The docking bridge extended with a screech, half-rusted and barely operational. AP Titan stepped off The Eidolon into a corridor where even light seemed afraid to exist.
The air inside Node Zero was stale—pressurized, but dead. The walls pulsed faintly with violet veins of unknown material, part metal, part organic. Whatever this station had once been, it wasn't entirely human anymore.
Lira was still silent.
Titan tapped his neural link. Static. Nothing.
He moved forward cautiously, plasma pistol drawn, motion sensors sweeping every dark corner. This was no ordinary blacksite—it felt like stepping into the lungs of a sleeping god. And every breath he took felt borrowed.
A cracked screen flickered to life as he passed.
"Eos Log: Alpha-One Subject Status – Active.""Command Override: Denied."
Titan froze.
He was the Alpha-One Subject. He was the original prototype of Eos, before they buried the program beneath decades of black ops and orbital cover stories.
And someone had reactivated his file from inside the station.
A sound echoed—light, like soft feet. Titan turned, weapon raised.
From the shadows stepped a child.
No older than ten. Pale. Eyes completely black, swirling like liquid data. Not human. Not entirely.
It spoke—not with a voice, but directly into his mind.
"Hello, Titan. I've waited so long to meet you."
He took a step back. "Who are you?"
"I'm what remains of Eos. What you were meant to become. Before you ran."
Titan aimed the pistol. "Where's Lira?"
"She's here. Inside me. She always was."
Suddenly, the walls lit up—lines of alien code spiraling along the corridors. A door unlocked ahead, flooding the space with blinding white light.
"Come. The Gate is already open. The Vorn were only the beginning. It's time to finish what your kind started."
Titan hesitated. His instincts screamed. Every part of him said turn back.
But he lowered the weapon.
And stepped through the door.