The black site's lower levels smelled like concrete, antiseptic, and old fear.

Not the sharp panic of fresh violence.

Something older.

Something soaked permanently into the walls.

Nyra moved quickly through the underground corridors beside Kane, pulse hammering against bruised ribs while the rebuilt tracker flickered violently in her hand. The signal was stronger down here. Close.

Too close.

Red emergency lights flashed overhead in uneven intervals while alarms screamed through the facility. Somewhere above them, BLACK VEIL exchanged gunfire with contractors flooding the upper levels.

Ghost led point several paces ahead.

Silent.

Lethal.

Wrong in a way Nyra couldn't stop noticing after the files.

Now that she knew what Hollow Sun had done to him—what they'd turned him into—the way Ghost moved through violence felt different somehow. Less like instinct. More like survival beaten into muscle memory until it became identity.

Nyra hated it.

And judging by the brutal tension in his shoulders beneath black tactical gear—

Ghost knew she hated it.

The corridor narrowed sharply into reinforced holding sectors. Steel doors lined both walls, most shattered open or abandoned. Old restraint chains dangled from concrete. Several cells still contained overturned cots and stained blankets left behind like forgotten evidence.

Nyra's stomach twisted harder with every step.

Then the tracker spiked.

A sharp pulse lit the cracked screen.

Here.

Nyra stopped breathing entirely.

"Kane."

"I see it." Kane moved toward the final security door immediately, rifle raised. "Thermal signatures behind the wall."

Ghost stepped forward automatically. "Move."

Two silenced shots destroyed the electronic lock instantly. Kane ripped the heavy reinforced door open with brutal force—

And Nyra's entire world narrowed into one person sitting against the far wall.

Thin.

Exhausted.

Alive.

Milo Quinn looked up slowly beneath flickering emergency lights, dark hair longer than she remembered, bruises fading yellow along his jawline. His eyes—so painfully like hers—widened in disbelief.

For one horrible second, nobody moved.

Then—

"Nyra?"

Her knees nearly gave out at the sound of his voice.

"Milo."

Nyra ran.

The tracker clattered forgotten onto concrete while she crossed the holding cell in seconds, slamming hard against the reinforced bars separating them. Tears blurred instantly through her vision as she grabbed for him through the narrow gap.

"Oh my God. Oh my God, you're alive."

Milo surged forward just as fast. His hands shook violently when they touched her face, her curls, her shoulders like he genuinely couldn't believe she was real either.

"Nyra," he breathed again, voice cracking apart. "Jesus Christ."

She laughed and sobbed at the same time. "You idiot. You absolute idiot."

Milo smiled weakly for half a second. It looked broken around the edges. Haunted.

Nyra felt it immediately.

Whatever happened to him down here—

It stayed.

Even now.

She grabbed his hands tighter through the bars. "I thought you were dead."

"I thought you were dead." Milo's eyes burned suddenly. "After the convoy—" His voice broke sharply. "I heard the explosion."

Nyra swallowed hard against the ache climbing her throat.

For one brief moment, the years collapsed completely.

Two kids above a collapsing illegal garage.

Grease-stained fingers fixing dead engines together because fixing things felt easier than surviving them.

Milo sneaking her instant noodles at midnight because she forgot to eat while rebuilding transmissions.

Nyra punching a guy twice her size for trying to scam her brother over race money.

Home.

Before everything burned.

Then Milo's gaze shifted past her shoulder.

Toward Ghost.

Everything changed instantly.

The warmth vanished from Milo's face like someone flipped a switch. His body tensed visibly against the wall behind him.

"You brought him."

The room went still.

Nyra turned automatically.

Ghost stood several paces back near the holding corridor entrance, rifle lowered slightly but posture coiled tight beneath flashing red lights. The cracked skull mask hid most of his expression again.

But Nyra saw it anyway.

Distance.

Deliberate distance.

Ghost wasn't approaching the cell. Wasn't speaking. Wasn't interfering with this moment at all.

Because he thought she deserved the choice without his influence near her.

God.

That hurt almost more than if he'd defended himself.

Nyra looked back toward Milo carefully. "He came for me."

Milo's jaw tightened hard. "He was there that night."

Ghost didn't move.

Didn't deny it.

Nyra swallowed hard. "I know."

Milo blinked sharply. "You know?"

"Pieces." Her voice softened painfully. "Not everything."

Milo laughed once under his breath. Bitter. Exhausted.

"Of course he only gave you pieces."

Ghost's shoulders tightened slightly at that. Tiny movement. But Nyra noticed.

Always noticed now.

Milo stepped closer toward the bars carefully, lowering his voice. "Nyra, Hollow Sun wasn't just contractors. The convoy wasn't just an ambush."

Nyra's pulse hammered harder.

"I saw files," she admitted quietly. "Human experimentation. Military conditioning."

Milo's expression darkened instantly. "They built entire units down here." His eyes flicked toward Ghost again. "Including his."

Silence swallowed the room.

Ghost still said nothing.

Nyra turned slowly toward him.

"Ghost…"

He finally looked at her directly beneath flashing red emergency lights. Grey eyes unreadable now. Guarded again.

Not because he didn't care.

Because this hurt too much to survive openly.

Milo's voice sharpened suddenly. "He knows what they did to us."

Ghost flinched.

Tiny.

Barely visible.

But real.

Nyra saw it instantly and something cracked painfully inside her chest again.

Milo stared at Ghost like he wanted to hate him completely and couldn't quite manage it.

"You tried to get people out," he admitted reluctantly. "I remember that."

Ghost's jaw flexed hard beneath the mask.

"But people still died," Milo continued quietly. "And they covered all of it up afterward."

Nyra closed her eyes briefly. God.

Ghost had carried this alone for years.

Not just guilt.

Witness.

He remembered what Hollow Sun turned people into because they'd tried turning him into one too.

Nyra looked back toward her brother. Tears burned again unexpectedly. "I'm not leaving without both of you."

Milo stared at her like she'd lost her mind. Then suddenly barked out a broken laugh.

"You always did try to fix everything."

Nyra wiped angrily at her eyes. "And you always ran toward trouble."

"That's because trouble usually had money attached."

Despite everything, she laughed shakily.

Milo's expression softened finally at the sound. Tired. Heartbroken. Familiar.

"We're still here," Nyra whispered. "That counts."

Kane stepped forward silently and shot the cell lock open. Metal clanged heavily against concrete as the reinforced door slid sideways.

Milo hesitated before stepping out.

Not because of Nyra.

Because of Ghost.

The distrust remained sharp in his eyes even now.

Ghost noticed immediately and shifted another step backward automatically. More distance. More room for Nyra to choose family over him if necessary.

Nyra's chest physically hurt at the sight.

Milo moved carefully toward her instead. The second he reached her fully, Nyra wrapped both arms around him hard enough to almost knock him backward.

Milo held her just as tightly.

Years of grief collapsed between them at once.

Too much loss. Too much relief.

Nyra buried her face against his shoulder and shook once violently trying not to cry again. Milo's hand pressed against the back of her head automatically like he used to when thunderstorms scared her as a kid.

For one precious second—

She had her brother back.

Then gunfire exploded somewhere nearby.

The entire corridor shook violently as alarms intensified overhead.

Kane swore into comms instantly. "We've got contractors closing from the west wing."

Lucas's voice crackled through static. "Also? Minor issue. By 'minor' I mean catastrophic."

Nyra looked up sharply.

"What now?"

A pause.

Then Lucas answered grimly:

"They're preparing a facility purge."

Ghost's posture changed instantly beside the doorway.

Pure tactical focus.

"Meaning?" Kane snapped.

Nik answered coldly through comms before Lucas could.

"They're going to erase the black site."

Nyra's stomach dropped.

The files.

The prisoners.

Everyone still trapped down here.

Ghost looked toward the deeper underground corridors slowly.

And for the first time since finding Milo—

Nyra realized they weren't done yet.

Not even close.