Location: Vault Sector Corridor – Black Helix Satellite Base, Tavara
The silence that followed Nora lowering her weapon was tense but fragile—like a single thread holding back an avalanche of emotion, history, and secrets.
Damien crossed the distance slowly, his eyes searching hers not just for relief—but for truth.
Behind him, Alpha Team remained on high alert, their rifles lowered but fingers still close to triggers.
"Elira," Damien acknowledged with a nod, "I assume you're the one who kept Nora hidden all this time."
The woman didn't blink. "Someone had to keep her out of the hands of the monsters who made her."
Damien glanced toward the blood-smeared digital logs still glowing faintly behind Nora. "I saw the files. Project Oracle. They planned to raise her as the Helix Matriarch."
Nora's jaw tightened. "I wasn't born. I was…designed. I'm just a chess piece."
"You're more than that," Damien said firmly. "You always have been."
Before she could respond, the base began to hum—a slow, deep vibration crawling up their spines.
Rider stepped forward. "Sir. We triggered something. Security system's activating defense drones."
Damien looked to Elira. "How do we shut it down?"
"You don't. The system only responds to Nora's biometric command."
Everyone turned to her.
Nora hesitated. "You're asking me to take control of what I was never supposed to embrace."
Damien stepped closer. "No. I'm asking you to take back what they tried to make theirs."
She exhaled shakily and stepped toward the nearest command console.
A thin needle extended toward her palm. Nora looked at it for half a second, then pressed her hand against it.
A pulse of light shot through the room. The console blinked, scanned, then spoke in a calm, robotic voice:
> "Oracle Prime: Identity Confirmed. Systems Transferring to User Control."
All across the underground facility, automated defenses stood down.
---
Location: Surface, Perimeter of Black Helix Base
As Damien and Nora emerged into the open air with Alpha Team and Elira behind them, the sun was beginning to rise.
For a long time, neither of them spoke.
Then, Nora asked quietly, "What now?"
Damien turned toward the horizon. "Now we shut them down for good. Every last piece of the Helix network."
"And my past?" she asked.
"We'll write a new one," he said. "One you own."
Nora nodded, a trace of resolution flashing in her eyes.
And in that moment, the battle wasn't over—but a new war had begun.
One that would reshape every lie they had ever lived.