Chapter 12 – Breach at Midnight
The first alarm was a low, mournful wail.
By the third, the sound split the night like a blade.
Liora sprinted through the Academy's dim corridors, every step echoing against the steel floors.
The emergency lights strobed red and white, painting her shadow in frantic pulses.
Overhead, the automated voice repeated a single word—
BREACH. BREACH. BREACH.
Students poured out of their rooms in confused knots of bodies.
Some clutched combat batons; others carried nothing but fear.
The air smelled of ozone and panic.
Liora's mark burned hot beneath her collarbone, syncing perfectly with the alarm's rhythm.
Each pulse sharpened her senses until the world felt painfully clear—
the tang of electricity on her tongue, the soft hiss of distant Rift energy, the quickened heartbeats of those around her.
This was the moment she had come back for.
The night she had failed once before.
The night everything began to fall apart.
Not this time.
---
"Liora!"
Kai's voice cut through the chaos like a lifeline.
He appeared at the end of the corridor, combat jacket half-zipped, eyes fierce beneath the flashing lights.
Behind him, Mina struggled to keep pace, clutching a collapsible staff.
"They've locked down the east wing," Kai said, breathless.
"Security says the breach is near the Rift labs. West containment grid is failing."
The labs.
Of course.
Liora's stomach tightened.
The capsule she'd hidden there—the captured Rift fragment—was an irresistible beacon to any anomaly.
"They're coming for the labs," she said sharply.
"We need to move. Now."
Kai grabbed her arm, stopping her mid-step.
"Wait. You know something. Tell me—"
"Later," she snapped.
"Either follow me or stay here and die."
For a split second, Kai's eyes burned with frustration.
Then he tightened his grip on his baton and nodded.
"Lead the way."
---
The stairwell leading to the lab wing was choked with smoke and static.
Emergency dampeners hummed against the walls, their blue glow flickering as if barely holding back a storm.
Aron was waiting at the bottom, his tablet casting wild shadows across his face.
He looked up as they arrived, expression grim.
"Containment's gone," he said without preamble.
"Authority drones are scrambling, but the breach energy is feeding off the Rift core.
If we don't shut it down, it's going to rip through the entire campus."
Mina paled. "R-Rip through—?"
"Think black hole meets hurricane," Aron said dryly.
"Only hungrier."
The floor beneath them shuddered violently, a deep, resonant thrum that rattled Liora's teeth.
Somewhere below, something alive howled, the sound raw and metallic, like a wounded machine learning to scream.
Liora's mark flared with a heat that bordered on agony.
It wasn't just a warning anymore.
It was a summons.
---
The lab doors loomed ahead, sealed by heavy emergency locks.
Blue-white energy leaked through the cracks, casting the hallway in an unearthly glow.
The air felt charged, heavy enough to taste.
Liora stepped forward, ignoring the sting of static crawling across her skin.
Her mark throbbed in furious recognition.
The Rift fragment inside was calling to its siblings.
Kai grabbed her wrist.
"Liora, don't—"
"I have to," she said, voice steady.
"If the breach stabilizes around the core, it will consume the entire Academy."
"And if you go in, it'll consume you," he shot back.
For a heartbeat, she almost faltered.
Kai's eyes—bright, desperate—pulled at something deep inside her, something she had buried beneath the weight of a second life.
But there was no time for hesitation.
"This is why I'm here," she whispered.
Before he could answer, she pressed her palm to the biometric scanner.
The mark beneath her skin flared like molten fire.
The locks disengaged with a hiss.
---
The lab was chaos made flesh.
Energy storms coiled across the ceiling, twisting into jagged spirals of violet and black.
The containment capsule floated above the shattered console, its surface spider-webbed with cracks of blinding light.
Around it, fragments of Rift energy writhed like living lightning, lashing out at the walls with hungry precision.
Liora stepped inside, the mark on her chest burning like a second heart.
The Rift felt her presence.
It recognized her.
The anomaly's tendrils shifted, curling toward her with almost human intent.
A whisper filled her mind—
not words, but an echo of recognition, a sound like distant thunder shaping itself into a question.
Return.
"No," she breathed.
"Not this time."
She raised her hands, focusing on the tether hidden inside her mark.
Energy surged through her veins, an ancient rhythm older than the Rift itself.
The air thickened, every molecule vibrating with tension.
Behind her, Kai shouted her name.
Aron cursed under his breath, trying to stabilize the dampeners.
Mina's staff crackled with defensive charge.
But Liora barely heard them.
The Rift was pulling—hard.
Every heartbeat threatened to rip her apart.
I came back for this, she reminded herself.
I came back to change the ending.
With a cry that was equal parts defiance and release, she poured every ounce of her will into the tether.
The mark blazed white-hot.
The Rift shrieked.
The air collapsed inward, a violent implosion of light and sound that stole the breath from every throat.
For one endless second, there was nothing but brightness.
Then—silence.
---
When the light faded, the lab was still.
The capsule lay cracked but dormant, its glow reduced to a faint, trembling pulse.
The tendrils of energy were gone, sucked back into whatever abyss had birthed them.
Liora staggered to her knees, breath ragged, skin slick with sweat.
The mark beneath her collarbone smoldered like cooling embers.
Kai was at her side in an instant, gripping her shoulders.
"Liora! Are you—"
"I'm fine," she gasped.
"Is it contained?"
Aron checked the scanner, his usual grin absent.
"For now," he said quietly.
"But whatever that was—it wasn't just a breach.
It was a message."
Liora met his gaze, her heart sinking.
She knew he was right.
The Rift hadn't merely attacked.
It had reached out.
Somewhere deep inside, the tether pulsed again—
not in warning, but in invitation.
The game wasn't over.
It was just beginning.
---
Outside, the Academy lay silent beneath the fading storm.
Students huddled in the halls, unaware of how close the night had come to swallowing them whole.
The Authority would bury the incident in reports and lies.
But Liora knew the truth.
The Rift had found her.
And it wanted her back.