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"Captain, they're still breathing down there."
I didn't turn around. Couldn't. The blast door was half-buckled, smoke leaking through the seam like the station was bleeding out. My squad was behind me, waiting for orders. Jude was in front of me, hands zip-tied, watching me like he knew exactly what I was about to choose.
"How many?" I asked.
"Three, maybe four." Orin's voice cracked. Kid was nineteen. This was his second week. "They're trapped under the north scaffold. Fire suppression's offline."
I glanced at the timer on my wrist. Eight minutes left. Last reset, I'd gone down there. Found two bodies and a partial detonator. This time, I had to decide if those survivors were worth more than the man who knew how to stop the next twelve minutes from eating us alive.
Jude tilted his head. "You're thinking too hard."
"Shut up."
"You go down there, you lose time you don't have. You stay up here, you lose people you can't replace." He stepped closer, close enough I could smell the smoke on his jacket, the faint metal tang of blood. "What's it gonna be, Captain?"
I shoved him back. Hard. "I said shut up."
He didn't stumble. Just reset his footing, eyes locked on mine. "You want to save them all. I get it. But you can't. Not this round."
"Round?" I grabbed his collar, yanked him close. "This isn't a game."
"No." His voice dropped. "It's worse. And you're burning seconds."
I let go. Turned to Orin. "Get Mace and Rivka. Take the north stairwell. If the scaffold's unstable, don't touch it. Mark positions and get out in four minutes. No heroics."
"Captain—"
"Four minutes, Orin. I'm not losing you."
He nodded, pale, and ran.
I looked at Jude. "You better be worth this."
"I'm not." He said it flat, no smile, no angle. "But I'm all you've got."
I hated that he was right.
We moved fast, cutting through the service corridor toward the lower deck. The station was a maze of half-lit passages and emergency lights that flickered every time something groaned in the walls. Jude kept pace beside me, hands still bound, but he didn't drag or slow down. He moved like he'd done this before. Like he knew where we were going.
"Left," he said.
I didn't take the turn.
"Lyra."
I stopped. He'd never said my name before. I hadn't told him my name.
"How do you know that?"
He met my eyes. No hesitation. "Because this isn't my first reset either."
My stomach dropped. "What?"
"You think you're the only one stuck in this?" He stepped closer. "I've been here eleven times. You've been here three. You're getting faster, but you're still making the same mistakes."
"That's not possible."
"Yeah, well, neither is waking up in the same blast twelve times, and here we are." He jerked his chin toward the left corridor. "That way. Trust me or don't, but if you want to get to the lower deck before your sister runs out of air, you go left."
I didn't move. "My sister's not down there. She's in medical."
"Not anymore." His voice was quiet. Too quiet. "Drake moved her. About six minutes ago. Right before the blast. You haven't figured that part out yet."
I pulled my sidearm. Aimed it at his chest. "You're lying."
"I wish I was."
My hand didn't shake. I wanted it to. Wanted some excuse to pull the trigger and stop listening to him. But my hand was steady, and he wasn't flinching, and somewhere under the smoke and the fear, I knew he wasn't lying.
"Why would Drake move her?"
"Because your sister saw something she wasn't supposed to. And Drake's been cleaning up witnesses since before you clocked in today."
I lowered the gun. Not because I trusted him. Because if he was telling the truth, I didn't have time to argue.
"Left," I said.
We ran.
The lower deck was worse than I remembered. The blast had torn through the main support column, and half the ceiling was sagging like it was holding its breath. I could hear voices. Faint. Desperate. Coming from behind the emergency door at the far end.
"Kira!" I shouted.
No answer.
I hit the door panel. Red light. Locked from the inside.
"Kira, it's me! Open the door!"
Still nothing.
Jude moved past me, fingers already working the panel even with his hands bound. "It's not locked. It's jammed. Pressure differential. The blast vented the corridor on the other side."
"Can you open it?"
"Not without equalizing the pressure. And if I do that, whoever's in there is gonna get hit with a wall of smoke and flame."
I stared at the door. At the red light. At the timer on my wrist. Four minutes left.
"How do you know all this?"
He didn't look up. "Because I've tried to open this door eight times. And every time, I lose whoever's on the other side."
My throat tightened. "What do you mean, lose?"
"I mean they die, Lyra. Every time. No matter what I do."
I grabbed his shoulder, spun him around. "Then why the hell did you bring me down here?"
"Because you need to see it." His eyes were hard. Tired. "You need to know what Drake's doing. And you need to decide if you're gonna keep playing her game or if you're finally gonna break the board."
I wanted to hit him. Wanted to scream. Wanted to wake up somewhere else, somewhere that wasn't bleeding and burning and twelve minutes away from doing it all again.
But I didn't.
I pulled my captain's badge off my chest. Held it out.
"Take this."
Jude frowned. "What?"
"If I don't make it back, someone needs to know what happened here. Someone who isn't Drake." I pressed it into his bound hands. "You get out. You find Orin. You tell him everything."
"Lyra—"
"That's an order."
He looked at the badge. Then at me. "You're not gonna die here."
"Maybe not." I turned back to the door. "But I'm not leaving her either."
I slammed my palm on the manual override. The panel hissed, pressure equalizing, and the door started to slide open. Smoke poured through the gap, thick and black, and I heard coughing. Crying.
And then I heard her.
"Lyra?"
My chest cracked open. "Kira, I'm here. I'm—"
The voice came again. Same pitch. Same cadence.
But wrong.
"Lyra, help me. Please. It hurts."
I froze.
Behind me, Jude went pale. "That's not your sister."
The door slid open the rest of the way.
And the thing on the other side smiled.