THE GIRL WITH NO NAME

When Ayla woke up again, it wasn't from sleep—it was from pain.

Every breath felt like fire. Her body was sore, bones bruised, skin raw. But it wasn't the ache that made her panic.

It was the emptiness.

She didn't know where she was.

Or who she was.

She gasped, looking around the unfamiliar room—dim walls, the sound of dripping water, a faint scent of antiseptic. Her reflection caught in a broken shard of a mirror beside the bed, and what she saw made her freeze.

Her face—bandaged.

Tightly, completely. Only one eye was visible, and it was swollen.

Rhea stepped into the room, carrying a syringe and a folder.

"You shouldn't be awake yet," she said, startled.

The girl tried to speak. "Who… what happened to me?"

Rhea hesitated. "You don't remember anything?"

"I don't even know my name."

Rhea stepped closer and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You were in an explosion. Everything was destroyed. When I found you, your face was… beyond recognition. You had no ID. You kept whispering something about fire and a man named Leon before you passed out."

The girl's eyes fluttered shut.

Leon…?

The name meant nothing.

Weeks Later…

The surgery was brutal.

Reconstructive teams worked in silence, rebuilding what fire had taken. Her jaw was realigned. Her cheekbones restructured. Her nose—completely remade. The skin grafts left pale lines down her neck and shoulder.

When they finally took the bandages off, Rhea handed her a mirror.

She looked at her new face—a stranger's face. Cold, sharp, beautiful in a different way, but unfamiliar.

"You needed a new identity," Rhea said. "They'll be searching for the girl you were. From now on, the world will know you as someone else."

The girl stared at her reflection.

"Who… am I now?"

Rhea gave a small smile.

"You're Nova."

Elsewhere…

Leon stood over the ruins of the estate. His hand was clenched into a fist.

"She was here," he muttered. "She has to be."

Viper limped behind him, his arm still wrapped. "We've been through every floor. There's no body. No blood. Just… smoke."

Leon's jaw clenched. "She's alive. I know it."

And somewhere across the country, in a hidden facility far from fire and war…

Nova stood alone—watching a news report about the estate explosion.

No flicker of recognition crossed her face.