The metallic thud of the lockdown shutters echoed through the ruined lab. Dust vibrated off the ceiling. Pipes rattled like bones.
Ten clutched her head, nails digging into her temples.
"No… no…" she whispered. "Phase three… he said we'd never reach phase three."
Mara crouched beside her. "What does it mean, Ten? What's he planning?"
Ten shook her head helplessly. "I don't know. He never told me the end of the plan. Only the beginning."
Evelyn pulled herself upright, gripping a twisted railing. Her face had gone pale. "Phase three isn't a plan. It's a contingency."
Daniel narrowed his eyes. "Meaning?"
Evelyn swallowed hard. "Meaning Voss assumes the subjects are loose, unstable, and aware. Meaning he assumes we're beyond retrieval."
Daniel's voice dropped. "Meaning he sends in the kill teams."
The speakers crackled again—slow, deliberate, as if savoring the silence before the next cruelty.
"Mara."
Her name rolled through the lab like smoke.
"Do you understand now? Every path you choose leads exactly where I designed it to."
Mara clenched her fists. "I'm not your design."
Voss ignored her voice entirely.
"Your neural sync with Ten exceeded my projections. Excellent work. You've accelerated the process considerably."
Ten whimpered. "Stop listening to him, Mara—please—he twists everything—"
Voss's voice deepened.
"Ten. You performed adequately. But your emotional instability remains a flaw. Phase three will correct that."
Ten scrambled backward in terror, bumping against a cracked wall. "He's going to shut me down. He's going to erase me."
Mara stepped between Ten and the overhead speaker, shielding her like a barrier.
"You're not touching her," Mara growled.
The lights flickered.
"You misunderstand," Voss said calmly. "I don't need to touch her."
A low rumble vibrated through the floor.
Daniel braced himself. "That's the platform engines."
Evelyn nodded grimly. "He's reconfiguring the wing. Sectioning it off. Herding us."
Mara glared upward. "Why? To kill us?"
A cold chuckle drifted through the speakers.
"Kill?"
The ground shook again.
"Mara, you still don't grasp your purpose."
Ten gasped, eyes wide. "He's activating the Behavioral Override."
Evelyn's expression shattered. "He wouldn't. That protocol was banned—"
Daniel stared at her. "Override? What override?"
Evelyn whispered the answer like a confession:
"It's a forced neurological trigger. He can activate dormant programming in both Mara and Ten from the control center."
Mara's stomach twisted. "Programming?"
Ten's voice cracked. "Inside our heads."
Mara staggered. Another memory flickered—
doctors whispering,
Voss watching through glass,
needles sliding into her spine,
the words: "If she disobeys, activate it."
"No," Mara whispered. "No, no—he can't still control us."
The speakers whined sharply.
A piercing tone filled the room.
Ten screamed.
Mara dropped to her knees, pain ripping through her skull like knives of electricity.
Daniel lunged forward, grabbing Mara's shoulders. "Mara! Fight it—fight it!"
Evelyn slammed her hands uselessly against a dead console. "Voss, stop! You'll kill them—"
But Voss didn't stop.
If anything, he sounded… pleased.
"Beautiful. Their neural signatures are aligning perfectly."
Mara's vision blurred—dark shapes swirling at the edges. The floor rippled beneath her palms. Her heartbeat synced with Ten's, throbbing in a painful rhythm.
Ten collapsed, twitching, whispering words that weren't hers:
"Sequence… engage… protocol… E-1… E-10…"
Mara's breath hitched.
He was turning them into weapons.
Against each other.
Against themselves.
Against anyone in their path.
Through the agony, Mara forced her voice out:
"Voss—stop—this won't—work—"
But he only continued, as calm as a surgeon:
"Phase three, Mara, is simple."
"One of you survives."
"One of you does not."
Daniel froze.
Evelyn covered her mouth.
Ten wailed, clutching her head as blood trickled from her nose.
Mara's vision sharpened just enough to see the shutters along the walls beginning to rise—inch by inch—revealing dark corridors illuminated by flickering red lights.
Shadows moved inside them.
Heavy footfalls.
Metal armor.
Loaded weapons.
Voss's voice was almost gentle.
"Let's see which of my daughters is truly fit to inherit the design."
Mara forced her trembling body upright. Her vision swayed, but her voice did not.
"Ten," she whispered, reaching for the girl. "Look at me. Don't listen to him."
Ten lifted her glowing eyes, pupils shrinking into thin rings of light.
"I… I don't want to hurt you," she whimpered.
"You won't," Mara said. "Not while I'm here."
The shutters slammed fully open.
Armed security units raised their rifles.
The floor vibrated under the weight of approaching machines.
Behind Mara, Ten's aura flared again—
chaotic
panicked
weaponized.
And Voss delivered the final line of phase three like a verdict:
"Begin."