Chapter 40 Genetic Revelation

Chapter 40 Genetic Revelation
Sienna's POV

Cold water hit my face.

I woke up gasping.

A guard stood over me with an empty bucket.

"Get up. Court's reconvening."

My head pounded from the tranquilizer. My wrists burned from the chains.

The guard hauled me to my feet and dragged me back into the courtroom.

The Assembly members were still there, but everything felt different.

They weren't looking at me with hatred anymore.

They were looking at me with fear.

Celeste sat on her throne looking exhausted.

"The court will come to order," she said.

Everyone sat but the whispers didn't stop.

"During recess, the council reviewed Dr. Helena's genetic evidence," Celeste continued. "We also tested every Assembly member present."

My stomach dropped.

"The results are disturbing. Of the three hundred Assembly members in this room, one hundred and twenty-seven tested positive for the dormant moon witch gene."

The courtroom exploded.

Shouting. Accusations. Denials.

"That's impossible!"

"The tests must be wrong!"

"Order!" Celeste slammed her hand down. "The tests are accurate. Dr. Helena ran them three times."

Dr. Helena stood and projected data onto the wall.

"I tested blood samples from everyone in this room. The dormant gene is present in forty-two percent of you."

"But we're werewolves!" a man shouted. "Not moon witches!"

"You're both," Dr. Helena said. "The gene is recessive. It only activates under specific conditions."

"What conditions?" Celeste asked.

"Extreme stress. Trauma. Emotional breaking points." Dr. Helena looked at me. "Sienna's gene activated after she was rejected and forced to survive alone. The stress triggered the dormant magic."

"So any werewolf with the gene could become a moon witch?"

"Yes. At any time. Without warning."

Panic rippled through the courtroom.

"This changes everything," Celeste said.

"It changes nothing!" the prosecutor stood. "The law is clear. Moon witches must be controlled or eliminated."

"You want to eliminate forty-two percent of this room?" Dr. Helena asked.

"If necessary!"

"Then you're insane!" Kael shouted. "You're talking about genocide!"

"I'm talking about following the law!"

Celeste raised her hand for silence.

"The law was written three hundred years ago when we believed moon witches were a separate species. A dying species."

"They are dying!"

"No, they're dormant." Celeste stood. "And if Dr. Helena is right, they're waking up. One werewolf at a time."

"Then we stop the awakening! We suppress the gene permanently!"

"You can't suppress genetics," Dr. Helena said. "You can only accept them or fight them. And fighting genetics is a war you'll always lose."

The prosecutor's face went red. "Are you saying we should just accept moon witches? Let them destroy everything like they did before?"

"I'm saying you have one hundred and twenty-seven potential moon witches in this room right now. And if you execute Sienna Voss for being what she is, you're telling all of them that they're next."

Silence fell like a weight.

Every Assembly member with the gene looked at each other.

Fear turned to understanding turned to anger.

"She's right," someone said from the back. "If they kill her for having the gene, they'll kill us too."

"We're not the same! We're still werewolves!"

"For now. But what happens when stress activates our genes? What happens when we transform like she did?"

Arguments erupted across the courtroom.

Celeste let them argue for a full minute before calling for order.

"The council needs to deliberate. We will recess again."

"There's nothing to consider!" the prosecutor shouted. "The law says she dies!"

"The law says moon witches must be controlled," Celeste corrected. "It doesn't specify execution as the only option."

"It's always been execution!"

"Because we thought moon witches were rare. Dangerous. Other." Celeste looked around. "But they're not other. They're us. Our children. Our families. Ourselves."

"You're letting sentiment cloud your judgment!"

"I'm letting facts inform my decision." Celeste's eyes blazed. "And the fact is, executing Sienna Voss will start a civil war. The werewolves carrying the gene will see it as a declaration. They'll fight back."

"Let them! We'll crush them like before!"

"There were thousands of moon witches three hundred years ago. It took us fifty years to hunt them down. Now you want to start that war again? With our own people?"

The prosecutor had no answer.

"I propose an alternative," Dr. Helena said. "Instead of execution, we study Sienna. Learn how her gene activated. Figure out how to help others control their powers if they awaken."

"Absolutely not! She's too dangerous!"

"She's too valuable to kill," Celeste countered.

"The law demands it!"

"The law can be changed!" Celeste's voice thundered. "I helped write it. I can help rewrite it."

"You're betraying everything we stand for!"

"I'm trying to prevent extinction!" Celeste stepped down from her throne. "If we kill everyone with the moon witch gene, we kill almost half our population. The Assembly won't survive that."

She walked to the center and stood beside me.

"I spent three hundred years enforcing laws I thought would save us. Laws that required moon witches to submit or die. And it almost worked. We reduced their numbers from thousands to three."

She looked at me.

"But we didn't eliminate the gene. We just drove it underground. Forced it to hide in werewolf bloodlines. And now it's coming back." She turned to face the Assembly. "We have a choice. We can fight it and destroy ourselves. Or we can adapt."

"Adapt how?"

"By accepting that moon witches and werewolves are the same species. By changing our laws to reflect that truth. By helping those who awaken instead of killing them."

"You want to legalize moon witches?"

"I want to stop calling them moon witches and start calling them what they are. Werewolves with activated magical genes."

The courtroom erupted again.

Some shouting in agreement. Others in protest.

I stood there in chains, watching my fate being decided.

Celeste raised her hand for silence.

"We will vote. All in favor of execution, raise your hand."

Hands went up across the room. Maybe a hundred.

"All opposed?"

More hands. Maybe one hundred and fifty.

"The opposed have it. Sienna Voss will not be executed."

Relief flooded through me.

"However," Celeste continued, "she cannot go free. Not yet. She will remain in custody while we study her condition and rewrite our laws."

"For how long?" Kael demanded.

"As long as necessary."

"That's not fair! You're still imprisoning her!"

"I'm keeping her alive. Be grateful for that."

She turned to the guards. "Take her back to her cell. We'll reconvene tomorrow."

Guards grabbed my arms.

"Wait!" Kael stood. "I have a right to testify. You haven't heard my side yet."

Celeste sighed. "Very well. State your testimony."

"I want to testify about how we got here. About the role I played in creating this situation."

"We know your role. You rejected her."

"I did more than that." Kael's voice was raw. "I destroyed her. Broke her. Forced her to become what you're all so afraid of."

The courtroom went quiet.

"Explain," Celeste said.

Kael looked at me with eyes full of pain.

"I loved Sienna from the moment I met her. But I was ashamed of that love because she was wolfless. My mother told me I'd be weak if I claimed her. The pack said I'd lose my position. So I mated with her in private and rejected her in public."

He paused.

"I treated her like she was nothing. Made her feel worthless. And when Lily was born showing wolfless traits, I turned completely cold. I let the pack pressure me into public rejection. I called her a mistake in front of everyone."

Tears ran down his face.

"I thought I was protecting my position. My reputation. My future." His voice broke. "But all I did was destroy the woman I loved and create the very thing I was taught to fear."

"This is irrelevant," the prosecutor said.

"It's completely relevant!" Kael turned to the Assembly. "Don't you see? Sienna didn't become powerful because she's naturally dangerous. She became powerful because we forced her to survive alone. We created our own enemy."

He looked at Celeste.

"If you want to stop more moon witches from awakening, stop treating werewolves like they're disposable. Stop rejecting people for being different. Stop creating the trauma that activates the gene."

Silence.

"I'm not done." Kael took a breath. "I want to state for the record that I still love Sienna Voss. I've always loved her. And I'll spend the rest of my life proving that she deserves freedom, not imprisonment."

"Enough!" the prosecutor shouted. "This is a courtroom, not a romance novel!"

But every eye in the courtroom was on Kael.

And then on me.

Waiting for my reaction.

The courtroom erupted into chaos.