Thick, greasy black smoke coiled into the tropical sky from within the fortified walls of Lab B3. It didn't look like a controlled burn. It looked like violence.
"Why is there smoke?" Derek whispered, his enhanced eyes tracking the plumes. "Are they… destroying something?"
"What's the plan?" Leo asked, his voice tight, fists already crackling with low-level energy.
All eyes turned to Eva. She was staring at the compound, her Prime biology utterly still, every ounce of her being focused on the pulsing signal from the watch. Her sister was in that smoke.
"Eva," Wolfen's voice cut through her fixation, calm but intent. "What does Lily look like?"
The question was so practical it jarred her. "She… she has blonde hair. Blue eyes. She was smaller than me. She has a freckle, here," Eva touched her own right cheekbone.
"So she's pretty, then," Wolfen said, his tone devoid of its usual teasing lilt. It was just data.
Eva just looked at him, her expression blank with a mix of fear and focus.
Everyone else except Maya—who was staring at the smoke with a haunted, knowing look—let out a weak, strained chuckle. The tension was too high for real laughter.
"Okay then," Wolfen said. He stood up, his gaze locked on the compound. "Watch and learn, kiddos."
Before anyone could protest or ask for the rest of the plan, he took three running steps and launched himself off the ridge.
It wasn't a jump. It was a projectile. He cleared the vast, scorched kill-zone and the high perimeter wall in a single, impossible arc, disappearing into the heart of the smoke-shrouded compound with the sound of a cracking whip.
They waited, hearts hammering. Seconds ticked by, each one an eternity. The only sound was the distant crackle of fire.
Then—
BOOOOOM.
The ground shuddered. A colossal fireball, tinged with unnatural green and purple plasma, erupted from the central administrative building, blowing out its windows and roofing. Secondary explosions rippled through adjacent structures. Alarms that had been silent began to wail, a frantic, dying sound.
And from the maelstrom of fire and debris, a figure shot back out.
Wolfen. He was moving at a speed that blurred his form. Cradled in his arms was a small figure in a plain grey medical smock. He landed on the ridge beside them with a force that shook the ground, kneeling for a moment to absorb the impact before rising.
He was different.
The bored amusement was gone. The sarcastic glint in his golden eyes was extinguished, replaced by a cold, focused intensity that was somehow more terrifying. His jaw was set like iron. He gently, but without ceremony, placed the girl on the soft moss at Eva's feet.
"Lily…" Eva breathed, the word breaking.
The girl was alive. But the blonde hair was matted and dull, cut short and uneven. The blue eyes were wide, but they weren't seeing the jungle or Eva's face; they were staring through everything, glazed with a shock so profound it had hollowed her out. She was painfully thin, her wrists delicate as bird bones, and she trembled uncontrollably. She smelled of antiseptic, smoke, and fear.
Eva dropped to her knees, her hands fluttering, wanting to touch, to hug, terrified she might break. "Lily? It's me. It's Eva."
Lily's eyes flickered. They moved from the empty middle distance, slowly, agonizingly slowly, up to Eva's face. Recognition did not dawn—it fought its way through a thick, chemical fog. A tiny, almost imperceptible shudder ran through her.
"S… s'va?" The voice was a dry, unused rasp, a child's voice trapped in a ruined instrument.
That tiny sound shattered Eva. A sob ripped from her chest as she carefully, so carefully, gathered her sister into her arms. Lily was stiff, unresponsive, but she didn't pull away. She just kept staring with those awful, empty eyes over Eva's shoulder.
Eva looked up at Wolfen, tears streaming through the grime on her face. "What did they do to her?"
Wolfen's gaze was already scanning the compound. The explosions had triggered chaos; figures were scrambling, but a more organized response would come soon. His voice was flat, devoid of all emotion. "What they always do. Room 4 was a sensory deprivation and neural-wipe chamber. She was scheduled for full conversion into a compliant service asset. I interrupted the final sequence."
He spoke about it like reading a report. There was no rage, no pity. Just facts. And in that absolute, chilling lack of affect, Eva understood the true horror. What he had seen in there had been so bad, it had burned away even his capacity for dramatic anger.
"We need to move. Now," he said, his eyes finally meeting Eva's. "The smoke will draw more than just lab guards. Can she walk?"
Eva looked down at Lily, who was now clinging to her with a weak, desperate grip, her face buried in Eva's neck, silent tears finally leaking out. She wasn't walking anywhere.
"I've got her," Eva said, her own voice hardening into something as cold and resolute as Wolfen's. She stood, lifting Lily as if she weighed nothing. Her sister felt like a bundle of twigs.
Wolfen gave a single, sharp nod. "Jordan, lead us south, away from the primary routes. Derek, Leo, flank. Maya, you're with me at the rear. Anything comes out of that fire after us, we erase it."
He didn't wait for acknowledgments. He simply started moving, a lethal shadow expecting to be followed. The rescue was over. The escape had begun. And the mystery of what Wolfen had seen in Room 4, and what it had cost him to be this calm, hung over them all, heavier than the smoke still darkening the sky.