Chapter 45

The Devil's army.

The envelope still burned in my hand. I read the words over and over until they bled into my bones.

“We made you, Claire. And we’re coming to claim what’s ours.”

Claim. As if I were a thing. A lost experiment.

Not a woman who had buried kings and outlived gods.

The message wasn’t just a threat. It was a declaration.

They were coming.

And this time, they weren’t sending mercenaries or spies.

They were coming for me. With everything they have left.

Damian stormed into the war room, the message clenched in his hand.

“We need to move now,” he growled. “Mobilize every soldier. Put a price on Dr. Aveline’s head.”

No, I said calmly from the corner. “No?” He turned sharply.

This isn’t a bounty hunt, Damian. It’s war. And I don’t want her head yet.

Lara raised her brow. “You want her alive?”

I want answers. Why she made me? Why she left me? Why is she still watching me?

Damian’s jaw tensed. “She’ll use it against you. The way Gabriel did.”

I walked up to the map table, staring down at the glowing satellite render of Livarex.

She’s not Gabriel. She’s worse because she doesn’t want to destroy me. She wants to possess me.

“And you think you can outplay her?”

I looked up, my eyes lit with cold fire. No. I think I can end her.

In the frozen North, subject B04 opened his eyes.

He didn’t speak. He didn’t move. He simply watched.

Dr. Aveline stood beside the cryo-chamber, heart pulsing with pride.

“Welcome back,” she whispered.

The vitals spiked, responding to her voice.

“You’ve been asleep for a long time. Your sister, subject A01 has been busy.

He blinked once. Not confusion. Recognition.

“She’s strong,” Aveline continued. “But unstable. She’s corrupted by human attachment. Emotion. Love.”

She touched the glass.

“You’re different. You were built for war.”

His voice came at last. Gravel and ice.

“Where is she?” Aveline smiled. “Soon. Very soon.”

Back in Edenfall, I stood assembling my core team.

I stood before my inner circle in a crimson-lit vault chamber. Damian, Lara, Varek, and three elite lieutenants who owed me blood and loyalty.

This isn't a mission, I said. It’s personal. Dr. Aveline is the last living architect of the Phoenix project. She holds the key to everything I am. Everything I’ve lost.

Varek nodded. “We have a lock on her base coordinates. Livarex, old syndicate territory. Heavily fortified. No known flight zone.”

“We’re not flying in,” Lara said. “We’re burning in.”

I turned to Damian. You lead the first strike. Disable the perimeter. No prisoners.

“And you?” He asked.

I’ll come after the fire. She won’t run from me.

Damian’s hand tightened around his blade.

“She’d better not.”

The next night, we left under the cover of a storm.

I rode in a black armored convoy at the heart of the fleet, eyes closed, mind scanning fragments. Old memories, flashes of experiments, pain, and control.

The first time I ever met Aveline…I was ten.

I was strapped to a chair, shivering. Naked. Shaved.

Aveline crouched beside me and whispered.

“Perfection requires discipline.”

I bit her. Hard.

She laughed. And ordered another injection. I never forgot that laugh.

And now?

I’m going to return the favor.

At the edge of Livarex, Damian’s strike unit launched at dusk.

The mountain glowed with fire as the syndicate’s outer defense grid collapsed under coordinated bombardment.

The outer towers fell first. Then the scanner. Then the silence.

I stepped out onto the snow-covered ridge as smoke poured from the valley below.

My boot crunched softly against the ice.

Damian waited for me at the summit, gun crunched.

“She’s inside,” he said. “No escape routes. No more traps.”

I nodded. Then it ends tonight.

Inside the black tower, Aveline stood in her glass observatory, watching the flames crawl across the mountains.

“She’s arrived.”

Her assistant trembled. “Should we retreat?”

“No,” she said.

“She’s coming for blood.”

“Let her,” Aveline smiled faintly. “That’s how she’s designed.”

She turned to subject B04, now fully armored in obsidian-grade alloy.

“You were made to neutralize her. Override her instincts. Control her rage.”

He nodded once.

“Then go,” Aveline whispered. “And bring my queen.”

I breached the outer wall with Lara by my side.

The corridor smelled of sterilized blood and machine oil.

Every step closer made the air thicker. Like walking into a memory soaked in gasoline.

Lara motioned. “Two guards left ahead. Terminal scan shows three locked rooms. One of them’s cold storage.”

Cryo-chambers, I muttered.

Damian’s voice crackled through the comms. “Watch your flank. Movement behind you.”

Before I could respond, he appeared.

Tall, dressed in dark combat armor. Eyes like mine.

But colder. Familiar.

Not quite a reflection. Not quite a stranger. Subject B04.

My breath caught. He tilted his hair.

“You’ve changed,” he said. You’ve slept, I shot back.

He took a step forward. “I was made to bring you home.”

I drew my blade, eyes narrowing.

Then you were made to fail.

And the room exploded in violence.

Steel crashed against blood.

Power surged from my palm as B04 countered with calculated force. Faster than I’ve ever seen.

He anticipated my every move. Matched my strength.

My speed. My mind.

Late tried to intervene, he drew her aside with the flick of his hand.

I growled slamming my palm into his chest. Sending a shockwave through the tower's bones.

You are not me, I hissed.

“I’m part of you that obeys,” he replied.

You are the part of me I killed.

And with that, I cracked his armor open. My fist was glowing white-hot with fire and memory.

Above them, Aveline watched it all.

“Good,” she whispered. “Let the storm finish the storm.”

And in her hand, she held a final protocol.

Not a failsafe. Not a kill switch.

But something far more dangerous. A code to bind Claire’s mind.

And she was about to press send.