NXY-0

Chapter 2

I hit the ground.

Or I would have. Nyx-0 moved fast, pressing its small body against my chest, and a strange warmth spread through the black mark on my skin. The air around us thickened and slowed. I felt something cushion the impact, not enough to stop us completely but enough to keep me alive.

I crashed through rusted metal and heard my ribs crack. My left arm, the mechanical one, twisted wrong and sparked. Pain shot through my body like fire, but it was different from normal pain, sharper and colder where the metal met the flesh.

Then everything went dark.

---

When I woke up, I was staring at a stone ceiling with cracks running through it like veins. Warm orange light flickered from somewhere nearby, and the air smelled different, like old cloth and dried herbs.

I tried to move, but my ribs screamed in protest. My left arm hung useless, the joints grinding and sparking occasionally.

"Stay still," a voice said from beside me, old and female and heavy with exhaustion.

I turned my head slowly and saw a woman sitting nearby. She was small and thin with white hair tied in a messy bun. Her face was lined with wrinkles, but her eyes were sharp and pale blue, watching me carefully.

She wore a long gray coat stained with oil and ink, and round glasses sat on her nose with one lens cracked.

"You're lucky to be alive," she said. "Three broken ribs, a fractured arm, and a concussion. Your mechanical parts took most of the impact, but your organic side is struggling."

I tried to speak, but my throat was dry and cracked. "Where..."

"A cave. Hidden and safe for now."

She pointed to the corner of the room. "Your creature is alive too. Barely."

Nyx-0 sat on a rock, still small and black and shaped like a cat. Its form flickered weakly, struggling to hold itself together.

"Hey, Boots-for-Brains," it said, its voice weak and tired. "You look worse than I feel."

I almost laughed, but my ribs stopped me.

The old woman looked at me. "You bonded with a Null-Type."

"Yes."

"Without knowing what it was."

"Yes."

She shook her head slowly. "That was stupid."

"Everyone keeps telling me that."

"Because it's true."

She stood up and walked to a table covered in strange devices that beeped and glowed. Some of them looked broken and repaired dozens of times.

"I'm Dr. REN-9," she said without turning around. "And you've made a very dangerous mistake."

I forced myself to sit up, ignoring the pain. "What do you mean?"

She turned to look at me, her pale blue eyes serious. "That thing isn't a normal Core."

I looked at Nyx-0. "What is it?"

She hesitated. "Something the District hasn't seen in a very long time. A Null-Type. They were supposed to be extinct."

"The District?"

"Your government. The ones who built you." She paused. "The ones who erased your history."

I didn't understand. Erased history? My mechanical arm whined as I shifted position.

She knelt beside me. "Your creature is dying. It used its last bit of energy to save you. If it dies, you lose whatever it's holding."

I felt cold. "The memory. Nexus."

"Gone."

I looked at Nyx-0, at its fading form. "No. That's not happening."

"You don't have a choice," Dr. REN-9 said. "Unless you find another Core. A powerful one. Feed it to your creature and it will survive."

I looked at my broken arm and aching ribs. I could barely stand. "How am I supposed to find a Core?"

A noise echoed from outside the cave, and Dr. REN-9 froze. Her sharp eyes darted to the entrance, and she grabbed a device from her table and pressed it against the wall. A faint hum filled the air.

"Cloaking field," she whispered. "It won't hold forever."

I heard heavy footsteps on stone and voices outside.

"Anomaly reported in this area. Search the caves."

"Maybe the fall killed them."

"Unlikely. The Directive wants the creature alive."

The footsteps grew closer. My vision flickered, and a faint line of text appeared across my sight.

[LEFT ARM — CRITICAL DAMAGE]

[MOTOR RESPONSE: 31%]

"Yeah," I muttered. "That's probably bad."

Nyx-0 flickered. "You can't fight."

"I know."

"Then stop pretending."

The footsteps stopped right outside the entrance. Silence. I held my breath.

Then they moved away, fading into the distance.

Dr. REN-9 exhaled slowly. "They're gone. For now."

I let out a shaky breath as my ribs ached and my arm throbbed.

"We need to move," she said. "There's a Core nearby. Ancient. Powerful. If your creature consumes it, it will survive."

I forced myself to stand, my legs shaking. My mechanical arm whined in protest, but I locked the joints with a thought.

Nyx-0 looked at me. "You're going to fall."

"Probably."

"I'll try to catch you."

Dr. REN-9 grabbed her bag. "We leave now. Stay close, stay quiet, and if we see soldiers, we run."

"Running is all I'm good at," I muttered.

She looked at me. "That's about to change."

She turned and walked toward the tunnel, and I followed with Nyx-0 clinging to my shoulder.

We hadn't gone twenty steps when my vision flickered.

[UNKNOWN CORE DETECTED.]

I stopped.

Dr. REN-9 turned. "What is it?"

I stared into the darkness ahead. Something was moving down there. Something enormous.

Nyx-0 lifted its head from my shoulder. For the first time since I'd met it, the sarcasm disappeared from its voice.

"Nova."

"Yeah?"

"Don't let that thing see us."

A deep metallic growl rolled through the tunnel.

Then two enormous eyes opened in the darkness.

[WARNING: CORE SIGNATURE — UNREGISTERED.]

[THREAT LEVEL: UNKNOWN.]

I swallowed.

"You said we needed a Core."

Nyx-0 went silent.

Then:

"I changed my mind. Run."