Chapter 8 I FAILED YOU

Outside the chamber, Velgrave had sent their elite: the Sable Unit.

Five genetically enhanced enforcers, each designed to neutralize rogue Bloodborns.

The team moved like a singular shadow, coordinated and lethal. But what they didn't expect... was Ezra.

He walked calmly into their trap.

The first shot was a stasis collar. It never reached him.

Ezra tilted his head - and the projectile folded in midair, crumbling to dust.

The leader of the Sable Unit raised his visor. "Impossible. He shouldn't be functional yet."

Ezra smiled. "Guess you'll need better science."

He lifted his hand.

Time slowed.

Literally.

Carl, Ophelia, and Lilith stood at the edge of the fight, watching the world twist. Trees shifted backward, debris reassembled. The Sable Unit's weapons unraveled.

Ezra turned to Ophelia. "We're not the monsters they made us."

"We're what they feared we'd become," she replied.

Together, they attacked - not to kill, but to dismantle the myth of control.

By the time it ended, the Sable Unit had retreated, and the Academy's faith in dominance was shaken.

Carl looked at them both. "You Wolfe kids are terrifying."

Ophelia smirked. "And you love it."

He didn't deny it.

Back at their temporary base, tensions crackled.

Ezra paced like a caged animal, Carl watched him like a ticking bomb, and Lilith just rolled her eyes.

"You need to chill," she said to Ezra. "We get it. You're powerful. So is she. So am I. We don't need a power flex every five minutes."

Ezra shot her a cold glance. "Power isn't for flexing. It's for surviving."

Carl stepped in. "No. It's for protecting the people you care about. Something I actually do."

Ophelia groaned. "Boys, shut up before I erase both your memories."

Lilith grinned. "Do it. Let's start fresh."

But Ezra didn't smile.

"Do you remember what they did to us?" he said quietly. "What they did to her?"

Ophelia's fingers clenched around a datapad. "Don't speak for me."

"I'm not. I'm reminding you what we were raised in."

"We weren't raised," she snapped. "We were experimented on. But I escaped that, Ezra. You need to."

A beat passed.

Ezra's voice dropped. "You didn't escape. You're still running."

And with that, he left.

Ophelia stared at the closed door.

Carl touched her shoulder. "We'll get through to him."

"I'm not sure he wants to be reached."

That night, they intercepted a broadcast.

Encrypted. Hidden beneath layers of firewall. Meant for the Academy's top brass.

It wasn't just a hunt order.

It was a purge directive.

All rogue Bloodborns to be captured or eliminated. Effective immediately. No trials. No media leaks. Full erasure protocol.

Carl leaned over the console, jaw clenched. "This isn't defense anymore. It's extermination."

Lilith's face was pale. "There are dozens like us out there. Not all with powers, but all touched. If Velgrave starts killing them..."

Ophelia's voice was low. "Then we stop them."

"We're not an army," Carl said. "We're four people. One of whom just learned to walk again."

Ezra stepped into the room. "Then we build an army."

He tossed a file onto the table.

Project Halo: Rejected Candidates.

Hundreds of names.

Ezra pointed at them. "We're not the only ones who survived. We're just the only ones who remember."

Ophelia and Carl moved fast.

Ezra and Lilith fanned across sectors.

They reached out to hackers, underground networks, even former professors with guilty consciences.

One by one, the others came out of hiding.

- Tobias, who could fracture reality in small spheres.

- Nina, whose singing voice triggered seizures in sensors.

- Kai, with heat-based teleportation.

- And Rei, a former Velgrave instructor who turned spy.

Some were broken. Some furious. Some just scared.

But they all shared one thing: Velgrave had taken something from them.

Now, with the Wolfe siblings leading the rebellion, they had something to fight for.

And as Ophelia stood at the edge of the underground base, watching the broken find purpose, she whispered to Carl:

"They made a mistake letting me live."

Carl kissed her temple. "They made a bigger mistake trying to erase you."

The base was alive now.

What had once been a shelter for four fugitives had transformed into a hive of rebellion. Screens glowed with satellite interference. Maps of Velgrave's secret facilities covered the walls. Plans - real, dangerous ones - were being drawn.

Ezra stood at the head of the operations room like a general born into war.

"They're not gods," he said. "They bleed. And we will make them."

Ophelia watched him, arms crossed. "Careful. That speech is starting to sound like the people we're trying to stop."

Ezra turned slowly. "What do you think this is, Lia? A moral debate?"

"I think it's about control," she said. "And I won't trade one tyrant for another."

The air between them snapped.

Carl stepped in, steady as ever. "We need strategy. Not a civil war."

Lilith nodded, pulling up a hologram. "Velgrave's launching something called Protocol Zero in forty-eight hours. We stop that, we cripple their hold."

Ophelia leaned over the glowing screen.

And saw it.

A familiar name.

One she hadn't spoken in years.

Dr. Calen Virell.

Her former guardian. The man who raised her - and the one who handed her over to Velgrave.

Her hands curled into fists. "He's alive."

Ezra raised a brow. "He's their lead now."

"Then we end this where it began."

Ophelia found the recording hidden in a private folder encrypted beneath her old ID.

It was dated ten years ago.

A message. From Calen Virell.

She hesitated, then hit play.

"If you're seeing this, it means I failed you. Not as a scientist. But as someone who once promised to protect you."

"You weren't supposed to remember. They said if we erased enough - if we fragmented your mind just right - you'd never find your way back."

"But you did."

Ophelia sat frozen as the image of him - older, grayer, but still with that calculating calm - looked her dead in the eye.

"They'll lie. They'll call you unstable. Dangerous. But you are evolution, Ophelia. Not a mistake."

"Velgrave has a vault. One even they've forgotten. Inside is the origin of the Halo gene. The real version. If you want to end them... find it."

"And one more thing - I'm sorry I let them hurt you."

The screen flickered off.

Silence.

Carl stepped forward. "You okay?"

"No," she whispered. "But I know what we have to do."