Jax was bleeding when they found him.
He sat with his back against a concrete barrier at the edge of the causeway, one leg stretched in front of him and the other planted firmly on the floor. Half his shirt was gone. Dust coated his beard. One of the seismic implants along his right hand had gone dark.
Still, when Viper approached, he looked up and grinned.
"Took your damn time."
Viper crouched beside him.
"You look terrible."
"Funny. Was about to say the same thing."
Lena dropped beside him before Viper could stop her.
"Let me see."
Jax looked at the dried blood covering Lena's clothes.
"You sure you're the one who should be playing doctor?"
"Jax."
"All right."
He moved his arm.
Lena placed both hands against his side.
Gold light appeared between her fingers.
Not much.
A weak glow compared to what Viper remembered from before Lena had been taken, but it was enough.
Jax sucked air through his teeth.
"Still hate that."
"You'd rather bleed?"
"Bleeding feels more natural."
Lena almost smiled.
Almost.
Viper noticed.
She hadn't seen that expression on her sister since before Dock-7.
Then she looked beyond them.
The causeway was wrecked.
Chunks of concrete had been torn from the floor. Several Syndicate guards lay unconscious among shattered equipment. Rook stood near a security station, holding one hand against his shoulder while his other hand worked through the air.
Inside the booth, keys pressed themselves.
Screens changed.
Doors unlocked.
A cup of coffee floated off the desk.
Rook caught it, took a sip and immediately spat it out.
"Cold."
Kai stared at him.
"We're breaking into the most secure Syndicate facility on the continent and you're stealing coffee?"
"I contain multitudes."
"Where are the others?" Viper asked.
Rook's expression changed.
"Rain took the wounded back."
"How many?"
"Four."
"Dead?"
A pause.
"Two."
Viper looked toward the bodies.
She didn't know their names.
That bothered her.
They had followed her anyway.
Jax seemed to read something in her face.
"Later," he said.
Viper looked at him.
"We deal with later, later. Right now we've got a bigger problem."
Rook turned one of the monitors toward them.
The Citadel appeared on-screen.
Viper had imagined Draven's headquarters as a fortress.
She had been wrong.
It was a city.
Level after level stretched underground beneath the Dead Zone. Laboratories. Barracks. Storage facilities. Power stations. Medical wings. Training halls.
Cells.
Hundreds of cells.
Lena stopped healing Jax.
"How many?"
Rook didn't answer.
"Rook."
"Registered occupants? Nine hundred and twelve."
Nobody spoke.
Kai's grin disappeared.
Mira stepped closer to the screen.
"All Cannings?"
"Most."
Viper stared at the map.
Dock-7 had been one warehouse.
One.
And she had walked out of there thinking she'd seen the worst of it.
"How long has this been here?" she asked.
"Years," Rook said.
"No."
Rook glanced at her.
"This wasn't built in a year, Viper. Look at the lower foundations. Some of this infrastructure predates the Unleashing."
Viper looked again.
He was right.
The oldest sections were buried deep beneath the newer facility. Tunnels branched outward in deliberate geometric patterns.
This wasn't something Malik Draven had thrown together after Cannings appeared.
Someone had been preparing.
"Open everything," Viper said.
Rook laughed once.
Then realized she was serious.
"That's nine hundred people."
"I can count."
"We don't know who's down there. Some of them work for Draven."
"Some don't."
"Viper—"
"Open the cells."
Lena stood.
She looked exhausted again, but the hesitation was gone from her face.
"She's right."
Rook looked between the sisters.
"Of course she is. You're related."
"We came here to give them a choice," Lena said. "Can't choose anything from inside a cage."
Rook stared at the screen.
Then shrugged.
"Fine."
His fingers moved.
So did everything inside the security booth.
Keys punched themselves.
Switches turned.
Commands raced across monitors faster than Viper could follow.
One screen went red.
Then another.
Then all of them.
SECURITY OVERRIDE DENIED
Rook frowned.
"Well."
Kai leaned over his shoulder.
"Well what?"
"Draven knows we're here."
The lights died.
Darkness swallowed the causeway.
For half a second, nobody moved.
Then emergency lights came on.
Red.
Viper felt the change immediately.
A vibration beneath her boots.
Not mechanical.
Energy.
Jax stood.
His damaged implant flickered.
"What the hell is that?"
Mira looked toward the Citadel.
"Null field."
Viper's stomach dropped.
The field hit them.
Her power vanished.
Not weakened.
Gone.
The sensation was so sudden she almost fell.
For years, energy had been there. In the walls. The floor. The electric pulse of machines. The tiny chemical reactions inside living bodies.
Now there was nothing.
Viper looked at her hands.
Normal.
Kai tried to move.
He stumbled.
"What—"
His afterimages didn't appear.
Jax slammed his fist against the wall.
Concrete remained concrete.
Rook lifted his hand.
The coffee cup didn't move.
Mira's face flickered as her last illusion collapsed.
And Lena—
Viper turned.
Lena had gone pale.
The gold beneath her skin was gone.
"Lena?"
Her knees buckled.
Viper caught her.
"Lena!"
"I'm okay."
She wasn't.
Her breathing had become shallow.
Viper looked at Mira.
"What happens to her?"
Mira crouched.
"Her body has been relying on her healing ability since Dock-7."
Viper's voice hardened.
"What happens?"
"I don't know."
The speakers overhead crackled.
Then a man's voice filled the causeway.
Calm.
Warm.
Almost friendly.
"Evelyn Cross."
Viper froze.
Lena looked up.
Jax slowly turned toward the nearest speaker.
The voice continued.
"I wondered how long it would take you."
Viper stared at the ceiling.
"Draven."
A quiet chuckle.
"That's what everyone calls me."
Viper eased Lena against the barrier and stood.
"Turn the field off."
"No."
"I wasn't asking."
"I know."
Draven sounded amused.
That made Viper hate him more.
"You've caused quite a mess," he continued. "Dock-7 destroyed. Thirty-seven million credits in biological material lost. Several valuable subjects escaped. And now Sarah."
His voice changed slightly when he said the name.
Not sadness.
Annoyance.
Like someone had broken an expensive machine.
Lena heard it too.
"She was a person," she said.
Silence.
Then—
"Lena."
Her whole body went rigid.
Viper stepped between her and the speaker without thinking.
Draven laughed softly.
"How remarkable. Subject H-17. I was told your extraction cycle had left you unstable."
"My name is Lena."
"Yes. I know."
"Then use it."
A pause.
"Lena."
Viper could hear the smile.
"You were always difficult."
Lena's hand found Viper's.
Viper squeezed it.
"You're done," Viper said.
"Am I?"
"Sarah killed your signal."
"She did."
"You've lost your recruitment network."
"Temporarily."
"You've got hundreds of prisoners underneath us."
"Citizens."
Jax snorted.
"Funny-looking citizenship."
Draven ignored him.
"Evelyn, do you know what happens if you open those cells?"
"People walk out."
"No. People die."
Viper said nothing.
"Some have lived here for years. Some have never seen the world beyond these walls since the day their abilities manifested. Some cannot control what they are. Others don't want to leave."
"Then they can stay."
"And the rest?"
"They choose."
Draven sighed.
"You sound like your father."
Viper stopped breathing.
Lena's fingers tightened around hers.
Nobody moved.
Viper stared at the speaker.
"What did you say?"
For the first time, Draven didn't sound amused.
"Interesting."
"Say it again."
"Your father."
Viper walked toward the speaker.
"You knew him?"
"I knew both your parents."
Lena stood despite Mira trying to stop her.
"That's impossible."
"No, Lena. What is impossible is that neither of you ever wondered why two sisters developed gifts so extraordinarily compatible."
Viper's stomach twisted.
"Energy manipulation and biological restoration," Draven continued. "Destruction and repair. Entropy and renewal."
"Shut up."
"Your mother called you her miracles."
"Shut up."
"She wasn't being poetic."
Viper ripped the speaker from the wall.
Wires came with it.
Draven's voice continued through the others.
"You deserve to know what you are."
"I know what I am."
"Do you?"
The blast door at the end of the causeway unlocked.
A green light appeared above it.
Nobody moved.
Slowly, the door opened.
Beyond it was a clean white corridor.
No guards.
No turrets.
Nothing.
At the end stood an elevator.
Its doors were open.
"Come downstairs," Draven said.
Jax laughed.
"Absolutely not."
"Bring everyone if that makes you comfortable."
"That makes me less comfortable."
Draven ignored him.
"There are no guards between you and me."
Viper looked at Rook.
"Can you confirm?"
"My powers are dead."
"Use the terminal."
Rook checked.
His face tightened.
"He's telling the truth."
Kai looked toward the elevator.
"That's somehow worse."
Viper agreed.
Lena stepped beside her.
"Evie."
"No."
"You don't even know what I'm going to say."
"Yes, I do."
"We came for Draven."
"We came to stop him."
"And he's downstairs."
"Waiting."
Lena looked at her.
"Then let's stop making him wait."
Viper stared at her sister.
There was fear in Lena's eyes.
Real fear.
But she wasn't hiding it anymore.
Viper had spent three months imagining this moment.
She'd pictured Draven behind armies. Behind walls. Behind Cannings twisted into weapons.
She'd pictured tearing the Citadel apart piece by piece until there was nowhere left for him to run.
She had never imagined he'd simply open the door.
Jax stepped beside her.
"Trap."
"Obviously," Mira said.
"Terrible trap."
"Still obvious."
Kai raised his hand.
"Can I vote for not walking into the obvious trap?"
Rook looked at him.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because we're going to do it anyway."
"Oh."
Kai lowered his hand.
"Cool."
Viper looked down the corridor.
Then at Lena.
Then at the dead implant on Jax's hand.
Without their gifts, they were just people.
Maybe that was what Draven wanted.
Maybe he wanted Viper to feel small.
Human.
Powerless.
He had made a mistake.
Viper had been powerless before.
Long before she became Viper.
Before the energy.
Before the killing.
There had been Evelyn Cross.
A girl who stole food when Lena was hungry.
A girl who lied to government officers at seventeen while her sister hid beneath the floorboards.
A girl who had learned that being afraid and being helpless were two very different things.
Viper started walking.
Jax followed.
Then Rook.
Mira.
Kai.
Lena stayed beside her.
They reached the elevator.
Seven buttons lined the interior.
Only one was lit.
B7
Viper pressed it.
The doors closed.
The elevator descended.
Nobody spoke for the first twenty seconds.
Kai lasted twenty-one.
"So... your parents knew Draven?"
Viper looked at him.
"Read the room, kid."
"I'm just saying we're all thinking it."
"We are," Rook said.
"Thank you."
"Still shouldn't have said it."
Kai sighed.
The elevator kept descending.
B3.
B4.
B5.
Lena leaned closer to Viper.
"You remember Dad's workshop?"
Viper looked at her.
"Yeah."
"He never let us inside."
"He had equipment."
"He fixed generators."
"That's what he told us."
Lena looked at the floor.
"What if Draven's telling the truth?"
Viper didn't answer.
Because she remembered something.
Their father coming home at three in the morning.
The smell of chemicals on his coat.
Arguments behind closed doors.
Her mother crying.
A locked metal case beneath their bed.
And one night—
Viper had been eleven.
She'd woken to voices downstairs.
Her father.
Her mother.
And someone else.
A man.
She couldn't remember his face.
Only his voice.
Calm.
Warm.
Almost friendly.
Viper looked at the elevator doors.
"Oh God."
Lena saw it immediately.
"What?"
"I've heard him before."
The elevator stopped.
B7
The doors opened.
There was no laboratory beyond them.
No throne room.
No army.
There was a house.
Viper didn't move.
For one impossible moment, her brain refused to understand what her eyes were seeing.
Yellow walls.
A battered brown couch.
A wooden table with one leg shorter than the others.
A kitchen doorway.
Even the stupid ceramic rooster Lena had painted when she was eight sat on the windowsill.
Their childhood home.
Rebuilt underground.
Perfectly.
Lena stepped out of the elevator.
"No."
Viper caught her arm.
"Wait."
But Lena was staring at the kitchen.
On the table sat a plate.
Three pancakes.
Burned black around the edges.
A bottle of syrup beside them.
Lena's face went white.
Mira whispered, "Viper..."
"I know."
"This isn't an illusion."
"I know."
A man stepped through the kitchen doorway.
Malik Draven looked nothing like Viper had imagined.
No armor.
No scars.
No monstrous mutation.
He looked tired.
Late fifties, maybe sixty. Dark suit with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. Gray threaded through his hair. A pair of glasses rested in his hand.
He looked at Viper.
Then Lena.
And something like regret crossed his face.
"Evelyn."
Viper's fists tightened.
Draven's eyes moved to Lena.
"I'm sorry about Sarah."
Lena stared at him.
"You don't get to say her name."
Draven nodded once.
"Fair."
Viper stepped forward.
"Why is this here?"
Draven looked around the room.
"Because this is where it began."
"Where what began?"
Draven met her eyes.
"The Cannings."
Silence.
Viper felt Lena's hand slip into hers.
Draven walked to the table and pulled out a chair.
He didn't sit.
Instead, he turned the chair around.
On its back was a faded burn mark.
Viper knew that mark.
She had made it when she was thirteen.
The first time energy came out of her hands.
She hadn't told anyone except—
"Dad," she whispered.
Draven looked at her.
"Yes."
The lights above them came on one by one.
The walls changed.
Not an illusion.
Panels slid aside.
The childhood home remained in the center, but beyond it—
Glass.
Computers.
Medical equipment.
Rows of sealed storage chambers.
And photographs.
Hundreds of them.
Viper saw her own face.
Lena's.
Their mother.
Their father.
Sarah.
Jax.
Mira.
Cannings she had never met.
Children.
Adults.
Families.
Decades of records.
One photograph sat apart from the others.
Three people standing in a laboratory.
A younger Malik Draven.
Viper's mother.
And her father.
All smiling.
Beneath it was a date.
Twenty-three years before the Unleashing.
Viper stared at it.
"No."
Draven set his glasses on the table.
"You call it the Unleashing because that's what governments taught you to call it. One day humanity changed. Gifts appeared. Civilization panicked."
He looked at the photograph.
"But that isn't what happened."
Lena stepped closer.
"What happened?"
Draven's gaze settled on the sisters.
"We did."
Viper felt cold.
Draven continued.
"Your parents and I were part of a research program called Destiny."
Behind him, a monitor activated.
Two words appeared.
PROJECT DESTINY
Draven looked at Viper.
"Cannings aren't the next stage of human evolution."
Then at Lena.
"They were designed."
Nobody spoke.
The null field hummed around them.
Somewhere far above, alarms continued to scream.
Viper stared at the photographs of thousands of lives built upon a secret buried before she had even been born.
Draven pulled out the chair opposite him.
"Sit down, Evelyn."
His expression hardened.
"We need to talk about what your parents did."