The sky over the Arctic burned pale silver endless, silent, merciless.
Snow swept across the horizon in slow, spiraling gusts, covering the ruins of what used to be a research outpost. The wind carried no birds, no life only the low hum of a dying world.
Ava Kane tightened her scarf against the cold. Frost gathered in her eyelashes, but she barely felt it. Since the Pulse, her body temperature had adapted another quiet change she didn't ask for.
Behind her, Adrian adjusted the tracker's compass and squinted through the whiteout.
"We're almost at the coordinates. Your father's message said the entrance would be beneath the old Eden facility."
Ava nodded, her voice muffled by the wind. "If it's still there."
"It will be," Adrian replied. "He built things to last."
THE FROZEN GRAVE
The ground beneath their boots was not snow it was glass.
Frozen sheets of crystallized ice stretched for miles, reflecting the sky like shattered mirrors. Beneath the surface, faint lights pulsed blue, gold, and violet like veins under translucent skin.
"What is this?" Adrian whispered.
Ava crouched and pressed her palm to the ice. The glow beneath reacted instantly, spreading outward in a slow, spiraling pattern.
"It's alive," she murmured. "Not organic something between matter and data. My father called it BioCryo Code."
She looked up at Adrian, her breath forming clouds between them.
"This is what he was hiding. The Pulse was never meant to destroy the world it was meant to awaken this."
Adrian frowned. "Then why bury it under ice?"
"Because humanity wasn't ready," Ava said quietly. "And maybe still isn't."
THE DOOR BENEATH THE ICE
They reached a frozen ridge where the snow ended in a sudden drop a sheer cliff descending into mist.
A faint metallic structure jutted from the ice wall, half-buried a door marked with the faded symbol of EDEN: GENESIS DIVISION.
Adrian brushed off the frost and found a retinal scanner still intact, its lens cracked but flickering faintly.
"No power. We'll have to"
Before he could finish, Ava stepped forward and placed her hand on the door. The blue glow beneath her skin brightened, pulsing in rhythm with the scanner.
The device came alive with a soft chime.
"Access recognized Dr. Elias Kane signature confirmed."
The metal shuddered and slowly split open, releasing a breath of warm air from within.
Adrian gave a low whistle. "Guess it helps being the daughter of the man who built the apocalypse."
Ava smiled faintly. "Remind me to put that on a T-shirt."
THE HEART OF GENESIS
They descended into the facility a vast underground labyrinth of frozen laboratories and sealed chambers.
Frost clung to glass tanks that once held prototypes of the Eden serum.
Now, they were empty.
Some shattered from the inside.
Adrian's flashlight flickered over a wall lined with data screens still running on backup power. A single file blinked: "NORTH STAR PROTOCOL FINAL PHASE."
Ava approached it, her pulse quickening. "That's my father's handwriting."
She activated the console. A hologram flickered to life the image of Dr. Elias Kane, tired and gaunt, speaking to the camera.
"If you're watching this, then the Pulse has reached activation stage. I know what you're thinking that I doomed us all. But the truth is the ReGenesis event wasn't the end. It was the bridge.
The North Star Protocol will stabilize the genetic variance caused by the Pulse. It will decide who survives the next evolution and who doesn't."
Adrian muttered, "So it's not a cure. It's a filter."
Ava's throat tightened. "He's talking about selection. He wanted to rewrite survival."
Her father's hologram continued, voice trembling with remorse.
"Ava, if you've made it here… forgive me. I did this for you. To make sure humanity would never hurt you again. But in saving you, I may have doomed them all."
The recording ended.
For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
Finally, Ava whispered, "He wasn't trying to save humanity. He was trying to protect me."
Adrian placed a hand on her shoulder. "And now it's up to you to fix what he started."
THE CHAMBER OF ORIGIN
Deeper inside, they reached a vast circular room the walls lined with frozen conduits glowing faintly with living light. In the center stood a massive crystalline sphere suspended in a web of energy.
The pulse of the world.
The Core.
Ava approached it slowly. The sphere seemed to react, the glow intensifying with each of her steps.
Adrian raised his weapon slightly. "Are we sure touching that is a good idea?"
"No," Ava said softly. "But it's necessary."
She reached out and the Core opened like a blooming flower of light.
In an instant, the world around them vanished. Ava found herself standing in a simulation a vast field under a golden sky. The air was warm. Familiar.
And then she saw him.
"Dad?" she whispered.
Dr. Elias Kane turned toward her, his eyes tired but kind. "You shouldn't have come here, Ava."
Tears stung her eyes. "You left me no choice."
"This place isn't meant for the living," he said. "It's a failsafe. A memory system meant to preserve what humanity was before the change."
"You called it the North Star Protocol," Ava said. "What is it really?"
Her father smiled sadly. "It's hope and destruction. The Protocol can stabilize the Evolved genome, make peace between the Pureborn and the Changed… or it can purge everything that carries the code."
Ava's heart pounded. "So I could fix the world or end it."
He nodded. "The choice will always be yours."
The image flickered, the golden light fading. "Remember, Ava evolution isn't about perfection. It's about choice."
And then he was gone.
THE ICE TREMBLES
The simulation collapsed. Ava gasped as she returned to the freezing lab.
The Core pulsed violently, energy building.
Adrian shouted over the roar, "What's happening?"
Ava steadied herself. "The Protocol is activating it's reading my DNA!"
The lights turned blood red. A synthesized voice echoed:
"North Star Protocol: Stage One Host Recognition Complete. Commencing Global Alignment Sequence."
Adrian grabbed her hand. "Can you shut it down?"
"I can try!" she yelled, running toward the control panel.
But before she could reach it, the ice above the chamber cracked and a group of armed figures descended through the opening, ropes swinging, weapons drawn.
The Shadow Directive had found them.
At their lead stood a woman in dark armor, her eyes cold as steel. "Ava Kane," she said. "You're coming with us. The world doesn't need a savior it needs control."
Adrian raised his weapon. "You'll have to go through me."
The woman smirked. "Gladly."
The chamber erupted into chaos gunfire, light, and shattering ice.
As Ava tried to override the Core, she saw her father's words flashing across the screen:
"The North Star will follow the heart of its creator."
And in that instant, she realized the truth
The Protocol wasn't following her DNA.
It was following her emotions.
The pulse of her heart was the trigger.
If she lost control, the world would burn.