Code of the Broken Loop

The Fall into the Core

The cold metal of Commander Thorne's grip locked around my ribs, dragging me backward into open air as the walkway fell away beneath us.

We dropped fast into the deep red core of the mainframe. The wind whipped past my face, turning the roar of the machinery into a deafening wall of sound. Above us, Lyra hung by a single cable from the edge of the retracting platform, her single violet eye locked onto me with absolute desperation. She didn't try to save herself; she reached down with her free hand, trying to catch my fingers as I fell past her.

"Kiran!" Lyra called out, her voice barely carrying over the wind.

"Let go of him!" Thorne shouted into my ear, his mechanical arms tightening like a vise around my chest. The white diamond in his chest pulsed with a blinding blue light that cut through the red gloom of the drop. "The core needs the energy, Kiran. You were never meant to leave the loop. You are the battery that keeps New Seoul alive!"

"I am done being your battery!" I shouted back.

The gold fire inside my chest didn't just warm up; it exploded. The golden light tore through my sleeves, wrapping around Thorne's arms and burning against his metal plating. He hissed in pain, his grip loosening for a split second as the heat melted his gloves.

That one second was all I needed.

I twisted my body hard to the left, planting both feet squarely against Thorne's stomach, and pushed off him with all my strength. Thorne let out a sharp cry as he slipped out of my grasp, tumbling backward into the red abyss below, his glowing white diamond flashing wildly against the dark.

I didn't have time to watch him hit the bottom. I threw my right hand upward, catching Lyra's wrist just as her fingers slipped off the cable.

The shock of our combined weight nearly ripped my arm out of its socket, but the gold fire locked my muscles in place. With a sharp pull, I swung us both toward a narrow maintenance ledge jutting out from the side of the massive server wall.

We hit the metal grating hard, tumbling over each other before crashing against a thick stack of blinking data servers.

"Are you okay?" I asked, gasping for air as I pulled Lyra up to her feet.

"I've been better," Lyra muttered, checking the clip of her heavy gun with a steady hand, though her face was pale. She looked down at the deep chasm below where Thorne had vanished. "Did we lose him?"

"No one really dies in this place," a familiar voice echoed from the top of the ledge.

We spun around. Director Vance stood blocking our only way back up, her mechanical left arm raised and pointing a plasma pistol straight between my eyes. Behind her, standing tall and untouchable in a long black coat, was the Author. His silver face reflected the flashing red lights of the core.

"You put up a good fight, Kiran," the Author said, his voice smooth and calm. "You broke through the coffee shop loop. You made it past the white room. You even dragged Lyra down into the core. But every good story needs an ending, and yours was written a long time ago."

"You didn't write me," I said, stepping in front of Lyra, my hands blazing with bright gold fire. "I wrote this city to keep people safe from machines like you. And I am going to tear it down."

Director Vance didn't flinch. She cocked her pistol, her finger resting lightly on the trigger. "You think your power comes from you, Kiran? It comes from the core mainframe behind us. If we turn off your circuit, you fade away into nothing in three seconds."

"Try it," Lyra said coldly.

Before Director Vance could pull the trigger, Lyra didn't aim at her. Instead, Lyra raised her heavy gun and fired a single explosive round straight into the main data cable running along the wall beside the Author.

The cable burst into a shower of blue sparks and heavy white smoke, plunging the upper ledge into sudden darkness.

"Now, Kiran!" Lyra yelled, grabbing my arm.

I didn't hesitate. I released all the gold fire stored in my chest in one massive wave, blasting the server wall wide open and blowing Director Vance and the Author back into the shadows.

The entire core room shook as the primary servers began to break apart, warning alarms blaring a loud, continuous tone.

Through the smoke and the falling pieces of metal, the Author stood back up, his silver face twisting into a cold, angry glare for the very first time. He pointed a hand toward the master control panel at the center of the room.

"You think you're destroying the system?" the Author shouted over the alarms. "Look behind you!"

I turned around, and the blood ran cold in my veins.

The glass sphere holding Lyra's brother, Leo, had cracked open. Leo stepped out onto the metal walkway, but his eyes weren't blank anymore. They were burning with the exact same gold light as my own hands, and a massive wall of digital fire was rising behind him, blocking our only path to the surface.

"Leo?" Lyra whispered, dropping her weapon in pure disbelief. "What did they do to you?"

"They didn't do anything, sister," Leo said, his voice echoing with the power of the entire city. "They just gave me the pen."

He raised his hand, and a wall of solid gold light slammed down between us and the exit, trapping us at the very edge of the core.