Sera's POV
The shuttle breaks through Earth's atmosphere and my stomach drops.
Through the window, I watch my planet shrink below us. Somewhere down there, Marcus and Diana are celebrating my destruction. My parents are telling everyone how disappointed they are in their mentally unstable daughter.
Good. Let them think I'm broken. Let them think they won.
"First time in space?" Dr. Nyx asks from the seat across from me.
I can only nod. My hands grip the armrests so tight my knuckles turn white.
"The Academy orbits Earth. We'll be there in twenty minutes." She studies me with those strange purple eyes. "You're calmer than most humans facing enhancement. Usually they're crying or begging to go home by now."
"I don't have a home to go back to."
"No," she agrees softly. "You don't. That makes you either very brave or very desperate."
"Both," I whisper.
The Orbital Academy appears ahead—a massive structure of crystalline towers and metallic rings spinning slowly in the darkness. It's beautiful and terrifying, like everything about the Aelarians.
We dock in a bay filled with ships I don't recognize. Dr. Nyx leads me through corridors that pulse with soft blue light. Other Aelarians pass us, tall and perfect, barely glancing at me. To them, I'm nothing. An inferior.
"The enhancement chamber is this way," Dr. Nyx says. "But first, you need to meet Commander Zenthar. He oversees all Techno-Knight training. He'll evaluate you."
My heart pounds. The man from the text. The one who doesn't think humans can succeed.
We stop at a door that slides open silently. The room beyond is large and empty except for training equipment and one man standing with his back to us.
"Commander," Dr. Nyx says. "This is Sera Vance. The 97% compatibility."
He turns around and I forget how to breathe.
Commander Kael Zenthar is the most beautiful and terrifying thing I've ever seen. Silver-white hair falls to his shoulders. His eyes are violet like all Aelarians, but darker—almost purple-black. He's tall, maybe six and a half feet, with a warrior's build barely contained by his black uniform.
But it's not his looks that steal my breath. It's the coldness in his eyes. Like looking into deep space—vast and empty and utterly without mercy.
"Another human," he says flatly. His voice is deep and cold as winter. "How wonderful."
The sarcasm cuts like a blade.
"Her compatibility scores are unprecedented," Dr. Nyx argues. "She could be—"
"Dead by morning. Like the twelve humans before her." Kael walks toward me slowly, like a predator circling prey. "Tell me, Sera Vance. Why do you want to become a Techno-Knight?"
I meet his eyes even though everything in me wants to look away. "Because I have nothing left to lose."
"Wrong answer." He stops inches from me. Up close, he's even more intimidating. "The ones with nothing to lose die first. They have no reason to fight through the pain. No reason to survive."
"Then I'll find a reason."
His eyes narrow. "Such as?"
"Revenge," I say simply. "I want to become strong enough that no one can ever take everything from me again."
Something flickers in his expression. Too fast to read.
"Revenge." He says the word like he's tasting it. "How very human. And who exactly do you plan to take revenge on?"
"Everyone who thought I was weak. Everyone who used me. Everyone who tried to destroy me." My voice gets stronger with each word. "I'm going to rise so high they'll have to look up just to see the bottom of my feet."
Silence.
Then Kael does something unexpected. He laughs. It's a short, harsh sound without any warmth.
"You have spirit. I'll give you that." He walks away, picks up a training staff from the wall. "But spirit doesn't survive the enhancement chamber. Pain tolerance does. Mental fortitude does. The ability to hold onto yourself when your body is being torn apart and rebuilt does."
He turns back to me. "Show me you can handle pain, Sera Vance. Then maybe I'll believe you can survive."
He throws the staff. I catch it clumsily.
"What—"
"Defend yourself."
He moves faster than my eyes can track. One second he's across the room. The next, his staff cracks against my ribs. I gasp and stumble.
"Too slow," he says emotionlessly. "Again."
He strikes. I try to block. He's too fast, too strong, too everything. The staff hits my shoulder. My thigh. My back.
I fall to my knees, gasping.
"Pathetic," Kael says. "This is what you're offering me? A weak human who can't even stand up to basic combat?"
Rage burns through the pain. I force myself up, legs shaking.
"I'm not enhanced yet," I grit out. "Once I am—"
"IF you survive." He strikes again. I dodge this time—barely. "Most don't. They scream and beg us to stop the process. To let them die. Is that what you'll do, Sera? Will you beg?"
"Never." I swing the staff at him. He blocks it effortlessly, but at least I tried.
"Never?" He disarms me with a twist of his wrist. The staff clatters across the floor. "We'll see about that."
He grabs my chin, forcing me to meet his eyes. His hand is cold against my skin.
"The enhancement process begins in two hours. It will be the worst pain you've ever experienced. It will feel like dying—because parts of you will die. The weak parts. The human parts. What emerges might not even be recognizably you anymore."
"I don't care," I whisper. "Anything is better than what I was."
His eyes search mine. Looking for weakness. For doubt.
"Dr. Nyx," he says without looking away from me. "Prep the chamber. Let's see if this one is different."
He releases me and I stagger back.
"Two hours, Sera Vance. Eat if you can. Sleep if you're able. Say goodbye to your human body." He heads toward the door. "Because you're either going to die tonight, or you're going to become something new. There is no going back."
The door slides shut behind him.
My legs give out. I sink to the floor, shaking. Not from fear—though there's plenty of that. But from something else. Something burning in my chest.
Dr. Nyx helps me up gently. "He's always like this with new candidates. Testing them. Breaking them before the chamber does."
"Did I pass his test?"
"I don't know. He's hard to read." She guides me toward the door. "Come. I'll show you to your prep room. You should rest while you can."
The prep room is small and clinical. There's a bed, a shower, a mirror. Dr. Nyx leaves me alone with instructions to be ready in ninety minutes.
I look at myself in the mirror. I'm thin from months of barely eating. There are dark circles under my eyes. I look exactly like what I am—broken.
My phone buzzes. I pull it out, shocked it even works up here.
New message. From Marcus.
I almost don't open it. Then I do.
There's a photo. Marcus and Diana at some fancy restaurant. Diana's wearing an engagement ring that probably cost more than I made in a year. They're both smiling at the camera, looking perfect and happy.
The message underneath: Living our best life with YOUR research money. Thanks again! P.S. - Your mom says you haven't called to apologize yet. Typical Sera, too proud to admit when you're wrong.
My hands shake so hard I almost drop the phone.
They think I'm defeated. Think I'm somewhere crying and broken and done.
They have no idea where I am. What I'm about to become.
I delete the message and turn off my phone.
In ninety minutes, I either die or transform into something they can't imagine.
Either way, they'll never hurt me again.
I lie down on the bed, closing my eyes. I don't expect to sleep, but exhaustion pulls me under.
I dream of golden eyes and liquid metal and pain so bright it burns away everything I used to be.
When I wake, someone is shaking my shoulder.
"It's time," Dr. Nyx says quietly.
My heart hammers against my ribs. "Already?"
"You slept for an hour. We need to go now."
I follow her through more corridors. We pass other humans in the hallways—the ones who work here as servants and laborers. They stare at me with a mix of pity and fear. They know where I'm going.
The enhancement chamber is at the end of a long hallway. The door is thick metal that hisses open like a mouth.
Inside, there's a medical platform surrounded by machines I don't understand. Needles. Tubes. Screens showing readouts I can't read.
And standing beside the platform, arms crossed, is Commander Kael.
"Last chance to run," he says coldly. "No shame in choosing to live as you are rather than die trying to be something more."
I walk past him and climb onto the platform without a word.
His eyebrows rise slightly. "Brave or stupid. I still can't tell which."
"Does it matter?"
"No." He nods to Dr. Nyx. "Strap her in. Let's begin."
Cold metal restraints lock around my wrists and ankles. My chest. My throat. I can barely move.
Dr. Nyx leans over me. "Once we start, we can't stop. No matter what. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"It's going to hurt more than you can imagine."
"I understand."
She looks at Kael. He stares down at me with those cold violet eyes.
"Why do I feel like you're going to surprise me, Sera Vance?" he murmurs.
Then he nods to Dr. Nyx.
"Begin the enhancement."
The machines hum to life. Something cold floods into my veins through the IV.
For three seconds, there's nothing.
Then the pain hits.
And I start screaming.