"He's not fucking dead."
Harper's voice snapped across the command room, sharp enough to shut everyone up. Her hands were still shaking, bandaged fingers tapping against the table like she wanted to punch someone.
"Draton got hit with two explosives, a full mag of armor-piercing, and a reality-bending shockwave from... whatever the hell that was." She pointed at Kaila. "And he stood back up like it was nothing."
Kaila sat quietly. Her face was pale, her hands cold. The power inside her was still humming under her skin, the way a loaded gun hums when you're the only one who knows it's cocked.
Andy stood behind her, leaning against the wall. His jaw was clenched so tight you could see the muscle twitching.
"I saw his fucking arm grow back," Andy muttered. "Right in front of me. I shot it off and it just... slithered back like spaghetti."
Dr. Alaric turned from the console. His face looked like it hadn't slept in years.
"We have one shot. One possible weapon that can stop it. Maybe."
Harper rolled her eyes. "Oh good. The maybe gun."
Alaric ignored her and brought up a blueprint on the screen. The hologram flickered, showing a strange rifle with a glowing white core in the center.
"This is the Defuser. Originally a Dive prototype. Designed to destabilize Spinat-enhanced cells at a molecular level. It doesn't kill. It forces permanent molecular disconnection. It melts them from the inside."
"Sounds beautiful," Andy said.
"It's not finished," Alaric added. "Half the parts are locked in a Dive research dump six clicks out. Underground. You're gonna need to go in, steal them, and bring them back. Without dying."
"Any guards?" Kaila asked.
Alaric laughed once. It wasn't happy.
"They don't use guards in those labs. They use things."
Scene: The Plan
Later that night, Kaila sat alone in the sculpture hall. She stared at a cracked statue — a dancer with no face, arms stretched toward nothing.
The Skate inside her was quiet. Too quiet.
Andy sat beside her, dropping a bag of ammo and protein rations between them.
"You alright?"
She nodded, but didn't look at him.
"I'm starting to feel like I'm not me anymore. Like... I'm a puppet with someone else's strings in my back."
Andy leaned back on the marble step.
"You're still you. Even if there's a god thing living in your chest."
"That god thing saved us."
"And it nearly killed you while doing it."
She looked at him then.
"You don't get it, Andy. It's getting stronger every time I feel something. Every time I panic or break down, it pulses. I think it feeds on emotion."
Andy stared at her.
"Then we keep you from breaking. Simple as that."
She smiled. It was tired. But real.
Scene: On the Road Again
The next morning, the truck was packed. Kaila, Andy, Harper, and two other resistance fighters rolled out toward the Dive ruins. Fog curled around the broken buildings like it knew something was coming.
The road was littered with bones and rusted machines. Old Dive drones, torn apart. Bodies too melted to identify.
Harper sat in the back, loading shells into her sawed-off.
"You know," she muttered, "if this Defuser thing doesn't work, I'm gonna personally shove a grenade up that robot freak's ass and hope for the best."
One of the new guys chuckled. "That's the spirit."
Andy stayed silent, checking his gear.
Kaila looked at him.
"You good?"
Andy nodded. But he wasn't. His hands kept twitching.
He didn't say it, but something about Draton had stuck with him. Something cold.
That freak hadn't blinked. Hadn't screamed. Hadn't cared.
Andy had stared death in the face and seen himself reflected in the metal.
Scene: Dive Research Dump
They reached the ruins by noon.
The facility was buried beneath a collapsed skyscraper, half-flooded and caved in. The entrance was a tunnel cut through steel bones.
Alaric's voice crackled through the comms.
"Go through sublevel two. Core fragments are stored in Lab Sector 5. Avoid sealed chambers. And whatever you do... don't open anything labeled 'X-Misc.'"
"Why?" Harper asked.
Alaric hesitated.
"Because it means they forgot what they put in it."
They moved fast, sweeping corridors with flashlights and rifles.
The walls were lined with melted lab equipment, cages torn open from the inside. Old bloodstains crawled across the floor like vines.
Kaila felt the Skate tighten around her lungs.
"It's here."
Andy turned to her. "What is?"
"Draton's scent. His data trail. He was built from this place."
Scene: Fragment Recovery
They reached the lab. The core fragments were still intact, locked inside a shattered containment unit. Andy ripped them out, loaded them into the pack, and nodded.
"Let's go. Fast."
They didn't even make it back to the elevator before they heard it.
That fucking sound.
CLANK... CLANK... SCRAAAAAPE
Harper raised her gun. "Oh fuck me, not now."
Draton stepped out from the dark. No emotion. Just that same horrible calm.
His chest glowed red.
"MALFUNCTION DETECTED. ENTITY CONTAINMENT REQUIRED."
Andy aimed his rifle. "We are so fucked."