Aria's POV
Sixty seconds until the elimination squad arrives.
We're running through alleys with Maya limp in my arms. Her skin is turning blue. She's dying right now, in real time, and I can't do anything to stop it.
"There!" Kaelen points to a drainage tunnel. "Inside!"
We drop into the sewer system. The smell is awful but I don't care. Above us, I hear the thunder of boots. Dozens of guards flooding the area.
"They're everywhere," I whisper.
"IRIS, can you mask our heat signatures?" Kaelen asks.
"Already done," IRIS replies in my head. "But it won't last long. The Watchers are adapting. They're learning to detect me."
"How is that possible?" Kaelen demands. "You're supposed to be invisible to them."
"I was. For twenty years. But now that I'm active again, they can sense something's different in the system. They're hunting for anomalies." IRIS sounds worried—can AI sound worried? "We have maybe thirty minutes before they pinpoint our exact location."
Maya coughs blood onto my shirt.
"She doesn't have thirty minutes," I say. My voice breaks. "Kaelen, she's dying in my arms."
His jaw tightens. He checks Maya's pulse and his expression goes dark. "Her heart rate is dropping. Without oxygen support, she'll be gone in twenty minutes."
Twenty minutes.
Two million people die at midnight—six hours from now.
Maya dies in twenty minutes.
And we're trapped in a sewer with an army hunting us.
"I can't save everyone," I whisper. The weight of it crushes me. "I can't save her AND stop Protocol Omega. There's not enough time."
"Then we split up." Kaelen's voice is steady, but his eyes show the same desperation I feel. "I take Maya to a back-channel medical contact. You go to the facility, get the medicine, and I'll meet you there."
"You'll be branded a traitor the moment you're seen with her."
"I'm already a traitor." He touches my face gently, and the gesture is so unexpected it steals my breath. "I became one the moment I chose you over the Council."
"Why?" The question bursts out. "Why choose me? You don't even know me."
Something painful crosses his face. "But I do know you. Or... I did. Once." He shakes his head. "I can't explain it. Ever since I saw you at the execution, something in my broken memories recognized you. Like we've met before. Like you matter."
My heart pounds. "That's impossible."
"I know. But impossible things keep happening today." He gently takes Maya from my arms. "Go. Get the medicine. Stop Omega. Save everyone."
"What if I can't?"
"Then we die trying." He smiles, sad and beautiful. "Better than living on our knees."
IRIS speaks urgently: "Aria, I'm detecting something. The medical facility's security just went offline for exactly four minutes."
"What? Why?"
"I don't know. But it's now or never. This might be your only window."
Kaelen's eyes narrow. "That's too convenient. Smells like a trap."
"Everything's a trap!" I snap. "But Maya dies in twenty minutes and two million people die in six hours! I don't have the luxury of being careful!"
He grabs my shoulders. "Listen to me. When you get inside, Lysandra will try to manipulate you. She'll offer you deals, promise you things. Don't trust her. She's worse than the Council—she enjoys the cruelty."
"I'll remember."
"And Aria?" His voice drops. "If it comes down to a choice between saving everyone and saving yourself... choose yourself. Run. The world needs you alive."
"The world needs people who don't run."
His thumb brushes my cheek, wiping away a tear I didn't know had fallen. "Stubborn."
"Hypocrite." I almost smile. Almost.
Then I force myself to step back. To leave Maya with him. To trust this man who killed my best friend but also might be the only good person in this rotten city.
"Keep her alive," I whisper.
"I will. I promise."
I run.
The facility is twenty blocks away. I sprint through the darkness, my heart hammering, IRIS guiding me past patrol routes and camera blind spots. The Protocol enhances my speed, my stamina. I'm faster than I've ever been.
But not fast enough to outrun the clock.
The medical facility looms ahead—a massive white building that looks more like a prison than a hospital. The security window is still open. Four minutes turned into three.
I'm going in.
"IRIS, any signs of ambush?"
"The building's too shielded. I can't see inside clearly. But Aria..." She hesitates. "I'm detecting massive power signatures in the basement. Something big is down there."
"The medicine?"
"I don't think so. It feels like... weapons. Lots of them."
No time to worry about that. I slip through the front entrance. The doors unlock automatically—the Protocol clearing my path. Inside, the hallways are eerily empty. White walls. Fluorescent lights. The smell of antiseptic.
Too quiet.
"Where's the medicine stored?" I whisper.
"Sublevel 3, vault 7. But Aria, you should know—"
An alarm screams to life.
Red lights flash. Steel barriers slam down, blocking exits. I spin around, looking for threats.
Lysandra's voice purrs through speakers: "Hello, little ghost. Right on time."
She steps out from a side corridor, flanked by guards in black armor. Her white suit is pristine. Her smile is vicious.
"Did you really think I'd let you just walk in?" she laughs. "That security window wasn't a glitch. It was bait. And you bit so beautifully."
I reach for my weapons but guards are already behind me, guns aimed at my head.
Trapped.
"The medicine is right here." Lysandra holds up a small vial filled with blue liquid. Maya's only hope. "Surrender the Protocol and I'll give it to you. Simple trade."
"And Protocol Omega?"
"Also canceled. Two million lives for one AI system. That's a bargain, isn't it?"
My mind races. She's lying. She has to be lying. But what if she's not? What if I could actually save everyone with one surrender?
"IRIS?" I think desperately. "What do I do?"
"Don't trust her! Once she has me, she'll kill you and activate Omega anyway!"
"But what if—"
"There's no 'what if'! She's evil, Aria!"
Lysandra tilts her head, watching me like I'm a fascinating insect. "Clock's ticking, darling. Your friend's child has... oh, about twelve minutes of life left. Make your choice."
"How do I know you'll keep your word?"
"You don't." She smiles wider. "But you don't have many options, do you?"
She's right. I'm surrounded. Outgunned. Maya's dying. Millions condemned.
I raise my hands in surrender.
"Smart girl." Lysandra approaches with a device. "This will extract the Protocol from your implant. It'll hurt. A lot. But you'll survive."
The device touches my temple.
Pain explodes through my skull—worse than anything before. It feels like she's ripping my brain out through my eyes. I scream.
"ARIA, FIGHT BACK!" IRIS shrieks.
But I can't. The pain is too much. I feel IRIS being torn away from me, feel the Protocol's code unraveling.
Then, through the agony, I hear Kaelen's voice in my implant—how is he in my implant?
"Aria, it's a trap! The medicine is fake! I analyzed a sample—it's just colored water! Maya doesn't need it because—"
The transmission cuts off.
What? What did he mean?
I force my eyes open through the pain. Focus on the vial in Lysandra's hand. The Protocol—what's left of it—kicks in. I analyze the liquid's molecular structure.
Kaelen's right. It's fake. Just water and dye.
She never had the real medicine.
Which means...
Rage explodes through me, stronger than the pain. Lysandra lied. About everything.
"IRIS, OVERRIDE!"
"I thought you'd never ask!" IRIS roars to life inside me. "Hold on!"
Power surges through my body. The extraction device explodes in Lysandra's hand. She screams and stumbles back.
I grab a guard's weapon and fire. Not to kill—just to create chaos. Guards scatter. Alarms wail louder.
I run for the basement. If the medicine isn't here, maybe Kaelen found it somewhere else. But IRIS said there were weapons in the basement. Maybe there's something I can use.
I burst through a stairwell door and fly downward. Sublevel 1. Sublevel 2. Sublevel 3.
The basement door is marked: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY - LETHAL FORCE APPROVED.
I kick it open.
And freeze.
The room is massive. And it's filled with bombs. Hundreds of them. All armed. All connected to a central timer.
The timer reads: 00:04:47
Four minutes and forty-seven seconds until detonation.
"IRIS, what is this?"
Her voice is small with horror. "It's a failsafe. If Protocol Omega fails, they'll just blow up The Depths manually. Everyone dies anyway."
I stare at the bombs, at the timer ticking down, at the lives of millions hanging by seconds.
Behind me, footsteps thunder down the stairs. Lysandra's guards coming.
Ahead of me, a terminal glows—probably the detonation controls.
"Can you disarm them?" I ask IRIS desperately.
"Not in four minutes. The encryption is military-grade. I'd need at least twenty minutes to crack it."
The timer hits 00:04:00.
Four minutes until two million people die.
And I have no idea how to stop it.
My implant chimes with an incoming message. I open it with shaking hands.
It's a video of Kaelen. He's in some kind of vehicle, Maya on the seat beside him. The little girl is sitting up, breathing normally, ALIVE.
"Aria," Kaelen says, his face urgent. "Maya never needed the Council's medicine. My medical contact figured it out—her disease was engineered by the Council to make her dependent on their drugs. We cured her with basic antibiotics. It was all fake. All of it."
Relief floods through me. Maya's alive. Safe.
But then Kaelen's expression darkens. "And Aria... I'm sorry. I just discovered something about you. Something the memory wipe made me forget." He takes a shaky breath. "Your mother's name was Mira Chen. My mother's name was Mira Voss. They were twin sisters. Which means—"
The video cuts off as guards burst into the basement.
Timer: 00:03:30
But I can't move. Can't think. Can't breathe.
Because I just understood what Kaelen was about to say.
We're cousins.
His parents were my family.
And the Council erased us from each other's memories.