Rain battered the glass ceiling of the Helix Chamber, the heart of the Vault - home of the most secretive organization left in the apocalyptic world. Cold white lights flickered overhead, illuminating sleek black marble, glowing data streams, and sterile, soulless machinery. Scientists in silver coats bustled around in silence, their faces expressionless. But at the center of it stood her.
Aurelia Storm.
Daughter of the Supreme Commander. Firstborn of the Vault's ruling bloodline. Heir to their most dangerous weapons and darkest secrets. The rumored prodigy who could tame beasts with a stare and kill them with a whisper. Her name alone held power in every surviving stronghold, from the frost-burned towers of the North to the irradiated sands of the South.
Feared by enemies, revered by subordinates. And yet forgotten by her own blood.
"You shouldn't be doing this," came the low voice of Dr Astrid, her mentor, the only person in the Vault who had ever shown her something close to concern. He hurried to keep pace beside her as her boots echoed down the obsidian corridor. "You're the only one suited to take your mother's place," he added, almost desperate. "The Council expects...."
"She never saw me as her successor" Aurelia replied coolly, boots clicking against steel. "She already chose Lyra."
A pause. Then... "Lyra's strong, yes. But she's volatile. Unstable. She doesn't have your strength"
"No", Aurelia said with a bitter smile "But she has Mother's love. That was always enough."
The words came out without emotion. Not because they weren't true but because they were so true she had become numb to them.
She stopped at the edge of the Transport Bay. The wind outside howled like a feral beast. Beyond the reinforced doors lay a world devoured by ruin, crimson skies, twisted steel forests, craters that glowed with radiation. And monsters. Always the monsters.
But it was still more honest than the Vault.
She took one last look at the Vault - her childhood, her training ground, her prison.
"My mother never saw me. Not really. She saw a soldier. A tool. A disappointment wearing her face. I'm done living under her heavy weights. I'll make my own path now."
Astrid's face hardened, "Out there, there's no power, no protection, you're no one. Not the Commander's daughter. You'll be just another scavenger."
"Good," she whispered, a flicker of something dark in her eyes. "Then maybe I can finally breathe."
She didn't wait for a reply. She turned and walked out, the doors hissing shut behind her.
The air outside was sharp and laced with ash. She tugged her hood up and kept walking, not looking back. She didn't need to. No one was coming after her.
Her mother's love had always solely belonged to Lyra, the bright, beautiful younger sister who had always smiled sweetly while stabbing her in the back. Aurelia had been the firstborn, yes but also the unwanted one. The one created for duty, not affection.
The Vault had trained her to be a living weapon. She had obeyed. She had led armies. Fought beasts with her bare hands. Bled for a cause she was never allowed to question.
But never once... had she been loved.
---
She made it ten miles that night before her body gave in. She hadn't eaten since yesterday, and the storm was worsening. Acid rain wasn't the worst thing out here, but it still wasn't friendly. She spotted the remains of an old railcar, half-buried in dirt and roots, and slid inside. The smell of rust and damp moss wrapped around her like a shroud.
She curled up in the corner, wrapping her arms around herself, eyes fixed on the crackling flames of a makeshift burner she kept in her bag.
Out here, it would be easy to die. No status. No protection. No army. But for the first time in years, Aurelia felt strangely... free.
It felt like she had been suffocating and now she finally had some air. No one was giving her orders. No one was telling her who to be. No one pulling her strings like a puppet. Now she was living.
---
The next morning, she made it to the edge of the Ravine: a deep wound in the earth, carved by an explosion from a time even older than the Fall. There, she found a village - small, dirty, barely clinging to survival. The people eyed her warily when she entered, hand on their weapons, but she moved slowly, non-threatening. Just a traveler with a hood and a tired expression.
She traded an old knife for water. Helped a limping boy tie a splint. Nobody asked her name, and she didn't offer it.
That night, as she sat by the village's crumbling outer wall, watching the blood-colored sunset, a girl with tangled hair and big eyes sat beside her.
"You're not from around here," the girl said plainly.
"No," Aurelia answered.
"You look like someone important."
Aurelia glanced at her. "Not anymore."
The girl grinned. "Good. Important people cause trouble."
Aurelia almost smiled. Almost.
---
She stayed in the village for two weeks not because she had a plan but because it was the first time in her life she'd been somewhere she didn't have to kill something or prove herself. She helped repair fences. Sharpen blades. Hunt small, mutated creatures in the woods beyond the Ravine.
She didn't use her full strength, she did everything like an average person, she wanted to be normal, ordinary, besides it would be overkill to use her full strength just to hunt. Her core was full of raw unbridled power, but it would have to be dormant from now on.
She wanted to build a life here, make something for herself.
Something quiet. Something hers.
Then he showed up.