Chapter 89: The Throne She Deserved
The screams still echoed in the marble halls above.
Cambria stood in the war chamber, unmoving, her body trembling not from fear but fury. Blood painted the stone floor, a harsh contrast to the ancient Blackwood crest etched beneath her boots. The aftermath of Subject One’s rampage had left the chamber in ruins. Valen Drex’s body was little more than a mangled heap, and the injector that had once held the final activation code lay shattered at her feet.
Yet despite the carnage, the creature Subject One had not harmed her. It had knelt. Called her My Queen.
She had not moved since.
"My Queen," Subject One rasped again, head still bowed.
It was human once. That much was clear beneath the twisted mutation of skin and steel. A face that might have once belonged to a soldier or brother is now contorted by science and suffering.
And it was looking at her with something more than obedience.
Devotion.
"Stand," she said, voice firm, though her hands were clenched at her sides.
Subject One rose to its full, terrifying height, a towering blend of man and machine, black veins glowing beneath its skin like molten threads.
Cambria turned to the wall, placing a hand on the blood-streaked stone. The injector key to unlocking Project Pandora was destroyed. That choice had been taken from her. But the war had never been about one choice. It had always been about survival.