The missile lock beeped, shrill and relentless, echoing across the night.
Eren's eyes darted from the CIA helicopter hovering over the lake to the silent, liquid-black aircraft opposite it. The water below churned into a maelstrom of spray, tourists scattering like ants from a kicked nest.
Vale gripped his wrist hard enough to bruise. "Don't move. Not yet."
"You're kidding, right?" His voice was tight, clipped. "Half the world's pointing guns at us."
"Exactly," she said. "So let them point at each other."
The CIA pilot barked something over the comms—Eren couldn't hear the words, but the tone was sharp, urgent. Threat. Warning.
The black craft didn't answer. It didn't need to. Its surface rippled like water, reshaping itself—wings folding, splitting into unnatural angles. The crowd gasped, their phones capturing a shape that no human engineer had designed.
Not ours. Not theirs.
On the rooftops, RAW snipers shifted into firing position. Across the boulevard, MI6 agents slammed the side of their van, pulling out portable jammers. Behind the barricades, French GIGN units were shouting into radios, demanding clearance to intervene.
The city was seconds from detonation.
"Vale," Eren hissed, "if you've got another one of those toys, now would be a great time."
She shook her head. "That wasn't tech. That was—" She stopped, eyes narrowing at the aircraft. "They're here for me."
The CIA loudspeaker blared again, louder, desperate:
"IDENTIFY YOURSELVES OR WE WILL FIRE."
The black craft pulsed. No lights, no sound. Just a shimmer across its surface—then beams of violet light lanced down, not at the helicopter, not at the ground, but at Vale herself.
Eren shoved her aside. "MOVE!"
The beam carved a smoking scar into the pavement where she'd stood.
Panic detonated in the square. Screams rose. Cars screeched. The operatives from a dozen nations opened fire—not at Eren or Vale, but at each other. The illusion of cooperation shattered.
Pop-pop-pop. Suppressed bursts from rooftops.
Thud-thud-thud. Riot police shields slamming into cobblestones.
Whump. A grenade rolled under a café table and tore it into splinters.
Geneva, the neutral city, became a battlefield.
Eren dragged Vale through the chaos, weaving between overturned tables and panicked civilians. His stolen pistol barked, dropping an agent who strayed too close.
"Why you?" he demanded, hauling her into an alley. "Why are they all after you?"
Vale's chest heaved, her eyes still faintly glowing. "Because the Garden marked me too. Long before you. But I ran. I thought I'd escaped."
Her words slammed into him like a bullet. "You knew. All this time. And you didn't tell me?"
Her lips trembled. "Would you have trusted me if I had?"
He didn't answer. Couldn't.
Above, the CIA helicopter released a flare, countering an invisible lock. The black craft tilted, impossibly silent, and fired again—not missiles, not bullets, but another violet beam. It carved straight through a hotel balcony, collapsing it in a rain of stone and glass.
Vale grabbed his face, forcing his eyes on hers. "Listen to me, Eren. That thing—whatever it is—it isn't here to kill you. It's here to take me."
"And what happens if it does?" he shot back.
Her silence was answer enough.
From the mouth of the alley, shadows shifted—two men in tactical gear, weapons raised. Not CIA. Not MI6. Their insignia gleamed faint in the firelight. FSB—Russia.
"Vale," Eren whispered, pulling her back. "This is about to get worse."
One of the Russians lifted a hand. "Come with us," he said in thick English. "Both of you. We can protect you from them."
The other added, low and certain: "If you stay, you die."
Eren's finger tightened on the trigger. He didn't trust them, couldn't trust them—but the alley was closing, the gunfire outside deafening, the alien craft above hunting with inhuman patience.
Vale's voice was almost broken. "Eren… decide."
The Russians stepped closer. The black craft shifted, its light searching the streets like a predator sniffing blood.
And Eren knew—whatever choice he made next would decide whether Geneva survived the night