DANTE POV
I watched Sera run straight into Helena's trap.
Stupid. But predictable.
From my hiding spot on the medical tent top, I could see everything. Sera stumbling through the darkness. Helena waiting like a spider. The guards surrounding the building.
And that video. That damned movie playing on the wall.
My sister pushing the button that killed five billion people.
"No," I whispered. "Not yet. She's not ready yet."
I'd been watching Sera for three months. Ever since they pulled her body out of that underground bunker and somehow brought her back. Three months of waiting for her memories to return. Three months of making sure nobody killed her before she remembered why she'd done it.
But Helena was going too fast. Showing Sera the truth before her mind could handle it.
This was going to break her.
I had to move. Now.
I dropped from the roof, landing silent in the darkness. My knife was already in my hand. Old habits. You don't live three years in the Deadlands without learning to move quiet and strike fast.
Through the fabric wall, I heard Helena's voice: "Watch closely, Sera. This is who you really are."
I cut through the back of the tent in one smooth move.
Sera stood frozen, looking at the video of herself ending the world. Helena had her back to me. Perfect.
"Sera!" I shouted. "Duck!"
She dropped without thinking. Good reactions. Some part of her soldier training was still there.
I threw my knife. It flew past Sera's head and sliced through the projector's power cord. The video died. Darkness swallowed everything.
"Intruder!" Helena screamed. "Guards!"
But I was already going. I grabbed Sera's wrist and pulled her toward the hole I'd cut.
"Who are you?" she gasped.
"Someone who's been looking for you for a very long time." I shoved her through the hole. "Run east. Fast as you can. I'll catch up."
"But—" "RUN!"
She ran.
Guards poured into the tent. I slipped into the shadows, letting them chase her trail while I circled around. Classic deception. They'd never catch her in the dark. I'd taught her better than that.
Except she didn't remember that I'd taught her anything.
I found her ten minutes later, hiding behind a water barrel outside the town walls. She had a rock in her hand, ready to fight.
"Easy," I said, hands up. "I'm not here to hurt you."
"You cut through Helena's tent. You have weapons." Her voice shook. "Who are you?"
"My name is Dante Reeves." I moved closer slowly. "And I've been waiting three months for you to wake up."
"Why?"
"Because you're my sister."
She almost dropped the rock. "What?"
"Twin sister, actually. Though you probably don't remember that either." I pulled down my collar, showing her a scar on my neck. Star-shaped. "You have the same one on your left shoulder."
Her free hand moved to her shoulder. Even in the darkness, I saw recognition flash across her face.
"How do you know that?" she whispered. "Because I'm the one who found you after the Pulse. Pulled you out of that underground building. You were barely moving. Burned. Broken. I thought you were dead." My throat tightened. "But you opened your eyes and said my name. Just once. Then nothing."
"I don't remember any of this."
"They erased your memories. Helena and her Council. They needed you living but obedient. Can't have the woman who ended the world running around with free will."
Sera's legs gave out. She sat hard on the ground. "That video. Was it real? Did I really...?"
"Press the button that killed five billion people?" I sat across from her. "Yes. You did. Three hours before the Pulse hit."
She made a sound like a hurt animal. "Why? Why would I do that?"
"Because you loved humanity enough to make an impossible choice." I kept my voice steady even though it hurt to talk about this. "Our AI systems forecast total human extinction in eleven months. Nuclear war would start in Asia. Spread globally. Combined with climate collapse and three different pandemic outbreaks. Nine billion people dead. Everyone. Everything. Gone forever."
"And killing five billion somehow stopped that?"
"You didn't just kill them. You reset society." I pulled out a small notebook. My sister's handwriting filled the pages. "You spent two years figuring the math. Figuring out exactly which technology to trash, which systems to keep, how to force humanity back to a sustainable level."
"That's insane."
"That's survival." I gave her the notebook. "You wrote this. Your own words describing why you had to do it. Read it when you're ready."
She took the notebook with shaky hands. "If what you're saying is true, why didn't you stop me?"
"Because you were right." The words tasted like ash. "I hated it. Fought you about it for months. But the math didn't lie. This way, four billion people live. The other way, nobody does. Zero. Complete extinction."
"So you just let me commit genocide?"
"I helped you." The confession ripped out of me. "I'm the one who got you into the center. I'm the one who stopped the security systems so you could reach the control room. I'm the one who stood guard while you pressed that button."
Her face went white. "You're lying."
"I wish I was." I stood up. "But someone had to help you. And someone had to make sure you survived afterward. Because the technology in your head—that brain implant—contains everything humanity needs to rebuild properly. Not just technology. But the ethical structure to use it wisely."
"Helena wants it."
"Helena wants to handle it. Big difference." I offered her my hand. "She'll cut it out of your brain if you let her. Use it to make herself queen of the new world. That's not what you died for."
"I didn't die."
"You did. Three times, actually." I pulled her to her feet. "The lab blast killed you. The Pulse nearly killed you. And the neural transfer certainly killed who you used to be. You're not the same woman who hit that button. You're something new. Something they didn't plan for."
"What am I?"
"Dangerous. Powerful. And completely unpredictable." I grinned despite everything. "Just like always."
Before she could reply, an explosion rocked the settlement behind us. Fire bloomed into the sky. Screams rang through the night.
"What was that?" Sera gasped.
I pulled out my radio. Static. Then a voice: "Dante, we have a problem. Those raiders you warned us about? They're here. And they're asking for the Architect by name."
My blood went cold. "How did they find out?"
"Someone told them. Someone inside the settlement."
I looked at Sera. She looked at the burning settlement with horror.
"We need to go back," she said. "People need help."
"They need you dead." I grabbed her arm. "Those raiders don't want to talk. They want to cut your head off and take the implant. Helena probably called them herself."
"But the children—"
Another explosion. Closer this time.
And then I heard it. The sound that made my skin crawl.
Motorcycles. Dozens of them. Modified to run on alcohol fuel. The Deadland raiders' best toy.
They were coming for us.
"Run," I told Sera. "Now."
We ran into the darkness. Behind us, the motorbikes roared closer. Hunting. Chasing.
I'd protected my sister through the disaster. Through her death and rising. Through three months of waiting for her memories to return.
But I couldn't protect her from what was coming next.
Because the lead motorbike pulled alongside us. The rider wore a gas mask and leather gear.
And when he pulled off his mask, I saw a face I'd hoped never to see again.
Marcus Chen. Helena's second-in-command.
The man who'd loved my sister before she ended the world.
The man who'd sworn to kill her if she ever came back.
"Hello, Architect," he said, raising his gun. "Welcome home."
He fired.