Seolhyun took a deep breath and cried out, immediately wishing she hadn’t. Sharp pain radiated across her ribs, her entire body throbbed. There wasn’t one part of her that didn’t ache. A fight with Jieqiong was the least she wished to do.

Movement from the farthest corner of her cell, by the door, drew her attention. Slowly and quite painfully, she turned her head.

Yuna stood there, bundling a cloth in her hand. “I was beginning to worry.”

“Why?”

She came forward, the beret forever hiding her eyes. “You were out for a while this time, the longest yet, Seolhyun.”

Seolhyun’s hands shook so she shoved them between her knees. “She wasn’t there. Not even a flicker of her personality. She was like a zombie, you know? Just freaking crazed. Is that what instability does?”

Yuna sat on the edge of the bed. “If it were one of the Felix here, then I’ll hear about it, but we don’t know if the mutation held.” She held up the bundle. “It’s just ice. Looks like you could use it. You... okay?”

Ignoring the throbbing in her shoulder, Seolhyun tried to pull her arm out from under the blanket. “I can do it.”

“You don’t look like you can lift a finger, girl. Just stay still. And don’t talk.”

Seolhyun wasn’t sure if she should be offended by the whole don’t talk part, but then Yuna pressed the icy bundle against her cheek, causing her to in a sharp breath.

“They could have gotten one of the Felix to heal you, but your refusing to fight back isn’t going to make it easy on you.” Yuna pressed the ice bag down. “Try to keep that in mind when you go to the training room next time.”

“I don’t want next time.” Seolhyun started to scowl, but it hurt. “Fighting them is wrong. Making them do that is... is inhumane. Jieqiong doesn’t even seem human anymore. None of them do. They’re like robots.”

“They’re trained.”

“T-trained?” She sputtered as Yuna moved the ice to her chin. “They’re mindless–”

“They kidnapped her.” She lowered her voice, so low that Seolhyun wondered if the microphones could even pick it up. “Like they did to me.”

Seolhyun had no idea what she was supposed to say at school, well, if she ever came back, when Jieqiong never came back and the inevitable questions began. She didn’t think she had it in her to pretend to be clueless and tell more lies. Another kid missing...

Oh, God, Doyeon... What would Doyeon do? They’d been best friends since grade school.

Ignoring the security cameras, Seolhyun squeezed her eyes tight and curled up against Yuna. The aches of the fight had long faded, but she was weary to the core, mentally and physically drained. “Can I ask you a question?”

“You probably shouldn’t talk anymore.” Yuna switched the bag of ice to her other hand.

“You’re still my friend, right?”

When the icy bundle landed on Seolhyun’s cheek again, it didn’t feel so bad. “I always am. And I promise I’ll get you out of here. Soon.”

***

Seolhyun’s legs ached as she trailed behind Yuna, limping their way to the training room. Who would she fight today? The only thing she did know was that they wouldn’t let any of the other Hybrids kill her. She was too valuable.

Yuna slowed her step, allowing Seolhyun to gimp her way up to her. She hadn’t said anything since she left Seolhyun’s cell yesterday, but Seolhyun was used to her silence. It was just a job to her, under the morph thing.

They stopped in front of the doors she’d come to loathe. Taking a deep breath, Seolhyun stepped through when they opened. No point in delaying the inevitable.

Sergeant Choi waited inside, dressed in the same uniform he’d been wearing since the first time Seolhyun saw him. She wondered if he had an endless supply of them. If not, he had to have one hell of a dry-cleaning bill.

Yuna choked out a laugh beside her.

“, I’m so damn envious of your ability, Yuna.”

Yuna winked.

Sergeant Choi shook his head and stepped aside, allowing Dr. Park to check Seolhyun over. The bastard took her blood pressure, listened to her breathe, and then shined a light in her eyes. “She looks a little worse, Choi.” He said, tucking his stethoscope under his lab coat. “But she can participate in the stress test.”

Seolhyun shot him a glare, but before she could open her snarky mouth, Sergeant Choi cut in. “Today will be different,” he said.

Folding her arms, Seolhyun fixed her eyes on him. “No. It won’t. I’m not fighting them.”

His chin went up a notch. “Perhaps we’ve introduced you to the stress test incorrectly.”

“What part of this whole thing is incorrect?”

“We do not want you to fight to just fight, Seolhyun. We want to make sure your mutation is viable. I can see that you are unwilling to hurt just another Hybrid. But we must see your abilities under high stress.” He motioned to the guys at the panels. The door opened. “I think you will be more accepting of this test.”

Seolhyun didn’t want to walk through those doors, but she forced one foot in front of the other, refusing to show an ounce of weakness.

The door closed behind her, and she faced the other door, waiting while knots formed in her stomach. How in the world could they make this acceptable? There was nothing they could–

In that instant, the other door opened, and Jimin stepped through.

Seolhyun choked out a dry, bitter laugh as Jimin swaggered into the room, barely paying heed to the door closing behind her. Suddenly Choi’s words about being more acceptable made sense.

Jimin frowned as she stopped in front of Seolhyun. “You look like crap.”

The simmering anger sparked. “And you’re surprised? You know what they’re doing in here.”

She her fingers through her hair as her eyes moved over Seolhyun’s face. “Seolhyun, all you have to do is tap into the Source.”

“You’re insane. If you hadn’t betrayed us, I would’ve avoided all of this in the first place.”

“No.” A look of sadness crept across her doll face. “You would’ve ended up here no matter what.”

“I don’t agree.”

“You don’t want to agree.”

Seolhyun in a deep breath, but the anger was getting the better of her. Jimin moved to put her hand on Seolhyun’s shoulder, but she knocked her arm away. “Don’t touch me.”

She stared at her a moment, and then her eyes narrowed. “Like I told you before, if you want to be mad at anyone, get mad at Hyejeong. She did this to you. Not me.”

All the pent-up anger and frustration whipped through Seolhyun like a category-five hurricane. Her brain clicked off, and she swung without thinking. Her fist just grazed Jimin’s jaw, but the Source had reared its head at the same time. A bolt of light shot from her hand and spun Jimin around.

Jimin caught herself on the wall, letting out a surprised laugh. “Damn, Seolhyun. That hurt.”

Energy crackled down Seolhyun’s spine, fusing with her bones. “How dare you blame her for this? This isn’t her fault!”

Jimin turned around and leaned against the wall. Blood trickled from her lip, and she wiped at it with the back of her hand. A strange gleam entered her eyes, and then she pushed off the wall. “This is completely her fault.”

Seolhyun flung her arm out and another bolt of energy shot forward, but Jimin dodged it, laughing as she spun around, her arms out at her sides. “Is that the best you got?” she goaded her. “Come on. I promise I’ll go easy on you, bae.”

At the use of the nickname, Seolhyun lost it. Jimin was on her in a second. She darted to the side, ignoring the painful protest of her muscles. Jimin’s arm came out in a wide sweep, and whitish-red light crackled. Seolhyun spun at the last second, narrowly avoiding taking a direct hit.

Letting the rush of energy swell through her once more, she sent another blast arcing across the room, hitting Jimin in the shoulder.

Jimin stumbled back, hands dropping to her knees as she doubled over. “I think you can do better than that.”

Fiery hot rage slipped over Seolhyun’s eyes like a veil. Launching herself forward, she tackled her on speed. They went down in a mess of tangled legs and arms. Seolhyun landed on top of her, swinging her arm back and bringing it down repeatedly. She wasn’t really seeing where she was hitting, only feeling the flare of pain across her knuckles as they connected with flesh.

Jimin shoved her short arms between hers and swept them out, knocking Seolhyun off balance. Seolhyun teetered for a second, and then Jimin raised her hips and rolled. Seolhyun slammed onto her back, knocking the air out of her lungs. She aimed for her face, hell-bent on clawing her eyes out.

Jimin caught Seolhyun’s wrists and pinned them above her head as she leaned down. A cut had opened under her left eye, and her cheek was starting to swell. A vicious amount of satisfaction rushed through Seolhyun.

“Can I ask you a question?” Jimin grinned, turning the flecks of brown in her eyes brighter. “Did you ever tell Hyejeong that you kissed me? I bet you haven’t.”

Each breath Seolhyun took she felt in every part of her body. Her skin became hypersensitive to her weight and proximity. The power built inside, and the room seemed to be tinted in a brilliant sheen of white. Fury consumed her, riding every breath and latching onto every cell.

Jimin’s grin spread. “Just like you never told her how we liked to cuddle–”

The power burst from Seolhyun, and suddenly she was off the floor, they were off the floor, levitating several feet in the air.

“,” Jimin whispered.

Flipping upward, Seolhyun tore her wrists free from Jimin’s grip and slammed her hands into her chest. Shock rippled across her pale face a second before she flew backward, crashing into the wall. The cement cracked, and a fissure spread out like a wicked spiderweb. The whole room seemed to shake with the impact as Jimin’s head snapped back, and then she slumped forward. Part of Seolhyun expected her to catch herself before she smacked into the floor, but she didn’t.

As if she’d been held up by invisible strings that had now been cut, she landed on the balls of her feet and rocked forward a step. “Jimin?” she croaked out.

She didn’t move.

Oh no...

Arms shaking, Seolhyun started to kneel down, but something dark and thick spread out from under her body. Seolhyun’s gaze flicked up to the wall. A Jimin-size imprint was clearly visible, a form reaching through at least three feet of cement.

Oh God, no...

Slowly, she looked down. Blood pooled out from under her motionless small body and seeped across the gray cement floor, stretching toward her sneakers.

Stumbling back, Seolhyun opened , but there was no sound. Jimin didn’t move. She didn’t roll over with a groan. She didn’t move at all. And the visible skin on her hands and forearms was paling already, turning a ghastly shade of white that stood out with such stark contrast against the deep red of the blood.

Jimin was dead.

Time slowed and then sped up. If she was dead, then that meant the Felix who had mutated her was, too, because that was how it worked. They were joined together, like Hyejeong and her, and if one died... the other died, too.

Jimin had it coming in more ways than one. She’d even promised to kill her, but words... words were one thing. Actions were a totally different ballpark. And Jimin, even with all the terrible things she’d done, was a product of circumstance. She’d killed not really meaning to. She’d betrayed to save another.

Just like Seolhyun did, and would.

Her hand shook as she pressed it against . Everything she’d said to her came back in a rush. And in that tiny second when she’d caved to the fury, nothing in a span of millions, she had changed, become something she wasn’t sure she could ever come back from. Her chest rose rapidly at the same time her lungs compressed painfully.

The intercom clicked on, the initial buzz startling Seolhyun in the dead silence. Sergeant Choi’s voice filled the room, but she couldn’t take her eyes off Jimin’s lifeless form. “Perfect,” he said. “You’ve passed this stress test.”

It was too much. Ending up here, so far away from her mom and Hyejeong and everything that she knew, then the exam and the subsequent showdowns with the Hybrids. It was too much.

Letting her head fall back, Seolhyun opened to scream, but there was no sound. Nothing as Yuna entered and gently placed her hand on her shoulder, steering her out of the room. Choi said something, sounding very much like an approving father, and then she was taken out of the training room and into an office, where Dr. Park waited to take more blood.

Minutes turned into hours, and still, Seolhyun said nothing and felt nothing.

***

Being handcuffed with metal coated in Clio, blindfolded for five hours, and then put on some flight wasn’t Hyejeong’s idea of a fun time. She guessed they were afraid that she’d bring the plane down, which was stupid. It was getting her to where she wanted to go. She didn’t know the location, but she knew it had to be where they were keeping Seolhyun.

And if she wasn’t there, Hyejeong was going to go Hulk.

Once the plane landed, she was hustled to a waiting car. From underneath the blindfold, she could make out bright light, and the smell was really dry and acidic, vaguely familiar. It hit her during the two-hour drive that she was going back to the place she’d last been to damn near thirteen years ago.

Nonsan.

Hyejeong smirked. Keeping her blindfolded was pointless. She knew where they were. All Felix, once discovered, were processed through the remote detachment of Nonsan Military Base. She’d been young, but she’d never forget the dryness to the air.

When the vehicle rolled to a stop, Hyejeong sighed and waited for the door beside her to be opened. Hands landed on her broad shoulders, and she was dragged out of the car, thinking whoever had their hands on her was real lucky that hers were handcuffed behind her back, or someone was going to be leaving work today with a broken jaw.

They were in an elevator before the blindfold was removed.

Tiny creature Park Choa smiled up at her. “Sorry for that, but we must take precaution.”

Hyejeong met her eyes. “I know where we are. I’ve been here before.”

A single thin brow went up. “Many things have changed since you were a child, Hyejeong.”

“Can I get these off yet?” She wiggled her fingers.

Choa glanced at one of the soldiers in camouflage. It’s a she. She was young from what Hyejeong could tell, but the khaki-colored beret hid most of her upper face. “Unlock the handcuffs. She’s not going to give us any trouble.” She looked back at Hyejeong. “I do believe Hyejeong knows this place is outfitted with a Clio defense system.”

The guard stepped forward, fishing out a key, then unlocked the cuffs. They scraped along the raw skin of Hyejeong’s wrists as they slipped off. She shook her shoulders out, relieving the cramped muscles. Red marks circled her wrists, but it wasn’t too bad.

“I’ll behave,” she said, cracking her neck. “But I want to see Seolhyun now.”

The elevator slid to a stop and the doors opened. Choa stepped out, and the female soldier motioned her forward. “There’s something you need to see first.”

Hyejeong ground to a halt. “That’s not a part of the deal, Choa. You want me to go along with this, I want to see Seolhyun now.”

Choa glanced over her shoulder. “What I’m about to show you has to do with Seolhyun. Then you will see her.”

“I want–” She whipped around, eyeballing the guard breathing down her neck. “Seriously, girl, you need to back the hell up.”

The girl was half a head shorter than Hyejeong and nowhere in her league of extraordinary -kicking abilities, but she didn’t back down. “Keep. Walking.”

Hyejeong stiffened. “And if I don’t?”

“Hyejeong,” Choa called, her voice laced with impatience. “All you’re doing is delaying what you want.”

As much as she hated to admit it, Choa had a point. Sending the punk one last promising look, she turned and followed the woman down the hall. Everything was white with the exception of the black dots in the wall and ceilings.

Choa stepped in front of a door and leaned down. A red light clicked on and shone in her right eye. The light on the panel turned green and the door unlocked. That was going to prove tricky, and Hyejeong wondered whether, if she took a morph on Choa’s form, the systems had been prepped to recognize that.

Inside the small circular room, there were several monitors manned by men in uniform. Each of the screens showed a different room, hall, or floor.

“Leave us,” she announced.

The men stood up from their stations and hastily exited the room, leaving Choa and Hyejeong with the tool who had come in with them.

“What did you want to show me?” Hyejeong asked.

Her lips pursed. “This is one of many security control rooms stationed throughout the buildings. From here, we can monitor everything in Paradise.”

“Paradise?” Hyejeong laughed bitterly. “Is that what you’re calling it now?”

Choa shrugged and then turned to one of the stations, her fingers flying over the keyboard. “All of the rooms are recorded. That helps us monitor activity for various reasons.”

“Okay.”

“One of our concerns whenever we bring in new Hybrids is to make sure they are not a danger to themselves or others,” she began, folding her arms. “It’s a process we take very seriously, and we go through several rounds of testing to ensure that they are viable.”

Hyejeong really did not like where this was heading if it had anything to do with Seolhyun.

“Seolhyun has proven to have some issues and can become very dangerous.”

Hyejeong ground down on her teeth so hard she was surprised they didn’t crack. “If she’s done anything, it’s because she was provoked.”

“Really?” Choa punched a button on the keyboard, and the screen above her to the left flickered on.

Seolhyun.

All the air went out of her lungs. Her heart stopped and then sped up.

Seolhyun was on the screen, sitting down with her back pressed against a wall. The image was grainy, but it was her. It was her. She was in the clothes she’d worn the night she was captured at Mount Elvis, and that had to be days ago. Confusion rose swiftly. When was this taken? It couldn’t be a live feed.

Her hair hung down on the sides, shielding her beautiful face. Hyejeong started to tell her to look up but realized at the last minute that would make her look like an imbecile.

“As you can see, no one is near her,” Choa said. “That is Sergeant Choi in the room with her. He is doing the initial interview.”

Suddenly, Seolhyun’s chin jerked up, and she sprang to her feet, racing around a tall man in a military uniform. The next second, she hit the floor. Hyejeong stared in open horror as Seolhyun withered, and then one of the men unhooked a water hose from the wall.

Choa flicked a button, and there was a different image. It took Hyejeong a second to recover from the last scene and get what was going on now, but when she did, pure, red-hot rage lit her up.

On the screen were Seolhyun and freaking Jimin, squaring off. She whirled, grabbing for a lamp, but she darted in front, blocking her. When she swung on her, pride swelled in Hyejeong. That was her baby, claws and all.

But the next thing had her searching for a way out of the room. Jimin had intercepted her punch, twisted her arm, and swung her around. Pain registered on Seolhyun’s face, and then she had her down on her back, pinned to the bed.

“This isn’t happening now,” Choa said calmly. “This was a while ago, when she first arrived. It’s muted.”

Breathing heavily, Hyejeong turned back to the TV. They were struggling, and Jimin had obviously overpowered her. She was still fighting, though, her back bowing and her body twisting under Jimin’s. Violence rose in Hyejeong, powered by potent rage and a level of helplessness she’d never felt before, and it tasted like Jimin’s blood. Her hands formed fists, and she wanted to smash them in the monitor, since her face wasn’t in front of her.

When Jimin had pulled her off the bed, and Hyejeong saw her dragging her across the floor and off the screen, she spun toward Choa. “What happened? Where did she take her?”

“Into the bathroom, where there are no cameras. We do believe in some sort of privacy.” She clicked something and the video fast-forwarded a couple of minutes, and Jimin entered from the right. She sat on the bed, and Seolhyun appeared a few seconds later, absolutely soaked.

Hyejeong stepped forward, exhaling out of her nose. Words were exchanged between them, and then Seolhyun whirled, opened a dresser, and grabbed clothes. She disappeared back into the bathroom.

Jimin dropped her head into her hands.

“I’m going to ing kill her,” Hyejeong promised to no one in particular, but it was one she was going to keep. She would pay for this, all of this, one way or another.

The female soldier cleared . “Jimin isn’t an issue anymore.”

Hyejeong faced her, breathing raggedly. “Care to tell me why?”

“Jimin is dead.”

“What?”

“She’s dead,” the girl repeated. “Seolhyun killed her two hours ago.”

The floor felt like it dropped out from underneath her. Her first response was to deny it, because she didn’t want to believe that Seolhyun would have had to do something like that, that she had to go through it.

The monitor was turned off, and Choa watched her. “The reason I’m showing you this isn’t to upset you or to make you mad. You need to see with your own eyes that Seolhyun has proven to be dangerous.”

“I have no doubt in my mind that if Seolhyun really did do that, she had a reason.” Hyejeong’s heart thudded in her chest. She needed to see her. If Seolhyun had done this... She couldn’t bear to think about what Seolhyun had to be going through. “And I would’ve done it, too, if I were in her shoes.”