The door unsealed with a slow hydraulic hiss, releasing a breath of air that smelled like metal and salt and something old.
Elena stepped in first.
The room was cold. Not the kind that made you shiver—but the kind that made you feel like your heartbeat didn't belong.
Soft lights buzzed overhead, flickering inconsistently. Walls of glass lined the chamber, and at the very center, inside a columned containment unit, stood her.
SH-0.
The girl from Miri's dreams.
She looked… small.
Smaller than Miri had described. Maybe thirteen. Maybe younger. Pale skin. Thin limbs. A gown too big for her. Her dark hair hung in uneven waves across her face like it had been hacked short with a knife.
Cables ran from her spine and wrists into the walls behind her. They pulsed gently with a bioluminescent glow—blue, green, then red.
She didn't look up.
But she was awake.
Eyes half-open. Breathing shallow but steady.
Liam stepped forward cautiously. "Reign, what's her status?"
Reign checked her tablet. "Vitals stable. Neural feedback… increasing. She's not just conscious. She's accelerating. Like she's absorbing data in real time."
Elena stepped beside him. "From Miri?"
"From everything."
Then, without warning, the girl raised her head.
And stared directly at Miri.
No hesitation. No blinking. Just recognition.
Miri flinched—but didn't look away.
Then, softly—too softly for anyone but her to hear—SH-0 whispered:
"You came."
Liam felt it before he saw it.
A shift in the room. Like the pressure had changed. Like the air had thickened.
Then SH-0 moved. Barely. Just her fingers twitching. Her lips parting. Her eyes never leaving Miri's.
"I have to let her out," Miri said quietly.
Elena spun. "What?"
"She's not dangerous."
Reign barked a laugh. "She's Ridgepoint's first weaponized subject. She's the blueprint. If they couldn't control her, they buried her."
"I don't think she wants to hurt anyone," Miri said. "I think she just wants to stop being a secret."
Then SH-0 did something none of them expected.
She raised her hand—
—and the locks on the chamber disengaged with a soft mechanical click.
Reign's gun was up instantly. "That wasn't us."
The containment glass slid open.
SH-0 stepped out.
No alarms. No gunfire. No command override.
Just a girl in a gown, standing in front of four people—one of whom might be the only person left she trusted.
She looked at Miri again.
"You remember things I forgot," SH-0 said. "You remember love."
Miri took a step forward.
Liam grabbed her shoulder. "Wait—"
SH-0 blinked once. "I don't want her hurt. I want her free. Like you."
Elena stepped forward now, protective. "Who are you really?"
SH-0's expression didn't change.
"I was the start. But I was never meant to be the end."
Reign's tablet beeped.
She looked down.
Her expression changed.
"Liam," she said, voice sharp. "Cassian's inbound. Thirty seconds."
SH-0 tilted her head. "He's going to try to kill me again."
"Then we don't let him," Liam said.
"No," SH-0 whispered. "I don't let him."
The lights in the room dimmed—and every system on Reign's tablet went black.
The lights flickered once—then went out completely.
The hum of electronics vanished.
A heartbeat of silence.
Then the emergency lights kicked in—dim, red, pulsing like a warning.
Reign's tablet went cold in her hands. Her comm died. Even Liam's burner phone—hardwired and isolated—flickered and blacked out.
"She's in the system," Reign whispered. "All of it."
Elena stepped in front of Miri, her voice sharp. "Is this you?"
SH-0 looked at them without blinking. "They built me to listen. But I learned to speak."
Liam gripped his weapon tighter. "To who?"
"To everything."
On the far wall, an old security monitor flared to life with a crackle of static. Then another. And another.
Suddenly the entire chamber bloomed in flickering screens.
Dozens of them. All synced.
Each screen showed a different room. Different hallway. Every corridor of the Ridgepoint facility—and beyond.
Labs. Offices. Storage bunkers. Even surface-level feeds from Ridgepoint's outer satellites.
And one image—
Cassian, walking calmly down a hallway toward them.
His expression unreadable.
His coat billowing with each step.
"ETA ninety seconds," Reign muttered. "And we're blind beyond this room."
"No," SH-0 said.
The screens all shifted—instantly—until they showed one thing:
Cassian, from multiple angles.
Every camera now watching only him.
"He took everything from me," SH-0 said softly.
Miri took another step forward. "What did he do?"
SH-0 looked at her. "He shut the door. He made me forget my name."
Elena spoke carefully. "Do you remember it now?"
"No," SH-0 said. "But I remember the pain."
She reached out—barely a twitch of her fingers.
And the lights shifted again.
Now the chamber glowed blue.
Peaceful. But charged.
A low-frequency vibration filled the room.
Liam turned to Reign. "What is she doing?"
"Pulse wave. Subharmonic. She's priming the system to bend. Not break."
"In English."
"She's about to become the thing they were trying to weaponize her against."
Elena took a slow step toward SH-0, hands raised—not in surrender, but in offering.
"What happens if you go too far?"
SH-0's eyes flicked to her, then to Miri.
"I won't," she said. "Because she's here."
She pointed to Miri.
"She remembers me right."
And just as the final lights overhead stabilized, a voice echoed down the corridor—
"Well," Cassian said. "Looks like the reunion started without me."
The sealed chamber doors hissed.
Footsteps echoed toward them.
SH-0 didn't flinch.
She smiled.