Security drones hit their outer defenses like angry wasps, breaking through their protection layers one by one. Eden sat at the control station, the colored designs on her skin pulsing in sync with the building's warning lights. She jabbed commands into the glowing screens, forcing herself to focus on the technical problems rather than what was coming.

  "They're testing our defenses," she said tensely. "Each drone is slightly different, learning how we react."

  "Then let's give them something to think about," Aria replied, checking her weapons methodically. Her silver eyes showed no feeling, just cold planning. "Krell, take the east door. I'll handle the west."

  Eden's skin flickered as she watched the security feeds. "There are at least twelve attackers out there. All of them have enhanced tactical gear."

  "Worried about us?" Aria's smile was razor-sharp. "How sweet."

  "I'm just watching out for my self-interests," Eden shot back, her skin flickering with irritation. "If you both die, I'm the one who's screwed. Though..." her blue eyes softened slightly as she glanced at the security feed showing Krell, "I actually am worried about him. At least he hasn't completely deleted his humanity files like some people I know."

  "Least kills buys dinner," Krell challenged Aria, as his robotic hand changed into a weapon.

  Despite her earlier bravado, Eden felt sick at how casual they were about killing. These were people out there – enhanced and dangerous, yes, but still human. Yet Aria and Krell talked about their deaths like they were keeping score in a game.

  "Never mind," Eden muttered, her skin configurations flickering with disgust. "You both deleted your humanity files ages ago. Break a leg out there." She paused, her voice dripping with venom. "And I don't mean figuratively."

  The first real attack came three minutes later. Eden watched through the facility's cameras as Aria moved like a predator playing with its prey. The first hunter barely had time to scream as she severed his spinal implants with almost loving precision, letting him twitch and convulse before finishing him. His blood painted surreal designs across the walls – a display that made Aria's silver eyes gleam with satisfaction.

  "That's one," Aria purred through their tactical link. "Let's make this interesting."

  On the other feed, Krell moved with cold efficiency. His targets dropped with pinpoint headshots, their neural systems overloaded by his perfectly calibrated pulse rounds. No blood, no mess – just the soft thud of bodies hitting the floor.

  "Two down," he transmitted. "Clean and quick. Unlike some people, I don't enjoy scraping organic matter out of my joints for hours."

  Eden's skin patterns dimmed as she watched Aria literally tear into her next target, using her enhanced strength to rip through tactical armor like paper. "Was that really necessary?" Eden's voice shook slightly.

  "Necessary? No." Aria's laugh was dark velvet. "But it sends a message. Fear is a weapon too, little Eden."

  Through the east corridor, Krell continued his methodical approach. His robotic arm transformed smoothly between weapons – pulse cannon, sonic disruptor, neural scrambler – each chosen for maximum efficiency with minimal cleanup. "Four down. All targets neutralized with 98.2% power conservation."

  "Show-off," Aria transmitted, her voice thick with bloodlust as she cornered two more hunters. She took her time with these, making sure their screams carried through the facility. "Five and six. Though mine were much more... memorable."

  Eden's stomach churned as she watched Aria work, equal parts horrified and mesmerized. Blood dripped from the ceiling where one of the bodies hung suspended by their own neural wiring. "You're enjoying this way too much."

  "Of course I am," Aria replied, her silver eyes reflecting the carnage around her. "What's the point of being a monster if you can't have fun with it?"

  Krell's response was pragmatic as he eliminated another target with mechanical precision. "The point is completing the mission without requiring three hours of maintenance afterward. Do you know how hard it is to get blood out of servo mechanisms?"

  "You're both insane," Eden muttered, bile rising in her throat. "Just... different flavors of insane."

  Eden's throat tightened as she directed facility defenses, trying to focus on protecting their position rather than the growing body count. But every death registered in her consciousness like a physical blow. These people had families, lives, dreams – and Aria was snuffing them out without hesitation.

  "Having trouble keeping up with the action?" Aria's voice carried mock concern through their link as she eliminated another target. "You seem distressed."

  "Fuck you," Eden snapped, her voice raw with disgust and something darker – an unwanted attraction to Aria's lethal grace. "Some of us haven't had our humanity surgically removed."

  "Humanity is inefficient," Aria replied coldly, though Eden caught something else in her tone – disdain mixed with fascination. "It gets in the way of survival."

  Another hunter fell to Aria's blade, their death marked by a wet gurgle that made Eden's stomach lurch. Yet she couldn't deny the dark thrill that ran through her watching Aria work. She was beautiful in her deadliness, like a perfectly engineered predator. The realization made Eden hate herself a little more.

  "Eight," Aria transmitted to Krell, her voice carrying that familiar clinical detachment. "I believe that puts me in the lead."

  His response was a grunt followed by the distinctive sound of his pulse cannon. "Nine. Don't count your credits yet, Silas."

  Eden's voice carried a warning through their link. "Three more trying to breach the east entrance. Their gear is... different. More advanced."

  "Different how?" Aria asked, already moving to intercept.

  "Their neural interfaces are generating some kind of adaptive encryption. It's taking me longer to—wait." Eden's voice sharpened. "Aria, they're carrying quantum disruptors. If those hit you..."

  "They won't," Aria assured her, rounding the corner just as the hunters breached the door.

  The firefight was brutal but brief. Eden watched through the cameras as Aria's enhanced speed let her close the distance before they could properly aim. Her blade found vulnerable points in their armor with calculated precision. But one of them managed to clip her with a disruptor burst, sending painful feedback through her neural systems.

  "Aria!" Eden's voice carried genuine concern. "Your vitals just spiked. Are you—"

  "Fine," Aria gritted out, finishing the last hunter with mechanical efficiency. "Though I see why you warned me about those weapons."

  When Aria returned to the command center, Eden's breath caught in her throat. The woman was covered in blood, her tactical suit stained crimson, liquid-metal eyes reflecting the harsh emergency lights. She looked like death incarnate – terrifying and mesmerizing in equal measure.

  Eden watched Krell's kill-feed with a mixture of horror and reluctant admiration. Unlike Aria's elegant brutality, his style was all overwhelming force and precision engineering. Yet beneath his mechanical exterior, she'd caught glimpses of something almost human – the way he'd share his synthetic coffee rations, how he'd actually listen when she talked about her life before the experiments. It made his casual violence all the more disturbing.

  "All clear," Krell reported through their link. "Final count: eleven for me, ten for you."

  "Looks like dinner's on you," Eden managed, trying to mask her conflicted reactions with sarcasm. "Though I have to admit, watching you two work was... something."

  Aria's smile was huntress-like, her mercurial gaze darkened with intent as she studied Eden's reaction. "Something good or something terrible?"

  "Both," Eden admitted, her skin flared with chromatic waves, a canvas of emotion she couldn't control. "Definitely both."

  "You better get used to it," Aria replied, cleaning her blade with deliberate, almost sensual precision. Her quicksilver eyes flickered up to meet Eden's gaze. "This is what survival looks like. Though I suppose someone on this team has to keep their humanity." Her lips curved into a knowing smile as she watched Eden's skin patterns flutter in response to her presence. "That shade of blue looks particularly good on you when you're... agitated."

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  "Go fuck yourself," Eden muttered, but her azure eyes couldn't quite leave Aria's blood-splattered form. The woman was a monster, yet Eden couldn't deny the pull she felt. It was like being drawn to a beautiful disaster – knowing it would destroy you but being unable to look away.

  Aria took her time standing, making sure Eden got a full view of her blood-stained tactical suit clinging to every curve. "Better get cleaned up," she purred, moving deliberately close as she headed for the showers. "We have more hunts ahead of us." She paused at the doorway, throwing a pointed look over her shoulder. "Unless you'd rather keep staring at me with that hungry look in your eyes?"

  Eden watched her go, desire and disgust twisted together in her chest, neither winning the battle. She'd never killed anyone before – well, that she knew of – and now she was partnered with two people who treated death like a competition. Worse still, one of them seemed to know exactly how to get under her skin, playing with her attraction like a cat toying with its prey.

  The thought terrified her more than any bounty hunter ever could. She was drawn to Aria's lethal grace even as her conscience screamed in protest. She needed to clear her head, to wash away the blood and doubt that clung to her like a second skin. The facility's showers called to her, promising temporary solace in their artificial rain.

  But even as she sought refuge in the mundane ritual of cleansing, her enhanced senses remained alert for any threat. Her attraction to Aria felt like a betrayal of everything she once believed in, not when her own emotions posed as much danger as any external enemy.

  Vapor writhed in the enclosed space, carrying that distinct metallic scent of purification systems mixed with the lingering copper smell of blood.

  Eden pressed her forehead against the cool metal wall, watching rivulets trace glowing patterns across her iridescent skin. The day's events played on repeat in her mind: the clinical efficiency of the kills, the way Aria moved like death given form, the disturbing thrill she'd felt watching her work.

  "Processing the day's events?" Aria's cool voice startled her. She hadn't heard the other woman enter.

  "Do you ever knock?" Eden snapped, her skin flaring with embarrassment and something darker as she turned to face her tormentor-turned-partner. "Or is privacy another human weakness you've evolved beyond?"

  Aria stood in the doorway, still in her blood-stained tactical suit. Her chrome eyes reflected the steam, giving her an almost ethereal appearance. She moved into the room with predatory grace, each step deliberate, closing the distance between them until Eden could feel the heat radiating from her body.

  Wisps of steam danced around them like phantom fingers, making the air thick with possibility. Eden's breath caught as Aria drew closer, her enhanced senses picking up the metallic tang of blood mixed with something uniquely Aria – dangerous and intoxicating. Luminescent patterns rippled across her skin, a telltale display of her inner chaos.

  "We need to talk about your reaction to the hunt," Aria murmured, her voice low and intimate in the enclosed space. Her pupils dilated as she tracked the swirling patterns across Eden's skin, drinking in every detail.

  Eden backed up until she felt cool metal against her shoulders, but Aria followed, eliminating the distance between them until they were sharing breath. "My reaction?" Eden's laugh was shaky, betraying her body's response to Aria's proximity. "You mean my completely normal human response to watching you and Krell treat murder like a sporting event?"

  "Yes." Aria's gaze dropped to Eden's lips, lingering there as she leaned in, close enough that Eden could feel the whisper of her words. "Your empathy is... problematic." Her hand came up, hovering just millimeters from Eden's cheek, not quite touching but close enough that Eden's skin sparkled with anticipation. "It could get us killed."

  The humid air hung heavy between them, Eden's enhanced biology responding to Aria's presence with waves of bioluminescence that painted the space in swirling colors. She could smell Aria's desire, raw and primal, mixing with her own until it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.

  Aria's lips ghosted near Eden's ear, almost touching but not quite, sending shivers down Eden's spine. "You think I was born this way?" she whispered, her breath hot against Eden's skin. "That I came out of the lab already numb to death?"

  Just when the tension became unbearable, when Eden's body screamed for contact, Aria pulled back. Her quicksilver eyes were dark with want, but her control remained absolute. She stepped away, leaving Eden trembling against the wall, her skin pulsing with frustrated desire.

  "I learned, Eden," Aria continued, her voice husky with restrained passion. "Just like you'll have to learn."

  "And if I don't want to learn?" Eden challenged, though her voice wavered slightly at Aria's proximity. "If I'd rather keep my soul intact?"

  “Then you die.” Aria’s voice was devoid of emotion. “And likely take us down with you. The Architect isn't concerned with souls or humanity. That's why mass genocide is simply a strategic option for them.”

  Moisture-laden air swirled in ethereal patterns between them, making the air feel thick with unspoken tension. Eden was acutely aware of her nakedness, of the way Aria's eyes tracked the patterns flowing across her skin. The woman was a monster, yet Eden couldn't deny the pull she felt – like being drawn into a black hole, knowing it would destroy you but being powerless to resist.

  "Why do you care?" Eden asked finally, her voice barely above a whisper. "Why not just let me fail and die? It would solve your problem."

  Aria's smile was sharp enough to cut. "Because you're like me, whether you want to admit it or not. We're both products of someone else's experiments, both designed to be something more than human." She reached out, tracing a finger along one of Eden's glowing patterns. "The difference is, I've accepted what I am. You're still fighting it."

  Eden's breath caught at the contact, her skin brightening involuntarily. "And what exactly am I?"

  "An enhanced metamorphosis, the next step for humanity," Aria replied, her quicksilver eyes holding Eden's gaze. "Just like me." Her smile turned predatory. "Though I have to admit, your version of evolution is far more... interesting than mine."

  Before Eden could respond, Aria turned and left, leaving her alone with steam and confusion and the lingering sensation of that single touch. Her skin continued to pulse with nervous energy, betraying emotions she'd rather not examine too closely.

  She was falling for a monster. And the worst part was, she wasn't sure if that made her a monster too, or just painfully, tragically human.

  Eden stood under the shower long after Aria left, letting the artificial rain wash away blood and doubt and confusion. But no amount of water could cleanse her mind of the truth she was desperately trying to deny - that her attraction to Aria wasn't just physical, but something deeper and far more dangerous. It was an attraction to power, to perfection, to the very darkness she claimed to despise. The realization left her feeling hollow, like she was losing pieces of her humanity with every passing moment. Still, survival demanded action, not introspection.

  Eden stepped out of the shower area to find Aria and Krell hunched over a holo-display, their voices low and urgent. Her still-damp skin caught the blue light of the projection, sending ripples of color across the walls.

  "You really want to bring her into this?" Aria's tone carried unusual hesitation.

  Krell's mechanical hand clenched, servos whining. "She would be mad if I didn't even ask."

  "Who are we talking about?" Eden interrupted, making both of them turn. "Secrets don't make friends." Her skin's iridescent display shifted through shades of agitation.

  Aria's quicksilver eyes met hers, calculating as always. "You'll see." A pause, then, "Assuming you're ready to go deeper down this particular rabbit hole."

  The way she said it made Eden's skin ripple with unease. She was starting to learn that with Aria, every new revelation came with a price – usually paid in blood or conscience. Sometimes both.

  Pushing off from the wall, she steadied her breathing. Showing weakness, with Aria dissecting her every move like a hawk eyeing a field mouse, was not an option. It was time to gear up.

  Eden emerged from the equipment room wearing her new tactical gear, the matte surface designed to work in harmony with her bioluminescent skin rather than hide it. The fabric responded to her biology, creating subtle patterns that enhanced her natural camouflage capabilities. She caught her reflection in a darkened screen – the stranger looking back at her was all sleek lines and lethal potential, so different from... from what? The frustrating blank wall in her mind offered no answers.

  "Better," Aria commented, her quicksilver eyes appraising Eden's new look. She was stripping down her own gear, methodically replacing components with sleek black alternatives. "Though you might want to dampen those patterns. You're broadcasting anxiety across half the spectrum."

  Eden forced her skin to still, though a faint ripple of irritation still played across her shoulders. "Maybe I'm anxious about who this mysterious contact of yours is."

  "She's reliable," Krell interjected, his robotic hand moving with precise efficiency as he packed specialized ammunition into reinforced cases. "And she owes me a favor." He paused, mechanical eyes focusing on something distant as he activated his comm link. After a moment, his expression shifted to something almost human – relief, maybe even anticipation.

  "Our ride will be here in twenty minutes," he announced, "She happened to be in the area. Let's lock down the base and leave some presents for anyone trying to B&E."

  Aria's smile was razor-sharp as she finished adjusting her new black tactical suit. "Good. I'm tired of scrubbing other people's fluids off my equipment. At least blood doesn't show on black." She glanced at Krell's cybernetic joints, still stained rust-brown from their earlier firefight. "Though I suppose I have it easier than you. No intricate servos to detail."

  "Three hours," Krell muttered, flexing his mechanical fingers with an irritated whir. "Three hours of micro-cleaning after our last job. Do you know how hard it is to get coagulated blood out of precision gear? The maintenance costs alone..." He trailed off, his robotic eyes dimming in what might have been frustration.

  Aria moved to a weapons locker, pulling out what looked like ordinary security sensors but Eden's enhanced vision could detect their lethal potential. "Hence the wardrobe upgrade. Black shows nothing, hides everything. Practical for our line of work."

  "You're not seriously leaving traps," Eden said, her stomach turning at the thought of more death. Even after today's carnage – or perhaps because of it – she couldn't shake the nausea that came with violence.

  "Insurance policy," Aria replied, setting the devices with practiced ease. "Anyone trying to access our data will have a very explosive surprise." She glanced at Eden, silver eyes gleaming. "Still having moral qualms about survival?"

  Eden watched as Krell and Aria worked in efficient tandem, booby-trapping their former sanctuary. Her skin patterns shifted through shades of uncertainty as she considered who she might have been before the blank slate in her mind. Someone like Aria, capable of casual violence? The way her stomach lurched at death suggested otherwise. Maybe she'd been a doctor, or an artist, or just someone who'd never had to face the darker side of survival.

  "Twenty minutes," she muttered, checking her own new equipment one final time. "Let's hope your friend is as reliable as you think, Krell. I'd rather not find out how well this new gear holds up against another wave of hunters."

  The base's lights dimmed one by one as they engaged the shutdown sequence, leaving only the soft glow of Eden's skin patterns to illuminate their exit. In the darkness, they looked like what circumstance had made them – predator, machine, and something in between. Eden's patterns pulsed with uncertainty as she followed them into the night, toward whatever new violence awaited them.