Fifteen years passed, and the world remained unchanged.
The year was 3593.
Alya was in her twenties now, her beauty radiant, her form shaped by both humanity and machine. Though part-cyborg, she was more human than ever. Her years in Helixia had sharpened her spirit. After the tragic loss of her adoptive parents, Melvin and Melissa, she carried a burning determination: to erase evil from existence itself. She might have been consumed by rage, swallowed by vengeance but Gerek had shown her a different path. And now, for the first time, she was walking it alone.
At sunset, Alya moved through the neon-drenched streets of Avril City. Hovercars glided above, towers of glass and chrome loomed high, their lights dancing like constellations on earth. She breathed in the city's rhythm, then turned off its busy roads and walked to her home, nestled beyond the urban sprawl.
"I'm home!" she called.
From within, a young man with warm brown eyes emerged. "Hey, welcome back. How was it?"
Alya smiled faintly. "Great, I suppose. Ivo and I… we were chosen. Hey Kaylin....."
"Don't worry," Kaylin interrupted. "He hasn't returned yet. He's...busy with something."
They walked together toward a tall bookshelf. Kaylin reached for a volume marked with a silver S, entered a passcode within its cover, and replaced it. The shelf rumbled, then split apart to reveal an elevator. The two stepped inside, descending into their secret world.
The underground base spread out before them, alive with movement and light. Its walls glowed with crystalline conduits, and its halls brimmed with technology.....nano-suits, shadow essence containers, energy crystals, and advanced weaponry. At the central console, three figures worked with urgency: Lyrien, Thane, and Lila.
"Alya's back," Kaylin announced. "And guess what...she's been chosen."
The three stopped, faces lighting up.
"Finally," Lyrien said with a smile. "You'll be wielding a fragment of the Cerebrox ."
"Yes," Alya replied. "There are only two fragments entrusted to I and Ivo to bear them. Any updates Thane?"
Thane glanced at his console. "Sector 04. The cams picked up a strange burst of light. Right after, three Zeta androids appeared out of nowhere."
"Someone's breaking laws," Alya muttered. "Building war-machines. Does Edo knows?"
Lila nodded. "Yes. He's on the rooftop ."
On the rooftop, Edo stood in silence, a glass of liquor in one hand. He set it down beside a table, then picked up a strange super cube. Without hesitation, he leapt over the edge...falling, then landing gracefully.
Alya arrived seconds later. The rooftop was empty but for the glass. She ran to the edge and saw Edo below, moving fast. She gave chase.
Her pursuit led to Sector 04. There, Edo smashed the cube in his palm. It unfolded into a sleek, obsidian scythe, humming with raw energy. He stepped forward into the shadows.
The night in Avril City pressed down heavy, thick with smog and the metallic bite of rust. Neon flickered weakly above slick, rain-soaked alleys. The whole district smelled of oil, steel, and desperation.
Edo moved like a man accustomed to such darkness. His satchel clinked with the weight of tools some meant to heal, others to destroy.
Alya followed silently. Her eyes reflected the fractured glow of signs around them. Every sound, the hiss of vents, the murmur of voices, the thrum of neon felt wrong. Too distant. Too muted.
The alley stretched unnaturally long, its walls painted with pulsing graffiti like living veins.
"Stay where you are Alya," Edo murmured, gripping his weapon.
"Let me in on the fight. You can't take them alone... please?" Alya asked, her brow furrowed.
He didn't answer.
Then came the sound. A metallic scrape slow, deliberate like claws dragging across steel. Followed by the deep hiss of pistons flexing.
From the alley's darkness, three shapes emerged.
The Zeta androids.
Their optics burned like hunting lamps. The leader was tall and skeletal, limbs jointed at inhuman angles, arms splitting into blades that caught the neon light. The second was a brute, massive, plated in reinforced steel. The third crawled low, segmented and insectile, six clawed limbs scratching against the pavement.
The tall one tilted her head, chrome talons grazing the wall. Her voice was a broken, distorted purr.
"The hunter…" she crooned. "And a stray." Her glowing gaze fell on Alya.
Alya's chest tightened. But more, something was stirring.
"Tell us the mastermind behind your creation," Edo said firmly. He stepped forward, scythe in hand.
The tall android's laugh was jagged metal grinding on metal.
The brute lunged first, its piston-driven fist crashing down. Edo swung his obsidian scythe, propellant thrusters igniting, the impact shaking the alley in thunder and sparks.
The insectile android skittered sideways eyes fixed on Alya.
Then the tall one leapt, blades flashing.
Alya didn't think.
Her body moved on its own...ducking, twisting, countering. She struck the android square in the chest, sending it sprawling against a wall. She landed lightly.
The insectile android shrieked and launched forward. Alya pivoted effortlessly, flipping it into the wall. Sparks lit the alley.
Edo's scythe crashed into the brute again, shattering one arm. "Stay back Alya!" he barked.
But she didn't. Couldn't. Her strikes flowed like water, her body reacting to what her mind could not.
The tall android staggered up, optics narrowing. "Panzer sequence detected. Impossible."
It lunged again. Alya met it head-on. A strike, a counter, a kick that shattered its jaw. Finally, her fist drove through its chest plating. It collapsed, twitching, lifeless.
The brute fell. The insectile one convulsed, optics fading.
Silence.
Alya stood in the steam and rain, breath ragged, staring at her hands. Rage wasn't aimed at the machines anymore.
Edo lowered his scythe, pale, his eyes locked on her.
"Alya…" His voice trembled.
"My training paid off," she whispered. Her voice cracked. "I didn't know I can fight like that."
His jaw clenched. Awe and dread tangled in his expression.
"Since when did you learn," he said quietly, "howto fight like that?"
The words hung heavy in the dark alley.
Chains she could not see, but already felt tightening.
The rain had not yet ceased when silence fell over the alley, broken only by the hiss of steam rising from the smoldering wreckage of the Zeta androids. Their lifeless frames lay twisted across the ground, optics flickering faintly as if refusing to die.
Edo moved first. Without a word, he crouched beside the largest husk and began tearing free the fractured plating. Sparks scattered into the night as he wrenched loose what remained of its core module, shoving it into his satchel with practiced precision. He handled the parts not as trophies, but as evidence.
Alya stepped closer, her boots splashing softly in the shallow puddles. Her voice cut through the night, curious yet steady.
"What will you do with those?"
Edo didn't glance up. His jaw tightened as he hoisted another fragment free, wires dangling like torn veins. "Shut up and keep walking." His tone carried more weight than irritation. It carried the sting of pride wounded. His eyes flicked toward her briefly, shadows dancing across the sharp lines of his face. "You bested me back there. Damn it, I can't believe I let a little girl save my ass."
Alya smirked, her expression proud yet teasing.
"I'm not a child, Edo. I'm twenty years old. And everything you saw tonight...Gerek taught me. Those weren't tricks they were lessons carved into me."
Her voice softened, though her gaze remained on the android scraps clattering into Edo's bag. "Seriously... what will you do with them?"
This time, Edo rose to his full height, the satchel heavy on his shoulder. His voice shifted gruff, but edged with gravity.
"I'll file a report to the High Ops. Someone is manufacturing these machines in secret. Someone who knows the old codes...the forbidden blueprints." He paused, his eyes narrowing as memories flickered behind them. "If we don't stop them now if we allow this to go on, we risk repeating the same crisis...like Alpha and Omega ."
The name struck like a knife through the silence.
Alya's smirk faded, her features hardening. She had heard whispers of Alpha and Omega in the archives, stories buried deep beneath propaganda and half-truths. Twin machines forged not to defend, but to conquer. A war that nearly annihilated them. A war erased from public record but carved into the memories of those who survived.
"Yeah…" she murmured at last, her voice barely audible against the storm's hush. Her fists clenched at her sides. "You're right. We cannot afford another catastrophe."
Edo's gaze lingered on her longer this time, searching. In her eyes he did not see fear, but resolve, the kind of fire that either forges leaders or consumes them whole. He turned away before she could notice the shadow in his expression.
"Good," he said, his tone clipped, final. "Then steel yourself, Alya."
The two walked into the night, their shadows stretching long across the neon-lit streets of Avril City. Behind them, the corpses of the androids smoked in silence, their broken forms whispering of secrets yet unrevealed.
For the first time, Alya felt the weight of something greater than survival pressing upon her shoulders. Not just the memory of what she was… but the burden of what she might become.