The chamber buckled around them, metal groaning like a wounded beast. Sparks rained from the torn hull, and somewhere deep in the ship's bones, alarms howled a warning no one could translate.
The stranger stood calm in the storm, armor humming with soft light, as if the chaos bent itself around him. His eyes never left Maya.
"You're unraveling," he said simply, like a physician diagnosing a fracture. "The Archive isn't built for half-measures."
Maya staggered to her knees, clutching the rifle. The glow in her veins pulsed wildly, crawling higher, reaching her collarbone. She felt hot and hollow all at once, her heartbeat overlapping with something deeper—the Archive's thrum.
Vector lunged between them, gun raised. "Back off. She doesn't need your riddles."
The man tilted his head. For the first time, the corners of his mouth curved—not into kindness, but recognition. "Protective. Predictable. You don't even realize she's not the one you're saving."
Vector's jaw tightened. "Say that again and I'll put a hole in your skull."
Rei moved quickly, planting a hand on Vector's shoulder, hissing low. "Don't. Look at him. The drones listen to her, but the Archive itself listens to him."
Maya flinched at the truth of it. The hum in her blood wavered whenever the stranger spoke, like a child silenced when a parent enters the room.
Her throat burned. "Who are you?"
He didn't answer. Instead, he reached into the air—no, not air. Into the code itself. His gauntlet cut through glowing glyphs like cloth, and the ship obeyed. The boarding frame froze mid-lunge, armor cracking with static as if it were being leashed. The soldiers collapsed like puppets, their strings suddenly severed.
Vector took a step back despite himself. "Gods…"
Rei whispered, reverent and horrified, "He's keyed at root."
The stranger closed his fist, and the glyphs shattered, falling like dying sparks. Then his gaze returned to Maya, steady, cold.
"You're standing on an inheritance you don't understand. Every second you resist, it eats you. Every second you yield, it consumes you. There's no middle ground."
Maya forced herself upright, legs trembling. "Then why am I still breathing?"
For the first time, his expression shifted—just slightly, just enough to unsettle.
"Because it hasn't decided yet if you're worth keeping."
Her skin crawled. The Archive inside her flared angrily at the words, heat racing down her arms. The rifle vibrated, furious, like a wounded animal baring its teeth.
The stranger simply stepped back into the shadows cast by the torn hull. His voice carried as he retreated, low and absolute:
"Survive this. Prove you belong. Then I'll take what's mine."
And then he was gone—vanished into the breach, leaving silence in his wake.
The drones stirred uncertainly. The boarding frame shuddered, crippled but not dead. The soldiers twitched, half-conscious.
Rei exhaled shakily. "Maya… what the hell was he?"
Vector holstered his weapon with a snap, jaw set hard. "Doesn't matter. We'll kill him next time."
But Maya couldn't answer. The Archive inside her was no longer whispering or screaming. It was waiting. And for the first time, she wondered if it wasn't hers at all—if she was only ever borrowing it, and someone else had come to collect.