October, Year 483
Headquarters Of The Order
North

Before the worship of Code there was reverence for the Maeg and their wwr, and before their reign the praise for the major religions of old was still dominant.

Dawn had long acknowledged that, despite having a deep rooted belief that the Code was forever. But that belief had stemmed from her father's will and she knew that the North throbbed solely to the beat of his presence.

With a quiet sigh she picked up the scalpel that laid discarded by her feet, her thoughts dancing round the edges of what was considered treason.

The Code had been nothing but an abject religion when it started, cast aside by the people as utter bullshit until Maeg did the unthinkable and took away the blessings they had given mankind. They left their worshipers powerless and no amount of faith in the being could change that.

Dawn still believed in the Maeg because she wasn't normal, she had never been. The Code didn't grant abilities that neared superhuman, that was why the Enhanced, Nobil and Cybernets existed, to be make people more than they were.

Only Maeg could turn the wisps of a soul to eternal fire.

Too many people had dashed away their humanity to undergo the operation that would bring them one step closer to the realm of god. But Dawn was not one of them.

In her opinion, there was not much difference between a person that tweaked their genes to get powers and a man who decided to turn himself into a machine.

"Halt where you stand."

Stifling a curse, Dawn raised her gaze from the carpeted floor. She had been under the impression that since her father hadn't killed her yet, she was free to go.

Apparently, she had thought wrong.

Dawn glared at the men in front of her, the barrels of their guns aimed low at her chest and their fingers twitching around the trigger.

The professor was glad that there were only ten of them. She drew her thumb gently along the pointed edge of the scalpel, thankful for the biting pain that had spread through her hand and the trickle of red that followed it.

It was sharp enough, fortunately, for what she was about to do.

Dawn took in a deep breath and put one foot forward.

"Miss, this is your last warning."

Her fingers tingled in anticipation of the fight to come, her suppressed hunger for violence turned ravenous. . . and then she saw it.

The men fell swiftly, pools of blood spilling out of their uniformed skins were the scalpel had poked through with the mercy of a stitching needle.

The pristine carpet had turned into a hallway of bleeding blood, a blooming rose with Dawn in it's center.

Dawn flinched and slowly raised her hands above her head, her thirst suddenly quenched. That wasn't what she wanted, not anymore.

The thought of the oath that bound her to a life of purity pulled her back to reality. There was only one person she would ever kill for and he didn't need these men dead.

The scalpel dropped out of her hand and with a paused breath she watched the mens' gaze follow it to the floor.

Taking a step forward, the professor bit her inner cheek and slammed her fisted knuckle into the throat of the man closest to her. Turning on her heel to send a kick against the temple of the man that had tried to circle behind her, Dawn pulled at the stumbling man in front of her and used him as a shield.

The gun in his hand easily fell into hers as she used his frame to block herself from the lasers that came shooting at her.

With the flick of her thumb, Dawn changed the preset of the gun to 'green', pulling on the trigger enough times to send men crashing to the floor as she dodged the steaming lasers they shot back.

Taking a second to control her breathing, Dawn shot a look over the body she was using as a shield, catching only a glimpse of five figures cautiously slinking forward before a fresh barrage of lasers headed her way.

The red beams bore into her meat shield, burrowing deep into his flesh as he tossed and turned from the pain before collapsing into unconsciousness.

Charging forward with the man slumped uselessly against her shoulder, Dawn released conterfire. The green beams bounced off the walls of the hallway and slammed into the chests of two men before ricocheting and dissolving into the floor.

In a quick motion, Dawn dropped the man she had been holding and charged at the rest of the men, taking their moment of distraction to knock them unconscious.

"Phew," she wiped off the sweat that trickled down her brow and dropped her stance. "That took longer than I expected."

"That's because you've lost your edge," Dawn heard the sinister tone behind the too familiar voice, but before she could force her relieved body to react her neck was locked in a vicelike grip.

"Sister, sister," the owner of the hand clicked their tongue and suddenly the room was cloaked in darkness.

"Rose," Dawn spat, her hands clawing at the steel hand that crushed her airways.

"I'm surprised you managed to make it back alive," the woman's voice was emotionless but her hand tightened in anger. "Father is merciful."

"You blew up. . . the capital,"

"And so?"

"With. . . me in it."

"Don't pretend you didn't like the attention," Rose didn't bother loosening her hand, seeming to enjoy the tint of Dawn's bluing features. "Father destroyed an FCM just for you. Father destroyed the capital just for you. Father made Corey minister, just for you."

Dawn choked on her reply, spluttering on sentences that would have been beyond foul if they had managed to leave her mouth.

Finally, Rose stepped out of the mass of shadows that appeared to manifest around her, her mercury lips curled up in a cruel smile. More than half her face was coated in the same shade of silky silver and her left eye was a cybernetic red, implanted with a device that could peer into her victims' souls on command.

Dawn felt that her eldest sister looked more robot than the last time she saw her.

And a part of her wondered how much of Rose was still human. The glowing protrusion that stuck out of the Cybernet's neck gave her the answer.

Less that ten percent. The professor thought morbidly when her sister finally released her.

Dawn resisted breathing in all the air she could as she felt the pain in her neck slowly fade away.

Her body was already healing.

"Father ordered that I should not kill you," The Cybernet seemed confused as she looked down at her sister sprawled on the floor. "But Father is not here."

Dawn sat up slowly and ran her hand through her hair, not at all shocked that her sister's first instinct had been to kill her on sight. After all, it was how they had been raised, always on edge and bloodthirsty. She would have been terrified if Rose had greeted her with a smile.

"You tortured me then, after the Capital," her mind flashed back to the chilling laugh she had heard the moment the world had gone up in flames around her.

Now that she thought back to it, it did seem like something Rose would do.

Rose said nothing, only glancing round the hallway once before raising a drawn brow and crossing her arms.

Her stoic expression dared Dawn to give someone else the credit and see what the consequences would end up being.

The Cipher Squad's leader paused to regain her train of thought, sure that there was a reason she had asked such an obvious question. "What exactly did you do to Rhea Lee?"

"Follow me," Rose pointedly ignored the question, extending her hand to Dawn's shirt and pulling the younger woman to her feet by the collar.

"Ouch!" Dawn glared at her sister and struggled to keep up, nearly tripping on air as she tried to match the Cybernet's robotic pace. "Slow down!"

In the end she was just pulled along but Rose was not at all concerned with the situation, moving at a constant jog and only stopping once to announce that they had arrived as she pushed Dawn back to the floor.

"Get in." The Cybernet jabbed her thumb in the direction of the steel door by her right.

Dawn didn't bother arguing, long used to taking orders from her eldest sister.

She dragged her aching body towards the door, slouching and groaning as she got to her feet again.

The professor didn't forget to scowl at Rose the moment she stood in front of the metal barrier.

After inspecting the wall of steel for a while, she frowned, at a loss about what she was supposed to do.

"What now?" She placed her hands on her hips and tilted her head in her sister's direction.

Rose stared at Dawn blankly for a moment then copied her posture. "Good luck." She added a stiff wave and took a step back.

"Wait!" Dawn gaped at her sister and called her back. "Just where are you going?! Shouldn't you explain things more clearly?"

"Survive," Rose shrugged, the only human action Dawn had seen her perform. "I already have too many sisters, so try not to come back here again."

The Cybernet started walking again but Dawn didn't stop her this time, instead she took in a deep breath and steeled herself for whatever she was about to face, forcing herself to not turn back.

Her hand reached up to her neck and closed over the pendant that sat on her chest. For some reason her father had chosen her over his favorite daughters and had told her things she would have needed decades to discover. . . The power she now held as his heir was endless.

The power she and Corey had now was endless.

If she could survive, pass her father's game unscathed, there would be nothing on earth that would be able to stop her from achieving her goals.

Dawn could save Corey once and for all, she could end the war between the Genet and North before it even started.

She couldn't leave now, not when she was so close to telling Corey that she-. . .

Without warning the metal door sprung open, a powerful vacuum erupting from the inside and sucking her in, leaving the hallway in complete, deadly silence.

†