The storm outside hadn't stopped.
Thunder rolled across the horizon like distant artillery fire, and every flash of lightning briefly illuminated the tall spires of St. Laphine's Academy, making the gothic towers appear like giant stone sentinels watching over a battlefield no one spoke about.
Inside Room 3-B, Elira barely slept.
Every time she closed her eyes, fragments of locked memories flashed like broken film reels: a face she couldn't name, a voice whispering instructions, flashes of combat training, and the same word again and again.
Extraction.
At 5:12 AM, she finally gave up trying.
She sat by the window, watching the rain slice across the courtyard. Her fingers absentmindedly traced the faint scar along her collarbone — one she never remembered getting.
But someone had put it there.
And now… she wanted answers.
Later that morning — The Academy Library
The library was ancient — older than even the academy itself, filled with towering mahogany shelves and rows of forbidden archives few students ever dared touch.
But Elira wasn't most students.
She moved quickly between the restricted aisles, careful to avoid the surveillance crystals mounted high on the beams. Yui had helped her bypass the scanning wards using a borrowed faculty key, bought with favors neither of them spoke aloud.
Today, she was hunting for one file:
"Subject 34: Pre-Admission Record."
But when she reached the locked cabinet—
It was already open.
Elira froze.
Inside, there was only one file remaining.
Her hand trembled as she pulled it out. The cover was stamped:
Level 7: Classified.
She flipped through.
The first page was her profile — but heavily redacted.
Name: ELIRA [REDACTED]
Birthplace: [REDACTED]
Origin Program: ORPHEUS
Beneath that — strange diagrams of neural mapping, emotion suppression implants, and experimental training modules that looked more like military documents than academic records.
But one phrase chilled her most:
"Prototype: Synthetic Empath — Phase 3."
Synthetic.
Empath.
Her stomach twisted violently. She had always felt emotions stronger than anyone else — like currents she couldn't control. But she thought that was her curse.
Was it… manufactured?
Her hands shook as she reached the last page.
A photograph.
Two infants. Side by side in a sterile chamber.
Label: SUBJECT 34 (ELIRA) — SUBJECT 35 (REYNA).
The world tilted.
Reyna.
They weren't just connected.
They were born from the same program.
Twins — not by blood, but by design.
"Elira."
She spun around.
Rika stood behind her — silent, poised, dangerous.
"You weren't authorized to see that," Rika said calmly.
Elira's pulse pounded. "You knew."
"Yes."
"You all knew," Elira whispered, voice breaking. "Everything about me is a lie."
Rika stepped forward, voice cold as ice.
"No. You are not a lie, Elira. You are property."
Before Elira could react, two security agents stepped from the shadows, stun rods crackling with energy.
"You won't remember any of this," Rika whispered softly. "We'll reset you again. Like before."
Panic surged through Elira.
Not again.
Not this time.
But then—
A gunshot shattered the silence.
One of the agents dropped instantly, a tranquilizer dart lodged in his neck. The second agent spun — but another dart struck him clean.
Both collapsed.
Rika's eyes widened.
From behind the far bookshelf stepped Reyna, holding a suppressed tranquilizer pistol.
"Step away from my sister," Reyna said calmly.
The Escape
The three of them moved fast.
Reyna led them through the servant tunnels beneath the academy — ancient stone passages once used by monks, long before St. Laphine's became an academy for "gifted" girls.
Elira's head spun as they ran.
"Sister?" she gasped.
Reyna kept her eyes forward.
"You finally saw the files, didn't you?"
"Yes—but... I don't understand. We're not related by blood—"
"No," Reyna replied, voice tight. "We were engineered. Grown side by side. You were designed to absorb emotion. I was designed to manipulate it."
Elira's chest tightened.
Synthetic empath.
Emotion manipulator.
"You were always the stronger one," Reyna added. "That's why they locked your memories sooner."
"And you—?"
"I broke free years ago. But I couldn't leave you behind."
Elira swallowed hard.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
Reyna glanced at her briefly, eyes heavy.
"Because until you started remembering, you wouldn't have believed me."
Deep Underground: The Rebellion
They finally reached an abandoned train tunnel — rusted tracks disappearing into the darkness.
Waiting there were a dozen figures wearing black cloaks marked with a crimson insignia — the symbol of The Rebellion.
A tall woman stepped forward. Her features were sharp, her hair shaved on one side, and her left eye glowed faintly with cybernetic light.
"Elira," she said, voice oddly warm. "Welcome home."
Elira stared at her.
"Who are you?"
The woman extended her hand.
"Commander Kael. Leader of the rebellion. And your handler — before they took you."
Handler.
The word sent a chill down Elira's spine.
Kael gestured for her to follow. "You were part of our program before the Syndicate stole you. They hijacked your neural network, locked your memories, and used you as their prototype to develop the Emotion Control Division at St. Laphine's."
Elira's head swirled.
All the girls at St. Laphine's—
Were they all experiments like her?
Kael seemed to read her thoughts.
"Most of them, yes. Some are naturally gifted empaths. Others… enhanced like you."
Elira's fists clenched.
"They've built an entire academy… to weaponize emotion."
Kael nodded gravely. "And now they want to activate Phase 4 — global deployment."
Elira's breath caught.
Global?
The academy was only the beginning.
The Offer
Kael led them deeper into the rebellion's base — a hidden network beneath the city filled with tech, weapon caches, and training rooms.
Elira felt dizzy. This was too much. Too fast.
"I can't be your weapon," she whispered.
"You already are," Kael said gently. "But now you have a choice who wields you."
Reyna stepped beside her, placing a steady hand on her shoulder.
"They're coming for you, Elira. You won't survive another memory wipe. We need to strike first."
Elira closed her eyes, her emotions roaring inside her like a wildfire.
Her entire existence had been engineered. Manipulated.
But for the first time…
She could choose.
When she opened her eyes, they were steady.
"Tell me the plan."
Kael smiled faintly.
"The Headmistress has scheduled your next evaluation for three days from now. They'll attempt full extraction."
"And you want me to let them start it," Elira guessed.
Kael nodded.
"Long enough for us to breach the academy systems and corrupt their entire neural database. Once their servers collapse, every suppressed memory will return."
Elira's throat tightened.
"Every girl will remember."
"Yes," Kael said quietly. "And the Syndicate will lose control forever."
The risk was enormous. If they failed, hundreds of girls — including herself — would be permanently broken.
But if they succeeded…
They'd burn the Syndicate to the ground.
Reyna looked at Elira, her voice soft but firm.
"We end this. Together."
Elira exhaled, feeling the fire surge inside her.
"No more lies."