The industrial tunnels leading into Sector 12 were nothing like Ash remembered.
The air was colder. Still. Too still.
Her boots struck concrete with every step, echoing off the iron walls. Behind her, the handpicked team followed in silence: Jin, who had survived worse; Lira, a new recruit with tech precision and secrets in her eyes; and Haru, trailing slightly behind but always watching.
They reached a sealed blast door embedded in the rusted frame of the corridor. Faded black letters above it read: PROJECT SERAPH - TERMINATED.
Ash placed her hand against the cold steel. It trembled slightly beneath her touch.
"Jin?"
He stepped forward with a portable codebreaker. Sparks danced. The panel hissed.
The door creaked open to reveal a corridor filled with dust, shattered glass, and the scent of antiseptic and death.
Inside, it was like walking through a tomb.
Rows of glass pods lined the walls, many shattered, others still fogged from years of cryo-stasis. Discarded syringes and cracked monitors lay scattered across the floor. Data logs flickered on outdated terminals.
Ash exhaled slowly. "This is where it started. Where they made monsters."
Haru moved beside her. "Or where they tried to." His voice was quiet, almost reverent. "They failed. Until you."
They pushed deeper.
In the center chamber, they found it: a sealed archive room. The door, marked with a blood-red handprint, resisted them at first. But Lira found a bypass in minutes. The door groaned open.
Inside were files.
Boxes of them.
Project logs. Footage. Names.
And one name echoed through Ash's skull like a gunshot: AYIN.
Her breath hitched. She grabbed a file and opened it. It showed medical reports, scans, experimental logs. Dates matched the year Ayin disappeared.
"She was here," Ash whispered.
Jin leaned over. "Wait. That can't be right. She died. You told us—"
"I know what I told you," Ash snapped, chest heaving. "I thought she was dead. I buried her."
Lira pulled up a file from a still-working terminal. The footage was glitchy, but it showed a girl in a stasis pod. Long dark hair. Eyes closed.
And unmistakably Ayin.
Ash fell to her knees.
Haru didn't say anything. He just knelt beside her and placed a hand on her back.
The silence between them said more than comfort could. He didn't ask her to stop. Didn't say it would be okay. He let her break for a moment.
"They took her," she breathed. "They used her."
"And they'll pay," Haru said.
Then the screens flickered.
A low hum filled the room. Surveillance systems kicking in.
And a voice. Echo's voice.
"Ash. You made it further than expected. I left you a gift."
On the largest screen, a video began to play. A fight. In an underground arena.
Ash recognized the fighting style before she saw the face.
Fast. Brutal. Precise.
Then the mask came off.
Ayin. Older. Colder.
Wearing the insignia of Seraph.
Echo's voice was soft. "She came back once. This time, she'll come for your throat."
The screen cut to black.
No one moved.
Ash rose slowly. Her eyes were steel.
"We end this. No more running."
Haru stepped forward. "Then we end it together."
Ash nodded.
Outside, the graveyard of Seraph echoed with their footsteps as they left. But none of them were the same as when they entered.
And somewhere deep inside her, Ash knew:
The next time she saw Ayin, it wouldn't be as sisters.
It would be as enemies.