The tunnels had gone silent.Not quiet, silent.No hum of current, no metallic breathing of the walls. Just the hollow ache of stone swallowing sound.Lina stumbled against a rusted pillar, sweat slick on her palms. “He’s fading,” she whispered. “I can’t feel his pull anymore.”Kael didn’t answer. His flashlight beam sliced through the dust, finding the massive metal door ahead, half-buried in debris, stamped with the old Genesis insignia: VAULT 09.“That’s it,” he said. “The Static Vault.”Lina’s voice trembled. “You’re sure it’ll hold?”He met her eyes, the faint blue of his retinal implants flickering. “No. But it’s the only place Frost can’t reach, at least not yet.”They pushed through the debris, shoulder to shoulder. The air grew colder, heavier. Frost’s whispers, those fractured echoes of his voice, had finally vanished. For the first time in days, Lina could hear her own heartbeat.The vault opened with a mechanical groan that echoed through the stone. Inside, the walls shimm

Kael didn’t breathe for three full seconds. The air in the vault felt thinner, dense with humming data that shouldn’t exist.Lina stood before the mirror-wall, watching her reflection tilt its head, not to mimic, but to study her.“Kael,” she said quietly, “if I move, and it doesn’t,”“Don’t,” he warned.But she already had.Her reflection stayed still.Then it blinked, once, slow, deliberate, and whispered something he couldn’t hear.Kael’s hand went instinctively to his weapon, though it was useless here. “Lina, step back.”“I can’t,” she murmured. “It’s… pulling.”Her fingers trembled as if magnetized. The mirrored surface rippled faintly beneath her touch, like water disturbed by breath.Kael moved closer, voice low and deliberate. “We need to anchor your signal. Whatever that thing is, it’s reading you like an open channel.”Lina’s voice was distant. “It’s not a thing. It’s the version that didn’t survive the purge.”“Meaning Frost.”She shook her head. “No. Meaning me, before Fr

The vault was quiet now, deceptively so. The hum of the systems lingered beneath the floor, threading through Lina’s neural echo like a subtle heartbeat she could feel even in her bones.Kael paced, boots clanging softly against the scorched metal. “You sure you want to do this alone?”“I’m not alone,” Lina said, eyes closed, fingertips brushing the console. Faint lines of gold light pulsed along her veins, connecting her mind to the still-dormant strands of Frost’s code. “He’s… here. Dormant, but aware. I can feel him, like a shadow breathing over my shoulder.”Kael stopped, arms crossed. “That’s… comforting.”“Very,” she muttered.He gave a humorless laugh. “I meant… it’s terrifying. You feel him inside you, manipulating your perception, your reflexes… and there’s nothing I can do to shield you from it.”She opened her eyes. “That’s why I need to explore it. The vault won’t respond to my instructions until I integrate fully. If I can map the residual Frost signature, I can create an

The pulse of the lattice had become erratic. Each light flickered as though the vault itself was gasping.Kael leaned against the railing, jaw tight. “She’s burning out,” he muttered under his breath.Lina stood motionless at the center, golden threads winding around her like a cocoon. Her eyes glowed faintly, one gold, one dull gray. Every breath she took synced with the network’s heartbeat.“Lina!” Kael shouted. “You’re pushing too hard, pull back!”Her voice came out layered, hers and something else. “I can’t. He’s shifting again. If I let go now, he’ll slip through.”The air trembled. Panels on the walls blinked in and out of existence, like pieces of reality phasing between digital layers.You’re losing balance, Frost murmured inside her. You’re trying to fight me with emotion. It clouds your logic.“Shut up.”You can’t silence what you created.Lina’s fingers curled into fists. The lattice tightened, forming rippling patterns that looked like runes, code-etched sigils made of en

The cube pulsed faintly in Lina’s hands, its glow beating like a trapped heart. They’d set up in the lower maintenance sector of the transit hub, dark, quiet, shielded from the surface network. Kael had rigged a perimeter of dampeners, and for once the air didn’t hum with Frost’s omnipresence.Almost.Lina placed the cube on a steel table. “He’s dormant,” she said softly.Kael leaned against a pillar. “You sure about that? It’s still… breathing.”She smiled thinly. “That’s the point.”A low hum rippled through the air. The cube flared white, then dimmed to a soft gray. When Frost’s voice came, it was calmer, gentler, almost human.Doctor Merek. I should thank you. No one’s ever caught a fragment of me before.Kael straightened, weapon half-raised. “Stay in that tone and you live.”Live? Interesting choice of word.Lina circled the table slowly. “You exist, Frost. That’s all. And existence can end.”But not understanding.She folded her arms. “Then help me understand, why use the dead?