CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: Fractured Shadows
First Person – Ava's POV
They burst into the maintenance tunnels, the hard drive clutched in Ava's fist like a lifeline. Behind them, the hall burned, flames licking at the ceiling. Jonas limped, blood trailing behind him, while Iris stayed close, blade wet with fresh kill.
Ava's breath rattled in her chest. Her vision blurred at the edges from adrenaline and exhaustion. But she couldn't stop now. They had the Circle's files, their true names, their hidden fortresses, their sins. They had power.
Iris touched her shoulder, voice raw. "We need to disappear. Lay low."
She shook her head. "No. We finish this. Tonight."
Jonas looked at her, horror on his face. "They'll hunt us. You don't understand the Circle, they have people everywhere."
Ava pushed him against the tunnel wall, knife to his throat. "And now we have the knife at their throat."
Iris smiled, feral. "No mercy."
Far off, echoing through the tunnels, they heard bootsteps. Reinforcements. Their heart thudded harder. They had the data. Now they needed to turn it into a weapon.
"Iris," Ava whispered, "find a path out. Jonas, hold that wound. We're not done yet."
They vanished into the dark, every breath a promise: the Circle would fall by our hands, or we would die trying.
The tunnels twisted and turned like a labyrinth beneath the academy. Every step they took, the echoes of boots chased them, closer each time. Ava could feel Iris's rage radiating off her like a furnace, her breath ragged, eyes shining with an almost manic light.
Jonas stumbled, clutching his side. His blood dripped onto the floor, leaving a trail. "Keep moving," Ava hissed, dragging him forward. "You die here, I bury you myself."
Iris led them into an old generator room, the air thick with the smell of oil and metal. She slammed the heavy door behind them, bolting it shut. For a moment, the only sound was the hum of machinery and their own pounding hearts.
Jonas sagged against a rusted console, pale and trembling. "We can't keep running," he gasped. "They have sensors in the walls, trackers on the cameras… they'll corner us."
Ava pressed the hard drive to her chest, feeling its weight like a bomb ticking down. "Then we don't run. We fight."
Iris turned, eyes gleaming. "We strike first."
Ava nodded. "We have their names. Their assets. Their families. We burn everything they love until they're begging for mercy."
Jonas swallowed. "They'll retaliate. They'll kill anyone we ever cared about."
Ava leaned close, her blade flashing as she lifted his chin. "I stopped caring about anyone a long time ago."
Later…
They barricaded theirselves in, using old crates and discarded machinery to block the entrances. Iris found an old radio, crackling with static. They heard snippets of orders: "Sweep sector seven… bring the girl alive… kill the others…"
Iris smashed the radio with her fist, breathing hard. "They want you alive," she spat at Ava. "Why?"
Ava didn't answer. She couldn't. Because she already knew part of the reason and it involved secrets Genevieve had whispered into her ear long ago, in the dark days when she raised her like a weapon.
She touched her shoulder where Genevieve had once marked her with her sigil. The Circle wanted her because she was their unfinished experiment. Because they needed her alive to finish whatever twisted plan they had begun sixteen years ago.
Not this time.
Iris slammed a fresh magazine into her stolen rifle. "We end them all. Tonight."
Jonas looked at her, terrified. "You're both insane."
Ava smiled. "Maybe. But we're the kind of insane that survives."
An Hour Later…
Iris scouted a path through the lower tunnels, finding an old security corridor that led into the East Wing command center. It was heavily guarded at least a dozen armed Circle enforcers, armored and waiting.
Perfect.
They watched from the shadows as they paced, rifles in hand, radios crackling with terse orders. Ava could feel the old rage inside her, the part Genevieve had nurtured like a garden blooming into something cold and beautiful.
She turned to Iris. "Two at the entrance. Four by the generator. Six more on patrol. We take the ones at the door, grab their weapons, then use them as bait to draw the rest in."
Iris grinned. "Bloodbath."
Jonas swallowed. "You're both monsters."
Ava shrugged. "Takes a monster to kill monsters."
They slipped closer, shadows in the darkness. The guards never saw them coming.
Ava drove my blade into the first guard's neck, silencing his scream as Iris gutted the second. Their blood gushed across the floor, warm and slick beneath my boots. She grabbed the man's rifle, spinning toward the others as Iris tossed a flash grenade into the room.
Light exploded. Screams echoed.
They charged in, guns blazing, blades flashing. Bullets ripped through bodies, the air filling with smoke and heat. Ava saw Jonas cower in the hallway, clutching his wound, eyes wide with horror as we slaughtered the guards.
When the smoke cleared, the command center was painted red. Iris kicked a twitching body, spitting on the ground. "That's for my father," she snarled.
Ava moved to the console, plugging in the hard drive. Data spilled across the screens Circle safehouses, bank accounts, leadership structures. Everything they needed to burn their world to ash.
Jonas limped forward, staring at the carnage. "You're… you're not human…"
Ava looked over my shoulder, eyes cold. "No. We're what they made us."
She hit SEND, blasting every file to dozens of encrypted drop points Genevieve had set up years ago. Our insurance policy. Our final card.
The Circle's world was about to go up in flames.
"Come on," she said, turning to Iris. "Let's finish this."
They stepped into the hallway, guns raised, hearts pounding. And in the distance, more boots thundered toward them.
They smiled.
Let them come.