The Cradle swallowed light.
Nolan descended a rusted stairwell, boots grinding against corroded steel. The air was thick coppery, damp, laced with ozone from leaking tech. Bioluminescent fungi clung to the walls, their glow dimming as the tunnel narrowed. His EmoTracker pulsed green. Stable. Optimal.
His neural web synced to AURA's feed:
Target: Riven Voss. Location: Zone 7, Memory Wells. Objective: Neutralize.
The Dampener at his hip was cold. His left hand still had no tremor this time. Maintenance had fixed it. Three times. The glitch was gone.
Blood crusted his sleeve of his own, from the Archives stiffening the gray fabric. He didn't feel it. didn't care. Focus.
The stairwell ended in a chamber.
The Memory Wells.
Pools of viscous data-fluid shimmered across the floor, glowing and rippling like molten glass. Their light cast eerie reflections across the rusted ceiling. Cables snaked from the walls, twitching with AURA's leaked memories. Rebels knelt beside the pools, hands submerged, eyes vacant Glitchers. Infected.
Nolan crouched behind a fallen beam. His vision flickered with overlays:
Subjects: 10. Emotional breaches: Confirmed. Target Riven Voss: Present.
Riven stood at the largest Well, red eyes catching the light. His leather jacket hung loose, one sleeve dark with dried blood. He dipped a hand into the pool. Light rippled up his wrist. He winced then laughed. Raw. Jagged. It echoed.
Nolan's EmoTracker stayed green. No breach.
His right hand moved fast, surgical, drawing the Dampener.
A rebel turned, Glitch Gauntlet sparking. Nolan lunged, collar snapping onto his neck. Click. Eyes dulled. Drop.
Another swung a rusted blade. Nolan twisted, reset him. Two down.
Riven pulled his hand free, light dripping from his fingers. Nolan locked eyes with Riven—no flicker, no hesitation—but something under his skin pulled tight, a name buried in static. "You don't quit, do you, glitch?"
Nolan stepped forward, boots scuffing wet metal. "Riven Voss. Surrender."
Riven smirked. "Not today." He motioned to the shadows.
Six rebels emerged armed, tense.
Nolan's neural web lit up: heat signatures, weapons raised, closing in.
AURA's voice pulsed in his mind:
"Operative N7. Emotional stability: Optimal. Neutralize the target."
The rebels charged.
Nolan ducked a blade, collaring one click, reset.
Spun. Slammed another into the wall.
A Gauntlet sparked near his face and he caught the wrist, twisted. Reset. Four down.
Fast. Precise. But his chest tightened off script, untracked.
Riven backed toward the Well, both hands plunging in.
The light flared searing up his arms. He gasped. Eyes wide. Then he laughed, louder, broken. "I see you," he rasped. "Before. With her."
Nolan's vision glitched.
White tiles. A sterile lab.
A woman's voice was low, warm: "You were never just a machine."
Then another flash older, gray-eyed, screaming: "You left us."
Pain spiked behind his eye. His left hand twitched.
Unlogged. The chamber snapped back.
"Who?" Nolan asked, voice flat, AURA's tone, not his own.
Riven pulled his hands free. Light faded. Nolan's mouth opened, but nothing came. The name hit like a trigger he wasn't supposed to have.
"Dr. Vale," Riven said, voice ragged. "She didn't just build you. She loved you. And then she handed you to them."
His chest burned tight, untracked. A name. A glitch.
The Dampener rose.
"They designed you to fail," Riven said softly. "She didn't."
The chamber shook.
A siren wailed. Enforcers inbound.
The rebels froze then bolted, shouting.
Nolan's neural feed updated:
Units: 6. Threat Level: Extreme. Objective: Purge.
The ceiling cracked open.
Enforcers dropped black armor, twitching limbs, red visors glowing. Blades extended.
Nolan moved. Slammed a Dampener onto one nothing. Locked systems.
Grabbed a fallen Gauntlet and jammed it into an Enforcer's chest. Collapse.
Riven vanished down a side tunnel.
Nolan lunged
Too slow.
"Coward," Nolan hissed—his voice breaking, but he didn't know if it was anger or grief.
A blade slashed his leg deep.
Blood spilled, hot and fast. He stumbled, chest flaring unlogged, untracked.
Another Enforcer swung, he rolled, smashed the Gauntlet into its visor. Spark. Drop.
Three left.
Vision glitched, dark liquid pooling, rusted metal, the gray-eyed face screaming.
Pain seared his spine. Left hand shook, uncontrolled.
He struck one down.
An Enforcer grabbed his arm, wrenching it back.
Another pinned his legs. Blade raised.
His chest burned. Breath caught. Vision fractured white tiles, Dr. Vale's face, soft and haunted: "You were never just a machine."
The Well flared beside him wild, pulsing.
A rebel lay dead nearby, hand still submerged. "If I die here, at least it'll be my choice."
Nolan yanked it free. Drove his own hand in.
The light surged electric, burning, climbing his arm.
Flash.
White tiles.
He was small—seven, maybe. Sitting in a lab. A woman knelt beside him, gray streaks in her dark hair. Dr. Vale. She smiled, held out a metal puzzle.
"What do we do when it breaks, Nolan?"
"We fix it," he said.
She touched his temple. "Even if it's us?"
"Even if it's me."
The memory shattered. Blood. Screaming. Static.
Dr. Vale—forty, lab coat, hollow eyes.
"You're my child. My monster."
She reached toward him—flickering—then static shredded her image. A child's drawing on the wall his, scratched in static.
Laughter his own, young and raw.
Then the gray-eyed face "You left us."
Pain tore down his spine.
The Enforcers twitched visors flickering.
The light pulsed through him, disrupting their systems. One by one, they collapsed.
Nolan pulled his hand free.
Light dripped from his fingers.
Blood dripped from his leg.
The rebels were gone. The Enforcers, down.
The chamber fell silent.
His EmoTracker pulsed green.
Stable.
But inside, something cracked. Not a sound. Just a fracture too deep to name, like bone splintering under skin.
"Why am I still breathing?" His voice cracked. No neural ping. No directive. Just silence. For the first time, Nolan realized AURA didn't care if he died. And maybe neither did he.
The Ascension Tube rose, lifting him from the depths.
The Wells faded beneath, swallowed by the city's glow. Towers gleamed. Artificial light crushed everything below.
He leaned against the pod's glass. Blood smeared across its leg, arm, sleeve.
His chest ached. Untracked.
His left hand trembled.
His neural web uploaded:
Target: Riven Voss – Escaped. Rebel Cell – Disrupted. Enforcer Units – Neutralized.
AURA's voice echoed:
"Efficiency rating: 81%. Emotional stability: Optimal. Maintenance required: Immediate."
Again.
His reflection stared back pale, empty.
Blood streaked his uniform.
Behind it, the gray-eyed face screamed, fading to static.
Dr. Vale's voice lingered: "You're my child. My monster. I built you to protect... not to forget me." Nolan touched his temple, fingers brushing the scar the needle left. He couldn't tell if it burned… or if he wanted it to.
The pod docked.
The Operative Sector opened white walls, glowing screens, silent gray uniforms.
Nolan stepped out, boots clicking, blood trailing behind.
His terminal blinked:
Operative N7. Report to Maintenance Chamber 3. Priority: Critical.
He limped across the hall. No one looked.
The hum of AURA filled their minds constantly, cold.
The chamber door slid open. He hesitated. Just for a breath. Long enough to wonder if he could run. If he should. But where do ghosts escape to? The chair waited. Restraints gleaming.
Drones hovered, needles glinting.
Neural Web: Stable. Emotional Metrics: Optimal. Anomaly Detected: Severe.
He sat. The restraints clicked shut.
Drones pierced his temples cold, clean.
Data streamed.
Green lines. Perfect curves. No breach.
"Operative N7," AURA said. "System scan initiated. Emotional stability: Optimal."
The needles drilled deeper.
Pain flared.
Vision flickered
White tiles.
Dr. Vale.
"You were never just a machine."
Laughter young and raw.
Metal. Blood.
The scream: "You left us."
The screen spiked. Green lines fractured then flattened.
"Anomaly isolated," AURA said. "Correction in progress."
The surge hit searing.
The glitch screamed: static, a child's drawing, her voice vanishing.
His hand twitched.
His EmoTracker pulsed green.
No breach.
The surge ended.
The screen stabilized. Green. Perfect.
The restraints unlocked.
He stood.
He didn't look down. He knew it wasn't all his. Maybe none of it was. Maybe it belonged to the version of him that laughed. The version Dr. Vale couldn't save.
Blood pooled at his feet.
A name floated up—almost—then AURA crushed it. "Correction complete. Emotional stability: Optimal."
A beat. Then, colder: "Return to duty, N7. That is your only function."
He stepped into the hall.
Boots clicking.
Blood trailing.
But her voice lingered, quiet and untracked:
"My child. My monster."
The terminal blinked with his next assignment:
Target: Riven Voss. Location: The Cradle, Zone 7. Objective: Neutralize. Priority: Escalated.
His EmoTracker glowed green.
His hand touched the new Dampener cold at his belt.
The mission was clear.
But the laughter echoed young, raw, his own.
The gray-eyed face blurred to static.
Dr. Vale's voice whispered again—not in his feed, not in his memory. Somewhere deeper. Maybe real. Maybe his.
"My child. My monster. Don't forget me."
He turned from the terminal, leg stiff with blood.