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"The real Trent?" he interrupts, that wrong smile still in place.

"Which version would that be, Zara? The loyal Sentinel who hunted Splinters?

The sympathizer operative who monitored you for years?

The man who shared your bed at the outpost?

" He shakes his head. "We're all multiple people.

It's just a question of which version wins. "

What the hell is he talking about?

"What? Trent. You’re you . You literally just fought for us at Resonance. You held the line so we could escape."

"Necessary sacrifice to maintain cover," he dismisses. "Unity needed someone inside the Haven network—someone close to you specifically. I provided that access."

No. Absolutely not.

"I don't believe you," I say, voice breaking despite my efforts. "I felt what was between us. During synchronization. No deception possible at that level. Trent, I don’t know why you’re saying these things, maybe it’s brainwashing, maybe it’s the modifications, but I know you. I know you!”

Something flickers in his eyes—a momentary softness he quickly buries. "Emotions can be genuine even when loyalties are divided." He steps closer. "What I felt for you was real, Zara. It still is. That's why I'm telling you to leave—while you still can."

"Not without you," I insist, shaking my head violently.

"Then you'll die here," he states flatly. "I triggered the security alert the moment I regained consciousness."

My mouth drops open. “You fucking what ?”

Lily gasps. "Guards approaching! Multiple signatures!"

I stare at Trent in shock and grief. This can't be happening. This can't be real.

"Last chance," he says, eyes unnaturally intense. "Go now. Next time we meet, I won't be able to let you walk away."

"Trent—"

The chamber door explodes inward, torn from its hinges by impossible force. Through the smoke and debris steps a figure I never expected to see again—Vex, bloodied but alive, his eyes blazing with intense focus .

"Run, Flutterby," he growls, taking in the situation instantly. "Now!"

"Vex!" I breathe his name like a prayer. "How did you?—"

"Later," he cuts me off, moving between me and Trent with fluid grace despite his obvious injuries. "We need to go."

Trent's response is immediate and alarming—his stance shifting to something I've never seen from him, something faster, more predatory than even Sentinel training should allow.

"The predator adaptation," Trent says, eyes fixed on Vex with obvious hostility. "Unity has been particularly interested in your genetic structure."

"Flattered," Vex replies dryly. "But I'll pass on the processing."

"Not your choice to make," Trent says, and moves.

His speed is shocking—beyond Sentinel fast, beyond even Vex's capabilities. He crosses the room in a blur, striking with precision that should have ended the fight instantly.

But Vex is still Vex—instinct and experience compensating for raw speed. He twists away, barely avoiding the lethal blow, his own counterattack a fluid motion that speaks of years surviving in the wasteland.

"Go!" he shouts at me. "Get Lily out!"

I'm frozen, unable to process what's happening. Trent attacking Vex. Vex defending. Both men I care for locked in combat that can only end with one of them broken.

"Zara, please," Lily begs, pulling at my arm. "We have to leave!"

Something in her desperate plea breaks through my paralysis. I move toward the exit, pulling her with me, even as Trent and Vex continue their deadly dance behind us.

We're almost through the doorway when I hear it—a choking sound that stops me cold. I turn to see Vex pinned against the wall, Trent's hand at his throat, those altered eyes showing no recognition, no mercy .

"No!" I scream, rushing back into the room.

Trent turns at my voice, and for just an instant—a heartbeat—I see him. My Trent, fighting through whatever Unity has done to him. His grip on Vex loosens fractionally.

"Run," he whispers, voice his own again. "Please."

Then the moment passes, his expression hardening once more as security alarms begin to wail throughout the facility.

At the distraction, Vex manages to break free and run toward me, gasping for breath. "We need to go. Now!"

He grabs my arm, pulling me toward the exit as Unity forces converge on our location. Lily is already in the corridor, frantically motioning us forward.

"We can't leave him," I protest, even as I allow Vex to drag me away.

"That's not Trent anymore," Vex says grimly. "Whatever they did?—"

"He's still in there," I insist. "I saw him. Just for a second."

But it doesn’t matter. We race through Resonance's corridors, security forces closing in from all directions. Sara and the rest of the team meet us at a junction, their rescue mission apparently more successful than ours.

"Extraction route compromised," Jo reports tersely. "Alternate path required."

"Maintenance shaft, section four," Sara suggests. "Direct access to outer perimeter."

We change course, moving as one cohesive unit through service passages and maintenance tunnels. Behind us, Unity forces pursue with relentless efficiency. Ahead, uncertainty awaits.

We're approaching the outer perimeter when disaster strikes—a security team cuts off our escape route, modified operators blocking the final exit.

"Go," Jo says simply, stepping forward. "I'll handle this."

Before anyone can argue, she engages the security team with shocking efficiency, her movements revealing modifications I hadn't fully appreciated. The distraction works, allowing us precious seconds to slip through an adjacent passage.

The maintenance shaft is tight, forcing us to crawl through darkness toward distant freedom. When we finally emerge into pre-dawn darkness, our transports wait as planned, concealed among broken structures approximately two kilometers from Resonance.

"Get in," Vex urges, helping me toward the closest vehicle. "They're right behind us."

I comply mechanically, body moving while my mind remains trapped in that processing chamber with Trent. With what Unity has made of him.

The transport accelerates away from Resonance, putting distance between us and pursuing forces. Beside me, Vex breathes heavily, blood seeping through makeshift bandages.

"You're hurt," I manage, forcing myself to focus on the present.

"I'll survive," he says simply. "Can't say the same for your Sentinel."

"He's still in there," I repeat stubbornly. "I saw him break through, just for a moment."

Vex is silent for several seconds, studying me with uncharacteristic gentleness.

"Maybe," he concedes finally. "But what Unity's done to him.

.." He shakes his head. "Those modifications aren't like yours or mine.

They're targeting his neural pathways as much as his genetics. They’re changing his mind, his persionality, everything he is. "

"We'll find a way to help him," I insist, though the words sound hollow even to my ears.

"First we need to survive," Vex counters. "With Resonance compromised and Unity's modified operators actively hunting Haven children, our options are limited."

The transport continues its escape across the wasteland, dawn breaking behind us. I stare out the viewport, watching Resonance recede into the distance—along with any immediate hope of saving Trent.

"What now?" I ask quietly.

"Secondary sanctuary," Vex answers. "Regroup with the other Haven children. Figure out Unity's next move."

I nod, the logical part of my brain acknowledging the strategic necessity while my heart screams in protest at leaving Trent behind.

"Based on what we saw," Vex continues, voice unusually gentle, "Unity is accelerating Project Duality. Using their own version of the final protocol, not offering choice but forcing directed evolution."

"Can they even do that without the complete resonance network?" I ask.

"With eleven Haven children at the secondary sanctuary and your mother's research destroyed, it would be difficult," he acknowledges. "But with Trent as a successful test subject and Adrian Lin's knowledge of the original project..."

The implication is clear. Unity has pieces of the puzzle, perhaps enough to implement their twisted version of controlled evolution.

We ride in silence for several minutes, each lost in our own thoughts. As the landscape changes around us, a strange sense of resolve begins to replace my initial shock and grief.

"We're going back for him," I say finally. Not a question or a suggestion but a statement of fact.

Vex doesn't argue. "Yes. But not today, not like this." He gestures to his wounds, to the battered survivors in our transport. "We need to heal. Plan. Understand what we're truly facing."

I know he's right, but acceptance comes hard.

Somewhere behind us, Trent remains in Unity's hands, being transformed into something he never chose to be.

The irony is bitter—everything the final protocol stood against, everything my mother designed me to prevent, now being forced upon the man I love.

The thought catches me off guard. Love. Such a simple word for such a complicated feeling.

When did I cross that line from partnership to something deeper?

Was it during our synchronized neural connections as Sentinels?

During our escape from Unity? In those quiet moments at the outpost when everything else fell away?

Does it even matter now, with Trent transformed into something else?

"What did they do to him?" I ask, the question directed as much to myself as to Vex. "I've never seen movement like that, not even from modified operators."

"Something new," Vex says grimly. "Based on what I saw, they're combining modification types. Sentinel precision with predator speed." He looks at me directly. "Possibly with adaptive capabilities like yours."

The perfect weapon. A soldier with the best of all modifications, controlled completely by Unity.

"We'll find a way to reach him," I say, determination hardening within me. "To break whatever programming they've implemented."

Vex doesn't contradict me, though his expression suggests he's less confident in that possibility.

As our transport continues its journey toward temporary safety, I find myself remembering Trent's last moment of clarity—that brief second when he broke through Unity's control to help us escape.

If he could do that once, he could do it again.

Whatever they've done to his body, to his mind, some essential part of him remains.

I have to believe that. I have to hold onto hope that the man who sacrificed everything for me multiple times isn't gone completely. That somewhere beneath Unity's modifications and control, Trent is still fighting.

Fighting to come back to me .

The transport slows as we approach a hidden valley—the rendezvous point where we'll transfer to more secure transportation for the journey to the secondary sanctuary. As we disembark, I take one last look toward the horizon where Resonance lies hidden in the distance.

"I'm coming back for you," I whisper, a promise carried away by the morning wind. "Whatever it takes."