The command chamber was dim, lit only by the green glow of maps projected across cracked concrete walls. The rebels whispered at the edges, avoiding me like always. I didn't blame them. Even I didn't trust what I was about to attempt.
Helen's voice cut through the low hum. "Explain it again. Slowly."
I flexed my chrome fingers, hearing the faint whir of servos. "The Dominion built me to adapt. To connect. The same code that lets them whisper in my head could let me push back. If I can project myself into one of their Hunters, even for a moment, I can learn how they track us. Maybe even turn their weapon against them."
"You mean possess it," Helen said, her tone flat as steel. "Walk around in the body of the very machine designed to kill us."
"Exactly."
"You're insane," one of the rebels muttered.
Lira stood closer to me, arms crossed. "Insane, but maybe right." She looked at Helen. "If it works, he won't just fight them—he'll be one of them. At least for a while."
Helen's eyes narrowed. "And if he loses himself in there? If the Dominion takes him completely?"
I met her gaze, unflinching. "Then you put a bullet in me."
Silence fell. Even the machines humming in the walls seemed to quiet.
Helen studied me for a long moment, her expression unreadable. Finally, she nodded once. "Fine. You try. But if you twitch wrong, I end it."
I turned toward the table where the wrecked probe had been dismantled. Wires coiled like veins. Panels gleamed with faint, residual power. Beyond that, in a reinforced bay, the rebels had dragged in something far larger—a captured Dominion Hunter. Its body was locked in stasis, optics dark, but the air around it seemed charged, dangerous.
My chest tightened. "That's the one?"
Helen folded her arms. "We intercepted it two nights ago. Power core's dampened, weapons stripped. But don't think it's harmless."
I stepped closer. The Hunter's frame towered over me, armored plates black as oil, optics like dead suns. Even shut down, it radiated menace.
Lira touched my arm lightly. "You don't have to do this tonight."
"Yes, I do," I said. "Every hour the Dominion presses closer. Every whisper in my head grows louder. If I don't learn to control this link, it'll control me."
I sat cross-legged in front of the Hunter, placing my chrome palms against its cold armor. The metal resonated with a faint hum that vibrated through my circuits.
"Keep me grounded," I murmured.
Lira knelt beside me. "Always."
I closed my optics.
The world tilted. Static roared through me like a storm. For an instant, I was falling—then plunging deeper, past layers of noise and code. My consciousness stretched thin, threads pulled taut across a chasm.
Then I felt it. A door. Locked. Waiting.
I pushed.
The lock fought back, a surge of Dominion protocol burning against my mind. Warnings screamed inside me: Unauthorized access. Terminate. Terminate.
I gritted my teeth. "No. You're mine."
The lock cracked. Light seared through me.
And suddenly—
I was standing. Not in my body, but in its. The Hunter.
My vision stretched wide, red optics cutting through shadows with terrifying clarity. I could see heat signatures through walls, hear the scrape of boots three rooms away, feel the hum of weapons systems even though they were stripped.
I flexed one massive arm. Servos whined. Power coiled like restrained lightning. For the first time, I felt the Dominion's strength from the inside.
"Gods…" I whispered, my voice emerging distorted, mechanical, alien.
From far away, I heard Lira's voice. "Kieran? Can you hear me?"
"Yes," I said, my tone booming from the Hunter's frame. "I'm in."
Gasps filled the chamber. Someone swore under their breath.
Helen's voice cut through. "Control yourself. Don't forget what you are."
But I wasn't sure what I was anymore.
The Hunter's systems pulsed with foreign code. Streams of data clawed at me, trying to overwrite, to bury me under Dominion commands. Return to protocol. Obey. Obey.
"No," I growled, forcing my mind against the tide. "Not yours. Not anymore."
I staggered inside the machine, optics flickering. The Dominion surged like a tide, trying to sweep me under. My memories flashed—faces, laughter, the smell of rain on concrete. A lab. Equations on a board. My name. Kieran Vale.
I clung to that. My name.
Lira's voice anchored me. "Stay with me, Kieran. Stay with me."
The Dominion code snarled, tightening around me like chains. You are ours. Subject-09. Return to obedience.
"I'm not Subject-09," I shouted, my voice rattling the chamber. "I'm Kieran Vale!"
The chains splintered. The flood receded.
For one moment, I had control. True control.
I lifted the Hunter's arm slowly, deliberately. Every rebel in the room tensed, weapons rising. Helen's finger tightened on her trigger.
I looked at her, optics glowing red. Then, carefully, I opened the Hunter's palm and let it fall to my side.
"I'm still me," I said.
The silence that followed was heavier than any gunfire.
Helen lowered her weapon a fraction, though her eyes never softened. "For now."
I shut down the link with a jolt. My consciousness snapped back into my body, and I collapsed to the floor, gasping though I didn't need air. Sparks flickered at the edge of my vision. My limbs trembled, servos whining.
Lira caught me before I fell completely. "You did it. You actually did it."
I looked up at her, voice ragged. "No. That was just the first step. Next time, they won't let me walk in so easily."
Helen's gaze was still fixed on me. "If you can truly control a Hunter… you might change this war. Or you might end it—for all of us."
Her words echoed like a verdict.
But beneath the exhaustion, beneath the fear, I felt something I hadn't in weeks. Not just resistance. Not just survival.
Possibility.
Because if I could take their body, their weapons, their very machines… then maybe the Dominion wasn't untouchable after all.
Maybe the war could be turned.
And maybe, just maybe, I wasn't doomed to be their creation forever.