"Elena, stop it, damn it, do you want to die?" Raka screamed while kicking the steel throne room doors that were already tilted and nearly off their hinges.Raka’s steps were shaky, and his right thigh, which was torn open, throbbed in sync with the rhythm of his bionic pacemaker that had just been hammered by a high current. The smell of burning flesh from his own chest wafted up, mixed with the scent of ozone and the friction of the Citadel’s metal as it glowed red hot upon re-entering the atmosphere. His world was shaking violently, and the gravity inside the room felt chaotic, sometimes making him feel heavy, other times nearly making him float.Elena didn’t turn around. She stood tall at the center of a massive holographic console that glowed with electric blue light. Her hands were buried deep within that light, as if her arms were cables merging with the system. Her face was pale, the veins at her temples were bulging, and her eyes, which shone pure white, occasionally flickere

"Get back to hell, you silver freak, don't even think about setting foot on this floor," Elena screamed, her voice raspy and muffled by the concrete dust that choked her lungs.Elena stood in the corridor of the top floor of a skyscraper, a wreck after the impact of her escape pod. The concrete ceiling above had collapsed, revealing a Megalopolis sky that burned a deep, bloody red. Before her, a woman with wings of shimmering liquid metal landed with a dull thud, reflecting the moonlight. Seraph no longer looked like a computer program, she was a physical threat, pure, cold, and very real."Hell is such a boring place, Elena, I much prefer it here, watching you fall apart piece by piece," Seraph replied. Her voice sounded like thousands of metal shards grinding together, yet her tone was hauntingly familiar to Elena’s ears."You’re nobody, you’re just the leftover memories the Architects stole from Raka’s mom," Elena raised her hands, and the golden circuits beneath her skin began to

"Get out of the way, Leo, you’re tiny, you can squeeze in between the wires or something, I’m going in first," Julianna yelled while throwing a powerful elbow into Leo’s ribs."My ribs, dammit, that hurts," Leo shrieked, his hands gripping the edge of a metal hatch that was still radiating heat, "I might be small, but you need my brain to navigate this thing, if you go in first, you’ll just spin around in the air until you’re puking blood, Anna.""Navigation my ass, this is just a metal tube, there’s no steering wheel," Julianna grabbed Leo’s jacket collar, dragging the bespectacled man away from the narrow hole that was their only hope of survival, "Raka is gone, Elena’s been snatched, and I am not about to die like a joke just because I played nice with a crybaby hacker like you.""Precisely because Raka is 'gone,' I have to stay alive to fix all of this," Leo struggled, his face flushing red from the heat of the fire starting to crawl from the Citadel’s broken wing, "Look behind yo

"Don’t you ever let him go, Kaleb! If Raka falls, I will destroy your face behind that mask, damn it!" Elena screamed with all her might, her voice raspy from the wind slicing against her eardrums."Shut up and focus, Elena! Use whatever is left of your 'Seed' energy to dampen the friction heat under this plate, or we’re all going to be toasted into a crisp before we hit the ground!" the man in the black mask fired back, his hands white-knuckled as he gripped the edge of the Citadel steel debris they were using as an emergency surfboard."I can’t focus if Raka won’t wake up! Look at him, Kaleb! His chest is bleeding again!" Elena wailed, her tears evaporating instantly against the searing heat of the atmosphere.In Elena’s arms, Raka’s body hung limp, as pale as a corpse. The hole in his chest, the result of the pain transfer when Seraph stabbed Elena earlier, was still seeping blood that began to freeze due to the extreme air temperature. Raka didn't respond at all, his breath was so

"Pull the trigger, Raka! Don't be a coward at the very last second, damn it!" Kaleb shouted while spraying his energy pistol toward the lines of Darma clones that were beginning to breach the perimeter of the antenna field.Raka’s hands were shaking violently, the steel barrel of the nine millimeter handgun trembling right in front of the forehead of the woman he loved most. Standing before him was Elena, or more accurately, the physical avatar Seraph had sent to face him. The face was identical, but the eyes were hollow, burning red, and radiating a cold aura that made the hair on Raka’s neck stand up. Silver blood trickled from the corner of Raka’s left eye, which was constantly projecting error codes."I can’t do it, Kaleb! This is Elena, for God’s sake!" Raka roared, his voice cracking with deep desperation."That is not Elena, Raka! That is just a shell Seraph is using to mock you!" Julianna joined in, shouting from behind the wreckage of a control box, as she tried to stem the f