Alix ran.
Water splashed with every step, echoing down the rusted tunnels as she held Lyra close. The girl was breathing, shallow but steady, her head resting against Alix's shoulder. The reactivated collar kept her powers suppressed—for now. But it wouldn't last forever. Not after the surge she'd unleashed.
The tunnel lights flickered once, then died completely.
"Kiran?" Alix hissed, her voice low but urgent.
"Still here. Grid's unstable. You've got ten, maybe fifteen minutes before the backup fails."
"And then?"
"Then I lose you."
Alix exhaled through her teeth and pushed harder, slipping past a derailed mag-car crumpled like a soda can. The tunnel widened into an old junction chamber, its ceiling arched with hanging cables and broken glass. An overhead maintenance door hissed slightly ajar—Kiran's doing.
Lyra stirred.
"Alix…" her voice was hoarse, distant. "They'll come again."
"I know."
Alix glanced down. The girl's skin was cold. Pale. Her fingertips pulsed faintly with violet light, even through the collar's restraint.
"What did they do to me?" Lyra murmured.
"I don't know," Alix said softly, her boots skidding slightly as she entered the maintenance corridor. "But I'm going to find out."
Above them, an explosion rippled through the transit system, the force distant but deep—like thunder underwater.
Kiran cursed in her earpiece. "They're trying to collapse the tunnels. Cut off your escape."
Alix didn't stop. "Options?"
"You're close. The lift shaft to the east is still operational. It'll take you up to a maintenance lock just beneath Sector Nine. Once you're there, you're clear."
Alix adjusted Lyra in her arms and turned down the next corridor.
More shadows waited.
But they were alone.
For now.
She reached the lift—an old industrial platform encased in wire mesh and grime. With her free hand, she slammed the console. Sparks flew, and the gears groaned. The lift stuttered, then began to rise.
"Almost there," Kiran breathed.
Alix didn't respond. She was listening.
Something was wrong.
A high-pitched frequency tickled her enhanced hearing—too steady to be static, too calculated to be random.
"Kiran," she said, her voice taut, "anything on our tail?"
Silence.
Then: "No visuals. No signals. Nothing."
The lift shuddered again.
And stopped.
Halfway up the shaft.
"Goddammit," Kiran snapped. "It's a lockdown. They've overridden the grid."
Alix cursed and set Lyra down gently in the corner of the lift cage. "Can you get me up the rest of the way?"
"I'm trying, but—"
Metal above groaned.
Alix looked up.
A shape dropped from the ceiling like a blade of midnight.
It landed with unnatural grace—tall, armored, faceless.
Black plating with red sigils traced along the limbs.
Alix's hand went to her blades.
Kiran whispered, as if afraid to speak too loud: "That's not Magistrate."
"No kidding."
The figure didn't speak. It took a single step forward.
Alix lunged.
Her blade struck true—center mass.
But the figure didn't fall.
Didn't even flinch.
It grabbed her wrist and twisted—hard.
Alix grunted and spun, kicking off the mesh cage to gain leverage. She dropped her second blade into her free hand and slashed under the figure's arm, slicing through cables and hydraulic lines.
It stumbled.
She drove her heel into its head, sending it crashing against the side of the lift.
Then—
It moved faster.
An uppercut caught her under the chin. Her body lifted off the ground and slammed into the opposite wall. Pain bloomed across her ribs.
Lyra screamed.
The figure turned.
Too late.
Lyra was on her feet, collar sparking again. One eye glowed white, the other violet. Her fingers pulsed with energy.
"Don't touch her," she said.
Then she raised her hand.
The surge was smaller this time—but surgical.
A beam of light split the figure in half, leaving only molten fragments behind.
The lift jolted again—and resumed rising.
Alix struggled to her knees, her lip split. "Remind me… not to piss you off."
Lyra wobbled, drained. She collapsed against Alix again. "I didn't mean to…"
"I know," Alix whispered.
The lift reached the surface chamber.
Kiran's voice returned, sharper now. "They're pulling back. Whatever that thing was, it wasn't meant to stall—it was meant to delay."
"Delay for what?"
No one answered.
Outside the lift, a storm brewed across Sector Nine. Skycars buzzed through the clouds. Sirens echoed in the distance. But here, beneath the cover of steel and steam, they were safe—for the moment.
Alix carried Lyra through the maintenance lock and into the shadows of a forgotten industrial substructure. Somewhere safe.
Somewhere hidden.
Kiran met them at the rendezvous point—a dark warehouse, silent except for the drip of water through the cracked roof.
She took one look at Lyra and swore. "We're running out of time."
"Then we move," Alix said. "We need allies. Answers. Whoever's behind this… they're coming fast."
Kiran hesitated. "You sure you're ready to find out?"
Alix glanced down at the girl in her arms.
Her voice was hard as steel.
"I don't care who they are. Or what they built her to be. I'm not letting them take her."
Far above, the satellite adjusted its orbit.
The man in the white suit watched as the tracking beacon on Revenant blinked red—lost.
He smiled.
"Interesting."
Then he turned to another screen—one labeled Project Helix: Archive Recovered.
In its corner, a small symbol pulsed.
One Alix hadn't seen in years.
The emblem of Eclipse.
And this time, they weren't hiding in the shadows.
They were calling her home.