The mountains had gone silent.
Not calm—dead silent.
Kael felt it in the marrow of his bones. The Odradek hadn't spun in over an hour. The pod child had curled into herself, heartbeat slower, deeper. And Mire—once ghostlike and warm—now walked beside them with a flicker in her steps, like something in the tether between her and the child had started to fray.
Samantha sensed it too.
They didn't speak as they moved. They'd stopped needing to. Each step felt heavier now, like the mountain was trying to keep them there, to hold them until he arrived.
They reached a narrow ravine flanked by black stone and collapsed signal pylons. A ruined courier camp sat half-fused to the rock wall—just enough cover to rest, or hide. Samantha ducked inside first, sweeping the edges. Kael followed, resting the pod on a makeshift table of broken crates.
The pulse inside the pod flickered again. Mire stood near it like a statue.
Kael broke the silence.
"She knows him."
Samantha glanced at him.
"Mire?"
"No. The child." He tapped the glass lightly. "She reacts to him. Like she's remembering something she's not supposed to."
Samantha stepped forward, arms crossed. "Then she's not just a BB. She's older. You suspected that."
Kael nodded slowly. "I did. But now I think she predates even the BB program."
"…That would make her over twenty years old."
"She doesn't age like we do," Mire said quietly.
Both turned to her.
Mire stepped forward now, more solid than ever. Her flickers had stopped, her glow a deep amber.
"I was part of her," she said. "Once. But not just her. Others too."
"Others?" Kael asked.
"Prototypes. Failed BBs. Rejected tether experiments. They never connected to the living the right way. So they were… cast out."
Samantha's jaw tightened. "You were made before the first bridges were even formed."
Mire nodded. "I was one of the first attempts. A BT soul… merged with the child of a repatriate. Born in-between. Half tethered. Half free."
Kael felt his breath catch. "So you're not the child's ghost."
"No," Mire said softly. "I'm the part that left her when they broke us apart."
Samantha turned toward the pod slowly. "Then what's inside… isn't just a child."
"It's what's left," Mire said. "But she remembers. And now… so do I."
A long silence.
Kael placed his hand over the pod.
"She's waking up. Faster now."
Then Mire said what they feared.
"He's trying to take her back. Because she was his first experiment."
[The Tracker – Approaching]
The wind screamed through the ridge as the tracker marched, relentless. He didn't blink. Didn't need to. His HUD highlighted chiral readings in real time, pinpointing Kael's presence through tether residue and emotional signature.
The girl is whole again.She never should've been split.
He felt it now—like a chiral heartbeat growing louder. Mire was close. The failed soul. The one who rejected him.
But the child… the child could be corrected.
He stepped over a split signal mast, drawing the blade on his hip—a slick, black instrument that vibrated with resonance, tuned to sever tethers and souls alike.
Then he said, without breath:
"I'm coming home."
[Kael – Moments Before Impact]
Kael didn't speak as he adjusted the pod and fastened it to his back again. Samantha loaded her weapon without looking. Mire stared into the canyon beyond the camp.
Then they all heard it.
A footstep.
But not on stone—on chiral density.
Like reality itself rippling.
Samantha raised her rifle. "Contact. Direction—southwest."
Kael took position at her side, his breath steady.
Then Mire said, almost brokenly:
"He found us."
The tracker stepped into view across the ravine. A shadow in black armor. No Bridges symbol. No nation. Just the faint pulse of a tether severed long ago—and still bleeding.
His mask twitched once, scanning them.
"Kael Rainer," he said in a voice both digital and human, twisted like signal interference. "You have what doesn't belong to you."
Kael stepped forward. "She was never yours."
"She was made," the tracker replied. "Not born. She was tethered to me—until you stole her ghost."
Samantha took aim. "Take one more step and I put a bullet through your dead heart."
"I don't have one anymore," the tracker whispered.
Then he moved.
Faster than Kael expected.
Samantha fired—three shots. One clipped the tracker's arm. It didn't stop him.
Kael leapt left as the tracker's blade cleaved the crate in two, sparks flying.
Mire screamed—not in fear, but in pain—as her form split mid-air, forced apart by the tracker's presence.
"Give her back!" the tracker roared. "Give me what's mine!"
"You abandoned her!" Kael shouted, swinging his anti-BT knife. Sparks hissed across the tracker's mask.
"She was never yours to keep!"
Samantha fired again—this time at his legs. The tracker staggered, but didn't fall.
Mire reformed beside the pod, shielding it. "You failed her!" she cried.
The tracker turned to her—just for a second.
That's when Kael struck.
He drove the blade through the tracker's side, into the tether node near his spine.
The man froze.
A faint whisper escaped him.
"…Mire."
Then the tether exploded in a pulse of black light.
The tracker collapsed, suit hissing.
He wasn't dead.
But he was broken.
They stood over him in silence.
Samantha's breath was sharp, measured. Kael wiped blood from the blade. Mire trembled beside the pod.
The tracker twitched once more—then looked at Kael with something bordering on respect.
"You kept her safe."
Kael nodded.
"I'll keep doing it."
Then the tracker whispered, almost lovingly:
"She's waking up. When she remembers everything… you'll understand why I tried to take her back."
He passed out.
Kael knelt beside the pod.
The girl inside had opened her eyes.
And this time—
She smiled.