Seth’s POVThe air outside the Tyrel estate tasted faintly of rain and exhaust. As I walked away from the gate, I caught myself taking a long breath, the first deep, easy breath I’d taken in days. Talking to Alex had gone better than I’d expected. He was emotional, reckless, and fiery but at least he wasn’t a fool.For the first time in a while, I didn’t feel completely alone in this mess.I’d been worried about him, even before meeting him. People said he was volatile, the kind of man who’d throw a punch before asking a question. And they weren’t wrong. But beneath that anger was something genuine pain. The same kind I saw in Rose when she still had that ring on her hand and pretended it didn’t bother her.I shoved my hands into my coat pockets as I reached my car parked a few meters down the road. It was a beat up sedan, nothing fancy. I liked it that way it didn’t draw attention. Inside, the smell of cold leather and burnt coffee filled the air.The moment I sat down, my wrist comm

Seth’s POVThe more I scrolled through that cursed file, the heavier my chest got. The dim glow of the bunker’s monitor cast a cold blue light over my face, reflecting in my tired eyes. Each line I read pulled me deeper into a hole I wasn’t sure I could crawl out of.Project Ascension. Blueprint of Human Evolution.That was the title at the top of the document, stamped with old government seals. The kind of seals you only saw on things that didn’t officially exist. My fingers hovered over the screen for a long moment before I scrolled down again.It didn’t start with greed. That’s what the file said. It started with fear.“Following the decline of global birth rates and genetic instability caused by environmental radiation,” it read, “the Ascension Initiative was launched under Directive 09-Sigma. Objective: create an adaptive human genome capable of surviving post collapse Earth conditions.”I exhaled slowly, leaning back in my chair. Adaptive genome. Survive collapse. They made it s

Seth’s POVVelkor never slept.Even at 3 A.M., the air buzzed with a cars gliding between glass towers, digital adverts flickering across the skyline, the smell of rain soaked concrete and cheap street food blending into the perfect perfume of corruption. I hated this city. It reminded me too much of myself, shiny on the surface, broken underneath.I stood in the alley, the rain trickling down my coat, waiting. The city lights painted my boots gold. My comm buzzed once, then cut off. Signal interference. That was good. It meant I wasn’t being traced.He was late. Typical.Then I saw him.Alex Tyrel. Walking fast, hood up, hands in his pockets, his eyes sharp enough to cut glass. The kid had that restless energy, like a fuse that had been burning too long, just waiting for an excuse to blow.“Nice of you to show up,” I said.He looked up, eyes locking with mine. “Seth.”“You’ve changed,” I said, smirking faintly.“Yeah, I stopped trusting people who work for the government,” he shot ba

Seth’s POVThe road into the dark was a ribbon of black glass and mud. Engines whispered through the night like predators with soft feet. We rode low and slow, the armored transport sliding through mist that clung to the trees like wet cloth. I watched the perimeter sensors flash on the HUD, watched green turn to orange and then back again as we passed through patches of interference. The world out here didn’t want to be seen.We moved like ghosts. That’s what we were supposed to be. Ghost Squad. The name wasn’t just theater. It was an oath; no trace, no banner, no witnesses. Tonight, every step was obedience.I checked the team quick. Lucas in the rear, Juno and her wrist feed, Tarek on overwatch with his long glass, Mace hunched over his charge of explosives like a kid with a new toy, Idris steady and silent, a mountain with a gun. Alex sat beside me with his hood up, looking like a man who’d swallowed a live coal and was waiting for it to cool. He kept his hands clenched on his rif

Seth’s POVInside it floating in a strange translucent fluid was her.Rose Tyrel.She looked almost peaceful. Her hair drifted around her face like threads of gold caught in a current, and the astrasite... God, the astrasite bloomed across her skin like living flowers. They pulsed faintly with every heartbeat, spreading from her chest outward, veins of blue light tracing her form like roots of a glowing tree.Alex’s voice cracked. “Rose…”He ran forward before I could stop him. His hands slammed against the glass, leaving smudges on the cold surface.“She’s alive!” he shouted, looking back at me, his face breaking between disbelief and hope. “Seth, she’s alive!”I didn’t move. I was staring at her not at her body, but the readings on the monitor beside her. Heart rate, brain waves, molecular output, all irregular. Not human irregular. Something else.Her brain activity was spiking, not randomly, but in rhythm. Like she was communicating with something.“Alex,” I said carefully, steppi