30. Sienna
Sienna
“ N o.”
The word tears out of me before I even realize I’m speaking.
Raw.
Panicked.
Broken straight down the middle.
Jonah sways beside the bunker wall, one hand pressed hard against his side while blood pours between his fingers faster than I can process.
Too much blood.
Way too much.
“I’m fine,” he grits out automatically.
The lie almost makes me scream.
“You are not fine!”
I grab him before his knees fully give out, forcing my shoulder beneath his arm to keep him upright.
My hands come away slick with blood instantly.
Hot.
Sticky.
Real.
“Oh my God…”
My breathing fractures.
“You’re bleeding—Jonah, you’re bleeding—”
“I’ve had worse.”
His voice sounds thinner now.
Weaker.
“Liar!”
Gunfire erupts outside again, tearing through the bunker entrance hard enough sparks rain from the damaged wall.
“Ronan!”
My voice cracks violently.
“We need to move. Right now.”
“They’re closing in!” Ronan fires back from the corridor. “We don’t have—”
“I don’t care!”
The scream rips through the bunker so hard it shocks even me.
And something inside me finally snaps.
Not fear.
Not panic.
Something colder.
More dangerous.
“I am not losing him!”
My voice shatters apart completely.
“Do you hear me?! NOT HIM!”
Everything narrows instantly after that.
The bunker.
The blood.
The gunfire.
Every thought inside my head sharpens into terrifying clarity.
The part of me HELIOS built.
The part ORACLE fed.
The genius returns all at once—
But now it’s fueled by rage instead of control.
My gaze locks onto the portable unit sitting near the tactical table.
“You want to play?”
The words leave me quietly.
Deadly.
I grab the system hard enough cables rip loose from the floor and slam it onto the table.
Ronan’s eyes widen immediately.
“Sienna—don’t.”
“Shut up.”
The headset drops over my eyes before he can stop me.
Connection hits instantly.
Hard.
ORACLE floods into me again in violent streams of light and code.
Pain explodes behind my eyes.
Ignore it.
I force straight through the architecture without hesitation this time.
No fear.
No caution.
Only Jonah bleeding out behind me.
Targeting grids unfold instantly around the battlefield outside.
HELIOS operatives.
Drone trajectories.
Friendly positions.
I seize the command pathways before the system fully realizes I’m back inside.
Override authorization.
Denied.
“Try me.”
I slam through the denial manually.
Force open the targeting channels.
Hijack tactical feeds.
Then I flip them.
Every hostile signature on the field suddenly reclassifies.
Friendly becomes enemy.
Enemy becomes threat.
“All units,” I whisper through clenched teeth. “Redirect.”
Outside the bunker—
Gunfire changes instantly.
Confused shouting erupts across the ridge.
HELIOS operatives begin firing at each other before they understand what happened.
Drone paths collide.
Chaos detonates across the battlefield.
Beautiful.
Terrifying.
Effective.
ORACLE pushes back immediately.
Harder than before.
Unauthorized interference detected.
Neural synchronization escalating.
Pain slams through my skull so violently my knees almost buckle inside the neural space.
No.
Not this time.
I rip the headset off before the system fully locks onto me again.
The bunker crashes back into focus around me.
Blood.
Smoke.
Jonah barely standing.
“Move!”
My voice echoes sharply across the bunker.
Ronan doesn’t argue anymore.
Not after hearing the fighting outside turn on itself.
He grabs Jonah’s other side immediately while I throw Jonah’s arm across my shoulders.
His weight nearly drags me down.
He’s heavier than he looks.
And weaker now.
Way weaker.
“Come on,” I whisper desperately.
“Stay with me.”
Jonah’s head drops briefly toward mine.
Still conscious.
Barely.
Then together—
We run.