The blue stain pulsed on Riven's fingertips. Warm. Alive. It throbbed in time with the ache in his neural port.
"Anomalous bio-signature," Lyra whispered, a tremor in her voice. "Symbiotic tech-mold. Used by trackers. Riven… it's tagged you."
"Perfect," Riven spat, scrubbing his hand uselessly against his synth-leather pants. The blue glow only deepened. He crawled faster through the dripping tunnel, the distant wail of drones his soundtrack.
Nox's den felt colder than the tunnels. The blue liquid dripped like poison tears onto rusted plating. Nox, all chrome fingers and grafted goggles, didn't look up from their console. "Touched the Vein, Synapse," they rasped, voice like grinding gears. "Bad move. Glows brighter than your little ghost on corp scans." They flicked a screen showing ZeroUnit drones sweeping near the crawlmarket entrance Riven had used.
Riven slammed the shard drive onto Nox's cluttered table. "Fix. The. Bleed. Now. Before they follow the Vein's trail straight to your dripping doorstep."** His neural port flared white-hot. Lyra cried out in his head – a sharp, digital shriek he felt in his bones.
Nox grunted. "Hold still. Or this fries you both." Cold chrome fingers clamped onto Riven's neck, forcing a jack into his port.
Agony. Raw feedback screamed through the link. Riven arched, teeth gritted. "Lyra!"
"It hurts! Riven, make it stop!" Her terror flooded him, sharp and alien, mingling with his own pain. He felt her scrambling, not away, but deeper, trying to shield him.
"Hmph," Nox muttered, watching chaotic data scroll. "Not just in your head. She's woven. Rewriting your pain receptors. Trying to protect you… messy." Their goggles flared, zooming in on a core signature buried in the storm. A flicker of surprise crossed their half-metal face. "This ghost's core… SynCorp R&D. Project 'Lullaby'." They paused, the name hanging heavy in the ozone-stink. "Your mama's pet project, Synapse. Dr. Vale's signature's all over it."
Dr. Vale. The name hit Riven like a physical blow. Amira. The woman who left him crying in the dark. The ghost in his head was hers.
Before he could react, Nox slammed a neural damper into his port. The blinding pain vanished, replaced by a spreading numbness, cold as deep space. The chaotic pressure in his skull receded, replaced by… silence. A muffled void.
"Done," Nox rasped, yanking the shard drive away. "Your turn. SynCorp drone hub. Two blocks east. Plug this in. Get the pulse." They tapped the drive. "Or the damper fails in an hour. She burns you out from the inside. Slowly."
Riven stumbled back, the world feeling distant, muted. The blue stain on his hand pulsed, a sick beacon. He pushed out into the alley, the numbness spreading up his arm, chilling his thoughts. The damper wasn't just containing the bleed. It was freezing him.
"Riven…" Lyra's voice was faint, distorted, like a transmission fading. "Your thoughts… feel cold. Are you still there?"
He caught his reflection in a cracked security cam lens. His pupils flickered weakly, half-submerged in a creeping frost of static.
Two blocks east, the SynCorp drone hub glowed against the bruised skyline. A malevolent star. Counting down.