Ixe was created to survive a world already dead.
They never expected to die for it.
Six hundred years after The Collapse, Earth belongs to the modified: humans built, not born, raised by machines inside walled cities. When the original humans return, they don’t come in peace. They arrive with guns, experiments, and orders to erase the new world’s children.
One failed choice to protect someone they love leaves Ixe imprisoned inside the enemy’s machines—reduced to a body to be studied, dismantled, and rewritten.
Pulled between loyalty, loss, and a dangerous bond with an enemy soldier who refuses to let them die, Ixe is forced to confront a truth far darker than their captivity: every power that ever claimed to protect them has been lying.
And when the chance for revenge finally arrives, Ixe will have to decide how far they’re willing to go to end the war…
Even if it means becoming something they can never come back from.
A speculative sci-fi novel about identity, survival, and the cost of being human.
Content Warning: This dystopian story contains violence, imprisonment, and experimentation on human subjects.
Ryan King is an American author who explores the human heart in extraordinary circumstances. He combines his fascination with technology, analysis, and storytelling to craft rich, character-driven narratives.
When he isn’t writing, he can be found composing music with his son or painting masterpieces with his daughter, nurturing their creativity.