Kira's POV
They stripped me naked the moment we arrived.
Not for violation this time. For examination.
Cold hands. Scanning devices. Needles drawing blood. Scientists in white coats speaking about me like I wasn't even human. Just a specimen. A puzzle to solve.
"Cipher Gene mutation confirmed," one said, studying a screen. "Purity level ninety-seven percent. Remarkable."
"Begin preparation for neural extraction," another ordered. "The Council wants results within forty-eight hours."
Neural extraction. They were going to cut into my brain.
"Wait." Commander Sera Vex'lin entered the sterile lab, her armor reflecting the harsh lights. "The subject stays intact for now. The Council wants her functional, not lobotomized."
"But the extraction process—"
"Can wait until we understand what makes her mutation so pure." Sera circled me like a predator. "She's not just another Cipher carrier. She's special. We need to know why before we destroy that specialness."
The scientist looked annoyed but nodded. "Fine. We'll start with non-invasive testing. Brain scans, genetic mapping, neural interface trials."
"How long?"
"Three days minimum."
"You have two." Sera turned to me. "Cooperate, and this goes easier. Resist, and we'll sedate you and do it anyway. Your choice."
I met her cold eyes. "I want to see Zair Vex'thor."
She laughed. "The traitor? Why?"
"Because he has information I need. About the Cipher Gene. About what you're planning to do with it." I kept my voice steady despite my nakedness, despite my fear. "If you want my cooperation, that's my price."
Sera studied me carefully. "You're not in a position to negotiate."
"Then sedate me and get nothing. I'll fight every test. Make everything harder." I lifted my chin. "Or give me thirty minutes with Zair, and I'll cooperate fully. Your choice."
She considered this for a long moment. "You care about him. The man who brutalized you."
"I care about the truth. He has pieces I need."
"Interesting." Sera smiled coldly. "Fine. Thirty minutes. Under guard. Monitored. And if you try anything stupid, he dies first. Understood?"
"Understood."
They gave me a thin medical gown and restraints, then escorted me through corridors of glass and steel. Everything was white, sterile, lifeless. The genetic facility was designed to break spirits as much as bodies.
They brought me to a small room divided by reinforced glass. On the other side sat Zair.
He looked terrible. Bruised, exhausted, but his eyes sharpened the moment he saw me.
"Kira—"
"You have thirty minutes," Sera interrupted through the intercom. "Make them count."
She left us alone. Sort of. Cameras everywhere. Guards outside. But at least we could talk.
"Are you hurt?" Zair asked immediately, pressing close to the glass.
"Not yet. They want to study me first before they..." I couldn't finish.
"Before they extract your Cipher Gene and destroy your mind in the process." His jaw clenched. "I won't let them—"
"You can't stop them. You're a prisoner too." I sat down in the chair across from him. "But you can help me understand. My mother. She had the Cipher Gene. They killed her for refusing to cooperate. Were you involved?"
Pain crossed his face. "No. I didn't even know. That operation was classified above my level at the time." He leaned forward. "Kira, I'm so sorry. If I'd known—"
"Would you have stopped it?"
He was quiet. "Probably not. Five years ago, I would have seen it as necessary. Acceptable casualties for the empire's survival." His voice dropped. "I was a monster. I don't expect forgiveness for that."
"I don't have time for forgiveness right now. I need information." I glanced at the cameras, then back to him. "What's the real purpose of the Cipher Gene extraction? Why are they so desperate?"
Zair looked at the cameras too, then spoke carefully. "The empire is dying faster than anyone admits publicly. Our Cipher carriers are sterile from generations of genetic manipulation. Without new carriers, the techno-knight corps dies in twenty years. The empire falls in thirty."
"So they're using humans."
"They're trying to. But human Cipher Genes are different—purer, more adaptable. If they can map your mutation, they can potentially reverse the sterility in their own population."
"By destroying mine."
"Yes." He met my eyes through the glass. "But there's something they don't know. Something I discovered years ago and kept hidden."
"What?"
"The Cipher Gene doesn't just allow mental interface with technology. At its purest levels—like yours—it allows something else. Something the empire has been trying to achieve for centuries."
"What?" I pressed.
"Complete digital consciousness transfer. The ability to upload a mind entirely into technology. To become immortal." His eyes were intense. "Kira, if they figure out what you're really capable of, they won't just extract your gene. They'll try to transfer your consciousness into their network. Make you a living weapon they control forever."
My blood went cold. "That's impossible."
"It should be. But your mother almost achieved it before they killed her. That's why they eliminated her—she refused to become their tool."
"How do you know this?"
"Because I was ordered to study her case files after her death. To understand what made her so dangerous." He looked ashamed. "I buried the reports. Classified them so deep even the Council couldn't find them. I thought I was protecting the empire. Really, I was just afraid."
"Of what?"
"Of someone like you. Someone who could literally become the technology we depend on. Who could control every system, every weapon, every digital interface in the empire." He smiled sadly. "You're not just a Cipher carrier, Kira. You're the evolution of the mutation. The final form."
The door opened. Sera stepped in.
"Time's up. And that was a fascinating conversation." She smiled. "Thank you for confirming our suspicions, Commander. We weren't sure about the consciousness transfer potential. But now we know."
My heart stopped. "You were listening."
"Of course we were listening. This entire meeting was designed to make you both comfortable enough to share secrets." She gestured to her guards. "Take the Chen girl back to testing. Full neural scan. We're moving to extraction phase immediately."
"No!" Zair slammed against his side of the glass. "You said three days!"
"I lied." Sera watched him with satisfaction. "You love her. Genuinely. How delightfully human of you." She looked at me. "And you were starting to love him back. How tragic."
Guards grabbed my arms.
"Kira!" Zair's voice was desperate. "Remember file seventeen! All of it! Not just your mother—"
"Silence him," Sera ordered.
A guard hit Zair with something—a shock baton. He convulsed and collapsed.
"ZAIR!" I fought against the guards, but they were too strong.
They dragged me from the room as Sera's laughter followed.
Back in the lab, they strapped me to a medical table. Scientists swarmed around me, attaching electrodes to my head, my chest, my arms.
"Beginning neural scan," one announced. "Prepare consciousness mapping interface."
A machine lowered from the ceiling—all wires and lights and horror.
This was it. They were going to turn me into a weapon. Steal my mind. Erase Kira Chen completely.
I thought about my mother, who'd refused this fate.
I thought about Zair, who'd tried to save me.
I thought about Lysa, bleeding in a tunnel.
And I thought about the data chip, confiscated when they stripped me.
All my weapons were gone.
Except one.
They'd confirmed I had the purest Cipher Gene mutation possible. That I could potentially interface with any technology.
The machine descended toward my head, its interface points reaching for my temples.
If I was going to die, I'd die fighting.
I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind—not with my hands, but with something deeper. Something I'd felt briefly when I'd stopped that malfunctioning mech weeks ago.
I touched the machine's consciousness.
And it touched back.
Data flooded my mind. Schematics. Code. Digital pathways I shouldn't be able to see but could read like a native language.
The machine wasn't just a tool.
It was a network connection.
And through it, I could feel everything—every computer, every system, every digital intelligence in the entire facility.
Including the security systems.
The scientists didn't notice my smile.
They thought they were about to extract my consciousness.
They had no idea I was about to take theirs.
The interface connected to my temples.
And the facility's lights began to flicker.
"What's happening?" a scientist asked nervously.
"System malfunction," another said. "All networks are—"
The screens around the lab suddenly displayed the same image.
My face.
My consciousness, projected everywhere at once.
"Hello," I said through every speaker in the facility. "Let me introduce myself properly. I'm Kira Chen. And I'm taking control now."
Then I set every prisoner free.
Including Zair.And everything I thought I knew about my life shattered into pieces.