Silence.
Not peaceful—
the kind that rings in the ears after a bomb goes off.
Mara opened her eyes into a world washed in white and dust.
Her body lay half-buried under pieces of the collapsed ceiling, skin stinging from shrapnel, ribs aching with every breath. The scent of burning wires and blood cut through the air.
"What… happened…" she whispered.
Memory flickered.
Ten screaming.
The shockwave.
Daniel yelling her name.
The retrieval squad opening fire.
Then—
White.
She forced herself upright, coughing.
The lab was unrecognizable. Walls bent inward. Tables overturned. Pools of the tank's fluid spread across the floor like shimmering mirrors.
But Ten—
Ten was nowhere.
"Ten?" Mara called weakly.
"Ten!"
No answer.
Only the hiss of sparking cables.
Her chest squeezed painfully.
Not because of physical injury.
Because of the absence.
Ten had been in her arms when the world exploded.
Mara… please.
Mara staggered to her feet.
Where was she?
Where—
Her breath caught as she saw a shape pinned against the far wall.
Daniel.
His wrists were bound by magnetic cuffs. His face smeared with blood. Still alive—barely.
Mara stumbled toward him.
"Daniel—"
"Stop!" he rasped. "Don't—move—"
She froze.
A laser sight hit the floor inches from her foot.
Armored boots emerged from the smoky haze.
Retrieval squad—
no.
Higher clearance.
Black armor.
Red visors.
Tier-One enforcement.
Someone far more dangerous stepped out behind them.
A tall, elegant woman in a long white coat, untouched by dust. Her hair was silver, eyes a cold, pale gray that reflected everything and felt nothing.
She looked at Mara the way a scientist looks at a specimen.
"Mara," she said, as if greeting an old friend.
"Finally awake. You caused quite the mess."
Mara's heart stopped.
She knew that voice.
She had heard it in nightmares she never fully remembered.
"…Mother?"
The woman smiled politely.
"No, dear. But I did build the woman who built you."
Dr. Helena Voss.
Director of the Project.
The architect behind every prototype.
Daniel thrashed weakly against his restraints.
"Don't talk to her. Don't you dare talk to her—"
A guard struck him across the jaw.
"Stop!" Mara yelled.
Voss held up a gloved hand.
"I'm not here to hurt you."
Her smile sharpened.
"Unless you make it necessary."
Mara's fists clenched.
"Where's Ten?"
Voss's smile faded.
"Ah. Yes. The anomaly."
She stepped over rubble, her boots clicking with clinical confidence.
"Ten escaped the blast. She destabilized into a full psychic surge—quite impressive for something so unfinished." She folded her hands. "She's roaming freely through the lower facility as we speak."
Mara felt sick.
"You're going to hunt her."
Voss tilted her head.
"Mara… We're going to contain her. She isn't stable. She isn't safe."
"She's a child!"
"She's a weapon," Voss corrected.
"You are the child."
A cruel chill slid down Mara's spine.
Voss stepped closer, studying her face, her eyes, the tremor in her hands.
"Your neural readings are fascinating," she murmured.
"You came into direct contact with Ten during her spike."
Mara swallowed.
"So what?"
"So you're changing," Voss said simply.
"Ten's abilities are contagious—like a network handshake. You touched her mind. Now her imprint is bleeding into yours."
Mara staggered back.
"No—"
"Your electricity," Voss added casually.
"Your vision distortions. The auditory hallucinations that aren't hallucinations."
Mara's breath came in short, panicked bursts.
"You're lying."
"I don't lie," Voss said.
"I create."
The lights above Mara flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Shaking.
Then the fixtures burst—
not from Ten.
From Mara.
Glass showered around her.
Voss raised an eyebrow.
"See?" she said softly.
"You're awakening."
Mara felt heat in her hands—
not warmth.
A crackling current, like static across her skin.
"No… no no no—"
Voss nodded to the guards.
"Sedate her."
The first soldier stepped forward with a pressure injector.
Daniel strained against his bonds.
"MARA, GET UP!"
The guard lunged—
—and Mara's panic exploded like a spark.
A force slammed outward from her chest.
Invisible.
Violent.
The soldier was thrown backward into a wall, armor denting.
The others recoiled in shock.
Voss's eyes widened with fascination.
"Oh… marvelous."
Mara stared at her own trembling hands.
"What did you DO to me?"
"I enhanced you," Voss said, stepping forward with calm pride.
"You're fulfilling your purpose."
Mara shook her head violently.
"No. My purpose is to protect Ten."
Voss stopped.
Her voice dropped into something colder.
"Then we are now enemies."
The hallway behind her lit up with approaching firepower.
Daniel screamed, "MARA, RUN!"
She didn't think.
She bolted.
Bullets pinged off metal around her as she sprinted into the smoky corridor. Her legs shook violently. Her mind buzzed with static and whispers that weren't hers.
Ten's voice.
Faint, frightened.
Mara… help…
Mara stumbled, gripping the wall.
"I'm coming," she whispered breathlessly.
Ahead, a lower-level access hatch hung open—blown from its hinges by psychic force.
Ten had gone down.
Mara took a deep breath—
and jumped into the darkness after her.