The Price of Awakening

Location: Tavara – Raven Safehouse Echo, Hidden Underground Compound

The atmosphere inside the safehouse was tense, but electrified. Every corridor hummed with the buzz of servers, footsteps of agents, and the weight of a truth too dangerous to speak aloud. Word of what Damien had recovered had already begun to leak among Tavara's intelligence elite.

Subject Theta.

A myth. A weapon. A girl.

Nora sat beside the stasis pod—now safely reconfigured into a medical containment unit. Electrodes scanned the girl's vitals while data streamed across six separate monitors. Her eyes, though closed, flickered beneath their lids. And every now and then, the lights in the room dimmed—reacting to the strange energy her body emitted.

"She's not just enhanced," Logan whispered from the doorway. "She's bonded with something... synthetic and organic. Like a hybrid AI system merged into her core nervous structure."

"She's awake," Nora said quietly. "But barely holding on."

Damien entered with Ashford in tow, both flanked by Shade and two Raven operatives. A digital map flickered into view on the central table.

Ashford didn't waste time. "We've intercepted transmission bursts across seven regions—signals designed to trigger Subject Theta remotely. Someone's trying to force her activation."

Nora rose, eyes narrowed. "And if she awakens while still unstable...?"

"She could vaporize half of Tavara in a single energy discharge," Ashford answered bluntly. "They didn't build her for negotiation. They built her for control."

Damien turned to Shade. "How long until the extraction team can secure her overseas?"

Shade shook his head. "They've already burned two of our routes. Someone's feeding real-time data to the outside. A mole—likely within the Raven's auxiliary command."

Nora stepped toward Damien, her voice low. "We can't just hide her. We need to fix this—before someone else pulls the trigger first."

The lights flickered again.

Then, a voice—soft, almost too gentle to hear—filled the room.

"I don't want to hurt anyone…"

Everyone froze.

The girl was awake. Her eyes now fully open—glowing softly with pulses of cyan and gold. Not hostile, not yet. But aware.

Damien took a cautious step forward. "You don't have to. We're not here to hurt you either."

She blinked slowly. "You're… different. Most are afraid. You're not."

"Because I see the girl," Nora said. "Not the weapon."

The girl's fingers twitched. "But they want me back. The ones with the white coats. The ones who whisper in metal rooms."

Ashford's face turned grim. "She remembers. That's bad. The trauma imprint was supposed to be erased."

"She's more than what they programmed," Damien said. "She's evolving."

Suddenly, alarms blared.

"Breach on Level 1!" a voice screamed through the intercom. "Unauthorized intrusion—multiple hostiles!"

Shade drew his weapon. "They're here."

Nora moved to stand in front of the pod. "Then we defend her."

Damien turned to Subject Theta. "Can you help us?"

The girl hesitated. "If I do… I won't be able to go back to sleep."

"Then don't sleep," Damien said. "Wake up. And fight with us."

A small, faint smile touched her lips.

And for the first time in years, Subject Theta moved not as a weapon—

But as a willful protector.