Chapter 15: The Specter's Return
The Crucible chamber buzzed with energy, its walls flexing with programmed intent, shifting from a flat steel floor to jagged terrain mimicking a collapsed city sector. Kaito stood at the center of the simulation zone, suit interface glowing faintly, the Shadowseed pulsing a soft, eerie blue on his chest.
Aya's voice echoed over the comm system:
"Live combat trial commencing. Objective: survive. No support. No guidance. We need to know what you can do when it counts."
Kaito took a breath and rolled his shoulders. "Copy."
Above, behind reinforced glass, Aya stood beside Dr. Shiro, Mira, and Jax — each of them watching with tension in their eyes. Even Mira, usually snarky and aloof, gripped the railing a little tighter than normal.
Inside the Crucible, the lights dimmed. A siren blared once.
Then silence.
And then… a shadow moved.
Out of the fog strode the Specter drone.
It was humanoid, but elongated — joints hyper-flexible, surface matte-black, lined with purple Rift etchings that pulsed like veins. Its head was a sleek curve of alloy, no eyes, no mouth — just a mask of silence. It moved like a whisper, smooth and terrifying.
Combat program initiated. Target locked.
The drone surged forward with blinding speed.
Kaito barely dodged the first strike — a low sweeping kick meant to shatter bones. The floor beneath him cracked. He rolled back, extending a hand. Reflexively, the Shadowseed reacted, emitting a shield of translucent light that deflected the drone's next blow. Sparks flew.
"Whoa," he muttered. "Okay. That's new."
The drone adjusted. Its arms split at the elbows, forming twin plasma-edged blades.
Kaito reached for his training weapon — a reinforced combat staff — and activated the secondary mode. A hum vibrated through his arms as the staff extended into a full-length polearm.
He met the drone head-on.
Their weapons clashed — sparks and Riftlight illuminating the dark chamber. Kaito's body moved faster than he thought possible. It wasn't just adrenaline. It was like something else moved with him. Guided him.
The Shadowseed.
It whispered warnings. Projected paths. Gave him glimpses of where the drone would be a second before it moved. He ducked a vertical slash, spun low, and struck the drone's knee joint. It staggered — just for a moment.
But that moment was enough.
Kaito drove the end of his staff into the drone's chest, triggering a blast of Rift energy that sent it crashing back into a shattered column.
From the observation deck, Shiro leaned forward. "That was a Level 3 strike pattern. He shouldn't be able to pull that off without months of training."
"He's learning faster than we anticipated," Aya said.
Jax grunted. "Yeah. But so's the enemy."
---
Below, the drone rose. Its body cracked and hissed — parts realigning. Then it did something unexpected.
It spoke.
"You are not ready."
Kaito froze. "Wait… you can talk?"
"I am only the echo," the drone replied in a voice that was partly machine, partly… other. "The shadow of the shadow. The original watches."
Kaito's pulse spiked.
He didn't wait.
He surged forward with renewed speed, but the drone anticipated him this time. They clashed again — a blur of light, metal, and kinetic force. The drone's plasma blade carved through part of his staff; Kaito pivoted, rolled, and retaliated with a Rift pulse punch that sent the drone flying.
But the blast backlashed.
Pain flared in Kaito's arm — a burning, twisting sensation as the Shadowseed reacted too strongly.
"Too much," he gasped. "I… can't control the output yet…"
The drone leapt at him.
He raised his hand, intending to shield — but something else happened.
The air bent.
Reality cracked.
A vortex of Riftlight erupted around his body — pure, raw energy rippling out in a shockwave. The drone's body began to disintegrate at the edges, pulled apart like threads.
Above, alarms blared.
"Abort the trial!" Aya ordered.
"Emergency override!" Shiro slammed a button. "The Seed's in flux!"
Inside the Crucible, the drone vaporized completely.
And Kaito collapsed.
---
He woke hours later in the med bay, Mira seated nearby, arms crossed.
"That was reckless," she said, not unkindly.
"I didn't… mean to go that far."
Shiro entered then, holding a datapad. "It wasn't your fault. The Shadowseed was triggered by the drone's psychic field. It responded with a defense pattern we've never seen before."
Kaito sat up. "What did it mean? When it said, 'the original watches'?"
Shiro's brow furrowed. "We think the drone was connected to the Wraith."
Kaito's skin prickled. "You mean… it was spying through it?"
"Possibly more than that," Mira said. "We reviewed the drone's code. It had Rift signatures linked to Project Origin."
"Origin?" Kaito asked.
Shiro hesitated. "A prototype Rift vessel. One of the first humans to be seeded. Someone who… didn't survive the process. Or so we thought."
Kaito clenched his fists. "What are you saying?"
"We're saying," Aya said from the doorway, "that whoever the Wraith is — it might not be just a weapon. It could be what happens when a Shadowseed takes over completely."
Silence followed.
Kaito looked down at the faint glow in his chest.
Was that his future?
---
That night, sleep was not kind.
He dreamt of a city burning. People screaming. The sky raining fragments of stars.
But more than that — he dreamt of her.
A girl.
Maybe sixteen. Eyes full of fire. Standing inside a Riftstorm. Calling his name.
"Kaito. Remember…"
Then gone.
He woke with a scream, drenched in sweat.
The Shadowseed pulsed once. And something strange happened.
A stream of Rift glyphs appeared in the air — glowing symbols forming a spiral.
Mira, who had just rushed in, froze. "What is that?"
"I… don't know."
He reached out instinctively.
The symbols reacted, swirling, forming shapes.
A face.
Her face.
The girl from his dream.
Then a name appeared beneath it.
"Eris: Subject 2 — Terminated"
Shiro arrived just as the projection faded.
"Eris…" he whispered, eyes wide. "She was the second human seeded. We thought her memory files were lost when the prototype base collapsed."
"You mean… this Seed remembers her?" Kaito asked.
Shiro nodded. "Not just remembers. It's carrying her."
---
In the following days, things escalated quickly.
Mira dug deeper into the Seed's dormant memories and discovered encrypted logs — fractured, distorted, but intact. In one, a much younger Eris could be seen laughing, working beside researchers. In another, she was screaming, her body glowing as Riftlight consumed her.
But the most haunting log was a final message, tagged with a timestamp that predated the Shadowseed's current design.
"They lied to us. We weren't meant to survive the seeding. We were meant to open the gate."
Then static.
The log corrupted.
Shiro's hands trembled as he reviewed it. "This… changes everything. If Eris's seed was the first to show psychic integration, and Kaito's now accessing her… then it's possible the Shadowseed isn't just adapting Kaito. It's remembering itself."
Aya stood silent, watching the projection flicker out.
"Then what is Kaito becoming?" she asked.
No one answered.
---
Meanwhile, far across the wastelands beyond the cities, deep beneath the black towers of AegisCorp, the Wraith moved.
It walked slowly through the cryochambers, inspecting the sleeping prototypes — failed vessels, half-human, half-light.
The Man in Black approached. "The Riftborn grow stronger. The boy… awakens faster than projected."
The Wraith said nothing.
Instead, it turned to a nearby terminal and activated a stasis vault labeled V-07: ECHO.
Inside floated a body — indistinct, genderless, shrouded in Riftlight chains.
"Prepare it," the Wraith finally said. "Let the next phase begin."
---
Back at the Riftborn base, Kaito stood on the outer balcony again, Mira beside him.
"I saw her," he said softly.
"Eris?"
He nodded. "Not just in the memory. In me. Like she left… something behind. A spark."
Mira leaned against the rail. "Maybe that spark is why you're still you."
They were quiet for a while.
Then Mira added, "The Wraith's not going to wait. And now it knows you're remembering."
Kaito turned to her. "Then I'll remember everything. Before it comes for me, I'll know what it made me forget."
The Shadowseed pulsed.
A low hum — not a warning.
But an agreement.
---
[End of Chapter 15]