Evan stood alone at the edge of the pier, jacket soaked, the broken core fragment pulsing faintly in his palm. Midnight. The city’s skyline blinked behind him — wounded, scarred, still trying to remember itself.Vivianne’s voice whispered in his earpiece. “You shouldn’t be there alone.”“I have to be.”“No, you want to be,” she countered. “That’s not the same thing.”Evan didn’t respond. He stared at the water, the reflections twisting with every ripple. “They said midnight. It’s midnight.”A low hum rose from across the dock. A black skimmer slid out of the fog — silent, sleek, bearing the Directorate’s sigil: a serpent swallowing its own tail.From it stepped three figures in dark coats. Their faces hidden by mirrored masks.The one in the center spoke, voice modulated. “Evan Caelum. You’ve caused quite a storm.”“I tend to do that,” he muttered. “You said you wanted the core fragment.”“Yes,” the voice replied. “You’re going to give it to us.”Evan held it up, the pale light reflec

The chamber pulsed like a beating heart.Blue light flickered against Evan’s face, painting his trembling hands as he aimed the suppressor straight at Kieran’s shifting form.Nova shouted over the hum. “He’s pulling energy from the Spire’s core! If he reaches full merge, the entire city grid will fold!”Kieran’s voice echoed through every surface, distorted and layered, as though a thousand versions of him spoke at once.“Why destroy what we can rebuild, brother? You don’t have to fight me. Just… let go.”Evan’s pulse pounded in his ears. “You’re rebuilding the world by enslaving it, Kieran! That’s not creation, that’s control!”“Control is an illusion,” Kieran said softly. “Freedom is chaos. I offer peace. A mind without division.”Nova raised her rifle beside Evan, eyes locked on the entity. “You merge that core and you’re not offering peace—you’re deleting free will.”Kieran’s gaze flickered to her, his voice low and cold. “And yet you call yourself Null. How ironic. You destroy ev

Winds howled through the framework as Nova and Evan climbed the narrow staircase, rain soaking their clothes and skin.Every few seconds, the tower crackled with electricity—remnants of a system that had once powered half the city.Evan’s breathing was ragged. His pulse glowed visibly beneath his shirt, pulsing faster than it should.Nova glanced back, panting. “You need to sit. You’re overheating.”Evan shook his head, clutching the railing. “If I stop now, it’ll sync completely.”She stopped climbing, turned to him, and grabbed his face. “Evan, look at me—do you even know what ‘it’ is anymore?”He hesitated. “Kieran… Cipher… I don’t know. It’s all bleeding together.”Lightning split the sky. For a brief moment, both their faces flashed silver-white.Nova exhaled shakily. “Then we separate them now. Before you lose the part that’s still you.”They reached the top platform, where a half-functioning control pod blinked faintly under layers of grime. Nova rushed to the console, yanking

The city was drowning in noise that night. Sirens screamed in the distance, neon lights bled through the fog, and yet, inside the narrow hallway of the old apartment, everything was silent—except for their breathing.Finn leaned against the wall, his shirt torn and blood staining his left sleeve. “You shouldn’t have come back,” he said, voice low, rough. “You were supposed to stay dead.”Across from him, Shawn stood half in shadow, his expression unreadable. “And you were supposed to stay loyal.”“Loyal?” Finn’s laugh was short, bitter. “To what? To a man who sold my name for his own safety?”Shawn’s jaw flexed. “You think you know everything, don’t you?”“I know enough to hate you.”Vivianne appeared at the end of the hallway, her steps soft but certain. “Stop it,” she said, voice trembling but firm. “Both of you. You’re acting like this is still about revenge. It’s not.”Shawn’s eyes flicked toward her, and something shifted there—something raw. “Viv, you don’t get to talk about rev

The rooftop was silent except for the rain. Carter’s body lay still, the wind tugging at his coat.Vivianne’s voice trembled. “He’s lying. He has to be lying.”Shawn stared down at the corpse, frozen. “Carter never lied to win. He lied to hurt. There’s a difference.”Finn wiped blood from his arm. “You’re saying someone else survived that lab fire?”Shawn’s eyes flicked toward him. “Not survived. Hidden.”“Hidden where?” Vivianne asked.“Inside the network.”Finn frowned. “You mean the encrypted systems?”“No.” Shawn’s voice was barely a whisper. “I mean inside the signal.”Vivianne blinked. “What—like a ghost?”Shawn looked at her, expression unreadable. “Exactly like that.”Finn sighed, half laughing in disbelief. “A ghost made of data. Fantastic. Maybe next we’ll fight zombies made of Wi-Fi.”But Vivianne wasn’t laughing. Her pulse raced, the edges of her mind flickering with fragments—faces, codes, voices. “Shawn… what kind of signal are you talking about?”Shawn hesitated. “The o