Location; Subterranean Vault – Schloss Eisenrot, Austria
Red lights strobed through the underground vault as Damien gripped Silas by the shoulders, stunned by the sheer impossibility of his presence.
"Silas… how are you—?"
"I don't know," Silas rasped, disoriented, his breath forming icy clouds in the air. "They took me when I was nine. Said our blood had power… said I was part of something 'bigger.' Then everything went dark."
Damien's fists tightened. "Augustus."
Above them, the elder Blackwood's voice rang out over an intercom, reverberating against the steel walls. "You have five minutes before this chamber becomes your tomb. I told you, Damien—family first. If they won't bend, they break."
Nora's eyes darted to a glowing panel inset along the eastern wall. "That console… it's controlling the life support of the cryo-pods."
Damien turned to Silas. "Can you walk?"
"Barely," Silas said, leaning on his older brother.
"I'll buy us time," Nora said, already moving toward the terminal. "There's something deeper in this vault. A name keeps flashing on the files—'Project Sovereign.' I think it's the final Nexus key."
"You think it's a person?"
"I know it," she said grimly. "I just found a locked pod labeled Subject Zero. Whoever—or whatever—is inside… it's the reason Augustus has lived this long."
They hurried down a corridor lined with black glass. Every pod they passed had a nameplate. Some bore the surnames of top families. Others had only numbers. One bore a shocking name: Isabel O'Connor.
"She was declared dead during the Arctic Collapse," Damien whispered.
"They're all here," Nora murmured. "Captured. Preserved. Like trophies."
They reached the central chamber, where a towering stasis pod stood alone beneath flickering blue lights. Security seals glowed with ancestral glyphs from the original pact—El-Masri, Zhang, Takeda, and Blackwood, all intertwined.
"Biometric match required," the terminal announced.
"Whose?" Damien asked.
Nora stared at him. "Yours and mine."
They placed their palms on the scanner. A pulse of heat surged through the room. Gears turned. Gas hissed. The pod split open—
Inside was a young woman no older than twenty, suspended in liquid stasis. Her eyes were closed, hair floating like ink in water. Veins of golden light pulsed through her skin.
A screen above flickered to life:
NAME: AERIN BLACKWOOD-EL MASRI
GENETIC CLASSIFICATION: ALPHA HYBRID
PROJECT SOVEREIGN: ACTIVE
AWAKENING IN: 00:10:59
Nora staggered back. "She's… one of us."
"Our bloodlines," Damien muttered. "Literally merged."
"She's the living embodiment of the Nexus pact," Nora said. "Created in secret. Raised in sleep."
Suddenly, Augustus' voice echoed through hidden speakers. "She is the beginning and the end. And when she awakens, there will be no more alliances—only obedience."
The door behind them slammed shut. Oxygen levels began to plummet.
"She'll die if we leave her here!" Nora yelled.
Damien sprinted to the panel and overrode the atmospheric lock. Alarms blared. Flames sparked from the walls as Augustus attempted to regain control remotely.
Then a soft breath escaped Aerin's lips. Her eyes fluttered open—gold and violet, swirling like galaxies.
"Where… am I?" she whispered.
"You're free," Nora said firmly. "And we need your help."
Aerin looked between them. "Then let me show you… what they turned me into."
Energy rippled from her fingers—cracking the steel around them, cutting power to Augustus' systems above.
Damien pulled Silas close. "Let's finish this. Together."