CHAPTER 6 — THE AWAKENING

  Location: Valkyrion, Training Bay Theta-9 — 0320 Hours

  The chamber was cold. Not because the temperature dropped—but because the air had stopped moving.

  Lys stood at the center, blindfolded.

  Not as a handicap.

  As a filter.

  Her heart was racing. Not from fear.

  From memory.

  Every soldier on Valkyrion had gathered in silence. Watching. Waiting. Rumors had spread fast—Lys was changing. Some said she’d been possessed. Others claimed she was a forgotten clone.

  None of them were ready for the truth.

  Not even her.

  “Engage,” came the voice of Commander Kael.

  The floor opened, and five training drones emerged—humanoid, armed with stunblades, programmed with anti-psionic countermeasures.

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  They rushed her.

  She didn’t move.

  The first drone struck—

  And then time cracked.

  From Lys’s perspective

  The world fractured. Like a mirror struck at the center. Every possible angle of every incoming blow unfolded before her mind’s eye—each frame of motion split into layers of futures, choices, reflexes.

  She stepped between them all.

  Not dodging.

  Phasing.

  The blade passed through the echo of where she’d been.

  Her hand rose, trembling—not from weakness, but from pressure.

  Inside her veins, the encoded memory sequence began to surge.

  Her eyes snapped open behind the blindfold.

  Silver.

  The drones didn’t stand a chance.

  The second one lunged—she raised one hand.

  The air folded in.

  A concussive implosion ripped the drone apart, compacting it into a ball of twisted metal the size of a fist.

  The third tried to flank—

  She turned.

  And it caught fire.

  No flames. No accelerant.

  Just will.

  The fire was inside it.

  The crowd screamed, scattering. Not out of fear of the drones.

  Out of fear of her.

  Observation Deck

  Kael stood next to Dr. Nasiri, his hands shaking.

  “She wasn’t trained,” he whispered.

  “She doesn’t need to be,” Nasiri replied, watching the footage. “This isn’t skill. It’s inheritance.”

  “What are we seeing?”

  The doctor didn’t look away.

  “We’re watching the return of something humanity buried in its bloodline.”

  Sanctum of Echoes — Parallel View

  Zero smiled as the Sanctum’s mind-map synced with Lys’s outburst.

  He saw the flames. The implosions. The energy curve.

  “She’s reached Phase One.”

  The priest bowed low.

  “Shall we intercept?”

  Zero’s expression didn’t change.

  “No. Let her ascend.”

  He turned, cloak shimmering like starlight over broken glass.

  “I want to see what kind of goddess our ancestors left behind.”

  Back on the Valkyrion, Lys collapsed to her knees, breath ragged, the blindfold torn.

  And for just a second—

  She heard a voice in her head.

  “We are the same, you and I.”

  Not Kael. Not hers.

  Zero.