[Lilly's Pov ]
The air in the shelter had changed.
It wasn't the blood. Wasn't the grief clinging to the walls like smoke.
It was Sam.
Sam moved differently now.
Not wrong, exactly. Not cold. But careful—like her hands had learned how to cradle something delicate without waking it.
Sam touched Lilly like she was made of breakable things.
She never had before.
"Hey," I said quietly, brushing Sam's hand as they packed supplies. "You good?"
Sam looked up too fast. "What? Yeah. Just… tired."
I nodded, but something crawled at the edges of her gut. Sam didn't meet her eyes. Not really. And when she kissed her—soft and sweet, barely there Lilly tasted hesitation like it was laced in honey.
I didn't press it.
Didn't know how.
Didn't want to watch Sam flinch.
But the silence between me and Sam started to ache.
[Sam's Pov]
I waited until Lilly slept.
Waited for the breathing to slow, for the fists to unclench, for the weight of loss to settle over her like a blanket made of ghosts.
Then I moved.
Slipped from the makeshift cot, past the crates and dim lights. Found the letter in my coat. Unfolded it again, like reading it would somehow absolve her of keeping it hidden.
"Don't go alone. You won't survive it."
Alyx didn't know me well enough. Didn't know I was used to walking in the dark.
I found the hidden tunnel beneath the back floor—one of the old Hydra access points my father had once locked with bio-scramble codes.
But I
I had lived in that empire long enough to pick the locks with her heartbeat.
The tunnels breathed dust and secrets.
Each step echoed. Each twist deeper than the last.
And at the far end, I found it:
A room.
Steel walls. Half-lit monitors flickering like dying stars.
And in the center?
A file. Marked with the name ATHENA.
My breath caught.
Athena.
The name Ava used when she vanished. The ghost no one in Hydra dared to chase.
Except maybe Alyx.
I opened the file—and my heart dropped.
Because inside weren't just Ava's locations.
There were photos. Blueprints. Communications.
All tracking Lilly.
Her movements. Her aliases. Her kills. Her cover.
My knees buckled slightly.
Because Ava hadn't just been watching Lilly.
She'd been grooming her.
The war they thought they were fighting. It wasn't between sides.
It was inside them both.
I clutched the file like it could stop her world from shattering.
I didn't cry. I didn't scream.
I just whispered,
"I'm so sorry, Lilly…"
Then I took the file, shut the power off, and walked back into the silence like a girl carrying a secret that would detonate everything I loved.