His Private Hell - Chapter 23: Chapter 23

Ronnie found Walter slumped over the console.
Pulse: weak.
Skin: clammy.
By the time the med team rushed in, Walter’s vitals were crashing.
“He was poisoned,” Astrid said grimly. “In his own lab.”
Ronnie looked around, stunned. “But this place is secure—”
“Not anymore.”
Down the hall, Garrison ordered a lockdown.
Eella checked the logs. “There’s no breach.”
“Then it’s internal,” he snapped. “We have a traitor.”
No one said what they were all thinking.
Darcie.
⸻
She stood by the east window, wrapped in a black coat, staring into the snow-covered trees.
“Walter is dying,” Eella said from the doorway.
Darcie didn’t turn. “He was never meant to live.”
Eella stiffened. “That’s not the woman I remember.”
Darcie glanced over her shoulder. “You never really knew me.”
“You’re wrong.”
“No,” she said. “I’m just awake now.”
Eella stepped closer. “Did you do this?”
Darcie’s smile was slow. “No. But I could’ve.”
She moved like a storm—elegant, dangerous.
“Don’t you want to know what Nyx taught me?” she asked.
Eella didn’t blink.
“She showed me how deep your lies go. How they tried to erase us both. You, Ally’s Inc, all of them. Even the lovers who thought they could fix us.”
Eella said nothing.
“But you know the real betrayal?” Darcie whispered. “You locked me in a metal coffin for five years and called it mercy.”
“I kept you alive.”
“No,” Darcie hissed. “You kept me caged.”
She leaned in, breath ghosting over Eella’s cheek.
“You want to know what I remember most from the stasis? The sound of your voice—on loop. Programming me. Controlling me. Loving me like a possession.”
Eella flinched.
“And now?” Darcie purred. “Now I’m not yours. I’m no one’s.”
She vanished into the shadows before Eella could say anything more.
⸻
In the command center, Astrid watched as Walter flatlined.
Then gasped.
And came back.
He jolted upright, pupils blown, whispering numbers.
Ronnie steadied him. “What is it?”
“Coordinates,” Walter rasped. “She’s broadcasting.”
“Who?”
“Nyx.”
Everyone froze.
Astrid typed quickly. “She’s sending a signal. Short bursts, encrypted. Bio-frequency.”
“To what?”
Walter coughed. “Clones. Drones. All of it. A hive.”
Eella leaned over his shoulder. “How many?”
“Thousands.”
Silence fell.
Astrid’s face turned white. “She’s activating them.”
Ronnie swore under her breath.
“This was always her plan,” Garrison said darkly. “She used Darcie’s memories to map human weakness. Love. Pain. Grief. She built weapons out of it.”
“And now she’s coming for us,” Astrid added.
“Not just us,” Walter said. “Everyone.”
⸻
Eella found Darcie outside, standing beneath the snow.
“You feel it too, don’t you?” Darcie said.
Eella nodded. “She’s calling them.”
“Calling me,” Darcie corrected. “I was the first.”
“You’re not her puppet.”
“No,” Darcie said. “But we share the same code. The same scars.”
Eella walked closer. “Then help us stop her.”
Darcie stared up at the stars. “And after?”
“We live.”
Darcie laughed bitterly. “You still think we get to have that?”
Eella touched her wrist. “Yes.”
Darcie closed her eyes. “Then tell me this—if I die helping you… will you bury me this time?”
Eella’s voice broke. “No. I’ll burn the world first.”
⸻
At dawn, the signal shifted.
Not just data now.
Movement.
Blips appeared on the perimeter.
Astrid called out coordinates.
“Five hostiles. South ridge.”
“No,” Walter said, pointing. “Ten. They’re doubling.”
Garrison grabbed his gear. “Gear up. Full assault protocol.”
Ronnie cocked her weapon. “It’s not just drones.”
He looked at her.
“It’s people,” she said. “Augmented. Controlled.”
Civilians who’d been taken.
Transformed.
Rewritten.
Astrid whispered, “They’re… like Darcie.”
“No,” Eella said. “They’re like Nyx. Darcie has a choice.”
But did she?
Darcie stood at the glass again, staring at her reflection.
And this time—she didn’t recognize the woman looking back.
⸻
The first explosion hit the west gate.
Concrete split.
Flames rolled.
Ronnie screamed into her comm. “We’ve got breach! Repeat, we’ve got—”
The line went dead.
Garrison barreled down the corridor. He found Astrid bleeding near the generator. Drones buzzed in through shattered glass, their wings slicing through air like razors.
He fired. Dropped three.
Grabbed Astrid. “Stay with me!”
Walter, stabilized, rerouted power to the emergency vault.
Inside, Darcie waited.
Eella stared at her. “We need your help.”
Darcie didn’t move.
“I’m not asking as a scientist. I’m asking as the woman who loved you.”
Darcie lifted her gaze. “And the woman who locked me away?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t forgive you.”
“I don’t care.”
Eella stepped forward. “But if you fight beside me, maybe we both get free.”
Darcie studied her.
And then—
She smiled.
“Let’s burn her to the ground.”
⸻
Outside, chaos reigned.
Ronnie had vanished.
Astrid was stable, barely.
Garrison, bloodied, barked orders as the clone army closed in.
And then—
Darcie stepped onto the battlefield.
Her coat whipped open.
Two blades shimmered in each hand.
She moved like vengeance given shape.
Steel kissed flesh.
Metal clashed.
Drones fell.
Cyborgs dropped.
Nyx’s army faltered as Darcie cut a path through them like a storm of divine retribution.
Garrison watched in awe.
She wasn’t human.
She was poetry written in rage.
And then, at the center of the carnage—
The voice came.
Through every speaker.
Through every mind.
Nyx.
“You woke her,” the voice purred. “You think she’s yours?”
Eella shouted, “She’s not yours either.”
But Nyx laughed. “She’s me. No matter what skin she wears.”
Darcie raised her blade to the nearest speaker.
“I’m not you.”
She slashed.
Static.
Silence.
And then—gunfire again.
⸻
After the battle, smoke coated the hills.
Twenty-seven confirmed kills.
No losses on their side—but one missing.
Ronnie.
And a single message left behind on the base computer.
“Come find me. Let’s finish what we started.” —Nyx
Darcie closed her eyes.
“I know where she’s going.”
Eella waited.
“She’s heading to Venice.”
Garrison frowned. “Why there?”
Darcie whispered, “Because that’s where the first prototype was buried.”
“What prototype?” Walter asked.
She turned to Eella.
And Eella said the words no one wanted to hear.
“The original code. The Lazarus heart.”
Walter paled. “If she gets that—”
“She becomes unstoppable,” Darcie said.
“Then we stop her first,” Garrison growled.
Darcie smiled faintly. “Just make sure you keep up.”
She turned.
And didn’t look back.