Chapter 16: Embers in the Dark

Location: Seoul, South Korea

Time: 11:27 PM

The rain returned, whispering against the armored windows of the Ricci Korea penthouse. But inside, silence reigned charged, electric, thick with everything unspoken.

Lucien stood at the window, phone in hand, his gaze cold and distant as he scanned the encrypted alert from Min-Jae. It wasn't just a breach. It was a message.

"Argent Circle satellite pinged. Incheon port. Sable movement confirmed."

Behind him, Yuna paced. The earlier confrontation between them still echoed like static in the air. Her hands were clenched, her breath sharp. She hadn't asked him to stay. He hadn't asked for forgiveness.

But neither had left.

"I'm not a piece on your board, Lucien," she finally said.

He turned, voice low. "You're not. That's the problem."

Yuna frowned. "Then what am I?"

Lucien stepped closer, the distance between them folding in like gravity snapping tight. His voice, when it came, was laced with a truth raw enough to sting.

"You're the only thing I can't control."

Before she could respond, the security panel near the door flared red.

"ALERT: Surveillance Down Level 4 Perimeter."

Lucien's face hardened.

"Min-Jae," he snapped through the comm, "status."

Static answered. Then a strained voice Min-Jae's, half whisper, half growl.

"They're here."

Location: Ricci Korea HQ – South Wing

Min-Jae ducked behind a concrete pillar, blood dripping from a gash on his brow. The security team had been neutralized with surgical precision non-lethal force, coordinated.

Sable.

He had only seconds to get the emergency lockdown in place. His fingers flew across the portable terminal as he inserted the fail-safe chip.

The lights flickered once then the entire floor dropped into low-power lockdown mode.

Reinforced blast doors slid into place. The building's AI control shunted all entries to manual override.

He only hoped Lucien and Yuna had gotten the alert in time.

Location: Penthouse Core Elevator

Lucien shoved a gun into the back of his belt, then handed Yuna a compact holster.

"I don't" she began.

He cut her off. "You don't need to like it. You just need to survive."

The elevator shuddered, lights dimming for a split second before backup kicked in. Lucien's hand hovered near the emergency override panel, eyes on the readout.

"Two signatures. One confirmed Sable."

Yuna swallowed. "Kazuo?"

Lucien nodded once. "And someone else. Smarter. Which means Drevin is close."

They didn't speak after that.

Words wouldn't help now.

Location:Lobby Access Tunnel

Kazuo Shin walked with ghost steps, black ops gear fitting him like skin. His injuries had healed faster than anyone expected enhanced by experimental Sable tech.

But he wasn't here for violence.

Not yet.

He reached the private access tunnel leading directly to the penthouse's emergency stairs. The retinal scanner flashed.

He pressed the embedded chip in his wrist to the panel.

"Override accepted"

The door slid open, and a chill moved through the corridor like death remembering its name.

Behind him, Drevin's newest prototype codenamed ECHO descended into silence. A woman with synthetic eyes and nerves wired into a quantum grid.

"She's awake," Kazuo said into the comm.

"Good," Drevin answered in his ear. "Time to break the queen."

Location: Ricci Korea Emergency Tunnel

Yuna gritted her teeth as they ran, the sleek metal of the stairwell echoing beneath their boots. Lucien was a blur of focus, every motion precise, lethal.

She couldn't stop seeing her mother's face. That photo.

That name Asset K-001 burned into her thoughts like acid.

"How deep does this go?" she asked, breathless.

Lucien's jaw flexed. "Project Phoenix predates my father. The Ricci bloodline was only one of many. But yours... your mother's lineage... it's tied to the original donors."

"So I'm not just leverage," Yuna whispered. "I'm the blueprint."

Lucien looked at her then not as a weapon. Not as a chess piece.

But as a storm he hadn't prepared for.

And the only one he'd risk everything to protect.

Before he could speak, a blast ripped through the stairwell above them.

Location:Floor 48 South Emergency Exit

Kazuo dropped from the upper landing, landing hard in front of them. His eyes met Lucien's cold, calculating, no longer the reckless thug from Incheon.

"Ricci," he said. "Always two steps ahead. But not this time."

Lucien drew his weapon, moving in front of Yuna. "This is your last warning."

Kazuo's smile was a scar. "I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to deliver her."

Yuna stepped forward. "Why me?"

Kazuo's gaze flickered with something that wasn't hate but maybe pity.

"Because you're not just the key. You're the door."

He lunged.

Lucien fired.

What followed was chaos.

Gunfire exploded through the corridor. Yuna dove behind cover as Kazuo ducked and weaved like a shadow, enhanced reflexes letting him dodge bullets in near-real time.

Lucien was fast but Kazuo was engineered.

Still, Lucien adapted. Calculated.

He clipped Kazuo's shoulder with a grazing shot that sent him reeling but not before Kazuo hurled a shock pellet at the wall behind Yuna.

Flash. Bang. Whiteout.

Yuna screamed.

Lucien tackled her as the corridor fractured into smoke and shrieking alarms. When the air cleared Kazuo was gone.

But on the floor, left like a signature, was a data chip.

Lucien picked it up, brows furrowed.

Encrypted. Marked with Sable's insignia.

He looked at Yuna.

"They wanted us to find this."

Location: Safe Room 3 Levels Below Penthouse

Once sealed inside, Lucien inserted the chip into the secure terminal. A hologram flared to life Drevin's face.

Calm. Icy.

"Lucien Ricci. You're running out of time. Yuna's genome is already uploaded. The trigger has been activated. She's changing. Every hour you wait, the more we control."

The screen flickered.

"Bring her to me. Or lose everything."

Then silence.

Lucien turned, jaw set, mind racing. "We need to leave Seoul."

Yuna stood against the wall, eyes unfocused.

"Lucien…" she whispered. "Something's wrong."

He crossed to her instantly. "What?"

Her hand trembled. "I see things. Data. Memories that aren't mine. Names I've never heard… but I know what they mean."

Lucien cursed under his breath.

Project Phoenix wasn't just about enhancing the bloodline.

It was about awakening what was already there.

And Yuna's awakening had begun.

Location: Geneva Argent Circle Vault

Aleksei Drevin stood before a circle of firewalls and machines humming like hives.

Kazuo stood beside him, nursing a bruised rib.

"She resisted," he admitted. "He's too close to her now."

Drevin didn't blink.

"She'll come. Either by choice or by fracture."

He turned to a glass chamber behind him.

Inside, a synthetic clone floated in suspension a perfect copy of Yuna.

Drevin smiled.

"One way or another… we'll see how far the bloodline burns."