But she got back up. Every time.
At night, alone in her quarters, she thought about her family.
What would Aria think if she could see her big sister now? The cop, the one who was supposed to have it all together, training to hunt an alien in a jungle compound in Costa Rica. Aria would think she'd lost her mind. Maybe she had.
And Angelo. Her stepfather who had worked himself half to death trying to keep the family afloat after her mother died. Whostill skipped his heart medication because he thought no one noticed. What would he say if he knew the truth?
She was doing this for them. That was the reason she gave herself, the justification that made it all make sense.
But late at night, when the jungle sounds pressed against the walls and sleep wouldn't come, she admitted the truth.
Part of her wanted this.
There was anger inside her, coiled tight, years of it. Anger at the system that had failed her mother. Anger at the insurance companies and the medical bills and the endless bureaucratic cruelty that passed for healthcare in America. Anger at fourteen years of watching justice fail, of seeing the guilty walk free while the innocent suffered, of fighting a war she could never win.
She had held it back for so long. Had been the responsible one, the steady one, the one who kept her head down and did the job and never let herself feel too much.
Now she was being offered a different path. Violence with a purpose. A hunt with real stakes. The chance to become a woman other than the one who had been slowly suffocating under the weight of a world that didn't care.
She must be crazy.
Maybe she was. But crazy felt better than numb.
The bio-armor came at the end of the first week.
Morgan brought her to a chamber deep within the compound, a room lined with surfaces that pulsed faintly with bioluminescent light. In the center, suspended in a cradle of energy she couldn't identify, hung what looked like a second skin.
It was green. Deep, dark green, like jungle canopy at twilight, with undertones of black that shifted when the light caught it. Not metal. Not fabric. Organic, alive, waiting.
"Hyrakki bio-armor," Morgan said. "Customized for your physiology."
"Customized how? I thought this was Hyrakki technology."
"It is. But the Hyrakki armor bonds only with Hyrakki. For humans, we needed... an adaptation." Morgan paused. "Are you familiar with the Majarin?"
Serafina shook her head.
"They're a species known for biological engineering. They can manipulate organic matter at the genetic level, reshape it, repurpose it. When the matching program began, we approached them about modifying Hyrakki bio-armor for human compatibility." Morgan gestured toward the cradle. "This is the result. Hyrakki technology, Majarin adaptation, grown specifically for you based on the scans we took when you arrived."
"Grown," Serafina repeated. Another alien species. Another impossible thing. "How many species are involved in this... network?"
"More than you'd believe. The Marak has alliances across dozens of systems. Earth is just one small part of a much larger picture."
Serafina stared at the armor, trying to process what she was hearing. Aliens. Multiple species. A network that spanned star systems. A week ago, she had been a homicide detective drowning in debt.
"This is insane," she said.
"Yes," Morgan agreed. "It is."
But here she was. Too far gone to turn back now.
"How do I put it on?"
"You don't. It puts itself on you." Morgan's mouth curved slightly. "It will hurt. Briefly. And then it will feel like nothing you've ever experienced." She gestured toward a small alcove at the side of the room, screened by a curtain of the same bioluminescent material. "You'll need to undress. The armorbonds directly to skin—underwear is fine, but everything else needs to go."
Serafina nodded. Morgan turned away, busying herself with something on the far side of the chamber, giving her a moment of privacy.
She stepped behind the curtain, stripped down to her bra and underwear, and folded her clothes into a neat pile on the bench provided. Standard black cotton. Nothing fancy. She hadn't exactly packed for this.
