Disorientation and jumbled pain shot through April as the consciousness returned to her body. Her mind recoiled from the sudden, insistent warnings her personal processing unit filled it with. The damned chip in her brain shocked her out of her stasis, not caring about the transitory period it usually demanded.

  She gasped for air as the HUD built into her artificial right eye lit up, fshing with a slew of diagnostic failures and pointing out the absence of the pnned impnts she was expected to receive during the stasis.

  Row after row of text scrolled over her vision, evaluating April’s battle readiness and general condition. Her mind tried to catch up with the new information, failing to parse all but the st few lines, which were the summary.

  [No new features found. Damaged parts—healed. Body condition—stable.]

  April blinked, finally able to focus her blurry vision. As the capsule containing her body emptied from the liquid that had held together her broken body, she finally understood the reason for her sudden awakening.

  A soft glow encased her broken and then healed body, illuminating the otherwise dark facility. The gss in front of her divided the light, scattering it over the dipidated room—empty of once numerous doctors and scientists.

  The first breath sent a jolt through April. She pushed down the instinct to panic and fil. Her mind struggled to understand what had happened. Her limbs began to respond to her desperate pleading, resulting in her smashing into the gss and sending the door crashing out of the hinges.

  Her naked body fell along the gss, hitting the ground painfully. She breathed in the stale air, full of dust and the smell of old pstic. Her ears picked up the sound of cxons bring somewhere in the distance—announcing a state of emergency and danger. Announcing what she knew was the arrival of the Overseers.

  It didn’t expin her condition, however. April kept gasping for air, filling her lungs with the precious gas. Her naked form pressed painfully on the edges of the gss door. Knowing she had to move, she used her alien-feeling arms to lift herself with an unexpected ease.

  From the distance, more chaos travelled down to where she was in the form of booms, voices, and the sounds of people rushing down, away from the incoming threat from above.

  April staggered, her legs barely keeping her up. She was still glowing, giving her enough light to find her way towards the row of dispys arranged next to her capsule. As quick as her stiff fingers allowed, she began tapping—lighting up the screen that sluggishly began to follow her orders, trying to find the answer to the questions she felt were the most urgent.

  But she was met with another row of warnings. This time on the screen instead of on her HUD, which kept blinking annoyingly, pointing out her unfinished state. She tried to dismiss those, but the fshing red lines kept coming back, frustrating her even more.

  With a huff, she returned her attention to the screen to figure out what the situation was, and what she saw didn’t improve her mood as most systems in the base appeared to be offline. Some were destroyed. Some were too old to function properly, and some were simply decommissioned or transferred to other facilities.

  The st parts of the complex functioning were here—at the very bottom of it. The pce which was repurposed to be a shelter. What was once a pce where the top minds gathered was gone, and the reason was simple.

  “Canceltion because of ck of funds?” She couldn’t believe what she was reading. “Partial success? Priority change?” April scrolled further and opened more documents. She searched for some issue or cause for worry. But everything was as straightforward as it could get.

  The government had decided to terminate the project meant to make her and some others the greatest weapons humankind had. They were to be the bulwark and the spear against their enemies.

  But the Machines had changed their tactics to resemble guerril ones. This change in MO demanded a different approach. There was no need for a couple of ‘great weapons to break the offensive,’ and she had become just a statistic in spreadsheets. At least she had survived, left in limbo, since no one knew what to do with her, and there was no hurry to figure it out.

  This pnet was now under human rule. They were now the dominant force on it without her help. The expensive, extremely complicated enchantments were deemed too valuable to invest in her.

  “Too EXPENSIVE?” She screamed, anger bubbling within her. April smashed her fist into the capsule, leaving a dent in it. “I sacrificed my life and dreams to be deemed too EXPENSIVE?”

  Her voice echoed through the empty room with no answer. The silence contrasted with the screaming and panicking outside. People were rushing into the shelter, hoping to find safety where there was none.

  The noise didn’t help, and neither did the possibility of encountering other people. April was aware of how imbanced her current state was. She wanted to punch and scream and find someone to bme.

  But instead of tearing the terminal in front of her apart, she returned to a previous file that mentioned a partial success. She already suspected what it was about, but she wanted to be sure. Her trembling body slowly settled while the HUD kept feeding her information about the ck of the expected impnts.

  What appeared on the screen was a precise depiction of her body. The same artificial grey right and brown left eyes looked back from the screen. The dark brown hair framed a rather unremarkable face.

  Lines extended from the depiction, indicating the changes it had gone through and the improvements she had received. A diagram expined the process, going over the time it had taken and the impact it had on her. The methods used… Medication needed… People involved… The costs… It was always the costs…

  But contrary to the mechanical improvements April had been sted to receive, the biological ones had been finished. Her body had received a boost in muscle mass, resilience, and flexibility. She was now a marvel of bioengineering. A forgotten, left-to-rot marvel…

  Clicks outside the door interrupted April’s mencholy. The people who were seeking refuge had finally found their way here. She gnced down at her naked form—noting how her muscles were now more defined—and then around the room, finding nothing but dust and devices meant to keep her alive.

  The shouts and commands brought her back to reality and the possible danger. She could tell these people were important, likely the very sort that had judged her unworthy of a life. They demanded obedience and a quicker clearing of the pce. Their words were sharp and commanding. They asked for the impossible in the given circumstances—safety.

  Did they not know it was pointless? Had they deluded themselves into believing they were true masters of this world? How could they not have prepared for the moment humans were victors?

  April raised her arm and looked at her glowing arm. She formed a fist, wondering how she should greet the arriving people. Because right now, she was very, very angry.

  So, when the doors smmed open, she was unamused by the weapons pointed her way. They were just guns, if unfamiliar to her. But she cked her usual armour. She had no weapons of her own and had no pce to hide. And she shone in the dark, just like these people beneath their tactical armour. The confrontation was inevitable.

  Yet, she felt no panic as she looked at the soldiers who entered the room. She felt their confusion, fear of the unknown, and reluctance to attack. They were tense and twitchy but also stunned by her unexpected appearance.

  The six of them whispered into the comms, sharing their thoughts. From the stray words, she realised what made them hesitate so much.

  “Naked,” one of them noted.

  And the next one agreed. “Affirmed. A single woman. No weapons. How to proceed?”

  April appreciated their professionalism and hoped to be mistaken for a civilian. But when she heard a command resound over the cxons to fire… She clearly possessed no threat, and yet…

  That one word—fire—pushed her over the edge. It had been given by a man in an unfamiliar uniform at the back. He was standing next to important and arrogant-looking men and women who had the gall to look like they still owned the world.

  They were wrong. This world was not theirs and had never been.

  Various thoughts travelled through her muddy mind. Her eyes registered the several barrels levelled at her and the soldiers holding them—then she was moving. Her body practically flew to the side, away from the bullet trajectory. She winced as several bullets passed the spot she had been in just a moment ago.

  These people were well-trained and reacted immediately, despite the superhuman speed April dispyed. She kept moving; her body constantly switched gears, and she became faster and better coordinated.

  Even as the first salvo was evaded, she was forced to keep dodging. The soldiers tried to trace her as she travelled in a half circle, closing in on their position. Another order followed, commanding the attackers to enter the room and face her.

  It was an order April was eager to prove unneeded. She clenched her fist, dipping her body low and shooting forward. Her body became a bolt as it crossed the few meters between her and her opponents in an instant.

  April’s glowing body left after images confused the soldiers, and they failed to respond to her sudden approach. They tried to point their guns down when they realised what was happening, but it was too te.

  “Incoming!”

  One st shout was all they managed before she crashed into the small group, her arm shooting upwards in a hook and incapacitating her first target with a blow to his chin. She felt bone shatter as the man spat out blood—likely from his bitten tongue—and covered her in it. The soft ‘geh’ and then silence indicated the man was down for good. Her other arm swiped to the right, pushing away the barrel, which was surprisingly following her movements.

  The simple movement sent the green-eyed woman holding the gun spinning, making her wonder just how much her body had improved. She could still move faster, be more deadly.

  But her primary goal was behind these handfuls of soldiers. These people followed the orders with reluctance. She grabbed the scruff on the spinning woman and yanked her along to use her as a shield.

  Judging by the increasing light their bodies produced, the transfer would begin soon. But there was enough time to kill the man who had given the order to fire at her. She could not allow this cretin to live—her anger and pride did not allow it.

  April’s gaze locked with the older, wizened man, noting how unfamiliar his uniform looked. The nguage, too, while comprehensible, felt odd. And so did the guns and the armour. Everything they wore felt a little off, making her wonder for just how long she had been locked down here.

  The thought fred her anger higher as she approached the bunch of politicians and the one commander. She discovered more soldiers behind them, covering the rear. They looked in her direction in confusion, unable to follow the rapid development.

  April extended her hand, her fingers reaching for the commander’s neck. She brushed off the strike in her fnk, barely registering any pain. The HUD fshed, indicating negligible damage, and she proceeded.

  The light grew brighter, blinding everyone. She narrowed her eyes, keeping her movement steady despite receiving another blow aimed at her back. The woman she was using as a shield was fighting back, showing remarkable resilience.

  Finally, the blue light filled the world, announcing their imminent departure. April ignored the heavy tiredness she suddenly felt as her mind tried to shut down from the alien influence, preparing her body for the transfer. Her fingers brushed against the commander’s skin, letting her know he had failed to move out of her reach, and she smiled.

  Despite the metaphorical hammer trying to knock her out, she moved another inch, her steely fingers wrapping around the man’s throat. She squeezed as bodies around her fell, failing to resist the Overseer pressure.

  “You already killed me once,” she hissed, her anger still burning hot from all the sacrifices she had made and the time she had lost. “Now it is my turn.” She exerted strength, her powerful digits snapping the man’s neck.

  “Gurgh!”

  The foolish man replied, letting her know he was truly apologetic. She twisted her hand again, ensuring there was no mistake, and the man was dead.

  That was the st thing April did in that world. She knew once she opened her eyes, she would be in a new world with new dangers humans would have to face.

  Perhaps this time, they would succeed in breaking the cycle.

  Enkiari