Three Graves Deep

Northern Skies – 1:15 a.m.

The private jet sliced through the wind above the Arctic shelf. Silence inside — no music, no banter. Just Juliana, Echo, Damian, and the body of a woman she once called sister cooling in the onboard freezer.

Sophia.

Damian sat across from Juliana, watching her stare blankly at the wall. Her hands were still trembling — not from fear, but fury.

"You did what you had to do," he said quietly.

 "No," Juliana replied. "I did what I swore I'd never do again."

 "What's that?" She turned her eyes on him. Empty.

"Kill someone I once loved."

*****

2:12 a.m. – Widow Safehouse, Northern Outskirts

They landed near a decommissioned military hangar in the arctic wasteland, retrofitted with EMP shielding and enough firepower to blow a government convoy to hell. Nael was already inside, hard drives plugged into a spiderweb of stolen servers.

 "You're going to want to see this," he said, eyes wide.

 "Raven?" Juliana asked. He nodded. A file opened:

"Subject 11: Codename – Raven. Protocol: Override 7."

 "They didn't just clone you," Nael muttered. "They reprogrammed your trauma and weaponized her with your profile."

Damian stepped closer. "They made her think you were the last virus."

Juliana's blood went cold. "She thinks killing me will make her free."

2:39 a.m. – Juliana's War Room

The walls were covered in schematics: maps, floor plans, faces with red Xs, digital grids — a war planner's cathedral.

Juliana stood before a table full of loaded weapons. Laid out like holy relics.

 "Raven's next," she said.

 "You sure you want to kill her?" Echo asked.

 "If I don't… she finishes what Subject 10 couldn't."

Nael called from the monitor bank.

 "Then you better get ready. Satellite pings just picked up a signature from the Norwegian coast. A luxury yacht registered to Marrow Ventures Inc. just powered up. Untraceable tech. Six armed guards. One heat signature matching Raven." Juliana cracked her neck.

"Then we go now."

3:42 a.m. – North Sea Waters

The yacht floated like a ghost across ink-black waves. Silent. Elegant. Armed like a war machine in disguise.

Juliana and Echo approached in a stealth skiff under cover of fog.

 "Ten minutes tops before they see us," Echo whispered.

 "I only need five."

They slipped aboard undetected, knives drawn, silencers ready.

Juliana moved like smoke — slitting the throat of a guard near the lower deck, then disabling the yacht's primary comms.

On the top deck, a door slid open. Raven stepped out.

Wearing black. Long braid. Bone mask hanging from one hand. "I knew you'd come," she said, eyes calm. "You always do."

3:46 a.m. – The Confrontation. Juliana stepped forward.

 "Why'd you run?"

 "I didn't run," Raven replied. "I waited."

 "You killed for them."

 "So did you."

 "They programmed you."

"They programmed us."

 "We broke free."

 "You broke the chain. I just learned how to pull it."

Raven dropped her mask. Juliana saw her own reflection in her eyes — years ago, before she stopped begging for mercy.

 "They made you think killing me would save you," Juliana said.

 "No," Raven whispered. "They made me love you first… so it would hurt more."

*******

3:48 a.m. – Fight for the Throne. They moved at the same time.

Blades first — a flurry of cuts and counterstrikes across the yacht's upper deck. Metal sang. Blood hit the sea spray. Juliana tackled Raven into a marble table. Raven flipped her with a scissor kick. Juliana landed hard, rolled, slashed Raven across the ribs.

"I didn't want this!" Juliana screamed. 

 "Then you shouldn't have survived!"

Raven lunged, knife raised — and Juliana disarmed her, pressed her to the ground, blade to her throat. Their eyes locked. Both women trembling. Bleeding. Breathing like war drums. 

 "Do it," Raven hissed.

 "Why?" Juliana choked. "So they win again?"

"No. Because it ends the cycle."

****** 

But Juliana… couldn't do it. She lowered the blade. "I'm done killing reflections."

"Then you'll die with them."

Juliana pulled her close.

 "No. I'm going to make them wish they never made us."

She pressed a vial into Raven's hand.

 "What is this?" Raven asked.

"Freedom. Choice. The neural dampener they used on Subject 10."

Raven stared at it. Then her hand closed around it.

 "Next time," she said, "I kill you for real."

 "I hope you do," Juliana said.

 "Why?"

 "Because next time… I won't hesitate." They parted. Neither looked back.

4:23 a.m. – Widow Safehouse

Juliana stepped off the skiff, bruised and bloody.

Damian met her at the dock. 

"Well?"

 "She's alive."

 "And?"

"Not loyal. Not broken."

"Dangerous?"

Juliana nodded.

"Like looking into a gun with my name carved on it."

5:05 a.m. – Secure War Room Juliana poured a drink. The file on Subject 11 blinked on the screen. Underneath it:

"Override Protocol Active. Final Target: Juliana Black."

Nael turned to her.

"What now?"

She drank deep.

 "Now I kill the man who wrote the code."

 "Marrow?"

 "No."

She flipped the page.

 "Director Marcus Vellin. The

one who trained Marrow."

Damian's face drained.

 "Jules… Marcus Vellin is my father."