NEWTON

Being with Myst had made Cipher more critical of every data set they gathered. And now, after days of trying to decrypt the files, he finally had a breakthrough.

The room was dimly lit, the only illumination coming from the flickering neon signs outside and the soft glow of Cipher's multiple screens.

Streams of countless codes swam across his holoscreen before compiling into a single folder.

No one spoke as Cipher worked, his fingers dancing over the keyboard. The Clan watched in tense silence, waiting.

Then, the screen flashed, and a single phrase appeared: Project Eden: Subject Retrieval.

Cipher exhaled sharply. "Here we go."

He pulled up a heavily redacted file, black censor bars obscuring much of the information. But there were enough visible details to make sense of what they were looking at.

SUBJECT DESIGNATION: BLUE ROSE

STATUS: TERMINATED

NOTES: EXPERIMENT FAILURE. UNTRACEABLE.

Myst's breath hitched at the sight of the name. She had already heard it once before—from the Ascended who had recognized her. Seeing it confirmed in the Government's own data made it feel all the more real. A chill ran down her spine.

Before she could fully process it, Cipher muttered a curse. He had pulled up another entry.

SUBJECT DESIGNATION: PURPLE THORN

STATUS: UNKNOWN

NOTES: HIGH PRIORITY. UNRECOVERED. POSSIBLE LIABILITY.

The tension in the room thickened.

"Another one," Echo murmured, his expression darkening.

"They weren't just after you," Razor said, his voice even but heavy with implication. "There's someone else."

Myst swallowed hard, the weight of the words pressing down on her. She wasn't the only experiment they had erased.

"Who the hell is Purple Thorn?" Blaze demanded, his fists clenching.

"I thought I heard wrong." Shade's brows knotted as he tapped his Xen-Link. "That name was circulating around Drift Market for months before it just... disappeared." He was likely searching for any lingering traces of it now.

Cipher shook his head, still digging through the files. "Whoever they are, the Government doesn't know where they ended up either. That means they're out there, just like Myst."

Echo leaned forward, eyes flickering with sharp calculation. "And if they're a 'high priority liability'—that means they're dangerous. Or valuable."

Razor crossed his arms. "Either way, the Government still considers Myst 'terminated.' That works in our favor. But if they find out she's alive..."

"They'll come after me again." Myst finished the thought, her voice quiet but steady. "And they'll be hunting for Purple Thorn, too."

A heavy pause settled over the room. The weight of what they had uncovered wasn't just about Myst anymore. There was another person out there—another erased experiment—who might be facing the same dangers she was.

Then, Cipher's voice cut through the silence. "There's more."

The screen flickered again, revealing another decrypted section. This time, it wasn't just about subjects—it was about control.

Government logs detailing human modification trials, neurological tampering, and classified 'restructuring' programs. It was confirmation of what The Clan had suspected for years: the system wasn't just controlling lives; it was rewriting them.

Echo let out a sharp breath, his fingers tightening around the edge of the desk. "They think like it's just another goddamn line of code. What the fuck do they think they are? Gods?"

Blaze slammed his fist onto the table. "This is exactly why we fight. They treat us like we're nothing! They can't erase all of us!"

Razor didn't speak immediately, but the tension in his stance was evident. Finally, he exhaled. "This... changes things. We need to move carefully."

Nyx turned to Myst, his expression softer than the others'. "They don't own you anymore. You decide who you are."

Myst could feel their eyes on her, waiting for a response. But she wasn't sure what to say. Her mind kept circling back to the same question—

Who was Purple Thorn? And what would happen if they found them first?

For now, the information would simmer beneath the surface, their next move still uncertain. But one thing was clear:

The fight wasn't just personal anymore.

It never had been.