Frederick's fingers hovered over the pen.
The air in the boardroom had shifted, thick with tension and the quiet crackle of danger. Aria stood a step behind him, her heart racing, every instinct screaming for him not to do it. But Frederick didn't look at her. Not yet.
Dr. Voss sat calmly across the table, the perfect portrait of power and precision. There was no rush in his eyes, only patience, like a man who'd watched kings fall and empires burn just to replace them with his own vision. And now, he wanted Frederick.
"Sign," Voss said again, his voice cool and steady. "And you both walk out of here alive."
Frederick picked up the pen slowly, his eyes locked onto the signature line of the Reclamation Contract. One stroke could pull him back into the abyss he had crawled out of. One name could erase the man Aria helped rebuild.
Aria's voice trembled behind him. "You don't have to do this. Please, don't."
He finally turned to her. There was no fear in her eyes anymore—only pain. He saw it in the way her lips quivered, the way her arms crossed tightly in front of her chest, as though trying to protect what little was left of the man she loved.
Frederick's gaze softened. "I'm not doing it for them," he said quietly. "I'm doing it for us."
"No," she said. "If you go back into their world, you'll never be us again."
His grip tightened around the pen. "Then I'll burn their world down from the inside."
Before Aria could respond, he turned back and signed the document.
Voss smiled, satisfied. "You made the right decision, Dr. Vance. Welcome back to the family."
Frederick leaned forward, voice dangerously calm. "This family dies with me."
Voss raised a brow, but didn't respond. He closed the file and stood. "Expect the retrieval team by nightfall. We'll begin reactivating Solace Protocol."
When the doors shut behind the man, Aria grabbed Frederick's arm, spinning him to face her. "What the hell was that? You just signed your soul over to the devil again."
"No," he said, cupping her face gently. "I signed his death warrant."
She stared into his eyes, searching for lies. There were none. Just a flicker of the same madness that once haunted him—but this time, it wasn't wild. It was controlled. Focused.
"They want Ivy," he said. "They think she has the final volume of Lucia's records."
"She does," Aria whispered. "But she's not going to hand it over."
"She won't have to," Frederick replied. "Because we're going to fake it. I'm going to feed them everything they want—on our terms."
"And when they realize it's a trap?" she asked.
Frederick gave a thin smile. "Then we bring everything down. All of it. For good."
Aria let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "You're not doing this without me."
He pressed his forehead to hers. "I wouldn't survive it without you."
The kiss they shared was different this time. It wasn't born from lust or desperation, but from unity. A promise. Two broken people choosing to fight side by side, no matter the cost.
That night, they drove out of the city together, headlights piercing through the dark woods. The contract was signed. The game had begun.
But this time, they weren't playing to survive.
They were playing to win.
The road to Ivy was silent.
No music. No conversation. Just the hum of the engine and the weight of what was to come pressing down on Aria's chest.
Frederick kept his eyes on the road, knuckles white against the steering wheel. His face was unreadable, carved from stone, but Aria knew the storm behind it. It wasn't fear. It was calculation. Revenge wrapped in guilt. A man planning to dismantle the machine that created him — even if it cost him everything.
They reached the edge of the southern hills just before sunrise. Ivy's hideout, a ruined conservatory buried beneath a crumbling estate, came into view through the thinning fog.
Aria stepped out of the car first, the morning air biting her skin. "Do you think she'll help us?"
Frederick stood beside her. "She has no reason not to. They'll come for her either way. This is the only way she walks out alive."
Inside, Ivy was already waiting.
She sat barefoot on the cracked floor, surrounded by old patient records and shattered glass panes that filtered the light like stained windows in a broken cathedral. Her long dark hair framed her face like a curtain, but her eyes were sharp—alive.
"You look worse," she said flatly as Frederick approached. "And you brought her again. How romantic."
"I signed the contract," Frederick said, ignoring her sarcasm. "They're moving. Voss wants everything—Lucia's journals, the trial records. You."
Ivy didn't flinch. "And?"
"We give them what they want. A fake journal, filled with doctored entries. We lead them into the lab. Then we detonate the entire thing."
Aria stepped forward. "You're suggesting we blow up Solace Labs? There could be people inside."
"No one innocent," Ivy said coldly. "Not anymore."
There was a long pause before Ivy rose to her feet and looked at both of them.
"Fine," she said. "But if we're going to end this, we do it my way. No mercy."
---
Later that night, the three of them sat under the flickering bulbs of a roadside diner, finalizing the plan. Ivy tapped a blueprint onto the table. The original layout of Solace Labs' substructure—sealed off for years but still wired with failsafes.
"There's a trigger room below the main floor," she explained. "Lucia built it in case the project ever turned on her. If we can override the power grid from that room, it'll collapse the whole facility."
"And the data?" Aria asked.
"I've already uploaded the fake journal to their cloud," Frederick said. "Once they think they've got it, they'll move everyone inside for extraction and transfer. That's when we strike."
"And what if they see through it?" Aria whispered.
Frederick's voice was quiet. "Then only one of us has to make it out."
"No," she snapped. "Don't you dare think of sacrificing yourself. Not again. Not this time."
Frederick reached for her hand under the table. "If something happens to me, Aria… promise me you'll run. You'll live."
Tears burned her eyes, but she didn't look away. "Only if you do the same."
---
That night, in a broken room above the diner, they didn't make love out of desperation or survival.
They did it out of something deeper.
Hope.
A final memory, in case one of them never returned.
Frederick held her like a lifeline. Aria kissed him like an anchor. Ivy slept in the room next door, alone as always—but even she seemed calmer, as though the war inside her had quieted.
The plan was set.
The bait had been delivered.
And the final descent into Solace Labs… was only a day away.
The air was heavy beneath the ground, filled with static and the sterile scent of recycled ventilation. Aria's boots echoed along the narrow corridor, her pulse syncing with each silent step.
They had entered Solace Labs an hour earlier through an old maintenance shaft Ivy had mapped out. The upper levels had been cleared for the extraction. Voss and his men were waiting above, confident, unaware that the very heart of their operation was set to collapse.
But down here—in the forgotten belly of the beast—Aria, Frederick, and Ivy moved like ghosts.
No turning back now.
Aria glanced at Frederick as they approached the control room. He wore black gloves again, like before, the symbol of who he used to be. But his eyes… his eyes were different.
Softer. Sadder. Stronger.
"This is it," Ivy said, halting in front of a reinforced door. "Once we power up the override, we'll have fifteen minutes to get out."
Frederick stared at the door without moving. "And if it fails?"
"Then everything caves in. Including us," Ivy said with a thin smile.
Aria reached for his hand. "We go in together. We leave together."
But Frederick didn't answer.
---
Inside, the control room was filled with outdated machinery, blinking monitors, and a central terminal lined with cracked glass. Ivy took her place at the console, fingers moving fast as she began overriding the security failsafes. The countdown flickered to life.
15:00.
14:59.
Frederick stared at the screen, jaw tight.
Aria stood beside him, her hand brushing his. "Talk to me."
He finally looked at her.
"I've spent so much time believing I had to be a monster to protect the people I loved," he whispered. "But I don't want to protect you by becoming something you'd have to kill."
"You don't have to," she whispered. "You already protected me. By choosing to become better. By letting me in."
He leaned forward, pressing his forehead against hers. "I love you, Aria. In every broken, ugly, terrifying way."
Tears filled her eyes. "Then live for me."
---
Suddenly, an alarm blared.
System breach.
Unauthorized personnel detected.
Ivy cursed under her breath. "They found us. Cameras just went live upstairs."
The hallway lights outside the control room flickered red.
Frederick turned to Ivy. "Start the override. Don't stop for anything."
He pulled Aria close. "You stay with her. I'll slow them down."
"No!" she shouted. "We said together—"
But he was already at the door, locking it behind him.
---
Aria screamed his name, fists pounding against the door, but it was too late.
He was gone.
Outside, chaos erupted.
Gunfire. Shouts. Boots hitting metal floors.
Through the control room's monitor feed, Aria saw him move through the corridor like a phantom, drawing the guards' attention. Taking bullets like he'd trained for this moment. Like he knew it was the only way.
Ivy didn't look up.
"The system's almost ready. Ten percent more."
"Open the door," Aria begged. "Let me go after him!"
Ivy shook her head. "If you leave now, everything dies for nothing."
Aria collapsed to her knees, watching the screen as Frederick collapsed in a pool of blood… then rose again, face pale, shoulders shaking.
He wasn't giving up.
He had promised her he'd live.
And he meant it.
---
00:45.
00:30.
Ivy slammed the final key.
"Done."
She reached for Aria's arm, dragging her to her feet. "Now we run."
They burst through the back tunnel, heat chasing their heels as alarms blared louder and louder. Behind them, the walls of Solace Labs shook violently, sections collapsing in waves.
And then—
An explosion.
The ceiling gave way, and the screen monitoring the main corridor went black.
Aria screamed.
---