Sera's POV
We crash into the escape pod bay hard enough to crack the floor.
My enhanced body absorbs most of the impact. Kael rolls, coming up in a defensive crouch despite his injured shoulder. Blood stains his uniform dark.
"Sera!" My father rushes forward, but the Resistance fighters behind him raise their weapons at Kael.
"Don't shoot him!" I jump between Kael and the guns. "He saved me!"
"He's one of THEM," a Resistance fighter snarls. She's young, maybe my age, with burn scars covering half her face. "He's Aelarian. They're all monsters."
"He protected me when his own people wanted to lock me up!" I'm shouting now, my golden eyes blazing. The fighters step back nervously. "Lower your weapons. Now."
"Sera, honey, you're not thinking clearly." Dad approaches slowly, hands raised like I'm a wild animal. "The enhancement—it's affecting your mind. Making you loyal to them."
"My mind is FINE!" Frustration boils over. "Why does everyone think I can't make my own choices?"
"Because you let them turn you into that!" Dad points at my glowing eyes, the metal patterns visible on my skin. "Look at yourself! You're not human anymore!"
The words hit like a physical blow.
"I'm still me," I whisper. "Just stronger."
"You killed people today." Dad's voice breaks. "I saw the security footage. You shot Resistance fighters. Your own people."
Guilt crashes over me. "They were trying to kill me first! What was I supposed to do?"
"Come home before it was too late!" Dad's crying now. "But you chose them over your family. Over your humanity."
"My family chose Diana's lies over the truth!" My voice echoes through the bay. "You abandoned me first!"
Silence falls, broken only by the distant alarms still blaring through the Academy.
Kael touches my shoulder gently. "Sera. We need to leave. More guards will come."
"See?" Dad's face hardens. "He's controlling you. Using you."
"No one controls me anymore." I meet my father's eyes. "Not Marcus. Not Diana. Not the Aelarians. And not you. I'm done being everyone's victim."
"Then prove it." The scarred Resistance fighter steps forward. "Come with us. We have doctors who can remove the enhancement. You can be human again."
"I don't want to be weak again," I say quietly.
"Strength isn't about metal in your veins," Dad argues. "It's about standing up for what's right. The Aelarians invaded our world, called us inferiors, enslaved us—"
"And gave some of us a chance to be equals!" I interrupt. "Don't you see? My enhancement means I'm as strong as they are. Maybe stronger. I can fight them from a position of power, not weakness."
"By becoming one of them?" The scarred fighter shakes her head. "That's not fighting. That's surrendering."
"No," Kael's cold voice cuts through. "She's right. The Aelarian command fears her because she's human and enhanced. She threatens their entire social structure. One human with power undermines their claim that humans are inferior."
Everyone stares at him.
"Why would you admit that?" Dad asks suspiciously.
"Because it's true." Kael meets his gaze steadily. "Your daughter is dangerous to the Empire. If more humans achieve her integration level, the whole system collapses. That's why they want her contained."
"So help us remove her enhancement," Dad pleads. "Help us get her out safely."
"If you remove it, you kill her," Kael says flatly. "The nano-machines are integrated with her nervous system, her organs, her brain. Extraction is 90% fatal."
My legs feel weak. "What?"
"I was going to tell you later." Kael won't meet my eyes. "Once we were safe."
"You KNEW I'm stuck like this?" Anger and fear war inside me. "That I can never go back?"
"There is no going back. Not for any of us." He finally looks at me. "The question is: do you want to? Would you choose to be powerless again, even if you could?"
I open my mouth. Close it. Because honestly? I don't know.
"Sera, please." Dad's voice is desperate. "Even if the removal is dangerous, we have to try. This isn't you. This isn't my daughter."
"Maybe your daughter grew up." The words come out harsher than I intended. "Maybe she had to, after everyone she trusted destroyed her."
Dad flinches like I slapped him.
Alarms suddenly intensify. A new sound—deeper, more urgent.
"Station-wide lockdown in sixty seconds," an automated voice announces. "All personnel to designated safe zones. Unauthorized individuals will be terminated on sight."
"We're out of time." The scarred fighter grabs Dad's arm. "We need to leave NOW. Take the pods and go."
"Not without Sera!" Dad reaches for me.
I step back. "I'm not going with you."
"Sera—"
"I said NO!" My voice cracks. "You made your choice when you believed Diana. When you abandoned me at the tribunal. When you decided I wasn't worth defending. Now I'm making mine."
"You're choosing them over your family?" Dad's face crumples.
"I'm choosing myself." Tears sting my eyes but I blink them away. "For the first time in my life, I'm choosing myself."
"Thirty seconds to lockdown," the automated voice warns.
"Dad, GO!" I push him toward the escape pods. "Please. I can't watch you die here."
"I can't leave you—"
"You already did." The words hurt to say. "Months ago. Now get out before it's too late."
The Resistance fighters are already loading into pods. The scarred woman pulls my father back.
"She's made her choice, Mr. Vance. We can't force her."
Dad looks at me one last time. "I'll come back for you. I swear it. I'll find a way to save you."
"I don't need saving anymore," I whisper.
The pods launch, shooting away from the Academy into the dark. I watch until they disappear.
"That was hard," Kael says quietly.
"Everything about today has been hard." I turn away from the window. "So what now? We can't stay here."
"No. But I know someone who can help us." Kael moves to a control panel. "Someone who hates Academy Command as much as we do right now."
"Who?"
"My cousin. Luca Moretti." He pulls up a holographic communication screen. "He runs a private security station in the Neutral Zone. No Aelarian jurisdiction. No Resistance interference. If we can get there, we'll have time to figure out our next move."
"Will he help us? After you went rogue?"
A slight smile touches Kael's lips. "Luca's been telling me to rebel against Command for years. He'll be thrilled."
The communication connects. A young Aelarian man appears—handsome, with dark hair and purple eyes that sparkle with mischief.
"Kael! I heard you finally grew a spine. The whole Empire's buzzing about—" He stops, seeing me. "Holy stars. Is that the 73% human? She's actually real?"
"Luca, I need a favor."
"A favor? Cousin, you're the most wanted man in the Empire right now. They're calling you a traitor. A human-lover. They've frozen your assets, revoked your command—"
"I know. Can you help or not?"
Luca grins. "Of course I can help. I've been waiting my whole life for you to do something this stupid and noble." His eyes shift to me. "Welcome to the rebellion, human. What's your name?"
"Sera. Sera Vance."
"Well, Sera Vance, you've turned my cousin's boring life upside down. I like you already." He sobers slightly. "But getting you to the Neutral Zone won't be easy. Every ship in the sector is looking for you both. The Empire has put a bounty on your heads—fifty million credits. Alive or dead."
My stomach drops. "Fifty million?"
"Actually, that's just for Sera," Luca corrects. "Kael's bounty is only twenty million. They want her more than you, cousin. How does that feel?"
"Irrelevant." Kael studies the star map on screen. "Can you send coordinates for a safe meeting point?"
"Already done. But Kael? There's something else you should know." Luca's expression turns serious. "Commander Lyssa isn't just mad you escaped. She's convinced the High Council that Sera is a weapon the Resistance is using against the Empire. She's arguing for a full-scale strike against all human population centers until Sera surrenders."
Ice floods my veins. "What?"
"She's insane," Kael snaps. "The Council would never approve—"
"They're voting tomorrow." Luca looks grim. "And Lyssa has a lot of support. The Council is scared, Kael. Scared of what one enhanced human could mean. Scared their entire social structure is crumbling."
"This is my fault," I whisper. "If I surrender—"
"They'll dissect you and kill everyone anyway," Kael interrupts. "Lyssa wants an excuse to tighten control over humans. You're just her justification."
"So what do we do?"
Kael and Luca exchange a long look.
"We go public," Luca finally says. "Broadcast Sera across every channel in the Empire. Show them she's not a weapon. Show them a human and an Aelarian working together. Undermine Lyssa's whole narrative."
"That puts a target on Sera's back even bigger than the one already there," Kael argues.
"The target's already there, cousin. We're just changing the aim."
Kael looks at me. "It's your choice, Sera. Hide and run, or stand and fight."
I think about my father's disappointed face. Diana's cruel smile. Marcus's theft. Every person who thought I was weak. Worthless. Inferior.
"I'm tired of hiding," I say. "Let's show them what this inferior can do."
Kael's slight smile returns. "That's what I hoped you'd say."
"Then get to the coordinates I sent," Luca orders. "I'll prepare for the broadcast. This is going to change everything."
The communication cuts off.
Kael and I stand alone in the escape bay. Outside the window, Academy ships are already searching for us. Spotlights sweep through the darkness.
"Are you scared?" I ask.
"Terrified," Kael admits. "But I spent ten years being safe and miserable. Time to try dangerous and alive."
"Together?"
He takes my hand. His skin is cold against mine. "Together."
We move toward the remaining escape pod. Behind us, the Academy's alarms scream. Ahead, an entire Empire hunts us.
But for the first time since my world fell apart, I'm not running from something.
I'm running toward it.