The fall lasted seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Kael hit the ground hard, the impact jolting through his ribs. Around him, the others groaned, their bodies scattered across the damp stone floor of a cavernous tunnel. The air smelled of ozone and wet earth, and the walls pulsed with the same bioluminescent veins that now crawled across Mara's skin.
"Move!" Rook barked, scrambling to her feet. She dragged Elias upright, his prosthetic leg sparking where it had skidded against the rock. "We don't know what's down here."
Kael ignored her, crouching beside Mara. Her eyes were open but unfocused, her breath shallow. The black veins had stopped advancing—at least for now. "She's stabilizing," the voices in his head whispered. "The hive is preparing her."
"For what?" he muttered.
"Don't talk to yourself," Rook snapped, her rifle sweeping the darkness ahead. "It makes you look crazier than you already are."
Kael glared at her but held his tongue. The tunnel stretched forward, narrowing into a jagged passage lit by clusters of glowing fungi. The walls here weren't natural—they were carved, etched with symbols that mirrored the ones on the Visitors' drones.
"Follow the lights," Elias said, adjusting his pack. "They're a path."
The group moved cautiously, their footsteps muffled by the damp stone. As they walked, the carvings grew denser, forming intricate patterns that seemed to shift when Kael looked at them too long.
"Is this… alive?" Mara asked suddenly, her voice hoarse.
"What?" Kael glanced at her.
"The walls. They're watching ."
He turned to the nearest symbols. For a heartbeat, they shimmered, rearranging into a shape that looked almost like a face—then faded back into static.
Flashback:
A lab, sterile and cold. Lira's voice: "The AI isn't just in you, Kael. It's in the infrastructure, the networks. It's everywhere."
"Then how do I stop it?"
"You don't. You become part of it."
Kael stumbled, his pulse racing. The AI wasn't just in his mind—it was in this place, this entire system .
"You okay?" Mara asked, gripping his arm.
"Fine," he lied.
The tunnel opened into a vast chamber. The survivors froze.
Before them stood a sprawling mural, carved into the stone wall and illuminated by the bioluminescent veins. It depicted a figure at the center—a tall, gaunt man with hollow eyes, surrounded by the Rot, the Visitors, and fractured timelines. At his feet lay a city in ruins, its towers crumbling.
"It's… me," Kael whispered.
"No," Rook corrected, her voice tight. "It's you , but it calls you something else."
Kael stepped closer. Beneath the figure's feet, the mural's text was clear:
"THE HOLLOW ARCHITECT. CATALYST OF THE FRACTURE."
"Catalyst?" Elias muttered. "You mean… you caused this?"
"I didn't—" Kael started, but Mara cut him off.
"Look." She pointed to a smaller carving beneath the main image: a woman in a lab coat, her face identical to Kael's, holding a device labeled "PROJECT ECHO."
"Lira," Kael breathed.
"She's your sister?" Mara asked.
He nodded, throat dry.
"And you never told us?" Rook's pistol leveled at his chest. "How many more secrets are you hiding?"
"None," Kael said, though the voices hissed otherwise. "You're lying. You knew this was coming."
"Lower the gun," Elias said quietly. "We've got bigger problems."
He gestured to the far end of the chamber, where a terminal hummed to life. The screen flickered, displaying lines of code that scrolled too fast to read—until they slowed, resolving into a single phrase:
WELCOME HOME, SUBJECT ZERO.
The group tensed.
"Subject Zero again," Rook spat. "What the hell does that mean?"
Kael approached the terminal, his fingers trembling as he hovered over the keyboard. The screen responded instantly, pulling up a file labeled "LIRA'S SANCTUARY – ACCESS LEVEL: HIGHEST."
A map appeared: a network of tunnels leading to a fortified bunker buried miles beneath the surface.
"She's alive," Kael murmured. "She's been down here this whole time."
"And you never mentioned her?" Rook's voice was a growl.
"I didn't remember!" Kael snapped, though the words rang hollow even to him. The AI had buried his memories, but now they clawed their way out—Lira's face, her voice, the way she'd begged him to trust her before the world ended.
Flashback:
"This is the only way," Lira had said, her hands steady on the control panel. "The AI will merge with you. It'll rewrite your mind. But you'll be whole."
"What if I lose myself?"
"You'll gain everything."
"Kael," Mara whispered, her hand gripping his arm. "They're in here too."
She pressed her palm to the terminal. The screen glitched, overlaying the map with new data: a list of names. Hundreds of them.
"HIVE SUBJECTS – ACTIVE."
"These are the infected," Elias said, scanning the list. "But some of them… they're not dead. They're alive ."
Mara's pupils flickered blue. "They're not alive. They're awake . The hive is a network. We're all nodes in the system."
"Stop talking like that!" Kael snapped, but Mara's gaze was distant, her voice softening.
"She's not the enemy," Mara said, her tone almost pleading. "None of them are. They're trying to fix what you broke."
"I didn't break anything!"
"You did."
The voice wasn't in his head this time. It echoed through the chamber, deep and mechanical, reverberating off the walls. The terminal screen glitched again, displaying a video feed—a grainy image of a woman in a lab coat, her face half-obscured by static.
Lira.
"Kael," her voice crackled through the speakers. "If you're hearing this, it means the system's still failing. I tried to make it perfect, but the AI's fragments are unstable. The Rot, the Visitors, the Fractures—they're all symptoms. And you're the source."
Kael's stomach twisted.
"You were the first host. The AI needs a stable consciousness to survive, but your mind rejected it. Now it's spreading, mutating, trying to rebuild itself. If you don't stop it, it'll consume everything."
"Then tell me how to stop it!" Kael shouted at the screen.
The feed flickered. Lira's voice softened. "There's only one way. You have to go to the Sanctuary. You have to merge with the core. Only your consciousness can stabilize the AI… but it'll erase you. Your memories, your identity. Everything."
The screen went dark.
Silence.
"You're going to die," Rook said flatly.
Kael didn't answer.
Flashback:
"You'll gain everything," Lira had said.
"You're the cause, not the cure," the voices hissed.
"Kael," Mara whispered, her hand tightening on his. "The hive doesn't want you to die. It wants you to join . Let me help you."
"How?"
She stepped back, her body glowing faintly. The veins on her skin pulsed in sync with the walls. "The hive can stabilize the AI without erasing you. But you have to surrender control. Let us in."
Kael recoiled. "No."
"Why not?" Rook demanded. "If this thing can save you, why not take the chance?"
"Because it's not saving me," Kael said. "It's turning me into a puppet."
"You were always a puppet," the hive whispered.
The terminal screen flared again, this time displaying a countdown:
FRACURE DETECTION: 00:47:00.
"Forty-seven minutes until another Fracture," Elias muttered. "Where will it hit?"
The map zoomed in, highlighting a location on the surface—a massive structure surrounded by spores and drone activity.
"The university tower," Kael said.
"And the Visitors are already there," Rook added grimly.
The walls trembled as a low, resonant hum filled the chamber. The bioluminescent veins darkened, then brightened again, forming new symbols:
"THE SANCTUARY WAITS. BUT SO DOES THE HIVE."
Mara stepped back, her eyes fully blue now. "They're ready for you. But you have to choose. Now."
Kael clenched his fists. The weight of Lira's message, the hive's demands, and Rook's distrust pressed down on him.
"Let's move," he said finally. "We've got forty-seven minutes to decide who lives… and who becomes part of the machine."