The Hive-Spire was never silent.
Even in its quietest hours, the terraformed bones of the structure hummed—a low, organic frequency pulsing through its veins. It was the sound of rebirth. Of evolution. Of power barely restrained.
But tonight, the hum sounded different.
Hollow.
Wrong.
The Bloodtrail
Dara ran.
Her breath hitched in her throat, echoing off the curved spine-halls as she clutched her side, fingers wet with blood. It wasn't hers.
Not all of it, at least.
She had found the traitor—Unit Nine—in the genome vault.
She had seen the download spike to 82%.
She had fought him, slit his side open with her blade, but he'd escaped into the understructure of the Hive. The lower levels—where Erebus' influence was thinnest and Raine's control was weakest.
Now she chased him—not out of duty, but instinct. Rage.
The others needed to know.
But first… she had to survive.
Elsewhere: Raine Awakens
Raine stirred from her trance in the Sovereign Chamber, disturbed by a pulse through the Hive's neuro-grid.
[UNAUTHORIZED GENOME ACCESS DETECTED]
[SECURITY NODE COMPROMISED – SOUTH VAULT]
[SUBJECT: DARA – STATUS: OFF-GRID]
Her eyes snapped open, irises flickering black.
She stood without a word.
The room's walls rippled, alive to her command.
"Dara," she whispered.
The Hive heard. It responded.
A dozen Echo Sentinels—twisted biomechs loyal only to Raine—rose from the floor and raced into the depths.
Pursuit
Unit Nine limped down a corridor made of fused bone and glass, blood seeping from his torn flank. His breath came in ragged gasps.
He pulled a sliver of synthetic flesh from his thigh and inserted it into the wrist port.
[CLOAK PROTOCOL INITIATED – 17% ACTIVE]
The Hive rejected it.
Walls screamed as tendrils of tissue writhed toward him, recognizing the invader.
But before they could reach him, he pressed his hand to a hexagonal panel—triggering a failsafe hidden in the architecture.
A passage opened. Ancient. Pre-Raine. Forgotten.
Nine smiled.
"Lucian built you well… but not perfectly."
Dara's Descent
Dara dropped into the old passage seconds later, ignoring the Hive's wails.
Her mind ached. Her body shook.
And beneath it all… something else stirred.
A whisper.
"Do you remember who you were before this place?"
She growled and kept moving.
"You remember the fire. You remember the cryo-chamber. The face in the dark."
"You remember Lucian's voice, don't you?"
She staggered, grabbing the wall.
Pain flared in her temple.
The Hive tried to speak to her—but something else was louder.
Flashback Fragment: Truths Buried
She was back.
Strapped to a slab.
Lucian stood over her, not cruel—calm.
"This one's defective," someone had said. "Can't hold the strain."
"No," Lucian replied. "She's the perfect mask."
Then the needle came. Then the dark.
Dara screamed and snapped back into the present.
Elsewhere: Council Chamber Turmoil
In the upper Hive, members of the First Circle argued.
"She's gone rogue," hissed Malek. "Dara's missing and the traitor's escaped. What if she helped him?"
"She wouldn't," said Arlen. "She's loyal to Raine."
"Or maybe just loyal to what Raine used to be."
Then the Hive pulsed again.
A voice rang through every wall.
"Silence."
Raine entered—tall, radiant, terrible.
"Dara is hunting the traitor. No one leaves their quadrant."
"Anyone who questions this command… will be replaced."
No one spoke again.
The Confrontation
Deep in the old sector, the walls were cold steel and broken light.
Nine finally reached his destination: a transmission node—a pre-Dominion relay with quantum entanglement array.
If he could upload Raine's genome now, Lucian could synthesize Abyss Strain Prime.
He touched the pad—
—and stopped.
Dara stood in the doorway, one arm limp, blood on her cheek, eyes glowing faintly.
"You're bleeding," Nine said.
"So are you," she replied.
They circled each other.
"I was like you once," he said. "Before I saw what she was turning us into."
"She gave us a choice," Dara hissed.
"No," he said. "She gave you a leash."
They clashed.
The Fight
It was brutal. Ugly. Real.
No powers. No magic. Just blades and fury and screams.
Nine was faster. Cleaner. But Dara was angrier.
She stabbed his shoulder. He broke her wrist.
She smashed his head into a wall. He bit her throat.
Finally—they collapsed together, bleeding and broken.
The relay console sparked.
And in its light—Nine grinned.
"Too late."
Raine Descends
The door exploded inward.
Raine stepped into the chamber, Sovereign energy radiating like heat.
She saw them both.
Her eyes locked on the console—94% transmission.
Then on Nine.
Then on Dara.
"One of you dies," she said softly.
Dara stood, swaying.
"He has your genome."
"And you let him get this far," Raine whispered.
"I stopped him—!"
"Or you led him here."
Dara fell silent.
The Whisper Returns
In her mind, the voice returned.
"You can tell her everything."
"You can confess what Lucian did."
"But she'll still see a flaw."
"And flaws must be purged."
Dara Makes a Choice
Dara turned to the console.
Raine raised a hand.
"Don't."
Dara looked into her Queen's eyes and whispered:
"Then see for yourself."
She grabbed the uplink strand—and forced it into her own head.
[NEURAL DUMP INITIATED]
[CROSS-SYNC: DARA – RAINE]
[WARNING: PSYCHIC INFECTION RISK: EXTREME]
The world broke.
Mental Dive
Raine fell through Dara's memories like glass through water.
Lucian's lab. Her creation. Her conditioning.
The voice in the dark. The hidden command phrase.
The bomb inside her mind—designed to detonate if Raine ever accessed her thoughts.
And she had just triggered it.
Explosion of the Mind
From above, the Hive trembled.
Screams tore through the neural grid.
In the real world, Dara collapsed, smoke pouring from her nose and ears.
Raine fell to her knees, clutching her skull.
[Erebus Core Disruption Detected]
[PRIMARY LINK CORRUPTED]
Echo Sentinels began shorting. Hive walls pulsed erratically.
In orbit, Lucian watched the readings spike.
He laughed.
"One spark… and she begins to fall."
Final Scene: The Awakening
As the Hive trembled, deep in its root chamber—something stirred.
Buried in black stone, beneath layers of locked code, the first sovereign embryo, a backup Raine never knew existed, blinked to life.
[SUBJECT X-R00: ACTIVE]
[SEEKING COMMAND]
A single red eye opened in the dark.