Elena's lungs burned as she pushed through the underground corridor beneath Vale Tower, Nicholas beside her, his expression hardening with every step. Behind them, the sirens above screamed like a warning from another world. But it was what lay beneath that haunted her more.
"Where the hell are we going?" she panted.
"To the vault," Nicholas said grimly. "It's the only place I keep offline."
"Why do I feel like I'm about to step into a grave?"
He didn't answer. He just swiped a card through a steel-plated panel and pushed open a door she never should've been allowed to see.
It looked nothing like a tech lab.
It looked like a war room.
Four walls covered in holographic schematics, news clippings, and photos connected by red string. Elena froze. In the center of it all was Kate. Her face printed on three different surveillance stills, one dated three days after her disappearance.
"That's impossible," Elena breathed. "She was already gone—she was already…"
Nicholas looked at her. "Dead?"
She couldn't speak.
He stepped closer, voice lower. "Kate didn't just disappear. She went dark. Intentionally. And she didn't do it alone."
Elena turned toward the screen. One of the images showed her sister entering a black SUV. The driver's face was blurred.
"No," she whispered. "She'd never do that. She wouldn't just vanish. Not unless—"
"She was trying to protect you," Nicholas said, his voice suddenly gentle.
Elena's knees gave way, and she caught the edge of a steel table for balance.
"You knew," she choked out. "All this time, you knew she was alive?"
"I suspected," Nicholas replied. "But I didn't have proof until last week. Someone sent me this photo anonymously."
He handed her a printout from the table. Elena scanned it—and froze.
Because in the lower corner, partially hidden in the shadows, was a symbol she hadn't seen in years.
A phoenix.
It had been Kate's secret tattoo. One she never spoke about.
"Do you know what that is?" she asked, voice trembling.
Nicholas nodded slowly. "It's not just ink. It's a mark."
Elena frowned. "A mark of what?"
"Rebirth," he said. "Or, in Kate's case, recruitment."
Elena's pulse thudded in her ears. "To what?"
Nicholas walked over to a locked drawer, entered a code, and pulled out a dusty folder stamped in bold red: ARCHANGEL.
"It was a classified AI faction I dismantled three years ago," he explained. "Or thought I did. But someone's trying to revive it. And it looks like your sister may have joined them."
"But why would she do that? Why would she—"
"Because Archangel wasn't just tech. It was weaponized intelligence. And someone was grooming her to build it from the inside."
Elena backed away. "So what now? She's just out there, part of some rogue black-market AI cult?"
"I don't know," he said. "But I think someone forced her hand."
The lights flickered.
Then, the screens went black.
Nicholas cursed under his breath. "We're being tracked."
"Tracked? How? You said this place was—"
Before she could finish, the vault door slammed shut behind them.
And from the ceiling speakers, a distorted voice echoed:
> "We warned you, Nicholas. But you never could leave ghosts buried."
Elena's spine chilled. "Who is that?"
Nicholas stared at the ceiling like he'd seen a ghost. "That voice… I know it."
The screens blinked back on—except now they all displayed the same video feed.
A dimly lit room. A woman seated at a metal table, hooded.
Then the hood was pulled back.
Kate.
Elena gasped. "Oh my God…"
Her sister was alive.
But she looked different—older, sharper, more dangerous. Her hair was chopped unevenly, eyes hollow but alert.
Then she spoke.
> "If you're watching this, then you've found the room. Good. That means I've failed."
Elena staggered.
Nicholas froze.
> "Don't trust him," Kate continued. "Don't trust any of them."
> "Nicholas Vale is not who he says he is."
> "And neither am I."
The feed was cut out.
Darkness swallowed the room again.
Then Elena turned to Nicholas—and slapped him.
"Tell me the truth," she said, breath catching. "Right now. Or I walk."
Nicholas didn't flinch.
"I was in love with her," he said softly.
Elena staggered back.
"What?"
"She came to me with her thesis. AI ethics. She was brilliant, bold… fearless. But she wasn't ready for what she found."
"What did she find?"
Nicholas exhaled. "Something I thought was destroyed."
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a black keycard—one she'd seen on Kate's old desk in a photo. "The prototype access."
"She found Archangel's seed," Nicholas whispered. "She didn't just join it. She activated it."
Elena shook her head. "No. No, she wouldn't—"
The vault shuddered. A distant boom echoed from above.
Nicholas turned toward the ceiling. "They're coming."
"Who?" Elena asked.
He looked at her. "Everyone."
Before she could speak again, her earpiece sparked alive—Ava's voice, garbled and panicked.
> "Elena—don't trust—Nicholas—he's not—he's the reason—Kate—"
Ava's voice became static then silent.
Elena turned, heart plummeting, as she faced Nicholas Vale.
But now, there was a gun in his hand.
And a grim look in his eyes.
Nicholas raised the gun—but instead of pointing it at her, he handed it to her.
"Because when the truth comes out," he said darkly, "you'll need this more than me."
Then the vault doors exploded open in a plume of smoke and fire.
And standing in the haze; Was Kate Carter. Alive. Armed. And no longer on anyone's side.