In Tavara – Sinclair Penthouse, Midnight
The city lights shimmered beneath a silver-streaked sky, but the silence in Damien's penthouse was heavy, almost foreboding. He stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, sipping black coffee, his sharp eyes fixated on a blinking message on his secured tablet.
Origin: Unknown
Subject: LYXEN Protocols
Message: "The embers you buried are lighting again. You know where to find me."
No name. No signature. Just the cold reminder of something he had buried long ago—a covert operation called LYXEN, once believed destroyed, erased from all intelligence networks. Only four people had known about it. Two were dead. The third... had vanished.
And the fourth was him.
Nora entered the room silently, wearing a silk robe, her long hair flowing like moonlight on the water. "You're awake again," she said softly.
Damien didn't turn. "I got a message. About LYXEN."
Her breath caught. "I thought that program was erased."
"So did I." He handed her the tablet.
Nora read the message and frowned. "This code... it's old military. Something from the pre-reconstruction era. Whoever sent this knows you—and your past."
Damien's jaw tightened. "Which means they're dangerous."
---
Location: Tavara – Sinclair Family Estate, Secret Archives Vault
Leona tapped in a biometric code and stepped into the family's hidden records wing. She'd been ordered to find any trace of LYXEN—a classified black-book operation Damien never spoke about. Not even when she was in the intelligence service.
Rows of steel file cases hummed with digital static. She stopped at a secured capsule marked "Vault M – 017". A faint whisper of air escaped as it unlocked.
Inside were images. A burned village. Charred bodies. And a team photo of six operatives, faces blurred except Damien's—young, hardened, haunted.
Leona whispered, "What the hell were you part of, Damien?"
---
Location: International Waters – Unknown Submersible Base
Deep beneath the ocean, a man stood in a cold, glass-paneled chamber. His hair was silver, his skin tattooed with encrypted codes. He watched live footage of Tavara's news covering Seraphine's arrest.
"She cracked under pressure," he murmured.
A woman with a Russian accent replied from the shadows. "She was a disposable pawn."
He smirked. "Now Damien's cleared the board. He thinks it's over. But LYXEN isn't over... It never was."
He turned to the screen, which displayed Nora's image—highlighted, outlined, targeted.
"Bring me the girl."
---
Location: Tavara – Underground Holding Facility
Seraphine sat alone in her high-security glass cell. No sound. No guards in view. Only her breath and the blinking red dot on the wall.
But she knew she wasn't alone.
From the shadows, a voice slithered into the room. "Tell me, Seraphine. Do you miss the fire?"
She stiffened. "You… you're supposed to be dead."
A chuckle echoed. "LYXEN never dies."
She pressed her hand to the glass. "You don't understand—Damien has everything now. All the files. All the backups."
"I'm counting on that," the voice replied. "He'll come looking. And when he does, he'll bring the doctor with him."
Nora.
Seraphine's heart raced. For the first time, genuine fear crossed her face.
---
Location: Tavara – Sinclair Command Suite
The team gathered again. This time, the mood was colder.
Julian briefed them. "The signal trace we intercepted from the LYXEN message came from thirty miles off the Tavaran coast. Whoever sent it used military-grade submersible tech."
"That narrows it down to only one faction," Leona said grimly. "The one even Tavaran intelligence refuses to acknowledge."
Damien nodded. "The Covenant."
Nora sat back. "I thought they dissolved after the Sovereign Treaty."
"They went underground," Damien said. "Rebranded, recruited, evolved. They're building something again. And I think Seraphine was just a stepping stone."
Nora's voice dropped. "And now they're targeting me."
"You're the key, Nora," Damien replied. "They want your knowledge, your bloodline, your access."
He stepped closer, cupping her face gently. "But I swear... I will burn down the world before I let them touch you."
She leaned into his touch, eyes fierce. "Then let's make sure we light the right fires."
---
Location: Tavara – Secret Military Hangar, One Hour Later
A sleek aircraft powered up, the engines humming with promise and vengeance. Damien and Nora suited up in stealth gear, Leona prepping a backup team to trail via sea.
"You're walking into a ghost ship," Leona warned. "Whatever's waiting down there, it's not human anymore."
Damien smiled coldly. "Neither am I."
As the aircraft took flight, the world below disappeared into clouds and shadow. Beside him, Nora gripped his hand.
"For the record," she said, "I'd follow you into hell."
He turned to her with a quiet fire in his eyes. "This time, we might just meet the devil."