Chapter 10 Blood And Echoes

The air before dawn was still unnaturally so Liora crouched atop a ruined overpass as wind howled softly through the skeletal remains of the dead city below. The Regime outpost stood like a cold monolith ahead: angular, pulsing with faint light, silent but watching. A tower of steel and secrets.

Behind her, Kael, Sera, Mira, and a dozen of Fenrick's finest waited for her signal. Wolves and shifters cloaked in shadows, breathing in sync with the dark.

"No drones overhead," Kael whispered. "It's too quiet."

"They're expecting an attack," Mira murmured. "They just don't know when."

"Or how," Sera added, her eyes gleaming faint gold. "They think in patterns. We don't."

Liora exhaled, slow and sharp. "Then let's break their rhythm."

She raised her hand.

A silent nod passed between them, and the strike began.

The pack split like ghosts across the ruins, using the city's bones for cover. Sera and Liora took the left flank, scaling a shattered highway that led straight to the tower's side. Kael led Mira and the rest through the drainage tunnels beneath.

Inside the tower, the hum of machines vibrated like a hive. The Regime soldiers didn't speak; they didn't need to. Their movements were precise. Controlled. Hollow.

In the control center, Commander Vex adjusted his glove over a synthetic hand. Data scrolled before his eyes.

"Subject Echo-5A is awake," he said coldly. "And moving."

A tech operative glanced up. "She's approaching Tower Theta."

"Let her." Vex smiled. "Let them all come."

He pressed a command.

Far below, a line of sleeper units powered on.

Liora pressed against the tower's hull, scanning for weaknesses. The steel was reinforced, but old corroded in places. She felt it hum under her palm. Sera placed her hand beside hers.

"I can breach the link here," Sera whispered. "But when I do... they'll feel it."

"Then we give them something worth feeling."

Liora nodded. "Do it."

Sera's fingers danced over the metal. Her golden eyes flared, and sparks leapt from her skin. A low-frequency pulse surged through the wall like a heartbeat.

Inside, alarms didn't sound but all screens went black.

Kael's team emerged inside the base, knives drawn, movements clean. Mira dispatched a guard before he could cry out, dragging his body into the shadows. Fenrick and the wolves followed, teeth bared, senses sharp.

"Power's unstable," Kael whispered. "Whatever Sera did, it's working."

"Let's finish it before they adapt."

Outside, a section of the tower peeled open with a hiss. Sera collapsed to one knee, sweat slicking her brow.

"They fought me," she gasped. "But I cut through."

Liora helped her up. "You held the storm long enough."

They slipped into the breach.

The hallway was narrow and pulsing, lit with intermittent light. Security systems flickered. Voices echoed, metallic and wrong.

"I don't like this," Sera murmured.

Then they saw it.

A row of cryo pods, hundreds lined the corridor, each containing a sleeping figure. Male, female, hybrid. All enhanced. All... familiar.

"Clones?" Liora asked, horrified.

Sera stared, eyes wide. "No. Us. They took pieces of us. Made copies. Prototypes. Failures."

"Why keep them alive?"

"Because they're waiting for a signal."

Behind them, metal scraped.

Liora spun, weapon drawn.

Too late.

The first pod opened. Then another. And another.

In the control center, Vex stood calmly as data returned to the screens.

"Echo-5A has entered Hallway Sigma."

"Initiate Echelon Protocol?" asked the tech.

"No." Vex's eyes narrowed. "Release the Echo Shades."

Back in the corridor, the first clone stepped out of its pod.

It looked exactly like Liora.

Same dark hair. Same scars. Same eyes except... empty. A hollow echo.

It opened its mouth and screamed.

The sound shattered glass and made Liora stagger. The clone launched forward.

Liora barely blocked the strike. The force behind it was inhuman.

"They cloned your strength," Sera growled.

"But not my soul."

Liora slammed the clone into the wall, bones cracking. But more were rising. Dozens now.

Sera grabbed her wrist. "We can't fight them all. We have to run."

"No," Liora said, panting. "We end this."

Below, Kael's team breached the central node. Sparks erupted as Mira slashed the wiring, and Kael planted the det-charges around the comm core.

"Two minutes," Kael barked. "Get clear!"

The tower shuddered.

Above, Liora and Sera sprinted through collapsing corridors. Clones pursued them, silent and ravenous. One leapt, Liora turned mid-air and impaled it with a jagged pipe. It convulsed, eyes burning out.

"Go!" she shouted.

They burst through a blast door into the upper control deck.

And there stood Vex.

His eyes locked on Sera.

"Ah. My favorite failure," he said.

"Funny," she snarled, "I don't remember you."

He raised a hand and the air bent.

The shockwave sent them flying. Liora crashed into the far wall. Sera rolled, blood in her mouth.

"You can't stop what's already begun," Vex said, stepping forward.

"We don't need to stop it," Liora coughed, staggering to her feet. "We just need to reset it."

She pressed the detonator.

The tower exploded.

A pillar of fire erupted into the night, swallowing steel and clone alike. The wolves howled as the earth shook. Flames lit the sky like dawn, and the Regime's tower fell.

Smoke curled into the heavens. Ash rained down like snow.

From the rubble, Liora emerged, limping. Sera followed, bruised but smiling grimly.

Kael found them seconds later. "You're alive."

"Barely," Liora muttered.

"But we did it," Sera said, eyes gleaming. "They lost their tower. Their signal. Their control."

"And you gained a weapon," Kael said, glancing at her.

Sera met his gaze. "No. You gained a storm.