Ava's POV
We burst out of the facility's last emergency hatch just as the ground shuddered beneath us. Behind us, smoke and fire tore into the sky, a fiery tomb sealing everything the Circle had built. The world tilted. For a second, I felt weightless, then my boots hit gravel and I was running, coughing, blood pounding in my ears.
Jonas collapsed to his knees, vomiting bile and soot. Iris dropped beside a rock outcropping, checking her rifle and scanning the treeline.
We'd made it out. But we weren't safe.
A helicopter thundered overhead. Not Circle colors.
Jonas looked up, shielding his eyes. "Extraction?"
I shook my head. "No. That's not ours."
The chopper circled, then dropped lower. A spotlight burst on, blinding us. A voice crackled from a speaker: "Drop your weapons! You are surrounded!"
Iris cursed. "Of course they sent cleanup."
From the forest, figures emerged in black tactical armor a different insignia. Not Circle. Not government. Something worse.
I grabbed Jonas and dragged him behind a boulder. "They knew we'd survive."
He gasped, "Who...who are they?"
I didn't answer.
Because I recognized the symbol.
A phoenix engulfed in black fire.
Genevieve's mark.
She was still alive.
And she'd been watching all along.
Gunfire exploded. Iris opened fire, dropping two operatives. I fired back, covering Jonas as he scrambled into the tree line. We didn't have much ammo, and they had numbers real, organized numbers.
We fled, ducking and weaving through the woods. Shots slammed into trees around us. I tripped once, rolling down a shallow hill and landing in mud. Jonas hauled me up, bleeding from a new cut across his scalp.
Iris caught up, panting. "They're tracking us. And they're not Circle. This is bigger."
I wiped the blood from my mouth. "No more hiding. We take the fight to her."
Jonas blinked. "You mean...Genevieve?"
I nodded.
"She made me a weapon. Now she gets to see what I've become."
This wasn't the end.
It was the beginning of another war.
Ava's POV
The forest was dense, swallowing our footsteps in layers of pine needles and moss. The night was suffocatingly quiet now, except for the occasional hiss of a drone flying overhead. Jonas was limping badly, favoring his right leg. Iris moved with her rifle raised, every muscle taut.
We hadn't spoken since the escape.
Not because there was nothing to say but because none of us knew where to begin.
After two hours of silence, we found a narrow ravine, half-hidden by fallen logs. Iris scanned the area, then nodded. "We camp here. No fire. No light. Just silence."
I lowered myself against the cold earth, finally letting the pain catch up with me. My shoulder ached from where the bullet had grazed me earlier. My body was shaking, but not from the cold.
From what I saw back there.
Those tanks. Those faces. That clone with my mother's features, what kind of monsters were they?
Iris sat beside me, pulling her hood low. "You still think this ends with Genevieve?"
I didn't answer. I stared into the dark, hearing phantom echoes of her voice in my head.
You're my finest creation.
Jonas cleared his throat from across the hollow. "I pulled what I could from the console before the purge."
He handed me a cracked tablet, the screen flickering. "There are names. Places. A list of candidates -kids, teens, even government agents. All part of a new phase. Project Hades."
I scrolled through them. Every name burned into me like a brand.
One stood out.
"Erik Vale," I whispered. "He was supposed to be dead."
Jonas looked up. "Who is he?"
I closed the tablet.
"My brother."
Iris's eyes snapped to me. "You have a brother?"
I nodded slowly. "I thought he died in the first purge. But if he's on this list… he's alive."
And if Genevieve kept him hidden, then he was no longer just my brother.
He was a weapon.
And I would have to find him.
Or kill him.