The hall was silent.
Not with peace. Not with calm.
It was the silence of people who had just seen a storm tear the sky open and were waiting for the next strike to burn them alive.
The air hung heavy, thick with questions no one dared speak. Dust settled like ash in the light of the chandeliers. Somewhere, a clock ticked softly — each sound a weight pressing against every heart in the room.
Maya stirred.
A sound—barely a whisper of breath. Her lashes fluttered, slow as falling snow, as the crystal prisms above fractured the light into a thousand bleeding shards.
"...Water…"
The word was so soft it barely carried.
Naya stumbled forward, her sari swaying like a wave about to break. Her hands shook as she held out a glass, the water inside trembling as though aware of what it was about to witness.
"Here, Maya… drink slowly…"
Her voice cracked in fear and hope both.
Maya's fingers closed around the glass with eerie calm, as though she were handling something sacred. She sipped once. Not with gratitude, but with purpose. The glass lowered to the marble floor with deliberate care.
Then she spoke. Her voice was flat. Cold. Severed from warmth.
"You gave me the serum."
It wasn't a question. It was a verdict.
Rahi's head snapped upward. His chest froze, the air between them suddenly brittle.
"You… you remember?"
Her eyes—black, endless—lifted to meet his. Hollow and steady.
"I remember everything."
The words landed like a blade drawn across stone.
Mahim stepped forward, his lips trembling, his voice breaking in a way no one had heard before.
"Maya… my daughter…"
His hand rose, reaching for her sleeve, his thumb brushing the edge of her glove—
And Maya exploded.
She flinched back so violently her heels scraped the marble. A scream tore from her throat—raw, broken, unrestrained.
"Don't touch me! Please don't—!"
The words were not those of a fifteen-year-old. They sounded five. The cry of a child locked in darkness, begging monsters to go away.
Mahi stumbled forward, hands trembling, voice cracking. "Maya… sweetheart, we would never hurt you—"
"NO!" Maya's voice shattered like glass under a stone. Her hands flew to shield her head. "Don't take me back! Don't lock me in again! Please! Please!"
Every brother froze. Fahad's fists bit deep into his palms, knuckles whitening. Fahim stepped back as if struck. Farhan pressed trembling hands over his ears, silent tears carving tracks through dust on his face.
And then—
"Subject 17B."
The voice cut through the tension like steel, cold and deliberate.
Everyone in the room froze. The word fell like a command in the air, sharp and strange.
Maya's head snapped toward it instantly.
Instinct. Programming. A name written not in ink, but in blood.
Rahi. His face pale. His body trembling. But his voice—steady in the way only pain can make it.
"Maya…" his lips shook. "Code."
Her chest rose and fell. Her voice fell into a dead, mechanical tone.
"Awaiting input."
Rahi's tears slid free. "C-13. Override protocol."
Maya's trembling hands lowered slightly. "Confirm chain?"
"Active," Rahi choked.
"Root?"
"13A. Subject 13A."
Something flickered in her eyes. Recognition. Not warmth. Not mercy. No emotion. Just recognition.
"Subject 13A. Confirm safety?"
"Confirmed," Rahi whispered, voice breaking under its own weight. "You're safe now. No harm. Code black secured. You're safe, Maya."
Her breathing slowed, a fraction.
"Status check: oxygen—unstable. Heart rate—irregular. Pain—unknown."
"Override panic," Rahi's voice cracked, tears falling onto the marble. "Subject 17B… stabilize now!"
"Stabilizing," Maya whispered. Her body swayed slightly. The words wrapped her in invisible chains. Cold. Safe.
No one moved. No one breathed.
Mahi's hands clutched her mouth. "What… what are they saying?"
Rahi did not turn. His eyes remained locked on her. His voice was a blade dripping blood.
"They left us only this. A language made of chains."
Maya's face stayed still. Too calm. Too empty.
"Subject 13A… don't be sad. It's not your fault."
Rahi's whole body trembled. "Hope. Say it, Maya. Please… say it."
For a moment, the machine cracked. A flicker of something human passed, fragile as dying embers.
Her lips trembled. "Hope. I… I am Subject 17B."
And then, softer, quieter than prayer:
"Don't be sad… Subject 13A."
Rahi broke. His knees hit the marble with a hollow crack. He gripped her gloved hands with desperate reverence.
"I won't. I swear. I won't let them hurt you again. Never again. I swear on everything, Maya."
Her head tilted slightly. Her voice monotone, soft.
"Confirm."
Rahi pressed his forehead to her hands. "Confirmed."
Behind them, Mahi sobbed into Mahim's chest. Fahad turned away, jaw trembling. Fahim wiped his face, hiding nothing. Farhan whispered her name like a prayer.
And then Rahi turned. Slowly. His tear-streaked face lifted to the room, to them.
His voice was fire and ruin. "Why?"
No one answered.
His finger shook with rage as it pointed at Anik.
"Why did you do this to her? Especially you. Why would you hold her down? Why would you force her to drink that poison? Do you have any idea what you reminded her of?!"
Anik's jaw clenched. "We had to know—"
"KNOW?!" Rahi's scream tore through the hall, shaking walls and crystal alike. "You wanted answers and you broke her to get them!"
He gestured toward Maya, sitting still on the cold marble, eyes empty, hands motionless.
"Look at her! Look at what you've done! She spent her whole life trying to forget, and you dragged her back into hell! You made her live it again!"
Mahi sobbed, shaking her head. "We just wanted to understand…"
Rahi's voice cracked into something deadly. "Understand? Then understand this: You finished what they started. You turned her back into a weapon. Into a machine. Into Subject 17B."
Maya's voice broke the silence one last time.
"Command sequence complete. Subject 17B… returning to standby."
And just like that—
The light behind her eyes went still.
The hall did not feel like a home anymore. It felt like a laboratory.
The girl on the marble floor was not their daughter. Not their sister.
She was a code. A command. A cage in human skin.
Her body was already slipping away. Her eyes glazed over like frosted glass, cold and distant. Her breath became shallow, robotic — a monotone hum beneath the surface.
Standby mode activated… system shutting down… neural collapse imminent…
Rahi's body trembled.
He clutched her like a relic.
Like something precious that the world had tried to erase.
And the hall was silent again.
This silence was different. Heavy. Endless.
It was the silence of a war fought in whispers, commands, and blood.