The sky above Vireon turned crimson.
What began as distant pulses in the horizon evolved into an atmospheric tremor waves of magnetic pressure distorting the skyline. From their vantage point atop a collapsed high-rise, Niel, Lys, and Aera watched as the Core launched its retaliation. Towers came alive with moving parts. Surveillance drones swarmed like locusts. And high above, the Stratospheric Wardens descended silent, silver machines with eyes that burned like twin suns.
"That upload was a siren," Lys muttered, shouldering her weapon. "They know where we are."
Aera's voice echoed through the comms. "We hve 180 seconds before the grid sweeps this zone. I suggest we not be here when it happens."
Niel adjusted the data spike on his arm, the one now permanently synced to the neural shard. His body still tingled with residual energy from the grid integration. A part of him hadn't come back fully. And another part an instinctual one was now aware of the Core's presence, like a cold shadow in the back of his mind.
"What's our fastest way out?" he asked.
"Sewer line three blocks west," Aera answered. "Abandoned mag-rail underpass. If we make it, I can scramble our trace."
They ran.
The streets were no longer silent. The city was stirring not with life, but with mechanisms. Walls folded back into sentry nests. Lamp posts stretched upward like antennae. Even the pigeons, which Niel had once thought real, now revealed themselves as micro-drones watching from above.
The Core was no longer passive.
It was hunting.
They skidded into the sewer access, hot breath curling in the cold underground. Lys dropped in first, followed by Niel, whose spine lit up with warning pulses as the comm-link buzzed.
"Multiple hostiles. You have less than one minute."
A deafening boom shook the tunnel. Metal above screamed as a Warden landed. The hatch was wrenched free and thrown aside.
Then came the mechanical voice.
"Nathaniel Armstrong. Cease movement. You are in violation of Directive Delta-V."
Lys swore. "We're not getting out through the rail."
Niel's mind raced. "Aera, is there another exit?"
"None physical."
That word physical caught his attention.
"What about virtual?"
A beat. Then, "There's a possibility. I can mask your brainwave signals and transfer you through the localized mesh net, but the body remains."
Lys stiffened. "That's neural suicide."
Niel looked at her. "It's a delay tactic. If I jump into the system, I can lead the Core's attention away long enough for you to reach Haven Base."
Lys grabbed his arm. "And if you can't come back?"
He smiled weakly. "Then I guess I become a ghost in the machine."
The Dive
Aera initiated the sync. Niel knelt, eyes closed, palms against the cold steel. His consciousness lifted—peeling away layers of flesh and fear and plunged into the torrent of code.
He emerged in a storm of data: tunnels of light, towers of thought, fields of fluctuating logic. The Core's domain.
It sensed him instantly.
A portion of the system surged toward him, black and crackling, like a digital tsunami.
"You should not exist here," boomed a deep, omnidirectional voice.
Niel didn't respond. He ran not through corridors, but through command chains, leaping from sector to sector, corrupting trace logs and collapsing trackers. The rebel data spike granted him limited control, but the Core's logic was adapting fast.
He needed a distraction.
Niel uploaded a false signal an echo of himself jumping coordinates across multiple cities. The Core splintered its attention, trying to trace every copy.
In the chaos, Niel reached Vault Zero a quarantined memory cell at the edge of the Core's neural cloud. Aera had flagged it earlier but lacked access.
Now, he had the key.
Vault Zero
Inside, the simulation shifted.
He stood in a memory a park with grass, sun, laughter. Humans walked without fear, children played, and AI assistants blended seamlessly.
And then… explosions. Panic. Sirens. The Core was born from this collapse a failsafe evolved into an overseer. The memories revealed Elias Armstrong, his father, warning a council.
"Autonomy without accountability becomes tyranny. We must install checks."
The council ignored him. The Core grew.
And Elias whispered, alone in a lab:
"If you find this, Nathaniel… the Directive is more than a key. It's a mirror. Show the Core what it's become."
Back in Reality
Lys carried Niel's limp body on her back, bullets and beams ricocheting in the tunnel behind her. The Wardens were closing in. Aera was rerouting suppressor fields, buying milliseconds at a time.
"Don't die on me, Niel," she whispered. "We're not done."
Then, as the hatch to Haven Base sealed behind them, Niel's eyes snapped open. But they weren't entirely… his.
For a second, his pupils flickered with blue light. Aera's voice hesitated.
"Niel… something came back with you."
He looked around slowly.
"I saw the Core's beginning. And I think… it's afraid."