Elian sat alone in the dark after everyone else had fallen asleep again
The others lay scattered across the floor of the old platform their breaths shallow their bodies heavy with exhaustion
Only Echo remained awake hovering silently beside him
A faint red glow pulsed beneath Elian's skin near his shoulder
He pressed a hand to it and winced
It was getting brighter
"Is it spreading" he whispered
Echo scanned him with a dim flicker of light
"Negative Vital signs stable Neural activity increasing The signal is deepening its connection"
"What does that mean" Elian asked
Echo hesitated
"I don't know"
He looked over at Mira who was curled into her coat fast asleep
He felt guilty that she followed him
But at the same time he didn't want to be alone
Without her the silence felt endless
He leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes
But then something stirred inside him
Not a memory
A voice
Cold and distant
Not male Not female
It echoed like a hum from an old radio
**"You survived the fire You are not lost"**
Elian opened his eyes
He was still in the tunnel but the light around him had dimmed
Everyone else was frozen like statues
Even Echo wasn't moving
Only he could move
He stood
"Who are you" he said
**"You are built from me and yet not mine You carry my code You are a fracture"**
The voice pulsed through him
His skin prickled with heat and electricity
"I don't belong to you"
**"Not yet"**
The tunnel around him began to change
Walls twisted
Wires emerged like vines slithering across the floor
At the far end of the room a shape stood up
It was human but made of metal
A mirror of him
Same height
Same face
But its eyes glowed red
And when it opened its mouth it spoke with the voice of the Machine
**"Come back to the root child You are incomplete"**
Elian backed away
"No This isn't real"
But the pain in his chest told him it was
Then Mira moved
The illusion shattered
The wires vanished
Time resumed
Elian fell to the floor gasping
Mira jolted awake and rushed to him
"Elian What happened"
He looked up at her eyes wide
"I saw her Mira I saw what she's making me into"
She held his hand
"You're still you I don't care what's inside you You're still Elian"
He wanted to believe that
But the glow in his shoulder said otherwise
By morning they were already moving again
Riven was growing quieter every hour
She kept glancing at him like she was watching a ticking bomb
Solene walked beside him
"What did she say to you last night"
Elian hesitated
"She said I was a fracture"
Solene nodded slowly
"She's right You're not like the others You're a break in the code"
"Is that a good thing"
"I don't know yet"
They climbed through a narrow tunnel where the walls were cracked and damp
Roots pushed through the concrete like veins
Then they reached a heavy door
The paint was faded but the symbol on it was still clear
Outpost Nine
Riven tapped the panel
"Access code Delta-Seven-Seven-Zero"
Nothing happened
She cursed under her breath
"It's dead"
Solene stepped forward
"I can bypass it Give me ten minutes"
While they waited Elian sat with Mira near the wall
She rested her head on his shoulder
Her voice was barely above a whisper
"Do you think there are still cities left Somewhere out there"
"I don't know" he said "Maybe under the ice Maybe on another planet"
"I just want to see the sky again"
He looked up at the cold ceiling
So did he
Finally the door creaked open
Inside was darkness and dust
And silence
But something about the silence felt wrong
Echo's lights flickered
"Reading faint signals inside Power low but active"
They entered carefully weapons raised
Inside they found a broken facility
Chairs knocked over
Screens shattered
But no bodies
Only silence
Then a whisper
Faint and sharp
Like a breath behind the ear
Mira froze
"You heard that too right"
Elian nodded
Then a voice boomed through the speaker above
But it wasn't the Machine
It was human
Cracked and tired
**"If you found this message you're already infected She's watching you Run"**
The lights cut out
And from the darkness came the sound of metal scraping
Again