Chapter 13: The Breaking Point

Frost filled the seams of the checkpoint’s outer doors. Ava watched them part from the transport window. Beyond lay a dock with armed guards already waiting beside the marked boarding lane.

Through the open control-room door, she heard Jenna finish the arrival report: civilians stable, no new encounters, Gabriel’s contact with Ava recorded as a breach of protocol.

Ava turned toward him. He had heard it too.

The moment the ship docked, armed guards boarded, their presence cold and unyielding. Gabriel instinctively moved to shield Ava, but two soldiers stepped between them, shoving him aside.

“Gabriel, what’s going on?” Ava asked, panic rising in her voice.

Gabriel clenched his fists. “Stay calm. I’ll fix this.”

A man in a crisp military uniform stepped forward. “Rescue operative Gabriel, you are under investigation for gross negligence and breach of containment protocols.”

“What?” Gabriel’s voice was incredulous. “I saved lives! Ava isn’t a threat—she’s the reason we’re still alive!”

The officer ignored him, signaling the guards. Gabriel was restrained, his protests drowned out by the chaos around them.

“Ava!” he shouted as they dragged him away. “I’ll find you! Don’t give up!”

“Gabriel!” Ava fought the hands on her arms. “No—take me! Leave him here! Gabriel!”

Two guards tightened their grip and hauled her toward the opposite corridor.

“Please,” she pleaded, her voice breaking. “Don’t do this.”

Her cries went unanswered as she was escorted to a heavily secured holding cell.

Ava measured time by the guards changing outside her cell. Neither would tell her where they had taken Gabriel. She had seen them drag him away. Still, as the hours passed, she began to wonder whether he would stop asking for her if they offered to release him.

Let him go. Even if he leaves me. Let him go.

She pictured it with a shameful thoroughness: a door opened, his equipment returned, someone telling him he had done enough. She wanted him to refuse. She wanted him free. Thinking both things made her feel as if she were the one holding him here.

At the next change she stood before the guard could turn away.

“Is he being fed?”

The guard glanced at her untouched tray. “Worry about yourself.”

She sat down and tried a mouthful. Perhaps someone would note that she had eaten, that she was behaving, and it would count in his favour. Halfway through swallowing, she understood the bargain she was making with an empty room. Nobody had offered her anything.

A radio outside crackled. “Civilian quarantine. Active transformation. We need containment down here.”

One guard ran. The other drew his weapon and faced the corridor. Gunshots followed, then a warning to shut the ventilation. The fan above Ava’s door kept turning.

Screams carried through the vent before the alarm began. Ava pressed her hands over her ears. She could still hear them through the bones of her skull.

She backed into the wall. The pressure beneath her skin returned, crowding her shoulder joints, forcing her fingers apart. She knew what came next and could find nothing in the cell to hold onto that would survive it.

Spikes erupted from her skin, tearing through her clothes. Her muscles bulged unnaturally, and her amber eyes glowed with an otherworldly light. She let out a guttural scream as the transformation overtook her.

When the guards came to check on her, they didn’t stand a chance.

By the time Ava regained her senses, the halls were eerily silent. She looked down at her hands, trembling as she saw the blood staining her claws.

“No,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “What have I done?”

One body lay with a hand tucked beneath the chest. She found herself waiting for him to pull it free. The waiting continued after she saw how badly he was hurt.

“Please move,” she whispered. “Please. I’m sorry.”

She had wanted the guards afraid. In the cell, with Gabriel taken away and nobody answering her, she had wanted them to understand what fear felt like. That memory remained where the killings should have been. She could not turn it into proof of what she had intended, or make herself stop treating it as proof.

Blood cooled between her toes. She tried to remember which of these men had brought the food. Their faces would not match the fragment she had kept.

She stepped over bodies, her bare feet splashing in pools of crimson. Most of the guards were dead, their expressions frozen in terror. The air smelled of death and decay.

She stumbled through the carnage until she heard it—a faint, desperate voice calling her name.

“Ava!”

It was Gabriel.

She followed the sound, her heart pounding. When she reached his cell, she saw him through the reinforced glass. His face was pale, his eyes wide with a mix of relief and fear.

“Ava,” he breathed. “You’re alive.”

She hesitated, her hands trembling. She could see the fear in his eyes—the same fear she’d seen in everyone else before they died.

“I… I can’t,” she whispered, stepping back.

“Ava, please,” Gabriel said, his voice breaking. “You’re the only one who can get us out of here. I know you’re scared, but I trust you. I always have.”

Tears streamed down her face as she looked at him. “I hurt people, Gabriel. I killed them. What if I hurt you too?”

Gabriel stepped back from the glass. “I’ll stay clear. Work on the lock. If you need to stop, tell me.”

She clenched her fists, her claws digging into her palms. Every instinct told her to run, to hide, to let the nightmare consume her. But then she looked at Gabriel, saw the desperation in his eyes, and remembered the trust he had placed in her.

Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to step forward.

“I’ll try,” she said, her voice trembling but resolute.

Gabriel nodded, his expression softening. “That’s all I need.”