The logical, scientific part of Sophia's mind constructed the sequence of events with cold clarity: the soldier would strike, the woman would fall, the child would be silenced. A neat, brutal equation. Survival dictated non-interference. It was the only rational choice.
But humanity is not always rational.
As the soldier's arm tensed, a fire ignited in Sophia's chest, burning away all the cold logic and leaving only a single, incandescent imperative: Life must be protected. It was the core of her being, the oath she had sworn not in a ceremony, but in the quiet dedication of a thousand hours spent staring into a microscope, marveling at the miracle of the living cell.
She burst from behind the dumpster.
"STOP!"
The word was a raw, desperate cry. For a split second, it worked. The two Tainted soldiers froze, their heads swiveling toward this new variable. Their programming, designed for combat and retrieval, momentarily struggled to categorize this unarmed, screaming woman.
The hesitation lasted less than a second. The soldier closest to her reacted with machine-like efficiency. It reversed its rifle, swinging the heavy stock in a brutal, horizontal arc aimed at her head. Sophia threw up an arm to defend herself, a futile gesture.
The impact was a starburst of pain. The hard polymer stock crashed against her forearm, and she felt the bone groan under the force. The blow sent her stumbling backward, off-balance, crashing directly into the mother and child huddled in the doorway. She felt the woman's sharp gasp of pain as they all collapsed in a heap.
In that chaotic tangle of limbs, as her own pain flared and the mother's terror flooded her senses, something broke deep within Sophia. Her desperate, all-consuming wish to save these people, to undo the harm she had brought to their doorstep, became a physical force.
A warmth, gentle and profound, bloomed in the center of her chest. It surged through her veins, a current of pure life that was the absolute antithesis of the violence surrounding her. A soft, golden light emanated from her skin, casting the grimy, rain-slicked alley in a warm, ethereal glow.
Where her arm had made contact with the mother's back, the light was brightest. The searing pain in her own forearm vanished, the deep, purple bruise fading to nothing in a matter of seconds. The woman beneath her gasped, not in pain, but in sheer, disbelieving awe. A long, bleeding gash on her temple, sustained when she had fallen, knitted itself closed before their eyes, leaving only smooth, unblemished skin.
The Tainted soldiers froze mid-stride. Their cybernetic eyes, designed to see heat and motion, were overwhelmed by this impossible, passive energy. Their programming had no protocol for a spontaneous miracle. They stood motionless, their rifles lowered slightly, like machines that had just encountered a paradox that their logic could not solve.
Sophia pushed herself up, her gaze falling to her own hands. They were still glowing faintly, the golden light pulsing in time with her now-steady heartbeat. She stared at them, her scientific mind reeling, unable to process the impossible event her own body had just wrought. The fear was gone, replaced by a staggering, world-altering shock. She had just broken the fundamental laws of biology