Rising From Ashes: The Betrayed Queen Returns

The overhead lights strobed three times in rapid succession. Then, with a loud pop, the entire corridor plunged into pitch blackness.

Screams ripped through the crowd. The students panicked, their holographic terminals casting frantic, jerky beams of blue light through the dark.

"Dammit," Clayton cursed. He reached down into the dark, aiming to grab Aislinn by the hair.

The second his fingers brushed her shoulder, a massive surge of static electricity exploded outward.

Clayton screamed. The shock threw him backward. He clutched his wrist, the smell of burnt flesh filling the air.

"She's got a high-voltage charge on her!" Clayton yelled, his voice cracking with terror.

Brennon instantly tapped his chest, activating his uniform's tactical shield. A faint blue honeycomb barrier wrapped around him as he stared into the dark.

Aislinn's skin began to glow. A terrifying, hyper-thermal purple light pulsed from beneath her veins, illuminating the space around her.

She slowly stood up. The air around her body warped and distorted from the sheer, radiating heat.

At the far end of the corridor, the heavy doors of the ICU burst open. Gayla stood there, leaning heavily on a nurse. She had come out to play the fragile victim for the crowd.

Instead, Gayla walked right into the nightmare.

Across the fifty feet of hallway, Aislinn's glowing eyes locked onto Gayla's pale, hypocritical face.

"Sister, what are you doing?" Gayla shrieked, her voice trembling with genuine fear.

Aislinn's smile broke into a full, bloodstained grin. She raised her right hand. She pressed her thumb and middle finger together.

And she snapped her fingers. The sharp friction generated a highly specific, unique frequency of bio-electric pulse right at her fingertips. It was the pre-programmed biometric trigger. The encrypted signal shot through her nervous system, and the compressed Phoenix core inside Aislinn's chest detonated.

A visible, concussive shockwave of pure thermal energy blasted outward in a perfect ring.

The wave hit Clayton first. It picked him up and slammed him into the metal wall with bone-crushing force. He slumped to the floor, unconscious.

The shockwave slammed into Brennon. His tactical shield flared blindingly bright, absorbing the brunt of the thermal blast. A deafening, high-pitched overload alarm shrieked from his chest piece as the blue honeycomb barrier instantly spider-webbed with thousands of fractures. It didn't shatter, but the sheer kinetic transfer forced him down onto one knee, gasping for air.

But the wave wasn't meant for them.

The energy ripped down the hallway, ignoring the physical walls, and slammed directly into Gayla. It sought out the freshly transplanted Phoenix gene sequence inside her chest and forced a quantum resonance.

Gayla let out a blood-curdling scream.

Blinding fire erupted from the center of her chest. The priceless gene sequence inside her overloaded in a fraction of a second. It began to incinerate itself from the inside out.

Gayla collapsed, thrashing wildly on the floor. The expensive medical monitors attached to her sparked and exploded in a shower of sparks.

The elite students scrambled over each other, trampling hands and legs to escape the hellscape.

Aislinn stood in the dead center of the storm. Blood poured from her nose and ears, sliding down her neck. But her eyes were alive with the absolute, visceral thrill of vengeance.

Then, the core burned out.

Aislinn's heart stopped. The muscle simply ceased to beat. Her body went rigid, and she tipped backward like a felled tree.

She crashed into the floor, surrounded by shattered glass. The heart monitor attached to her wrist let out a long, continuous, piercing wail. A flatline.

The corridor's emergency backup generators kicked in. Harsh, pale light flooded the ruined hallway.

Brennon forced himself to stand. His lungs burned. He looked at Aislinn's lifeless body lying in the spreading pool of blood, and his heart gave a violent, painful stutter.

He took a step forward, his hand reaching out instinctively to check her pulse.

Before his boot could touch the ground, a hysterical scream tore through the corridor, freezing him in place. Joi was coming.