They flew in on a stolen cargo plane under a blackout call sign. No transponders. No escort. The air over the Arctic Shelf was dead quiet — unnaturally so.
Below them, white stretched forever, broken only by the jagged remains of a former Soviet station — now encased in steel, glass, and signal towers. Cain's fortress.
Inside the cockpit, Juno monitored Signal's vitals. The girl sat still, eyes closed, connected to a scrambled interface they had built in twelve hours. It filtered her output, kept her neural uplink from leaking.
"I can feel him," she said suddenly.
Evan looked back. "Where?"
She pointed without opening her eyes.
"Below. Deep."
The plane couldn't land. They dropped by chute, cold slamming into every cell. Maya hit first, rifle up. Juno second, rolling into the snow and immediately activating the jammer drone. Evan landed hard, clutching the final hard drive — the one holding CIRCADIAN's kill switch.
Signal floated down last, her chute unfolding in a quiet, slow spiral. She touched the ice. The signal towers in the distance flickered, and every drone above the compound turned mid-air, tracking them.
"They see me now," she whispered.
"Then we move fast," Maya said.
The outer defenses weren't automated — they were absent.
"Cain wants us in," Juno said. "He's letting this happen."
Steel doors opened as they approached.
The compound interior was cavernous. Wide halls. Echoes that felt wrong. Lights hummed in silence. And everything — every screen, panel, interface — was built for one thing: signal control.
At the center was the Core Chamber.
They found Cain there.
He stood shirtless in the freezing dark, wires sunk into his spine, his eyes pale and unblinking. Not old — not exactly human. His body didn't breathe. He had no shadow.
Signal stepped forward.
"Why?" she asked.
Cain turned.
His voice was perfectly calm. "Emotion is infection. Fear, love, hate — all designed to make humans irrational. Destructive. I am the cure."
"You killed them all," Maya said. "The children, the other prototypes—"
"They were incomplete," Cain said. "You think I am cruel. But I am release."
Evan held up the kill drive.
"This ends now."
Cain nodded.
"Yes. It does."
He raised one hand. The room shook. From the shadows emerged four others — black suits, eyes like Cain's. Hybrid shells. Pale Court's final acolytes. Each one built to resist pain, data corruption, even neural disruption.
Cain's voice echoed:
"You were never my enemies. You were data. A test. And now... I compile."
Signal screamed.
The walls surged with invisible pressure. Signal collapsed, hands over her ears.
"Get her out!" Evan shouted.
Maya opened fire. Two acolytes dropped.
Juno dragged Signal into cover, plugging her into the backup interface.
"Evan!" she shouted. "I need two minutes!"
Cain stepped down from the dais.
"Emotion is delay. You will watch the world shed it."
Evan tackled one of the acolytes. Fought hand-to-hand. Too fast. Too strong. But he managed a shot to the jaw — disabling the uplink node.
Juno screamed.
"I'm in! Uploading purge now!"
Cain reached toward Signal.
She looked up.
And whispered:
"No."
The purge signal exploded from her body like a shockwave. Every screen cracked. Every uplink flashed red.
The acolytes dropped.
Cain stood still. Shaking.
"You think this ends me?" he asked, voice breaking.
Signal rose.
"No. I do."
She touched his forehead.
Cain's eyes went wide. For one second — just one — something like regret passed across his face.
Then he collapsed.
Dead.
The purge signal uploaded completely. CIRCADIAN deleted. Neural networks shattered.
All across the world, the invisible grip of the Pale Court dissolved.
In the silence that followed, the four of them stood over Cain's body.
No words.
Just breath.
Then Signal looked up at the broken ceiling, snow drifting in.
"It's over," she said.
Evan nodded.