turned to Mei with a flicker of hesitation, then spoke with newfound determination.
"Give me some time, Mei-senpai. We have to leave this place—fast. I need to stop what's coming... I have to protect this city before we can talk about everything else."
Mei nodded slowly, eyes glistening with held-back emotion.
"I understand..." she whispered.
"Rita told me where to find you. She told me everything." Her voice trembled but carried the weight of her sincerity.
"Kiana, I want you to know that I... that everyone on the Hyperion will always be waiting for you."
Kiana smiled faintly, a soft, aching smile. Then she turned around, her battle stance ready, her voice sharper.
"Let's go."
"I'll assist you," Shin said, walking beside her. He glanced back at Mei, who stood frozen in place, unable to move, watching them rush forward into danger.
The girl she longed to see... now charging into battle.
Shin glanced at Kiana.
She met his eyes.
No more fear. No more chains.
Only fire.
Ahead, the corridors writhed with monsters—Honkai beasts twisted further by quantum corruption, crawling toward them.
Kiana raised her fists. Shin drew his blade.
Together, they launched forward, striking through the shadows side by side, a rhythm that needed no words.
Behind them, Fu Hua and Mei followed.
"Let's get out of this place," Shin muttered under his breath.
Kiana didn't say a word.
Kiana didn't say a word.
She would save the city.
Then—
Then she would finally let herself believe that going home was possible.
Right?