Chapter 19 Breaking Point
LUNA'S POV
My hands shook as I stared at the screen, barely believing what I'd just found buried in Professor Cross's encrypted files.
"No," I whispered. "No, no, no."
This couldn't be real. But the medical records didn't lie. The financial transactions were right there. And the encrypted communications I'd spent three days decoding laid it all out in horrifying detail.
I'd thought I was prepared for whatever evil Cross was hiding. I'd lost Maya to the Legacy Program. I'd watched students vanish. I'd heard the whispered rumors about the "special training" in the forest.
But this? This was so much worse than anyone imagined.
My phone buzzed. A text from Aria: Marcus betrayed us. Kael's been captured. We're completely alone.
My stomach dropped. I typed back quickly: Get somewhere safe. I found something. You need to see this NOW.
I sent them coordinates to an abandoned maintenance building on the edge of campus—one of my safe houses where I kept backup servers and equipment. The Academy had security cameras everywhere, but I'd looped the feeds months ago. We'd be invisible here.
Twenty minutes later, Aria and Kael burst through the door. Aria's eyes were red from crying. Kael had blood dried on his face and his shirt was torn. They both looked like they'd been through a war.
"Marcus has been working for Cross for three years," Aria said immediately. "He's been feeding Cross all our information. Every move we've made, every person we've talked to—"
"I know." I pulled up a file on my laptop. "I found the payment records. Cross has been paying Marcus fifty thousand dollars a month."
Kael's face went white. "My best friend. The person I trusted with my life."
"I'm sorry." I wanted to give them time to process the betrayal, but we didn't have time. "But I found something worse. Much worse. Sit down. You're going to need to."
They exchanged worried looks but sat on the dusty couch I'd dragged in here months ago.
I turned my laptop around so they could see the screen. "This is what I've been downloading from Cross's private server for the past seventy-two hours. Medical records going back thirty years. Financial transactions from offshore accounts. And encrypted communications between Cross and people in the government, the military, even other Academy headmasters."
Aria leaned forward, scanning the files. Her face went pale. "These are student medical records. Why would Cross have... oh God. These dates. These are students who disappeared."
"Keep reading," I said quietly.
Kael took over the laptop, clicking through files. His jaw clenched tighter with each page. "Genetic testing. Hormone treatments. Surgical procedures. What is this?"
"The Legacy Program." I pulled up another folder, my hands still shaking. "It's not just about eliminating weak bloodlines, though that's bad enough. They're not just killing students who don't meet their standards."
"Then what are they doing?" Aria asked.
I pulled up a video file. "They're experimenting on them."
The video showed a sterile white room that looked like an operating theater. A young man—maybe nineteen years old—was strapped to a metal table. Machines beeped around him. Doctors in masks moved with calm efficiency.
"Subject 247 ready for enhancement procedure," a voice said off-screen. Professor Cross's voice. "Beginning injection sequence."
We watched in horror as they injected something into the student's spine. His screams filled the room even through whatever drugs they'd given him. His body convulsed. Bones cracked audibly as they shifted and reformed.
"The serum is taking," Cross said clinically. "Enhanced strength developing. Accelerated healing active. Pain response eliminated successfully."
The student's screams cut off abruptly. His eyes opened, but they weren't human anymore. They glowed with an unnatural light.
"Subject 247 enhancement complete," Cross said. "Prepare him for behavioral modification."
I stopped the video. Aria was crying silently. Kael looked like he might throw up.
"There are fifty-three videos like this," I said. "Fifty-three students who didn't disappear or get killed. They got turned into... those things. Enhanced soldiers. Weapons. Cross calls them his 'perfected Alphas.'"
"The subjects who attacked us in the forest," Kael said slowly. "Those were students. People who came to this Academy and got transformed into monsters."
"Asher was supposed to be one of them." I pulled up another file, hating that I had to show Aria this. "According to these records, Cross wanted to use Asher in the breeding program first. His genetics were 'extremely valuable'—their words, not mine. But when Asher discovered what they were doing and tried to expose them, they decided to eliminate him instead."
Aria's hands clenched into fists. "They wanted to use my brother as breeding stock?"
"Not just him. You too." I opened Aria's file, the one I'd found with her real name on it. "Cross has known you're Omega since the enrollment screening. He's been watching you this whole time, waiting for the right moment to grab you. According to his notes, twins with your genetic profile are extremely rare. He wants to use both of you—Asher's samples that he saved, and you—to create a whole generation of 'perfect' offspring."
The silence that followed was suffocating.
"How many people know about this?" Kael asked finally.
"At least twenty faculty members. Ten government officials. Three military generals. And dozens of wealthy alumni who've been funding the program for years." I pulled up the financial records. "They've spent over two hundred million dollars on this. It's not just Cross. It's a massive conspiracy."
"That's why they've gotten away with it for so long," Aria said. "Too many powerful people are invested in keeping it secret."
"Exactly." I closed my laptop. "Exposing Cross won't be enough. We'd need to expose everyone involved, all at once, with undeniable proof. Otherwise, they'll just cover it up and make us disappear."
"We have the proof now," Kael said. "We can take this to the media, to the police—"
"No." I shook my head. "Cross has people everywhere. The local police chief is on his payroll. Half the media outlets in the state are owned by alumni. If we go to them, we'll be dead before the story ever airs."
"Then what do we do?" Aria asked desperately.
I pulled out a flash drive, the weight of it feeling both insignificant and world-changing in my palm. "We do what Asher tried to do. We upload everything to the internet simultaneously. Every news outlet, every social media platform, every government watchdog site. Make it impossible to suppress. Let the whole world see what Royal Academy really is."
"When?" Kael asked.
"The Academy Gala is in three days. Every important person involved will be there—alumni, government officials, military leaders, everyone. We expose them all at once, in front of thousands of witnesses." I looked between them. "It's our only shot."
Aria nodded slowly. "Then we have three days to prepare."
"There's one more thing." I pulled up a final file, the one that had made my blood run cold when I first read it. "According to these communications, Cross isn't working alone. He answers to someone. Someone he calls 'The Architect.' Someone who's been planning this for decades."
"Who?" Kael demanded.
"I don't know yet. The name is encrypted behind security I haven't been able to crack. But whoever it is, they have connections everywhere. Government. Military. International. This conspiracy goes way beyond Royal Academy."
My phone buzzed with an alert. Someone was accessing my backup server—the one I thought was completely hidden.
"No," I breathed, typing frantically. "No, that's impossible."
"What's wrong?" Aria asked.
I stared at my screen in disbelief. "Someone just found my main evidence file. They're downloading everything. All my backups, all my research, every piece of evidence I've collected."
"Can you stop them?" Kael asked.
I tried every security protocol I knew, but whoever was hacking me was better. Much better. Within seconds, file after file disappeared from my server.
"They're erasing it," I said, panic rising in my chest. "Everything I've spent months collecting. It's all being deleted."
"The flash drive," Aria said. "Tell me you have copies—"
A message appeared on my screen. Just two words that made my heart stop:
Hello, daughter.
I dropped my laptop like it had burned me.
"Luna?" Kael's voice seemed far away. "What's wrong? What does that mean?"
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Because I recognized that hacking signature. The specific way they'd bypassed my security. The coding style.
I'd learned to hack from my father.
My father, who'd disappeared eight years ago after being accused of illegal human experimentation.
My father, who I thought was dead.
"The Architect," I whispered. "The person Cross answers to. The one who started all of this." I looked up at Aria and Kael with tears streaming down my face. "It's my father."