For three years, they had hidden.
Three years of silence.
Three years of underground movement, of rescuing broken survivors, of mending the pieces of their shattered world.
But silence was not safety.
And hiding was not peace.
They knew the storm would come again.
This time, they would be the ones to start it.
The twins known now only as Red and Ash stood at the edge of a shattered cliff overlooking Facility Zeta, buried in the tundra, masked by an artificial blizzard. This was the first of Solane's core strongholds. The place where thousands had vanished.
Where the gods were turned into weapons.
And where Aeria, the girl who could never die, was still being drained.
"We go in," said Red, tightening the wrappings around his arms. Energy flickered under his skin like burning glass.
Ash nodded, drawing the long-forbidden blade he had carried since the mountain. It still bore the blood of the last government hound they had slain. "No survivors," he whispered. "Not this time."
But they weren't alone.
Beside them stood Flux, the time manipulator who had broken the lock of eternity. She held her cracked stopwatch tight, counting backwards in seconds only she could understand.
And above them, waiting in the clouds was the Cutter.
The boy who had found the relic.
The boy who could slice through anything power, metal, time, or fate itself.
He hovered silently in the sky, blade unsheathed, waiting for the signal.
Inside Facility Zeta
Technicians monitored the room where Aeria's body was suspended in crimson-blue fluid. Dozens of pipes fed her blood across the globe. Her eyes were open. Blank. Her brain controlled by synchronized neural overrides.
Suddenly
Red lights flashed. Sirens shattered silence.
Something had breached the upper levels.
"Lockdown!" a commander screamed. "Deploy Unit 0!"
But it was already too late.
Boom.
The ceiling ruptured in a thunderous blaze.
A blade of void split the security turrets before they could track.
Time slowed… reversed… stopped.
Soldiers gasped as they were frozen mid-motion, caught in a second that never ended.
Ash landed first, ripping the floor apart with raw willpower, detonating shockwaves that twisted steel.
Red followed, arms wreathed in scarlet flame, punching through reinforced walls like they were paper.
Flux blinked into existence inside the mainframe room, erasing hard drives before they could finish self-deleting. "Let's make sure no one forgets what they did here," she muttered, planting data bombs coded to broadcast globally.
Meanwhile, the Cutter sliced through sublevel vaults, finding one sealed horror after another failed test subjects, screaming half-humans, broken gods with missing eyes.
He didn't stop.
He couldn't stop.
He cut open every door. Freed every soul. Ended every curse.
Control Room – Solane's Hologram
A sudden static-filled image appeared above the burning command console.
Solane.
Unshaken. Cold.
"So it begins."
He watched silently as explosions tore through the base. As data leaks flooded the dark net. As his perfect prison was reduced to ash.
"Then let us escalate."
Deep in the bunker, Red and Ash reached Aeria's chamber.
She floated there half-conscious, her mind stitched into machines.
Her eyes twitched.
Recognized them.
Tears.
Not for herself but for them.
Ash roared, cutting the core with a slash so sharp it silenced the entire facility's lights. Sparks rained as the tubes hissed and popped. The chamber cracked. Fluid poured. And Aeria the immortal collapsed into their arms.
"Let's go home," Red whispered.
Outside, a voice crackled through every soldier's earpiece:
"This is Cutter. Facility Zeta is done. We're coming for the rest. One by one."