"For some offences, there is only retribution." - Dennis R. Miller

* * * *

The rain didn't just fall. It hammered.

Silver sheets of water danced on the surface of the harbour, obscuring the moonlight as it tried, vainly, to pierce through the storm clouds. The fishing town of Caer Thalor—one of the last remaining neutral zones in western Eldario, stood half-awake under the curtain of midnight drizzle.

Lanterns flickered in their glass housings along narrow boardwalks, and the scent of brine and wet wood filled the air. Caer Thalor was old, its buildings clinging to rock and cliff like barnacles.

Long ago, it had traded hands between mercenary lords, feuding clans, and even the ESA, before settling into the odd twilight of autonomy. It was too isolated to pose a threat, too essential for maritime trade to burn to the ground. Even the hunters turned a blind eye here, at least for now.

And so Aegis returned here when they needed quiet. Discretion. Fuel. Fresh vegetables and fish. The locals didn't ask questions if you didn't give them a reason to.

The boathouse, turned into a home and command post, rocked gently in the harbour, moored between two commercial vessels delivering crates of sea-gathered herbs. Lights glowed from its lower deck windows, golden and warm against the night.

It was quiet now, though within those walls, the pulse of resistance still beat strong.

Inside the first storey of the boathouse, the scent of dinner still lingered—garlic, seared fish, and even hints of rosemary. The plates were cleared, and chairs pushed back lazily.

A warm, orange glow spilled from the overhead lights and a few scattered lanterns, casting long, slow shadows. Mismatched couches and reclaimed armchairs surrounded a battered central table covered with blueprints, mugs, weapons, and half-folded documents.

Raul, in his usual position at the far couch, was hunched forward, legs folded under him, his fingers flying over the keys of his portable computer. His dark hair fell in strands near his face, golden eyes narrowed, and the tip of his tongue stuck out in deep focus as his brows furrowed.

Beside him, Lucie leaned back, nursing a mug of tea. Her auburn-red hair cascaded over her shoulder, her bracelets quietly clinking whenever she moved. She watched Raul with half a smirk, a touch amused and a touch exasperated. "If your fingers move any faster, Raul, you're gonna create a time rift."

"No time rifts," Raul muttered, his eyes never leaving the screen. "Just trying to trace an encrypted feed coming out of Zhinmark. ESA traffic's been strange lately. Almost like they're purposely masking certain coordinates. But I'm getting past it."

Nearby, perched on the bar counter like it was a throne, was Sera. Her coat was thrown over a nearby chair, her boots left neatly beside her. Her sleek form, clad in simple black with fingerless gloves, leaned forward, her elbows on her knees as she stared into her own laptop.

Her mismatched eyes reflected the screen's glow, and for once, she wasn't silent in contemplation—she was calculating. Reading. Searching.

None of them had asked what she was doing. None dared.

From across the room, Letha lounged with feline ease on a high barstool, one booted leg lazily crossed over the other. Her silvery-blonde hair shimmered under the light as she toyed with a strand, pale blue eyes wandering from face to face with idle amusement.

She said nothing, but her Gift kept her half in this dimension, half in another. Always alert. Always listening.

Until she stiffened.

Her boot hit the floor with a soft thud. The lock of hair slipped from her fingers.

Sera's head lifted at the same moment.

The air changed.

Tatius, sprawled on the floor nearby beside a half-finished game of cards, sat up instantly. "Something wrong, Letha?"

Letha didn't respond at first. She just stared at the door. Her hand was already on the pistol at her side. "Someone's coming," she murmured. Her tone was steel.

At once, the room moved.

Instincts honed by a hundred close calls and months of bloodied encounters kicked in. Laura, her expression ice-calm, stood with a flick of her wrist, water already snaking from the glass on the table, hovering like a coil of promise. Kailey stood next to her, quieter, and more reserved, but her power thrummed in the air, the water trembling slightly at her feet as she readied herself for either healing or defence.

Claudia rose with the grace of a blade being unsheathed, her blonde hair falling slightly from its up-do as she stepped beside her siblings. Her fingers twitched, summoning a breeze that circled them protectively.

Neil positioned himself near the door, pearl-white eyes unreadable as a pale shimmer outlined his body—his barrier gift already priming to engage.

Even Ness who had been tinkering with something small and mechanical, was standing now, the pouch at his hip unclasped and a half-animated drone hovering at his shoulder like a hawk.

There was a knock on the door just then. Four long knocks. Two short knocks. A code. One that Aegis used only for their collaborators.

Sera didn't move from the counter. She didn't need to. The air around her had already changed, subtle and sharp. Her eyes locked with Letha's. A silent nod.

Letha moved to the door. Her hand stayed hidden behind it, gripping her pistol tight as her voice cut the air. "Who's there?"

A pause.

Then…

"It's Hayder. Alexis and Ethan are with me too. Can we come in?"

Everyone froze.

Hayder. Alexis. Ethan.

Letha looked at Sera who nodded.

The lock clicked. The door opened, and in stepped shadows from the past.

Rain hammered the dock outside, and the three figures stepped into the dim glow of the boathouse interior, soaked through in black trench coats dripping onto the floorboards.

Hayder, taller than most, his skin gleaming with rain, gave a small nod. His eyes, always watchful, flickered over every face in the room like a surgeon taking stock of a battlefield.

Alexis, shorter, wiry, his dark brown hair plastered to his cheeks, scanned the room with suspicion sharpened into instinct. His hands hovered near his belt even as he stripped off his coat.

And Ethan, sharp-eyed, sharper-tongued, had a look of permanent amusement. His soaked coat was slung off with a flourish as if the weather had dared to offend him. His green eyes locked with Sera's immediately.

"You're hard to pin down, Aegis," Hayder said, his voice calm and low, always with that edge of restrained authority. "Even Alexis and Ethan took nearly two weeks before they managed to track you down."

Sera arched an eyebrow, the corner of her mouth twitching faintly. "That's the whole point," she replied, laptop now closed beside her. "With the mass hysteria and witch hunts going on, we're not taking any chances."

"You're not the only ones," Alexis added grimly. "Most of the street gangs have retreated into the Abyss, especially those with Gifted in their midst. Even the Wild Fangs. The Premier's fortified half the corridors."

"We're not at full lockdown yet," Ethan added, shrugging out of his gloves. "But give it another month of this circus and the Abyss'll shut its gates. It's getting feral topside."

Raul stood now, his arms folded, and his golden eyes unreadable. "Your purpose here?" he asked quietly, his voice low and controlled. "The fact that you're here in person, Hayder, means this isn't something you can trust to a courier or code. Or even an informant." He glanced at Ethan. Then at Alexis.

Neither flinched.

Hayder exhaled. "No. We couldn't. This can be considered an unofficial request from the Premier herself," he said slowly. "But it's also important enough that she's willing to pay anything if it can be done."

Silence fell like a hammer.

The air thickened.

It was always something important when Hayder came. And if it was tied to the Premier of the Abyss…

Sera slid off the counter, her boots thudding softly on the floor. Her face had changed, the casual indifference gone. Now, she was Zero—the ghost leader of Aegis. The storm waiting behind calm eyes.

No one needed to say it.

The war aboveground was heating. Hunters had stopped pretending.

Public executions of Gifted had returned. Strung in plazas. Shot in alleys. Broadcasted on hacked frequencies with Nicolosi's voice twisted into religious fervour. "Purge the corruption," he called it. "Return Eldario to the Pure."

The depravity had escalated.

Gifted children were taken from homes and "rehabilitated", whether their Gifts have woken or not.

Gifted women sterilised against their will in hidden clinics.

And all the while, Zone 0—Ashenridge now, have remained high on alert, helping wherever they could.

True to his word, Rex did send updates and communications frequently, whether it is to give them updates on what is going on, news that he got from his own sources, or hire Aegis to deliver supplies to him—whether it is food, medical supplies, and more often, building supplies.

Finally, Sera sighed. "What does the Premier want?" she asked Hayder. "What's going on this time?"

The storm outside had begun to settle, but the air within the boathouse felt tenfold heavier, as if the thunder had simply moved indoors, residing now within every breath Aegis took.

Rain still trailed along the windows in crooked veins, the faint tap-tap of droplets muffled beneath the silence that followed.

Hayder stood tall despite the weariness beneath his golden eye. His jacket was soaked at the hem, droplets dripping to the floor in a trail of water, and his silver-grey hair, wild as always, glistened faintly with remnants of the rain.

At his flanks, Alexis leaned with a deceptively casual poise against the stair railing, his arms crossed, his single visible dark blue eye tracking every movement in the room. Ethan stood nearby, his hands tucked into the pockets of his oversized jacket, the silver streaks in his black fringe dripping faintly onto the wooden floorboards.

None of them were smiling.

"I understand that Aegis has been to the site of the former Zone 0," Hayder said quietly, his voice cutting through the stillness like a blade. "Now Ashenridge, yes?"

The moment that name left his lips, the room changed.

Muscles tensed. Breath caught. Raul's fingers twitched over his lap. Claudia's lips pressed into a bloodless line. Ness froze mid-lean against the couch. Even Lucie picked up on the sudden weight that fell across the group.

Sera didn't respond right away. Her eyes flickered between Hayder, Ethan, and Alexis. Then a slow breath left her lips, tired and knowing.

"What of it?" Laura asked, stepping forward, her posture taut.

"So no doubt you lot know the truth behind Project Nonary now," Hayder murmured. There was no bite to his words, only resignation.

Aegis nodded, but it was Laura who answered. "We know," she said. Her voice was thin, but steady. "We heard about it."

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Hayder nodded solemnly. Then he began. "Sixteen years ago," he said, his eye locking with Sera's, "the Abyss—under direct orders from the newly installed Premier, Larissa, spearheaded a joint operation with the ESA, the hunters, and certain…endorsed members of the Eldario Council to raid and shut down a certain project."

Sera's expression didn't change. But her jaw tightened.

"There weren't just researchers and scientists in that facility," Hayder continued. "They had mercenaries. Trained assassins. Informants. It was built like a fortress, not a lab. That's how it stayed hidden for so long. And that's how the rot spread to the upper echelons. Politicians. Agents. Even hunters."

The word hunters burned when it left his lips.

"Sixteen years ago…" Neil murmured, his voice soft.

"A certain project…" Kailey's eyes widened in dawning horror.

"Wait," Tatius muttered, glancing toward Claudia, then Ness. "You don't mean…"

"There's only one operation that matches that story," Raul said darkly.

"…Project Nonary," Sera confirmed, her voice soft as rain. She looked away, her gaze distant and pained. "I don't remember everything from that time. But I figured either you or Larissa were involved in the raid."

Hayder met her gaze. "We were. Larissa was the newly appointed Premier at that time, and I was her head Enforcer."

"We only found out about Larissa and Hayder's involvement recently ourselves, I assure you," Alexis revealed. "A lot of things make sense now, however."

"All those who were involved in that joint operation were sworn to secrecy. None of them ever said a word. But now, we have recent intel that had the Premier concerned." Ethan added.

Sera almost had her head in her hands. "I got a bad feeling where this is going," she muttered. "Hayder, please tell me this has NOTHING to do with Project Nonary."

The silence returned, heavier this time.

Ethan stepped forward. "After what happened with Ebis Ivanor last year, Larissa began cleaning house. No more rats in the walls. That was her order."

Ebis, the traitor who'd infiltrated the Enforcers as one of their own, who almost ended Sera in a trap, and was later taken out by Sera in The Pit.

"She only trusted the three of us," Hayder said, gesturing to Ethan and Alexis. "So she asked us to look into it."

"Into what?" Claudia narrowed her eyes.

Raul leaned forward, his eyes narrowing like blades. "Let me guess. The hunters' so-called 'testing and training facilities', right?"

The air shifted. A brittle hush fell over the group.

The truth was an open secret now. The underground knew. The Abyss knew for years. The gangs whispered. Even the common folk knew. Aegis had seen the scars.

The hunters' 'testing and training facilities' are basically facilities they used for experimentation. Claudia, Tatius, and Ness have escaped from one such facility years ago. And now, with what Aegis knew about Project Nonary, they could conclude that Project Nona still exists in some form, considering what happened to the Black siblings.

Claudia's lips parted. Tatius stared at the floor. Ness, still as a statue, clenched his jaw.

"Yeah," Ethan confirmed, his voice low. "But more than that. One facility in particular."

He pulled a small device from his pocket and handed it to Raul. The other man accepted it with a frown, his fingers nimble as he slotted it into his portable computer.

A few clicks later, the center table projected a blue-tinged hologram—schematics, surveillance images, and data logs, flickering like ghosts in the dim light.

The facility looked like a factory from the outside. Low, wide, and industrial. Hidden within the forests of Veridale, a remote region in northern Eldario where urban development had been stalled due to 'environmental protection efforts'—a perfect front.

Surveillance drones had snapped images of strange convoys entering the woods. High-voltage fencing. Security patrols. Exterior fortifications masked under layers of vegetation and crumbling, decoy architecture.

But beneath the forest floor was a subterranean maze of laboratories, holding cells, surgical wings, and testing arenas.

Sera's expression darkened. "I don't remember this facility on their list," she said. "It wasn't one of the known ones. Unsanctioned?"

Alexis nodded. "Off the books. Even the usual black-sites have some kind of registration. This one? Ghost facility. No ID tags, no transport routes logged in any ESA database. It's been operating for years, and someone's been making sure no one ever finds it."

"And we got the intel…" Ethan said carefully, "from Ashenridge."

There was a ripple of realisation.

"Rex," Raul muttered. "That explains the encrypted messages."

"We don't know how he got this data," Alexis said. "But… It matches everything Larissa feared."

Kailey's voice trembled faintly. "The Gifted disappearances?"

"They've skyrocketed," Laura said, her tone clipped and haunted. "Leroy asked us to investigate. We thought they were being killed. But this… This is worse."

"They're not just being taken," Neil said. "They're being kept."

"Used," Raul corrected grimly. "Probably dissected. Or worse."

"But to keep a facility like that running with no one knowing about it…" Ness said, a faint tremble in his voice, "someone has to be protecting them."

"ESA," Tatius spat.

"Neuron," Raul added darkly, fingers flying across his keys.

Ethan's eyes flickered toward Sera.

"Neuron?" Alexis echoed, confused.

"A black-ops division," Sera explained. "They're supposed to be part of R&D under the ESA umbrella. A secret division within that department. But their real loyalty lies with the hunters. They've been around for decades. Maybe since the beginning. They report directly to the Eldario Council, and even the upper echelons of the hunters. I suspected for years that most of the members in that department are either hunters or former hunters. With the ESA, there are lots of factions. Only a small number are loyal to the ESA Director. The rest are either loyal to the hunters, to the Eldario Council, or are neutrals. It's a damn mess in there even before the entire witch hunts started."

"I've…heard of them before," Claudia admitted. "In that facility. The Gifted Task Force… Everything relating to the Gifted is under Neuron. The hunters' best kept and deepest secret. They handled the worst of it."

"I doubt even the ESA Director knows about them," Raul said. "But the Council? They do. They've been funding them. Feeding them bodies."

The horror in Lucie's face was unmistakable. Her hands curled into fists, her fire Gift simmering, unnoticed, at her fingertips.

Hayder's voice cut back in, grim. "I won't lie. I don't know what you'll find in there. Larissa's request was clear: save whoever you can. But if they're beyond saving…" His jaw tensed. "Leave them. Kill everyone else. Sack the entire facility. Burn it to the ground."

The words hung in the air like smoke after a blast.

Aegis didn't respond right away. Their silence wasn't hesitance—it was calculation. Grief. Rage.

Raul's face was unreadable, but his hands trembled slightly as he removed the device from his computer. Laura stared at the hologram, silent. Ness glanced at Claudia. Claudia looked away. Tatius exhaled through his teeth.

Aegis isn't new to assassination missions—that's even how they made their reputation as Aegis to begin with. But a request like this?

Letha whispered, as if to herself, "This isn't just an operation."

Kailey, her hand gripping Neil's arm, looked to Sera. "Do we…even know how many are down there?"

Sera didn't answer. She couldn't.

Lucie finally broke the silence. "We'll kill them all." Her voice was sharp, even cutting. "Whatever's down there, we'll burn it. No one does that to us. No one."

Hayder's gaze flickered to her briefly. Then back to Sera.

The leader of Aegis stood tall now. Still. But the flicker in her eyes said more than words could. Memories long buried rose again. Zone 0. The cold. The screams. The darkness.

Rex's voice, whispering between the ashes when they were rescued and brought to the hospital, and then, to the Abyss. "Not all of us got out. Not all of us were saved."

Sera exhaled slowly. "Hayder. Alexis. Ethan." Her voice was quiet and commanding. "Can you step outside for a moment? Let us talk."

Despite the pouring rains outside, Hayder nodded once in understanding. "We'll wait," he said, and motioned for the other two to follow.

As the three of them stepped out into the stormy night, the door creaked shut behind them.

Silence fell again.

Aegis remained still, the images from the hologram flickering like ghosts across the walls.

The ghosts of the past. And the ghosts yet to come.

Sera remained where she sat, perched cross-legged atop the kitchen counter like a dark sentinel. Her heterochromatic gaze swept over the room, pausing on each familiar face. Outside, thunder growled again like a warning from the heavens.

"Neil," Sera said quietly, her voice firm despite the weight behind it. "Put up a silencing barrier."

Neil, sitting near the central table beside his twin sister Kailey, gave a small nod. He raised a hand, fingers glowing with a soft opalescent light. The moment the barrier flared into existence, the storm outside muted, drowned beneath an unnatural stillness.

Sera's boots thudded softly as she hopped down from the counter. Her scarf fluttered behind her like a war banner as she approached the center of the room. "So?" she asked, her voice low but piercing. "What do you guys think?"

Laura was the first to respond, her expression sharp with disbelief. "What do we think?" she echoed, running a hand through her dark hair. "It's a direct request from the Premier, Sera. The Premier. Can we even turn this down?"

"And let's be frank," Raul interrupted from where he is seated next to Lucie, his arms crossed tightly. His golden eyes were shadowed. "Do we even want to?"

Floating in the middle of the room, the hologram displays flickered with the grainy, disturbing images Hayder and the others had brought—drone footage, thermal scans, and old, redacted schematics of a facility deep within the region of Veridale.

Raul's jaw was set in a grim line. "Leroy's been asking us to look into these disappearances for nearly a year. Now we know why we couldn't find anything. They were never taken to ESA stations. They were being erased."

Letha's expression was dark, her pale blue eyes narrowed. "This isn't like the raids we've done in the past. This isn't surveillance or extraction. This is a hit." She stepped forward, her boots clicking softly on the wooden floor. "Hayder didn't say it outright, but the mission is clear—we're being asked to kill. Every researcher. Every guard. Every goddamn hunter in that place."

"And you think that's the worst of it?" Claudia murmured, her arms wrapped tightly around herself, her gaze downcast. Her pale green eyes held none of their usual mischief, only hollow dread. "They might not have said what's inside that place, but we know. We've seen it before. We know exactly what we're going to find in there!" She lifted her head slowly, exchanging a look with her younger brothers, Ness and Tatius.

The twins were quiet, their usual banter abandoned. They didn't need to speak.

Sera leaned forward slightly, her voice low and almost reverent. "It's the hunters. Even if we don't know the details… We know what they're doing. What they've always done. And even without knowing what is actually going on in that facility, I already know what we're going to find." She sighed.

Aegis exchanged looks. Sera was a survivor of Project Nonary. While she never said much of what she had seen and experienced in there, they knew it wasn't pretty.

"This isn't going to be a mission of recovery. It's going to be one of elimination. Knowing the hunters, the Gifted they got in there… Death is going to be better for them."

The air grew heavier. The memory of when Sera had told them about Project Nonary hung over them all like a noose, tightening around their necks.

Sera's voice was calm, but her eyes blazed. "They don't see us as people. They never did. To them, the Gifted are test subjects. Weapons. Resources. Monsters. Something to be used, broken, and discarded. That's all we've ever been."

Ness swallowed hard, fiddling absently with the pouch at his waist. "They're not even hiding it anymore," he muttered. "The burnings. The mobs. The disappearances. It's not just the hunters now. It's everyone who's cheering them on."

"Have you seen what's going on in the capital?" Tatius added, his voice low and bitter. "Nicolosi's speeches are plastered all over the feeds. 'Purge the cursed blood.' 'Cleanse the nation.' People are eating it up like it's the truth. Even kids. It's like the world's gone mad."

"The world's always been mad," Raul said quietly. "Only now, it's worse. Nicolosi is just fuelling them. Giving them a target to direct their hatred at. Someone to blame."

Lightning flashed again, illuminating the flickering images of cells—small, metal, and claustrophobic, on the hologram screen. In one frame, the blurred outline of a small figure could be seen strapped to a table, unmoving.

Silence again.

Then Neil spoke. "Let's say we agree," he began, his tone even. "We're going to need intel. Blueprints. Patrol routes. Interior schematics. And…" He hesitated. "Maybe we should bring in your old crew, Sera."

Sera raised an eyebrow.

"Not Leroy and Alisa," Neil clarified. "They're buried in Zalfari, and with the uprising in south Eldario, they'll be needed there. But Zest's still unaligned. And he's…good at things like this, from what I hear. You don't gain a moniker like the Black Demon for being soft."

That earned a few sceptical looks, especially from Claudia and Laura.

"He's not Blade anymore," Lucie said cautiously. "He's not even Aegis."

"No," Sera agreed. "But he's still one of us." She took a slow breath, the weight of memory glinting in her crimson-irised gaze. "Zest's done things no one here has. Even before Blade. He's seen the ugliest parts of Eldario and lived through it. He knows what it means to eliminate a place like this without looking back." She looked at the others. "And if he agrees to help… That'll mean something. Even before Blade, he's done things like this a hundred times over." She shook her head at Aegis's enquiring looks. "Not my story to tell. Zest will tell you if he wants to."

"Will he agree?" Kailey asked gently.

Sera gave a small smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "If he sees what they're doing in that place… He'll burn it to the ground himself."

Lucie exhaled slowly, stepping closer to the holograms. Her fingers hovered just above the screens. "They've got kids in there," she whispered. "I saw one. Might've been ten. Maybe younger."

"Bastards," Raul muttered, his voice hoarse with rage. "They're not even trying to hide it anymore."

Letha's voice was distant. "It's like Nonary all over again."

"No," Sera said. "It's worse."

The words struck like thunder.

Sera looked at each of them—her people, her family. They weren't just warriors. They were survivors. The broken and the brave. And every single one of them bore scars that could never be seen. Scars left by people like Nicolosi.

"They've refined their process since Nonary," Sera continued. "More discreet. More brutal. More efficient. Do you think those disappearances stopped because they were caught?" She gestured to the data. "No. They got better at hiding it."

"And now, they want us to end it," Laura murmured.

"They want us to clean up their mess," Neil grumbled. "And I swear they better be paying us well for this, because we're going in blind, and they're asking us to walk into hell."

Kailey nudged her brother's arm. "Don't lie," she said with a soft smile. "You'd do it for free."

Neil huffed but said nothing more.

Silence returned. Heavy. Pressing.

Raul leaned forward, his voice softer now. "This isn't just a mission, is it? This is revenge. This is justice. For everyone who never came home."

"So," Laura said at last, folding her arms. "We've decided?"

One by one, heads nodded. There was no enthusiasm, no bravado. Only solemn determination.

This wasn't a mission. It was a reckoning.

Neil gave a tired sigh, pushing his hair back. "They better be paying us good money for this. Because we're essentially risking our lives."

Lucie chuckled faintly. "Since when have we ever cared about the money?"

"We haven't," Ness said with a smirk. "But let the man dream."

A small ripple of subdued laughter passed through the room, thin but grounding. In this grim night, even a flicker of warmth mattered.

Sera looked at them. "All right," she said softly. "We burn it down."

And for a heartbeat, lightning split the sky—outside, and in their hearts.

Neil slowly lifted his hand from where it rested on his knee. He made a half-circle motion in the air with his fingers, then snapped them sharply.

The barrier dropped without a sound. No shimmer, no flicker—just the heavy presence of silence vanishing like mist, allowing the sounds of the storm outside to rush in again, sharp and unrelenting.

Sera didn't speak at first. From her place on the bar counter, she stared at the door. Water dripped from the eaves outside. The kind of torrential rain that blurred everything into grey.

She pushed herself off the counter and moved across the room with practised silence, the soles of her boots making only the faintest creak against the wooden planks. Her scarf fluttered faintly as she walked, black and white tails whispering behind her like twin ghosts.

She reached the door and paused with her hand on the handle.

For a heartbeat, she just stood there. Listening. Thinking. Remembering.

Zone 0. Project Nonary. The screams. The needles. The chains. The quiet sobs of children who never got to grow up.

She swallowed, blinked once, and pulled the door open.

Rain blew in with the wind, cold and bitter, slashing through the opening like knives. Under the slight cover of the awning, Hayder, Ethan, and Alexis were huddled in half-shadow, damp despite their shelter. The storm was merciless tonight—almost as if Eldario itself were mourning.

Sera's voice was quiet, but it carried. "Come in. We've made a decision."

They didn't hesitate.

Hayder stepped in first, brushing water from his shoulders. His golden eye scanned the room instantly—assessing, reading, and calculating. Ethan followed next, rubbing his hands together, eyes flickering between the members of Aegis with a wary sharpness. Alexis brought up the rear, quiet and observant, his soaked bangs clinging to the side of his face as he adjusted the cross pendant around his neck.

The door closed behind them with a final thud.

Hayder looked at Sera directly. "So, what's the verdict?"

Sera didn't answer right away.

Instead, she glanced to her team. Raul at his usual spot on the couch next to Lucie, his arms folded, and his jaw set. Laura was by the dining table, fingers tracing invisible patterns across the wood. Claudia and the Black twins stood together by the fireplace—Ness tapping one boot nervously, Tatius still as stone. Letha leaned on the wall near the bookshelf, her head down, silver-blonde hair like snow over her face. Neil and Kailey sat side by side, with Kailey's hand being wrapped tightly around her twin's.

They were her family.

Her broken, dangerous, and scarred family.

Sera exhaled, and when she spoke, her voice held a weary resolve. "If it comes directly from Larissa," she said, "even if it is an unofficial request… Do you think we can turn it down?" She looked Hayder in the eye. "And considering the context… Everything you've told us about this facility—about the Gifted disappearing, the experimentation, and even the silence from the ESA… No." Her jaw tightened. "We're in."

There was a low murmur among the team. Not protest, just the sound of a dozen thoughts colliding, emotions rippling under the surface like a current waiting to surge.

"…The pay better be good," Ness muttered under his breath, not even attempting to sound serious.

Hayder didn't smile. "Ten million."

The room blinked.

"Come again?" Claudia asked, her brows furrowing.

"Ten million," Hayder repeated, unwavering. "Ten million up front, upon the acceptance of the mission. Another ten million on successful completion."

Even Raul straightened at that. Lucie let out a low whistle. "That's…damn near a nation's ransom."

"It's a suicide mission," Ethan said grimly, his voice low. "That's why."

"I don't think any of us are under any illusions about what we're walking into," Sera said. "This isn't just about a lab or a facility. This is an execution site. A death factory."

She walked past them all and back toward the center of the room, where the hologram screens hovered—projecting images of cold metal rooms, surgical beds, blood-stained restraints, and eerie diagrams of Gifted anatomy.

"Look at this place," she said, her voice tight. "Every person involved in this project—researcher, guard, overseer, they all knew what they were doing. What they were complicit in."

"They don't see us as people," Raul added darkly, his fingers curling unconsciously. "To them, we're livestock. Subjects. Data points. Animals who got too close to humanity."

Claudia's arms wrapped tightly around herself. "They're still doing it. After everything. Even after the collapse of Project Nonary, even after the public outrage—if you can call it that, they're still taking Gifted off the streets."

Letha's voice was a cold whisper. "We all saw what Nicolosi said during his last rally. 'The Gifted are not Eldario's children. They are its disease.' That man isn't hiding his intentions anymore. And he's got the people cheering for him. And those Gifted that they got in that facility? Chances are low that they are even still alive. And even if they are? Death is a better fate for them at this point."

Tatius scowled. "The hunters used to pretend they were enforcing the law. Now they're not even bothering. They want a purge. And the people backing them… They want blood."

"The ESA is fractured," Neil said quietly. "We've heard rumours through our informants. Whole divisions in open conflict. Some support the Director. Some support Nicolosi. And some are just staying quiet and watching."

Kailey added softly, "And the Gifted are dying. Every day. People vanish off the street and never come back. Entire underground shelters have gone silent. Whole safehouses razed to the ground."

There was a heavy pause. No one spoke. Outside, the storm continued to rage.

Sera looked to Ethan and Alexis. "I want you both helping with intel. Tracking movement. Names, faces, guards, researchers, and even patrols. Anything you can find."

Ethan nodded. "We've already started compiling."

Alexis gave a faint nod of his own. "You'll have what you need."

"I also want Zest involved," Sera said, and the silence sharpened.

Alexis lifted a brow. "Zest?"

"If this mission goes sideways," Neil said, "we're going to need someone with experience in total annihilation operations."

Sera gave a soft, humourless chuckle. "Zest's done this kind of thing before. Long before Blade. He's the best at this."

"Assuming you can convince him," Alexis added mildly.

Sera tilted her head, a wry, knowing smile ghosting her lips. "He'll come if I ask."

Hayder exhaled and stepped closer. "Sera… Aegis… All of you. Be careful. This mission… It's not going to be like the others. This isn't a raid or a rescue. It's a war crime waiting to happen. And you're going to be right in the middle of it."

"We know," Raul said.

Claudia's pale green eyes narrowed. "We've seen war crimes before. Experienced it."

Letha's fingers brushed against her gun. "Some of us were made by them."

Sera looked at Hayder. "We'll do this. For the Gifted. For the ones still trapped. For the ones who never came back."

Hayder gave a grim nod. "Then may the Goddess be with you."

"The Goddess hasn't been with us in a long time," Laura muttered.

Outside, lightning split the sky in half—sharp and electric, bathing the boathouse in blinding white.

And just for a moment, everything was silent again.

Sera's voice was soft, but unyielding. "We leave in four days. Start preparing. Whatever we find there… We finish it."

And with that, the shadows deepened, and Aegis—wounded, weary, and unbreakable, began preparing for war.

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