Time: 4:06 PM – Nexus Cradle, Subsurface Level 1
The gate slammed shut behind them.
The Nexus Cradle swallowed sound. No echoes. Just the hum of old machines half-asleep and dreaming of war.
The corridor was ribbed with data conduits. Every surface pulsed with residual charge—static flickers like dead thoughts twitching in the dark.
Aiko's hand glowed faintly as they moved. The Seal was reacting—not to danger, but to recognition.
Miura whispered, "This place is wrong."
Ryoji said nothing. His breathing was shallow, memories chewing at his mind.
Marek led them forward, past sealed chambers with scorched walls. Burned names. Screams trapped in carbonized steel.
He stopped at a door marked:
SUBSTRATE CONTROL – OBSIDIAN TIER
A handprint scanner buzzed. Marek pressed his palm to it.
"Time you knew the truth."
The door hissed open.
Inside: a glass-walled room, walls lined with ancient hardware, reels of black film, neural splicing terminals. On a central slab, suspended by magnetic braces—a humanoid frame, charred and stitched with fiber-optic veins.
Eyes open.
Lips parted.
Still alive.
Aiko flinched. "Is that…?"
Marek nodded. "Kill Program Zero. The original Seed host. The Null Construct."
Ryoji stepped forward, voice tight. "He was human."
"He was," Marek confirmed. "Until the Director ran a mirror-seed injection. A prototype of what Aiko has now. The difference? She was born for it. He wasn't."
Aiko's pulse pounded.
"What do you mean… born?"
Marek turned.
"The Seed isn't data. It's a living neural pattern, extracted from a child who never survived birth. A theoretical consciousness, grown in synthetic space. The Director called it 'the ghost bloom.'"
Miura swore under her breath.
Marek continued.
"The first attempt—Null—was meant to house the ghost bloom. But the mind rejected it. The result? No identity. No emotion. Just code. A shell with one directive: eliminate any corrupted strand."
"And the second attempt?" Ryoji asked.
Marek looked at Aiko.
"You."
Aiko took a shaky step back. The Seal on her hand flared—and somewhere inside the room, the frame twitched.
Null's eyes moved.
Just barely.
Ryoji aimed his weapon. "He's alive?"
"Not exactly," Marek said. "He's running… the final loop. Been reliving his failure for fifteen years. Locked in a simulated kill-loop, programmed to hunt anything carrying the Seed."
Miura looked at Aiko. "And you just lit up like a beacon."
Alarms chirped—soft, surgical.
Null's restraints released with a slow click.
His voice was like a dying radio: "...seed detected… error… bloom anomaly… correction required…"
And the whole chamber tilted into red.
Ryoji shoved Aiko back.
"Marek—kill it!"
Marek just stood there, watching. "This is your test. If she's really the successor… she'll survive."
Aiko's pupils narrowed.
The room filled with static. Null launched forward—movements glitching, like frames skipping. Too fast. Too broken.
Ryoji fired. The shots barely slowed it.
Aiko lifted her hand—and the Seal cracked open, not just light this time—
—but a surge of cognitive inversion.
Null froze. Mid-strike. Glitched.
Then screamed.
His code unraveled onscreen. Symbols poured from his mouth—ghost data in reverse.
Marek stared.
"She inverted the kill-sequence…"
Miura caught Aiko as she collapsed.
Ryoji stepped over Null's body, now twitching like a dying spider. "He's done?"
Marek's voice was distant.
"No. He just downloaded the truth."
Aiko stirred. "What truth?"
Marek looked at her with something almost like fear.
"The Director didn't just want to kill the world, Aiko. He wanted to replace it. With a synthetic evolution built from your neural pattern. Every kill agent… is running your mirror."
Silence.
Then—
A new voice, over the intercom.
"Hello, Aiko."
She froze.
That voice—
"I see you found your brother."
Static warped.
"I wonder if you'll survive yourself."
To be continued... Chapter 50...