Nobody moved.
The room still looked like a family home, but now that Viper knew it wasn't, every detail felt wrong.
The couch had the same tear along one armrest.
The kitchen clock was frozen at 8:17.
A faded drawing still hung on the refrigerator.
Lena walked toward it before anyone could stop her.
She reached out carefully, almost afraid it would disappear.
"It's mine," she said quietly.
The paper had yellowed with age. A crooked house. Two stick figures holding hands beneath an oversized sun.
Across the bottom, written in childish handwriting:
I and Evie.
Lena smiled for the first time in what felt like forever.
It lasted barely a second.
"You kept this?"
Draven nodded once.
"I kept everything."
"Why?"
"Because I knew one day you'd ask that question."
Viper didn't take her eyes off him.
"You don't get points for sentiment."
"I wasn't asking for any."
The silence stretched.
Jax wandered toward one of the windows. There wasn't actually a view outside only reinforced glass looking into another chamber but he stood there anyway, arms folded.
Kai leaned toward Rook.
"Does this guy always talk like he's in a documentary?"
Rook didn't look away from Draven.
"I think that's just his face."
Kai almost laughed.
Almost.
Nobody else did.
Draven walked to the dining table and rested both hands on the back of a chair.
"When your parents left Project Destiny, they took something with them."
"What?" Viper asked.
"They never told you?"
"They're dead."
"I know."
"Then stop talking like they might walk through that door."
Draven lowered his eyes for a moment.
"They took the original research."
Mira frowned.
"You kept copies."
"Not all of it."
"The important part?"
Draven nodded.
"They didn't trust me anymore."
"You blamed them?" Mira asked.
"I blamed myself."
Viper let out a quiet breath through her nose.
"I'm trying very hard to decide whether you're a liar or just someone who's convinced himself he's the hero."
Draven met her gaze.
"I've been both."
That answer irritated her more than if he'd denied everything.
People like him weren't supposed to admit mistakes.
It made him harder to hate.
She didn't like that.
Lena was still looking around the room.
"There used to be a piano."
Draven looked surprised.
"You remember?"
"A little."
"My mother played every Sunday."
He nodded.
"I couldn't find it."
She looked back at him.
"You rebuilt our house."
"As closely as I could."
"You had no right."
"No."
His answer came immediately.
"I didn't."
For a long moment no one spoke.
Then Jax finally turned around.
"I've got a question."
Draven looked at him.
"Go ahead."
"You've spent the last ten minutes telling us you're full of regrets."
"I have."
"So why keep the cages?"
The room grew quiet again.
Draven didn't answer immediately.
When he finally spoke, his voice was softer.
"Because some people begged me not to let them leave."
Kai frowned.
"That doesn't make any sense."
"It didn't, to me either."
Draven walked over to one of the monitors.
A security feed appeared.
It showed a common room somewhere deeper in the Citadel.
Children were sitting on the floor playing cards.
An elderly woman was reading.
Two teenagers argued over a chessboard.
Nobody looked frightened.
Nobody looked restrained.
"They've lived underground for years," Draven said.
"Some have families here now."
"Some don't remember the surface."
"They've heard stories."
"Most of those stories are true."
He changed cameras.
This time it showed another wing.
Medical beds.
Patients.
Doctors moving between them.
Lena stepped closer.
"They're sick."
"The null sickness."
Lena looked back.
"I've never heard of it."
"Few people have."
"The public isn't supposed to."
Draven paused.
"When a caning is exposed to unstable null energy for too long..."
He didn't finish.
He didn't need to.
Several people in the room understood.
One patient stared blankly at the ceiling.
Another's hands trembled uncontrollably.
A young boy couldn't stop shaking.
Lena swallowed.
"You've been treating them?"
"We've been trying."
She looked at Mira.
"Is this real?"
Mira studied the monitors carefully.
"I don't know."
"I think so."
There wasn't certainty in her voice.
Only doubt.
Viper hated doubt.
It was easier when the world divided itself into enemies and allies.
Into monsters and victims.
Now every answer seemed to split into two more questions.
A shrill alarm interrupted the silence.
This one was different.
Rook looked toward the ceiling.
"That's external."
He hurried to one of the consoles.
His fingers flew across the keyboard.
"They're cutting communications."
Draven walked over beside him.
"Show me."
Satellite images appeared.
Cloud cover drifted over the Dead Zone.
Small flashes of light appeared on the horizon.
Jax narrowed his eyes.
"Those aren't missiles."
"No," Draven said quietly.
"They're transport carriers."
Kai looked confused.
"I thought you said governments wanted to destroy this place."
"They do."
"They also want what's inside it."
Another image loaded.
Columns of armored personnel carriers rolled across the desert.
Behind them came mobile containment units.
Hundreds of them.
Lena stared.
"They're planning arrests."
"No."
Draven zoomed in.
Each containment unit carried a serial number.
And beneath it
PROPERTY TRANSFER AUTHORIZED
Viper felt something cold settle in her stomach.
"They're dividing people up."
Nobody answered.
They didn't have to.
The screen spoke clearly enough.
Research facilities.
Military contractors.
Private security companies.
Different logos.
Different destinations.
The same people.
Kai whispered the words before anyone else could.
"They're selling them."
Draven nodded once.
"Officially they'll call it emergency relocation."
Jax's jaw tightened.
"Unofficially?"
"Asset distribution."
The word lingered in the air.
Asset.
Not patient.
Not a citizen.
Not a person.
Asset.
Lena looked away from the screen.
"I used to hear them say that."
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
"They never called us by our names."
No one interrupted her.
"They'd walk past the rooms with clipboards."
"'Asset H-17 responding well.'"
"'Asset B-04 requires sedation.'"
She wrapped her arms around herself.
"I remember thinking..."
She stopped.
"What?"
"I started answering it."
The room went completely still.
Viper crossed the distance between them without thinking.
She put a hand on Lena's shoulder.
"You were surviving."
"I know."
"But sometimes..."
Lena laughed softly.
"...sometimes I still hear it before I remember my own name."
Viper didn't know what to say.
So she said nothing.
She simply stayed there.
After a while, Lena leaned into her shoulder.
Just slightly.
Enough.
Draven watched the two sisters for a long moment.
"I failed her."
Viper looked at him.
"You don't get to carry all of that."
"I don't?"
"No."
Her voice hardened.
"You made choices."
"So did the people who built those camps."
"So did the governments buying healing blood."
"So did everyone who looked away."
She shook her head.
"You don't get to pretend you're the only villain."
Draven studied her.
"That's a dangerous way to think."
"Why?"
"Because if everyone shares the blame..."
"...then no one changes."
She considered that.
Maybe he was right.
Maybe he wasn't.
The truth felt bigger than either of them.
Rook suddenly looked up from the terminal.
"I've got something."
Everyone turned.
"I found the evacuation tunnels."
Draven's head snapped toward the screen.
"Where?"
"Old maintenance shafts."
"They connect to abandoned freight lines."
"How many exits?" Jax asked.
"Twelve."
"Enough?"
Rook hesitated.
"If they stay organized."
Kai gave a nervous laugh.
"So... impossible."
"No," Lena said.
Everyone looked at her.
She had straightened up.
She still looked exhausted.
But there was something steady in her eyes.
"We don't evacuate them as prisoners."
"What do you mean?" Mira asked.
"We tell them the truth."
Lena glanced toward Draven.
"All of it."
"If they want to stay..."
"They stay."
"If they want to leave..."
"They leave."
"No lies."
"No promises."
"Just the choice."
Draven looked at her for several seconds.
"I've spent years trying to protect people by deciding for them."
Lena nodded.
"I know."
"And you're saying that's where I went wrong."
"I'm saying fear makes terrible decisions."
A faint smile crossed Draven's face.
"You sound like your mother."
Lena smiled back.
"I hope so."
Outside the room, another alarm echoed through the Citadel.
This one was closer.
Whatever was coming was no longer hours away.
It was here.
Viper looked around the room.
At Jax.
At Mira.
At Kai's, trying very hard not to look scared.
At Rook, already planning three steps ahead.
At Lena.
Then finally at Draven.
"I still don't trust you."
"I know."
"I'm probably never going to."
"I know."
"But if there are nine hundred people down here..."
She looked toward the tunnels beneath the house.
"...then standing around arguing isn't helping any of them."
Jax slapped his hands together once.
"Finally."
Kai grinned.
"So we've got a plan?"
Rook sighed.
"We've got the beginning of one."
Viper reached for the old journal and tucked it inside her jacket.
She didn't know whether it contained answers.
Maybe it contained more lies.
Either way, it belonged with her now.
She looked toward the doorway leading deeper into the Citadel.
"Let's go meet the people we're trying to save."