The resistance base buzzed with tense energy.
People hurried back and forth, preparing weapons, reinforcing barricades, and whispering plans for the assault on the Core Spire.
Kai stood near the command table, but his eyes kept drifting to Eira.
She sat alone in a corner, her eyes closed, hands resting on her knees — almost like she was meditating.
Except the faint blue glow around her suggested something deeper was happening.
"She's searching her memories," Riven said quietly, coming up beside Kai.
Kai frowned. "I thought she had memory damage?"
"She does," Riven said. "But sometimes… the fragments come back. Especially when she's near places tied to her past."
Kai watched as Eira's breathing slowed, her body almost unnaturally still.
"What was she?" he asked.
Riven sighed.
"Project: VANGUARD. The last line of human defense. They created hybrids — part machine, part soul — designed to outthink and outfight the Mechas."
Kai's stomach twisted.
"Created?" he echoed. "As in... she didn't volunteer?"
Riven shook his head grimly.
"Most of them didn't. Some were orphans. Some were prisoners. Some were just… taken."
Kai looked back at Eira, suddenly seeing the lines of tension in her frame, the sadness etched into the corners of her mouth even when she smiled.
"She was a weapon," Riven said. "Built to save us. Used up. Then abandoned when the world fell."
A bitter silence stretched between them.
Before Kai could respond, Eira's eyes snapped open.
Her voice was cold and clear.
"I remember."
She stood, her movements sharp and sudden.
Everyone in the room turned toward her.
"I was stationed at the Core Spire," she said, her blue gaze locking onto Kai's. "I fought there. I died there."
The room froze.
"You died?" Kai repeated, stunned.
"Part of me did," Eira said quietly. "My last memories... are of betrayal."
Riven's face darkened.
"You mean the High Council?" he asked.
Eira nodded.
"They activated the Genesis Protocol. Sacrificed their own soldiers. Me. Others like me. All to seal the Spire and delay the Mechas' advance."
Her hands clenched into fists.
"They didn't care about winning. They just wanted to survive a little longer."
Kai's chest burned with anger — not at Eira, but at the leaders who had abandoned her.
"So the Spire," Kai said, piecing it together, "it's more than just a power source."
Eira's voice dropped into a whisper.
"It's a vault. A prison. And something inside it... is waking up."
The resistance members around the room exchanged nervous glances.
Riven leaned forward. "If the Mechas get to it first—?"
"They'll become unstoppable," Eira said. "The Genesis Core can rewrite everything — machines, biology, even reality itself."
A heavy silence filled the command center.
Kai exhaled slowly, feeling the weight of the task ahead settle deep into his bones.
No more small victories. No more hiding.
It was all or nothing now.
"We'll stop them," he said, voice steady.
Eira looked at him — really looked at him — and for the first time, Kai saw trust flicker in her brilliant blue eyes.
"Together," she said.
And somewhere, deep within the dying city, the Core Spire pulsed once — like a heartbeat of something ancient, something terrible, and something inevitable.