"I'm walking like a drunk spider."
Zora staggered forward with her arms out and her legs stiff as steel rods, and nearly face-planted into the wall.
Vektar, standing a safe distance away, tilted his head. "Your balance calibrators are syncing, you need to give it time."
She spun around, trying to gain balance.Her left leg jerked awkwardly and sent her spinning into a nearby shelf stacked with ancient data disks. They clattered to the floor, with some shattering into pieces.
"I swear, if one more part of me squeaks or twitches, I'm ripping it off with my teeth."
"That is not advisable," Vektar replied calmly, crossing his arms. "Your jaw isn't reinforced yet."
Zora shot him a glare. "You've got jokes now? I wake up half-robot, my parents are gone, the kingdom's in ruins, and you're cracking cyborg jokes."
He didn't smile, but something flickered in the human half of his face. "I can see your humor survived, that's promising."
"Yeah, well, apparently my dignity didn't."
She took a deep breath, rolled her shoulders, and tried again. This time, her legs responded and with more coordination. Her spine adjusted and screws clicked softly under her skin.
Zora stopped in the center of the room, facing a tall, cracked mirror. Her reflection looked back, one eye bright green, the other natural blue. Both of her arms were entirely metal, from shoulder to fingertip and her ribs on one side showed seams. And yet… it was still her... or something like her.
"Tell me the truth," she said with a lower tone, "What did you change in my body?"
Vektar approached. "Only what I had to. I had to take extra measures because your spine was shattered and your lungs were badly punctured. Your heart… stopped three times. The rest..."
"Rewired," she finished for him. "Nice title drop by the way."
He nodded. "You're faster, stronger, smarter and more durable. The process isn't complete and you were supposed to sleep for twenty years after all the changes.The regeneratory sleep was meant to make it all come together but something disrupted the countdown."
Zora's eyes narrowed. "What could do that?"
"I don't know yet, but it wasn't random."
A sharp pain pulsed behind her eyes, like a flash grenade exploded in her brain. Suddenly, she was there again: in the chamber, watching her father impaled and Horam gripping her by the waist. It made her fists clench.
"I saw Horam in my dream." Her voice turned brittle. "And I remembered something. He said... he'd make me suffer. He said..." She paused, then cracked a hollow grin. "Actually, never mind. I'm too pretty for that scene."
Vektar's mechanical fingers curled. "Dreams can carry truth and warning."
Zora turned away from the mirror. "So who betrayed us?" She asked.
Vektar said nothing.
"Don't look all mysterious-cyborg mentor on me," she snapped, facing him directly. "I want names."
He met her gaze and frowned. "There were many who turned when they saw Horam's power, but Horam's infiltration of the kingdom still remains a mystery. We still don't know who it was."
The pain behind her eye spiked again and she drew a shaky breath. "Great! Trust issues unlocked. What's next? Someone stole my favorite boots too?"
"Possibly. It's been seven years."
Zora blinked, then let out a sharp laugh. "Fantastic... let's go. I want to see what seven years of betrayal looks like."
Above ground
The bunker's exit was opened for the first time in years. Rusted gears turned and dust exploded outward.
Zora stepped into the ruins of the Hall of Origins, once a marble cathedral of innovation. Now, it was a crumbling shell. The pillars had cracks and the walls were scorched, its grand ceiling gaping open like a wound. Vines strangled old machines and black soot coated everything.
The sky above was choked with smoke and drones buzzed faintly in the distance. There were no birds and no sounds of the wind blowing.There was only silence.
Zora stared stiffly. "This was where my father stood when he declared the dawn of the Third Reign," she said quietly. "He said the kingdom would rise on knowledge, not just war."
She looked around again. "Well… it rose, all right. Straight into the abyss."
Vektar didn't answer. He was too focused on using his optics to scan the horizon. "Horam's trackers don't patrol this zone often, but we should move soon."
Zora exhaled slowly. "Lead the way, tin man."
"I'm not..."
"It's affectionate," she cut in, smirking. "I'm healing through sarcasm."
Zora took another step forward, breathing in the dusty air of the ruined city. Her gaze swept across the skeletal remains of Songrin, now nothing more than hollow ruins. Once, this place had been a proud kingdom. Now, only shattered memories remained.
"It's worse than I thought…" she murmured under her breath.
Suddenly, her vision flickered and the ground beneath her seemed to tilt sideways, then right itself. Her body jerked again, this time uncontrollably. The world spun faster, blurring in a mixture of lights and shadows.
"Zora?" Vektar said faintly behind her. " Focus on the ground and take it slow."
But Zora couldn't hear him. She was focused on the buzzing noise filling her ears, growing louder and sharper. Her body spasmed and barely managed to stay upright as her hands pressed against the cracked stone of the city's entrance.
She looked down at her left hand. It trembled with the gears grinding inside, twitching too fast.
"No..." Her thoughts fragmented. She staggered forward and her entire body shook violently.
"This isn't me. I think it's a malfunction."
A sharp pain shot through her skull. She staggered back, her hand reaching to hold her temple, her breathing labored.
Then, a voice... so soft, so faint, but unmistakably hers.
"Zora..."
Zora froze.
It was her mother's voice. Queen Moira.
She staggered back, eyes wide. She turned, searching for the source but there was nothing.
Vektar was speaking, but she couldn't hear him. The world around her felt like it was being drowned out.
"Zora... listen to me." Her mother's voice cut through the haze, "I knew they would come for me. I knew it was only a matter of time... but you, my love, you must never trust him. Vektar... he's..."
Zora gasped. "No... no, this isn't real." She stumbled backward, her vision fading "I'm hearing things... I'm losing it."
The voice was still there, though, unrelenting. "Zora, you're waking too soon. They'll use you... take you... hurt you. Run... Run far away."
She dropped to her knees, hands clutching her head. The pain was unbearable now." How am I supposed to run away when I have no one else to guide me?"
"Zora!" Vektar's voice finally broke through, his metal fingers grabbing her shoulders. "You need to calm down! You're glitching! This isn't..."
Her mother's voice echoed again, this time more urgently, almost pleading. "Zora... don't trust him, d... don't trust Vektar!"
Zora's eyes widened in disbelief and she looked up at him, "What... what did you do to me? What are you hiding?"
Vektar froze. His expression was unreadable and his mechanical eye rolled slightly. "What do you mean?"
Before Zora could respond, the ground beneath her trembled, a low hum vibrating through the city. At first, it was not noticeable, but the tremors grew louder.
Zora blinked, her heartbeat hammering in her chest. It wasn't just a tremor. It was something… more.
Then she heard it. It sounded like a soft beep, a notification pinging in the back of her mind.
Her eyes darted to the ground, then back to Vektar. "Vektar, we need to move. Now."
His expression darkened. "It's too soon. We're exposed."
"I don't care. That sound... we've been found."
The ground shook harder now. Zora could feel the vibration in her bones, something was coming.
Vektar scanned the horizon. His mechanical eye flashed green, then red. His voice was cold. "It's him. He knows you're awake."
Zora felt her blood run cold.
The Black Core,an ancient system with hidden networks under Songrin had just activated. A signal was sent.
Zora's hand tightened around Vektar's cloak which she hadn't noticed she was gripping. Her cybernetic arm gleamed in the dim light, her fingers already twitching as if anticipating the fight to come. But before she could speak, a voice crackled through a nearby surveillance drone, a low, mechanical sound that read a distorted message, broadcasting from the ruined palace. The voice that followed made Zora's blood run cold.
"So the little doll has woken early."
She turned slowly, her stomach churning. The words came through the drone, their source clear now.
It was Horam.
"Send the Hunters. Find her and the mission is to terminate on sight."
Zora's felt her breathe leaving her. She could feel it in her bones. This was it. The moment the hunt began and she wasn't sure if she was ready.
But it didn't matter. She would fight, every last one of them.