The mont Athena saw the mory suppressor in Mors Jericho's hand, or rather, the man who looked exactly like him, she knew she had no choice but to fight.
She exploded into motion, lunging from her seat with the speed of a trained killer.
Her body moved on instinct, honed from years of experience, ignoring the fact that she hadn't fought in what felt like an eternity. It didn't matter. Combat was woven into her bones.
The imposter reacted instantly. He was fast, too fast for a normal human, but Athena had spent her life fighting against impossible odds.
She twisted mid-air, dodging a strike aid at her throat. The chair she had been sitting on shattered behind her as his fist went straight through it.
Not human, then.
She hit the ground, rolled, and reached for the knife strapped to her thigh.
The cold tal barely left its sheath before she had to duck, a needle flashed past her, narrowly missing her neck.
They want to end this quickly.
Athena didn't give them the chance. She kicked off the ground, launching herself at him with lethal precision. Her blade slashed through the air, aid directly at his ribs.
But he blocked it with terrifying ease. Her knife clashed against a hidden energy shield on his wrist, sending a sharp vibration up her arm.
Her opponent capitalized on her brief hesitation, twisting her wrist and wrenching the blade from her grasp. She had been disard in under a second. Athena gritted her teeth. Fine.
She ducked low, sweeping his legs out from under him. He stumbled, but not enough to fall. Instead, he used the montum to twist mid-air, catching her by the arm.
Before she could counter, he drove his knee into her stomach.
Pain exploded through her torso. She gasped, the force knocking the breath from her lungs, but she refused to go down.
She twisted in his grip, elbowing him hard in the jaw. The impact made him release her, and she staggered back, desperately trying to regain control of the fight.
Her surroundings blurred, too fast, too strong. He wasn't just a soldier. He was enhanced. And she was running out of ti.
Athena tried to retreat, to find an opening to strike, but he was already in front of her. His movents were like a phantom's, silent, precise.
A sharp sting on her neck. She barely registered the pain before her body froze.
Her muscles locked, and a numbing sensation spread through her limbs. Her vision blurred at the edges. Paralysis agent.
No.
She tried to resist, but her legs gave out beneath her. The forest spun as she collapsed onto the ground, her breathing shallow.
She could still see him standing over her, his face eerily calm as he knelt beside her. She could do nothing but watch as he placed the mory suppressor against her temple.
A searing heat spread through her skull. It was as if fire had been injected directly into her brain. She wanted to scream, to thrash, but she couldn't move.
Images flashed before her eyes.
Sinalta.
The Androda Galaxy.
Mors Jericho.
Her missions, her victories, her failures.
Her past.
Her entire existence in the interstellar era was being burned away.
She felt herself slipping, her mories dissolving like sand slipping through her fingers. And then, right before darkness swallowed her, she heard his voice.
"Your Highness, I have successfully done my duties and killed Athena Derin. She will no longer be a threat to the crown."
The world faded. And Athena Derin, the strategist, the warrior, the spy, the woman who had once fought for her place among the stars, ceased to exist.
When Athena woke up, she was surrounded by darkness. Her head pounded, a dull ache radiating from deep within her skull.
The pain was unbearable, as if sothing inside her had been ripped apart and stitched back together wrong.
She tried to move, but her body felt strange. Disconnected.
Where…?
She struggled to rember where she was. Who she was.
Athena.
Yes, that was her na.
But beyond that, there was nothing.
Nothing.
She tried to think harder, but her mind was a vast, empty void. No mories surfaced, no images, no emotions, just a suffocating emptiness.
Her breath hitched, panic creeping into her veins. Had she been in an accident? Had she lost her mory?
Her hands trembled as she forced herself to sit up, her body sluggish, unresponsive. Her surroundings slowly ca into focus, a dimly lit hospital room.
The beeping of machines echoed softly in the silence. Her heart pounded. Who was she? Why was she here?
She clutched her head as the pain intensified. Fragnts of images flickered through her mind, a man's voice, cold and authoritative. A war. Blood. Betrayal.
But they were gone before she could grasp them. The door to the room opened. A doctor walked in, his expression carefully neutral.
"You're awake," he said, checking the monitors. "How are you feeling?"
Athena stared at him. "I…" She swallowed, her throat dry. "I don't rember anything."
The doctor nodded, as if expecting that answer. "That's understandable. You were found unconscious in the woods. You've been in a coma for a few weeks."
The woods?
That felt… wrong.
Had she lived there? Was that her ho? She tried to grasp onto sothing, anything, that felt familiar. But there was nothing.
"I…" She hesitated. "Who am I?"
The doctor's expression didn't change.
"Your na is Athena. That's all we could recover from your records. Everything else…" He sighed. "There was no identification, no records of your past."
Her fingers dug into the bedsheets. No past? She had no history? That didn't make sense. Everyone had a history. Then why… why did she feel like hers had been erased?
Days passed. Athena remained in the hospital, recovering. She was told that no one had co looking for her, that she was found alone.
She wasn't sure why, but that made sothing in her chest tighten painfully. Was she truly alone in this world?
One evening, as she stood by the window, watching the rain trickle down the glass, she whispered to herself.
"Who am I?" No answer ca.
She squeezed her eyes shut, frustration bubbling beneath the surface. She needed to find out the truth.
Even if she didn't rember, even if she didn't know where to start, she would uncover who she was.
She didn't realize that far away, in another part of the world, watchful eyes were already monitoring her every move.
She didn't know that her very existence was a danger to forces she could no longer recall. And she had no idea… That the past she had lost would one day co searching for her.
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