The sky above Site Zero turned red.
Not from sunset.
From warning satellites.
Within minutes of Juno's final cut, global priority networks activated. Government satellites blinked alive, redirecting orbital weapons. Drones swarmed the air like wasps. Every military base on the continent received one order:
"Target: Blade anomaly. Asset retrieval Aeria, Subject Chrono, Subject Phantom.
Full containment. Use of lethal force Approved."
Inside the broken husk of Site Zero, sirens faded beneath the hum of gathering stormclouds. The escapees stood together for the first time.
Aeria, bare footed and bloodstained, clutched her arms.
Chrono, still recovering from years of suspended time, kept flickering between seconds.
Phantom, the boy of perfect intangibility, looked up at the open ceiling, silent.
And Juno stood at the front Divide in his grip, glowing with quiet hunger.
"Time to run," he said.
They sprinted into the ruins of the old highway tunnels beneath Site Zero a half-collapsed labyrinth winding deep through the mountain. Chrono stumbled once, but Juno caught him.
Above, the air grew thick with the whine of magnetic engines.
The Vanguard Division had arrived.
Jet-black ships descended from orbit. Soldiers with anti reality gear deployed in squads, their suits lined with Will reactive armor. They weren't here to warn or threaten.
They were here to end it.
"TARGETS MOVING THROUGH SUBLEVEL 3," a synthetic voice echoed from the tunnels.
"AUTHORIZED TO EXTINGUISH."
Juno spun and threw Divide.
The sword flashed forward and cut the command drone in half, signal and all.
For a moment, they had silence.
Then the walls exploded.
Aeria screamed not in fear, but in rage.
Her arms reknitted instantly from the blast. Her eyes went feral. "They're not taking me back."
Before Juno could speak, she charged.
And for the first time, the military realized what a healed monster could do.
She slammed through a wall of soldiers like a cannonball, healing faster than the bullets could tear her. One grabbed her from behind and she bent backward, shattering his visor with her skull.
Chrono blinked.
Then, time snapped.
He froze six soldiers mid-step, their bullets still hovering in the air. He reversed them and they collapsed as if shot by their own weapons.
Phantom passed through the walls behind them like smoke, disabling barriers, unlocking doors with ease. Nothing could touch him.
And Juno?
He didn't run.
He stayed behind cutting open the mountain itself, carving a path straight to the outside.
Above them, a high altitude drone locked onto their position.
Aeria sensed it.
"Bomb incoming!"
The light above grew blinding.
They had seconds.
"Chrono-!" Juno shouted.
"I know!"
Chrono raised both hands. Time bent around them not stopping the bomb, but delaying the moment of explosion by a single, stretched second.
"GO!" he yelled, face bleeding from the effort.
Juno grabbed him. Phantom emerged and pulled Aeria back.
They ran through the passage Divide had cut a massive rift in the mountain.
And just as the bomb hit…
They were gone.
The mountain behind them erupted.
Ash. Fire. Silence.
For now.
They emerged miles away in the wilderness.
Burned. Shaken. But alive.
Aeria collapsed beside a tree, panting. "This isn't over."
Chrono laughed bitterly. "It's just starting."
Phantom said nothing only watched the skies.
And Juno cleaned the blood from Divide.
"They'll come again," he said. "But next time…"
He turned to the others.
"…we'll be ready."