Misa stood in the middle of the laboratory, her eyes drifting again and again toward the giant apparatus dominating the room.

It was a massive tube filled with a faintly glowing blue liquid. She had no idea what it did. She had never seen anything like it, not even in the upper-level research facilities she used to visit during her time as a government aided scientist.

What bothered her even more were the smaller tubes that surrounded it. Dozens of them. Each held a female figure suspended in the same liquid. Babies, young girls, teenagers, adults.

All frozen in eerie stillness. Misa could not tell if they were alive or dead. But the adult women inside looked strangely familiar. Their features were similar to someone she knew. Even the hair and bone structure felt like something she had seen before.

Her stomach tightened. Something about this place felt wrong.

A scientist in a white coat walked up to her. She had the emblem of the Traitors stitched on her shoulder and a cold expression on her face. When she handed Misa a thick stack of documents, her eyes openly conveyed disdain.

Misa silently took them.

She knew exactly why she was hated here. The Traitors were made up of women who awakened with no powers at all, abandoned by their families and society. Women left to rot. Women society had decided were useless. Misa had once written reports about them in her own research. She had considered them outliers that should not exist.

Now she stood surrounded by those very same outliers, hated to the core.

She flipped through the documents. Her eyes skimmed line after line. The further she read, the deeper her confusion turned into disbelief.

Then horror.

Her voice escaped her lips in a whisper. "This is insane."

The plan was written in perfect clarity. A weapon powerful enough to erase the factor behind awakenings. A system strong enough to stop the appearance of powers entirely. A world without hunters, monsters or awakened abilities.

A world reset to something Misa can't even imagine.

The key was a single woman. Her identity was unknown, only referred to as the Key. Her power was described as catastrophic, reality altering.

And the women in the tubes.

Misa looked up, then back at the documents.

"These are clones," she muttered to herself. "They cloned her. They cloned the Key."

It contradicted everything she wanted to do. She wanted to fix society, not destroy it. She wanted balance, not annihilation.

She exhaled. "There is no way I can support this."

Her words barely passed her lips when she felt a hand touch her shoulder.

Misa turned sharply.

A familiar face greeted her. A South Asian woman with tied-back dark hair and gentle features. She wore a lab coat of her own.

"Sameera?" Misa blinked in disbelief. "You are here too?"

Sameera smiled a little. "Misa. I cannot believe I am seeing you again. I thought I recognized that annoyed aura."

Misa snorted softly. "More like I was kidnapped."

Sameera moved closer and lowered her voice. "They dragged you in too, huh?"

Misa held up the documents. "Yeah. And I read this. What exactly is going on here?"

Sameera let out a tired laugh. "Isn't it crazy? The same people society rejected are now about to decide the fate of the world. It is almost poetic."

"Poetic?" Misa stepped back. "They are planning on destroying the very mechanism that gives humans their power. You call that poetic?"

Sameera tilted her head. "You seem stressed. Is it because the idea is wrong, or because it scares you?"

"Both." Misa looked around the room. "This is too much. Why are you so calm about this?"

Sameera gave a lazy shrug. "Because if I am not calm, I will be dead. It is simple."

Misa frowned. "You do not care about losing your powers?"

Sameera laughed again, louder this time. "Of course I care. But I would still rather lose my powers than die right now. I want to eat naan with chickpea curry at least one more time before leaving this world."

Misa stared at her. "That is your reason?"

"Yes. Do you have a better one?" Sameera asked as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Misa opened her mouth, then closed it.

Sameera leaned closer and whispered, "You think everyone here is loyal. Let me tell you something. None of us want to be here. But when a group threatens to dissect you alive if you refuse, your moral stance drops very quickly."

Misa clenched her jaw. "They have my daughter."

Sameera's expression softened immediately. "Your daughter?"

"Yes." Misa exhaled. "And I need to keep their attention on me. I cannot give these people any reason to become suspicious."

Sameera nodded slowly. "Then you will have to pretend you are on their side."

"I know." Misa's hands tightened around the documents. "But pretending to support this is going to make me sick."

Sameera looked around to make sure no one was watching. Then she spoke in a low voice. "Listen. The Key is incredibly dangerous. The cloning is unstable. They still cannot control her. That is why they are obsessed with creating backup versions. Even if you delay them, it helps everyone."

"So I should act like I am helping," Misa replied quietly. "But stall as much as possible."

"Exactly."

Misa breathed in deep. The blue glow of the tubes reflected against her eyes. All the women floating inside looked peaceful. Almost like sleeping.

"What happened to them?" she asked.

Sameera hesitated. "Most are alive. Some are not. They say the Key's power interacts differently with each clone. Some burn out. Some collapse. Some mutate. That is why the main body is the most important."

Misa's brow furrowed. "Where is the real one?"

Sameera pointed toward the giant central tube, which was empty. "Nobody knows."

Misa turned her gaze toward it.

"That thing contains enough power to wipe out every awakened gene in the world," Sameera murmured. "If they ever manage to make this, society will change overnight."

Misa muttered, "No. It will collapse."

Sameera sighed. "Probably."

Misa slowly closed the documents. "I will play along. But only to protect my children."

Sameera smiled softly. "Then let us both survive long enough."

Misa could not help letting out a small, tired laugh.

***

Luxy lay on her back in a pool of blood. Her last wing had been ripped from her body and thrown aside like it meant nothing. She stared up weakly at the figure standing above her. It was her angel sister, trembling, her hands shaking as if she herself could not believe what she had done.

Her eyes were wide, terrified, yet her mouth kept forming silent words. Luxy could not hear them anymore. Everything felt distant. Fading.

Before darkness finally reached her, Luxy's mind dragged her into the memory of how this nightmare began.

Hours earlier.

Luxy's angel sister sat curled up on the couch, happily watching her favorite K-drama. A blanket was wrapped around her shoulders, and she kept giggling at the romantic scenes. The atmosphere was peaceful. The lights were warm. Nothing felt wrong.

Then her hand suddenly froze while reaching for the food.

Her entire body stiffened.

The bowl slipped from her fingers and hit the carpet.

She didn't even notice.

Her eyes widened as if something invisible had grabbed her lungs.

At the same time, in her room, Luxy paused her game. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard. She felt a sharp, cold pulse run through her chest.

"That's not normal," she muttered. "Mother…?"

A second pulse hit her harder. Luxy stood up instantly.

"This is bad."

She sprinted out of her room, walking into the living room. When she saw her sister, her stomach dropped.

"Sister?"

Her sister was standing now. Not shaking. Not moving. Just standing like a statue, staring forward with a dead expression.

The softness she always carried on her face was completely gone.

Instead, she looked empty.

Luxy stepped closer. "Hey. Look at me."

Her sister's lips parted slowly, and she whispered something.

"Help the sister… help the sister…"

Luxy blinked. "What are you saying? What does that mean?"

Her sister did not respond. Her dead eyes slowly rotated toward Luxy.

"Help the sister. Help the sister."

Luxy placed her hand carefully on her sister's shoulder. "Sis… talk to me."

Her sister's head tilted unnaturally far to the side. "Help the sister."

Then she tried to move. Not walk. Fly.

Her wings spread open, feathers gleaming with unnatural light.

"Oh no, you're not going anywhere!" Luxy grabbed her arm before she could take off.

Her sister struggled hard, wings beating wildly. "Help the sister! Help the sister!"

"Calm down!" Luxy shouted. She dug her heels into the floor and tried to hold her ground. "You're not in your right mind. Stop!"

But her sister was stronger. Much stronger.

Luxy had no choice but to drag her. She pulled her all the way down the hallway and shoved her into the washroom, slamming the door shut behind them.

Her sister thrashed like a wild creature.

Luxy shouted over the chaos. "Sis, listen to my voice! Stop!"

Her sister only screamed the same words again.

"Help the sister! Help the sister!"

Luxy grabbed her from behind, wrapping her arms tightly around the angel's waist. "You're not leaving until you calm down. Please, just try to fight the orders!"

Her sister's wings slammed against the walls. The floor tiles cracked. The mirror shattered.

"Stop!" Luxy cried.

Suddenly, everything exploded.

A burst of divine energy erupted from the angel sister's body, detonating with a deafening roar.

The washroom walls cracked outward. The ceiling split open. Luxy was thrown back into the corner. Blood dripped down her forehead. Her ribs felt crushed which made her realize of her own mortality.

She looked up in shock.

"Shit… she's in a full override…"

Her sister hovered in the air, wings stretched wide, eyes glowing white.

Luxy reached out desperately. "Sis, don't do this! Stay with me!"

But the moment she grabbed her sister's ankle, the angel jerked violently and shot upward through the hole she had made in the ceiling.

Luxy's fingers slipped.

"No! Wait!"

Her sister vanished into the night sky.

Luxy slammed her hand against the broken tiles. "Fuck! This isn't good."

She staggered onto her feet, chest heaving.

"What order did Mother give…?"